Julian

The crowd was beginning to disperse as Alexander's favourite concubine didn't float, but drowned in the Nile.

Alexander stood beside me, his arms crossed as he looked ruefully in the distance.

"You really had to kill her?" I sighed, "Didn't I tell you she was Althea's sister." I ran a hand through my head, worried about how she must be feeling right now. I had seen her in the distance, standing out of the crowd with her eyes red with tears.

I was about to head to her, to engulf her in my arms, when an old man came by.

He seemed to be her father.

I sighed again. He really had to come at a time when one of his daughters died, right in front of him.

"I didn't want to kill her either, but she was too willing to die. Strange woman," Alexander tched. "Somewhere, it was me to blame, too. I paid so little attention to her, she ran away to another man..." he shook his head.

"Anyway, that doesn't offend me cause I've got more important things. Like an empire to build. But you can take it as a lesson Julian." Alexander gave a wry smile. "If you don't keep your woman pleased, you'd get the same fate," he laughed, slapping my shoulder. "Alright, I'll head out, have to plan my departure for the East soon," he informed, before joining the other warriors for the feast we had to leave midway.

Even with the unfortunate circumstance that had arisen, a smile came up to me from what he'd said. Of course Alexander, I won't get the same fate as yours with my woman.

It was odd how I wasn't able to find Althea or her father for the next few moments. As if they had disappeared somewhere altogether. It was unnerving.

Finishing my meals quickly, I was about to do a second roundabout of the house when a guard from my palace came rushing by my guest room.

"My Lord, your presence is required urgently in the palace." He heaved. "Two of the guardsmen guarding your room have been found unconscious, and it seems that poisoning is the cause."

I turned to face him, baffled. "That happened in broad daylight?" I implored. I was already writing a quick letter for Althea to return to the palace with her father.

"No, my Lord. The night before. Our apologies. We couldn't inform you first thing in the morning because..."

A distressed snarl escaped me. "Because?" I demanded. "My guardsmen are fighting for their lives and you take half a day to inform me?!" I tied the letter, furious that even taking a minor break from my duties could cause my guard's poisoning. That too when I was in the palace.

"Uh, my Lord b- because..." he stuttered, "because we saw you leave with... with the court writer lady and you seemed to be in a good mood that we didn't want to ruin. The guards were out of danger and conscious too and they are sure it's someone fr-"

"Prepare the carriage," I dismissed him, ordering a servant to call Ashtor. Good mood, yeah. Fucking ruined now.

Once my trusted warrior, who I'd assigned with the duty to keep a check on Althea, came, I handed him the letter to deliver to her and settled in the carriage.

I pondered over the situation, apprehension building within me. My guards were loyal enough to not let any outsider enter the palace in my absence. If anything, I could only make it out to be the work of some insider fooling around.

Most palace dwellers had already reached Romanos as I rushed to where my guardsmen were. They were lying low in one of the warrior rooms, thankfully looking stable.

"My Lord... mistress... Caspara... she poisoned us," Danro croaked, then coughed as someone helped him to water.

I nodded slowly, the situation making no sense to me. Because I'd just seen Caspara enter the palace with the other concubines.

"My Lord, she... she had also stressed on the part that... it was her only, and we should remember her name the next morning to tell you..." the guard said.

That was blatantly absurd. "Then whoever it was, they probably created a hallucination for you," I wondered aloud. "I know people who are capable of that. They'll feed you something and the next moment you'll believe and iterate whatever they'll tell you to." Someone was framing Caspara, which wasn't a new thing because most people around here weren't especially fond of Persians.

"But, my Lord... she looked exactly like the mistress even before we had accepted her offering," my other guardsman voiced out.

I sent for a servant to call Caspara and the other concubines in the room. I didn't even know why I ever wanted a harem of concubines in the first place. Maybe I should've stuck with one woman.

If only that one woman came a bit earlier in my life.

They gasped as they entered, distancing themselves to one side of the room.

"Caspara," I called her out as she stepped ahead, hesitantly. Her grey eyes taking in the sight of the guards in pity.

