The chatbox has been hidden for this page. It will reopen upon refresh. To hide the CBox permanently, select "Permanently Toggle Cbox" in your profile User Settings.
This chatbox is hidden. To reopen, edit your User Settings.
Father was fast asleep, lulled into his slumber by Kaia’s voice full of mist and dusky hills, a few cups of strong wine, and a healthy dose of jasmine thrown into the fire. The rest of her uncles were snoring as well, though it was truly her father they had to be careful of, for the flutter of a moth’s wing could rouse him.
Aea wound her epiblema around her hair and lower face, looped her daggers through the two ropes holding her ill-fitting peplos tunic into place, then slipped a bag of dried fish to hang at her full hip. Tonight she wore her newest tunic, which was to say that she’d had it for three years rather than four or five, meaning it was slightly less stained than the other two. She tied her buckskin chlamys around her shoulders with a thin thong of leather, hiding her unsightly outfit before sliding on her worn sandals and tying her hair into a thick braid to swing and swat at her backside.
In another life, she might have been a bewitching woman; a creature of sheer drapings, warm thighs, and whispered promises. Or perhaps she could have been a sweet maiden of wildflowers and meadows, of lilting laughter and playful dances. But she was not.
She was neither coaxing smoke nor fluttering petal, nor an incarnation of any other animal than what she was. In this life, and all her life since living memory, she was a monster of blood and dirt, a beast of hide wrappings and tangled hair, of threadbare control, frayed sanity, and insatiable hunger. The clean, exciting life she used to wish for as a little girl was in some other universe and far from her touch—she’d known that for a decade or more.
Her lot in life was not to be a woman, but to be kept as a perpetual girl-child. It was confusing to know how to exist within this plane of existence, what she was expected to be outside of her own small world, but she wanted to learn. And unfortunately, no matter how her father might wish her to stay tiny and in awe of him, she was too developed for her infantile clothing, too used to a blade for innocence, and too curious for her own good—on the cusp of outgrowing her little creek to spill into the sea. Her ignorance was vast, though, and in that, her parents had succeeded in stunting her. Her father, the black wolf, along with her mother, the dirt road.
It was alright, her father was probably scared of Aea leaving him like his lover had left him. But Aea loved Hektos more than he could know, so she forgave his mistrust and did not mind what she was most nights. Most nights, she was a daughter, a niece, a cousin. She was warm meat and crisp wine, affectionate arms and soft songs, and she had no need to be more. Some nights, though, some nights she was a mischievous smile and quiet feet, a bold and lifted chin, a hunger for experience, and a question—will we dare? And all nights, she was an answer—of course we do.
Aea slipped from camp with her taller cousin, stifling a giggle threatening to burst from her mouth like a badly stitched wound. From their bedrolls to the bright city of Megaris, they boldly took the road. When they were away from the keen ears of their kin, they raced. They were far from the city, as they should be, but the two of them had eaten so many miles in their years that it was almost a stroll. The guards let them into the city due to Kaia, and Kaia alone. Had Aea been by herself, she was certain she would have gotten a boxed ear and a kick in the ass toward the pit she crawled out from.
Once inside, Aea could not stop from looking all around her. The moon was crescent, barely enough light to see the road stretched vast before them, but it did not matter for the amount of golden torchlight that bathed the inside of the city. The buildings pressed tight together, and although it was relatively quiet in the shallows of the nestled shelters, it got louder with each corner they passed until they found themselves and at the source of the noise. A drum circle congregated by a trickling fountain that may have once flowed thick and cool. A flute chirped and bounce along the bass rhythm in a merry, warm song. Around the musicians were dancers in browns and greys, men and women that flowed and rocked together like ribbons. Come the morning, they would find themselves in bakeries and stables, but for tonight, they were lords and ladies of the grand court, hands flirting and skittering upon bared shoulders and sweat-slicked waists.
Behind the group was a wide avenue, something vulgar in the lighting and congestion of the district—swelling with so much red and wine and purple. There was raucous laughter and music flowing out of every open archway, their conflicting melodies and thrumming bass notes clashing across the avenue in a pitched battle through the turgid air.
Aea smiled for no reason and grabbed Kaia’s hand, her thin soles slapping the hard ground like a cruel lover to misbehaved flesh. They skirted around the dancers and dove into the avenue, winding and pushing past thick bodies sometimes clogging the street five abreast.
“Kaia!” Aea held her cousin’s hand with both her own now, her body buzzing with energy and unshed need. “Where should we go first?! I want to see everything!”
Kaia had been here before, to Aea’s recent and utter outrage. The fair blonde had gone in alone, probably without covering her head, and probably without a worry for the red-eyed slavers that surely lurked around every corner. Her cousin didn’t need to cover her head now because Aea was with her and if anybody looked at her cousin sideways, their eyes would be plucked and shoved down their throats for daring to think of spiriting Kaia away. She was Aea’s, and nobody else’s.
Aea had been cross with with her cousin when she admitted her isolated adventure. But that was days ago, and tonight Kaia could be forgiven for putting herself in danger so long as she was willing to let Aea drink from the same precarious goblet.
“Money!” Aea pulled up short and swung her head wildly around. The raucous din of the area covered her words well, and nobody could see her lips moved under her white epiblema. “We need money. Let us find it. You can do that thing you do with your face.” She gestured vaguely at her own half-covered head. “Instead of playing damsel. I think there are too many people for that game. If I were to pretend to abscond with you, I fear two dozen drunk men may fall into the alley at once. Then you would be crushed by the force of their valor, and then I would be bereft of my Kaia.”
It was a good idea. She could see the famed whores of Megaris plying their trade against the columns of their red palaces on either side of the street, flashing bare thighs and trailing their hands upon their exposed flesh. They looked dirty, but Kaia looked fresh-faced and lovely, surely she could simply flutter her blue eyes at some drunkard and have him waddle after her.
