He returned his gaze back towards the woman removing herself from astride him, whose difficulty in doing so came from her condition. A full, pregnant belly swelled beneath her skirt as her naked feet hit the ground.
“Who are you?” he finally asked.
“Oh, forgive me,” she said as she waddled towards the desk stool, which she picked up to place near his bedside. “There was no time for introductions. I am Hekate, the matriarch of the Pădurii clan until my daughter is born. This is my home, where I care for humans and creatures in secrecy. You were lucky to be found when you were. You were moments away from certain death.”
“Hekate,” David sighed, grateful to have finally reached his destination. “I have been searching for you.”
She smiled, lighting up the features of her smooth, oval face. Her human warmth emanated from her, smelling strongly of sweet rose attempting to mask an undernote of black henbane. “And I have been waiting for you. We have much to discuss. But first, we must care for your physical self.”
A man appeared from behind her, David grateful to discover it was Danulf, confirming that he was the one who delivered David from his untimely fate. His skin now bore the ashen cast common to blood drinkers, blending against his brilliant grey beard and hair, but highlighting his deep blue eyes. Relief was instantly replaced with regret as David replayed their last encounter. “I am so sorry, my friend.”
“Bah,” Danulf shrugged his massive shoulders before handing Hekate a large carafe. David could smell the sheep’s blood from where he lay. “You saved my life, and now I have saved yours,” he made it simple. “We are even. Now I can boast that I am the only creature in history to be both nemorti and varcolac.”
David chuckled, wincing at the effort. He opened his mouth to thank Danulf for rescuing him when another man descended the staircase to enter the sick room.
“I see you are finally awake,” Dragos said as he handed several bottled tinctures to Hekate. His friendly expression contorted with disgust as he grew closer. “Ye gods, is that what happens to us in the sunlight?”
“Dragos,” Hekate chided him as she took the procured medicine to her desk.
“My apologies, sister,” he said emptily, his eyes affixed to the wounded creature before him.
“The two of you may leave us now,” Hekate commanded gently.
Danulf nodded his farewell, guiding an indignant Dragos away by the shoulders before he could vocalize his protestations. “We will have plenty of time to talk of war,” Danulf’s voice echoed up the staircase. “Let the man heal.”
Hekate watched them go, turning back to face him. “I’m sorry to say this, but my brother is quite right—you look terrible. Even as strong a creature that you are, the sun managed to scorch away several layers of your skin. Thankfully, I am proficient in the art of healing blood drinkers. You need an agent to stimulate your natural healing process before the skin will repair itself. Fortunately, I’ve perfected a salve to do just that, which I want to apply thoroughly before layering you in bandages. I will, however, need you to remain completely still throughout the process and it will be extremely painful. So, I am going to give you a concoction of belladonna, opium, and blood, which will render you unconscious. I would like to meet you in the astral plane so we can speak while your body convalesces. Do you remember how to do it?”
“I’ve only traveled unintentionally in my dreams,” David admitted, recalling his meetings with the Council.
“No matter.” Hekate added a pinch of the dried belladonna to the carafe of blood, swirling it around as she approached him. “When you fade away, look for a great tree that will be unusual to you, similar to the tree you found my familiar in a few moments ago. That is where you will find my projection.”
David nodded as she brought the finished mixture to his lips. He could smell the opium and the sweet syrup of baneful berries, mixed with something foreign. Hemlock? He wondered as he swallowed. Suddenly the herbal concoction was overwhelmed by the taste of human blood. David’s eyes popped open in recognition as a flood of Hekate’s memories began to overwhelm his consciousness. He tried to hold onto them, but they slipped through his fingers as intoxication prevailed, the last thing he saw before tumbling into oblivion was a falcon soaring through the skies, tailed closely behind by a crow.
He landed, his bare feet sinking into wet, slippery earth. He was under a canopy of strange trees, shaded from the sun, who could only trickle through the crevasses of the broad leaves that fanned out above. Insects buzzed around him as the calls of wild birds reverberated throughout the tropical foliage. He heard rushing water, realizing that he stood in the vegetative area of a great riverbank, and the mud that stuck to his feet was actually clay. It occurred to him that he was walking unharmed in the daylight, and he looked down to observe hands and feet that were once again flushed with life. Thrilled, he exited the cluster of plants into an open plain, letting the sun beat down on him freely. His skin welcomed it as tall, dry grass brushed up against his legs. He could now see the massive river that stretched out farther than the eye could, the same birds he heard singing hovering above giant, bulbous creatures that meandered happily along its muddy banks. Ahead of him was a magnificent tree, its large silhouette obscuring a sky streaked with the orange brushstrokes of early sunset. The wind seemed to whisper its name to him, acacia.
He moved closer, noticing a woman seated at its base, her long bronze legs tucked beneath a sheer white dress, rivers of hair billowing out behind her. On her arm, she held a stately falcon, who watched him carefully. When he was close enough to see her face, he saw that her eyes were a brilliant green. He remembered the sisters. “I have seen you before,” he realized aloud.
She smiled as she gestured for him to come closer. “Please sit,” she invited.
He found a patch of clean dirt to sit upon, unable to take his eyes away from her, thoroughly confused by what he was seeing.
“Do not doubt your instincts,” she said. “You have known me far longer than you can imagine.”
“Are you Hekate, the woman who is tending to my physical body?” David asked.
“She is my most recent manifestation,” she replied cryptically. “I am also one of the sisters from your dream.” She looked up at the branches stretching out above them like the arms of fervent worshipers. “I thought of bringing you to the woods of Gaul, to appeal to Davius, the Druid boy of the forest. But I wanted you first to remember your life with me.”
