The day had passed in a whirl of meetings and counsels and amongst other things a rather uncomfortable armour fitting during which Achilleas had bid farewell to most of his chest hair. His protestations that he did not need new armour was met with a blank-faced expression from Petros though, and Achilleas had been forced to concede that it was one of those things not drive by need but by tradition. The King of Taengea could not go to war in old armour. And so it was that a good part of his afternoon had been spent half-naked and being smeared in clay.

The rigmarole of it had at least kept his mind from straying too often to his evening plans, a good thing because for some ridiculous reason there was more than a little nervousness tied up with the anticipation he felt. He’d promised Theodora she would have his nights, and Achilleas was not a man to renege on a promise. Not to mention this ride had been owed for a good while.

But it wasn’t a simple ride around the palati grounds that had his stomach flutter a little as he pushed back from his desk and wrapped the dark blue himation about his shoulders. As Achilleas made his way out toward the stables, he was thinking instead on the conversation he’d had with his cousin and later the instructions given to the groundsmen.

He hoped it had all come together as planned and that it wasn’t too much, his thoughts carving a line between his brows as he stepped into the barn, the expression only brought into relief by the way it smoothed away, and he smiled upon seeing his wife already waiting for him. Her face was sweet with a smile, and he savoured it a moment as he moved toward her.

‘Achilleas’

“Theodora” The man dipped his head to make it easier for her lips to brush against his cheek, his hand resting briefly at her waist before he glanced toward where his horse was indeed ready and waiting, the bay looking a little disgruntled at the strange having been drawn away from his stall and his hay at such a strange hour.

Nodding his thanks to the stable hands, the King moved to take the horse’s reins before he looked back to where the Queen’s mare was now being led out and his brows raised as he realised she hadn’t been joking about still having that monster of a creature she’d put him and Krysto on all those years ago.

“...I am looking forward to spending some time with you, yes.” he answered, still side-eyeing the mare. “Though now I wonder about the rest of the company.” He was smiling though because there was something fitting about that connection, a reminder that though this marriage was new, they had known each other before.

The first time he had seen her, she had been running through the fields barefoot and carefree, and he’d immediately taken a shine to the dark-haired girl who dared to talk back to he and his friend. He’d only realised later who exactly he’d been talking to, and then it had gotten that much more complicated.

Whatever the years had held though, now Achilleas was blessed enough to name her his wife, and he was determined that they would find a more even footing before he left for Egypt. It was why he’d insisted his schedule cleared, and he revelled in the fact that Theodora seemed to be looking forward to their evening as much as he.

“Shall we then?” he said, before leading Amyntas out into the courtyard. For a moment, he hovered, wanting to wrap his hands about her waist and lift her, but then he reminded himself he had married a Leventi and the gesture would not be appreciated. Instead, he gathered the reins of his own horse and vaulted astride. “I thought we might ride out to the eastern meadows?” he said once he was settled in the saddle.

He needed to dictate the course of their ride before Theodora suggested something that would entirely derail his plans and so he waited and hoped there would be no sound of protest from the woman beside him.

Achilleas laughed lightly at Theodora’s warning but did give the mare enough room. He’d had quite enough of being nipped at by horses lately to want to court trouble. His own horse, a big bay was, of course, Leventi bred, and Amyntas too could be less than gregarious when he felt like it, but having stepped outside of the barn and into the cooling dusk, his ears had pricked forward, and he didn’t even dance out of range when his master went to mount.

The king was a fair enough horseman. He could not claim to have the same natural affinity his brother boasted with the beasts. Still, you didn't get to be a charioteer or a competent Commander without having a fair mastery over the horses you depended on for your very life. Unaware of Theodora’s gaze, he settled on the horse before making his suggestion as to their route and trying to make it seem casual. When she agreed without objection, he breathed a small sigh of relief and urged the bay into a walk, giving him a little jab with his heels when Amyntas took a little too much notice of the Queen’s mare.

