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All was quiet in the Stravos household, but Danae could not say the same for her own tumultuous thoughts that plagued her nearly every waking hour since Kekelius had hatched this grand plan to get the Stravos the crown they rightfully deserved. Naturally, Danae was worried about her father. He might have been confident in this little plan of his in Lyncestia, but even now, several weeks after the man had parted ways with his family, Danae had her doubts. The False Queen might not have the brains that her family did, but she wasn’t exactly a fool either -- the youngest Stravos had to give Persephone that at least. It didn’t matter that Kekelius had given her a vote at that fateful senate meeting. Anyone could have practically seen that his hand had been forced, not because he had some sort of moral realignment, and was now prepared to stand against his own son. The same boy he had been championing until he was publicly disgraced. The coward would see him as cowardly at best and right through his ruse at worst. She would have no reason to trust him, no matter what her father thought. The sheer logic of the situation was against him and Danae had no idea what had possessed her father to brush aside the obvious flaws in favor of this foolish concoction.
Danae wished that she had ignored her mother when the older woman had told her daughter without words to not speak against Kekelius’s plan. She had held her tongue at the moment, honoring her mother’s wish, but did she inadvertently sign her own father’s death sentence by not convincing him to stay? Now he was gone and all the Stravos could do was sit and wait for news. In order to keep up appearances that not the patriarch was standing against his own flesh and blood, he did not even write to them. The only word they received about whether he was alive or dead was through the whispers that Chara and Circenia picked up through their gossip circuits. Even those were not reassuring as they were just commenting on how Kekelius was not seen with his family as of late -- plus not to mention Danae only heard these things hours or days after the other women did. With her older sister never really liking her and her mother drinking herself out of her misery, neither of them bothered to let Danae know that her father was seen. Now they were getting sick of her asking about what they had heard.
This was all torture to Danae. She had always been close to her father. Even when she was little and her interest in his studies wasn’t yet forming, she had always been toddling after him. Circenia couldn’t hold a candle to the bond between Danae and her father -- especially after he not only taught her everything that he knew about business but actively encouraged her to take part in the sphere that was normally only open to men. All her life Danae thought that her father was the smartest man out there, no one but the gods could be better than him. So, seeing him do something so stupid and foolish on a nothing more than the assumption that one measly senate vote will grant him safety absolutely killed her inside. Danae didn’t want to think about it, but she didn’t think her father was going to be able to come home. His plan was so flawed it would surely result in his death and there was absolutely nothing that the daughter he left behind could do to save him.
How could her father be so foolish?
This question was never far from her mind, especially on mornings like this one. With no events occurring that day and the other Stravoses having no time for Danae’s worrying, the youngest anchor was meant to fend for herself when it came to entertainment. This wasn’t too far from the norm. Danny was a bit of a loner on her best days and now that she had two feisty boys in striking fur coats to tend to, she didn’t mind that she didn’t have any company with whom she could spend the slowly passing hours. Some days she didn’t even leave her room until it was time for the evening meal. Most of the time she didn’t mind this, but there were other times where she could feel every moment passing by, slowly and nerve-wracking as Danae’s anxieties convinced her that a messenger was going to arrive any moment to tell them all that her father was dead. There was nothing that Danae could do to chase this fear away. Not even the cute antics of Perseus and Theseus could abate her fears as they explored their jungle gym that Danae had built after the incident with the dogs.
Instead, her focus kept slipping in and out as the terrible thoughts about what could be happening to Kekelius popped in and out of her mind. She didn’t even want to describe the dark places her mind went to when she was worried about her father -- not when there was no use in trying to put it into words. Chara never cared to start with and now even her mother couldn’t listen to Danae’s fears. She was just left to stew in them… waiting endlessly for word that might never come.
No.
This had to stop. Something had to give.
The morning sun was only part of the way through its journey to the afternoon when Danae finally understood that this couldn’t continue. She knew better than anyone that this worry was not going to help anyone and if anything… this was a very dangerous road for her to travel down given how she had reacted in the aftermath of her run-in with Lukos. Her fears about admitting what had happened, what she had done had been so great that she had refused to speak for weeks. She could not let herself slip down that dangerous path again. Her father might have been insistent on Danae and the others staying away from him during this period, but the girl just couldn’t take this any longer. How could she honestly go on like this without knowing if her father was alive or dead and expecting to be fine with it? Danae knew that she couldn’t sit by any longer passively waiting for word to come to her from others. Her father had raised her better than that. She was going to get it for herself and know for herself how her father was faring.
