Chapter Text
I felt grains of sand dig into my skin, the scorching rays of sun sent a shiver down my spine. I felt like rotting there, letting the sea have me again and maybe this time I would be spared another day alive. Oh how it hurt... How I still felt those hands, calloused and battered by the harsh winds, all over myself. How filthy they were, how much I had betrayed her. I pried my eyes open and stumbled onto my feet. It was unbearable, the pain even standing up brought to my legs. I looked around... I seemed to have washed ashore on an island.
My dress was absolutely soaked, I felt how the tangles in my hair pulled at my scalp... By the Gods, how disgusting I must've looked. I forced myself to go forward. The forest was dense and humid, thorny vines wrapped around the trees, every breath felt like my lungs were about to burst. I just needed a clearing, I needed to rest... A crisp wind blew from the north. I shuddered. Walking was torture. Though soon, I saw a light... "I must be hallucinating." I thought. It was not possible... It must have been an illusion, perhaps I really was dying or perhaps my prayers had been answered. I shakily followed the warm air around me... It smelled of rosemary and smoke. It was inviting.
I found myself standing before a palace... A beautiful, marble palace with giant pillars. My house in my homeland was fairly large, but this... This was a home made for a God or a royal. I hesitated before taking a deep breath and knocking on the entrance door. Whatever was inside could very well kill me, and yet I didn't seem to care. The door soon opened, my eyes grew wide at the sight of a woman. She looked around my age... Maybe a bit older. Her long, black curls fell below her waist and her beautiful, tanned skin glistened in the sun... I looked into her eyes, by the Gods, they were magnificent... Yellow and almost threatening, her slit shaped pupils seeming to grow larger at the sight of me. She was not human... But something more divine. She looked at me. Looked at my terrified face, my destroyed clothing, my tangle ridden hair...
"Gods..."
She gasped slightly and I lowered my head in respect to the hawk-eyed woman. She lifted my head up with a gentle hand, It was comforting... Her hand so warm against my skin I wanted to sob.
"Who are you, child?"
"I-"
I hesitated for a split second
"My name is Acacia... My ship was wrecked..."
She tilted her head slightly to the side and moved herself closer, her brows furrowing.
"Your ship?"
"My- I-... I was taken... Away from my family... He said we were to be married."
I saw anger rise up in her eyes, her hand seemed to tighten around my chin. It hurt.
"I did not want to..."
I continued, ignoring her anger to tell her the rest of the reason to why I ended up here.
"So I sunk the ship."
"You...?"
"I killed them."
Her hand slid down my chin and found its way onto my shoulder before she pulled me into herself. I laid my head onto her chest, listening to her heart beat... I wondered what flowed through those ethereal veins of hers that made her so comforting. It must have been honey, I thought. Or gold.
"You did what you needed to do."
She whispered into my ear. I swallowed. I still felt the guilt. I knew him... I had known him since we were children, but I was too naive to ever think he would do such a thing to me. Her soft and eternally pleasant hands such a stark contrast to his that I could not help but shiver.
"I am ruined. I have killed."
I uttered, my hands instinctively clenching into her dress like an infant would to a mother... Her hand moved to my hair, gently detangling it with her fingers.
"No, no... You are not ruined."
"Have I been abandoned?"
"Abandoned?"
"Yes."
"By whom?"
"The Gods."
"Oh, Child... Gods are cruel beings."
"I had sworn."
"To what?"
"To die pure."
"And?"
She asked before pausing and pulling me in even more in an almost protective manner. Her hair smelled of burning wood.
"Ohh... Oh, love..."
I felt my eyes fill with tears
"I have betrayed her... Now, I am alone..."
"You had no choice."
"That changes nothing."
I had broken my vow. I had stained myself. She would not be pleased and perhaps I was meant to suffer the same fate as the snake-haired Gorgon sister. Alone. Cursed until Thatanos spared me from my life of agony.
"Athena, eh?"
"Mhm..."
I buried my head further into her chest
"Oh how she knows nothing."
She let go of the embrace and sighed. Her arm behind my back, gently guiding me inside. She shut the door.
"Come, I shall clean you."
We walked through the palace... The air felt soothing. The rooms were put together tastefully... Comfortable seats with pelt draped over them, tapestries depicting different stories of beings equally ethereal, and a large fireplace. It made one wonder who she really was... She led me into a bathing room.
The bathing room was decorated in shades of blue, with intricate tiles covering the walls and a large tub in the center. The room was lit by candles that reflected off the water's surface, casting a warm glow.
"Take off your dress, please."
I slid the fabric off my shoulder. I remembered how beautiful the torn up, bloody rag used to look. It was a light shade of pink. I missed it. I missed home.
I felt a hand on the small of my back as she lead me over to the tub. I got into the water... It was warm... It smelled like lavender and the flickering candlelight danced around the curves of my body. Her golden eyes regarded me with care. Her gaze resting a bit too much on the bruises around my thighs. She winced before pouring some liquid into her palms and starting to rub it into my skin. Her hands, by the Gods, her hands...
I closed my eyes and imagined I was a lamb. Laid on a table, being cleaned of all the filth I was born into, and all the blood that was forced out of me... Soon I would be placed in an altar, I thought. I would look as clean as the day I was born. Then the Gods would take me back. They would consume me and maybe, just maybe I would be divine again.
The water had soon become muddy, the iron smell of the dry blood flaking off from the insides of my legs blending with the soothing lavender soap in an almost tragic harmony. She lifted me out like I weighed nothing and sat me down on the edge of the tub before she moved herself in front of me, taking my face in her soft hands.
“You are so… so beautiful.”
“Beautiful?”
“Yes.”
“Was that the price I paid for it? Do the Gods take something back for everything they give?”
“The Gods are not fair. For some, they take more than they give… And for some, they give more than they take… I can see your heart. I know you are pure.”
“But can you not see the bruises?”
“I can, yes…”
Her hands went down my body and rested on my stomach, her eyes looking into mine. She pressed her hands onto it, sending a shiver down my spine and causing me to jerk back my head. It still ached, yet it was her and it made the pain feel almost purifying.
“They will heal.”
I knew they would… but I also knew these were such foreign feelings to her, for she was immortal. She knew no matter how bad she felt, there would be one day in eternity that she would forget. But me? This would plague my entire life. I would remember, my body would remember.