Sophia

My head hurt. That was the first thing I realized as  I woke up. The throbbing pain in my skull matched only by the dull ache in my arm. Right. A giant deer stabbed me in the shoulder, I remembered now. I groaned as I shifted, trying to find a comfortable position to lie in when suddenly, there was a hand holding mine.

Sophie! Are you..? You’re awake, right?

I opened my eyes to see Chloe kneeling at my bedside, my hand in hers, a marble ceiling above us. To my sleep-addled mind, she looked like an angel. Who was I kidding? She always looked divine.

Heh.

She smiled softly when I locked eyes with her, and I reached out to touch her mind.

I’m awake… Aipserokeleuthos got me good, didn’t she?

She just kept smiling as she moved to brush a stray hair from my face. Her eyes were red, she looked like she’d been crying.

Yeah, she did… I was really worried about you, Sophia.

I tried my best to give her my normal cocky smile. I think I pulled it off… mostly.

It’ll take more than that to bring me down!

I scooted over to the side, patting the bed beside me with my good hand.

Now lie down. I was injured while valiantly defending an innocent maiden. The only way I could possibly recover now is through the miraculous power of Chloe cuddles.

She laughed silently as she climbed in bed next to me, our legs tangling together under the sheets.

You could’ve just asked like a normal person.

Whatever do you mean, dear Chloe? Do my words not ring true? Twas the hind of Brauron that wounded me so.

Shaking her head and still laughing softly, Chloe leaned over and kissed my unwounded shoulder.

You’re a dork, but fine, I’ll play. It must have been quite the fair maiden to draw the attention of a strapping young huntress such as yourself. What do you think became of her?

Well, I was shepherding her to a boat  when I was injured. Methinks she must’ve sailed all the way to Lesbos by now… and yes, she was certainly fairer than most.

Blushing slightly, Chloe wrapped her arms around me and closed her eyes. I did the same. Somehow, even after all that sleep, I was still tired.

We should go there sometime.

I nestled into her.

Where? Lesbos?

Yeah! Why not? First date: Coffee on Lesbos. How’s that sound?

Opening my eyes for a moment, I gave her a quick peck on the collarbone.

Sure. Coffee on Lesbos sounds like a great idea, Chloe.

And it did. It really did.

Chloe

Sophie was a lot of things. She was clever, beautiful, and apparently deadly, but cute was a word that could rarely be applied to her. Right now though, she was absolutely adorable. She passed out within moments of closing her eyes before slowly wrapping around me like an octopus, a precious, perfect, adorable octopus. As much as I loved cuddling with Sophia though, we really did need to get moving. Soon. Ever since they saw our glowing eyes, the village had started asking questions. Questions that I was ill equipped to answer, especially without being able to speak. The priestesses had been doing their best to keep them out, and the kids had all been very respectful, but everyone wanted to know what kind of divine magic had stepped into their midst. I was worried about what they might do if they didn’t like our answer, and I didn’t want to think about what the gods might do if we told them the wrong lie. Better to get on a ship crewed by people who know better than to ask and just get out of here.

Quietly, doing my best not to disturb Sophia, I climbed out of bed to begin gathering our supplies. As I turned towards the door, I heard a tiny gasp and a flash of brown hair as someone ducked around the corner. I grabbed my bow, holding it loosely at my side, but letting its power flow through me. My vision sharpening into crystal clarity. I darted out after them, faster than they could react. A kid. An arktoi? Of course.

She was backing away from me nervously, looking like she might bolt any second. Calmly, I held up a finger, allowing my bow’s power to fade and my eyes to return to normal. When she looked like she’d relaxed a bit, I gave her a pointed nod before flicking my head towards the bedroom door.

“Y-you want to know why I was there? S-sorry… by the way…”

I nodded and gave her a kind of placating gesture.

“U-um… I just- I was walkin’ by, and I just happened to look in, and you two looked like you were talking, but neither of you were saying anything… It was just weird, so I started watching… Sorry…”

She trailed off and just stood there again, looking nervous. Fuck it. This was getting difficult, and I didn’t want to bother Sophie while she was recovering. With a wave of my hand I beckoned her over to a less traveled part of the temple. Our cover was mostly blown anyway, the whole town knew we were magical at this point. One girl knowing more of the truth wouldn’t change much.

I put a finger in front of my lips and gently shushed her.

“You want me to be quiet?”

I gave her a so-so gesture.

“Um… Is there something you don’t want me to say?” She gasped. “Do you have a secret?”

I smiled and nodded.

“Oh! Well… I can keep a secret!”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I promise! I won’t tell anyone!”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

My voice was a whisper. Light, airy, barely audible.

“YOU CAN TA-” She dropped down to a whisper. “You can talk?”

“Yep. Kind of. It’s complicated. When it’s just me and Sophia and Iodora around I speak quite freely. Around others, I depend on them to make my voice heard.”

“To make your voice heard? What do you mean?”

I chuckled quietly.

“You were right. You’re an observant kid. Sophia and I can talk to each other. Mind to mind and soul to soul. It’s a gift given to us by Iodora. She’s not everything she seemed.”

“Your voice… it sounds-”

“I know. There’s a reason for that. I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll tell you what. If you help me and Sophia pack for our trip to Crete, I’ll tell you a story. Sound fair?”

She thought about it, humming to herself for a few seconds before she nodded.

“Ok, sure! Hit me.”

“Alright. A story then, and I swear to our lady Artemis that what I’m about to tell you is true. This is the tale of Sipriotes…”

ashlynflagg

I know this is a bit of a shorter chapter, but as of when I'm writing this. It is the middle of exam week, and I'm kind of dying. Since we're at the halfway mark, I thought some nice fluffy downtime would be good. Hope you enjoyed!

Time for yet another ancient Greek fun fact! The most well known oracle in ancient Greece was the Oracle at Delphi, famous both in reality and in myth for the blessing of prophecy supposedly bestowed by Apollo, but in truth, there were other oracles and other oracular gods. The other most popular oracle back in the day is much less known now. The Oracle at Dodona. This oracle was much more available to your average citizen than the one at Delphi, and interestingly, the prophecies at Dodona were actually said to come from Zeus.