Medicine, Morality and Religion In Assassin's Creed Odyssey

The science of medicine plays an important role in the story of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, as well as in several of its side-quests. Back in the ancient times, people would not easily trust a physician, as they believed that sickness and recovery were works of the gods. Most healers had to present themselves as practicians who were working on behalf of the gods, so that the people would accept their aid and therapy. Asklepios was worshipped as the god of healing, and Hygeia (meaning Health in greek) was a goddess representing the health of body and mind, also worshipped in shrines and places of healing. In the game, there are several stories, major or minor, where healers and physicians are protagonists, and their stories involve conflicts with religious ideas or moral dilemmas, or both.

The Sanctuary of Asklepios in Argolis

The first time that the theme of medicine comes to the spotlight is during the side-quest "The Blood Fever" in Kephallonia, near the start of the game. A severe plague has struck a small village, infecting almost all the residents, and since there was no authorized physician on the island, a group of priests took control of the situation, resorting to a rather extreme solution: they burnt the village, at the same time killing all the sick people, to prevent the plague from spreading to the whole island. Phoebe, Alexios's little friend, sends him to the village to investigate, because she suspects that a family that she happens to know (she is good friends with the daughter) is in danger. When Alexios arrives at the village, he sees that the priests, having found out that all four members of the family, the sole survivors of the plague so far, are infected as well, are about to kill them. 

Alexios talking to the chief priest

The chief priest explains the situation to Alexios, claiming that there is no other way to deal with the infection; it is more than certain that if the members of the family are set free, they will undoubtedly infect the rest of the island which, for the time being, seems completely unaffected by the plague. Alexios then is called to make a hard decision: let the priests kill the family, or kill the priests and set the family free. Both decisions have good and bad outcomes. If he leaves without intervening, the priests will kill the sick people, but the rest of Kephallonia will remain healthy and safe. Phoebe however will be very sad that he did not save her friend, but this is not the worst part: when, much later, he will have the chance to consult the Pythia at Delphi, the oracle will blame him for letting those innocent people die. On the other hand, if he kills the priests, setting the family free, very soon the whole island will be irreversibly infected, and will remain under the curse of the plague for the rest of the story. This brief quest highlights how much people relied on the gods for such matters: the priests believe that their extreme measures is the right thing to do, certain that they act on behalf of the gods. The moral dilemma, however, remains. Is it worthy to sacrifice a few people for the common good? Or even in such tough situations it is always life that matters above all? Regardless, in this specific case things are quite complicated, because if you let the family live, they will indeed infect the rest of the island, eventually leading more people to death. It is a difficult decision, also foreshadowing similar dilemmas that Alexios will have to deal with later, either with his decisions or with his actions.

The sick family is not an easy case to deal with

One of the important supporting characters in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the renowned real-life physician Hippokrates, who appears in crucial crossroads during the story's development and has his own brief series of additional quests, which set moral questions related to his profession. Alexios first meets Hippokrates in Argos, during the main story quest "First Do No Harm", after having gathered important information regarding the whereabouts of his mother: after the dramatic events on Mount Taygetos that left her grieving the supposed death of Alexios, Myrrine run away from Sparta with a heavily wounded baby Kassandra and travelled to the Sanctuary of Asklepions in Argolis, in a desperate attempt to save the life of at least one of her children. Hippokrates was a healer in the region, so Alexios went to Argos to seek him out. Arriving at his clinic, however, he saw Chrysis, a priestess of Hera, threatening one of Hippokrates's students, Sostratos, demanding from him to inform the physician that he should stop offering his services to the people, because, according to her, his practices were against the will of the gods.

Alexios saving Sostratos from Chrysis's wrath

In this part of the quest, the conflict between religious beliefs and practical science becomes even more evident, as Chrysis directly accuses Hippokrates of defying the gods by healing his patients. Being a priestess, she blatantly proclaims herself appointed by Hera and Asklepios to offer her clearly suspicious aid to the sick people. Her harsh, threatening demeanor betrays her ulterior motives, however, as her attitude is far from holy. After facing her and saving Sostratos from her wrath, Alexios finally has the chance to speak to Hippokrates, whom he finds in the middle of a healing session. The physician appears collected and calm, the exact opposite of Chrysis, as he attends to his patients.

