Costas Komborozos

After Troy Break the Silver Bow Costas Komborozos

All has fallen into darkness. No future can be presaged. All is left to chance. The Dark Age has endured, but the temple remains. On the lofty heights of Mount Parnassus, Gaia enacts her role as the guardian of the temple. Python guards Gaia. But then Apollo slays Python. Apollo desires to be purified for his sin, and spends several years as a shepherd. He later learns the oracular art of foreseeing future events. The light of Apollo shines bright on the horizons of Greece, and the Dark Age comes to an end. Apollo claims possession of the temple and then I had no choice but to devote myself to the Delphic Oracle. I am Pythia. At a young age, I was chosen to be a priestess because I was chaste and pure. All Apollonian priestesses have the same name. One Pythia has followed another. And now the time has come for me to die and let another priestess take my place. But something unexpected has occurred. A new Dark Age has begun. A dark ruler has emerged and taken possession of the temple. Apollo descends Mount Olympus as before, but this time young, ageless Apollo remains distant from the temple. The god of light has joined me, a priestess now fighting not the darkness of the future's unknown but the evil known of the present. How do I know this? Has my vision expanded beyond the confines of the unforeseeable future? No, I am merely reliving something that has transpired. And this time I hold the unknown future in my hands. The aeon tide rises in the distance, freed from the dark. The warrior of the tide, Anastiades, approaches me. For a moment, the future appears in the tide, and I see my own future. But then I look away from the tide and see the warrior of the tide thrusting his blade through me. In my dying moments, I see the Oracle laying dead. All that remains of her are scattered bones. Then the tide moves imperceptibly on the darkening horizon. Now, I see what the Oracle must have seen. But it is too late. The future in all its unparalleled dimness has arrived. Anastiades' shadow passes over me, and then death.