Siege

War is coming.
Words spoken truthfully, but unbidden, cast aside.

Nothing can stop it.
Ignorance is said to be bliss, but there is an exception to every rule. I regret our naivety; the ignorance that has cost us thousands of lives, and soaked the land with our men's blood.

The destruction of Troy is inevitable.
Yes, we have been destroyed; what once was our proud legacy is now naught but a wasteland.

I can remember a time when our city was in an abundance; of food, gold, and happiness. When Cassandra would smile, and Priam's laughter would echo through the chambers. When I would smile and laugh, without a care in the world.

I can remember a time when none of us slept with one eye open, waiting to be found and killed by those accursed Achaens, wondering if, how we would survive tomorrow. Our homes in ruins, our families slaughtered.

I can remember a time when the women of Troy had someone to kiss when he returned from the work of a day, instead of a memory of empty shadows amongst cold ashes as we fled the city.

I try to remember my husband’s smile.

~~

A siege was coming to our city.

The news spread through the walled-in city like wildfire, and worry spread through us all. So many stories of what besieged our city- some exaggerated, some true, all equally terrifying.

A day when I found brief distraction from my worry, sitting and laughing quietly with my companions, the worst of these for me was heard. We had silenced, lost in thought, when the words reached my ears unbidden, and additional terror to that I already felt.

Achilles had also come. That whirlwind of violence and destruction... amidst the army.

Our men would be in the fray, facing these monsters.

I doubt I was the only woman awake that night, unable to sleep.

~
For my husband’s sake, I pretended around Aenas that nothing was wrong, though I truly think he knew my fear. The days and nights were agonizingly long as we awaited our fate. As time finally stretched into weeks and then months, fear and anxiety had begun to run all of our nerves raw.

Those times were so painful, and fear of the future was always darkly shadowing our minds. Though my sister was there to share my grief -she, too, had a husband who would be in this war- I still felt a painful loneliness that had never before dwelt in my heart. It has become a familiar burden for me to bear, now, never having left me.

~

I remember the day the Achaen army arrived clearer than any other in my life. The day, I suppose, will never stop tormenting my mind, sharply refreshing the pain of an old wound.

My family, my friends, those I had been born and raised around...all were preparing. The men, bidding a farewell to their women, children clinging to their mother's skirts, a hushed silence about the entire city.

For many women, it would be their last time seeing their husbands.

The words were still murmured, carrying the names of our enemies through the air, cutting through the quiet.

Menelaus, Nestor, Patroclus, Agamemnon, the Greater and Lesser Ajax, Achilles, Diomedes, Odysseus, and more. So many, whose faces and names I did not know; men who had before meant little to me, bringing siege to Troy. All because of our naivety, our foolishness in giving Paris and Helen refuge behind our walls.

Aenas, my dearest husband, marched into battle with the rest of them on that first day, as the sun bleakly rose above our city. The image of his face, assuring me that he would return, remains imprinted in my mind, kind and comforting.

~
He held up a hand to stop my talking.

“Lyamai-" he started, though I interrupted him again. Despite the composure I had managed during the long year of waiting, I had finally broken down. Here, at the last moment, in the love of my life's arms, as he prepared to leave for the heat of battle.

“Those savages...they will...” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence. Those tears that I had been holding in for the long months since we heard of the army’s approach finally began to fall, and I choked back a sob.

Gently, he touched my shoulder, wiping my tears with one hand.

“Lyamai.” He repeated. “I will return. This war will be won. Do not lose hope.”

The call was sounding out, and he was to go now. Though I desperately wanted him to stay, he extracted himself from my embrace, lifted his spear, and smiled reassuringly to me. I still saw his doubt in those eyes, though.

“I love you.” He whispered those words for a final time, and turned his back, disappearing into the crowd.

I never saw him again.