Chapter 2

Warmth, real true warmth unlike any that she could remember. There was of course her mother that would hold her on nights after their masters beat her for only the simple reason of living. That indeed was comfort that she knew and a warm embrace. Yet what she felt now was different from what her mother provided in her hugs.

It was a feeling that she didn’t know how to describe. Every part of her felt safe and protected, but it was more than just that. It tricked her mind into thinking that everything would be okay now, even though every fiber of her being knew that to be false. She almost felt betrayed by her thoughts if her heart hadn’t fully accepted it as well. All the desire within her wanted nothing more than for it to continue unbroken.

Boundless and warm.

She awoke with an arm that wasn’t her own over her waist. At first, she couldn’t remember anything having been so used to being alone. ‘I’m dreaming?!’ Testing out the arm over her, she poked and nudged it seeing how it reacted. Considering the owner of the arm was asleep, it only moved for her when she interacted with it. Though what was she expecting it to do? Even though she wasn’t really sure what she was doing any more.

That test appeared to be enough to jog her memory. ‘The man! Umm…A…Aniketos! He’s still here…he’s still here!’ A smile came over with that thought as she held on to his hand against her chest feeling the warm soft pulsing of his blood. The rhythmic melody soothed her heart, nearly putting her back to sleep.

Then she remembered that there literally was nothing that she had to do. So if more sleep happened, it just meant the day would pass by faster.

The body accepted sleep.

At some time later, sleep broke once more, though with the scene a little different than she remembered. The arm was missing along with the warmth that she recalled. She immediately opened her eyes and snapped up looking around. “Aniketos?!”

“Yes?”

The pounding in her heart calmed down, nearly hurting her for the seconds that ran through her whole body in panic. Taking a breath to ease the tension, the rush of emotions that rapidly flooded every part of her drained out. It nearly made her fall back, but instead slumped over.

She couldn’t believe how quickly her heart latched on to him. It felt weak doing so, but impossible as well. All of the time in the pit that she bore it alone finally gave reward for her stubbornly holding out against the Greek’s efforts. ‘If I’m to die now, I want it to be with him… I don’t want to be alone again… I won’t last…’ There was nothing hyperbolic about her thoughts. It came as a certainty to her.

The woman decided that she wouldn’t be alone again.

After the regularly scheduled meal drop from the Greek, Aniketos finished off his half of the dirty bread and leaned against the dirt wall in a general direction of the woman. His eyes adapted more to the darkness now, but with so little light that made it down even that wasn’t enough to help him see. “So what will you do when you get out of here?”

A little surprised that was his question, she didn’t know how to respond to him immediately. It took her a few moments to even consider if he was being serious. She could hardly think of a more pointless question. Yet his tone seemed genuine. “Get out?”

“Yeah, that’s right! You’re not going to be down here forever.”

“But we’re going to be executed. I’m not down here because I have a sentence to complete. I’m an Atlantean. There are only two things the Greeks do with us and you know what they are.”

Things went a little heavier than he wanted, considering what he tried to do. However, it wasn’t unexpected either given the situation. “Yes, I know what they do. I’m familiar just as well as you.”

“So you’re one of us too?” Part of her already made that assumption, but she never asked. He could have even been a killer or a thief for all she knew, not that it really mattered to her anymore. Aniketos might have planned to kill her in her sleep and that would have been fine as well. She couldn’t imagine bearing any sort of grudge for it, if anything she probably would have thanked him as the light of her life faded. But it would have meant that he would be alone and she didn’t want him to face that.

“That’s right.”

“Why were you put down here?”

He shrugged to her, even though at best she maybe heard the sound of his tunic moving and guessed that it was a shrug. “I have no idea. It wasn’t one of the purges, since they only grabbed me.”

“If they grabbed you, then they’re going to execute you. There’s no living outside of here.”

“You don’t know that. Anything could happen. I’m not really one to just give into death and besides, that’s really depressing to think about. So something positive instead.”

“You don’t know either. We’re going to die, that’s the reality. Just wait it out.”

“Would you prefer having your last days be dark or bright? If we are to die, I’d prefer not to be gloomy about it.”

The woman had no good reply to him for that. Anything that could have been said would have just been repetitive. ‘Bright days…’ It made her think more about it than she ever had. An odd feeling stirred inside her as she pondered it all. Something that she hadn’t really expected or dared to allow. Dangerous thoughts like that carried with them a special sort of poison in her situation.

