Kairos

Chapter 15

I woke up slowly, gently, as if from a deep sleep. I imagine this is what sleeping beauty felt like after her one hundred year nap. I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes and sank deeper into the warm cocoon of my bed. I pulled the covers tighter around me and hummed in contentment. Knowing the memories would come as forcefully as a river, I focused on memories of Alexander and Hephaestion. Their cuteness still made my heart sing. I wished I had a love like that.

"Octavia, you're awake." A voice spoke up from by the bed and I shot up and my grasp on the memories slipped, a thousand of them hit me like a brick.

Octavia.

Sister of Octavian.

Civil war.

Marc Antony's wife.

Cleopatra.

Ow, it never gets better.

I pressed my hand into my forehead, rubbing my eyes.

"Octavia?" The voice said again and I realised I hadn't answered.

I yawned, my mind still thick with the wool of sleep.

"Morning." I offered and my eyes came into focus on the person sitting on a table next to the bed. This was the famous Octavian, the one who turned Rome into a marble city, ushering in a golden age of prosperity for the Romans.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine, I guess, just tired." And a little amazed I was in his presence.

"You fainted last night, but with the news we heard I'm not surprised." Octavian had pity in his voice, but Octavia's memories identified the satisfied gleam in his eyes.

"What happened last night?" I honestly couldn't be bothered to sort through the memories again. I was still waking up and didn't want to get anything wrong.

"Antony has publicly announced he is divorcing you. Although, I'm sure you suspected what was coming when he had you kicked out of his house in Rome. Do not worry, I have sent the girls off to be looked after by one of the best nurses in Rome. I didn't think you would be fit enough to see them." Woah. Okay, so the year was 33BC, I remember reading about when Antony divorced Octavia, as his actions were instrumental for Augustus' propaganda campaign against him.

"Yes...I suspected it." Octavia's memories revealed that the woman had simply been waiting for it to happen, her husband had been spending all his time in Egypt and Cleopatra was a notorious womaniser – to the Romans at least.

"Practically the whole of Rome is furious at him for leaving you for that foreign bitch." The relationship between Cleopatra and Antony is one that I would have known even if I hadn't studied classics, it has been depicted in art across the centuries; take Shakespeare for an example.

"How do the people know about it so soon? I know it was announced publicly, but if we only found out about it last night..."

"I have my ways of spreading information." I didn't doubt it, suspecting his network of spies ran deep. Octavian stood up and started pacing in front of the bed.

"But then of course there are still supporters of him, of course there fucking are. Why people still like that man, I do not know." Incredulity dripped from his tone. He sat down on the table in the corner and pulled a goblet of wine towards him.

My eyes drowsily caught on the flickering candle on the table in the room. There was an almost incomparable purity in its sinuous charm. The light bounced off the dark red walls, giving the room a subtle crimson glow.

Octavian saw where I was looking and tilted his head.

"I've never found anything as honest as fire in my entire existence." It was such a peculiar thing to say that I scrunched my eyebrows.