Alexios finds Hippokrates at a makeshift medical clinic

Back in those times, the "presence" of gods was a standard in everyday life and its activities. Even educated people like Hippokrates or Sokrates would accept the existence of gods without doubting it, at least not to a critical degree. This way of thinking is depicted with great precision in the game, and it is very accurate that Herodotos, being a historian and a scholar with vast knowledge of the past and, therefore, able to look way forward in the future, was the only one to practically realize that people imputing life's events to the gods was in fact an easy way for them to either not take responsibility or deceive others. Hippokrates was somewhere in the middle: he had respect for the gods, he was aware of the power of faith that in many cases would indeed help people get better, but he also knew that practical and actual healing was what a patient truly needed in order to recover. When Alexios sees him for the first time, he is treating a man who does suffer from a disease, but he is also worn out by an emotional wound caused by neglect; and he knows that curing him from the disease, will help him in the sentimental part as well, because he will feel that someone actually cares for him.

Hippokrates and a nurse-in-training treating a very sick patient

This introductory quest ends with Hippokrates asking Alexios to bring him back his notes, needed for the treatment of his patient, that were stolen by Chrysis and were being kept at a nearby fort. During the previous discussion with out hero, the physician told him that at the time when Myrrine arrived seeking help for her baby, he was too young to aid her, so he did not know much about what happened to her there, advising Alexios to visit the Sanctuary of Asklepios and look for the priests who probably had more information to give. Chosing which task to do first is quite tricky, as again picking the one over the other in hierarchy has both good and bad consequences. Going to the fort to retrieve the notes first in the quest "The Doctor Will See You Now", looks like the most logical thing to do, but it comes at a price. Alexios locates what looks like the stolen notes in the room where the fort's physician, Dymas, is treating a patient. The doctor informs our hero that the biggest part of the notes were burnt during an attack at the fort, but thankfully he had studied them before and was able to remember them, therefore he could go to Hippokrates and help him write them down again. Although he expresses his admiration and respect towards Hippokrates, he refuses to follow Alexios back to him, as he has his own patient to look after. At this point, we are given a variety of options on how to deal with him, but the essence is that if Alexios manages to bring Dymas to Hippokrates immediately, independently of how he does it, Hippokrates's patient will be healed, but Dymas's patient will die. If Alexios decides to stay a bit more at the fort and help Dymas treat his patient, the latter will recover but when they go back to Hippokrates, his own patient will have died. The dilemma in this story is not so much of a moral nature, but it rather highlights the struggles that physicians have to deal with, when forced to decide on the fate of their patients. The interesting thing in Dymas's case is that if Alexios offers to pay him a good amount of money so as to follow him back to Hippokrates, the doctor will immediately accept, leaving his patient behind and helpless without the slightest remorse, an outcome that showcases a rather dark side of a character who would look quite honest and responsible in any other case.

Dymas is a healer with weaknesses

The quests involving the Priests of Asklepios, apart from affecting the development of the main story also involve some interesting elements on their own. In the quest "Enough Is Enough" the first priest, Pylenor, sends Alexios to rid off the snakes that have invaded the Sanctuary's bath house, causing the death of a man. As it turns out, Pylenor does not know anything about Myrrine, as he was assigned to the Sanctuary long after she was already gone. But the important detail in his story is that he lets slip off that Chrysis had apparently threatened him to refuse to give any kind of information to Alexios, something that further highlights how worthy the priestess thought herself to be, believing that she was entitled to keep the priests under her control, always declaring that her actions were god-driven.

Pylenor does not look like he takes his role seriously enough

The next priest, Timoxenos, whom Alexios meets in the quest "Written In Stone" has more insight to offer, but he too has been threatened by Chrysis and is not willing to speak to our hero directly. However he leads him to a series or record stones, one of which describes Myrrine's arrival at the Sanctuary. Timoxenos, being an older priest, is far more compassionate than the younger and apparently light-headed Pylenor; moreover he gives Alexios some interesting information about Chrysis and her past; how she used to be a good student at the Sanctuary, but at some point something happened and she became so cruel and authoritative that she managed to keep the place under her control, resulting in everyone being afraid of her.

