The long voyage back to Greece was uneventful. I fed my horse and brushed him daily, even brought him up on deck to get some fresh air instead of just keeping him below where it was dusty and smelled of manure from the livestock aside horses that was housed on the ship for food or for transport. I kept to myself mostly, unless someone really needed me and my skill set I spoke to no one.

A month passed on the ship and finally we docked in Athens. The docks were busier than anywhere I had been before. I rode my horse down the gangplank, and people were looking at me. I didn't slouch, but sat tall on my unsaddled black stallion, identical to the horse I had had when I left Rome decades earlier. A few people passing by pointed at me as my horse stepped off the ship's gangplank. He was loaded with what little I had for personal belongings. I wore my mother's jewelry, and a clean set of clothes that seemed to be similar to the clothes the women wore here.

I maneuvered my horse through the crowds, people moved out of my way more often than not, and I thought I even heard my name spoken a few times by people walking by. I was trying to head to the marketplace and have a little time to explore at the same time. I also needed to find a place to live, and I was considering living right there in the city as long as I had space for my horse and didn't have to share housing with anyone. I had no desire to live with other people. Even in Philae, people were close, but I had had my own little house.

Philae seemed like a million years in the past already, and it had really been less than a year. The days had blurred together on the ship, and it felt like years rather than months since I had been on dry land. My horse, whom I called Indigo, seemed excited at the new smells and kept making his happy noises and tossing his head and even prancing a little at one point, and it made me laugh. Animals were more genuine than people were.

It took me some time to find the market, and when I did I got down and walked my horse, looking through the stalls at clothes, jewelry, food, pottery, and a whole variety of different things. My gold that Ahnesh had given me I had not touched, and I decided to stop at a jewelry stall, and I bought a Silver box to keep my mother's jewelry in when I wasn't wearing it. Just a small gift from the first friend I had ever had to myself.

I went to a livery stall and bought Indigo silver for his bridle with my own gold that I had saved from working as a healer. I put the new bridle on him and he tossed his head. It seemed to me that any animal I had for a long period of time seemed to get more intelligent, and seemed to understand anything and everything that went on or was said. I admit that I've always found it a fantastic side effect of residual magic energy.

While I was in the marketplace, I asked around about how to find permanent lodging where I could store my horse and have some space to myself without being separated from town. There was an abandoned gated house not all that far from the market, someone told me, and it was a little run down, but it had room to move and it have space for a horse and a private courtyard. I was admittedly excited. I went to where I had been directed, and when I got there I saw that 'a little run down' meant that it was very much in disrepair. Luckily for me, I knew what I could do with it.

There were fallen pillars and walls that were beginning to crumble a little, and part of the roof had fallen in. It looked like no one had lived there for decades, and from what I gathered, no one had lived there in a century. No one would miss it if I took it and made it my own. I went inside to look around, leaving Indigo inside the closed gate but still outside. It was dirty and falling apart, but one could still tell that it had been a beautiful place in its prime, and I intended to being it back to that. And I didn't even need to hire anyone to do it.

I went out into the enclosed courtyard and sat at the edge of the fountain that was dried up and overgrown with weeds and vines. I closed my eyes, putting mental feelers out to everything around me. I had never tried this before, but I was somehow certain that it would work. I could feel the sun warm stone, the dryness of the overgrowth of the weeds on the fountain, the cracked stones, the fallen pillars, the holes in the room, the dirt and dust and grime inside the house. It was as if I was seeing it all without seeing it physically. I heard Indigo snort out by the rusted gate with the chipping metal.

Once I was as connected to everything as it was possible for me to be, I set my hands flat on the warm stone and used the energy I had. There was a sound like a rock slide, and a crackling and shuffling as things shifted around me. The ground shook as I heated up and there were a few yells I could hear from people passing by in the front. After a few minutes silence fell aside from the excited voices out front. There were more people there now than when I had first started. I took an extra second before I opened my eyes, and there was the sound of water behind me suddenly. I smiled, opened my eyes, and gazed at my own handiwork.

The courtyard was no longer overgrown, but neatly kept as if done professionally, the stones of the paths and around the fountain were no longer weather worn and cracked, but flat and smooth and in one piece. The gate, which was where the people were that I could now see, was no longer rusted, but looked brand new, and the vines and weeds that had grown there were gone. The fallen pillars were whole and new once more, there were no more holes in the roof, and I knew that if I went inside it would look as I had imagined it to be and the way I wanted. The people were looking at me, whispering in aw, and I heard someone say that I looked like the Egyptian woman who was a healer, and my name was mentioned.

I hadn't thought my name had reached this far away from Philae, but it didn't bother me much that it had. I did have a job to do after all, and it was something that made me feel better. I smiled at the person who had said my name and stood up. I walked up to stand beside Indigo and stroked his neck. I asked the people there if they were in need of something, stroking my horse's neck as I did and he leaned his head against my shoulder and huffed at me.

