Aristoi Achaion [A the song of Achilles fanfiction] 2

Chapter 15

We left that afternoon, there was no reason for us to stay there any longer.
"I guess we are going home" Achilles said to me. Home. It was unclear to me if Phthia ever felt like home to. Yes that was were I was born but I had only been there only a couple times. And yes the caves in the ocean where I grew up in, hold memories but the sea never quite fully felt like home for mw either. There was only one place where I feel completely at home. A cave, in a mountain, with shining pink amethyst in it's roof.

Ever dutiful to custom, Lycomedes came to bid us farewell. The four of us stood together stiffly; Odysseus and Diomedes had gone ahead to the ship. They would escort us back to Phthia, where we would gather the troops.

There was one more thing to be done here, and I knew Achilles did not wish to do it. He had to inform Lycomedes of our mother's wishes.

“Lycomedes, my mother has asked me to convey her desires to you.” he spoke.

The faintest tremor crossed the old man’s face, but he met his son-in-law’s gaze. “It is about the child,” he said.

“It is.”

“And what does she wish?” the king asked, wearily.

“She wishes to raise him herself. She—” Achilles faltered before the look on the old man’s face. “The child will be a boy, she says. When he is weaned, she will claim him.”
The truth be told, my heart ached for Deidamia. She would be alone. I am sure that in time she would get over whatever feelings she might have had for my brother - maybe she has already-. But not being able  to see her child? That sounds like unbearable pain.
One of the terrible, most awful aspects of growing up that I recently discovered is having to realise that the people you once thought of as perfect,  when you were a child are actually far from it. Because of the prophecy my mother's greatest fear has been loosing my brother, how could she do this? Strip another mother from her child?. I squished my eyes shut for a moment, hoping no one would notice, just to get rid of the tears. It worked, thankfully.

Silence. Then Lycomedes closed his eyes. I knew he was thinking of his daughter, arms empty of both husband and child. “I wish you had never come,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Achilles said.

“Leave me,” the old king whispered. We obeyed.

                                       _________________________________________

The ship we sailed on was yare, tightly made and well manned. The crew moved with a competent fleetness, the ropes gleamed with new fibers, and the masts seemed fresh as living trees. The prow piece was a beauty, : a woman, tall, with dark hair and eyes, her hands clasped in front of her as if in contemplation. She was beautiful, but quietly so—an elegant jaw, and upswept hair showing a slender neck. She had been lovingly painted, each darkness or lightness perfectly rendered. Without it being my intention she reminded me of a woman I met four years ago, a friend -or rather I thought of her as a friend- that I haven't seen in years.
A/N: If you know you know.