Vitam et Mortem Origins: Witches & Hunters of Ancient Greece

Lais

She watched with amazement as Nuncvadam created the two figures out of fire. They were strangely detailed and Lais almost wanted to reach out and touch them. One day she'd be able to do that, she vowed to herself, almost ignoring Nuncvadam's voice talking to her once more.

She dragged her eyes away from the figures and looked up to meet his gaze. "Well, sometimes I can-" she broke off and shifted her weight, trying to find the best way to word it, "if something bad is happening, things around me start to move. But it's like it's not even me. I can't really control it." There was a time when she and her friend had gone to the nearby river to play heroes, and when they got there the river, which was normally calm, was rippling strangely. It had actually been a boulder that a couple farmers threw in, but at the time Lais' friend convinced her that it was Cetus coming to eat them (even though Cetus lived in the sea, but whatever). A grumbling sound came from downstream, and Lais' fear grew to the point that she swore she could feel it pulsing off of her in waves, but she wouldn't leave. She wasn't a baby. A couple pebbles around her began to shift, only a little bit, and that was enough to send her friend running home. It wasn't until later that Lais learned that it had been her that had moved the rocks, since she didn't stick around to wait and she what it was when the smallest pebble started rolling toward the river. Too whack for her tastes.

Lais didn't explain the story to Nuncvadam, or any other story about her strangely moving things. They were all a bit embarrassing.

Nuncvadam

"You need to learn to pay attention, little one." He informed her with a smile, but he didn't seem truly upset. He understood that fascination for fire, the way the flame called to your very core. His endearment, too, 'little one' was not said with any malice or condescending, just a nickname and one that, unfortunately, had already stuck.

His grin stuck as they resumed walking. "If that is the case, with a proper teacher and some growing up, you have the potential to do very great things. Like myself or Amathea. You have been touched by the Gods, to have abilities beyond what others do. Why, I was just your age when I began to discover my own talents. So, the question is." He paused at a booth selling apples and he bought two, handing one to Lais. There was no exchange had but there seemed to be an agreement that Nuncvadam would be doing a small favor for the merchant later. "Do you want to learn. See, you could try and figure things out on your own, but with a talent like me showing you the ropes you'll be a step ahead of where I was at your age." He bit into his apple and shrugged, "Maybe."

Lais

She followed after him as he started walking again, listening to him intently. What he claimed seemed surreal. Touched by Gods? Her? She was no Hercules, and as muscular and skilled as Nuncvadam was, he didn't exactly seem like a hero. Of course, she wouldn't be telling him that anytime soon. Or probably anytime at all.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek and took the apple from Nuncvadam's outstretched hand. "Thank you!" The young witch said to both him and the merchant before promptly biting into the soft flesh. She sputtered and nearly choked when Nuncvadam's proposal traveled into her ears. Her first thought was of how full of himself he really was. What a weirdo. But then she pondered the idea of being taught by someone. Her mind wandered back to his fire show, then to the little flame humans he had made. She wanted to do that. She would do that.

"I want to learn! Please!"

Nuncvadam

Promptly swallowing the bite of apple he gave Lais a large, bright smile and threw an arm around her small shoulders. "I will teach you everything that I know, which is plenty. I'm sure Amathea, too, will be sharing with you some of her knowledge. Though, between you and me, she is nowhere near the talent that I am. Though, she certainly has the potential, I suppose. Of course she hides it all, but" and he shrugged, leading Lais out of the Agora.

He chatted about nothing of importance while they walked until they came upon a huge stretch of land that was cleared of trees and if Lais paid close attention she might realize that the area that had also been cleared of grass resulted in a large dirt oval. Within the boundaries of the dirt, there were all kinds of poles and hurdles. "This," he gestured, "is where Thaleia practices for the Games." Thaleia was slowly building a reputation around Athens. She was nowhere near as popular as Hercules, but she had begun competing in the Olympic Games the past two games and had taken onlookers by surprise with her speed and strength, particularly compared to her size.

"I believe she is touched, too, by the Gods, though not the same as you or I, or even Amathea. They have graced her with speed and strength." He paused, thinking, "This will be a... safe place to practice. Even if she is here, she is someone who can be trusted." For a second he looked slightly worried, but his expression quickly changed back to his previous jovial look. "While the people are still awed by me, they are having a harder time accepting new people into the fold. So, until we get things under control for you, it might be best if we keep our training quiet from the public. We will begin training tomorrow, here in this place."

