TITLE: Q is for QUEENS.
AUTHOR: Too_beauty.
PAIRING: Implied Alexander & Hephaestion. A bunch of Queens.
RATING: PG
CATEGORY: Historical AU.
DISCLAMER: I don't know the people involved, they belong to History and to themselves but I wouldn't mind sharing my life with Phai *sighs*
WARNING: None, subtle implications of m/m relationship.
NO BETA so all mistakes are mine.
FEEDBACK: comments are love! I am not very proud of this one but I will share anyway….
Alexander had many Queens in his life; his mother queen Olympias, a "mother queen" Sisygambis, his wife Roxane and his second wife Stateira. These women shaped him, in a way, during different stages of his life, ones more than others, ones longer than others; they gave him happiness and sometimes sadness.
Queen Olympias loved his son more than anything in her life; she was so obsessed with him that before his marriage to King Philipp she knew that his first son would be a special baby. She remembered all the signs she had seen after her marriage and she really knew that, due to them, she was about to give birth to a great man; the thunderbolt to her womb in her dream and the seal like-lion upon it put by Philip in his dream were so clear as daylight.
Queen Olympias was very jealous and tried to rule his son's life in every aspect of it; many times her will won upon her husband's but she was intelligent enough to step back when the king was really decided to make his word true.
She suffered and tolerated everything because that was her duty as a mother; she accepted even exile for him; her jealousy made of her an excellent strategist; she knew which strings to pull and make people do what she wanted or feel like she desired.
Only one man, except his son, could soften her heart a bit; she learnt to respect and love him because she also knew it was worthless to fight against him.
Sisygambis, mother of King Darius III of Persia, was a strong woman, as much as Olympias was; they seemed to share the same features: strength to live and rule in a world of men and in times of constant wars and danger; they were also mothers of kings so they knew how hard life could be.
When Darius fled the field after his defeat at the battle of Issus, Sisygambis and her extended family were left to the mercy of Alexander. The young Macedonian king treated them well and the Mother Queen fell under the spell of the blonde and gentle man.
Sisygambis never forgave her own son Darius for his desertion and she clearly stated that she had only one son, that his name was Alexander and that he was the king of all Persia.
The Mother Queen loved Alexander till the end, so much that on hearing of his "son's" death, she sealed herself into her rooms and died of grief and starvation.
Queen Roxane was the first Queen wife for Alexander; his marriage to the Bactrian princess was an attempt to pacify the Bactrian satrapies under Alexander's rule.
She knew from the beginning that she could be THE queen but that her husband held another person close to his heart; she tried to get rid of him many times but it was useless; she made up stories of rudeness, unfaithfulness and jealousy against this man, but the King knew this man so well that he never believed them.
Roxane also knew that, not even giving him his so much desired heir, she would be able ever to have his heart, it had been willingly giving many years ago to that man and there was no was of getting it back.
But she was the one who suffered Alexander's rage when his most significant passed away; he went in her search and only his unborn child saved her from his wrath. The moment Roxane saw Alexander's face with so much pain; she realized that if she was keeping a minimum hope of getting her king's heart after his lover's death, she was completely wrong; in fact since that moment she lost her husband forever, not only his heart and body but also his mind and soul.
Queen Stateira II was Alexander's second wife; he married her during the massive wedding ceremony at Susa, where many of the Macedonian officers were also married to noble Persian women.
Alexander saw her grandmother's soul and kindness in her eyes, eyes he had seen before, just after the battle of Issus, when he visited the harem for the first time. There she was, princess Stateira, the princess of the Thousands Roses, who pleaded for her family and their lives, but she pleaded to the wrong person; the shy Princess thought that the taller and more handsome man, the one who outstood in the group, was Alexander and she only realized of her mistake when her advisor told her; but the young king understood her confusion and just answered that that man was Alexander too; when the Princess lifted her gaze, she could see the bonding between both men, who spoke to each other with just a single glance. Alexander conceded her plea because she was truly a princess.
She never questioned his relationship with this man because she really knew that the king respected her above all too. She suffered seeing his husband fading away when his beloved departed to the house of death; she saw how his will and wish for living leave his body, she saw how his body could not longer tolerate the agony and finally gave up. Stateira accompanied his husband till the end and she felt a bit happy because she dawned on that he wanted to be reunited with his soul mate.
King Alexander had many Queens in his life but only one simple man ruled his heart.
