Hi! Here is the chapter 10. It was fun to write it as I'm a sadist toward Alexander ^^ . I hope you 'll enjoy it and thanks a lot for your reviews. Next chapter won't be online before wenesday or thursday . ^^
Have a nice day.
Chapter 10
Alexander was laying on his bed . He had been completely depressed. Hephaistion had left one hour ago. He didn't go to see his departure. He was too weak , too heartbroken to the point he wasn't sure he could have controlled himself in front of everybody. He hoped Hephaistion had understood why he hadn't been there .
Alexander eyes were red because he had cried so much when he was alone, knowing Hephaistion was leaving him at that very moment. The only relief he felt was that Hephaistion welcomed Ptolémée 's page . The spy Perdicass suggested to infiltrated. .
At least, he would have news soon. He talked to the young page to write everything he 'll witness.
Ptolémée entered the tent.
"Alexander you should get up." He suggested.
Alexander didn't paid attention to him. Perdicass entered the royal tent too just behind.
"Ptolémée is right, you can't stay here "
Alexander sighed.
" Can't I , at least, mourn one day?" His voice was plaintive.
Ptolémée and Perdicass glanced at each other. They nodded and left.
One week passed and Alexander was still mourning and there was a lot of agitation around the royal tent. Lots of servants brought trunks inside. Perdicass was worried. The others generals were busy working and he decided to visit Alexander alone.
He entered to the his king 's tent and what a mess it was. It was full of trunks and pieces of furnitures . Alexander was in the middle of it. He was opening the trunks.
" Hi! Alexander " The general said a bit confused .
"Oh! Hi Perdicass! " The king replied without looking at him.
Perdicass frowned. Alexander was wearing some persian's clothes that were too huge for him. Suddenly, Perdicass realized the king was wearing Hephaistion's clothes. He moved closer to Alexander and sat near him.
" There are Hephaistion 's belongings…" He stated.
Alexander nodded. " I'm going to take care of it. I will install everything in my tent.".
The king was missing his lover and was in such deep pain . It was the only way to H he found to comfort himselft a bit. Hephaistion's belongings all around him made him felt like he was still around.
The general was seriously worried about his king.
" Once you 've done, why don't you meet your soldiers? They are missing you and need to see their king. Some rumours are spreading that you are ill."
Alexander didn't answer. He was unfolding a piece of tissu. What he found inside, shocked him. It was Hephaistion's medaillon. Tears rolled down.
" Alexander?"
"He left it! Our matching medaillon. He didn't take it…" Alexander was so hurt.
" It's because you asked him to give back all his belongings … " Perdicass reminded him.
The only answer the general got were the king's sobs.
" Next week, you will receive news from Ptolémée 's page. Aren't you excited? " Perdicass tried to be positive.
" I 'm so scared about that letter. It's wierd, I can't wait to be next week , to know it all, to read it and at the same time, it's scare the hell out of me to know." Alexander seemed confused.
" You are scared Hephaistion is doing well without you when you obviously is a wreck" Perdicass declared.
Alexander nodded.
" Alexander, it's not the first time, Hephaistion is far away from you. He even left for one year and half once. "
"But this time it's different Perdicass. At that time he hadn't left me , it was some works I gave him to do. Now I don't even know when he 'll come back , If he ever will come back and he won't write me either. He abandonned me. "
Perdicass felt sad. The king was opening another trunk and his attention was caught by a strange ivory box. a paper was attached to it. It was written in indian. Alexander wasn't very good in indian. The truth was he started to learn the language just before the Crateros and Hephaistion's fight then he had been to disctracted to continue seriously.
He gave the paper to Perdicass.
" Can you read it for me ?"
Perdicass accepted. While he was reading the king had tried to open the ivory box in vain. The box seemed to very well locked with no entrance for a key.
" So, what's written ?" Alexander asked curiously.
