The Second Circlet: The Old Places - 9. Segment 9: Fail-Not

“I am Alexis Anteros and this is Hector Actaeon. We are happy to welcome you to Greece!” The two looked like someone had peeled them off of the sides of Grecian urns.

Stats: Jet black hair, pale skin slightly bronzed by the sun, strong aquiline noses, and warm hazel eyes that twinkled in greeting. They wore tight t-shirts showing svelte physiques reminiscent of Greek statues that were doubtless modelled after such young men as these. One talked about ‘Tel-Aviv’ while the other had Greek letters saying something rude about ‘Juicy Like Souvlaki’. They also wore the tight pastel short-shorts fashionable in Greece and Italy around summer. They left little to the imagination and showed off their fine long sinuous legs and thighs. Neither looked to have yet reached the age of 21!

Viviane was not sure, but she thought she might have found the loves of her life! She’d take both because one would never do! Viv nearly went gelatinous when they both shook her hand with firm, warm hand-shakes. Hector, in particular, allowed that hand to linger a bit longer than what might be considered ‘proper’.

Moira was just glad that she hadn’t been stood up. She was concerned that Dr. Atheniki didn’t come to meet her himself, but sent two, obvious, college interns to meet her instead. Atheniki was always a bit pompous, but never rude! This bordered on rudeness!

“Where is Dr. Atheniki? He was supposed to meet us when we arrived! I told him this was a situation of great importance!” Moira asked of the boys with more than just a little irritation in her voice.

“Yes. We are aware of the direness of your visit, Dr. O’Brien. That is why we were sent to intercept you before Dr. Atheniki was to arrive. We can help you where he could not.” The one calling himself Alexis said with disarming calm confidence.

“Actually, we know of your mission to find the Crescent Bow where the professor would not.” Alexis continued this alarming revelation in that same even tone. The icy calm of it was more chilling than if the two had pulled guns on them and ordered them into a car!

“Ok? How, in Mother Mary’s Knickers, do you know anything about Fail-Not?” Sean blurted, his blond hair flowing in the warm Mediterranean breeze like a lion’s mane. He used the old Arthurian Legendarium’s name for a mysterious weapon - a bow made of silver that fires arrows that ‘never fail’ to miss their mark, hence ‘Fail-Not’. It is also known as the Moonbow, the Silver Crescent Bow, or, more to Moira’s interests here in Crete, the Bow of Artemis/Diana!

“We know many things, including the nature of what you seek. We are aware of your plight and have been sent to help you in this phase of your quest.” Alexis Anteros said with that same supreme confidence.

“…and you know this how, me young friend?” Joraan, unable to take much more, came out from his cover as the ‘sullen teenage boy’ deal to address these two directly. Moira was not sure of the wisdom in this, but she knew better than to even try to control Joraan in anything once he put his mind to something.

“Looks are deceiving, Jarrgehnen Serson. To these children of men, you are far the elder, but to me…you are still just a Child of Avalon - a place I saw birthed from Mother Gaia on a day of her unique splendour. A day she needed a Northern Crown to complement her sylvan gowns in her Southern reaches.” With that, Anteros’ eyes glowed a startling blue. A blue like the sky’s light as seen on ocean waves! Behind him fanned out, what can only be described as, butterfly wings! No one else about the park they were in seemed to notice this amazing manifestation.

“FAE!” Moira yelled and sought to draw Excalibur from whatever extra-dimensional sheath it hid itself.

Sean was faster and managed to have Gungnir in hand instantly. He brought the spear to aim at the offending faeish apparition, but suddenly felt the desire not to harm anyone today. He was assured that all was well and that a special grace had come upon him, protecting him and his from harm. Gungnir faded as the rest of the congregation felt the need to sink to their knees in a kind of peaceful repose.

Still, none in the park even acknowledged that they were there, much less that members of the foreign party were conjuring magical weapons out of thin air! It was like they were all invisible to any bystanders walking past them.

“Peace. No, I am no Fae. I’ve had my Erotes wings far longer than the oldest Fae ever to live. I am Olympian. I am, for lack of a better name, a god! I am Anteros and I am the Alexis Agape - defender of purest love.” The beautifully radiant young man said with a voice that could cool the hottest temper and ease the sharpest anxiety.

“…Anteros? Anteros of Piccadilly Circus, Anteros? Blimey!” Viviane said before becoming dumbfounded.

“Hehehe! I suppose that is as good a recognition as I’m likely to get these days. Hector Actaeon, here, is my choice for you to help in the defence of this world. He is aptly named, his is a lineage that manages to go back to both Hector of Troy and the great hunter Actaeon of legend. Through him, both warrior and hunter are reborn!” As Anteros gracefully gestured at the, apparently, completely mortal boy at his side. Hector blushed and looked somewhat out of his depth.

“He’s ta be joinin’ our mob? But, he’s naught but a wee scrap of a lad! We’re gearing up to fight a war here!” Sean blurted, once again, impertinently.

