Title: "You are my weakness" Chapter 5: "Atropos"
Author: too_beauty
Feedback: yes, please any kind of them will help me to improve my writing or leave it forever.
Pairing: Alexander & Hephaestion; Xenos – who was born in my imagination.
Rating: PG
Category: Historical AU so some personages will appear to serve the purpose of this story.
Disclaimer: I don't know the people involved; A&H belonged to themselves and to History, if not Hephaestion would be still among us, living under my "protection".
No beta so all mistakes are mine.
"He is dying; he might be dead by now" the messenger whispered.
"What happened?" a really worried King asked.
"A plague broke out in a near village; Hephaestion went to help because he remembered that Aristotle had talked about this disease and its cure. He stayed there for some days, especially looking after a boy who had lost all his family due to the plague. On his way back to his father's farm, he got ill and fell of his horse; one of his father's servants found him hours later, took him and his mother has been looking after him since then. "
"But if Hephaestion knows the cure and he had been healing others, why doesn't it have an effect on him? "
"Because he is so depressed that he has let him die. Sire, he is a shadow of the handsome and strong youth we had here" the messenger wiped his tears and added "and his eyes, by Zeus, Sire, his eyes are two black holes in the palest face I've ever seen; he looks like a ghost, so lost, so lonely, so broken."
"I must do something, Amyntoros was one of the best general and loyal friend I had. Ask my doctor to come soon and then go and take some food and a rest" the King said and motioned to get things ready.
"Save him, Sire, or we will lose our Prince too", the messenger said that looking at the King's eye and he could see how Philip frowned.
On his way to the doctor's chamber, Xenos, the messenger, found his prince on his knees, crying his soul with silent sobs; his hands were on the marble floor in front of his head and he could see his shoulders moving in synchrony with his sobs. Xenos knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently. He lowered his head and whispered into the prince's ear:
"Stand up, my Prince, get better and ask your father to let you got o your beloved. I am sure that your love can save him."
Alexander looked at Xenos, who was just a few years older than him but sounded too much smarter, and said:
"His family will throw me out he moment I put a step into their property and my Phai won't let me be with him, not even nearer, I am the principal cause of all his pain and problems, if I had never pronounced those evil words, he wouldn't have caught that illness ".
"When love between two human beings is true, everything is forgiven; I have never seen such a strong love between other people than you two. I was there when you pronounced those words, and I can assure you he is not your weakness; in fact you are weaker now than before, he is your main source of strength, of sanity but especially of love. I have seen with despair what this time apart had done to you; you became a careless, stubborn and selfish person. You have lost that "something" that had always made you outstands among the rest of us; you can flog me, my Prince but I will speak up my mind, it is the only way you can save him and yourself. "
Alexander looked at Xenos with his empty eyes and hugging him, he promised:
"I'll do up to the impossible to get him back. Nothing will be able to take him away from me; things will be fine and I'll help him, even if he decides not to take me back."
Alexander went back to his chamber and prepared some clothes and personal things to take with him. Among these things were his copy of The Iliad, their arm bracelets and some of Hephaestion's letters.
When all his belongings were in order, he went to look for Philip, the doctor. The man was talking to King Philip and next to him there was a big wooden trunk full of medicines and herbs.
Queen Olympia was there too, with a strange look on her face but she was looking quite satisfied and Alexander was really disgusted at her expression. Olympia smiled at his son but that smile disappeared from her face as soon as she saw the bundle at Alexander's feet.
"You are not going anywhere, Alexander. You can't run the risk of being ill too." She said with venom in her voice.
"Of course I am going to him" Alexander said with resolution in his voice.
"I regret to say this but I have to agree with your mother this time; it is dangerous and you can die" King Philip said.
"If he dies, I'll die soon after him, life doesn't have any meaning for me if he is not by my side." Alexander expressed with love in his voice.
"Alexander, be reasonable, you are the heir to the Macedonian throne, after all I have done and resigned for you, you can't choose him over me" a really angry Olympia shouted.
"I'll choose him ever over anyone, even myself, and I'd also switch places with him now if this were possible. So don't tell me what to do because you know nothing about love or being loved. He is my everything and reason to live, without him … I am nothing."
"Father, I will got to him now with Philip, I beg you to let me go and on my return, you can do with my life whatever you wish, but please let me go" Alexander was begging with his soul and heart in his bare hands.
"If he is so badly ill, I need to see him, at least once, to ask for is forgiveness and to declare my love to him again. You cannot ban me to see him, if you do, I'll find the way and not even your entire army will stop me"
Philip looked at his son with proud and nodded and in that instant Olympia realized she had lost her son forever.
A groom brought Bucephalus to the front door of the palace; the prince leapt on it and flew as if Hades himself were chasing him.
He arrived at Amyntoros's farmland in record time and a poor and exhausted doctor arrived minutes later; the guards and escort had set a double march to arrive there sooner.
Alexander and the doctor were about five metres far from the front door when they heard a woman's shouting:
"NO, MY SON, NO!"
… and in that moment Alexander realized that Atropos had managed to cut his thread of life too.
Author's note: Atropos - the Greek goddess of fate who cuts the thread of life