Aea looked up at the sky to check for her raven, but he was nowhere to be seen. It might be too loud for him—he was used to their forests and valleys, not this noxious gathering. But then, his wings were black as death, and he was perhaps sporting among the rooftop pigeons.
“I am hungry.” Then again, she always was. “We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
Aea’s smile was bright and happy, and she refrained from bouncing, but only just. There was so much to experience, and Kaia was wise to the city, so she would know just the thing to do and just the place to go.
Aea was suddenly jostled and she stumbled into Kaia, a warm liquid splattering onto the back of her head. Not enough to drench her, but enough to moisten her hair underneath her epiblema. Her eyes went wide and she spun around, searching for the culprit. She found him a few feet away, tilting from one foot to the other and using the crowd around him as a steadying mechanism.
There was an intense desire to kick the pit of his knee and bring him low enough to crack his nose upon her own, but that would perhaps draw attention, which meant slavers. However, if Aea got him to swing first, then she and Kaia could simply duck and he would hit somebody else. And then he would be beaten to death and the back of Aea’s head would be avenged.
“I hope you outlive your children!” She yelled at his back, though her shout was drowned by the shouts of others as he stumbled and splashed his wine upon those who had the misfortune of being shorter than him.
Now she was not happy.
“He ruined it.” Aea muttered, touching the back of her wrap. She had two epiblema, but this was her favorite. It was slightly whiter than the other, and now it was not. She already looked like an impoverished hunter, must she look like a slob as well? Aea should not care, she did not enjoy caring, and she would never admit her distress over such a trivial thing to anybody else but Kaia because Kaia already knew her to be ridiculous.
Logically, she knew the man's children were priceless and her epiblema could be replaced eventually, but she tried hard to look as put-together normal as she could, and he ruined it with his clumsiness.
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
Father was fast asleep, lulled into his slumber by Kaia’s voice full of mist and dusky hills, a few cups of strong wine, and a healthy dose of jasmine thrown into the fire. The rest of her uncles were snoring as well, though it was truly her father they had to be careful of, for the flutter of a moth’s wing could rouse him.
Aea wound her epiblema around her hair and lower face, looped her daggers through the two ropes holding her ill-fitting peplos tunic into place, then slipped a bag of dried fish to hang at her full hip. Tonight she wore her newest tunic, which was to say that she’d had it for three years rather than four or five, meaning it was slightly less stained than the other two. She tied her buckskin chlamys around her shoulders with a thin thong of leather, hiding her unsightly outfit before sliding on her worn sandals and tying her hair into a thick braid to swing and swat at her backside.
In another life, she might have been a bewitching woman; a creature of sheer drapings, warm thighs, and whispered promises. Or perhaps she could have been a sweet maiden of wildflowers and meadows, of lilting laughter and playful dances. But she was not.
She was neither coaxing smoke nor fluttering petal, nor an incarnation of any other animal than what she was. In this life, and all her life since living memory, she was a monster of blood and dirt, a beast of hide wrappings and tangled hair, of threadbare control, frayed sanity, and insatiable hunger. The clean, exciting life she used to wish for as a little girl was in some other universe and far from her touch—she’d known that for a decade or more.
Her lot in life was not to be a woman, but to be kept as a perpetual girl-child. It was confusing to know how to exist within this plane of existence, what she was expected to be outside of her own small world, but she wanted to learn. And unfortunately, no matter how her father might wish her to stay tiny and in awe of him, she was too developed for her infantile clothing, too used to a blade for innocence, and too curious for her own good—on the cusp of outgrowing her little creek to spill into the sea. Her ignorance was vast, though, and in that, her parents had succeeded in stunting her. Her father, the black wolf, along with her mother, the dirt road.
It was alright, her father was probably scared of Aea leaving him like his lover had left him. But Aea loved Hektos more than he could know, so she forgave his mistrust and did not mind what she was most nights. Most nights, she was a daughter, a niece, a cousin. She was warm meat and crisp wine, affectionate arms and soft songs, and she had no need to be more. Some nights, though, some nights she was a mischievous smile and quiet feet, a bold and lifted chin, a hunger for experience, and a question—will we dare? And all nights, she was an answer—of course we do.
Aea slipped from camp with her taller cousin, stifling a giggle threatening to burst from her mouth like a badly stitched wound. From their bedrolls to the bright city of Megaris, they boldly took the road. When they were away from the keen ears of their kin, they raced. They were far from the city, as they should be, but the two of them had eaten so many miles in their years that it was almost a stroll. The guards let them into the city due to Kaia, and Kaia alone. Had Aea been by herself, she was certain she would have gotten a boxed ear and a kick in the ass toward the pit she crawled out from.
Once inside, Aea could not stop from looking all around her. The moon was crescent, barely enough light to see the road stretched vast before them, but it did not matter for the amount of golden torchlight that bathed the inside of the city. The buildings pressed tight together, and although it was relatively quiet in the shallows of the nestled shelters, it got louder with each corner they passed until they found themselves and at the source of the noise. A drum circle congregated by a trickling fountain that may have once flowed thick and cool. A flute chirped and bounce along the bass rhythm in a merry, warm song. Around the musicians were dancers in browns and greys, men and women that flowed and rocked together like ribbons. Come the morning, they would find themselves in bakeries and stables, but for tonight, they were lords and ladies of the grand court, hands flirting and skittering upon bared shoulders and sweat-slicked waists.
Behind the group was a wide avenue, something vulgar in the lighting and congestion of the district—swelling with so much red and wine and purple. There was raucous laughter and music flowing out of every open archway, their conflicting melodies and thrumming bass notes clashing across the avenue in a pitched battle through the turgid air.
Aea smiled for no reason and grabbed Kaia’s hand, her thin soles slapping the hard ground like a cruel lover to misbehaved flesh. They skirted around the dancers and dove into the avenue, winding and pushing past thick bodies sometimes clogging the street five abreast.
