Yuletide Reveals: Ancient World Edition

This year, both my assignment and the treat I wrote were based on historical novels but, I hope, manage to work outside of them (while doing their canon justice). Though last year I discovered with Stella Duffy*s Theodora duology two more novels about the Byzantine Empress I liked, Gillian Bradshaw's The Bearkeeper's Daughter is still my uncontested favourite. Aside from Theodora herself, the most intriguing character in it is for me is probably Narses, so I was delighted to get an assignment where one of the recipient's prompts asked more about him, which resulted in this story:


Of What is Past (3255 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Bearkeeper's Daughter - Gillian Bradshaw, 6th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Narses & Theodora, Justinian I Emperor of Byzantium/Theodora I Augusta of Byzantium, Narses & Anastasios, Narses & Belisarius, Narses & Justinian
Characters: Narses (The Bearkeeper's Daughter), Theodora I Augusta of Byzantium, Justinian I Emperor of Byzantium, Anastasios (The Bearkeeper's Daughter)
Additional Tags: Character Study, Backstory, Canon Backstory, Yuletide
Summary:

As he rises from castrated slave boy to one of the most powerful men in the Empire, Narses knows about prices - and worth.

As for my treat: It's a tough contest, but Stealing Fire (set in the aftermath of Alexander the Great's death; our hero fictional Lydias goes from suicidal traumatized soldier to starting a new life and new relationships healed survivor while teaming up with Ptolemy Soter and leading the most audacious bodynapping heist ever as he steals AtG's corpse for his boss) might be my favourite of the Numinous World novels Jo Graham wrote, though last year I via the audio version which I hadn't known before did a rehear/retread of Black Ships (based on the Aeneid, from the pov of the Sybil) and it's certainly up there. Anyway, one of the most interesting characters in the novel is Thais, a historical character, a hetaira from Athens who joined Alexander's campaign and was the long term mistress of Ptolemy with whom she had several children. Settiai had asked for more about Thais, what life with with Alexander had been like, how she reacted when Ptolemy eventually fell in love with another woman (as opoposed to political marriages), etc, and I swear I originally had more of a romantic mellow character piece in mnd. But then I actually read the ancient sources on Alexander. And thought: he must have been absolutely hell to live with at times, especially in his final years. I can't imagine a more dangerous combination than all powerful, depressed, hard drinking and already having killed friends in a rage before. Thinking this, I got an idea, and the tone of my planned story changed completely. With this result:


Her Last Confession (6796 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Numinous World Series - Jo Graham, Stealing Fire - Jo Graham, Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Ancient History RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ptolemy I/Thais, Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great & Thais, Thais & Berenike I. of Egypt, Thais & Chloe (Stealing Fire), Alexander III of Macedon | Alexander the Great & Ptolemaios Soter | Ptolemy I of Egypt, Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great/Hephaistion of Macedon
Characters: Thaïs the Hetaira (c. 4th Century BCE), Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great, Ptolemaios Soter | Ptolemy I of Egypt, Berenike I of Egypt | Berenice, Chloe (Stealing Fire), Demosthenes (c. 384-322 BCE), Kleitos ho Melas | Cleitus the Black, Callisthenes of Olynthus
Additional Tags: Character Study, POV Female Character, Talking To Dead People, Complicated Relationships, War, Angst, Reveal, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Thais has always guarded her secrets well. It kept her alive in the years that saw her go from Athenian Hetaira to joining Alexander's campaign to conquer the world to settling down in Egypt where her lover Ptolemy became Pharaoh. But it also cost her. And now she is about to confront her past one more time...