"You had said you'd be visiting the palace the night before?" I stated, crossing my arms.

"Yes, my Lord," her voice wavered, "But I didn't when Althea was called."

I turned to look at the laying guardsmen. "They claim you poisoned them last night."

Another gasp from the concubines was heard, some in panic and some in defence of Caspara.

"Why would I be standing in front of you then, my Lord?" She asked, confused, "What good I'll get from poisoning the guards who protect you..."

"My Lord, Caspara was with us the entire celebration night at Helaine's home," one concubine pointed out, rather aggressively. I acknowledged her, turning my gaze to Phoebe.

She immediately lowered her gaze, fiddling with her dress, "Y- Yes, my Lord, she was with us. But I don't know if she slipped out last night when everyone was asleep..."

"No! She was with us! You can also ask Helaine we were with her for the celebration that had gone all night!" Danae stepped forward with a murderous gaze at her. I sighed.

God knows how some kings manage to have ten wives.

"My Lord," Danae spoke to me this time, "Althea was in the palace last night. We don't know enough about her motives and we think she must've tricked the guards into thinking that Caspara-"

"She was with me," I stated blankly. Her accusations were ridiculous.

Silence fell into the room with the concubines awkwardly shifting their gaze from one corner to another. At the guard's request, Thalia and Cicero, who were also staying in the palace, were called. They too had the same opinion that they saw Caspara. They even claimed she had talked to them.

"It must be Caspara's look alike," I concluded finally, "Have you ever seen or known any such woman, Caspara?" I asked her.

"No!" she said immediately, almost too quickly as she looked around anywhere but me, "I- I don't think anyone looks... like me..."

She appeared afraid of the idea that someone out there may look like her. That was strange in the least bit.

I tried remembering any grey-eyed woman I'd ended up making an enemy of. Lord help me, all grey-eyed women looked almost the same to me. Even Althea's sister had the same eye colour, and she looked somewhat like Caspara. Perhaps only to me.

After ordering everyone to leave except Caspara, I took her out, gently holding her by the arms. She appeared more disturbed than before, refusing to look at me. It wasn't until I'd mentioned the possibility of a doppelganger that she'd suddenly become so anxious.

"Is someone troubling you, Caspara?" I asked her, at which she timidly shook her head. I sighed.

"Casparhea," I said again, using the softer version of her name I'd given her when I'd brought her to the palace. "I am a king, and it's my duty to ensure the safety of my concubines." I lowered my face to her. "It was a murder attempt on me, and your identity was used. There's obviously someone who wants you dead, before killing me."

The torn pillow in my room with a knife blade-like tearing pattern was proof someone wanted me dead. It wasn't anything new. When you were a King, most people wanted you dead.

In any case, Caspara would've wrapped her hands around my neck or something, typical of her ways when I acknowledged her. But this time, she didn't. She stood frozen at her spot.

"My Lord," she gulped, glancing behind me in the room where the guards were resting, "Was there... snake poison in their drink?" She asked hesitantly.

"A modification of it," I nodded, "If it was wholly snake poison, they would've died. I'm assuming it was diluted with something else."

"Diluted with blood," she spoke. "They were prominent back in the Persian courts and the kingdoms of the far East, my Lord. The poison damsels," she let out a dishevelled sigh, "beautiful assassins used to kill important members of the court."

My mother and Olympias had ample knowledge about these women assassins, as these are the women who were sent to kill infants and small children who were in line to succeed to the throne. Or even pregnant women in some cases who'll give birth to the future heirs.

And one had entered my palace, who was probably Caspara's look alike.

I hummed along, getting into the situation. "Your movements and activities will be overseen now, Caspara. That's one of the things I'll need to do to make out a look-alike's presence." I bit my lip and turned sideways, finding no message of Althea's arrival. "I hope you'll cooperate. It's for your safety too."

"Y- Yes my Lord," she nodded.

Caspara may get jealous of other women at times, maybe do a thing or two to irk them. But I knew one thing about her. She would never do something that would put me in harm's way.