“Fear not. I shan't leave him to you without a demonstration of his uniquely powerful skill - he was to become the Olympic world champion in archery this coming Olympics. He will be a necessary asset to your vital mission. He will also be your key to finding The Crescent Bow for, without him, I will not be able to help you! You see, I must get my aunt, Artemis, to loan to you her property! She will be better inclined to do this if one of her favoured bloodlines is the one to wield it in her name. She’s forever been attempting to make up for her murder of poor Actaeon and so has watched and guided his descendants to glory for over 2500 years!” Anteros continued to astonish the fellowship.

Just then, something very queer happened - a boy, not much younger than Hector, ran through the assemblage chasing a football!

Sean quickly crossed himself and muttered: “Mother Mary, preserve me! That laddie just blew right through me like I was air! What’s become of us?” Sean asked, completely aghast.

“Fear not. I have enlaced you within my Hýalos - my cloak of transparency. While you are with me, you shall be as I am - invisible and intangible to those mortals not granted my grace to see us.” Anteros explained, again with that immutable calm.

“This must be what Myra told us about before she left us to stay behind in England. We’d find another guide, one wiser and more powerful even than she!” Moira looked thoughtful as she recounted her last conversation with the last of the Fae upon the earth.

“Just so. Your Myra is known to us within Olympus. We are awed by her power and connection to this world for one of her standing, but to where we must go now, I must be the better guide.” Anteros said with assurance.

“Time wanes, my charges. You need to take your rest and enjoy the hospitality of Crete tonight for tomorrow you must travel to İzmir and then to Selçuk, Turkey. This is the site of ancient Ephesus, the one time home of The Great Temple of Artemis.” Anteros instructed.

“Wonderful - more Old Places!” Sean grumbled

~

Selçuk was a surprisingly sleepy place, especially as compared to İzmir, a bustling Aegean metropolis and major port of call. The town’s pride and joy was its affiliation with the site of ancient Ephesus just west of the city. Selçuk has a number of museums dedicated to Ephesus and other Roman and Greek ruins in the vicinity, which are many. Featured prominently of all the archeological wonders of the area are the ruins of the Artemision, the Temple of Artemis, the remnants of which lay just outside of Selçuk near the great Ottoman fortress nearby.

Sadly, the once wonder of the world is no more than a few stacked columns and stone markers where other columns would have stood in the temple. The diagrams of the temple showed what would have been a building to put the Parthenon to shame, but alas, it was no more than a few marble stones in an unfortunate morass of swampy marshland.

Moira always found the site mournful with such exquisite workmanship and beauty all but erased from the world. Moira always found it a mystery that the temple should have been built upon such wet and marshy soil, but then, it was possible that the marsh didn’t exist in the time of the temple’s building. This part of Turkey has a tendency towards marshes due to high water tables from natural subterranean reservoirs. Such waters could easily move and change the consistency and character of the rocks and soil over time. What was once solid ground can become spongy and incapable of supporting a heavy edifice like a giant marble temple.

“For such a grand temple, I must say, I’m not impressed!” Sean said facetiously.

“It’s been built up and knocked down only to be rebuilt so many times it is a wonder there isn’t more left of the Artemision.” Moira said thoughtfully.

“That said, I will say there must be magic still in this forlorn place. I don’t feel half as horrible as I have on most of this trip since leaving Ireland.” Joraan said and My’n concurred sadly.

“I get no feelings at all from this place other than that it is alien to me. Whatever powers or energies that flow through this place, they are not ones we recognise.” Viviane and Merlin seemed to be speaking with the same voice, finally. Sean was glad of this since he had been, rather, queered out by Viviane’s whole ‘dual personality’ thing she had going on there for a while.

“Understandable. These are powers and principalities well outside of the mystical knowledge of Druidic magic. This place has been sacred to Artemis for millennia, even before men found the need to build a temple to her here,” the voice of Anteros was suddenly behind them and everyone spun around in shock. He stood before them, again, looking like the mere youth he had shown himself to be before.

“This whole land had been a favourite hunting ground for Artemis until men came and had to make use of the land for agriculture. She allowed it, but only upon the condition that the peoples settling here should do her honour. The peoples who built the first temple to The Moon Goddess are now extinct with very little trace of their existence left. Perhaps, the only thing of significance left of them is the sacred nature of this particular place. Following these peoples came other peoples who venerated the spirit that dwelled here. They did so right up to the Greeks and Romans. It was only when Christianity came that this place became abandoned and Artemis herself finally abandoned it likewise…in part. She still visits here often, only, she cannot interact with the children of men here. The Aegis forbids it.” Anteros continued his strange history lesson.

This was illustrative of many theories held by scholars of Ephesus, that it had been a place inhabited by generations of different peoples throughout human prehistory and ancient history. The cult of Artemis was of such influence in the area that it was believed that Ephesus had been built after the Artemision, not before. The whole reason for the town was to keep the great temple at the heart of their civic community. Moira was happy to see that many of these theories were correct ones, at least according to what Anteros was saying.

The more ‘metaphysical’ aspects of what Anteros was saying Moira would have taken as fanciful…once. Now, after she had started this slide into the esoteric world of magic and madness, she could well believe that a living Goddess from Ancient Greek mythology still haunts the place of her one time glory. After all, Moira was talking to a ‘god’ here. Why not? Absolutely anything could be possible now that Moira’s whole concept of the universe had been completely upturned, shattered, and recast into something unrecognisable.