Sitting up quickly in the bed that she had been lying down in, Danae startled poor Theseus causing the tomcat to let out an angry hiss. The youngest Stravos absent-mindedly hushed him as she reached up to redo the simple and small braid that the kitten had ruined in his attempts to turn her hair ribbon into a new toy -- as if he wasn’t satisfied with the countless little trinkets Danae had given to the spoiled brothers. (Truly those cats lived a better life than some of the people in this city.) Danae knew that her cat would be grumpy that she had ruined his playtime by getting up and rushing over to her desk to take apart the hidden compartment to find a very specific paper, but he would simply have to get over himself. The sixteen-year-old had to see if the crazy idea that she had been mulling over in recent weeks was actually possible. After all, her father might have been clear that Danae was not to contact, follow, or otherwise interfere in his plan. However, he had not specifically mentioned that she couldn’t have others do this on her behalf.
Although she knew that this was a loophole that logically wouldn’t apply in the first place, Danae was going to take the rule at face value as she fiddled with the underside of her desk, unlatching the secret compartment that held all of the important documents that Danae didn’t want anyone in Athenia to know about. The desk had been a gift from Kekelius shortly after he helped her find her start in the lucrative little financial empire that she had started with the help of the people on a secret list that Danae kept at the bottom of this secret drawer, underneath piles upon piles of meticulously hand-copied loans that she had with the merchants of Athenia. This desk had been a godsend when the mobs attacked the house. Even though Danae had not been present, she could at least rest easy knowing that this sheet of parchment that outlined the complicated network Danae had built was safe from their grubby little paws. This was the key to Danae’s success. Her entire network of urchins, carefully mapping who knew who and what tasks they were assigned. The overlaps were minimal. That way if one section fell through, the rest of the network did not collapse around it. This had been an ingenious part of keeping her secret, but it did call for the key in moments like this where Danae needed to find an urchin that not only she could trust, but could be easily taken out of the usual chain of command without causing too much damage to the rest of it.
Her fingers hurriedly traced over the lines, following each diagram as she searched for someone that could undertake the task she was going to send them on. Danae might not be able to follow her father, but the urchin could. If he was successful in finding Persephone, her father would eventually end up in one of the False Queen’s strongholds, and given that Danae didn’t think the Xanthos girl was all that bright, it was easy to assume that she would be holing up in Arcana. The plan practically wrote itself. The youngest Stravos would send this urchin away from the capital and to this outlying province to see what he could find and report back directly to her. That way she would not have to rely on whispers to figure out the fate of her father. She could take matters into her own hands and have no need to rely on anyone for news. The girl knew that it was a longshot and that there certainly were risks to this plan, but it was a hard thing to remember as she finally found the kid that she was looking for. Ophelos.
According to her notes, this boy was young. He was probably no older than nine or ten years old (it was hard to tell with the urchins), but he was one of her best runners and he had always been faithful in bringing Danae the exact number of coins that were owed to her. The network surrounding him had faltered in this awful economy as many of those he was tasked with communicating with on Danae’s behalf backed away from the Stravos name. He was the perfect candidate in every sense of the word and it was unlikely he would be missed if Danae sent him off to Arcana for a few weeks for an all-important mission. As far as she was concerned Ophelos was the one who would carry out this wild plan that Danae had cooked up.
Now was just a matter of finding him.
Danae made sure to carefully put away the network list and tuck the secret drawer back into place before she set about in making sure that she was at least somewhat presentable that morning before she finally left her room for the first time. It would do her no good if she had any of the servants twittering about how Danae’s hair had been a rat’s nest and she had still been in her nightshift at this hour, after all. No matter how nervous she felt about breaking this one rule her father had imposed on them all -- she had to look cool, calm and collected if she didn’t want to raise suspicion. Honestly, Danae didn’t know how she managed to pull it off when she finally opened her door and set about in finding the closest servant that could do her bidding. As Danae no longer had her own personal staff -- a necessary cut she had happily made during the family’s rough period as it meant she no longer had to deal with ladies-in-waiting -- it took the girl a moment before she found a slave and relieved them from their duty of dusting all the grand vases to instead to go find the guard that was known to trail along with Danae whenever she left the manor on her own, making it clear that she had some intention of going out. It was important to the young girl that it was this servant that was summoned to her and not some other burly guard in the family’s employ. After all, this man was the only one who knew Danae’s secret through the sheer nature of his job and he was the one that would be sent to find Ophelos.
