"We Macedonians! -----

"Wohooooo!"

"Will you stop hooting, Cheryl?" I sighed.

"I can't listen to anything that Alexander's saying, man," Lorenzo screeched.

"Cheryl, at least write everything down, whatever he's saying!" Aarmen yelled.

"To relieve this beautiful world from slavery-

Wohoooo- Everyone will be their own mas-"

Silence

"Hello?" I asked, fiddling with the compass in my hand.

"Wait, who removed her from the call?" Lorenzo shrieked.

"I did," came Dunkin's voice,

"Dude, she's crazy. So crazy she's refusing to tell anything about Alexander whenever I call her. Says we have to read her travelogue after returning to our century," he complained.

"And what are you writing, if I may ask?" I raised a brow.

"If I tell, you all would come rushing to my residence and I don't want that," he stated.

"No wonder you're crazier than Cheryl," Lorenzo retorted.

"Possessive much?" Dunkin shot back.

"Hey Aarmen, I heard you're taking lessons from Euclid? I mean, when we've got extra smart buddies like Newton and Einstein's theories, what's the need?" Lorenzo successfully diverted the topic.

"You should know Newton was influenced by Euclid only," Aarmen responded.

"It's a whole treasure for me, bro. To study directly under a mathematician who affected many intelligent heads. Ah, now that includes me too,"

"What a lucky chap he is. Found his prodigal buddies here as well," Lorenzo snickered.

"What is he currently teaching, though?" I asked, in amusement.

"He isn't that famous presently, if I may tell. It's just a bunch of geometry enthusiastic kids. Oh, and he's teaching all sorts of angles, planes, even has his own ways of perceiving space, time and shapes," he explained.

"Wow, that's interesting," I exclaimed. It was much better than having your heart jump every now and then at the sight of a devilish warrior.

"Okay guys, I'll take my leave. Gotta work on the stuff Euclid's neglecting. I can accommodate that and maybe make my own theorem someday called Aarmen's theory of-"

"Who removed him from the call?! He was telling some interesting stuff!" I snapped.

"Wouldn't have stopped anytime soon Cors, relax. Anyway, uh Dunkin? As you have told, man, it's too risky for a contraceptive measure. I just can't put that thing on my-"

An awkward silence filled the receiver.

"Uh- Coretta, could you leave the call babe?"

"Yeah sure!" I ended the call in a second. It wouldn't be a surprise if Lorenzo takes advantage of this warrior status and starts some concubine association.

The room was much spacious than my previous one, with a little wooden table as a writing desk and papers made of leaves. There was a huge window which gave a breathtaking view of the palace complex.

In the distance, I could also spot a marketplace, some green areas stretched wide across, probably leading to the banks of Nile and a very colourful area that I yet had to discover.

Inside, the walls were painted a creamy shade, with linen curtains and wooden hangings etched with hieroglyphics. They were showing some godly verse. But among all things, the bed surprised me the most.

It was huge, not the queen but king size huge. I couldn't contain my excitement at having such a large bed to sprawl on. And as crazy as it sounds, I loved rotating all around while I slept.

"His Honour has ordered your presence in his room, Gracious lady," a soft voice came from the door. I turned around to see a young woman standing at the doorstep with her head bowed.

"Sure. But who is calling me?" I got up from the bed and asked.

"His Honour," she replied.

"His Honour must have a name?"

"I- uh, we are not allowed to call the royalty by their name," she stammered. Her eyes wandered around the floor in nervousness.

"Alright, I'll come," I sighed.

Walking through the corridors was another experience. While one side had lavish rooms, the other side was open like a balcony. Statues of Egyptian Gods were placed at every corner.

Mud-brick was the major building component, though I found other material also which I couldn't guess.

As we neared the end of the hallway, I spotted a group of women in colourful linen, seemingly gossiping among themselves. They wore gold bands about their foreheads and a fur made fan they used to air themselves.

As I passed them, my jaw fell to the ground.

Every single one of them was Gorgeous.

Drop dead gorgeous.

With their curvy waists and long legs, they looked no less than Victoria's Secret models. Honestly, it seemed that those chicks were made to wear boho-ethnic dressing and were transported to this century.

"Awh, come on, we know his favourite combination, don't we?" a bronze-haired woman laughed, wrapping her arms around a fellow woman.

"Yeah, whatever, but in the name of Ishtar, I loveee to feel his back," another sighed, fanning herself with the fur fan.

We had almost crossed them when another woman yelped,

"And now when he has returned, I can't wait to have him again!"

My head twisted in their direction before I could think of anything else, gawking at them with mortification.

I was no match to Julian's concubines.

"We are here," the woman nudged me, pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see a heavily engraved door. A large symbol of a golden eagle with a spear clutched in its talons was made in the middle.

The guards locked eyes on me in a scrutinizing gaze. When the woman mumbled something to them, they opened the door for us.

What was going inside shook me to the core.

"Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen..." Julian had his arms crossed against the chest, calmly counting up the digits. But my eyes weren't on him. They were on the man in his front.

Two guards held the man down on his knees as another guard stood behind him, lashing his back mercilessly. Even his features couldn't be deciphered as every inch was covered in blood.

I flinched and diverted my eyes immediately. It was impossible to watch further when he began choking blood.

"What is this?" My voice came out shaky as I inquired the woman who looked close to passing out.

"H- His H- Honour had t- told me to bring you h- here," she trembled, goosebumps rising on her bare arms.

