Three young adults around the age of 25 and other two, quite older and more mature than the rest, were sitting near the recently lit fire. The crackling sounds of the flames devouring the small logs were covered by the joyous conversation of those five individuals, sitting around the fire. Four of them stood up upon seeing Achilles’ arriving at the camp with Nephele. A young priest was the first one to approach him, his arms wide open.
“Brother, long time no see! How was the trip to Crete? I heard you managed pretty well!” Nikolaos greeted him, as Achilles accepted the hug.
He was the man that rescued Nephele, the one they were talking about on their way to the camp, a healthy young man around the same height as Achilles with a blue chiton as his attire with a belt for his daggers. Nephele realized that this young man was the one closest to Achilles, because he was first to greet him. Of course at least three others shared the enthusiasm of Nikolaus, except one of the women.
“Welcome back, esteemed leader” one Spartan warrior said with a smirk and irony, as he embraced Achilles in his arms.
“How have you been, man?” a second Spartan said, going in for a unique salutation, that probably had to work on for a long time, due to its complexity.
Although not visible at first, Nephele could tell that those two were brothers. The name of the first one was Dienekes and the other was called Aristides. It was obvious that Sparta was their homeland. Both well built, they wore the red military chiton, a piece of clothing that distinguished Spartan hoplites from soldiers of other City States. Also their trimmed and well oiled beard was a giveaway. Only Spartans took such good care of their facial hair - and hair in general. Nephele always found this obsession weird. One time that some Spartans had visited her island, she had asked one of the Homoioi hoplites about this weird fixation. He had told her that they did that for two things. Discipline and preparation. When she asked “prepare for what?”, the soldier chuckled and answered “all Spartans must look their best for Hermes and Charon”.
Spartan culture was like that. Boys like Dienekes and Aristides were born and raised with a single purpose. To become hardened soldiers through the hardships of Agoge, the cruel Spartan method that raised the Legendary Hoplites of Leonidas and his Three Hundred. A good Spartan Soldier was not only a killing machine, but a poet and philosopher too. Not a philosopher like the big mouth Athenians. They had their own, Laconian philosophy. In brief, speak little, do much. A truly unique tribe among the Hellenes. Later it was revealed to Nephele that Achilles himself learned from them. He admired them for their way of life, their simplistic worldview and their undoubting skill at combat. Looking beside them, she could see their golden Spartan breastplates. Always battle ready, she thought. Simple soldiers, with unmatched skill.
“Welcome back my dear,” a woman then greeted him back with a swift kiss on his lips, making Nephele drift back to reality from the thoughts of Spartans and their cultures.
This woman’s action caught her off guard. The Spartan brothers released a loud sigh and Nikolaos just looked the other way smiling.
“I am Thalestres,” she introduced herself.
She was surely an attractive woman, with long curly blond hair and bright green eyes, her look when the sunlight hits her face could seduce even a deity. It was not long ago since Thalestres became too close to Achilles. Actually, this happened during their time in Boeotia 5 months ago. The squad was tasked to clear the area around the destroyed city of Thebes, which was infested with godless bandits. During their journey, they were ambushed. Nikolaus was wounded and Anthea managed to drag him out of the battle. The two Spartans were trying their best to keep the bandits away from their wounded comrade. During the chaos, Thalestres and Achilles strayed away from the rest of their friends. Because of the heavy rain that followed they had to stay together in a makeshift tent they made from wood and foliage of the area. They spent the night together. It was true that many times before that night, Thalestres showed interest or even flirted with Achilles, but nothing ever happened between them. This night resulted in their relationship. All of Delphi were talking about the most beautiful couple of their community, although the High Priest was really skeptical of his decision.
The only member that did not stand up to greet him was Anthea, a Ranger just like Thalestres. She was a more masculine woman not particularly in her looks but in her character. Her voice, the way she moved. Sometimes the language too. She always felt like she wanted to be the ‘predator’, and femininity did not make her feel that way. That''s why she was following Artemis'' virginity path. Well, that wasn’t the only reason…
*
“My friends, I present you Nephele! She will soon be our next member of our squad!” Achilles announced, while everyone gathered around the campfire, pouring wine into each other''s cup.
There was a quick pause of silence, processing Achilles’ words, but it was soon cut short by Nikolaus’ shout of joy raising his cup towards the stars.
“Hell yeah! Nephele, welcome to our team, glory to the gods!” he cried out and brought the cup to his lips and drank it whole in one go.
“We are eager to learn about you and draw swords together in battle! You honor us with your presence, we swear to be forever by your side,” the two brothers said like they were in sync.