Lais

Lais chose not to argue with Nuncvadam when he said that Amathea didn't have as much talent as him, she just nodded along with his words and followed him out of the Agora. She felt awkward talking with him, worried she'd end up saying something that would hurt his ego. He seemed sort of... sensitive. But she didn't have much to worry about after all; he didn't let her put a word in.

She grinned when they came upon the training ground. She'd heard of Thaleia, who hadn't? And she knew this was a place where many 'heroes' trained. "I didn't think this place was so close!" It took all she had to not go sprinting into the field. Instead of running off, she looked up to Nuncvadam as he talked about Thaleia. Honestly, this guy seemed to think a lot of people were touched by the Gods. She'd heard stories of Gods getting it on with humans, but it wasn't THAT common. Weird.

"I guess playing around in front of people is a no no too." She didn't mind. "I'll see you tomorrow, then!" And with a wave, she raced back off to Amathea's house.

"I'm back!"

Nuncvadam

"Tomorrow." He agreed, waving her off. Once she had gone, he took to doing his own training. He would have to alter his own schedule to accommodate the training of the young girl, but for now... well, even he had to practice as silly as it might seem.

Amathea

The door to the healer's home was open, and sitting at the table eating a nice breakfast was Maia with her parents. Her eyes were bright and shining, her skin cleared of the worst of the sores, and it looked like the fever had broken. Her parents were thrilled as they watched their daughter devour some bread and rabbit stew.

Amathea stood in the corner watching the trio, a slight expression of worry on her face, but as Lais came bursting into the room, she brightened. "Are you hungry?" She indicated the pot over the fire that had some stew in it. "It's still warm. You can eat and tell me all about how it went this morning."

Lais

Her eyes widened when she saw Maia sitting at the table with her parents, but she didn't say anything. She had a rather odd feeling about it though, but she brushed it off as she approached Amathea. "I'm starving," she grinned, going over to help herself to the stew. As soon as she plopped down at the table, making sure to stay a couple chairs away from Maia and her parents to give them space, she started to eat, but of course she'd still tell Amathea about everything with Nuncvadam.

"He's kind of weird," she began, "he really likes himself. But he showed me some cool tricks! Did you know that he could make... people out of fire? I'll do that one day." She paused to shovel some more stew into her mouth. "He said he can teach me if I want, which I obviously said yes to, and then we went to some training place, y'know, the one where Thaleia practices? How great!" The young witch spoke excitedly, mumbling behind large scoops of stew and tripping over her words.

Amathea

The healer smiled at her young charge, clearly pleased with the days events. "Yes, he does resemble Narcissus a bit, doesn't he." It was an understatement. "But, he is very talented and I had hoped that you would find some commonality." She just hoped the young girl didn't develop the same kind of complex that Nuncvadam had.

Meanwhile Maia had finished her helping of stew and requested another. After she was fed, she and her parents left quite happy. Amathea looked on with some trepidation. "I have never seen someone make such a complete recovery so soon." She muttered, more to herself, though Lais could certainly have heard.

The afternoon passed quickly after that. Amathea focused on teaching Lais which herbs and plants were safe and which were deadly, which could be used topically but not to eat and which could be used for both. Nuncvadam stopped by for dinner, which was a surprisingly entertaining affair. He was self-absorbed and over confident, but when he bothered to focus on anything other than himself he could be... nice to hang around. He certainly made Amathea laugh and forget her worries for a few hours. The healer was also sure to pile more than enough food onto the plate of her apprentice, unwilling to let the girl go hungry any longer.

The stars had not long filled the sky when there was a pounding at the door of Amathea's home, a loud angry voice shouting from the other side. The healer was quick to rise from her sleep, hurrying to the door. Brushing past her, Maia was carried in the arms of her father who had angry tears sliding down his cheeks. "What have you done to her? She is worse now, throwing up blood and look at her eyes!" Amathea rushed to the girl's side, delicately moving up one eyelid. The whites of Maia's eyes were now red as blood and her pupils would not focus.

Lais

The young witch had stuffed herself full of food and stumbled off to bed a few hours before yelling started outside of the house. The walls were not thick enough to block to angry screams, so there was no way that Lais would be getting back to sleep. Instead, she lurched out of bed to figure out what was going on. She heard Amathea's footsteps as she rushed to the door, and the squeak as it swung open.

Her eyes widened involuntarily when Maia and her father came into view. The sick girl had seemed completely fine when they had left. She kept out of the way, staying in the door way to her room and waiting for Amathea to tell her what needed to be done.

Amathea

The healer was at a loss with how to proceed. She had done everything she knew how and had thought it had been working. Once the girl was settled she had her father hold the trembling girl while she went and grabbed Lais, speaking low so that only she would hear.