Yet he didn’t have the same sort of mindset. The most likely reason was obvious to her that she didn’t need to even think about it. More importantly was how long would it last. Locked up in the pit for as long as she was just barely alive, she no longer knew what the Greeks were thinking. They should have executed her months ago, but still refused to do so. It ran against their methods. So at this point she couldn’t even say when it would be the day for him, if he was different from her in their eyes.

“Build a house,” she stated clearly with no prologue or context.

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“What?” Aniketos tilted his head, still unable to make use of his body language in his conversation with the woman.

Hesitating a reply, she looked away from him in silence. It took a little to work up a clearer answer for him. “You asked what I would do when I got out of here.”

“I kind of pictured visiting Persia or Cairo, getting away from here. Maybe eat your mother’s cooking.”

She furrowed her brow for him finding fault in her pick. “I’m sorry I don’t fit into your image of worthwhile goals.” Pulling her body up close and physically turning away from him, she did everything to show him her back without having to stare straight at the dirt wall.

“Wait! I only meant that I figured you’d want to forget about all of this.” Though he had only sound to judge by, he could tell that she wasn’t facing him. Words did most of the work for him. ‘That’s probably not a very good recovery…’ A hand stretched out towards the woman, though anything more than that felt like it could have been more problematic than helpful. Retreating his hand back from trying to flail, he corrected his course. “Why do you want to build a house?”

“You just think it’s weird.”

‘A little, it’s not a normal answer considering being a prisoner.’ Keeping that thought to himself, he focused on a healthier approach. “You want to build here in Greece?”

“No, they’d never let me. It’s not like I can hide being an Atlantean to the Greeks.”

“Do you have some place in mind?”

Anywhere would have been fine for her. Though with the influence of Greece in the known world, it would be difficult. “There’s not much in the north.”

“Other than marauders, killers and nomads.”

“I’ll have a home.”

Then he clearly understood where it was that she was coming from. ‘Now I feel like an idiot…’ Aniketos leaned back against the wall. A clearer picture of the woman finally came to him as he could understand her. “Will it be open for insensitive jerks?”

There was no reply from her, but he felt certain that he could see a hint of a smile through all of the darkness. Maybe it was just his mind creating what it wanted, but he didn’t care. He could find comfort in it.

However, the peace they had was suddenly interrupted by the grinding of metal and then a loud crash. Having heard it before, the woman immediately knew that the hatch to the pit was open. She wrapped her arms around her legs as silence built. Too afraid to see what was happening, she waited.

It could be the moment that she waited for. She didn’t know. And she had to wait even more. There was no word from above and no further sound. In the past she had tried to tell if someone was coming from the sound of footsteps, but there was too much earth between them for her to hear anything.

As the uncountable minutes clicked by in her mind, she couldn't take it any longer and moved slowly away from her side. The gap felt leagues apart with each of her tiny movements. A sudden loud noise that she couldn’t recognize immediately made her jump and clear to his side in two steps. She didn’t do anything, but just sat next to him feeling her heart, now alive again, pounding in her chest.

Aniketos could hear the heaviness of her breathing as she tried to keep her fear in control. Keeping up a brave front only worked so far. Anxiety traveled through his body as well that he nearly held his breath until passing out. Glib words did nothing in this situation he knew.

He offered the only thing to her that he could. Searching out on the ground with his hand he managed to find her small weak fingers and intertwine them. She accepted him without resistance as they sat in the darkness waiting for a Greek soldier to appear as their sign.

But to their surprise it wasn’t a soldier that appeared finally, but another prisoner. Though unlike Aniketos, they weren’t alone. There were multiple people being sent into the pit. Her mind could only vaguely remember there being others with her.

That memory being unclear, it was a strange feeling suddenly seeing the pit filled with people. It created an unwelcome sort of feeling within her that she couldn’t explain. There were too many and she wanted them to all go away.

Sensing the fear that suddenly built up in Aniketos, he leaned forward blocking the view towards the center of the pit. “Let’s give them room,” he offered, trying not to highlight her fears.

She nodded softly with her body shaking, no words could escape. Accepting his subtle nudging, she crawled over and pushed in deeper to the pit towards parts that she avoided. It only grew darker further into the tunnels and strangely carved chambers of the expansive prison pit. For all practical purposes it was completely devoid of any light. It might haven’t been true, it was at least accurate enough for her needs and the reason for her.

