Myths of Yesteryear

Hypomone

May 1347

"This is silly. I'm a married woman." Helena protested as her friends dragged her to the port to watch the ship. At one time, a ship in port wasn't a big deal. But Constantinople, once considered the city in the center of the world, suffered due to war and trade died substantially. Even Helena had to admit that she was excited to watch the men who arrived from Kaffa unload their cargo.

"There is no harm in looking," Maria said skipping ahead.

"Your cousin will be the death of us." Helena raised an eyebrow at Hypomone.

"Let her be." Hypomone smiled. Not for the first time, Helena shook her head at the difference between her two friends. Fair complexioned Hypomone acted the part of a girl from the golden line of nobility; however, her orphaned cousin, was far less refined. While the olive-skinned Maria flirted with anything that could walk, Hypomone dreamed of joining a convent and becoming a nun.

"She has no shame," Helena said watching the fifteen-year-old girl walk confidently towards a man almost twice her age and playfully touch his muscular arm. After a few minutes of flirting the shipmate allowed Maria to caress some silks as they were unloaded from the ship.

Helena felt a tinge of jealousy as she watched the orphan touch the rich fabric. For even though Helena was Constantinople's new Empress consort, she would not get a dress made from fine silk anytime soon. Not since her husband's mother, Anna of Savoy, cleared the cities already limited coffers during the civil war. Fortunately, the war ended with Helena's father, John Kantakouzene, crowned as Emperor. Her new husband, John Palaiologos, was crowned co-emperor. Helena had faith that her father would restore Constantinople to the golden city it once was. She could make a few sacrifices until then. Even if she only had a handful of decent dresses.

Maria twirled around the man with a swath of purple silk. Helena shook her head and frowned. Purple was the color of royalty, Maria, who was little more than a commoner, had no business touching it, let alone dirty dancing with it. Just behind them, Helena noticed a rat scurrying across the boat.

"Come on Maria." The Empress called. "I've seen enough vermin for the day."

Two weeks Later

Helena waited for the cover of dark and snuck out of the palace. Neither her father nor her husband would tell her what was going on in the city.

Helena made plans for her friends to call on her that morning. When they didn't show, her husband was forced to tell her the truth. Once again, the city was suffering, but not by war or crusading looters. This time God himself brought pestilence down on the people of Constantinople.

Her husband said it was because God wanted him and him alone to be the Emperor. Helena argued the point. "Perhaps God is mad at your mother for pawning the crowned jewels and switching them with glass."

"Yet it wasn't my mother that God struck with Pestilence, now was it," John replied.

Helena sighed. It was true Anna escaped God's wrath, but her brother did not. Even now he was fighting for his life. Helena tried to see him to confirm John's story. The guards; however, were under strict orders not to let anyone but the nurse in. Helena was even more shocked to discover that her brother was under the care of Hypomone.

The surprise and happiness of seeing her truest friend was short lived for Hypomone was concerned about the fate of her cousin.

"I've heard rumors that she is at the Kyra Martha." Hypomone cried. The Kyra Martha was a convent which took in the sick. Hypomone didn't know if Maria was treating the sick or one of them. But Helena was tired of being in the dark. She was determined to find out Maria's fate for herself.

Being confined in the palace did not prepare her for what she would see. Everyone, including the horses, was dead at the first house Helena passed. Death touched everywhere Helena passed. Helena took a handkerchief out of her dress to cover her nose and mouth as she passed a woman holding a baby. Both dead and both with blackened fingers and toes.

She reached the Kyra Martha an hour too late, the nuns said. Maria started coughing up blood and death took her. Helena spent the rest of the night helping the nuns care for the wretched dying souls. At the nun's suggestion, she stayed away from those who had the pestilence in their chest. The poor souls with blackened body parts were also too far gone the nuns assured her. Other patients had swelling in the groin and neck. None of them realized nor cared that it was their Empress caring for them in their last hours.

The next morning Helena didn't have the heart to tell Hypomone about her cousin. However, she knew it was her duty as Empress to tell her friend the truth no matter how sad the news would be.

"Can you call Hypomone for me," Helena asked the guard in front of her brother's room.

He shook his head. "That's not possible." He said. "She got a swollen neck last night."

Helena shook her head. "God wouldn't strike Hypomone!" She said in disbelief.

"Rich-poor, God doesn't care. He sends the pestilence like lightning striking anyone He can." The guard said.

Helena slunk down to the mosaic floor. Surely Hypomone, a girl who wanted nothing more than to give herself to God and live in a convent didn't deserve this. But thinking back to the poor souls she helped in Kyra Martha, Helena realized that nobody deserved this.

Though she wanted to return to the convent to help more people Empress consort Helena would not find her way back until 1392.

"What's your name?" The nun asked when she arrived. Helena didn't know why but she said Hypomone.