As the warm autumn sun shone brightly overhead, Arete wandered through the market streets with a small roll of papyrus wound up tightly in her hands. Even though she tried to give off the cool, calm, and collected nature that a future Lady of Condos was supposed to exude -- honestly, Arete had no idea how Olivia and Ophelia had mastered it so easily -- there was an aura of nervousness about her. Which was a bit understandable if one knew about the circumstances that had brought Arete to this crowded section of the city. Arete was practically a foreigner in the capital city of Taengea as she had spent the entirety of her life as a poor potter’s daughter out in the province of Doralis. Her existence had been one filled with misery and she had never known the luxury of knowing what a full stomach felt like before she met her lover Nikos of Condos. He had been the one to pluck her out of the dirt and mire of that life as a workhorse in her father’s studio and set her atop the luxurious pedestal that she now found herself sitting upon. She now had all the luxuries that she had only ever dreamed of before Nikos had rescued her. That was signified by the rather full coin purse Arete kept in her pocket. The little pouch held more coins that she had ever had to her name before. If that didn’t demonstrate how much Arete’s life had changed, she wasn’t sure what would.

Even though Arete was certain to thank the gods each and every day for this change in her station, she was not foolish enough to even think for a moment that there was not some mortal intervention at work as well. After all, it had been Nikos who had first taken her on as a mistress, calling upon her to warm his bed whenever he was back home in his provincial manor. Now that there was a threat of war looming off the shores of Taengea, Nikos had once again rescued her. He had moved her out of the province of Doralis to the capital city of Vasiliadon for safekeeping. It was well known that the main city in Taengea was more than well-fortified if the sand rats decided to pay their country a visit, but the same could not be said for the provinces. Not even the beautiful manor in Doralis would be enough to keep out the Egyptians if they brought the war here.

That had been the justification for Nikos to bring his favored mistress into his family’s home. Though Arete had quite a bit of faith in the promises that Nikos had made that one day it would be her home too. For as long as Arete had known him, he had been whispering in her ear that she would one day be the Queen at his side when he took the throne for his family. That meant that it would one day be her to be the future Lady of Condos, the beautiful wife at his side. Who would have thought that a poor peasant girl who had come from nothing would be able to climb so high in life?
Arete may have had her ways to show Nikos her gratitude (after all, her new station was not earned on good looks alone) the girl knew that the sudden jump was so grand that Arete could not just rely on her couplings with Niky to be enough to show how truly grateful she was for what he had done. Oh no, it would be so easy for men to forget that sort of joy and emotion -- especially ones like Nikos that did not frequently take on long-term lovers like Arete. She needed to find a different way to show Nikos what this truly meant to her. Something more permanent than her just spreading her legs whenever he wished.

That was why she was here at the market today. More specifically, she was in the craftsmen district in search of someone who could bring her vision of a proper gift to life. That was why she clutched the scroll so tightly in her fist, not wanting anything to happen to it as she search through the various stalls, searching for someone who was talented enough for the vision she had. After all, there was an empty spot on the walls of her new rooms with Nikos here in Vasiliadon, just big enough for a tapestry or a decorative shield. Arete had even drawn the plans for such a project herself. Within the scroll was a drawing of the Condos sigil surrounded by the grapevines of Dionysus and the doves of Aphrodite. It was a beautiful sketch, done with such immaculate detail that it almost appeared lifelike -- or at least as lifelike as it could be without the discovery of how to properly utilize perspective, of course.

Arete didn’t like to indulge in her talents. After all, they were not something that she had been naturally gifted with or something that she had honed out of a love for the arts. Instead, they had been developed from sheer necessity. In her old life, she had been the sibling tasked with decorating the pots that her father made. The prettier they were, the more likely they were to sell and ensure that there was a meal on the family’s table that evening. She had been worked like a dog, being reprimanded whenever an eye looked wonky or a plant could not be easily recognized. Whenever a vase did not sell, she was often blamed as she was the one who made sure they all looked beautiful. Needless to say, this did not exactly foster an excellent relationship with the craft that she clearly had talent in. There were too many bad memories wrapped around picking up a pencil and a scrap of parchment to sketch out whatever was her mind. She had all, but abandoned the craft since she came to live with Nikos full time, but she had decided to indulge in it one more time in order to make sure that she got exactly what she wanted for this gift for Nikos. It had to be perfect after all.

So, moving past the pottery stalls, Arete found herself among the embroiders. This was likely going to be her best bet if she wished to order a tapestry to put on the wall. This seemed to be a more practical choice as she could see now that the smithies were not quite skilled enough to put the delicate details that Arete wanted into their craftsmanship. This was a better bet too as the embroiders had a softer palette than other craftsmen, something that she didn’t realize she wanted as it made the work seem more like a labor of love than anything else. However, the Doralisian girl was being rather picky in what she wanted as she wandered after stall after stall. This one was too focused on people, that one only seemed to do myths, this one only did dark colors. It was honestly quite a while before Arete found herself in front of Avra of Almosis’s stall, but luckily for the both of them, this seemed to be the one that was going to be the best fit for what the girl wanted.

Avra had plenty of works focusing on nature. She would clearly have no problem with tackling the grapevines. Plus it also didn’t hurt that she seemed to have the right shade of blue for the Condos sigil. In her eyes, the dark-haired girl who seemed to be the creator of all these works was the one who was perfect for the job.

“Hello there,” Arete softly stated, quietly calling attention to herself and hopefully not interrupting anything important that the girl had been doing, Arete offered Avra a small smile before setting down the scroll and unfurling it for the girl to see. As another artist, Avra would be able to see the sheer amount of craftsmanship that Arete had put into her own work. However, Arete was not keen on just merely showing off what she had done, not when she wanted a gift for her Nikos. “These works are beautiful,” As she spoke, she motioned to the other embroidered cloths on display, “Do you think that you can make something like this? For a small tapestry?” There was a hopeful glint in Arete’s eyes as she waited for Avra to answer. Of course, money was not going to be an issue here with the allowance that Nikos had given her. So it all depended on whether or not Avra was willing to take on the project.