Charmion February 10, 1998 Summary Charmion lived all her life in the royal courts. When she was little, Charmion and her best friend Iras sneaked around the palace playing spies and wandered into the queen's chambers. By that chance meeting, they got to know Cleopatra quite well. Little did they know they would go through life and death with her. Author's Note Most of the events in this story really took place, but the ideas and life of Charmion are fiction. Nothing is actually known about Charmion, except that she was Cleopatra's servant and was present when her Queen took her own life. Dedication I dedicate this story to the memory of Cleopatra and her servants. Moral When everything is going right, just remember the little things that make a big difference. CRASH! A piece of flying rubble tumbled and hit the ground just a few feet from where I was standing! Iras screamed, while my Queen just kept a silent grin. The same grin she had had since the war started. She knew she was going to win if she had to kill her brother and her husband herself. For years, she had complained and bargained in order to take the throne from her brother and husband. All of a sudden my Queen yelled to the troops, "Stop!" Everyone looked confused, but Iras and I. We had known our Queen since we were five, and no matter if she told all of the troops to slit their own throats, we would not be surprised. But there was an explanation for her action. "Look yonder," yelled our Queen and sure enough there was the surrender signal! As it turned out, young Ptolemy XIII had drowned in battle. The queen did not shed a tear nor did she rejoice. She had known she would win, and that was all there was to it. I can remember quite clearly the first day Iras, my best friend, and I met Cleopatra. Though we had lived in the palace all of our live,s we had only seen her once or twice in our whole lives. That morning, our mothers had excused us from our work, and we decided to play a game. We would wander around the palace without people seeing us! So we were off, scurring down the halls. We saw the kitchen, the banquet room, the gardens, and even the throne room! Iras and I eventually dared to go towards the Queen and King's chambers in hopes of seeing them. All of a sudden, a group of ladies came down the hall in our direction! In fear that we would be caught, we ran through a door and stopped dead in our tracks. There sat the Queen brushing her hair! We were rooted to the spot, our eyes bulging, thinking that this was the end. But the Queen just laughed and told us to come right on over to her, and asked us our names. She asked Iras and I how we had managed getting all the way to her chambers, and we told her of our adventures. She rang a bell, and a maid came into the room. "Tell the guard sleeping outside my door to wake up! I am lucky these young ladies just found their way here, and are not robbers!" She said it quite calmly, considering what she was saying. Then a smile erupted, and the maid smiled back happily and left with a giggle. I remember thinking how wonderful it would be to be the Queen's personal maid and not to have to work in the kitchen anymore. The Queen abruptly got up, picked up her old servant dress and shawl, and opened the door. Iras and I walked out of the room confused. Then the Queen whispered to us, "This way. I want to spy, too!" We spent the rest of the day spying and joking around. From that day on, Iras and I worked in my Queen's quarters. And everyday we would meet important people and have dinner in the same room we discovered the Queen! Yes, I remember that day well and will never forget it. Before the war I had heard my Queen speak about a meeting with a powerful Roman leader, a Julius Caesar, who was coming to Egypt to settle the battle between my Queen and her brother for the throne of Egypt. My Queen's brother had ordered that Caesar's chambers be surrounded, so that his sister could not ask Caesar to be on her side before he had got a chance. But my Queen was smart, and she devised a plan. She ordered Iras and I to roll her up in a rug and give it to a man-servant to take to Caesar as a "gift" from somebody in Thebes. As the rug was unrolled, there was my Queen in all her glory! Eventually, after the war, they fell in love and were to be married. My Queen was determined to wow Rome and possibly become it's queen. She encouraged Caesar to propose to become the emperor of Rome! This sadly led to his death from his comrades. They snuck on him from behind and killed him, a man by the name of Octavian leading them all. As the news spread, a rider came on horseback and told the Queen, Iras, and I that we must leave or she would be killed for sure! We went out to the docked boats, and the Queen ordered everything but the golden dress Caesar had first seen her in, to be left and for everybody to go aboard the ships. Just as we were sailing away, we heard the crashing of the door being broken and the palace being ransacked. After a few more minutes, we saw them barge out to the dock just a minute late. As we pulled into the Alexandria harbor, my Queen was already planning on a way to win Rome. The new king was to be a man named Mark Antony, and she already had him in mind. Three years after Caesar's death, Antony came to have a meeting with the Queen about his taking over Egypt! Of course the queen decided to show him the best time of his life: the best dancers, the best food, and the most exotic animals. Eventually, he began to spend more and more time in Alexandria. The Roman people got mad and appointed a man named Octavian to go to war with Egypt. The queen told Iras and I that Antony and her would go to war against Octavian! In Greece, the ships moved in, and the battle commenced. Eventually, it was evident that we were losing. Then a messanger came with the latest news from the battle "....Mark Antony is dead!" My Queen kept her head high and ordered her boat turned around and back to Egypt. Later Antony, who was not dead, arrived in Alexandria and somehow got word that Cleopatra was dead. He threw himself on his sword! He was brought to my Queen, but soon died. Octavian came and took over, capturing my Queen, Iras, and I. My Queen was at her wit's end and decided that this, the plan we all had agreed on, was the right and honorable thing to do. This morning my Queen asked to visit her dead husband in her tomb, where he had been buried. A man came in with a basket of figs and we all took one last look at the outside world. My Queen gave a note to the guard to give to Octavian, and we shut the doors. My Queen got into her golden dress and reached into the basket and waited for the fangs of the hidden asp to bit. She then lay down on a bed of gold. Iras was next, and we said our goodbyes though we would see each other soon. Then it was me. I put my hand in and took it out, amazed at how I now felt. I was dizzy and everything was blurred. I fixed my Queen's crown in the proper fashion, just as Octavian burst through the door. He exclaimed, "Was this well done of your lady?" "Extremely well," I replied, "and as fitting for the descendent of so many kings," and I felt myself falling and heard the calling of Iras in the distance.