As the earliest rays of dawn broken through the Taengean manor, Arete was perfectly content to ignore the sun’s wake up call and remain in bed for as long as she could. Being on the cusp of a pleasant dream, not even the gentle words of Nikos attempting to rouse her and let her know that he would be gone for the day was enough to completely pull her from the perfect world Hypnos had created for her. Instead, she merely nodded and grumbled some now-forgotten reply when the Condos lord suggested that Arete go spend the day at the markets again. Yes, she could do that... Once she got a few more hours worth of sleep that is. She couldn’t even recall saying goodbye to Nikos before falling back into a semi-deep slumber. By the time her lover was even out of the room, she was already fast asleep.

By the time Arete had fully woken up, Nikos had been long gone. His usual spot in the bed they shared had long since grown cold in the morning chill and the merchant’s daughter was left to entertain herself until Nikos would conclude his business elsewhere. As sad as it might be to wake up to an empty bed when you had fallen asleep in the arms of another, it wasn’t that uncommon for Arete. Or at least, it wasn’t anymore. Back when the two lovebirds ruled the roost at the Doralis manor it would have taken an act from the gods to part the pair before noon. There had been plenty of mornings where Arete had roused her Niky by running her fingers through his hair, leaving a trail of kisses across his cheek, and other various methods that were the hallmarks of their fiery and passionate relationship. However, that had been in the provinces where her lover had some semblance of control over his schedule. In Doralis, he had been king. As the Baron, he was the one that everyone else timed their days around, but here in the capital? Nikos had to march to the beat of other’s drums. It wasn’t something that Retta liked (as she would always prefer having the joy of waking him up herself) but she had learned to accept it. This was just one of the conditions of living in the capital now. Nikos’s time was not hers. It belonged to other high-ranking men who had business to conduct with the Condos heir. She could be patient and learn to share her lover.

However, had Retta known the truth about where Niky had gone that particular morning, she might have been singing a different tune as the hours slowly ticked by. She had heard whispers about how close the Condos Lord had been with that Leventi girl as the peasants in Doralis loved to gossip about their Baron. She had heard whispers and snippets over the years about how deeply entangled the two of them could be. Though to Arete, this was all that they had been. Rumors. That’s it. Nothing more, though hopefully something less. As far as the current mistress was concerned, Evangelina of Leventi was out of the picture as she had Nikos wrapped right around her little pinky finger. Granted, Arete was not blind or dumb. She knew that her lover was not faithful to her and was utterly incapable of keeping it in his pants if left to his own devices. Though she thought that if he was bold enough to promise her, the girl that held no title or name, that she would one day be his Queen, that all the others were inconsequential. They were conquests and nothing more.

This viewpoint would have been shattered if Arete knew what her lover was doing when she finally turned to face the morning sun.

Had she known that Nikos had spent his morning trying to convince another girl not to go through with a wedding; all in the hopes that he could be the bridegroom instead… Needless to say, it would not have been pretty. Arete had put everything into the hopes and dreams that Nikos had provided for her. She had happily cut contact with her family, abandoned the only life she had ever known, and put her social standing at risk by shacking up with Nikos before there was so much as a whisper of a betrothal lurking about. If he fell in love with, or gods forbid married, another… Arete would be left with nothing. She would forever just be a mistress in the eyes of her lover and everything that she had ever worked for would just slip right through her fingers. Had Arete known that Nikos was thinking with his jealous cock and completely forgotten about the girl who had given him everything, who was still in his bed while this was happening for Zeus’s sake, there’s no telling what she would have done. After all, how does one react to their world falling down around them?

Luckily for all involved, Arete was blissfully in the dark when the old flame parted ways, both wearing ugly marks to show for their brutal end. The young woman had still been in bed while this had all happened having only woken up towards the end of Niky’s and Evie’s rendezvous. She had no idea that Nikos’s face was being clawed up as she had the few servants that actually listened to her bring her breakfast in bed as she slowly joined the waking world. To her, this had been nothing short of a beautiful morning even though Niky was not there to enjoy it with her. She had even thought to make a note of asking him to set aside these morning meetings at some point so they could enjoy this brief time together, she was that unaware of the turmoil happening down on the beaches.