“What’s an Aegis?” Sean was more incisive with his want of knowledge. His temperament was never built upon patience and when matters were unclear he wanted things cleared up as quickly as possible.

“The Aegis is the edict of The One Above All. It forbids the Olympians from directing the order of humanity unless leave is given to do so. Such is the case now. But, I can only advise and make possible the path you will need to travel to access The Crescent Bow,” Replied Anteros. Naturally, for poor Sean, this only raised more questions than it answered. He decided to let it go. He’d find out about things soon enough on his own, he feared.

“So, the Veil fell upon your people as it did upon the Fae? The Most High cut you off from mankind too?” Joraan was actually fascinated by this revelation. Within his ‘Celtic’ sphere of the universe, he’d not considered other spiritual beings having a similar doom placed upon them as did the Fae. What had the Olympians done so bad that they had to have an ‘Aegis’ placed between them and humanity?

“I suppose our situation may be somewhat similar upon the surface, but ours was not so much a ‘doom’ as an agreement and a choice. The Olympians were not doing humanity any favours. For generations of man, we had been entrusted with mankind’s development and evolution. But, rather than simplifying that struggle, we managed to complicate things with all of our internal bickering and disagreements. How things should be done was never, actually, hammered out well between the gods. Then, things went from bad to worse as certain gods became corrupted by a Darkness. Some of the Olympians became selfish and interested in only gaining more influence over mankind for themselves. They treated humans as playthings and soon mankind, at least here in the Mediterranean, started to degenerate rather than evolve. Endless wars, endless strife, endless misery - these were things the Olympians caused. So, we convened before The One Above All and He crafted the Aegis or ‘shield’ that would forever more shield humanity from direct contact with us. Our corrupted brothers and sisters tried to get around this ruling many times, of course, but were silenced and ‘put away’ much as the Fae had done to them. They are, for all intents and purposes, ‘dead’ to we who remain upon Olympus.” Anteros explained.

“We are given to understand that other deities were similarly separated from their human charges as well. The Helioptrians of Egypt, The Host of Asgard in Scandinavia, the Veddish of India, the Council of Qi in China, the Great Terrors of Mictlan in Mexico, etc. - all these beings were ‘put aside’ due to their failures. It is a reason we all fear this ‘thinning’ of the veil that separates the Fae from this World. Should they get through, could other more powerful entities also break through to raise havoc upon the World? We Olympians cannot allow the likes of Ares and Aphrodite to roam the Earth again. Should they ever rise again, both war and strife would be intensified among men to the point of possible self-annihilation!” Anteros, for the first time, looked frightened at the mere mention of the names of these two other gods.

“By all that is holy, there are…worse things than the Fae that could get through if the veil falls?” Joraan never even considered there could be worse things than Fae, but naturally there could be. Joraan suddenly felt very cold inside!

“Much depends on your mission, my friends. We fight a power greater than any of these mere functionaries. The Darkness that drives all of this is orchestrating something and using the Fae and other evil beings to effect its will. There is no defeating it entirely, but it can be stymied in its current machinations.” Anteros said direly.

“You speak of the Black Dragon. The Enemy.” My’n said in a low, hoarse, and broken voice expressing some deep and unknowable horror in his soul. Joraan turned to regard My’n with great concern for his brother-in-law. Whatever he had experienced beyond the veil at Morgana’s hands seemed to have opened My’n up to some dark knowledge. A knowledge that oppresses him. What had that snake opened up inside of My’n to make him so terribly afraid?

“That is but one of its names, but, fear not! Powers greater than you can possibly imagine stand by your sides! These evil things cannot come to pass if you stand firm and maintain your faith in what is good.” Anteros continued, exhorting the motley group of heroes.

Then, Anteros spread his arms out in a pose reminiscent of a prayer. He closed his eyes, bowed his head, and allowed his mystical wings to flow out from his back like rainbow streamers!

They flowed around the assembled host and reached toward the ruins of the once great Temple of Artemis. The rainbow energy then moulded itself to create a rainbow construct that looked like a vast columned edifice. A simulacrum in shimmering energy of what had once stood on the spot where the ruins are now!

“By all that is holy!” Moira said as tears nearly choked out her words. She was overwhelmed by what she was seeing! The Temple of Artemis seemingly restored to its former glory right before her eyes! This was a miracle!

Sean’s mind had gone numb by this time. His eyes looked up stupefied by what he was seeing with them. Wonders, truly, never seem to cease in this fever dream of a journey.

Joraan sank to his knees and sighed contentedly as he felt the radiant power of a god wash through and around him. Though the great spectacle before him was, indeed, astonishing even to his tired old eyes, it was the feeling of magical energy about Joraan that felt so extraordinary. None but My’n could know just how much Joraan was starved for eldritch energy! Since leaving Ireland he had become progressively weaker and this scared Joraan deeply! He had no idea what would happen to him if he became thoroughly depleted of magical energy! Joraan had never been separated from his land long enough to know what true magical privation should feel like. In all his millennia of existence, never had Joraan traveled so far and for so long a time away from his home! Never had he considered that there might be other stores of energy even more potent than the remnants of power he could draw from in the last vestiges of Avalon left on Eire.