The people that were on the other side of the gate didn't seem to have words. They stared at me, but before I could let it get awkward I broke the silence.

'If anyone needs help with something, a loved one is ill or injured, my gate is always open, no matter the time of day.'

The people in front of me smiled. My name seemed to have definitely preceded me, and I knew that word would spread that I was in Athens. I didn't think that there would be any lack of work for me. Once my house was set up, I would begin acquiring the needed supplies to sell medicines and protections and such things. I never charged a family who came to me in dire need, though I wouldn't insult someone who insisted on giving me something.

* * *

After the small crowd had dispersed from my gate, I brought my horse back into the courtyard that was now neat and clean and fresh. He would be able to roam and graze and drink from the fountain as he wished. It was a large area, and it was open to the sky.

I left Indigo in the courtyard and went inside. It looked new in comparison to how it had looked before. The floors were smooth and polished marble, the pillars were whole and no longer chipped and white once more instead of grey. The walls were no longer chipped, cracked or crumbling, but whole and clean. The dirt and dust and leaves and cobwebs were all gone. It looked as if it were a brand new home. It obviously had been a house for the wealthy once upon a time, I could tell by looking at it. I had lucked out. I just needed to have furniture and food and things to fill the house up so that it was livable.

The gold that Ahnesh gave to me when she died would furnish the house, along with the gold I had saved from working with people the last several years. I hadn't needed to buy anything while I had been in Philae, so I had quite a bit of money saved. Enough to be considered wealthy. I decided to go back out and get Indigo, and I headed out the gate and back towards the market. I needed to get things situated so that I could soon live in my house.

I found a woodworker and asked him to build me a list of furniture that I needed; a bed, chests of drawers, shelving, tables, chairs, two single person beds, wardrobes. I asked him if he had a bed already made that could be brought to my house that day so that I could at least sleep off of the floor. He said he had a few things ready made that were on my list and he could have them brought that afternoon. I paid him in full for all of the things he could bring that day and told him where they should be brought. He looked at me a bit strangely and I just smiled and said not to worry about it, to just bring the items.

After the woodworker, I went to the food stalls and bought all sorts of breads, cheeses, fruits and vegetables, all to be delivered to the house that was beginning to be talked about. Someone living in the old abandoned house in unlivable disrepair. Wouldn't they be surprised.

I can hear much better than a human, and I could hear people talking throughout the market about me, who I was and who I might be, people talking about the house and how someone claimed to have seen me fix the house without touching it in mere minutes. Some people spoke my name, wondering if that was who I was and if so, my moving to Athens was a blessing from their Gods. I was flattered, which was an odd feeling for me because it wasn't something I had ever generally felt before.

I returned to my new home a few hours later, no one had arrived as of yet, but it was still early. I brought Indigo into the courtyard again and left him loose to do as he pleased as he had been cooped up on the ship for a month on the journey from Philae. I sat on the edge of the fountain and relaxed. I liked this place, it felt welcoming. I thought about staying for quite some time.

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After another hour I heard the approach of a wagon and men talking. I got up and went to the gate and it was the woodworker with a wagon full of furniture and three other men with him. They saw me and their conversation stopped. Seemed that the men hadn't believed their boss when he had told them the person they were delivering to. They stared at me as I walked up, my horse following a few feet behind for whatever reason.

I opened the gate and greeted the men, if a little stiffly. I didn't like the staring. The woodworker I had spoken to shook my hand and said that they had brought many items that I needed to comfortably furnish my new home. I smiled a little warmer at him since he was being a normal person. I invited him in to take a look at the house before he brought things in and he agreed. I brought him through the house, and the woodworker was astounded at how it looked. He had been through before I had come to town. He told me that the city had abandoned it as well, finding it not worth repairing and not worth knocking down, so I shouldn't have any problems.

We went back outside and he and the other three men starting to unload the wagon, one piece of furniture at a time, and bringing it inside where it was put in the spots that made sense. I didn't have to tell anyone anything, they just sort of did things, and as I went through, I found I didn't have any problems with the placements, and if I did I could move it without touching it anyhow.

Before they finished bringing everything in, the vendor I had bought all my food from arrived with barrels full of everything I had ordered. There was one other man with him, and I showed them to the room that would be the pantry, which was attached to the obvious kitchen, and then let them bring everything in.

The house was beginning to look a little bit like a home. It needed a few personal touches, but it wasn't something I was worried about right then. Once I got everything else in that I needed then I could worry about everything else. I had a bed to sleep in that night, though I would have to go back to the market and buy some bedding for it, at least that was what I thought until the woodworker surprised me with a gift of soft bedding that his wife had made.