“Kaia!” Aea held her cousin’s hand with both her own now, her body buzzing with energy and unshed need. “Where should we go first?! I want to see everything!”
Kaia had been here before, to Aea’s recent and utter outrage. The fair blonde had gone in alone, probably without covering her head, and probably without a worry for the red-eyed slavers that surely lurked around every corner. Her cousin didn’t need to cover her head now because Aea was with her and if anybody looked at her cousin sideways, their eyes would be plucked and shoved down their throats for daring to think of spiriting Kaia away. She was Aea’s, and nobody else’s.
Aea had been cross with with her cousin when she admitted her isolated adventure. But that was days ago, and tonight Kaia could be forgiven for putting herself in danger so long as she was willing to let Aea drink from the same precarious goblet.
“Money!” Aea pulled up short and swung her head wildly around. The raucous din of the area covered her words well, and nobody could see her lips moved under her white epiblema. “We need money. Let us find it. You can do that thing you do with your face.” She gestured vaguely at her own half-covered head. “Instead of playing damsel. I think there are too many people for that game. If I were to pretend to abscond with you, I fear two dozen drunk men may fall into the alley at once. Then you would be crushed by the force of their valor, and then I would be bereft of my Kaia.”
It was a good idea. She could see the famed whores of Megaris plying their trade against the columns of their red palaces on either side of the street, flashing bare thighs and trailing their hands upon their exposed flesh. They looked dirty, but Kaia looked fresh-faced and lovely, surely she could simply flutter her blue eyes at some drunkard and have him waddle after her.
Aea looked up at the sky to check for her raven, but he was nowhere to be seen. It might be too loud for him—he was used to their forests and valleys, not this noxious gathering. But then, his wings were black as death, and he was perhaps sporting among the rooftop pigeons.
“I am hungry.” Then again, she always was. “We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
Aea’s smile was bright and happy, and she refrained from bouncing, but only just. There was so much to experience, and Kaia was wise to the city, so she would know just the thing to do and just the place to go.
Aea was suddenly jostled and she stumbled into Kaia, a warm liquid splattering onto the back of her head. Not enough to drench her, but enough to moisten her hair underneath her epiblema. Her eyes went wide and she spun around, searching for the culprit. She found him a few feet away, tilting from one foot to the other and using the crowd around him as a steadying mechanism.
There was an intense desire to kick the pit of his knee and bring him low enough to crack his nose upon her own, but that would perhaps draw attention, which meant slavers. However, if Aea got him to swing first, then she and Kaia could simply duck and he would hit somebody else. And then he would be beaten to death and the back of Aea’s head would be avenged.
“I hope you outlive your children!” She yelled at his back, though her shout was drowned by the shouts of others as he stumbled and splashed his wine upon those who had the misfortune of being shorter than him.
Now she was not happy.
“He ruined it.” Aea muttered, touching the back of her wrap. She had two epiblema, but this was her favorite. It was slightly whiter than the other, and now it was not. She already looked like an impoverished hunter, must she look like a slob as well? Aea should not care, she did not enjoy caring, and she would never admit her distress over such a trivial thing to anybody else but Kaia because Kaia already knew her to be ridiculous.
Logically, she knew the man's children were priceless and her epiblema could be replaced eventually, but she tried hard to look as put-together normal as she could, and he ruined it with his clumsiness.
Father was fast asleep, lulled into his slumber by Kaia’s voice full of mist and dusky hills, a few cups of strong wine, and a healthy dose of jasmine thrown into the fire. The rest of her uncles were snoring as well, though it was truly her father they had to be careful of, for the flutter of a moth’s wing could rouse him.
Aea wound her epiblema around her hair and lower face, looped her daggers through the two ropes holding her ill-fitting peplos tunic into place, then slipped a bag of dried fish to hang at her full hip. Tonight she wore her newest tunic, which was to say that she’d had it for three years rather than four or five, meaning it was slightly less stained than the other two. She tied her buckskin chlamys around her shoulders with a thin thong of leather, hiding her unsightly outfit before sliding on her worn sandals and tying her hair into a thick braid to swing and swat at her backside.
In another life, she might have been a bewitching woman; a creature of sheer drapings, warm thighs, and whispered promises. Or perhaps she could have been a sweet maiden of wildflowers and meadows, of lilting laughter and playful dances. But she was not.
She was neither coaxing smoke nor fluttering petal, nor an incarnation of any other animal than what she was. In this life, and all her life since living memory, she was a monster of blood and dirt, a beast of hide wrappings and tangled hair, of threadbare control, frayed sanity, and insatiable hunger. The clean, exciting life she used to wish for as a little girl was in some other universe and far from her touch—she’d known that for a decade or more.
Her lot in life was not to be a woman, but to be kept as a perpetual girl-child. It was confusing to know how to exist within this plane of existence, what she was expected to be outside of her own small world, but she wanted to learn. And unfortunately, no matter how her father might wish her to stay tiny and in awe of him, she was too developed for her infantile clothing, too used to a blade for innocence, and too curious for her own good—on the cusp of outgrowing her little creek to spill into the sea. Her ignorance was vast, though, and in that, her parents had succeeded in stunting her. Her father, the black wolf, along with her mother, the dirt road.
It was alright, her father was probably scared of Aea leaving him like his lover had left him. But Aea loved Hektos more than he could know, so she forgave his mistrust and did not mind what she was most nights. Most nights, she was a daughter, a niece, a cousin. She was warm meat and crisp wine, affectionate arms and soft songs, and she had no need to be more. Some nights, though, some nights she was a mischievous smile and quiet feet, a bold and lifted chin, a hunger for experience, and a question—will we dare? And all nights, she was an answer—of course we do.
