Perseus: Excidium Troiae

Twenty-Seven

A/N: For those of you with endless and frankly annoying issues with my writing or characterisation, please (not really) gtfo. There's the door. No one's forcing you to read this🤣

 For the rest of you, have fun.

PERSEUS woke up in his bed.

His entire body ached, and a groan escaped his lips. Daylight filtered through the curtains, lighting up his chambers. He could hear the tell-tale sounds of battle, which meant that however long he had been out, the cease-fire was over, and the siege of Troy was back in full swing.

"Hey," A voice said from beside him. Selene. Perseus shifted in his bed, eyes flickering to his side, where his lover lay. Her dark hair cascaded down her shoulders, and her silver eyes were full of relief. "Feeling alright?"

Perseus exhaled, "Good enough, I guess. What happened?'

"Odysseus and Athena did," Selene's voice was hard and tinged in anger. "Python poison." He remembered the pain, the knife in his back. Perseus gritted his teeth. That meant he had failed.

"Shit."

"Shit is right," Selene agreed. "Neoptolemus and Odysseus got away."

The sounds of fighting seemed to intensify. Perseus shifted once more beneath the covers. It felt awkward being in bed with his girlfriend when his soldiers and friends were fighting for their lives just outside of the city walls. "How's the fight going?"

Selene hesitated, "Well...they're having a harder time than usual. Neoptolemus has joined the fighting—killed your ally Eurypylus."

"Is Memnon not at the front lines any longer?" His brow creased.

Selene pursed her lips, "Deiphobus holds the fort for now. It seems Memnon and your brother went on an expedition of their own to retrieve the bones of Pelops from Pisa."

Perseus' frown deepened. "What? My brother is supposed to be in bed recovering."

"I think I've had enough time to, don't you?" The voice came from the door. Perseus and Selene glanced up, and he felt a surge of anger and indignation fill him. Aeneas trudged in, looking for all the world as though he had just crawled out of the depths of Tartarus. He was dressed in a cloak and covered in soot. "Hello, Selene." The Titaness acknowledged him with a nod of her head.

"Aeneas," Perseus said. "What the Hades?"

His brother winced. "Please, brother, not today. I came to check if you were back. It seems we are both very weary, and both had very sour missions."

"You weren't supposed to have any missions," He said, scowling at Aeneas. "You almost died, Aeneas. You lost a hand. You should be resting. I told you I would handle it."

The other man snorted. "Did handling it include getting bedridden? What ever happened to you?"

"You first," The immortal demigod folded his arms. Beside him, Selene also looked at his brother expectantly.

Aeneas sighed and then collapsed in one of the cushioned chairs in the room. "Memnon and I took a small battalion to retrieve the bones. It was going quite well. We exploded their ship with Greek fire. And most of the bones were destroyed. But there was one piece which survived—a shoulder blade. Triton got to it before I could. I assume he got it back to the Achaeans."

Perseus felt his blood run cold. He ran a hand through his hair. "Triton?"

"You're sure you saw him?" Selene inquired. "From my understanding, Poseidon has banned further interference from the seas."