Hello all,

Here comes the eighteenth entry to my Destiny tale. Hephaestion is very ill, and Alexander spends all his time at his bedside ? Alexander and his Chiliarch have met many formidable Foes during their Campaigns. One vengeful Goddess returns. She has sworn a Holy Oath to defeat her enemies. Now she intends to fulfill it.

All the best wishes and hopefully good reading, Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

/ NorthernLight

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Escape From Destiny, Part Eighteen

Ecbatana, 323 BC

An Evening Of Distress

Stefanos and Alexios was standing Guard as usual. Their watch was long since over but they did not dare, neither want to leave it.

They were too worried for their King and Chiliarch.

Hephaestion was tossing and turning in a feverish and fitful sleep. He had rested well all night and the day after, but now in the evening his fever had returned. He had been sick several times again and he had not been able to keep down any of the healing concoctions that Amanda and Doctor Philip prepared for him.

Alexander was constantly at his side, sitting in the wicker chair wringing his hands in despair. The King was very worried over the health of his Dear One. He held on to him when he became sick and he gave him gentle rubbings down with cooling mint water when his temperature rose. Still, the agony was there.

Hephaestion became steadily worse. His fever rose, he had a terrible pain in his stomach and he became more and more disorientated. Alexander and the Healers did their very best to help him.

Sadly, it was to no avail at all.

Amanda found that Hephaestion was almost delirious. The Healer was very worried for her dear patient. It was as if some malicious, downright Evil force had taken its grip on him. She was worried for Alexander, too. Her King was struggling for each breath, his face was white and his lips were blue. It seemed as if he was fighting for the very life of his Dear One.

Vengeance Of A Dark Goddess

Kali the Dark Goddess has waited a long time for her vengeance. Her country had been devastated, her people had been subjected to a merciless force of destruction and the city of her followers, the Mallians, had been put into sorrowful ruins by the foreign invaders. She did not like to be thwarted, and this had been her worst defeat.

The Golden haired King had been at her mercy at the city of the Mallians. The hideous arrow wound he had received there would have killed any ordinary man.

King Alexander was no ordinary man at all.

His will to live and survive had been indomitable - and he had received wondrous help from his Auburn haired friend, a formidable Warrior. In a Dream Fight they both had managed to defeat and chase the Dark Goddess away.

Kali did not take this defeat lightly. She had let her Dark Minions follow King Alexander and his Companion all the way back to Persia.

She had waited for the right moment to strike back at them.

Now, at the rainbow walled city of Ecbatana this moment had come.

The long and arduous campaigns and the hard work to govern the Persian Empire had taken a hard toll on King Alexander and his Companion. Now their health had been seriously weakened and they had been stricken by serious illness.

Kali soared over the city of Ecbatana. She entered a luxurious chamber in the Royal Palace.

Nightmare Of a Dark Goddess

Hephaestion was in agony. The high fever burned his blood and his brain like a wild fire and it tormented his mind and body. He had terrible cramps and pains in his stomach and he was unable to rest. In his sleep he knew that Alexander, the healers and his faithful Guards were watching over him - but they seemed to be very far away.

Now a sinister dark Shadow hovered over him and engulfed him. It was cold as ice and choked him. He looked up and lifted his hands and arms, trying to push it away.

Then he saw the dark skinned woman. Her complexion was dark as the night, a sinister mixture of black and blue. She had a necklace of screaming, tormented ivory skulls around her long and sinewy neck. Her skirts were the colour of newly shed blood. They billowed around her like a crimson cloud. The strangest thing about her was that she had eight arms. In each of her strong hands she held a razor sharp scimitar.

Hephaestion immediately recognized her.

He knew that the Goddess Kali had come to claim him. Sadly, he was too weak to put up a fight against her Evil wishes. He pressed on with his hands, feeling her cold dark skin and her strong muscles and sinews under it. He held on to her broad and powerful shoulders, pressing her away. Still she hovered over him, flashing and brandishing her scimitars at him.

"Hephaestion! I have come for you! Now my Darkness will claim you!", a cruel and hissing Voice told him.

"No! I will not let you win. I have defeated you once and I can do it again!", "he cried out to her.

"Not this time, Hephaestion. You are far too weak - and you have no one to help you!", she mocked him. "All your friends and your King are powerless. They cannot reach me here!"

His chambers turned dark as night. Black choking clouds filled them and he could barely breathe.

Then suddenly a wondrous Golden light chased the Darkness away.

Alexander stood behind the Dark Goddess holding a long flaming sword.

"You are mistaken, Dark Goddess, "he said in a powerful manner. "He has a Friend and King who has come to his Rescue."

TBC

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