The Sacred War

It was during the Sacred War  that I first set eyes upon the Tetrarch and my life changed forever in the very same instant.

I would learn shortly after this moment that he had come with many horsemen under his command and at last razed Kirrha to rubble on the Earth, having poisoned its waters and put to death most of the town’s people. As the cursed polis burned a band of the rebels somehow escaped and stormed up the winding road to Delphi, where they set about slaughtering the Saints in their beds.

Timocrates escaped while attending to God’s holy flame in the Corycian Cave. Stealthy as a fox before nightfall he crept back to rescue me from my chamber and took me for hiding to the secret place of dedication, beneath the priceless earth. I saw the fear in his eyes as he spoke and girded myself for more terror.

“I must retrieve the temple scrolls, the words that were given to us by the Gods that none can replace. You will remain here - still and silent as a statue, my child - and pray with all the force of Psyche that lord Phoebus Apollo will save us.”

Then he was gone, leaving me to cower like a new-born goat in the bowels of the Earth as I listened to the sounds of death and destruction crashing like cymbals on the ground above. While I devoted myself to fervent prayer in this hidden chamber, by their screams and the quickening of my heart I knew that a band of furies was raging above me. I pulled my veils closer to ward off the chill of that cold, dark grotto, my only comfort God's eternal flame. DreamHost rebate