Two years later

"Come here." I hold out my hands to my baby girl, Alexa, "Come to mater." I tell the stumbling toddler as she was learning to walk. She smiles and laughs as she walks to me. She then reaches my arms I pick up my daughter and I kiss her cheeks, "You are getting better and better every day." I praise her and she giggles, "Mater loves you so much."

She has been my only joy during my time here in Athens. The people here call me The Kephallonian Whore once the word of my pregnancy got out. Athenians sure love to gossip. My uncle gave up trying to find me a husband, said I was a lost cause.

The only friend I have here is Phoibe. Why is she in Athens? Well, it turns out she snuck onto the ship that I took to come here. She now works for Perikles's lover, Aspasia. Perikles is the leader of Attika. But now he was sick with the plauge that has infected Athens.

Luckily, my aunt, uncle, Alexa and I haven't gotten the plauge. Thank the gods. I wouldn't know what to do if my darling daughter became sick. I kept her inside, to try to prevent the sickness from coming to her.

She looks so much like her father. Same brown eyes, same dark brown hair, same smile. She even has his Spartan appetite. I even named her after him.

"Mama." Alexa says and I smile at her. My aunt walks in the nursery and she clears her throat. My smile instantly drop and I turn around to look at my aunt.

"Yes?" I ask.

"Put the child down and come with me." She tells me, making me scoff.

"I can hold my child if I want to." I shake my head and I kiss Alexa's cheek.

"She is nothing more than the bastard of you and whom ever you whored around with." My aunt says coldly, "You are lucky your uncle let you keep that child. He could have just took her and let her die from the elements." I roll my eyes and shake my head, "She is the reason why you will never find a decent husband."

"I already have a decent man." I tell her.

"And where is he, hmm?" My aunt scoffs and laughs, "He left you alone to raise her!"

"He loves me." I tell her calmly.

"If he loved you, then he wouldn't have left you." My aunt tells me, "Belive me, I want what's best for you. I love you like one of my own."

"You called me a whore." I laugh and I shake my head, "Sure sounds like love to me." I say sarcastically.

I kiss Alexa's forehead and I bounce her up and down. She coos and I smile down at my beautiful daughter. I place my hand on the two-year-old's curly brown hair and I hold her close to me.

"There is someone here to see you." My aunt suddenly tells me. I turn my attention back to my aunt and I frown.

"Did they say who they were?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"He didn't say who he was." She tells me, "He just said that she had to see you." I nod my head and I walk past her with Alexa still in my arms. I walk down the stairs and I see my aunt's slave girl holding the door open. I begged my aunt and uncle to free the girl, but my uncle says that she has to work off a debt her family owes him.

Once I was at the bottom of the stairs my eyes widen when I see someone that I was so happy to see again, Alexios. My (e/c) eyes fill with tears and I cover my mouth to muffle my sobs. I look at the slave girl, Delia, "Please take her, Delia." I tell her and she nods and takes Alexa from my arms.

Alexios lets out a breath of relief when he sees me and I run towards him. When our bodies collided I wrapped my arms around his neck and I kissed him deeply. My hands cup his cheeks and I felt that they were wet from tears. I then pull away when he didn't return my kiss.

"What's wrong?" I ask, worried as I saw that hid eyes were filled with tears threating to fall, "Alexios, come inside."

"No...there's no time." He tells me and I raise an eyebrow, "I need to get you and...." he begins to say and his gazes looms over something behind me. I turn my head and I smile when I realized that he was looking at our daughter. I gesture for Delia to bring Anastasia over and she gives me the toddler.

"Her name is Alexa...named after you." I tell him and his eyes soften as he looks at her, "You can hold her." I tell him and Alexa was looking up at him, curious about who he was. I place Alexa in his arms and I think he instantly fell in love with her. His thumb caresses the toddler's cheek.

"She's beautiful." He says.

"She has your good looks." I smirks and he chuckles and sniffles, "Come inside." I repeat. His smile fades and he looks up at me.

"No...I have to get you and our daughter out of Athens." He urgently says and grabs my hand and attempts to make me walk with him. I did want to leave with him, I mean, I have nothing here but an aunt and uncle that no longer see me as their little neice, I believe they saw me as a burden. Then again, I had little Phoibe to keep me company when she had time to. Also, there was the plague....

As much as I wanted to leave, I wanted answers from him. So, I pull my and out of his grip, "What?" He asks and hulis expression was a mixture of surprise and confusion.

"I need answers from you." I tell him, making him scoffs, "What?"

"I will tell you anything you want to know once we get to my ship." He promises.

"I want answers now, Alexios of Sparta!" I raise my voice. I then glance down at Alexa and she was looking at me with concern, she hated when I yelled. I take her from Alexios and I kiss her cheek, "Why are you in such a rush to leave?" I soften my voice.

"If you haven't noticed, there is a plague going on." He so greatfully informs me.

"Oh really?!" I act surprised, "I haven't noticed the smell of bodies burning and all of the sick people. Thank you for telling me." I say sarcastically. He frowns, not amused at all.

