Phaedra had been under the impression she was alone on the training grounds. It was nice for once to be responsible for only her own training. Here alone she didn't have to be an example to her troops it was just her and the arrows and the target. That was until this man showed up.

Phaedra paused in retrieving her arrows from the dummy before slowly turning to address the young man's complaints, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "If you're starving, I suggest you go eat something instead of standing and gaping." She didn't know what he expected her to do about it. Unless he was one of those men who seemed to think that any woman could produce food for them at a moment's notice. Unfortunately for him, she was not such a woman. "I'm not stopping you. And you have two perfectly good legs to walk yourself to the mess hall."

She turned back to the dummy to continue to collect her arrows, hoping he might read that as a dismissal, but she had no such luck. Suddenly he was now standing beside her attempting to make conversation.

‘Bad day?’

“Certainly for him,” she responded tersely, ignoring that he had meant the question to ask about her own state of mind. The last thing she was going to do was open up the door to talk about her own emotions. Certainly not to this obviously green soldier that she had never met.

"Whose unit are you in….?" She stretched the last word out, hoping that he might supply a rank or name that she could use to address the man by. The commanding officer might help her figure out where he was supposed to be since she supposed standing around watching her practice archery was likely not what he was assigned to do.

Phaedra narrowed her eyes at the man’s insubordinate response. He was a bit old to be so inexperienced in military etiquette. Not to mention, she would have expected his commanding officer to have taught him better about how he should behave around his superiors. Anyone tasked with such a chore couldn’t be that high in the chain of command. “Then you are to quietly wait until I’m finished using the practice dummies. There is no reason to interrupt a superior officer with your complaints.”

Phaedra pulled the final few arrows from the dummy and rolled her shoulder a bit against its protests. As much as she didn’t wish to stop shooting, her shoulder was demanding that she take a break. She could not afford to injure herself now right as they were preparing to head for war, so she had to be done with her practicing. “Luckily for you and your stomach, I am, in fact, done for the day.”

Phaedra immediately frowned at him denying he was in any unit. If he thought he was going to get out of trouble by refusing to let her know who he reported to, then he had another think coming. Who did this man think he was? It was when he introduced himself that she finally began to put the pieces together. It was just a moment’s misspeaking, but she caught the hesitation in his introduction as he was about to call himself a Lord.

Now his odd behavior began to make sense. He was just some little Lordling who wanted to play at being a soldier. He probably had some grand ideas of playing hero in the upcoming war with Egypt, though he seemed to be rather worse for wear at the moment. Good. As far as she was concerned the man either needed to learn some hard lessons quickly or get out of the army. There was no room in the army for a man who had neither the ability to follow orders nor the ability to fight.

Men of the Heights, they were from Eubocris. Timaeus of Valaoritis was the baron there. A brother perhaps then? Her eyes narrowed again as she looked at him consideringly. “Perhaps you consider the task beneath you?” Phaedra asked coldly. She had no desire to engage with whatever had compelled this man to pretend to just be some common soldier. If he wanted to be treated as such she would make sure he got the full experience. “The point of the task is because you were ordered to do so. When your commanding officer tells you to do something, you don’t question it, you just obey.” Phaedra’s voice took on the commanding nature that she used with the soldiers of her own unit when she was giving a direct order. “Understood?”

To that question, the correct answer was an enthusiastic ‘Yes, ma’am!’. Anything else would be met with a swift correction.

With this man’s attitude, he was going to be eaten alive in the military. If not by his commanding officer, then by the Egyptians in battle. He would have to learn to set his ego aside and fall into line. If he refused, he’d be putting not only himself, but the lives of everyone around him in danger, which was something she hated to see. If someone like him had come to her and asked to join the army this close to war, she would have gladly told them where they could shove that idea. She wasn’t going to risk any of her women just to appease the whims of some trumped-up noble who had delusions of grandeur. The small laugh as she asked if he thought the task was beneath her was enough to secure her opinion of him as a far too spoiled noble.

