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“Kaia? You are certain of this? Take me to her, without delay,” said the captain.
There were a number of things he could have said in response. He could have said nothing at all, simply stood up and followed her in haste. He could have asked her where Kaia was, or if she was alright as far as she could see. He could have thanked her for informing him. Instead, he questioned whether she was sure, and then proceeded to both command and rush her.
This man was not her father, and yet he was barking orders as if he were. It was tempting to raise an eyebrow and see if he wanted to try again and speak to her like she was an adult, but an insistence on being talked to like an equal wouldn’t serve her now. Let him believe her a demure slave to his whims like a broken nag. She might give him ample time to learn otherwise, though if he was lucky, he would never see her again after tonight.
She hoped that he did not speak to Kaia thusly. She hoped Kaia did not let him, in any case. Aea would assume he did not, for she could not see her cousin being seduced by such commands. If he did not, which was more likely than not, what might that tell her about this man?
Aea nodded, turned, and walked the way she came, her long stride eating the distance between the table and the hallway. She analyzed what she had seen and heard and compared it to what she knew: there were three points to consider when facing an opponent. The head, the hips, the feet. There were five things to know of a soul when writing an ode influenced by it.
Alexandros' head—his expression—was concentrated. Intent, but upon nothing presently in the vicinity. His hips, unarmed. His feet, equally so. Aea highly doubted he had a blade strapped to his thigh, else his balls would rub raw against it.
Now what five things did Aea know about Alexandros?
The first, his command of her. He did not so much as glance at Aea—as if her voice was a disembodied spirit manifested just to lead him to his heart’s desire. He either wanted Kaia very badly, or he was used to getting his way and did not care to push others around to continue to get it. Perhaps both.
Given how unconcerned he seemed to be with the woman from earlier being spirited away, given how incredibly concentrated he seemed to be upon the idea of Kaia, and given how insistent he had been upon conversing with a woman who had such closed-off body language, Aea was inclined to assume both. Kaia was an important thing, important enough for him to lay aside whatever battle had been brewing. Even though he’d fucked her already, he still wanted her. Wanted to what, though? Not to fuck her again specifically, not with such a focused expression upon his face. A hole was a hole, but he very much wanted the hole Aea was offering to take him to. Why this one specifically?
If Alexandros was so determined to get to Kaia despite the setting being inappropriate for sex, he might want something else from Kaia. To talk? No, he was a conman. Conmen wanted their cons. He had tricked Kaia into believing he valued her through sex. Why would he need Kaia to believe he valued her? What was attached to sex? Love, procreation, enjoyment, adoration. All forms of giving and taking, but to the conman, taking would be his only aim. If he wanted to take all of those things from Kaia, Aea could fold it all together and call it blighted devotion. A sweet word when attached to a decent man, but a subjugative one when attributed to Alexandros.
The captain wanted Kaia’s devotion, perhaps, to put her under thumb and control her. If he did not, he would not have told her to come away with him yesterday. He wanted to keep her, leash her, and subdue her. He almost got his chance, too, had he not blundered at exactly the wrong time. Perhaps the gods were watching out for Kaia.
A conqueror, that’s what Alexandros was. Likely why he pursued Kaia to begin with. She presented a challenge to bring to heel. Once he’d broken her in so to speak, he would get bored and move onto the next, but he would always keep her leashed for his amusement. He likely went after the hardest woman in the room first, and never the one that was actively looking to belong to a man. This would explain why he was so deeply invested in a conversation with a woman who was not smiling, turning her body toward him, or otherwise giving any indication that she wished to lay beneath him. To him, no was maybe.
He likely took unwilling women by force or coercion, like Kaia’s father had taken Kaia’s mother. Kaia believed them to be in love, but Aea knew the look of a person who did not wish to be touched. Callie’s eyes used to glaze over whenever Agolois embraced her or touched her shoulder. That was the sort of devotion Alexandros wanted, but unlike Callie, he wanted to fool Kaia into liking it.
At least Alexandros did not force himself on Kaia, or else this would be a very different meeting. For now, Kaia was a weakness that could be used as a weapon. Something he wanted in addition to whatever other wishes he had. And what he wanted was clearly more important than anything else, otherwise he might have looked at Aea to tell whether she was a servant or not to begin with.
So, the first thing she knew of him—dangle the thing he wanted in front of his face and he noticed little else. Duly noted. The second—he liked to master women who were difficult to master. The third—he gave little attention to those around him unless they were of personal and immediate use to his pleasure.
The fourth—he was flirtatious. Though the haste in which he wanted Kaia after only just getting finished trying his hand on another made Aea think perhaps it was deeper than that. Womanizing, maybe. Flirting was just a fun thing to do between people who got along, but womanizing was a habit mired in need, and Alexandros certainly seemed invested enough for Aea to call Kaia a need for him. Like Uncle Cassero, who put such effort into his appearance and charm because he needed to be adored by all just to forget that he did not adore himself.
The question was, what need did Alexandros have? What thing did he think Kaia might fulfill? Aea supposed she would find out.
The fifth—brave. Even Aea knew the name Marikas, and that was substantive, for she did not know many family names at all. Her uncles had spoken about them a few times in passing. Apparently they were shafted the Athenian throne, and yet, apparently one was still Master of Law. She did not know how powerful it made them as a group, but the man—Panos—certainly held a chilling enough voice that promised heavy retribution. If Panos was, in fact, powerful, Alexandros did not care to the degree of publicly standing against such a man. Given Asia's warning of death and starvation, then that either meant Alexandros had good reason to be confident in his ability to stand in brazen, public defiance and live. Or he was stupid.
There was a fine line between brave and stupid. The question was which side he tipped to. She supposed she would figure that out as well. Either way, he would need to be selfish in addition to either, for only a selfish man would weigh his wish to speak against a nation’s belly.
There was a sixth thing as well, and that surprised her. She had not been looking for a sixth, for she had no need of it, but it was plainly there and she would happily use whatever Alexandros so freely gave away. Pride. He’d said it himself, ‘my pride and honor are deeply wounded, and no one has taken up the fight to help me, which hurts all the more.’ And yet, all it would have taken to avoid such a thing was to apologize for accosting that madman’s daughter...granddaughter, whatever she was to him. But he did not. So, either Alexandros’ brain simply shut off whenever somebody pointed out that he did something incorrect, or he had to get the last word in on principle.
But was it truly pride, was it entitlement, or perhaps arrogance? If Alexandros had thought he’d done something wrong, would he have swallowed his pride and apologized? Did Alexandros believe himself incapable of doing wrong because of an arrogant superiority? Did he believe himself entitled to having his way even if he was wrong? She supposed she would discover that soon as well.
It was like a game. Aea knew it was terrible to enjoy it, but she was. Did that make her sadistic? Perhaps...then again, perhaps not. She was just learning what was wrong and what was right in the eyes of civility. She’d certainly not met many people who prized gentleness above personal pleasure. Another way in which she was selfish, she supposed. Aea was certainly stacking up flaws tonight. Perhaps she would feel shame at her enjoyment later.
For now, though, she was far too angry to want to do anything else but be entirely savage and slake her hunger. She might feel guilty later, when Kaia’s pain was not so acute. She hoped she felt guilt, anyway, for this thing she wanted was mired entirely in profane, sinful wrath.
They passed the archway and breezed along the length of the corridor, passing the room Kaia and Rene were in. Aea did not dare break stride or hold her breath in case Alexandros was feeling particularly observant now that they were en route.
The scents of food wafting from the chamber were strong in the hallway and Aea’s stomach clenched. She was so hungry, but she would not eat until the objective was complete. It would be like a reward of sorts, for a job well done. The option of the job being done poorly did not cross her mind—she was much too focused to be distracted by anything save for the three grids in her head and the sound of the captain’s heavy steps falling behind her. The clap of his sandals bounced noisily along the expanse of the corridor. For a moment, it felt as if she were a wolf being hunted by a lion and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She was not used to walking along hard floors with such a large man behind her. It almost felt like a game in itself to outpace him, her body tightening as if any moment, he might stab her.
She wished he would, honestly. Then she could drop this charade and have some real fun. Steady, she reminded herself. Control. Aea directed her overwhelming energy back into its sharp shape, though it swelled and threatened to misbehave should she let her mind wander.
Once at the end of the hall, a tall man with brown curls rounded the corner and Aea waved him down. He was athletic with a most interesting face, angular and fox-like save for his wide brown eyes. Aea stopped long enough to tell him to find a servant named Kaia—blonde haired and blue eyed—and tell her that the captain would be waiting where she requested.
She asked the man for directions to the back entrance and the servant nodded before instructing them to follow the next corridor, take a right, and they would find the large doors leading out. With that, Aea was leading the captain once more.
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset.” Aea spoke to him with her face forward, ‘making haste,’ as it were. They were halfway down the second corridor. She did not drop her faux-accent, but she might later.
Down the third corridor now. She paid no mind to the passing servants or the decor, only the route. In no time, she was at the large double doors as promised, opening them and stepping into the fresh night air. The sounds of celebration echoed in the distance, too far to be of any consequence. Smells of food were traded for rich crocus and smooth-bark eucalyptus.
Unlike the front of the building, the back was elevated by a large porch, rounded stone railings separating Aea and Alexandros from the small grassy lawn below. The lawn itself was not overly large, though it wouldn’t be considering they were in the middle of Midas. A stately tree sat squarely in the middle of the lawn with stone benches and bushes scattered about its base. Cicadas rattled from the greenery, and the night sky was spoiled only by the torchlight upon the wall.
Aea looked left, then right. “I suppose she’ll be here shortly.”
She walked to the stone railing and leaned against it, half sitting upon the rough surface. She crossed her feet in front of her and rested her hands upon the stone behind her, anchoring her into a relaxed position.
After a moment of silence, she glanced at the captain, catching his eye long enough to flash a small half-smile before turning her head to survey the shadows of the lawn beyond. She could neither see nor hear any movement from the shadowed greenery nor the stone columns that rounded the entire building. If there were any eavesdroppers, they were well placed and had been for some time.
Aea didn’t bother asking Alexandros if he minded her company, didn’t bother folding any more layers upon how demure and harmless she was. The important thing was to get his mind off of Kaia and into the present. He would not relax until he was here with Aea rather than somewhere in the building with her cousin. This would be an admittedly difficult task, but one she needn’t generate for long.
She would see how observant he was. Now that there was no crowd gathered about, no finery save for controlled nature and stone, he would be able to pay attention to her face. Although Aea had not seen him at the Dionysia—she’d been quite busy—he had apparently been standing by the ring in her cousin’s company. The question was, did he pay attention to anything outside of Kaia at the time, or did he tune everything out save for the woman he was to bed, as Aea suspected. Did he see the attention Aea paid him when he was whispering to the Marikas woman, or was he so devoted to his seduction that everything else blurred from existence?
Could he guess who Aea was? He did not know her name—Kaia had foolishly given her own name, but she knew better than to give Aea’s—but Alexandros did know Kaia had a cousin. And at one point, Alexandros and Aea had been only yards away from one another. Although her body had been thoroughly covered, it was the one time she’d gone in public without her epiblema wrapped about her face. Then again, perhaps the khol around her eyes now was enough of a disguise. Vangelis certainly didn’t seem to recognize her, or, if he did, then he was so unhappy to see her that he feigned ignorance.
Regardless, she would find out what Alexandros knew first, and then choose her route upon the answer.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you.” She turned her head toward him again. The first rule of controlling a conversation was to never allow open-ended options. She gave him one that would see him brooding alone, and one that provided at least some form of distraction. Alexandros did not strike her as the brooding type, nor the type who particularly enjoyed being alone in general, and so she was fairly confident which option he would choose. And if not? She would leave, but he would not be seeing Kaia afterward.
“Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Greecian forms of address."
Perhaps she would drop her accent after all, it depended on how well she could trust the captain to not want to see Kaia arrested. Though, to be frank, it would be easier to wrangle Kaia if he were the one to get her out of jail.
Aea had already determined him to be corrupt, which did not truly bother her. If he were a man of stringent morals and rules, he would have arrested Kaia yesterday for thievery and murder. He wouldn’t have lied to her to begin with. He would do what served him, and not anything that served an ideal in itself. He would be lawful and honest when it did not impede him.
An unethical man was much easier to work with than one who considered it his duty to serve others over himself.
Yes, he was the type to throw Kaia in jail just so he could have her in chains to more easily drag away. He was, afterall, presumably a conqueror of sorts. Aea just had no idea if he was smart enough to think of it, which would bother her quite a bit. Nothing would be more offensive than her cousin lowering herself to fucking a stupid man reagrdless of his physicality.
And he certainly was very beautiful. Suspiciously so. Blue eyes and dark hair like Kaia preferred. Large and masculine, an apparently sufficient lover. Aea could see how her cousin was so easily bewitched by such a man. Kaia was taken by beauty before substance then, clearly. What use was a pretty face outside of looking at it? Perhaps breaking it would be more satisfying than breaking a plain one.
He surely had some sort of charm about him, though, for no human was made only of flaws, and she could not see Kaia bedding an offensive man regardless of his face. Whatever his positive attributes were, hopefully they were something in the realm of reasoning abilities when he was calm—it would make things riskier for her now, but certainly more fun. What was life without a bit of danger and challenge?
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
“Kaia? You are certain of this? Take me to her, without delay,” said the captain.
There were a number of things he could have said in response. He could have said nothing at all, simply stood up and followed her in haste. He could have asked her where Kaia was, or if she was alright as far as she could see. He could have thanked her for informing him. Instead, he questioned whether she was sure, and then proceeded to both command and rush her.
This man was not her father, and yet he was barking orders as if he were. It was tempting to raise an eyebrow and see if he wanted to try again and speak to her like she was an adult, but an insistence on being talked to like an equal wouldn’t serve her now. Let him believe her a demure slave to his whims like a broken nag. She might give him ample time to learn otherwise, though if he was lucky, he would never see her again after tonight.
She hoped that he did not speak to Kaia thusly. She hoped Kaia did not let him, in any case. Aea would assume he did not, for she could not see her cousin being seduced by such commands. If he did not, which was more likely than not, what might that tell her about this man?
Aea nodded, turned, and walked the way she came, her long stride eating the distance between the table and the hallway. She analyzed what she had seen and heard and compared it to what she knew: there were three points to consider when facing an opponent. The head, the hips, the feet. There were five things to know of a soul when writing an ode influenced by it.
Alexandros' head—his expression—was concentrated. Intent, but upon nothing presently in the vicinity. His hips, unarmed. His feet, equally so. Aea highly doubted he had a blade strapped to his thigh, else his balls would rub raw against it.
Now what five things did Aea know about Alexandros?
The first, his command of her. He did not so much as glance at Aea—as if her voice was a disembodied spirit manifested just to lead him to his heart’s desire. He either wanted Kaia very badly, or he was used to getting his way and did not care to push others around to continue to get it. Perhaps both.
Given how unconcerned he seemed to be with the woman from earlier being spirited away, given how incredibly concentrated he seemed to be upon the idea of Kaia, and given how insistent he had been upon conversing with a woman who had such closed-off body language, Aea was inclined to assume both. Kaia was an important thing, important enough for him to lay aside whatever battle had been brewing. Even though he’d fucked her already, he still wanted her. Wanted to what, though? Not to fuck her again specifically, not with such a focused expression upon his face. A hole was a hole, but he very much wanted the hole Aea was offering to take him to. Why this one specifically?
If Alexandros was so determined to get to Kaia despite the setting being inappropriate for sex, he might want something else from Kaia. To talk? No, he was a conman. Conmen wanted their cons. He had tricked Kaia into believing he valued her through sex. Why would he need Kaia to believe he valued her? What was attached to sex? Love, procreation, enjoyment, adoration. All forms of giving and taking, but to the conman, taking would be his only aim. If he wanted to take all of those things from Kaia, Aea could fold it all together and call it blighted devotion. A sweet word when attached to a decent man, but a subjugative one when attributed to Alexandros.
The captain wanted Kaia’s devotion, perhaps, to put her under thumb and control her. If he did not, he would not have told her to come away with him yesterday. He wanted to keep her, leash her, and subdue her. He almost got his chance, too, had he not blundered at exactly the wrong time. Perhaps the gods were watching out for Kaia.
A conqueror, that’s what Alexandros was. Likely why he pursued Kaia to begin with. She presented a challenge to bring to heel. Once he’d broken her in so to speak, he would get bored and move onto the next, but he would always keep her leashed for his amusement. He likely went after the hardest woman in the room first, and never the one that was actively looking to belong to a man. This would explain why he was so deeply invested in a conversation with a woman who was not smiling, turning her body toward him, or otherwise giving any indication that she wished to lay beneath him. To him, no was maybe.
He likely took unwilling women by force or coercion, like Kaia’s father had taken Kaia’s mother. Kaia believed them to be in love, but Aea knew the look of a person who did not wish to be touched. Callie’s eyes used to glaze over whenever Agolois embraced her or touched her shoulder. That was the sort of devotion Alexandros wanted, but unlike Callie, he wanted to fool Kaia into liking it.
At least Alexandros did not force himself on Kaia, or else this would be a very different meeting. For now, Kaia was a weakness that could be used as a weapon. Something he wanted in addition to whatever other wishes he had. And what he wanted was clearly more important than anything else, otherwise he might have looked at Aea to tell whether she was a servant or not to begin with.
So, the first thing she knew of him—dangle the thing he wanted in front of his face and he noticed little else. Duly noted. The second—he liked to master women who were difficult to master. The third—he gave little attention to those around him unless they were of personal and immediate use to his pleasure.
The fourth—he was flirtatious. Though the haste in which he wanted Kaia after only just getting finished trying his hand on another made Aea think perhaps it was deeper than that. Womanizing, maybe. Flirting was just a fun thing to do between people who got along, but womanizing was a habit mired in need, and Alexandros certainly seemed invested enough for Aea to call Kaia a need for him. Like Uncle Cassero, who put such effort into his appearance and charm because he needed to be adored by all just to forget that he did not adore himself.
The question was, what need did Alexandros have? What thing did he think Kaia might fulfill? Aea supposed she would find out.
The fifth—brave. Even Aea knew the name Marikas, and that was substantive, for she did not know many family names at all. Her uncles had spoken about them a few times in passing. Apparently they were shafted the Athenian throne, and yet, apparently one was still Master of Law. She did not know how powerful it made them as a group, but the man—Panos—certainly held a chilling enough voice that promised heavy retribution. If Panos was, in fact, powerful, Alexandros did not care to the degree of publicly standing against such a man. Given Asia's warning of death and starvation, then that either meant Alexandros had good reason to be confident in his ability to stand in brazen, public defiance and live. Or he was stupid.
There was a fine line between brave and stupid. The question was which side he tipped to. She supposed she would figure that out as well. Either way, he would need to be selfish in addition to either, for only a selfish man would weigh his wish to speak against a nation’s belly.
There was a sixth thing as well, and that surprised her. She had not been looking for a sixth, for she had no need of it, but it was plainly there and she would happily use whatever Alexandros so freely gave away. Pride. He’d said it himself, ‘my pride and honor are deeply wounded, and no one has taken up the fight to help me, which hurts all the more.’ And yet, all it would have taken to avoid such a thing was to apologize for accosting that madman’s daughter...granddaughter, whatever she was to him. But he did not. So, either Alexandros’ brain simply shut off whenever somebody pointed out that he did something incorrect, or he had to get the last word in on principle.
But was it truly pride, was it entitlement, or perhaps arrogance? If Alexandros had thought he’d done something wrong, would he have swallowed his pride and apologized? Did Alexandros believe himself incapable of doing wrong because of an arrogant superiority? Did he believe himself entitled to having his way even if he was wrong? She supposed she would discover that soon as well.
It was like a game. Aea knew it was terrible to enjoy it, but she was. Did that make her sadistic? Perhaps...then again, perhaps not. She was just learning what was wrong and what was right in the eyes of civility. She’d certainly not met many people who prized gentleness above personal pleasure. Another way in which she was selfish, she supposed. Aea was certainly stacking up flaws tonight. Perhaps she would feel shame at her enjoyment later.
For now, though, she was far too angry to want to do anything else but be entirely savage and slake her hunger. She might feel guilty later, when Kaia’s pain was not so acute. She hoped she felt guilt, anyway, for this thing she wanted was mired entirely in profane, sinful wrath.
They passed the archway and breezed along the length of the corridor, passing the room Kaia and Rene were in. Aea did not dare break stride or hold her breath in case Alexandros was feeling particularly observant now that they were en route.
The scents of food wafting from the chamber were strong in the hallway and Aea’s stomach clenched. She was so hungry, but she would not eat until the objective was complete. It would be like a reward of sorts, for a job well done. The option of the job being done poorly did not cross her mind—she was much too focused to be distracted by anything save for the three grids in her head and the sound of the captain’s heavy steps falling behind her. The clap of his sandals bounced noisily along the expanse of the corridor. For a moment, it felt as if she were a wolf being hunted by a lion and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She was not used to walking along hard floors with such a large man behind her. It almost felt like a game in itself to outpace him, her body tightening as if any moment, he might stab her.
She wished he would, honestly. Then she could drop this charade and have some real fun. Steady, she reminded herself. Control. Aea directed her overwhelming energy back into its sharp shape, though it swelled and threatened to misbehave should she let her mind wander.
Once at the end of the hall, a tall man with brown curls rounded the corner and Aea waved him down. He was athletic with a most interesting face, angular and fox-like save for his wide brown eyes. Aea stopped long enough to tell him to find a servant named Kaia—blonde haired and blue eyed—and tell her that the captain would be waiting where she requested.
She asked the man for directions to the back entrance and the servant nodded before instructing them to follow the next corridor, take a right, and they would find the large doors leading out. With that, Aea was leading the captain once more.
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset.” Aea spoke to him with her face forward, ‘making haste,’ as it were. They were halfway down the second corridor. She did not drop her faux-accent, but she might later.
Down the third corridor now. She paid no mind to the passing servants or the decor, only the route. In no time, she was at the large double doors as promised, opening them and stepping into the fresh night air. The sounds of celebration echoed in the distance, too far to be of any consequence. Smells of food were traded for rich crocus and smooth-bark eucalyptus.
Unlike the front of the building, the back was elevated by a large porch, rounded stone railings separating Aea and Alexandros from the small grassy lawn below. The lawn itself was not overly large, though it wouldn’t be considering they were in the middle of Midas. A stately tree sat squarely in the middle of the lawn with stone benches and bushes scattered about its base. Cicadas rattled from the greenery, and the night sky was spoiled only by the torchlight upon the wall.
Aea looked left, then right. “I suppose she’ll be here shortly.”
She walked to the stone railing and leaned against it, half sitting upon the rough surface. She crossed her feet in front of her and rested her hands upon the stone behind her, anchoring her into a relaxed position.
After a moment of silence, she glanced at the captain, catching his eye long enough to flash a small half-smile before turning her head to survey the shadows of the lawn beyond. She could neither see nor hear any movement from the shadowed greenery nor the stone columns that rounded the entire building. If there were any eavesdroppers, they were well placed and had been for some time.
Aea didn’t bother asking Alexandros if he minded her company, didn’t bother folding any more layers upon how demure and harmless she was. The important thing was to get his mind off of Kaia and into the present. He would not relax until he was here with Aea rather than somewhere in the building with her cousin. This would be an admittedly difficult task, but one she needn’t generate for long.
She would see how observant he was. Now that there was no crowd gathered about, no finery save for controlled nature and stone, he would be able to pay attention to her face. Although Aea had not seen him at the Dionysia—she’d been quite busy—he had apparently been standing by the ring in her cousin’s company. The question was, did he pay attention to anything outside of Kaia at the time, or did he tune everything out save for the woman he was to bed, as Aea suspected. Did he see the attention Aea paid him when he was whispering to the Marikas woman, or was he so devoted to his seduction that everything else blurred from existence?
Could he guess who Aea was? He did not know her name—Kaia had foolishly given her own name, but she knew better than to give Aea’s—but Alexandros did know Kaia had a cousin. And at one point, Alexandros and Aea had been only yards away from one another. Although her body had been thoroughly covered, it was the one time she’d gone in public without her epiblema wrapped about her face. Then again, perhaps the khol around her eyes now was enough of a disguise. Vangelis certainly didn’t seem to recognize her, or, if he did, then he was so unhappy to see her that he feigned ignorance.
Regardless, she would find out what Alexandros knew first, and then choose her route upon the answer.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you.” She turned her head toward him again. The first rule of controlling a conversation was to never allow open-ended options. She gave him one that would see him brooding alone, and one that provided at least some form of distraction. Alexandros did not strike her as the brooding type, nor the type who particularly enjoyed being alone in general, and so she was fairly confident which option he would choose. And if not? She would leave, but he would not be seeing Kaia afterward.
“Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Greecian forms of address."
Perhaps she would drop her accent after all, it depended on how well she could trust the captain to not want to see Kaia arrested. Though, to be frank, it would be easier to wrangle Kaia if he were the one to get her out of jail.
Aea had already determined him to be corrupt, which did not truly bother her. If he were a man of stringent morals and rules, he would have arrested Kaia yesterday for thievery and murder. He wouldn’t have lied to her to begin with. He would do what served him, and not anything that served an ideal in itself. He would be lawful and honest when it did not impede him.
An unethical man was much easier to work with than one who considered it his duty to serve others over himself.
Yes, he was the type to throw Kaia in jail just so he could have her in chains to more easily drag away. He was, afterall, presumably a conqueror of sorts. Aea just had no idea if he was smart enough to think of it, which would bother her quite a bit. Nothing would be more offensive than her cousin lowering herself to fucking a stupid man reagrdless of his physicality.
And he certainly was very beautiful. Suspiciously so. Blue eyes and dark hair like Kaia preferred. Large and masculine, an apparently sufficient lover. Aea could see how her cousin was so easily bewitched by such a man. Kaia was taken by beauty before substance then, clearly. What use was a pretty face outside of looking at it? Perhaps breaking it would be more satisfying than breaking a plain one.
He surely had some sort of charm about him, though, for no human was made only of flaws, and she could not see Kaia bedding an offensive man regardless of his face. Whatever his positive attributes were, hopefully they were something in the realm of reasoning abilities when he was calm—it would make things riskier for her now, but certainly more fun. What was life without a bit of danger and challenge?
“Kaia? You are certain of this? Take me to her, without delay,” said the captain.
There were a number of things he could have said in response. He could have said nothing at all, simply stood up and followed her in haste. He could have asked her where Kaia was, or if she was alright as far as she could see. He could have thanked her for informing him. Instead, he questioned whether she was sure, and then proceeded to both command and rush her.
This man was not her father, and yet he was barking orders as if he were. It was tempting to raise an eyebrow and see if he wanted to try again and speak to her like she was an adult, but an insistence on being talked to like an equal wouldn’t serve her now. Let him believe her a demure slave to his whims like a broken nag. She might give him ample time to learn otherwise, though if he was lucky, he would never see her again after tonight.
She hoped that he did not speak to Kaia thusly. She hoped Kaia did not let him, in any case. Aea would assume he did not, for she could not see her cousin being seduced by such commands. If he did not, which was more likely than not, what might that tell her about this man?
Aea nodded, turned, and walked the way she came, her long stride eating the distance between the table and the hallway. She analyzed what she had seen and heard and compared it to what she knew: there were three points to consider when facing an opponent. The head, the hips, the feet. There were five things to know of a soul when writing an ode influenced by it.
Alexandros' head—his expression—was concentrated. Intent, but upon nothing presently in the vicinity. His hips, unarmed. His feet, equally so. Aea highly doubted he had a blade strapped to his thigh, else his balls would rub raw against it.
Now what five things did Aea know about Alexandros?
The first, his command of her. He did not so much as glance at Aea—as if her voice was a disembodied spirit manifested just to lead him to his heart’s desire. He either wanted Kaia very badly, or he was used to getting his way and did not care to push others around to continue to get it. Perhaps both.
Given how unconcerned he seemed to be with the woman from earlier being spirited away, given how incredibly concentrated he seemed to be upon the idea of Kaia, and given how insistent he had been upon conversing with a woman who had such closed-off body language, Aea was inclined to assume both. Kaia was an important thing, important enough for him to lay aside whatever battle had been brewing. Even though he’d fucked her already, he still wanted her. Wanted to what, though? Not to fuck her again specifically, not with such a focused expression upon his face. A hole was a hole, but he very much wanted the hole Aea was offering to take him to. Why this one specifically?
If Alexandros was so determined to get to Kaia despite the setting being inappropriate for sex, he might want something else from Kaia. To talk? No, he was a conman. Conmen wanted their cons. He had tricked Kaia into believing he valued her through sex. Why would he need Kaia to believe he valued her? What was attached to sex? Love, procreation, enjoyment, adoration. All forms of giving and taking, but to the conman, taking would be his only aim. If he wanted to take all of those things from Kaia, Aea could fold it all together and call it blighted devotion. A sweet word when attached to a decent man, but a subjugative one when attributed to Alexandros.
The captain wanted Kaia’s devotion, perhaps, to put her under thumb and control her. If he did not, he would not have told her to come away with him yesterday. He wanted to keep her, leash her, and subdue her. He almost got his chance, too, had he not blundered at exactly the wrong time. Perhaps the gods were watching out for Kaia.
A conqueror, that’s what Alexandros was. Likely why he pursued Kaia to begin with. She presented a challenge to bring to heel. Once he’d broken her in so to speak, he would get bored and move onto the next, but he would always keep her leashed for his amusement. He likely went after the hardest woman in the room first, and never the one that was actively looking to belong to a man. This would explain why he was so deeply invested in a conversation with a woman who was not smiling, turning her body toward him, or otherwise giving any indication that she wished to lay beneath him. To him, no was maybe.
He likely took unwilling women by force or coercion, like Kaia’s father had taken Kaia’s mother. Kaia believed them to be in love, but Aea knew the look of a person who did not wish to be touched. Callie’s eyes used to glaze over whenever Agolois embraced her or touched her shoulder. That was the sort of devotion Alexandros wanted, but unlike Callie, he wanted to fool Kaia into liking it.
At least Alexandros did not force himself on Kaia, or else this would be a very different meeting. For now, Kaia was a weakness that could be used as a weapon. Something he wanted in addition to whatever other wishes he had. And what he wanted was clearly more important than anything else, otherwise he might have looked at Aea to tell whether she was a servant or not to begin with.
So, the first thing she knew of him—dangle the thing he wanted in front of his face and he noticed little else. Duly noted. The second—he liked to master women who were difficult to master. The third—he gave little attention to those around him unless they were of personal and immediate use to his pleasure.
The fourth—he was flirtatious. Though the haste in which he wanted Kaia after only just getting finished trying his hand on another made Aea think perhaps it was deeper than that. Womanizing, maybe. Flirting was just a fun thing to do between people who got along, but womanizing was a habit mired in need, and Alexandros certainly seemed invested enough for Aea to call Kaia a need for him. Like Uncle Cassero, who put such effort into his appearance and charm because he needed to be adored by all just to forget that he did not adore himself.
The question was, what need did Alexandros have? What thing did he think Kaia might fulfill? Aea supposed she would find out.
The fifth—brave. Even Aea knew the name Marikas, and that was substantive, for she did not know many family names at all. Her uncles had spoken about them a few times in passing. Apparently they were shafted the Athenian throne, and yet, apparently one was still Master of Law. She did not know how powerful it made them as a group, but the man—Panos—certainly held a chilling enough voice that promised heavy retribution. If Panos was, in fact, powerful, Alexandros did not care to the degree of publicly standing against such a man. Given Asia's warning of death and starvation, then that either meant Alexandros had good reason to be confident in his ability to stand in brazen, public defiance and live. Or he was stupid.
There was a fine line between brave and stupid. The question was which side he tipped to. She supposed she would figure that out as well. Either way, he would need to be selfish in addition to either, for only a selfish man would weigh his wish to speak against a nation’s belly.
There was a sixth thing as well, and that surprised her. She had not been looking for a sixth, for she had no need of it, but it was plainly there and she would happily use whatever Alexandros so freely gave away. Pride. He’d said it himself, ‘my pride and honor are deeply wounded, and no one has taken up the fight to help me, which hurts all the more.’ And yet, all it would have taken to avoid such a thing was to apologize for accosting that madman’s daughter...granddaughter, whatever she was to him. But he did not. So, either Alexandros’ brain simply shut off whenever somebody pointed out that he did something incorrect, or he had to get the last word in on principle.
But was it truly pride, was it entitlement, or perhaps arrogance? If Alexandros had thought he’d done something wrong, would he have swallowed his pride and apologized? Did Alexandros believe himself incapable of doing wrong because of an arrogant superiority? Did he believe himself entitled to having his way even if he was wrong? She supposed she would discover that soon as well.
It was like a game. Aea knew it was terrible to enjoy it, but she was. Did that make her sadistic? Perhaps...then again, perhaps not. She was just learning what was wrong and what was right in the eyes of civility. She’d certainly not met many people who prized gentleness above personal pleasure. Another way in which she was selfish, she supposed. Aea was certainly stacking up flaws tonight. Perhaps she would feel shame at her enjoyment later.
For now, though, she was far too angry to want to do anything else but be entirely savage and slake her hunger. She might feel guilty later, when Kaia’s pain was not so acute. She hoped she felt guilt, anyway, for this thing she wanted was mired entirely in profane, sinful wrath.
They passed the archway and breezed along the length of the corridor, passing the room Kaia and Rene were in. Aea did not dare break stride or hold her breath in case Alexandros was feeling particularly observant now that they were en route.
The scents of food wafting from the chamber were strong in the hallway and Aea’s stomach clenched. She was so hungry, but she would not eat until the objective was complete. It would be like a reward of sorts, for a job well done. The option of the job being done poorly did not cross her mind—she was much too focused to be distracted by anything save for the three grids in her head and the sound of the captain’s heavy steps falling behind her. The clap of his sandals bounced noisily along the expanse of the corridor. For a moment, it felt as if she were a wolf being hunted by a lion and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She was not used to walking along hard floors with such a large man behind her. It almost felt like a game in itself to outpace him, her body tightening as if any moment, he might stab her.
She wished he would, honestly. Then she could drop this charade and have some real fun. Steady, she reminded herself. Control. Aea directed her overwhelming energy back into its sharp shape, though it swelled and threatened to misbehave should she let her mind wander.
Once at the end of the hall, a tall man with brown curls rounded the corner and Aea waved him down. He was athletic with a most interesting face, angular and fox-like save for his wide brown eyes. Aea stopped long enough to tell him to find a servant named Kaia—blonde haired and blue eyed—and tell her that the captain would be waiting where she requested.
She asked the man for directions to the back entrance and the servant nodded before instructing them to follow the next corridor, take a right, and they would find the large doors leading out. With that, Aea was leading the captain once more.
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset.” Aea spoke to him with her face forward, ‘making haste,’ as it were. They were halfway down the second corridor. She did not drop her faux-accent, but she might later.
Down the third corridor now. She paid no mind to the passing servants or the decor, only the route. In no time, she was at the large double doors as promised, opening them and stepping into the fresh night air. The sounds of celebration echoed in the distance, too far to be of any consequence. Smells of food were traded for rich crocus and smooth-bark eucalyptus.
Unlike the front of the building, the back was elevated by a large porch, rounded stone railings separating Aea and Alexandros from the small grassy lawn below. The lawn itself was not overly large, though it wouldn’t be considering they were in the middle of Midas. A stately tree sat squarely in the middle of the lawn with stone benches and bushes scattered about its base. Cicadas rattled from the greenery, and the night sky was spoiled only by the torchlight upon the wall.
Aea looked left, then right. “I suppose she’ll be here shortly.”
She walked to the stone railing and leaned against it, half sitting upon the rough surface. She crossed her feet in front of her and rested her hands upon the stone behind her, anchoring her into a relaxed position.
After a moment of silence, she glanced at the captain, catching his eye long enough to flash a small half-smile before turning her head to survey the shadows of the lawn beyond. She could neither see nor hear any movement from the shadowed greenery nor the stone columns that rounded the entire building. If there were any eavesdroppers, they were well placed and had been for some time.
Aea didn’t bother asking Alexandros if he minded her company, didn’t bother folding any more layers upon how demure and harmless she was. The important thing was to get his mind off of Kaia and into the present. He would not relax until he was here with Aea rather than somewhere in the building with her cousin. This would be an admittedly difficult task, but one she needn’t generate for long.
She would see how observant he was. Now that there was no crowd gathered about, no finery save for controlled nature and stone, he would be able to pay attention to her face. Although Aea had not seen him at the Dionysia—she’d been quite busy—he had apparently been standing by the ring in her cousin’s company. The question was, did he pay attention to anything outside of Kaia at the time, or did he tune everything out save for the woman he was to bed, as Aea suspected. Did he see the attention Aea paid him when he was whispering to the Marikas woman, or was he so devoted to his seduction that everything else blurred from existence?
Could he guess who Aea was? He did not know her name—Kaia had foolishly given her own name, but she knew better than to give Aea’s—but Alexandros did know Kaia had a cousin. And at one point, Alexandros and Aea had been only yards away from one another. Although her body had been thoroughly covered, it was the one time she’d gone in public without her epiblema wrapped about her face. Then again, perhaps the khol around her eyes now was enough of a disguise. Vangelis certainly didn’t seem to recognize her, or, if he did, then he was so unhappy to see her that he feigned ignorance.
Regardless, she would find out what Alexandros knew first, and then choose her route upon the answer.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you.” She turned her head toward him again. The first rule of controlling a conversation was to never allow open-ended options. She gave him one that would see him brooding alone, and one that provided at least some form of distraction. Alexandros did not strike her as the brooding type, nor the type who particularly enjoyed being alone in general, and so she was fairly confident which option he would choose. And if not? She would leave, but he would not be seeing Kaia afterward.
“Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Greecian forms of address."
Perhaps she would drop her accent after all, it depended on how well she could trust the captain to not want to see Kaia arrested. Though, to be frank, it would be easier to wrangle Kaia if he were the one to get her out of jail.
Aea had already determined him to be corrupt, which did not truly bother her. If he were a man of stringent morals and rules, he would have arrested Kaia yesterday for thievery and murder. He wouldn’t have lied to her to begin with. He would do what served him, and not anything that served an ideal in itself. He would be lawful and honest when it did not impede him.
An unethical man was much easier to work with than one who considered it his duty to serve others over himself.
Yes, he was the type to throw Kaia in jail just so he could have her in chains to more easily drag away. He was, afterall, presumably a conqueror of sorts. Aea just had no idea if he was smart enough to think of it, which would bother her quite a bit. Nothing would be more offensive than her cousin lowering herself to fucking a stupid man reagrdless of his physicality.
And he certainly was very beautiful. Suspiciously so. Blue eyes and dark hair like Kaia preferred. Large and masculine, an apparently sufficient lover. Aea could see how her cousin was so easily bewitched by such a man. Kaia was taken by beauty before substance then, clearly. What use was a pretty face outside of looking at it? Perhaps breaking it would be more satisfying than breaking a plain one.
He surely had some sort of charm about him, though, for no human was made only of flaws, and she could not see Kaia bedding an offensive man regardless of his face. Whatever his positive attributes were, hopefully they were something in the realm of reasoning abilities when he was calm—it would make things riskier for her now, but certainly more fun. What was life without a bit of danger and challenge?
Alexandros followed the woman further and further, anxiety building as he waited for news of Kaia. How did this strange woman know her? What connections did they have? His mind raced as he followed her through the halls.
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset.”
She did not turn or deviate as she spoke, continuing to lead him further from the dining hall. At least she had given him some update on Kaia, but his curiosity was running rampant. “I shall take your word for it, for now. I hope that they are confirmed when I see her.” He replied, continuing to follow the unknown woman.
Eventually they walked through a door leading to the outside, and he was greeted by a covered porch with stone railings, several stools sat within the area and a singular table. It was lovely, as was much of the rest of the palace. There was, however, a distinct lack of Kaia. The captain’s emotions soared once more, his concerns rushing back to the forefront of his mind, perhaps her rise had been discovered and she was trapped by some guard. He shook his head clear of that painful thought and joined the dark haired woman on the railing. He faced the opposite way as she. Leaning over the railing and looking out across the lawn and to the city. He was growing accustomed to this place after the last few months in the employ of the Kotas, but tonight everything seemed foreign. His friends had betrayed him, and given deference to the man who insulted him. His anger seethed beneath the surface as he watched the city. He hoped that no one had touched or harmed Kaia, as he doubted he could stop himself. He had barely managed to refrain from asking the newly returned Kotas boy to meet him outside, only by this strange woman’s mention of Kaia had he been stopped. Now he waited to see what had happened with her, how she was, and why this stranger was running messages.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you. Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Greecian forms of address."
Alexandros turned to look at her, deciding that if they were to speak perhaps he should mirror her stance. He turned completely and sat partially upon the railing. “The wine is strong tonight, but the fresh evening air does do wonders for a clouded mind. I believe it to be better if we speak, being alone with my thoughts could be dangerous this night.” He smiled softly as she turned to look at him, trying his best to put what had happened inside behind him for the moment. “Alexandros will do just fine, and what do they call you? You speak our language well, what is your native tongue? I can converse in a couple others myself. And, the most important question, how do you know Kaia?”
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Alexandros followed the woman further and further, anxiety building as he waited for news of Kaia. How did this strange woman know her? What connections did they have? His mind raced as he followed her through the halls.
