Of Gaea (40 page)

At the crest Nasya dumped Ari unceremoniously to the ground
and then turned to face the fight.
She put herself between Ari and the
fighting. It left Ari to deal with Erelah.

Erelah’s back was to her as she chanted in a strange
tongue.
Surprisingly, it and her pentagon of evil didn’t affect
Ari. She silently drew the cane out of the quiver.

“You are too late false Goddess.
You have lost.” Erelah spoke as she
turned to face her.

Ari dragged the cane through the closest point altering the
lettering as she did.
She smiled sharply. “Doubtful.”

“What are you doing?” Erelah shrieked and lunged. She
miscalculated. She wasn’t a warrior, but an old Priestess, already
twisted and broken through her magic.

Ari was a warrior trained by a Spartan.
Tempered by a Creature of Gaea.
She drew the blade from the cane and let Erelah’s lunge carry her
onto it.

“I pretend at nothing.”
Ari countered, as shock and fear covered
Erelah’s face.

She yanked the
blade from the old woman as she collapsed and turned to face the
fading pentagram.

“You shouldn’t be here.”
Leonidas groaned.

“Neither should you.” Ari swung with all her strength at
the chains that held him up and they shattered like
glass.

Leonidas
tumbled to the ground.

Ari crouched at his side.
“Gaea told me I needed you. She didn’t say
for what, only that if I asked you for help, you would know
why.”

“Took your sweet time, didn’t you.” He pushed himself
upright.

Screaming, a high pitched banshee wail of a sound filled
the air. A pit of dread filled her stomach. Ari knew that sound. It
haunted her every nightmare.

The Tainted horse galloped into the clearing and killed
everything it touched. It didn’t take heed to Tainted, Pure, or
Spartan. It just killed.

Over his head the Pure bird dipped and swooped at
it.
The bird
was just as careless with who it touched and affected.

“This has to stop.”
Ari murmured. “This can’t go on.”

“Only Gaea can stop it.” Leonidas retorted.

“I am
Gaea.”

“Are you? Do you believe that? How many times do you say it
to yourself to make it true?”

“It’s in my blood!” Ari shouted at him and then
froze.

Leonidas smiled and nodded.
“That’s right. Have you ever stopped to
ask yourself why? You said once that you shared her face. But why,
Ari?”

Ari stared at the two powers fighting and killing.
Sasha was in there
somewhere and she was here with a cryptic Guardian, soul searching.
She needed the answer, not mind games; she had known the answer all
along if she had only paid attention to the words that had been
given to her.

Gaea had said once that Ari didn’t need the trappings of
the Faithful and she hadn’t thought to ask why.
Ari realized she didn’t need
them because she wasn’t Faithful. She could become the elements not
just manipulate them, but it hadn’t occurred to her to question it.
The answer was simple: she wasn’t human.

Ari had thought about the entire thing all wrong.
She had thought
Gaea and she were two separate beings, connected in some unknown
way and she had to find a way to make that connection permanent.
They weren’t. That’s not what it was at all.

The Spartans had it wrong.
The Tainted. There was no vessel. Ari
wasn’t a vessel. She was literally the Goddess. She was the new
form separated from her spirit.

A gentle light and a warm pulse drew her attention away
from the carnage.
Gaea stood waiting. Ari stood and held out her hand. “I
finally get it. I am you, literally. You are what I was at one
time. I am still Ariadne but before her, I was you. I still am
you.”

Gaea smiled and reached for her outstretched hand. “We are
Ariadne from now until the end of time. I am but the memory of what
came before.”

When their hands connected it was like nothing Ari had ever
felt before.
The pieces that had been missing were now in place. The
muffled voices were now clear. She could feel every living thing
that shared her root. She could hear every single prayer made in
her name. It was all crystal clear for a heartbeat of time. Then it
faded.

Ari no longer doubted.
She had no reason to. She knew. Gaea had
given her the complete knowledge.

She felt.
Gaea had given her the complete strength. She was finally
whole and unbroken. Ari was the Goddess reincarnated after several
millennia of defeat.

Ari drew her last arrow.
Using her fingernails she wrote a single
line of words in Gaea’s script next to what already existed. She
pulled off her bow and knocked the arrow to her bow. She glanced
down at a puzzled Leonidas. “I. AM. GAEA.”

Ari looked down the slender rod and the cloud of noise
transformed into the whirl of the discus machine. “Pull.” She
murmured and let the arrow fly.

The scream of the dying was more ear splitting and tragic
than the wail of the living.
The arrow passed through the back of the Pure and
through the heart of the Tainted. They both screamed and writhed in
agony.

Ari watched sadly as they crumpled to the ground.
Their forms twisted
and faded. A tear ran unnoticed down her cheek. Ari closed her eyes
and let the pain of their passing wash over her. Her mother and her
aunt need not fight their fate any longer. Ari had ended
it.

“In Erebos’s name!”
A man shouted from behind her.

Everything occurred in slow motion.
Even as Ari flinched, ducked,
and turned Leonidas pushed himself off the ground and into the path
of the blade. He crumpled on the blade; Ari caught him as he fell
back.

“For Gaea.”
He whispered.

Ari looked up
fully expecting to see the attacker prepare for another launch but
he laid face down in the dirt with Sasha standing over him.

“I’m sorry it took so long.”
Sasha nodded to Leonidas.

Ari pressed her hand to Leonidas’s chest.
“Let me see. I can
fix it. I think.”

“Leave it.” Leonidas looked at Sasha. “I need two
witnesses.”

Sasha frowned
but nodded and ran off.

“Ari,” Leonidas turned his head to look up at her.
“Do you have the
ink I gave you? And can you help me sit up. Kneeling?”

