Chapter 14
Abhay began narrating his story.
It was 300 years ago Pia. I was born into a family of priests. My grandfather always used to say that we are direct descendants of the most trusted maid of the Goddess of moon – Goddess Selene, the original witch – your first ancestor. And she had asked our ancestor to guard a sacred amulet held in a necklace with her life before dying. Nobody knew why that amulet was so precious but had made my ancestor who went by the name of Gracia, promise that not only she but her entire generations to come will guard the necklace with their lives. But when Gracia questioned her what if any of her descendant were to die heir-less, Selene only told her that under such eventuality, the necklace will call out for her living descendant at that time and he/she will become the new guardian of the necklace till the time the descendant with the power to unlock the amulet from the necklace is born. This revelation itself had shocked Gracia as Selene was not known to have married anyone, then how come she would be having a descendant. But later on it was found that Selene did have a secret lover and had been away from Greece for almost a year and had changed quite a lot after her return. Whether she bore a child in that time or not, was not known and nobody tried to find it out.
Generations after generations went by and the necklace kept changing its guards who all believed what was said about the necklace and never questioned the belief that this amulet held extreme powers which if fallen into bad hands could mean destruction and hence it was their most important duty to guard it. But by the time I came into this world, times had changed a lot. Science had made so much advancements that I found it hard to believe what my ancestors all believed. That there could even have been a witch was also questionable to me. Also, the fact that nobody had ever even tried to steal that necklace also made me doubtful if there really could be a power associated with that necklace. When I became the priest and was handed over the necklace as per the tradition to guard it. It seemed like a joke to me, but my promise meant more to me than any reason or faith and I had promised to guard it with my life and that I did.
Pia interrupted him saying: Abhay why are you telling me about this necklace now? I want to know about the girl you loved right now.
Abhay continued: I am coming to that part Pia. Because the more I try to make sense of Maithili's disappearance, yes her name was Maithili, more I suspect if that had anything to do with the necklace.
Pia was a little worried about this and asked: What do you mean?
Abhay went on: It was a year after I had been a priest. I was closing the temple for the night before retiring to my home when I first saw her. She was sitting on the pathway outside the temple door looking lost. I had never seen her before in the town and being the head priest of a small town, (yes Greece was a small village at that time), I knew everyone in the town. So I gathered that she must be new to the village. I locked the temple gates securely and approached her.
Flashback
Abrax: May I help you young lady?
Maithili(confused and scared): Who are you?
Abrax (calmly): I am the head priest of this temple and was returning home after closing the temple for the night. You seem to be new to Greece. May I know what brought you here and what you are doing here alone at this hour of the night?
Maithili(crying): I don't know this country Sir. A man offered money to my poor father in India to allow him to marry me and brought me here. But, after coming here, I got to know his true intentions. He only wanted a cheap domestic help to do the household chores. He already has a wife and I am nothing but a slave to them. They make me work whole day without a moment's rest and give me only the food left over by their pet dogs. I feel so miserable. I do not even have the money to go back to my country. Also, I got to know that the man has led my younger sister in India captive and if I even try to run away, he will recover the money he spent on me, by selling her off as a sex slave. I don't even know what to do. It has been months since I have been here and it was only today that the mistress took pity on me and allowed me to visit the temple after closing hours so that I could search in the garbage and see if I can find any food for myself. Under no circumstance am I allowed to step out of the house at any other time or talk to anyone about me. I feel so helpless.
Saying this Maithili had fainted and Abrax lifted her up and took her to his house feeling pity for her. He looked at her face for the first time under the lamp light of his house and her face was inhumanly beautiful yet her closed eyes spoke of immense pain and sadness. Abrax gently tugged a loose strand of hair behind her ears and this action made Maithili regain consciousness. She rose up with a start and asked in a panic voice: Where am I?
Abrax replied in a calm voice: You are at my home. You had fainted while crying and so I brought you here. Now have some water and food.
Maithili quickly drank the glass of water but refused the food saying: I must go. If madam comes to know I have been eating good food, she would cane me alive. She told me strictly that if I eat good food, then it will corrupt me and make me more demanding and she would not tolerate any demands for me. Her husband has already paid a huge amount to me and I must pay off that amount by serving her.
Abrax insisted her to have some of it but Maithili was very scared. She then got up to leave saying: It's been too late Sir. I must leave now or the madam would not even let me roam the streets in search of food again.
