FAMILY

  Why didn’t you save me? Why couldn’t you heal me? You were supposed to protect me. You were supposed to love me.

  She survived the poison of Python for moons. She had survived Python’s blood. And she was now on Death’s door from a poison made from a mortal. How much did the medicine change throughout the years, making it so easy to kill her?

  We were back in the room. The healers said that she threw up the entire poison, but she couldn’t wake up. She was alive. But also half dead.

  I didn’t know what to do but be at her side. Is this how mortals were feeling? Wishing for something to happen?

  And it did. An old man appeared from the window with a dark cloak around his body and a staff that had a moving, wide snake. He looked at me with hatred, and I tried to face away as he moved to the sight of Lyssandra.

  ‘’Is this the one?’’My son asked, and I nodded. How long has it been since I last saw him? How old has he turned out to be? I wish I had the power to speak now. But he was busy respecting her with his hands.

  ‘’You really gave up your immortality for this one.’’

  ‘’I love her’’I spat out. And he turned to me with anger in his deep yellow eyes. He didn’t have to speak to know what he was thinking.

  You also loved my mother. But you let her die.

  ‘’Please, son, save her’’I wept, my knees turning weak.

  And he replied with a nod, with the snake of his staff crawling to her body, to her mouth, swallowing it whole.

  We both waited for a few minutes until she finally gasped for breath and pulled the snake out of her mouth with terror, her gaze darting between me and then to my son. After that, she went to sleep once again.

  ‘’She will be alright’’Asclepius spoke and moved the snake back to his staff, about to leave. But he stopped.

  ‘’Are you happy?’’He asked me.

  I was happy. I was in love with her, and I was happy with her. But I knew that this was not what he meant. Are you happy with your mortality? With your weaknesses out in the open? Because the god of medicine has seen both life and death. Love and pain. He has seen what sorrow can do to the people around.

  ‘’I don’t know.’’

  My son raised his chin and looked back at the window.

  ‘’You can stay’’I explained and walked closer to him. How long has it been since I talked to him? How long did I resent him? How long did he despise me? Or maybe it was not hatred but pity.

  ‘’And what?’’His voice went deeper. ‘’Be with you and her like a family?’’He let out a scoff. ‘’Father, I love you, but my job is done. And I cannot stay when I am not needed.’’

  ‘’But I want you here,’’I explained.

  ‘’But you don’t need me.’’ He reminded me and walked outside the window.

  The door knocked, and it was the sick king, holding a cane. At first, I thought that it might be him who poisoned her, after she threatened him. But he didn’t know that she could get hurt. Maybe it was Hector, but he was also shocked when he saw her in that condition. Or he was expecting that she would die sooner.

  He was now sitting on a chair as I was standing up.

  ‘’My father brought her to teach me how to read, back in my country.’’He spoke out. ‘’At first, we all thought that it was a man, but she explained to me that she was actually a woman who would help me out. So, I began to laugh at her. I had never heard of a woman teaching or even reading. But she wasn’t like that. She had knowledge that even I at that age didn’t know. She was kind when it was needed and strict when it was necessary. At first, it was reading, history, and math. Sometimes, when she was coming, she was even advising me of my ruling. Of course, when she was doing that, she was disguised as a man. And yet, she was the wisest person I had ever met. She had protected me even from poison and now she’’

  His voice broke, and I rested my hand on his back.

  ‘’How can this happen?’’ The king wept.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  ‘’She is tired.’’I lied. Maybe I wasn’t lying. Maybe I couldn’t handle the truth that she was actually tired just like me.

  ‘’Who did this?’’He rasped. ‘’I will have them beheaded.’’There was rage in his soul, and he stood up.

  ‘’I know I shall wait for her to wake up’’He spoke slowly. ‘’But I need you here for a few months.’’

  ‘’Why?’’Lyssandra spoke out, and I let out a smile of relief and hugged her tight. She was fine, she was alive, she was alive. She had this foreign scent in her skin, her hair, but it was still her.

  ‘’I am here’’She whispered and moved her fingers on my knuckles and turned now to the king, whom she once threatened. But they didn’t look at each other like they had fought before. More like old friends.

