Julian
I uncovered my mouth, staring ahead at the Temple of the new syncretic religion. At the border of Alexandria it lay, overlooking the sea at the far end. Jumping down my horse, my warriors accompanied me; the people around, stunned.
"As per the questioning from those sketchy priests in Alexandria, this was the training temple where they brought the priestesses, my Lord," My head warrior Stravos crossed his arms, eyeing the place.
"Weren't our spies deployed around the same area last spring?" I tilted my head, knowing out of the four, two were already dead. The other two were travelling in a guise with a group of eye sellers.
The deranged gem-making group whom I'd overthrown from Romanos, long ago.
But thinking of gems made me think about her... About Althea... and her sky like eyes...
My heart clenched, thumping so hard against my chest that I had to close my eyes.
Only to imagine her face without eyes.
A lump formed in my throat, fists hardened as I marched inside the temple. I tried remembering my mother's cryptic message, but it mentioned nothing about Althea's condition.
Oceans were merciful enough to raise a storm that broke the oyster, but found the pearl within...
I knew how sensitive this information was, to be sent by mother with the utmost precaution. As to not make any sense, if gone in the wrong hands, but...
No matter what happened to her, I'd still love her till her last breath.
Who gave you the right to love her, Julian?
"Your Honour, the flowers..." Stravos motioned to the offerings given by the priest as we stood before Aphrodite's ancient idol in this temple. I shook my head out of the thoughts to pray, not knowing how lost I was to not realise I stood before the goddess.
I took in a deep breath, and let go. How did I forget she was married? And that I probably had to return her to her husband once I meet her...
Oh Aphrodite, this devotee of yours has the most morally wrong prayer to make.
Please don't let her be married.
* * *
"They were in such a hurry to leave the place that they left those glass boxes with eyeballs," Ashtor said as I stood with my arms crossed, facing the setting Sun over the endless sea, the ship sailing gradually.
Upon checking the underground chambers at the temple, the grotesque reality of the eye sellers only unfolded, as we had gone deeper. Until I had reached the darkest room bathed in blood, with eyeless human carcasses laying against the wall. A queue of containers having eyeballs were left behind by the cult.
To even think that Althea had been in such a place, for how long... And the men of that cult, I knew them. Sickened to the core of their soul. Would they have let go of my little nymph so easily...
I banged the first thing I saw on the ship, hard on the floor. My body seething in deadly rage.
Given her beautiful eyes and the fact that she was my court writer,... it was impossible for her to survive in the vicinity of that deranged woman, Jasmira.
How Julian how? How the fuck can you be so pathetic as to leave her alone in this depraved world?!
"Y- Your Honour, is everything alright?" Warrior Calix came forward, tensed, and I noticed Ashtor behind, scared out of his wits.
I cursed under my breath when I noticed more than half of my army gathered around, perplexed. We were headed to Greece for the last phase of war preparations, and here I was, bawling over a woman who may never be mine. How disappointed they'd be when they learn, that all their king could think amid war arrangements was his court writer.
They must never know what Althea was to me.
"Ashtor," I commanded, "We have already deployed our warriors to check the whereabouts of the cult. Currently our focus must be solely on the war. Understand?"
"Y- Yes, yes, Your Honour," he bowed, guilt marring his face.
I sighed. He was one light-hearted warrior, keeping the atmosphere uplifted with his silly chatting that I didn't mind, only because he was exceptional on the battlefield.
The army dispersed, so did the night, as I woke up to the sight of my homeland with the rising sun.
* * *
"The lodgings have been arranged for the warriors, Your Honour," Stravos informed as we walked out the meeting hall, concluding another discussion with some of Alexander's senior warriors in Athens.
"Hmm. And since the war's near this winter, there's a chance to witness The Games as well." His face lit up at that, but he chose to hide it with a curt bow of as you wish.
"I will shortly prepare a carriage for you, to the mistress' home-"
"That won't be needed." I raised a hand, already getting out of the place. "I'll be taking the horse." God damn me to Hades, but I won't be taking a damn carriage and use my sweet time journeying to reach Althea.