Timoxenos and Alexios in front of Myrrine's record stone

The third priest, with whom Alexios has the chance to speak in the quest "A Heart For A Head" is the most co-operative of the three, although the brief story involving him sheds more light on the practices carried out at the Sanctuary, as opposed to Hippokrates's medical treatments, as it shifts temporarily to a mini quest inside the quest with one more moral dilemma in its center. The priest is treating a little girl who is suffering from an unidentified disease, and he is planning to perform a series of sacrifices to Asklepios so as to hopefully heal the girl and pray for some other things as well. He sends Alexios to find and bring a specific white bull to be sacrificed for this purpose, but Alexios locates the bull's carcass and brings back only its heart. With just the heart, the priest is able to carry out only one sacrifice, at which point Alexios is asked to choose who will be the one to benefit from the sacrifice: the little girl, a wealthy woman who is afraid that she will die and leave her children behind or a farmer who was the owner of the bull and now that the animal is dead, he can no longer provide for the people under his care.

Alexios has a touch choice to make

After this dilemma is solved, the priest informs Alexios that Mydon, the elder priest, is the one who actually knows Myrrine's story in full and is in fact the only one who can help him in his quest, except for he can't speak because he has cut out his tongue. When Alexios finally meets Mydon in the quest "Speak No Evil", he is informed by the priest's servant that it was Chrysis who made him cut his tongue to prove that he was loyal to her and so that she could make sure that he would never be able to tell anyone about Myrrine. Unbeknownst to Chrysis, however, Mydon had already confessed everything to his servant in the past, so she is able to narrate the whole story to Alexios on his behalf.

The elder priest Mydon and his loyal servant

As it becomes more and more clear that the common denominator in all these events is Chrysis, her role in Kassandra's fate also slowly comes into the light. It is revealed that when Myrrine arrived at the Sanctuary, the baby was almost dead. Mydon was the one that run to help her, but Chrysis, recognizing Myrrine's rare ancestry and her daughter's demigod status, intervened and took the baby, ordering the priest to lie to Myrrine by informing her that they were unable to save Kassandra and she finally succumbed to her wounds. Myrrine left Argolis in despair, and Chrysis took Kassandra in the shadows of the Cult of Kosmos, determined to raise her and train her to be a fierce warrior, just what the Cultists needed in order to dominate the world. During Alexios's final confrontation with her in the quest "Ashes to Ashes", the priestess admits all that she has done, for which she seems to be quite proud. Then she sets an altar on fire and throws a sick baby in it, supposedly to heal it. At this crucial point, Alexios can either stay and save the baby, or run after Chrysis and kill her on the spot. If he stays and saves the baby, the mother arrives looking quite calm; she had entrusted the priestess with healing her baby son, probably after being brainwashed, and she did not mind that Chrysis was about to literally sacrifice him. So the sum of Chrysis's practices was a combination of blackmails, threats and tricks to make the people obey her orders blindly, at the same time obstructing Hippokrates's work by openly discrediting his knowledge and healing practices.

Chrysis is one of the most prominent and most ruthless Cultists

In all this, there is a catch, however, that reveals an interesting fact about Chrysis. If Alexios goes to speak to the Priests of Asklepios before infiltrating the fort to retrieve Hippokrates's notes, a secret quest will become available, titled "Herald of Murder". In this quest, Alexios meets a man called Dolops who is afraid for his life after having been attacked by an unknown assailant. After a brief investigation, leading to the conclusion that the man's landlord wants to kill him, Alexios finds and kills the would-be murderer, who, by the looks of it, was associated with the Cultists. During a revealing discussion later, Dolops tells Alexios that he once was a priest at the Sanctuary, helping orphans there while working with Chrysis. Apparently Dolops was a decent and honest man, who respected the Sanctuary and its protector Asklepios, but Chrysis drove him away. The most shocking revelation however is that he is actually Chrysis's son, obviously illegitimate, for whom she felt shame and for this reason kept her connection to him a secret. This is an information of major importance concerning Chrysis and her actions, as not only it sheds some light on her growing insanity but also Alexios is able to use it against her during their final confrontation. Hippokrates, however, always putting the common good above all as he should, being a healer, will judge Alexios rather rigidly if he seeks the Priests of Asklepios before bringing back his notes, as talking to the priests means filling in the blanks in his own quest, while retrieving the notes would mean a potential cure for several sick people.