Tyrex stirred within the occulted soul of My’n. The touch of this Anteros’ power burned! My’n shivered as if he had a chill from a bad fever. The pure love Anteros radiated per his god’s mandate conflicted in complete antithesis to Tyrex’s attempts at purifying his hate. The fact is, his association with Joraan had begun to compromise Tyrex and that was a definite threat to his mission to destroy Joraan and the rest of this company from within. Occupying the flesh within the ‘My’n’ construct had become seductive! More to the point, Joraan’s flesh had become seductive to My’n! Likewise, the noble soul contained by that immortal flesh called to something within Tyrex that longed for brightness and love! Love he thought he’d lost. Love that, now he knew, still lived in his one time consort Myra of the Fae! Confused, these feelings were starting to also radiate toward Joraan! Anteros’ presence just intensified all these feelings! Feelings Tyrex couldn’t afford! Feelings his mother Morgana would need to shred out of him when next they met! Fear, then, was the one thing that could drive away Anteros’ waves of ‘love energy’! Fear of Morgana managed to bolster Tyrex’s resolve against this amorous onslaught!

This did not go unnoticed by Anteros. Though deep in concentration in his task, he had enough godlike awareness to sense the deep wrongness within My’n. Something clawed out from that young Sídhe that was actually disturbing to Anteros. A nameless fear that caused a dark shield to form about My’n. The shield of resistance prevented the penetrating waves of Anteros’ power from attenuating My’n’s consciousness to interact with Artemis. My’n might have to be left behind!

Viviane was already half-way attenuated to Anteros’ consciousness just by virtue of Merlin’s power within her. She was the first to notice the rainbow temple construct resolve into a solid version of Artemis’ Temple. The sight was, perhaps, the most beautiful building she had ever seen! It was not at all solid white like the Parthenon or other marble ruins of the Greeks. This place certainly had the white marble, but also marble plated with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli! The effect was not gaudy, but a refined and glorious use of colour to enhance the carving and relief-work adorning the temple! This must have been as the Greeks originally built the temple! Indeed, even to this day, should it have survived intact and preserved, the Temple of Artemis would still be a Wonder of the World!

Before long, the temple resolved to everyone save My’n who suddenly found himself totally alone in the ruins! Everyone else had simply…vanished!

“Joraan? Moira? Sean? Anybody?” But, they were beyond answering. My’n sat on a stone nearby, contemplating what he was to do now.

Strangely enough, the rest of the group had not shifted from where they’d been standing at all! They remained exactly where they had been only now they were in a lush forest with the Temple of Artemis at its centre. The Temple looked exactly how most archaeologists suspected Greek temples to look, colorful! Moira, though awestruck and astonished at what she was seeing, was inwardly gratified that all her colleagues in Hellenistic Archaeology had been right about their theories!

Sean was much more prosaic about their situation, however. “Where in bloody hell are we at now, hey?” he asked as he turned about in confused horror.

“You are still in the same place, only you are now attuned to its ‘Sacred Reality’. You are now in a higher vibration of reality over and above the one in which you normally reside. This is the reality of the gods!” Anteros explained with irritating calm.

“We’ve transmigrated into the Otherworld! May God help us!” Joraan sighed with uncharacteristic fear.

“No help is needed, young Joraan! There is no harm here worse than that you would find in the Middle World, as we gods call the reality of men. If anything, you are safer like this than you might otherwise be. You are among those that would see you come to no harm whatsoever!” Anteros assured the dubious fellowship.

“But, what of the mission? How are we to defend the world from the Fae now that you’ve taken us here?” Moira said with a touch of anger at being hoodwinked somehow. What was this Anteros’ game, kidnapping them and putting them in a reality removed from the world they were pledged to defend?

“Be assured, this is a necessary part to your mission. This is the only way you’ll gain access to Artemis’ Crescent Bow. You will sorely need it when the veil splits and the Fae begin spilling out into the world of men,” Anteros said with a kind of finality.

“…and to be granted my most sacred possession, you must prove yourselves worthy of it,” a deeply resonant female voice said. All looked toward the entrance to the temple and there saw a being of grace, beauty, and power personified!

“Why the contest, Aunt? Have these mortals not already proven their worth by what the others have granted them? The Celtic powers have already seen fit to allow them the use of Excalibur itself, Artemis! Your bow, sacred as it may be, is no more so than that blade.” Anteros spoke with what might be considered impudence to one as great in appearance as Artemis, Goddess of the Crescent Moon and of the Hunt. But, Artemis did not rebuke him, but seemed to consider his statement thoughtfully.

“Well, that may be and, if it were just up to me, the Bow would be awarded forthwith. But, it has already been the victim of mortal avarice and machinations in the past. It is not I to which they must prove themselves. It is to the Bow itself!” Artemis said with a touch of sadness.

“Furthermore, it is not truly mine to award. The Bow is a sacred device once given to me for safekeeping. It was lent to me. For it to be lent to others, those that should wish to wield it must prove themselves trustworthy to use such a powerful weapon.” If it was within her beautiful grace to do so, Artemis would have shrugged.

