The man who nearly conquered the world remained infinitely tranquil as he was patient. She imagined, just as calm as the ocean could be at times. Deceptively so. That peaceful, patient calm was something she had admired from beings who were long gone. It was a rare trait. One that had been mastered by so very few. A being did not get to their age without learning the art of it. She was certain. After all, to be an impatient ruler, she was certain, made for a quick end. Timing, she was certain was the essence of life and death. Cleopatra had perhaps been excellent at that, at least until the end.

Like any good story, she painted him a picture with his words, offering him a bit of backstory. Yet she offered no hint of where she was going with it. After all, it was unlikely he knew her side of history. Especially not from her own lips. After all, so much of history was stitched with fallacy and rumour. Some of it, crafted even by her own doing. It was like the Egyptian queen enjoyed being an enigma. Yet, with the once Macedonian king, she had no need for guises. She offered him the truth.

His ocean-coloured eyes remained almost steadfast upon her, with the occasional wander to her hourglass physique like any man could avoid the temptation of her curvaceous assets that held little to the imagination. That body all but put on display as she sprawled out with artful confidence upon that day bed, in a pose that an artist would have surely painted her in. The attention, hardly bothered her, after all, she was nothing short of used to it. Even now, without knowing who she was, the fae held a memorable way in which she moved and carried herself.

The golden hunter elegantly sipped his wine, as if he relished in the taste of that wine along with her words. It sparked a dull pain to speak of either lover in a manner that discredited their memory. It was impossible to do so. There would always be a part of her that fiercely protected them. A memory she kept in a neat little box, untouched within her mind. Because she did find love with both men, for both different reasons, of course.. But she was so terribly young then. How those choices she had made, had become the beginning of her own undoing. As love so often did.

Was it wrong to question it? It hardly diminished her love nor loyalty she had for them at the time. It didn't change the course of history to simply wonder impossibilities, that might have been possible. A fool's chance. Yet she was willing to conceal herself within a carpet to slip inside the threshold of her own kingdom! There was very little she wouldn't do when she set her mind to it. She was curious of his response all the same. A response that would hardly alter a single thing other than a nagging little wonder. The once queen hardly anticipated that flash of a smile that played upon his lips as her attention remained upon the hunter.

She did not hide the fact that she was absorbed in that answer to that hypothetical question. He claimed she knew the answer to that. Did she really? Perhaps she did. Perhaps she merely wanted to hear it from him. Cleopatra remained equally composed even as he continued and agreed. He would have. How different her world would have been? Yet it was impossible to know how that world would have looked like. The bitterness in his tone was unsurprising and yet she found herself near hanging off those words like she was that same young woman, faced with an impossible choice. Why did she feel the need to bring up those ghosts from a past long ago? She made her choices, she lived her life. There were some regrets even though she claimed she possessed none. How she could relate to that bitterness, even if the cause was different in comparison. After all, she had found love within her choice. Or at least she believed it to be love at the time. Was it?

She listened to his words, carefully, forgetting all about the wine.. All about her own reasons. Her usually smooth features forged into something far more emotive than she had previously been. A conflict like the very battles that she had known danced across her sun-kissed, exotic face. His final words didn't sit well, as that expression transitioned into a frown. His answer was logical. Methodical. It made entire sense. After all.. Her meeting with Caesar had been very much the same. After all, it was a calculated choice she had made that had somehow turned into something other. Alexander would have been too.. Perhaps.. With some unspoken awe from a queen who was once so enamoured by him.

Ceasar had been terrifying enough. Although, any choice would have been. To say she hadn't fallen for the man she once believed to be only a Roman barbarian would have been a lie. Just as it would have been... to admit her own downfall was because of her choice of men. Yet how long ago it was.... And how much she remembered with clarity even though time always caused many things to fade. She had far too many impossible choices in front of her like any ruler would have had. But she was certain that a king would not have needed sex appeal to ensure her victory.