Dolops is Chrysis's dark secret

Later in the story, after having learnt enough about the possible whearabouts of his mother, Alexios returns to Athens where a plague has spread. In an nightmarish atmosphere filled with death, our hero comes across Hippokrates again in the side-quest "A Growing Sickness". Although the physician cannot identify the nature of the sickness, he still can offer his valuable services to the sick people, and is aware that, in order to limit any further spread of the epidemic, he needs to burn the dead bodies which are still carrying the disease and are lying in the streets, endangering the citizens who are still healthy. 

Hippokrates getting desperate in the plague-striken Athens

This difficult task however is being sabotaged by a notorious group of religious fanatics called The Followers of Ares, who claim to believe that burning the bodies is sacrilegious and prevent him from burning them by invading the areas where he is trying to work and forcing him to leave. What is interesting about this fanatic group, however, is that although they proclaim themselves as religious and sacred, they are extremely violent, with suspicious ritualistic habits which even include cannibalism. The way they present themselves is also very chilling, as they paint their faces very white, so as to look as intimidating as possible. Although brief, this quest highlights very accurately the recurring issue of the conflict between medicine and fanatical religion. Just like Chrysis, but a lot more blatantly, the Followers of Ares are blindly following orders supposedly given by the gods, disregarding completely the educated, scientific approach of Hippokrates. 

The Followers of Ares are self-proclaimed priests and can be seen carrying sickles

At a later time in Thebes, Alexios finds Hippokrates again offering his services to the locals. The quests involving him there pose a series of very interesting moral dilemmas. In the first one, "The Hunting Party", Hippokrates sends Alexios to find a group of hunters that left many hours ago but hadn't returned. Alexios finds the sole survivor at the hunting grounds nearby, bleeding and nearly dead, surrounded by wild bears. After killing the bears and bringing the hunter back to Hippokrates, the physician seems quite reluctant to tend to the man's wounds. In the follow-up quest "Let My Patients Go", it is revealed that the wounded hunter is in fact a ruthless slave trader, who treats his victims with extreme cruelty. Going through a rather frustrating inner struggle, Hippokrates is facing the moral dilemma of whether he should save the life of a man who has already made so many people suffer or not. It is actually the first time that we see the good doctor having such doubts, which implies that the wounded man is indeed a monster. Regardless, it is safe to make Hippokrates follow the good path and treat the man, as this way he will be at ease with his conscience in the long run. Alexios volunteers to free the man's slaves to further support the physician's decision, advising him also to make the the slave trader understand that it was their good will that actually saved his life.

Alexios persuades Hippokrates to spare the life of the cruel slave trader

When this story is over, Hippokrates goes to see another patient, a very wealthy man named Pentheus, who seems to be on his deathbed. In the quest "Inheritance Insurance", old Pentheus, who is a very influential man in the region and his family is in extreme rivalry with the local powerful leader, asks Alexios to go steal important documents and valuables from the leader's house so as to weaken him and thus make sure that his own young son will not be in danger when he dies. During the dialogue, Alexios has the option to ask the man if he should actually kill the guards in the leader house so as to steal the items, something that results in Hippokrates judging him for bringing cold-blooded murder to the table, albeit he does not exactly express it at the time; the reason is that in the previous story the physician himself considered indirect murder by potentially letting the wounded slave trader die helpless, to which Alexios persuaded him to follow the moral path and aid the man. Now the situation is a bit different, however: since Alexios is a mercenary, essentially a hired killer, it is somehow natural for him to pick the lethal path as a means of action when assigned to a mission. Of course being a mercenary does not mean that he does not have moral values, but many times in his trade murder is part of the contract, so there is no sentimentality involved. Alexios is able to fully control this mindset, as it is part of his training and his job; but for Hippokrates, whose most important task is to actually save lives, suddenly switching to such a mindset would be devastating.

