Be Damned

The Damned

303. B.C Ancient Greece, Arcadia Kingdom

My fingers hoovered just above the water as I stared back at my own rippling reflection. I sat and waited next to the fountain in the south end of the court yard dressed in my free flowing Chilton of gold and blue. Two colors that heavily favored the hue of my eyes and a gift from my Ori, who asked I wear this tonight and sent for me to come in secret. Behind both my ears I dabbed a drop of Honey, Orin favorite sweet treat that he would often say reminded him of me. 

"Honey comes in many forms and different shades, but it is most delicious when eaten raw. Earthy, thick, amber colored with just the right amount of sweetness." 

 I had just come back to my sleeping quarters after dealing with his mothers unsavory demands of massaging every rough patch and orifice on her languid olive skin, when Vita pulled me into the storage room and quietly yet gleefully told me Ori had left me something and I should go see what it was. A message on a piece of parchment beneath a concrete stone, hidden under my cot. That's where he hid all our private and unrevealed memorandums when he needed to speak.

I need to see you tonight, come find me at the south end of the court when the sun is at it's lowest and the space is unoccupied. 

Sneaking out proved challenging without being spotted by Athena or her ladies, I'm sure she had some suspicion her young son and prince was up to something. Exactly what though she couldn't figure out. 

Although escaping them would be hard enough, his father Lycaon would prove to be the real challenge. He's an abusive, evil, and deceitful man whose only true goal it seemed in life was to be cold and cruel. The nights I had to cry in silent or hide in Ballina quarters from him were deafening, Ori made a vow after the last time it wouldn't happen again.

The queen had fetched me to grab another vase of wine for her chalice when I ran into him. He appeared from around the corner with his oval shaped blood shot eyes and dark bags . His long grey beard with streaks of black that almost met his waist and his breath smelling of foul Dormice. 

"Where are you headed girl?" He inquired sipping his sour Posca. 

I instantly lowered my  head, as it was customary never to look royalty directly in the face unless they asked of you. Next to the gods they were the closet beings to perfection blessed by the father Zeus himself we were made to believe.

"My queen your wife, has asked me to fill up her cup."

He took another gulp of his drink never taking his eyes off me. "Look at your king when he speaks to you, girl." 

I dare not look, but disobeying would prove to be a far worse crime. As I slowly peaked my head up I could see a dribble of his wine wet his long black beard, seeping through, ruining his tunic. He reaches his calloused hands out to my face and caresses it, his fingernails yellow and cracked. "Such a pretty thing aren't you? I'd kill my wife right now if it meant I could f**k you in my bed tonight." His hand started to trail there way down my face towards my jawline where he grabbed and squeezed my lips so tightly together they puckered like a fish. He leans and whispers "Then again I don't have to kill anyone to have you, now do I?" His other hands ran their way through my natural curly brown hair. Then began to follow an imaginary of path from my neckline to my collarbone and landed directly on my breast. Where he kept them and squeezed ever so often for sometime. 

His eyes stay locked on his hands as he watched himself fondle me. I attempted to avert my head but he still had it securely between his thumb and index finger. He decided next to use his thick leathery tongue to ravage the inside my mouth. The feeling of which left me feeling soiled and unpleasant. 

I could feel his hands begin to make their way lower past my navel and even further towards my pelvic, leaving a feeling of ice along my skin as he did so. I knew if I did nothing I'd find myself being taken by him right in his very halls. With no one around and no one to say he couldn't I'd be his unbridle toy to use and play with as much as he'd like, whenever he wanted. So I did the unthinkable that inevitably could cause my very death and I welcomed it, I'd rather by dead by his hand then the likelier chance of carrying his fifty-first child and suffer my queens wrath. With my hands free I swung the vase of wine upwards and slew wine in his face. He groveled as the liquid splashed into the retinas of his eyes and dripped from his forehead. I attempted to quickly  walk away but his hands were still on me and once he gained his composure he stood to his feet and made me feel a pain I almost swore I would die from. 

