Author's Note: This story combines the original ideas from the stories Rose of Troy, Queen of Kings, Erato's Ballad, The Quality of Youth, and Forgiving Love. If you've read any of those fics then you'll recognize many of the lines/ideas here. It is also a slight crossover between the movies Troy and Helen of Troy. I made many changes from The Iliad and Greek Mythology for the benefit of the story, so any differences you see, such as parents, marriages, children, etc. I changed those on purpose.

Disclaimer: I do not own Troy, nor do I own anything that was written or created by Brunette Babie, Celebwen Telcontar, phoenix-rises-from-ashes, Ethereal Prey, or danger-natnat.

Warning: This chapter features non-descriptive rape and torture of an adolescent and non-descriptive suicide of another rape victim.

How It All Began

Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so they ask themselves: will their actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear their names long after they are gone and wonder whom they were, how bravely they fought, how fiercely they loved..?

._._._.

Prince Agamemnon was thirty years old when he and his wife Princess Electra ascended the throne of Mycenae. For the next twenty-eight years, the new king was in constant warfare with the other Greek kingdoms to fulfill his ambitions of being the supreme ruler of the largest and greatest empire the world had and would ever see. This was to be his mark in history, his great legacy and the mighty son of Atreus did well, he brought the nations together into a loose alliance where all the kings were able and allowed to keep their lands, the caveat was that whenever Agamemnon ultimately ruled and if he called for their armies they would respond without hesitation or complaint. Phthia fought for the Greek Army under their great warrior king's command but never did the Myrmidons identified themselves as Agamemnon's mercenaries. While, under the protection of the Gods, Athens remained untouched and unconquered.

...

Across the sea, the rival of Greece, Troy continued its rise in population, power, and prosperity. Priam had been the king of Troy for almost a decade and under his reign, all the kingdoms of the Asia Minor were becoming allies. Egypt had a truce with Troy and Syria with Lyrnessus. The union of Priam's cousin, Lady Hesione, and the King of Lyrnessus, Briseus, joined Troy and Lyrnessus together and thus Egypt and Syria. A few years after this marriage, three princes of the Asia Minor were born: Melanon, son of Briseus; Hector, son of Priam; and Helenus, son of Lampus.

At this time, in the kingdom of Phthia, in the country of Greece, another great prince was born: Achilles, son of Peleus. His mother, the water goddess Queen Thetis foresaw that her son would be the greatest warrior of the Greeks, even better a warrior than his own father and so as soon as he was able to wield a blade, Achilles was thrown into intensive combat training. In addition, he was educated by the centaur Chiron and was proven to be quite intelligent, rather than a dumb brute. He grew up with the idea that only through the conquests of the battlefield would a man gain true fame and immortality. All his life, Achilles only knew of ambition, war, and glory; the only love he possessed was for his kingdom, his Myrmidons, and his kin.

...

On Mount Olympus, Aphrodite was becoming restless with her favored lover Ares constantly being away at war, so she decided to seek the comfort of another man's arms, Hermes. What the two did not expect was that Aphrodite would bear Hermes a child, a daughter. She was prophesized to be one of the greatest goddesses ever to be born, alongside the impeccable daughter of Athena and Dionysus. Hermes feared for his child and so he and Aphrodite turned the girl into a silver-blue colored rose and sent her to be born to a mortal woman, so her powers may be diminished and she would remain hidden from her enemies.

Athena and Apollo were charged with carrying the flower down to Queen Hesione of Lyrnessus, the specifically chosen surrogate mother. When they reached Hesione with the flower child they communicated with her through her dreams. They told her of the flower child's tale and Hesione's duty to care for and keep secret the Olympian scion. The mortal queen agreed immediately to take on the task. When she was given the child she held the precious silver-blue flower as if it were made of glass. The rose suddenly entered her womb and she was then bearing the goddess along with the son she was already with, sired by her royal husband.

