Memoirs of an Immortal (The Immortal Series)

Memoirs of an Immortal

By

Evangelene

Memoirs of an Immortal

First book in the Series

Evangelene Christina Orfanoudakis

Copyright ©
2013 by A. Christina Orfanoudakis

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced. Stored in or introduced into the retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written consent of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents either is the product of the author’s imagination or is used factiously and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead. Business establishment, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction.

The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situation. It is intended for a mature audience.

Cover Art By
www.damonza.com

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Emilio, thank you so much for pushing me, because of you, my story came out better than I ever hoped. Thank you for putting up with the persistent questions that I kept asking. “Do you think it’s good? Will people like it? Why am I doing this?” Even the annoying statements that made your eyes roll. “I fucken hate this! It sucks, I’m never writing again! It’s so stupid!” You were awesome throughout this whole process, telling me that I had it in me and I could do it. Thank you so much for helping me find my true self.

Maria, my best and most awesome beta reader/favorite fan. You made me feel like my story was worth all the heartache and pain. Your tears and love for my book pushed me to write more. Thank you.

Lily, thank you for reading it and helping me.

To my family and friends: Thank you for all their support and love, especially my sister Liberty for encouraging me.

To the reader: Thank you for taking the chance and delving into Psykhe’s world. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

And finally to my story. Thank you for wanting to be written.

The Beginnings

I finally decided to write about my life. Why? I honestly don’t know. Maybe it’s because so much has happened. Maybe, I really don’t want to forget, or maybe, I finally have the time to piece together all that has happened to me.

My journey had started so long ago, that it now feels like a dream, I had dreamt of, a past life long forgotten.

This is the story of my life, my trials, my adventures and my loves. It begins simple enough, but how it will end, I still don’t know.

My name is Psykhe and I am an immortal. I’m the youngest of five sisters, all of which are like me, but we weren’t always this way. It seemed that the fates interfered and changed the course of my life and those of my sisters. I guess I should start from the beginning, but I should warn you, the history that you know is not quite the way it happened.

My father was part of the race of heroes, a god-like race that were created to be good and just. He fought in many battles, but the most famous was the battle of Troy, where many of his comrades fell. After many battles, it was Zeus who took those who survived and gave them a life outside the battlefield. So when the time came for my father to retire his sword, Zeus decreed him a large piece of land, on what is now known as the island of Crete. It was there that my father and mother raised us, loved us and trained us.

The concept of time for the race of heroes is very different than what you are led to believe. My father roamed the known world for hundreds of years for some excitement and adventure. He finally found it with a woman, who came from an Amazonian tribe in Scythia. My mother was the daughter of
Hippolyta and King Theseus. However, King Theseus never knew about his daughter, since he abandoned my grandmother
. Looking back, my parents never really told me the whole story of how they met. Every time I would ask, they would look at each other and laugh. Knowing my father, he must have done something brainless to anger the locals. She always did say that she was the one who came to his rescue.

My father’s reputation was great and many sought him out, for his guidance, in order to help them gain skills for fighting. Some even dared to challenge him. Many would come to fight my father, some even, with small armies. They were seeking the glory, you see, but none would ever achieve it.

My parents had no sons, but they never showed their disappointment. Father thought it wise, that we all be taught how to fight. He was after all a great hero and was not about to let our gender get in the way. He wanted all to know that we were his children and that we could fight anyone who dared to confront us.

Father was in charge of teaching us sword techniques, while my mother taught us, javelin and bow. Their training was gruelling and we hated it.

Mornings were spent with my father, teaching us various fighting skills. He would have us spar with each other, not caring how tired or how hurt we were.
“You must fight beyond your pain, beyond your exhaustion. Find another source of strength, so that you may continue.”
He would cry out, as we trained.

I remembered Eva and I would often fight each other, trying our best to never let the other have the upper hand. In the afternoons, my mother would teach us throwing tactics and about the accuracy of our aim. The most important aspects of our developing skills were endurance and agility. To my parents, nothing else mattered. While at practice, father would arduously drill into us that we must always think while we fight. That every action we’d decided to take, must lead us to victory. To be defeated, was never an option. That losing was a choice, a choice we could never make.

