A Tale of Two Tragedies: The Plight

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Alexander: Who's there? Fearful thoughts abound along the border of sleep in the vacancy of night.
Isaac: Awake fool! It has been a fortnight since our planning, and I have stayed my hand longer than I can bear. You avoided the lake, our sacred meeting place upon its shores, where we swore our oath.
Alexander: It is a nightmare of reality come to vex me forevermore. But we can not continue, we have not made our plans.
Isaac: Why do you hesitate? You continually attempt to impede God’s justice. There is no need to argue. On my passage through your family's estate I slew your brother as commanded. Further delay may strip this opportunity from us. Stir yourself or I will strike.
Alexander: I am up, and I quail at the blood upon your blade. It is my brothers, it is mine. It is mine and I am the cause of it. I shall kill you!
Isaac: Hold! You scramble about on the dusty floor, disrobed, unarmed, and distraught at God's command. Disavow your declared deed, and we may proceed. Fail, and I shall lay you low.
Alexander: How could you have suffered to strike the blow? How can I continue on? This pain rolls upon me like a great sea and I hope to sink into it before I witness another catastrophe.

Isaac: What creeps here in the dark of night? Swiftness, and silence are my trustworthy accomplices.
Alexander: Then go. What the gods will occurs by one fate or another, yet I can't grasp the consequences of being a pawn in their revenge.
Enter Mother
Mother: Befouler, traitor, kin-slayer! Your brother was such a handsome man. A great warrior, scholar, or philosopher he might have been, but by your hands he has become a body, ready for the worms. The bond of siblings sundered and split by blood. One rendered before his time, poential unspent, to the acreage of Hades.
Isaac: It was not him, but I.
Mother: Who do you consort with Alexander?
Alexander: An enemy and a friend.
Mother: I know not what we have done to incur your betrayal, but repent, and protect your sister.
Isaac: Protect? The gods have ordered him to slay you! Cast aside contemplation, Alexander, and act.
Alexander: My hand is held the gods and their mad man.
Isaac: If you are incapable, you will find I can aid your task. If you labor under a burden I will ease it. Forget familial bonds, and the female who conceived you, for her fate I undertake. Instead, search out the progenitor who produced such feeble fortitude. I offer no curse, nor oath, but consider your fate if you fail. The remnants of your family will find you, and inflict God's vengeance for your dereliction of divine duty.
Mother: Alexander!
Isaac: Go!
Exit Mother and Isaac
Alexander: Where is my father? I am desperate, and irresolute. Gods, if I slay my father swiftly will you allow me to rescue my mother from that bastard! I pray, let me find him quickly, but I dare not hasten for I fear death at every corner, and I tiptoe for anxiety over inciting anguish.
Father: This is the fate the gods have chosen for me. I ask that if you slay me don't disregard the rites of burial for none deserve eternal damnation.
Father and Alexander fight, Alexander losing
Father: Alexander, drop your sword. You can not kill me by skill, and my heart aches at even the thought or one blemish upon your skin.
Alexander: I am lost, father, the gods command what the gods command and how can I revolt against fate?
Enter Isaac who joins fight
Isaac: You both dawdle with talk.
Alexander: Ah, you are here. It is too late for my convolutions to work. I can not longer keep up the fight.
Isaac: Alexander! We have to attack him together, and even still we are outmatched, but if God wills it success is inevitable. I can not do it alone.
Alexander: Father will slay Isaac. I was lost since the gods commanded me to do this dreadful deed. How can I slay my beloved father and yet how can I disregard the gods themselves? Wonderful mother and brother already dead, slain by this zealot, who spares not my family. Caring only for his mission he eggs me into a terrible plight: to commit a wrong at the behest of our deities. Two evils to choose from. In the end, the gods rule heaven and earth. It is to them I commend the souls of my father, mother, and brother. I retain a hope that sister escaped with the first shout.
Father: Alexander!
Isaac: Alexander!
Alexander: Though it seem worse to stab a man from behind, it can add no ounce of pollution to one's soul when the victim is their father, for there is no worse abomination..
Father: The vengeance of the gods is cruel. I related to you my dispute with the gods, but I omitted one fact. Penance they offered to me, at the cost of your soul. A sacrifice they demanded which I would not pay. In wrath they condemned me to death at your hands, and I knew, when we spoke, that the day of my downfall was approaching. As I pass, I ask one boon. Spare your sister,as she would you.
Isaac: Success is near, but we must hurry to see if your sister remains. Either way we must flee this hearth, to avoid the retribution of the guards.
Alexander: It is too late, she will have gone already. Let us escape before it is too late.
Isaac: God commands, and he did not declare some sufficient. But if she has fled then you will have your wish.
Alexander: Sister are you here?
Enter Sister
Sister: I heard fighting and hid, waiting for someone to come. How glad I my heart is to see you.
Alexander: Augh! What dark hearts the gods display.
Sister: And is this the same man I met in th hall. Why does he stare at me with such a look?

Isaac: I have done my work: this one I leave to you. Certainly, she cannot resist. Tomorrow we reconvene at the lake.
One more to go...
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