The Boy Who Never Came Home

Language Matters by Elias Winter · Aug 17, 2026 · 37m

There is still Arabia.

They tell me this as though I have forgotten.

The ships are waiting on the Euphrates. The engineers have measured the water. Men have counted horses, grain, timber, sails. Somewhere beyond these walls there are scribes making lists of things I will need for countries I have not yet conquered.

I am thirty-two years old.

My body is burning.

Babylon breathes outside the chamber. I can hear water sometimes. Voices. Sandals on stone. Men whispering because kings are not supposed to hear men whisper.

They think I am dying.

Perhaps I am.

I have been wounded before. Spears…