We parted ways as I strolled in the hallway, reaching the end to gaze down at the many carriages that were arriving from Jakov's home. There were still a lot of guests who would stay for some days before leaving. The Sun was high in the sky, clear blue skies gracing the pleasant weather.

I gripped the slab, a heaviness settling in my heart.

Althea.

Even if she was close to me, in this brief moment, it felt like she was a faraway dream. A dream that may never come true.

* * *

Caspara walked very slowly along the wall of the hallways, dazed, lost in her thoughts. Her heart was pounding madly that she could barely get out a word in front of her king. She stopped at the large semi-circular window, gazing down at the horde of guests spread in the gardens.

She was here.

Cold sweat broke down her forehead as she wiped her face, breathing through short gasps. Any other time, she would've been thinking about how to impress His Honour, how to outshine the other concubines, or how to be the most obedient when an elderly woman arrived in the palace. Or how to trick that Althea away from His Honour.

But now, all of that was blurred into a meaningless pursuit.

She gasped when someone came to stand in front of her. It was a confused-looking Thalia as she held a little cloth in her hand.

"Mistress Caspara," she frowned, "you had talked to me here only, the night before," she pointed at the window, "you don't remember?"

The concubine tucked the strands of black hair behind her ear, shaking her head in anxiousness.

"You'd also told me to give this to you in the morning," Thalia extended the piece of cloth to her, "because you'd forgotten to keep this in your room. Don't you remember?" The girl frowned again.

Caspara took the dainty cloth in her hands, its texture soft and cool to the touch. Thalia excused herself when someone called for her, and once again, the concubine was left alone in the hallway.

Looking around, she walked down to the next floor and into her room to settle on her bed, carefully looking at the small kerchief. It was plain but was decorated on the borders.

Not with simple designs because, on a closer look, she found it to be the letters of the Persian language, intricately woven to read a message. Something Thalia wouldn't have understood. Her hands shook as she read the borders.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, black with the kohl around her eyes, leaking over the cloth. Tears of fear, of a helpless feeling that she had nowhere to go. She could never run away enough to hide from them.

We still don't have the grey gemstones, Mehr. But we know where to get them from.

* * *

Althea

"You what?" Aarmen gasped, holding onto the handle of the carriage's door as the carrier took us to the Palace of Romanos.

"That was the... only explanation I could, to... to hide my truth," I mumbled, staring at the letter Julian had sent for me.

He kept staring at me in utter shock. "You really told him you were a nymph from some other world?"

I looked up at him, painstakingly, "Is it... that bad of a reason?"

He led out a distressed sigh, glancing out the carriage window for a mere second. "Coretta, we were asked to blend into this world. And you just straightaway told him you are not from here?"

"Aarmen," I sucked in a quiet breath, "he had pointed out that I wasn't like other women. He'd seen me read, write, cook, dance, sing," I buried my face in my hands, "And self-defence too." I heaved, "He's taking the nymph reason well. I don't see how it can create a problem."

He looked at me grimly, his fake white beard looking like cotton candy. His olive eyes were now hidden behind blue coloured contacts that matched my eye colour. I didn't know what he'd used to make the skin of his hands and face wrinkled. Must be some cosmetic from the AI book.

"Imagine that a mysterious woman lands in the house of a billionaire of our time," he started. "She knows and does a lot of things that we don't know of. And also tells that she's from a different world. Now, would the billionaire ever let her go?" He asked.

"No..." His reasoning dumbfounded me.

"That's the image you are painting in Julian's head," he shook his head. "People of this time believed a hell lot in mythological stuff and feeding them the nymph reason is like the ultimate delicacy for them. God, he wouldn't let you go, Coretta. What are you doing?" He leaned over his knees, exasperated.

I rubbed my sweaty palms on my dress, never knowing I was leading Julian to believe this. I'd never thought it could backfire like that.

Aarmen looked up after a while as if he'd made his mind on something. "What all is left to write about him, except the way he and his kingdom disappeared?"

The finality of his words hit me like a brick, "Uh, I- I was wondering to write a bit about his family background and childhood..."

