And so in Athens I started out on the first steps of an eternal journey.  A time for all things under heaven..  This was my time for healing and growing.

I took the name Ashmael, meaning Angel of Death, to keep the memory of my capture and escape alive.  I took the serpent as my symbol, signifying the unending cycle of destiny and fate.  You see?  I had come to believe very much in fate and its power over us.

My first days in Athens were hard, not compared to my life previously of course, but hard enough to bring tears of frustration to my eyes when my pleas for help went unanswered.  It was, in fact, due to yet another rogue that I stayed in this fair city.  She guided me in the basics of what I must learn and helped to steady my feet upon my path.

And so I grew, in strength and in confidence, and I began to heal.

I have loved, I do love, and I have lost.  My trust is still not easily won, and there are few that share my heart.  But that is another story.

I would speak now of my past.  For I know now how cruel fate turned that young girl into a slave, and I know who is to blame.

I was sitting in the Oblivi Inn, talking with some friends, when Kor stumbled into the room, bleeding and bruised.  A giant named Wolfwood had come to the Peiraic Gate asking for help.  Kor, being the gentle giant he is and happy to see another of his kind, gladly went with him to assist in whatever manner he could.

It was a cruel trick.  No sooner had they left the protection of the city walls than Kor was set upon from behind, by more giants!  He was beaten to within an inch of his life.  Wolfwood demanded answers from him, on the whereabouts of the girl named Ashley.  Kor, knowing nothing of any Ashley, could only snarl his ignorance.  He was dragged back to the Gate, with a warning that next time, the beating would not be stopped.

The blood drained from my face, I knew that name, of course I knew that name.  It had once been mine.  My immediate thought was that the slavers were seeking revenge for my escape, but it didn't quite add up.  Why giants?  Why now?  Just for a slave girl?

The next weeks were chaos.  Wolfwood soon worked out that Ashmael and Ashley were one and the same.  He taunted me, he demanded my obedience, he  explained nothing.

Until one day he answered my questions, but how I wish he had not.  He wanted to marry me.  There was no question in this, I would marry him, I would obey him, or he would kill everyone dear to me until there was no-one left.

The people of Athens closed-ranks about me, they refused to let him win.  They refused to allow me to give in.  Xxenos, Kor and Gammy, what would I have done without you?

But Wolfwood would not be denied.  He would appear, he would demand my hand yet again.  When I refused, he took out a dice.  He would gaze at it, lost in thought, before declaring the next number in line.  Each time he did this, someone would die.  He was driving me mad.  I watched, helpless, as Xxenos, Kor, Nymphae, Elrond, even his own man - Bearclaw - for questioning his right to take lives, I watched as they died.

I had no choice.  I could not stand idly by while people died because of me.  It came to this, and so I accepted his terms.

Oh how I wish I could take back the hurt I caused Xxenos and Kor in that time.  But it was necessary, for I had no intention of marrying Wolfwood.

I was given but one hour, one hour to say goodbye to the city that sheltered me, to the people that loved me.  How could it be enough?  When the hour was up Wolfwood appeared.  He swept me away to the dock in Piraeus , announcing to all who cared to follow that we would be wed within the hour.

In his heedless and victorious flight, his attention was not where it should be.  I stole the dice from his cloak, hoping against hope that my instincts had served me well.

Once at the dock, he thought his victory was complete.  He waited until Xxenos and Kor arrived, thinking to twist that knife deeper, then he turned to me - "Time for your vows Ashley", he said.  I stared back at him.  I said nothing.

"Do you go back upon our agreement?”  He asked me.  I still said nothing.  "Then they will die".

He reached into his cloak, looking for something.  My smile was cruel and satisfied as I saw the panic on his face.  "Where is it!?”  He cried.  "Oh, this?”  I smiled sweetly as I showed him the dice in my hand.

His desperation was amusing to me, he demanded that I return it, his panic deepening with every second.  But I wanted answers and I had the power to get them.

I threatened to drop the dice into the harbor unless he told me exactly what this was all about.

The story that he told gave me back my memories, my family and gave me reason to hope.

It seemed that I was born of a noble family in Britannia, but on the day of my birth a prophecy had been foretold.  That I would one day bring about the downfall of the dread warlord Wolfwood unless he married me before my 21st birthday.  Hearing of this prophecy, Wolfwood flew into a mighty rage.  He laid siege to our city, he slaughtered thousands of innocents, all to get to the tiny baby that would destroy him.

Eventually, my family could take the violence no longer, they agreed that I would marry him, but I would be his queen and he would honour me.  And so we set sail for Wolfwood's island.  But storms overtook us and that small child was separated from her family and made a slave.

Wolfwood spent the next years tracking me down, he had finally located me through the slavers and was sailing to retrieve me when I escaped, unknowingly thwarting him once more.  But it was the treacherous inhabitants of the slaver between Egypt and Greece who finally gave him the information he needed.  And so he had tracked me to Athens .

It was my birthday this day, as we stood upon the dock.  I remembered my mother's face!  I fell to my knees and began to weep.  My anger was terrible.  That so many had died, that my life had been ruined because of this giants towering ambition.  I stood, my face a mask of vengeful wrath.

I clenched my fist around that dice and demanded to know its importance.  His face was pleading now as he told me.  That his master had imbued it with power, that there must be a death for each side of the die and Wolfwood's power would be complete on the day of our marriage.

Better people than I would have taken pity at that point.  I did not.  I drew a vial of oily black poison from my chlamys, made by Gloomthryn: Quick, excruciating death.

I stared at Wolfwood.  "Drink this, and I shall return your dice."

His face lit up with insane glee.  "I will drink it!  My master will protect me from such feeble poisons!".

He snatched the poison from my hands and unstoppered it.  "Every last drop.”  I hissed.

He drank it all.

Then the shudders started and pain lanced across his features.  I watched, cold-faced, waiting for justice, waiting for him to die at my feet.  It did not take long.  As he shuddered his last breath, one word left his lips, "Loki...”  He whispered it with all the pain of an abandoned child.  A death for each side of the dice.  His was the sixth, his was the last.

My revenge was complete.

It was hard moving on from that day, my 21st birthday.  I had much to explain and many apologies to make.  Not least to those it had been necessary to trick.  But they had to believe I was giving up, or Wolfwood would never have fallen for it.

So here we are, another chapter complete.  There are many more stories to tell, but those can wait for another time.