"How did you know where I was?" I ask. Alexios sighs and looks away from me.

"I was here, in Athens, two years ago." He tells me, "I encountered...Phoibe here and she told me that you were here too. She showed me where you live." I felt my blood boil and I glare at him.

"You knew where I was, and never visited me?!" I raise my voice.

"I stayed away from you to keep you safe!" He defends himself, "The more we talk, the more in danger you and Alexa are in." He tells me and I raise an eyebrow.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Alexios?" I ask and then I see three armored people with menacing looking masks coming towards us. Two of them were brutish men holding shields and large axes. The other one was a woman and she didn't have a shield, but was equipped with two daggers.

"Alexios..." I whisper as I look at the three armored people. Alexios looks behind his shoulder and sees the three people.

"Run." He tells me and he pulls his sword out.

"Alexios..."

"Do as I say!" He yells at me in a whisper. Without another word I run away from Alexios and those people in armor as fast as I could while carrying Alexa.

"Get the child." I heard the brutish man tell the woman. I then run fast as I heard her footsteps behind me. Panick sets in as I was running away from her and I held my daughter close to me.

What did they want with my baby? How did they find out about her anyway?

I run to the empty agora. It was quite a sad sad sight to see. It was once alive with people laughing and shop owners selling various things, now it was empty.

I look behind me and I didn't see the woman but I knew she was close. I stop in my tracks and I look around to find a place to hide my child. I then see an empty basket that was large enough to fit Alexa. I put her in the basket and she whines and holds her arms out to me.

"No, no, sweetheart." I say gently and I kiss her forehead. She smiles and I press a finger to my lips, "Shhh." She then copies me and stays quiet, "Mater loves you so much." I whisper and I kiss her forehead. I stand up and step away from the basket and I see a weapons rack. I then grab a spear and the armored woman turns the corner.

She sees me and laughs, "Do you even know how to use that thing?"

"Come here and see." I hiss at her. I actually didn't really know how use one...I just wanted to act brave, to not show fear.

"Don't be stupid." She scoffs, "Give me the child and I won't kill you." I knew she was lying.

"You're lying." I glare at her, "Alexa is mine! I would rather die than give her to you."

"You're choice then." She says and pulls out her daggers once again. I take in a deep breath and I let it out when she comes after me. She goes to cut me with one of the daggers but I deflect her blow with the spear. She then circles around me and I watch her every movement as I point the sharp end of the spear at her.

We then the basket that I hid Alexa tip over and Alexa falls out. The woman looks at me and just as she was about to go after the giggling toddler I go to attack the woman.

"You will not touch a hair on her head!" I hiss at her. She chuckles and lunges at me. I attempt to move away, but she cuts my left arm. I hiss in pain and breath heavily. She comes at me again and I successfully dodge her. I then run towards her and imale her through her stomach.

I let go of the weapon and she falls to the ground and her mask falls off. I watch as the woman gags on her own blood as she dies. I only snap out of it when I hear Alexa crying. I run to the child and I pick her up and kisses her cheek over and over.

"Shh, don't cry." I whisper, "Mater is here, Alexa." I wipe the tears from her eyes and hold her close.

"(F/n)!" I hear Alexios yell out.

"Alexios!" I call out for him. I then see him turn a corner into the agora. He sees me and runs after me. He wraps me in his arm and breathes a sigh of relief.

"Thank the gods." He whispers and kisses me quickly. He then notices the cut on my arm.

"I'm fine." I tell him and I place a hand on his cheek, "We're both fine." I saw and smile down at our daughter. My smile fell when I realized that Phoibe was still out there, "We need to find Phoibe. We need to make sure she's safe." Alexios gulps and he looks down at the ground and sniffles, "What?"

"Phoibe's dead." Alexios tells me in a shakey voice. My eyes widen and I shake my head.

"No...she can't be...what happened to her?" I ask as I felt tears run down my cheeks.

"She was killed by the same people that were after you and Alexa." He explains, "The Cult of Kosmos." My lips press together in a thin line, "I tried to get to her...but I was too late."

"Gut every single one of them." I say darkly, "All of them must die."

"They will." Alexios promises, "I will make sure of it." I then kiss him deeply and I felt him press his hands on my hips.

"I missed you so much." I whisper to him.

"And I missed you, my love." He says.

"I want to leave with you." I tell him and I look into his eyes.

"My ship and crew are waiting for us." He tells me. So we went to his ship and told me everything that happened during his journey.

His little sister, Kassanda, was alive, but was now the unofficial leader of the Cult of Kosmos. She was raised by the cult and they gave her the name Deimos. He also knew where is mother is. She's on the island of Naxos and is the leader of the island. I was nervous to meet her and I  tell that Alexios was as well. He hadn't seen her for so long.

I wondered what she would think of me. Would she like me? Or would she hate me? What would she think of her granddaughter?

Well, I won't know until I finally meet her.