Helen ran forwards and snatched the herbs from Briseis, throwing them to the floor.
"No!" Briseis shouted, slightly pathetically, staring at the scattered leaves.
She looked up slowly, straight into Helen's eyes, and slowly tears began to run down her face. Helen instinctively put her arms around the weeping woman, comforting her. Briseis tried to pull away at first, but the tears came thicker and faster, and she clung to Helen.
Briseis' tears finally ran dry, and she wiped her face, looking apologetically at Helen. Inside, Helen was exuberant. Briseis was finally showing some emotion! Albeit it was pain and suffering, but anything was better than the lethargy that had haunted her face before.
"It's never worth that," Helen said quietly, referring to the scattered leaves. "No matter how bad things get, there's always something to carry on for."
Briseis raised a tear-stained face to Helen. "What is there to carry on for?"
Helen shrugged. "When I was in Sparta, I hoped for Menelaus' death. There were days when I wanted to fall asleep and never wake up, but there was always the hope that it would one day end."
"You hoped for death," Briseis said sadly. "I hope for life."
"Nothing can bring him back to you, but you can keep him alive," Helen said earnestly, lifting Briseis' chin to meet her deep blue eyes. "With every moment you are on this earth you can keep his memory alive. He is known for a soldier and a lord, but you know him as a lover."
Briseis shook her head. "It hurts. It hurts too much," she said, in a choked voice.
"I will not say the pain will lessen, nor that you will learn to live without him, but only that your strength will grow with his memory."
Briseis closed her eyes for a long moment, and when she opened them they revealed a dull and aching pain.
"I do not want to be strong. I've spent all my life being strong: in the court, in the temple and when I was first captured. The only time I did not have to fight for myself was when I was in his arms. Only he could protect me and make me feel safe. And now even that is taken from me, and yet again I am alone and fighting once more."
"You do not need to fight," Helen said forcefully. "There are people who could look after you, Paris…"
"…Paris took everything I ever had from me. All the joy I had ever known, all the pain, all the pleasure. He has killed the only man I ever loved, and the only man I ever will love. He has killed me." Briseis' eyes were a steely grey, and Helen flinched slightly from the coldness in them.
"You may never forget him, but you could learn to love again," she tried reasoning with Briseis.
Briseis laughed bitterly. "Helen, if I told you that you could learn to love another man as you love my cousin, what would you say?"
Helen hung her beautiful head. "I would say you were mad," she whispered.
"Then leave me to my sorrow," Briseis said, turning away.
"Briseis, please," Helen pleaded. "I know how you feel!"
"You know how I feel?" Briseis asked incredulously. "How can you know? You? Who sacrificed an entire kingdom for her love?" Briseis spoke in a cold sceptical tone. "You want me to look at you and feel pity? Well I see you, Queen of Sparta," she deliberately threw the insult in, and felt a malicious pleasure at the pained look on Helen's face. "And do you know what I see? I see a woman who threw away thousands of men's lives, just so she could have her three weeks of pleasure. Did you enjoy it, Queen of Sparta?"
Briseis spat in disgust at Helen's feet. The tall blonde woman was trembling violently, but Briseis felt nothing but hate for her.
"Did you enjoy watching men die for you?" Briseis ploughed on relentlessly. "You killed Hector, you killed Achilles, you killed Priam and countless others. Achilles dies because of you! Were it not for you, he would still be walking in this world. You killed him."
"He would not have learnt to love if it were not for the war," Helen said quietly.
"It was me who showed him love, Queen of Sparta. But it was your lover who killed him. And do you know what? He killed me too. So between you, you have destroyed a nation, and ripped the heart out of both Andromache and I. Well I hope you enjoyed it, Queen of Sparta, for then it was all worth it," Briseis finished in a bitterly sarcastic tone, and watched with nothing but anger on her face as Helen broke down and fled from her.
A/N – am considering putting something between Achilles and Briseis in, but I'm not a fan of sci-fi kinda stuff. I'm thinking a dream-cum-visitation sort of thing. I don't think they will end up being together in the end, or at least if they do Achilles won't be coming back from the realms of the dead, but I haven't fully decided yet. Really appreciate your comments though, and I definitely think I will include a dream or something like that so I can get some Achilles-Briseis interaction! Keep R&R please!