Abrax felt worried for this girl and asked if he would be able to see her again to which she replied that she would come to the temple whenever madam would allow as she found some good sweets in the trash bin today. This simple statement melted Abrax's heart even more and he simply prayed that this girl be set free soon from her bondage.
The next day Abrax had waited whole day for night to come so that temple closing time comes. He was eager to meet the lady of the last night. He had even forgotten to ask her name. He closed the temple door sharp at the closing time and waited to see her again at the doors. But she did not come. Worry filled him from inside. What if her captors had found where she went and what all she said? He did not even know where she lived. What if those people had tortured her? The thoughts kept tormenting him and he kept pacing left to right and right to left on the temple doors for 3 hours till the fatigue took over him and he headed back to his house to catch a restless short nap before dawn when it was time to open the temple gates again.
He performed his duties at the temple half heartedly that day as his mind kept drifting off to that unknown stranger. The night came and Abrax was too anxious now. Will she come tonight? Or has something happened to her? But his worries were put to rest while locking the doors, when he saw her approaching from behind the garbage bins holding some trash paper in her hands part of which was hanging from her mouth. The site should have disgusted him, but it only made his heart melt further and he rushed to her and before any of them could understand a thing, he had taken her into his tight embrace and he was asking her if she was ok? He heard her replying in sobs that she was ok, but the work had left her too tired to come out last night. He tried to look at her face, but she had quickly wiped her tears away and pulled herself out of his embrace. She stood there slightly embarrassed and that's when Abrax realized his action and he sheepishly apologized to her without daring to look at her. She too nodded her head shyly. No words were required to express what these two strangers had started feeling for each other without even knowing each other's name. Days passed and Abrax and Maithili started meeting almost every day or every other day. No matter how much Abrax tried to share good food with Maithili, she would always refuse and would always become scared of her being found out or their relationship coming out in the open. Abrax wished he could help her, but as a priest he himself survived on donations only and had no money to help Maithili back. He was also aware of the laws of the times which sadly were not in favour of the bought slaves. He had suggested that they elope many times, but Maithili had always refused saying that she did not want her sister to go through that hellish fate, which made Abrax more in awe of Maithili.
But one day Maithili came to him covered in blood. She had wounds everywhere. She could barely walk and almost collapsed in Abrax's arms when he reached out to her. In a broken voice she said, "They have found out about us. They are selling me to a merchant from Paris. He runs a brothel there. Please save me." And she fainted in his arms. Abrax took her to his home and sprinkled water on her face to bring her about. He decided that it is time that they should elope from here and so started packing whatever he had.
Present
Abhay was continuing the narrative: It was just at the time when I was packing that necklace safely, that she came around and asked me what it was. I tried to divert her saying, that it was just a family heirloom and tried to hide it up fast, but her eyes seemed to be sparkling for the first time since I had seen her. She got up and took the necklace from my hands and exclaimed, "It's solid Gold isn't it?"I nodded my head in the affirmative and once again tried to pack it up before she held my hand and said, "Please help me Abrax. This necklace can buy me freedom from the hellish fate my master has chosen for me. I promise I would serve you all my life and would not give you any reason to complain in lieu of your help. If you do not want to marry me, I would remain content just being your mistress, because I love you with my heart, but please do not let that man sell me and rob me of my honour against my will. Please Abrax, I beg of you to save me from that life which is worse than death."
I assured her that everything will be alright. We would run away immediately and go to India and save her sister too. I had saved up enough money for that. But she said, we will be too late as it would have taken us a month to reach India by sea, and by then they would have already sold her sister off. She again begged me to give that necklace to her so that she could buy her freedom back, but I just could not break that promise I had made to my father and he to his father and so on. We had a big argument and she accused me of not loving her and valuing a stupid promise and superstition over her honour. I was feeling miserable but I still could not convince myself to break my promise. Ideally I should have put whatever superstitions or beliefs I had and helped her but I do not know what kept me from doing that. More she begged me, more reluctant I became in giving away that locket even though her accusatory words were killing me from inside. It was then she exclaimed that if I was not willing to help her, then she might as well kill herself rather than be shamed in the way her master had planned to do. And before I could stop her, she had ran outside towards the temple store room, bolted it from inside and set it on fire.
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