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset.”
She did not turn or deviate as she spoke, continuing to lead him further from the dining hall. At least she had given him some update on Kaia, but his curiosity was running rampant. “I shall take your word for it, for now. I hope that they are confirmed when I see her.” He replied, continuing to follow the unknown woman.
Eventually they walked through a door leading to the outside, and he was greeted by a covered porch with stone railings, several stools sat within the area and a singular table. It was lovely, as was much of the rest of the palace. There was, however, a distinct lack of Kaia. The captain’s emotions soared once more, his concerns rushing back to the forefront of his mind, perhaps her rise had been discovered and she was trapped by some guard. He shook his head clear of that painful thought and joined the dark haired woman on the railing. He faced the opposite way as she. Leaning over the railing and looking out across the lawn and to the city. He was growing accustomed to this place after the last few months in the employ of the Kotas, but tonight everything seemed foreign. His friends had betrayed him, and given deference to the man who insulted him. His anger seethed beneath the surface as he watched the city. He hoped that no one had touched or harmed Kaia, as he doubted he could stop himself. He had barely managed to refrain from asking the newly returned Kotas boy to meet him outside, only by this strange woman’s mention of Kaia had he been stopped. Now he waited to see what had happened with her, how she was, and why this stranger was running messages.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you. Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Greecian forms of address."
Alexandros turned to look at her, deciding that if they were to speak perhaps he should mirror her stance. He turned completely and sat partially upon the railing. “The wine is strong tonight, but the fresh evening air does do wonders for a clouded mind. I believe it to be better if we speak, being alone with my thoughts could be dangerous this night.” He smiled softly as she turned to look at him, trying his best to put what had happened inside behind him for the moment. “Alexandros will do just fine, and what do they call you? You speak our language well, what is your native tongue? I can converse in a couple others myself. And, the most important question, how do you know Kaia?”
Alexandros followed the woman further and further, anxiety building as he waited for news of Kaia. How did this strange woman know her? What connections did they have? His mind raced as he followed her through the halls.
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset.”
She did not turn or deviate as she spoke, continuing to lead him further from the dining hall. At least she had given him some update on Kaia, but his curiosity was running rampant. “I shall take your word for it, for now. I hope that they are confirmed when I see her.” He replied, continuing to follow the unknown woman.
Eventually they walked through a door leading to the outside, and he was greeted by a covered porch with stone railings, several stools sat within the area and a singular table. It was lovely, as was much of the rest of the palace. There was, however, a distinct lack of Kaia. The captain’s emotions soared once more, his concerns rushing back to the forefront of his mind, perhaps her rise had been discovered and she was trapped by some guard. He shook his head clear of that painful thought and joined the dark haired woman on the railing. He faced the opposite way as she. Leaning over the railing and looking out across the lawn and to the city. He was growing accustomed to this place after the last few months in the employ of the Kotas, but tonight everything seemed foreign. His friends had betrayed him, and given deference to the man who insulted him. His anger seethed beneath the surface as he watched the city. He hoped that no one had touched or harmed Kaia, as he doubted he could stop himself. He had barely managed to refrain from asking the newly returned Kotas boy to meet him outside, only by this strange woman’s mention of Kaia had he been stopped. Now he waited to see what had happened with her, how she was, and why this stranger was running messages.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you. Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Greecian forms of address."
Alexandros turned to look at her, deciding that if they were to speak perhaps he should mirror her stance. He turned completely and sat partially upon the railing. “The wine is strong tonight, but the fresh evening air does do wonders for a clouded mind. I believe it to be better if we speak, being alone with my thoughts could be dangerous this night.” He smiled softly as she turned to look at him, trying his best to put what had happened inside behind him for the moment. “Alexandros will do just fine, and what do they call you? You speak our language well, what is your native tongue? I can converse in a couple others myself. And, the most important question, how do you know Kaia?”
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset,” Aea said.
“I shall take your word for it, for now. I hope that they are confirmed when I see her.”
Aea’s expression didn’t move. She could not read his tone and since she was walking in front of him, could not see his face. But his words were certainly threatening enough. Bold of him. She'd like to see him make such threats when she and Kaia were through with him.
And what if they are wrong, Alexandros? What will you do? Whatever it was, she hoped he didn't hold back so she would have a good excuse to open his throat. Strangulation, if she had to guess. He seemed the type that liked to watch life gradually fade.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder why he thought Kaia was in trouble. Was it merely Aea’s statement that it had been urgent? It had to be, there was no other trigger for such worry. Oh well. It had gotten him out of his seat fast enough, at least. Now all she had to do was bring him back down.
Aea knew the value of sound. The right note could make a man want to weep, sleep, fight or fuck. If she kept her voice calm and soothing, right at a warm alto, his body would respond. Not in any substantial way, but little by little, in increments. With this in mind, she kept her tone light and easy. Soothing.
“I’m sure everything is fine. This is a well-guarded building, perfectly safe.”
As they emerged onto the back patio, Aea leaned against the stone railing. It surprised her that the captain so easily leaned his forearms upon it as well. Not a pacer, then. Tightly bottled energy. Perhaps he had better control of his temper than she thought. Perhaps she should re-evaluate her initial assumption, but that would require a test, and she would rather him meet Kaia with a level head before she prompted such an experiment.
After all, Kaia was already upset enough. There was no need to let an irritated man’s temper flare at her. That, and Aea would personally rather eat without the added tension in the room—it was upsetting Asia who, frankly, had shown more balls tonight than Aea thought she had.
The princess was indeed not without teeth. Aea would have to congratulate her on such bravery later. Asia had come from a loving family; she was not used to large men taking brutal swings at her, and so it must have been quite daunting to stand up to Alexandros despite not knowing how he would react.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you. Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Grecian forms of address.”
She felt Alexandros look at her, saw him turn in her peripherals so that he faced the same way as she.
Now she would see how much he’d been paying attention.
“The wine is strong tonight, but the fresh evening air does do wonders for a clouded mind. I believe it to be better if we speak, being alone with my thoughts could be dangerous this night," he said.
Unless he was a good actor, he apparently hadn’t been paying attention in the slightest. Not at the Dynestia and not tonight. Not a very observant man at all.
Even if Alexandros did recognize her, even if he was a good actor, she could not fathom why he would pretend to not know her right now. The line of his broad shoulder was tense, which meant that bottled though it was, he still had plenty of aggressive energy just waiting to be called to the surface. Ergo, he was in no frame of mind for subtlety.
Then again, she had not been paying attention either. At least, not at the Dynestia, and for the most part, not here either. She supposed neither he nor she noticed one another because they were simply wrapped up in more important things at the time. For Aea, she was in the middle of wrestling a man she did not realize was Vangelis, and so she could forgive herself for her lack of observance.
Dynestia aside, Aea had taken note of Alexandros when she arrived at the table, but he had not taken note of her. How a man ten years her senior could be more oblivious than she and live past his mid twenties, Aea had not a clue.
Even if Alexandros found her plain or hideous, he should have still been observant enough to know that she was, in fact, sitting in front of him the entire time. But he didn't, and so he missed how Aea watched him, missed Aea getting up to take Kaia away.
Oh well. It was better for her game anyway.
“I empathize. My blood would be hot as well. That man…” here, she actually was quite confused, “I cannot pretend to know how your people believe, but he seemed...what is the word...touched? Did he mean for you to kneel in truth, do you think?”
She huffed a small laugh that wasn’t at all manufactured. That man was fucking delusional. Amusingly so. Likely his mind was addled from extensive inbreeding, poor man. If the gods ordained who ruled and who did not as Panos said, why did they put imbeciles in positions of power so frequently? Unless, of course, it was for their amusement. The cruelty of the gods was something to ponder upon later, she supposed.
“In any case, I do not know what a Law Master does, but I admire your bravery in standing before him so publicly. I’m sure a man like that has not been opposed many times in his life, else he would not be so entitled. You reminded me of...”
Aea cast a side-glance at him and scanned him quickly from head to toe, just a subtle flick of the eye to evaluate his body language. He was nice to look at. Although Aea had no use for a pretty face, she imagined his strong arms were of great use. She wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what appealed to Kaia the most, but Aea might be projecting as well.
Just because Alexandros was a bastard didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate why Kaia had picked him out of all the men she could have chosen. He had a handsome face and powerful arms. Wonderful. Plenty of those to go around, so what made this one stand out more than others?
“Ares,” she finished, turning to look at him fully, “your god of war, yes? Standing defiant against whatever force of nature dared insult him.”
That was rather apt, actually. Though Aea would much rather not think of Alexandros as similar to the god she was considering for new patronage. That would make Ares less of a glittering prospect.
“We have a god of war as well. Well, he is a god of many things, war being chiefly among them. Odin is his name. The all-father. There’s a story about him that is particularly reminiscent of this.” She was lying, but a story and a bit of flattery would go a long way in calming his nerves. After all, who didn’t love a good story about themselves? Perhaps, as an aside, she could evaluate him at rest and understand his guards and deflections.
She knew what kind of story to tell. Alexandros had all but advertised his modest birth by pointing out that he’d earned his rank. No doubt he despised those who were born to power yet remained blissfully unaware of true troubles. Most people did. Aea certainly did.
“When Odin and his two brothers were new gods, just born to their powers, the world was not yet made. There was only one god before them, a giant by the name of Ymir. Odin and his brothers lived in a void between fire and mist, a place with no rock, trees, or stars. No color or sound, touch or taste. Odin grew tired of dwelling in such darkness, for he wanted nothing more than to create. His brothers pleaded for him to stay his hand and dwell safe in the void, to keep from angering Ymir the all-powerful, but Odin could not.”
She got lost in a story of her own making. She pulled threads from legends she knew and stitches from Alexandros’ performance, weaving them together into a concise and linear thing that might have even agreed with the lore of the northmen. Aea’s hands moved as she spoke, her expression quirking and shifting with each rest of the story's rhythm, her voice just as placid and soothing as it had been thus far.
“Odin braved the wrath of the great giant and asked him for essence, for Ymir was the primordial, the only element in unexistence. Foolishly, Ymir and Odin’s brothers believed him to be the only power. Clever Odin, however, knew better. He may not have the power to create without Ymir’s help, but he had the power of potential, and that was all his own. So long as he used it, then he, too, had a power just as great as Ymir’s. Odin rallied his brothers behind his cause and together, they killed Ymir and took the essence he would not freely give. From his body, they built the world.”
She remembered something her uncle said once. Gatheron was always saying things, but she did not remember this one until just now.
“The first ones, the old blood, will always see their power as the power, for they were indeed the first. But along the way, they forgot the power of potential. They detest those who do not possess what they have, and that is their greatest weakness. Dynasties collapse just as easily as they are formed by men who wield the very potential the old ones dismiss—that power to take creation from the primordial source. It’s called progress, and that is why they are afraid of it. I would not waste my energy on anger, captain. Pity the unfortunate, for that is what they are. Remnants of a dying age.”
Aea let her voice die until they stood in a brief silence punctuated only by the cicada song surrounding them. The first rule of gaining information was to remain silent, for one could not hear the information one might want to hear if one spoke at length. But, one also could not glean a fucking thing when their source was wound so tightly. Perhaps now he would be more anchored into the present.
“Alexandros will do just fine, and what do they call you? You speak our language well, what is your native tongue? I can converse in a couple others myself. And, the most important question, how do you know Kaia?” the captain said.
Aea inclined her head in acknowledgement, quickly deciding upon her next move. He’d spoken much softer than she’d anticipated, knocking her off guard, for she’d been prepared for a more aggressive response. He was calmed enough, now, to play her game with her. This should be interesting, at the very least. Extremely dangerous at the very worst.
“They call me many, many things,” her cocked half-smirk was a true one, playful as a kitten upon its first mouse. “Though if you weren’t paying enough attention to catch it said before, telling you now would be spoiling you. I think I’ll let you figure it out on your own should you come back to the table later. And thank you. My mother was Greek, my father a chieftain from Danmork. I would ask what tongues you were fluent in, but I suspect you’d rather me tell you of Kaia.”
This was far too much fun. She could not see herself dropping this act until she grew bored enough to do so. She very much liked knowing something this man did not know, for knowledge was power, and she did so love having it now that there was nobody to take it from her. Holding power over this man was incredibly gratifying, it was only that she did not know if that was the fault of her anger or her natural disregard for any authority aside from herself and her father. And now that her father was gone...well...she supposed she was entirely in charge of herself now.
Aea let the natural warmth of her voice bubble and blossom into her tone, still so full of calm and understanding. “She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
She uncrossed her legs and lifted herself into a true seating position upon the stone rail, propping one knee up and letting one foot dangle as she faced him completely. “I hate to be nosey, but I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset,” Aea said.
“I shall take your word for it, for now. I hope that they are confirmed when I see her.”
Aea’s expression didn’t move. She could not read his tone and since she was walking in front of him, could not see his face. But his words were certainly threatening enough. Bold of him. She'd like to see him make such threats when she and Kaia were through with him.
And what if they are wrong, Alexandros? What will you do? Whatever it was, she hoped he didn't hold back so she would have a good excuse to open his throat. Strangulation, if she had to guess. He seemed the type that liked to watch life gradually fade.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder why he thought Kaia was in trouble. Was it merely Aea’s statement that it had been urgent? It had to be, there was no other trigger for such worry. Oh well. It had gotten him out of his seat fast enough, at least. Now all she had to do was bring him back down.
Aea knew the value of sound. The right note could make a man want to weep, sleep, fight or fuck. If she kept her voice calm and soothing, right at a warm alto, his body would respond. Not in any substantial way, but little by little, in increments. With this in mind, she kept her tone light and easy. Soothing.
“I’m sure everything is fine. This is a well-guarded building, perfectly safe.”
As they emerged onto the back patio, Aea leaned against the stone railing. It surprised her that the captain so easily leaned his forearms upon it as well. Not a pacer, then. Tightly bottled energy. Perhaps he had better control of his temper than she thought. Perhaps she should re-evaluate her initial assumption, but that would require a test, and she would rather him meet Kaia with a level head before she prompted such an experiment.
After all, Kaia was already upset enough. There was no need to let an irritated man’s temper flare at her. That, and Aea would personally rather eat without the added tension in the room—it was upsetting Asia who, frankly, had shown more balls tonight than Aea thought she had.
The princess was indeed not without teeth. Aea would have to congratulate her on such bravery later. Asia had come from a loving family; she was not used to large men taking brutal swings at her, and so it must have been quite daunting to stand up to Alexandros despite not knowing how he would react.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you. Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Grecian forms of address.”
She felt Alexandros look at her, saw him turn in her peripherals so that he faced the same way as she.
Now she would see how much he’d been paying attention.
“The wine is strong tonight, but the fresh evening air does do wonders for a clouded mind. I believe it to be better if we speak, being alone with my thoughts could be dangerous this night," he said.
Unless he was a good actor, he apparently hadn’t been paying attention in the slightest. Not at the Dynestia and not tonight. Not a very observant man at all.
Even if Alexandros did recognize her, even if he was a good actor, she could not fathom why he would pretend to not know her right now. The line of his broad shoulder was tense, which meant that bottled though it was, he still had plenty of aggressive energy just waiting to be called to the surface. Ergo, he was in no frame of mind for subtlety.
Then again, she had not been paying attention either. At least, not at the Dynestia, and for the most part, not here either. She supposed neither he nor she noticed one another because they were simply wrapped up in more important things at the time. For Aea, she was in the middle of wrestling a man she did not realize was Vangelis, and so she could forgive herself for her lack of observance.
Dynestia aside, Aea had taken note of Alexandros when she arrived at the table, but he had not taken note of her. How a man ten years her senior could be more oblivious than she and live past his mid twenties, Aea had not a clue.
Even if Alexandros found her plain or hideous, he should have still been observant enough to know that she was, in fact, sitting in front of him the entire time. But he didn't, and so he missed how Aea watched him, missed Aea getting up to take Kaia away.
Oh well. It was better for her game anyway.
“I empathize. My blood would be hot as well. That man…” here, she actually was quite confused, “I cannot pretend to know how your people believe, but he seemed...what is the word...touched? Did he mean for you to kneel in truth, do you think?”
She huffed a small laugh that wasn’t at all manufactured. That man was fucking delusional. Amusingly so. Likely his mind was addled from extensive inbreeding, poor man. If the gods ordained who ruled and who did not as Panos said, why did they put imbeciles in positions of power so frequently? Unless, of course, it was for their amusement. The cruelty of the gods was something to ponder upon later, she supposed.
“In any case, I do not know what a Law Master does, but I admire your bravery in standing before him so publicly. I’m sure a man like that has not been opposed many times in his life, else he would not be so entitled. You reminded me of...”
Aea cast a side-glance at him and scanned him quickly from head to toe, just a subtle flick of the eye to evaluate his body language. He was nice to look at. Although Aea had no use for a pretty face, she imagined his strong arms were of great use. She wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what appealed to Kaia the most, but Aea might be projecting as well.
Just because Alexandros was a bastard didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate why Kaia had picked him out of all the men she could have chosen. He had a handsome face and powerful arms. Wonderful. Plenty of those to go around, so what made this one stand out more than others?
“Ares,” she finished, turning to look at him fully, “your god of war, yes? Standing defiant against whatever force of nature dared insult him.”
That was rather apt, actually. Though Aea would much rather not think of Alexandros as similar to the god she was considering for new patronage. That would make Ares less of a glittering prospect.
“We have a god of war as well. Well, he is a god of many things, war being chiefly among them. Odin is his name. The all-father. There’s a story about him that is particularly reminiscent of this.” She was lying, but a story and a bit of flattery would go a long way in calming his nerves. After all, who didn’t love a good story about themselves? Perhaps, as an aside, she could evaluate him at rest and understand his guards and deflections.
She knew what kind of story to tell. Alexandros had all but advertised his modest birth by pointing out that he’d earned his rank. No doubt he despised those who were born to power yet remained blissfully unaware of true troubles. Most people did. Aea certainly did.
“When Odin and his two brothers were new gods, just born to their powers, the world was not yet made. There was only one god before them, a giant by the name of Ymir. Odin and his brothers lived in a void between fire and mist, a place with no rock, trees, or stars. No color or sound, touch or taste. Odin grew tired of dwelling in such darkness, for he wanted nothing more than to create. His brothers pleaded for him to stay his hand and dwell safe in the void, to keep from angering Ymir the all-powerful, but Odin could not.”
She got lost in a story of her own making. She pulled threads from legends she knew and stitches from Alexandros’ performance, weaving them together into a concise and linear thing that might have even agreed with the lore of the northmen. Aea’s hands moved as she spoke, her expression quirking and shifting with each rest of the story's rhythm, her voice just as placid and soothing as it had been thus far.
“Odin braved the wrath of the great giant and asked him for essence, for Ymir was the primordial, the only element in unexistence. Foolishly, Ymir and Odin’s brothers believed him to be the only power. Clever Odin, however, knew better. He may not have the power to create without Ymir’s help, but he had the power of potential, and that was all his own. So long as he used it, then he, too, had a power just as great as Ymir’s. Odin rallied his brothers behind his cause and together, they killed Ymir and took the essence he would not freely give. From his body, they built the world.”
She remembered something her uncle said once. Gatheron was always saying things, but she did not remember this one until just now.
“The first ones, the old blood, will always see their power as the power, for they were indeed the first. But along the way, they forgot the power of potential. They detest those who do not possess what they have, and that is their greatest weakness. Dynasties collapse just as easily as they are formed by men who wield the very potential the old ones dismiss—that power to take creation from the primordial source. It’s called progress, and that is why they are afraid of it. I would not waste my energy on anger, captain. Pity the unfortunate, for that is what they are. Remnants of a dying age.”
Aea let her voice die until they stood in a brief silence punctuated only by the cicada song surrounding them. The first rule of gaining information was to remain silent, for one could not hear the information one might want to hear if one spoke at length. But, one also could not glean a fucking thing when their source was wound so tightly. Perhaps now he would be more anchored into the present.
“Alexandros will do just fine, and what do they call you? You speak our language well, what is your native tongue? I can converse in a couple others myself. And, the most important question, how do you know Kaia?” the captain said.
Aea inclined her head in acknowledgement, quickly deciding upon her next move. He’d spoken much softer than she’d anticipated, knocking her off guard, for she’d been prepared for a more aggressive response. He was calmed enough, now, to play her game with her. This should be interesting, at the very least. Extremely dangerous at the very worst.
“They call me many, many things,” her cocked half-smirk was a true one, playful as a kitten upon its first mouse. “Though if you weren’t paying enough attention to catch it said before, telling you now would be spoiling you. I think I’ll let you figure it out on your own should you come back to the table later. And thank you. My mother was Greek, my father a chieftain from Danmork. I would ask what tongues you were fluent in, but I suspect you’d rather me tell you of Kaia.”
This was far too much fun. She could not see herself dropping this act until she grew bored enough to do so. She very much liked knowing something this man did not know, for knowledge was power, and she did so love having it now that there was nobody to take it from her. Holding power over this man was incredibly gratifying, it was only that she did not know if that was the fault of her anger or her natural disregard for any authority aside from herself and her father. And now that her father was gone...well...she supposed she was entirely in charge of herself now.
Aea let the natural warmth of her voice bubble and blossom into her tone, still so full of calm and understanding. “She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
She uncrossed her legs and lifted herself into a true seating position upon the stone rail, propping one knee up and letting one foot dangle as she faced him completely. “I hate to be nosey, but I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
“I would like to soothe your clear concern, captain. The young lady seemed fine. Not ill or upset,” Aea said.
“I shall take your word for it, for now. I hope that they are confirmed when I see her.”
Aea’s expression didn’t move. She could not read his tone and since she was walking in front of him, could not see his face. But his words were certainly threatening enough. Bold of him. She'd like to see him make such threats when she and Kaia were through with him.
And what if they are wrong, Alexandros? What will you do? Whatever it was, she hoped he didn't hold back so she would have a good excuse to open his throat. Strangulation, if she had to guess. He seemed the type that liked to watch life gradually fade.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder why he thought Kaia was in trouble. Was it merely Aea’s statement that it had been urgent? It had to be, there was no other trigger for such worry. Oh well. It had gotten him out of his seat fast enough, at least. Now all she had to do was bring him back down.
Aea knew the value of sound. The right note could make a man want to weep, sleep, fight or fuck. If she kept her voice calm and soothing, right at a warm alto, his body would respond. Not in any substantial way, but little by little, in increments. With this in mind, she kept her tone light and easy. Soothing.
“I’m sure everything is fine. This is a well-guarded building, perfectly safe.”
As they emerged onto the back patio, Aea leaned against the stone railing. It surprised her that the captain so easily leaned his forearms upon it as well. Not a pacer, then. Tightly bottled energy. Perhaps he had better control of his temper than she thought. Perhaps she should re-evaluate her initial assumption, but that would require a test, and she would rather him meet Kaia with a level head before she prompted such an experiment.
After all, Kaia was already upset enough. There was no need to let an irritated man’s temper flare at her. That, and Aea would personally rather eat without the added tension in the room—it was upsetting Asia who, frankly, had shown more balls tonight than Aea thought she had.
The princess was indeed not without teeth. Aea would have to congratulate her on such bravery later. Asia had come from a loving family; she was not used to large men taking brutal swings at her, and so it must have been quite daunting to stand up to Alexandros despite not knowing how he would react.
“Your wine is very strong and I find the air clears my head. I can leave you to your thoughts if you prefer, or we can distract each other with conversation until Kaia attends you. Captain...Alexandros, was it? Or would you prefer to be called by a clan name...or is it a province name? Forgive me, I am still wrapping my mind around Grecian forms of address.”
She felt Alexandros look at her, saw him turn in her peripherals so that he faced the same way as she.
Now she would see how much he’d been paying attention.
“The wine is strong tonight, but the fresh evening air does do wonders for a clouded mind. I believe it to be better if we speak, being alone with my thoughts could be dangerous this night," he said.
Unless he was a good actor, he apparently hadn’t been paying attention in the slightest. Not at the Dynestia and not tonight. Not a very observant man at all.
Even if Alexandros did recognize her, even if he was a good actor, she could not fathom why he would pretend to not know her right now. The line of his broad shoulder was tense, which meant that bottled though it was, he still had plenty of aggressive energy just waiting to be called to the surface. Ergo, he was in no frame of mind for subtlety.
Then again, she had not been paying attention either. At least, not at the Dynestia, and for the most part, not here either. She supposed neither he nor she noticed one another because they were simply wrapped up in more important things at the time. For Aea, she was in the middle of wrestling a man she did not realize was Vangelis, and so she could forgive herself for her lack of observance.
Dynestia aside, Aea had taken note of Alexandros when she arrived at the table, but he had not taken note of her. How a man ten years her senior could be more oblivious than she and live past his mid twenties, Aea had not a clue.
Even if Alexandros found her plain or hideous, he should have still been observant enough to know that she was, in fact, sitting in front of him the entire time. But he didn't, and so he missed how Aea watched him, missed Aea getting up to take Kaia away.
Oh well. It was better for her game anyway.
“I empathize. My blood would be hot as well. That man…” here, she actually was quite confused, “I cannot pretend to know how your people believe, but he seemed...what is the word...touched? Did he mean for you to kneel in truth, do you think?”
She huffed a small laugh that wasn’t at all manufactured. That man was fucking delusional. Amusingly so. Likely his mind was addled from extensive inbreeding, poor man. If the gods ordained who ruled and who did not as Panos said, why did they put imbeciles in positions of power so frequently? Unless, of course, it was for their amusement. The cruelty of the gods was something to ponder upon later, she supposed.
“In any case, I do not know what a Law Master does, but I admire your bravery in standing before him so publicly. I’m sure a man like that has not been opposed many times in his life, else he would not be so entitled. You reminded me of...”
Aea cast a side-glance at him and scanned him quickly from head to toe, just a subtle flick of the eye to evaluate his body language. He was nice to look at. Although Aea had no use for a pretty face, she imagined his strong arms were of great use. She wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what appealed to Kaia the most, but Aea might be projecting as well.
Just because Alexandros was a bastard didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate why Kaia had picked him out of all the men she could have chosen. He had a handsome face and powerful arms. Wonderful. Plenty of those to go around, so what made this one stand out more than others?
“Ares,” she finished, turning to look at him fully, “your god of war, yes? Standing defiant against whatever force of nature dared insult him.”
That was rather apt, actually. Though Aea would much rather not think of Alexandros as similar to the god she was considering for new patronage. That would make Ares less of a glittering prospect.
“We have a god of war as well. Well, he is a god of many things, war being chiefly among them. Odin is his name. The all-father. There’s a story about him that is particularly reminiscent of this.” She was lying, but a story and a bit of flattery would go a long way in calming his nerves. After all, who didn’t love a good story about themselves? Perhaps, as an aside, she could evaluate him at rest and understand his guards and deflections.
She knew what kind of story to tell. Alexandros had all but advertised his modest birth by pointing out that he’d earned his rank. No doubt he despised those who were born to power yet remained blissfully unaware of true troubles. Most people did. Aea certainly did.
“When Odin and his two brothers were new gods, just born to their powers, the world was not yet made. There was only one god before them, a giant by the name of Ymir. Odin and his brothers lived in a void between fire and mist, a place with no rock, trees, or stars. No color or sound, touch or taste. Odin grew tired of dwelling in such darkness, for he wanted nothing more than to create. His brothers pleaded for him to stay his hand and dwell safe in the void, to keep from angering Ymir the all-powerful, but Odin could not.”
She got lost in a story of her own making. She pulled threads from legends she knew and stitches from Alexandros’ performance, weaving them together into a concise and linear thing that might have even agreed with the lore of the northmen. Aea’s hands moved as she spoke, her expression quirking and shifting with each rest of the story's rhythm, her voice just as placid and soothing as it had been thus far.
“Odin braved the wrath of the great giant and asked him for essence, for Ymir was the primordial, the only element in unexistence. Foolishly, Ymir and Odin’s brothers believed him to be the only power. Clever Odin, however, knew better. He may not have the power to create without Ymir’s help, but he had the power of potential, and that was all his own. So long as he used it, then he, too, had a power just as great as Ymir’s. Odin rallied his brothers behind his cause and together, they killed Ymir and took the essence he would not freely give. From his body, they built the world.”
She remembered something her uncle said once. Gatheron was always saying things, but she did not remember this one until just now.
“The first ones, the old blood, will always see their power as the power, for they were indeed the first. But along the way, they forgot the power of potential. They detest those who do not possess what they have, and that is their greatest weakness. Dynasties collapse just as easily as they are formed by men who wield the very potential the old ones dismiss—that power to take creation from the primordial source. It’s called progress, and that is why they are afraid of it. I would not waste my energy on anger, captain. Pity the unfortunate, for that is what they are. Remnants of a dying age.”
Aea let her voice die until they stood in a brief silence punctuated only by the cicada song surrounding them. The first rule of gaining information was to remain silent, for one could not hear the information one might want to hear if one spoke at length. But, one also could not glean a fucking thing when their source was wound so tightly. Perhaps now he would be more anchored into the present.
“Alexandros will do just fine, and what do they call you? You speak our language well, what is your native tongue? I can converse in a couple others myself. And, the most important question, how do you know Kaia?” the captain said.
Aea inclined her head in acknowledgement, quickly deciding upon her next move. He’d spoken much softer than she’d anticipated, knocking her off guard, for she’d been prepared for a more aggressive response. He was calmed enough, now, to play her game with her. This should be interesting, at the very least. Extremely dangerous at the very worst.
“They call me many, many things,” her cocked half-smirk was a true one, playful as a kitten upon its first mouse. “Though if you weren’t paying enough attention to catch it said before, telling you now would be spoiling you. I think I’ll let you figure it out on your own should you come back to the table later. And thank you. My mother was Greek, my father a chieftain from Danmork. I would ask what tongues you were fluent in, but I suspect you’d rather me tell you of Kaia.”
This was far too much fun. She could not see herself dropping this act until she grew bored enough to do so. She very much liked knowing something this man did not know, for knowledge was power, and she did so love having it now that there was nobody to take it from her. Holding power over this man was incredibly gratifying, it was only that she did not know if that was the fault of her anger or her natural disregard for any authority aside from herself and her father. And now that her father was gone...well...she supposed she was entirely in charge of herself now.
Aea let the natural warmth of her voice bubble and blossom into her tone, still so full of calm and understanding. “She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
She uncrossed her legs and lifted herself into a true seating position upon the stone rail, propping one knee up and letting one foot dangle as she faced him completely. “I hate to be nosey, but I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
“I empathize. My blood would be hot as well. That man…” here, she actually was quite confused, “I cannot pretend to know how your people believe, but he seemed...what is the word...touched? Did he mean for you to kneel in truth, do you think?”
The young officer frowned for a moment, he had not considered that perhaps there was anything other than real intent behind the words of that bastard. “I believe he truly meant to compare himself to the gods and imply he should be treated as they are. Such arrogance, I do not know your beliefs or how devout you are, but surely the gods you worship must frown on such behavior as well?” He was curious about how she would answer, but in truth the question was more to help him not dwell on his rage for Panos. That fire need not be stoked.
The young man was surprised when she compared him to Ares; it was flattering for this foreign woman to think to compare him to the gods of the Greeks. He may not have been a terribly devout man, but he could appreciate the sentiment. “Thank you, those are kind words to describe something most would call foolish or stupid. Our mutual friend Asia seemed to think it was solely stupid. For my part, I was insulted, and the way I was raised if a man took insults without response or drawing blood he was seen as weak, especially those who led men.” He attempted to explain why he had responded, and hoped she would see his rationale.
Her story about the god Odin, his brothers, and the primordial Ymir was certainly intriguing and rather apt for his desires. People who had not earned their place did not deserve to profit off the backs of those more worthy. Yet they did, and the world seemed to prefer it that way, but even if it took opposing the hold world, Alexandros wouldn’t be cowed into submission. “Thank you for the story, and that reminder of what men like him lack. I am truly appreciative of it.”
“They call me many, many things,” her cocked half-smirk was a true one, playful as a kitten upon its first mouse. “Though if you weren’t paying enough attention to catch it said before, telling you now would be spoiling you. I think I’ll let you figure it out on your own should you come back to the table later. And thank you. My mother was Greek, my father a chieftain from Danmork. I would ask what tongues you were fluent in, but I suspect you’d rather me tell you of Kaia.”
The young warrior was taken aback by this sudden shift to secrecy and the predatory smirk on her lips. “Perhaps I did not catch your name spoken as Asia introduced you to most of the table, the hall is loud and so had my own conversations to attend to. It is customary to give at least one name to be called by when greeted or asked by your conversation partner, perhaps customs are different in Danmork than they are here, but I would still appreciate having something to call you.” He did not enjoy getting this run-around or the smile that was on her face, but he kept his voice calm and measured trying not to let his emotions run through his speech.
“She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
“I am glad that Kaia was able to assist you. You would be wrong there, I watched you enter the hall with Asia and her brother, I saw your introductions to several rather important people, and I saw you sit down, perhaps you failed to notice that several of my smiles pointed directly to you. I was not able to hear your name, and had not had the time to introduce myself until now.” He replied to her telling of how she came to meet Kaia and where she sat at the table.
“I hate to be nosey, but I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
Alexandros frowned at her question. What was Kaia? What was their relationship? What did he want? What did she want? So many unknowns and no time to explore them, so he would give only the facts. “Kaia is a lover, perhaps the best I have ever been with. I’m not sure what I want her to be to me, nor what she wants me to be for her, but I do know that I want to keep her close. As for the Marikas girl from tonight, while perhaps at first I had thought to flirt and try my hand at wooing her, her immediate response was to insult me, to call me little more than a tool. So, I decided to have some fun, to break that little sheltered, privileged shell right off of her, and expose the soft, scared girl underneath. It would have worked too, if that bastard hadn’t shown up.”
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“I empathize. My blood would be hot as well. That man…” here, she actually was quite confused, “I cannot pretend to know how your people believe, but he seemed...what is the word...touched? Did he mean for you to kneel in truth, do you think?”
The young officer frowned for a moment, he had not considered that perhaps there was anything other than real intent behind the words of that bastard. “I believe he truly meant to compare himself to the gods and imply he should be treated as they are. Such arrogance, I do not know your beliefs or how devout you are, but surely the gods you worship must frown on such behavior as well?” He was curious about how she would answer, but in truth the question was more to help him not dwell on his rage for Panos. That fire need not be stoked.
The young man was surprised when she compared him to Ares; it was flattering for this foreign woman to think to compare him to the gods of the Greeks. He may not have been a terribly devout man, but he could appreciate the sentiment. “Thank you, those are kind words to describe something most would call foolish or stupid. Our mutual friend Asia seemed to think it was solely stupid. For my part, I was insulted, and the way I was raised if a man took insults without response or drawing blood he was seen as weak, especially those who led men.” He attempted to explain why he had responded, and hoped she would see his rationale.
Her story about the god Odin, his brothers, and the primordial Ymir was certainly intriguing and rather apt for his desires. People who had not earned their place did not deserve to profit off the backs of those more worthy. Yet they did, and the world seemed to prefer it that way, but even if it took opposing the hold world, Alexandros wouldn’t be cowed into submission. “Thank you for the story, and that reminder of what men like him lack. I am truly appreciative of it.”
“They call me many, many things,” her cocked half-smirk was a true one, playful as a kitten upon its first mouse. “Though if you weren’t paying enough attention to catch it said before, telling you now would be spoiling you. I think I’ll let you figure it out on your own should you come back to the table later. And thank you. My mother was Greek, my father a chieftain from Danmork. I would ask what tongues you were fluent in, but I suspect you’d rather me tell you of Kaia.”
The young warrior was taken aback by this sudden shift to secrecy and the predatory smirk on her lips. “Perhaps I did not catch your name spoken as Asia introduced you to most of the table, the hall is loud and so had my own conversations to attend to. It is customary to give at least one name to be called by when greeted or asked by your conversation partner, perhaps customs are different in Danmork than they are here, but I would still appreciate having something to call you.” He did not enjoy getting this run-around or the smile that was on her face, but he kept his voice calm and measured trying not to let his emotions run through his speech.
“She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
“I am glad that Kaia was able to assist you. You would be wrong there, I watched you enter the hall with Asia and her brother, I saw your introductions to several rather important people, and I saw you sit down, perhaps you failed to notice that several of my smiles pointed directly to you. I was not able to hear your name, and had not had the time to introduce myself until now.” He replied to her telling of how she came to meet Kaia and where she sat at the table.
“I hate to be nosey, but I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
Alexandros frowned at her question. What was Kaia? What was their relationship? What did he want? What did she want? So many unknowns and no time to explore them, so he would give only the facts. “Kaia is a lover, perhaps the best I have ever been with. I’m not sure what I want her to be to me, nor what she wants me to be for her, but I do know that I want to keep her close. As for the Marikas girl from tonight, while perhaps at first I had thought to flirt and try my hand at wooing her, her immediate response was to insult me, to call me little more than a tool. So, I decided to have some fun, to break that little sheltered, privileged shell right off of her, and expose the soft, scared girl underneath. It would have worked too, if that bastard hadn’t shown up.”
“I empathize. My blood would be hot as well. That man…” here, she actually was quite confused, “I cannot pretend to know how your people believe, but he seemed...what is the word...touched? Did he mean for you to kneel in truth, do you think?”
The young officer frowned for a moment, he had not considered that perhaps there was anything other than real intent behind the words of that bastard. “I believe he truly meant to compare himself to the gods and imply he should be treated as they are. Such arrogance, I do not know your beliefs or how devout you are, but surely the gods you worship must frown on such behavior as well?” He was curious about how she would answer, but in truth the question was more to help him not dwell on his rage for Panos. That fire need not be stoked.
The young man was surprised when she compared him to Ares; it was flattering for this foreign woman to think to compare him to the gods of the Greeks. He may not have been a terribly devout man, but he could appreciate the sentiment. “Thank you, those are kind words to describe something most would call foolish or stupid. Our mutual friend Asia seemed to think it was solely stupid. For my part, I was insulted, and the way I was raised if a man took insults without response or drawing blood he was seen as weak, especially those who led men.” He attempted to explain why he had responded, and hoped she would see his rationale.
Her story about the god Odin, his brothers, and the primordial Ymir was certainly intriguing and rather apt for his desires. People who had not earned their place did not deserve to profit off the backs of those more worthy. Yet they did, and the world seemed to prefer it that way, but even if it took opposing the hold world, Alexandros wouldn’t be cowed into submission. “Thank you for the story, and that reminder of what men like him lack. I am truly appreciative of it.”
“They call me many, many things,” her cocked half-smirk was a true one, playful as a kitten upon its first mouse. “Though if you weren’t paying enough attention to catch it said before, telling you now would be spoiling you. I think I’ll let you figure it out on your own should you come back to the table later. And thank you. My mother was Greek, my father a chieftain from Danmork. I would ask what tongues you were fluent in, but I suspect you’d rather me tell you of Kaia.”
The young warrior was taken aback by this sudden shift to secrecy and the predatory smirk on her lips. “Perhaps I did not catch your name spoken as Asia introduced you to most of the table, the hall is loud and so had my own conversations to attend to. It is customary to give at least one name to be called by when greeted or asked by your conversation partner, perhaps customs are different in Danmork than they are here, but I would still appreciate having something to call you.” He did not enjoy getting this run-around or the smile that was on her face, but he kept his voice calm and measured trying not to let his emotions run through his speech.
“She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
“I am glad that Kaia was able to assist you. You would be wrong there, I watched you enter the hall with Asia and her brother, I saw your introductions to several rather important people, and I saw you sit down, perhaps you failed to notice that several of my smiles pointed directly to you. I was not able to hear your name, and had not had the time to introduce myself until now.” He replied to her telling of how she came to meet Kaia and where she sat at the table.
“I hate to be nosey, but I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
Alexandros frowned at her question. What was Kaia? What was their relationship? What did he want? What did she want? So many unknowns and no time to explore them, so he would give only the facts. “Kaia is a lover, perhaps the best I have ever been with. I’m not sure what I want her to be to me, nor what she wants me to be for her, but I do know that I want to keep her close. As for the Marikas girl from tonight, while perhaps at first I had thought to flirt and try my hand at wooing her, her immediate response was to insult me, to call me little more than a tool. So, I decided to have some fun, to break that little sheltered, privileged shell right off of her, and expose the soft, scared girl underneath. It would have worked too, if that bastard hadn’t shown up.”
“I believe he truly meant to compare himself to the gods and imply he should be treated as they are. Such arrogance, I do not know your beliefs or how devout you are, but surely the gods you worship must frown on such behavior as well?”
Aea did not actually know the northmen’s position on such things, as she’d never seen it done, but she knew enough of their religion and practices to make a guess. “Kneeling is considered either the highest form of gratitude or the lowest form of submission. We believe our gods are in everything, part of the world just as the rocks and the trees, part of us. When we pay tribute, we do not kneel, for we would be kneeling as much to ourselves as them if that were the case. However, we do kneel to mortals who earn our greatest respect. And on the opposing end, of course, slaves kneel when appealing to their masters.”
She shrugged, “In any case, I think both of our customs would dictate that he should not expect such a thing from you in the literal sense.”