Hidden away out of sight of all of the new guests to their home, Aniketos and the amnesic woman rested waiting out what would happen. She kept a tight hold on his hand with the shakes not coming to an end yet.

Time slowly passed as the new prisoners dispersed about the pit with a grim sort of aimlessness to them. Like herself, they all knew their fate. Some grouped together and others remained alone. Strangers, friends or family, they shared their future in silent acceptance.

“How are you feeling?”

“…better…thanks…” She looked at him where his voice came from hearing the somber tones. Her first cellmate lost the brighter sides to his voice. He wanted to comfort her and sensed the importance of it. Longing surfaced within her though and doubt as she tried to answer her own emotions. ‘Maybe I should make a joke like he did to cheer me up? But I don’t know what to say… I don’t want to offend him or make him upset…’

Awkwardness built up around them as she didn’t give him much to work from. ‘She’s still not feeling well…she’s just trying to make me stop worrying…’ Aniketos mined his thoughts for something that he could say to her. Unfortunately, he found himself unusually coming up short on anything meaningful that he could tell her.

While the two muddled around in their thoughts, a new surprise visitor popped into the darkness with them nearly knocking them out with their voice. “Excuse me, I’m looking for a room to rent for my stay! I’m not going to be staying for too long!”

Most of what they said went completely ignored by them until about half way through their opening joke and left them with little context. “Huh?” she replied back, deciding to go for a question rather than attempt any effort to answer. Because she wasn’t paying attention, she couldn’t even remember if they were a man or woman.

“I don’t know how long I’ll stay, probably a few days. Hope that’s not a problem. Life’s too short to stress about the details, you know.” Now that she could clearly focus on them, the tone made her certain that it was a woman speaking to her. Judging from the slightly matured deeper volume, she was an adult, which seemed to run a little in contrast with her lack of any sense of gravity of their situation, act or no.

Regardless of the strange new woman’s behavior, she didn’t have any sort of reasonable response to return. Some of the context was still missing for her, but she also just didn’t know what was happening anymore. The woman had an immediate carefree attitude that almost seemed to fail to understand her situation. It reminded her a little of Aniketos, just dialed up further.

“No spare rooms then?”

She just didn’t stop. “Who are you?” Rolling back the conversation to an even place of footing felt like the only thing to do in this situation.

“I’m one of the new guests for this fine inn!”

If the woman could see her face, it would be completely blank and nearly turning into a question mark. It seemed that trying to find common ground backfired more than she expected. A sigh came out of her frail frame. “Can you start with a name?”

“Korina! That’s me!”

“Korina…” repeated Aniketos in a way to reaffirm his presence. Given the location and Korina’s recent arrival she couldn’t have adapted to the darkness quickly. She only could have found them by their voices.

“Is there something that you wanted from us?”

“I noticed you two were further away than the rest. So it seemed like you might have been here before us.”

“For what purpose? We’re all the same here.”

“Does that change anything? I already know all of those guys, I don’t know you.”

“I’m Aniketos, I just recently arrived as well.”

Silence came from the amnesic already being reminded of the pain once more. It was something that he picked up on and covered for her. “She’s been here for a while.”

“That’s rather vague,” she began with what seemed like the intent to probe more, but then switched. “So what do I call you?”

There was little way that Aniketos could dance around it now. He stumbled a little through trying to find the right words while being sensitive to her. Listening to him fumble his words, she grabbed her wrist feeling the shaking in her body growing. “I don’t remember it.”

“Well that won’t do. I can’t be shouting “hey you” to you all the time, you wouldn’t like that.” Korina went silent for a moment with a pensive look hidden in the darkness. Despite it, her mutterings nearly painted a clear image of her for them making it seem like she created her own light so others could see her. “I’ll call you Gunai.”

“Gunai?”

“I took it from Gunaika and put my little spin on it so it’s got some charm to it!”

“…charm…”

While she pondered the suggestion Korina jumped over to sit next to her. Partly distracted, but all no longer on guard, Korina sensed it was safe. She made herself immediately comfortable on the woman’s left. “Once you remember your name you can tell me it. It’s rather lonely not having a name, I think.”

She looked over at Korina a little perplexed, but also sensed warmth from her. It felt similar to what she had with Aniketos, yet also very different. There were no words for the way that she suddenly felt. Calling it happiness seemed too simple of a word for how she was now.

“Yes!” answered Gunai with renewed energy in her voice.