Romanowski and Rosemary

14. Discarded Jewels

Julian

Drinking some water, I made my way downstairs. Everyone was still sleeping as the palace lay dead silent except for the faint tinkling of bells permeating the air. It told me she was awake. She always woke early because she believed Gods travel by Earth's sky in the early mornings, blessing whichever human they see awake, praying their name.

The palace priestess of Romanos was going through her daily routine of making a garland of myrtle flowers, the favourite of Aphrodite, and preparing the incense bowl as her feeble hand crushed the scented stones. I'd offered someone else to break those stones for her, but she was adamant about serving God to her fullest, even in her old age.

She sprinkled the powdered stone over the already burning incense, intensifying the divine fragrance. It calmed me a lot.

"Blessings, Hiereiai," I bowed before her.

"Good health to you, Julian." she smiled as she continued her work.

In Greek, the greatest blessing one could have was good health. And God help me, I needed it badly.

"It's about... Althea," I sighed.

She nodded, waving the incense bowl around as the sweet fragrance engulfed us. Gradually, I told her about the nightmarish dream.

"Julian, I believe this dream depicts the... very kind nature of the two women you've been with..." She whispered. My eyes widened at that.

She continued. "They are so selfless and giving that before asking you to help them, they want you to help the other you love." She looked up at the sky, watching the incense smoke rising in circles. "That's the reason they never took their own names, but each other's."

Althea and Medisa. The two women who had no one, no family, but me, on whom they could rely for safety. And a King who looks after thousands of people in his kingdom, thousands of his men in the army, couldn't do anything for the two women who demanded nothing from him.

Guilt rose in me, eating away my insides as an unbearable burn overtook my body. The burn of helpless anger.

"I was forgetting about Althea, but then this dream comes," I told, disturbed. "Hiereiai, was this a manifestation of my own thoughts or a sign?" I asked.

"It's not your thoughts making up a dream," she corrected me. "Appearance of a dead person in dreams always carries a message, Julian. For they are the souls that know beyond the capability of souls living on Earth. Like yours, mine, and Althea's soul." she explained. "Because they live in a higher dimension compared to Earth."

"Does it... really mean, someone has..." my throat was closing in on me, "that someone has... abused Althea?"

She thought for a while as she weaved the garland for Aphrodite. "It may or may not be," she mumbled. "Dreams often are the indirect representation of real-life events. I can't tell if she is suffering the way your dream depicts, but... wherever she is, she isn't happy."

"I'm conflicted, Hiereiai," I held my hair, squeezing my eyes shut. "I promised I won't follow her. Won't think about her because it's against the very nature to go after a... priestess..." Bitterness coated my tongue as I thought further. "She's... married."

"Julian, tell me. Would you save her, only if you had the right to cherish her?" I opened my eyes, stunned to think where my mind was going.

"Wouldn't you save her like any normal woman asking for help?" Sorrow grew on her face. "You want to ignore the dream because laws forbid you to think of a priestess as a lover? But does the law forbid you to save a priestess in danger?"