Twins of Egypt

Chapter 18: Exploration || Part 2

[[A/N: That is the corridor I imagined up there ^^^^. Pretty Greek don't you think? Ugh, now the relationship between Selene and Tiberius have clarity ;) Read to find out what I am talking about haha.

-Marla]]

[[Three and a half months later || Selene]]

I woke to a blistering summer morning. The windows were all opened and a ceaseless amount of sunlight illuminated my normally dark chambers. Everything was new, a virtual renewal to remind everyone that I was fertile and still full of youth. I looked around, and settled to look left. As quickly as seeing a white rabbit in the summer, I found the silver hair that threatened the renewal of my chamber. I plucked it and tossed it away, never to be seen again. Age was a normal thing, but I would never accept it.

The doors to my chambers swiftly opened and my white canopies flowed forward in a refreshing exhalation. I flipped over tiredly and lay on my side rubbing my engorged stomach. Doran followed by my Greek physician appeared as the doors closed behind them, preventing the beautiful ounces of sunlight that hardly filled my room.

"How are you this evening, Your Majesty?" Doran asked quizzically from the front of the bed as he perched the canopy curtains up. The physician left his side and came to inspect me.

"Good, Doran," I smiled, and laid back knowing that the physician would ask me to lay down.

He felt my bump, feeling around, searching for something particularly interesting, perhaps a head, or a foot. I doubt he'd find anything, it was too soon to tell. However, I did notice something. My breasts are heavier than ever and my belly larger. I ate plenty and vomited twice as much...I had lost weight. I forget how many, but I knew I lost plenty.

"Hmm," he continued to feel around, softly probing the surface of my clothed abdomen. "Your child seems healthy; I may need to take more tests. Perhaps you should give me a sample of your urine and I will test it. Later, perhaps. I have other things to address to you." He seemed to physically ready himself for the information he was about to share with me. I doubt it was anything new. "You have lost a significant amount of weight. When I first met you, you were a healthy ten stone lady that was quickly shrinking. Now you are even lighter, and I grow fearful for you. You are barely eight stones, your Majesty. You lost too much weight. We thought that you would maintain the weight you had in confinement, but it seems you lost two stones instead. Therefore, His Majesty the King has decided that since this plan of confinement is flawed, you will not be confined and can continue to run the kingdom befitting your standing. With one exception."

"What is that?"

"You will take the Lady Vipsania Agrippina into your company, while her husband is here. He should not be here long, but he will leave her here while he and your husband venture to Athens to meet with Agrippa."

I did not move in shock, but my mind was mirthless. I stared at the ceiling wondering why Rome continues to bombard me, when I have done nothing wrong. It cannot possibly be my fault that my father and mother spited Augustus, and it cannot be my fault Alexander was born to be a man. Why did the Gods never cease in their quest to hurt my family?

"Your Majesty?"

"Does Juba ask me to do it?" I shrugged away his worry and asked him sharply.

"Yes," he nodded, "you can discuss it with him now. He is in the grand chamber. If you desire it, Your Highness."

I rolled out of bed and ruffled the hair away from the front of my body before flicking it back in a thick mist of brown. I strutted to my vanity mirror and dipped my hands into the tiled basin. My face hovered over the basin and the sweet water flashed my face. As I stared at myself in the mirror, belittling every imperfection, I commanded, "Call my ladies, and tell King Juba that I will attend court today."