Nephele shyly saluted their vow with a small bow with her head. It felt like a warrior’s promise to their comrades. In their eyes the squad is a sacred family that must be protected at all cost.
“We welcome you sister,” Anthea with a calm and collected manner, welcomed Nephele with a pat on her shoulder.
“Thank you all,” Nephele replied, her face all red, overflowing with emotion.
“But dear, how come she joined our squad? I hear she was rescued and brought to Delphi quite recently,” Thalestres asked Achilles sitting right next to him.
The young demigod was more than willing to wrap his arm around his woman.
“She is… important…,” Achilles tried to say with a normal tone, failing miserably.
He did not wish to reveal the secret that she is also a child of an Olympian God. At least not yet. At the end of the day, these were the orders of the High Priest. But the way he said it only made Thalestres curious, maybe even jealous. The sting of such strong emotion was always inside her. Not that she saw Nephele as more attractive than her. Nor she worried that Achilles was developing romantic feelings for her. The only thing she noticed was that Nephele was quite important for her demigod. She was easily triggered by those kinds of things. Before Thalestres managed to process his comment enough, Nephele, excited, started asking questions about the Brotherhood, the Argives, the missions, and stories about the squad members.
It was a long night with much explanation, talking and of course, drinking, the most widespread tradition in Greece. Soon the question of Nephele’s past came out. She grew pale for a few seconds…
“Ehm, you do not have to answer, sister, if it makes you uncomfortable…” Dienekes said, seeing the girl’s reaction.
“No… It’s fine, I guess… If I am supposed to be part of your team, you have the right to know about me… I… Well, I come from the island of Thasos where I grew up with only my mother. I remember her, she was so kind and gentle… Five winters ago, when I already had fifteen summers behind me, our village was raided by mercenaries. They were ultimately driven out by Macedonian soldiers. When we were in their possession as captives, we learned that they were slave traders. They raided around the Aegean and arrived at our doorstep eventually. The raiders looted our small village, burned the temple, killed the priests and enslaved only women and children… They took me and my mother, but my mother was ill at that time… they branded her as ‘useless’ and killed her…”
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For a moment she stopped, wiping tears in her eyes. Nikolaus, the man who knew her better than anyone after spending about a week with her, patted her on the back.
“It’s alright now, Nephele. All these are in the past”.
She sniffed her nose and cleared her throat.
“I … I did not have the strength to scream nor to do anything… But I wanted to, I needed to have revenge…”
Her gaze grew suddenly fierce.
“Which I did! One day the leader of the mercenaries wanted to have some ‘fun’ with me… he was a fool and arrogant, leaving his weapons unprotected. I managed to grab a knife and cut his throat on the spot. He couldn’t even scream, choking on his own blood. It was not pretty but it was perfect… Justice served. After that, I managed to escape, and from then I lived in the wilderness, trying to survive, until that night. As I was wandering, I heard screaming from a nearby village and remembered the exact same scenario that happened to me five years ago. I could not let it happen again. Never did I know that Nikolaus from your Brotherhood was there to save us!”
Nikolaus’ cheeks turned red from the complement and smiled with a wide grin.
“You fought bravely, I must admit that. And your purpose is honest and true. You are more than fit to become an Argive and join us,” Nikolaus admitted.
He encountered her on his mission to rescue the village from a cults raid. She appeared out of nowhere and rescued tons of villagers. He ought to thank her since she made his mission a thousand times easier.
“We all have a dark past, maybe that is what brings us together, unites us. Urging us to do good, be better and act as the bidders of the gods to save humanity!” Nikolaus grew more emotional.
“Tell her about how you joined the brotherhood Nik,” Achilles said.
Nikolaus having come to terms with the loss of his parents on a young age, was more comfortable than Nephele to talk about his past
“Well, I lost my parents during the attacks of the Paeonians in the region of Epirus. Later, some bandits found me and raised me as their own. I was and still am grateful to them. But that was not how my life would turn; at the age of thirteen, I was captured by some Macedonian soldiers during some heist, but I managed to get away. With nowhere else to go, I chose to dedicate my life to the Gods. I found a home here among the priests and since then I live in the Temple. I had the time and the freedom to research ancient documents, files because like the rest of the priests when I became an adult at the age of twenty one, I had to decide on one god to offer my allegiance. Through my research I felt closer to Helios, the god of the sun, he offered me in return the elemental skill of Fire Manipulation”.
“Nikolaus’ skills are great, he is a master of fire. I strongly believe he is the most skilled out of all the other elemental Priests!” Aristides commented.
“But he has one weakness! Could you guess what it is?” Dienekes asked her.
“The counter to fire, I would guess… Water?”
