It was one of those days...

It was one of those days when there was a wildness in the air of Thrace. I suppose that’s partly why I did it. Look, don't blame me. I was young. (Well, I'm not old now. Two millennium isn't old, not really, not when you factor in the different rates between the dimensions, but then I was barely 800.

There was heavy cloud cover and the sunbeams that broke through reached down to the sea like spotlights marking the passage of heroes. If I remember rightly it was the day that some captain brought his ship into the harbor with a golden fleece or two.

(Now this wasn't as strange as you might think. There were islands out there where the gold was in the soil. It washed down in the streams when the spring thaw in the mountains leached it out of the land. The natives hung sheepskins in the water, spread out like nets across the currant to sieve out the wealth. In time, the wool gleamed with gold dust, crisp and heavy - especially when hung just beyond the churn of the huge waterfall that men called "The Dragon".

There was a song about it that I’ll note one day, if I remember. Then, though, it was about overcoming the vicious currents below The Dragon to take the sheepskins. Later bards changed that to a claim that Jason “slew a dragon” to take the Golden Fleece. It’s called poetic licence, or something. I hate it when that happens. Lies ain’t my shtick.)

The part of it that I really remember was – that was the Gig when I rebelled! I’d had two marriages that century and the happy one was the worst, in the long run. and I was sick of the whole queen thing.

This time, the talisman-wearer was OK to look at with a voice that should have been pleasant enough, but for what she said. She was the spoilt wife of a baron, seeking to spend her happy ending ruling a more important man and a bigger fiefdom. She was willing to let her besotted fool of a husband burn and sure her beauty would take her further than he ever could. It did, in a way.

There used to be a very good slave market in northern Opyriera. The dealer wanted a part exchange but I used thrall to make it a straight swap, the baroness (without my Talisman) for an Opyrian dancing girl. That could have worked out really well. We appreciated each other’s skills and we were all set for some temporary happy-ever-aftering when the Powers that Be found out what I’d done and … but that’s another story.

Muse; Sweet the Singing Demon.
Fandom; BtVS
Words; 437