Aea slipped from camp with her taller cousin, stifling a giggle threatening to burst from her mouth like a badly stitched wound. From their bedrolls to the bright city of Megaris, they boldly took the road. When they were away from the keen ears of their kin, they raced. They were far from the city, as they should be, but the two of them had eaten so many miles in their years that it was almost a stroll. The guards let them into the city due to Kaia, and Kaia alone. Had Aea been by herself, she was certain she would have gotten a boxed ear and a kick in the ass toward the pit she crawled out from.
Once inside, Aea could not stop from looking all around her. The moon was crescent, barely enough light to see the road stretched vast before them, but it did not matter for the amount of golden torchlight that bathed the inside of the city. The buildings pressed tight together, and although it was relatively quiet in the shallows of the nestled shelters, it got louder with each corner they passed until they found themselves and at the source of the noise. A drum circle congregated by a trickling fountain that may have once flowed thick and cool. A flute chirped and bounce along the bass rhythm in a merry, warm song. Around the musicians were dancers in browns and greys, men and women that flowed and rocked together like ribbons. Come the morning, they would find themselves in bakeries and stables, but for tonight, they were lords and ladies of the grand court, hands flirting and skittering upon bared shoulders and sweat-slicked waists.
Behind the group was a wide avenue, something vulgar in the lighting and congestion of the district—swelling with so much red and wine and purple. There was raucous laughter and music flowing out of every open archway, their conflicting melodies and thrumming bass notes clashing across the avenue in a pitched battle through the turgid air.
Aea smiled for no reason and grabbed Kaia’s hand, her thin soles slapping the hard ground like a cruel lover to misbehaved flesh. They skirted around the dancers and dove into the avenue, winding and pushing past thick bodies sometimes clogging the street five abreast.
“Kaia!” Aea held her cousin’s hand with both her own now, her body buzzing with energy and unshed need. “Where should we go first?! I want to see everything!”
Kaia had been here before, to Aea’s recent and utter outrage. The fair blonde had gone in alone, probably without covering her head, and probably without a worry for the red-eyed slavers that surely lurked around every corner. Her cousin didn’t need to cover her head now because Aea was with her and if anybody looked at her cousin sideways, their eyes would be plucked and shoved down their throats for daring to think of spiriting Kaia away. She was Aea’s, and nobody else’s.
Aea had been cross with with her cousin when she admitted her isolated adventure. But that was days ago, and tonight Kaia could be forgiven for putting herself in danger so long as she was willing to let Aea drink from the same precarious goblet.
“Money!” Aea pulled up short and swung her head wildly around. The raucous din of the area covered her words well, and nobody could see her lips moved under her white epiblema. “We need money. Let us find it. You can do that thing you do with your face.” She gestured vaguely at her own half-covered head. “Instead of playing damsel. I think there are too many people for that game. If I were to pretend to abscond with you, I fear two dozen drunk men may fall into the alley at once. Then you would be crushed by the force of their valor, and then I would be bereft of my Kaia.”
It was a good idea. She could see the famed whores of Megaris plying their trade against the columns of their red palaces on either side of the street, flashing bare thighs and trailing their hands upon their exposed flesh. They looked dirty, but Kaia looked fresh-faced and lovely, surely she could simply flutter her blue eyes at some drunkard and have him waddle after her.
Aea looked up at the sky to check for her raven, but he was nowhere to be seen. It might be too loud for him—he was used to their forests and valleys, not this noxious gathering. But then, his wings were black as death, and he was perhaps sporting among the rooftop pigeons.
“I am hungry.” Then again, she always was. “We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
Aea’s smile was bright and happy, and she refrained from bouncing, but only just. There was so much to experience, and Kaia was wise to the city, so she would know just the thing to do and just the place to go.
Aea was suddenly jostled and she stumbled into Kaia, a warm liquid splattering onto the back of her head. Not enough to drench her, but enough to moisten her hair underneath her epiblema. Her eyes went wide and she spun around, searching for the culprit. She found him a few feet away, tilting from one foot to the other and using the crowd around him as a steadying mechanism.
There was an intense desire to kick the pit of his knee and bring him low enough to crack his nose upon her own, but that would perhaps draw attention, which meant slavers. However, if Aea got him to swing first, then she and Kaia could simply duck and he would hit somebody else. And then he would be beaten to death and the back of Aea’s head would be avenged.
“I hope you outlive your children!” She yelled at his back, though her shout was drowned by the shouts of others as he stumbled and splashed his wine upon those who had the misfortune of being shorter than him.
Now she was not happy.
“He ruined it.” Aea muttered, touching the back of her wrap. She had two epiblema, but this was her favorite. It was slightly whiter than the other, and now it was not. She already looked like an impoverished hunter, must she look like a slob as well? Aea should not care, she did not enjoy caring, and she would never admit her distress over such a trivial thing to anybody else but Kaia because Kaia already knew her to be ridiculous.
Logically, she knew the man's children were priceless and her epiblema could be replaced eventually, but she tried hard to look as put-together normal as she could, and he ruined it with his clumsiness.
It felt nice to be revisiting the city with Aea. When Kaia had come on her own, she’d made a point not to stay away for too long, should her father or one of her uncles wake up and find her missing. It had meant less time exploring, but she’d seen enough to fall victim to curiosity. Kaia wanted to see more of Megaris. Even at night, the city was alive with music, laughter and activity—a stark difference from the stillness of night hidden in the forests, with nothing but the sound of the burning fire or her family snoring to keep her company.
Kaia did feel a little guilty for sneaking away without Aea. It had just so happened that Kaia had stumbled across a rare opportunity and had thrown caution to the wind to take it. Perhaps she should have woken Aea, but the temptation to go before her window of opportunity to leave had been too great. At least Kaia was able to make it up to her cousin now. Kaia really hadn’t had much time to explore either, so their excursion together was likely to be much more fruitful.
