Chapter 5

The ice cold returned, paralyzing her completely. Just the echoes of his words bounced between her ears making her body vibrate in panic. She couldn’t even look to the others to know their reactions. Everything simply faded to black.

Her body subconsciously started to back away. A rock tripped her and knocked her out of the mental void. Gunai looked up to see Aniketos offering her a hand up. Still armored and ready for war, she didn’t recognize the man that warmed her heart in the jail. “Aniketos?”

“What’s wrong, Gunai?” He knelt down next to her and supported her. Though as she turned to escape, he grappled to try to keep his support. “Gunai?”

She looked behind him to see all of the strangers gathering behind him. They didn't look at her anymore, but focused on him. They weren’t here to help her, but to answer his call. “I thought we were going to escape.”

“We will, but first we have to save our people.”

“Everyone?”

“Of course, we can’t leave them behind in the hands of those who would murder them for merely living. This is no life for us. I will chart our people a new destiny.”

“How? Our home’s gone, our people slaves. This is our life, our only life!”

He leaned in clutching her hand with pleading eyes. “But you felt it the same as I. Didn’t you Gunai? This is not a life, this is living death. We wait to be killed. We must find a new course in the darkness that hasn’t been traveled. That is what we will do, Gunai. You feel the same!” A smile slowly came over him as he spoke longer. It was as though his own words entrapped him and fortified his resolve.

Nothing would change his heart.

Aniketos was gone.

Weakly, she took his hand letting him lift her to her feet. She slowly nodded, feeling the tense stares of everyone with expectant eyes. It seemed to calm the mood. ‘This is an impossible task…Aniketos…’

A ripple came out from his feet, building a thick wood table. Over the surface, a leather map unrolled out blank as an eyeball formed in his palm. Aniketos raised up his hand letting the eye float away into the sky until it was impossible to see.

Down the map, it suddenly started to draw out in black ink the shape of the land. He bent over staring at it as more details came into focus. “This was the fort…and there! A village nearby!” His eyes slid up towards the horizon. “That will be where we start.”

Their destination marked, Aniketos loaded everyone up into a cart and began the start of the long trek he envisioned. He sat up in front pretending like he guided the horses pulling the cart.

In the rear, Gunai sat in the corner away from everyone with Korina next to her. She leaned against the woman, missing the old comfort that she knew. The man changed into an almost cold and dark figure. She couldn’t believe how much he changed. It didn’t seem possible to shift so drastically. “Are we really going to fight?”

“Aniketos wants to help people. This is his way of doing it.”

Gunai paused, not expecting such a serious answer from the woman. Unfortunately, it was no more comforting than her thoughts. Once more they were all she had and solitude returned. “I understand. I don’t think he’s wrong, but I don’t want him to die. Everyone’s going to die…”

“We’re all marching to death, some just faster than others.” A bit of smirk drew over her face, not going straight into a big grin.

“Are you going to fight?” a new voice asked, as they joined in the corner kneeling near them. A younger woman than them, perhaps still a teenager. Time as a slave looked like it had taken its toll on her aging and maturing her features. She had a soft, weak voice that just barely reached them.

Staring at the stranger for a moment, she didn’t recognize her from the others. Though she looked over to the rest and they all didn’t look as familiar as she thought that they did. She only saw them for less than a day. “No, I…don’t know what I’m going to do…I guess I’m watching…”

She still didn’t know why she took his hand. Gunai glanced over to the front. His back looked rigid and large as if bearing something. He felt so out of reach of her, a sea apart. “I wish he would just…run…”

“You too then?”

Gunai leaned forward suddenly finding a like minded and rational soul. “You want to escape?”

“Of course! I saw what they did at the execution, but alone…I’m dead too.” They looked back towards the others in the cart with a pause. She leaned forward towards Gunai getting close. “I don’t want to be here! We escaped once, I don’t want to give up my freedom for another war!”

The teenager’s words hung in Gunai’s mind. There were other perspectives that she hadn’t considered. ‘Aniketos do you know…realize what you’re doing? What this war of yours will cost? What it will ask of us?’ Gunai reached out putting a comforting hand on their shoulder. “What’s your name?”

“Phyllida.”

“Gunai and this is Korina. I can’t make any promises, but stay with me.” The dark path that Aniketos walked frightened her with each passing moment. Chills ran down her back once again with the grim thoughts that flew around her head like flies. ‘Is there something that I can do?’

Her mind spent the ride within her thoughts. As she expected, no answers came to her. It only made her realize that she knew less about the man than she believed. She needed more time to talk to him.

The village they arrived at filled mostly of huts with a couple of simple stone masonry homes. It hardly looked like a place where there would be slaves given the wealth. Quickly, she reached out to grab Aniketos’ arm. “Are you really going?”

