Alithea

Chapter I: The Feeling of Doom

The grass is duller this late afternoon, after a day of a dead sea, Alithea mused. There were no fish in her nets and the water had been still, almost with no sign of life. She wondered if Lord Poseidon was angry with her and her father, or perhaps the Delians as a whole. Here, sitting in the grass, mending a dress she had ripped, Alithea felt sicker to her stomach than a green cabin boy.

"Alithea?"

At the calling of her name, Alithea pricked her finger on her needle.

"Gods," she muttered under her breath.

"Alithea, focus!"

She looked up from her needlework, slightly annoyed, to see her friends Alexandros and Nikoleta looking at her intently. "Sorry. What?"

"Are you going to the races?" Nikoleta asked slowly.

Alithea set aside the dress she was mending and ran her fingers through the grass of the hill on which they sat. She loved spending a day at the chariot races; it was true. But something felt different today. Off.

"I... I don't know," she said.

Alexandros gave her a look that said I know you. His warm brown eyes were searching hers. "What's wrong, Alithea?" he asked. "What's troubling you?"

she shook her head and let out a laugh that came out dryer than she had intended. "I'm fine," she smiled. "I was just...lost in thought. But I don't think I'll be going to the races today. I don't feel so good."

Alexandros scooted over closer to her. "Do you need anything?" he asked.

she shook her head again. "No, I'll be fine. Nika! Are you going to the races?"

Nika looked at Alexandros and her cheeks turned red. "Alex and I are going. You know we must support the Blues."

Alithea felt a sudden drop in her stomach. Something is happening. Something bad. "I...I need to go home," she said abruptly. She grabbed her dress from the ground and headed off up the hill back to her house.

"Alithea, wait!" Alexandros called. Her quick strides had given her distance, but he caught up with her quickly. "Alithea, what's going on?" He grabbed her arm to stop her.

"I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach," she said darkly. "The air feels different, and I think it might have something to do with—"

Suddenly, the ground began to quake, as if the Earthshaker himself had heard her sentence.

"Careful—!"

"Alex—!" she stumbled and caught herself on him as the ground shook and they both stumbled to the ground, grasping each other and waiting for the terror to end. Just as suddenly as the earthquake started, it stopped. They slowly let go of each other. He looked at her, his ears turning red.

"I'm sorry, I clearly have no balance," she said quickly. "Even though the tremors have been happening more, I still haven't figured out how to stay on my own two feet."

"Are you all right?" he asked. She shook her head. "I don't get premonitions. But I cannot help feeling that something is utterly, utterly wrong."

Alithea couldn't get rid of the pit in her stomach. Even when she returned to her quiet home, she felt unnerved. In all her years of life—from her maidenhood to her adulthood, she had never felt this anxious for no reason.

Alithea resided in a quiet part of the island of Delos. Her house was close to the sea; here, she lived with her father Petros. It was a peaceful existence for the two of them. They fished the waters and sold their stock at the market, living a generally humble existence. The privileges she held here were not lost to the young woman, however. At her age, she should have been married and tending to a home and raising little ones. But here, she had lived a little over two dozen summers without expectations or struggles—she simply fished on her aging father's boat, helped him bring in the catch, and made sure he struggled no more than needed at his age. Others on the island called her an Amazon behind her back, both for her lack of family but also for her Attic accent, which she had inherited from her father. she paid no heed, for the Amazons weren't Attic anyway. It was perhaps her lack of a sizeable dowry rather than an intimidation of men that kept her away from a traditional life.