Yet part of her wanted to ease some of that bitterness in his tone. She hardly understood why and yet she believed her own words to be true.. "In this regard, you underestimate your own reputation." Alexander's return would have been like a god walking the earth once more. His name would have sent thousands upon thousands to his aid alone. After all, how many people still visited his tome? Even Caesar spoke of him with a certain awe. She knew what it would have done for her people. The former queen had received such ridicule with her choice in lovers, and yet she was entirely certain many would have rejoiced in the beacon of hope this golden king would have represented. How well she knew the nature of people.. The good and the bad.

Perhaps he was right. How she remembered how she felt, that young queen she had been.. That desperation to reclaim her throne.. That need to rely on another being in order to take back what was more hers than her brother and his advisors. She hardly blamed her brother. It was those meddling men in his ear, that had whispered lies and manipulations. He didn't even want to rule, not truly. Before she went to Caesar, before she knew the man... she had thought him nothing more than a Roman barbarian. How quickly she learned he wasn't. What if she never got to know that fact?

She should have known such a question would never possess a simple answer. She hardly intended for the complicated emotions to storm within the once queen. Nor did she attempt to hide it.

The hunter's final question was perhaps the most difficult one of all. One that turned an almost innocent hypothetical into something real. A question that if she answered, did it sully the memory of the men she had once loved? Did it change anything? Was it even wrong to wonder?

Her warm gaze rose to his own, holding his levelled stare, because even if she might have been conflicted she never shied away from her truths. He looked far too comfortable sitting in that cushioned chair as if it were his throne. She wondered what he might look like upon an actual throne. She received no joy in hearing him so easily say he would have killed her lovers. "Killed them and attempted to conquer me." There wasn't any doubt in her mind that he wouldn't try. Powerful men rarely sought a partner. How little did it seem to matter how apt a ruler she had been on her own? How early on she had learned that there were two people in this world. The conquerors and the conquered.

"I wouldn't have known them then, Alexandros. If I had made my choice before it would have been with little prior knowledge of the man I sought to woo. It's an impossible question.. But you should know I had no love for Rome..and I would have done anything to keep Egypt from Roman hands." Yet what did she think she would have received when she asked him that very question? What did she think he would say? What had she wanted to hear? The past was so far out of reach. Yet that question she found, even now, almost startling even though she remained just as composed and relaxed as he was. Her gaze found his own and they almost felt familiar somehow. This time, when he spoke her name it was not with their shared dialect, but with a true weight to them.

"We will never know how it would have all played out if I had found you. But.. I find it more than curious that back then, had I have known you were alive... It would have been me seeking out you... but now over a millennia, the roles have been reversed." How she found amusement in such small details most hardly cared for. How she enjoyed all the finer nuances. Her feminine features glimmered with amusement. "Am I all that you imagined I'd be, my king?" How little they both actually knew of one another and yet.. It was like she knew him on some level. It was strange and stranger still that even after nearly 2000 years they would choose the same city to reside. Her final question was hardly spoken with the same heaviness as before, after all, she had no gifts of changing the past.. nor was she certain she would have changed the course of history and destroyed the loves that nearly destroyed her.. Did that make her foolish? After all, she was loyal. She shifted in her seat when she noticed the approach of another. How did he manage to get here? She was certain he didn't jump over than fence. Or had he? The large cantankerous camel seemed to seek the pair out as if that was his attention.

"It would appear you might get one of your wishes.." At least from earlier when he wished to have met him. How quickly they went from wanting to meet.. to murder. Yet, she does not elaborate. "We have company." Her lips twitched almost unnoticeable as the way she toyed with her bracelet, unable to not find the humour in the situation.

She could not help that sudden laughter, it was warm as the Egyptian sun upon her flesh.

"Alexandros.. Meet Caesar, I am afraid he doesn't like men very much... Nor would he be interested in hearing how you would kill him at the edge of your golden sword..." Amusement lingered in her tone at the strange scenario that had happened upon them.

She was surprised he had found his way to them.. The camel, after all, was quite fond of one of her mares and rarely left her side.