The Fates

Part LXVII: A Former King II

“Then I left her to her work in Apollo's temples. I resented that god from that moment onwards.

But then I started worshiping another god... Artemis. I asked her for her blessings, to help me free this prostitute.

I became a proficient hunter. I started providing the town with meat and killing dangerous animals that ventured too close. I became renowned and well off.

But that prostitute never left my mind in those two years apart. I returned to the same temple and she was still there. She was thinking and her eyes were sad.

I offered her money as she wore her veil and she took me away. She laid down and unwrapped her body.

A desire swelled in me but I resisted. I urged her to remember me...I was the man she had saved. I had not come to use her but to save her.

She shed tears then and told me it was vain to try. I told her to meet me at dark in the alley she once found me in. She accepted. I covered her body, feeling weak with temptation in front of my eyes.

I met her at nightfall and I stole her away to my home. We cohabited but I never touched her. Many men so many times before had forced themselves upon her.

I was so glad to be her freer. She was Selene. Then one day a man came, with short blond hair, and muscular arms. He wielded a knife and some quills in a leather casing.

He asked if I had a temple maiden with me. I said no. He asked me two more times but I refused each time.

His eyes glimmered then I felt my skin burn and I opened my eyes to see he had disappeared. My skin was blistering everywhere very rapidly.  I screamed and closed the door. Selene found me squirming on the floor. She tried cooling me with water or covering me with a sheet...it was no good.

Then when she dragged me to the basement where no light reached ; my skin stopped burning.  I had second degree burns. She said Apollo had cursed me, and maybe it was because she had left without being purchased.

Whatever the reason was why that happened; I could no longer go into the sun without sustaining  burns. So, after she patched me up I had to remain in the house during the day.

It took me weeks to recover fully and it affected my business. Soon, no-one wanted me to hunt for them and I could no longer hunt for money. She offered to go back into prostitution to make cash. I wouldn't let her. We still had enough money for a year if anything.

But I hunted still in the poor visibility of the night. I learned to use all my senses and I began catching more prey after a time.  Selena would sell it for me and my business flourished once more.

The man who met me before my affliction came to me one day when Selene was away. He said I had to kill an albino deer with silver antlers and he would take me to be healed of my illness in the temple of Apollo. I agreed and I left Selene a note saying I would depart for a week.

I went into the forests near Delphi,on a wild goose chase hoping to find the answer to my problem. I had my silver bows. I found the stag and in the bright moonlight I killed it.

I went to dissect the antlers but when I touched them my skin burnt. I retracted and tried to pull out my arrows. I jumped. My hands were raw and bleeding.

I could not touch silver. I realised my mistake immediately. I had killed Artemis' sacred animal yet I claimed to be loyal to her, as a hunter. In my desperation, to free myself of my affliction, I had been tricked. Now, we would starve. How could I hunt without weapons. And I did try but it was done...my fate was sealed.

The money finished after a year and I returned to the forest where I had killed the sacred stag. I cried out to Artemis to remove her curse if not for me for the woman I loved.