It was pertinent to shift the conversation away from kneeling to Panos of Marikas. Aea would rather have Alexandros’ calm rationality than his irritation for now; it was far more difficult to loosen a tongue when it was caged by bared fangs, and it would do Kaia no favors to have to face an enraged boar while she was still so raw.
Aea pulled his mind further from the dinner and into the night air by using the easiest and most elementary method she knew of—flattery. Used wisely, it could sometimes even calm her father’s foul mood.
She allowed Cassero’s silver tongue to fuel and inspire her, and Alexandros responded as she’d hoped, his attention moving further away from the chamber and deeper into the world outside of it.
“Thank you, those are kind words to describe something most would call foolish or stupid. Our mutual friend Asia seemed to think it was solely stupid. For my part, I was insulted, and the way I was raised, if a man took insults without response or drawing blood he was seen as weak, especially those who led men,” he said.
Aea nodded, looking straight ahead at the doors they came through as she thought. He was like her, then. The way he was raised had a lasting and damaging effect upon him when among others. She, at least, did not like that she was so influenced by her childhood. She just did not know how to change it and even if she did, changing it would have negative consequences on her chances of survival now.
If she did not live as she lived, if she lived among civilization, she would have to adapt and open herself to learning a new way of living. If she didn’t, she would make herself miserable with suspicion and presumption that everyone was out to end her life. This much was clear by the way all the civilized people she’d seen behaved as if death was the furthest thing from their mind, Asia being the most recent example.
If Alexandros had been raised to defend his honor, had he also been raised to do so at the cost of all else? And if so, did such lessons serve him now in the same way they used to?
“I understand. Truly. The way we were raised seems to be the determining factor on how we act as adults, and although I wouldn't presume to know how you feel on the matter, at least for me, it can be a source of great issue when among others.” She was raised to trust nobody, and to kill anybody who could possibly hurt her or her family first. Likely why she wanted to kill Alexandros now. Had she been two years younger, she might have already, but she'd learned enough to know better than to act so quickly now.
Besides, it gave her ample time to learn and explore differing viewpoints in the process. Alexandros' was a new and interesting one, for it was very different from her own.
Aea could understand his need to defend his pride, but what she could not understand was his inability to comprehend in what way 'most would call him foolish.' Comprehending other viewpoints and realizing personal misstep was how people learned and grew...right? If it was not, at least for him, then how did he move through the world and absorb information?
Aea looked at Alexandros, angling her body more in his direction now that the conversation had taken a sharp turn into a genuine direction. Alexandros could have been the purest soul in existence or the blackest, it mattered not. She would have still spoken with him on such things. To Aea, her disapproval of this man did not make him any less of a human that she could learn from. She had her own opinions, of course, but she was not inflexible. Her opinions could be changed if she were made to see things from a perspective outside of her own, so long as the second perspective was more rational than the primary.
Perhaps, even in this, she could see Alexandros’ actions as correct, though the logical pattern he gave her to follow and understand was quite illogical itself, mired in principle rather than pragmatism. She’d been wrong enough times in her life, however, to know it was foolish to write off a secondary reasoning so soon.
She crossed her arms and rested her elbow upon the fold, tapping her bottom lip in thought. “I think all people will have their opinions, but the one that should take precedence is your own. Now that you are away from the situation, do you think it was unwise, would you do it all over again in the same manner, or would you have done more?”
She’d already decided that Alexandros’ inability to grasp reasoning beyond his own was mired in his stubborn insistence on allowing the past to dictate the present. But that did not mean he could not learn from the experience, as she was currently learning.
Surely he had seen many battles, and she could assume he had won since he was still alive. In order to understand why a majority of people would see him as incorrect, Alexandros might benefit from observing the situation objectively and as if he were at war, for that was precisely what it was—open conflict. Aea, herself, liked theories of warfare very much, as much as she enjoyed ontology and mathematics.
Aea had not seen much of the world outside of her family, but she had observed the dynamic between them for almost two decades. There was a hierarchy among them, and at the top used to be her father. It was not because he was the biggest or the meanest, though both were certainly true, but because he was the one who had ensured their survival for all these years. Hektos may have seemed to the outside world to be nothing but a war-hardened brute, but he was shrewd. Gatheron might have been the thinker, but Hektos was the planner. It was the one who made the strategy that led their merry band of killers.
Aea knew all she knew of war from her father, who once had ambitions to become a Colchian captain himself. Although he once coveted the position that Alexandros now occupied, the two men were only similar in outward behavior. Likely their understanding of warfare was quite different.
Aea had a unique perspective, she supposed. The logical functions of her uncle and the knowledge of her father. Neither men had liked to listen to one another, but she had listened attentively to both. Some people were not so lucky as she was to have such context.
Hektos had said that when a unit was surrounded on all sides by the enemy, there were generally two options: advance and sacrifice one's forces, as many have done in the past, or retreat and return with a vengeance and a better strategy.
If one should charge ahead and sacrifice his men—as Alexandros had done—the reason behind such a maneuver would dictate whether his sacrifice was regaled in epic ballads or laughed about around his enemy’s cookfires.
Alexandros’ reason behind throwing his forces head-long into a wall of pikes was not to create a great diversion in order for the army to rally and flank, it was not because there was no other route, it was not because of anything except for pride. He did not sacrifice his forces for the army—which could stand for the greater good, the kingdom, anything outside of himself—he only did it because he could not think of a better way to fight for his pride outside of rushing his vanguard into a battle where he was greatly outnumbered. There had been a way to reroute his men and retreat to the bulk of the army so that he could fight another day, and yet still he charged into the vast enemy. Worse, he not only sacrificed his unit, but put the entire army—the kingdom—at risk due to his maneuver.
Nobody could fault him the need to defend his honor, and most people would want to do the same as he had. He could, however, be faulted for the foolish sacrifice of his unit when such a sacrifice served absolutely no purpose to anybody but himself.
Had he more allies in his campaign, he would have been more likely to succeed in his endeavors. However, he had stood alone, and so the question then became a comparison of motivation. Was his motivation—the thing he fought for—greater than the motivation of those who stood on a differing end?
Alexandros mentioned that Asia thought his actions stupid. Upon analysis of Asia’s part in the conflict, it was easy to see the disconnect between the captain and the princess.
Asia, it seemed, fought for the honor of the Marikas girl, and from what Aea heard, the good of Colchis as well. She sacrificed her forces upon Alexandros’, and she did so immediately because if she withdrew to fight another day, Alexandros might have said more and made another blow against her army—the kingdom—and weakening it in the process.
Alexandros was fighting for himself and putting the army at risk. Asia was fighting for the army and putting one unit—Alexandros' favor toward her—at risk.
When compared to Asia’s strategy, his position looked immoral. People were more likely to follow the commander who took to the field for the ‘right’ reasons, and leave behind the commander who appeared the villain.
It was no wonder there hadn’t been a single person to come to Alexandros’ defense. Anybody that might have called individualism over collectivism—at a peace dinner no less—were likely far too shrewd to say so in public.
Too short-sighted to see the bigger picture, Alexandros had executed impulsive tactics without a strategy. Likewise, seeing the bigger picture and yet ignoring the smaller details, Asia executed a strategy without tactics. Had the princess considered tactics, she might have pulled Alexandros outside to reason with him and allowed Vangelis to do what he intended to do without Alexandros present. Instead, she invited the scorn of a man who was clearly prideful, and incited him to talk himself deeper into a hole before all three kingdoms.
Or perhaps not. Perhaps there was a method to Asia's tactics that Aea could not see.
When one had a strategy but no tactics, they would be outmaneuvered by the enemy. When one had only tactics and no strategy, it was the quickest way to defeat. Alexandros had only tactics while Asia had a strategy with questionable tactics.
But there was one army that had both strategy and tactics—Panos of Marikas. He'd outmaneuvered Asia and pitted her against her friend, and he made Alexandros appear a villain to hide his own wicked threat.
He had threatened to deprive Colchians of food, and yet he had somehow made it look as if it were up to Alexandros whether Colchians became deprived. Panos had foisted the responsibility of keeping starvation away from Colchis upon the captain, and all the while it was actually the responsibility of the Marikas to keep political relations friendly.
Panos was cunning. Wicked, too, and that was perhaps the worst combination of things to be, at least for all others outside of Panos himself.
Of course, Alexandros had still been impulsive. He had the opportunity to position Panos as the one who was truly responsible for the real issue, and yet had been blind to it.
The way Aea was raised, if survival meant looking weak for the moment, then one would do it to survive long enough to obliterate the one that dared make such a threat. And if one led a group that thought a momentary, calculated surrender was weakness, either it is not a very smart group or the leader of said group did not generate enough trust for them to know better.
That Alexandros allowed others to see how easily he cast aside all of his sworn loyalties save for loyalty to himself made Vangelis, by association, seem incompetent and foolhardy in his choice of captain. He had, after all, told Panos that he would accept responsibility for Alexandros’ actions. That was the definition of defending him, and against his own blunder no less. Clearly Alexandros did not trust his superior’s momentary, calculated surrender. She wondered if it was because Alexandros was stupid, or if it was because he simply did not trust Vangelis to know what he was doing.
The fucked up part was that Alexandros' actions would not have been foolish or unreasonable at all if Panos had not dangled the threat of taking food from Colchis. Nobody would be questioning his fitness as a captain, or Vangelis' handle upon his military leaders, had it not been for Panos.
Before, Alexandros just seemed to be making a faux-pas that Aea could not quite understand outside of how it affected her cousin. Now, instead of just looking like a temperamental man, the introduction of depriving a nation of food made Alexandros seem incompetent. He displayed a short-sightedness more befitting of a foot soldier who never had to strategize, manage a unit upon a field of battle, or take other people’s wellbeing into consideration rather than a Colchian captain.
A military leader, as far as Aea knew, put their men and their nation before themselves. She suspected those that didn’t were either quite subtle about it, or they were not military leaders for long.
Aea was beginning to believe that the Athenian had meant for all of these things to appear as such, though she did not yet know how or why outside of somebody trying to bed his family member.
Had Panos been more of a man and less of a villain himself, he would have drawn his sword rather than gamble with the lives of hundreds of people. He was the one who took the issue to a different layer of complexity, when before it had only been a conflict among two individuals.
Perhaps if swords were allowed, the Marikas girl would have challenged Alexandros then and there and settled the issue before it was dragged to a more extreme place.
Fucking Athenians. They would rather use hundreds, if not thousands, of people as a shield than face a man with a sword. This particular Athenian was rather shrewd indeed. Alexandros had offended his family, and so with a single statement, Panos had compromised the captain's friendships, his career, and his public reputation without ever having to bloody himself.
Panos likely knew how a hot-blooded Colchian would respond. He played his hand with the intention of getting his way while making Alexandros look the villain, when really, the captain had only been used as a pawn by the real monster.
Had Alexandros been more concerned with more than his pride, had he been more strategic in the movement of his unit, he might have been able to turn the real issue—the threat of starvation over an insult—back upon the real enemy. He could have exposed Panos of Marikas as the heartless beast he was.
Then again, perhaps Aea was incorrect in all of her assumptions and was, in fact, the real idiot in this as she tried to understand behaviors and motivations far outside of her realm of understanding. She supposed she would see.
Most people did not like being told they were wrong from an objective perspective. Aea was willing to humor the idea that she was incorrect in her analysis, quite expected it to be so, and that meant she was able to learn quickly from those who were correct. She wondered if Alexandros was as open-minded. If he was, then he would be willing to discuss the idea. If not, then he would get defensive. This would be a test of the possible arrogance she identified earlier, and the results of such a test would lend further credence to her initial results.
That, and apparently even she had lines she would not cross, at least not yet. Perhaps she would be able to in the future, but she supposed that the divinity of idea was too precious a thing to sacrifice upon a lie.
“As to opinions, if you care for them, I think it all a matter of perspective. You were fighting for your pride, Asia was fighting for something other than your pride. How one sees the morality of your actions depend upon which value one holds in higher regard, and the soundness of your actions lay in whether one believes that your execution was the best possible choice. Deeper than that, I think, is the issue of why Asia felt the need to defend her nation against a man who only retained an insult, and why she felt her 'friend' was a direct threat to that. Your pride was not the issue, captain, nor was Panos'. Everyone should have pride in themselves, and brave men usually defend it, but perhaps some prices are too high. The hundreds, if not thousands of people who were threatened might agree that depriving them of food is far too costly. Especially when it is paid by people in such trusted positions as captain and master of law. However, you received the scorn, and not the man who made the threat to begin with. I have to wonder at why." She shrugged, "Then again, I am also inexperienced in such things and cannot know if my own assumptions are correct. People like to speculate that they might have taken a different route than the one you chose, or that their opinions are the only correct ones, or that they noticed something that nobody else did, but they cannot know until they are put into an identical situation, they are usually wrong in their subjectivity, and see things that are not actually there."
The mind loved nothing more than to protect the ego. Likely he would be offended by her candor, likely she was wrong, but if she was, then she would learn in what way by his answer, for that is what her mind thrived upon. She wanted to understand, to be able to come as close as she could to see through another set of eyes and experience the things he experienced.
As she saw it from the context of ignorant assumption based entirely upon observation, Alexandros had been angry that his pride was insulted, but not once did he get angry that Panos had threatened his countrymen. Whether it was out of true selfishness and disregard for the people, or whether he was that blinded by insult to his person, she did not know.
Slaves who worked the mines, washer women, infants at the breast—Alexandros had wagered the welfare of people who trusted him to fight for them so that they could, in turn, do their own duties to keep the kingdom functioning. Those people trusted him to defend them, and yet he never seemed bothered that the very things he was meant to protect had been threatened. He did not fight for them, only his vanity. Trust was sacred and he had broken it. The job of protecting others was important and he had not done his job. Aea could not see in what way his actions were justifiable once vulnerable people were introduced in the equation.
Had he kept his people in mind over himself, things might have gone quite differently in there. Taking everything into consideration, Aea could only arrive at two conclusions. Alexandros either was a stupid man, or he had deluded himself into thinking he was common-born.
And if he was a Colchian captain, it was unlikely he was stupid. He was just a privileged little boy who’d grown up as a privileged man in the arms of adoration and favoritism. He did not know what it meant to be hungry, to be betrayed, to trust somebody much larger and more powerful than yourself and hope that, this time, you could rely on them to keep you safe.
He only thought he knew disregard, but if he truly did, he would be able to see beyond himself and realize that he was so unconcerned with the lives of the Colchian people that he had completely forgotten them in the face his 'honor', just as Panos used them to guard his.
Ideas of warcraft theory aside, Aea was acutely aware that she was uneducated and ignorant. She would like to see someone live her life and see how well they prized their decency and pride after they arrived at the end of the road. If, in fact, they retained their sanity and functions enough to arrive in one piece to begin with. She, in turn, would like to see if she could experience another life and come out of it more or less alright.
It might be that if she saw things as Alexandros did, she would see how his wounded pride was more important than his threatened kingdom. Or, perhaps, his kingdom had never been at risk to begin with, and she had just observed something incorrectly because she did not know the complexities of politics.
What a fascinating, strange situation. She kept going deeper into their conversation, and though she had all she needed, still she kept going. Hoping she was wrong for Kaia’s sake perhaps, or maybe because she was just curious for her own sake at this point.
“Perhaps I did not catch your name spoken as Asia introduced you to most of the table, the hall is loud and so had my own conversations to attend to. It is customary to give at least one name to be called by when greeted or asked by your conversation partner, perhaps customs are different in Danmork than they are here, but I would still appreciate having something to call you,” Alexandros said.
Not playful then, and though she judged him flirtatious before, he either had no attraction to her, did not like to be withheld things, or he could somehow sense that something dangerous was near. Likely all three.
Had Aea valued her pride over the objective, she might have refused to tell him any name, real or otherwise. She did not like being made to do things according to the authority of a man who had not earned such regard, probably much like Alexandros did not like such things himself. The captain was not her father, and that had been the only man she’d ever truly listened to. Not even the king had earned her obedience; she would have left her blade in Asia’s room if he had.
But she was also not Alexandros, and she had no qualms with laying aside her pride in order to succeed in her purpose when physicality was not possible.
“I see my sense of humor has fallen flat once more. Call me Lilli. As to Kaia—” She gentled her smile to something he might find more comfortable. Meek and easily aquisised. “She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
“I am glad that Kaia was able to assist you. You would be wrong there, I watched you enter the hall with Asia and her brother, I saw your introductions to several rather important people, and I saw you sit down, perhaps you failed to notice that several of my smiles pointed directly to you. I was not able to hear your name, and had not had the time to introduce myself until now,” Alexandros said.
Now here was something interesting. She thought him honest, and yet here he lied. Could one be honest and a liar?
Very little escaped Aea’s notice when she was as on edge as she had been inside of the chamber. She’d looked ahead a number of times at various things upon the table, over his shoulder, near his general vicinity, and each time he had been engrossed in talking. The only time he might have smiled at her is if he were smiling at her profile, which would be odd.
She was not the unobservant one here, he was, and he was creating a fabrication just to ensure that she did not...what? Feel offended? Why would she? Was it so he did not have to acknowledge that he did not, in fact, notice something? Was it necessary for Aea to take the responsibility for not noticing, thereby making him look right and her wrong while indeed the opposite was true, and all the while convincing her that the reality she knew was not what happened?
It was possible that she'd been so flustered by Yiannis that she'd just stared at Alexandros without truly seeing him, but it was not probable. The fact that she was so flustered by the prince would have made her more aware of her surroundings, and the people in it. That is why she had been so fixated upon Rene and Ophelia at the Peace Festival—she had been scared, and when she was scared, she focused on the things and people around her to a painfully sharp degree, her body ready to fight or bolt, her mind assessing everything for signs of aggression.
The prince might have flustered her, but not in the way Alexandros suggested. Stress made her more focused, not less. It was when she was relaxed that she was likely to miss things—that was, after all, how she'd missed him talking to Kaia at the Dionysia. And even someone as charming and handsome as Yiannis could not fluster her so much that her anxiety triggered a different bodily reaction where she was unaware or easily distracted.
No. Alexandros' little tricks might work on people who did not experience such manipulative tactics before, but they would not work on her. It was a nice try, though.
“I see,” Aea shrugged. “I was apparently sufficiently distracted. I do apologize for not noticing.”
It occurred to her then that she was, in fact, rather relaxed now. Angry, but relaxed. She felt no fear of this man, and so she was not paying attention to her surroundings. The hairs on the back of her next raised and she had the urge to look behind her, but she didn't.
“I hate to be nosey.” She hopped upon the stone railing and faced him, forcefully quashing her natural instinct to check a second time that there were no threats nearby. “But I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
Alexandros frowned and did not immediately answer. When he did, he sounded more thoughtful than not. “Kaia is a lover, perhaps the best I have ever been with. I’m not sure what I want her to be to me, nor what she wants me to be for her, but I do know that I want to keep her close. As for the Marikas girl from tonight, while perhaps at first I had thought to flirt and try my hand at wooing her, her immediate response was to insult me, to call me little more than a tool. So, I decided to have some fun, to break that little sheltered, privileged shell right off of her, and expose the soft, scared girl underneath. It would have worked too, if that bastard hadn’t shown up.”
Aea was, at first, surprised by his answer. She had not been expecting him to share his enjoyment of his and Kaia's activities. Less surprising was that he was manipulative and sadistic, and that he was not as sure of his affections as Kaia was, so Aea focused on those ideas instead.
Aea propped her elbow on her knee and her chin in her palm, her attention riveted to him as she listened, not at all fabricating her interest in his wicked nature. Darkness was, after all, intriguing. Forbidden and unknown. Such things had always fascinated mortals, and she was no exception. She was, however, perhaps more familiar with it than he was, as was apparent by his honesty. Fascinating as it was, Kaia deserved warmth and gentleness, and she would not get that with this man.
Kaia had been toying with the idea of marrying Alexandros, while Alexandros did not know what he wanted Kaia to be to him. This had been clear in his attempted seduction of the Marikas girl which had, indeed, been the initial action that began the issues in the chamber. He reared at the slightest insult, but enjoyed hurting others, which meant that his injury of Kaia was likely intentional, just as Aea had first assumed.
He was playing some sort of mind game on Aea’s cousin, but it would not work. Even if Aea were not present to watch her cousin’s back, Kaia was far too intelligent and valued herself too highly to fall for the same tricks her uncles had used on them since they were children.
Apparently, though, Alexandros considered Kaia the best lover he'd ever had. He had been mostly honest thus far, and so there was no reason for him to be dishonest now. Aea considered this new notion. She had less contextual knowledge of intimacy than she had of violence, which left her without knowing how to interpret such a claim. Kaia only had one lover before Alexandros, while Aea assumed Alexandros had far more. What could Kaia have done to be the best lover he'd ever had?
She could not even begin to guess—according to Merdia the Whore and every pair of goats Aea had seen, sex was something you did when you liked somebody enough to waste time on them. Physically, it was a rather simple series of actions that felt nice enough to go out of one's way to do every once in a while. One mounted, wiggled about, then stopped once one tired of it. There did not seem to be many things one could do to endear another to them upon a shifting scale of quality. Perhaps it was not what Kaia did, but how it made him...feel? What did that mean, then?
She wanted to ask, but bit down on the impulse. That was none of her business, and it didn't matter in any case. Her concern was not how sex made people feel, her concern was with making sure sex with her cousin did not end in her cousin being hurt.
"Ah, I see. My mistake, then. I did not mean to intrude into your intimate life," she said, willing away the dozens of questions she had. She would ask Kaia when Kaia was over her hurt.
"However, I’ve not met many who enjoy cruelty to such a degree that breaking minds could be considered a ‘fun’ pastime. I would tell you to try your hand at breaking me open, but I’m quite tender-hearted and would surely begin sobbing, which would be counterproductive to my own intentions,” Aea quipped. He wouldn't find anything she did not want him to find anyway.
She tired of this game. And so, deciding that she would quit fattening herself on self-indulgence, Aea crossed her legs and dropped her charade. When next she spoke, it was without an accent. “I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
She did not smile or otherwise display any smugness, for she was not smug. Lying to people was not something she enjoyed, but very rarely was she allowed to be honest in her home life. Here, in the world of civilized people, her honesty would see her arrested at best. An asshole Alexandros may be, but she could admire that he was at least a mostly forthcoming one. She'd gotten what she wanted, and now she would be honest too. A heavy weight was shed off her shoulders at the prospect.
She assumed he would get angry at being tricked. Most people did not appreciate it. Let him. He would find poor sport in her, for she was neither hot-headed nor temperamental when insulted—she was used to it. If he wanted to hit her, she welcomed his fury, for she was used to that as well. It would be a foolish decision, but he was welcome to it all the same. If he was lucky, he'd be walking back into the chamber with a broken nose if he earned it. Now that she was being honest, she would not hold herself back if he would not.
Aea would take no pleasure in telling her cousin everything that she learned. Not the least of which was that Alexandros believed Kaia's primarily identifiable trait to be her skill in the bedroom—and that he identified her as such to strangers. Kaia, who had once been very hurt at the idea that she would make a successful whore, would seethe at Alexandros’ assertion. Kaia did not care how much he enjoyed her body or her face. Kaia cared whether he valued her for the things that couldn’t be seen or touched. Her kindness, her consideration, her skill, her determination—none of the things that had been summarized to describe her.
It would anger her, and it would hurt her, but the truth was never comfortable or warm.
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
“I believe he truly meant to compare himself to the gods and imply he should be treated as they are. Such arrogance, I do not know your beliefs or how devout you are, but surely the gods you worship must frown on such behavior as well?”
Aea did not actually know the northmen’s position on such things, as she’d never seen it done, but she knew enough of their religion and practices to make a guess. “Kneeling is considered either the highest form of gratitude or the lowest form of submission. We believe our gods are in everything, part of the world just as the rocks and the trees, part of us. When we pay tribute, we do not kneel, for we would be kneeling as much to ourselves as them if that were the case. However, we do kneel to mortals who earn our greatest respect. And on the opposing end, of course, slaves kneel when appealing to their masters.”
She shrugged, “In any case, I think both of our customs would dictate that he should not expect such a thing from you in the literal sense.”
It was pertinent to shift the conversation away from kneeling to Panos of Marikas. Aea would rather have Alexandros’ calm rationality than his irritation for now; it was far more difficult to loosen a tongue when it was caged by bared fangs, and it would do Kaia no favors to have to face an enraged boar while she was still so raw.
Aea pulled his mind further from the dinner and into the night air by using the easiest and most elementary method she knew of—flattery. Used wisely, it could sometimes even calm her father’s foul mood.
She allowed Cassero’s silver tongue to fuel and inspire her, and Alexandros responded as she’d hoped, his attention moving further away from the chamber and deeper into the world outside of it.
“Thank you, those are kind words to describe something most would call foolish or stupid. Our mutual friend Asia seemed to think it was solely stupid. For my part, I was insulted, and the way I was raised, if a man took insults without response or drawing blood he was seen as weak, especially those who led men,” he said.
Aea nodded, looking straight ahead at the doors they came through as she thought. He was like her, then. The way he was raised had a lasting and damaging effect upon him when among others. She, at least, did not like that she was so influenced by her childhood. She just did not know how to change it and even if she did, changing it would have negative consequences on her chances of survival now.
If she did not live as she lived, if she lived among civilization, she would have to adapt and open herself to learning a new way of living. If she didn’t, she would make herself miserable with suspicion and presumption that everyone was out to end her life. This much was clear by the way all the civilized people she’d seen behaved as if death was the furthest thing from their mind, Asia being the most recent example.
If Alexandros had been raised to defend his honor, had he also been raised to do so at the cost of all else? And if so, did such lessons serve him now in the same way they used to?
“I understand. Truly. The way we were raised seems to be the determining factor on how we act as adults, and although I wouldn't presume to know how you feel on the matter, at least for me, it can be a source of great issue when among others.” She was raised to trust nobody, and to kill anybody who could possibly hurt her or her family first. Likely why she wanted to kill Alexandros now. Had she been two years younger, she might have already, but she'd learned enough to know better than to act so quickly now.
Besides, it gave her ample time to learn and explore differing viewpoints in the process. Alexandros' was a new and interesting one, for it was very different from her own.
Aea could understand his need to defend his pride, but what she could not understand was his inability to comprehend in what way 'most would call him foolish.' Comprehending other viewpoints and realizing personal misstep was how people learned and grew...right? If it was not, at least for him, then how did he move through the world and absorb information?
Aea looked at Alexandros, angling her body more in his direction now that the conversation had taken a sharp turn into a genuine direction. Alexandros could have been the purest soul in existence or the blackest, it mattered not. She would have still spoken with him on such things. To Aea, her disapproval of this man did not make him any less of a human that she could learn from. She had her own opinions, of course, but she was not inflexible. Her opinions could be changed if she were made to see things from a perspective outside of her own, so long as the second perspective was more rational than the primary.
Perhaps, even in this, she could see Alexandros’ actions as correct, though the logical pattern he gave her to follow and understand was quite illogical itself, mired in principle rather than pragmatism. She’d been wrong enough times in her life, however, to know it was foolish to write off a secondary reasoning so soon.
She crossed her arms and rested her elbow upon the fold, tapping her bottom lip in thought. “I think all people will have their opinions, but the one that should take precedence is your own. Now that you are away from the situation, do you think it was unwise, would you do it all over again in the same manner, or would you have done more?”
She’d already decided that Alexandros’ inability to grasp reasoning beyond his own was mired in his stubborn insistence on allowing the past to dictate the present. But that did not mean he could not learn from the experience, as she was currently learning.
Surely he had seen many battles, and she could assume he had won since he was still alive. In order to understand why a majority of people would see him as incorrect, Alexandros might benefit from observing the situation objectively and as if he were at war, for that was precisely what it was—open conflict. Aea, herself, liked theories of warfare very much, as much as she enjoyed ontology and mathematics.
Aea had not seen much of the world outside of her family, but she had observed the dynamic between them for almost two decades. There was a hierarchy among them, and at the top used to be her father. It was not because he was the biggest or the meanest, though both were certainly true, but because he was the one who had ensured their survival for all these years. Hektos may have seemed to the outside world to be nothing but a war-hardened brute, but he was shrewd. Gatheron might have been the thinker, but Hektos was the planner. It was the one who made the strategy that led their merry band of killers.
Aea knew all she knew of war from her father, who once had ambitions to become a Colchian captain himself. Although he once coveted the position that Alexandros now occupied, the two men were only similar in outward behavior. Likely their understanding of warfare was quite different.
Aea had a unique perspective, she supposed. The logical functions of her uncle and the knowledge of her father. Neither men had liked to listen to one another, but she had listened attentively to both. Some people were not so lucky as she was to have such context.
Hektos had said that when a unit was surrounded on all sides by the enemy, there were generally two options: advance and sacrifice one's forces, as many have done in the past, or retreat and return with a vengeance and a better strategy.
If one should charge ahead and sacrifice his men—as Alexandros had done—the reason behind such a maneuver would dictate whether his sacrifice was regaled in epic ballads or laughed about around his enemy’s cookfires.
Alexandros’ reason behind throwing his forces head-long into a wall of pikes was not to create a great diversion in order for the army to rally and flank, it was not because there was no other route, it was not because of anything except for pride. He did not sacrifice his forces for the army—which could stand for the greater good, the kingdom, anything outside of himself—he only did it because he could not think of a better way to fight for his pride outside of rushing his vanguard into a battle where he was greatly outnumbered. There had been a way to reroute his men and retreat to the bulk of the army so that he could fight another day, and yet still he charged into the vast enemy. Worse, he not only sacrificed his unit, but put the entire army—the kingdom—at risk due to his maneuver.
Nobody could fault him the need to defend his honor, and most people would want to do the same as he had. He could, however, be faulted for the foolish sacrifice of his unit when such a sacrifice served absolutely no purpose to anybody but himself.
Had he more allies in his campaign, he would have been more likely to succeed in his endeavors. However, he had stood alone, and so the question then became a comparison of motivation. Was his motivation—the thing he fought for—greater than the motivation of those who stood on a differing end?
Alexandros mentioned that Asia thought his actions stupid. Upon analysis of Asia’s part in the conflict, it was easy to see the disconnect between the captain and the princess.
Asia, it seemed, fought for the honor of the Marikas girl, and from what Aea heard, the good of Colchis as well. She sacrificed her forces upon Alexandros’, and she did so immediately because if she withdrew to fight another day, Alexandros might have said more and made another blow against her army—the kingdom—and weakening it in the process.
Alexandros was fighting for himself and putting the army at risk. Asia was fighting for the army and putting one unit—Alexandros' favor toward her—at risk.
When compared to Asia’s strategy, his position looked immoral. People were more likely to follow the commander who took to the field for the ‘right’ reasons, and leave behind the commander who appeared the villain.
It was no wonder there hadn’t been a single person to come to Alexandros’ defense. Anybody that might have called individualism over collectivism—at a peace dinner no less—were likely far too shrewd to say so in public.
Too short-sighted to see the bigger picture, Alexandros had executed impulsive tactics without a strategy. Likewise, seeing the bigger picture and yet ignoring the smaller details, Asia executed a strategy without tactics. Had the princess considered tactics, she might have pulled Alexandros outside to reason with him and allowed Vangelis to do what he intended to do without Alexandros present. Instead, she invited the scorn of a man who was clearly prideful, and incited him to talk himself deeper into a hole before all three kingdoms.
Or perhaps not. Perhaps there was a method to Asia's tactics that Aea could not see.
When one had a strategy but no tactics, they would be outmaneuvered by the enemy. When one had only tactics and no strategy, it was the quickest way to defeat. Alexandros had only tactics while Asia had a strategy with questionable tactics.
But there was one army that had both strategy and tactics—Panos of Marikas. He'd outmaneuvered Asia and pitted her against her friend, and he made Alexandros appear a villain to hide his own wicked threat.
He had threatened to deprive Colchians of food, and yet he had somehow made it look as if it were up to Alexandros whether Colchians became deprived. Panos had foisted the responsibility of keeping starvation away from Colchis upon the captain, and all the while it was actually the responsibility of the Marikas to keep political relations friendly.
Panos was cunning. Wicked, too, and that was perhaps the worst combination of things to be, at least for all others outside of Panos himself.
Of course, Alexandros had still been impulsive. He had the opportunity to position Panos as the one who was truly responsible for the real issue, and yet had been blind to it.
The way Aea was raised, if survival meant looking weak for the moment, then one would do it to survive long enough to obliterate the one that dared make such a threat. And if one led a group that thought a momentary, calculated surrender was weakness, either it is not a very smart group or the leader of said group did not generate enough trust for them to know better.
That Alexandros allowed others to see how easily he cast aside all of his sworn loyalties save for loyalty to himself made Vangelis, by association, seem incompetent and foolhardy in his choice of captain. He had, after all, told Panos that he would accept responsibility for Alexandros’ actions. That was the definition of defending him, and against his own blunder no less. Clearly Alexandros did not trust his superior’s momentary, calculated surrender. She wondered if it was because Alexandros was stupid, or if it was because he simply did not trust Vangelis to know what he was doing.
The fucked up part was that Alexandros' actions would not have been foolish or unreasonable at all if Panos had not dangled the threat of taking food from Colchis. Nobody would be questioning his fitness as a captain, or Vangelis' handle upon his military leaders, had it not been for Panos.
Before, Alexandros just seemed to be making a faux-pas that Aea could not quite understand outside of how it affected her cousin. Now, instead of just looking like a temperamental man, the introduction of depriving a nation of food made Alexandros seem incompetent. He displayed a short-sightedness more befitting of a foot soldier who never had to strategize, manage a unit upon a field of battle, or take other people’s wellbeing into consideration rather than a Colchian captain.
A military leader, as far as Aea knew, put their men and their nation before themselves. She suspected those that didn’t were either quite subtle about it, or they were not military leaders for long.
Aea was beginning to believe that the Athenian had meant for all of these things to appear as such, though she did not yet know how or why outside of somebody trying to bed his family member.
Had Panos been more of a man and less of a villain himself, he would have drawn his sword rather than gamble with the lives of hundreds of people. He was the one who took the issue to a different layer of complexity, when before it had only been a conflict among two individuals.
Perhaps if swords were allowed, the Marikas girl would have challenged Alexandros then and there and settled the issue before it was dragged to a more extreme place.
Fucking Athenians. They would rather use hundreds, if not thousands, of people as a shield than face a man with a sword. This particular Athenian was rather shrewd indeed. Alexandros had offended his family, and so with a single statement, Panos had compromised the captain's friendships, his career, and his public reputation without ever having to bloody himself.
Panos likely knew how a hot-blooded Colchian would respond. He played his hand with the intention of getting his way while making Alexandros look the villain, when really, the captain had only been used as a pawn by the real monster.
Had Alexandros been more concerned with more than his pride, had he been more strategic in the movement of his unit, he might have been able to turn the real issue—the threat of starvation over an insult—back upon the real enemy. He could have exposed Panos of Marikas as the heartless beast he was.
Then again, perhaps Aea was incorrect in all of her assumptions and was, in fact, the real idiot in this as she tried to understand behaviors and motivations far outside of her realm of understanding. She supposed she would see.
Most people did not like being told they were wrong from an objective perspective. Aea was willing to humor the idea that she was incorrect in her analysis, quite expected it to be so, and that meant she was able to learn quickly from those who were correct. She wondered if Alexandros was as open-minded. If he was, then he would be willing to discuss the idea. If not, then he would get defensive. This would be a test of the possible arrogance she identified earlier, and the results of such a test would lend further credence to her initial results.
That, and apparently even she had lines she would not cross, at least not yet. Perhaps she would be able to in the future, but she supposed that the divinity of idea was too precious a thing to sacrifice upon a lie.
“As to opinions, if you care for them, I think it all a matter of perspective. You were fighting for your pride, Asia was fighting for something other than your pride. How one sees the morality of your actions depend upon which value one holds in higher regard, and the soundness of your actions lay in whether one believes that your execution was the best possible choice. Deeper than that, I think, is the issue of why Asia felt the need to defend her nation against a man who only retained an insult, and why she felt her 'friend' was a direct threat to that. Your pride was not the issue, captain, nor was Panos'. Everyone should have pride in themselves, and brave men usually defend it, but perhaps some prices are too high. The hundreds, if not thousands of people who were threatened might agree that depriving them of food is far too costly. Especially when it is paid by people in such trusted positions as captain and master of law. However, you received the scorn, and not the man who made the threat to begin with. I have to wonder at why." She shrugged, "Then again, I am also inexperienced in such things and cannot know if my own assumptions are correct. People like to speculate that they might have taken a different route than the one you chose, or that their opinions are the only correct ones, or that they noticed something that nobody else did, but they cannot know until they are put into an identical situation, they are usually wrong in their subjectivity, and see things that are not actually there."
The mind loved nothing more than to protect the ego. Likely he would be offended by her candor, likely she was wrong, but if she was, then she would learn in what way by his answer, for that is what her mind thrived upon. She wanted to understand, to be able to come as close as she could to see through another set of eyes and experience the things he experienced.
As she saw it from the context of ignorant assumption based entirely upon observation, Alexandros had been angry that his pride was insulted, but not once did he get angry that Panos had threatened his countrymen. Whether it was out of true selfishness and disregard for the people, or whether he was that blinded by insult to his person, she did not know.
Slaves who worked the mines, washer women, infants at the breast—Alexandros had wagered the welfare of people who trusted him to fight for them so that they could, in turn, do their own duties to keep the kingdom functioning. Those people trusted him to defend them, and yet he never seemed bothered that the very things he was meant to protect had been threatened. He did not fight for them, only his vanity. Trust was sacred and he had broken it. The job of protecting others was important and he had not done his job. Aea could not see in what way his actions were justifiable once vulnerable people were introduced in the equation.
Had he kept his people in mind over himself, things might have gone quite differently in there. Taking everything into consideration, Aea could only arrive at two conclusions. Alexandros either was a stupid man, or he had deluded himself into thinking he was common-born.
And if he was a Colchian captain, it was unlikely he was stupid. He was just a privileged little boy who’d grown up as a privileged man in the arms of adoration and favoritism. He did not know what it meant to be hungry, to be betrayed, to trust somebody much larger and more powerful than yourself and hope that, this time, you could rely on them to keep you safe.
He only thought he knew disregard, but if he truly did, he would be able to see beyond himself and realize that he was so unconcerned with the lives of the Colchian people that he had completely forgotten them in the face his 'honor', just as Panos used them to guard his.
Ideas of warcraft theory aside, Aea was acutely aware that she was uneducated and ignorant. She would like to see someone live her life and see how well they prized their decency and pride after they arrived at the end of the road. If, in fact, they retained their sanity and functions enough to arrive in one piece to begin with. She, in turn, would like to see if she could experience another life and come out of it more or less alright.
It might be that if she saw things as Alexandros did, she would see how his wounded pride was more important than his threatened kingdom. Or, perhaps, his kingdom had never been at risk to begin with, and she had just observed something incorrectly because she did not know the complexities of politics.
What a fascinating, strange situation. She kept going deeper into their conversation, and though she had all she needed, still she kept going. Hoping she was wrong for Kaia’s sake perhaps, or maybe because she was just curious for her own sake at this point.
“Perhaps I did not catch your name spoken as Asia introduced you to most of the table, the hall is loud and so had my own conversations to attend to. It is customary to give at least one name to be called by when greeted or asked by your conversation partner, perhaps customs are different in Danmork than they are here, but I would still appreciate having something to call you,” Alexandros said.
Not playful then, and though she judged him flirtatious before, he either had no attraction to her, did not like to be withheld things, or he could somehow sense that something dangerous was near. Likely all three.
Had Aea valued her pride over the objective, she might have refused to tell him any name, real or otherwise. She did not like being made to do things according to the authority of a man who had not earned such regard, probably much like Alexandros did not like such things himself. The captain was not her father, and that had been the only man she’d ever truly listened to. Not even the king had earned her obedience; she would have left her blade in Asia’s room if he had.
But she was also not Alexandros, and she had no qualms with laying aside her pride in order to succeed in her purpose when physicality was not possible.
“I see my sense of humor has fallen flat once more. Call me Lilli. As to Kaia—” She gentled her smile to something he might find more comfortable. Meek and easily aquisised. “She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
“I am glad that Kaia was able to assist you. You would be wrong there, I watched you enter the hall with Asia and her brother, I saw your introductions to several rather important people, and I saw you sit down, perhaps you failed to notice that several of my smiles pointed directly to you. I was not able to hear your name, and had not had the time to introduce myself until now,” Alexandros said.
Now here was something interesting. She thought him honest, and yet here he lied. Could one be honest and a liar?
Very little escaped Aea’s notice when she was as on edge as she had been inside of the chamber. She’d looked ahead a number of times at various things upon the table, over his shoulder, near his general vicinity, and each time he had been engrossed in talking. The only time he might have smiled at her is if he were smiling at her profile, which would be odd.
She was not the unobservant one here, he was, and he was creating a fabrication just to ensure that she did not...what? Feel offended? Why would she? Was it so he did not have to acknowledge that he did not, in fact, notice something? Was it necessary for Aea to take the responsibility for not noticing, thereby making him look right and her wrong while indeed the opposite was true, and all the while convincing her that the reality she knew was not what happened?
