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“What’s wrong?” I wanted to know in astonishment and stopped as well.
"Myrina, did the garden on the roof terrace really feel as real as you described?" she asked, almost piercing me with her gaze.
“Aspasia, we’ve already settled that issue,” I sighed, following the course of the tunnel again. “I’ve only imagined all of this.”
"I don't believe it was imagination. And neither do you if you're honest with yourself," she replied sharply. Immediately, I stopped and turned to her.
“What are you getting at, Aspasia?”
“You’re hiding something from us. A detail that still makes you believe it.” The Amazon tilted her head and watched me.
"I …" I stammered. "I …. I don't remember what actually happened or didn't happen," I sighed.
Aspasia came up to me and pulled me into a hug.
“You don’t have to tell me everything. Keep your secret to yourself. But believe me, there is more to this world than the mind can grasp. More than you think you can see. And no matter how unreal something seems, if your heart tells you it’s reality, listen to it.”
She pushed me away from her at arm's length, and her gaze bored deep into mine. "The mind doesn't see as much as the heart. Trust your gut and dare to believe in the impossible."
Confused, I let her words sink in. What exactly was she trying to tell me?
Smiling, she pulled me further in the direction where the women were waiting for us.
"Think about it calmly before you dismiss your garden as a hallucination. After all, you also thought, until recently, that the Amazons were a legend, and here I am, standing before you. A real Amazon of flesh and blood." She grinned mischievously at me, and little sparks danced in her eyes.
A grin stole onto my face, and I nudged her teasingly in the side. “Are you going to throw around wisdom like that more often now?”
“Who knows. Maybe.” Smiling, we walked on.
“Where does the name Aspasia actually come from?” I asked her, having wondered about it several times before but never finding the appropriate moment to bring it up to her. “I’ve never heard the name before.”
"Well … it's scarce." Suddenly, she sounded lost in thought and dismissive. "But I can't tell you where it originally came from."
She kicked a stone with her foot, which flew through the corridor with a lot of noise. Apparently, this question made her uncomfortable.
Even from a distance, I saw the light emanating from the large underground hall that housed so many women who had fled.
"Are you sure you want to go straight home?" Aspasia looked at me challengingly. The fatigue had faded during our conversation, and now, in bed, I would go insane. So, what better way than to push myself to the limits physically? To work off the energy and frustrations.
“Is that a challenge?” I gazed at her with narrowed eyes.
“If that’s what you need, then yes,” came her reply, and I knew she needed that right now, too.
We were still facing each other on the training mat an hour later. Sweat ran down our backs, but an insatiable energy glowed in our eyes.
A crowd had formed around us. The women, including Emma, were equally cheering us on and having a blast watching us challenge each other
repeatedly.
My hand-to-hand combat skills have improved quite a bit in the last few weeks. The daily training was paying off.
I could recognize, parry, and implement a sequence of steps much faster. In the meantime, mere defense had become an attack, and dealing with something I could influence felt good. Unlike all the events around us.
Aspasia lunged forward with a wolfish grin and tried to throw me off balance with a right hook to the chin and a simultaneous spin. But I saw through this move, stepped to the side, and spun around once to come out behind her. There, I thrust my flat hand between her shoulder blades, causing her to stumble.
“Aspasia! Myrina!” we suddenly heard Maggy’s excited voice wafting from one of the tunnels.
We both paused, and the other women stepped aside to let Maggy through, shouting loudly and waving a piece of paper. Not far behind her ran Jack, who wore a satisfied and, at the same time, triumphant smile on his face.