Hippokrates and Alexios discussing Pentheus's case

After Alexios returns to Pentheus with the stolen goods, the sick man pleads Alexios to kill him so as to stop his suffering. It is a wish he had also expressed before, but then his priority was securing his son's future safety. In the quest "Too Much of a Good Thing", Hippokrates is seen facing another moral dilemma, as he knows how much his patient is suffering and that death would mean instant relief for him, on the other hand he cannot bring himself together to end his life. The physician sends Alexios to collect hemlock, a strong poisonous plant which, however, in small doses acts as a temporary tranquilizer and pain inhibitor, so as to make a medicinal mixture with it and give it to Pentheus to help him sleep painlessly for a while. When Alexios brings back the hemlock, and after Hippokrates tasks him with grinding the hemlock, it is his turn to deal with a moral dilemma, of whether he should add the right amount of the herb or apply an overdose so that when Pentheus drinks the medicinal mix he will subsequently die, which was the sick man's wish that he confessed to Alexios previously. Although the choice that Alexios makes at this point is quite crucial regarding his future relationship with the physician, at whichever outcome Hippokrates will realize that he has still a lot to learn about ailments and treatments, and be able, through further research and gained experience, to control both his sentimentality and moral doubts.

Alexios contemplating on whether he should add the right amount of hemlock or not

During the time that Alexios passes with Darius and Neema as part of the "Legacy of the First Blade" story, he comes across a strange case of epidemic in the small seaside town of Potidaia in Makedonia. In the quest "Mysterious Malady", people are getting severely sick from something that is extremely contagious, forcing the local magistrate to kill those who cannot recover. When Alexios arrives to investigate, he is informed that Timosa, the local physician, is missing after having left to collect medicinal herbs to help cure the infected.

The magistrate looks suspicious, but in fact he is desperate

On first look, this story feels similar to the one in Kephallonia, but in reality the situation here is a lot different, as several curious facts are gradually uncovered. Alexios locates Timosa on a remote beach, apparently under attack by soldiers who, strangely enough, work for the magistrate. Then Timosa sends Alexios to sink two ships so that he can retrieve from them two bunches of medicinal herbs that she claims had been stolen from her. In the process of fighting the ships and sinking them, Alexios finds out that the "thieves" were in fact professional bandits hired by someone unknown specifically to kill him. Considering all the facts, as well as Neema's discovery that the drinking water in the village had been poisoned, Alexios realizes that the one responsible for the epidemic is actually Timosa, who not only poisoned the water, but also treated the infected people with unsuitable medication to make them even more sick and eventually cause their death, and she was the one who hired the bandits, orchestrating the supposed theft of her herbs, tasking them with killing Alexios. It is eventually revealed that Timosa is a member of the Order of the Hunters, a sub-branch of the Order of the Ancients which, in turn, is associated with the Cult of Kosmos. 

Timosa first appears as an innocent victim

Although she is indeed a physician, Timosa completely offends against the values of her vocation, ruthlessly leading people to their death instead of helping or healing them. Timosa's case is far more serious than that of Chrysis, because the latter was marginally insane; she did not have any actual medicinal knowledge, and was operating driven by her blind devotion to the Cult, presenting herself as blessed by the goddess Hera. Timosa acts fully consciously and with cold calculation, practically cancelling her quality as a healer and betraying all moral values that she may have had at the early stages of exercising her trade.

Timosa's true nature is eventually revealed when her guards show up unexpectedly

The exact opposite of Timosa is Qamra, a nurse on the island of Lesbos, whom Alexios meets in the quest "Qamra, Medicine Woman". Qamra is treating the sick workers at a rich vinyard, but she misses a few items that are necessary for her work, so she asks Alexios to get them back for her: she has left her tools at a fort's clinic closeby, and her medicinal supplies have been stolen by the evil leader of the Petrified Island and are now heavily guarded in his mansion. Qamra is accompanied by a farmer, who is apparently in charge of the work in the vinyard. By the looks of it, the man is worried more about what will happen to the crop since the workers will be unable to offer their service if they are not healed; unlike Qamra who, being a healer, is more concerned about the people getting well. 

Qamra and the farmer face a conflict of hierarchies

Still on the island of Lesbos, Alexios comes across a woman at a ruined temple, not far from the Petrified Forest where several people have been turned to stone by evil forces, remaining there still like statues. In the mission "The Elixir", the woman presents herself as a scientist who is formulating a special mixture which can reverse the effects of petrification on people.  