Perdicass was in panic. His heart began to beat faster with anxiety. Alexander was staring at him impatiently. He had to translate it. He translated very quickly
" Note to myself : Keep that box away from Alexander "
Alexander 's eyes grew wide.
" What ?" He yelled . " Give it to me " he took the paper from Perdicass hand's and stared at it . He was highly frustated because he was still unable to read it. He was mad about that fact. He looked at the box and tried to open it again.
Perdicass didn't know what to do.
" Maybe it's better for you to not open it ?" He suggested.
The king wasn't listening. He was even more deternimated to open the box . He was now shaking it . They heard a noise, there was something inside. He triend to find a way to open it again but still in vain.
"By the gods! What's is this box? I don't find the opening. By Hades! OPEN " he ordered at the box.
The general blinked at Alexander 's order then he watched the box in details. " it's probably one of this tricked box. I've seen one once. You have to find the tricks in order to open it "
" Good, open it then " Alexander ordered.
Perdicass gulped.
" I wish I could, but each boxes has a different way to be opened. I won't know how to open this one. Only the owner know the trick " Perdicass explained.
Alexander stood up.
"I 'll take an axe and open it " the king declared.
"No, Alexander, you 'll probably destroy what's inside…"
"I don't care , I want to know "
"But what if it's a present Hephaistion wanted to give you . You could break it "
Alexander came back to sat near his general and immediately forgot the axe.
" True… I don't want to break my gift" he said with some excitation. " What kind of present it could be?" He was now very enthousiastic and smiling .
Perdicass didn't know how to answer. Alexander's mood was very unstable.
" If it's a gift for you Alexander… It can be something else too. "
Perdicass sighed. His king wasn't listening anymore. His attention was focused only at finding a way to open the secret box.
One hour passed and Alexander began to loose his nerves.
" What a nightmare ! it's still doesn't want to open no matter how hard I 'm trying"
"Alexander, you should take a break from It and relax…" Perdicass adviced.
" You are right my Friend. Call the others generals, they 'll try for me , ask Pharnacass and Roxane to come too… one of them might succeed".
Perdicass heavily sighed . This was something they woudn't be pleased with.
Fifteen minutes later, the generals , the queen and pharnakass were highly annoyed by the king 's request ; They rushed to the royal 's tent thinking an emergency happened .. But it was just to open an Hephaistion's box.
They all tried their best in vain. Alexander was upset and even more impatient. The king didn't know but all his companions had murderous thoughts toward his person at that very moment. Roxanne felt insulted and cursed the day she accepted to marry Alexander.
Even Bagoas and some servants tried to open the box with no result. It was now the middle of the night and Alexander was staring at the box. He was intelligent, there was no way he wouldn't found a way to open that damn ivory box.
So he had a sleepless night. The sun was now at the top of the sky. Alexander felt so tired .
" This thing is driving me insane." He whispered then he didn't know what happened, what he touched but the box opened by itself.
"By the gods! I did it ! " Alexander was now laughing in an almost hysterical manner.
He looked inside, there was a piece of tissu and a little rock. The rock had nothing special. It was just a simple little rock. So He unfold the tissu and he was surprised to see a note written on it.
" Great king, I see you like opening stuffs that are not yours… I hope you had fun to open it. That note is here to remind you that now Hephaistion is with me and I 'll take care of him with no intent to give him back to you "
Gieve "
Alexander froze. For few seconds he was not anymore in his body. His soul had left and died from shock. After few minutes, he recovered and he threw the ivory box on the floor. He took an Axe nearby and destroyed it with a mad fury while he was yelling he will kill that guy after horrible tortures.
The royal screams were heard by Ptoleme and Nearchus. They entered to see if the king was alright , swords in their hands ready to , They saw that Alexander had made a butchery of the ivory box. They shrugged and prefered to leave before being caught by the madness of their king.
Later the generals talked about the incident in Ptoleme's tent..
" I'm seriously worried " Ptolemee declared .
