Aidoneus

Ephyra

Twenty-five days had passed since the Senate's delegation left for Ephyra. Routkin was one of the four Senator's nominated to go. While she did not question his ability to navigate a foreign, potentially hostile, kingdom she wished he was not one of the ones selected. She worried that his injured knee would slow them down or worse. Regardless of the reason, Routkin was a close friend and she was acutely aware of his absence in Sparta.

Kore often rode her horse to the tops of the fields outside the city to watch for the party's return. The journey there would take them almost six days, weather permitting. A few days in the City. Then another six days to return. It was around day nineteen that Kore started to worry. Yesterday Kore's Father finally admitted his concern as well. The law of xenia was a proclamation by Zeus that guaranteed safety to ambassadors or guests from foreign lands. To purposely harm a guest would be to incur Zeus' wrath. While Kore had never heard of Zeus making good on that threat in her lifetime, most kingdoms respected it as good policy. There had been unsubstantiated rumors that nobles had disappeared in Ephyra but those were also joined by theories that the men just got lost in the arms of a Ephyran  women or had never actually made the trip. While she knew the Spartan delegation wouldn't not face the last two options, she kept hope that rumor was just that. A rumor.

The morning of day twenty-seven Kore awoke looking at her white clay ceiling. There was an odd stillness in the air. She felt a shift before the normal soft welcoming breeze resumed. Something had happened but she did not know what. She had unique abilities for as long as she could remember. Abilities that her Father cautioned her against using. Like the ability to predict another's moves in battle and increased speed and strength. These abilities were not a mystery to her. She knew she was a goddess. Not just any goddess, but the Daughter of Demeter and Ares.

She didn't often think of them. Nor of the story her Father told her. Of how after the loss of his wife during childbirth he was distraught. Unable to sleep or eat for days. Then one day a man of mere bones shrouded in black woke him from his restless sleep. The being was holding a small baby, a goddess, and he told her Father that this was the Daughter of the God of War and the Goddess of the Harvest. That Demeter had hid her pregnancy from Ares for fear that he would use her as a weapon to overthrow Olympus. When Ares found out he went looking for Demeter and his child. He found Demeter right after she had given birth but the child was nowhere to be found. In a fit of rage he killed Demeter. It was unknown if it was an accident or on purpose. Afterwards Zeus sentenced Ares to Tartarus. The figure then then said that the baby was now his to raise among the mortal Spartans. 

The Spartan King has been the only parent Kore had ever known. He loved her and raised her as his own since that day. Teaching her everything he knew. Hiding her. Protecting her from the gods that would surely see her as a threat. Only himself and a women named Gorgo knew that Kore was not biologically his and that she was a goddess. After her arrival, Gorgo told the court that the King's Daughter had miraculously survived childbirth. Kore was lucky that she shared her Father's dark features and olive complexion. Nobody every questioned her legitimacy.

When she was young she struggled to understand her background. When she was a teenager she struggled to contain her developing powers. The Spartans didn't worship the Gods as reverently as other cultures. Ares had often favored them for their ferociousness on the battlefield. She always wondered why her Mother sent her here for that reason. Without any other Gods or Goddesses around, Kore grew up without anyone to ask when new abilities manifested. Instead, in order to protect and hide, she shunned her powers away. Closing herself off to them forever in order to have a mortal life. She knew this mortal life wouldn't last forever. Eventually people would notice she had stopped aging past nineteen. She also has physical abilities unlike most women, which allowed her to fight along her Spartan brothers in battle.

All women in Sparta can fight. To defend their homes and children if need be. But Kore was the first to go to, and complete, army training. At six Spartan boys start war training. Initially, they made fun of Kore or refused to fight her because she was a girl. That all changed when one day, after some teasing by the boys, Kore punched one so hard she broke his nose and knocked him out. From that day on they accepted her as one of their own. By the time she was a teenager she had rode into battle with her father countless times. Mortal men stood no chance against her but she had to not make it look too easy less the other soldiers would grow suspicious of her abilities. If they were suspicious, they didn't seem to care. What they knew was that when she was in the battle, they did not lose.

She hadn't thought about her biological parents in years. She never had any interest in the ways of the fickle deathless ones. She was happy in Sparta. Happy to shut herself out to her powers. Happy to live with the mortals who considered her their sister. She was happy, until that twenty-seventh day. When she felt the stillness in the air, as she lay on her hay mattress in her small room. Something had happened and for the first time in years she felt the urge to tap into those immortal powers. To respond to whatever it was that stopped the gentle breeze. Then, all at once, it was gone and she perished the thought. To access her power risked her existence with the mortals as it may be noticed by another gods.

She splashed water on her face and put on her beige chiton. The knee length garment was worn by men and unmarried women but kore liked it because the shorter fabric allowed her to run and fight unobstructed. Unhindered by the floor length peplos and himation worn by married women or for formal events by either genders. She secured hers with a leather belt and headed to main hall. She could hear her Father talking to more advisors while they ate breakfast. Since grain was short, breakfast was mostly fruits and a golden syrup called melit. A favorite of hers that was imported from the Northern countryside. It was expensive, and while Kore never requested it, her Father always made sure she had some for her breakfast fruits and tea. She joined the table and conversed with several advisors.

While they talked about a wide range of topics, the uncomfortable topic of Ephyra lingered in the back of their minds. Just as Kore was reaching for another orange, a young messenger boy burst into the room. "A rider, I think one of the Senator's returns! I saw his horse from the top of a hill approaching". Kore leaped to her feet and dashed out of the palace. She took the steps three at a time till she reached the sand path below and raced to the field, calling her horse. She swung the gate open and met him as he trotted up to her. "Sorry boy, it's urgent" was his only warning as she swung her leg over him. She never knew if it was her immortal abilities or just talent, but she could ride better than any man in Sparta and seemed to be able to communicate to animals. Her horse took off down the winding road that leads out of the city. It was early so not many people were out but she still had to slow several times for carts and people on foot. 

Finally she reached the city gate and squeezed her legs around her horse to go faster. They raced along the dirt road until they saw a single figure in the distance. They were farther away than she expected and she wondered what hill the boy was on that he saw them. As she drew closer she saw a bay horse in spartan tack. A figured cloaked in a spartan red cape hunched forward. But only one, where were the others? As she got closer she could see the figure was Lycurgus, one of the founding members of the Senate. She dismounted her horse and ran over to him. His face was bloody from a large gash above his eye. She shook him until he moaned and straightened slightly. "Lycurgus! What happened, where are the others?". His eyes finally seemed to focus on his surrounding and he looked at her with sadness. Still hunched forward against his horse's neck his eyes darted behind him. She looked back and saw two wicker baskets on either side of his horse, secured with a strap over its haunches. Red liquid slowly dripped out of one. She approached and placed her hand on the lid. She could hear hoofbeats approaching from the city. No doubt her father or one of the advisors. She slowly lifted the whicker lid and looked inside. The severed head of Routkin looked back at her.