Aristoi Achaion [A the song of Achilles fanfiction] 2

Chapter 31

A/N: mention of the grape word.

So you had a master plan all along? That's why you let him take her?” I entered his tent suddenly without even asking for permission.

He didn't look at me, rather continued playing around with his cup of wine.
“Is that all she was to you? A pawn to your game?”
He put the cup aside. “I would never wish for anything unfortunate to happen to her, but in order to win, we sometimes have to use such things to our advantage,” he coldly replied.
I reached for my collarbones, rubbing them, in order to find some comfort. I couldn't believe those words had come out of my brother's mouth.

“So you would let him rape her?” I asked. “Just so you could reach greatness?”
“It is all I can do. After what you did!” He accused.
“So you blame this on me? Everything I did was to protect her! To buy us some time!” I tried to explain.
“Buy you and Patroclus some time. Without that little fire trick of yours everything would have been better, sister” he got up from his mattress. “I know a lot of men would turn against me for speaking up to their leader, but it would be only because of their hypocrisy. But now…He has made them believe that I intended to start a rebellion! All because you decided to protect her. What is more important to you, me or her?”
“You can perfectly defend yourself! Briseis can not and you know that, Achilles!” I reminded him.
“Yet it's not her reputation that was ruined but mine. Mine, Alcippe.”
“I am sure the only men that believe that nonsense are the Mycenaeans, all the others see the truth! Or rather, the truth we would like them to believe” I tried to assure him.
“Perhaps, but it doesn't change the fact that you have acted against me,twice! First your spell, and now…You knew about the oath and you didn't stop him” he referred to Patroclus.
“Why should I? What would you have done? Had it been me in her place. If I was just an ordinary woman, not a warrior, nothing at all?!”
“I would have had him ripped apart” I know he would. But now I realize that it would only be because I am his sister.
“Briseis had brothers too you know, brothers we killed”
“Those are the consequences of war,” he said carelessly.
“So a girl getting raped is also a consequence of war? Or a consequence of your unending wanting for more? Your unending pride?”
A/N:
-What do you think?
-I think you look, just like your father Coriolanus.

“Whatever I tried to do, I did it for us”
“For us?” I mockingly said in disbelief. “So what? You would let Agamemnon…” I paused
“And then you would kill him and become leader of the Greeks. And I, as I believe you imagined, will be by your side as your loyal dog?”
“Not my dog, my equal. Perhaps not in title but in skill” he shrugged.
“You won't even bother to save yourself won't you?” I was on the verge of tears. He didn't even care about the opportunity to not fight again, to avoid early death.
“Achilles the dead slayer of Agamemnon would have been better than what I will be called now. The one who fled because of an insult” he hissed.
“So you won't even enjoy being alive? Does your pride blind you that much? Patroclus told me that because of that stupid oath you are spending some time apart…” he was crying when I found him in what used to be Briseis’s tent. His hand was still bleeding from the oath he took.