It was possible that she'd been so flustered by Yiannis that she'd just stared at Alexandros without truly seeing him, but it was not probable. The fact that she was so flustered by the prince would have made her more aware of her surroundings, and the people in it. That is why she had been so fixated upon Rene and Ophelia at the Peace Festival—she had been scared, and when she was scared, she focused on the things and people around her to a painfully sharp degree, her body ready to fight or bolt, her mind assessing everything for signs of aggression.
The prince might have flustered her, but not in the way Alexandros suggested. Stress made her more focused, not less. It was when she was relaxed that she was likely to miss things—that was, after all, how she'd missed him talking to Kaia at the Dionysia. And even someone as charming and handsome as Yiannis could not fluster her so much that her anxiety triggered a different bodily reaction where she was unaware or easily distracted.
No. Alexandros' little tricks might work on people who did not experience such manipulative tactics before, but they would not work on her. It was a nice try, though.
“I see,” Aea shrugged. “I was apparently sufficiently distracted. I do apologize for not noticing.”
It occurred to her then that she was, in fact, rather relaxed now. Angry, but relaxed. She felt no fear of this man, and so she was not paying attention to her surroundings. The hairs on the back of her next raised and she had the urge to look behind her, but she didn't.
“I hate to be nosey.” She hopped upon the stone railing and faced him, forcefully quashing her natural instinct to check a second time that there were no threats nearby. “But I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
Alexandros frowned and did not immediately answer. When he did, he sounded more thoughtful than not. “Kaia is a lover, perhaps the best I have ever been with. I’m not sure what I want her to be to me, nor what she wants me to be for her, but I do know that I want to keep her close. As for the Marikas girl from tonight, while perhaps at first I had thought to flirt and try my hand at wooing her, her immediate response was to insult me, to call me little more than a tool. So, I decided to have some fun, to break that little sheltered, privileged shell right off of her, and expose the soft, scared girl underneath. It would have worked too, if that bastard hadn’t shown up.”
Aea was, at first, surprised by his answer. She had not been expecting him to share his enjoyment of his and Kaia's activities. Less surprising was that he was manipulative and sadistic, and that he was not as sure of his affections as Kaia was, so Aea focused on those ideas instead.
Aea propped her elbow on her knee and her chin in her palm, her attention riveted to him as she listened, not at all fabricating her interest in his wicked nature. Darkness was, after all, intriguing. Forbidden and unknown. Such things had always fascinated mortals, and she was no exception. She was, however, perhaps more familiar with it than he was, as was apparent by his honesty. Fascinating as it was, Kaia deserved warmth and gentleness, and she would not get that with this man.
Kaia had been toying with the idea of marrying Alexandros, while Alexandros did not know what he wanted Kaia to be to him. This had been clear in his attempted seduction of the Marikas girl which had, indeed, been the initial action that began the issues in the chamber. He reared at the slightest insult, but enjoyed hurting others, which meant that his injury of Kaia was likely intentional, just as Aea had first assumed.
He was playing some sort of mind game on Aea’s cousin, but it would not work. Even if Aea were not present to watch her cousin’s back, Kaia was far too intelligent and valued herself too highly to fall for the same tricks her uncles had used on them since they were children.
Apparently, though, Alexandros considered Kaia the best lover he'd ever had. He had been mostly honest thus far, and so there was no reason for him to be dishonest now. Aea considered this new notion. She had less contextual knowledge of intimacy than she had of violence, which left her without knowing how to interpret such a claim. Kaia only had one lover before Alexandros, while Aea assumed Alexandros had far more. What could Kaia have done to be the best lover he'd ever had?
She could not even begin to guess—according to Merdia the Whore and every pair of goats Aea had seen, sex was something you did when you liked somebody enough to waste time on them. Physically, it was a rather simple series of actions that felt nice enough to go out of one's way to do every once in a while. One mounted, wiggled about, then stopped once one tired of it. There did not seem to be many things one could do to endear another to them upon a shifting scale of quality. Perhaps it was not what Kaia did, but how it made him...feel? What did that mean, then?
She wanted to ask, but bit down on the impulse. That was none of her business, and it didn't matter in any case. Her concern was not how sex made people feel, her concern was with making sure sex with her cousin did not end in her cousin being hurt.
"Ah, I see. My mistake, then. I did not mean to intrude into your intimate life," she said, willing away the dozens of questions she had. She would ask Kaia when Kaia was over her hurt.
"However, I’ve not met many who enjoy cruelty to such a degree that breaking minds could be considered a ‘fun’ pastime. I would tell you to try your hand at breaking me open, but I’m quite tender-hearted and would surely begin sobbing, which would be counterproductive to my own intentions,” Aea quipped. He wouldn't find anything she did not want him to find anyway.
She tired of this game. And so, deciding that she would quit fattening herself on self-indulgence, Aea crossed her legs and dropped her charade. When next she spoke, it was without an accent. “I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
She did not smile or otherwise display any smugness, for she was not smug. Lying to people was not something she enjoyed, but very rarely was she allowed to be honest in her home life. Here, in the world of civilized people, her honesty would see her arrested at best. An asshole Alexandros may be, but she could admire that he was at least a mostly forthcoming one. She'd gotten what she wanted, and now she would be honest too. A heavy weight was shed off her shoulders at the prospect.
She assumed he would get angry at being tricked. Most people did not appreciate it. Let him. He would find poor sport in her, for she was neither hot-headed nor temperamental when insulted—she was used to it. If he wanted to hit her, she welcomed his fury, for she was used to that as well. It would be a foolish decision, but he was welcome to it all the same. If he was lucky, he'd be walking back into the chamber with a broken nose if he earned it. Now that she was being honest, she would not hold herself back if he would not.
Aea would take no pleasure in telling her cousin everything that she learned. Not the least of which was that Alexandros believed Kaia's primarily identifiable trait to be her skill in the bedroom—and that he identified her as such to strangers. Kaia, who had once been very hurt at the idea that she would make a successful whore, would seethe at Alexandros’ assertion. Kaia did not care how much he enjoyed her body or her face. Kaia cared whether he valued her for the things that couldn’t be seen or touched. Her kindness, her consideration, her skill, her determination—none of the things that had been summarized to describe her.
It would anger her, and it would hurt her, but the truth was never comfortable or warm.
“I believe he truly meant to compare himself to the gods and imply he should be treated as they are. Such arrogance, I do not know your beliefs or how devout you are, but surely the gods you worship must frown on such behavior as well?”
Aea did not actually know the northmen’s position on such things, as she’d never seen it done, but she knew enough of their religion and practices to make a guess. “Kneeling is considered either the highest form of gratitude or the lowest form of submission. We believe our gods are in everything, part of the world just as the rocks and the trees, part of us. When we pay tribute, we do not kneel, for we would be kneeling as much to ourselves as them if that were the case. However, we do kneel to mortals who earn our greatest respect. And on the opposing end, of course, slaves kneel when appealing to their masters.”
She shrugged, “In any case, I think both of our customs would dictate that he should not expect such a thing from you in the literal sense.”
It was pertinent to shift the conversation away from kneeling to Panos of Marikas. Aea would rather have Alexandros’ calm rationality than his irritation for now; it was far more difficult to loosen a tongue when it was caged by bared fangs, and it would do Kaia no favors to have to face an enraged boar while she was still so raw.
Aea pulled his mind further from the dinner and into the night air by using the easiest and most elementary method she knew of—flattery. Used wisely, it could sometimes even calm her father’s foul mood.
She allowed Cassero’s silver tongue to fuel and inspire her, and Alexandros responded as she’d hoped, his attention moving further away from the chamber and deeper into the world outside of it.
“Thank you, those are kind words to describe something most would call foolish or stupid. Our mutual friend Asia seemed to think it was solely stupid. For my part, I was insulted, and the way I was raised, if a man took insults without response or drawing blood he was seen as weak, especially those who led men,” he said.
Aea nodded, looking straight ahead at the doors they came through as she thought. He was like her, then. The way he was raised had a lasting and damaging effect upon him when among others. She, at least, did not like that she was so influenced by her childhood. She just did not know how to change it and even if she did, changing it would have negative consequences on her chances of survival now.
If she did not live as she lived, if she lived among civilization, she would have to adapt and open herself to learning a new way of living. If she didn’t, she would make herself miserable with suspicion and presumption that everyone was out to end her life. This much was clear by the way all the civilized people she’d seen behaved as if death was the furthest thing from their mind, Asia being the most recent example.
If Alexandros had been raised to defend his honor, had he also been raised to do so at the cost of all else? And if so, did such lessons serve him now in the same way they used to?
“I understand. Truly. The way we were raised seems to be the determining factor on how we act as adults, and although I wouldn't presume to know how you feel on the matter, at least for me, it can be a source of great issue when among others.” She was raised to trust nobody, and to kill anybody who could possibly hurt her or her family first. Likely why she wanted to kill Alexandros now. Had she been two years younger, she might have already, but she'd learned enough to know better than to act so quickly now.
Besides, it gave her ample time to learn and explore differing viewpoints in the process. Alexandros' was a new and interesting one, for it was very different from her own.
Aea could understand his need to defend his pride, but what she could not understand was his inability to comprehend in what way 'most would call him foolish.' Comprehending other viewpoints and realizing personal misstep was how people learned and grew...right? If it was not, at least for him, then how did he move through the world and absorb information?
Aea looked at Alexandros, angling her body more in his direction now that the conversation had taken a sharp turn into a genuine direction. Alexandros could have been the purest soul in existence or the blackest, it mattered not. She would have still spoken with him on such things. To Aea, her disapproval of this man did not make him any less of a human that she could learn from. She had her own opinions, of course, but she was not inflexible. Her opinions could be changed if she were made to see things from a perspective outside of her own, so long as the second perspective was more rational than the primary.
Perhaps, even in this, she could see Alexandros’ actions as correct, though the logical pattern he gave her to follow and understand was quite illogical itself, mired in principle rather than pragmatism. She’d been wrong enough times in her life, however, to know it was foolish to write off a secondary reasoning so soon.
She crossed her arms and rested her elbow upon the fold, tapping her bottom lip in thought. “I think all people will have their opinions, but the one that should take precedence is your own. Now that you are away from the situation, do you think it was unwise, would you do it all over again in the same manner, or would you have done more?”
She’d already decided that Alexandros’ inability to grasp reasoning beyond his own was mired in his stubborn insistence on allowing the past to dictate the present. But that did not mean he could not learn from the experience, as she was currently learning.
Surely he had seen many battles, and she could assume he had won since he was still alive. In order to understand why a majority of people would see him as incorrect, Alexandros might benefit from observing the situation objectively and as if he were at war, for that was precisely what it was—open conflict. Aea, herself, liked theories of warfare very much, as much as she enjoyed ontology and mathematics.
Aea had not seen much of the world outside of her family, but she had observed the dynamic between them for almost two decades. There was a hierarchy among them, and at the top used to be her father. It was not because he was the biggest or the meanest, though both were certainly true, but because he was the one who had ensured their survival for all these years. Hektos may have seemed to the outside world to be nothing but a war-hardened brute, but he was shrewd. Gatheron might have been the thinker, but Hektos was the planner. It was the one who made the strategy that led their merry band of killers.
Aea knew all she knew of war from her father, who once had ambitions to become a Colchian captain himself. Although he once coveted the position that Alexandros now occupied, the two men were only similar in outward behavior. Likely their understanding of warfare was quite different.
Aea had a unique perspective, she supposed. The logical functions of her uncle and the knowledge of her father. Neither men had liked to listen to one another, but she had listened attentively to both. Some people were not so lucky as she was to have such context.
Hektos had said that when a unit was surrounded on all sides by the enemy, there were generally two options: advance and sacrifice one's forces, as many have done in the past, or retreat and return with a vengeance and a better strategy.
If one should charge ahead and sacrifice his men—as Alexandros had done—the reason behind such a maneuver would dictate whether his sacrifice was regaled in epic ballads or laughed about around his enemy’s cookfires.
Alexandros’ reason behind throwing his forces head-long into a wall of pikes was not to create a great diversion in order for the army to rally and flank, it was not because there was no other route, it was not because of anything except for pride. He did not sacrifice his forces for the army—which could stand for the greater good, the kingdom, anything outside of himself—he only did it because he could not think of a better way to fight for his pride outside of rushing his vanguard into a battle where he was greatly outnumbered. There had been a way to reroute his men and retreat to the bulk of the army so that he could fight another day, and yet still he charged into the vast enemy. Worse, he not only sacrificed his unit, but put the entire army—the kingdom—at risk due to his maneuver.
Nobody could fault him the need to defend his honor, and most people would want to do the same as he had. He could, however, be faulted for the foolish sacrifice of his unit when such a sacrifice served absolutely no purpose to anybody but himself.
Had he more allies in his campaign, he would have been more likely to succeed in his endeavors. However, he had stood alone, and so the question then became a comparison of motivation. Was his motivation—the thing he fought for—greater than the motivation of those who stood on a differing end?
Alexandros mentioned that Asia thought his actions stupid. Upon analysis of Asia’s part in the conflict, it was easy to see the disconnect between the captain and the princess.
Asia, it seemed, fought for the honor of the Marikas girl, and from what Aea heard, the good of Colchis as well. She sacrificed her forces upon Alexandros’, and she did so immediately because if she withdrew to fight another day, Alexandros might have said more and made another blow against her army—the kingdom—and weakening it in the process.
Alexandros was fighting for himself and putting the army at risk. Asia was fighting for the army and putting one unit—Alexandros' favor toward her—at risk.
When compared to Asia’s strategy, his position looked immoral. People were more likely to follow the commander who took to the field for the ‘right’ reasons, and leave behind the commander who appeared the villain.
It was no wonder there hadn’t been a single person to come to Alexandros’ defense. Anybody that might have called individualism over collectivism—at a peace dinner no less—were likely far too shrewd to say so in public.
Too short-sighted to see the bigger picture, Alexandros had executed impulsive tactics without a strategy. Likewise, seeing the bigger picture and yet ignoring the smaller details, Asia executed a strategy without tactics. Had the princess considered tactics, she might have pulled Alexandros outside to reason with him and allowed Vangelis to do what he intended to do without Alexandros present. Instead, she invited the scorn of a man who was clearly prideful, and incited him to talk himself deeper into a hole before all three kingdoms.
Or perhaps not. Perhaps there was a method to Asia's tactics that Aea could not see.
When one had a strategy but no tactics, they would be outmaneuvered by the enemy. When one had only tactics and no strategy, it was the quickest way to defeat. Alexandros had only tactics while Asia had a strategy with questionable tactics.
But there was one army that had both strategy and tactics—Panos of Marikas. He'd outmaneuvered Asia and pitted her against her friend, and he made Alexandros appear a villain to hide his own wicked threat.
He had threatened to deprive Colchians of food, and yet he had somehow made it look as if it were up to Alexandros whether Colchians became deprived. Panos had foisted the responsibility of keeping starvation away from Colchis upon the captain, and all the while it was actually the responsibility of the Marikas to keep political relations friendly.
Panos was cunning. Wicked, too, and that was perhaps the worst combination of things to be, at least for all others outside of Panos himself.
Of course, Alexandros had still been impulsive. He had the opportunity to position Panos as the one who was truly responsible for the real issue, and yet had been blind to it.
The way Aea was raised, if survival meant looking weak for the moment, then one would do it to survive long enough to obliterate the one that dared make such a threat. And if one led a group that thought a momentary, calculated surrender was weakness, either it is not a very smart group or the leader of said group did not generate enough trust for them to know better.
That Alexandros allowed others to see how easily he cast aside all of his sworn loyalties save for loyalty to himself made Vangelis, by association, seem incompetent and foolhardy in his choice of captain. He had, after all, told Panos that he would accept responsibility for Alexandros’ actions. That was the definition of defending him, and against his own blunder no less. Clearly Alexandros did not trust his superior’s momentary, calculated surrender. She wondered if it was because Alexandros was stupid, or if it was because he simply did not trust Vangelis to know what he was doing.
The fucked up part was that Alexandros' actions would not have been foolish or unreasonable at all if Panos had not dangled the threat of taking food from Colchis. Nobody would be questioning his fitness as a captain, or Vangelis' handle upon his military leaders, had it not been for Panos.
Before, Alexandros just seemed to be making a faux-pas that Aea could not quite understand outside of how it affected her cousin. Now, instead of just looking like a temperamental man, the introduction of depriving a nation of food made Alexandros seem incompetent. He displayed a short-sightedness more befitting of a foot soldier who never had to strategize, manage a unit upon a field of battle, or take other people’s wellbeing into consideration rather than a Colchian captain.
A military leader, as far as Aea knew, put their men and their nation before themselves. She suspected those that didn’t were either quite subtle about it, or they were not military leaders for long.
Aea was beginning to believe that the Athenian had meant for all of these things to appear as such, though she did not yet know how or why outside of somebody trying to bed his family member.
Had Panos been more of a man and less of a villain himself, he would have drawn his sword rather than gamble with the lives of hundreds of people. He was the one who took the issue to a different layer of complexity, when before it had only been a conflict among two individuals.
Perhaps if swords were allowed, the Marikas girl would have challenged Alexandros then and there and settled the issue before it was dragged to a more extreme place.
Fucking Athenians. They would rather use hundreds, if not thousands, of people as a shield than face a man with a sword. This particular Athenian was rather shrewd indeed. Alexandros had offended his family, and so with a single statement, Panos had compromised the captain's friendships, his career, and his public reputation without ever having to bloody himself.
Panos likely knew how a hot-blooded Colchian would respond. He played his hand with the intention of getting his way while making Alexandros look the villain, when really, the captain had only been used as a pawn by the real monster.
Had Alexandros been more concerned with more than his pride, had he been more strategic in the movement of his unit, he might have been able to turn the real issue—the threat of starvation over an insult—back upon the real enemy. He could have exposed Panos of Marikas as the heartless beast he was.
Then again, perhaps Aea was incorrect in all of her assumptions and was, in fact, the real idiot in this as she tried to understand behaviors and motivations far outside of her realm of understanding. She supposed she would see.
Most people did not like being told they were wrong from an objective perspective. Aea was willing to humor the idea that she was incorrect in her analysis, quite expected it to be so, and that meant she was able to learn quickly from those who were correct. She wondered if Alexandros was as open-minded. If he was, then he would be willing to discuss the idea. If not, then he would get defensive. This would be a test of the possible arrogance she identified earlier, and the results of such a test would lend further credence to her initial results.
That, and apparently even she had lines she would not cross, at least not yet. Perhaps she would be able to in the future, but she supposed that the divinity of idea was too precious a thing to sacrifice upon a lie.
“As to opinions, if you care for them, I think it all a matter of perspective. You were fighting for your pride, Asia was fighting for something other than your pride. How one sees the morality of your actions depend upon which value one holds in higher regard, and the soundness of your actions lay in whether one believes that your execution was the best possible choice. Deeper than that, I think, is the issue of why Asia felt the need to defend her nation against a man who only retained an insult, and why she felt her 'friend' was a direct threat to that. Your pride was not the issue, captain, nor was Panos'. Everyone should have pride in themselves, and brave men usually defend it, but perhaps some prices are too high. The hundreds, if not thousands of people who were threatened might agree that depriving them of food is far too costly. Especially when it is paid by people in such trusted positions as captain and master of law. However, you received the scorn, and not the man who made the threat to begin with. I have to wonder at why." She shrugged, "Then again, I am also inexperienced in such things and cannot know if my own assumptions are correct. People like to speculate that they might have taken a different route than the one you chose, or that their opinions are the only correct ones, or that they noticed something that nobody else did, but they cannot know until they are put into an identical situation, they are usually wrong in their subjectivity, and see things that are not actually there."
The mind loved nothing more than to protect the ego. Likely he would be offended by her candor, likely she was wrong, but if she was, then she would learn in what way by his answer, for that is what her mind thrived upon. She wanted to understand, to be able to come as close as she could to see through another set of eyes and experience the things he experienced.
As she saw it from the context of ignorant assumption based entirely upon observation, Alexandros had been angry that his pride was insulted, but not once did he get angry that Panos had threatened his countrymen. Whether it was out of true selfishness and disregard for the people, or whether he was that blinded by insult to his person, she did not know.
Slaves who worked the mines, washer women, infants at the breast—Alexandros had wagered the welfare of people who trusted him to fight for them so that they could, in turn, do their own duties to keep the kingdom functioning. Those people trusted him to defend them, and yet he never seemed bothered that the very things he was meant to protect had been threatened. He did not fight for them, only his vanity. Trust was sacred and he had broken it. The job of protecting others was important and he had not done his job. Aea could not see in what way his actions were justifiable once vulnerable people were introduced in the equation.
Had he kept his people in mind over himself, things might have gone quite differently in there. Taking everything into consideration, Aea could only arrive at two conclusions. Alexandros either was a stupid man, or he had deluded himself into thinking he was common-born.
And if he was a Colchian captain, it was unlikely he was stupid. He was just a privileged little boy who’d grown up as a privileged man in the arms of adoration and favoritism. He did not know what it meant to be hungry, to be betrayed, to trust somebody much larger and more powerful than yourself and hope that, this time, you could rely on them to keep you safe.
He only thought he knew disregard, but if he truly did, he would be able to see beyond himself and realize that he was so unconcerned with the lives of the Colchian people that he had completely forgotten them in the face his 'honor', just as Panos used them to guard his.
Ideas of warcraft theory aside, Aea was acutely aware that she was uneducated and ignorant. She would like to see someone live her life and see how well they prized their decency and pride after they arrived at the end of the road. If, in fact, they retained their sanity and functions enough to arrive in one piece to begin with. She, in turn, would like to see if she could experience another life and come out of it more or less alright.
It might be that if she saw things as Alexandros did, she would see how his wounded pride was more important than his threatened kingdom. Or, perhaps, his kingdom had never been at risk to begin with, and she had just observed something incorrectly because she did not know the complexities of politics.
What a fascinating, strange situation. She kept going deeper into their conversation, and though she had all she needed, still she kept going. Hoping she was wrong for Kaia’s sake perhaps, or maybe because she was just curious for her own sake at this point.
“Perhaps I did not catch your name spoken as Asia introduced you to most of the table, the hall is loud and so had my own conversations to attend to. It is customary to give at least one name to be called by when greeted or asked by your conversation partner, perhaps customs are different in Danmork than they are here, but I would still appreciate having something to call you,” Alexandros said.
Not playful then, and though she judged him flirtatious before, he either had no attraction to her, did not like to be withheld things, or he could somehow sense that something dangerous was near. Likely all three.
Had Aea valued her pride over the objective, she might have refused to tell him any name, real or otherwise. She did not like being made to do things according to the authority of a man who had not earned such regard, probably much like Alexandros did not like such things himself. The captain was not her father, and that had been the only man she’d ever truly listened to. Not even the king had earned her obedience; she would have left her blade in Asia’s room if he had.
But she was also not Alexandros, and she had no qualms with laying aside her pride in order to succeed in her purpose when physicality was not possible.
“I see my sense of humor has fallen flat once more. Call me Lilli. As to Kaia—” She gentled her smile to something he might find more comfortable. Meek and easily aquisised. “She helped me find the washroom and sat with me until my stomach settled. She asked me—rather enthusiastically—to deliver her message when I returned to my seat, which was conveniently across from your own, though if you did not notice my name, I suspect you did not notice that I was across from you either.”
“I am glad that Kaia was able to assist you. You would be wrong there, I watched you enter the hall with Asia and her brother, I saw your introductions to several rather important people, and I saw you sit down, perhaps you failed to notice that several of my smiles pointed directly to you. I was not able to hear your name, and had not had the time to introduce myself until now,” Alexandros said.
Now here was something interesting. She thought him honest, and yet here he lied. Could one be honest and a liar?
Very little escaped Aea’s notice when she was as on edge as she had been inside of the chamber. She’d looked ahead a number of times at various things upon the table, over his shoulder, near his general vicinity, and each time he had been engrossed in talking. The only time he might have smiled at her is if he were smiling at her profile, which would be odd.
She was not the unobservant one here, he was, and he was creating a fabrication just to ensure that she did not...what? Feel offended? Why would she? Was it so he did not have to acknowledge that he did not, in fact, notice something? Was it necessary for Aea to take the responsibility for not noticing, thereby making him look right and her wrong while indeed the opposite was true, and all the while convincing her that the reality she knew was not what happened?
It was possible that she'd been so flustered by Yiannis that she'd just stared at Alexandros without truly seeing him, but it was not probable. The fact that she was so flustered by the prince would have made her more aware of her surroundings, and the people in it. That is why she had been so fixated upon Rene and Ophelia at the Peace Festival—she had been scared, and when she was scared, she focused on the things and people around her to a painfully sharp degree, her body ready to fight or bolt, her mind assessing everything for signs of aggression.
The prince might have flustered her, but not in the way Alexandros suggested. Stress made her more focused, not less. It was when she was relaxed that she was likely to miss things—that was, after all, how she'd missed him talking to Kaia at the Dionysia. And even someone as charming and handsome as Yiannis could not fluster her so much that her anxiety triggered a different bodily reaction where she was unaware or easily distracted.
No. Alexandros' little tricks might work on people who did not experience such manipulative tactics before, but they would not work on her. It was a nice try, though.
“I see,” Aea shrugged. “I was apparently sufficiently distracted. I do apologize for not noticing.”
It occurred to her then that she was, in fact, rather relaxed now. Angry, but relaxed. She felt no fear of this man, and so she was not paying attention to her surroundings. The hairs on the back of her next raised and she had the urge to look behind her, but she didn't.
“I hate to be nosey.” She hopped upon the stone railing and faced him, forcefully quashing her natural instinct to check a second time that there were no threats nearby. “But I cannot help wondering who this mysterious Kaia is. I thought perhaps a lover, but you seemed taken by the woman beside you. A relation, perhaps?”
Alexandros frowned and did not immediately answer. When he did, he sounded more thoughtful than not. “Kaia is a lover, perhaps the best I have ever been with. I’m not sure what I want her to be to me, nor what she wants me to be for her, but I do know that I want to keep her close. As for the Marikas girl from tonight, while perhaps at first I had thought to flirt and try my hand at wooing her, her immediate response was to insult me, to call me little more than a tool. So, I decided to have some fun, to break that little sheltered, privileged shell right off of her, and expose the soft, scared girl underneath. It would have worked too, if that bastard hadn’t shown up.”
Aea was, at first, surprised by his answer. She had not been expecting him to share his enjoyment of his and Kaia's activities. Less surprising was that he was manipulative and sadistic, and that he was not as sure of his affections as Kaia was, so Aea focused on those ideas instead.
Aea propped her elbow on her knee and her chin in her palm, her attention riveted to him as she listened, not at all fabricating her interest in his wicked nature. Darkness was, after all, intriguing. Forbidden and unknown. Such things had always fascinated mortals, and she was no exception. She was, however, perhaps more familiar with it than he was, as was apparent by his honesty. Fascinating as it was, Kaia deserved warmth and gentleness, and she would not get that with this man.
Kaia had been toying with the idea of marrying Alexandros, while Alexandros did not know what he wanted Kaia to be to him. This had been clear in his attempted seduction of the Marikas girl which had, indeed, been the initial action that began the issues in the chamber. He reared at the slightest insult, but enjoyed hurting others, which meant that his injury of Kaia was likely intentional, just as Aea had first assumed.
He was playing some sort of mind game on Aea’s cousin, but it would not work. Even if Aea were not present to watch her cousin’s back, Kaia was far too intelligent and valued herself too highly to fall for the same tricks her uncles had used on them since they were children.
Apparently, though, Alexandros considered Kaia the best lover he'd ever had. He had been mostly honest thus far, and so there was no reason for him to be dishonest now. Aea considered this new notion. She had less contextual knowledge of intimacy than she had of violence, which left her without knowing how to interpret such a claim. Kaia only had one lover before Alexandros, while Aea assumed Alexandros had far more. What could Kaia have done to be the best lover he'd ever had?
She could not even begin to guess—according to Merdia the Whore and every pair of goats Aea had seen, sex was something you did when you liked somebody enough to waste time on them. Physically, it was a rather simple series of actions that felt nice enough to go out of one's way to do every once in a while. One mounted, wiggled about, then stopped once one tired of it. There did not seem to be many things one could do to endear another to them upon a shifting scale of quality. Perhaps it was not what Kaia did, but how it made him...feel? What did that mean, then?
She wanted to ask, but bit down on the impulse. That was none of her business, and it didn't matter in any case. Her concern was not how sex made people feel, her concern was with making sure sex with her cousin did not end in her cousin being hurt.
"Ah, I see. My mistake, then. I did not mean to intrude into your intimate life," she said, willing away the dozens of questions she had. She would ask Kaia when Kaia was over her hurt.
"However, I’ve not met many who enjoy cruelty to such a degree that breaking minds could be considered a ‘fun’ pastime. I would tell you to try your hand at breaking me open, but I’m quite tender-hearted and would surely begin sobbing, which would be counterproductive to my own intentions,” Aea quipped. He wouldn't find anything she did not want him to find anyway.
She tired of this game. And so, deciding that she would quit fattening herself on self-indulgence, Aea crossed her legs and dropped her charade. When next she spoke, it was without an accent. “I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
She did not smile or otherwise display any smugness, for she was not smug. Lying to people was not something she enjoyed, but very rarely was she allowed to be honest in her home life. Here, in the world of civilized people, her honesty would see her arrested at best. An asshole Alexandros may be, but she could admire that he was at least a mostly forthcoming one. She'd gotten what she wanted, and now she would be honest too. A heavy weight was shed off her shoulders at the prospect.
She assumed he would get angry at being tricked. Most people did not appreciate it. Let him. He would find poor sport in her, for she was neither hot-headed nor temperamental when insulted—she was used to it. If he wanted to hit her, she welcomed his fury, for she was used to that as well. It would be a foolish decision, but he was welcome to it all the same. If he was lucky, he'd be walking back into the chamber with a broken nose if he earned it. Now that she was being honest, she would not hold herself back if he would not.
Aea would take no pleasure in telling her cousin everything that she learned. Not the least of which was that Alexandros believed Kaia's primarily identifiable trait to be her skill in the bedroom—and that he identified her as such to strangers. Kaia, who had once been very hurt at the idea that she would make a successful whore, would seethe at Alexandros’ assertion. Kaia did not care how much he enjoyed her body or her face. Kaia cared whether he valued her for the things that couldn’t be seen or touched. Her kindness, her consideration, her skill, her determination—none of the things that had been summarized to describe her.
It would anger her, and it would hurt her, but the truth was never comfortable or warm.
“Kneeling is considered either the highest form of gratitude or the lowest form of submission. We believe our gods are in everything, part of the world just as the rocks and the trees, part of us. When we pay tribute, we do not kneel, for we would be kneeling as much to ourselves as them if that were the case. However, we do kneel to mortals who earn our greatest respect. And on the opposing end, of course, slaves kneel when appealing to their masters.” She shrugged, “In any case, I think both of our customs would dictate that he should not expect such a thing from you in the literal sense.”
The young man took in her words, fascinated by the differences in their cultures and beliefs. “In my mother’s culture, the priests and the rulers are to be treated as gods because they speak for the gods. It is fascinating how different peoples come to such differing beliefs about what is appropriate behavior and what is not, wouldn’t you agree? In any case, I reserve my kneeling for my prayers and will not kneel at any other time, and I will oppose any man who thinks to force me to kneel before him.” Alexandros said with resolve of steel, more for his own benefit than for hers.
“I understand. Truly. The way we were raised seems to be the determining factor on how we act as adults, and although I wouldn't presume to know how you feel on the matter, at least for me, it can be a source of great issue when among others.”
He nodded as she spoke. “There is merit to your words, but the only difference I would want from my upbringing would be more time with my mother.” His hand absentmindedly traced the scar across his chest as he thought of her. His failings rushing to the forefront of his mind. He paused as he recollected his thoughts and continued. “The lessons my father taught me, and what I learned from watching him are all things that I wouldn’t have any other way. They made me the man and warrior I am today.”
“I think all people will have their opinions, but the one that should take precedence is your own. Now that you are away from the situation, do you think it was unwise, would you do it all over again in the same manner, or would you have done more?”
He frowned for a moment, thinking of all that had occurred. “Perhaps I would have sat elsewhere, had I known what would come. After I was seated, then I don’t think I would have acted any different. I said hello to the girl, was insulted, returned her insults in kind, then was rudely interrupted and insulted by that man. I don’t see anything that would change if I had it all to do over again. I have to stand my ground, and never waiver to show that I belong, to prove that I am better than those who merely hold a position based on their birth. Every moment is a fight for survival.” He said, hoping that his explanation would help her to understand why he wouldn’t change his actions.
“As to opinions, if you care for them, I think it all a matter of perspective. You were fighting for your pride, Asia was fighting for something other than your pride. How one sees the morality of your actions depend upon which value one holds in higher regard, and the soundness of your actions lay in whether one believes that your execution was the best possible choice. Deeper than that, I think, is the issue of why Asia felt the need to defend her nation against a man who only retained an insult, and why she felt her 'friend' was a direct threat to that. Your pride was not the issue, captain, nor was Panos'. Everyone should have pride in themselves, and brave men usually defend it, but perhaps some prices are too high. The hundreds, if not thousands of people who were threatened might agree that depriving them of food is far too costly. Especially when it is paid by people in such trusted positions as captain and master of law. However, you received the scorn, and not the man who made the threat to begin with. I have to wonder at why." She shrugged, "Then again, I am also inexperienced in such things and cannot know if my own assumptions are correct. People like to speculate that they might have taken a different route than the one you chose, or that their opinions are the only correct ones, or that they noticed something that nobody else did, but they cannot know until they are put into an identical situation, they are usually wrong in their subjectivity, and see things that are not actually there."
The young officer took in the monologue as he leaned against the stonewall of the porch. It was clear to him, that she failed to understand why he acted in such a way and why he could not afford to back down from the challenge no matter the threat. “My father was a great warrior and a great man. He led mercenaries from before I was born until his death, and, despite his skill and charisma, he was nothing more than a tool to the royals and nobles that hired him. He was born common and thus could be nothing more. When he died, he left nothing more than a chest of possessions, a tent, and some drachmae. A lifetime of war, a lifetime of glory, and yet nothing to show for it. I will not go out the same way. There will be an impact left by life. I will scrape, claw, bite, and fight until I earn a place that no one can ignore. That is why I stood up to that man. One whose ancestors surely did great things so that he no longer has to work. That man is the antithesis of what I am and what I stand for. I will fight against those like him for as long as I live. He insulted me, threatened the people of the kingdom I love, and someday he will pay in blood for that, I swear it.” Alexandros explained, perhaps she would see his reasoning for everything that had happened.
Finally she gave her name, and then spoke of her humor falling flat. He frowned, he had not realized it had been a tease. “I’m sorry, I did not see the humor. I am usually much more jovial than this. Tonight has been rather stressful, as you surely can understand. I hope to someday see you again when I am more myself.” He said in apology.
"However, I’ve not met many who enjoy cruelty to such a degree that breaking minds could be considered a ‘fun’ pastime. I would tell you to try your hand at breaking me open, but I’m quite tender-hearted and would surely begin sobbing, which would be counterproductive to my own intentions,”
He looked her over, from top to bottom. Inspecting her as he thought about what she said. “Most don’t, and I don’t typically enjoy cruelty either. I do spend most days breaking men, tearing down whatever they were before to build them into soldiers. This was no different, except that I did it as a response to an insult. As for you, I don’t know that you could be broken, regardless of what you say. There is some iron within you, I’ve seen enough people to be able to recognize it.”
“I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
Recognition, then anger flashed across his face as he put it all together. “Aea, you bitch. Why drag me out here? Why worry me about Kaia? And now she isn’t coming to speak? Is she even here? Or did you leave her alone with those damned fools that raised you? Did she tell you what I offered her at the festival? Did any of this conversation mean anything to you? Or was it just some game?”
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“Kneeling is considered either the highest form of gratitude or the lowest form of submission. We believe our gods are in everything, part of the world just as the rocks and the trees, part of us. When we pay tribute, we do not kneel, for we would be kneeling as much to ourselves as them if that were the case. However, we do kneel to mortals who earn our greatest respect. And on the opposing end, of course, slaves kneel when appealing to their masters.” She shrugged, “In any case, I think both of our customs would dictate that he should not expect such a thing from you in the literal sense.”
The young man took in her words, fascinated by the differences in their cultures and beliefs. “In my mother’s culture, the priests and the rulers are to be treated as gods because they speak for the gods. It is fascinating how different peoples come to such differing beliefs about what is appropriate behavior and what is not, wouldn’t you agree? In any case, I reserve my kneeling for my prayers and will not kneel at any other time, and I will oppose any man who thinks to force me to kneel before him.” Alexandros said with resolve of steel, more for his own benefit than for hers.
“I understand. Truly. The way we were raised seems to be the determining factor on how we act as adults, and although I wouldn't presume to know how you feel on the matter, at least for me, it can be a source of great issue when among others.”
He nodded as she spoke. “There is merit to your words, but the only difference I would want from my upbringing would be more time with my mother.” His hand absentmindedly traced the scar across his chest as he thought of her. His failings rushing to the forefront of his mind. He paused as he recollected his thoughts and continued. “The lessons my father taught me, and what I learned from watching him are all things that I wouldn’t have any other way. They made me the man and warrior I am today.”
“I think all people will have their opinions, but the one that should take precedence is your own. Now that you are away from the situation, do you think it was unwise, would you do it all over again in the same manner, or would you have done more?”
He frowned for a moment, thinking of all that had occurred. “Perhaps I would have sat elsewhere, had I known what would come. After I was seated, then I don’t think I would have acted any different. I said hello to the girl, was insulted, returned her insults in kind, then was rudely interrupted and insulted by that man. I don’t see anything that would change if I had it all to do over again. I have to stand my ground, and never waiver to show that I belong, to prove that I am better than those who merely hold a position based on their birth. Every moment is a fight for survival.” He said, hoping that his explanation would help her to understand why he wouldn’t change his actions.
“As to opinions, if you care for them, I think it all a matter of perspective. You were fighting for your pride, Asia was fighting for something other than your pride. How one sees the morality of your actions depend upon which value one holds in higher regard, and the soundness of your actions lay in whether one believes that your execution was the best possible choice. Deeper than that, I think, is the issue of why Asia felt the need to defend her nation against a man who only retained an insult, and why she felt her 'friend' was a direct threat to that. Your pride was not the issue, captain, nor was Panos'. Everyone should have pride in themselves, and brave men usually defend it, but perhaps some prices are too high. The hundreds, if not thousands of people who were threatened might agree that depriving them of food is far too costly. Especially when it is paid by people in such trusted positions as captain and master of law. However, you received the scorn, and not the man who made the threat to begin with. I have to wonder at why." She shrugged, "Then again, I am also inexperienced in such things and cannot know if my own assumptions are correct. People like to speculate that they might have taken a different route than the one you chose, or that their opinions are the only correct ones, or that they noticed something that nobody else did, but they cannot know until they are put into an identical situation, they are usually wrong in their subjectivity, and see things that are not actually there."
The young officer took in the monologue as he leaned against the stonewall of the porch. It was clear to him, that she failed to understand why he acted in such a way and why he could not afford to back down from the challenge no matter the threat. “My father was a great warrior and a great man. He led mercenaries from before I was born until his death, and, despite his skill and charisma, he was nothing more than a tool to the royals and nobles that hired him. He was born common and thus could be nothing more. When he died, he left nothing more than a chest of possessions, a tent, and some drachmae. A lifetime of war, a lifetime of glory, and yet nothing to show for it. I will not go out the same way. There will be an impact left by life. I will scrape, claw, bite, and fight until I earn a place that no one can ignore. That is why I stood up to that man. One whose ancestors surely did great things so that he no longer has to work. That man is the antithesis of what I am and what I stand for. I will fight against those like him for as long as I live. He insulted me, threatened the people of the kingdom I love, and someday he will pay in blood for that, I swear it.” Alexandros explained, perhaps she would see his reasoning for everything that had happened.
Finally she gave her name, and then spoke of her humor falling flat. He frowned, he had not realized it had been a tease. “I’m sorry, I did not see the humor. I am usually much more jovial than this. Tonight has been rather stressful, as you surely can understand. I hope to someday see you again when I am more myself.” He said in apology.
"However, I’ve not met many who enjoy cruelty to such a degree that breaking minds could be considered a ‘fun’ pastime. I would tell you to try your hand at breaking me open, but I’m quite tender-hearted and would surely begin sobbing, which would be counterproductive to my own intentions,”
He looked her over, from top to bottom. Inspecting her as he thought about what she said. “Most don’t, and I don’t typically enjoy cruelty either. I do spend most days breaking men, tearing down whatever they were before to build them into soldiers. This was no different, except that I did it as a response to an insult. As for you, I don’t know that you could be broken, regardless of what you say. There is some iron within you, I’ve seen enough people to be able to recognize it.”
“I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
Recognition, then anger flashed across his face as he put it all together. “Aea, you bitch. Why drag me out here? Why worry me about Kaia? And now she isn’t coming to speak? Is she even here? Or did you leave her alone with those damned fools that raised you? Did she tell you what I offered her at the festival? Did any of this conversation mean anything to you? Or was it just some game?”