As men and women danced together, Kaia couldn’t help but watch as she walked by. The sheer way the people moved, enjoying the moment was contagious. Kaia found herself smiling a little as she felt her own excitement and enthusiasm swirl in her chest. The cool evening breeze was refreshing on her cheeks, making her feel both alert and alive. Kaia felt like she had enough energy to go on forever, so long as the night never ended.
When Aea called Kaia’s name as she took her hand, Kaia met her cousin with an expectant gaze that melted into her own giddy excitement. Even with half of Aea’s face hidden from view, Kaia could see the brightness in her eyes and hear the warmth in her voice, “where should we go first?! I want to see everything!”
Where indeed. Kaia glanced around, momentarily captivated by the glowing red lights and raucous voices. Women lined the avenue and Kaia realised they had a similar demeanour and attire to the woman their fathers had hired to teach Kaia and Aea about becoming a woman. That had been a very eye opening night. Not only had it been quite a kick to the stomach to learn the monthly dues of a young woman, but also what it meant to be a woman when laying with a man. Kaia wasn’t entirely sure Hectos or Agolois had intended her either her or Aea to learn so much, but the information had been valuable all the same. Kaia would have hated to learn the intimate details or experience the pain from the first time she bedded a man without any warning of what was to come.
Still, Kaia was a little curious to see how women of the night made a living in such a way. Were they all secretly combat trained? How else did they ensure men didn’t just steal them away once they were sated, like Kaia’s father warned her they would. Perhaps they would have some advice on what else she and Aea could add to their little con routine. “Money!”
Oh yes. They needed some money if they were to enjoy their freedom to the utmost potential. Kaia glanced around thoughtfully. There were more people around than she would have expected, which posed quite the problem for their general routine. Too many people around meant it was more likely someone would either come to their victim’s aide or call a guard.
“We need money. Let us find it. You can do that thing you do with your face, instead of playing damsel. I think there are too many people for that game. If I were to pretend to abscond with you, I fear two dozen drunk men may fall into the alley at once. Then you would be crushed by the force of their valor, and then I would be bereft of my Kaia.”
Kaia gave a small smirk at the visual Aea painted in her mind. Alas, they both had the same thought; the damsel routine was out. Kaia ran her hands down the front of her tunic and pants. Kaia could try to appeal to a potential target, but she wasn’t so sure she seemed all that alluring. Her face was pretty clean at least, and her hair was braided back and out of her face. Kaia rearranged her chlamys over her shoulder and torso to hide the tunic as much as possible.
“I guess there is no harm in trying,” Kaia agreed. Kaia’s stormy blue eyes flicked back over towards the women bathed in red light. She didn’t want a bunch of nightwalking women to chase her down either. “Perhaps somewhere a little away from here.”
“I am hungry. We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
A rare grin cracked across Kaia’s features. She wondered what it would be like to eat until her stomach was full and close to bursting. Was it a painful sensation? Or was the discomfort masked by the sheer pleasure of fended off hunger? Kaia very much wanted to find out. Kaia would happily spend any money she could on some drink and a cooked meal. Kaia very much wanted to fill herself to burst with a meal they hadn’t had to hunt or gather themselves.
Before Kaia’s mind could wander much further on what they might choose to dine on, Aea suddenly bumped into Kaia. The taller of the two girls steadied the other, before looking around to find the source of the incident. Sure enough, a drunken man lumbered past, seemingly unaware that he’d even made contact with Aea at all.
“I hope you outlive your children!”
Kaia raised her brows at Aea’s outburst, before noticing the dark, wet stain on the back of Aea’s epiblema. Well, it all made sense then. Kaia knew how much Aea valued her nicer garments, not that she completely understood why. Kaia could relate to wanting to keep her more treasured items safe and intact, but to Kaia, clothing—for herself and family at least—was simply a utensil for survival. If they did not protect her from the elements, environment or enemies, then Kaia had no use for pretty things, no matter how nice. Kaia was more likely to get upset if her most comfortable and flexible set of pants wore out than if her cleanest epiblema was soiled. However, Kaia knew it was important to Aea, so that was that.
“He ruined it.”
“It’s not so bad,” Kaia insisted, brushing at the back of Aea’s head. “We’ll forget all about it soon,” she added, hoping to lift her cousin’s spirits again. Looking around, Kaia tried to spot a potential target. It was quite a shame that any lone men Kaia could see looked old enough to be her father. Where were the handsome, young drunken fools?
“Help me find someone,” Kaia insisted, taking Aea’s hand once more in an attempt to distract her. “Then we can get some money and feast on all the pomegranates we can find,” Kaia promised with a grin.
Lani
Kaia
Lani
Kaia
Awards
First Impressions:Lean, athletic; Straw-blonde hair, stormy blue eyes, and a nearly permanent scowl.
Address: Your
It felt nice to be revisiting the city with Aea. When Kaia had come on her own, she’d made a point not to stay away for too long, should her father or one of her uncles wake up and find her missing. It had meant less time exploring, but she’d seen enough to fall victim to curiosity. Kaia wanted to see more of Megaris. Even at night, the city was alive with music, laughter and activity—a stark difference from the stillness of night hidden in the forests, with nothing but the sound of the burning fire or her family snoring to keep her company.
Kaia did feel a little guilty for sneaking away without Aea. It had just so happened that Kaia had stumbled across a rare opportunity and had thrown caution to the wind to take it. Perhaps she should have woken Aea, but the temptation to go before her window of opportunity to leave had been too great. At least Kaia was able to make it up to her cousin now. Kaia really hadn’t had much time to explore either, so their excursion together was likely to be much more fruitful.
As men and women danced together, Kaia couldn’t help but watch as she walked by. The sheer way the people moved, enjoying the moment was contagious. Kaia found herself smiling a little as she felt her own excitement and enthusiasm swirl in her chest. The cool evening breeze was refreshing on her cheeks, making her feel both alert and alive. Kaia felt like she had enough energy to go on forever, so long as the night never ended.