A few months later, the second son of King Briseus was born in the early darkness of morning and, moments later, at the twilight of dawn, Hesione gave birth to the daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite. Briseus always thought that he would have only sons, a daughter was unexpected and he almost considered her a dark omen once he learned that his wife bore him a girl. However, once he laid eyes on the small child with his dark hair and her mother's blue eyes, he immediately loved her. His newborn son was given the name Pramadas and the daughter was named Briseis, to honor her mortal father.

The very night after the twins' birth, Briseus had visions of a great and beauteous woman garbed and armed as a warrior, flanked by two dark horses, standing atop a hill overlooking a white palace. The palace resembled the estate gifted to him and his wife by King Priam for their wedding and he suspected that the woman was his own child. His priests agreed that these were signs that Princess Briseis would become a warrior and rule over a prosperous kingdom. Unlike most men (who would dismiss such a vision as folly), the King of Lyrnesseus obliged to the foresight and ensured that Briseis trained and learned alongside her twin and their elder brother in the arts of weapons and war.

...

As the years went on, Briseus sired more beloved sons and watched them all grow and learn. While he never admitted it (even to himself), his favorite child was his one and only daughter. From birth, it was obvious that she was and would be extremely beautiful, but there was something else, something otherworldly about her. The only one who never questioned as to why this was was her darling mother Hesione who, of course, the reasons why.

Briseis' childhood, alongside her many brothers, was filled with love and care, lessons for knowledge, and combat for skills. She excelled in every subject from accounting to weaponry. Her parents were quite pleased with their dearest daughter and even all her brothers showed her no true envy only admiration and adoration. As she aged, Briseis grew in every way, especially her beauty. Lyrnessus was amazed at how simply exquisite their young only princess was, many believed that she was an enchantress, sent to bless the mortals of the Asia Minor, for her beauty was as great as her wisdom and kindness. Though Lyrnesseus was continually flourishing under the rule of Hesione and Briseus, these times were not meant to last.

Though Lyrnessus was continually flourishing under the rule of Hesione and Briseus, these times were not meant to last. A virtually unknown man who called himself Lord Mynes wanted to claim the power of the Asia Minor and (if rumors of her existence were true) the power of the goddess of Lyrnessus as his own. Briseis and Pramadas were eleven at the time that Mynes asked for the hand of Lyrnessus's daughter. The king and queen cursed the thought of their daughter already wedded while she was still but a child, the idea was utterly horrid to them. They dismissed his request and turned him away. Enraged, he cursed the house of Briseus to eternal damnation and misfortune which no one paid any mind to, but Mynes' conquests were far from over.

A few days later, Mynes and his army sieged the palace of Lyrnessus. The king and queen were chained, as they had to endure watching Mynes rape their precious daughter. He held them hostage waiting for the powers of the young goddess to be thrust upon him, but they never came. Even after Mynes did everything to her from taking her body repeatedly to torturing her, Briseis' powers did not come to him. In a fit of anger, he ordered the whole city to be burned to the ground.

Fortunately, the royal family escaped and fled to Troy, excluding Briseis, who was separated from her family in the chaos. Mynes then took his army East to conquer other lands, waiting for the right time to strike again.

Briseis was discovered by the Amazon warriors of the island of Lesbos. The women took her into their home and under their care. They treated her wounds and help her to brave the torrent of traumatic memories that Mynes inflicted upon her. Once she was on the mend, they reunited Briseis with her family but the princess chose to remain with the Amazons for a time. She later met the daughter of Dionysus and Athena, Amara - or Amaryllis as she called herself on earth - and the two became the closest of friends. She also discovered two descendants of the mares of Diomedes in Mount Ida. Seeing that Briseis was the only one who could handle the bloodthirsty beasts, the two mares were under her charge from then on.

When she was ready, Briseis returned to her family where they were settled at the White Palace in the countryside near Troy. As she was the beloved princess of Lyrnessus, she became the much admired Lady of Troy. While her beauty remained and continued to grow, her former sweet and innocent disposition were forever lost as her ashen kingdom. Her kindness and compassion persisted, but the warmth she once radiated from within became cold, almost nonexistent. Briseis was neither suicidal nor homicidal and so her family could nothing but adjust. The acclimation period was awkward on all sides, but as time went on a routine was found and everyone's lives went on.