With a quick nod, the inconsequential servant who was none the wiser to Danae’s plans set off to find her guard. In the interim, the youngest Stravos was quick to head back to her own chambers in order to grab a certain pack of clothes that was hidden at the back of her closet. Even though Danae knew that she was likely worrying over practically nothing in her desire to keep her identity a secret when it came to safeguarding her secret, she wasn’t willing to take any precautions. That also demanded that Danae have a way of hiding her own identity when conversing directly with her urchins. (That was something she learned the hard way through one too many close calls.) With so many people in this city and so many of them not knowing the upper class personally -- Danae found it easy to do this by merely changing her clothes to hide her Stravos heritage. Her mother would be horrified if she knew that she had these tattered peasant clothes, ready to go at a moment’s notice, but Danae hardly cared. If she had to pretend to be dirty and poor to protect her secret, then so be it. She would do whatever she needed to. That was the nature of business, was it not?
The servant was quick in completing her task as shortly afterward, her guard, Taureas, appeared at her door and knocked to let her know that he was ready for whatever she had in store for today. He likely had his suspicions when Danae had summoned him directly, but if he didn’t, the slave would know what Danae wanted to do the moment he saw that pack at the girl’s side. He had seen it more than enough times now to know what the girl had in mind but did not comment on it. Or at least he didn’t while Danae left instructions for another servant to feed her kittens later in the day and headed out the door, forgoing a carriage as it did not suit what the girl needed to do.
It was only when the pair were walking down the road leading out of the Inner Circle where Danae lived did Taureas say anything at all. “Which one, my lady?” His voice was gruff and low, perfect for intimidating merchants who dared to think that they could outsmart a Stravos. Normally it would have been enough to have any man quaking in fear, but it did not bother Danae. As this man knew so much about her secret, she had learned not to fear him, but instead to trust him. She didn’t have much of a choice in that matter, after all. “Ophelos. I trust you’ll know where to find him?” Danae commented, her brows piqued up as she glanced up at the man that she should have told off for speaking out of turn. Taureas normally had the unfortunate task of tracking down wayward urchins so he had a few tricks that were necessary for finding a kid whose one job it was to blend in and not draw attention to himself. He was good at what he did which was why the man did not hesitate in nodding at her question.
Good.
“I’ll change in the loutra. You can take off your sash there. I don’t want to be out long, so the faster we get this done, the better.” She stated rather simply, informing the guard of her plans for the day. Being a slave, Taureas already dressed rather simply, and hiding his involvement with the Stravos family would be as easy as storing away the red band of fabric across his chest. Danae might have to keep a bit of distance away from him once they were on the hunt for Ophelos, but she had the utmost faith that they would be able to get away with this disguise as they headed down the path. After all, they had done this countless times before and this was no different, in theory at least. Danae’s heart might be beating a thousand times a minute from the sheer nervousness of going against her father’s instructions, but she had to this. She couldn’t sit idly by and wait for news any longer. She had to go fetch it for herself and if this was how it was going to be done, then so be it.
Danae could only hope that this was going to go off without a hitch.
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All was quiet in the Stravos household, but Danae could not say the same for her own tumultuous thoughts that plagued her nearly every waking hour since Kekelius had hatched this grand plan to get the Stravos the crown they rightfully deserved. Naturally, Danae was worried about her father. He might have been confident in this little plan of his in Lyncestia, but even now, several weeks after the man had parted ways with his family, Danae had her doubts. The False Queen might not have the brains that her family did, but she wasn’t exactly a fool either -- the youngest Stravos had to give Persephone that at least. It didn’t matter that Kekelius had given her a vote at that fateful senate meeting. Anyone could have practically seen that his hand had been forced, not because he had some sort of moral realignment, and was now prepared to stand against his own son. The same boy he had been championing until he was publicly disgraced. The coward would see him as cowardly at best and right through his ruse at worst. She would have no reason to trust him, no matter what her father thought. The sheer logic of the situation was against him and Danae had no idea what had possessed her father to brush aside the obvious flaws in favor of this foolish concoction.
Danae wished that she had ignored her mother when the older woman had told her daughter without words to not speak against Kekelius’s plan. She had held her tongue at the moment, honoring her mother’s wish, but did she inadvertently sign her own father’s death sentence by not convincing him to stay? Now he was gone and all the Stravos could do was sit and wait for news. In order to keep up appearances that not the patriarch was standing against his own flesh and blood, he did not even write to them. The only word they received about whether he was alive or dead was through the whispers that Chara and Circenia picked up through their gossip circuits. Even those were not reassuring as they were just commenting on how Kekelius was not seen with his family as of late -- plus not to mention Danae only heard these things hours or days after the other women did. With her older sister never really liking her and her mother drinking herself out of her misery, neither of them bothered to let Danae know that her father was seen. Now they were getting sick of her asking about what they had heard.
