A/N: This chapter is sad also. I think it is at least. Don't expect other updates soon because I'm really morose for some reason, mostly I've been spending time with a friend of mine writing guitar music to her lyrics, they're sad which makes me sad. Anyways the story won't go on for much longer because it won't. I could tell you something about how it's going to end...but I won't.
Chapter 17 - Living in a World of Glass
Briseis had lain in her chambers for days now. Her legs ached with discomfort and she spoke little. She was still thinking, or the so the Prince's told her elder brother. 'She won't speak with anyone.' Hector had informed him earlier. Melanon hadn't come because he did not want to burden her with news. It had fallen upon him to tell her of her brother's death but it seemed impossible to do.
He had sat near her bed since mid-day. She was sleeping, strange but it was not his duty to disturb her. He was seated in the chair close by, watching and waiting for her to awake. She would no doubt be elated greeting her brother. Physicians said there was something wrong with her, but they could not discern it and until they could he had convinced himself she was in good health. He stood and walked to her side brushing a strand of hair out of her face. She gripped his wrist lightly with a gasp. Her blue eyes were shaken and heartbreaking.
"Melanon." She said faintly. "I thought it was someone...someone else." She smiled widely and embraced her brother. "I have missed you. All of you." The siblings spoke for a long while before she finally asked. "When are the rest of them coming to visit me? Or will it detract too much from their busy schedule?" She said with a grin. He shifted uneasily and her smile vanished. "What is it? There is something wrong." Her voice became accusatory and her eyes bore into him.
He broke her gaze after a moment of silence. "Yes, yes there is but perhaps we should tell you when you are in a healthier state." He said quietly but she caught him as he tried to turn away. "Briseis you need rest. I will speak with you about it tomorrow." She released him unwillingly and with a critical gaze and he walked out.
"You didn't tell her did you?" Cariaxis cornered his brother as he left his sister's apartments.
"No I did not. I could not. She wouldn't be able to handle it." The younger stared cynically. "It isn't as easy as you make it sound. You try to tell her that her twin brother is dead and see exactly how easy it is." Cariaxis' eyes grew wide and he stared avidly over his brother's shoulder. A gasp came from behind Melanon. Briseis stood in the doorway, clutching the wall as though it was her only support.
"No," She said in a mortified voice backing away from him. "You're lying, you're a liar." Her tone grew louder and only more wretched. "Why would you say that? Why?" She screamed. Hector and Paris came running from a hallway nearby.
"Melanon what's going on?" The elder prince asked, he saw Briseis and fell silent. "Oh." Was all he said.
She looked at him piteously. "Is it true?" All four men averted their eyes. "No, he can't be dead. He can't be." She slumped to the floor, holding her knees to her chest. She lost her resolve to push him away when Melanon embraced her tightly. "No, no." Tears welled up in her eyes. "He can't be, no." Doctors came and left quickly when they saw the body of the crying woman.
"Don't worry, it'll all be fine. It'll all work out." Her older brother tried his best to comfort her.
Days passed and little changed. She refused to eat or speak or sleep. Her body became more feebly thin than usual. His younger brothers begged him to help her but Melanon couldn't think any way to console her. All she wanted was Pramadas.
She was moved to her apartments later that day. The physicians hoped that being around familiar things may help her but they only plunged her deeper into a silent depression. She sat by the window watching nothing at all for days at a time. The royal family was worried, his family was worried, the entire of Troy seemed to have heard of the news.
They had cleared out his brother's chambers and had found a letter written in the dead mans script. Eleven letters in all. He sorted through them. Each had a name scribbled in his brother's untidy writing. Melanon, Briseis, Cariaxis, Balcamen, Brisantho, Termiande, Praxiam, Eopedeus, Condanion, Cartanye, and Hentayol. His siblings. This was a final goodbye.
Careful not to rip anything that maybe in the epistle he opened it. A bracelet fell onto the floor with a dull thud. The silver bracelet he had given Pramadas to remember his sister on that dark day in summer. Everything went still, there were few torches lit and all servants had departed to their beds but he would stay there all night if he had to.