“Pardon my asking, but what do we need to do to become worthy of this thing?” Sean blurted rather indelicately. Moira gave him a look that was a cross between annoyed and frightened.

“A question well met, Sean Pierce. You must find and slay a thing that should not be here. You must find the Manticore of Ephesus and destroy it. Only then can the Bow be awarded to your company. It would be a great boon to have this creature destroyed for it is a terrible menace to any who find their way to this side of our reality. Few survive the creature once they encounter it and this confounds my will for this place.” Artemis said with dire frankness.

“Few survive, eh?” Joraan, no respecter of ‘gods’ or ‘goddesses’ alike, asked dubiously.

“In all honesty, is gaining this weapon worth the cost? We can’t be affording to lose life on the hunt for just one of these objects. There’s bound to be others more easily won. Take Excalibur and Pridwen, for instance - they were practically given to us!” Joraan said, trying to sound sensible.

“Given? We were nearly buried alive getting Pridwen! Gunginir had us fighting off elves and siding with frigging zombies! We needed all the powers of the Excalibur weapons to get us through those two things. Now, with Pridwen, we should be able to manage one beastie!” Sean surprised everyone with his brave words! Of all of them, he would have seemed to be the one most likely to join Joraan in disavowing this mission.

“Sean is right. We’ve come too far now to turn away something that might prove to be the very asset we need to destroy Morgana. If anything can slay that being it should be the weapon of a goddess.” Moira said with determination.

“Spoken true and like the very leader your people need, Daughter of Kings. Also, there is nothing said that I cannot give you assistance in this endeavour. Your fellowship has been the closest thing, in this time, to the Heroes of Old that could slay the Manticore.” Artemis pronounced as she descended the stairway of her celestial temple with all the beauty and grace one might expect from a full on goddess.

Her long black hair seemed to twinkle in a perpetual moonbeam and her face was as pale as that moon. Her eyes were a sharp burning blue similar to Anteros’ eyes. Her long, beautifully smooth legs were only covered at the knees by her tunic cinched with a golden rope. Her long and graceful arms were bare to the shoulders. Her whole aspect seemed to be one of readiness. A readiness to action. Would Artemis herself be joining them on this hunt for this monster?

She was taller than a human by several heads and bigger somehow. She did, for all the world, look like a goddess shaped pillar of the Parthenon come to life.

With one long graceful arm she waved at something in the forest. It was a summoning gesture and the band of bewildered humans and Sídhe had to wonder who or what Artemis was summoning.

With barely a rustle of leaves, ten large creatures loomed out of the dark forest. They came from all around the party lead by one figure larger than the others by just a little. Moira could make out a familiar sound as the beings approached - the sound of hoofed footfalls!

Chiron stood tall and graceful as he gently approached the goddess. Following were others of his kind, all armed with huge bows with two quivers of arrows hanging from each of their equine flanks. Before the gobsmacked fellowship stood a host of ten Centaurs! Each was beautiful in his own way. Each sported a large muscular human torso with a chiseled head and face. Each head was haloed by a mane of long hair each the colour of a horse’s mane. Each Centaur also had the body, legs, hindquarters, and tail of a large horse! The tails were the same colour as the hair and the horselike bodies were each a horse’s colour and pattern - sorrel, bay, palomino, buckskin, roan, paint, gray, chestnut, black and, in Chiron’s spectacular case, gold!

Chiron and his company kneeled before Artemis as the goddess came and touched each Centaur’s head in blessing.

“We come as thee summoned, Huntress. What is thy bidding?” Chiron said with an impossibly deep voice born of the huge heart and lungs of his horse’s barrelled chest.

“Ever to the point, eh, old friend? Such is the beauty of all the Centaurs - as direct and true as the arrows they let fly. How…I love them!” Artemis said as she lifted one of the beautiful creature’s faces to gaze into his deep brown eyes.

“They shall help you in your quest, Excalibur’s Host. The Centaurs are among the greatest huntsmen upon this earth! Such is the martial skill of their leader here, Chiron, that he taught Heracles the arts of war and of hunting monsters. In his capable hands do I place you. If possible, kill nothing else here but the Manticore that does not belong. All life in my realm, here, is sacred to me. I would be…most disappointed if any of it were to die by human carelessness.” Artemis intoned her last warning with a dire look that put a shiver down Sean’s spine. Sean wondered which was more dangerous: the monster or the goddess. He chose the goddess…

“Within our power, we shall spare anything we find here other than the target.” Moira said without fear or trepidation. For some reason, she felt she had no cause to fear Artemis. Moira’s task was true of purpose and, apparently, of such importance that it caused a being of such power to assist them.

Moira’s courage encouraged her to ‘press her luck’, as it were - “However, we can’t be held responsible for what damage the Manticore does or what damage we may need to do in downing it. From what I surmise, this is a considerably dangerous creature and capable of using any advantage to kill us before we kill it. We must be free to work or fail in our attempt to rid you of this thing.”