This was all torture to Danae. She had always been close to her father. Even when she was little and her interest in his studies wasn’t yet forming, she had always been toddling after him. Circenia couldn’t hold a candle to the bond between Danae and her father -- especially after he not only taught her everything that he knew about business but actively encouraged her to take part in the sphere that was normally only open to men. All her life Danae thought that her father was the smartest man out there, no one but the gods could be better than him. So, seeing him do something so stupid and foolish on a nothing more than the assumption that one measly senate vote will grant him safety absolutely killed her inside. Danae didn’t want to think about it, but she didn’t think her father was going to be able to come home. His plan was so flawed it would surely result in his death and there was absolutely nothing that the daughter he left behind could do to save him.
How could her father be so foolish?
This question was never far from her mind, especially on mornings like this one. With no events occurring that day and the other Stravoses having no time for Danae’s worrying, the youngest anchor was meant to fend for herself when it came to entertainment. This wasn’t too far from the norm. Danny was a bit of a loner on her best days and now that she had two feisty boys in striking fur coats to tend to, she didn’t mind that she didn’t have any company with whom she could spend the slowly passing hours. Some days she didn’t even leave her room until it was time for the evening meal. Most of the time she didn’t mind this, but there were other times where she could feel every moment passing by, slowly and nerve-wracking as Danae’s anxieties convinced her that a messenger was going to arrive any moment to tell them all that her father was dead. There was nothing that Danae could do to chase this fear away. Not even the cute antics of Perseus and Theseus could abate her fears as they explored their jungle gym that Danae had built after the incident with the dogs.
Instead, her focus kept slipping in and out as the terrible thoughts about what could be happening to Kekelius popped in and out of her mind. She didn’t even want to describe the dark places her mind went to when she was worried about her father -- not when there was no use in trying to put it into words. Chara never cared to start with and now even her mother couldn’t listen to Danae’s fears. She was just left to stew in them… waiting endlessly for word that might never come.
No.
This had to stop. Something had to give.
The morning sun was only part of the way through its journey to the afternoon when Danae finally understood that this couldn’t continue. She knew better than anyone that this worry was not going to help anyone and if anything… this was a very dangerous road for her to travel down given how she had reacted in the aftermath of her run-in with Lukos. Her fears about admitting what had happened, what she had done had been so great that she had refused to speak for weeks. She could not let herself slip down that dangerous path again. Her father might have been insistent on Danae and the others staying away from him during this period, but the girl just couldn’t take this any longer. How could she honestly go on like this without knowing if her father was alive or dead and expecting to be fine with it? Danae knew that she couldn’t sit by any longer passively waiting for word to come to her from others. Her father had raised her better than that. She was going to get it for herself and know for herself how her father was faring.
Sitting up quickly in the bed that she had been lying down in, Danae startled poor Theseus causing the tomcat to let out an angry hiss. The youngest Stravos absent-mindedly hushed him as she reached up to redo the simple and small braid that the kitten had ruined in his attempts to turn her hair ribbon into a new toy -- as if he wasn’t satisfied with the countless little trinkets Danae had given to the spoiled brothers. (Truly those cats lived a better life than some of the people in this city.) Danae knew that her cat would be grumpy that she had ruined his playtime by getting up and rushing over to her desk to take apart the hidden compartment to find a very specific paper, but he would simply have to get over himself. The sixteen-year-old had to see if the crazy idea that she had been mulling over in recent weeks was actually possible. After all, her father might have been clear that Danae was not to contact, follow, or otherwise interfere in his plan. However, he had not specifically mentioned that she couldn’t have others do this on her behalf.
Although she knew that this was a loophole that logically wouldn’t apply in the first place, Danae was going to take the rule at face value as she fiddled with the underside of her desk, unlatching the secret compartment that held all of the important documents that Danae didn’t want anyone in Athenia to know about. The desk had been a gift from Kekelius shortly after he helped her find her start in the lucrative little financial empire that she had started with the help of the people on a secret list that Danae kept at the bottom of this secret drawer, underneath piles upon piles of meticulously hand-copied loans that she had with the merchants of Athenia. This desk had been a godsend when the mobs attacked the house. Even though Danae had not been present, she could at least rest easy knowing that this sheet of parchment that outlined the complicated network Danae had built was safe from their grubby little paws. This was the key to Danae’s success. Her entire network of urchins, carefully mapping who knew who and what tasks they were assigned. The overlaps were minimal. That way if one section fell through, the rest of the network did not collapse around it. This had been an ingenious part of keeping her secret, but it did call for the key in moments like this where Danae needed to find an urchin that not only she could trust, but could be easily taken out of the usual chain of command without causing too much damage to the rest of it.