“By Zeus, father! Honestly, what in Haides are you waiting for? For us to command an army? We’re in the middle of nowhere! Can we have one day of peace?” I still remembered Eirene waking up, swearing at the top of her lungs. She’s was the eldest and she looked just like my mother, with eyes as blue as the sky and dark hair wild with curls.

My father just ignored her, like he always had and pushed her out of bed. One by one, we’d get up and meet him in the courtyard. He was relentless. It didn’t matter, if it rained or if the day was too hot or if the snow covered the ground. He would use it to his advantage, saying,

“Fighting, my girls, never stops due to the weather.”

If one of us couldn’t do an exercise to his liking, he’d make all of us do it over and over again, until it was perfect. The one that usually screwed up was Agape. She was then and still is, so full of life. She didn’t much care for anything my father wanted to teach her, but she did it nonetheless.

I often wondered about Agape, she doesn’t look like any of us, with her deep red hair and slender body. We used to tease her, tell her that she was abandoned at our door, by some beggar woman who didn’t want her.

It was her twin, Zoe that was more similar to us. She was shorter, with darker features. Her eyes were dark, almost black like her hair.

My closest and most beloved sister was Evitihia, Eva for short. She was the closest to my age and for me, she was my dearest friend. We did almost everything together.

At night after our training and our chores, the servants would have food ready for us. We’d sit and while having dinner, my father would regal us, with stories of his youth and of the fights he had gotten into. He often mentioned the gods as though he knew them personally, but we just looked at him as if he had gone insane.

You see, at that time, we didn’t know everything about my father. We only knew what he wanted us to know. He would go into elaborate details and sometimes, his stories would go on and on, with no end in sight. After a full day of training and finishing up the chores at home, I would be too exhausted to care much for his stories, but on he went. I guess looking back, it wasn’t about us hearing his adventures, it was him, trying to relive his life.

So came the time where we were of age, the time for us to marry. I hated the idea. Why should I get married? I was trained by the best fighters, well the best fighters in my eyes anyway. I wanted to travel the world, just like my father had, but that wasn’t his plan. He wanted us to be married off. We would have arguments about it, but he would hear nothing of what I had to say.

It was a warm afternoon and the sun had hung low, when a loud knock came. Eva and I both answered the door. There in front of us, stood a tall lanky pale looking man, completely the opposite of my father.

“Hello.” He said his voice cold and shrill. “I’m here to speak to Nikephoros.” His request sounded more like a demand.

Eva nodded and ran to where my father was, leaving me alone with him. He began to take measure of me, when our eyes finally met, he smiled. My body trembled at his look. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking.

“Father, there is a man here, who wishes to speak to you.” Eva cried out.

My father looked up and stared at me, his eyes looked apologetic. He had never looked at me like that before. He rose from where he was and slowly walked over to greet the man, as he walked through our door.

“Eva, take this man inside and offer him our wine.” The strange man nodded and followed Eva.

“And so it begins.” My father murmured under his breath.

I looked at him perplexed. “Father? What’s beginning? Father?”

He just walked by me, without another look. I ran after him and stood by the kitchen door, so as to see who this man was. My father invited him in, the moment the man come into sight, shivers went down my back. There was something wrong here and I wanted nothing to do with it. The stranger looked at me and smiled. The smile was so wicked, that I knew he was thinking something nasty. My whole body told me so.

Dinner time came and I walked to the table where both my mother and Eirene stood. Their faces looked sombre and my heart sunk lower. What was going on? Somehow I knew this day was going to be awful. This day was not going to end like all the others.

My father had sat next to this odd man and began to introduce each of us.

“Here is my eldest, Eirene, whom you met before. These are my twins, not identical, but a gift from Hera, I’m sure of it, Agape and Zoe. The next one is Eva and my last one, Psykhe.” His voice sounded melancholy, almost like he didn’t want to do this.

“It is nice to meet you all.” The man said as he tilted his head. “So the legend of your daughters seems to be true, Nikephoros. They are all stunning and beautiful, especially you Psykhe. You are known even in the mainland as a remarkable beauty.”

Eva had stood beside me, she smirked and nudged me and when no one was looking, she made faces at me. Normally, I would laugh, but for some reason, I couldn’t muster up a smile. Eva was never really one to understand the atmosphere around her.