He had a confused look on his face. “Of course, that’s why we’re here.”

“But what if there’s no Atlanteans here?”

“Already checked, there’s one in that house.” He pointed over the furthest stone home. From the outside, it looked fairly rundown, but certainly more important than the rest. Most of the huts surrounded it. It likely was the leader of the village.

He lifted up his forearm rubbing over the simple Greek letter “A” branded into his skin. “I use my power to search for us.” Aniketos looked towards everyone else behind him. They all wore leather armor still like him now even armed with spears and swords.

A frenzied atmosphere took over as she believed she smelt blood once again, despite the holding. She glanced over at her brand as he called it out. ‘Is this how the power works? The Blessing? It’s like he’s bestowed with godlike power…’ Stories were all she knew of the power that the Atlanteans possessed. After so many generations, even those stories sounded more like fables or myth than reality.

Suddenly a sword lowered down in front of her from Aniketos. “For protection. You stay back while I free our brother.” He stood up from the boulder they hid behind motioning to everyone else. Looking more like a mob than anything organized, they marched towards the village.

Only a few people stood around outside when they arrived, but the sight of weapons made them flee immediately. Panic and fear spread like fire lighting each of the huts ablaze. New voices screamed up from homes with the steady march of the strangers.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

From the boulder, Gunai slowly watched out, holding the sword awkwardly in her arms. Each new sound made her clutch onto the sword tighter. The sharpened edge of the blade pressed against her skin threatening to carve into her flesh. All it would take was another shout from the village. ‘Please Aniketos, don’t do this…’

At the center of the village, the man of anger stood before the stone house. A silent stubborn door refused to acknowledge him. “Get out here, Greek! Show yourself to me!” Nothing further moved in the house. The former slaves surrounded the house watching for any signs of movement. Even as a mob, they remained effective with their weapons at keeping anyone with dreams of bravery away.

Granting them a minute to answer his demands, Aniketos sighed with disappointment. “I’m here for the Atlantean, our brother. Free them and we’ll leave. Keep your silence and face the consequences!” With the final warning, he waited once more for any sign.

Nothing.

Stubbornness or fear, he didn’t care what the answer turned out to be. Closing his eyes, he concentrated to reveal his Field. The entire village disappeared in an instant and the landscape changed to a blackened burnt wasteland. Once rocky and mountainous terrain warped into impossible forms that defied reality. Simply staring at the nightmarish shapes eroded at the sanity as the mind couldn’t comprehend how such a thing could even exist.

Gunai coughed and suddenly threw up dry heaving her nearly empty stomach. Mostly clear stomach fluid dripped out of her mouth over the charred ground. Her head spun with the light feeling rising through her body.

Quickly, Korina knelt down to support her. “What’s wrong? Gunai, hold together!”

About ten meters away from Aniketos, stood a frightened couple standing around and behind their three slaves. Two of the slaves forcibly pushed the third out in front to act as a shield for them. They all shook in fear instinctively understanding the situation. Fear paralyzed them, preventing them from fleeing despite their wants.

Aniketos ground his teeth seeing them hide behind their slaves. His hands clenched tightly as he stalked towards the frightened couple. Rage boiled up in his body, heating him up as his heart began to thump heavy against this body. His muscles ached and roared with each movement as he seethed staring at them.

The slaves rattled as he breathed down them. Even with a similar height, his presence and emotions seemed to make him grow to tower over them all. Aniketos grabbed the Atlantean by the shoulder and pulled him away from the slaves. He then pushed the spear in his hand between the two slaves encouraging them to flee.

It was enough to snap them out of the paralysis. The slaves abandoned their masters to the judgment of the fury. Alone, the likely married couple clung to each other falling into the charred ground. Tears of fear streamed down their faces cowering before Aniketos.

“You would hide behind your slaves! Throw them at the mercy of your attacker!” Anger poured into his words uncontrollably. Emotion fueled his muscles as he grabbed the husband up by the neck. His fingers tightened enough to make it difficult to breathe, but not impossible. The man tried to claw at Aniketos bare arm, but slipped off.

Through choking gasps the man attempted to speak. “...please…spare…” His hands continued to flail hoping for a line to safety.

“You should have thought of that before you refused me and hid behind the lives of others!” Aniketos lifted the man up and turned him towards the sky.

The man started to scream, though more for fear of his life than understanding what Aniketos planned. Though as his eyes panned over the scenery looking for help, it locked onto one of the eldritch structures. As much as his mind told him to escape, he couldn’t. His eyes remained transfixed by the foreign object that defied everything that should be known. Each warp and transposition racked his body with nausea.

