It was a tranquil evening the other day when I finished my shift at the Athens Palace as the head cook. It had been a year since our Greek empire had withered away by the Mediterranean floods. With what little we had, the Athenians came to the bank of Saharas. We worked around the clock to build our city again. I was used to the Athens atmosphere…
The air, the feel, the sleep was unknown. As I changed my peplos, I heard someone mutter from behind. Even though the voice was faint I could hear someone say, "Follow me Paraskevi, grigora.” I could smell someone cooking moussaka. I could eat moussaka everyday but something was distinctive about the aura of this moussaka. I sniffed along the path and reached the EYE OF SAHARA, the market of the city. It is rumored that Hephaestus gave the manuscript to guide the workers on how to go about it.
The Mati of Sahara was magnificently humongous and opulent. One must visit the Mati of the Sahara. As I looked up at the sky, I saw a blanket of stars stretched into infinity. Moving a step away, I felt a cold hand wrapped over my lips and slowly someone pulled me against the wall. “Oh god! what was that?” I said to myself. I wanted to leave the market right away, but, I swear to Demeter, I saw a young maiden behind me in a black peplos. When I turned no one was visible but it felt like someone was using witchcraft . Someone hissed “Clara caminious referred” THE SPELL TO SUMMON THE DEATH! I followed the sound that took me to an abandoned ground that had stairs to go down. I tip-toed carefully as I walked down the stairs, ”OH BY JUPITER!'' I saw a cluster of witches dressed in black robes performing a demonic ritual. They all circled around the forbidden sign of stavros. And threw buckets of ashes over the stavros. With all that had just passed my sight, my face turned pale, my jaw dropped as I slowly took it all in, and I cried on top of my lungs.
The witches who called themselves ‘pyarras’ came running towards me as my body lay on the ground. It seemed that they spoke a crossover language between Hebrew and Greek. As I opened my eyes I could sense that they were about to bite my head off. Luckily the head sorcerer ‘Natalia’ instructed the servants to take me to the restroom. As we walked, the 2 witches burnt my hand with their tools, giving me a special sign that they called the 'Wordsworth Sign'. “Who’s approaching from there?" I remarked As the light became brighter, to my absolute surprise, I heard Hecate say to me, “So, signora Paraskevi, you are destined to establish the House of Drakos, or as we like to call it, the House of Witches."
To be continued…
Glossary:
Peplos: Greek robe
Moussaka: Greek delicacy
Grigora: Quickly
Hephaestus: the God of fire, metalworking, stone masonry, forges and the art of sculpture
Mati: Evil’s eye
Clara caminious referred: a spell
Pyarras: a group of witches
Hecate: the Goddess of magic
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