Seeing no need to hurry along with her day, Arete had taken her sweet old time getting up and ready for the day as she was not expecting her lover to return until evening. With so much time to spare and a slim likelihood that her favorite market stalls would have new wares between now and her last visit; Arete saw no reason to rush through her complicated morning routine. It took forever for her to apply all the creams, oils, and various hair care products that had given her that lovely noblewoman glow in comparison to the horrible state he found her in all those years ago. Between each cosmetic taking forever to apply and her desire to stay in bed for much longer than she ought have been it really wasn’t that much of a surprise that Retta was still in the bedroom when Nikos came storming into the bedroom in a distracted huff, completely missing the fact that his lover was here, bent over a mirror trying to make sure she looked the part of the Future Lady of Condos -- a role she was completely unaware that he had offered to another just a few hours prior.

Glancing at him through the reflected surface, Arete was absolutely horrified to see the state that her lover was in. “Niky!” Her whole body turned towards him from where she sat, announcing her presence to him for the first time. “What happened? Oh gods, you’re hurt…” Even though the mirror was great for applying makeup, it wasn’t the best as showing things that were a bit further away from the glassy surface. That was how Arete had at first missed the blood caking Niky’s face. Not knowing how this could have happened and being worried sick about how he was faring, Arete quickly jumped up out of her seat and crossed the room to the man she did not know would rather be left alone.

Gingerly, one hand reached out to cup his injured cheek and turn it slightly so that she might get a better glance at what had happened. Her face had grown tight with worry, scared and unsure about what could have caused this, but saying nothing more as she was sure that Niky would fill her in on the details on how a business meeting could have gone so horribly wrong that he came back to her looking like this.

“We have to get this off of you…” She murmured quietly, referencing the caked blood that hid the telltale scratch marks of another woman. Even though Arete was no medic or physician, she had tended to enough burns and cuts in the pottery shop to know the basics of what to do. Having spent all of her life working with clay and mud, the girl knew that the first step, of course, was cleaning the wound. “Please tell me you have a basin of water around here Niky.” She murmured quietly as she immediately jumped into the role of a caring partner, ready to help heal her lover from whatever had caused this. All the while, her face was tight with worry as she waited for Nikos to tell her what had happened as she, for once, was completely speechless and unsure how to even approach the subject of her future husband and King coming home a bloody mess.

Arete had no idea what could have caused Nikos to return from a morning ride with scratches upon his face like this. Not being much of a rider herself, all the girl could think of was somehow either the branches of a tree had scraped against him if he had gone galloping through a thicket. That at least made a modicum of sense given the injuries that she was faced with now that her Niky had returned, but even then that begged the question of what was her lover doing in a thicket or in the brush or just generally anywhere off the traditional trails that weaved throughout Vasilidon? Her Niky might love feeling adrenaline coursing through his veins, but Arete didn’t know him to veer off the beaten path like this. That just didn’t seem like the man she knew all too well.

The only other explanation in her mind that seemed to make sense was that some sort of animal had scratched him, but then again that begged the question about what on earth Niky was doing with any sort of critter. Not to mention how on earth they would have gotten close to him if he was in the saddle all day like he had claimed that morning as he detangled their splayed limbs, caught sorts of ways after their vigorous activities the previous night. It just didn’t make sense. None of the explanations that Arete was trying to use to justify Nikos’s behavior made any sort of sense.

Of course, Arete had some sort of suspicion about what the truth of the matter could likely be. Though it was something that she desperately did not want to consider as she dipped a clean cloth into the nearby jug of water. After all, Retta knew all too well what kind of man her Niky was. She was not blind to the fact that she was not the only one that filled his bed nor was it something that she could judge him too harshly for as she had known what sort of man she was tangling herself with when she had first fallen into the Condos’s bed… but that had been two years ago when Arete was just a young woman secretly starstruck by the fact that the Baron of her province would take an interest in her. They lived in the capital city now. They were in the home that Arete would one day be the lady of and this wasn’t some sort of pretending house-making like Niky had indulged her in when they were living in Doralis. This was the capital city, the ancestral home of the Condos family. This was the real deal -- especially as her lover was so close to having the crown sit upon his own head. Things were different now.

Things had to be different now.

Arete was certain of it. Nikos would not have bothered to bring her to the capital if he did not have the intention of making her his wife. She might still be his mistress, but she was not living among his family. Even Ophelia, in all her prudish glory, was starting to accept that a heathen whore like Arete was living in this house now. Surely, that had to mean something to Nikos? He wouldn’t dare go out and bed another woman while leaving poor Arete alone at the Condos manor, obviously wandering about under the fantasy that the perfect fairy-tale life was unfolding before her as she desperately waited for the physicians’ hopeful words to finally come true so Nikos could finally wed her.

He wouldn’t do that to her.

Would he?