The light was slowly bleeding from the day, indigo beginning to wash into the warmer hues of the sun’s departure below the horizon. It was a calm, tranquil phase of the day and one that he enjoyed. It was good to be outdoors and enjoying it, and he looked now and again at the woman who rode beside him, glad to be with her and hoping that this evening went off as he had planned.

Whether she felt his attention upon her, Theodora turned to look at him, her voice carrying over the steady sounds of hoofbeats and the gentle breaths of the horses.

‘How was your day?“I don’t think I’ve seen you since breakfast.’

Achilleas smiled at that, wryly, for it seemed the way of it since they moved into the palati. His days were filled, and it had been a little bit of foot-stamping on his part to safeguard this time they had now. As much as he had to do before leaving for Egypt, it had become apparent that there was a need to set aside some time for his Queen too, and the newness of this marriage of theirs.

“ Busy” he replied with a roll of his eyes. “ And the delights of having new armour fitted” He pulled a face that left no doubt as to what he thought of that, a hand lifting off the reins to come and rub at his chest. “ But I should not complain as it concluded early enough for me to be here with you.”

As they rode through the guard of trees that bordered the sweeping road up to the Palati stables, Achilleas loosened the reins slightly, let the big bay step out into a swinging walk. There was no hurry here, after all. In fact, he didn’t want to get to their destination too soon lest the staff still be setting things up. Better take their time and unwind and catch up a little anyway.

He dipped his head in acknowledgement when Theodora regaled him tales of her own day: it sounded as if she had faced some battles of endurance too. And though he could sympathise with the want to steal away in some anonymity, his expression let Theodora know what he thought of her sneaking off unaccompanied. “As long as you take a guard or two with you can wear whatever you like.” He swallowed. “ I’m not sure if I mentioned it or not, but Krysto is appointing you a new personal guard. They can be discreet though”

The Queen’s safety was his main concern, but he didn't have to try hard to imagine that Theodora would be as keen on having a retinue of guards as he was and Achilleas looked at her beseechingly, sensing the protest coming. “Please allow me the small comfort in knowing you have good men at your side whilst I am gone?”

It was one thing that he could control when, for the most part, when he left for Egypt, everything here in Taengea would be in the hands of others. He glanced away and added more quietly. “I’m not confident in who we can call allies or not in the current royal guard, and I won’t put you at risk like that.”

Achilleas glanced at her and shook his head. She clearly had no comprehension of the process of armour fitting, but then he supposed she had little reason to. “Apparently my armour is not good enough” he griped, mostly good-naturedly. Raised brows met Theodora’s comment about dress fittings, and he thought perhaps he should be grateful that so far he had been spared the royal tailor’s attention. Or perhaps Petros had just done a good job at running interference.

“ Then we can agree both are miserable ordeals,” he said, shooting her a smile. But his lightheartedness did not last for long, not when the Queen turned to talk to sneaking out, and as he knew she would, Theodora did not take kindly his news. He would weather her displeasure though if it meant he could be confident in her safety and he met her look with a steady one of his own.

“ Thank you,” Achilleas said sincerely when she assured him she was not about to go creeping off alone. He had not forgotten the fact that she had been the one to go and speak to Prince Vangelis, alone, so he had no doubts about the headstrong nature of the woman beside him, and it would have been a lie to say it didn't worry him as much as it enchanted him.

Her next proposal had him look at her from under one raised brow as he tried to imagine which of the nobility would cause her to go to such lengths to avoid their company. “Shall you never meet all your sisters in one place then?” he mused, pointing out some rather obvious flaws in her plan. Then, mindful of the fact she grew exasperated at him being so literal, he relented a little “ But then I suppose you are Queen, and if you wished such a thing, of course, it shall be so.”

The reality of it was that Achilleas was hardly the sort of man to make any rulings on a whim; there was little risk of him having power go to his head like that. He was methodical and considered in most of his decisions. Even his plans for this evening had been carefully detailed until his cousin had told him to shoo and stop fretting about it. He had, for a few hours, but now as they rode on, he was losing that particular battle.

They had reached the end of the sweeping road to the stables and Achilleas reined Amyntas round to the right, skirting the palati wall down the edge of a wide meadow. The horse, sensing his rider’s tension and no doubt showing off for his pretty companion, crabbed sideways and snatched at the bit as they went, arching his neck and looking for all he was worth to be ready to charge off into some non- existent battle.

