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I Don’t Need the Crown Anymore

I Don’t Need the Crown Anymore

Short Story · Fantasy
By:  DaphneCompleted
Language: English
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19Chapters
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Synopsis

Tragic Love

Scumbag

Winning Back the Wife

Girl Power

Althea fought her way back to Argos for Lysandros and helped him reclaim the throne, only to find herself trapped in the enemy kingdom of Thrace, wearing a slave's collar for three full years. Through three years of mortal danger, being dragged behind chariots, and bone-chilling winters, Althea survived on a single conviction: her betrothed, Lysandros, would come to rescue her. But when she finally set foot in the royal city again, what awaited her was not an embrace. It was a heavy golden laurel crown pressed against her brow, the Sacred Flame seal clutched in another woman's hand, and a royal heir growing in that woman's womb. She clung to one last hope: perhaps they had cast her aside only because they believed her dead. Then a chance encounter drove home every word of the truth. The opening that had lured her headlong into the rebel encirclement had been left there deliberately by Lysandros and her foster father. From the very beginning, they had never intended for her to come back alive. Everyone assumed that she, left with nothing, would forgive the king and surrender everything her mother had left behind to the royal court. Althea burned the old covenant and pressed a blood-soaked thunderbolt pattern into a wax tablet. On the night of the Festival of Dionysus, the long-sealed old watergate would open. This time, she would not wait for the king, nor for the gods. She would carve out her own path forward.