Her fingers hurriedly traced over the lines, following each diagram as she searched for someone that could undertake the task she was going to send them on. Danae might not be able to follow her father, but the urchin could. If he was successful in finding Persephone, her father would eventually end up in one of the False Queen’s strongholds, and given that Danae didn’t think the Xanthos girl was all that bright, it was easy to assume that she would be holing up in Arcana. The plan practically wrote itself. The youngest Stravos would send this urchin away from the capital and to this outlying province to see what he could find and report back directly to her. That way she would not have to rely on whispers to figure out the fate of her father. She could take matters into her own hands and have no need to rely on anyone for news. The girl knew that it was a longshot and that there certainly were risks to this plan, but it was a hard thing to remember as she finally found the kid that she was looking for. Ophelos.
According to her notes, this boy was young. He was probably no older than nine or ten years old (it was hard to tell with the urchins), but he was one of her best runners and he had always been faithful in bringing Danae the exact number of coins that were owed to her. The network surrounding him had faltered in this awful economy as many of those he was tasked with communicating with on Danae’s behalf backed away from the Stravos name. He was the perfect candidate in every sense of the word and it was unlikely he would be missed if Danae sent him off to Arcana for a few weeks for an all-important mission. As far as she was concerned Ophelos was the one who would carry out this wild plan that Danae had cooked up.
Now was just a matter of finding him.
Danae made sure to carefully put away the network list and tuck the secret drawer back into place before she set about in making sure that she was at least somewhat presentable that morning before she finally left her room for the first time. It would do her no good if she had any of the servants twittering about how Danae’s hair had been a rat’s nest and she had still been in her nightshift at this hour, after all. No matter how nervous she felt about breaking this one rule her father had imposed on them all -- she had to look cool, calm and collected if she didn’t want to raise suspicion. Honestly, Danae didn’t know how she managed to pull it off when she finally opened her door and set about in finding the closest servant that could do her bidding. As Danae no longer had her own personal staff -- a necessary cut she had happily made during the family’s rough period as it meant she no longer had to deal with ladies-in-waiting -- it took the girl a moment before she found a slave and relieved them from their duty of dusting all the grand vases to instead to go find the guard that was known to trail along with Danae whenever she left the manor on her own, making it clear that she had some intention of going out. It was important to the young girl that it was this servant that was summoned to her and not some other burly guard in the family’s employ. After all, this man was the only one who knew Danae’s secret through the sheer nature of his job and he was the one that would be sent to find Ophelos.
With a quick nod, the inconsequential servant who was none the wiser to Danae’s plans set off to find her guard. In the interim, the youngest Stravos was quick to head back to her own chambers in order to grab a certain pack of clothes that was hidden at the back of her closet. Even though Danae knew that she was likely worrying over practically nothing in her desire to keep her identity a secret when it came to safeguarding her secret, she wasn’t willing to take any precautions. That also demanded that Danae have a way of hiding her own identity when conversing directly with her urchins. (That was something she learned the hard way through one too many close calls.) With so many people in this city and so many of them not knowing the upper class personally -- Danae found it easy to do this by merely changing her clothes to hide her Stravos heritage. Her mother would be horrified if she knew that she had these tattered peasant clothes, ready to go at a moment’s notice, but Danae hardly cared. If she had to pretend to be dirty and poor to protect her secret, then so be it. She would do whatever she needed to. That was the nature of business, was it not?
The servant was quick in completing her task as shortly afterward, her guard, Taureas, appeared at her door and knocked to let her know that he was ready for whatever she had in store for today. He likely had his suspicions when Danae had summoned him directly, but if he didn’t, the slave would know what Danae wanted to do the moment he saw that pack at the girl’s side. He had seen it more than enough times now to know what the girl had in mind but did not comment on it. Or at least he didn’t while Danae left instructions for another servant to feed her kittens later in the day and headed out the door, forgoing a carriage as it did not suit what the girl needed to do.