  ‘’You met my nobles and advisor’’He spoke calmly and moved his hand around.’’What do you think of them?’’

  ‘’Insolent pigs’’She replied roughly, and the king laughed.

  ’’Thought so’’

  There was a soft smile on her face once again. ‘’My nephew will come at the end of the summer. But as you can see, I need someone like you here. That I can trust and’’He let a dry cough once again. Was he thinking that the healers he had couldn’t help him? That they were hired by someone else? Hector did not hide that he enjoyed the power that this was bringing him. However, he also seemed to care deeply for his king. That was making my assumptions conflicted for this man.

  ‘’Can you help me heal?’’He asked. ‘’Can you please protect me?’’His hand touched her face, and Lyssandra’s lips trembled. ‘’You know why I am here-’’She stopped and turned to me with a sudden fear in her eyes.

  ‘’Be my eyes, Teacher, see the secrets behind the walls.’’The king spoke gently. ‘’Until I get better, Until my nephew comes.’’

  And her painful gaze looked back at me.

  ‘’I will choose the next destination for our travels’’I told her, and she nodded and went back to the king, and she agreed.

  The king now gone, Lyssandra stood up and looked at her body. She said that she remembered an old man with a snake inside the room not long ago. And I explained that this was my son. Immediately, her face turned red.

  ‘’Right, you have children.’’

  ‘’And grandchildren’’ I said, grinning like an idiot.

  And she pursed her lips to a thin line.

  A few seconds. A few seconds later, I hugged her tight. She was alive here. She was alive. Alive. I did not want her to get hurt again. Is this how I will feel now? Wishing she would stay protected for the rest of her life?

  ‘’I thought that I would lose you’’I wept in despair.

  And she pulled herself away. ‘’I am not dying this easily, you know it’’

  Yes. But you can die. You can now die, and I won’t be able to heal you. How can’t you see that?

  I was walking outside, trying to get some air in the gardens. When I was a god, I lost people that I loved. People whom I could not heal. But back then, I could find a way to keep their memory alive. My son’s mother, I turned to stars. The man that I loved turned to flowers. The priestess of mine, I made sure that she would be remembered as someone who should have been listened to.

  But I was now a mortal. What could I do to keep her memory alive if he ever died? I was standing like a fool when she was gasping for air, her pulse getting weaker, and her light fading. Why was I so weak?

  I moved back to the room and noticed that the door was slightly opened. There was panic in my heart, and I tried to look slowly in the darkness, only to find Hector sitting on the chair. He was sitting there while Lyssandra was asleep, and he was touching her fingers. Why was he touching her? Why was he there?

  ‘’You are here’’His voice was strange. ‘’My Oracle.’’

  Those words burned my skin, and I opened the door fast. How did he know that name? How could he know her like that? Hector stood up, frightened, and turned to the sleeping woman. He admitted to me that there were surprisingly multiple deaths of soldiers and servants around the palace since the king got sick. And that the poisoning might have been to prevent newcomers from getting in the way of their plan. I told him that it was specifically for her, but he explained that after that, they all knew that only Lysandra would be there, and nobody else. So, I was new on the enemy’s list.

  But my mind kept ringing of what he called her. How could I ask him this?

  ‘’Why are you here?’’I asked as he was about to leave. And Hector smiled.

  ‘’I came to pay my respects. I have manners’’

  I remembered how he was digging his fingers into the food, and I tried to believe that he was honest.

  And he spoke again‘’You have a beautiful wife. ‘’I thought that he was mocking me at first, but his words seemed honest. ‘’If I was at your place, I would have had her locked away to be protected in bliss’’

  Anger found my blood and raised my shoulders. She was once locked up for centuries, wishing she could vanish. There would be no bliss. Just insanity.

  ‘’I am glad that you are not in my place’’I grunted. And Hector looked back at Lyssandra.

  ‘’Aren’t you?’’

  When he finally walked out, I took a deep breath.

  ‘’Slipper charming snake’’I grunted and rubbed my head, trying to forget what he just said.

  But the words that he called her couldn’t escape. Why did he say it?