“Yes, to both.” She helped him up first.

He groaned but didn’t complain.
Ari held him with one hand as she
rifled through the bag still slung against her hip with the
other.

“Here.”
She handed it to him.

He nodded.
“Many thanks.”

Sasha came back with two soldiers in tow. A man and
surprisingly, a woman. Neither looked happy.

Leonidas looked them over.
“Thank you. I ask you witness my final
rites. I am Leonidas, only son of the late Lord Nikkos of House
Androcles of the Androcles Pantheon.”

The woman spoke first. “I am Psyche of House Metaxas; the
Merchant’s Guild.”

“I am Jarius
of House Pavli; Envoy of the Katsaros Pantheon.”

Ari held her tongue at the pomp and ceremony.
There had to be a
reason Leonidas was doing this. A very good reason with as fast as
he was bleeding out.

Leonidas looked at Sasha.
“I need to see your tattoo and I need you
down on my level.”

Ari was about
to interject with Sasha didn’t have a tattoo when he kneeled,
pulled his shirt up over his head and held his arms outstretched to
the sides.

A snicker escaped from somewhere and Ari glanced sharply at
the two standing soldiers but their faces didn’t give away who had
laughed.
She
studied the black lines on Sasha’s left pectoral and thought she
understood the reason.

They were very basic and stark lines.
A circle’s outline made the
barest of a shield like the ones that littered the clearing and a
feather marked the shield. A quill.

It was, she realized, Sasha’s rank in Spartan
society.
It
made her sad and angry at the same time. He was worth so much more
than that.

“I am the last living heir of House Androcles.
As such it is my
duty to make sure my house is secure before passing.” He fell
forward against Sasha.

Sasha didn’t move.
He didn’t even flinch.

“I give this burden to you, Alissandre of House
Horiatis.”
Leonidas’s hand moved across Sasha’s chest quickly but from
where she knelt Ari couldn’t see what he was doing.

The two standing soldiers frowned.
The man visibly grimaced, but they
held their tongues.

“I give to you my house, my name, and my honor.”
Leonidas leaned
back and would have fallen if Ari hadn’t caught him. “Everything I
was, you now are. This is my final testament.”

The soldiers saluted. “We acknowledge the passing of house
and honor.”

“Rise as Alissandre Androcles; Envoy Patriarch of the
Androcles Pantheon.” Leonidas looked at Ari. “You will need to
teach him, of course. I can’t do everything.” His grin was more a
grimace. “Go to Miera when you need help. She will know what to
do.”

He exhaled and coughed blood.
“I am sorry. For everything.” His
hand rose and touched her cheek. “I never thought I would be at
peace again. But you,” he looked at the standing Sasha, “you gave
me reason to believe that everything would be okay. Against all
odds, against the negativity and the brainwashing, you never gave
up. You remained true, to a path you didn’t even know existed. You
followed your heart and stayed true to yourself. Remember that when
you’re trapped in darkness. You are the people’s hope. You are
mine.”

Ari smiled, even as a tear escaped and ran over his
fingers.
“If
I am, it’s because you made me stronger. I should thank
you.”

“No, I did not give you that strength.” His hand dropped
away to the tattoo over her collarbone. “I only opened the doors.
You had the courage to step through them. I must ask a favor.” His
eyes were clouded in pain when they met hers. “Will you send me off
to my sister? She does not like to be kept waiting.” He looked at
Sasha but Ari couldn’t take her eyes from his graying face. “Your
life for hers?”

Sasha nodded solemnly. “Always.”

His eyes turned back to Ari. “It’s up to you fair Goddess.
May I have peace from the pain? Will you grant me that?”

Ari gently pressed her lips to Leonidas’s forehead. “Be at
peace fair warrior. Gaea loves her Faithful,
unconditionally.”

He smiled and closed his eyes. His chest did not rise
again.

Sasha knelt down within her vision.
“He would be honored, if you
laid him to rest, Ari.”

Ari nodded
without looking up and set Leonidas gently on the ground.

“Here.”
Jarius stepped forward and handed her two gold coins. “For
the boatman. I give him my fare. I do not need it now.”

“Thank you.” Ari placed one coin on each eye. Then crossed
his arms over his chest.

Sasha took her
hand and they stepped back together.

Psyche sang quietly.
“When I am laid, am laid in earth; may my wrongs
create no trouble, no trouble in thy breast. Remember me, remember
me, but ah! Forget my fate. Remember me, but ah! Forget my
fate.”

“Goodbye Leonidas.” Ari murmured.

His body sank
into the earth as if the soil was no more than water.

Ari stood there for a long moment staring at
nothing.
She
didn’t listen to Pysche’s and Jarius’s words to Sasha as they took
their leave.

Leonidas had been the most complicated ass she had ever
met, yet, he had been exactly what she needed.
Gaea had said it; Leonidas had
known what she needed. And he had been her means to an
end.

“Ari.”
Sasha wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

Ari turned and
his new ink caught her eye.

The shield was still there, but it was now worn as a chest
plate for a griffin.
The quill was now no more than a single feather
among the great beast’s wings. Gaea’s Script ran around the inside
of the chest plate and Ari saw faint ghost lettering behind and in
front of the griffin. She recognized strength, courage, agility,
and faith. The others she didn’t but it didn’t matter so
much.

Ari looked up
at him and he smiled.

“Do you like
it?”

She pressed a kiss to it. “Hurt like hell didn’t
it?”

“Spartans are stoic in pain, didn’t you know.” He led her
off the hill and towards home.

Halfway across the clearing Kleisthenes stood
watching.
He
was smiling, which to her was a good thing. He gripped them both in
a bear hug that brought fresh tears to her eyes.