It was only when the pair were walking down the road leading out of the Inner Circle where Danae lived did Taureas say anything at all. “Which one, my lady?” His voice was gruff and low, perfect for intimidating merchants who dared to think that they could outsmart a Stravos. Normally it would have been enough to have any man quaking in fear, but it did not bother Danae. As this man knew so much about her secret, she had learned not to fear him, but instead to trust him. She didn’t have much of a choice in that matter, after all. “Ophelos. I trust you’ll know where to find him?” Danae commented, her brows piqued up as she glanced up at the man that she should have told off for speaking out of turn. Taureas normally had the unfortunate task of tracking down wayward urchins so he had a few tricks that were necessary for finding a kid whose one job it was to blend in and not draw attention to himself. He was good at what he did which was why the man did not hesitate in nodding at her question.
Good.
“I’ll change in the loutra. You can take off your sash there. I don’t want to be out long, so the faster we get this done, the better.” She stated rather simply, informing the guard of her plans for the day. Being a slave, Taureas already dressed rather simply, and hiding his involvement with the Stravos family would be as easy as storing away the red band of fabric across his chest. Danae might have to keep a bit of distance away from him once they were on the hunt for Ophelos, but she had the utmost faith that they would be able to get away with this disguise as they headed down the path. After all, they had done this countless times before and this was no different, in theory at least. Danae’s heart might be beating a thousand times a minute from the sheer nervousness of going against her father’s instructions, but she had to this. She couldn’t sit idly by and wait for news any longer. She had to go fetch it for herself and if this was how it was going to be done, then so be it.
Danae could only hope that this was going to go off without a hitch.
All was quiet in the Stravos household, but Danae could not say the same for her own tumultuous thoughts that plagued her nearly every waking hour since Kekelius had hatched this grand plan to get the Stravos the crown they rightfully deserved. Naturally, Danae was worried about her father. He might have been confident in this little plan of his in Lyncestia, but even now, several weeks after the man had parted ways with his family, Danae had her doubts. The False Queen might not have the brains that her family did, but she wasn’t exactly a fool either -- the youngest Stravos had to give Persephone that at least. It didn’t matter that Kekelius had given her a vote at that fateful senate meeting. Anyone could have practically seen that his hand had been forced, not because he had some sort of moral realignment, and was now prepared to stand against his own son. The same boy he had been championing until he was publicly disgraced. The coward would see him as cowardly at best and right through his ruse at worst. She would have no reason to trust him, no matter what her father thought. The sheer logic of the situation was against him and Danae had no idea what had possessed her father to brush aside the obvious flaws in favor of this foolish concoction.
Danae wished that she had ignored her mother when the older woman had told her daughter without words to not speak against Kekelius’s plan. She had held her tongue at the moment, honoring her mother’s wish, but did she inadvertently sign her own father’s death sentence by not convincing him to stay? Now he was gone and all the Stravos could do was sit and wait for news. In order to keep up appearances that not the patriarch was standing against his own flesh and blood, he did not even write to them. The only word they received about whether he was alive or dead was through the whispers that Chara and Circenia picked up through their gossip circuits. Even those were not reassuring as they were just commenting on how Kekelius was not seen with his family as of late -- plus not to mention Danae only heard these things hours or days after the other women did. With her older sister never really liking her and her mother drinking herself out of her misery, neither of them bothered to let Danae know that her father was seen. Now they were getting sick of her asking about what they had heard.
This was all torture to Danae. She had always been close to her father. Even when she was little and her interest in his studies wasn’t yet forming, she had always been toddling after him. Circenia couldn’t hold a candle to the bond between Danae and her father -- especially after he not only taught her everything that he knew about business but actively encouraged her to take part in the sphere that was normally only open to men. All her life Danae thought that her father was the smartest man out there, no one but the gods could be better than him. So, seeing him do something so stupid and foolish on a nothing more than the assumption that one measly senate vote will grant him safety absolutely killed her inside. Danae didn’t want to think about it, but she didn’t think her father was going to be able to come home. His plan was so flawed it would surely result in his death and there was absolutely nothing that the daughter he left behind could do to save him.
How could her father be so foolish?
This question was never far from her mind, especially on mornings like this one. With no events occurring that day and the other Stravoses having no time for Danae’s worrying, the youngest anchor was meant to fend for herself when it came to entertainment. This wasn’t too far from the norm. Danny was a bit of a loner on her best days and now that she had two feisty boys in striking fur coats to tend to, she didn’t mind that she didn’t have any company with whom she could spend the slowly passing hours. Some days she didn’t even leave her room until it was time for the evening meal. Most of the time she didn’t mind this, but there were other times where she could feel every moment passing by, slowly and nerve-wracking as Danae’s anxieties convinced her that a messenger was going to arrive any moment to tell them all that her father was dead. There was nothing that Danae could do to chase this fear away. Not even the cute antics of Perseus and Theseus could abate her fears as they explored their jungle gym that Danae had built after the incident with the dogs.