“Kneeling is considered either the highest form of gratitude or the lowest form of submission. We believe our gods are in everything, part of the world just as the rocks and the trees, part of us. When we pay tribute, we do not kneel, for we would be kneeling as much to ourselves as them if that were the case. However, we do kneel to mortals who earn our greatest respect. And on the opposing end, of course, slaves kneel when appealing to their masters.” She shrugged, “In any case, I think both of our customs would dictate that he should not expect such a thing from you in the literal sense.”
The young man took in her words, fascinated by the differences in their cultures and beliefs. “In my mother’s culture, the priests and the rulers are to be treated as gods because they speak for the gods. It is fascinating how different peoples come to such differing beliefs about what is appropriate behavior and what is not, wouldn’t you agree? In any case, I reserve my kneeling for my prayers and will not kneel at any other time, and I will oppose any man who thinks to force me to kneel before him.” Alexandros said with resolve of steel, more for his own benefit than for hers.
“I understand. Truly. The way we were raised seems to be the determining factor on how we act as adults, and although I wouldn't presume to know how you feel on the matter, at least for me, it can be a source of great issue when among others.”
He nodded as she spoke. “There is merit to your words, but the only difference I would want from my upbringing would be more time with my mother.” His hand absentmindedly traced the scar across his chest as he thought of her. His failings rushing to the forefront of his mind. He paused as he recollected his thoughts and continued. “The lessons my father taught me, and what I learned from watching him are all things that I wouldn’t have any other way. They made me the man and warrior I am today.”
“I think all people will have their opinions, but the one that should take precedence is your own. Now that you are away from the situation, do you think it was unwise, would you do it all over again in the same manner, or would you have done more?”
He frowned for a moment, thinking of all that had occurred. “Perhaps I would have sat elsewhere, had I known what would come. After I was seated, then I don’t think I would have acted any different. I said hello to the girl, was insulted, returned her insults in kind, then was rudely interrupted and insulted by that man. I don’t see anything that would change if I had it all to do over again. I have to stand my ground, and never waiver to show that I belong, to prove that I am better than those who merely hold a position based on their birth. Every moment is a fight for survival.” He said, hoping that his explanation would help her to understand why he wouldn’t change his actions.
“As to opinions, if you care for them, I think it all a matter of perspective. You were fighting for your pride, Asia was fighting for something other than your pride. How one sees the morality of your actions depend upon which value one holds in higher regard, and the soundness of your actions lay in whether one believes that your execution was the best possible choice. Deeper than that, I think, is the issue of why Asia felt the need to defend her nation against a man who only retained an insult, and why she felt her 'friend' was a direct threat to that. Your pride was not the issue, captain, nor was Panos'. Everyone should have pride in themselves, and brave men usually defend it, but perhaps some prices are too high. The hundreds, if not thousands of people who were threatened might agree that depriving them of food is far too costly. Especially when it is paid by people in such trusted positions as captain and master of law. However, you received the scorn, and not the man who made the threat to begin with. I have to wonder at why." She shrugged, "Then again, I am also inexperienced in such things and cannot know if my own assumptions are correct. People like to speculate that they might have taken a different route than the one you chose, or that their opinions are the only correct ones, or that they noticed something that nobody else did, but they cannot know until they are put into an identical situation, they are usually wrong in their subjectivity, and see things that are not actually there."
The young officer took in the monologue as he leaned against the stonewall of the porch. It was clear to him, that she failed to understand why he acted in such a way and why he could not afford to back down from the challenge no matter the threat. “My father was a great warrior and a great man. He led mercenaries from before I was born until his death, and, despite his skill and charisma, he was nothing more than a tool to the royals and nobles that hired him. He was born common and thus could be nothing more. When he died, he left nothing more than a chest of possessions, a tent, and some drachmae. A lifetime of war, a lifetime of glory, and yet nothing to show for it. I will not go out the same way. There will be an impact left by life. I will scrape, claw, bite, and fight until I earn a place that no one can ignore. That is why I stood up to that man. One whose ancestors surely did great things so that he no longer has to work. That man is the antithesis of what I am and what I stand for. I will fight against those like him for as long as I live. He insulted me, threatened the people of the kingdom I love, and someday he will pay in blood for that, I swear it.” Alexandros explained, perhaps she would see his reasoning for everything that had happened.
Finally she gave her name, and then spoke of her humor falling flat. He frowned, he had not realized it had been a tease. “I’m sorry, I did not see the humor. I am usually much more jovial than this. Tonight has been rather stressful, as you surely can understand. I hope to someday see you again when I am more myself.” He said in apology.
"However, I’ve not met many who enjoy cruelty to such a degree that breaking minds could be considered a ‘fun’ pastime. I would tell you to try your hand at breaking me open, but I’m quite tender-hearted and would surely begin sobbing, which would be counterproductive to my own intentions,”
He looked her over, from top to bottom. Inspecting her as he thought about what she said. “Most don’t, and I don’t typically enjoy cruelty either. I do spend most days breaking men, tearing down whatever they were before to build them into soldiers. This was no different, except that I did it as a response to an insult. As for you, I don’t know that you could be broken, regardless of what you say. There is some iron within you, I’ve seen enough people to be able to recognize it.”
“I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
Recognition, then anger flashed across his face as he put it all together. “Aea, you bitch. Why drag me out here? Why worry me about Kaia? And now she isn’t coming to speak? Is she even here? Or did you leave her alone with those damned fools that raised you? Did she tell you what I offered her at the festival? Did any of this conversation mean anything to you? Or was it just some game?”
"In my mother’s culture, the priests and the rulers are to be treated as gods because they speak for the gods. It is fascinating how different peoples come to such differing beliefs about what is appropriate behavior and what is not, wouldn’t you agree? In any case, I reserve my kneeling for my prayers and will not kneel at any other time, and I will oppose any man who thinks to force me to kneel before him.”
Alexandros spoke with fervor. He really and truly did not like kneeling. Aea had never considered the notion of kneeling before, had never had to. It was a strange concept—to lower oneself so much before another. She, herself, did not know how she might react if being told she must or that she should. Likely not well, but she also liked to think it would never be asked of her. It was doubtful anybody should look at her and expect such a thing, for what would anybody gain from such postulation? She was a commoner, had no power, and even less money. To ask her to kneel would be like asking a dog to kneel. There was nothing to gain from it. Strange, that. She didn’t like the idea that she would never be asked to do it, and she was not particularly fond of the idea that she would not get the chance to refuse or accept. She might forever hunt men in the forest like a shade, and though she wished for so much more, she could not simply leave her family.
At least, for all his flaws and wickedness, she could appreciate that Alexandros was the sort of person people wanted to make kneel. For if he wasn’t, then he would be nothing at all in the world, so at least he was something.
“Where was your mother from?” Aea asked, hitching on the idea that he had a mother to begin with. Of course he did. It was just odd to conceptualize that once, he’d been a baby, and that some woman assumedly loved him.
Alexandros looked Greek. Very Colchian with his chestnut hair and bright blue eyes. Surely he wasn’t half Egyptian? Or maybe his mother was from somewhere Aea had never even heard of.
Aea did not have a mother. Hektos died before he could tell Aea the woman’s name as he’d promised. She had Callie, but Callie was Kaia’s mother, and the blonde woman had not loved her as much as she loved her own child. Aea could not fault her, it was only natural, but she had still wanted one long ago. Now, she did not need nor care for one, but she imagined most people enjoyed the relationship.
She did not know why she had found herself in a discussion about childhood lessons. It was not a comfortable or safe topic, for although she was meticulous and careful of what she allowed to slip past her lips, it was better to err on the side of caution than not.
Lo and behold, as she thought, she gave him more truth than she meant to when she had no more lies to grasp hold of. He did not pry, though, and the tension in her shoulders ebbed away.
“There is merit to your words, but the only difference I would want from my upbringing would be more time with my mother.”
His hand pressed against his chest and she watched the shape he traced carefully. A tell, like Asia twirling her ring. Or perhaps it was the last place his mother had touched him. A scar, maybe, or a tattoo if he followed his mother’s customs and they were different from the greeks. The barbarians decorated themselves with beautiful designs all along their skin. Maybe his mother’s people did so as well.
When he paused, her eyes darted away from the movement of his hand and she again filed the information away for later.
“The lessons my father taught me, and what I learned from watching him are all things that I wouldn’t have any other way. They made me the man and warrior I am today,” he said.
To each their own, Aea supposed. She wondered if he might have felt the same way if he had her father. What, exactly, was the deciding factor between choice and habit? Bad men raised other bad men, just as good men raised good men. What would he be like if his father was like Hektos? What if his father was like Hektos?
“I’m sure if standing for your principals against all else was what he taught you, he would be proud of you now.” She did not have anything to say to his statement that was either beneficial to the topic nor appropriate to ask, and so she did not. Then, thankfully, the conversation shifted to something less personal and something she had more knowledge of.
She asked him what he might have done differently, if anything at all, waiting for his answer and measuring his ability to consider other avenues equally.
“Perhaps I would have sat elsewhere, had I known what would come. After I was seated, then I don’t think I would have acted any different. I said hello to the girl, was insulted, returned her insults in kind, then was rudely interrupted and insulted by that man. I don’t see anything that would change if I had it all to do over again. I have to stand my ground, and never waiver to show that I belong, to prove that I am better than those who merely hold a position based on their birth. Every moment is a fight for survival.”
Aea brushed off the thoughts tumbling through her head. She’d already judged him as she had judged him, and any analysis upon his misguided attempt to prove himself would be more or less the same. She tried to see things his way, and yet could not, for the context she possessed was far wider than his own. He had not seen enough, had not observed enough people outside of himself, had not been broken enough times to know better. It seemed to her that he thought those around him to be mere excess characters that moved about his primary position in the center of the stage. His was the only way, and there was no other way to be than Alexandros—all those who did not agree were fools or weaklings.
It was not his differing opinion that she refuted. It was his inability or, perhaps, refusal to consider other viewpoints outside of himself that made his answer less than satisfactory. For it was wrong, in all cases and at all points, to believe something without cemented proof that it was correct.
The best way to prove something was to disprove it, and yet he was not even attempting to do so. Had he attempted to disprove his own views and then concluded that he was correct, then his answer would be acceptable in its subjectivity.
Aea used to believe that ignorance could be forgiven, but in this case, when he’d gambled the well-being of a nation, she retracted her own belief and modified it to reflect a more accurate statement: ignorance could be forgiven when the consequences of it only affected the self.
“My father was a great warrior and a great man. He led mercenaries from before I was born until his death, and, despite his skill and charisma, he was nothing more than a tool to the royals and nobles that hired him. He was born common and thus could be nothing more. When he died, he left nothing more than a chest of possessions, a tent, and some drachmae. A lifetime of war, a lifetime of glory, and yet nothing to show for it. I will not go out the same way. There will be an impact left by life. I will scrape, claw, bite, and fight until I earn a place that no one can ignore. That is why I stood up to that man. One whose ancestors surely did great things so that he no longer has to work. That man is the antithesis of what I am and what I stand for. I will fight against those like him for as long as I live. He insulted me, threatened the people of the kingdom I love, and someday he will pay in blood for that, I swear it.”
“I think I see,” Aea said quietly, more to herself than him as she pulled back inward to turn the new idea over in her head. Like a curtain being drawn aside, Aea could see the light of his reasoning peek past the obtuse material segmenting her understanding of the workings of his logic. His motivation had been to stake his position and make Panos understand that he would not bow. At the risk of his place among the nobles, his career, all of it—he would rather lose it all and begin anew than lower himself to another man who held himself in such a lofty position.
He did not want to be like his father after all.
"Oh, I see!" She startled when she grasped the concept fully, smiling a small smile to herself when she'd uncovered her discovery. Now it made sense. She could respect such motivation and determination. Aea was not sure if she agreed with it in context to what she might have done, but her motivation would not be the same, either. Or maybe it would have been, she did not know. She was not in such a position to need to make those decisions—nobody would ask for nor want her obedience, and so she would never have to wonder what she might do. Living in the wilds had one benefit above all, at least. She was free from such expectations.
It was like Alexandros had shifted, turning the shadow of the sun from his face to his back, and she was able to study him in this different light. He demanded things of those near him because if he didn't, he wouldn't have what he wanted. His father had died forgotten, and he refused to do so. Now she understood why he acted as he acted and behaved as he behaved.
What did that mean for Kaia, though? He'd lost his mother young, perhaps he was still looking for her in other women. When women hurt him, perhaps he felt it more keenly because he allowed them in easily? Perhaps he was afraid of being hurt by these women he freely allowed into his life in his search for his mother? If he was afraid of being hurt, then it stood to reason that he would guard against such things by either telling himself he didn't care, or hurting them first. Perhaps he treated others as if they were nothing so that when they inevitably left him behind or sneered at him, he would not feel the sting so much. And for those who already treated him as nothing, he treated them with scorn so that their opinions could not reach him and cut him low. Afraid of being forgotten, and afraid of being hurt. How...human.
If she was correct, that is. If her analysis wasn't correct, at least she finally understood the logic behind his earlier behavior. She could see through his eyes, now, in as much as a human could do so.
Aea had all she need, and she was beginning to feel as if the situation was moving from her heart to her head, which was a dangerous place for it to go. Despite how human Alexandros may be, despite how natural his actions were with the context, he had still hurt her cousin, and she could not let herself forget that. She had to keep hold of her anger without letting her reason temper it. Kaia would not be a victim to his trauma, lest he wanted some more in addition to what he had now.
“I’m sorry, I did not see the humor. I am usually much more jovial than this. Tonight has been rather stressful, as you surely can understand. I hope to someday see you again when I am more myself," he said.
Aea shrugged, “Nothing to be sorry for. I have an unfortunately terrible sense of humor, and your mind is on rather severe matters. I cannot say with any honesty that we will meet again, but I will pretend that you laughed in my memory so the remembrance is less bleak.”
When she hopped upon the railing and studied him anew, she did not know what she expected him to say. Perhaps an admittance that cruelty was his favorite pastime, how easy it was, or perhaps even what methods he employed. Instead, his eyes fell on her and she forced her limbs to relax, her mind conjuring a blank wall so that she would not give anything away that she did not want to part with.
“Most don’t, and I don’t typically enjoy cruelty either. I do spend most days breaking men, tearing down whatever they were before to build them into soldiers. This was no different, except that I did it as a response to an insult. As for you, I don’t know that you could be broken, regardless of what you say. There is some iron within you, I’ve seen enough people to be able to recognize it.”
He would be wrong there. Everyone could be broken. She could, at least, see the appeal in him to a degree now. A handsome, strong-willed man complimenting Kaia’s ‘iron will’ would likely have her cousin melting, though Aea could not say such things would work on her to soften her resolve. She knew her worth well enough that repeating her virtues back to her was neither disarming nor flattering, merely a hint that someone was trying to disarm her to begin with.
“That’s kind of you to say, thank you,” Aea said. “It’s enlightening to know what goes into your military training. The finest fighting force in Greece should be harsh, I suppose, else they would not be the finest.”
She crossed her legs and felt the familiar press of cool metal upon her skin, reminding her that regardless of the hesitation she was beginning to feel, she would be alright.
“I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
That hesitation, at first a small insistence to stay her hand, was now a roaring scream tearing at her belly when she saw the anger cross his face. She swallowed and immediately regretted saying anything to begin with. She’d seen that look a thousand times before and her body kicked from intent to instinct.
Stupid. That had been a stupid idea. She was alone out here with a man she did not know, who had a temper, and she had nothing but one single knife and not a thing besides, not even her raven.
“Aea, you bitch—”
Her body moved, her mind expanding and tunneling and expanding again at the familiar, enraged phrase that demanded she face her crimes. The rattling cicadas were suddenly too loud, the fire of the torch lights too bright, the shadows surrounding them too long. Aea pushed off the railing and when she landed, took a hesitant step back. She could think of nothing save for one thing—run.
Alexandros seemed suddenly much bigger than he was, a giant of a man, and she felt suddenly much smaller. Run.
She couldn’t though. She had to stay. She’d meant to do something, but what? Her eyes flicked from his face to his fists and she leaned away. Run.
Stupid. Fucking stupid. Being hit was nothing in theory, but in facing this man, she had to look at the truth. It wasn’t nothing. This was nothing like facing Vangelis, or Yiannis, or any of her uncles. She knew, deep down, instinctively, those people would not take pleasure in hurting her. This man would. This was like standing before her father, except her father always stopped. This man wouldn’t.
“Why drag me out here? Why worry me about Kaia? And now she isn’t coming to speak? Is she even here? Or did you leave her alone with those damned fools that raised you? Did she tell you what I offered her at the festival? Did any of this conversation mean anything to you? Or was it just some game?”
Aea had an instinct to rattle out an apology and guard her head, but she didn’t move. Run. Her fists balled at her sides and her short nails bit into her palms, bringing her focus back to Alexandros instead of the routes around him that promised escape. Her heart was racing inside of her chest, reminding her that she was alive, and she had a choice to make.
Run as she’d always done, or face this mess of her own making and attempt what she’d set out to do. She couldn’t think, couldn’t conjure the words she needed. But she had too. Kaia. She could do this.
She had to make sure this man stayed away. He wanted her fear. Liked it. Liked hurting people. Liked hurting her cousin. Anger came back, then, chilling her hot blood and forcing it to run cold as a mountain stream. He wanted her fear, but she wouldn’t let him have it. She could protect herself. Even if he picked her up by the neck and squeezed, she could think through it.
Coldness enveloped her and shut down her instinct to run and hide. She’d started this game, and she could finish it. She was not a child. Her father was dead. She had fear, but she had anger too, and one could not be brave if fear was not present.
Aea released a long exhale and it rattled through her lungs, releasing her trepidation and dread into the night air so that it could no longer cloud her actions and dull her thoughts.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with.” She kept her breathing even and leveled Alexandros with a gaze that was forced into serenity, “But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
She could think now. She could move. She could speak. If he hit her, she would duck and come back up to ram the bones of his nose to the sky. She was fast, faster than a man of his size could comprehend. She could bend any which way she liked and move within small spaces that he wouldn’t think to close with his bulk. She had teeth and nails, she had a knife, and she would not let her father’s ghost haunt her tonight, nor any night after this. She had a job to do, a person that trusted Aea to look out for her, and fear would not get in the way of that.
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
"In my mother’s culture, the priests and the rulers are to be treated as gods because they speak for the gods. It is fascinating how different peoples come to such differing beliefs about what is appropriate behavior and what is not, wouldn’t you agree? In any case, I reserve my kneeling for my prayers and will not kneel at any other time, and I will oppose any man who thinks to force me to kneel before him.”
Alexandros spoke with fervor. He really and truly did not like kneeling. Aea had never considered the notion of kneeling before, had never had to. It was a strange concept—to lower oneself so much before another. She, herself, did not know how she might react if being told she must or that she should. Likely not well, but she also liked to think it would never be asked of her. It was doubtful anybody should look at her and expect such a thing, for what would anybody gain from such postulation? She was a commoner, had no power, and even less money. To ask her to kneel would be like asking a dog to kneel. There was nothing to gain from it. Strange, that. She didn’t like the idea that she would never be asked to do it, and she was not particularly fond of the idea that she would not get the chance to refuse or accept. She might forever hunt men in the forest like a shade, and though she wished for so much more, she could not simply leave her family.
At least, for all his flaws and wickedness, she could appreciate that Alexandros was the sort of person people wanted to make kneel. For if he wasn’t, then he would be nothing at all in the world, so at least he was something.
“Where was your mother from?” Aea asked, hitching on the idea that he had a mother to begin with. Of course he did. It was just odd to conceptualize that once, he’d been a baby, and that some woman assumedly loved him.
Alexandros looked Greek. Very Colchian with his chestnut hair and bright blue eyes. Surely he wasn’t half Egyptian? Or maybe his mother was from somewhere Aea had never even heard of.
Aea did not have a mother. Hektos died before he could tell Aea the woman’s name as he’d promised. She had Callie, but Callie was Kaia’s mother, and the blonde woman had not loved her as much as she loved her own child. Aea could not fault her, it was only natural, but she had still wanted one long ago. Now, she did not need nor care for one, but she imagined most people enjoyed the relationship.
She did not know why she had found herself in a discussion about childhood lessons. It was not a comfortable or safe topic, for although she was meticulous and careful of what she allowed to slip past her lips, it was better to err on the side of caution than not.
Lo and behold, as she thought, she gave him more truth than she meant to when she had no more lies to grasp hold of. He did not pry, though, and the tension in her shoulders ebbed away.
“There is merit to your words, but the only difference I would want from my upbringing would be more time with my mother.”
His hand pressed against his chest and she watched the shape he traced carefully. A tell, like Asia twirling her ring. Or perhaps it was the last place his mother had touched him. A scar, maybe, or a tattoo if he followed his mother’s customs and they were different from the greeks. The barbarians decorated themselves with beautiful designs all along their skin. Maybe his mother’s people did so as well.
When he paused, her eyes darted away from the movement of his hand and she again filed the information away for later.
“The lessons my father taught me, and what I learned from watching him are all things that I wouldn’t have any other way. They made me the man and warrior I am today,” he said.
To each their own, Aea supposed. She wondered if he might have felt the same way if he had her father. What, exactly, was the deciding factor between choice and habit? Bad men raised other bad men, just as good men raised good men. What would he be like if his father was like Hektos? What if his father was like Hektos?
“I’m sure if standing for your principals against all else was what he taught you, he would be proud of you now.” She did not have anything to say to his statement that was either beneficial to the topic nor appropriate to ask, and so she did not. Then, thankfully, the conversation shifted to something less personal and something she had more knowledge of.
She asked him what he might have done differently, if anything at all, waiting for his answer and measuring his ability to consider other avenues equally.
“Perhaps I would have sat elsewhere, had I known what would come. After I was seated, then I don’t think I would have acted any different. I said hello to the girl, was insulted, returned her insults in kind, then was rudely interrupted and insulted by that man. I don’t see anything that would change if I had it all to do over again. I have to stand my ground, and never waiver to show that I belong, to prove that I am better than those who merely hold a position based on their birth. Every moment is a fight for survival.”
Aea brushed off the thoughts tumbling through her head. She’d already judged him as she had judged him, and any analysis upon his misguided attempt to prove himself would be more or less the same. She tried to see things his way, and yet could not, for the context she possessed was far wider than his own. He had not seen enough, had not observed enough people outside of himself, had not been broken enough times to know better. It seemed to her that he thought those around him to be mere excess characters that moved about his primary position in the center of the stage. His was the only way, and there was no other way to be than Alexandros—all those who did not agree were fools or weaklings.
It was not his differing opinion that she refuted. It was his inability or, perhaps, refusal to consider other viewpoints outside of himself that made his answer less than satisfactory. For it was wrong, in all cases and at all points, to believe something without cemented proof that it was correct.
The best way to prove something was to disprove it, and yet he was not even attempting to do so. Had he attempted to disprove his own views and then concluded that he was correct, then his answer would be acceptable in its subjectivity.
Aea used to believe that ignorance could be forgiven, but in this case, when he’d gambled the well-being of a nation, she retracted her own belief and modified it to reflect a more accurate statement: ignorance could be forgiven when the consequences of it only affected the self.
“My father was a great warrior and a great man. He led mercenaries from before I was born until his death, and, despite his skill and charisma, he was nothing more than a tool to the royals and nobles that hired him. He was born common and thus could be nothing more. When he died, he left nothing more than a chest of possessions, a tent, and some drachmae. A lifetime of war, a lifetime of glory, and yet nothing to show for it. I will not go out the same way. There will be an impact left by life. I will scrape, claw, bite, and fight until I earn a place that no one can ignore. That is why I stood up to that man. One whose ancestors surely did great things so that he no longer has to work. That man is the antithesis of what I am and what I stand for. I will fight against those like him for as long as I live. He insulted me, threatened the people of the kingdom I love, and someday he will pay in blood for that, I swear it.”
“I think I see,” Aea said quietly, more to herself than him as she pulled back inward to turn the new idea over in her head. Like a curtain being drawn aside, Aea could see the light of his reasoning peek past the obtuse material segmenting her understanding of the workings of his logic. His motivation had been to stake his position and make Panos understand that he would not bow. At the risk of his place among the nobles, his career, all of it—he would rather lose it all and begin anew than lower himself to another man who held himself in such a lofty position.
He did not want to be like his father after all.
"Oh, I see!" She startled when she grasped the concept fully, smiling a small smile to herself when she'd uncovered her discovery. Now it made sense. She could respect such motivation and determination. Aea was not sure if she agreed with it in context to what she might have done, but her motivation would not be the same, either. Or maybe it would have been, she did not know. She was not in such a position to need to make those decisions—nobody would ask for nor want her obedience, and so she would never have to wonder what she might do. Living in the wilds had one benefit above all, at least. She was free from such expectations.
It was like Alexandros had shifted, turning the shadow of the sun from his face to his back, and she was able to study him in this different light. He demanded things of those near him because if he didn't, he wouldn't have what he wanted. His father had died forgotten, and he refused to do so. Now she understood why he acted as he acted and behaved as he behaved.
What did that mean for Kaia, though? He'd lost his mother young, perhaps he was still looking for her in other women. When women hurt him, perhaps he felt it more keenly because he allowed them in easily? Perhaps he was afraid of being hurt by these women he freely allowed into his life in his search for his mother? If he was afraid of being hurt, then it stood to reason that he would guard against such things by either telling himself he didn't care, or hurting them first. Perhaps he treated others as if they were nothing so that when they inevitably left him behind or sneered at him, he would not feel the sting so much. And for those who already treated him as nothing, he treated them with scorn so that their opinions could not reach him and cut him low. Afraid of being forgotten, and afraid of being hurt. How...human.
If she was correct, that is. If her analysis wasn't correct, at least she finally understood the logic behind his earlier behavior. She could see through his eyes, now, in as much as a human could do so.
Aea had all she need, and she was beginning to feel as if the situation was moving from her heart to her head, which was a dangerous place for it to go. Despite how human Alexandros may be, despite how natural his actions were with the context, he had still hurt her cousin, and she could not let herself forget that. She had to keep hold of her anger without letting her reason temper it. Kaia would not be a victim to his trauma, lest he wanted some more in addition to what he had now.
“I’m sorry, I did not see the humor. I am usually much more jovial than this. Tonight has been rather stressful, as you surely can understand. I hope to someday see you again when I am more myself," he said.
Aea shrugged, “Nothing to be sorry for. I have an unfortunately terrible sense of humor, and your mind is on rather severe matters. I cannot say with any honesty that we will meet again, but I will pretend that you laughed in my memory so the remembrance is less bleak.”
When she hopped upon the railing and studied him anew, she did not know what she expected him to say. Perhaps an admittance that cruelty was his favorite pastime, how easy it was, or perhaps even what methods he employed. Instead, his eyes fell on her and she forced her limbs to relax, her mind conjuring a blank wall so that she would not give anything away that she did not want to part with.
“Most don’t, and I don’t typically enjoy cruelty either. I do spend most days breaking men, tearing down whatever they were before to build them into soldiers. This was no different, except that I did it as a response to an insult. As for you, I don’t know that you could be broken, regardless of what you say. There is some iron within you, I’ve seen enough people to be able to recognize it.”
He would be wrong there. Everyone could be broken. She could, at least, see the appeal in him to a degree now. A handsome, strong-willed man complimenting Kaia’s ‘iron will’ would likely have her cousin melting, though Aea could not say such things would work on her to soften her resolve. She knew her worth well enough that repeating her virtues back to her was neither disarming nor flattering, merely a hint that someone was trying to disarm her to begin with.
“That’s kind of you to say, thank you,” Aea said. “It’s enlightening to know what goes into your military training. The finest fighting force in Greece should be harsh, I suppose, else they would not be the finest.”
She crossed her legs and felt the familiar press of cool metal upon her skin, reminding her that regardless of the hesitation she was beginning to feel, she would be alright.
“I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
That hesitation, at first a small insistence to stay her hand, was now a roaring scream tearing at her belly when she saw the anger cross his face. She swallowed and immediately regretted saying anything to begin with. She’d seen that look a thousand times before and her body kicked from intent to instinct.
Stupid. That had been a stupid idea. She was alone out here with a man she did not know, who had a temper, and she had nothing but one single knife and not a thing besides, not even her raven.
“Aea, you bitch—”
Her body moved, her mind expanding and tunneling and expanding again at the familiar, enraged phrase that demanded she face her crimes. The rattling cicadas were suddenly too loud, the fire of the torch lights too bright, the shadows surrounding them too long. Aea pushed off the railing and when she landed, took a hesitant step back. She could think of nothing save for one thing—run.
Alexandros seemed suddenly much bigger than he was, a giant of a man, and she felt suddenly much smaller. Run.
She couldn’t though. She had to stay. She’d meant to do something, but what? Her eyes flicked from his face to his fists and she leaned away. Run.
Stupid. Fucking stupid. Being hit was nothing in theory, but in facing this man, she had to look at the truth. It wasn’t nothing. This was nothing like facing Vangelis, or Yiannis, or any of her uncles. She knew, deep down, instinctively, those people would not take pleasure in hurting her. This man would. This was like standing before her father, except her father always stopped. This man wouldn’t.
“Why drag me out here? Why worry me about Kaia? And now she isn’t coming to speak? Is she even here? Or did you leave her alone with those damned fools that raised you? Did she tell you what I offered her at the festival? Did any of this conversation mean anything to you? Or was it just some game?”
Aea had an instinct to rattle out an apology and guard her head, but she didn’t move. Run. Her fists balled at her sides and her short nails bit into her palms, bringing her focus back to Alexandros instead of the routes around him that promised escape. Her heart was racing inside of her chest, reminding her that she was alive, and she had a choice to make.
Run as she’d always done, or face this mess of her own making and attempt what she’d set out to do. She couldn’t think, couldn’t conjure the words she needed. But she had too. Kaia. She could do this.
She had to make sure this man stayed away. He wanted her fear. Liked it. Liked hurting people. Liked hurting her cousin. Anger came back, then, chilling her hot blood and forcing it to run cold as a mountain stream. He wanted her fear, but she wouldn’t let him have it. She could protect herself. Even if he picked her up by the neck and squeezed, she could think through it.
Coldness enveloped her and shut down her instinct to run and hide. She’d started this game, and she could finish it. She was not a child. Her father was dead. She had fear, but she had anger too, and one could not be brave if fear was not present.
Aea released a long exhale and it rattled through her lungs, releasing her trepidation and dread into the night air so that it could no longer cloud her actions and dull her thoughts.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with.” She kept her breathing even and leveled Alexandros with a gaze that was forced into serenity, “But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
She could think now. She could move. She could speak. If he hit her, she would duck and come back up to ram the bones of his nose to the sky. She was fast, faster than a man of his size could comprehend. She could bend any which way she liked and move within small spaces that he wouldn’t think to close with his bulk. She had teeth and nails, she had a knife, and she would not let her father’s ghost haunt her tonight, nor any night after this. She had a job to do, a person that trusted Aea to look out for her, and fear would not get in the way of that.
"In my mother’s culture, the priests and the rulers are to be treated as gods because they speak for the gods. It is fascinating how different peoples come to such differing beliefs about what is appropriate behavior and what is not, wouldn’t you agree? In any case, I reserve my kneeling for my prayers and will not kneel at any other time, and I will oppose any man who thinks to force me to kneel before him.”
Alexandros spoke with fervor. He really and truly did not like kneeling. Aea had never considered the notion of kneeling before, had never had to. It was a strange concept—to lower oneself so much before another. She, herself, did not know how she might react if being told she must or that she should. Likely not well, but she also liked to think it would never be asked of her. It was doubtful anybody should look at her and expect such a thing, for what would anybody gain from such postulation? She was a commoner, had no power, and even less money. To ask her to kneel would be like asking a dog to kneel. There was nothing to gain from it. Strange, that. She didn’t like the idea that she would never be asked to do it, and she was not particularly fond of the idea that she would not get the chance to refuse or accept. She might forever hunt men in the forest like a shade, and though she wished for so much more, she could not simply leave her family.
At least, for all his flaws and wickedness, she could appreciate that Alexandros was the sort of person people wanted to make kneel. For if he wasn’t, then he would be nothing at all in the world, so at least he was something.
“Where was your mother from?” Aea asked, hitching on the idea that he had a mother to begin with. Of course he did. It was just odd to conceptualize that once, he’d been a baby, and that some woman assumedly loved him.
Alexandros looked Greek. Very Colchian with his chestnut hair and bright blue eyes. Surely he wasn’t half Egyptian? Or maybe his mother was from somewhere Aea had never even heard of.
Aea did not have a mother. Hektos died before he could tell Aea the woman’s name as he’d promised. She had Callie, but Callie was Kaia’s mother, and the blonde woman had not loved her as much as she loved her own child. Aea could not fault her, it was only natural, but she had still wanted one long ago. Now, she did not need nor care for one, but she imagined most people enjoyed the relationship.
She did not know why she had found herself in a discussion about childhood lessons. It was not a comfortable or safe topic, for although she was meticulous and careful of what she allowed to slip past her lips, it was better to err on the side of caution than not.
Lo and behold, as she thought, she gave him more truth than she meant to when she had no more lies to grasp hold of. He did not pry, though, and the tension in her shoulders ebbed away.
“There is merit to your words, but the only difference I would want from my upbringing would be more time with my mother.”
His hand pressed against his chest and she watched the shape he traced carefully. A tell, like Asia twirling her ring. Or perhaps it was the last place his mother had touched him. A scar, maybe, or a tattoo if he followed his mother’s customs and they were different from the greeks. The barbarians decorated themselves with beautiful designs all along their skin. Maybe his mother’s people did so as well.
When he paused, her eyes darted away from the movement of his hand and she again filed the information away for later.
“The lessons my father taught me, and what I learned from watching him are all things that I wouldn’t have any other way. They made me the man and warrior I am today,” he said.
To each their own, Aea supposed. She wondered if he might have felt the same way if he had her father. What, exactly, was the deciding factor between choice and habit? Bad men raised other bad men, just as good men raised good men. What would he be like if his father was like Hektos? What if his father was like Hektos?
“I’m sure if standing for your principals against all else was what he taught you, he would be proud of you now.” She did not have anything to say to his statement that was either beneficial to the topic nor appropriate to ask, and so she did not. Then, thankfully, the conversation shifted to something less personal and something she had more knowledge of.
She asked him what he might have done differently, if anything at all, waiting for his answer and measuring his ability to consider other avenues equally.
“Perhaps I would have sat elsewhere, had I known what would come. After I was seated, then I don’t think I would have acted any different. I said hello to the girl, was insulted, returned her insults in kind, then was rudely interrupted and insulted by that man. I don’t see anything that would change if I had it all to do over again. I have to stand my ground, and never waiver to show that I belong, to prove that I am better than those who merely hold a position based on their birth. Every moment is a fight for survival.”
Aea brushed off the thoughts tumbling through her head. She’d already judged him as she had judged him, and any analysis upon his misguided attempt to prove himself would be more or less the same. She tried to see things his way, and yet could not, for the context she possessed was far wider than his own. He had not seen enough, had not observed enough people outside of himself, had not been broken enough times to know better. It seemed to her that he thought those around him to be mere excess characters that moved about his primary position in the center of the stage. His was the only way, and there was no other way to be than Alexandros—all those who did not agree were fools or weaklings.
It was not his differing opinion that she refuted. It was his inability or, perhaps, refusal to consider other viewpoints outside of himself that made his answer less than satisfactory. For it was wrong, in all cases and at all points, to believe something without cemented proof that it was correct.
The best way to prove something was to disprove it, and yet he was not even attempting to do so. Had he attempted to disprove his own views and then concluded that he was correct, then his answer would be acceptable in its subjectivity.
Aea used to believe that ignorance could be forgiven, but in this case, when he’d gambled the well-being of a nation, she retracted her own belief and modified it to reflect a more accurate statement: ignorance could be forgiven when the consequences of it only affected the self.
“My father was a great warrior and a great man. He led mercenaries from before I was born until his death, and, despite his skill and charisma, he was nothing more than a tool to the royals and nobles that hired him. He was born common and thus could be nothing more. When he died, he left nothing more than a chest of possessions, a tent, and some drachmae. A lifetime of war, a lifetime of glory, and yet nothing to show for it. I will not go out the same way. There will be an impact left by life. I will scrape, claw, bite, and fight until I earn a place that no one can ignore. That is why I stood up to that man. One whose ancestors surely did great things so that he no longer has to work. That man is the antithesis of what I am and what I stand for. I will fight against those like him for as long as I live. He insulted me, threatened the people of the kingdom I love, and someday he will pay in blood for that, I swear it.”
“I think I see,” Aea said quietly, more to herself than him as she pulled back inward to turn the new idea over in her head. Like a curtain being drawn aside, Aea could see the light of his reasoning peek past the obtuse material segmenting her understanding of the workings of his logic. His motivation had been to stake his position and make Panos understand that he would not bow. At the risk of his place among the nobles, his career, all of it—he would rather lose it all and begin anew than lower himself to another man who held himself in such a lofty position.
He did not want to be like his father after all.
"Oh, I see!" She startled when she grasped the concept fully, smiling a small smile to herself when she'd uncovered her discovery. Now it made sense. She could respect such motivation and determination. Aea was not sure if she agreed with it in context to what she might have done, but her motivation would not be the same, either. Or maybe it would have been, she did not know. She was not in such a position to need to make those decisions—nobody would ask for nor want her obedience, and so she would never have to wonder what she might do. Living in the wilds had one benefit above all, at least. She was free from such expectations.
It was like Alexandros had shifted, turning the shadow of the sun from his face to his back, and she was able to study him in this different light. He demanded things of those near him because if he didn't, he wouldn't have what he wanted. His father had died forgotten, and he refused to do so. Now she understood why he acted as he acted and behaved as he behaved.
What did that mean for Kaia, though? He'd lost his mother young, perhaps he was still looking for her in other women. When women hurt him, perhaps he felt it more keenly because he allowed them in easily? Perhaps he was afraid of being hurt by these women he freely allowed into his life in his search for his mother? If he was afraid of being hurt, then it stood to reason that he would guard against such things by either telling himself he didn't care, or hurting them first. Perhaps he treated others as if they were nothing so that when they inevitably left him behind or sneered at him, he would not feel the sting so much. And for those who already treated him as nothing, he treated them with scorn so that their opinions could not reach him and cut him low. Afraid of being forgotten, and afraid of being hurt. How...human.
If she was correct, that is. If her analysis wasn't correct, at least she finally understood the logic behind his earlier behavior. She could see through his eyes, now, in as much as a human could do so.
Aea had all she need, and she was beginning to feel as if the situation was moving from her heart to her head, which was a dangerous place for it to go. Despite how human Alexandros may be, despite how natural his actions were with the context, he had still hurt her cousin, and she could not let herself forget that. She had to keep hold of her anger without letting her reason temper it. Kaia would not be a victim to his trauma, lest he wanted some more in addition to what he had now.
“I’m sorry, I did not see the humor. I am usually much more jovial than this. Tonight has been rather stressful, as you surely can understand. I hope to someday see you again when I am more myself," he said.
Aea shrugged, “Nothing to be sorry for. I have an unfortunately terrible sense of humor, and your mind is on rather severe matters. I cannot say with any honesty that we will meet again, but I will pretend that you laughed in my memory so the remembrance is less bleak.”
When she hopped upon the railing and studied him anew, she did not know what she expected him to say. Perhaps an admittance that cruelty was his favorite pastime, how easy it was, or perhaps even what methods he employed. Instead, his eyes fell on her and she forced her limbs to relax, her mind conjuring a blank wall so that she would not give anything away that she did not want to part with.
“Most don’t, and I don’t typically enjoy cruelty either. I do spend most days breaking men, tearing down whatever they were before to build them into soldiers. This was no different, except that I did it as a response to an insult. As for you, I don’t know that you could be broken, regardless of what you say. There is some iron within you, I’ve seen enough people to be able to recognize it.”
He would be wrong there. Everyone could be broken. She could, at least, see the appeal in him to a degree now. A handsome, strong-willed man complimenting Kaia’s ‘iron will’ would likely have her cousin melting, though Aea could not say such things would work on her to soften her resolve. She knew her worth well enough that repeating her virtues back to her was neither disarming nor flattering, merely a hint that someone was trying to disarm her to begin with.
“That’s kind of you to say, thank you,” Aea said. “It’s enlightening to know what goes into your military training. The finest fighting force in Greece should be harsh, I suppose, else they would not be the finest.”
She crossed her legs and felt the familiar press of cool metal upon her skin, reminding her that regardless of the hesitation she was beginning to feel, she would be alright.
“I hope you feel calmer now. Kaia won't be coming, but I wanted to get you outside before something drastic occurred. I’m glad I finally got to meet the infamous Alexandros. My cousin has told me so much about you.”
That hesitation, at first a small insistence to stay her hand, was now a roaring scream tearing at her belly when she saw the anger cross his face. She swallowed and immediately regretted saying anything to begin with. She’d seen that look a thousand times before and her body kicked from intent to instinct.
Stupid. That had been a stupid idea. She was alone out here with a man she did not know, who had a temper, and she had nothing but one single knife and not a thing besides, not even her raven.
“Aea, you bitch—”
Her body moved, her mind expanding and tunneling and expanding again at the familiar, enraged phrase that demanded she face her crimes. The rattling cicadas were suddenly too loud, the fire of the torch lights too bright, the shadows surrounding them too long. Aea pushed off the railing and when she landed, took a hesitant step back. She could think of nothing save for one thing—run.
