Romanowski and Rosemary

4. Fading essence

Julian

Medisa had the softest green eyes.

She ran around the palace, laughing as I chased her down the halls. Her red hair flew like a river of lustrous copper, shining under the sunlight from the windows.

Before she could take another turn into a hallway, I grasped her wrist, pulling her back to me.

"Caught you." I chuckled as she heaved in my arms, catching her breath. Slowly, she turned around to stare up at me, her eyes looking like an endless green field. 

I never knew she could even smile when I saw her for the first time.

"Must my very first royal concubine lurk out into danger when I'm not around?" I playfully narrowed my eyes. 

Recently, I had heard about some nasty ritual that required red-haired women to be sacrificed in them. I held her firmer to me.

"I apologise, my Lord," she smiled cheerfully, reaching for my shoulder blade to look, then frowned. "The wound I tried so hard to bandage ripped open again? Just how much must you practice, my Lord, ah!" she yelped when I picked her in my arms, heading for my room.

"Don't evade my previous question, little love." I scolded her softly, entering my room.

Her eyes widened when I plopped her on the bed, hovering over her. "Now we can discuss." I grinned.

She blushed, looking anywhere but me. "Ah, I… I was just-"

"Just trying to see me practice at Pantheon grounds?" I completed for her, tilting her head back in position to look into her eyes. Her small mouth tried forming words, but in vain.

I cupped her face, placing a gentle kiss over her head.

Women weren't flowers to be plucked and pierced to make a necklace that would look pretty. They looked best when left under the sunshine. Just like the wind, water and soil kept them alive, gentle love was all that my Medisa needed.

It had been a year since she came into my life. Once a wilting flower in the vase of her previous masters, she was now a happy, blooming flower in the garden of my heart.

The nervousness slowly washed away as a slow smile came over her.

I closed my eyes, resting my forehead against hers. "How will you do that, Medisa, when I'll have to leave our homeland?" I asked.

The smile diminished as she looked into my eyes. "Is there a… war?"

I sighed. If it was a war, I could've come back to her after a certain time. But it was something else. Something that would take way too much time away from her.

Pulling us to a sitting position, I rested her against the bed's headboard, "They've appointed me as an oikistes."

"What's… that?" Her voice trembled as she entwined my fingers with hers.

"A leader of sorts," I sighed, resting my head over her shoulders. "Chosen by the Greek polis as the founder of a new settlement. Hellenisation has begun, Medisa. And they want to expand their colonies. 

"My father swore truce to Alexander's father, Philip, that I'd be aiding his son, just like my stepbrother." I closed my eyes to take a deep breath, trying not to burst into anger.

Media caressed my head, and the hostility within me rushed away. As if it was afraid of her gentle touch. "You cannot disagree with this pact?" She asked.