“Achilles to be precise! Nikolaos is always at a disadvantage when facing him,” the older Spartan brother replied.
Achilles did not comment on that as he did not want to stand out and be arrogant in front of Nephele, their new member. So he praised Nikolaus in return.
“Yeah, but skills aside he is the most knowledgeable and intelligent amongst the team, after all the scientific research he was conducting in the Temple”.
His comments made Nikolaus proudly puff his chest up and smile.
“What about you two?” Nephele asked the two Spartan brothers.
“Well,” Aristides took one sip of his cup, “...ours is not a happy story either…”
“In short we were betrayed by our own country…” added Dienekes. “We were cast away from our own society, due to a disagreement of… opinions”.
“When Phillip declared himself leader of all Greeks at Corinth, the State of Lacedaemon remained neutral. Lacedaemonians didn’t want to follow the king of Macedon, but that didn’t mean that they were hostile towards him. While at the gathering at Corinth, only us two showed up; to show our support to the king”.
“Later, the rest of our brothers in arms found out about it. We were forced into a trial and we stood before Gerousia and the two kings of Sparta. When the Elder gave us permission to speak up for ourselves, Dienekes replied simply, according to the Spartan way”.
“We choose to believe in this man,” both of them said together
“This was enough for a verdict to come out and they sent us into exile... We tried to become members of Philip''s army, but the king had banned all the Lacedaemonians from his army. The known phrase “all the Greeks, without the Lacedaemonians” started to take root in the years of the kingship of Phillip. With nothing left, we became members of the Brotherhood of Delphi, which to be honest, we found, totally by accident”.
“Ha! I remember your early days here,” Achilles recalled. “They were just bodyguards at the beginning, but their unmatched skill at Greek weaponry made them teachers of arms for the new recruits in no time!”
He took a sip from his cup.
“I remember when it came to me to create this squad you were the first to ask to join,” he added proudly.
“Wasn’t Anthea who was the first?” corrected Aristides curiously.
An unexpected awkward silence followed as most of them were looking at Anthea, who was quietly sitting, not participating much in this conversation. Upon realising most of their look were pointing at her, she gave an irritated sigh,
“Ts… I am tired… Goodnight… Welcome Nephele… we’ll talk some other time…”
“Perhaps tomorrow?” Nephele asked
“Maybe…”
She stood up and went into her tent.
Thalestres, gave out a ladylike yawn, and urged Achilles, pushing him gently, to also go to sleep, probably alongside her. Time had passed quickly. Around them Delphi was deep asleep. The only lights in the horizon were their campfire, the stars and the Moon, which was now descending to its final destination for the day.
Nephele, Nikolaos and the two Spartan brothers Aristides and Dienekes continued to sit by the almost worn out fire. Nikolaos put his hand in front of it and with a quick spell lit the fire again.
“What’s the deal with Anthea?” Nephele wondered.
The men looked at each other for a moment… Dienekes was the one to take the initiative and explain the situation.
“Thalestres and Anthea, those two are very close friends, sisters bound by the God protector of the Rangers, Artemis… The best archers in the whole Temple! They say that Artemis herself showed up at their initiation ceremony and gave them her blessing. We cannot say for certain because when that happened we weren’t here yet… They were not related, but their friendship was everlasting. Until that event…”
Nikolaus and Aristides lowered their heads as they were sad about it. A pause followed until Nephele insisted on knowing what happened. Nikolaus, with a sigh, continued where Dienekes left off.
“Before I continue, I need to explain something to you. Artemis gives each initiate the choice to follow her in her path of virginity. None of the two chose that. After all, five years ago, Achilles and Anthea almost got married!... But their relationship came to an end, due to Anthea’s behavior. She didn’t let Achilles take any initiative and always tended to boss him around. Although he knew her well and even loved her much, Achilles decided that it was for the best to end things… So, broken-hearted, Anthea vowed to the goddess Artemis to never be with a man”.
“That’s not the end of the story though,” Aristides continued…
“As you have probably realized by now… Achilles is with Thalestres…This only worsened the already heated things between Achilles and Anthea. She never got mad with her best friend, but she never forgave Achilles. She believed him to be the initiator of this relationship only to make her jealous and annoy her. Although Achilles never understood that he tried not to have hard feelings towards her. After all, they had been through a lot. They continued to work as a team together, but their personal life is a little bit more complicated… After all this situation is new to us as well, this has been going on only for a few months. With the addition of not having many team missions, we never got the chance to solve this issue…”
“What do you say you solve this problem for us?” Nikolaos said jokingly, trying to light up the shady mood.
Nephele played along saying she will do her best. And the four of them lift their last cup of the night before falling to sleep as well.