Prologue: Diana and Actaeon

Many variations of this particular myth exist, the most popular of which portrays the hunter, Actaeon, as an unfortunate hunter who stumbles upon the goddess bathing one night and is dumbstruck by her beauty. Diana, outraged, flings water from her bathing pool upon him, transforming him into a stag and robbing him of his ability to speak. No longer recognizing their master, Actaeon's own hounds attack him.

The myth is meant to remind mortals of the cruelty of the gods, illustrating, in particular, Diana's own mercilessness.

However, many other versions of this myth exist. In some, Diana and Actaeon were close companions. Sometimes the hounds are Diana's.

Sometimes Actaeon is not so innocent.

This is the story that Will Graham sees as it washes over his burning mind. He is sitting, shivering, on the bathroom floor. He is not wearing any clothes, and blood is mixing with the water that drenches his body.

In his mind he is somewhere else; he is in a forest.

Actaeon was once a great hunter and a trusted companion of the dark-haired and solitary goddess, Diana.

One night Diana went to bathe in a dark and sacred pool deep in the forest, guarded by her hounds and by the chill light of the moon above her. Actaeon crept silently into the clearing, his mind full of wickedness. He attempted to force himself on the goddess, whom he had been lusting after since the beginning. Diana dipped her hand into the water of the sacred spring and flung the drops upon Actaeon.

His face lengthened, his eyes went dark, and antlers began to sprout from his skull. Diana had transformed him into a stag.

Diana's hounds, no longer recognizing their master's companion, as he had become a beast, fell upon him and tore him to pieces.

Will Graham is still shivering. He has the kind of cold that cannot be easily broken, the kind of cold that will stay with him for quite some time. He knows where he is; he knows how he got there, but does wonder why.

He wonders why the dogs have not stopped barking.

He wonders why the stag has not stopped screaming. It must be unconscious by now, if not dead, but he can hear sharp and clear inside his skull.

Perhaps it is only an echo.