Immaculate Love
Chapter – One
In the Making of an Ecdysiast
Meara was heading home from the divine well where she finished her evening prayers. She was a young girl trying to understand the turbulent time befallen on her Celtic tribe. The power struggle between Eoghanacht and Connachta tribes forced her ancestors to keep moving south in search for peace. Her village was just beyond the southern fence of a ring of mountains that surrounded what would become Ireland. Her village was so far away from the north that even the most ambitious of the warrior kings left it alone. It simply was not worth it. But it was not completely serene. There were always fights over cattle and land that spilled over to her world. But the latest story of massacre in the neighboring village of Glaise over cattle frightened her. This deepened her dependency on the divine well she worshipped every evening before going to bed. It is from this well where the name of her village Tobar derives from. She believed the well would protect her against all the evil forces. This faith was reinforced by the relative calm and peace in Tobar.
Tobar was a beautiful village, on a low plain in the southern tip of Celtic land. Inhabitants of Tobar and all the tribes under Eoghanacht were the early Celtic settlers who never accepted the authority of Connachta over the entire island no matter how vigorously it was claimed by Connachta. The village derived its livelihood from goat and sheep farming. Meara’s father and mother ran a small goat and sheep farm. She started to help her mother and father with the farming work, as she grew older. Her father always wished he had a son who would help him look after the goats and sheep on grazing trips because the work was too harsh for a girl like Meara.
Meara was an only child for some strange twist of destiny; her mother was unable to conceive again after the birth of Meara. At the tender age of sixteen, Meara had become an accomplished woman mastering all essential skills one would expect from a woman. She was a fabulous cook. She knew how to make cheese. She knew how to shave sheep. She drew admiration and envy from other parents who wished their daughters were like Meara.
Meara was one in a million. She walked like a gentle ocean wave; there was a rhythm of nonchalant. Her voice was soothing as if it were emanating from a cruitire. Her green eyes were mesmerizing and deep like a lake; they had become a matter of gossip throughout Tobar for possessing magical capabilities. She often laughed at those rumors. Her dark wavy hair rivaled the beauty of the picturesque clouds looming over the mountains. Even the sons of Druids could not resist this beauty of a farmer’s daughter. She was poised to become a woman for whom everything was working even amidst turbulent times.
She reached home and helped her mother with chores. She greeted her father with joy when he got back from the grazing trip and then went to bed with a deep faith that the well would keep her, her family and the entire village of Tobar safe from all the evils of the world.
Chapter - Two
The Jackals
Sethos epitomized what average Spartans had become; he was living for himself and not for the state. Sparta’s glorious spell of military victories were a thing of past now. Messeneans were able to break away from Sparta, which resulted in loss of immense agricultural and slave resources for them. When Alexander was building his army to embark on campaign to conquer the world, Sparta offered no troops such dire was the moral of Spartan military.
Sethos had abandoned Sparta and moved to Crete, an island province, which had become a melting pot for major known civilizations at that time. Humans were major resources and were bought and sold by both Romans and Greeks on all major ports in Crete.
Sethos was interested in only one kind of slave trade, stealing women and selling them for profit. This had become his specialty. It was a dangerous job and there had been many times when things had gone wry. Sethos learned from those crises and emerged a better hunter each time.
He had built a small palace for himself on a secluded coast not too far from Konossos. This was his base from where he planned his expeditions. A small band of armed militia, which he raised, lived in the quarters nearby. These men were hand picked by Sethos for their greed, lust and fighting skills. Sethos was in it for money too but more than money, he truly enjoyed the hunt.
Recently he purchased a map from a shady character he met in a tavern in Sardis. This character claimed he had a map for a mystic land called Hibernia. It was scarcely populated and weakly defended if you could cross the rugged terrain. Sethos had doubts in his mind because he had never heard of such a land but he was smart enough to know that there was much more world out there than what was known to Greeks and Romans. The man also provided Sethos with a complete directional map to this mysterious land called Hibernia. The route was long consisting of a combination of sea voyages and land journeys. The businessman in him was not too excited about undertaking this expedition because the profit to risk factor was not in his favor; there were simply too many variables. But the adventurer in him was getting restless at the idea of exploring this mysterious land for bounties.
Finally, the adventurer in him won. He summoned his servant to go and fetch Nikon, the lokhagos (captain) of his armed militia. Sethos had raised a very well organized militia, divided into four groups, each group consisting of about twenty-five men. Nikon and Sethos had done several expeditions together. They understood very well the nature of the men they were commanding. These men were not fighting for glory or honor. They were fighting for lust and greed. Nikon had done an excellent job in keeping the tab on these men.
Sethos' servant led Nikon into the planning room. On the desk was the map of Hibernia along with the sketched route.
Chapter – Three
Ambition is Noble
“Your majesty, the mission was a success. Your father has been eliminated. The entire Macedon army pledges its allegiance to you. We will secure the approval of noblemen by tomorrow.”
Alexander showed no emotion upon hearing this news. He was already prepared for this reality and the assassination was merely a formality. He turned towards Seleucus and asked, “What about my men who went on the mission?”
“Pausanias was killed so were Perdiccas and Leonnatus. I am sorry your majesty but the mission came at a heavy price.”
Alexander felt an emotion of regret because he had known them for a very long time; they were his friends. Pausanias was personally responsible for safeguarding his personal safety and now he was gone. But this was not the time for emotions.
“Seleucus, I want you to find and execute Amyntas. I want Cleopatra and Europa burned alive in accordance with my mother’s wishes. Also, Attalus must not be left alive at any cost. This man is way too dangerous.”