To reach Olympia, to your mother's residence, not Althea, you fool of a man.
I climbed my horse, and set out for Olympia with the speed I rarely used.
Days and nights crossed, and I stopped on the way, only when absolutely needed. Meeting old friends and companions as I crossed the distance which I had deliberately created between me and her.
After all the time, I finally reached my mother's home. A smile broke at my weary face when I saw her, standing by the door. Looking so lovingly at me.
"Julian... my boy," she hugged me, as if breathing contently in a long while. I held her firmer, remembering all the times I missed her.
"I- I... you saved her?" Was all I could get out in my breathless state as I looked at her face. Her eyes crinkled at the corner and I wanted to facepalm myself for sounding so infatuated with the nymph-like woman.
"She is-
"Mother, wait!" I stopped her and sighed in frustation, as we entered the courtyard. My heartbeat seemed to have increased as I glanced above, hoping to find her peeping down the first floor. But, only the afternoon Sun beat down at me while servants coursed through the floor.
My mother couldn't wipe out the amused look as she handed me some water, making me settle in the gardens. I poured it over my head instead. For the nervousness I felt at the moment was never experienced by me before.
"Is she married?" I asked at last, chugging off the leftover water.
"Is she?" Mother asked instead and I slumped over my knees, my head in my hands.
"I have no clue if she's married, son," she replied softly. "I never asked."
Taking a bath to cool myself, I went up to my room, gazing at the mirror as I fixed the wreath of Greek leaves over my head. She was going to see me, and not a fool I wanted to look before her. My nerves, maddened to a height I never felt, beat at my heart.
Gently, I opened my bag to bring out her book. The book she was so fond of, and the book who made me feel her presence, all the time when she left me. I gave it one last soft kiss, before heading out of my room.
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach when mother revealed to me her condition.
"Julian, she is injured in some parts of her body. So I'm assuming you will be as gentle as possible. She is strong, very strong, as you'd said before. Otherwise, no one could've survived what she faced. But apart from physical injury, she is very fragile in the mind too. So be very careful, hmm?" She gave a gentle smile because she knew her son well.
How he would literally crush Althea in his arms the moment she would declare she wasn't married.
Silently, we walked up to the room she was in. My heartbeat matched my footsteps, thudding wildly as her book lay clasped in my hand. Often I'd dreamt of fighting off monsters and saving Althea from their midst. But here I was, meeting her, only when my mother had already pulled her out of the storm.
Maybe father was right. I could never be a hero. Like Achilles did.
I could only be King Menelaus, who couldn't do a thing as Paris took away his wife.
"Julian," Mother clicked her fingers, bringing me to reality as we reached her door. Carefully removing the curtain that hid the door's glass top, she pointed to the woman sitting in the corner of the room, by the window.
The woman who'd made me cry, day and night, in her longing.
I lost sense of my body, hands numb as I held the very door before me, imagining it was Althea. There she was, her honey-like hair flowing gently by the breeze as she had her head bent low, writing something on a papyrus sheet. A mad laughter escaped me, and then an unexpected tear from my eye.
"You'll never stop writing, hmm?" I snickered, wiping the tear from the back of my hand. She stopped writing, to look around the room once, probably getting wind of my voice. And the way her sky-blue eyes shone with the warm rays of the Sun reflecting them, glowing her sweet, innocent face, her small lips pressed in hesitancy, that my heart cried.
Cried at how insolent I was to leave her alone with an old man who claimed to be her father?
How the fuck had I decided that in a single day? For her, to leave my kingdom with a man I'd met only once?
"Mother, she'll be scared and very shocked to see me out of nowhere," I said, my eyes not able to leave her, even through the door's glass. "Can you alert her gently of my arrival?" I appealed. She smiled and entered after a brief knock.
My heart swelled to see how my two favourite women had warmed up to each other as Althea smiled at my mother. Something that I'd never seen her do in the Romanowskian palace. It used to be so amusing seeing her quack in fear at the mere mention of my mother.