"In the backyard there are some red flowers with black seeds. Pluck a few of them and then grind up the seeds into a paste, like I showed you this afternoon." She hoped that it wouldn't come to it, but she could at least make the girl comfortable. Peaceful.

Back inside she went to find Maia, convulsing violently. When she rolled over and wretched onto the floor, it was filled with blood.

Lais

After a nod and with a slight tremble, Lais rushed to the door to the backyard. The darkness of the night made it difficult to see the colour of the many flowers and herbs that speckled the yard, but the slight moon managed to cast a glow just bright enough for her to find the patch of red flowers that Amathea had been talking about. She plucked a few, careful not to pull too roughly in case the seeds somehow managed to get loose like they had when she was yanking on them earlier on during her lesson with Amathea.

She kept a stalk on each long enough for her to hold and ran back to the house, hastily grabbing the stone mortar and pestle that had been left out on one of the counter tops near the door.

Once she had ground it into a dark red paste, she padded over to Amathea, who was still looking over the sick girl. The sight of her bloody bile made Lais' stomach clench, but she stood strong. "Do you need it now?"

Amathea

The healer shook her head. "Mix it with some cold water until it turns white like milk." Again, she kept her voice low so that the parents would not hear. Often people panicked when they heard she intended to use milk of the poppy as a pain reliever. In small doses it would not put a person to sleep, in a large dose it would. Still, she didn't want to cause the parents any more panic than they were already experiencing. She had a feeling though, that with or without the poppy, Maia was not going to last very long.

By the time Lais returned with the milky white substance, Maia was even worse off. The girl would not stop shivering, despite the heat and the roaring fire. She kept heaving, but there was no more in her stomach. The sores from earlier that morning were completely gone at this point. Whatever had caused this girl to be sick, it was not normal. "What are you giving her?" The girl's mother asked as Amathea lifted the bowl to the girl's lips. She could see the distrust in their eyes. After sending her home 'well' they did not trust what the healer was doing.

"Something to help her get to sleep so we can work." The poppy would do the trick, soon she'd fall into an uneasy sleep and the shuddering stopped. There was little pain left. Amathea kept her on her side and then sent Lais to grab more herbs and supplies.

Amathea would spend the night trying everything she knew and things she'd never tried before but as the sun was rising, the rise and fall of Maia's chest became uneasy and then slowed to a stop. The most that Amathea had done for the girl was let her drift off into death in less pain.

Lais

There was nothing else they could do. Lais could read that off of Amathea's face as the healer gazed down at the sick girl. She worsened with every moment that passed. When Amathea fed her the flower mixture, it was only a moment before a peaceful expression bloomed across Maia's face. Lais felt odd watching, as she sat perched with Amathea, but the idea of leaving this girl alone while she was dying sat wrong with her.

As soon as Maia took her last breath, her parents were upon them, screaming hysterically and uttering threats. "What did you do to her? What did you do?" Lais knew that they thought that the mixture had killed their daughter, and unsure of what to do, she stood behind Amathea, slightly hidden from the parents.

Amathea

The healer watched the light die from the girl and she shed a single tear for the loss of the life. She was only slightly prepared for the onslaught of anger from the parents. Family members often grieved in anger when a loved one died, but this was something else entirely.

She positioned herself in front of Lais, suggesting in an quiet tone. "Why don't you head on to bed, now? It's been a long day." And she started to nudge the girl away.

"No!" Maya's mother cried. "You did something to her, the both of you and you will both pay." She spat at their feet and Amathea narrowed her eyes.

"I did everything that I knew how to save her. It was out of my hands and in the hands of the gods."

"The gods would not punish us like this," Snapped Maya's father and he, too, spat at their feet.

"Please do not disrespect me in my home." Amathea told them, kindly but firmly. "I am sorry that she is gone, but I did all that I could."

"I'm not so sure you did." Snapped the father and he gathered up his daughter's lifeless form to leave. There was a man out of Athens who might be able to help them. Amathea was tense until the parents had slammed the door behind them, then with a whispered word, vines crept their way around the door, locking it for the night.

"Are you alright," The healer turned to her young charge.

Lais

They stormed out of the house, but Lais knew that they'd be back. She flinched as the door slammed, then stood there watching it for a few moments with Amathea as an uneasy silence hung in the air. "I'm alright," the young witch blinked up at the healer, taking a breath to relax.

"We did everything we could," she muttered a few seconds later, shifting her eyes back to the front door. Hopefully her earlier feeling was wrong and they had just overreacted this one time. Grief makes people do weird things.

