[after reading a letter sent by his mother]
Alexander:
It's a high ransom she charges for nine months lodging in the womb.
Hephaistion:
Bring her to Babylon, Alexander. It'll give her such joy.
Alexander:
Joy! I am the cracked mirror of her dreams... Stay with me tonight Hephaistion.
Hephaistion:
What bothers you?
Alexander:
I see in her everything I fear. Yet I have no idea what it is; this fear. She was always so sure I was born of Zeus. Why, Hephaistion?
Hephaistion:
I think there are things beyond our imagining. Like the lightening. Tales of strange conceptions. I don't doubt it.
Alexander:
What is being told me? What destiny do I have?
Hephaistion:
Well, if I'm Patroclus, I die first. Then you, Achilles. The generals are upset. They question your obsession with Darius. They say it was never meant for you to be king of Asia.
Alexander:
Naturally. They want only to return to their homes rich with gold, but I have seen the future, Hephaistion! I've seen it now a thousand times, on a thousand faces. These people want, need, change. Aristotle was wrong about them.
Hephaistion:
How so?
Alexander:
Look at those we've conquered. They leave their dead unburied, they smash their enemies skulls and drink them as dust, they mate in public! How can they think, or sing, or write when none can read? But as Alexander's army they could go where they never thought possible. They can soldier, or work in the cities. From the Alexandrias, from Egypt to the outer ocean. We could connect these lands, Hephaistion. And the people.
Hephaistion:
Some say these Alexandrias have become extensions of Alexander himself. They draw people into the cities so as to make slaves.
Alexander:
But we've freed them, Hephaistion, from the Persias, where everyone lived as slaves! To free the people of the world! Such would be beyond the glory of Achilles. Beyond Heracles! A feat to rival Prometheus, who was always a friend to man.
Hephaistion:
Remember the fates of these heroes. They suffered, greatly.
Alexander:
We all suffer. Your father, mine. They all came to the end of their time and in the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.
Hephaistion:
You once said the fear of death drives all men. Are there no other forces? Is there not love in your life, Alexander? What would you do if you ever reached the end of the world? I wonder sometimes, if it's not your mother you run from, so many years, so many miles between you, what is it you fear?
Alexander:
Who knows these things? When I was a child my mother thought me divine; my father, weak. Which am I, Hephaistion? Weak or divine? All I know is I trust only you in this world. I've missed you. I need you. It is you I love, Hephaistion. No other.
Hephaistion:
You still hold you head cocked like that.
Alexander:
[laughing]
I have to stop that.
Hephaistion:
No, like a dear listening in the wind you strike me still, Alexander. You have eyes like no other. I sound as stupid as a school boy, but you're everything I care for. And by the sweet breath of Aphrodite I'm so jealous of losing you to this world you want so badly.
Alexander:
You'll never lose me, Hephaistion. I'll be with you always. 'Til the end.
