"Nobody's looking at your neck," Haemon reassured Megara after the tenth time he'd seen her adjust her himation.
She'd dressed more modestly than usual, ashamed of the marks on her that would force her to answer questions. "Nobody's going to, either," she said. She'd left her hair down to drape it across her shoulders and mask the evidence that her cousin had tried to kill her. It was the wounded animals that got picked off the fastest by predators. She couldn't afford to go out into public and look like a victim.
"Everyone's got too much to think about today; one more messed-up face won't make a difference to anyone," Megarion said. Her twin brother hadn't dressed any differently for the day because he was wearing the same wrinkled tunic he'd worn the day before.
"Thanks, bro. You always remind me that even when I'm down, I could get lower."
"Try to enjoy your day at school, kids," Haemon said. "I remember when I thought school would help distract me from how much life sucks. At least try to indulge in the illusion a little while today." He pulled his personal chariot aside and let the twins climb down. "I'll be at the conscript station if you need me. We set it up in the cafeterium."
"Skip lunch, got it," Megara said.
Haemon's award-winning smile faltered as something gathered behind his eyes. "Don't be like that, Meggie. I'll have to see so many kids forced to line up for their deaths today… I want to smile at someone for real, all right?"
"I can guarantee there's nothing to smile at today," Megara said. "Creon knows our schedule. He could send people to pull me out of class and make me marry Eteocles."
"Well, then you won't be skipping lunch, will you?" Haemon tried to laugh but failed. "I'm sorry about your boyfriend, Meg. He sounded like he would've made you happy. Gods know that's a miracle."
Megarion nudged her. "We could always run. I'd like to get out of here, too."
"Don't say anything in front of me. I'm the only Theban who can't lie." Haemon stepped down from his chariot long enough to hug them both. "Everything's going to change soon. I just want us to remember this moment, okay?"
Megara closed her eyes. Not long ago, she would've given everything to forget who she was. Now, she wondered if her memories would soon be all she had.
Haemon kissed the tops of both twins's heads, then climbed onto his chariot. "I hope I see you two soon; check in with me after school or if you need anything."
Left alone, the twins gave one another skeptical, tear-rimmed glances. They set off silently toward their classes. All the halls and courtyards were lined with panicking teenagers and the ones trying to calm them down.
Classroom doors stood open, with howls of distress emanating from within.
"Gee, it's like nothing's changed," Megara said.
"At least we're all being honest," Megarion agreed. "So what do you think? Want to try and keep to our schedule or see if we can snoop around and find a hiding spot for when your new fiance comes knocking?"
"What's the point of hiding? They'll tear this place up looking for us."
"Only if they think it's worth their time. We could always wait until the siege takes off and then…" Megarion abandoned the hypothetical so they could both watch a fourteen-year-old boy wail for his mother while a pair of soldiers tried to carry him to the cafeterium.
"Hey!" Megara barked at them. "He's too scrawny to fit into the armor! Go pick someone else for your shield wall, or I'll tell everyone you're too afraid to stand in the shield wall yourselves!"
The soldiers looked about to argue, but Megara and her brother were recognizable enough that they didn't offer any argument. They released the boy, and he ran off, sobbing.
"Look at you," Megarion drawled. "One weekend with a hero, and you suddenly think you can make a difference."
Megara kicked at a pebble. "If I could make a difference, we'd already have thrown Eteocles out of the city, and we'd be planning an assassination attempt for Polynikes."
"You were always such a peaceful, diplomatic girl. I have no idea why the other princes were afraid of you."
"If you weren't my brother, you'd be afraid of me, too. Remember what Teiresias said during the Oedipus plague?"
"That our cousin was our uncle and our auntie was a–"
"Not that part, Malaka!" Megara rubbed her forehead. "He said that most of us girls would die for love. Most of us, right? I think that's what he said."
"If you're hoping I remember better than you, I think you picked the wrong river to steal water from."
"Whatever. I just think… Thebes has a terrible track record, doesn't it?"
"I went to history class, too, and I've had more than one dinner with our mother."
"Right, so… There's always a tragedy every generation."
"Are you saying we haven't had ours?" Megarion raised his brow. "Because I think if we have two in our one generation, we'll all get wiped out." Those words hung in the air, echoed by the cries and pleas of the young conscripts.
"Maybe we will," Megara said quietly. "I'm shocked Eteocles hasn't lashed out at Menoikeus yet. They're equally capable of inheriting the throne, and Eteocles is–"
"Yeah, I get it, but don't say it."
"Fine, I won't say it, but you know it's true."
"Meno can fight. But will he? Or will he become a sacrifice for the city to break the curse?"
"Stop, you're going to make me think you're right." Megarion dragged his sister toward the theater. "I'm glad I've never been in love. I've seen how it hurts you and Haemon, and I've got enough problems as it is."
The catastrophic atmosphere seeped into Meg's mind, dyeing it like cloth with the purple stain of a thousand dead sea snails. There had been a brief sky-blue stain to interrupt the flow of that same inevitable melding of glory and tragedy. No, now there was only sacrifice.
Would she sacrifice herself to Eteocles and grant him access to her body? Would that help avoid any element of the unpleasantness ahead? Or should she do what she was sure her parents would prefer and sacrifice herself another way?
