Lifelight: Calypso Returns

1.

When the day of retribution dawns, the goddess will take back what is hers. Azmythica will live again, when the sand has turned and the ocean roars again. It will be as it was; Calypso the water nymph,queen of the altar mount, inheritor of the throne of Saira.

Chronicle 20,4.

The library was quiet that Saturday afternoon. Finals at the college next door were over and only a few of the real bookworms in town were in.It was hot too, Hera longed to leave with the hordes of people rushing to the lake.

Mrs.Soars came up to the counter clutching a few books. After clearing her, Hera walked around the counter and made her rounds slowly making sure everyone was happy.

Theodore was in the classics section, right on the floor, so engrossed in Keats he did not even look up when she ruffled his hair. Anita was at the computer playing a vintage video game, her baby brother Al was mesmerized by a toy train at the kids section.

The smell of old paper was her favorite part of the library. It was in every inch of the building including herself. It was was not huge but it was pretty cool. An old resident of the town had donated two of Benjamin Franklin's letters to a friend. They had a couple of Victorian clocks and a Victor Hugo hand written script. She also loved an ancient map hung opposite a window on the second floor.

From the bay windows in the biology section facing the East, she took a moment to enjoy the afternoon glow of the sun. Lithia was an island on a lake, a large hunk of rock that hosted Sophocles College.

Usually,Hera let people peruse on their own unless they looked truly helpless so she would have stepped out of the antiques room when she found the hulk and his friend staring at her map. Hulk was a walking overstatement. If he had been half his size, she would have christened him superman. He was why she did not leave, just stood and stared. The smaller one who was not small at all looked away from the map and at her. She stared still.

"What sorts of monsters do you think they were imagining?" He asked.

"Giant squid, malicious white whales, whatever other horrors that may result from vitamin deficiency and run away superstition." Hera said, "I'm the librarian. Can I help you find something?" She said.

"You look a bit young to be a librarian."He said.

"I've aged well." Hera said.

He laughed a smoker's laugh, "What is your oldest book?"

"We have first edition of Wuthering Heights but that is in storage."

"That'sit? That's the oldest book you have?"

"Yes.I must apologize, we were locked in a bitter bidding war for Moses's stone tablets but that went to the other guy. Can I help you with anything?" Hera said.

He chuckled again, the giant might have done the same but the sound must have been muffled before it could make it out of his chest.

"Yes,we are looking for Hera Balarios." He said.

The only people who ever looked for her were either borrowing books or moaning about late fees. She was never in danger of attracting any interest in Lithia. Certainly not from strange men who turned up at a library to stare at maps.

"That's me, I'm the assistant librarian. Do you need a book?" She said.

"I am Kairu, this is Yuli. If you have a moment we would like to speak to you. But we really were looking for maps, could have been here yesterday if someone was willing to ask for directions." The smaller one spoke.

Both of them bowed a little when the introductions were made. Hera led them to her office wondering who still bowed at all. She had to keep looking back to make sure they were there, Yuli, for all his gargantuan proportions, was quiet as a passing cloud.

She left the door open even though she did not feel like she was in any real danger. That changed almost as soon as Kairu sat opposite her desk.

"Do you know this woman?" He asked.

"Yes,that's my aunt." Hera said.

He was holding up an old photograph. Khatya Balarios had been a beautiful young woman until she met the troll. She had been dead 5 years but Hera still felt it like no time had passed.

"Our deepest condolences for your loss." Kairu said.

"What is this about? How do you know her? And how do you know me?"Hera asked.

"The Balarios family is an ancient one. Do you know what the name means?"Kairu said.

"Yes,keeper."

"And the family crest, I'm sure you have heard the myth."

"She told me the story, that her mothers before her were nymphs. Keepers of some kind of fallen kingdom." Hera paused, happy to have an answer. "I have the chronicles here, they really are quite beautiful. Reference only but they should have what you need."

"No,your..." Kairu stopped short of his statement and started again,"We would very much like to see the chronicles." Yuri cleared his throat, "And perhaps you could tell us where Khatya was buried, we would like to pay our respects." Kairu finished.

"I close up in about an hour." Hera said.

Hera left them to it and went back to her counter. They were an odd pair,coming all this way to look at a fairy tale her great great grandmother had made up. She could have sworn she heard them bicker as she closed the door behind her. Maybe they were relatives, her aunt had never told her about other family members.

She should have asked more questions but in Lithia people kept themselves to themselves. Hera's own rule was to speak only when spoken to,crucial to survival at home.

They found her closing up the upper sections. Kairu spoke with Khatya's accent, they must have been relative's.

"We're ready." Kairu said.

They hiked up to her grave in the late afternoon glow of the sun. A breeze from the lake was picking up. Most residents of Lithia ended up being buried in their hometowns, Khatya was the last indigenous citizen of Lithia and was laid to rest at the rocky top of a cliff overlooking the lake.

Hera laid flowers and then stood back to give them space. They knelt and touched their palms to her grave stone. They muttered something that sounded like a chant and then stood. She was overwhelmed by pain and horror so great it filled her chest and choked her. The onslaught of emotion was sudden and terrible then it was gone.

Yuli and Kairu were staring at her. Both looked puzzled but excited at the same.

"I should go. I'm sure you can find your way back." She said.

Hera felt the echo of the storm inside her as she rushed down the incline.It terrified her not because it was the worst feeling, but because she had felt it before. When she looked back, there was no one at the top of the cliff.