Authors Note: I've received some good news in the past week about my assignments for Uni so I'm going to celebrate my recent success with a few chapters of Alexander.
"I do remember you, Philotas. But not as you remember yourself"
"Please, Alexander on my fore fathers grave I swear ... I would never..." Philotas was begging for his life and Alexander didn't care at all. His morale, his high image of himself had dropped around his feet. He struggled within himself to give any reasons for why he saw Philotas as the instigator for his attempted assassination, but no words came.
He closed his eyes for a moment, before staring at the table lined up beside him. Where was Hephaistion? He was missing out of the tribunal. He was missing from something that Alexander expected and needed him to be at. Alexander's mind raced with sudden desperation to end the trial quicker than it began, and the defence - there was none, because Cassander and Cleitus both agreed to kill the traitor, there was little or no discussion.
Maybe it was his mothers' doubts about Parmenion that drove Alexander to kill Philotas, or maybe Alexander just wanted to kill someone for the sake of killing them. For whatever reason, Alexander's mind was far from his mouth, as he told the guards to seize Philotas, charge him with the attempted murder of the King, and let that be the end of it.
As Alexander left, he could hear Philotas screaming. Saying names to the wind like the wind could save him. If Alexander was to be damned for his murder, than so be it. Alexander walked away just as Roxane came out of the tent. She saw him and made a dash, but Alexander caught up with her.
"I heard you are to kill Philotas" Roxane said straight away, "Do you really think it was him? What about his page boys?"
"All in due time" was all Alexander could say, "I'm so..."
"Don't" she warned, stepping back from Alexander. "I don't want your apologies. Go do what you have to do..."
"Can't you let me finish?" Alexander muttered angrily as Roxane turned away,
"Ah! Just listen to me!" Alexander exploded into a mass of frustration right before her eyes that it immediately evoked the painful memories of the night before. She ran before Alexander could grab her.
"Fine" he said bitterly, "If you want to be left alone, then alone you shall be" as he thought of everything he had lost in just a few days. He had lost Hephaistion's trust and faith, he had lost Roxane's warmth and understanding - and he had lost himself.
As his hand fell, and the skewer penetrated Philotas' chest, Alexander stood. His expression - muted disgust, far from the young boy who promised Babylon and Greece, his friends and importantly his family, that his succession would be great. Now all it was, as the funeral preparers came and took the limp carcass of his former friend and trusted trainer of his army, a great tragedy. Something Alexander could never repair and would only worsen as time progressed.