Alexandros seemed suddenly much bigger than he was, a giant of a man, and she felt suddenly much smaller. Run.
She couldn’t though. She had to stay. She’d meant to do something, but what? Her eyes flicked from his face to his fists and she leaned away. Run.
Stupid. Fucking stupid. Being hit was nothing in theory, but in facing this man, she had to look at the truth. It wasn’t nothing. This was nothing like facing Vangelis, or Yiannis, or any of her uncles. She knew, deep down, instinctively, those people would not take pleasure in hurting her. This man would. This was like standing before her father, except her father always stopped. This man wouldn’t.
“Why drag me out here? Why worry me about Kaia? And now she isn’t coming to speak? Is she even here? Or did you leave her alone with those damned fools that raised you? Did she tell you what I offered her at the festival? Did any of this conversation mean anything to you? Or was it just some game?”
Aea had an instinct to rattle out an apology and guard her head, but she didn’t move. Run. Her fists balled at her sides and her short nails bit into her palms, bringing her focus back to Alexandros instead of the routes around him that promised escape. Her heart was racing inside of her chest, reminding her that she was alive, and she had a choice to make.
Run as she’d always done, or face this mess of her own making and attempt what she’d set out to do. She couldn’t think, couldn’t conjure the words she needed. But she had too. Kaia. She could do this.
She had to make sure this man stayed away. He wanted her fear. Liked it. Liked hurting people. Liked hurting her cousin. Anger came back, then, chilling her hot blood and forcing it to run cold as a mountain stream. He wanted her fear, but she wouldn’t let him have it. She could protect herself. Even if he picked her up by the neck and squeezed, she could think through it.
Coldness enveloped her and shut down her instinct to run and hide. She’d started this game, and she could finish it. She was not a child. Her father was dead. She had fear, but she had anger too, and one could not be brave if fear was not present.
Aea released a long exhale and it rattled through her lungs, releasing her trepidation and dread into the night air so that it could no longer cloud her actions and dull her thoughts.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with.” She kept her breathing even and leveled Alexandros with a gaze that was forced into serenity, “But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
She could think now. She could move. She could speak. If he hit her, she would duck and come back up to ram the bones of his nose to the sky. She was fast, faster than a man of his size could comprehend. She could bend any which way she liked and move within small spaces that he wouldn’t think to close with his bulk. She had teeth and nails, she had a knife, and she would not let her father’s ghost haunt her tonight, nor any night after this. She had a job to do, a person that trusted Aea to look out for her, and fear would not get in the way of that.
“Where was your mother from?”
“My mother was a Judean. She was a Hebrew, daughter of a priest. She taught me the languages of her people, their culture, their religion, but I was Colchian, through and through, because of my father. I remember what she taught me, but her morals and religion were so different and she died when I was so young that they never really took root. I pray to her god before battle, observe certain rites, but I’m much more of a Greek than a Hebrew.” He smiled fondly as he remembered the lessons she taught him as a child, and time spent with her. He shook his head as thoughts of that day came to mind. Those were memories he wished to forget, to leave as far away as he had left that land, but it never seemed to work. “As someone else of mixed heritage, did you also have a parent whose culture and religion resonated more with you?”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I have an unfortunately terrible sense of humor, and your mind is on rather severe matters. I cannot say with any honesty that we will meet again, but I will pretend that you laughed in my memory so the remembrance is less bleak.”
He nodded gratefully. “Thank you, had we been speak only a half hour before I believe I would have laughed and teased you in return. I appreciate you giving me a more true memory. Perhaps we are not meant to meet more than this once, but I would prefer to believe that we have some power over the future and what it holds. I would like to converse with you under better circumstances, so I will believe that someday we will have that chance.” Alexandros said, revealing more of himself to the foreign woman.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with.” She kept her breathing even and leveled Alexandros with a gaze that was forced into serenity, “But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
His rage burned all the hotter after everything that had happened that night. First he was insulted by Daniil, then by Panos, now he was being lied to by Kaia’s cousin. His white hot anger caused his teeth to grind for a moment. He had not moved as she had slipped further away. His breathing deepened as he tried to force himself to calm down. “If you had known that I would be angry, then why did you lie to me? We could have had these conversation just fine as a pair of honest individuals who both care for your cousin. Instead you took advantage of my feelings and my frustrations inside. How could I not be pissed at you?” He paused for a moment to further collect his thoughts. “I will apologize for calling you a bitch, but if you think that was an insult to your family, then you have yet to see what happens when I get going. I am here, I am calm, and I would like to hear your answers. I will do my best not to let my anger from the rest of the evening show again.” His voice was measured and his tone was controlled as he spoke.
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“Where was your mother from?”
“My mother was a Judean. She was a Hebrew, daughter of a priest. She taught me the languages of her people, their culture, their religion, but I was Colchian, through and through, because of my father. I remember what she taught me, but her morals and religion were so different and she died when I was so young that they never really took root. I pray to her god before battle, observe certain rites, but I’m much more of a Greek than a Hebrew.” He smiled fondly as he remembered the lessons she taught him as a child, and time spent with her. He shook his head as thoughts of that day came to mind. Those were memories he wished to forget, to leave as far away as he had left that land, but it never seemed to work. “As someone else of mixed heritage, did you also have a parent whose culture and religion resonated more with you?”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I have an unfortunately terrible sense of humor, and your mind is on rather severe matters. I cannot say with any honesty that we will meet again, but I will pretend that you laughed in my memory so the remembrance is less bleak.”
He nodded gratefully. “Thank you, had we been speak only a half hour before I believe I would have laughed and teased you in return. I appreciate you giving me a more true memory. Perhaps we are not meant to meet more than this once, but I would prefer to believe that we have some power over the future and what it holds. I would like to converse with you under better circumstances, so I will believe that someday we will have that chance.” Alexandros said, revealing more of himself to the foreign woman.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with.” She kept her breathing even and leveled Alexandros with a gaze that was forced into serenity, “But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
His rage burned all the hotter after everything that had happened that night. First he was insulted by Daniil, then by Panos, now he was being lied to by Kaia’s cousin. His white hot anger caused his teeth to grind for a moment. He had not moved as she had slipped further away. His breathing deepened as he tried to force himself to calm down. “If you had known that I would be angry, then why did you lie to me? We could have had these conversation just fine as a pair of honest individuals who both care for your cousin. Instead you took advantage of my feelings and my frustrations inside. How could I not be pissed at you?” He paused for a moment to further collect his thoughts. “I will apologize for calling you a bitch, but if you think that was an insult to your family, then you have yet to see what happens when I get going. I am here, I am calm, and I would like to hear your answers. I will do my best not to let my anger from the rest of the evening show again.” His voice was measured and his tone was controlled as he spoke.
“Where was your mother from?”
“My mother was a Judean. She was a Hebrew, daughter of a priest. She taught me the languages of her people, their culture, their religion, but I was Colchian, through and through, because of my father. I remember what she taught me, but her morals and religion were so different and she died when I was so young that they never really took root. I pray to her god before battle, observe certain rites, but I’m much more of a Greek than a Hebrew.” He smiled fondly as he remembered the lessons she taught him as a child, and time spent with her. He shook his head as thoughts of that day came to mind. Those were memories he wished to forget, to leave as far away as he had left that land, but it never seemed to work. “As someone else of mixed heritage, did you also have a parent whose culture and religion resonated more with you?”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I have an unfortunately terrible sense of humor, and your mind is on rather severe matters. I cannot say with any honesty that we will meet again, but I will pretend that you laughed in my memory so the remembrance is less bleak.”
He nodded gratefully. “Thank you, had we been speak only a half hour before I believe I would have laughed and teased you in return. I appreciate you giving me a more true memory. Perhaps we are not meant to meet more than this once, but I would prefer to believe that we have some power over the future and what it holds. I would like to converse with you under better circumstances, so I will believe that someday we will have that chance.” Alexandros said, revealing more of himself to the foreign woman.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with.” She kept her breathing even and leveled Alexandros with a gaze that was forced into serenity, “But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
His rage burned all the hotter after everything that had happened that night. First he was insulted by Daniil, then by Panos, now he was being lied to by Kaia’s cousin. His white hot anger caused his teeth to grind for a moment. He had not moved as she had slipped further away. His breathing deepened as he tried to force himself to calm down. “If you had known that I would be angry, then why did you lie to me? We could have had these conversation just fine as a pair of honest individuals who both care for your cousin. Instead you took advantage of my feelings and my frustrations inside. How could I not be pissed at you?” He paused for a moment to further collect his thoughts. “I will apologize for calling you a bitch, but if you think that was an insult to your family, then you have yet to see what happens when I get going. I am here, I am calm, and I would like to hear your answers. I will do my best not to let my anger from the rest of the evening show again.” His voice was measured and his tone was controlled as he spoke.
"My mother was a Judean. She was a Hebrew, daughter of a priest. She taught me the languages of her people, their culture, their religion, but I was Colchian, through and through, because of my father. I remember what she taught me, but her morals and religion were so different and she died when I was so young that they never really took root. I pray to her god before battle, observe certain rites, but I’m much more of a Greek than a Hebrew.”
He smiled, and for a moment he seemed lost in his own memories. Then, he shook his head as if clearing them away. Aea expected him to regale her with whatever he was remembering, but instead he deflected the conversation back to her. Or maybe it wasn’t a deflection and this was how conversations worked. It made sense—party alpha, to party beta, then back again. Perhaps she was just used to being talked at or talked over. That made sense. Conversation with Asia was easy, give and take, maybe the princess wasn’t the exception to conversation.
“As someone else of mixed heritage, did you also have a parent whose culture and religion resonated more with you?” he asked.
Aea wished she could say yes, but as far as she knew, she was purely Greek in every sense of the word. If her father was lying, which wasn’t far-fetched, she was a noblewoman’s bastard, which still made her common-born. Worse, even. The Greeks hated bastards.
“I am sorry to hear of your mother. Though her memory is honored when you pray, and that is the best you can do for the past. I was raised in a very different place than this, it’s all I’ve known. Though, I think if I chose to stay, I might like it better. I do not hold the past dearly, and my father’s customs were never so…” she looked up at the tall building, at the beautiful feat of human artistry and geometric inventiveness, “impressive.”
She did like northern customs, if she was being truthful. They had a way of living that was much harsher than the civilized Greeks, true, but they always seemed to be living for the present rather than the past, or even the future. Life was more precious in perpetual winter and war, and so they cherished days like sacred things.
As the conversation unfolded before Aea like parchment, it became equally as puzzling as the symbols upon it. Words, phrases, syntax that she didn’t understand and had never been taught to prepare for began weaving and ebbing between them until her anger tangled too much with her curiosity and she found herself invested with the conversation.
It occurred to her that she would make a horrible assassin. Too much logic and reason was a terrible thing to someone who needed to keep hold of their anger, for emotions were so easily vanquished in the face of rationality. Everything could be justifiable by reason, even wickedness, for if Alexandros were a wicked man, then was it reasonable for Aea to expect him to be anything other than what he was?
No, it was not. Kaia was just a happenstance victim of it. Aea’s purpose was not to change him, argue with him, or expect him to do anything at all. Her purpose was to assess him and ensure she was not misreading his intentions, and when she found him less than perfectly moral and gentle, make sure he didn’t do any further damage by removing her cousin from the equation.
Kaia would be more than fine without him. She would find someone else, it would be easy enough, and he would find someone less deserving of kindness and consideration than her cousin. If Aea could introduce Kaia to Yiannis or Vangelis, that would be a fine thing. They were both good, Aea was sure. She felt it in her gut. And they would definitely like Kaia—she was easy to love.
“Thank you, had we been speak only a half hour before I believe I would have laughed and teased you in return. I appreciate you giving me a more true memory. Perhaps we are not meant to meet more than this once, but I would prefer to believe that we have some power over the future and what it holds. I would like to converse with you under better circumstances, so I will believe that someday we will have that chance.”
Aea chewed the inside of her cheek in thought. Gatheron was the only one she knew that spoke like that. All her uncles laid their future at the feet of the Gods. When something went wrong, it was because the Gods willed it. When something went right, it was because the Gods smiled at them. She warred with her belief day by day—sometimes she could swear she could read a sign in her dreams, or feel eyes upon her when she was alone in the forest. Then, sometimes, she would privately roll her eyes at Dasmo when he said he was beloved of Leto because he couldn’t produce a single piece of truth that could be either observed, measured, or weighed.
Alexandros said he prayed to the Gods, so certainly he must at least pretend to believe in them for the sake of not looking impious, or perhaps just in case they were real. She wondered, though, she really did. However, now was the most inopportune time to get into a debate. It was a difficult urge to wrangle, made less difficult knowing that people have been exiled or worse for less.
"Perhaps," she said. Anything more would see her getting deeper into a conversation riddled with questions she should not be asking in semi-public to a stranger. It was fairly certain that they would never cross paths again, however. And if they did, it would be her that happened upon him, and he would never know before she was there and gone like she'd never been to begin with.
Aea was keenly aware that her game was coming to a close. She’d analyzed him and found that her original assessment remained true. He was certainly a capable and compelling man, and mostly honest, but none of those traits could cancel out the faults that would have otherwise been fascinating had her most beloved person been on the receiving end of them.
She did not know why she expected him to be relatively calm when she revealed that she was Kaia’s cousin. Perhaps it was because everyone she had known save for her father first dropped into irritation, then indignation, and then anger, but that had not been so for Alexandros.
The anger crossing his face so suddenly, the way he called her name like a curse, she did not have to think about what would come next. She had no weapon save for one dagger, and she’d bypassed surprise into panic, a place where her mind fled and she was only a ball of instinct and muscle memory. She backed away from him, her muscles coiled and ready to flee at a moment’s notice, but she wrangled her senses back by sheer force of her will.
She’d made an error in her strategy and had not accounted for just how angry he would get, or what he might do to her in that anger. She levied her forces and sacrificed them, something she knew better than to do. Her father would be ashamed of her, but she could not command her forces back to the body of the army when they were already among a massacre. Aea had made a mistake, and now she had to face it. She could do it curled up and cowering, or she could do it on her feet and ready to defend herself.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with. But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
Her jaw tensed and she allowed her arms loose at her sides, ready to rip the slit of her dress up to the apex of her thighs to get at the blade between them. It would have to be her left hand, for her fist would have better aim with her right.
Aea watched Alexandros warily, saw the muscles in his jaw flex as he ground his teeth together. Her eyes flicked from his face to his fists, then back again, her own fingers flexing as her body thrummed with a redirected energy.
His chest rose and fell harder. She slid one foot back subtly, the long red material hiding the flex of her legs underneath. Her eyes took in the chorded muscle of his neck, the broad line of his shoulders, the expanse of his chest, the substantial muscle of his arms. Right handed, she bet. He’d swing from the right and throw all that strength behind it, which meant that the follow-through would be considerable. She could dart aside and he would keep going forward, too large to keep up with her movements. If she could get a knee up from the left, there would be a window of a few seconds where she could smash his nose, then put an impact on his temple when he came back up with a hand to his face.
“If you had known that I would be angry, then why did you lie to me? We could have had these conversation just fine as a pair of honest individuals who both care for your cousin. Instead you took advantage of my feelings and my frustrations inside. How could I not be pissed at you?”
He didn’t lunge forward. Didn’t raise a fist. Didn’t move as he stopped speaking. Aea’s eyebrows furrowed and her focus upon him wavered from the lines and contours of his frame to include the world around them again.
Alexandros continued, “I will apologize for calling you a bitch, but if you think that was an insult to your family, then you have yet to see what happens when I get going. I am here, I am calm, and I would like to hear your answers. I will do my best not to let my anger from the rest of the evening show again.”
He wasn’t yelling or screaming. He still hadn’t moved. All signs earlier pointed to a jump in temper, and most people could not control their instincts when anger flared hot. He wasn’t, though...he wasn’t going to try and hit her?
Aea was cautious, still. She was not intelligent enough to know what an absence of sudden physical aggression meant, but she was not stupid enough to come closer and find out. Instead, she stayed where she was, her body still tense in case he was attempting to lure her into a false sense of security. Nothing was secure about this, and that was her fault. However, she never made the same mistake twice, and she would learn from this so long as she lived past it.
She watched his face as she spoke, her own tone as calm as his, though it lacked the furious fire behind it. Anger was done here, its use fulfilled, and now there was only the cold pragmatism of concluding her execution and surviving past it.
“Thank you.” She said, acknowledging his refrain. Clearly, he was holding himself back. For how long, she didn’t know, but for now he was. She did not care if he called her a bitch—she was a bitch. She just did not appreciate him demanding answers from her in such rapid succession as if she had no choice but to give him what he wanted.
“I...did not think you would be angry." Her voice was quieter, now, hesitant and unsure if what she was saying was as stupid as it sounded in her head. "I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.”
She had been stupid to think that her father was the only person in the world who was so quick to anger, and truthfully, she did not think she assumed such a thing until this very moment. Of course her father was not an outlier—statistically, it was likely about twenty percent of a population if she used the only ratio she had reference of, and maybe less than that if she could study a larger group.
“I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—”
Her mouth worked around the words. It sounded stupid, juvenile, even, and so she didn't finish her sentence. She’d gotten Alexandros when she did because had she waited any longer, she knew somebody would have gotten hurt. And as ridiculous as that sounded in her head now because Asia was a princess and everyone else near Alexandros was big enough to take care of themselves, Aea did not like the thought that they had to defend themselves at all.
Which was, in hindsight, arrogant and patronizing of her to think. What could she ever do that people much larger and more knowledgeable than her couldn’t? She did not think herself more capable, and so the behavior was without merit or logic, but she could not make herself stop feeling such a thing, either. Not without deliberate conditioning, which she was not sure how to do.
It did not matter, though. What mattered was the facts. “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
Obviously, that backfired, but at least he was not inside and yelling at Kaia. Aea took a deep breath and paused to puzzle out what she was going to say next. She’d spoken too much again, but she was not going to tell him her secondary reasoning for keeping her act up, else what control he had upon himself would loosen and Aea’s night would take a steep dive.
Aea took another breath and readied herself to spill honesty so that Alexandros could understand that he was no longer fooling Kaia into thinking he actually cared. Even now, it was not care that made him angry, but possession. If he cared, he would have been looking high and low for her tonight, not trying to seduce some noblewoman he had never met before.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
Arra
Aea
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First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
"My mother was a Judean. She was a Hebrew, daughter of a priest. She taught me the languages of her people, their culture, their religion, but I was Colchian, through and through, because of my father. I remember what she taught me, but her morals and religion were so different and she died when I was so young that they never really took root. I pray to her god before battle, observe certain rites, but I’m much more of a Greek than a Hebrew.”
He smiled, and for a moment he seemed lost in his own memories. Then, he shook his head as if clearing them away. Aea expected him to regale her with whatever he was remembering, but instead he deflected the conversation back to her. Or maybe it wasn’t a deflection and this was how conversations worked. It made sense—party alpha, to party beta, then back again. Perhaps she was just used to being talked at or talked over. That made sense. Conversation with Asia was easy, give and take, maybe the princess wasn’t the exception to conversation.
“As someone else of mixed heritage, did you also have a parent whose culture and religion resonated more with you?” he asked.
Aea wished she could say yes, but as far as she knew, she was purely Greek in every sense of the word. If her father was lying, which wasn’t far-fetched, she was a noblewoman’s bastard, which still made her common-born. Worse, even. The Greeks hated bastards.
“I am sorry to hear of your mother. Though her memory is honored when you pray, and that is the best you can do for the past. I was raised in a very different place than this, it’s all I’ve known. Though, I think if I chose to stay, I might like it better. I do not hold the past dearly, and my father’s customs were never so…” she looked up at the tall building, at the beautiful feat of human artistry and geometric inventiveness, “impressive.”
She did like northern customs, if she was being truthful. They had a way of living that was much harsher than the civilized Greeks, true, but they always seemed to be living for the present rather than the past, or even the future. Life was more precious in perpetual winter and war, and so they cherished days like sacred things.
As the conversation unfolded before Aea like parchment, it became equally as puzzling as the symbols upon it. Words, phrases, syntax that she didn’t understand and had never been taught to prepare for began weaving and ebbing between them until her anger tangled too much with her curiosity and she found herself invested with the conversation.
It occurred to her that she would make a horrible assassin. Too much logic and reason was a terrible thing to someone who needed to keep hold of their anger, for emotions were so easily vanquished in the face of rationality. Everything could be justifiable by reason, even wickedness, for if Alexandros were a wicked man, then was it reasonable for Aea to expect him to be anything other than what he was?
No, it was not. Kaia was just a happenstance victim of it. Aea’s purpose was not to change him, argue with him, or expect him to do anything at all. Her purpose was to assess him and ensure she was not misreading his intentions, and when she found him less than perfectly moral and gentle, make sure he didn’t do any further damage by removing her cousin from the equation.
Kaia would be more than fine without him. She would find someone else, it would be easy enough, and he would find someone less deserving of kindness and consideration than her cousin. If Aea could introduce Kaia to Yiannis or Vangelis, that would be a fine thing. They were both good, Aea was sure. She felt it in her gut. And they would definitely like Kaia—she was easy to love.
“Thank you, had we been speak only a half hour before I believe I would have laughed and teased you in return. I appreciate you giving me a more true memory. Perhaps we are not meant to meet more than this once, but I would prefer to believe that we have some power over the future and what it holds. I would like to converse with you under better circumstances, so I will believe that someday we will have that chance.”
Aea chewed the inside of her cheek in thought. Gatheron was the only one she knew that spoke like that. All her uncles laid their future at the feet of the Gods. When something went wrong, it was because the Gods willed it. When something went right, it was because the Gods smiled at them. She warred with her belief day by day—sometimes she could swear she could read a sign in her dreams, or feel eyes upon her when she was alone in the forest. Then, sometimes, she would privately roll her eyes at Dasmo when he said he was beloved of Leto because he couldn’t produce a single piece of truth that could be either observed, measured, or weighed.
Alexandros said he prayed to the Gods, so certainly he must at least pretend to believe in them for the sake of not looking impious, or perhaps just in case they were real. She wondered, though, she really did. However, now was the most inopportune time to get into a debate. It was a difficult urge to wrangle, made less difficult knowing that people have been exiled or worse for less.
"Perhaps," she said. Anything more would see her getting deeper into a conversation riddled with questions she should not be asking in semi-public to a stranger. It was fairly certain that they would never cross paths again, however. And if they did, it would be her that happened upon him, and he would never know before she was there and gone like she'd never been to begin with.
Aea was keenly aware that her game was coming to a close. She’d analyzed him and found that her original assessment remained true. He was certainly a capable and compelling man, and mostly honest, but none of those traits could cancel out the faults that would have otherwise been fascinating had her most beloved person been on the receiving end of them.
She did not know why she expected him to be relatively calm when she revealed that she was Kaia’s cousin. Perhaps it was because everyone she had known save for her father first dropped into irritation, then indignation, and then anger, but that had not been so for Alexandros.
The anger crossing his face so suddenly, the way he called her name like a curse, she did not have to think about what would come next. She had no weapon save for one dagger, and she’d bypassed surprise into panic, a place where her mind fled and she was only a ball of instinct and muscle memory. She backed away from him, her muscles coiled and ready to flee at a moment’s notice, but she wrangled her senses back by sheer force of her will.
She’d made an error in her strategy and had not accounted for just how angry he would get, or what he might do to her in that anger. She levied her forces and sacrificed them, something she knew better than to do. Her father would be ashamed of her, but she could not command her forces back to the body of the army when they were already among a massacre. Aea had made a mistake, and now she had to face it. She could do it curled up and cowering, or she could do it on her feet and ready to defend herself.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with. But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
Her jaw tensed and she allowed her arms loose at her sides, ready to rip the slit of her dress up to the apex of her thighs to get at the blade between them. It would have to be her left hand, for her fist would have better aim with her right.
Aea watched Alexandros warily, saw the muscles in his jaw flex as he ground his teeth together. Her eyes flicked from his face to his fists, then back again, her own fingers flexing as her body thrummed with a redirected energy.
His chest rose and fell harder. She slid one foot back subtly, the long red material hiding the flex of her legs underneath. Her eyes took in the chorded muscle of his neck, the broad line of his shoulders, the expanse of his chest, the substantial muscle of his arms. Right handed, she bet. He’d swing from the right and throw all that strength behind it, which meant that the follow-through would be considerable. She could dart aside and he would keep going forward, too large to keep up with her movements. If she could get a knee up from the left, there would be a window of a few seconds where she could smash his nose, then put an impact on his temple when he came back up with a hand to his face.
“If you had known that I would be angry, then why did you lie to me? We could have had these conversation just fine as a pair of honest individuals who both care for your cousin. Instead you took advantage of my feelings and my frustrations inside. How could I not be pissed at you?”
He didn’t lunge forward. Didn’t raise a fist. Didn’t move as he stopped speaking. Aea’s eyebrows furrowed and her focus upon him wavered from the lines and contours of his frame to include the world around them again.
Alexandros continued, “I will apologize for calling you a bitch, but if you think that was an insult to your family, then you have yet to see what happens when I get going. I am here, I am calm, and I would like to hear your answers. I will do my best not to let my anger from the rest of the evening show again.”
He wasn’t yelling or screaming. He still hadn’t moved. All signs earlier pointed to a jump in temper, and most people could not control their instincts when anger flared hot. He wasn’t, though...he wasn’t going to try and hit her?
Aea was cautious, still. She was not intelligent enough to know what an absence of sudden physical aggression meant, but she was not stupid enough to come closer and find out. Instead, she stayed where she was, her body still tense in case he was attempting to lure her into a false sense of security. Nothing was secure about this, and that was her fault. However, she never made the same mistake twice, and she would learn from this so long as she lived past it.
She watched his face as she spoke, her own tone as calm as his, though it lacked the furious fire behind it. Anger was done here, its use fulfilled, and now there was only the cold pragmatism of concluding her execution and surviving past it.
“Thank you.” She said, acknowledging his refrain. Clearly, he was holding himself back. For how long, she didn’t know, but for now he was. She did not care if he called her a bitch—she was a bitch. She just did not appreciate him demanding answers from her in such rapid succession as if she had no choice but to give him what he wanted.
“I...did not think you would be angry." Her voice was quieter, now, hesitant and unsure if what she was saying was as stupid as it sounded in her head. "I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.”
She had been stupid to think that her father was the only person in the world who was so quick to anger, and truthfully, she did not think she assumed such a thing until this very moment. Of course her father was not an outlier—statistically, it was likely about twenty percent of a population if she used the only ratio she had reference of, and maybe less than that if she could study a larger group.
“I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—”
Her mouth worked around the words. It sounded stupid, juvenile, even, and so she didn't finish her sentence. She’d gotten Alexandros when she did because had she waited any longer, she knew somebody would have gotten hurt. And as ridiculous as that sounded in her head now because Asia was a princess and everyone else near Alexandros was big enough to take care of themselves, Aea did not like the thought that they had to defend themselves at all.
Which was, in hindsight, arrogant and patronizing of her to think. What could she ever do that people much larger and more knowledgeable than her couldn’t? She did not think herself more capable, and so the behavior was without merit or logic, but she could not make herself stop feeling such a thing, either. Not without deliberate conditioning, which she was not sure how to do.
It did not matter, though. What mattered was the facts. “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
Obviously, that backfired, but at least he was not inside and yelling at Kaia. Aea took a deep breath and paused to puzzle out what she was going to say next. She’d spoken too much again, but she was not going to tell him her secondary reasoning for keeping her act up, else what control he had upon himself would loosen and Aea’s night would take a steep dive.
Aea took another breath and readied herself to spill honesty so that Alexandros could understand that he was no longer fooling Kaia into thinking he actually cared. Even now, it was not care that made him angry, but possession. If he cared, he would have been looking high and low for her tonight, not trying to seduce some noblewoman he had never met before.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
"My mother was a Judean. She was a Hebrew, daughter of a priest. She taught me the languages of her people, their culture, their religion, but I was Colchian, through and through, because of my father. I remember what she taught me, but her morals and religion were so different and she died when I was so young that they never really took root. I pray to her god before battle, observe certain rites, but I’m much more of a Greek than a Hebrew.”
He smiled, and for a moment he seemed lost in his own memories. Then, he shook his head as if clearing them away. Aea expected him to regale her with whatever he was remembering, but instead he deflected the conversation back to her. Or maybe it wasn’t a deflection and this was how conversations worked. It made sense—party alpha, to party beta, then back again. Perhaps she was just used to being talked at or talked over. That made sense. Conversation with Asia was easy, give and take, maybe the princess wasn’t the exception to conversation.
“As someone else of mixed heritage, did you also have a parent whose culture and religion resonated more with you?” he asked.
Aea wished she could say yes, but as far as she knew, she was purely Greek in every sense of the word. If her father was lying, which wasn’t far-fetched, she was a noblewoman’s bastard, which still made her common-born. Worse, even. The Greeks hated bastards.
“I am sorry to hear of your mother. Though her memory is honored when you pray, and that is the best you can do for the past. I was raised in a very different place than this, it’s all I’ve known. Though, I think if I chose to stay, I might like it better. I do not hold the past dearly, and my father’s customs were never so…” she looked up at the tall building, at the beautiful feat of human artistry and geometric inventiveness, “impressive.”
She did like northern customs, if she was being truthful. They had a way of living that was much harsher than the civilized Greeks, true, but they always seemed to be living for the present rather than the past, or even the future. Life was more precious in perpetual winter and war, and so they cherished days like sacred things.
As the conversation unfolded before Aea like parchment, it became equally as puzzling as the symbols upon it. Words, phrases, syntax that she didn’t understand and had never been taught to prepare for began weaving and ebbing between them until her anger tangled too much with her curiosity and she found herself invested with the conversation.
It occurred to her that she would make a horrible assassin. Too much logic and reason was a terrible thing to someone who needed to keep hold of their anger, for emotions were so easily vanquished in the face of rationality. Everything could be justifiable by reason, even wickedness, for if Alexandros were a wicked man, then was it reasonable for Aea to expect him to be anything other than what he was?
No, it was not. Kaia was just a happenstance victim of it. Aea’s purpose was not to change him, argue with him, or expect him to do anything at all. Her purpose was to assess him and ensure she was not misreading his intentions, and when she found him less than perfectly moral and gentle, make sure he didn’t do any further damage by removing her cousin from the equation.
Kaia would be more than fine without him. She would find someone else, it would be easy enough, and he would find someone less deserving of kindness and consideration than her cousin. If Aea could introduce Kaia to Yiannis or Vangelis, that would be a fine thing. They were both good, Aea was sure. She felt it in her gut. And they would definitely like Kaia—she was easy to love.
“Thank you, had we been speak only a half hour before I believe I would have laughed and teased you in return. I appreciate you giving me a more true memory. Perhaps we are not meant to meet more than this once, but I would prefer to believe that we have some power over the future and what it holds. I would like to converse with you under better circumstances, so I will believe that someday we will have that chance.”
Aea chewed the inside of her cheek in thought. Gatheron was the only one she knew that spoke like that. All her uncles laid their future at the feet of the Gods. When something went wrong, it was because the Gods willed it. When something went right, it was because the Gods smiled at them. She warred with her belief day by day—sometimes she could swear she could read a sign in her dreams, or feel eyes upon her when she was alone in the forest. Then, sometimes, she would privately roll her eyes at Dasmo when he said he was beloved of Leto because he couldn’t produce a single piece of truth that could be either observed, measured, or weighed.
Alexandros said he prayed to the Gods, so certainly he must at least pretend to believe in them for the sake of not looking impious, or perhaps just in case they were real. She wondered, though, she really did. However, now was the most inopportune time to get into a debate. It was a difficult urge to wrangle, made less difficult knowing that people have been exiled or worse for less.
"Perhaps," she said. Anything more would see her getting deeper into a conversation riddled with questions she should not be asking in semi-public to a stranger. It was fairly certain that they would never cross paths again, however. And if they did, it would be her that happened upon him, and he would never know before she was there and gone like she'd never been to begin with.
Aea was keenly aware that her game was coming to a close. She’d analyzed him and found that her original assessment remained true. He was certainly a capable and compelling man, and mostly honest, but none of those traits could cancel out the faults that would have otherwise been fascinating had her most beloved person been on the receiving end of them.
She did not know why she expected him to be relatively calm when she revealed that she was Kaia’s cousin. Perhaps it was because everyone she had known save for her father first dropped into irritation, then indignation, and then anger, but that had not been so for Alexandros.
The anger crossing his face so suddenly, the way he called her name like a curse, she did not have to think about what would come next. She had no weapon save for one dagger, and she’d bypassed surprise into panic, a place where her mind fled and she was only a ball of instinct and muscle memory. She backed away from him, her muscles coiled and ready to flee at a moment’s notice, but she wrangled her senses back by sheer force of her will.
She’d made an error in her strategy and had not accounted for just how angry he would get, or what he might do to her in that anger. She levied her forces and sacrificed them, something she knew better than to do. Her father would be ashamed of her, but she could not command her forces back to the body of the army when they were already among a massacre. Aea had made a mistake, and now she had to face it. She could do it curled up and cowering, or she could do it on her feet and ready to defend herself.
“I understand you are angry about being lied to, and I would be glad to answer all of your questions in a calm and rational discussion, which is the reason I ‘dragged you out here’ to begin with. But I will give nothing to any man that talks to me like that, much less one that insults my family. Take a walk if you must, or go punch a wall, but do not make the mistake of thinking intimidation or physical force will work on me.”
Her jaw tensed and she allowed her arms loose at her sides, ready to rip the slit of her dress up to the apex of her thighs to get at the blade between them. It would have to be her left hand, for her fist would have better aim with her right.
Aea watched Alexandros warily, saw the muscles in his jaw flex as he ground his teeth together. Her eyes flicked from his face to his fists, then back again, her own fingers flexing as her body thrummed with a redirected energy.
His chest rose and fell harder. She slid one foot back subtly, the long red material hiding the flex of her legs underneath. Her eyes took in the chorded muscle of his neck, the broad line of his shoulders, the expanse of his chest, the substantial muscle of his arms. Right handed, she bet. He’d swing from the right and throw all that strength behind it, which meant that the follow-through would be considerable. She could dart aside and he would keep going forward, too large to keep up with her movements. If she could get a knee up from the left, there would be a window of a few seconds where she could smash his nose, then put an impact on his temple when he came back up with a hand to his face.
“If you had known that I would be angry, then why did you lie to me? We could have had these conversation just fine as a pair of honest individuals who both care for your cousin. Instead you took advantage of my feelings and my frustrations inside. How could I not be pissed at you?”
He didn’t lunge forward. Didn’t raise a fist. Didn’t move as he stopped speaking. Aea’s eyebrows furrowed and her focus upon him wavered from the lines and contours of his frame to include the world around them again.
Alexandros continued, “I will apologize for calling you a bitch, but if you think that was an insult to your family, then you have yet to see what happens when I get going. I am here, I am calm, and I would like to hear your answers. I will do my best not to let my anger from the rest of the evening show again.”
He wasn’t yelling or screaming. He still hadn’t moved. All signs earlier pointed to a jump in temper, and most people could not control their instincts when anger flared hot. He wasn’t, though...he wasn’t going to try and hit her?
Aea was cautious, still. She was not intelligent enough to know what an absence of sudden physical aggression meant, but she was not stupid enough to come closer and find out. Instead, she stayed where she was, her body still tense in case he was attempting to lure her into a false sense of security. Nothing was secure about this, and that was her fault. However, she never made the same mistake twice, and she would learn from this so long as she lived past it.
She watched his face as she spoke, her own tone as calm as his, though it lacked the furious fire behind it. Anger was done here, its use fulfilled, and now there was only the cold pragmatism of concluding her execution and surviving past it.
“Thank you.” She said, acknowledging his refrain. Clearly, he was holding himself back. For how long, she didn’t know, but for now he was. She did not care if he called her a bitch—she was a bitch. She just did not appreciate him demanding answers from her in such rapid succession as if she had no choice but to give him what he wanted.
“I...did not think you would be angry." Her voice was quieter, now, hesitant and unsure if what she was saying was as stupid as it sounded in her head. "I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.”
She had been stupid to think that her father was the only person in the world who was so quick to anger, and truthfully, she did not think she assumed such a thing until this very moment. Of course her father was not an outlier—statistically, it was likely about twenty percent of a population if she used the only ratio she had reference of, and maybe less than that if she could study a larger group.
“I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—”
Her mouth worked around the words. It sounded stupid, juvenile, even, and so she didn't finish her sentence. She’d gotten Alexandros when she did because had she waited any longer, she knew somebody would have gotten hurt. And as ridiculous as that sounded in her head now because Asia was a princess and everyone else near Alexandros was big enough to take care of themselves, Aea did not like the thought that they had to defend themselves at all.
Which was, in hindsight, arrogant and patronizing of her to think. What could she ever do that people much larger and more knowledgeable than her couldn’t? She did not think herself more capable, and so the behavior was without merit or logic, but she could not make herself stop feeling such a thing, either. Not without deliberate conditioning, which she was not sure how to do.
It did not matter, though. What mattered was the facts. “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
Obviously, that backfired, but at least he was not inside and yelling at Kaia. Aea took a deep breath and paused to puzzle out what she was going to say next. She’d spoken too much again, but she was not going to tell him her secondary reasoning for keeping her act up, else what control he had upon himself would loosen and Aea’s night would take a steep dive.
Aea took another breath and readied herself to spill honesty so that Alexandros could understand that he was no longer fooling Kaia into thinking he actually cared. Even now, it was not care that made him angry, but possession. If he cared, he would have been looking high and low for her tonight, not trying to seduce some noblewoman he had never met before.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
“I am sorry to hear of your mother. Though her memory is honored when you pray, and that is the best you can do for the past. I was raised in a very different place than this, it’s all I’ve known. Though, I think if I chose to stay, I might like it better. I do not hold the past dearly, and my father’s customs were never so…” she looked up at the tall building, at the beautiful feat of human artistry and geometric inventiveness, “impressive.”
“I can understand that. I was raised in Judea, until the death of my mother. I was 8 when I first came to Greece with my father. I have been here ever since. We have fought the Northern Tribes many times, but I can’t say that I have ever been introduced to their culture. I don’t know how much farther North your people are than those that attack our borders. I hope that your people aren’t the same as those Barbarians, you seem more sophisticated than they.” Alexandros hoped that the comments would not be offensive to the girl, but he had grown to hate the barbarians that had killed his father and many of his brothers in arms. He was still searching for the ones responsible for his Father’s death, and someday he would pay them back. Just like someday he would wipe that smirk off of the face of the man that scarred him and killed his mother. So long as she was not one of those barbarians, things would remain fine between them.
“I...did not think you would be angry.” Her voice was quieter, now, hesitant and unsure if what she was saying was as stupid as it sounded in her head. “I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.”
He frowned for a moment, he had not considered how easily the anger had come to him. “Perhaps on some other day, but anger comes swiftly tonight. Not all of it is at you. I still understand very well where the anger is directed. I won’t harm you. I don’t know what you are comparing me to, but I am not them. Please, come and sit again. Let us talk.” His breathing continued to slow as he forced himself to remain calm. His tone was back to his normal, warm voice.
“I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—” “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
“You could have told me when we reached this porch. I would have stayed and talked, as I have been curious to meet you as well. You are right though, I was ready to fight everyone in there, and I would have only left for one thing other than Kaia. I wouldn’t have gone after Kaia, and I wouldn’t have been angry with her. I have no quarrel with your cousin, all I wish is to see her safe, I may not know what I want our relationship to be, but I don’t want to see the two of you killed or sold as slaves. I am offering safety, protection, and a chance at a life that isn’t just stealing and running away. I am not and will not be angry with her. As I have said before, most of my anger is reserved for Panos, it may come easily tonight, but I am not as angry with you as it may have appeared. I couldn’t hurt you or Kaia unprovoked.” He spoke with raw emotion, continuing to hide nothing from the girl who had done naught but lie to him. Perhaps it wouldn’t help his case, but he wanted to see Kaia again, to talk, to see if she had thought things through.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
Alexandros was surprised to hear that Kaia had smiled at the thought of marriage to him. She spoke so lowly of being tied to one place that he had thought she would have been against a marriage at all. “You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened.” The last part was said mostly to himself as he was trying to prepare for what would be said when they did begin to talk.
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“I am sorry to hear of your mother. Though her memory is honored when you pray, and that is the best you can do for the past. I was raised in a very different place than this, it’s all I’ve known. Though, I think if I chose to stay, I might like it better. I do not hold the past dearly, and my father’s customs were never so…” she looked up at the tall building, at the beautiful feat of human artistry and geometric inventiveness, “impressive.”
“I can understand that. I was raised in Judea, until the death of my mother. I was 8 when I first came to Greece with my father. I have been here ever since. We have fought the Northern Tribes many times, but I can’t say that I have ever been introduced to their culture. I don’t know how much farther North your people are than those that attack our borders. I hope that your people aren’t the same as those Barbarians, you seem more sophisticated than they.” Alexandros hoped that the comments would not be offensive to the girl, but he had grown to hate the barbarians that had killed his father and many of his brothers in arms. He was still searching for the ones responsible for his Father’s death, and someday he would pay them back. Just like someday he would wipe that smirk off of the face of the man that scarred him and killed his mother. So long as she was not one of those barbarians, things would remain fine between them.