Grabbing my head and pinning my face abrasively to the wall he got close to my ear and said " Now, that was a stupid thing to do girl." He threw me to the floor and landed one good kick to my stomach causing me to double over and scream in agony. He turned me on my back and climbed on top of me pushing his knee into my lower abdomen, then he repeatedly smacked and punched my face again and again until I was spitting out blood from the side of my mouth and my left eye had completely closed shut. Even after that he continued and ripped apart the top of my Chilton exposing my bare breast. I assumed he would continue to assault me and take what he wanted. But he didn't. He looked up to see his son Orin standing in front of us. His face disgusted by the his father and the blood of a slave girl he had beaten nearly to death covered on his knuckles. Lycaon stood up releasing his leg from my belly and then simply walked away without saying two words to either of us.

 Orin picked me up from the hard granite and carried me to his room himself, his guards close by. Once inside he ordered them to leave us be and he nursed every inch of me, being sure to be very delicate of  my bruised cheeks, bloodied lips and blacked eye. As tears rolled down my face stinging my very skin he looked on me with pity and said " I promise to you, he will never lay another finger on you, my Livianna". Though what was painstaking and surely traumatizing for me for only an instant was all taken away by the care of Orin sweet hands. And made me feel even worse for his mother as my singular moment was unmatched by the number of times I recall hearing my queens wails through out the castle halls from each hit Lycaon landed on her. 

It had grown extremely late in the evening by the skies time, and the stars had already started to make themselves visible amongst the sun. It's dark setting colors scattered in the horizon as it settled from yellow to orange and red. Yet Orin was still nowhere in sight.  I looked around the limestone courtyard for any sign he'd by soon. I couldn't be missing for too long or I might in occur someone's wrath. I preferred Athena if I had the choice in the matter and of course, I did not.

Psst Livianna.  I heard my name called out from the shadows, it sounded no more than a whisper in the wind. Still I heard it so very clearly.  

I got up from the fountain and started following the eerie echo. Even when every fiber in my being told me not to go, I went against my better judgement. At one point I could swear I saw my own reflection cry and reach out to me. Leaving hairs standing up on the back of my neck, but I Ignored the vision I thought I'd seen. As of late my mind had taken a toil on my health greatly and I've been seeing things more and more. Ori in all is caring ways has taken it upon himself to be my provider and protector, seeing to it I'm given only the best of care, but in secret. If the queen or king found a slave was able to read, write and lain with their prince they'd likely have me chastised, beaten, and hanged in the dungeons by my thumbs before selling me off to another distasteful character. 

Livianna ,anna this way way way .. 

If it was not him, I could only assume the voice itself would lead me to my Ori. 

"Ori? Ori is that you?" walking under the marble arches of the fortresses entrance, I found myself leaving the safety and confide of the courts yard and instantly transported into the Weir wood, trudging through the mud and its unusually thick fog. Quickly as I entered it the night had approached and the sounds of woodland creatures begin to make themselves known to me. The screeches of owls and chirps of the crickets and howls of the wolves. 

Liv, this way way. I'm here.

"Where I can't see you ?" I grew fretful as I continued in my path. No matter how far I walked it felt as though the voice became further and more faint.  I was getting no closer to him and the unsettling feeling in my gut wouldn't go away.

You're close close, almost there. 

"How much further" I called out to it.

"No. Livianna, turn back now. " Another voice came to me, only this one itself was in my very head. Clear as day and urging me to walk away. "This way means death for you, turn away. TURN AWAY NOW!"

It sounded as if it shouted out at me causing my head to ache. The feeling almost as if my head might explode . The pain was unbearable, like someone took two large boulders and smashed them against each side of my head again and again. The ringing being the absolute worse of it, as it echoed and vibrated with in my skull. The shriek had me kneeling to the ground and covering my head as I fell to my knees. The tears from my eyes becoming the grounds nourishment. 

As I laid there wallowing in my pain, I saw a little green bud start to grow from where it was nothing but dirt and rock. It started with just one and another and another, suddenly they sprouted in patches right before my very eyes covering the radius around me in a circle. The soft blades of grass were cool beneath my fingers tips as I reached out to touch them. It was like unfamiliar magic that no mortal had even experienced. None that I can recall have ever been scribed. One particular blade of grass grew and stretched towards my finger then wrapped itself around my wrist. And the pain was forgotten.

And quickly as the mysterious green pasture appeared it was snuffed out when a pair of golden sandals slipped before me in stride.  I followed the smooth pair of legs attached to them to a golden silk Tunic and Stola. Following the legs to her waist then breast till finally they met her face in all of it's glory. 

"Hey there little one." she looked down at me with her matching glowing golden eyes and soft pitched voice. "Are you lost?"