Pherenike - Chapter 13

“Then I’ll abandon Vassilios’s name as a woman of the sanctuary. I’ll become a despicable apostate, renouncing the sanctuary of the goddess, a woman without name or status.”

“…”

“Your Highness can make me his toy for life.”

“What value would that have for me?”

Actor spoke as if he were holding a useless object in his hand. Pherenike calmly replied.

“To tie up Deucalion’s hands and feet, to break him with pain.”

“What value does that have for you?”

“His life.”

“…”

“I’ll gain that child’s life.”

Actor smirked at her, as if he were mocking her. His breath escaped in short bursts from his lips.

“To get a life worse than death by giving yourself up? Deucalion would be moved.”

“That child must be alive for me to live.”

“…”

“Is that too high a price for my body?”

Regardless of what Deucalion in her memory said, she was already dead. She had cut off her life without longing for a next one.

That was the end of her life. From the moment she drank Deucalion’s blood, she had no future.

What she wanted, what she didn’t want, treating herself as he treated her. Would those things matter even as she lay rotting in a grave?

Some words felt too old or like vain prophecies from an unattainable future. Pherenike felt utterly worthless.

She didn’t resurrect Deucalion to play love with him. What she wanted most before dying was simply for Deucalion to live again.

And secondly, for Actor Nikandros to die.

“The one paying too high a price is you, Sybylle.”

“Won’t My Lord get paid what he paid for?”

Actor laughed lowly.

“If someone offers to buy your one-penny item for ten, wouldn’t you doubt them?”

“It’s either a swindler or a desperate person.”

“To be honest, you’re much more valuable than him, Sybylle.”

“I’m just a desperate person.”

All she needed at that moment was a plausible opportunity. It didn’t matter if she knew Deucalion wouldn’t die right away. In the end, it was for him.

If not now, Deucalion would die four years later. Even if she saved him from death then, another death would find him as long as this man in front of her lived.

“Please save that child, Actor.”

Since all of this is just a price to save Deucalion’s life, this made her reason for going to the First Prince all the more appropriate. Despite all the emotions she had shown Actor before.

“Your love seems quite repulsive, Pherenike.”

Actor had once told her, as if she was repulsive. Indeed, this was something only a person in such a repulsive love could do.

Willing to bear everything else if only she could save him, Pherenike alone shed pitiful tears.

She decided to plant a traitor in Actor’s camp, just as he had done in Deucalion’s inner circle, pulling one last string at the very end to bring them all down. Over a very long period of time.

By himself.

“Please, I beg My Lord,” Pherenike slowly knelt before him.

“If I truly have the value of ten coins to you…”

“…”

“Take those ten coins, and in exchange, give me that one-coin item that means nothing to you.”

Actor silently looked down at her, neither helping her up nor feigning a bow to someone who couldn’t possibly receive his courtesy.

Time passed. It felt quite long to her. Finally, Actor slowly reached down and grasped Pherenike’s neck, then pushed his thumb up, lifting her chin.

His gaze fell on Pherenike’s eyes like water cascading off a cliff.

The man’s features were handsome but as cold as a stone statue in a temple. Not a single fragment of emotion remained on his face, save for his gray eyes that rippled like a winter sea.

It was a desire.

The disgusting certainty she had felt before her death revealed Actor Nikandros’ weakness again. He wouldn’t be able to refuse this deal.

The tear that rolled down her cheek touched the tip of his fingers that cradled her chin. Actor’s eyes momentarily darkened with thirst.

Misery. Sadness. Anger. Hatred. Pherenike’s beautiful face was somewhere in between, distorted by these emotions.

The tears were false, but the malice was real. The hatred was brutally honest. Thus, Actor believed her. ‘Despite everything’, he believed she had come to him willingly. Pherenike had to.

He believed that this woman who, despite devoting her life to another man and hating him, had submitted to him.

With just a slight reach of his hand, he could grasp her entire body. It was an incredibly easy thing to do.

Pherenike watched Actor’s lips slowly move through her feigned tears.