As the dreadful thought swept over Arete, she tried to push them away, but the sadness and hurt that filtered in with these feelings were impossible to ignore. It washed over her like one long sigh as she crossed the room to tend to Nikos’s wounds. Her first mission was to wipe the blood away from his cuts and as she gently dabbed the cloth against his skin, Arete tried to not take notice if the marks were more akin to those left behind by claws or nails. Not that it really mattered anyway. The seemingly annoyed way that he had greeted her had pretty much confirmed her worst fear. If he had been pricked by a vine or scratched by a cat, he would have bitched about it from the moment he wandered in; but the silence he greeted her with? That was deafening all on its own.

“What did this?” She finally muttered after a long moment, all the concern that she had just a few moments ago practically dripped away from her with every syllable. She wanted to directly confront him with her suspicions, but he still wanted to hope that she was wrong. That he was too embarrassed to admit that a kitten had gotten the better of him. However, she knew whatever came out of his mouth was going to be a lie. She knew what kind of man he was, after all. He was not above cheating.

That wasn’t even the part that hurt Arete the most though. She could accept the straying into other’s beds. She had long ago learned that this was going to have to come with the territory of having Nikos in her life. What she couldn’t stand was the lying. He had left her that morning. Slipped away when she was barely awake, still bare for the promises he had made the night before. He left her side for another. That was the part that was killing Arete. She was already so nervous that the diets weren’t going to work. That the herbs she was looking into to encourage fertility wouldn’t be enough to kickstart something that had long ago withered and died. Arete knew that any marriage to Nikos, any steadfast security in her life, depended on her being able to conceive a child. Nikos might love her, in his own special way as he was clearly crawling into the beds of others, but that didn’t matter if she could not do a woman’s duty and give him heirs for his Condos name. There was no point in marrying her if she was barren and no matter how much Nikos reassured her, kept promising her the rank of Queen in spite of her health issues, she was still afraid that one day that he wouldn’t do that.

At that moment, there was a knock at the door and the servant arrived with the salve needed to properly clean the wound. Arete was the one to move away from the bed and retrieve it from the poor servant who had no idea what they had stumbled into. Arete was sure to give them a quiet word of thanks as she returned to her lover’s side and generously began to apply the ointment. A sickening feeling rose in her stomach as she considered what Nikos had possibly done. The strange sensation filled her with a sort of emotion she was a stranger to -- almost as if she wanted to break down crying and steam at him all at once. But she held her composure for the moment, but only just. If Nikos told a blatant lie in his answer then she would unlikely to keep back the floodgates. He could likely sense this in the way that her hands shook and the wat that she remained silent, but had dozens of emotions crossing her worried and hurt expression.

Though it was not as if Nikos would be undeserving of the harsh words Arete would lay down upon him if he said the wrong thing. After all, she might not know it, but these scratches were not from any sort of run of the mill lover that Arete feared would take her place just because they had a working womb. No, instead these scrapes had come from a woman who had been offered everything that Nikos had promised Arete. A woman that Nikos had begged her to take without even pausing to think of the woman he had left sound asleep in his bed that morning. Nikos knew the kind of life that Arete had lived in Doralis, how badly the girl just wanted some sort of stability after such a terrible childhood. How she craved not needing to worry about having food on the table, being able to wear pretty things that were not stained with bits of slip and glaze. He knew how badly Arete wanted this life and how she was willing to do anything and everything for Nikos. She had left her entire life behind for him.

And he had tossed it all away as if it had meant nothing to him.

As if she meant nothing to him.

Arete had no way of knowing this. She could not have even fathomed that Nikos would betray her in such a way by pleading with another woman to let him be her bridegroom. For a couple that turned a blind eye to the other’s trysts, this would be the ultimate betrayal. There was nothing that Nikos could do that could be worse than what he had done with Evie that morning on the beach. Nothing. It was so terrible that Arete wasn’t even considering it as she waited for Nikos to give her a reason to think that her worst thoughts weren’t true. That he hadn’t betrayed her like she thought that he did. She just needed some scrap of falsehood to cling to. But how on earth was Nikos going to manage that when the truth of the matter was so clearly written on his face?