...

Tyndareus, King of Sparta was in Salamis fighting for Agamemnon when the greatest of the Gods, Zeus went to Tyndareus' wife Queen Leda and raped her, begetting a child on her. Leda bore and birthed her daughter Helen, however, was so full of shame that after her youngest daughter came into the world she took her own life.

Thirteen years later, Tyndareus gave his eldest daughter Clytemnestra to Agamemnon's eldest son and child Nicodemus, sealing the alliance between Sparta and Mycenae. At this time, Helen enamored Nicodemus' brother Menelaus with her beauty, but he had not the chance to ask for her hand, for Lord Theseus kidnapped Helen during his brother's wedding feast.

For two years, Helen was in the care and protection of Theseus, she grew to care and even love her kidnapper and he was only too happy to spoil her. Helen's brother Pollux found and "rescued" her from her captor. Unfortunately, he engaged in a duel with the killed each other.

At his son's funeral, Tyndareus put the blame of Pollux's death upon Leda's disgrace and declared Helen's fate to be decided by the noblemen of Greece. The kings, princes, and warlords chose the winner by chance and the will of the Gods: whosever ring fell closest to the pot would be declared the winner. Menelaus' ring fell right in and he was decreed the winner of the prize, Princess Helen of Sparta.

...

High Prince Damon of Troy declared his plan to travel the world and the Lady Briseis and Lord Pramadas made the decision to accompany him. It was the greatest of misfortunes that when the time came for their travels, Lord Briseus and Lady Hesione were attacked in the night on the Trojan beach by Mynes and his men as a warning of his imminent return. When the warlord learned that Troy was brokering an alliance with Greece, he retreated back into the shadows, awaiting the time that his conquest of Troy would result in his conquest of Greece as well.

Prince Damon left on his journey without the twins on their request, it would be many years until he was from again.

With the death of her parents, Briseis threw herself into raising and caring for her brothers. The need for a maternal figure in the White Palace brought back some of Briseis' warmth, but it was given predominantly to her siblings, the young and the elder.

...

Two years after Helen's marriage, Tyndareus passed away and Menelaus became the King of Sparta, continuing his father-in-law's work for an alliance with Troy. It was after Tyndareus' funeral that the truce was made final and the envoys of Troy - the Princes Hector, Helenus, and Paris - came to Sparta for the celebrations.

It was here that Prince Paris and Queen Helen fell in love, right under the nose of her husband. Helen took Paris to her bed and declared him the sole owner of her heart. On his last night in Sparta, Paris suggested Helen return to Troy with. She was completely willing and when the Trojans set sail for home, Helen was settled and hidden in their ship.

Hector and Helenus were enraged when they learned of Paris' abduction of the queen. Paris was always the boy who pursued and bedded pretty girls regardless of their status. They were close to turning around back to Greece to return the queen, but Hector relented to letting Paris have his prize for the time being, for he knew that if they went back they would never return home. And so they sailed across the Aegean Sea to Troy, where their people waited for stories of grand tales of Sparta and assurances of peace with Greece, alas what they would receive were impending times of war.

Author's Note: As I mentioned, this is a slight crossover with Helen of Troy and I used essentially all the main characters in both movies. Here's a little explanation: Agamemnon is the one from Troy, the one from HoT is renamed Nicodemus (Clytemnestra of HoT - sister of Pollux and half-sister of Helen - is his wife) and made into the elder of Agamemnon's sons, Menelaus is the younger (his Troy counterpart was cut out). Priam is the one from Troy, his counterpart and the wife is made into his brother and sister-in-law renamed Lampus and Arisbe respectively; HoT's Hector is their son renamed Helenus and his brother is Paris from that movie along with the Helen (Troy's Helen is cut). Troy's Hector remains, but the Paris is renamed Damon. All other characters are as they are from their respective movies or are OCs of my own or others' creations (as mentioned above parentage and the like may or may not be different, such as Cassandra who is Helenus and Paris' sister). I know some characters seem OOC from their counterparts, but I'm following the lead the Brunette Babie and it's her creativity that awed and inspired me.