"Stop," Megarion ordered her and gave her a hard shove to the shoulder. "I know what you're thinking, and we're not done yet. We can handle this."
"Speak for yourself." They'd reached the theater now, the only space where it didn't seem the world was ending.
"There's our Harmonia!" the director raced across the stage to reach Megara. "Please, princess, put on the mask! We're trying to put on a show worthy of Bacchus so he will remember he is our patron deity and intervene in our time of need!"
"We're always in a time of need, and he's never done anything for us," Megara reminded the desperate woman.
The director's face crumpled, and she covered her eyes with both hands.
"Nice going, Meg," Megarion walked onto the stage. "I'll evoke Apollo. Go get dressed."
Megara paused beside her director and sighed. "I'm sorry, all right? It's hard for all of us. I use words to cope, and… that was cruel of me."
"I had to take over for my husband because he was conscripted," the woman sobbed. "He's a priest of Bacchus. He's supposed to be exempt. The whole city is going to Hades…"
"Please don't say his name. We don't want attention from the wrong sort of god." It seemed hypocritical to say since she'd often wandered off with other theater students to eat their lunch in the cemetery, but she still didn't want to exacerbate the situation any further. "The show must go on, right? Let's do our best."
Theron emerged from backstage, already in costume. "Megara! It's so good to see you alive!"
Megara cut her eyes toward him. She hadn't forgotten what happened the last time they met, but she was pretty sure the Lethe water might've left her vulnerable to his charms. "I'm sure it is," she mumbled. "Since you've already got your costume on, I suspect I'll have the changing room all to myself, right?"
Feigning ignorance, Theron shrugged. "You should, but there are a few members of the chorus still in there. When you went missing, we all thought you were dead. It was… so difficult thinking we'd never see you again. Especially for me. I always had so much I wanted to tell you."
"Wow, and yet you still did all that talking?" Megara brushed past him on her way into the changing room. "How about you try that on another girl who doesn't know what you're really like? Or better yet, beg forgiveness from Aphrodite for being so bad at wooing. How's your undercarriage, by the way? Can you even still get a girl?"
Theron grabbed her by the elbow. He was wearing his mask now, but to her, he looked just like Eteocles. What would he do to her? "I'm sorry you thought I'd hurt you," he said. "You must have misunderstood what I was saying the other day. I've thought it over… many times since then… Let me try again. See if you can understand this time."
"I've understood plenty," Megara said and tried to shake him off, but he wouldn't let go. "I started seeing someone over the weekend. So I'm not available. It's too bad nobody gave you a script for life; you're not very good at improv."
This time, Theron almost let go, but then he gripped her arm even tighter than before. "You can't just run off and pretend we never had any feelings for each other. What about all the times we'd sit together among the graves, and you wanted me to read your poetry first? Or how giddy you got when I was selected to be Cadmus?"
Those weren't terrible points. Megara had a soft, girly heart underneath her shell, but she'd never admit to that. Not again. She'd already given her heart away, and Theron couldn't have it.
"There's a difference between thinking a boy is cute and loving him. I've had the real thing now, Theron. The mask doesn't interest me anymore." She finally broke away and darted into the dressing room.
Back among the chorus girls, she could re-focus herself on putting on the placid, graceful face of Queen Harmonia.
When she reemerged, she was on cue, and she'd had time to sublimate her true emotions into the ones that she would profess in the guise of her ancestor. It was easier than ever now that she could reshape the mask of Cadmus in her mind to make her believe she saw Hercules instead.
This would be the closest thing to beseeching Aphrodite for an intervention she'd ever allow herself. While she was onstage, nobody would intercept her and force her to marry her cousin. She wouldn't become a damned queen who Polynikes would choose to either slaughter or take for his own when he conquered.
If only she didn't have to live offstage and could hide in this finite world. It had choreography and structure. While events could be emotionally fraught, nobody actually died.
A shadow passed over the stage, and everyone stopped. It was as if their tiny world had been eclipsed, but it wasn't the moon that had covered the sun. It was a winged horse.
"Hercules?" Megara abandoned the stage and reoriented herself to follow the trail of the horse. Yes, there he was! That was his hair, and he was wearing armor. Wow. he almost looked like a real hero with a blue cape flapping behind him.
The horse abruptly stopped its flight, and Hercules brought it back around. He seemed to be searching for her. But, actually, he couldn't see her, not with her mask on.
Her hands went to the edges of the mask, but she stopped. She shouldn't let him see what she looked like right now. It was too embarrassing.
"Meg?" Hercules landed on the flying horse and looked around at each of the female figures.
The director rushed up to him. "Excuse me, young sir, but Princess Megara is still engaged in a sacred play for the glory of Bacchus. Please permit us to finish the show, won't you? We can't anger another of the gods!"
"Oh…" Hercules finally landed his eyes on Megara's costumed form. He waved, and so she waved back. "That's fine, as long as she's… Are you okay?"
Theron re-started the line he'd said in character before Hercules's arrival. It was a clear sign that the show would continue, and he wasn't about to give Megara a chance to stop the show and talk to her boyfriend.
Wait, he was here! She thought she'd never see him again, and he was here! That meant everything would be different. She went through the motions to finish the play, and Hercules settled into a seat to watch, but this was the last time something she did followed the path set out for her. This time, she'd rewrite the script, and nobody could stop her.