The Saint responded anxiously while the maids melted away. “Sir, she has been in the service of this sanctuary since the moment of conception, nothing…”
The Tetrarch interrupted him. “Have no fear my friend, I do not at this moment intend to carry away the virgin bride of a god.” He laughed anew and smiled at me again with his sparkling eyes, whose meaning I could not discern. He put a hand on my guardian’s shoulder. “Rather than ruin us all I would rather commend the company of Saints for the cultivation of one so befitting of Apollo's grace. I believe we have found the natural replacement for she who departed in the black of night.”
He paused for a moment and his expression hardened. “They cannot possibly object now the Cretans are dead - all that has been asked of me I have fulfilled.”
“We must not speak of these things!" the Saint replied with a tortured whisper. "It has been a bloody night and we must make sacrifices for the dead. As for the girl, we should wait…..”
But everything, it seemed, had already been decided by the stranger who had touched me so deeply. “It is essential that the office be occupied by one who is loyal to the friends of Delphi and I believe this girl will remember well the way I saved her life. Besides,” he added more softly, looking over at me as he spoke, “it is only fitting for the counsel of Apollo to be given by a golden-haired maiden in his days of greatest glory.”
The Saint bowed his head by way of assent and I followed suit, without real comprehension of the scene I was somehow playing a part in - but it was not for me to question the ways and works of men. All I knew was that when the Tetrarch departed I was rend in two by some sharp and hitherto unknown sorrow that would bind me to the weeping silver moon by a silken thread, destined only to wax and wane as he came and went throughout the years.
It was also shortly after this encounter that I became the high-priestess of Apollo, in accordance with his command. So it was that two great loves became intertwined in my Psyche for the whole of time.
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