The Master Strategist

Lessons

Like most people, like my cousins, my story begins long before I am born.

Ariana. You know the name. The late queen Electra's loyal servant who took her mortal son in. Co-mothered him with a Bear.

She's one of my heroes. She gave of everything to keep a promise to the leader she believed in.

But she had a life before that. She had a sister and parents of her own. But lets focus on the sister.

Cassandra. That was her name. And no, not that Cassandra. Ariana's sister Cassandra was just a normal person. She worked lower than Ariana but their bond was still strong.

Cassandra married a stable's boy. They were happy.

Then all of hell broke loose. The twins were born, one was the king's son the other wasn't, you know the rest.

Ariana takes in Electra's mortal son and goes to her sister to ask for help escaping.

Of course, Cassandra helps her. Even though she knows she'll never see Ariana again.

Years pass in relative happiness for both family's, Ariana's and Cassandra's.

You know what happens with Ariana and her baby, but Cassandra's was a little different.

She and her husband, Aegeus, had a daughter. Alithia, that's me.

I had a good life. We weren't rich but we were safe. Or so I thought.

Then they came. They were the sons of the king and their men.

They broke into our home, battering down our door, screaming about a boy.

We had just been eating breakfast. I remember my mother grabbing me and running outside while my dad tried to fight them off.

We ran into the woods but I couldn't escape the sounds of my father's screams.

Or the coming footsteps. And they were getting closer.

My mother was smart, she knew there was no hope for escape. At least for her.

We came to a stop at a tree. I was confused. I was eight. The only way I knew how to escape was run and hide. But my mother was too big to hide.

I tried to pull her along, but she got down to my level and spoke.

"You were always meant for more than this."

Even at 8 years old, I rolled my eyes at her parental affection.

But then she stuffed me into a hole in the tree.

"We can't all escape." She said. "Stay here. Not a sound." She caressed my face one last time. "Live your life daughter."

And then she took off. Not back towards home, but away from my hiding spot.

Some of the men after us raced by. I stayed quiet. They soon came marching back, dragging my bleeding but still alive mother with them. Still I stayed quiet.

One of them asked about the girl, me. Still I stayed quiet. To be sure I wasn't around he order the forest to be lite a flame. Still I stayed quiet.

My mother was too as they dragged her away.

The last I saw of her was her defiant capture.

As I said, the forest was lit on fire the second the men were out of it.

I waited in my hole as long as I could before the flames reached. Then I jumped out. And ran.

But where could I go? I stopped for a moment to think. Mistake.

The flames surrounded me in an instant. The smoke was roo much and I collapsed.

This next part is told to me by a second hand sources but I believe it is true.

An owl swooped down from the sky. It was small but had the strength of the gods for it picked me up with its beak by the next of my shirt and flew out of the burning forest.

Me, still unconscious, never awoke until we landed. Apparently, we didn't land for five days.

Oceans, mountains, villages were flown over by my avian rescuer. And I slept through all of it!

Trauma, injury, and age aside, what a waste! How embarrassing!

Finally, we touched down. Right in the royal gardens of Dinos. As the Queen told me, the King and her had been eating when an Owl, a nocturnal bird, settled the bush next to them.

Staring at them, the Owl rolled the little girl they had carried close to the couple.

Cautiously, the Queen reached out and picked me up, cradling my still unconscious form in her arms.

And then the Owl took off. The King and Queen took this as a sign of Athena and took me in. Alithia of Dinos was born.

Hyacinthus stares at me for a moment. Despite being chained to the wall beside, he grins a little.

"Alright, I'm not the best storyteller." I admit.

His face turns serious. "I'm sorry for what happened."

I nod. "But I learned many things from that."

"What?" The god asked out of curiosity.

"Safety is an illusion. Never hesitate. And everything you have and earn, is never truly yours. All you have is what you are born with. The rest is a curse."

The door to out prison open and a figure stands there bathed in light.

"So true."