Pherenike - Chapter 3

Long ago, a goddess descended by the banks of Salonika River at night. It was the goddess Kybellar, who traveled the world in a fiery chariot led by lions.

The goddess allowed her beloved pair of lions to roam freely by the riverside. All the beasts in Salonika River fled in fear of the fierce lions of the goddess.

However, an eagle and a wolf remained by Salonika River. They were captivated by the goddess’s great beauty rather than the ferocity of the lions. Kybellar, who was bored, found it amusing.

The goddess transformed the eagle of the plains and the wolf of the forest into beautiful human males and bonded with them.

After spending nine nights by Salonika River, goddess Kybellar departed, leaving gifts for the two males who satisfied her.

They were given fertile lands with their names engraved upon them. Humans bowed down to them.

A name that would be revered for a long time.

To the eagle, the name ‘Linus’ and the upper reaches of the river were given, while to the wolf, the name ‘Pelagon’ and the lower reaches of the river were granted.

Salonika River was a giant river that traversed the Khalili Peninsula from north to south. And the desire for power was natural for those who became kings.

But they did everything as the goddess wished. They divided the river and the land, and later, they each received and raised one of the twin sons born to the goddess.

The goddess informed the eagle and the wolf about each son’s paternity, keeping them unaware of who was the father of whom throughout their lives.

This way, the males, who once vied for Kybellar’s favor, would not harm each other.

As the goddess thought, Linus—the eagle—thought that his son was in the hands of Pelagon.

While Pelagon—the wolf—suffered from suspicions and torment, wondering if the child he raised might be Linus’s son. In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to hate the child. He cherished and loved him deeply because he was, after all, the son of the goddess.

The son raised by Linus founded the kingdom of ‘Argo’ upstream of the river, while the son raised by Pelagon established the kingdom of ‘Evdokia’ downstream. Under the names of their fathers, they pledged a mutual non-aggression to each other.

Despite this sacred oath, the recent intrusion of the Argo Kingdom’s army into the capital of the Evdokia Kingdom was not the first. Just a century ago, water caused a war between the two kingdoms.

During that time, the king of Argo often indulged in the greed of damming water upstream of Salonika River. Evdokia, suffering from famine, couldn’t bear the anger and sought the goddess for their brother nation’s tyranny.

The hungry Evdokia farmers and soldiers crossed the borders, resulting in a brutal massacre of the intoxicated Argo people who were celebrating the festival of Dionysus.

Enraged, the king of Argo invaded Evdokia and assassinated the old king. However, due to the counter attacks by Evdokian princes from various regions, the king of Argo was eventually expelled, marking just a century since these events.

The histories of the two kingdoms had flowed in such a way for at least three hundred years. Since someone first broke the oath, the oath was no longer a revered promise.

At some point, Pelagon’s sons were wicked, and at another point, Linus’s sons were malicious. They alternated between being just and unjust.

However, the goddess never responded to any ambition, and her favor was never fully bestowed upon anyone’s hands. The two nations existed in parallel lines.

Despite knowing that they couldn’t completely devour each other, they had deep-rooted ambition to stand behind a new king in the diadochi wars of the rival country under the pretext of being ‘brother nations’.

Perhaps this time, the goddess might choose them. Therefore, it was only natural for the king of Argo to exploit the second prince, whom the King of Evdokia had pushed off the cliff.

Deucalion, the second prince, crawled up from the cliff and blinded the eyes of the King of Argo with new desires.

Pherenike nonchalantly passed by the sight of the Argo Kingdom’s flags with eagles, falling to the ground, trampled under the soldiers’ feet.

The Argo Kingdom’s army had already retreated north, as someone within the Paetusa-Argo coalition had caused a rift and betrayed the coalition’s flank to the Nikandros cavalry.

Someone undoubtedly had betrayed Deucalion. She briefly thought of certain faces she had long suspected as spies, realizing that she had no time for retaliation and gritting her teeth as she urged her horse toward the city gate.

No one stood in the way as the woman, with the black chiton fluttering atop her horse, entered the castle.

From afar, the soldiers at the castle gate, recognizing the horse’s headgear symbolizing the Nikandros cavalry officer, mistakenly took Pherenike for one of the few female officers and cleared the way.

It was the common people in the street who accurately identified her true identity.

“Kybellaune! Kybellaune!”

“Kybellaune has returned!”

“Pherenike Kybellaune!”

Even without using ‘Althea,’ the strange light faintly hovering around her was visible only to a few sensitive individuals who could perceive Althea.

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Diadochi (Διάδοχοι): Successors