"You there!" Leo called to a passing servant in the barracks. The blood on his hand caught the man's attention and had him skidding to a stop in his sandals. "Fetch a bowl of water and some clean rags. We've an injury here."



'No, we don't!' Arras tried to argue. Leo was holding onto his friend's injured shoulder. All he did was squeeze and Arras was hissing bloody murder under his breath. 'Oh, you are such a phallus.'



"Yeah, yeah. You know it's going to be worse if Meera sees you. I'm the lesser of two evils, brother, and you know it."



A blade to the shoulder and Arras still looked healthier before Leonidas brought his wife up. The woman was a battleax in the skin of a svelte and pretty lady. Even Arras, a trained guard of the militia, wouldn't do battle with his wife. Least of all because he was head over heels for her. Her every whim was his command.



'Her tongue be sharper than the damn blade,' Arras grumbled to himself in acceptance. He slumped onto the bench that ran the length of the courtyard and tried to roll his soldier. Blood seeped from the wound and ran over the back of Leo's hand. Despite the clear damage, the crimson ran slow and was cooling. Nothing had been broken beyond repair, nor would the wound continue to bleed beyond control. They had only to bandage it.



"Godsdamn straight she has a mouth on her," Leo agreed good-naturedly. "Which is why I'd prefer that venom not turn on me because I let her husband return home injured without caring if he died on the way."



'Aw, Leo, I didn't know you cared,' Arras chided as the servant returned with bowl and cloth in hand.



"I care enough for my own skin, now shut up and let me tie this."



Focusing on the man's shoulder and working the bandage around his armor, Leonidas used the shoulder piece of Arras' plating to brace the cloth and hold it in place. He was no healer but he had worked at the docks for a time and knew how to tie a decent enough knot. Hauling around his halberd gave him the strength to secure it too. As he yanked up on the end of the cloth, Arras grunted at the pressure.



'I ain't a ham ready to be strung up for trade,' he belly-ached.



"Shut up. You know you can't work with this arm, right?"



Again, Arras' face went white. Leonidas felt that look to the soles of his feet and empathized with the man. The two of them lived in the same part of the city, out in the furthest reaches of the Outer Circle and not far from the coastal docklands. It was almost the worst condition of housing to be had and the residents paid a significant obol to exist just outside the realms of poverty.



Even with the injury being sustained in the line of duty if Arras didn't work, he didn't get the coin.



'Lieutenant Arras!' came a voice from the other side of the courtyard. Leonidas stepped back from the patient, his hands awkwardly at his side. With his commanding officer approaching, he could hardly excuse himself to wash, and yet his uniform was to remain clean. He stood with staid determination, his arms held painfully away from his sides like a child's wooden doll.



'The day shift are requested to lessen and the royal guard enlarge. You and another six are to report immediately to the palace.



The royal guard? Leonidas felt a hollow gnawing feeling in his gut. A sense of worry.



"Arras," he hissed. "You can't take that assignment. Tell him you're injured."



They couldn't give injured men to protect the king or his family. That would be creating a vulnerability for the entire kingdom. The king was their center, their path to the Gods. All protective details upon those of royal blood had to be at full operating capacity.



"Arras," he hissed again when his friend remained silent. "You can't-"



'Aye, Captain,' Arras called out. He did not stand, his wounded shoulder hidden in Leo's shadow. 'I'll see it done.'



"Arras!"



'I don't have a choice, Leo,' his friend hissed back as Captain Nikolaos headed on to his next charge and duty. 'You know Meera's with child. I can't go home tonight without food. Nothing will happen. It's probably not even the king. Just one of the princesses taking a stroll. I'll be fine.'



Leonidas ground his teeth and looked around the both of them as if an answer might drop out of the sky. The courtyard, however, remained depressingly empty. Bland columns, grey stone floor, and the occasional splash of murky magenta where an injury had spurted too badly to be fully cleaned from the rock.



"Fine," Leo finally grunted. "I'll do it."



'Leo, I said I need the-'



"You can have the money." Leonidas reached for cuirass he had only removed a few minutes ago. His muscles protested as the pressure fell upon him again, reminding him of the last ten hours. A section of skin on the side of his neck had been rubbed raw and flared angrily. "But you cannot take the royal guard injured like that."



'I'm fresher than you are,' Arras argued.



It was true. The Athenian Guard detail operated in a simple structure of three shifts. Early, day and night. Each were ten hours long and overlapped with the other for an hour either side. Leonidas had been about to finish, having worked since long before daybreak. Arras had been coming to trade shifts. Until that juvenile thief had surprised them both with the sharpened rock in his clothing. Arras had been holding him and been the one to take the brunt of the attack. Leo had only grazed the side of his hand, snatching it from the boy's grip.



"True but I can actually move my arm," Leo reminded him, yanking on the straps to fasten his armor in place. Even if he couldn't see, his fingers made light work of the buckle they were so familiar with. Now go home to Meera before I change my mind and I'll have your coin when I'm done."



'I can't let you do that.'



"I'll take a few obol for my trouble if it'll make you feel better but tell my Ma where I am and I'll call it even," Leo was already fastening his greeves and tightening his belt around his waist. He had only to collect his halberd from the weaponry and he was ready to go. "Just get your butt back to your wife and get busy healing. I'm not covering your arse for the rest of time."



And with that, it was settled. Leonidas waved a hand to blot out any thanks from the man who would do the same for him in a heartbeat and merely dismissed him with a turn of his heel. The weaponry was a quick stop and then he was out of the barracks with the half dozen soldiers that normally followed his friend.