I had to ask if it was really alright if he gave me these, and he insisted. He had talked to his wife about it and she had been the one to send them with him. All I could do was thank him and send thanks to his wife for the kindness. I was liking Greece more and more, though I kept that to myself. I didn't share my feelings with anyone. Keep things to myself like I was supposed to. I saw the vendor off when he and his associate were finished bringing in all the food items, and it took a few more hours for the woodworker and his men to finish everything, having left and come back with a second wagon of things.

I spent the time letting them work brushing down Indigo and feeding him and putting him up for the night in the little stable attached to the house. The woodworker, whose name I now cannot remember, came outside to get me as the sun was setting to tell me they were done and to come and take a look and see how I liked what they had done. I followed, asking how much I still needed and what I would owe him, and I realized when I got into the house, that he had provided much more than what he had said he could. I obviously already owed him money.

His men had already left, and for that I was grateful, they had been looking at me strangely all afternoon. The woodworker led me through room after room of my home, showing me what they had done and I couldn't have been happier. Everything looked new, and everything was placed in good spots. He opened the door to the biggest bedroom and he showed me that he had put a large four poster bed with all the bedding and hangings his wife had given me and I smiled. I asked him what I owed him for all the things he had brought that were extra.

He didn't want my gold. He told me that his daughter was ill. She was just a child, and she had been bedridden for weeks and that doctors didn't know what to do, and that he had gone to the temple and prayed to his Gods to send him a miracle for his daughter. He told me that he had had a dream of a woman with hair like blood would come to Athens, and that she would have the power to heal his daughter. I was astonished, and I wasn't about to refuse. I told him to go home and bring his daughter back here to my house. The man looked like he might cry in relief. He said he would be back within the hour and ran down the stairs and out of the house, got into his wagon and shook the reins so that his horse took off at a quick trot or a slow canter.

I looked at the wall in my room, and it seemed to have changed. The door that once had been in the temple at Philae now resided on the wall of the bedroom. I had not forgotten that it would always follow me wherever I might go. I opened the door and brought out into the house what books in the Archives I might need. They were made of solid gold, but they would be protected because I was the only one who could access the door that lead to them all. I also brought out some of the herbs I had stock piled in Philae over the years. Depending on the child's illness and how severe it was, I might need to simply use my energy as I had done with wounds in the past.

I bought my supplies into one of the spare rooms with the smaller beds and set them all down before hearing a horse's hoof steps coming close quickly. I went outside to the gate. It was dark by now, and the woodworker had returned with his daughter and wife in the wagon. I opened the gate and went out to the wagon and took the little girl from her mother and carried her into the house while the couple followed close on my heels. I went to the room I had prepared and laid the child on the bed.

As I had carried her, I noticed that she was burning up wit h fever, which explained why she was in and out of consciousness and why she was so lethargic when I set her down on the unmade bed. The parents stayed with their daughter while I went and got a pitcher of cold water and a clothe, which I hadn't had before but that the woodworker had supplied that afternoon for me. I returned to the little girl and sat down beside the bed and put the cold clothe on her head. The little moan was unsurprising to me as I knew it would shock her system a little bit where she was so warm.

I asked the woodworker's wife when this had started and what her symptoms were aside the fever. I spoke Greek, having been fluent in it for at least a century. They told me that there were no other symptoms, that one day a weeks earlier that she had just suddenly come down with the fever and collapsed while playing outside. They told me that two doctors had seen her in the last week, and neither of them could do anything, neither could tell them what was wrong, and neither of them could heal the child in front of me.

I told them I was no doctor, that I didn't know what was wrong either, and their faces fell. I continued by saying that I was a healer, and despite not knowing what was wrong, I could fix it and make their child well. The girl's mother had been beginning to weep, but when I finished speaking she was sobbing in relief and her husband's face had lit up.

I turned away from them and focused my attention on the little girl. I didn't know what was wrong, but I moved from the chair to sit on the edge of the bed so that I could work and set a hand over her heart and I felt out into her body. The child was in pain even in her sleep, and there it was. The child had gotten some kind of infection and it was killing the girl. I set my other hand on the girl's stomach, just below where her ribs ended.

My hands heated up, and they lit, and I could sort of secondarily hear the girl's parents gasp in surprise. I didn't say anything, focusing as I was on healing both the infection as well and whatever had caused it. It turned out the girl had stomach ulcers and something had gotten stuck and rotted in her belly. I could sense what was going on as I worked. I was silent, and after a few minutes the child's body relaxed and she fell into sleep rather than unconsciousness. I made sure that I had taken care of everything before I stopped.

I sat up straight once more, thirsty and a little tired, and smiled at the woodworker and his wife. Before they could ask, I told them that she was fine now, that she just needed some sleep. I also told them what I had found, and that I had seen it before, and that if she ever complained of a stomach ache that was very bad, that they should bring her to me immediately in the future. That her stomach somehow got holes in it and that was what had made her sick. I could supply herbs to drink as a tea that would help once I was settled in to the house and had everything I needed, but that it could still happen now and then and that it would never be something that would go away completely. But it was manageable as long as they stayed on top of it and aware that it was a possibility. The little girl could have a normal, full life and I could teach her how to handle her condition as well since I had seen it so often before.

