The Alyta Trilogy: Handmaids, Heroes, and Hierarchy.

A few dances later, Aphrodite�s gift starts to wear off.  Fortunately, Alyta and Kirya aren�t somewhere far above the earth when it does.  They respectfully end their dances.  You wouldn�t be in a mood to dance if your insides were getting sixty times bigger, either. 

For the rest of the night, they sit by the fire, listening to stories and telling a few of their own.  When it comes to the story about how Alyta healed Jason, the entire audience becomes subdued.  One fairy painstakingly flies over to Alyta.  She must be seventy years old, and looks into Alyta�s eyes with wise, old, measuring ones.  �You really healed this man?�  Alyta answers in the affirmative.  �Come.  I have something to show you,� she speaks as she flies, and Alyta followed, trying to catch all her words, �This lady we brought here almost dead.  We�ve kept her alive with roots and bark made into tea, but are not sure she will survive.  If you are as you say you are, a healer, then we shall she what you can do for her.� 

Alyta is lead down an embankment to a huge hollowed tree trunk.  She ducks through the portal and stares in astonishment.  �Kirya!� The cry echoes through the forest, and Kirya comes running, preceded by a group of frantic fairies.  She, too, stops when she sees who is lying on the cot.  �Mother�� she says brokenly in response.  Alyta rushes over and places a hand on the burning forehead.  She closes her eyes and water flows, cooling Sytifa down, then reaching the wounds, closing them. 

Sytifa looks up in astonishment at Alyta, �I�m dead then,� comes the accepting voice.  Alyta laughs; Kirya cries.  Sytifa looks from one to the other.  �No, in the Ephesian fields I don�t think there would be this kind of response.  Thank you, Alyta, for I take it that you healed me?�  Alyta lets a single tear flow down her cheek.  �Kirya, she� she tried to kill me?� Sytifa whispers, almost inaudibly.  �It was not her will, but Ares�.  Your daughter would never kill you out of her own will.�  Alyta answers.  Kirya hears her name and comes over, sitting on the side of the cot.  �Oh, mother� I can never tell you how sorry I am.  I thought� I thought�Oh, who knows what I thought?  I was so confused.  I just�,� she stops, unable to say anymore.  Sytifa caresses her blood daughter�s hand.  �Kirya, look at me.� Kirya cannot.  �Look at me.  That�s it.  I love you.  I�ll love you no matter what you do.  I know that what I did was wrong.  But I just wanted a happy life for you, not one growing up in the jungle, always in danger.  I deserted you, and now know that I shouldn�t have.  But I never deserted you in heart, Kirya.  Your name describes all that you are to me.  My hope, my love, my joy, my heart� I am sorry that I was never a mother for you.�  Kirya breaks down in tears. 

All that night they speak their minds and hearts.  When Alyta wakes up the next morning, she finds them still talking, tired yet smiling.  �Come on, you guys.  Rest up � we need to hit the road.�  Hours later, they leave the fairies and start on the road to the coast. 

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Alyta stands at the stern of one her father�s ships.  She looks back to the land where she knows Corinth lies, and fingers a necklace at her throat.  The sea breeze tosses her long hair as she says in a quiet voice, �Never goodbye. Farewell, Jason.  Until we meet again.�

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The End of

The Chronos Stone... A Mysterious Grave Site... What's in store for Alyta next?