When Aea called Kaia’s name as she took her hand, Kaia met her cousin with an expectant gaze that melted into her own giddy excitement. Even with half of Aea’s face hidden from view, Kaia could see the brightness in her eyes and hear the warmth in her voice, “where should we go first?! I want to see everything!”
Where indeed. Kaia glanced around, momentarily captivated by the glowing red lights and raucous voices. Women lined the avenue and Kaia realised they had a similar demeanour and attire to the woman their fathers had hired to teach Kaia and Aea about becoming a woman. That had been a very eye opening night. Not only had it been quite a kick to the stomach to learn the monthly dues of a young woman, but also what it meant to be a woman when laying with a man. Kaia wasn’t entirely sure Hectos or Agolois had intended her either her or Aea to learn so much, but the information had been valuable all the same. Kaia would have hated to learn the intimate details or experience the pain from the first time she bedded a man without any warning of what was to come.
Still, Kaia was a little curious to see how women of the night made a living in such a way. Were they all secretly combat trained? How else did they ensure men didn’t just steal them away once they were sated, like Kaia’s father warned her they would. Perhaps they would have some advice on what else she and Aea could add to their little con routine. “Money!”
Oh yes. They needed some money if they were to enjoy their freedom to the utmost potential. Kaia glanced around thoughtfully. There were more people around than she would have expected, which posed quite the problem for their general routine. Too many people around meant it was more likely someone would either come to their victim’s aide or call a guard.
“We need money. Let us find it. You can do that thing you do with your face, instead of playing damsel. I think there are too many people for that game. If I were to pretend to abscond with you, I fear two dozen drunk men may fall into the alley at once. Then you would be crushed by the force of their valor, and then I would be bereft of my Kaia.”
Kaia gave a small smirk at the visual Aea painted in her mind. Alas, they both had the same thought; the damsel routine was out. Kaia ran her hands down the front of her tunic and pants. Kaia could try to appeal to a potential target, but she wasn’t so sure she seemed all that alluring. Her face was pretty clean at least, and her hair was braided back and out of her face. Kaia rearranged her chlamys over her shoulder and torso to hide the tunic as much as possible.
“I guess there is no harm in trying,” Kaia agreed. Kaia’s stormy blue eyes flicked back over towards the women bathed in red light. She didn’t want a bunch of nightwalking women to chase her down either. “Perhaps somewhere a little away from here.”
“I am hungry. We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
A rare grin cracked across Kaia’s features. She wondered what it would be like to eat until her stomach was full and close to bursting. Was it a painful sensation? Or was the discomfort masked by the sheer pleasure of fended off hunger? Kaia very much wanted to find out. Kaia would happily spend any money she could on some drink and a cooked meal. Kaia very much wanted to fill herself to burst with a meal they hadn’t had to hunt or gather themselves.
Before Kaia’s mind could wander much further on what they might choose to dine on, Aea suddenly bumped into Kaia. The taller of the two girls steadied the other, before looking around to find the source of the incident. Sure enough, a drunken man lumbered past, seemingly unaware that he’d even made contact with Aea at all.
“I hope you outlive your children!”
Kaia raised her brows at Aea’s outburst, before noticing the dark, wet stain on the back of Aea’s epiblema. Well, it all made sense then. Kaia knew how much Aea valued her nicer garments, not that she completely understood why. Kaia could relate to wanting to keep her more treasured items safe and intact, but to Kaia, clothing—for herself and family at least—was simply a utensil for survival. If they did not protect her from the elements, environment or enemies, then Kaia had no use for pretty things, no matter how nice. Kaia was more likely to get upset if her most comfortable and flexible set of pants wore out than if her cleanest epiblema was soiled. However, Kaia knew it was important to Aea, so that was that.
“He ruined it.”
“It’s not so bad,” Kaia insisted, brushing at the back of Aea’s head. “We’ll forget all about it soon,” she added, hoping to lift her cousin’s spirits again. Looking around, Kaia tried to spot a potential target. It was quite a shame that any lone men Kaia could see looked old enough to be her father. Where were the handsome, young drunken fools?
“Help me find someone,” Kaia insisted, taking Aea’s hand once more in an attempt to distract her. “Then we can get some money and feast on all the pomegranates we can find,” Kaia promised with a grin.
It felt nice to be revisiting the city with Aea. When Kaia had come on her own, she’d made a point not to stay away for too long, should her father or one of her uncles wake up and find her missing. It had meant less time exploring, but she’d seen enough to fall victim to curiosity. Kaia wanted to see more of Megaris. Even at night, the city was alive with music, laughter and activity—a stark difference from the stillness of night hidden in the forests, with nothing but the sound of the burning fire or her family snoring to keep her company.
Kaia did feel a little guilty for sneaking away without Aea. It had just so happened that Kaia had stumbled across a rare opportunity and had thrown caution to the wind to take it. Perhaps she should have woken Aea, but the temptation to go before her window of opportunity to leave had been too great. At least Kaia was able to make it up to her cousin now. Kaia really hadn’t had much time to explore either, so their excursion together was likely to be much more fruitful.
As men and women danced together, Kaia couldn’t help but watch as she walked by. The sheer way the people moved, enjoying the moment was contagious. Kaia found herself smiling a little as she felt her own excitement and enthusiasm swirl in her chest. The cool evening breeze was refreshing on her cheeks, making her feel both alert and alive. Kaia felt like she had enough energy to go on forever, so long as the night never ended.
When Aea called Kaia’s name as she took her hand, Kaia met her cousin with an expectant gaze that melted into her own giddy excitement. Even with half of Aea’s face hidden from view, Kaia could see the brightness in her eyes and hear the warmth in her voice, “where should we go first?! I want to see everything!”