" Next week our back up supplies will be here… it will be time to move on for the next conquest. I'm sure this will distract Alexander . He is missing Hephaistion now, but once we will start to march again and he ll be in a battlefield. He'll forget about it " Leonnatus declared.
" Frankly, I will never understand that sick addiction the king has for Hephaistion. I agree, we have to endure it for now… But soon, Alexander will forget about him. " Cassender agreed.
Eumenes nodded ;
" It 's just a question of time. He 'll soon open his eyes and understand he can survive without Hephaistion and he 'll realize the bad influence he had on him and how useless that guy was. "
Nearchus crossed his arms.
" I hope you are all right… The situation is worrying me a lot … "
" I heard one time about a king who became insane…" Antigonas started .
" Stop! Alexander is not going to turn insane… I agree with Leonnatus .It's a matter of time . Once he ll be in the battlefield , he 'll better. " Perdicass yelled.
Truth to be told , Perdicass was really worried too. Hephaistion had told him to take care of the king but it was a lot more complicated than he thought. Alexander was unpredictable , a wild stallion, he could be brilliant and a genius, strong and proud but it seemed only Hephaistion was able to tame him. He seemed completely lost without his lover around to appease him .
He needeed to do something. He had to the whole situation For Alexander's sake.
Few hours later, Perdicass went to visit the king. Alexander was crying again.
" Alexander " Perdicass said. He approached from the royal bed.
"Perdicass.. My friend… " the king whispered in despair.
" Alexander… I think Ptoleme wasn't entirely wrong about Hephaistion's plotting something …"
" What ?" Alexander stood up in outrage. " Not you too "
"It's not what I meant , but the more I think about it , the more I think Hephaistion wanted to leave you to teach you a lesson .."
" Such as?" Alexander was confused but his interests had been picked up.
" Make you understand without him you are nothing?"
Alexander gasped. Then he frowned.
" I see… how did you end up with that theory?" The king asked seriously.
" The fact I realized I have been manipulated him…" Perdicass said in a tiny voice and very cautiously.
" Manipulated? How…?
Perdicass didn't feel confortable. He felt like he was betraying Hephaistion but at the same time, he was himself upset because Hephaistion had used him in a way.
" He was the one to ask me to suggest to send a ptoleme 's page at his side…as a spy"
Alexander didn't say anything. He was deep in thoughts. Perdicass continued.
" I think now he proposed it because he wanted you to know where he was, what he was doing "
Alexander was still silent .
"I'm sorry Alexander, I was too naïve. He told me it was to make yourself relieved about his departure and a way to appease the other generals but now…I'm not so sure anymore. "
Perdicass felt ashamed. Alexander ' s face expression had changed . He wasn't showing despair anymore.
" Thank you Perdicass. You did good to speak to me about your doubts about Hephaistion's motives. I know the man perfectely and you are totally right. He plotted it all. Its sound very like Hephaistion. It really sounds like something he could do , his own way of blackmailling me. So he wants to teach me a lesson… "
Alexander had flames in eyes.
" I almost fell into his trap … but now, We 'll see which one of us he going to win and teach a lesson to the other " Alexander declared.
" Are you mad at Hephaistion? I could be wrong… It's just a theory. .. " Perdicass was now worried for his best friend.
" Don't worry… I 'm the one who feel stupid to not have been able to see it. Now it seems so obvious I'm ashamed of myself. "
"But … what will you do about him?"
" Of course I will win the challenge …" The king answered with a proud smile .
"And then ?" Perdicass wanted to know about Hephaistion's fate.
" Then, what? He 'll come back; He will apologize to me and I will forgive him."
Perdicass sighed. He looked at Alexander. He was smiling and his old self seemed to be back. He was feeling relieved to see his king being healthy again but a t that moment he felt like Cassander unable to understand Hephaistion and Alexander's relationship.
" Perdicas, I'm going to clean myself and check the army. Then I will leave to scout the ground to make sure it's safe for next week "s departure "
" Very good idea " Perdicass stated.
TBC
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