Author's Insider Note

When I first felt the pull toward Greek mythology, there was never any question of where I would begin. Medusa came first—she always does. But as the story unfurled, it stopped being something I was creating and became something I was listening to. This wasn’t a tale I chose to tell, it was one that insisted on being heard.

The characters arrived fully formed, vivid and unyielding. I saw them so clearly it felt less like writing and more like following—my hands merely a conduit, a vessel for a love that refused to remain unnamed. Unconventional, defiant, tender in its own quiet way. They led me, and I followed.

Maeonia was born this way. Conceived for an anthology I eventually walked away from, yet the story itself would not leave with me. Some loves demand witnesses. These two demanded the world, even if all I had at the time were a few imperfect words to offer.

This is only a fragment, a glimpse, a mere snippet—but it remains one of my favorites. An entire tale told through the perspective of a blind man.

I hope you enjoy it.

Xeno

I need to make peace with what already has come to be. Things cannot change, not for me. 

Turning, I wade back to dry land slowly, each of my toes depressing into the wet earth, gathering debris and everything else between my toes. One particular step makes me hiss in pain and another hiss responds before me.

Hsss.

Maybe being poisoned by a snake wouldn’t be such a bad ending for me.

“You shouldn’t drink the water,” the same feminine voice from earlier speaks.

I chuckle. “Well, it’s much too late for that.”

“Do you not care for your life?”

“What life is there left for one such as me?”

“Life is a gift we should never take lightly.”

I continue my steps forward, disregarding the tunic, and mull over her words. “You sound like a Master. Offering something that never belonged to you to begin with and labeling it with falsities.”

“What are you talking about? I am no one’s master.”

Continuing forward, I can hear her footsteps behind me, following in my wake. Each step I take is calculated, slow, my hands feeling around me, memorizing my surroundings. I mentally count each stride until my knowledge of numbers ends, and I begin again.

“I don’t know whether to be sad for you or congratulate you. The ways of the Greeks continue to baffle my simple mind.” I don’t mean to speak this way but it slips my lips before I can stop myself.

Maybe I do have a death wish.

Hsss.

I no longer care about poisonous snakes or poisoned lake water. I continue to walk until my knees hit something rock solid. My own lips let out a hiss of pain before I feel around the surface of the boulder, turn, and take a seat.

“You know nothing about me!” 

For the love of the Gods, why is this woman still following me? My suspicions rise but I keep my face stoic.

“I know that you continuously come after me for some personal reason. Why is it that I have not heard or run into another? You said many have ventured here on their quest. What exactly is there to be found in a garden of banishment?”

I absorb the silence that grows thick between us and cross my arms. I need to figure out how to survive while I’m out here and how to find shelter. Maybe if I pray to the Gods, they will have mercy on me. But where does one pray? The Greeks like using their temples. I have yet to run across anything but foliage and boulders. 

“You are nothing but a fool.”

I laugh out loud at that statement. The absurdity of everything that’s happened in my life comes pouring down like hot coals on my skin.

“Are you mad?” she has the audacity to ask.

Am I?

“Seems we are both the fools here, to be banished in a garden of unknown delights yet both of us still miserable as we wander and find ourselves lost with no goal in sight. Why have we both been placed here by the Gods? What game is afoot for there always seems to be games surrounding me though I’ve never volunteered myself as tribute of any kind.” Maybe I have lost my mind.

“Your silly notions are worthless here.”

“And your ‘master of none’ does nothing for you here. So we find ourselves at a crossroads. I grow weary of these pointless conversations. What need do you have of me that you continuously follow in my wake? Do you wish to watch as I stumble and find myself in peril because of my lack of eyesight? I mean, I guess I would find entertainment in anything as well if I was banished alone to this garden of yours.”

Where my courage comes from, I have no clue. Seems I’ve taken to being a free slave much quicker than I anticipated. All the frustrations of my prior life come bubbling forth like a fountain of verbal vomit.

Hsss.

That sound again. Why the snakes have not ended my misery, I will never understand.

“You are insufferable. The worst companion the Gods could bestow upon me and perhaps that was their plan all along, to torture me with your existence.”

Laughter booms around us as I lift my head and rub my hand over my head once more. The sound comes out from the deep recesses of my gut. Insufferable, indeed. I haven’t found myself this entertained in a long time. I find that I’m enjoying the company of this female I’m not blessed to see.

It would just be my luck for the Gods to place me before the most beautiful creature only for me to not realize it. Fitting for a man who was punished for the pleasure of his sight. It matters not at this point, not anymore.

When my laughter dies down, I straighten my face to where I think is her direction before I ask, “and what is your name, mistress, so that I may address you correctly and not offend your sensibilities?”

Hsss!

I glower. “If the snakes are your pets, I suggest you either tell them to finish me off quickly or leave me be. I don’t have time to worry about them. There are too many other tasks that need to be completed before the day’s end.”

She laughs humorlessly under her breath and I must admit, I like the sound. 

“Of course, the Gods test me. Since we are stuck with each other for the unforeseeable future or until the fates finally decide to sever our ties, I guess it wouldn’t hurt for us to know one another.”

My lips twitch at her dramatization of our kismet meeting. No one knows the future.

“I am Maeonia.” 

I frown at her answer. How can the Gods be this cruel? A voice that lovely shouldn’t be granted a name just as sweet.