The scholar claims she can cure petrification

Alexios agrees to help her by tracking down the three rather peculiar ingredients that she needs, but when he meets her again at her laboratory, he realizes that the supposed medicinal mixture is actually poison, which she makes unsuspecting people drink so as to kill them and then use the bodies as bases for her sculptures. In a humorous note, we could say that the woman is a tribute to the well-known character of the mad scientist who is so popular in fiction. Of course she cannot be judged as a normal case of a healer, because she does not operate as one, even if we assume that there might have been a time in her life when she could have been a true physician.

There are real dead bodies inside the sculptures!

At the Chora of Delphi in Phokis, Alexios meets Lykaon, a young healer whose life story turns out to be very connected to that of our hero's. In the quest "Helping a Healer", Lykaon asks Alexios to collect a bunch of mandrake herbs, which he needs so as to prepare healing mixtures for his patients. After the mixtures are ready, Alexios delivers them to three people who all seem to know Lykaon very well and like him a lot, but all three express their worry because the young physician looks very troubled and restless lately. One of them informs Alexios that Lykaon lost his parents when he was very young, and was raised by his grandmother who, according to the man, is a cursed woman. 

Lykaon is a good doctor with a mysterious aura

A bit later, in the quest "Sins of the Past", Alexios finds out that Lykaon has also prepared an extra mixture with an overdose of mandrake herbs, so as to give it to his grandmother and kill her by poisoning. Shocked at that revelation, because Lykaon is clearly far from being the killing kind, Alexios starts investigating this strange case. As it turns out, Praxithea, Lykaon's grandmother, used to be an Oracle at the Delphi. Following orders by the Cult of Kosmos, she inadvertently ruined many people's lives, even leading them to their deaths. Lykaon, knowing that all her supposed prophesies were deceits, and realizing that she was never going to get punished for spreading lies for so many years, decided to take justice in his own hands by killing Praxithea himself. It is revealed that the Pythia who ordered Kassandra's death years ago, was in fact Praxithea giving one more false prophecy made up by the Cult, a fact that unexpectedly connects the destinies of Alexios and Lykaon in a rather dramatic way. Soon they find out that Praxithea has been kidnapped, obviously by guards of the Cultists; as soon as the Cult knew that Alexios was in Phokis, they took care to rid off Praxithea to avoid a meeting between the two and prevent Praxithea from confessing the truth about her false prophecy to him.

Alexios and Lykaon discuss about Praxithea's fate

In the follow-up quest "The Unkindest Cut", Alexios frees Praxithea from her captors, but then the time comes for yet one more moral dilemma to be solved. Lykaon insists that he has to kill his grandmother, so as to do justice to all the families that she ruined in the past. However it is something that, deep down, he does not want to do, because, as a healer, his task is to save lives, not take them. Moreover, like Praxithea also says, he is a good man; doing something so hideous would destroy his life. There are several ways to deal with this situation, but clearly the best is to dissuade Lykaon from killing his grandmother. Exactly because he never truly wanted to do it, and his only motive was a high sense of moral responsibility towards society, the few consoling words that Alexios says to him are enough to persuade him, so that Praxithea will stay alive and he will be able to go on with his life with a clear conscience.

Praxithea sincerely regret her past actions

It is notable however that if Alexios encourages Lykaon to kill Praxithea, the healer will be unable to do it, something that further highlights that killing her was never something that he really wanted to do. Lykaon's story is one of the most touching and thought-provoking among the game's supporting quests because it proves to have a close connection to the family story of Alexios, as Praxithea's prophecy was the start of all the misfortune that essentially affected the direction that Alexios's life eventually took. As a physician, Lykaon has many similarities with Hippokrates when it comes to ethics and morality. Both men are good-hearted and compassionate, they are healers with the full sense of the word and when it comes to tough choices, they both have a hard time deciding between what is the right thing to do and what their heart truly commands.

Alexios finally persuades Lykaon to not commit murder

Upon arriving on Lemnos on the hunt for a local Cultist, Alexios learns that his good friend Barnabas has a nephew on the island, a young man named Neleus who is a talented athlete but also very lazy. In the house where Neleus is staying for his training, Alexios and Barnabas are informed by Mikkos, the young man's caretaker, that Neleus is very sick, to the point where he cannot even walk; nobody can find out what exactly happened to him, and additionally many other gifted athletes have recently fallen sick with similar symptoms, while a few others have disappeared and nobody knows where they are.

