( video ) un: achilles

[heelies]

[As when storm-bruised clouds cast their dark pall over the sky, a harbinger of the torrent and tempest to come, so appears the countenance of Peleus' son. He is harnessed in the glorious armor that lame-foot Hephaestus did forge for him, and upon his head fiercely glints the golden helmet which once served as a beacon to the Myrmidons and all of the vast host of war-loving Argives. Like the thunder that is hurled by almighty Zeus who bears the aegis, his voice roars out over the network.]

Koltira, you whose heart is blackened with vile hatred! Hear now the son of Peleus, Achilles, best of all the Achaeans - I whose pride was rent by your blade when you did raise arms without first issuing a proper challenge as is honorable between warriors. I demand that you meet me in single combat, that I may avenge myself and slake my spear upon your blood. Meet me then to the east of the town ere the sun touches the far horizon, where it settles for the night into the couch of the desert - unless the worm of cowardice burrows deep within your breast to weaken your fighting spirit!

It is for this reason that I give my challenge in this public forum, that others may bear witness and hold you accountable to this duel. What say you, Koltira? Recoil not from the bloodshed you so take pleasure in! Long has my anger rankled in my breast, and long has my pride festered without salve potent enough to soothe it, for the cure lies only in victory by dint of my spear. Thus, today I wait no more!

[In the colloquialisms of the locals: This town ain't big enough for the both of us.]

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[respired]

[ Anger comes for Koltira like a battering ram, threatening to shatter his resolve to avoid this confrontation. He knows Olivia wouldn't want this. He doesn't want to cause her more pain. But it's so difficult to stand by and listen to Achilles howl for his blood, so frustrating to think of what this man had done to Koltira's dear friend. How Achilles had broken her heart like it was nothing. Like it was just something Olivia should accept, and live with. He fights to keep disgust from curling into his tone, but he's not terrifically successful. ]

Your opinion of me matters little. I have no wish to fight you. I did not want to fight you in the desert, either. I was lost to myself, trapped in madness. Had I possessed any of my faculties, I would have walked away.

[heelies]

You did not wish to fight me! [His voice pitches with incredulity, and he scoffs.] Yet well do I remember how you once proclaimed that should I ever cross your path you would kill me without delay! This fate you purposed for me when in the desert you raised your glowing blade and hurled your godcraft - upon my blood you sated your appetite, and in my agony you took only pleasure. Weave not such lies as this, hateful scoundrel that you are.

[Yet in the height of his fury he forgets that Koltira had fled ere he could deliver the final blow: this matters not in the face of the insurmountable evidence that points Achilles toward that ill opinion which he seeks to justify.]

[respired]

[ Koltira's leaning against a fence, out in a field somewhere; he's dressed for farm work -- hair tied back in a ponytail, no shirt -- and he clenches his jaw as he listens to Achilles go on. ]

I do not deny this. I meant to avoid you so as to avoid precisely such a fight, and to walk away from any confrontation. When you found me that day, I barely knew myself--much less you! I was maddened from the curse I bear, as I have explained now time and again! I regret that you suffered under my hand, but pursuing this path will not change the past. No -- like a river, it will repeat.

Let it be, Achilles.

[heelies]

No - I cannot let it be! That day you left me for the dogs and carrion birds to feast upon - for that would have been my fate, had Olivia not come - you tarnished my pride as none has ever done so before. That I could be so thoroughly bested, without once allowing my blade to taste my enemy's flesh and spill forth his blood - I the son of Peleus, I who am honored as the best of the Achaeans-- Once faded the relief of finding that I remained still in the country of the living, I felt only humiliation crackling within my weary heart. For more than a full cycle of the moon I have suffered the lingering burn of shame, and I can bear it no longer.

Moreover, you would dare insult me further by flaunting fast-dancing Olivia by your side, when well do you know whose wife she rightfully ought to be! All these thousand slights that you lay against me I must answer with my spear. And if the past shall repeat itself, then so be it! This time if I fall by your blade once more, at least I shall fall in a fair fight, and no more shall our quarrel burden me nor you.

[respired]

[ He is not happy to hear of Achilles's humiliation, just as he is not happy about any of his encounters during that fateful week. His long ears wilt as he listens to Achilles describe what he went through, and he is not proud.

But then Achilles brings up Olivia, and fury returns to him like a violent tide, rushing heady to fill his throat. He shakes the fence angrily, hissing. ]

How dare you even speak her name, you faithless traitor. She is no longer your wife, and I question that you ever had the right to call her so! I found her in tears, heart shattered--because of you.

[ He digs his bare fingers into the top slat of the fence, and the wood cracks beneath the pressure. ]

I cannot think what you mean by flaunting, either. I dare not.

[ LEST HE RUIN THIS POOR FARMER'S FENCE ]

yikes again

[heelies]

[Still he can see her back in retreat, the locks of her pink hair flying wild in her wake, her figure fading smaller while his swift feet remain so heavy and his tongue so useless. Not for the first time he tries to imagine where that path led her, but now he can see it plainly: she a crumpled heap quaking with sobs, and he, Koltira, happening upon her, perhaps crouching beside her that he may fold her into his embrace.

For this his heart aches with remorse and jealousy both. As when a river meets the sea, and its waters are swept away upon the waves and thus folded into the sea's bosom, so too do these feelings flow into his swelling fury.]

Who among this company did not see your hand entwined with hers while you together sat so shamelessly upon the bed? All the while here was I with a heart that yearns still for that which was so suddenly torn from it! Lay not such insults against the love that has long burned within my breast and now sears my flesh ever more painfully, for in this matter you know nothing.

Speak only toward this: shall you accept my challenge, or must I languish in shame forever more?

[respired]

[ He can scarcely believe what he's hearing. First, that Achilles would interpret Olivia's moral support as something scandalous--and second, that he thinks he has the right to comment on it, even if it were. To Koltira's mind, Achilles forfeited all rights to his involvement in Olivia's life at the very second his arms embraced Patroclus. Whatever the history between the two men, it was history. Olivia is--or was--the present. His wife!

Koltira grips the fence with such force that it splinters apart, and he scowls. Now he has to fix this damn thing. ]

As I am a man of honor, rest assured that she was with me solely in friendship. For I would never betray the person I claim to care for by pressing them to accept a secondary place in my heart.

[ He had been prepared to let this go. To just walk away, and let Achilles stew in his fury. But now his own ire has been stirred, and he will have answer for it. ]

Fine. If you wish to suffer Byfrost's bite again, so be it. Suffer you shall.