He ran out of the room after picking up the jewelry. Visiting each of his brother's rooms and giving the letters to each. He stood outside Briseis' room. He had knocked loudly but there was no response. He had no doubt in his mind that she was there and simply not answering. He did not want to waste his energy pleading with his sister to open the door.
He sighed and turned away after the door creaked open. "Melanon. What do you want?" She was tired, his brotherly instinct took over and he said.
"You haven't eaten in days. You need to."
"Oh, if this is just going to be another lecture you may as well leave." She said dully, closing the door. He stopped her before it slammed shut.
"No, he showed me your letter." She paused and he saw her eyes close tightly shut. "From before you were captured. He was acting exactly as you have now, but he was strong, he was trained to not eat for days but you are not. You will not last long if you keep this up and I cannot lose both of you. I came to give you this." He handed her the envelope with her name written on it. "We each got one. He wanted to say goodbye. I think he knew. He must have."
There was a long stillness before she spoke. Her beautiful cobalt eyes still closed. "He did. The night when I left we spoke. That was the last time I ever spoke to him. I wrote him a letter just like this." She said sorrowfully.
"I know, I read it, he told me to when I gave him this." He showed the bracelet. "I looked everywhere for that letter but it's gone."
"It's with him." She sobbed as she read on. "He kept him with it that day. It was burned with his body." She was overcome by a fresh wave of tears. "Read it, please."
He picked it up shakily. Briseis, Lady of the White Palace, Idol of Troy, Beauty of the Eastern Shores, Most revered and admired daughter of Theyodus. I have never called you any of these names before. Even as I write this they seem foreign to your name. You have asked me to treat you only as I would treat any other and I would like to think that I have obliged willingly and without argument. You have never asked anything of me, no favor or act of protection. I always thought that it was simply because you wanted independence. You lived in a culture where you were born as a lesser being but somehow you rose above the title of myself, Melanon, possibly even Hector. You always had that skill, no matter how anything started out you could always get the advantage. Perhaps you remember the letter you wrote to me before you left, perhaps you do not. It was a fitting way to say goodbye and that is how I bid you farewell now. The letter is with my body, hidden under my armor to keep me close to you in death as I know you would have me do. You asked me never to forget your life because you would never forget mine; I only wish that there were more people like you that had been in my life. Father loved you more than any of his sons, even Melanon, and though I know you never believed us it was true. You were the epitome of perfection, flawless and without fault you were, are, and always will be. We received more marriage proposals for you than you could ever imagine, certainly more than we told you about, but none of them were good enough for you. No one ever will be. No one that you could ever marry that is. You never believed in love but you should have. Someday you will find it, in the most unexpected places, and someday you will understand what so many have already found. I wish I could be with you for every moment of hardship there is, to protect you from everything but I could not and if you have found this I would not be able to. If you have found this I am dead, and you have returned to Troy. I want everything for you, I want you to live a long life with many more happiness's than sorrows and when your time has come I will be there in Hades to embrace you once again as my sister. For to others you were a Lady, a Beauty and a Symbol of adoration but to me you will only ever be Briseis, my lovely sister, my wisest consol and my greatest and truest friend. Goodbye, dear sister we will meet again and I know you will never forget.
He met his sister's eyes and she collapsed, weeping in his arms.
"Briseis," A voice came from the other side of the door. She made a noise of acceptance, her thoughts still dwelling on her brother. Prior to revealing the bid of farewell from his brother Melanon had left, the sun had risen and set between then and now. She clutched the letter tightly in her hand.
She stared out towards the sea and in the direction of her palace. She refused to let memories of Achilles flood her mind. 'I need you to love me because I love you.' She had thought of his words a hundred times and a hundred times again. The cold stone of the sill on which she sat seeped through the silken fabric of her gown and her body, draped with jewels as it was, felt strangely dull only by remembering him.
"Briseis," The voice repeated. The princess of Troy peered at her in the near-darkness of her chambers. There was a single light on a far wall; she could barely see Andromanche in the shadows. "We have not spoken since your return. I feel as though we have had a wall placed between us."