That being said, the Athenian Guard was a familiar unit, and each of the faces to follow Leonidas through the streets were visages he knew. He knew the names that went with them, the strengths and weaknesses of their physiques, and their political affiliations. He owed one of them five obols from a bet gone wrong last week and another owed him seven for daring to suggest he couldn't climb rigging faster than the average deckhand. They were hardly strangers and they followed his command with respect.



As they were the usual size for an entourage, it wasn't surprising that citizens glanced their way as the men made their way through the city. They marched with the pace of men who had a destination in mind and the Athenian people scurried to move back from their path. The glances behind them, the looking around for horses or carriages was unproductive, however, as they guided no royals this time. Not until they reached the palace, anyway.



Upon reporting to the chief guard at the palace gates, Leonidas escorted the men inside and was then directed to the stables. Once his unit was stationed by the carriage to await the princesses, Leo was charged with the duty of reporting their arrival.



'Her Royal Highness, Princess Persephone, will not wish to leave until she is aware that her sister's retinue has been increased. You'll find her in the royal quarters on the third door to the right.'



Simple enough instructions to follow. Harder to execute in a timely manner.



The moment Leonidas stepped inside the palace, his jaw dropped and his eyes were ready to bug out of his head. The white marble, the fine wall-hangings... there were potted plants as big as trees indoors and yet the foyer that held them looked no smaller for it. That was the scale of the place. His mother's and his home could fit four times inside this single hallway.



"Oh my Gods..." he muttered to himself, only to have the steward at his shoulder a moment later.



'This is the servant's quarters entrance, Lieutenant,' he said.



Feeling suitably common, Leo snapped his mouth shut and simply nodded. He followed his directions through the servants' quarters and into the royal chambers within the palace proper. Deciding that ignorance was bliss, Leo kept his eyes forward, focusing on the blank spaces of wall between the sculptures and framed pictures and not looking down at the rug he strolled along. Instead, he sent a quiet prayer up that he hadn't walked through any particularly sticky mud on his way to the palace and that his presence here would be painless and as forgettable by all those he met as he himself was.



No need to crap this up and have rumor of it float around for the entertainment of the Antonis.



Annoyed that he couldn't seem to go a day without thinking upon that name, Leo stopped at the appropriate entryway and accidentally took his anger out of the door. Three hard thumps upon the wood and he grimaced. He snatched the fist back and locked it behind his back, fingers entangled. If he hadn't just scared the princesses half to death, perhaps he could still hope for an uneventful second half to his twenty-hour day...

A part of Persephone was ready to exhale overbearingly and shake her head when she heard Emilia's exclamation of excitement at the knock on her door. The two sisters were like night and day sometimes when it came to princessly behaviour. However, rather an expression of resignation, Persephone smiled gently at her little sister's enthusiasm. It was refreshing compared to the sometimes dreary meeting that Persephone had to endure in her father's stead.

When the door opened, Persephone stepped inside and calmly held up a hand. "Patience, Emilia," she said and looked over her sister. A measure to make sure that Emilia was looking proper for the day out. Of course, Persephone didn't say that out loud. "You look lovely," she said and smiled kindly. It was the honest truth, and Persephone couldn't even find anything worth correcting. They were off to a great start.

"We will be on our way soon," Persephone said and maintained her stiff regal pose. "However, I have requested extra guards to keep you safe, and we will wait here until they report for duty," she continued. She knew it was no use trying to conceal the truth behind the added guards, and besides, as the oldest sister, it was Persephone's responsibility that they were adequately protected. She knew Emilia was a free spirit, but even Emilia had to comply with Persephone's decisions on important matters.

When there was another knock on the door, Persephone turned her head and uttered a confident: "Enter!" and then observed whoever might be at her sister's doorstep.

Emilia hoped that they would set off right away, but her sister asked her to be patient and walked into her room. Patience was not an attribute that the young princess possessed, and she didn’t think she ever would. She was so enthusiastic about this shopping trip that she didn’t want to wait even one tiny second. If they lingered too long in the palace, they would have to hurry before the stores closed and wouldn’t be able to peruse the merchandise at their leisure. In the back of her mind, she knew that is was early enough that the shops had just opened and that no shopkeeper would dare shut their doors while there was even the smallest chance that the princesses might grace them with her presence.

“Thank you.” Emilia beamed at Persephone’s compliment. “You look positively exquisite.” Remembering Demetria’s words, she tried not to be envious of her sister’s beauty, but it was impossible. However, she fully planned to watch the reactions of the people they passed to see how many of them gazed at her instead of Persephone. Could it be that she was more appealing than she believed?

Those conflicted thoughts fled in an instant when the eldest Xanthos princess explained the reason that they needed to wait. “More guards?” she asked, whirling toward her sister. “Why do I need more guards? I’ll be perfectly safe while I’m with you, and I promise not to wander off today.” That would be easier said than done considering how often Emilia got distracted, but she would definitely try her best.

Had Elias told Persephone that she had been so foolish that she had almost been kidnapped? Was that the reason she had hired extra guards? Emilia thought she had too many as it was. Sometimes they surrounded her so closely that she could barely see her surroundings. Peering between arms and shoulders was dreadfully annoying. Maybe I should change my mind and not go at all.

She jumped at the rap on the door. That’s probably the extra guards, she thought morosely. Spending time with her sister shopping was starting to look more and more dismal. Emilia turned toward the door with an unbecoming scowl on her face, which quickly turned to interest when a handsome young man entered and immediately bowed to them.

She couldn’t see anything but the top of his head, but he had a nice voice. Even though this was her room, Persephone was still in charge. Emilia waited for her sister to tell him to rise so that she could get a better look at him. Maybe I will enjoy the extra protection, after all.