At first, Achilleas checked him, but then shooting a sideways glance at Theodora and then forwards again to the expanse of the grasslands before them, he surreptitiously shortened the reins a little. “ What do you say we let this fool run off a little of his silliness?” he asked, with a jerk of his chin toward the open space ahead. He too could do with taking the edge of, though he didn’t need to confess that. Giving Theodora a moment to agree, he waited for her to urge her mare forward before giving Amyntas his head and setting off into the gloaming.

Achilleas took it as a mark of success that he could at least recognise -sometimes- the things that were likely to earn him Theodora’s displeasure. That was progress, part of the journey of learning one another beyond the shallow knowing that came of the years spent in the same circles. It had been rather a shock to him as they had spent more time together how many miscommunications or disagreements they seemed to stumble into. That he could avoid some of them now was a sign that things were moving in the right direction, surely?

And he especially didn’t want any silly misunderstandings to sour the tone for this evening. This was his attempt to do right by her, offer them something less fraught with disasters than other such evenings in their past - recent and less so - had been.

Amyntas, for all his annoying showboating, provided the perfect opportunity to move on from the subject anyway, and Achilleas smiled at Theodora’s words. He could think of things much less pleasant to stare at, but there was more than a little competitive spirit in the man, and so he raised his eyebrows at her comment that it was not a race. “Is it not?”

When the grey mare broke into a trot, it was all Achilleas could do to stop the stallion tearing his arms out of their sockets such was his impatience to hare after the other horse. But the king held back long enough that Theodora had gained a lead before he let the horse have its head, and when he did, Amyntas exploded into motion. A bigger horse than the mare that the Queen rode, he made up ground quickly enough, though, to the stallion’s frustration, Achilleas reined him in enough not to pass Theodora. Not with the treeline drawing closer.

He laughed when she turned to him, teeth flashing white in the dark and eyes bright with exhilaration as they slowed and he drew level. “I think perhaps not” he cautioned, rubbing a hand up the stallion’s neck “ At least not in the dark.”

She was radiant like this, hair escaping it’s tie, smiling. Vivacious. As Theodora spoke he couldn’t even pretend to be offended at her lack of faith in his riding skills, just stared at her a moment longer before he acted on impulse and steered Amyntas close enough that their knees bumped. Shortening his reins enough to distract the horse, he took the opportunity to lean over and kiss her, a moment’s brush of his lips against hers before he had to sit upright again as the stallion veered away.

“He’s a good horse,” Achilleas said a minute later as if that little interlude had not happened at all. “ Has gotten me out of trouble more than once even if he is a little temperamental. Something in that fine breeding you talk about, highly strung.” He kept his tone serious, but there was a smile playing at the edges of his mouth as he looked ahead.

He wondered if she recognised the route they were taking. It had been dark the night they had come out to the reflection pool, and they had been on foot and coming from another direction. But Achilleas didn’t know if Theodora had visited the spot against since, maybe when Olympia had become Queen. Perhaps she had a new set of memories for the place already, but he had so wanted to ensure she had some better ones with him.

Nothing about their marriage had been easy: not the delays to them actually being wed, the strife that had led up to the event and then the calamitous day itself. And now, they had been thrust into these positions they had not expected, and certainly in Achilleas’ case, not looked for. They deserved a chance to do things the right way, somewhere amongst all of that.

Growing edgier as they neared the location for his little surprise, it was only when the glow from the lanterns became visible that he drew Amyntas to a halt and shifted in the saddle to look at Theodora. The smile he shot her was a little tense, nervous almost.

“I hope you don’t mind if we cut our ride short,” he said, gazing at her. “I wanted to do something, and we never got out to Euttica or even really stopped to take a breath with everything. I thought perhaps you might join me for dinner.” There was a sweep of his arm down toward where she could make out lights and what might be a familiar locale.