I finished up, went to my own bedroom and brought back the blanket that the woodworker's wife had given me and put it over the little girl. I told them that she needed some sleep now to recuperate, and that they could stay with her and take her home in the morning. They thanked me profusely, and the woodworker said that if I ever needed his services that he would provide them at no cost in return for the debt he felt they owed me. I thanked him, and said that they could sleep in my own room if they wished, but they decided that they would stay with their daughter. I nodded, and left the small family to rest. I went to the kitchen to have some water and something to eat, as I had not eaten since the night before. I had a bit of bread and cheese and some grapes and a great deal of water as I was more thirsty than I was hungry.

I felt better after eating, if a little tired, and I went outside. I left the house and headed out to the woods, leaving the city. I knew that the little girl would be fine and wouldn't wake until morning at least, so I went out to gather herbs, a little basket on my arm so that I could collect them easily. I was surprised at the many different things that I found in the dark that would be of use in treating mild injuries or sicknesses. And in a few hours I had a full basket and started my way back to the city.

When I got back to the house I looked in on the little girl. Her parents had fallen asleep in the chairs, sitting up, and the child hadn't woken. A went and put my basket on the table in the kitchen and made a mental note to go to the market in the morning to buy glass and pottery jars to hold my herbs and supplies. When the sun started to rise I went in to check on the little girl again and remove the clothe from her forehead. Her fever was completely gone, her skin cool and her color back. She was no longer clammy, and seemed to be sleeping peacefully and I was pleased. I took the clothe and the pitcher out of the room, and refilled the pitcher with fresh water and took the ladle from the barrel and brought it back to the room that they were all in.

The woodworker woke up as I came back in, and I told him in quiet tones that his daughter was fine, just sleeping, and that I had gathered some herbs to make her a tea that morning, that I just needed to start a fire. He extricated himself from his wife without waking her and said he could get the fire going for me. I thanked him and went to make the mixture of herbs for his daughter.

Twenty minutes later the woodworker found me in the kitchen grinding herbs down with rocks as a makeshift mortar and pestle, and he told me that the fire was ready. I carefully poured the powdered herbs into a cup and wondered how I would heat the water since I didn't have any pots or kettles or anything. And then I remembered, I poured the water into the mug and wrapped my hands around it and focused. In a minute the mug was hot and steaming and the powdered herbs were dissolved. I had forgotten that I could heat things simply with my hands from my energy. I went back to the room where the little family was and the mother had woken up and was sitting beside her daughter on the bed. When I came into the room she looked up and stood upon seeing that I had a steaming cup in my hands.

I moved and went to take the other woman's place on the edge of the bed. I held the cup with one hand and gently woke the little girl. She was groggy and a little weak, but when she opened her eyes she was no longer glossed over with delirium. I helped her sit up and told her that she needed to drink what I had made so that she wouldn't get sick again. She took the cup from me and started to sip at it. I had made sure that it was warm but not too hot for the child to drink.

While she did, I explained to her and her mother what had been wrong and that the medicine I had the child drinking was needed every day to prevent it from happening. I explained everything I had told the woodworker, and told them I would supply them with the powder every month, give them a month's worth at a time, and since the woodworker had already promised his craft to me without charge for life I wasn't going to charge them for the herbs.

Both parents were overjoyed, and I took the cup from the little girl when she finished the entire mixture. I said that they could add honey to it to make it sweeter for her so it was easier to drink every day. The little girl, who I later found was called Elena, asked if she could go home. I told her she could, but that today she should rest and sleep as much as she could and that she should eat lightly, no meat for a few days. Her parents nodded and I got up and out of the way for the woodworker to pick her up to take her home. They both thanked me again profusely, and I told them to some back the next day and I would have a month's worth of her powder for them.

The little family left, little Elena waving over her father's shoulder as he carried her out to the wagon before they loaded up and left to go home. Much as I wanted to sleep once they had gone from my line of sight, I had to go back to the market and get myself dishes and pots and other things I needed to function in my new home. I put Indigo's new bridle on him and rode into the market bareback.

Hours later I returned, another day to wait for people to bring what I bought and set up my new home. One thing I had brought home myself was a mortar and pestle and a saddlebag slightly overflowing with herbs of every different sort for many different needs. I sat in my kitchen and got to work separating them and putting them into the jars and cups and bowls I had gotten the day before to put on my shelves in the front room. I knew my name was going to spread like wildfire now that I had saved Elena's life, and I didn't want to be caught unprepared when more people came to see me. I felt like Greece would be pleasantly busy.