As Nikos divulged what had caused these wounds, his Retta couldn’t stop the turbulent thoughts that were roaring through her head. In truth, they were so violent that Arete had to force her eyes closed for a moment to keep her tongue and temper in check. Nikos might have been clever with his metaphors, but he was a terrible liar. Really? He just happened across a wildcat upon the beach and he found the kindness in his heart to tend to its wounds? The very same Nikos was so stupidly selfish that she had never seen him actually think with his brain instead of his dick. Never once had her lover been the sort to help an animal in need, so Arete had no reason to believe that this would change this morning. Surely, if he was going to lie so blatantly to her that he should have at least put some ounce of thought into his excuses…. Especially when Arete had never heard of any sort of wildcat willingly wandering near a beach. She might be a bit of a country bumpkin that had never seen the ocean before Nikos came into her life, but she was not foolish enough to believe for an instant that this scenario was even possible. It was so illogical that it hurt.

It hurt so much more than any wound he could have inflicted on her if he had just been forthcoming about the truth.

At that moment, Arete didn’t know what she wanted to do. Her wounded pride and sharp mind demanded that she start by screaming and crying. There was a nagging voice deep within her telling her that she would not feel better until she laid her suspicions out in the open for all to see. Not to mention add a few wicked scratches of her own to accompany the ones that clearly came from nails and not claws as Nikos might have her believe. Nikos might be fine with lying to her, but Arete was not the sort who had the strength right now to do it to herself. She knew that she wanted to do this. She wanted to make sure Nikos knew that she was not an idiot and make it clear in a way that he would never regret. She could take the cheating. Arete had long ago learned that this was going to be an unfortunate aspect of her future life as a Lady of Condos, but she could not stand for the lying.

However, she couldn’t do that, no matter how satisfying it would be. Her wounded, inflamed pride might demand her lover’s blood -- but Arete could not let herself forget the fact that doing so would not end well for her here. She might think of herself as having Nikos wrapped completely around her little finger, but she could never let herself forget just how much power Nikos had over her. He had rescued her from the muck and grime of a peasant’s life and raised her up to such a level that she needed him to maintain it. If Nikos decided to kick her out, she would have nothing. Not so much as a penny to her name and there was only so far she could go with her pretty looks. As hurt, as she was, Arete had far too much to lose if she upset Nikos in any sort of fashion. She knew that he was lying. She could so clearly see what the truth of this situation was, but Retta had to hold her tongue. She had no choice in the matter if she valued not needing to worry about if she would go to bed hungry again or not.

So the girl remained silent as she tended to his wounds, trying to not let Nikos catch onto the sense of betrayal that was making her heart race as she dabbed the salve onto his cuts. However, with her mind in such utter turmoil, the facade slipped a bit just after he spoke. In the split second that it took for the lie to sink in and for Arete to pull herself together enough to not react in a way that would upset Nikos, her hand hovered over the wound on his face -- faltering in a way that she wouldn’t have done if she had fallen for the web of falsehoods that Nikos had weaved for her. Arete didn’t even notice that she had done so in the first place, but her lover likely would … if he could selfishly get his own head out of his ass to take notice of how pale Arete had suddenly become as he talked.

Arete wasn’t even aware of the color draining from her face, but she could feel her stomach beginning to churn as she considered his words. It was a sickening feeling having one's own stomach twist in on itself, but if Nikos was going to insist that his newest mistress was a wildcat helpless on a beach, Retta had a feeling that it was going to be a feeling that she was going to become uncomfortably familiar with in the weeks to come… or however long it was going to take for her to finally accept the fact that Nikos had no qualms about lying directly to her face when honesty was the one thing that she had asked for if he felt the urge to stray from her… Nevermind the fact that both of them knew that if Arete knew the truth, she would not react well to it. The sheer fact he was lying alone was horrible enough of a crime that it completely overshadowed how this jealous lover would have reacted had Nikos been forthcoming from the start.

“Poor thing. Is it alright now?” Arete muttered almost absent-mindedly as she tried to not breathe in the noxious smell of the paste she was slathering on Nikos’s cheek. Under normal circumstances, this paste would have been utterly unremarkable, but right now with her stomach so firmly twisted into knots -- the ripe smell of preserved berries to offset the healing herbs was too much for Arete’s stomach. Once her job as nurse was done, Arete rose from the bed and immediately tried to scrub her hand clean of the already drying paste. She needed to get this stuff off of her before this combined with the hurt in her heart made her lose her stomach.

Once the paste was off of her hands, Arete returned to Nikos’s side with a bandage in hand. She tried to settle down back onto the bed next to him so she could wrap up the wound, but she didn’t get much of a chance to do so before Nikos decided that having her sit on the bed wasn’t an option today. Not when he was far more content to have her in his lap. This was a common thing. Seven Hades, Arete loved it when he did this as it often gave her a chance to curl up into his chest and absent-mindedly lose her thoughts to the calming sound of his heartbeat. But not today. Not when he had just lied to her about cheating.