"Nineteen, twenty stop," the guard halted the hitting as Julian came towards the bloodied man, kneeling in level to him.

"I'm asking you one last time. Are you Omid's spy?" he asked as calmly as possible, yanking his head back by the hair so he could look into his eyes.

With his hands chained behind, the man had zero chances to defend himself. He gritted out his teeth.

"Just wait, Julian, till our warlord Omid squishes you down his feet and-" he choked. "And captures all your beautiful concubines and sister," he managed to grin, showing his bloodied teeth, "and yo- your mothe- AHH!"

Julian gripped his neck before he could complete. "Omid, that's your master, the eastern warlord of Persia, isn't he? Well, I'll be assassinating him soon," he said, as if he was talking about the weather. "This is what you wanted to know? Too bad you can't report it back," and with a single grip of his hand, he twisted his neck aside.

The crunch of bones echoed in the room. I couldn't handle the unbearable sound as an involuntary scream escaped my throat.

Everyone's attention came to me, but I couldn't care. My hands were pressed against my mouth in shock, my eyes only gauging the now dead man whose neck lay dangling to one side.

Just one twist of Julian's hand and he was gone.

Brief flashes from the lake came back when he had his hand on my neck.

Oh good Lord, he could kill somebody with his hand?! And it freaked me to no bounds, that somebody could've been me.

Julian looked briefly in my direction, then flicked his fingers at the guards who were ogling in my direction. They quickly bowed their heads and took the dead man out. Some servants came in and began cleaning the area, leaving no trace of what happened here.

He paid no heed to my presence as a servant washed his blood-stained hands, after which he began going through some manuscripts on the table.

"Come please," the woman grabbed my hands and walked near him.

"M- My Lord, she is h- here," with the way she was speaking, it did nothing but spike my fear.

He turned around and looked at both of us. We didn't dare look him in the eye.

"You can leave," he ordered, and the woman rushed out after a quick bow.

It was terrifying to see him in his professional kingly stance. So serious and unnerving, everything from the lake reduced to pure fear for him.

"Sit," he dragged out a chair and fetched some papyrus leaves from the table.

I meekly sat, careful not to make any noise.

"I want you to write a letter describing everything you've witnessed right now." he bought a feather, inkpot and placed it next to the blank papers.

"In Greek or E- Egyptian?" I asked, hating to know my voice giving away the fears.

"Greek it is, and mention Alexander in the beginning," he stated and leaned against the table as I wrote whatever I'd seen, praying that my hands don't shake under his gaze.

He was pleased to read the letter, nodding to himself as he read on. After rolling it, he tied it with a rope and handed to the doorstep guard.

I stood up and hoped he would send me back to my room.

"Come with me, Althea," he called out and began walking out of his room. I saw no option but to follow. Where would I go? I didn't even know the way back to my room.

A dramatic gasp was heard from the group of concubines as they caught him walking in the corridor. I peeked to see them fanning themselves harder.

But he didn't spare a single glance and marched on to the end of the corridor. I followed behind silently, hoping the concubines who seemed like a gang, didn't notice me.

This floor of the palace was larger than I'd expected, given the number of turns we took and the hallways we crossed.

The colourful and lively part of the palace began to disappear as we reached the corner most part of the floor. An iron door came into my view, which was guarded by two warriors, their spear crossed together from either side in front of the door.

When Julian came, they parted their weapons and bowed deeply. Opening the door, I could only see pitch darkness. Fire torches burnt low at several spots.

With a single motion of his hand towards me, he started walking in. I wanted to cry and run in the opposite direction at the gnawing fear, but took in a deep breath and followed.

The door was closed behind us as he grabbed a nearby torch and moved forward. The walls were uneven, resembling the interior of a rocky cave.

Slow dripping of water was heard in the distance. The corridor being so narrow, stretching my arm sideways was not possible.

The silence on his part scared me more than the eerie surrounding. The dampened smell lingering in the air seemed like this place was closed for a long while.

When I turned back to see behind me, my blood ran cold.

Blood was roughly scattered on the path we were walking, as if someone was murdered and dragged in this narrow alley. And me having never seen so much blood freaked out a great deal.

I couldn't stop the involuntary scream yet again.

"What happened?" Julian turned around when I crashed against his back. An irritated look settled on his face.

I looked at him in panic, silently asking for an explanation. He stared at the bloody path, then proceeded to walk.

"We have reached," is all he said.

When he bought me in front of a specific pillar, did I forget how to breathe.

My hands clamped my mouth as my heart began beating with such velocity as if it would stop. I had no strength left to cry out as I helplessly watched what was tied to the pillar.

There was a human body wearing shabby clothes, as its bony hands were chained behind the pole with an iron ball. And there was flesh...

Melting out of his body.

I could see the ribcage clearly and the eyes which seemed to get sunken by the time. Its head limped to one side, showcasing all the bones of the neck.

Four bowls were kept around it through which a sweet essence evaporated, to nullify the smell of the rotting body.

If it were sometime later my arrival in his palace, I would've guessed it to be a solving a mystery that he wanted me to write in my travelogue. But right now I couldn't understand.

Why he chose me to bring here, on my first day in his kingdom. What had the person done to be in such a condition?

He kept staring at the skeleton without emotion, barely noticing my reaction towards it. What he said next scared me to utter horrification.

"He was the previous writer of my kingdom."