Artemis seemed to glare at Moira for several uncomfortable seconds and Sean felt the need to be ready to pull Gungnir should the goddess strike out. He needn’t have feared though for the goddess’s countenance changed to a look of grudging admiration. For a lack of a better term, Sean could have sworn she was smirking!

“You are a woman after my own heart, Moira, Daughter of Kings. Do what you must to kill the Manticore, just…please…treat this place with reverence. It is a much more fragile place than you can imagine.” Artemis relented and said sadly.

“You have our word, we only wish to complete this task, acquire the artefact, and be on our way. Time is of the essence as you might understand.” Moira comported herself with a grace and dignity matching, in every way, that of the goddess. They seemed a match in strength in Sean’s adoring eyes. His heart swelled with such admiration for Moira at that moment and with…something more.

“We will be true to your wishes as always, Blessed Huntress. Such as we have always done, we shall serve you well.” Chiron promised his patroness before rising to his towering height.

So, with something of an uncomfortable understanding between the Centaurs and the fellowship, the host began the quest for the Manticore.

Before they departed, however, Joraan became aware of a certain absence.

“Where is My’n?” Joraan suddenly felt a shock of panic. Had his fool brother-in-law taken off? Was he invisible now due to the power of his dagger? What had become of him.

“Fear not, Joraan. He was left behind. Something inside him prevented his transitioning here. I made the attempt, but it was, as if, he refused to come.” Anteros assured Joraan.

“What mean you he was left due to ‘something inside’? I insist either he be brought here or let me return to him! I shan't leave a member of my people behind! We are all that is left of our race!” Joraan verily growled at Anteros.

“That cannot be. For whatever reasons, he must remain in the Middle World. Only you and the rest of your host passed here to complete this quest. Complete what I ask and you shall be returned to your brother forthwith.” Artemis said with finality.

Joraan hated it, but he acceded to the will of the god and goddess, for Moira’s sake if for no one else’s. But, he would remember this and would be on guard with these ‘gods’ in the future should they encounter any more!

They ranged for what seemed several miles before finally coming upon some ‘spore’, as Chiron described it - a hashed clawing on the face of a pure granite boulder! The extra-dimensional forest formed a clearing that seemed made by something huge and with a dislike for trees. The clearing was in front of a cliff face, possibly the same one that borders the Ephesian ruins south-west of Selçuk. The marked boulder in the cliff face seemed to cover a cave.

“We have found its lair and quickly. Most disturbing that it was so easily found.” Chiron said with concern.

“You call that easy? We’ve been tromping about this bizarre countryside, now, for two days!” Sean groused incredulously.

“Yes. Quite easy. It is not unheard of that a hunt such as this should continue for months before anything substantial can be found of creatures such as the Manticore. You must understand, these are not mindless beasts. They are cunning and intelligent in ways that can confound the sharpest wit and most practiced hunter.” Chiron said, not making Sean feel any better about the situation.

“I should think that this Manticore wants to be found.” The spotted Centaur name Pentroculus said with trepidation.

“As you say, my friend. I sense a trap. All of you…be on your guard.” Chiron said as he slowly drew his bow and notched a steel arrow to the bow string.

The other pulled their bows as well while the humans and Sídhe made ready their own unique weapons. Excalibur in Moira’s hand, Gungnir in Sean’s, Claíomh Solais in Joraan’s, and Merlin’s staff in Viviane’s.

But, for all their readiness and alertness, none became aware of a long black appendage snaking down in deathly quiet out of a tree behind one of the Centaurs.

Faster than thought, the sickle-like stinger impaled the poor hapless horse-man. With a hideous scream, halfway between a dying man’s and a dying horse’s, the Centaur fell dead with fizzing blood bubbling out of his back!

Just as quickly as it attacked, the stinging tail was gone! Chiron’s cohort let loose a volley of arrows into the tree, but seemed to hit nothing.

“Back to back and form a perimeter around the humans! Humans, if any of your weapons are ranged, aim them in the gaps between our bodies!” Chiron commanded with practiced confidence.

Unfortunately, the confidence may have been unfounded as black darts whistled out of the bushes, taking down two Centaurs.

“Dear God! Whatever it is, it has ranged weapons! Quickly, pack tightly to me!” Moira was now the one to issue commands. Chiron assented and the Centaurs tightened their circle, penning in the humans more tightly together.

Moira stroked Pridwen about her neck and the crystal began to glow red and then radiate its protective shield about the company.

Another volley of the same strange black barbed darts whistled out of another place in the surrounding bushes. Pridwen held and the the darts shattered off the magical shield’s glittering surface.

Using instinct more than thought, Sean aimed Gungnir at the spot from where he saw the darts fired. He let loose the sizzling ‘lance’ of the weapon. Pridwen allowed the beam to exit its protection. Somehow the force shield was polarised to allow weapons to fire out, but not let anything in.

Unfortunately, similarly to the Centaur’s arrows, the beam found no target to hit. The creature hidden in the forest was managing to allude their every attempt to hit it with ranged weapons.

They held together in this formation for what seemed hours. They would soon tire. Worse, Moira was tiring faster. Pridwen required concentration to work and Moira found that her mind was not holding up to the task.