Instead, her focus kept slipping in and out as the terrible thoughts about what could be happening to Kekelius popped in and out of her mind. She didn’t even want to describe the dark places her mind went to when she was worried about her father -- not when there was no use in trying to put it into words. Chara never cared to start with and now even her mother couldn’t listen to Danae’s fears. She was just left to stew in them… waiting endlessly for word that might never come.
No.
This had to stop. Something had to give.
The morning sun was only part of the way through its journey to the afternoon when Danae finally understood that this couldn’t continue. She knew better than anyone that this worry was not going to help anyone and if anything… this was a very dangerous road for her to travel down given how she had reacted in the aftermath of her run-in with Lukos. Her fears about admitting what had happened, what she had done had been so great that she had refused to speak for weeks. She could not let herself slip down that dangerous path again. Her father might have been insistent on Danae and the others staying away from him during this period, but the girl just couldn’t take this any longer. How could she honestly go on like this without knowing if her father was alive or dead and expecting to be fine with it? Danae knew that she couldn’t sit by any longer passively waiting for word to come to her from others. Her father had raised her better than that. She was going to get it for herself and know for herself how her father was faring.
Sitting up quickly in the bed that she had been lying down in, Danae startled poor Theseus causing the tomcat to let out an angry hiss. The youngest Stravos absent-mindedly hushed him as she reached up to redo the simple and small braid that the kitten had ruined in his attempts to turn her hair ribbon into a new toy -- as if he wasn’t satisfied with the countless little trinkets Danae had given to the spoiled brothers. (Truly those cats lived a better life than some of the people in this city.) Danae knew that her cat would be grumpy that she had ruined his playtime by getting up and rushing over to her desk to take apart the hidden compartment to find a very specific paper, but he would simply have to get over himself. The sixteen-year-old had to see if the crazy idea that she had been mulling over in recent weeks was actually possible. After all, her father might have been clear that Danae was not to contact, follow, or otherwise interfere in his plan. However, he had not specifically mentioned that she couldn’t have others do this on her behalf.
Although she knew that this was a loophole that logically wouldn’t apply in the first place, Danae was going to take the rule at face value as she fiddled with the underside of her desk, unlatching the secret compartment that held all of the important documents that Danae didn’t want anyone in Athenia to know about. The desk had been a gift from Kekelius shortly after he helped her find her start in the lucrative little financial empire that she had started with the help of the people on a secret list that Danae kept at the bottom of this secret drawer, underneath piles upon piles of meticulously hand-copied loans that she had with the merchants of Athenia. This desk had been a godsend when the mobs attacked the house. Even though Danae had not been present, she could at least rest easy knowing that this sheet of parchment that outlined the complicated network Danae had built was safe from their grubby little paws. This was the key to Danae’s success. Her entire network of urchins, carefully mapping who knew who and what tasks they were assigned. The overlaps were minimal. That way if one section fell through, the rest of the network did not collapse around it. This had been an ingenious part of keeping her secret, but it did call for the key in moments like this where Danae needed to find an urchin that not only she could trust, but could be easily taken out of the usual chain of command without causing too much damage to the rest of it.
Her fingers hurriedly traced over the lines, following each diagram as she searched for someone that could undertake the task she was going to send them on. Danae might not be able to follow her father, but the urchin could. If he was successful in finding Persephone, her father would eventually end up in one of the False Queen’s strongholds, and given that Danae didn’t think the Xanthos girl was all that bright, it was easy to assume that she would be holing up in Arcana. The plan practically wrote itself. The youngest Stravos would send this urchin away from the capital and to this outlying province to see what he could find and report back directly to her. That way she would not have to rely on whispers to figure out the fate of her father. She could take matters into her own hands and have no need to rely on anyone for news. The girl knew that it was a longshot and that there certainly were risks to this plan, but it was a hard thing to remember as she finally found the kid that she was looking for. Ophelos.