“I am on my way.” Seleucus exited bearing a look of mission on his face.
Alexander felt exhausted after Seleucus left the room. He approached the wine jar and poured himself some Persian wine. He was a king of Macedon at the age of twenty. No ordinary man could contemplate assassinating his own father and drink wine afterward but he was no ordinary man. He was an ambitious man. He recalled Aristotle teaching him at the temple of Mieza that the ambition in itself was the noblest thing a man could possess and that all young men should be ambitious.
This was just the beginning of his ambition. He had the map of entire known world in front of him. He thought to himself, “After consolidating the power, I will take Syria, then Egypt, then Persia and then India.”
He smiled to himself, “And of course all the things in between them. This world will be mine.”
This had never been done before but there is always the first time to everything. He said to self, “How hard can it be?”
He had no desire in the luxuries he could have in the confines of Macedon. He would rather spend all his life in the battlefield chasing his dream than to sit in the comfort of his palace. Even the death would be noble if it came in the battlefield. He was dead sure what he wanted; he wanted the world.
As his commanders were busy carrying out his orders to secure his claim to the throne, he was deeply lost in his thoughts planning his future campaigns.
Chapter – Four
The Route
The room’s corridor was directly facing the beautiful Mediterranean ocean. There was a round table at the center of the room encircled by six chairs; Sethos, Nikon and four other men occupied those chairs.
“Yesterday, I had an in depth discussion with Nikon regarding our upcoming expedition to an unexplored land called Hibernia. After considering arguments for and against the expedition, I have decided to go forth with it.” Sethos paused briefly and then continued, “We will set sail from Konossos towards the Sarausa. We will stop there if necessary or else we will continue towards Sardegna. We have to be very careful until we reach Sardegna. According to my information Carthage navy has approximately three hundred warships that patrol between a triangle of Sardegna, Sarausa and Carthage. It seems like they are preparing for a war with Greeks.” Sethos paused to drink some water.
“Should we co-ordinate our sail so that we leave Sarausa in the early evening to avoid detection by Carthage navy?” This question demonstrated Zosimos’ eagerness to prove his ability to Sethos because there really was no other option but to try to cross as much of the danger zone as possible in the dark. Any contact with Carthage navy would be fatal for the mission and the crews.
But Sethos showed no annoyance at Zosimos and said, “Absolutely.” Sethos continued, “Once again, we may or may not stop at Sardegna. But, we will remain within the critical distance of the coastline, in case we have to stop there. It is pretty routine business. Once we are beyond Sardegna, we should have nothing to worry about as far as Carthage navy is concerned.”
Sethos leaned over the map and pointed to a narrow pass between northern and southern coastlines. “We will pass through this narrow strait then we will turn right and head towards this port.” He pointed at a port near Hispalis on the map and continued, “Once we leave Hispalis, we will head in the general direction of north keeping close proximity with the Hispalis coast lines and this is where we will end up.” He was pointing at the southern tip of Hibernia.
Sethos and Nikon took turns in going over several technicalities with the ypolochagoi (lieutenants). The entire expedition plan was analyzed thoroughly, this included appropriate longitudes and latitudes along with littoral point of references.
“Once the preparations are complete, we will set sail.” Sethos indicated the end of the briefing with those remarks.
Chapter – Five
The Contact
It seemed like goddess Tyche had her blessing upon Sethos and his mission. They were able to cross the strait without getting detected by Carthage navy and now they were skirmishing the southern coastlines of Hibernia for a suitable place to dock. Sethos was in the navigation cabin along with his crews trying to find a perfect place on the coast where ships could be camouflaged. Goddess Tyche indeed had all her attention on Sethos today; he was able to spot a “V” shaped cliff where he could hide his ships.
Sethos was one of the last breeds of Spartans who had fortune of attending Sparta’s state of the art military academy before it disintegrated; it showed in his planning and execution of the expedition. Their exploitation of littoral point of references to reach the destination was remarkable. He created a small detachment to guard the ships and handed the command to Zosimos. Of course, Zosimos was not very happy with the assignment because he considered this assignment beneath him but he did not have much say in it.
“Stay put and guard those ships at all cost. Make sure to put sentries at those high points and send out routine patrols in all three land directions.” Sethos shouted some routine precautions of which Zosimos as a trained ypolochagoi was already aware of but these ships were Sethos’ lifelines to the civilized world and he did not want to leave out any contingency plans.
Sethos and Nikon were highly skilled surveyors and both of them had some valuable expedition experiences under their belts. They divided the team in two surveying parties, one lead by Nikon and another by Sethos. They parted after confirming linkup schedule and communication protocols with each other and the base, Zosimos’ detachment.
On the scheduled time and predetermined place, Nikon and Sethos linked up with each other. Both teams gathered critical cartographical data during the surveying mission. Also an “all ok” message was exchanged with the base. It was time to identify an ideal path to cross the mountains. The observation of ridges so far revealed a manageable if not an easy mountain pass to the other side. Sethos avoided landing on the western coast of Hibernia for its extreme ruggedness as warned by the shady character he met in Sardis.
“This looks like our path to fortune. What do you think Nikon?”
“I think you are right Sethos.”
The unknown land in front of them was there to be explored; it was rugged and challenging. So, the precious little logistics had to be planned very skillfully. They were looking at the mountain, the only thing that stood between them and the bounties.
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Chapter - Six @ Post #96









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