"So, there's nothing that important left?"

I get to know him each day, Aarmen...

"What are you going to say to him, though?" I asked instead.

He placed his wooden stick over his lap, relaxing back. "I'm assuming he wants to marry you, that's why he called for your father?"

My heart came to a skidding halt. I hadn't informed Aarmen, fearing he'd be too baffled by the fact, but he already knew. Of course, how could I even fool the master of reasoning and analysis - Aarmen Shallots.

"He wants to marry you? Just to make sure of what I've assumed." He asked again.

He appeared so confident in whatever he had planned; it was making me nervous. "He- he had said something on the lines of... that," I murmured.

He laughed humorlessly, "Don't worry. I figured that out when you'd told me he wants to meet your father. It's honestly surprising that being a king of this time, things like consent matter to him. But of course, we can take advantage of this and also the way Cheryl died."

"Take advantage...?" I fumbled. "To?"

"To get you out of his palace."

I stopped breathing.

"What?" I asked, my heart thudding in my chest.

"Huh?" he asked back, incredulous. As if I'd gone mad. "We are here for a specific time, Coretta. Are you planning to stay forever in his palace?" He laughed.

"No, but..." I bit my bottom lip, "It's really important to know how he's... not remembered. All the years of my hard work would go down the drain if that event isn't documented," I attempted to reason.

"So do you have any plan on how to not let him marry you? Or that, you've not thought anything about it?" he drawled.

"No... I-" I didn't know what to say. What could I even say? I was so caught up in the whirlwind of the past days that things like these never crossed my mind. Never wanted to cross my mind.

He sighed, "Look, Dunkin's idea is great. That if you become a priestess, Julian wouldn't bother you." His eyes narrowed suddenly, as if he was watching a culprit. I shifted in my seat in unease.

"Or... do you want him to bother you?"

"No, of course not!" I looked away from him, my eyes suddenly burning. It was becoming difficult to look because they had blurred.

I took in a long breath, blinking away the tears that my heart had already started to shed from within.

I was wrong when I thought I had a lot of time to think of a happy exit from Julian's life.

Because Aarmen had already planned it.

Silence came upon us as the carriage rode over the sand. The sound of the horse's hooves being the only thing hearable. Aarmen was right in whatever he had planned. He was actually like that one sober friend who'd drive you away from a drunken party. No matter how awesome the party was. The drunken party that was my life with Julian.

There was no reason for me to be mad at him. It was me who had gone mad, on the verge of breaking the rules. But I couldn't seem to pull myself out of this madness...

"Do you know, my landlord wants me to marry his daughter..." he broke the silence that had surrounded us.

Slowly, I looked at him to see his droopy eyes fixed on the carriage's floor. Any other time, I would've laughed that even Aarmen wasn't being spared in this century from the necessity to marry. But he suddenly looked so sad, I just watched him.

"I helped them make a lot of profit from the business in Jakov's wedding. Thankfully, they aren't poor now..." He let out a sigh, glancing out the window, scratching the back of his head. As if he would've wanted to be anywhere but here.

"But uh, I actually, uh how do I put this..."

"You liked her?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Please don't tell anyone," he fretted almost instantly, looking anywhere but me. I held back a quiet laugh.

"She was... she was good to be... around with," he nodded to himself. "Someone who shared my ideas of mathematics and philosophy so keenly. You know... girls our time barely have interest in such stuff..." he was feeling so distanced as he looked out the carriage window.

As long as I'd known Aarmen, I knew one thing about him. He may be aware of things that people our age knew, but he was as innocent as a teddy bear. He'd definitely freak out if he had a girlfriend who'd kiss him every now and then.

Instead, he was that kind who'd just love to hold hands, give hugs and talk endlessly about his favourite topics on history, mathematics and sometimes technology. A reason I went along so well with him during our project's preparation. I admired him for how he was. A rarity in the male species.

"Aarmen," I called him. "Girls these days don't want idiotic muscled guys who just know how to flirt, drink and sleep around. They want smart and hella intelligent guys like you."

