Page 59 of Arrogance
“Stubborn bitch!” he roared before exiting the room.
Phaedra flailed back down on her bed, hiding her face in her pillow. Her nurses gave each other bizarre looks, unsure of how to navigate this tricky situation. “How can we be of service to you?” the older nurse asked.
“Just leave me be!” Phaedra shouted at them. Therefore, having no other options, the two softly shut the door behind them, leaving her in peace.
Phaedra lifted herself up out of bed after several minutes, proceeding over to her desk in the room. She grabbed her quill and began writing on a blank scroll in a frenzy. “I’ll show him!” she spoke to herself.
Once she was done writing what looked like a letter from my view point, she rolled it up and held it in her hand. I watched her suspiciously, unsure of what she intended on doing with it. Phaedra then moved to her draped curtains maniacally, mumbling to herself. Evidently, I made her more crazed than I had thought. She untied the thick rope from the curtain, curling it in her hands.
What was she planning on doing with it?
But once she dragged her chair, so that she was just under a low ceiling beam, I became aware of her next move. Tying the rope in a noose, she hung it from the beam and placed it around her neck, as she stood on the chair. Phaedra dropped her folded up note on the ground. I knew what was bound to happen next, so instead of watching the scene play before me, I flew out the open window, deciding to keep an eye on Hippolytus, wondering how he would be affected by all of this.
Hippolytus was urgently summoned by King Theseus just an hour after Phaedra had offed herself. Yet, the oblivious hunter was unaware of what Phaedra had done. As he proceeded down the narrow halls and into the throne room, I flew behind him, flapping my wings effortlessly, swiftly gaining access to where their unfortunate meeting would take place.
Once Hippolytus entered the throne room, the guards standing post just outside shut the doors urgently, giving the king and his son privacy. “My son,” Theseus commented with trepidation in his voice. “Something terrible has happened.”
“What is it?” Hippolytus asked.
“Phaedra has taken her life. Her nurses found her hung by a rope in her bedroom,” the king revealed.
“When did this take place?”
“Just this afternoon.” Theseus studied his son carefully, likely trying to get any indication of a reaction out of him.
“That’s odd. Although she has been acting strange lately,” Hippolytus replied.
But his son showed no sign of remorse or care in the world as he should have. It was as if the announcement of Phaedra’s death didn’t bother him one bit.
“Of course, she’s been acting strange, you fool. You’ve hurt her in the worst possible way!” the king shouted, completing changing his tone.
“I hurt her? The whore only hurt herself, father. She practically begged to have me,” Hippolytus shared.
His father tossed the folded-up piece of paper Phaedra left behind to him. “Not according to her account. You raped her, Hippolytus! How can you live with yourself!?”
Hippolytus read the note closely, his eyes darting left the right, scanning over the writing. “No! It’s a lie. I never touched her!” He threw the letter to the floor.
“Then why else would she kill herself? She showed no signs of distress up until recently,” the king argued.
“I’m not sure. But I did not rape her, father! Phaedra did want me to take her, though, but I refused her sexual propositions.”
“You disgust me, son! How can you say such depraved lies?”
Hippolytus start backing up towards the door, waving his hands in the air frantically. “I’m not lying!” he yelled.
“What kind of son are you!?” the king roared.
Seeing as the king would not take his son’s version of the story as the truth, Hippolytus threw open the throne room's doors and charged out of the castle, running for what he thought was his life on the line.
But King Theseus did not chase after his son, nor did he summon any of his guards to hunt Hippolytus down. He remained rather calm, surprisingly. As the king moved out of the room, I followed behind him closely, confused by his placid demeanor.
His guardsmen escorted him to a new place high up in the towers of the castle that I had yet to visit since exploring the halls. Once we arrived at the king’s destined location, I realized we were in some sort of treasure room. It was decked with gold statues and marvelous jeweled shrines. But Theseus opened an ornate trunk and retrieved a sapphire orb from it.
There was a mark of magic in this sphere, as dark black veins within the orb flowed throughout it. This was no ordinary treasure. It had to have been a blessed gift from a god. But how did the king come to possess such a valuable item?
He held the cobalt orb high in the air to directly speak in it. “Poseidon, I wish to use one of the three wishes you granted me. I want my son, Hippolytus, dead.”
As Theseus made his declaration, the sphere turned black initially and then back to its sapphire tint.