It seemed that the thing that they were hunting had been hunting them in turn and, with inhuman patience, was waiting them out. Waiting for an opportunity to strike as it found a weakness. This thing was no beast. It was intelligent! More demon than monster, it seemed to Joraan. They would have to break formation soon and go on an offensive if they were to hope to end this battle of attrition. Already they’d lost three of their company in less than a minute.

Unlike the others who were focused on what was going on outside of their circle, Viviane was focused on something within. She was in the very centre of the protective circle and had enough room to crouch. Sean thought she might have been ducking to avoid getting shot by those fearsome barbs. But, in actuality, Viviane was preparing a spell with a simple rock on the ground, her staff, and the mumblings of an ancient unknown tongue.

“What are you doing, Viviane?” Moira wanted to know.

“I am preparing something illuminating, at least that’s what Merlin says.” Viviane’s answer, per usual, was as baffling as ever, Sean thought.

“Well, I hope it doesn’t pop our magic bubble! This is the only blessed thing keepin’ us from becoming shish kabobs!” Sean fretted.

“I shouldn’t think it would affect Pridwen if Gungnir couldn’t.” Viviane held the stone before her as she stood up. It was no longer a simple stone anymore, but a glittering crystal.

“I do hope you can do whatever it is you are doing quickly, I’m losing hold on Pridwen. The shield will be breaking down as I am tiring.” Moira said with obvious strain. Sean wondered why she wouldn’t just pass the amulet on to him so he could take over, but then thought how stupid that idea would be. That second of transfer would be all that thing out there would need to pick off more of their horse buddies, if not they themselves.

“I don’t think you’ll need to wait much longer. Quickly, all! Be ready to aim at anything you see out in that wood.” Viviane counselled.

With that, she tossed the crystal into the air high passed Pridwen’s reach and then spoke a word and the crystal flashed with a blast of light that painted every living thing with an odd red glow. The flashbulb effect, dazzling as it was, didn’t blind anyone, but did reveal the massive figure of the Manticore hiding just inside the dense underbrush of the forest’s edge!

With instinctive reflexes, each Centaur aimed and shot their arrows into the lighted-shadow of the Manticore’s form. This time, it produced definite results.

The thing let loose a twisted scream that would haunt Sean’s nightmares forevermore! It then lunged out of undergrowth with the ferocity of a scalded tiger!

What Joraan saw of the creature was a horror he’d never experienced in all of his vast time on this poor beleaguered earth!

It was a skeletal thing that had a giant cat’s skull for a head with long fangs and glittering green glowing eyes. It had four boney black legs that terminated in spindly talons and an emaciated body full of hollowed cavities held together by sinews. At its hind end was a long articulated tail ending in a large bulb and the large, sickle-like sting of a giant scorpion!

All about it’s decayed flesh it was stuck like a pincushion with Centaur arrows…but there was no blood coming from the thing at all!

With an almighty growling shriek the Manticore pounced at the company before they could notch anymore arrows. With practiced agility, the Centaurs scattered, though one was not fast enough to avoid the Manticore’s wrath.

With a pitiful wail of terrible pain, the dear creature was rent through by the monster’s vicious claws and teeth. Mercifully, the end came quickly as the Manticore snapped through the Centaur’s neck with its jaws, decapitating the horse-man with a sickening ‘crunch’.

Chiron readied his arrow, but was not as fast as Sean was with Gungnir. This time the God-Weapon found its mark and blasted the great monster back several feet to land on its haunches. No one was more surprised than Sean at how devastating that blast was!

Alas, as powerful a blow as Gungnir delivered, it was not enough to put the Manticore down. Incensed by this newly strange and painful attack, the monstrosity made to lunge at Sean and strike him with its tail-sting. Fortunately for Sean, Joraan managed to perry the sting and then lop off the venomous bulb with a deft twist and spin of the Claíomh Solais glaive.

This, unfortunately, had a very bad side effect. This caused the howling monster to bleed for the first time and where that yellow ichor landed things started to sizzle! The Manticore had acid for blood!

To Joraan’s distress, he had been splashed by some of this acrid ichor, but was saved by the magical appearance of his body armour, a last gift of Ser to his son long ago. As adamantine as the armour was, however, it was quickly dissolving under the attack of the Manticore’s blood! Joraan bound and flipped away from the raging creature while undoing his armour so that the acid would not get to his skin. Unfortunately, his beautiful gold armour sizzled and dissolved away rendering itself up to its last service.

“Glory be! That thing uses acid for blood? How do we dare kill it?” Sean said to Moira, aghast with horror.

“We need to keep away from it and kill it with ranged weapons!” Moira said, grabbing Sean and dragging him as far from the flailing creature as possible.

Just on cue, Chiron and the remainder of his valiant cohort released another volley of steel arrows into the Manticore, eliciting another tremendous screech. This drove the monster into a berserker madness and it charged Chiron and his mates to finish them off once and for all!

By a seeming grace divine, they were all saved, however, by one slender silver arrow aimed, without fail, right into the glaring green eye of the Manticore. The arrow penetrated deadly deep and, just like that, the Manticore dropped right dead!