She watched the man struggle to decide how to respond to her order, and she kept her eye on him, just daring him to defy her. She had no problem with reporting this man to his commanding officer to let him see just what kind of punishment an insubordinate soldier would receive. She was only disappointed that she didn’t have the power to discipline him herself, but alas, he was not under her command.

She could on the man’s expression just how much it galled him to submit to her orders and yet he managed to acquiesce. A small smile crept to the corner of her lips at that small victory. Perhaps there was some hope for the man yet. “The correct response is ‘Yes ma’am’,” Phaedra corrected coldly. If he was going to show all the discipline of a fresh recruit, she was going to treat him like one. Actually, a young recruit probably would have been easier than this man. He had too many bad habits that would have to be unlearned before he could be taught the correct protocols.

Well, it was never too early to start. “I expect you to put those practice dummies away in working order.” There was no room to argue with Phaedra’s tone of voice. “They need to be stuffed and repaired so that they are ready for my archers’ practice first thing in the morning. Unless you’d rather get up and repair them before the break of dawn?” At this point, she was just ordering him about because she knew it would annoy the man. This way he would either learn to submit to orders or give up this stupid idea of being a soldier. She didn’t much care which.

Somehow it seemed that she always ended up in the capital city, and thus it did not hold the appeal that it had for her fellow soldiers. She had seen every tavern and merchant, knew the streets like the back of her hand. She’d spend six weeks combing through every inch of Midas when she was sixteen years old. She’d met Alastair here. It was the place that she had given up on finding her brother, the place where she had had her heart shattered. The place where she had ended life before it had the chance to become life. She hated Midas.

She had decided to stick around after the drills were done for the day. War was on the horizon, and it had been a while since she had set foot on the battlefield so she needed the extra practice. Yet, it was not the bow that she wielded -- instead she was walking through the motions of her swordplay. It was a little stiff, and she could hear the voice of mentor Flippos scolding her. The old man was long dead now, but his ragged voice was still clear as a bell in her memory. Sloppy.

Her brother had been a better swordsman than her, even though she was pretty damn good one to begin with. She swung the blade, envisioning a faceless Egyptian with his heavy khopesh. She went on the offensive, her breathing turning ragged as went after him again and again -- until she finally had her sword meet flesh. Well...imaginary flesh. When the vision fluttered away like dust, she straightened and found that her chest was heaving with the effort. More drills, she promised herself even as she sheathed the blade. She was well and truly alone in the part of the camp they had set up in Midas.


Phaedra would not like it that Zosime was so openly practicing her swordsmanship, but Zosi couldn’t see the harm in it. The archer was not going to give up her favored weapon just because she could not use it. The ruling bodies of Colchis may have believed that a woman could not properly wield the blade but one day, she would prove them wrong. Perhaps in this war. If she could correct her form, rusty from lack of use.

The woman reached up to adjust the tie holding her hair back, a warm flush creeping over her skin as the afternoon sun beat down quite mercilessly. Content with her progress for the moment, Zosime sheathed the short-sword and let it hang from the belt around her waist.

She began to make her way back to where she was keeping her personal possessions, not sure yet what she was going to do. Going into the city for food seemed likely, but some part of her was afraid of what or who she might run into while here. There were a lot of soldiers, which only added to the suspicions that they were going to be headed to war soon. For fucking Taengea of all places. Zosi had no love for them. Protect her own country yes, but going to the aid of those unable to handle their own business? Pathetic.

She flexed her fingers, inspecting the callouses on her palm as she walked -- when Phaedra’s voice had her looking up. She was passing by the place where they had been practicing today and she wasn’t entirely surprised to see Phaedra still out there. But her company was curious. A pup of a boy with her, and Phaedra had that set of her shoulders that indicated something was amiss. And so, it was without warning that Zosime found herself drifting over. She smiled, but it was mostly for Phaedra -- even as her icy gaze slid over the man.

”Damn right.” She said, having caught the tail end of the conversation. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought, since the younger man was giving Phaedra some flattery -- or maybe it was downright bad. ”She’ll have you between the balls at ninety paces. Ares himself would be proud to have a woman like the lieutenant at his back.” She said with a lazy grin. If he knew anything about archery, he’d know how impressive that really was. Zosi was still in her traditional military wear, her hair pulled back into a thick braid to keep it out of her way.