Where indeed. Kaia glanced around, momentarily captivated by the glowing red lights and raucous voices. Women lined the avenue and Kaia realised they had a similar demeanour and attire to the woman their fathers had hired to teach Kaia and Aea about becoming a woman. That had been a very eye opening night. Not only had it been quite a kick to the stomach to learn the monthly dues of a young woman, but also what it meant to be a woman when laying with a man. Kaia wasn’t entirely sure Hectos or Agolois had intended her either her or Aea to learn so much, but the information had been valuable all the same. Kaia would have hated to learn the intimate details or experience the pain from the first time she bedded a man without any warning of what was to come.
Still, Kaia was a little curious to see how women of the night made a living in such a way. Were they all secretly combat trained? How else did they ensure men didn’t just steal them away once they were sated, like Kaia’s father warned her they would. Perhaps they would have some advice on what else she and Aea could add to their little con routine. “Money!”
Oh yes. They needed some money if they were to enjoy their freedom to the utmost potential. Kaia glanced around thoughtfully. There were more people around than she would have expected, which posed quite the problem for their general routine. Too many people around meant it was more likely someone would either come to their victim’s aide or call a guard.
“We need money. Let us find it. You can do that thing you do with your face, instead of playing damsel. I think there are too many people for that game. If I were to pretend to abscond with you, I fear two dozen drunk men may fall into the alley at once. Then you would be crushed by the force of their valor, and then I would be bereft of my Kaia.”
Kaia gave a small smirk at the visual Aea painted in her mind. Alas, they both had the same thought; the damsel routine was out. Kaia ran her hands down the front of her tunic and pants. Kaia could try to appeal to a potential target, but she wasn’t so sure she seemed all that alluring. Her face was pretty clean at least, and her hair was braided back and out of her face. Kaia rearranged her chlamys over her shoulder and torso to hide the tunic as much as possible.
“I guess there is no harm in trying,” Kaia agreed. Kaia’s stormy blue eyes flicked back over towards the women bathed in red light. She didn’t want a bunch of nightwalking women to chase her down either. “Perhaps somewhere a little away from here.”
“I am hungry. We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
A rare grin cracked across Kaia’s features. She wondered what it would be like to eat until her stomach was full and close to bursting. Was it a painful sensation? Or was the discomfort masked by the sheer pleasure of fended off hunger? Kaia very much wanted to find out. Kaia would happily spend any money she could on some drink and a cooked meal. Kaia very much wanted to fill herself to burst with a meal they hadn’t had to hunt or gather themselves.
Before Kaia’s mind could wander much further on what they might choose to dine on, Aea suddenly bumped into Kaia. The taller of the two girls steadied the other, before looking around to find the source of the incident. Sure enough, a drunken man lumbered past, seemingly unaware that he’d even made contact with Aea at all.
“I hope you outlive your children!”
Kaia raised her brows at Aea’s outburst, before noticing the dark, wet stain on the back of Aea’s epiblema. Well, it all made sense then. Kaia knew how much Aea valued her nicer garments, not that she completely understood why. Kaia could relate to wanting to keep her more treasured items safe and intact, but to Kaia, clothing—for herself and family at least—was simply a utensil for survival. If they did not protect her from the elements, environment or enemies, then Kaia had no use for pretty things, no matter how nice. Kaia was more likely to get upset if her most comfortable and flexible set of pants wore out than if her cleanest epiblema was soiled. However, Kaia knew it was important to Aea, so that was that.
“He ruined it.”
“It’s not so bad,” Kaia insisted, brushing at the back of Aea’s head. “We’ll forget all about it soon,” she added, hoping to lift her cousin’s spirits again. Looking around, Kaia tried to spot a potential target. It was quite a shame that any lone men Kaia could see looked old enough to be her father. Where were the handsome, young drunken fools?
“Help me find someone,” Kaia insisted, taking Aea’s hand once more in an attempt to distract her. “Then we can get some money and feast on all the pomegranates we can find,” Kaia promised with a grin.
“I guess there is no harm in trying. Perhaps somewhere a little ways from here.” Kaia looked intently at the women of the night and Aea followed her gaze. The idea suddenly struck her to take their money; surely they had plenty of it. Then again, they were probably as broke as she and Kaia were, else why would they let other people touch them? Aea shuddered and pushed the image of a million hands from her mind as they gripped and clawed at her. Disgusting.
She was sure that one day, her father would give her away for a nice goat or two, but even then, she wasn’t going to suffer the touch of a stranger. When Kaia had become a woman and Aea thought she was hemorrhaging, Hektos brought a whore to camp and paid her to deal with things. Mercida was her name. She’d looked so tall and stately to Aea at the time, elegant and world-wise. The whore had taken she and Kaia away from camp and taught them how to care for themselves, what it meant, and how to avoid the sort of advances that would follow. Mercida had said that it was painful the first time, novel the second, and a chore most of the time after. She’d said that should they ever feel the need to deny their husbands, it was easy enough to get them too drunk to perform or to hold a dried pig innard for them to ‘flop about in.’
Aea let her cousin lead her down the street. The taverns looked brimming with people and full of life. She wanted to go inside and look around so very badly, but first they needed money. She had to be patient. “Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring? You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food.” Mercida had certainly said as much as she pulled out her coins and let them see how much she’d earned just that morning.
Aea’s stomach rumbled at the thought of food and her excitement quickened in her pulse. Soon, they would have money enough to gorge themselves until their stomachs were round. “I am hungry. We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
They moved far enough down the street that the whorehouses had given way to taverns and gaming halls. Aea stopped and looked from one side of the street to the other, her eyes ever searching for quarry. She was like a bottomless pit; no matter how much she ate, she was always hungry an hour or two later. Dinner had been hare and parasol stew, and that had been hours ago.
Suddenly, she was brutally attacked by a goblet of wine and even after Aea yelled at her assaulter, she did not feel better. Her epiblema. As she stood fuming, teetering between angry tears and quiet hate, Kaia touched the back of her head. “It’s not so bad, we’ll forget all about it soon.”