"Althea, someone has come... from a long long way, to see you," Mother smiled at Althea as her face lit up in confused delight.
"Who is it, mother?" she said softly and the hair on my body stood right up at her voice.
The voice who'd kept me awake at nights.
The voice who'd ask me endless questions.
The voice who'd sounded so ethereal as I'd made her feel that night-
Julian! Punishments in Tartarus await you if you think any further. You intend to be tied to a fiery wheel for eternity or to have your liver eaten by giants as you lay trapped in Hades-
"Is she married?" I asked my mother hurriedly when she walked out.
"Julian, my restless son," she cupped my face, chuckling, "Go ask her. She is waiting for you."
I kissed her palm before taking one last look through the glass. She had kept her pen aside, patiently waiting for the man who had left her to the wolves of this world.
We were similar. So beautifully similar that her expressions became the same that mine had been, moments ago when I'd seen her through the door's glass. Face numbed out as she slowly rose from her seat. Having no sense of her body as she stared at me, in my eyes, into my very soul until I couldn't differentiate my feelings from her. Then a stray tear gathered by the corner of her eye. And the moment it fell on the deep wound below her eye, she hastily wiped it away, bowing low.
"G- Greet- Greetings, Y- Your Honour."
A thousand words and emotions lay hidden in one shaky greeting. As I gazed upon her, a wave of familiarity washed over me. When I'd seen her for the first time, back in the old Egyptian kingdom. It was as if the tapestry of our story was unfolding once again, after countless years of silence.
Her slender arms, discoloured with whip lashes, bore the brutal imprints of pain. Crimson marks on her wrists revealed the agony of being shackled for an extended period. And the circular impression of iron rings scarred her delicate throat. Despite my desperate urge to comfort her, I remained immobilised, unable to move a single muscle in my body.
"You want to return to your husband...?" was all I could ask. I had no right to a married woman who'd been a priestess. As much as I yearned for her, I just couldn't snatch another man's woman, even if she had been rescued by my mother-
A sad little laugh from her side cut my thoughts short.
"They... w- wouldn't take me... f- for a priestess anymore. I'd been a sla-" she sighed, closing her eyes to shake her head softly, her gaze still lowered.
She took in a shaky breath, stabilising herself, "I- I can still be a... maidservant at- at any temple," she tried smiling but failed miserably.
The thorns in my heart deepened. Was she thinking I didn't want her too, because her husband wouldn't accept her anymore? And that I was so cruel as to let her fend for herself being a temple servant?
I rushed forward, but stopped in time, forcing myself to think about the Tartarus of Hades. She was jolted by my sudden movement, but never took a step back.
"Are you married, Althea..." I asked her, my breath clogged in my throat as she slowly looked up at me. Her sky-like eyes were so innocent and beautiful as I saw my tortured self in them.
"No," she mumbled, looking at my towering self, "We were to be trained first... as priestess-"
"Is your husband looking out for you?" I asked further, my heart beating more and more with every passing moment.
"He- He won't accept me anymore... that's why I- I'd said I can be a temple maid-"
I raised a shaky hand for her to stop, my breathing erratic.
"It means... I won't be damned to Hades for touching you?"
She had a questioning look for a while, but then a smile broke on her face.
"No," she smiled. "How can a good man like you... be damned to Hades... for touching me..."
She slowly came forward and, like the shy little being she was, contemplated for a while, before softly holding my hands. As if longing for me the same way I'd been.
My eyes burned as I opened her palms, to see them torn and blistered by the lashes.
"Why do you torment me so... Althea..." my voice broke as I clasped her hands, pulling her gently to me until she was wrapped in the safety of my arms.
And in that moment, I felt like I held my world in my arms, my heart calming at the feel of her holding me with equal intensity. Her face lay buried in my chest as she cried softly, her entire body shaking.
I gently ran my fingers through her hair as I drew her head closer to my chest. Falling onto the ground, we held each other tightly, tears silently streaming down our cheeks.
In that very moment, I made a solemn vow to the Gods. To never leave her, as long as life ran through me.