#athenais

The taller man ought to have had the advantage of reach. Severin had cause to know he had certainly had the advantage of training. Yet he was a beat slow, sluggish, as if his head were still clouded with the previous night’s drink. Each time his opponent’s sword rang against his it was a nearer thing. And he was already bleeding from a cut on his left arm. 

If the object had been first blood the duel would have been over almost as soon as it began, but it was not. And so Severin stood and watched as the smaller of the two men fought rings around the other. The shorter man was not sluggish. He fought as if he had spent his entire life waiting for this moment. Severin was certain he had spent the better part of the last few weeks awaiting it.

His fingers tightened on the scabbard of his own sword, until the embossed leather printed itself on his palm, and Severin watched that taller man dance nearer and nearer to his own end. 

He fought like a drunkard. He fought like a laggard. He fought as if the Fury herself had abandoned him because She knew his opponent’s cause was the just one. 

That was a terrible thing to think of one’s own brother. 

But that did not make it any less true. 

Severin did not know everything of the path that had brought Alderic to this pass, but he knew enough to know that it had always been going to end something like this. None of that knowing did anything to help when he watched the smaller man feint neatly, and then drive his sword home past his brother’s diverted guard.

Severin did not look at the other man as he pulled back the blade and stepped back. He had eyes only for his little brother as Alderic looked down at his bleeding chest in surprise and then tumbled to the stone like a felled tree. Severin rushed forward to join him, dropping to his knees at his side. He reached out to close his own hands around the bloodied one his brother was pressing vainly to his chest. Alderic’s eyes turned toward him, wide with a sudden panic as if only now, far too late, he had realized his errors.

“It’s alright.” Severin lied, squeezing a hand that was already cooling in his own. 

“Messed up, didn’t I?” Alderic said, and coughed.

Severin nodded, as he had done every other time his brother said those words, but this time he could not find any words of his own to follow it with.

“It’s alright.” Alderic repeated, the yellow green of his eyes too bright as they met his, his voice soft and wheezing over the words. Blood bubbled on his lips. “Be easier for you. I was always messing up.”

“You were always my brother.” Severin said, because it was as true as Alderic’s words.

Alderic nodded, but then convulsed, body arching up, the hand in his briefly tightening until his fingers ached. He took two more rasping breaths and then stopped altogether. 

Severin didn’t let go of his hand until Athenais' smaller ones came to pry his fingers loose, heedless of both the blood that stained them and the way they shook when she closed hers around them instead.

***

A tiny hand closed around his finger. Severin had almost forgotten that a baby could be so very small. But that little hand was strong, and his youngest son’s eyes were bright despite their odd hues. He ran his thumb over every tiny finger and smiled. “He’ll be a strong boy.” He said quietly.

“He already is.” Athenais said, fondly watching the two of them. 

Indécente, ma robe ? Mais chouchou, c’est la mode cet été ! La robe-moustiquaire protège de la torpeur estivale et des morsures d’insectes tout en préservant la pudeur des chevilles jusqu’au cou. Tu sais comme je suis prude et comme je veux garder ma vertu jusqu’à notre mariage — c’est à dire, si tu restes mon favori jusque là, cher fiancé... Moi aussi je suis impatiente, tu le sais, mais je ne pourrai célébrer notre hymen avant que mon frère soit revenu de la campagne qu’il mène contre les Germains aux confins de l’Empire. Ta famille appuiera-t-elle la candidature de mon père au Sénat ? Je serais indigne de toi si je n’étais que la fille d’un questeur ! Et comment pourrais-je goûter notre union tant que ma mère souffre d’un panaricium à l’orteil ? Je prie Esculape chaque jour pour sa guérison et l’avancement de notre bonheur.

Allons nous divertir à la fête que donne Julia demain. La villa de sa famille est sublime — comme le sera la nôtre, n’est-ce pas ? Il y aura toute la jeunesse de Rome, tous des patriciens. Et puis des célébrités : tu pourras parler char avec le champion Appuleius, et lutte avec le gladiateur Maximus. Mais nous ne pouvons pas arriver les mains vides ; allons au marché, je te dirai quels cadeaux acheter — tu as si peu de sens esthétique, mon chéri. Et d’abord, j’ai besoin d’une bonne dizaine de robes comme celle-ci et de nouveaux bijoux. Si je risquais de paraître devant toi moins belle que les autres filles, je préférerais me couvrir la tête de cendres et me cacher parmi les vestales. Allons, mon promis, et n’oublie pas ta bourse. Nous allons bien nous amuser !

Athenais

John William Godward

Athenais by John William Godward, 1908.

Athenais (Ἀθηναΐς) was a prophetess from Erythrae  in Ionia, Asia Minor. She lived at the time of Alexander the Great. According to Strabo, Athenais was one of the oracles which claimed divine descent for Alexander the Great:

"Having before spoken at length of the temple of Ammon, we wish to add this only, that in ancient times divination in general and oracles were held in greater esteem than at present. Now they are greatly neglected ; for the Romans are satisfied with the oracles of the Sibyl, and with Tyrrhenian divination by the entrails of animals, the flight of birds, and portentous appearances. Hence the oracle of Ammon, which was formerly held in great esteem, is now nearly deserted. This appears chiefly from the historians who have recorded the actions of Alexander, adding, indeed, much that has the appearance of flattery, but yet relating what is worthy of credit. Callisthenes, for instance, says that Alexander was ambitious of the glory of visiting the oracle, because he knew that Perseus and Hercules had before performed the journey thither. He set out from Parætonium, although the south winds were blowing, and succeeded in his undertaking by vigour and perseverance. When out of his way on the road, he escaped being overwhelmed in a sand-storm by a fall of rain, and by the guidance of two crows, which directed his course. These things are stated by way of flattery, as also what follows: that the priest permitted the king alone to pass into the temple in his usual dress, whereas the others changed theirs; that all heard the oracles on the outside of the temple, except Alexander, who was in the interior of the building; that the answers were not given, as at Delphi and at Branchidæ, in words, but chiefly by nods and signs, as in Homer; “‘the son of Saturn nodded with his sable brows, the prophet imitating Jupiter. This, however, the man told the king, in express terms, that he was the son of Jupiter. Callisthenes adds, (after the exaggerating style of tragedy,) that when Apollo had deserted the oracle among the Branchidæ, on the temple being plundered by the Branchidæ (who espoused the party of the Persians in the time of Xerxes,) and the spring had failed, it then re-appeared (on the arrival of Alexander); that the ambassadors also of the Milesians carried back to Memphis numerous answers of the oracle respecting the descent of Alexander from Jupiter, and the future victory which he should obtain at Arbela, the death of Darius, and the political changes at Lacedæmon. He says also that the Erythræan Athenais, who resembled the ancient Erythræan Sibyl, had declared the high descent of Alexander. Such are the accounts of historians".

-Strabo: Geography, 17.1.43 (Book 17, Chapter 1, Section 43)

Getting back into this fic by making character moodboards :)