She stiffened in his grip and wordlessly resisted the action, redirecting his hand to run along her leg instead. Knowing full well that Nikos was not going to like being denied in such a manner, Arete quietly shook her head and murmured something along the lines of “Not right now. I don’t feel all that good.” Though her voice was so quiet that it was hard to make out what words were actually being said among the pained whimper lingering in her voice. It was true. She felt that sitting in his lap was not the best idea when her stomach was jumping about so violently.

“Don’t want to be sick on you.” She further explained after a quiet moment, trying to keep Nikos from connecting the dots. She had hopes that her fib might do a better job than his far-fetched wildcat story. It wasn’t that outlandish to believe with the months turning colder and there were already rumors floating out of the kitchens about there being a stomach bug floating through the city. With how much time Arete spent out in the markets, it wasn’t that crazy to believe that Arete might have picked something up during her many joyous trips outside to take full advantage of her newfound freedom -- the very same freedom that she was just finally learning the price of now that Nikos was clearly over the excitement that came with having Arete in Vasiladon instead of Doralis for the first time.

Hoping that this was satisfactory enough to keep Nikos from touching her, Arete turned her attention back to the wounds and asked a fairly simple question as she glanced him over. “Did it nick you anywhere else?” The girl already likely knew that the answer was either ‘no’ or that if there were more scratches on Nikos, he was not going to reveal them. Not when the wildcat story was already flimsy at best and Arete would not fall for the same tale if there were wounds on his back as well.

Though Nikos had already shown that he was pretty confident in his lies. Would he be foolish enough to take Arete for an idiot and reveal more scratches or would he prove to be the opposite and see-through Arete’s own lies she had given him as his dishonest trust practically burned her skin from the anger that was secretly boiling beneath her skin? The ball was in his court now and Nikos had already proven that he was not thinking with his head this day…

When Nikos spoke, Arete had to begrudgingly admit that he might have a point. It was true that Arete was not normally the type to rebuff any advances from Nikos. Her eagerness to have her lover close to her at all times -- a sentiment that was fueled equally by adoration and jealousy -- was not exactly a secret to the Condos lord. He knew just as well as she did that every time the young woman was being coy and playing hard to get, she was just eagerly awaiting the moment when Nikos would wrap his arms around her in order to claim her as his own. Any and all attempts to push Nikos away was meant to be a way to rile him up. It was all just a game to make him prove that he was worthy of making Arete his and his alone. That was how the two of them had functioned for years.

But things were different now.

Arete may not have been directly thinking about it now, but in the hours to come when her mind would endlessly churn over this moment, this one snapshot of time that could possibly change whatever this was between them, she would understand that things just weren’t the same anymore. That was the simplest way to put it at least. It would be a difficult thing for her to example. After all, how was she to put into words the simple truth that having Niky at her side at all hours of the day for weeks on end had spoiled her? There was no possible way that she could explain that her desperation to keep her Condos lord close while he was at her side had abated here in the capital where she knew that he would always return to her side? As long as she slept in his bed, she held no fears that he wouldn’t return to her side.

This was a far cry from the years she had spent in Doralis where Nikos’s career pulled him away from her for large swaths of time. Even though she was free to come and go from the Doralisian manor as she wished -- something she will never admit to doing as she had only done so during the nights when the hungry gnawing in her stomach had grown too brutal to bear. If she wished to live in the comfort of knowing that there would always be a plate of food waiting for her and a warm body to remind her that not everything in her miserable life was utterly hopeless, Retta would have to wait for his invitation. She could not enter the bedrooms she knew so well unless he was there and his lordship wanted her there. It was something that Arete had never questioned and had even accepted while she had been firmly under the thumb of her horrible family -- but that had put an odd sort of desperation within her.

How could it not? Everyone and their dead grandmother knew that Nikos’s affections were as fickle as a light summer breeze. He was the sort of man who did not normally take long-term mistresses and Arete had just been lucky enough to be the exception rather than the rule when it came to the notches in Nikos’s bedpost. She knew this too. The young woman had known that even though she had the Baron wrapped around her little pinky finger, she would need to fight to keep his eyes off of the other beautiful women of his province. Arete could never deny him what he wanted or she might find herself cast out of his favor. The letters beckoning her to come to his home would cease and the warmness he held for her in his heart would wane as her Niky found another woman to keep his bed warm at night. She would be left alone in the misery of her impoverished life, left to starve away until she was nothing, but the faintest memory in Nikos’s mind.