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19 Chapters
Chapter 1
Three months ago, Thrace returned a group of prisoners at the border in exchange for a ceasefire. Althea was sent back to Argos as spoils of war.Three years earlier, she had been Lysandros's acknowledged betrothed and Philocles's adopted daughter. Philocles, commander of the Northern Frontier, was also Ianthe's birth father, which made the two young women sisters in name only. In that war, Althea had led troops to help Lysandros reclaim the throne, only to end up in a Thracian cage. Now that she had finally returned, not a trace remained of the fierce general's daughter who had once charged alone into rebel lines.Whenever someone nearby suddenly raised their voice, her shoulders would tense and the color would drain from her face in an instant. Her gaze would drift off into nothing, as though she had been dragged back into those sunless years of captivity.At the coronation ceremony for the golden laurel crown, a wine servant accidentally stepped on the hem of her robe, and a bronze
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Chapter 2
The conversation inside the chamber continued.Althea stood motionless outside the door, the clay bowl in her hands growing cold. Lysandros spoke again. "The eagle feather token. You're certain there won't be any complications?"Philocles answered without hesitation. "There won't be. I placed that half of the bronze eagle feather in Ianthe's hands myself. When you were found at the lightning-struck oak grove, the only thing left beside you was that token. As long as the two halves match perfectly, everyone will believe the person who saved your life was her."Althea slowly closed her eyes. The memory of that oak grove surfaced in her mind.That year, Lysandros was fourteen. Althea was a year older. While traveling to Dodona with the late king to make an offering, he was caught in a violent thunderstorm. His horse bolted in panic, and he tumbled into a ravine, pinned beneath a fallen tree trunk. It was Althea who hacked through the branches with an axe and dragged him into a cave to wai
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Chapter 3
Over the days that followed, Lysandros came to visit nearly every day.On the first day, he had a jar of Cretan mead delivered. "This was always your favorite." He poured a cup himself and offered it to her.The scent of the mead reached her nose, and Althea's fingertips went cold. On the Thracian javelin field, the same cloying sweetness of wine had always hung in the air. She did not reach for the cup. Lysandros studied her for a long moment, took her refusal as a lingering grudge, and silently set the cup back on the table.On the second day, he brought a small wooden chariot model. A craftsman had replicated the chariot they had ridden together during their first campaign. "Do you remember? You insisted on snatching the reins from me."Althea did remember. But the memory that surged up with it was the searing pain of being dragged across stone, her elbows and knees scraped raw. She did not touch the model.On the third day, he placed an old spear beside her. Its shaft still bore th
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Chapter 4
The next morning, three priests from the Temple of Hera arrived at the queen's bedchamber. The eldest carried a bronze tray holding purification water, sea salt, and a plain gray robe without a single adornment."The queen was detained in Thrace for three years. Upon her return, she was publicly slandered by an enemy envoy. To preserve the authority of the Argive throne, she must enter the temple and complete an eight-day purification rite."Althea did not look at the tray. Her gaze went to Lysandros, who stood by the door. "This was your decision?""Just a standard purification," he said. "Once you're willing to explain everything, I'll come for you myself."He spoke as though he were offering her one last chance. Althea removed the golden laurel crown from her head and set it gently on the tray. Lysandros's brow darkened. "I did not order the crown taken back.""Gold jewelry is forbidden in the purification chamber," she answered calmly. "I am simply following temple rules."He studi
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Chapter 5
The underground purification chamber had no windows.After the door sealed shut, only a single oil lamp in the corner cast its light over the stone bed and a simple altar. A white stone statue of Hera stood on the altar, and at the statue's feet sat a small bronze basin. The priests ordered Althea to kneel before the basin and submerge her hands in salt water until she agreed to surrender the Thunderbolt Seal.She knelt until well past midnight. Both knees had gone completely numb.The lamp flame shivered. A faint scraping sound came from the darkness. Althea looked up. A silver-gray serpent glided out from behind the altar, its scales catching the firelight with a cold gleam.It was the sacred serpent kept by the Temple of Hera. Normally locked in a triple-layered bronze cage, it was only brought out during major ceremonies by a designated attendant. Its venom would not necessarily kill, but it would cause relentless fever, violent convulsions, and, in the delirium that followed, the
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Chapter 6
On the day of the Festival of Dionysus, drums sounded without pause from dawn onward. The streets teemed with citizens wearing masks of woven grapevine. That night, the procession would pass through the Temple of Hera, and most of the guards would be pulled away to maintain order.The antidote had only partially suppressed the venom spreading across her arm. Fever still came in waves, her knee remained swollen, and every step felt like a dull blade grinding against bone.To prevent the foreign envoys from sensing unrest in the court, the priests had placed the golden laurel crown back on her head that morning. The battered gray robe, the unhealed wounds, and the gleaming crown came together like a hollow display of decorum staged for outsiders.This was Althea's only chance to escape. But from daybreak, Ianthe kept piling task after task on her, never allowing a moment's rest."The birthing room needs clean water.""The ceremony is still short two jars of wine.""The wool swaddling for
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Chapter 7
Inside the birthing room of the Temple of Hera, the air was thick with celebration. Lysandros held the newborn prince, and his usually hard features softened with rare warmth."Send word to the Council." He gave the order. "A prince has been born. Taxes across the city are reduced for one month. Temple priests, attending physicians, and every guard on duty tonight are to be rewarded for their service."The servants dropped to their knees in unison. Ianthe leaned against the cushioned couch, pale and drained, her fingertips clutching the edge of his sleeve. "Your Majesty, I thought I wasn't going to survive." Her voice was faint. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "The moment the queen grabbed me, it felt like a bolt of lightning struck my womb. If the physicians hadn't arrived in time, the child might not have..."The warmth faded from Lysandros's eyes, one degree at a time. He handed the prince to the wet nurse. "Althea is still restrained at the ritual pillar?"A servant hesitated. "She
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Chapter 8
After Althea's escape, every checkpoint in the city was rotated twice. Lysandros had confirmed she was no longer in the underground cells, but he still had not discovered where she had gone.No one found a trace of her. The priests at Dodona refused to release the Sacred Oak Guard's roster. The mountains of Arcadia were laced with dozens of old hunting trails that appeared on no map. She had vanished from the royal city as completely as mist from stone.A month later, the naming ceremony was held for the prince. Ianthe named the child Orestes. Before the Flame of Hestia, a priest touched a drop of mead to the infant's lips, a symbol that the child was formally taken into the city-state's care. The baby suddenly let out a piercing wail. At first it was just sharp cries. Then violent convulsions seized his tiny body, and dark lines appeared beneath his skin.The temple erupted into chaos. "Divine punishment!" the crowd screamed. Ianthe rushed forward and gathered the child in her arms, h
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Chapter 9
The investigation lasted twelve days. Menon laid twelve wax tablets, a dispensary ledger, and three sworn statements on the king's desk."The hellebore was requisitioned in the priestess Ianthe's own handwriting." Lysandros opened the ledger. The date of withdrawal was two days before the naming ceremony. The clay seal bore the imprint of her Sacred Flame seal."Her handmaid Clea has confessed," Menon reported. "The powder was delivered personally by the priestess, who also determined the dosage. The original plan was to give the prince a brief fever to simulate a thunderbolt curse."Lysandros looked up. "She used her own child as evidence?"Menon kept his eyes lowered. "She was certain the physicians would administer the antidote in time."The fire in the bronze brazier crackled softly. Lysandros sat in silence. Menon produced a bronze token. "This is the transfer log for the sacred serpent. On the night Althea was held in the purification chamber, the serpent cage was signed over to
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Chapter 10
On the fourth day after the Festival of Dionysus, Althea woke from a fever. The first thing she saw was an unlocked door.The door hung half open. Morning light fell through it onto the wooden floor. There was no statue in the room, no chains, and no servant waiting at her bedside for her to open her eyes.She wiggled her fingers. Her palm, wrist, and knee had all been freshly bandaged. A bitter salve covered the snakebite. Around the thunderbolt mark on her chest, several cool silver leaves had been pressed against the skin. Someone pushed the door open further. Althea's entire body went rigid. Her hand reached for the edge of the bed. There was nothing there to use as a weapon. The person did not come any closer. She was a woman in her forties, with her hair pulled high and two short blades at her belt. She stopped three paces from the bed."My name is Damaris."Althea studied her. "Myrrhine's captain of the Sacred Oak Guard?""Once."Damaris placed a bowl of thin porridge on the tab
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