“It’s not the same as actually getting away I know, but I hoped that it might in some part make up for not having that and…” Achilleas dipped his head and gave a self-conscious sort of laugh “...us having an evening together that ended well, for once.”

He’d glanced at her, seemingly pleased that she’d taken the little dig in the good humour that it was meant in, and thought maybe it bode well for the rest of the night ahead. Why he felt so nervous, he didn’t know. Perhaps because he was well aware of just how many times he had messed up what should have been perfect opportunities with the woman next to him, and now the pressure was on to prove that it didn’t always have to be that way.

When the reflection pool came into sight, he’d cleared his throat before he’d given the little introduction he’d planned, observing Theodora’s face to check how his words landed. When she said she had not come back, he wondered for a fleeting moment that it had been the wrong choice of location and that perhaps his idea to give new meaning to the place had been a hope too far. This time his laugh had a nervous edge to it. “Right, yes. Hardly surprising”

But as they drew close enough for the Queen to see the arrangements that had been made, Theodora fell silent, and Achilleas stayed rooted in the saddle as he watched her move toward the scene, feeling like his heart might be about to leap out of his mouth.

It was probably too much..overblown. Maybe he should not have let Xene go so far as with blankets and cushions and the fabric that draped the trees.

When she turned back to look at him, he forgot to hide the hopefulness in his expression, and that she seemed pleased had his shoulders drop a little in relief, Amyntas shifting restlessly beneath him so that Achilleas remembered he should dismount rather than sitting there as if he wasn’t planning on staying. He slid from the back of the horse and moved to stand before Theodora as she spoke, gaze fixed on hers.

'You did all this? Achilleas, I…“This is beautiful. How did you find the time?’

“Aaah. No. Not…” the hand that wasn’t holding the reins of his horse slid up to rub at the back of his neck, and he glanced towards the picture-perfect scene that his cousin had seen to the arrangement of. “I had some help” he admitted with a small smile as if it wasn’t perfectly clear that he wasn’t the one who’d been out here stringing lanterns or laying out blankets. “ Xene” Achilleas offered with a shrug, happy to apportion the credit for the detail where it belonged. The intent, though? That had been his.

“There is no requirement for swimming” he added, gently teasing because he could hardly imagine her being keen to try that again. But as he tried to get a read on her expression, some of the lightheartedness faded and there was a genuine hesitance in the words. “You like it, though?”

Because that had been his goal, to do something that she would appreciate, that might make up for other occasions where things had not gone so smoothly. Achilleas was not one for wordy declarations at the best of times, and he understood well enough that he and the exquisite woman before him did not always seem to speak the same language. Maybe this change in setting would be enough to see things come easier?

Achilleas couldn’t help the smile that blossomed against her lips as she drew him down and into a kiss; that she liked it, that she was pleased him happier than he knew how to articulate. To some, it might have seemed a small victory, but there had been so many false starts between them that he could not help but feel some ground to make up. And he had so little time before he’d be gone.

“Good. That’s good” He spoke as he pulled away, distractedly handing off the reins of the horse to the very unobtrusive servant who had appeared from the shadows and the king barely spared them a glance before allowing Theodora to draw him in closer to the inviting little bower that his cousin had designed. He couldn’t even find it himself to be too embarrassed by the suggestion that he was somehow now some sentimental fool. His gaze strafed her features, and he thought he might be willing to try a little harder if it pleased her so. Maybe it wasn’t so hard after all.

“Let’s not get carried away” he managed after a moment, a half-hearted protest that rang hollow when paired with the absurdly happy expression on his face smoothed free of the tension that had painted it of late. When she moved away to kneel upon the pooled blankets, he took the time to really take in Xene’s handiwork and had to admit that she had been right in insisting he left the detail of it up to her. His vague mention of lanterns and blankets had been taken and wrought into something a thousand times more beautiful than anything he’d seen in Maliania, and he would have to thank her properly.

But for now, his attention belonged to his wife, who was beckoning him over and he thought it would take a stronger man than he to resist, moving to sink beside her on the cushions, stretched out and propped on one elbow. It felt..odd, too casual but he tried to relax into it anyway, accepting the wine and turning his eyes toward her as spoke.

