FICLET: At the Edge of the World (Renault, Alexander/Hephaistion)
Title: At the Edge of the World
Fandom: Mary Renault's Alexander books
Pairing/Characters: Alexander the Great/Hephaistion
Warnings: None
Summary: Alexander reaches the shores of the Encircling Ocean at last, and Hephaistion is there to witness it.
Rating: G
Word Count: 480
Notes: Written for corilannam as a New Year's Resolution!
The breeze has the tang of salt to it; Hephaistion watches Alexander's nostrils flare like a restive horse's, savoring it. Then he picks up the pace, striding east, and his weary army, driven past exhaustion into something like ecstasy, straggles after him. They are young men, Alexander's handpicked army, and they revere the very ground he walks on. After Hephaistion's terrible illness and slow recovery, Alexander's whole being had been poured into returning once more to the land he had been forced to relinquish, focused eastward. He took years to select the very best men, to train them for this one great goal, to inspire their unquestioning loyalty before leading them once more into the sunrise. People murmured that it was nearly losing his friend that had inspired him to such an act of lunatic genius, but Hephaistion knows better--Alexander has always been driven by his own daemon and nothing else.
And now his dearest friend, his king, has reached the goal his heart has always yearned for.
Only Hephaistion manages to keep up with Alexander--shoulder to shoulder, it has ever been thus--so only he is by Alexander's side when he tops the last rise and sees the ocean.
He is looking at Alexander's face rather than at the rising sun, and it is reflected in Alexander's eyes that he sees the Encircling Ocean for the first time: as a dawning light, a transcendent glory.
Alexander takes one step forward, then another: he is running toward the water, toward the verge of the world he has conquered. Hephaistion feels his life could not be more complete.
And then Alexander is stopping, he is turning back and holding out his hand, a command and an entreaty in one. "This is our moment," he says, and Hephaistion's heart nearly bursts asunder from the joy and the wonder of it.
Together they run to the sea, side by side, laughing, their elbows banging when their feet slip in the sand. Hephaistion stops short of the waves, though, and Alexander splashes into the ocean first.
He stands with his feet braced against the swell of water, gazing off to the infinite east, and the waves prostrate themselves before him, bowing to his mastery. Clear shining water breaks around his feet and he turns back once more to Hephaistion, transfigured and laughing with triumph.
"The Zhou to the north are next!" he calls out to the army staring in awe. "And after that--who knows?" He looks at Hephaistion, that clear and piercing gaze that always sets his heart aflame, his face alight with something more than human. "The world is ours," he says for only Hephaistion to hear. "And we shall live forever in glory, you and I!"
At that moment, lapped by the Encircling Ocean, on the very edge of the world, it is impossible to doubt him at all.
Fandom: Mary Renault's Alexander books
Pairing/Characters: Alexander the Great/Hephaistion
Warnings: None
Summary: Alexander reaches the shores of the Encircling Ocean at last, and Hephaistion is there to witness it.
Rating: G
Word Count: 480
Notes: Written for corilannam as a New Year's Resolution!
The breeze has the tang of salt to it; Hephaistion watches Alexander's nostrils flare like a restive horse's, savoring it. Then he picks up the pace, striding east, and his weary army, driven past exhaustion into something like ecstasy, straggles after him. They are young men, Alexander's handpicked army, and they revere the very ground he walks on. After Hephaistion's terrible illness and slow recovery, Alexander's whole being had been poured into returning once more to the land he had been forced to relinquish, focused eastward. He took years to select the very best men, to train them for this one great goal, to inspire their unquestioning loyalty before leading them once more into the sunrise. People murmured that it was nearly losing his friend that had inspired him to such an act of lunatic genius, but Hephaistion knows better--Alexander has always been driven by his own daemon and nothing else.
And now his dearest friend, his king, has reached the goal his heart has always yearned for.
Only Hephaistion manages to keep up with Alexander--shoulder to shoulder, it has ever been thus--so only he is by Alexander's side when he tops the last rise and sees the ocean.
He is looking at Alexander's face rather than at the rising sun, and it is reflected in Alexander's eyes that he sees the Encircling Ocean for the first time: as a dawning light, a transcendent glory.
Alexander takes one step forward, then another: he is running toward the water, toward the verge of the world he has conquered. Hephaistion feels his life could not be more complete.
And then Alexander is stopping, he is turning back and holding out his hand, a command and an entreaty in one. "This is our moment," he says, and Hephaistion's heart nearly bursts asunder from the joy and the wonder of it.
Together they run to the sea, side by side, laughing, their elbows banging when their feet slip in the sand. Hephaistion stops short of the waves, though, and Alexander splashes into the ocean first.
He stands with his feet braced against the swell of water, gazing off to the infinite east, and the waves prostrate themselves before him, bowing to his mastery. Clear shining water breaks around his feet and he turns back once more to Hephaistion, transfigured and laughing with triumph.
"The Zhou to the north are next!" he calls out to the army staring in awe. "And after that--who knows?" He looks at Hephaistion, that clear and piercing gaze that always sets his heart aflame, his face alight with something more than human. "The world is ours," he says for only Hephaistion to hear. "And we shall live forever in glory, you and I!"
At that moment, lapped by the Encircling Ocean, on the very edge of the world, it is impossible to doubt him at all.