"Perhaps we have. I have no signs as to what is going on around me now." She regretted the words as soon as they left her lips. It hung in air and she could hear the question before it was asked.
"Now that what? What has changed about you so much that you cannot speak to the closest of your friends?" She crossed her arms in front of her, the white and blue linen of her dress shifting around her. A flurry of wind blew her ebony hair about her face.
"Nothing has happened. I am ever the same as I always will be." Andromanche drew near her slowly; she brushed her hand along Briseis' arm.
"Your skin is like ice." She commented lightly. Her dark hair billowed softly in the frozen breeze. "You should come to dine with us. Hector and Paris and Melanon are troubled. You have not spoken to any of-"
"I know what I have done Andromanche. And I know what I will do." Her anger came through in her voice and the princess's features were a mask of shocked annoyance.
"Then what will you do? If you are so godly that you can see into what will come to pass why are you alone in your chambers? You should be back at the camp." She covered her mouth as the words rang in the room. "I am sorry; I do not know what I am thinking."
"Back at the camp?" She questioned stridently. "With the Greeks? What do you mean to imply, Andromanche? That I would be happier away from my family?"
"No, I told you I apologize for my speech but," She lowered her voice to a whisper. "But you cannot tell me that there has been nothing. Tell your brothers, tell your friends but do not lie to me that nothing has happened."
"You want me to tell you the truth?" She inquired in a matching angered whisper. "Then I will tell nothing but the truth. Only ask me what you wish to know." She demanded heatedly.
"Tell me why you have not mentioned Achilles? Tell me why, when Melanon attended you the day you found out about Pramadas, you said you thought he was someone else? Tell me why you bear all the signs of...of being in love." She paused for a moment after her fiery rant and her hand flew to her mouth with a gasp of realization. "You...you couldn't have...you didn't..."
"I did. I suppose I still do." She said standing and wandering aimlessly around her apartments. "Do not tell Hector or Paris, do not tell anyone what you have found out. They would not stand for it. Me and him. I'm supposed to be stronger than that but he has a way of speaking and...He treated me unlike any other man had. I knew I should have resisted more but after a point I just...I couldn't." She shook her head and stared without direction out the casement.
They both stood in silence. Andromanche placed a hand on Briseis' shoulder. "Is it really that obvious to tell?" She asked quietly.
"For those who have been in love, it's unmistakable. To those who haven't you merely seem strange." She laughed softly. "Describe him for me. I always wanted to meet a real Greek hero; I guess you fulfilled my dream."
Briseis laughed and illustrated him as best she could, her words could do him no justice. "I can't explain him, it's impossible to just talk about him. You have to meet him to know what I'm talking about." Andromanche nodded absent-mindedly.
"It's like me talking about Hector." She sighed. "I just can't do it. Describing him is impossible. Never ask me to explain him." Briseis laughed softly and then fell silent. "If you're worried about them finding out, I won't tell them. You've kept my secrets before so I guess we're even now." She sighed sadly and the princess stayed quiet.
"I had to fall in love with the one man who they would never let me marry. Who I have about as much chance of marrying as I do walking across the sea." She added with a bitter tone as Andromanche nodded reassuringly.
"You can't help who you fall in love with. No matter what people say, you're the same as other women in that your head can't always control your heart. You did the hardest thing to do, you left the one you loved."
"I wanted to stay but he wouldn't let me. He told me I needed to be with the Trojans." She recalled their parting, mimicking every word. "But being here isn't like being with him. Part of me wishes I had never left the camp, that I had insisted I had stayed."
"He would have made you leave. He cared about you enough that he could realize that you need to be separated, no matter how he felt about you." Andromanche said, embracing her friend in a motherly sort of way. "For once in your life you weren't the one being selfless. It's a good feeling isn't it?" She only nodded mutely, overcome by grief.
A/N: I know it's a weird title and it has nothing to do with the chapter but it makes sense to me and that's all that matters, I'm just kidding but I don't have enough space to explain it. I'm sorry that I've become such a bad updater but it's summer vacation, I sleep until two in the afternoon and fall asleep again when the sun is rising you don't want me to write down everything I think of when it's three in the morning. Trust me.