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Back at the palace, they enjoyed a performance of classical Persian music, as women dressed like nymphs performed a dance. Gia stood on guard nearby.

‘Tell me, Empress, what is it that you long for the most?’ asked the prince. ‘Power, or love?’

‘Can I not have both?’ she said.

‘No, only one. Or so it is said. Great success or great desire will find you, but not both. I do not make the rules.’

‘Then, I shall say love.’

‘I suspected as much.’

‘I have seen first hand how the most powerful men in the world can also be the loneliest,’ she said.

‘I know much about loneliness,’ he said solemnly.

‘Really? I would think you were always the centre of attention.’

‘I have many courtiers and few true friends. Something about being the child of a ruler makes me unapproachable. People are afraid to get too close to me… Perhaps you can relate, in some way?’

‘I can,’ said Claudia. ‘I was lonely all my life. My father had an entire empire at his disposal, no real companions, and nothing made him happy. I don’t want to end up the same way.’

‘Do you not have friends?’ he asked.

Her eyes flicked to Gia.

The prince followed her gaze.

‘I do, but none who were raised in a palace… until now.’

‘What is it that makes you happy?’ he asked.

‘Many things. I have lived through such horrors that I am happy just to be here in this moment,’ she said, carefully. ‘I am happy that I still have a chance to make a mark on the world, for my life to have meant something profound. What about you?’

‘I am happy in the knowledge that I am just a speck in time, just a name in a history, standing against the forces that turn grand palaces to sand,’ said the prince.

Claudia blinked at him slowly.

‘You lost me, I fear,’ she said.

‘It is comforting to me that no matter what mistakes I make of my life, I will one day be forgotten.’

‘I disagree,’ said Claudia, shaking her head. ‘I should like to be remembered in some small way, or else what was the point of living at all?’

‘I am part of something much bigger and greater than myself. There is peace in that.’

The small orchestra began to play a different song – a slower, more soulful melody.

‘I believe in the renewal of energy and life’s forces,’ Darius said. ‘Time, moving in circles. We live, and we live again. Perhaps we have met before, in another life, and now we come back together.’

Darius nodded to Mehdi, then stood up and held out his hand.

Claudia looked at it, uncertainly.

‘Let me show you how we dance in Persepolis,’ he said.

‘I…’

‘It is an important part of our culture,’ he insisted. ‘Even our warriors dance to celebrate victory on the battlefield.’