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SANTORINIGREECE , 1990

COMPLETELY MOTIONLESS, MEGEARA SAATSAKIS STOOD ON the edge of a cliff looking out on waters so perfectly blue they were alrant with sea salt, olive oil froht in a hoion The hot sun caressed her tanned skin while the fierce breeze whipped her plain white dress against her body Boats glided over the gentle waves in a surreal manner that took her back to the days of her childhood when she&039;d walked these cliffs and shore with her father and mother while they&039;d done their best to instill in her what it meant to be Greek

It was truly one of the most beautiful scenes in all the world, and any other twenty-four-year-old would love to be here

She only wished she were one of the fervor To her,Greece was death and sorrow, utter misery, and she would rather have fishhooks pounded into her body than ever step foot on this land again

Her long blond hair that she had swept back in a ponytail slapped against her skin as she sought sohts But there was none to be had

Only bottled-up rage ed father was dead He&039;d died as he&039;d lived in pursuit of a stupid, reckless dream that had taken not only his life but also that of her mother, her brother, her aunt, and her uncle

" Atlantis is real, Geary I can feel it radiating out to eanjust below us, like a lost, glittering ge for us to find it and show the world what beauty it once held" Even now she could hear her father&039;s hypnotic voice as he held her hand on top of the water for her to feel the softness of the waves as they whispered against her tiny palm She could still see his handsome, enthusiastic face as he first told her why they spent soto find Atlantis and show the wonder of it to everyone else Mark my words, babe

It&039;s there and our faic"

That had been his lunatic dreaive to her, but unlike the rest of her kookie fah to buy into it

Atlantis was a bogus myth made up by Plato as a ods Like Lovecraft&039;s Necronomicon, it was only a fictional invention that people wanted to believe in so badly they illing to sacrifice everything to find it

Now her father lay in his grave on the island he&039;d loved so much He&039;d died broken and bitter, a shell of a man who&039;d buried his beloved brother, his son, his wife

And for what? Everyone had laughed at hi with his respectability, as a professor years ago, and the only way he&039;d been able to have his research published was in vanity presses

Hell, even the vanity publishers had laughed at hi to even take his money to publish his ridiculous work Still he&039;d carried on in his feverish desire to give people even h at him, which they&039;d done with relish

But even with that, at least she&039;d seen him one more time before he passed and he hadn&039;t died alone as he&039;d feared Sonosis, her father had ht a plane froh their h to uilt over abandoning her for his search

If only she could have found a bit of that peace for herself There still was no such forgiveness inside her where he was concerned No randfather had tried to explain her father to her, she knew the truth The only thing that man had ever loved had been his dream, and he had sacrificed his entire family her entire family for it

Now at twenty-four, because of him, she had no brother and no parents

She was utterly alone in the world

And her deathbed promise to her father to carry on his work burned inside her like a ra fire It was one of the few tiht of hi on a cold hospital bed while he desperately clung to life had torn her apart, and even though they&039;d barely spoken these last eight years, she hadn&039;t had the heart to hurt hiiven

She curled her lip as she watched the waves roll against the white shore "Find Atlantis, my ass I won&039;t ruin myself like you did, Dad I&039;m not that stupid"

"Dr Kafieri?"

She turned at the sound of a heavily accented Greek voice to find a short, rotundat her A cousin to her father, Cosmo Tsiaris had been their family attorney here inGreeceA pseudo-partner in her father&039;s salvage coain perh she&039;d known Cos Kafieri had been her father&039;s nao after her applications to college had been rejected even though she more thanclassics, history, or anthropology department would ever accept a Kafieri into its ranks for fear of the taint So she&039;d learned to use her mother&039;s maiden name to save her credibility and reputation

Like the rest of her immediate family, Geary Kafieri had died on these shores

"I&039;ht smile curved his lips "You married!"

"No," she said sially changed o when I went back to the States and sued for emancipation from my father"

She could tell by Cos, and that was fine by her With his patriarchal , he didn&039;t comment on her words as he held a small box toward her "I told Eneas that in the event of his death, I would hter That would still be you, yes?"

"Yes," she said, ignoring his sarcasstock as her progenitor?

Megeara flinched at that thought In all honesty, she loved her father Even when his grief and quest had robbed hi, even his sanity and health, she&039;d still loved hi father to her when she&039;d been a girl It&039;d only been after she&039;d hit her teens and started questioning his research and fervor that they&039;d grown apart

" Atlantis is bullshit, Dad All this research is I don&039;t want to be on this stupid boat anyo to school and be nor your time and my life!" He&039;d slapped her so hard on her fifteenth birthday that she swore she could still feel the sting of it

"Don&039;t you dare spit on your ave their lives for this"

Sixline had tangled, and his tank had run out of oxygen That had been the final straeen her and her father She wasn&039;t going to be Jason She wasn&039;t going to give up her life for someone else&039;s dreams ever

So what if she&039;d promised her father? He was dead now He&039;d never know she reneged He&039;d died happy and she could finally put the past to rest and carry on with her life inArandfather, she intended to leave this country and never step foot on it again

Cosmo handed her the plain white box, then left her alone to open it

Megeara stared at it for several ht find Would it be some personal memento that would reduce her back to tears? She honestly didn&039;t want to cry anymore for a man who&039;d broken her heart so in to count theot the better of her and she opened the box At first, there appeared to be nothing but crinkled acid-free tissue paper She had to dig to the bottom of it all to find what it contained

And what she found there floored her She stared at her palht, unable to even fathom it

There were two ite of worry beads similar in style to a small rosary that some Greeks used when stressed, only she&039;d never seen anything like this before The age and design of it appeared to predate any form of koreen beads made of some unknown stone that had been carved with tiny intricate fa clothes unlike any she&039;d seen before in her research The carvings were interspersed with five gold beads that were engraved with three lightning bolts piercing a sun Where a koht hold a small Greek piece such as a di that was similar to ancient Greek and yet very different So much so that not even she who had been bred on ancient Greek could decipher it