According to her notes, this boy was young. He was probably no older than nine or ten years old (it was hard to tell with the urchins), but he was one of her best runners and he had always been faithful in bringing Danae the exact number of coins that were owed to her. The network surrounding him had faltered in this awful economy as many of those he was tasked with communicating with on Danae’s behalf backed away from the Stravos name. He was the perfect candidate in every sense of the word and it was unlikely he would be missed if Danae sent him off to Arcana for a few weeks for an all-important mission. As far as she was concerned Ophelos was the one who would carry out this wild plan that Danae had cooked up.
Now was just a matter of finding him.
Danae made sure to carefully put away the network list and tuck the secret drawer back into place before she set about in making sure that she was at least somewhat presentable that morning before she finally left her room for the first time. It would do her no good if she had any of the servants twittering about how Danae’s hair had been a rat’s nest and she had still been in her nightshift at this hour, after all. No matter how nervous she felt about breaking this one rule her father had imposed on them all -- she had to look cool, calm and collected if she didn’t want to raise suspicion. Honestly, Danae didn’t know how she managed to pull it off when she finally opened her door and set about in finding the closest servant that could do her bidding. As Danae no longer had her own personal staff -- a necessary cut she had happily made during the family’s rough period as it meant she no longer had to deal with ladies-in-waiting -- it took the girl a moment before she found a slave and relieved them from their duty of dusting all the grand vases to instead to go find the guard that was known to trail along with Danae whenever she left the manor on her own, making it clear that she had some intention of going out. It was important to the young girl that it was this servant that was summoned to her and not some other burly guard in the family’s employ. After all, this man was the only one who knew Danae’s secret through the sheer nature of his job and he was the one that would be sent to find Ophelos.
With a quick nod, the inconsequential servant who was none the wiser to Danae’s plans set off to find her guard. In the interim, the youngest Stravos was quick to head back to her own chambers in order to grab a certain pack of clothes that was hidden at the back of her closet. Even though Danae knew that she was likely worrying over practically nothing in her desire to keep her identity a secret when it came to safeguarding her secret, she wasn’t willing to take any precautions. That also demanded that Danae have a way of hiding her own identity when conversing directly with her urchins. (That was something she learned the hard way through one too many close calls.) With so many people in this city and so many of them not knowing the upper class personally -- Danae found it easy to do this by merely changing her clothes to hide her Stravos heritage. Her mother would be horrified if she knew that she had these tattered peasant clothes, ready to go at a moment’s notice, but Danae hardly cared. If she had to pretend to be dirty and poor to protect her secret, then so be it. She would do whatever she needed to. That was the nature of business, was it not?
The servant was quick in completing her task as shortly afterward, her guard, Taureas, appeared at her door and knocked to let her know that he was ready for whatever she had in store for today. He likely had his suspicions when Danae had summoned him directly, but if he didn’t, the slave would know what Danae wanted to do the moment he saw that pack at the girl’s side. He had seen it more than enough times now to know what the girl had in mind but did not comment on it. Or at least he didn’t while Danae left instructions for another servant to feed her kittens later in the day and headed out the door, forgoing a carriage as it did not suit what the girl needed to do.
It was only when the pair were walking down the road leading out of the Inner Circle where Danae lived did Taureas say anything at all. “Which one, my lady?” His voice was gruff and low, perfect for intimidating merchants who dared to think that they could outsmart a Stravos. Normally it would have been enough to have any man quaking in fear, but it did not bother Danae. As this man knew so much about her secret, she had learned not to fear him, but instead to trust him. She didn’t have much of a choice in that matter, after all. “Ophelos. I trust you’ll know where to find him?” Danae commented, her brows piqued up as she glanced up at the man that she should have told off for speaking out of turn. Taureas normally had the unfortunate task of tracking down wayward urchins so he had a few tricks that were necessary for finding a kid whose one job it was to blend in and not draw attention to himself. He was good at what he did which was why the man did not hesitate in nodding at her question.
Good.
“I’ll change in the loutra. You can take off your sash there. I don’t want to be out long, so the faster we get this done, the better.” She stated rather simply, informing the guard of her plans for the day. Being a slave, Taureas already dressed rather simply, and hiding his involvement with the Stravos family would be as easy as storing away the red band of fabric across his chest. Danae might have to keep a bit of distance away from him once they were on the hunt for Ophelos, but she had the utmost faith that they would be able to get away with this disguise as they headed down the path. After all, they had done this countless times before and this was no different, in theory at least. Danae’s heart might be beating a thousand times a minute from the sheer nervousness of going against her father’s instructions, but she had to this. She couldn’t sit idly by and wait for news any longer. She had to go fetch it for herself and if this was how it was going to be done, then so be it.
Danae could only hope that this was going to go off without a hitch.