“I’m sorry, Peggy! I’ll come back to you later!” Pryne escaped into a nearby forest. Hiding herself under the bushes, she tied Peggy on a tree trunk. She took her bag of black cloths, the veil she use to wear when she was in Kataratos village, soaking the cloths in the nearby streams, and covered herself with the wet cloths. She hopped on Blackie, riding back to the city area as the day had ended. That could avoid being seen by the escaped civilians who were still searching for her trace. She rode fast, as Brownie followed along.

When they entered the city plaza, many had fled the city due to the scourging heat of the fire. They found Aethon neighing for help, and found Arete and the other two, laying on a pool of blood.

“Ugh! I dreaded the life in a temple full of catfights! And still, they are getting themselves into it. What a mess!” Eyes rolled, Pryne lifted Arete up and put her on top of Aethon with ease.

She then reached to Agave. Although she was heavy, Pryne still able to lift her up, and carried her to Brownie. Exhausted, she then dragged Matea towards the laying down Blackie.

“Please please, be nice, okay?” Pryne petted Aethon, and then hopped on. Aethon usually would not allow any other person to sit on it other than Arete. They escaped the city.

* * *

While Arete and Pryne were having a discussion with Petosiris in another room, Matea was in the workshop with Agave, fixing the broken spear and the thyrsus.

Agave dropped a piece of hair to the spear blade that she had sharpened. When the hair touched the blade, it splitted. Happy with the result, the next thing she wanted to do is to attached the fixed and sharpened blade head to the spear staff.

The golden pieces of her damaged thrysus was still burning in the crucible, while Matea was pressing the bellow to keep the forge fire burning.

“Lady Gabe…”

“Yes, Mate?”

“Will you lend me a few gold coins?” Taken the opportunity where Arete was not around, Matea asked.

“Why do you need it? You… got yourself into those kuboi things aren’t you?” Agave was suspicious. She was well aware of the problematic habit of some of her servants back in Thebes. They used to gamble away their wages and asked for extra coins that would not be returned.

“No! I mean…” Embarrassed, she pressed the bellow faster, “I plan to redeem myself from Lady Arete.”

“Ahah! I knew it! Most of the servants prefer to serve me! She never had any playmates and all of them only wanted to play with me! Only those boring nosy maids wanna work for Arete.”

“No! I mean, I am thinking of going back to the village, working on a farm.” Said Matea.

“And? It makes no economical sense. If you work on a farm, how long you gonna take to pay back my loan?” Asked Agave. “Wait! Is that the reason why you killed me? Is it because I did not lend you the coins? Is that what upset you?”

Agave suddenly found herself in a bright limitless void. Her stomach was growling and she had no idea where she was.

Why am I here?

Tagenitai pancake dressed with sea salt and honey, figs, olives, apples, pears, quince, grilled octopus, sea bass, crayfish, roast lamb and grilled steak floating all over the void space.

She grabbed a piece of steak and took a bite of it.

Mmm… It’s warm, it’s sweet, it’s tasty! taste like… Barley?

When she opened her eyes, she realised that Pryne was kissing her, mouth to mouth.

“What… what are you doing!” Agave shouted. “Ouch! My chest! It hurts!”

Agave regain her consciousness but soon realised that she was unable to move her body due to extreme pain in her chest. She was only able to turn her head around.

“Stop shouting! You’ll lose more blood if you do that!” Pryne licked the bottle that contains a little bit of leftover white flower tea, she then moves to Arete, who is laying next to Agave. She grabbed Arete’s jaw and gave her a tongue kiss.

“Eww?” Agave was confused.

Arete took a gulp, and then she coughed a bit, and fell back to sleep. She just recovered from the internal injury around her stomach area. Addition to that, the spear blade had pierced deep to her chest. Pryne had covered their wounds with bandages and stopped the bleeding.

Agave turned her head to other side, where she saw Matea laying right beside her. Unconscious? But her wound was not as severe as Arete’s. The thick linothorax had prevented the blade from getting deeper. But Agave was sure that she had did her best sharpening on the blade.

“Damn you! It’s not that I don’t wanna lend you the coins! I just have some better ideas that might help!” Agave yelled at Matea. She noticed that she was not unconscious, but just lay on there.

“Sorry…” Matea replied with a weak voice.

The night was silent, where they lay on the forest ground, hidden by the shrubs and far away from the burning city. The fire had kept the area bright. Pryne unable to get access to the river as the civilian had gathered there for their safety. They still have bags of water but making additional tea with it might attract the civilians. Pryne laid down to took a rest, she was exhausted too.

“Why vengeance, even though the whole world is against you? Even the vengeance is a choice.” Said Pryne.

“Weren’t you angry? Loathe on those who had harmed you?” Asked Matea.

“Why should I? It is my choice to forgive and forget. If I were to be vengeful of the Eretrians? I never thought about that at all. It is not that I want to revolt or reform against that Heracle after all.

Lily grows in the mud, blossoms above the murky water. Yet, it is white and pure. Why can’t we all be like that? The world had been muddy and murky, but why let them upset us. I just don’t care. I don’t want to care, and my life is too short to care about this wretched world. I don’t care, even though the Eretrians called me to be the Archontes. I don’t care, just leave that place for an unknown journey.” She replied.

“What’s in your mind, Pryne?” Arete asked weakly, she had regained her consciousness, “If you never cared about anything, why are you following us to this unknown journey? This is my own mess, why are you getting into it?”

“It’s not that I care about your mess.” Pryne answered. “My father left, he joined the legionary, telling us that he will be able to provide a better living for me and mama when he returns. But he never returned. I left my mama, thinking that I can provide her a better life for being a priestess, but I failed to go back in time…”

“I see, so someone told you to wait at the village, and then you decided not to wait but follow along.” Agave intruded. Followed by an awkward moment of silence. They gazed upon the sky partly covered by the smoke.

When the Leo constellation rises, we are entering the mid-summer. This year, Rome will hold a quadrennial festival to worship Zeus, the Olympic race. During the month, Rome will be open its gate to all foreigners.

As the miraculous effect of white flower tea kicked in, they all fell asleep.