She set her hands on her hips, surveying the landscape and the dummies that were still out. ”Still practicing?” She asked, sounding just a tiny bit reproachful. She and Phaedra were friends, but they were in the presence of company so she kept the snarkier comments to herself as her friend was still technically an officer who deserved respect. Otherwise, she’d have gotten on the other woman’s case a little more.

By some fucking miracle, it looked as though Silanos’s wheedling was having the desired effect. The stony faced archer even offered to give him some tips should he ever wish to take up shooting- that was a hard pass, just to be clear- and the young lord was just congratulating himself on his success when there was the drawl of another voice and he turned to see the approach of a younger woman.

Huh. Silanos’ gaze took its customary roam over the other, who wasn’t half bad looking if he was being honest. She had a very distracting mouth, he decided. Maybe she would prove more accommodating than her uppity friend here?

Though he was soon to begin to doubt that possibility with the first words that fell out of that mouth, the man looking none to impressed with the turn of phrase. What was with these women? He was suddenly glad of the straw dummy held securely between his most vital body parts and the two archers. He didn’t say anything to the dark haired one's..not greeting, though he thought Ares might choose someone with less of a sour attitude, but instead lifted a brow as he watched the interaction between the two. So the blonde one was a lieutenant was she? And that would make this one..something else.

There was clearly some friendship there and for a moment, Silanos let his thoughts wander to imagining if maybe it wasn’t something more. That was clearly how these all women archery units operated. All training together, bathing together...

Forgetting that he was irritated with the blonde one as he led his imagination run wild with that one, Sil was dragged rather rudely back from his day dreams when he heard his name, and he looked mildly offended as whatshername just proceeded to offer him up as a runaround whilst he was standing right there. So they were back to this again. His glanced at the other woman and willed her to have nothing,because he was so close to be fucking done.

Whatever need Lieutenant Smilesalot had to throw her weight around he didn’t know, but he didn’t understand why it had to be at his expense. And though he knew better he couldn’t help himself from pointing out “Actually I don’t report to you...so, I’d probably better stick to what I’ve been told to do”

He wasn't precisely sure that was how it worked but it would be worth it anyway for the momentary look of affront he could sense coming.

Where Phaedra would normally have been willing to engage Zosi in her banter about how the gods viewed her military skill, these were not the circumstances for it. For one, she was trying to set an example for this young noble who didn’t seem to know his place. For another, she was not in the mood to joke about the will of the gods. The threat of war looming had made the importance of securing the gods’ approval all the more important, and that was not something she wished to take for granted right about now.

Instead, she replied with a simple “I suppose you’re right,” her tone indicating an end of the conversation, rather than an invitation for Zosi to continue to argue her point. She would save such conversations for after she had schooled this would-be hero on proper military etiquette.

Phaedra instead turned her attention to Silanos, answering the question that Zosi had posed to him. “Unless I’m very much mistaken, he was told to clean up the practice yard before he could eat.” At least, that’s the best she could guess based on all the grumbling he had done that she had held him up from his supper.

“What he was not told to do was to annoy his superior officers until they had finished using the equipment he was told to put away.” Phaedra found her annoyance at the man’s behavior rising again as she recalled how he had first treated her. The man did seem to be learning from his mistakes, but he seemed too quick to try to weasel out of any further duties that it made her think that he had not truly learned his lesson. He had only been saying what she wanted him to hear. That thought alone annoyed her, that he thought he might manipulate her to his side. She frowned at him before continuing.

“Therefore, I think it’s well within my rights to choose a suitable punishment. Asking my second if she needs anything before you leave seems like the least you could do. Unless you’d prefer I tell your commanding officer?” Phaedra crossed her arms to emphasize her point, her shoulder twinging with the movement. She winced but hid it quickly. Now was not the time to show any weakness. Zosi was right, she shouldn’t have been practicing so long. Not that she was about to admit that.