I remembered some girls from my class back in school, how they would pester me about Aarmen because he was my project partner in one of those field reportings. They were too scared to approach him themselves because once, a girl had kissed him on the cheek in the cafeteria. She had apparently got a dare to kiss the cutest boy present in the cafe (Aarmen looked dead serious with his spectacles on, but the same couldn't be said when he took them off). He was no gentleman to just flirt back at her. Poor dare-girl had to listen to a whole lecture on consent from him.

A smile threatened to come over his face. "But then again, they aren't as innocent as Ismene, are they?" he chuckled, shaking his head.

"You know what, I can very well marry her and nothing would change," he murmured. I looked at him, bewildered. Oh my God, the most humanoid-like being in our group too had fallen in love.

"She is a commoner, after all, someone who wouldn't be mentioned anywhere in history," he clucked.

"But still, I won't marry her." He deadpanned, returning to his humanoid self.

"Coretta, as Dunkin puts it, this world is like a workplace for us. And a workplace can't be a matchmaking centre. We cannot risk associating ourselves here with anyone on an emotional level." I could see how hard he was trying.

"Hell, I even cried a little, seeing Ismene teary-eyed when I informed them I had to leave because now they had enough money. I live alone now, in a decent hut, away from them because I was definitely getting attached," he scoffed at his long fake beard and tore it away from his face, "Man this thing is hella itchy and sweat-inducing."

"What I want to tell you is, you'll have to get out of his palace one day or the other, right? We'll wait here for as long as possible, to record Julian's disappearance but if that doesn't happen, we can't practically follow him into his old age, right?" he was heaving by now. I had no right to make him this worried. He was stating facts while I was depressed about some stupidity my heart was doing.

"As you wish to, leader," I accepted quietly. There was no other way I could avoid this risk of marrying Julian.

Aarmen was the leader of our team. Though we worked together and never did he dictate to us or anything, times like these were when I wondered, if he wasn't here, we would've done grave things by now. Whenever a decision couldn't be made, his final wording would be accepted. And it was perfect. Every time.

"I feel terrible for doing this to you Coretta... Forgive me," he sighed. "We don't need to look for our partners here. We'll definitely find someone in our time who'll like us, yeah?" He sounded hopeful. Relationships were a thing he never talked about, but he was going an extra length. Just for me. "I mean, who wouldn't want to be with a time traveller," he laughed.

I gave a small smile, wondering if there would be someone like Julian in my world. But maybe... I shouldn't increase my expectations so much... because it would only lead to heartbreak.

"Ah, things like these didn't use to affect me," his shoulders slumped, "But Dunkin's been crying non-stop these days on the call, how he can't tolerate his celibacy anymore, can't even ask a girl out. Guess he imparted his sickness to me," he grumbled.

I laughed. These lovesick friends of mine.

Aren't you yourself the most lovesick of them all, Coretta?

"Aarmen," I tucked my hair behind my ear, "I... wanted to ask something. You wouldn't judge me, right?"

"Of course I will, but you can ask."

I rolled my eyes. "Uh, so, if..." my heart was beating out of my throat. "If Julian is supposed to die and isn't remembered because we know nothing about him... is it...

"Isn't it possible to take him to... our world? Instead of just letting him die here?" I said in one go, anticipating.

"Do you know how and when he'll die?" he asked back, unsure. "Even if it was possible, we couldn't just pluck out a piece of history to transport it to our world."

Murder was the only reason that could come up in my mind. To even think someone would murder Julian one day crushed my heart into pieces of glass. The pieces that would stab me for the rest of my life.

But then again, it could be from an accident, a disease, death on the battlefield, or even old age.

I didn't think I was strong enough to live to be faced with the news of his demise.

"The department did say they created the mechanism of time travelling in such a way that no ancient human can travel into our time. Remember?" Aarmen raised a brow.

"Yeah I do," I stressed on, "But with the recent glitch that occurred, wouldn't it be... possible? I mean, initially, we were under the department's control of when to return. Now we need to do it ourselves. I'm crap at this technological stuff, but what I'm asking is, can you make anything of this possibility, keeping in mind what we studied in Travelistic mechanics?"