“I...did not think you would be angry.” Her voice was quieter, now, hesitant and unsure if what she was saying was as stupid as it sounded in her head. “I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.”
He frowned for a moment, he had not considered how easily the anger had come to him. “Perhaps on some other day, but anger comes swiftly tonight. Not all of it is at you. I still understand very well where the anger is directed. I won’t harm you. I don’t know what you are comparing me to, but I am not them. Please, come and sit again. Let us talk.” His breathing continued to slow as he forced himself to remain calm. His tone was back to his normal, warm voice.
“I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—” “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
“You could have told me when we reached this porch. I would have stayed and talked, as I have been curious to meet you as well. You are right though, I was ready to fight everyone in there, and I would have only left for one thing other than Kaia. I wouldn’t have gone after Kaia, and I wouldn’t have been angry with her. I have no quarrel with your cousin, all I wish is to see her safe, I may not know what I want our relationship to be, but I don’t want to see the two of you killed or sold as slaves. I am offering safety, protection, and a chance at a life that isn’t just stealing and running away. I am not and will not be angry with her. As I have said before, most of my anger is reserved for Panos, it may come easily tonight, but I am not as angry with you as it may have appeared. I couldn’t hurt you or Kaia unprovoked.” He spoke with raw emotion, continuing to hide nothing from the girl who had done naught but lie to him. Perhaps it wouldn’t help his case, but he wanted to see Kaia again, to talk, to see if she had thought things through.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
Alexandros was surprised to hear that Kaia had smiled at the thought of marriage to him. She spoke so lowly of being tied to one place that he had thought she would have been against a marriage at all. “You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened.” The last part was said mostly to himself as he was trying to prepare for what would be said when they did begin to talk.
“I am sorry to hear of your mother. Though her memory is honored when you pray, and that is the best you can do for the past. I was raised in a very different place than this, it’s all I’ve known. Though, I think if I chose to stay, I might like it better. I do not hold the past dearly, and my father’s customs were never so…” she looked up at the tall building, at the beautiful feat of human artistry and geometric inventiveness, “impressive.”
“I can understand that. I was raised in Judea, until the death of my mother. I was 8 when I first came to Greece with my father. I have been here ever since. We have fought the Northern Tribes many times, but I can’t say that I have ever been introduced to their culture. I don’t know how much farther North your people are than those that attack our borders. I hope that your people aren’t the same as those Barbarians, you seem more sophisticated than they.” Alexandros hoped that the comments would not be offensive to the girl, but he had grown to hate the barbarians that had killed his father and many of his brothers in arms. He was still searching for the ones responsible for his Father’s death, and someday he would pay them back. Just like someday he would wipe that smirk off of the face of the man that scarred him and killed his mother. So long as she was not one of those barbarians, things would remain fine between them.
“I...did not think you would be angry.” Her voice was quieter, now, hesitant and unsure if what she was saying was as stupid as it sounded in her head. “I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.”
He frowned for a moment, he had not considered how easily the anger had come to him. “Perhaps on some other day, but anger comes swiftly tonight. Not all of it is at you. I still understand very well where the anger is directed. I won’t harm you. I don’t know what you are comparing me to, but I am not them. Please, come and sit again. Let us talk.” His breathing continued to slow as he forced himself to remain calm. His tone was back to his normal, warm voice.
“I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—” “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
“You could have told me when we reached this porch. I would have stayed and talked, as I have been curious to meet you as well. You are right though, I was ready to fight everyone in there, and I would have only left for one thing other than Kaia. I wouldn’t have gone after Kaia, and I wouldn’t have been angry with her. I have no quarrel with your cousin, all I wish is to see her safe, I may not know what I want our relationship to be, but I don’t want to see the two of you killed or sold as slaves. I am offering safety, protection, and a chance at a life that isn’t just stealing and running away. I am not and will not be angry with her. As I have said before, most of my anger is reserved for Panos, it may come easily tonight, but I am not as angry with you as it may have appeared. I couldn’t hurt you or Kaia unprovoked.” He spoke with raw emotion, continuing to hide nothing from the girl who had done naught but lie to him. Perhaps it wouldn’t help his case, but he wanted to see Kaia again, to talk, to see if she had thought things through.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
Alexandros was surprised to hear that Kaia had smiled at the thought of marriage to him. She spoke so lowly of being tied to one place that he had thought she would have been against a marriage at all. “You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened.” The last part was said mostly to himself as he was trying to prepare for what would be said when they did begin to talk.
"I can understand that. I was raised in Judea, until the death of my mother. I was eight when I first came to Greece with my father. I have been here ever since. We have fought the Northern Tribes many times, but I can’t say that I have ever been introduced to their culture. I don’t know how much farther North your people are than those that attack our borders. I hope that your people aren’t the same as those Barbarians, you seem more sophisticated than they.”
“I’ve never been to Judea. I’ve never been to most places, really. But I think that is in Africa, no? My people are much farther north than your border skirmishes—across the Baltic Sea. And though I have not met these ‘barbarians,’ I should think they are far more sophisticated than I. Tonight, I am on my best behavior, but any other night I am quite a bit less put-together. Usually—” she dropped her voice lower, a mirthful little smile on her face as she jested, “usually, I am a blood-thirsty savage, running with wild animals and dressed in mud. Quite terrifying, really. Especially when I howl.”
It might have been a pleasant conversation if the issue of Kaia was not surrounding everything that came out of Aea's mouth. It was her cousin that fueled her motivation to speak, not any casual enjoyment or wish to socialize. And so all too soon, Aea dropped her mask of causality and foreign nobility, ready to put an end to the shroud she’d cast over the meeting. She collected the bones Alexandros had cast at her so easily and stowed them in her memory, ready to shake and roll them out if she needed to at a later date. For now, though, they were only for Kaia to bare witness to.
There was a tense moment where Aea did not know what his next movement would be, but she certainly didn’t expect a lack of movement. It surprised her and made her wary all at once, for when one did not react in the way she predicted, she was not sure whether it was in truth or only temporary.
“I...did not think you would be angry. I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.” She watched his expressions closely, her body taught as a bow at full draw.
Alexandros frowned, but the way his eyes were not cast directly upon her, she could only assume it was in thought. He said, “Perhaps on some other day, but anger comes swiftly tonight. Not all of it is at you. I still understand very well where the anger is directed. I won’t harm you. I don’t know what you are comparing me to, but I am not them. Please, come and sit again. Let us talk."
Aea’s eyes bounced from his feet to his head, taking in his stance and the tension in his muscles. The rise and fall of his chest was growing slower, like a calming stallion just finishing his run. His voice was gentling, the sting of his syllables smoothing out into a trickling creek rather than the rage of a rapid river. She had not meant to compare him to her father and uncles, but she had no other context save for them and he'd risen to anger as her father might have.
Her father, however, would not have gentled his voice or told her it was alright to come closer. He would have just told her to get her ass over to him now. Perhaps he was not so similar to her father, perhaps he was, but she would not know unless she risked coming close enough for him to strike.
Hesitantly, she took a step forward and watched him, attentive to any sudden movements. When he did not leap at her, she took another step and slowly sat upon the stone bannister again, her weight only partially set against it. “I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—” she took a breath and banished the ignorant end of her sentence, “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
“You could have told me when we reached this porch. I would have stayed and talked, as I have been curious to meet you as well. You are right though, I was ready to fight everyone in there, and I would have only left for one thing other than Kaia. I wouldn’t have gone after Kaia, and I wouldn’t have been angry with her. I have no quarrel with your cousin, all I wish is to see her safe. I may not know what I want our relationship to be, but I don’t want to see the two of you killed or sold as slaves. I am offering safety, protection, and a chance at a life that isn’t just stealing and running away. I am not and will not be angry with her. As I have said before, most of my anger is reserved for Panos, it may come easily tonight, but I am not as angry with you as it may have appeared. I couldn’t hurt you or Kaia unprovoked."
She stayed quiet for a moment, soaking in all that he said. Not just the words, but the way he said it, as if baring his honest to Gods soul. Aea chewed over his words, picking each sentence apart and separating it like a jigsaw puzzle. Piece by piece, she picked up the fractions of what he said and addressed them one by one before laying them down into their original form.
“I do not know you, Alexandros,” she started, “I have to be cautious. Assuming the best of people is not how we survive. You were already angry, and I had no way of knowing you would not crack me in two just to go after her. I was surprised Kaia went with you at all in Taengea, and then again at the festival, so I have to assume that you’re charming enough to blow past her reasoning. In that, I knew that you could be calm, and I would not have felt safe enough, nor felt my cousin was safe enough, until you were. Again, I do not know you, I do not know your anger, and my job is to make sure Kaia is safe. I cannot do that if I am dead."
She tugged at the end of her braid and hated that she had to admit as much to a stranger just to make sure he did not rear at her. Fear was weak. Admitting fear was even weaker. When one showed weakness, that is when the strong pounced.
As it turned out, sometimes it was necessary to appear weak. Then again, he'd revealed plenty of his vulnerabilities to her—what was one admittance against the ones he'd given her so freely?
She imagined that, yes, even if she were to be completely honest with him and had no ulterior motives for lying, she had at least been correct to assume that worrying him about Kaia was the right thing to do. “I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it.”
And now that the people at the table had seen just how fervently he demanded to see Kaia, they would assume whatever he attended was of far bigger import than Panos of Marikas, therefore nobody would see him as a coward for leaving, either.
Aea paused and twisted her braid around her finger, over and over again as she thought. “If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
She did not say that he would be angry at her cousin, if not now then later. Or at Aea. Both, possibly, though the blame should go entirely to Aea because it was her idea. She also did not provide the technicality that lying was a provocation because she would much rather avoid antagonizing him.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
“You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened," Alexandros said, his voice quieting the further he delved into his own words.
Aea supposed he would not know better, not that it mattered now. She had spent her entire life with Kaia and knew her as well as she knew anyone. Alexandros did not have that luxury.
“I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful,” Aea said, “and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
Aea took a deep breath and finally allowed her concentration to move away from Alexandros and to the torch burning just across the patio, more sure now that he would not make an attempt at her life. “You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there. As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?”
She lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
That was the truth. She only cared about his actions as far as they affected the people she was supposed to protect. Difficult to keep someone from a broken heart, she supposed. All she could do was be there to help mend it and make sure the likelihood of it happening again was lessened. Personally, she still did not understand Kaia’s regard for Alexandros’ actions.
She liked sex, Alexandros clearly did as well; could they not have just enjoyed that aspect? Who knows, perhaps Kaia might have even liked sharing, or women, or whatever it was that Alexandros was chasing. Perhaps Alexandros might have enjoyed caring, or bonding, or whatever it was that Kaia was chasing as well.
It was easy enough to not care if one simply did not want to care. It wasn’t as if they’d known each other for years. Then again, as Agolois was fond of saying, the heart will do what it will do. Perhaps Kaia had just been born with one that beat too strongly and had a will of its own. An unlucky thing.
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
"I can understand that. I was raised in Judea, until the death of my mother. I was eight when I first came to Greece with my father. I have been here ever since. We have fought the Northern Tribes many times, but I can’t say that I have ever been introduced to their culture. I don’t know how much farther North your people are than those that attack our borders. I hope that your people aren’t the same as those Barbarians, you seem more sophisticated than they.”
“I’ve never been to Judea. I’ve never been to most places, really. But I think that is in Africa, no? My people are much farther north than your border skirmishes—across the Baltic Sea. And though I have not met these ‘barbarians,’ I should think they are far more sophisticated than I. Tonight, I am on my best behavior, but any other night I am quite a bit less put-together. Usually—” she dropped her voice lower, a mirthful little smile on her face as she jested, “usually, I am a blood-thirsty savage, running with wild animals and dressed in mud. Quite terrifying, really. Especially when I howl.”
It might have been a pleasant conversation if the issue of Kaia was not surrounding everything that came out of Aea's mouth. It was her cousin that fueled her motivation to speak, not any casual enjoyment or wish to socialize. And so all too soon, Aea dropped her mask of causality and foreign nobility, ready to put an end to the shroud she’d cast over the meeting. She collected the bones Alexandros had cast at her so easily and stowed them in her memory, ready to shake and roll them out if she needed to at a later date. For now, though, they were only for Kaia to bare witness to.
There was a tense moment where Aea did not know what his next movement would be, but she certainly didn’t expect a lack of movement. It surprised her and made her wary all at once, for when one did not react in the way she predicted, she was not sure whether it was in truth or only temporary.
“I...did not think you would be angry. I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.” She watched his expressions closely, her body taught as a bow at full draw.
Alexandros frowned, but the way his eyes were not cast directly upon her, she could only assume it was in thought. He said, “Perhaps on some other day, but anger comes swiftly tonight. Not all of it is at you. I still understand very well where the anger is directed. I won’t harm you. I don’t know what you are comparing me to, but I am not them. Please, come and sit again. Let us talk."
Aea’s eyes bounced from his feet to his head, taking in his stance and the tension in his muscles. The rise and fall of his chest was growing slower, like a calming stallion just finishing his run. His voice was gentling, the sting of his syllables smoothing out into a trickling creek rather than the rage of a rapid river. She had not meant to compare him to her father and uncles, but she had no other context save for them and he'd risen to anger as her father might have.
Her father, however, would not have gentled his voice or told her it was alright to come closer. He would have just told her to get her ass over to him now. Perhaps he was not so similar to her father, perhaps he was, but she would not know unless she risked coming close enough for him to strike.
Hesitantly, she took a step forward and watched him, attentive to any sudden movements. When he did not leap at her, she took another step and slowly sat upon the stone bannister again, her weight only partially set against it. “I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—” she took a breath and banished the ignorant end of her sentence, “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
“You could have told me when we reached this porch. I would have stayed and talked, as I have been curious to meet you as well. You are right though, I was ready to fight everyone in there, and I would have only left for one thing other than Kaia. I wouldn’t have gone after Kaia, and I wouldn’t have been angry with her. I have no quarrel with your cousin, all I wish is to see her safe. I may not know what I want our relationship to be, but I don’t want to see the two of you killed or sold as slaves. I am offering safety, protection, and a chance at a life that isn’t just stealing and running away. I am not and will not be angry with her. As I have said before, most of my anger is reserved for Panos, it may come easily tonight, but I am not as angry with you as it may have appeared. I couldn’t hurt you or Kaia unprovoked."
She stayed quiet for a moment, soaking in all that he said. Not just the words, but the way he said it, as if baring his honest to Gods soul. Aea chewed over his words, picking each sentence apart and separating it like a jigsaw puzzle. Piece by piece, she picked up the fractions of what he said and addressed them one by one before laying them down into their original form.
“I do not know you, Alexandros,” she started, “I have to be cautious. Assuming the best of people is not how we survive. You were already angry, and I had no way of knowing you would not crack me in two just to go after her. I was surprised Kaia went with you at all in Taengea, and then again at the festival, so I have to assume that you’re charming enough to blow past her reasoning. In that, I knew that you could be calm, and I would not have felt safe enough, nor felt my cousin was safe enough, until you were. Again, I do not know you, I do not know your anger, and my job is to make sure Kaia is safe. I cannot do that if I am dead."
She tugged at the end of her braid and hated that she had to admit as much to a stranger just to make sure he did not rear at her. Fear was weak. Admitting fear was even weaker. When one showed weakness, that is when the strong pounced.
As it turned out, sometimes it was necessary to appear weak. Then again, he'd revealed plenty of his vulnerabilities to her—what was one admittance against the ones he'd given her so freely?
She imagined that, yes, even if she were to be completely honest with him and had no ulterior motives for lying, she had at least been correct to assume that worrying him about Kaia was the right thing to do. “I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it.”
And now that the people at the table had seen just how fervently he demanded to see Kaia, they would assume whatever he attended was of far bigger import than Panos of Marikas, therefore nobody would see him as a coward for leaving, either.
Aea paused and twisted her braid around her finger, over and over again as she thought. “If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
She did not say that he would be angry at her cousin, if not now then later. Or at Aea. Both, possibly, though the blame should go entirely to Aea because it was her idea. She also did not provide the technicality that lying was a provocation because she would much rather avoid antagonizing him.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
“You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened," Alexandros said, his voice quieting the further he delved into his own words.
Aea supposed he would not know better, not that it mattered now. She had spent her entire life with Kaia and knew her as well as she knew anyone. Alexandros did not have that luxury.
“I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful,” Aea said, “and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
Aea took a deep breath and finally allowed her concentration to move away from Alexandros and to the torch burning just across the patio, more sure now that he would not make an attempt at her life. “You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there. As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?”
She lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
That was the truth. She only cared about his actions as far as they affected the people she was supposed to protect. Difficult to keep someone from a broken heart, she supposed. All she could do was be there to help mend it and make sure the likelihood of it happening again was lessened. Personally, she still did not understand Kaia’s regard for Alexandros’ actions.
She liked sex, Alexandros clearly did as well; could they not have just enjoyed that aspect? Who knows, perhaps Kaia might have even liked sharing, or women, or whatever it was that Alexandros was chasing. Perhaps Alexandros might have enjoyed caring, or bonding, or whatever it was that Kaia was chasing as well.
It was easy enough to not care if one simply did not want to care. It wasn’t as if they’d known each other for years. Then again, as Agolois was fond of saying, the heart will do what it will do. Perhaps Kaia had just been born with one that beat too strongly and had a will of its own. An unlucky thing.
"I can understand that. I was raised in Judea, until the death of my mother. I was eight when I first came to Greece with my father. I have been here ever since. We have fought the Northern Tribes many times, but I can’t say that I have ever been introduced to their culture. I don’t know how much farther North your people are than those that attack our borders. I hope that your people aren’t the same as those Barbarians, you seem more sophisticated than they.”
“I’ve never been to Judea. I’ve never been to most places, really. But I think that is in Africa, no? My people are much farther north than your border skirmishes—across the Baltic Sea. And though I have not met these ‘barbarians,’ I should think they are far more sophisticated than I. Tonight, I am on my best behavior, but any other night I am quite a bit less put-together. Usually—” she dropped her voice lower, a mirthful little smile on her face as she jested, “usually, I am a blood-thirsty savage, running with wild animals and dressed in mud. Quite terrifying, really. Especially when I howl.”
It might have been a pleasant conversation if the issue of Kaia was not surrounding everything that came out of Aea's mouth. It was her cousin that fueled her motivation to speak, not any casual enjoyment or wish to socialize. And so all too soon, Aea dropped her mask of causality and foreign nobility, ready to put an end to the shroud she’d cast over the meeting. She collected the bones Alexandros had cast at her so easily and stowed them in her memory, ready to shake and roll them out if she needed to at a later date. For now, though, they were only for Kaia to bare witness to.
There was a tense moment where Aea did not know what his next movement would be, but she certainly didn’t expect a lack of movement. It surprised her and made her wary all at once, for when one did not react in the way she predicted, she was not sure whether it was in truth or only temporary.
“I...did not think you would be angry. I understand why you are, but I thought...there was a chance you would not be. Immediately, anyway.” She watched his expressions closely, her body taught as a bow at full draw.
Alexandros frowned, but the way his eyes were not cast directly upon her, she could only assume it was in thought. He said, “Perhaps on some other day, but anger comes swiftly tonight. Not all of it is at you. I still understand very well where the anger is directed. I won’t harm you. I don’t know what you are comparing me to, but I am not them. Please, come and sit again. Let us talk."
Aea’s eyes bounced from his feet to his head, taking in his stance and the tension in his muscles. The rise and fall of his chest was growing slower, like a calming stallion just finishing his run. His voice was gentling, the sting of his syllables smoothing out into a trickling creek rather than the rage of a rapid river. She had not meant to compare him to her father and uncles, but she had no other context save for them and he'd risen to anger as her father might have.
Her father, however, would not have gentled his voice or told her it was alright to come closer. He would have just told her to get her ass over to him now. Perhaps he was not so similar to her father, perhaps he was, but she would not know unless she risked coming close enough for him to strike.
Hesitantly, she took a step forward and watched him, attentive to any sudden movements. When he did not leap at her, she took another step and slowly sat upon the stone bannister again, her weight only partially set against it. “I was not supposed to be myself here. I could not pretend to be a Greek noble when all of the Grecian kingdoms are in attendance. I came up to you and pretended to be somebody I was not because if I had dropped the act before the whole room, I would be found out and taken to the stocks. And you were so angry inside, you looked ready to fight, I could think of no other thing to get you to leave—anything less and you would have told me to wait, or not come at all, and then—” she took a breath and banished the ignorant end of her sentence, “And I wanted you to calm down before I told you who I was, because if I didn’t, then you would have been even angrier and you would have just gone back inside anyway to find Kaia when you were already worked up to begin with. At least now you are angry at me and you’re outside.”
“You could have told me when we reached this porch. I would have stayed and talked, as I have been curious to meet you as well. You are right though, I was ready to fight everyone in there, and I would have only left for one thing other than Kaia. I wouldn’t have gone after Kaia, and I wouldn’t have been angry with her. I have no quarrel with your cousin, all I wish is to see her safe. I may not know what I want our relationship to be, but I don’t want to see the two of you killed or sold as slaves. I am offering safety, protection, and a chance at a life that isn’t just stealing and running away. I am not and will not be angry with her. As I have said before, most of my anger is reserved for Panos, it may come easily tonight, but I am not as angry with you as it may have appeared. I couldn’t hurt you or Kaia unprovoked."
She stayed quiet for a moment, soaking in all that he said. Not just the words, but the way he said it, as if baring his honest to Gods soul. Aea chewed over his words, picking each sentence apart and separating it like a jigsaw puzzle. Piece by piece, she picked up the fractions of what he said and addressed them one by one before laying them down into their original form.
“I do not know you, Alexandros,” she started, “I have to be cautious. Assuming the best of people is not how we survive. You were already angry, and I had no way of knowing you would not crack me in two just to go after her. I was surprised Kaia went with you at all in Taengea, and then again at the festival, so I have to assume that you’re charming enough to blow past her reasoning. In that, I knew that you could be calm, and I would not have felt safe enough, nor felt my cousin was safe enough, until you were. Again, I do not know you, I do not know your anger, and my job is to make sure Kaia is safe. I cannot do that if I am dead."
She tugged at the end of her braid and hated that she had to admit as much to a stranger just to make sure he did not rear at her. Fear was weak. Admitting fear was even weaker. When one showed weakness, that is when the strong pounced.
As it turned out, sometimes it was necessary to appear weak. Then again, he'd revealed plenty of his vulnerabilities to her—what was one admittance against the ones he'd given her so freely?
She imagined that, yes, even if she were to be completely honest with him and had no ulterior motives for lying, she had at least been correct to assume that worrying him about Kaia was the right thing to do. “I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it.”
And now that the people at the table had seen just how fervently he demanded to see Kaia, they would assume whatever he attended was of far bigger import than Panos of Marikas, therefore nobody would see him as a coward for leaving, either.
Aea paused and twisted her braid around her finger, over and over again as she thought. “If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
She did not say that he would be angry at her cousin, if not now then later. Or at Aea. Both, possibly, though the blame should go entirely to Aea because it was her idea. She also did not provide the technicality that lying was a provocation because she would much rather avoid antagonizing him.
“After the festival...my uncle saw you two together, and Kaia’s father told her that if you made her happy, then he would like to see you married. She didn’t say that she would, but she did not stop smiling for the rest of the night, which made it quite obvious what she thought. Yes, she is here, and no, she’s not coming to speak with you. Yes, you’ll get to see her when you go back inside, and no, it won’t be in whatever way you might have been hoping for. She heard what you said to the Marikas girl.”
“You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened," Alexandros said, his voice quieting the further he delved into his own words.
Aea supposed he would not know better, not that it mattered now. She had spent her entire life with Kaia and knew her as well as she knew anyone. Alexandros did not have that luxury.
“I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful,” Aea said, “and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
Aea took a deep breath and finally allowed her concentration to move away from Alexandros and to the torch burning just across the patio, more sure now that he would not make an attempt at her life. “You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there. As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?”
She lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
That was the truth. She only cared about his actions as far as they affected the people she was supposed to protect. Difficult to keep someone from a broken heart, she supposed. All she could do was be there to help mend it and make sure the likelihood of it happening again was lessened. Personally, she still did not understand Kaia’s regard for Alexandros’ actions.
She liked sex, Alexandros clearly did as well; could they not have just enjoyed that aspect? Who knows, perhaps Kaia might have even liked sharing, or women, or whatever it was that Alexandros was chasing. Perhaps Alexandros might have enjoyed caring, or bonding, or whatever it was that Kaia was chasing as well.
It was easy enough to not care if one simply did not want to care. It wasn’t as if they’d known each other for years. Then again, as Agolois was fond of saying, the heart will do what it will do. Perhaps Kaia had just been born with one that beat too strongly and had a will of its own. An unlucky thing.
“I do not know you, Alexandros,” she started, “I have to be cautious. Assuming the best of people is not how we survive. You were already angry, and I had no way of knowing you would not crack me in two just to go after her. I was surprised Kaia went with you at all in Taengea, and then again at the festival, so I have to assume that you’re charming enough to blow past her reasoning. In that, I knew that you could be calm, and I would not have felt safe enough, nor felt my cousin was safe enough, until you were. Again, I do not know you, I do not know your anger, and my job is to make sure Kaia is safe. I cannot do that if I am dead.”
Alexandros frowned, her words did nothing to help him feel better about the situation. He had been honest, completely so, and she had taken advantage of his care for her cousin and his lack of knowledge about who she was. It was frustrating to say the least, but he willed himself to remain as calm as he could when he responded. His lips pursed tightly before he began to speak. "I don't know you either. I thought that I was learning about you as we spoke, but instead I was being lied to, strung along, all while you learned more and more about me." His right hand clenched tightly around the stone as he continued to speak. "So you have gained much information about me, and lost my trust, was it worth it? Do you always give way to deceit over honor?"
“I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it.” “If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
It as here that Alexandros hesitated for the first time of the night. While Aea seemed so sure that he knew what he wanted, he was not. Never in his life had he tried to commit to someone else in a romantic sense. The closest to that might have been Leila, but there were vast differences between her situation and that of Kaia. He knew that he cared for her, he thought that perhaps he could be happy with her, and he thought that maybe he could have a relationship with her like his father had had with his mother. He didn't know how such relationships worked, and he didn't want to chance her leaving him and hurting him the same way his mother and his father had. In a life that had been characterized by bold actions and words, he faltered here. It should have been easy to say that he wanted her, that he would marry her, but it wasn't. After several moments of contemplation, he finally spoke. "Perhaps there is some block on my mind, perhaps there is something that prevents me from acknowledging it. If all that was left were my feelings, then I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin. There, I have said it, I mean it, but don't make me tread through that again."
“I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful,” Aea said, “and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
He smiled warmly at the thought that she had set her mind to him, that she had thought of little else. It was a nice feeling to be wanted in such a way. The same could be said of her, though he would not admit it to Aea. Perhaps he would tell Kaia at some point, but for now it would remain his secret. "I have chased all of you from Taengea to Megaris, and now to here. In all this time I have known of the feelings I had for Kaia, but I had never truly considered that we could be together. It was something I was chasing, not something I expected to catch. Now that it lies before me, I am almost in shock at the possibility."
“You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there. As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?” She lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
"I have been honest thus far with you, though the gods know well that you have lied extensively to me, so I will continue to answer you with the truth. Until we are married, or likewise agreed to be in a relationship that is exclusive, then I will continue to bed who I please. Had the Marikas girl offered, then yes, I would have taken her. I would have given her the same treatment that Kaia received. My father committed easily to my mother, I am sure that he had some infidelities, as is expected of a warrior, but he never married again, he could not love again after her. If I can be like him in this regard, then I wish for Kaia to be the one that defines my life." Once again, Alexandros continued to give honesty to the girl who had lied to him all evening; all he could do was hope that she would not whisper lies into the ear of her cousin.
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“I do not know you, Alexandros,” she started, “I have to be cautious. Assuming the best of people is not how we survive. You were already angry, and I had no way of knowing you would not crack me in two just to go after her. I was surprised Kaia went with you at all in Taengea, and then again at the festival, so I have to assume that you’re charming enough to blow past her reasoning. In that, I knew that you could be calm, and I would not have felt safe enough, nor felt my cousin was safe enough, until you were. Again, I do not know you, I do not know your anger, and my job is to make sure Kaia is safe. I cannot do that if I am dead.”
Alexandros frowned, her words did nothing to help him feel better about the situation. He had been honest, completely so, and she had taken advantage of his care for her cousin and his lack of knowledge about who she was. It was frustrating to say the least, but he willed himself to remain as calm as he could when he responded. His lips pursed tightly before he began to speak. "I don't know you either. I thought that I was learning about you as we spoke, but instead I was being lied to, strung along, all while you learned more and more about me." His right hand clenched tightly around the stone as he continued to speak. "So you have gained much information about me, and lost my trust, was it worth it? Do you always give way to deceit over honor?"
“I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it.” “If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
It as here that Alexandros hesitated for the first time of the night. While Aea seemed so sure that he knew what he wanted, he was not. Never in his life had he tried to commit to someone else in a romantic sense. The closest to that might have been Leila, but there were vast differences between her situation and that of Kaia. He knew that he cared for her, he thought that perhaps he could be happy with her, and he thought that maybe he could have a relationship with her like his father had had with his mother. He didn't know how such relationships worked, and he didn't want to chance her leaving him and hurting him the same way his mother and his father had. In a life that had been characterized by bold actions and words, he faltered here. It should have been easy to say that he wanted her, that he would marry her, but it wasn't. After several moments of contemplation, he finally spoke. "Perhaps there is some block on my mind, perhaps there is something that prevents me from acknowledging it. If all that was left were my feelings, then I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin. There, I have said it, I mean it, but don't make me tread through that again."
“I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful,” Aea said, “and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
He smiled warmly at the thought that she had set her mind to him, that she had thought of little else. It was a nice feeling to be wanted in such a way. The same could be said of her, though he would not admit it to Aea. Perhaps he would tell Kaia at some point, but for now it would remain his secret. "I have chased all of you from Taengea to Megaris, and now to here. In all this time I have known of the feelings I had for Kaia, but I had never truly considered that we could be together. It was something I was chasing, not something I expected to catch. Now that it lies before me, I am almost in shock at the possibility."
“You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there. As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?” She lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
"I have been honest thus far with you, though the gods know well that you have lied extensively to me, so I will continue to answer you with the truth. Until we are married, or likewise agreed to be in a relationship that is exclusive, then I will continue to bed who I please. Had the Marikas girl offered, then yes, I would have taken her. I would have given her the same treatment that Kaia received. My father committed easily to my mother, I am sure that he had some infidelities, as is expected of a warrior, but he never married again, he could not love again after her. If I can be like him in this regard, then I wish for Kaia to be the one that defines my life." Once again, Alexandros continued to give honesty to the girl who had lied to him all evening; all he could do was hope that she would not whisper lies into the ear of her cousin.
“I do not know you, Alexandros,” she started, “I have to be cautious. Assuming the best of people is not how we survive. You were already angry, and I had no way of knowing you would not crack me in two just to go after her. I was surprised Kaia went with you at all in Taengea, and then again at the festival, so I have to assume that you’re charming enough to blow past her reasoning. In that, I knew that you could be calm, and I would not have felt safe enough, nor felt my cousin was safe enough, until you were. Again, I do not know you, I do not know your anger, and my job is to make sure Kaia is safe. I cannot do that if I am dead.”
Alexandros frowned, her words did nothing to help him feel better about the situation. He had been honest, completely so, and she had taken advantage of his care for her cousin and his lack of knowledge about who she was. It was frustrating to say the least, but he willed himself to remain as calm as he could when he responded. His lips pursed tightly before he began to speak. "I don't know you either. I thought that I was learning about you as we spoke, but instead I was being lied to, strung along, all while you learned more and more about me." His right hand clenched tightly around the stone as he continued to speak. "So you have gained much information about me, and lost my trust, was it worth it? Do you always give way to deceit over honor?"
“I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it.” “If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
It as here that Alexandros hesitated for the first time of the night. While Aea seemed so sure that he knew what he wanted, he was not. Never in his life had he tried to commit to someone else in a romantic sense. The closest to that might have been Leila, but there were vast differences between her situation and that of Kaia. He knew that he cared for her, he thought that perhaps he could be happy with her, and he thought that maybe he could have a relationship with her like his father had had with his mother. He didn't know how such relationships worked, and he didn't want to chance her leaving him and hurting him the same way his mother and his father had. In a life that had been characterized by bold actions and words, he faltered here. It should have been easy to say that he wanted her, that he would marry her, but it wasn't. After several moments of contemplation, he finally spoke. "Perhaps there is some block on my mind, perhaps there is something that prevents me from acknowledging it. If all that was left were my feelings, then I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin. There, I have said it, I mean it, but don't make me tread through that again."
“I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful,” Aea said, “and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
He smiled warmly at the thought that she had set her mind to him, that she had thought of little else. It was a nice feeling to be wanted in such a way. The same could be said of her, though he would not admit it to Aea. Perhaps he would tell Kaia at some point, but for now it would remain his secret. "I have chased all of you from Taengea to Megaris, and now to here. In all this time I have known of the feelings I had for Kaia, but I had never truly considered that we could be together. It was something I was chasing, not something I expected to catch. Now that it lies before me, I am almost in shock at the possibility."
“You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there. As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?” She lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
"I have been honest thus far with you, though the gods know well that you have lied extensively to me, so I will continue to answer you with the truth. Until we are married, or likewise agreed to be in a relationship that is exclusive, then I will continue to bed who I please. Had the Marikas girl offered, then yes, I would have taken her. I would have given her the same treatment that Kaia received. My father committed easily to my mother, I am sure that he had some infidelities, as is expected of a warrior, but he never married again, he could not love again after her. If I can be like him in this regard, then I wish for Kaia to be the one that defines my life." Once again, Alexandros continued to give honesty to the girl who had lied to him all evening; all he could do was hope that she would not whisper lies into the ear of her cousin.
He was getting angry again, she could see it in the twisting of his mouth. For what, she did not know. Perhaps she had explained herself wrong, or perhaps she had not and he just didn’t like the answer. It did not matter, in any case. At this point she was just a thing standing in his way; likely he did not truly hear the words coming from her mouth, never mind caught the meaning beneath them.
“I don't know you either. I thought that I was learning about you as we spoke, but instead I was being lied to, strung along, all while you learned more and more about me," he said.
Her eyes jumped to his hand curling around the stone, then back to his face. “So you have gained much information about me, and lost my trust, was it worth it? Do you always give way to deceit over honor?”
Yes. Aea bit her lip and looked at the ground without answering him. A pang of guilt, heavy and dark, crowded her mouth and wormed its way into her chest. Aea swallowed it back until it was nothing but shame at herself that dribbled down her throat. He was right. Lying broke trust, and she hadn't even thought of her hypocrisy when she did it. Hypocrisy was disgusting, but she'd partaken.
Aea had broken his trust. A sacred thing she told herself was never to be broken. Such was her nature. It seemed that she could never have trust, even when she did not mean to do something to break it to begin with.
But why did she have it from him by default without earning it to begin with? That made no sense. Did he believe her to be good by virtue of breathing? That was literally the opposite of the truth for all people. One was wicked unless they proved otherwise...right?
He had hers, at least. He was not physically cruel, but she supposed it wouldn’t be as bad as a strike to the psyche. Wounds of the flesh healed. Wounds unseen were trickier. At least he would not hit her in his anger. She’d rather him draw a blade and run her through than raise his fist and strike her in a rage. She did not know why the thought of it churned her stomach, and not the thought of bleeding by his sword. Aea hated that. She wanted to get rid of it.
She looked up and stared at the torch, letting the red and yellow of the flame become a focal point as she thought about what he said. Fire had always been fascinating to her—the smallest spark of heat could be built into a roaring flame. It was curious that something so small could destroy an entire forest, a home, a kingdom if it were allowed to freely rage. And once it got big enough, nothing but the bulk of the sea could drown it.
Deceitful and honorless. Broken trust. How very appropriate that she did exactly what she was trying to fix. When would she learn how to be better to people? Was goodness really so difficult to achieve? Would she be a better person if she simply did nothing? Even someone she hated deserved better than that, and she did not hate Alexandros, yet she gave him a treatment that she would not wish upon her most hated enemy.
It did not matter, she supposed. He would forget all about this by the morning—she was a tree among the forest, hardly consequential enough to warrant true harm. Silence swallowed the two of them and she considered address his question, but knew better than to answer a rhetorical. He was not asking her if she was deceitful over honorable, he was telling her, and he was not wrong. What was the use of defending oneself when one knew the defense was just a lie, just pride?
She took a breath and broke the silence, letting his question that wasn't a question go unanswered. “I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it. If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
He did not immediately answer and she looked away from the fire to observe him instead. For perhaps the first time in their conversation, he was being careful with his thoughts and his words. There could be many reasons for that...did he really not know?
Aea bit her lip. Everybody had a unique way of looking at the world, of thinking. She respected that, liked to learn about it, and yet here she was imposing her own expectations upon somebody else. She tried to be impartial, and yet she was imperfect at the art of it. She expected better of herself.
“Perhaps there is some block on my mind, perhaps there is something that prevents me from acknowledging it. If all that was left were my feelings, then I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin. There, I have said it, I mean it, but don't make me tread through that again.”
A smile, unwelcome and unbidden, stretched across her mouth. She could not remember grinning so wide before. He was being honest, he had not outright lied yet, so why would he now?
I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin.
Maybe she had been wrong about him. He did not hit her, so she’d been wrong about his need for physical violence. It stood to reason that perhaps she’d been wrong about other things too, like his womanizing. Maybe he did not think he would see Kaia again, maybe he’d tried to find her and couldn’t. It was very possible given how well they hid.
Maybe he was just feeling alone and wanted someone to share the night with, and if he did not think he would see Kaia again, then he had to pick somebody lest he be left in isolation. That would follow her logic and give credence to the hypothesis that the loss of his mother triggered a need for chronic and possibly distant companionship. Some people could not stand to be alone, and that was alright. It was common, even.
I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin.
“Do you mean that?” She blurted, covering her mouth and biting back on the sudden energy heating her from the inside out, threatening to bubble from her chest in a laugh. It wasn’t the laughter of amusement, heavy and punishing and forcing her frown into a smile. No, it was a different laughter, light as air, filling her up from belly to chest with an all-encompassing warmth.
Kaia could leave the forest. She would be safe. Loved. For the rest of her life.
A weight, heavy and precious as a bronze statue, fell from Aea’s shoulders like dust. She'd never felt so...so...she did not even know an accurate word for it. She lifted her hands, instinctively reaching for Alexandros because her body simply could not clamp down upon such a sudden, strong, and unfamiliar emotion. It felt good. Too good, even.
Aea hesitated for only a moment, her limbs unaccustomed to such a movement, but then her heart was soaring high into the stars and she could not stop herself at that point. Even if he raised his arms high in the air, or pushed her off, or tossed her on the lawn below, she did not think she would be able to stop grinning.
Aea reached for him slowly and when he did not flinch away, her eyes lit up and she pounced on him, hopping from the stone railing to the ground to wrap her arms tightly around his middle, pouring all of the warmth she had into him like water to a vase.
She didn’t like strangers touching her, but for probably the first time in her life, she did not feel as if she wanted to claw out of her own skin at the contact. It was strange. And nice. Warm like a blanket.
“Thank you.” She said quietly.
Alexandros could not know all that he had done by saying that. She did not know all that he’d done, not yet, all she could feel was this alien lightness in her body that would not allow her to stop smiling, her mind racing a mile a minute at all the possibilities that the future held.
She’d never been to a wedding before. She’d never met somebody who was married before. Maybe she could come, and they would have a giant feast. Aea would help cook. And there would be flowers everywhere. It would be beautiful and wonderful and just...perfectly amazing.
Aea unwound her arms from Alexandros and stepped back, clearing her throat and folding her hands behind her back so that she did not do something equally as ridiculous. She’d not even asked him if she could hug him; she didn’t mean to do that, she’d just surged forward, unable to contain herself.
“I apologize, I do not usually do that.” She did not look at his face, did not want to taint this wonderful feeling with him frowning at her inappropriateness. Instead, she looked at the ground, still smiling.
Aea was keenly aware that one did not hug other people that weren’t blood or lovers, and she was no child to forget herself so thoroughly, but it was the only way she knew to get the feeling out because, perhaps for the first time ever, words and thoughts just could not articulate it.
“You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened,” Alexandros said.
Aea looked up. “I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful, and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
“I have chased all of you from Taengea to Megaris, and now to here. In all this time I have known of the feelings I had for Kaia, but I had never truly considered that we could be together. It was something I was chasing, not something I expected to catch. Now that it lies before me, I am almost in shock at the possibility.”
Aea did not know he'd been chasing them. That was...she did not know the word immediately, only that it was like a story.
She brought her hands from behind her back and the energy hadn’t left her, only got worse. It traveled from her belly to her legs, then her feet, and she could not help but to pace back and forth from the torchlight to the bannister. She knew he was not talking to her, that he was talking for his own benefit and likely lost in thought, but she answered absently anyway.
“You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there.”