She questioned how Amathea was as she began to help clean up, her shaking fingers the only remnants from the frightening screaming match that had just occurred.

Amathea

For the most part, the healer was alright. It had shaken her to see Maya's illness progress so quickly, but she'd done what she could and it hadn't been enough. That was a hard pill to swallow. She didn't have Nuncvadam's ego, but she'd definitely thought herself a fairly decent healer. She didn't necessarily think of herself differently now, but having failed was going to weigh on her for awhile.

Despite the extra help from Amathea's magic, the cleaning still took a while to complete until finally both girls collapsed, exhausted, into bed. For them both, their sleep would be short-lived as Amathea had other client's to deal with come morning, and Lais had her first training with Nuncvadam.

Nuncvadam

By the time Lais arrived to the training grounds, the bald witch was already there. He was half dressed, as usual, and he was talking with a woman. It would appear she was getting ready to leave and as Lais would come closer, she might recognize the celebrated Olympic competitor, Thaleia. She turned her shoulder away from Nuncvadam and spotted Lais. "Ah, this would be your prodigy?" She eyed Lais up and down. "Be careful of this one," She jerked her head in the direction of the witch. "Or you may learn more about him than you will about your gifts." She smiled and with that she was off, her own training session completed.

He clapped his hands together and faced Lais. "Ready to begin?"

Lais

The young witch only had time to mumble a quick good morning to Amathea and shovel a few spoonfuls of breakfast into her mouth before she was off running to the training grounds that Nuncvadam had showed her the day before. She was panting when she finally found Nuncvadam, who was standing in the middle of the training grounds talking to some lady. Wait. Lais narrowed her eyes to squint at the lady as she approached them. Oh! Thaleia! She'd only seen her a few times before, but she was so amazing!

Lais couldn't help but grin with Thaleia mentioned her being Nuncvadam's prodigy, and she shot a look at her mentor. That meant he was definitely talking about her. She waved as Thaleia went off to do her own thing.

"Of course I'm ready!" The events of the night before were already out of her mind, and she'd managed to catch her breath.

"What are we starting with today?" She stared at him intently, though she was pretty much bouncing up and down on her feet.

Cessavia

A distance from Lais and Nuncvadam, a tall, slender woman repeatedly threw something into the air, caught it, then threw it right back up. At first, it resembled a ball with some sort of ice blue covering, but in time it was evident that some droplets of liquid spiralled off of it whenever it was thrown into the air. The woman threw the ball a few more times before throwing it far higher than before. The ball burst, and the water that it was made of rained back down onto the ground, running into her long blonde hair, tied in a neat low ponytail.

While the water was still coming down, the figure extended a hand. The water trickled through her fingers, and landed in a pail by her feet. She bent over the pail, reaching the flat of her palm into the depths, and then pulling out a tall whirlpool. She maintained this shape, sometimes shifting her hand and watching the liquid respond accordingly. Her brow was furrowed in neat concentration.

She hadn't seemed to take any notice of the little girl and her rambunctious mentor. At least, not yet. She had taken a mental note of their presence. If either of them started to get a little too big for their boots...she'd be the one to notice.

Nuncvadam

He appraised the small girl with a quiet, fixed expression and then nodded. "Endurance." He stated and then indicated the track surrounding them. "You have the gift, but you can't hold the flame for long. Doing magic and some of the other talents that are likely bestowed upon you takes energy out of you. You have to have endurance in order to achieve more. Start running."

The bald man had noticed the woman playing with her ball of water, he'd seen her around before but he was actively ignoring her at the moment. He intended on introducing himself, eventually, as he prided himself on becoming... acquainted with many women, but for now he needed to focus on his pupil.

Lais

The young witch just blinked up at the bald man, debating whether or not she could just say no. She just ran all the way there, she did not need to run anymore. A couple seconds of looking up at his hard expression made her decide otherwise, and with a huff and a mumbled curse, she went off running.

She'd noticed the lady standing off to the side throwing around some object, but she just figured it was someone else just training, like Thaleia, so she paid no attention to her.

Lais' run made her look like a rather odd gazelle, a high-kneed stride that made her look like she was prancing. It also looked like she was only one centimetre from nailing herself straight in the face. Weird.

The sun was hot, and Lais' old worn-out sandals that were much too small few her were definitely not suited for running. Seemed like Nuncvadam was right, she noted as she stopped for a breath, leaning over to place her hands on her knees and pretty much gasp for air. Maybe she should run around a bit more. She knew Nuncvadam would kick her butt for stopping, so after she'd taken a second to catch her breath and pitifully wipe the sweat from her brow, she continued around the track.