David was speechless, hoping his expression would suffice in imploring her to continue.
“Do you know where we are?”
“No,” he admitted.
“The great fertile Nile in Egypt, where human life began,” she explained proudly, the gold tones in her skin shimmering in the sunlight.
“I have to admit, I know little about the land. Its written history is hard to find, though I do own several ancient scrolls,” David explained. “The language always gave me trouble, but Lucius has told me stories.”
She laughed, her voice harmonizing with the warbling birds. “Yes, he also hails from this land, though there are parts even he does not remember. I took his memories from him when he cursed me, but they come trickling back to him from time to time. But perhaps I should start from the beginning.”
Thoroughly intrigued, David stretched out on his patch of earth, resting on his arm as he nodded for her to continue.
Egypt, The Beginning
“At the beginning, there was nothingness, only a swirling mass of chaos and heka, the most ancient of magics. When chaos reached its peak, heka blossomed, manifesting itself into the first He of the skies and the first She of the earth. He formed the constellations and the planets, the clouds and the sun, while She became the dirt, the mountains, the rivers. Eventually, She also created life—animals, plants, and insects—all fragments of Her Divine Essence. And then one day, She was corporeal, in the form of twins, the first demigods to walk the earth—Heka and Lilith. They were identical in appearance except that one had green eyes that mirrored the forests, while the others’ were a glorious sky blue.
“The twin goddesses loved their earth and all that flourished within its vast, fertile womb. Content to be alone, the sisters longed for nothing, until one day the earth created the first human life, a life unlike anything they had seen before for it was made in their image. Confused, they looked to the skies, wondering if this particular magic came from the Great He they had left behind, but they found no answers. They did learn, however, that the Great He of the Sky had also fragmented into a set of two, a pair of brothers, a god of Light and a god of Darkness. The sisters decided to bring the brothers to earth to join them in physical form. Light breathed souls into the humans, souls that differentiated them from animals and plants. And so, life began.
“Understanding that with the male gods and humans roaming the earth their heka required protection, it was decided that Heka would bear it all, continuing to birth humanity, while Lilith would serve as her protector. As Heka watched her human children grow and evolve, she realized they needed direction and guidance, to be taught how to set laws to keep peace between them and how to grow food to survive. She asked Light to help her, for he shared her innate desire to guide and foster human evolution. The two made the perfect pair, guiding them into an enlightened existence unfathomable prior. Yet what they failed to notice during this time of innovation and expansion, was the deep resentment the other brother, Darkness, was beginning to harbor towards Light. Where Light cherished harmony, Darkness wanted dominion over mankind. He thought humans were foolish and weak, unable to understand why they were allowed to control the earth that Heka and Lilith created. He believed they were meant to serve the gods, for it was the gods who came before all else, to whom they owed their very lives. But he was outnumbered—Light and Heka saw humans as extensions of themselves and Lilith believed humans existed to cultivate and protect her beloved earth, therefore worthy of her loving protection and care.
“Eventually, the humans began to revere the quartet as sacred divinity; Heka became Isis, the mother of mankind, and Lilith became Nephthys, goddess of death. They named the god of Light, Osiris, and the god of Darkness, Set. Isis and Osiris were the mother and father of humanity, husband and wife, while Nephthys was paired with Set. The humans also decided that Set would be a deity of death, the pairing of their male and female gods revealing their curious desire for polarity and balance. Nephthys accepted her role as Death Goddess, understanding not only the sacredness of transitions, but realizing souls required protection as they navigated the Realms of Existence. At this time, there were only three: the astral plane, where deceased souls awaited reincarnation, the earth, and the Underworld, where souls returned to rest. It was the job of Nephthys to choose which souls that would reincarnate on earth and those who would descend into the Underworld under Set’s guardianship, guiding them safely to their destinations. Unlike her sister, Nephthys assimilated into the physical world of the humans, becoming an integral part of their everyday affairs. She gave council to those who needed it, presided over disagreements, and allowed the dead to speak to their loved ones before their final departure.
“Set was displeased with his role, one that he viewed was inferior. He had no qualms about presiding over death and destruction, but he wanted to be adored like his brother and his brother’s wife, not feared. Humans abhorred the notion of dying, for they did not understand it, nor the process of reincarnation, and they projected those detestable feelings onto the Underworld’s ruling deity. He also loved the prospect of war, which only deepened their fear of him, for if one crossed him on the battlefield, they and their men were surely doomed. Set’s only consolation was the lust he developed for Nephthys, which grew stronger as the years passed. He was unable to create life as his brother could, but he discovered that with his body he could create inexplicable pleasure when intertwined with Nephthys. She adored this part of their relationship, which kept her loyal to him for many years. Eventually, she would be the one who taught the act to humans. Unlike the gods, however, humans could create life in this way. After that pivotal moment, Osiris and Isis no longer had the exclusive responsibility of constructing bodies and souls, and could stand back and let the humans procreate on their own.
“And so, life continued on, the four gods living for many years in peace, coming to the aid of the humans when called. Set seethed quietly in his resentment, leaving his brother and wife alone, for he enjoyed his life with Nephthys. They had their own palace in the Underworld, but they often worked on earth, even joining Osiris and Isis on occasion in their palace made of precious gold, surrounded by trees and luscious gardens brimming with flowers. Humans erected elaborate sculptures in their likeness which they visited each morning with fresh milk, honey, and bread as offerings.
“Then one fateful day, Nephthys, dirty after a long day on earth, decided to sneak a bath in the Nile. Over time, she had become further drawn into the human experience, donning the disguise of a kite so she could interact with them whenever she felt called to. Bathing in the clear waters was one of her favorite pastimes, learned by watching the young women do the same.”