Obviously, while they had been in Doralis, Arete could not have let that happen. She knew that she needed to do everything in her power to give Niky whatever he wanted to keep his attention on her. Outright denying him anything without the sly intention of making his blood run hotter with the chase was simply out of the picture, but Arete no longer held that fear. She had been brought to the capital at his behest. If she wanted a nice warm meal, piled high with all the luxurious foods that her family would have to sell their entire pottery stock just to get a bite of -- all she needed to do was ring a bell and a servant would come rushing in. She had more money in her pocket than her family had held in her entire life and as far as she was concerned, she was Nikos’s wife in all, but name. That need to keep Nikos happy and fulfill every request no matter how much it pained her was simply no longer there. Arete truly felt as if she could say ‘no’ to him for the first time.

However, she also knew that this was not an option no matter how her comfortable surroundings led her to believe it to be true. Arete might be acting as his wife -- but she could never forget that she was not his blushing bride. He may keep promising her that soon enough they would share the same last name, but he had yet to make good on such a commitment. He could very easily turn her out and send her back to the provinces where her future would be nothing short of bleak. She had been a fool to already let that thought slip from her mind amid the daydreams of being named Lady Arete of Condos. Especially now that he had all but confirmed that there was another woman who his gaze had lingered upon with this wild, outlandish, and poorly-disguised excuse for a lie that was the story of being scratched by a wildcat. If Arete wished to secure the life she had here, she had to swallow her pride and let him hold her. No matter how the weight of his lie burned her skin and called upon her stomach to rid itself of this vile feeling within her. She had no choice in the matter.

Gently slipping her eyes closed, the only outward sign she would ever give that her mind was at war within itself over whether or not she could live with him laying a finger on her after this, Arete didn’t know if she could physically let him do that. How could she set upon his lap and not recoil at his touch? Did she truly have the willpower to not retreat within her mind and prevent herself from being consumed with the pains of knowing that she could very well now be ‘the other woman’? Arete could be a feisty girl with an inner flame that burned so strong that it put the forges of Hephaestus to shame, but she was still just as vulnerable and weak as any other girl put into this position. How on earth could she hide her resentment for this man when all he desired was to take her devotion to him for granted and treat her as if he was somehow still entitled to her after the lies that he told?

Arete knew that she was at a certain crossroads, but an unfair one. Her choices were not as comfortable as Niky’s had been when he had the option to remain loyal to his future wife or stray from her side. His biggest concern was over which cunt he felt like taking for his pleasure that day. Her choices left her deciding between an unspeakable shame and almost certain death back in the province she had once called home. The dice were clearly loaded against her and her supposed options weren’t really options at all. At least not while Nikos had shown his displeasure in that particular tone. It wasn’t one that Arete had heard often as it left no room for her to argue against him and even during their moments of issuing each other commands on how they were to move in the bed… this one was never used. It didn’t matter how badly Arete wanted to leave this room. She had no choice. She had to return to Nikos’s side.

No matter how much it killed her inside, if she cared at all about not starving to death, she was going to have to pretend that there was nothing amiss at all.

That was why, against her better judgment, Arete paused in her attempts to move away from Nikos. For the briefest of moments, she awkwardly hovered where she stood, unsure if she should really risk this upset feeling in her stomach from overflowing. Were the consequences of not doing so really that much greater than the pain this action would bring her? Although her heart tried to convince her that it wasn’t true, Arete knew that it would be the case, so against her better judgment, the Doralisian girl turned around and came back to his side without a word. She quietly lowered herself down onto the bed next to him, sitting a bit too stiffly for what was normal for her as she carefully laid her head down onto his shoulder as she muttered to him, “It just might this time. This twisting that is plaguing me… it’s not like anything I have experienced before….”

Her confession was barely above a whisper, her words delicately chosen to cast a veil over the real source of her hurt. If he could lie to her about a wildcat harming him while she knew that just underneath his tunic his back was likely to be littered with extra markings that whoever this pussy cat truly was had left behind for Arete to discover. However, she made no move to remove his shirts as he might have expected. Instead, the peasant girl just remained there, using Nikos’s head as a pillow as her eyes slowly slipped closed. She knew what was likely on his mind and what he would want for her. However, for the first time since the day that they had met, she did not want to give it to him. Not while this lie was lingering so cruelly over her head.

May he just accept that Arete was not feeling well. She did not know how much more pain she could bear from this man who she had once thought had eyes for no one, but her.