“My name is Crito and I’ve traveled far to come here to see all of you.” The stranger had finally introduced himself. Even his name sounded sickening.

Throughout dinner, he would stare at all of us. I turned red, not from embarrassment, but from shear anger. I wanted to reach over the table and rip his head off. How dare he even look at us in that fashion.

Dinner had ended and we were told to leave. We stalked into our room and I fell onto my bed. I laid down on my stomach, staring out the window. I could sense the weight of the evening on all of us. We knew it was coming, the thing we didn’t want to say.

“So he’s here for one of us” Eirene’s melancholy voice filled the quiet room.

“What?” Eva asked. “What’s going on?” Eva asked again her voice full of uneasiness.

“I swear on Haides’ head, I will kill him, before he lays a hand on me!” Eirene cried out, as she banged her hand against the bed.

“Oh shut up Eirene!” said Agape. “Father would never let us marry without love or our consent.”

“Are you insane? Father doesn’t care what we think. He’s the one who decides, not us.” Eirene snapped. At which point she looked at me with a huge smile “And besides, why would he choose any of us? If he could have Psykhe, who’s known even on the mainland.” She said sarcastically.

I was angry enough from his comments. I didn’t need to hear it from my sisters either, but before I could lunge at her, Zoe spoke up.

“We might never see each other again. I mean, if we were to marry, Zeus only knows where we’d end up.”

“Can someone tell me what’s going on here? Why do we need to marry?” Eva said anxiously.

We all ignored Eva again. There was really no point in answering her. I stood there frozen. Each of my sisters staring at each other, something so painful came through me. The very thought of never seeing them again, was like someone had stabbed my heart. This couldn’t and wouldn’t happen. I wouldn’t allow it, but the reality was, not one of us could stop this.

The next morning, Eva came to me while I was cleaning and told me that father wanted to see me. I took her by the arm and looked at her. She knew what I wanted to ask, but she just mouthed.
‘I don’t know.’

Father met me at the door, while the man was standing behind him, at the back of the room. I was looking for my mother, but she wasn’t there.

“I would never lead you down the wrong path.” My father said, as he put his arms around me and whispered. “Please Psykhe trust in me.”

My ears were ringing from anger. There’s no way! He wouldn’t! I was yelling at the top of my mental lungs, but I had to stay calm.

“By the end of this week, you will be married to this man.” He proceeded to say.

I didn’t even bother to look at him. My mouth was tight, my teeth were grinding.

“But father, I don’t even know him.” I seethed.

“You know my name is Crito, but there is no need for you to know that.” I heard the man chuckle from behind me. “You will soon call me husband or lord.” He smiled. He moved from where he was and began to walk closer to me.

“Like many, I have sent your father a request to see you and he accepted my offer.” He explained.

I closed my eyes in disgust. My father’s hands wrapped tighter around my shoulders.

“Where is my mother? I want to speak to my mother.” I pleaded.

“There’s no need, I made the decision and that’s final.” My father said dryly.

I could sense he was trying to tell me something else. I always had an intuition of being able to sense what others wanted to say, but now I was too broken to care.

I stormed out of the room, not knowing where I was going and ran out of the house. I kept running, until my legs gave out from under me. I fell onto a field of wild flowers. There I sat, for what seemed like hours, just lost in my thoughts. The air was dry and the sky was clear, all I could hear was the rustling of the tall dry grass. I closed my eyes, letting the sounds take over my mind.

Nightfall came. The sky began to dot itself with stars and even though I didn’t want to, I knew, I had to head back. When I reached the gate of my home, something felt different. I walked into the courtyard and sensed everyone’s eyes on me. A sense of sorrow started to creep up from inside me. Father came out and stood in the doorway of the main house and looked at me. I turned to say something, to say anything, but nothing came out. I slowly walked up to my room and lay down on my bed. Each of my sisters came into our room and lay down with me. Would this be the last time I would be with my sisters?

For the next few days, I refused to leave my room. There was no way I was going to make this easy. No one was speaking to my father, even my mother was silent. The week was nearing the end and everyone was preparing for the festivities. The house hold was busying with things that needed to be done. My father had invited everyone from all the neighbouring villages. This wedding was going to be enormous and I had slowly come to the realization that I would have to either accept my fate, or kill myself.

The day before the wedding, my father came to my room and knocked on my door.