Mikkos is Alexios's main lead for the solution of the mysterious case on Hephaistos Islands

Following Mikkos's clues, Alexios travels to the neighbouring island of Thasos and investigates the local quarry where there are many sick workers, also sharing common symptoms with Neleus. A young but rather sick-looking man named Solon seems willing to give some information, being also the only one there whose mind is clear enough to allow him think and talk relatively properly. During the brief discussion that follows, Alexios learns that the key person in this case is a doctor who has all the sick people at the quarry under his care; the doctor should have been there to give them an antidote so as to heal them from that strange condition which he calls "mind fog", but soldiers came and dragged him away. Alexios finds the doctor imprisoned in a cave at a nearby camp, so he sneaks in and frees him in order to make him talk.

The quarry's doctor is a very interesting, multi-leveled character

The doctor confesses that he formulates a special tonic, but sometimes this "medicine" causes side-effects to the people who take it, specifically the mind-fog that Solon described. To cure them from this, the doctor has to prepare a special antidote, but sometimes it is either too late for the patient or the side-effects are too severe, and the antidote cannot work. Following more leads, Alexios investigates a gymnasium in Thasos City that all the sick or missing athletes had been visiting for their training, and learns from the chief trainer that there a rich man used to visit the place from time to time, accompanied by strange men; this bizarre group would sit and and watch the strongest and most gifted athletes who subsequently would stop coming at the gymnasium. Alexios locates the rich man, Karpos, in a nearby villa where all sorts of entertainment take place, and there is a special wine served there, reserved for the gifted athletes as a reward for their hard training. 

Karpos is a man who easily switches sides to keep himself safe

Little by little, all facts come to light and it is finally revealed that Karpos, following the Cult's orders, either because he was being paid very well or because he was blackmailed (or both), would visit the gymnasium with the Cultists; the latters would watch the performance of the athletes, picking out those that looked stronger and more talented than the rest. Then Karpos would invite those athletes to his villa with promises of wine, entertainment and sex for any taste, the athletes would happily indulge and as soon as they got to the villa, they would be served the special wine which, in fact, was imbued with the doctor's tonic, a special formula that made people superhumanly strong. This was another evil plan by the Cult, to make the already strong athletes even stronger and turn them into fierce soldiers for their army. Some of the athletes however suffered from side-effects, so they could not be used as soldiers; those were taken by the doctor and sent to the quarry as workers. Then the doctor treated them with his antidote, hoping it would help them recover. Neleus was among those select athletes, who additionally had side-effects after drinking the special wine; apparently he started feeling unwell at Karpos's villa and somehow managed to leave and go back to Mikkos's house before the doctor had the time to take notice and lead him to the quarry. As the case is gradually being resolved, the Cult becomes aware that their plan has been exposed; they send soldiers at the quarry, who kill all the sick workers and fatally wound the doctor. While dying, the doctor gives Alexios the antidote for Neleus and expresses his sadness about the murder of his patients, for whom he truly seemed to care in his own twisted way. 

The dying doctor begs Alexios to end his life

The case of the doctor in this story is a very interesting and unique one, as he is a character with a rather quirky attitude and an even quirkier way of thinking. It is not that he does not have a sense of morality; more like, he has a weird view of morality and how it should guide his actions and decisions. Although his supposed treatment caused harm to people, he seemed to form an oddly strong bond with those who suffered from the side-effects of his tonic. It is characteristic that he calls his patients "pets", but in an obviously affectionate way, almost giving the impression that, in his eyes, the affected athletes became his "creations" after drinking his potion. In spite of him looking rather frivolous, it gradually becomes clear that his inner struggle is suffocating him. On the one hand, the scientific facts produced by his experiments are extremely valuable to him; on the other, he feels sorry for subjecting so many people to suffering. Marginally deranged, possibly a result of him witnessing the evil doings of the Cult and eventually realizing that he was actually helping them, he still managed to maintain some clear sense, something that becomes evident in his last moments, somehow making up for the pain he had caused to so many innocent people.