Out from the shadows of the trees came the forgotten member of their party, Hector Actaeon. He held the Crescent Bow with a light and loving grip while notching another arrow in case his first shot didn’t do the trick, no matter how amazingly well aimed it had been. Seeing his slight, teenaged form and comparing it to the massive monstrosity that Hector had just killed, was somewhat incongruous, Sean thought. A true David and Goliath moment!

“It…is done then. By Our Lady, this has been a costly battle.” Chiron said sadly as he regarded the gory remains of his lost comrades.

Moira was especially moved by this, “I’m so sorry for your loss, Chiron! If I had any idea how devastating this battle was to be I’d have…”

“Worry not, Daughter. For the Centaur there is no greater honour than to die in battle fighting for a cause that is just. Our Lady’s cause is our cause and Her word is our lives. Seebiscis, Eddrion, Percheron, and Sorralus will live on eternally in Elysium where all heroes go to their rewards.” Chiron assured Moira.

This did not settle the heaviness in her heart, though. She knew now that this was no game. This was real and beings were going to die before this war was won…even before it was to begin! The awesome responsibility she carried finally dawned on Moira. For her and for her mission, there was going to be loss and in that loss possibly the loss of those very dear to her indeed.

She could not help but look to Sean…

What had she gotten him into? What right had she to allow it? What would she do…without him?

~

Within the rental van in which he and his new companions rode, Hector Actaeon fondled the long wedge shaped box in his lap. He fingered the delicate and intricate carvings on the box and traced the many phases of the moon etched there.

The only thing keeping Hector from thinking it was all some dream was his physically being in the presence of others who had seen and done the same extraordinary things. Meeting a real live god and goddess! Meeting a real ‘elf’! Seeing Centaurs! Being the one to save the day with a magical bow only he could use…it was too much for his young seventeen year old mind to wrap itself around!

But, this treasure in his lap - it was very real and very special! Hector had been an archer since he was five years old! His father before him and his father’s father before him, and so on for generations, had all been archers. So, now, was Hector an archer and, according to both Anteros and Artemis, the greatest archer of the present age! Hector was not so sure about that, although he held a few world championships in his class and was being groomed for the Olympics. It was true, he had an innate knack for finding just the right angle and trajectory to send the arrow to find a bullseye almost every time. He supposed that did qualify as special. But Hector was far too humble to think of himself as anything but a kid that loved to shoot arrows at things.

That love of his sport saved everyone’s lives this time! When Artemis handed him the bow and to be quick about finding the party after the Manticore, he scarce had time to register that he was carrying a divine weapon! It was merely a tool to get the job done. He didn’t even need training to use it, he instinctively knew that by merely pulling back the bow string that a mystical arrow would form!

When he heard the din of battle and found his way to a decent vantage point from which to shoot, Hector could hardly believe his eyes at the violence of the battle! The carnage! It horrified him and angered him and Hector Actaeon’s anger is a cool thing, not a hot tempered thing. He always thought of cold steel flooding his veins when he’d need to steel himself for a shot.

He had let those feelings flow through him, he took aim with the Great Crescent Bow of Artemis and let fly the shaft from the bow. Incredibly, the shaft transfigured from something like light to a silver arrow of a sleek design Hector had never seen before. The arrow even corrected itself in mid-flight to adjust itself to hit, without fail, the target Hector intended! The shaft passed through the hideous green eye of the monster and felled it with one shot!

Since then, Hector had made fast friends with Sean, Moira, and especially the beautiful Viviane! He was not too sure about the weird small people that were with them. The ones who looked like elves from storybooks. They were congratulatory, but also very guarded with Hector. He didn’t know why, but this made Hector very guarded against this Joraan and My’n too.

Hector was sad to say goodbye to his beloved friend and guardian, Anteros! To be loved by a living god is a special grace very few have ever enjoyed. Hector had been in love with Anteros the moment he laid eyes on the boy or, rather, who he thought was a boy Hector’s same age. They’d made fast friends and even a little more, though not as much more as Hector might have liked. When it came time for Anteros to reveal his true nature to him, Hector was not that surprised! He knew Anteros to be the most special person Hector had ever met. Anteros was nothing but grace and love and he showed this toward everyone they’d meet…even the bullies!

When Anteros outlined a mission and a special cause Hector was uniquely qualified to do, he was more than happy to follow Anteros to the ends of the earth!

Upon his leaving, Anteros left Hector with a last request - watch after these fine people and use the Bow to defend them against anything that they might come up against.

Moira filled Hector in on the Fae and the vital mission to destroy their queen, a being out of Arthurian Legend named Morgana. Hector needed to know no more to be excited and ready for this new adventure!

Anteros and he had made up a story about Hector’s wanting to travel a bit before going to university. This calmed the fears of his parents and family. Hector also figured Anteros used a little ‘magic’ on his folks to keep them from worry, so he would not have to worry about them in turn.

Opening the long box once again, Hector admired the sheer beauty of the Bow! A perfect silver crescent strung with a glittering silver bowstring! What an honour to be able to use such a beautiful weapon on such a noble quest!

Hector could not wait for their next full adventure together! He closed the box, looked out the window, and sighed a shuddering sigh of complete anticipation as he watched the Turkish countryside slide by.