Vomit poured out of his mouth denied the full guttural reaction. He froze in the next moment, forced to continue to stare as the severity of the pain rose to become a headache. Suddenly, his fingers felt like they were on fire and then frozen the next second. His leg began to shake and parts of skin drooped limp.

As his mind continued to degrade Aniketos cast him aside and claimed the wife next. Already in horror over her husband’s torture, she clawed and scratched at him to no avail. Like him, she rose up to be subjected to the torment.

Though her reaction began similarly, she broke differently attempting to claw her own flesh off. Screams and vomit fought to escape as she bled from deep wounds over her face and arms. And then she fell silent with every part of her no longer moving.

Aniketos dropped her down next to her husband and the two exploded in a spray of blood as the environment returned to normal. He looked around to his followers. “We’re leaving.”

Returning to the entrance, he noticed Gunai was still bent over. He ran over as all of the armor and power faded away. “Gunai! Are you okay? What happened?” He looked over at the two women that supported her.

Phyllida grabbed his hand, keeping him away from Gunai. “It’s because of your power! It made her sick!” She ignored any of her fears and stood between them. “Just stay away from her! Take your poison, your war and go somewhere else!”

He flinched back as the teen's words hit deep. As the time slowly passed Gunai started to recover looking up at him. Aniketos stepped back, further stuck in his thoughts. Silence stared fixed on him forcing him to look away. The followers along with the newly freed Atlantean stood behind him.

A longer pause carried between them as everyone waited. “We move out!” The cart reappeared a little larger than last time. He motioned everyone forward as he walked around to the front.

Once everyone gathered up and looked back to see three remained outside still. “Get in, we’re leaving!”

“No! We’re staying here. We don’t want anything to do with your fighting!”

Aniketos dropped down off the cart and marched over to Gunai and the others. “We’re all going now. I can’t let you roam unprotected! The Greeks will kill you!” He offered out his hand to them

“We’re dead if we follow you!”

“I have the power to keep you safe.”

“Your power puts us all at risk!”

“You were going to be executed and as long as you stay in this land that’s not going to change!”

“And how long before we leave Greece? A week, a month, a year? How long before your vengeance is sated? Is freeing us even your wish?”

His hand turned into a fist as the teen surprised him with a lot more back bone. “Coward! You were there! You saw the same execution and murder as I and you question my motives?”

“Better a coward than a martyr. You would restart the war that destroyed us!”

“I would save our people from slavery and death!”

“Enough!” Gunai’s voice still came out a little shallow, lacking energy. Yet it was enough to stop the argument. With the help of Korina, she got back to her feet. “I’ll go…”

“But Gunai…”

“Thank you, Phyllida.” She could see the reservations still in the young woman, but took her hand. Gunai took a slow step forward to lead them forward. ‘I can’t be the reason…’

Everyone finally loaded up in the cart, Aniketos started their travel once more. Food this time spread out in the cart gave them their first proper meal in countless days and unrestricted since they had been born. They greedily claimed portions ignoring any sense of control.

Gunai refused food for the time, her stomach still not settled. Which turned out to be a good thing as most of the others collapsed in pain from eating more than their body were used to taking.

Time continued on with many raids to follow that she had to witness. She watched from a greater distance though still following what he did. Each time the violence, the blood and death stabbed at her. Nothing she could do anymore slowed him down. It consumed all of his being.

Days of traveling north from village to village steadily grew their numbers. A single cart no longer was enough for their band. So many faces joined that she couldn’t even hope to remember them. They were all strangers just the same as Aniketos.

Gathered around a fire within a large home built through Aniketos’ power, they rested for the night. Gunai sat with Phyllida on the outside while Korina entertained the strangers with her jokes and movements. It brightened a little to the grim dark that hung over everything like a blanket.

“This can’t keep going…”

“I know, Phyllida, but we can’t stop it either. Maybe this is what the truth of the curse that he spoke of meant.”

“Curse?”

“The Mother’s Blessing. He called it a curse of the gods.”

“But he was chosen for this, wasn’t he? Is that how it works?”

“If you believe the old stories. Perhaps, being chosen isn’t a blessing, but a rot that eats at you until all you can be is that. Your identity now is only ‘Blessed’ or ‘Chosen’ rather than human. You no longer act of your own will, but someone else.”

The teen ripped apart the bread taking a chunk to nibble on. Her mind fought with Gunai words as much as her hands did the bread. “Someone else? Like the gods?”

“Mayhaps the gods or even the Mother. But in truth, he’s still the same as before. A slave to a master.” She looked over at the small gathering that surrounded Aniketos. His face remained dower no matter his success. Even teaching those that followed him seemed to bring no joy. ‘Aniketos…I thought we were going to chart a different course. Am I alone in seeking the unfamiliar path?’

Gunai sighed to herself, left with just the reality rather than the dream. “Just a slave.”