She stopped pacing when the thought occurred to her that Alexandros may have been blindly chasing someone to warm his bed out of loneliness, but what about when he and Kaia were married? Aea assumed marriage meant loyalty, but it would not erase base instincts. Would he be able to reign in his libido? Kaia would not stray from Alexandros, and she would expect him not to stray from her as well. What if he could not do that?
The bubble of mirth was gone from Aea’s voice, and in its place was a quiet murmur. She was almost afraid of his response and didn’t want to ask, but she had to. She only hoped his honesty did not suddenly vanish now that he knew she was who she was. “As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?”
She shrugged, the torchlight bright above her head and casting her in its warm glow. Bolstering her boldness, almost, urging her to speak truth and hold nothing back from this man who was to take care of Kaia. “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
“I have been honest thus far with you, though the gods know well that you have lied extensively to me, so I will continue to answer you with the truth. Until we are married, or likewise agreed to be in a relationship that is exclusive, then I will continue to bed who I please. Had the Marikas girl offered, then yes, I would have taken her. I would have given her the same treatment that Kaia received. My father committed easily to my mother, I am sure that he had some infidelities, as is expected of a warrior, but he never married again, he could not love again after her. If I can be like him in this regard, then I wish for Kaia to be the one that defines my life.”
The same treatment Kaia received? What did that mean? And what did he mean it was expected of a warrior to have infidelities? Didn’t marriage mean that they would respect each other? He just said he would bed who he pleased until they were exclusive. What about after? And what did exclusive mean in the context? Was that another word for marriage? She'd not heard it before, but he said 'or.'
“I don’t understand,” she said. Quickly, the feeling of warm elation was being eaten by cold dread until it was gone entirely, replaced once more with the familiar ice of today, and yesterday, and all other days before. “You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married."
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
He was getting angry again, she could see it in the twisting of his mouth. For what, she did not know. Perhaps she had explained herself wrong, or perhaps she had not and he just didn’t like the answer. It did not matter, in any case. At this point she was just a thing standing in his way; likely he did not truly hear the words coming from her mouth, never mind caught the meaning beneath them.
“I don't know you either. I thought that I was learning about you as we spoke, but instead I was being lied to, strung along, all while you learned more and more about me," he said.
Her eyes jumped to his hand curling around the stone, then back to his face. “So you have gained much information about me, and lost my trust, was it worth it? Do you always give way to deceit over honor?”
Yes. Aea bit her lip and looked at the ground without answering him. A pang of guilt, heavy and dark, crowded her mouth and wormed its way into her chest. Aea swallowed it back until it was nothing but shame at herself that dribbled down her throat. He was right. Lying broke trust, and she hadn't even thought of her hypocrisy when she did it. Hypocrisy was disgusting, but she'd partaken.
Aea had broken his trust. A sacred thing she told herself was never to be broken. Such was her nature. It seemed that she could never have trust, even when she did not mean to do something to break it to begin with.
But why did she have it from him by default without earning it to begin with? That made no sense. Did he believe her to be good by virtue of breathing? That was literally the opposite of the truth for all people. One was wicked unless they proved otherwise...right?
He had hers, at least. He was not physically cruel, but she supposed it wouldn’t be as bad as a strike to the psyche. Wounds of the flesh healed. Wounds unseen were trickier. At least he would not hit her in his anger. She’d rather him draw a blade and run her through than raise his fist and strike her in a rage. She did not know why the thought of it churned her stomach, and not the thought of bleeding by his sword. Aea hated that. She wanted to get rid of it.
She looked up and stared at the torch, letting the red and yellow of the flame become a focal point as she thought about what he said. Fire had always been fascinating to her—the smallest spark of heat could be built into a roaring flame. It was curious that something so small could destroy an entire forest, a home, a kingdom if it were allowed to freely rage. And once it got big enough, nothing but the bulk of the sea could drown it.
Deceitful and honorless. Broken trust. How very appropriate that she did exactly what she was trying to fix. When would she learn how to be better to people? Was goodness really so difficult to achieve? Would she be a better person if she simply did nothing? Even someone she hated deserved better than that, and she did not hate Alexandros, yet she gave him a treatment that she would not wish upon her most hated enemy.
It did not matter, she supposed. He would forget all about this by the morning—she was a tree among the forest, hardly consequential enough to warrant true harm. Silence swallowed the two of them and she considered address his question, but knew better than to answer a rhetorical. He was not asking her if she was deceitful over honorable, he was telling her, and he was not wrong. What was the use of defending oneself when one knew the defense was just a lie, just pride?
She took a breath and broke the silence, letting his question that wasn't a question go unanswered. “I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it. If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
He did not immediately answer and she looked away from the fire to observe him instead. For perhaps the first time in their conversation, he was being careful with his thoughts and his words. There could be many reasons for that...did he really not know?
Aea bit her lip. Everybody had a unique way of looking at the world, of thinking. She respected that, liked to learn about it, and yet here she was imposing her own expectations upon somebody else. She tried to be impartial, and yet she was imperfect at the art of it. She expected better of herself.
“Perhaps there is some block on my mind, perhaps there is something that prevents me from acknowledging it. If all that was left were my feelings, then I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin. There, I have said it, I mean it, but don't make me tread through that again.”
A smile, unwelcome and unbidden, stretched across her mouth. She could not remember grinning so wide before. He was being honest, he had not outright lied yet, so why would he now?
I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin.
Maybe she had been wrong about him. He did not hit her, so she’d been wrong about his need for physical violence. It stood to reason that perhaps she’d been wrong about other things too, like his womanizing. Maybe he did not think he would see Kaia again, maybe he’d tried to find her and couldn’t. It was very possible given how well they hid.
Maybe he was just feeling alone and wanted someone to share the night with, and if he did not think he would see Kaia again, then he had to pick somebody lest he be left in isolation. That would follow her logic and give credence to the hypothesis that the loss of his mother triggered a need for chronic and possibly distant companionship. Some people could not stand to be alone, and that was alright. It was common, even.
I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin.
“Do you mean that?” She blurted, covering her mouth and biting back on the sudden energy heating her from the inside out, threatening to bubble from her chest in a laugh. It wasn’t the laughter of amusement, heavy and punishing and forcing her frown into a smile. No, it was a different laughter, light as air, filling her up from belly to chest with an all-encompassing warmth.
Kaia could leave the forest. She would be safe. Loved. For the rest of her life.
A weight, heavy and precious as a bronze statue, fell from Aea’s shoulders like dust. She'd never felt so...so...she did not even know an accurate word for it. She lifted her hands, instinctively reaching for Alexandros because her body simply could not clamp down upon such a sudden, strong, and unfamiliar emotion. It felt good. Too good, even.
Aea hesitated for only a moment, her limbs unaccustomed to such a movement, but then her heart was soaring high into the stars and she could not stop herself at that point. Even if he raised his arms high in the air, or pushed her off, or tossed her on the lawn below, she did not think she would be able to stop grinning.
Aea reached for him slowly and when he did not flinch away, her eyes lit up and she pounced on him, hopping from the stone railing to the ground to wrap her arms tightly around his middle, pouring all of the warmth she had into him like water to a vase.
She didn’t like strangers touching her, but for probably the first time in her life, she did not feel as if she wanted to claw out of her own skin at the contact. It was strange. And nice. Warm like a blanket.
“Thank you.” She said quietly.
Alexandros could not know all that he had done by saying that. She did not know all that he’d done, not yet, all she could feel was this alien lightness in her body that would not allow her to stop smiling, her mind racing a mile a minute at all the possibilities that the future held.
She’d never been to a wedding before. She’d never met somebody who was married before. Maybe she could come, and they would have a giant feast. Aea would help cook. And there would be flowers everywhere. It would be beautiful and wonderful and just...perfectly amazing.
Aea unwound her arms from Alexandros and stepped back, clearing her throat and folding her hands behind her back so that she did not do something equally as ridiculous. She’d not even asked him if she could hug him; she didn’t mean to do that, she’d just surged forward, unable to contain herself.
“I apologize, I do not usually do that.” She did not look at his face, did not want to taint this wonderful feeling with him frowning at her inappropriateness. Instead, she looked at the ground, still smiling.
Aea was keenly aware that one did not hug other people that weren’t blood or lovers, and she was no child to forget herself so thoroughly, but it was the only way she knew to get the feeling out because, perhaps for the first time ever, words and thoughts just could not articulate it.
“You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened,” Alexandros said.
Aea looked up. “I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful, and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
“I have chased all of you from Taengea to Megaris, and now to here. In all this time I have known of the feelings I had for Kaia, but I had never truly considered that we could be together. It was something I was chasing, not something I expected to catch. Now that it lies before me, I am almost in shock at the possibility.”
Aea did not know he'd been chasing them. That was...she did not know the word immediately, only that it was like a story.
She brought her hands from behind her back and the energy hadn’t left her, only got worse. It traveled from her belly to her legs, then her feet, and she could not help but to pace back and forth from the torchlight to the bannister. She knew he was not talking to her, that he was talking for his own benefit and likely lost in thought, but she answered absently anyway.
“You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there.”
She stopped pacing when the thought occurred to her that Alexandros may have been blindly chasing someone to warm his bed out of loneliness, but what about when he and Kaia were married? Aea assumed marriage meant loyalty, but it would not erase base instincts. Would he be able to reign in his libido? Kaia would not stray from Alexandros, and she would expect him not to stray from her as well. What if he could not do that?
The bubble of mirth was gone from Aea’s voice, and in its place was a quiet murmur. She was almost afraid of his response and didn’t want to ask, but she had to. She only hoped his honesty did not suddenly vanish now that he knew she was who she was. “As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?”
She shrugged, the torchlight bright above her head and casting her in its warm glow. Bolstering her boldness, almost, urging her to speak truth and hold nothing back from this man who was to take care of Kaia. “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
“I have been honest thus far with you, though the gods know well that you have lied extensively to me, so I will continue to answer you with the truth. Until we are married, or likewise agreed to be in a relationship that is exclusive, then I will continue to bed who I please. Had the Marikas girl offered, then yes, I would have taken her. I would have given her the same treatment that Kaia received. My father committed easily to my mother, I am sure that he had some infidelities, as is expected of a warrior, but he never married again, he could not love again after her. If I can be like him in this regard, then I wish for Kaia to be the one that defines my life.”
The same treatment Kaia received? What did that mean? And what did he mean it was expected of a warrior to have infidelities? Didn’t marriage mean that they would respect each other? He just said he would bed who he pleased until they were exclusive. What about after? And what did exclusive mean in the context? Was that another word for marriage? She'd not heard it before, but he said 'or.'
“I don’t understand,” she said. Quickly, the feeling of warm elation was being eaten by cold dread until it was gone entirely, replaced once more with the familiar ice of today, and yesterday, and all other days before. “You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married."
He was getting angry again, she could see it in the twisting of his mouth. For what, she did not know. Perhaps she had explained herself wrong, or perhaps she had not and he just didn’t like the answer. It did not matter, in any case. At this point she was just a thing standing in his way; likely he did not truly hear the words coming from her mouth, never mind caught the meaning beneath them.
“I don't know you either. I thought that I was learning about you as we spoke, but instead I was being lied to, strung along, all while you learned more and more about me," he said.
Her eyes jumped to his hand curling around the stone, then back to his face. “So you have gained much information about me, and lost my trust, was it worth it? Do you always give way to deceit over honor?”
Yes. Aea bit her lip and looked at the ground without answering him. A pang of guilt, heavy and dark, crowded her mouth and wormed its way into her chest. Aea swallowed it back until it was nothing but shame at herself that dribbled down her throat. He was right. Lying broke trust, and she hadn't even thought of her hypocrisy when she did it. Hypocrisy was disgusting, but she'd partaken.
Aea had broken his trust. A sacred thing she told herself was never to be broken. Such was her nature. It seemed that she could never have trust, even when she did not mean to do something to break it to begin with.
But why did she have it from him by default without earning it to begin with? That made no sense. Did he believe her to be good by virtue of breathing? That was literally the opposite of the truth for all people. One was wicked unless they proved otherwise...right?
He had hers, at least. He was not physically cruel, but she supposed it wouldn’t be as bad as a strike to the psyche. Wounds of the flesh healed. Wounds unseen were trickier. At least he would not hit her in his anger. She’d rather him draw a blade and run her through than raise his fist and strike her in a rage. She did not know why the thought of it churned her stomach, and not the thought of bleeding by his sword. Aea hated that. She wanted to get rid of it.
She looked up and stared at the torch, letting the red and yellow of the flame become a focal point as she thought about what he said. Fire had always been fascinating to her—the smallest spark of heat could be built into a roaring flame. It was curious that something so small could destroy an entire forest, a home, a kingdom if it were allowed to freely rage. And once it got big enough, nothing but the bulk of the sea could drown it.
Deceitful and honorless. Broken trust. How very appropriate that she did exactly what she was trying to fix. When would she learn how to be better to people? Was goodness really so difficult to achieve? Would she be a better person if she simply did nothing? Even someone she hated deserved better than that, and she did not hate Alexandros, yet she gave him a treatment that she would not wish upon her most hated enemy.
It did not matter, she supposed. He would forget all about this by the morning—she was a tree among the forest, hardly consequential enough to warrant true harm. Silence swallowed the two of them and she considered address his question, but knew better than to answer a rhetorical. He was not asking her if she was deceitful over honorable, he was telling her, and he was not wrong. What was the use of defending oneself when one knew the defense was just a lie, just pride?
She took a breath and broke the silence, letting his question that wasn't a question go unanswered. “I’m glad we are in agreement with getting you out of the chamber, at least. I imagine that had it been something vague or in regards to some random girl needing your help, you might have seen it as looking like a coward and ignored me. For Kaia, though, you did not have to think about it. If you do not know what you want your relationship to be, I do not understand why you would care about offering anything. People are killed and sold every day, orphans running the streets, young women plying their bodies in Megaris. And yet you do not offer them the same thing. Everyone knows what they want, it's just a question of how willing you are to go after it. It stands to reason that you do, in fact, know what you would like Kaia to be to you, else you would not feel so strongly about keeping her safe. Either you are not saying it aloud or you are not acknowledging it to yourself, like a block on the psyche. If we are being honest with one another, and all you had to worry about was your desire, would your answer still be the same? I know Kaia’s answer, and it is not as unsure as your own.”
He did not immediately answer and she looked away from the fire to observe him instead. For perhaps the first time in their conversation, he was being careful with his thoughts and his words. There could be many reasons for that...did he really not know?
Aea bit her lip. Everybody had a unique way of looking at the world, of thinking. She respected that, liked to learn about it, and yet here she was imposing her own expectations upon somebody else. She tried to be impartial, and yet she was imperfect at the art of it. She expected better of herself.
“Perhaps there is some block on my mind, perhaps there is something that prevents me from acknowledging it. If all that was left were my feelings, then I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin. There, I have said it, I mean it, but don't make me tread through that again.”
A smile, unwelcome and unbidden, stretched across her mouth. She could not remember grinning so wide before. He was being honest, he had not outright lied yet, so why would he now?
I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin.
Maybe she had been wrong about him. He did not hit her, so she’d been wrong about his need for physical violence. It stood to reason that perhaps she’d been wrong about other things too, like his womanizing. Maybe he did not think he would see Kaia again, maybe he’d tried to find her and couldn’t. It was very possible given how well they hid.
Maybe he was just feeling alone and wanted someone to share the night with, and if he did not think he would see Kaia again, then he had to pick somebody lest he be left in isolation. That would follow her logic and give credence to the hypothesis that the loss of his mother triggered a need for chronic and possibly distant companionship. Some people could not stand to be alone, and that was alright. It was common, even.
I would wish to spend the rest of my life with your cousin.
“Do you mean that?” She blurted, covering her mouth and biting back on the sudden energy heating her from the inside out, threatening to bubble from her chest in a laugh. It wasn’t the laughter of amusement, heavy and punishing and forcing her frown into a smile. No, it was a different laughter, light as air, filling her up from belly to chest with an all-encompassing warmth.
Kaia could leave the forest. She would be safe. Loved. For the rest of her life.
A weight, heavy and precious as a bronze statue, fell from Aea’s shoulders like dust. She'd never felt so...so...she did not even know an accurate word for it. She lifted her hands, instinctively reaching for Alexandros because her body simply could not clamp down upon such a sudden, strong, and unfamiliar emotion. It felt good. Too good, even.
Aea hesitated for only a moment, her limbs unaccustomed to such a movement, but then her heart was soaring high into the stars and she could not stop herself at that point. Even if he raised his arms high in the air, or pushed her off, or tossed her on the lawn below, she did not think she would be able to stop grinning.
Aea reached for him slowly and when he did not flinch away, her eyes lit up and she pounced on him, hopping from the stone railing to the ground to wrap her arms tightly around his middle, pouring all of the warmth she had into him like water to a vase.
She didn’t like strangers touching her, but for probably the first time in her life, she did not feel as if she wanted to claw out of her own skin at the contact. It was strange. And nice. Warm like a blanket.
“Thank you.” She said quietly.
Alexandros could not know all that he had done by saying that. She did not know all that he’d done, not yet, all she could feel was this alien lightness in her body that would not allow her to stop smiling, her mind racing a mile a minute at all the possibilities that the future held.
She’d never been to a wedding before. She’d never met somebody who was married before. Maybe she could come, and they would have a giant feast. Aea would help cook. And there would be flowers everywhere. It would be beautiful and wonderful and just...perfectly amazing.
Aea unwound her arms from Alexandros and stepped back, clearing her throat and folding her hands behind her back so that she did not do something equally as ridiculous. She’d not even asked him if she could hug him; she didn’t mean to do that, she’d just surged forward, unable to contain herself.
“I apologize, I do not usually do that.” She did not look at his face, did not want to taint this wonderful feeling with him frowning at her inappropriateness. Instead, she looked at the ground, still smiling.
Aea was keenly aware that one did not hug other people that weren’t blood or lovers, and she was no child to forget herself so thoroughly, but it was the only way she knew to get the feeling out because, perhaps for the first time ever, words and thoughts just could not articulate it.
“You think she wanted to be married? She had told me in no uncertain terms that she would never settle down like that. What do you mean that I will get to see her and that she won’t come talk? What I said to that girl is meaningless, it was never intended to be anything more than a verbal jab at her. Surely Kaia will understand that once I can explain what happened,” Alexandros said.
Aea looked up. “I do not think. I know. Kaia is prideful, and she is beautiful. So beautiful that rarely do people see past her face, and so of course she dreams of rising above it. She wants to do great things, to be free and claim a name for herself, but she is still human. She wants what all humans want—safety, love, and belonging. Had she admitted as much aloud, she would have to admit that she does, in fact, still long for those things to begin with, perhaps even more than fame or fortune. Preferably with a man who could keep up with her. I can read her smile, and I know she liked you. I know she believed you could be that man. And if she was not brooding about you last night, then she was talking about you. I don't think she's had anything else on her mind since.”
“I have chased all of you from Taengea to Megaris, and now to here. In all this time I have known of the feelings I had for Kaia, but I had never truly considered that we could be together. It was something I was chasing, not something I expected to catch. Now that it lies before me, I am almost in shock at the possibility.”
Aea did not know he'd been chasing them. That was...she did not know the word immediately, only that it was like a story.
She brought her hands from behind her back and the energy hadn’t left her, only got worse. It traveled from her belly to her legs, then her feet, and she could not help but to pace back and forth from the torchlight to the bannister. She knew he was not talking to her, that he was talking for his own benefit and likely lost in thought, but she answered absently anyway.
“You will see her soon, she is getting dressed now and will be joining Lady Rene at the table when she is finished, and so she will not be coming out here, but sitting in there.”
She stopped pacing when the thought occurred to her that Alexandros may have been blindly chasing someone to warm his bed out of loneliness, but what about when he and Kaia were married? Aea assumed marriage meant loyalty, but it would not erase base instincts. Would he be able to reign in his libido? Kaia would not stray from Alexandros, and she would expect him not to stray from her as well. What if he could not do that?
The bubble of mirth was gone from Aea’s voice, and in its place was a quiet murmur. She was almost afraid of his response and didn’t want to ask, but she had to. She only hoped his honesty did not suddenly vanish now that he knew she was who she was. “As to the Marikas girl...do you mean to tell me that had she spread herself before you, you would not have taken her?”
She shrugged, the torchlight bright above her head and casting her in its warm glow. Bolstering her boldness, almost, urging her to speak truth and hold nothing back from this man who was to take care of Kaia. “I do not judge you for your behavior and actions, the Gods know I have done far worse. I have no personal opinion on what you have done or what you will do, I only care to the degree that they affect my loved ones. Take that as you will.”
“I have been honest thus far with you, though the gods know well that you have lied extensively to me, so I will continue to answer you with the truth. Until we are married, or likewise agreed to be in a relationship that is exclusive, then I will continue to bed who I please. Had the Marikas girl offered, then yes, I would have taken her. I would have given her the same treatment that Kaia received. My father committed easily to my mother, I am sure that he had some infidelities, as is expected of a warrior, but he never married again, he could not love again after her. If I can be like him in this regard, then I wish for Kaia to be the one that defines my life.”
The same treatment Kaia received? What did that mean? And what did he mean it was expected of a warrior to have infidelities? Didn’t marriage mean that they would respect each other? He just said he would bed who he pleased until they were exclusive. What about after? And what did exclusive mean in the context? Was that another word for marriage? She'd not heard it before, but he said 'or.'
“I don’t understand,” she said. Quickly, the feeling of warm elation was being eaten by cold dread until it was gone entirely, replaced once more with the familiar ice of today, and yesterday, and all other days before. “You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married."
“Do you mean that?”
He had just affirmed that he meant what he said, and now she asked for another affirmation. He shook his head with a rueful smile on his face. "You don't listen well, do you? I said that I meant it. I have told her on both occasions that we have met that I would marry her. I even told her that I would do what it took to get you away from the men that have raised you both in such a poor way. You are cunning, clever, and a skilled fighter, I saw a little of your fight with Vangelis; you could make something of yourself in this kingdom. The two of you are capable of more than petty crime. Leave with me, both of you. I can teach you the sword, as I promised to teach your cousin. You are friends with Asia, hopefully she knows who you really are. She could help you. You wouldn't have to run anymore. Those bastards have taken enough of your lives away. There is no need to let them take more." Perhaps she would be reasoned with, perhaps her loyalty was too great, as was the case with Kaia. Only time would tell how she would take this.
“I apologize, I do not usually do that.”
The girl had been as cold as ice all evening, even her persona as a noble had never warmed. Yet now she embraced him. He stayed in place as she wrapped herself around him, awkwardly placing his right hand on her back as she did so. He smiled in shock as she held him in a tight embrace. "I am rather surprised you did that, although it is nice to know that you do have feelings, that you aren't completely made of ice." He said with a mirthful laugh.
“I don’t understand,” “You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married.”
"Yes, I did see her yesterday, but I didn't know that I would see her tonight, that I would have this conversation to know how she felt about me. I expected her to disappear again, as she did when she left my tent in Taengea. I am not an oracle, I can't see the future. I will offer you cousin all that I am and do my best to be everything she needs if she will be with me, but until we are married, betrothed, living together, or some similar arrangement, then I will not change my ways. I can't chain myself to a hope that may disappear in a moment's notice. In any case, there is my slave as well. She won't go away even if I am married." Once again, he was forced to hope that she would understand what he meant. Their family had a habit of vanishing like ghosts, and he didn't want to risk Kaia doing the same to him.
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“Do you mean that?”
He had just affirmed that he meant what he said, and now she asked for another affirmation. He shook his head with a rueful smile on his face. "You don't listen well, do you? I said that I meant it. I have told her on both occasions that we have met that I would marry her. I even told her that I would do what it took to get you away from the men that have raised you both in such a poor way. You are cunning, clever, and a skilled fighter, I saw a little of your fight with Vangelis; you could make something of yourself in this kingdom. The two of you are capable of more than petty crime. Leave with me, both of you. I can teach you the sword, as I promised to teach your cousin. You are friends with Asia, hopefully she knows who you really are. She could help you. You wouldn't have to run anymore. Those bastards have taken enough of your lives away. There is no need to let them take more." Perhaps she would be reasoned with, perhaps her loyalty was too great, as was the case with Kaia. Only time would tell how she would take this.
“I apologize, I do not usually do that.”
The girl had been as cold as ice all evening, even her persona as a noble had never warmed. Yet now she embraced him. He stayed in place as she wrapped herself around him, awkwardly placing his right hand on her back as she did so. He smiled in shock as she held him in a tight embrace. "I am rather surprised you did that, although it is nice to know that you do have feelings, that you aren't completely made of ice." He said with a mirthful laugh.
“I don’t understand,” “You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married.”
"Yes, I did see her yesterday, but I didn't know that I would see her tonight, that I would have this conversation to know how she felt about me. I expected her to disappear again, as she did when she left my tent in Taengea. I am not an oracle, I can't see the future. I will offer you cousin all that I am and do my best to be everything she needs if she will be with me, but until we are married, betrothed, living together, or some similar arrangement, then I will not change my ways. I can't chain myself to a hope that may disappear in a moment's notice. In any case, there is my slave as well. She won't go away even if I am married." Once again, he was forced to hope that she would understand what he meant. Their family had a habit of vanishing like ghosts, and he didn't want to risk Kaia doing the same to him.
“Do you mean that?”
He had just affirmed that he meant what he said, and now she asked for another affirmation. He shook his head with a rueful smile on his face. "You don't listen well, do you? I said that I meant it. I have told her on both occasions that we have met that I would marry her. I even told her that I would do what it took to get you away from the men that have raised you both in such a poor way. You are cunning, clever, and a skilled fighter, I saw a little of your fight with Vangelis; you could make something of yourself in this kingdom. The two of you are capable of more than petty crime. Leave with me, both of you. I can teach you the sword, as I promised to teach your cousin. You are friends with Asia, hopefully she knows who you really are. She could help you. You wouldn't have to run anymore. Those bastards have taken enough of your lives away. There is no need to let them take more." Perhaps she would be reasoned with, perhaps her loyalty was too great, as was the case with Kaia. Only time would tell how she would take this.
“I apologize, I do not usually do that.”
The girl had been as cold as ice all evening, even her persona as a noble had never warmed. Yet now she embraced him. He stayed in place as she wrapped herself around him, awkwardly placing his right hand on her back as she did so. He smiled in shock as she held him in a tight embrace. "I am rather surprised you did that, although it is nice to know that you do have feelings, that you aren't completely made of ice." He said with a mirthful laugh.
“I don’t understand,” “You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married.”
"Yes, I did see her yesterday, but I didn't know that I would see her tonight, that I would have this conversation to know how she felt about me. I expected her to disappear again, as she did when she left my tent in Taengea. I am not an oracle, I can't see the future. I will offer you cousin all that I am and do my best to be everything she needs if she will be with me, but until we are married, betrothed, living together, or some similar arrangement, then I will not change my ways. I can't chain myself to a hope that may disappear in a moment's notice. In any case, there is my slave as well. She won't go away even if I am married." Once again, he was forced to hope that she would understand what he meant. Their family had a habit of vanishing like ghosts, and he didn't want to risk Kaia doing the same to him.
"You don't listen well, do you? I said that I meant it. I have told her on both occasions that we have met that I would marry her. I even told her that I would do what it took to get you away from the men that have raised you both in such a poor way. You are cunning, clever, and a skilled fighter, I saw a little of your fight with Vangelis; you could make something of yourself in this kingdom. The two of you are capable of more than petty crime. Leave with me, both of you. I can teach you the sword, as I promised to teach your cousin. You are friends with Asia, hopefully she knows who you really are. She could help you. You wouldn't have to run anymore. Those bastards have taken enough of your lives away. There is no need to let them take more.”
She stepped back and released him, her smile wide and aimed at the ground until she began to process his words.
“I am rather surprised you did that, although it is nice to know that you do have feelings, that you aren't completely made of ice," he laughed.
Her smile was still not completely gone as she paced, but it was dimmed with confusion once she thought past the wedding.
Everything he’d said was a backhanded benevolence. He offered something she’d always wanted, but it was tainted in all the ways she and Kaia were less than acceptable. Raised poorly, but...make something of themselves, but...didn’t listen well...made of ice...raised by bastards. Why did he keep insulting her family? Would he always?
She almost opened her mouth and told him to stop, she could not take another word of his insults. Her father may have been a lunatic, her uncle Dasmo a domineering man who demanded obedience to the gods, and her uncle Cassero may have been a manipulative asshole, but they were kind too. Kaia’s father, uncle Agolois, and uncle Gatheron were always kind. They had their flaws, but she’d spent near two decades with them and they were not so bad. And...
And she did not need them. She stayed with them because she loved them. Her father was gone, she could leave. She wanted to leave, but she was frightened too. She could trust that Alexandros would not beat them mercilessly, but what about all of the other things? Would he insult them and make them feel worthless when they displeased him, or twist their minds when they were not compliant? Make them practice their weapons and arts and chores until their fingers bled?
She had so many questions, but none of them mattered because she would do as she would always do—jump in and find out along the way. Because the truth of the matter was that she had to choose between her pride and her freedom. She could tell Alexandros that neither she nor Kaia would leave with somebody who spoke ill of their kin after being asked to stop. She could, but she had learned at a very young age that if you wanted something bad enough—you made a compromise or you went without it.
She could hear her father’s voice in her head, an echo of a ghost. Swallow your pride and apologize if you don’t want to sleep in the rain tonight. Wipe that frown off of your face if you want to eat. Tell me you’re wrong and I’ll give your lyre back.
Aea wanted, more than anything in the world, to leave her family. It would hurt, but rarely did things feel good. Alexandros was offering that, holding out the proverbial hand. He even said he’d train them. All she had to do was be brave and take it, and she would be really and truly free. She would sell her mortality to Hades to take a year from now, so long as she could be allowed to live, if just for a little while.
She reminded herself not an hour past that she desired nothing. She was not human enough to need things, much less want them. Maybe...maybe just this one thing, though. Just this one thing, and she would want for nothing more.
“Okay,” she said quietly, staring down at the ground again. Gods forgive me. “We’ll go.”
Her heart pumped too quickly now, and all she wanted to do was sit down and just think. She pictured her family in her head, knew how angry they would be at her. But, maybe just this once, it would be alright if they were angry. It was exhausting trying to keep them all happy at all times—sometimes her soul felt older than her father if she had one at all. Sometimes she wondered. Alexandros said she was cold. She could not remember if had ever been capable of being warm save for a few fleeting, trickling moments. Rare and gone as quickly as it came.
“But...what will you do with me? I was never supposed to go with Kaia when she got married. What are the chores? Do you have a horse? Do I sleep with Kaia still? What about our goat and my bird? How much does it cost? And…”
And there was still the question of Alexandros and Kaia. What did he mean by what he said?
“I don’t understand. You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married.”
“Yes, I did see her yesterday, but I didn't know that I would see her tonight, that I would have this conversation to know how she felt about me. I expected her to disappear again, as she did when she left my tent in Taengea. I am not an oracle, I can't see the future. I will offer you cousin all that I am and do my best to be everything she needs if she will be with me, but until we are married, betrothed, living together, or some similar arrangement, then I will not change my ways. I can't chain myself to a hope that may disappear in a moment's notice. In any case, there is my slave as well. She won't go away even if I am married.”
Aea could have been content with that answer. Or perhaps not, she didn’t know, because there was only one thing her mind was snagging on. She opened her mouth, closed it, furrowed her eyebrows, and couldn’t understand what he’d just said to her.
On a mechanical level, yes. She understood the words. But…she could not marry the image of Alexandros to the image of a slaver. The man’s face, the one from Megaris, bloomed in her mind’s eye for the second time that night and the hairs on the back of her neck raised, a chill shocking down her spine. When she spoke, her voice came out much smaller than she meant, the phantom ice of steel ghosting against her throat.
“Why do you have a slave?”
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First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
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First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
"You don't listen well, do you? I said that I meant it. I have told her on both occasions that we have met that I would marry her. I even told her that I would do what it took to get you away from the men that have raised you both in such a poor way. You are cunning, clever, and a skilled fighter, I saw a little of your fight with Vangelis; you could make something of yourself in this kingdom. The two of you are capable of more than petty crime. Leave with me, both of you. I can teach you the sword, as I promised to teach your cousin. You are friends with Asia, hopefully she knows who you really are. She could help you. You wouldn't have to run anymore. Those bastards have taken enough of your lives away. There is no need to let them take more.”
She stepped back and released him, her smile wide and aimed at the ground until she began to process his words.
“I am rather surprised you did that, although it is nice to know that you do have feelings, that you aren't completely made of ice," he laughed.
Her smile was still not completely gone as she paced, but it was dimmed with confusion once she thought past the wedding.
Everything he’d said was a backhanded benevolence. He offered something she’d always wanted, but it was tainted in all the ways she and Kaia were less than acceptable. Raised poorly, but...make something of themselves, but...didn’t listen well...made of ice...raised by bastards. Why did he keep insulting her family? Would he always?
She almost opened her mouth and told him to stop, she could not take another word of his insults. Her father may have been a lunatic, her uncle Dasmo a domineering man who demanded obedience to the gods, and her uncle Cassero may have been a manipulative asshole, but they were kind too. Kaia’s father, uncle Agolois, and uncle Gatheron were always kind. They had their flaws, but she’d spent near two decades with them and they were not so bad. And...
And she did not need them. She stayed with them because she loved them. Her father was gone, she could leave. She wanted to leave, but she was frightened too. She could trust that Alexandros would not beat them mercilessly, but what about all of the other things? Would he insult them and make them feel worthless when they displeased him, or twist their minds when they were not compliant? Make them practice their weapons and arts and chores until their fingers bled?
She had so many questions, but none of them mattered because she would do as she would always do—jump in and find out along the way. Because the truth of the matter was that she had to choose between her pride and her freedom. She could tell Alexandros that neither she nor Kaia would leave with somebody who spoke ill of their kin after being asked to stop. She could, but she had learned at a very young age that if you wanted something bad enough—you made a compromise or you went without it.
She could hear her father’s voice in her head, an echo of a ghost. Swallow your pride and apologize if you don’t want to sleep in the rain tonight. Wipe that frown off of your face if you want to eat. Tell me you’re wrong and I’ll give your lyre back.
Aea wanted, more than anything in the world, to leave her family. It would hurt, but rarely did things feel good. Alexandros was offering that, holding out the proverbial hand. He even said he’d train them. All she had to do was be brave and take it, and she would be really and truly free. She would sell her mortality to Hades to take a year from now, so long as she could be allowed to live, if just for a little while.
She reminded herself not an hour past that she desired nothing. She was not human enough to need things, much less want them. Maybe...maybe just this one thing, though. Just this one thing, and she would want for nothing more.
“Okay,” she said quietly, staring down at the ground again. Gods forgive me. “We’ll go.”
Her heart pumped too quickly now, and all she wanted to do was sit down and just think. She pictured her family in her head, knew how angry they would be at her. But, maybe just this once, it would be alright if they were angry. It was exhausting trying to keep them all happy at all times—sometimes her soul felt older than her father if she had one at all. Sometimes she wondered. Alexandros said she was cold. She could not remember if had ever been capable of being warm save for a few fleeting, trickling moments. Rare and gone as quickly as it came.
“But...what will you do with me? I was never supposed to go with Kaia when she got married. What are the chores? Do you have a horse? Do I sleep with Kaia still? What about our goat and my bird? How much does it cost? And…”
And there was still the question of Alexandros and Kaia. What did he mean by what he said?
“I don’t understand. You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married.”
“Yes, I did see her yesterday, but I didn't know that I would see her tonight, that I would have this conversation to know how she felt about me. I expected her to disappear again, as she did when she left my tent in Taengea. I am not an oracle, I can't see the future. I will offer you cousin all that I am and do my best to be everything she needs if she will be with me, but until we are married, betrothed, living together, or some similar arrangement, then I will not change my ways. I can't chain myself to a hope that may disappear in a moment's notice. In any case, there is my slave as well. She won't go away even if I am married.”
Aea could have been content with that answer. Or perhaps not, she didn’t know, because there was only one thing her mind was snagging on. She opened her mouth, closed it, furrowed her eyebrows, and couldn’t understand what he’d just said to her.
On a mechanical level, yes. She understood the words. But…she could not marry the image of Alexandros to the image of a slaver. The man’s face, the one from Megaris, bloomed in her mind’s eye for the second time that night and the hairs on the back of her neck raised, a chill shocking down her spine. When she spoke, her voice came out much smaller than she meant, the phantom ice of steel ghosting against her throat.
“Why do you have a slave?”
"You don't listen well, do you? I said that I meant it. I have told her on both occasions that we have met that I would marry her. I even told her that I would do what it took to get you away from the men that have raised you both in such a poor way. You are cunning, clever, and a skilled fighter, I saw a little of your fight with Vangelis; you could make something of yourself in this kingdom. The two of you are capable of more than petty crime. Leave with me, both of you. I can teach you the sword, as I promised to teach your cousin. You are friends with Asia, hopefully she knows who you really are. She could help you. You wouldn't have to run anymore. Those bastards have taken enough of your lives away. There is no need to let them take more.”
She stepped back and released him, her smile wide and aimed at the ground until she began to process his words.
“I am rather surprised you did that, although it is nice to know that you do have feelings, that you aren't completely made of ice," he laughed.
Her smile was still not completely gone as she paced, but it was dimmed with confusion once she thought past the wedding.
Everything he’d said was a backhanded benevolence. He offered something she’d always wanted, but it was tainted in all the ways she and Kaia were less than acceptable. Raised poorly, but...make something of themselves, but...didn’t listen well...made of ice...raised by bastards. Why did he keep insulting her family? Would he always?
She almost opened her mouth and told him to stop, she could not take another word of his insults. Her father may have been a lunatic, her uncle Dasmo a domineering man who demanded obedience to the gods, and her uncle Cassero may have been a manipulative asshole, but they were kind too. Kaia’s father, uncle Agolois, and uncle Gatheron were always kind. They had their flaws, but she’d spent near two decades with them and they were not so bad. And...
And she did not need them. She stayed with them because she loved them. Her father was gone, she could leave. She wanted to leave, but she was frightened too. She could trust that Alexandros would not beat them mercilessly, but what about all of the other things? Would he insult them and make them feel worthless when they displeased him, or twist their minds when they were not compliant? Make them practice their weapons and arts and chores until their fingers bled?
She had so many questions, but none of them mattered because she would do as she would always do—jump in and find out along the way. Because the truth of the matter was that she had to choose between her pride and her freedom. She could tell Alexandros that neither she nor Kaia would leave with somebody who spoke ill of their kin after being asked to stop. She could, but she had learned at a very young age that if you wanted something bad enough—you made a compromise or you went without it.
She could hear her father’s voice in her head, an echo of a ghost. Swallow your pride and apologize if you don’t want to sleep in the rain tonight. Wipe that frown off of your face if you want to eat. Tell me you’re wrong and I’ll give your lyre back.
Aea wanted, more than anything in the world, to leave her family. It would hurt, but rarely did things feel good. Alexandros was offering that, holding out the proverbial hand. He even said he’d train them. All she had to do was be brave and take it, and she would be really and truly free. She would sell her mortality to Hades to take a year from now, so long as she could be allowed to live, if just for a little while.
She reminded herself not an hour past that she desired nothing. She was not human enough to need things, much less want them. Maybe...maybe just this one thing, though. Just this one thing, and she would want for nothing more.
“Okay,” she said quietly, staring down at the ground again. Gods forgive me. “We’ll go.”
Her heart pumped too quickly now, and all she wanted to do was sit down and just think. She pictured her family in her head, knew how angry they would be at her. But, maybe just this once, it would be alright if they were angry. It was exhausting trying to keep them all happy at all times—sometimes her soul felt older than her father if she had one at all. Sometimes she wondered. Alexandros said she was cold. She could not remember if had ever been capable of being warm save for a few fleeting, trickling moments. Rare and gone as quickly as it came.
“But...what will you do with me? I was never supposed to go with Kaia when she got married. What are the chores? Do you have a horse? Do I sleep with Kaia still? What about our goat and my bird? How much does it cost? And…”
And there was still the question of Alexandros and Kaia. What did he mean by what he said?
“I don’t understand. You saw her yesterday...and Kaia has not taken any lovers since you. She would not want to have any others when she is married.”
“Yes, I did see her yesterday, but I didn't know that I would see her tonight, that I would have this conversation to know how she felt about me. I expected her to disappear again, as she did when she left my tent in Taengea. I am not an oracle, I can't see the future. I will offer you cousin all that I am and do my best to be everything she needs if she will be with me, but until we are married, betrothed, living together, or some similar arrangement, then I will not change my ways. I can't chain myself to a hope that may disappear in a moment's notice. In any case, there is my slave as well. She won't go away even if I am married.”
Aea could have been content with that answer. Or perhaps not, she didn’t know, because there was only one thing her mind was snagging on. She opened her mouth, closed it, furrowed her eyebrows, and couldn’t understand what he’d just said to her.
On a mechanical level, yes. She understood the words. But…she could not marry the image of Alexandros to the image of a slaver. The man’s face, the one from Megaris, bloomed in her mind’s eye for the second time that night and the hairs on the back of her neck raised, a chill shocking down her spine. When she spoke, her voice came out much smaller than she meant, the phantom ice of steel ghosting against her throat.