It was an additional subject loosely related to biophysics that taught about the science behind time travelling, its effect on the human body and all that. A course taught to no one in the world except the five of us.

"You should've asked this to Cheryl," he snickered. "She aced that subject."

He crossed his arms and hummed, "If I knew something like this, we would've been sending our AI books back and forth between us and the department as a means of two-way communication instead of the one way we presently have. Just look deeply Coretta, we would be able to travel back to our time because we already came from there. How would Julian go there when this is his world?"

My tiniest hopes began to crumble away.

"Also, let's assume that we somehow bring him into our world. Do you think he would be able to survive there?

"I know he's strong and all, he's a King after all. But Coretta, his body, his immune system, isn't as developed as ours. We may look the same from the outside, but the internal genetics is different. The body we have today is a result of the evolution of our ancestors. By evolution, I mean we have greater immunity against all the diseases and viruses that came between the fourth century BCE to the twenty-first century. Black plague, measles, polio, everything while he doesn't. Heck, he could even die of something as simple as a common cold of our century."

His words settled in my head, somehow, killing me from within. The sad truth of it all. My hands quivered as I bit my lip to keep the tears at bay. Some days, I'd think a lot about ways in which I could bring Julian with me. Which fantasy land was I living in...

"Oh well, but we don't have any immunity against that virus, which... sounds like your name. Dunno if even we'd be able to survive after returning. It sounds pretty serious, being announced as a pandemic and the world put under lockdown..." he murmured to himself.

Aarmen had such excellent reasonings that had completely disarmed me of any hope I had. If only I could also think from my mind instead of my heart.

"If the... doctors take care of him, then he can live in our time, right?" I was going crazy. Hoping to find solutions for the questions that weren't even valid.

"The doctors associated with the department knew so much about the genetics of ancient world people from the remains they'd excavated. They'd do something right?" I tried again.

"Doctors?" He gave out a humourless laugh. "I don't know how honest they are, but the possibility's pretty dark, Coretta. I don't want to scare you..."

"Speak it out," I asserted.

"Julian would be like an exotic species for them. Even if he survives, would you want him to become a test subject of the mad scientists you claim as doctors? They'll go crazy researching the ancient man's blood, genes and-"

"No, stop!" My lips trembled at the thought of what he said. I was naïve. Tears. Actual tears, hot and painful, burned down my cheeks as I jerked my face away from him, muffling my sobs behind my hand.

Even if there was no way we knew that could transport Julian to my world, I had never realised how dangerous my world was for him. My existence was dangerous for him. Because he was getting sidetracked by my presence - an unreal human for this world.

"I'm sorry... Coretta."

"No, I am. I'm troubling you so much. And thank you for clearing my- my head," I took in a long breath, wiping away the tears.

For the rest of the carriage ride, we sat in silence. I, almost numb with the turn of the events. As I introspected my future with Julian, leaving behind the good times we were together, I found nothing except the string of lies I was feeding him.

I was crushing the very foundation of a relationship. Trust and honesty.

The two things I could never give him, given the motive with which I was sent into this world.

I was pathetic. To do this to such a loving man. What was there in a few more days with him? Me feeling the momentary high of our intimacy, and him, yearning for the fact that I'll be with him, truly, someday.

That was lust on my part, not love.

My throat felt clogged as the tears continued to streak in slow streams down my cheeks. The realisation made me hardly able to breathe.

I was selfish; I was using Julian for something I'd never felt before.

At the expense of his tender loving heart.

I closed my eyes, taking in a few deep breaths, wiping away the tears. Even if I wanted to love him, there was no basis, no starting point which I could hold on to. Because the foundation itself was based on the lies, the secrets and the greed to know him, just to leave him someday. His heart shouldn't have a place for someone as cruel as Althea Rosemary.

The woman who had become my greatest enemy. Who was playing with both mine and Julian's heart, for her greed.

"W- What is the plan?" I asked Aarmen finally. "To get me out of his palace."