His smile only flickered a moment when she recalled the rest of that evening with Stephanos. Achilleas did not need to express the fact that he missed his cousin dearly, but nor was he willing to let the outside world intrude upon this little bubble that he’d created for them, even if it were only for one night. As she spoke on, he took a sip of wine and cast his eyes towards the surface of the pool, recalling another night where moonlight and water had been more kindly companions.

“What is it with you and swimming?” he asked, lifting a brow, but his gaze was warm when he looked back to her. He still had to remind himself that she was his now; that modesty was not a thing to come between them, that none of those rules he’d so carefully set for himself applied anymore. It was a little alarming, if he were honest, for one who worked better within defined boundaries and hard limits. This was all so...unplanned, and it left him floundering more often than not. But he was trying to relax into it, despite how alien it felt.

“I wasn’t sure if you would have been back here” he admitted, glancing about them. “Whether whilst Pia was here or another time perhaps? I really don’t know a lot about what you care to do with your time. I’d like to.”

Achilleas had managed to school his face back into something other than the giddy smile at having triumphed in making Theodora happy, but still, the look in his eyes was soft when she leant in to kiss him again, and her hand snuck into his hair. And so careful of disrupting the mood, he did not even let his eyebrows crawl upwards at her answer about swimming, no matter how fanciful it sounded. He had fallen foul of her before by speaking bluntly in response to such things, and now he was careful. Besides, perhaps the past weeks gave more reason to understand the want to escape sometimes.

“I’ve never thought of it that way,” he said, finding the wistful expression on her features entrancing even if he could not let himself be so carried off by her description as she seemed able to. They would not have the same outlook on everything, he’d come to realise, and that was fine. They just needed to find those threads that were a common interest, and that motivated his next question.

His face was angled up towards her, and he smiled slightly because she was Leventi, so the first went almost without saying. “It would be fair to say it was an assumption I’d made,” he said before falling silent to allow her to go on. And he realised as she did that those were things that were not entirely unfamiliar to him either.

The first time he had met her, outside of as children, she had been running barefoot through the meadows of Macendia, and then yes, well he was acquainted with her love of books, and her excellent aim for that matter. Maybe she had not changed so much over the years.
Shifting a little as she lay down beside him, he was more surprised by the admission that she liked to shoot.

“I didn’t know that you were an archer,” he said, looking at her with a slightly new measure of respect. There was something attractive about a woman who wasn’t afraid to pick up a weapon for sport.

“The bow has never been my forte, but Emilios is good…” As Theodora spoke of how it relaxed her, Achilleas considered how he found rather the opposite - he wasn’t naturally gifted and therefore found the errors he made frustrating. Put a sword in his hand, and it was like second nature, but the bow was a weapon he’d never taken to. Perhaps it was the fact that his younger brother was always likely to outshine him that had seen him turn away from the sport.

When Theodora turned his question back on him, the man paused, because the rote answer would be of course he did. He was good at those things, excellent even, enough so that none would question it. He liked to win, had been brought up to place value in success, and every time he attained some, there had been that hope that it would be enough, that his father might see his worth. Now though…

“I don’t know if it’s right to say I enjoy fighting” he answered, frowning into his cup of wine. “ I like being physically active..and charioteering can be exhilarating, but as you say, they are disciplines of war, and I train in them because I need to.”

There was some kind of tranquillity he could find with a blade in hand because he was so well-practised that it was instinct and muscle memory, and perhaps in those moments, his mind was a little quieter. But swordplay was tied with battle and killing, and that was not always easy to reconcile. “I don’t not enjoy them. But they aren’t done purely for fun either... I don’t..I’m not sure I have any hobbies.”

The truth of the matter was, Achilleas had gone where he was pointed for most of his life. He read what he was instructed to read, practised what he was told to practice, and eventually, it all just became habit and indistinct as to what he might have chosen to do himself or otherwise. Questions like the one Theodora posed always made him feel his answers were lacking somehow.

“I’d like to see you shoot someday,” he said, deflecting talk back towards the woman before him. “If that’s something you enjoy.”