Aea crossed her arms and looked at the ground. She wouldn’t forget about it, and it was bad. She did not have much in the ways of possessions, but the things she did have were meticulously maintained. It made her feel better to have clean things. Clean clothes, clean hair, clean bedding, clean goat. Aea loved nothing more than washing her things with crushed flowers and sea water. She used to lay naked in the surf and let the sand scrape over her skin again and again, carrying every particle of dirt and grime away with it and softening her skin until it was silky and glowing, though she stopped doing that when she fell asleep and got stung by a beaching jellyfish. She fucking hated jellyfish. It would be nice to have a bath in a real tub; there were no jellyfish in a tub.
“Okay.” Aea said quietly, holding her hand to the spot. Kaia was unconcerned about her own clothes, but she didn’t have to worry about them over much. She looked clean and lovely even covered in burrs. There was nothing to be done about the epiblema, though. Aea could whine about it and insist they spend the money they earned on a new one, but that was impractical and childish.
Kaia took her hand and she resolved to banish the stain from her thoughts, like Kaia said. Tonight was to be fun. Aea thought about using her cut to play die in one of the taverns to double her earnings, and that did lift her spirits. She made a mental list of things she might do with her money—there were investments, like Gatheron talked about, and she could make even more money from those. She wanted pomegranates. A new epiblema. Shoes. A blanket. New daggers. A horse. A falcon. A few houses. A ship. Gilded armor. New lyre strings. A didactic. A history. She would need a fortune to fulfil her list.
“Help me find someone,” Kaia said. “Then we can get some money and feast on all the pomegranates we can find.”
That snapped Aea out of her momentary funk. She could do that—she was good at finding targets with more than a few bronze coins on them, though she’d yet to find one with any silver. She would tonight, though. Tonight, she would find somebody with drachme, she could feel it. Aea met Kaia’s pretty grin with a bright smile of her own. Most of all, she should use her coin to buy presents. She would like to get Kaia something especially nice. The blonde was always so focused on hunting and chores that Aea wasn’t sure that she ever gave a thought to what it might be like to have a bath in a real tub. Kaia was her favorite person, and although she wasn’t Hektos, she didn’t need to be. Aea’s father and her cousin resided in two different places in her heart, but they did so equally, and she wanted to show Kaia as much without so many words.
“Okay. We will hold out for a very rich one this time. And when we have our fortune, we will sneak away another time and you will be a Colchian princess for a day.”
Aea pulled Kaia along with her down the street a bit more. The crowd thinned enough to be considered quiet as opposed to the overcrowded heart of the avenue and Aea spotted a small patch of free room in front of a large tavern’s marble column. She headed to the spot and stopped to lean against the cool stone, her eyes turning outward and toward the street.
Although the street was quieter, that wasn’t to say it was actually quiet. There was still a grand clamor and commotion from the street before them, and the tavern she leaned against was raucous and merrily drunk. “If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?” Aea glanced at Kaia, a guilty and sheepish grin crossing under her epiblema and crinkling her eyes. “Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.”
She had not ever seen a particularly beautiful man before. Then again, when they hunted the roads, the prey were rather faceless. Every now and then, a face would become less formless and nondescript, though the prey was gone one way or another before Aea had ample time to study him. She'd never considered the topic of aesthetic aloud before, but seeing so many men tilting one way or another as they made their way down the street made her curious. Everybody had at least one beautiful thing about them, even someone so scarred and burned as her Uncle Gatheron. Whether it was a smile, lush hair, graceful fingers, or an attractive carriage, everybody had something all their own, and so they were all beautiful in a way. A leaf did not have to be verdant to be lovely in its function and color. She wondered what Kaia thought of the subject, for she'd not ever been vocal about it herself. Whatever he might look like to Kaia, Aea would try her best to spot him for her cousin.
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
“I guess there is no harm in trying. Perhaps somewhere a little ways from here.” Kaia looked intently at the women of the night and Aea followed her gaze. The idea suddenly struck her to take their money; surely they had plenty of it. Then again, they were probably as broke as she and Kaia were, else why would they let other people touch them? Aea shuddered and pushed the image of a million hands from her mind as they gripped and clawed at her. Disgusting.
She was sure that one day, her father would give her away for a nice goat or two, but even then, she wasn’t going to suffer the touch of a stranger. When Kaia had become a woman and Aea thought she was hemorrhaging, Hektos brought a whore to camp and paid her to deal with things. Mercida was her name. She’d looked so tall and stately to Aea at the time, elegant and world-wise. The whore had taken she and Kaia away from camp and taught them how to care for themselves, what it meant, and how to avoid the sort of advances that would follow. Mercida had said that it was painful the first time, novel the second, and a chore most of the time after. She’d said that should they ever feel the need to deny their husbands, it was easy enough to get them too drunk to perform or to hold a dried pig innard for them to ‘flop about in.’
Aea let her cousin lead her down the street. The taverns looked brimming with people and full of life. She wanted to go inside and look around so very badly, but first they needed money. She had to be patient. “Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring? You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food.” Mercida had certainly said as much as she pulled out her coins and let them see how much she’d earned just that morning.
Aea’s stomach rumbled at the thought of food and her excitement quickened in her pulse. Soon, they would have money enough to gorge themselves until their stomachs were round. “I am hungry. We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
They moved far enough down the street that the whorehouses had given way to taverns and gaming halls. Aea stopped and looked from one side of the street to the other, her eyes ever searching for quarry. She was like a bottomless pit; no matter how much she ate, she was always hungry an hour or two later. Dinner had been hare and parasol stew, and that had been hours ago.
Suddenly, she was brutally attacked by a goblet of wine and even after Aea yelled at her assaulter, she did not feel better. Her epiblema. As she stood fuming, teetering between angry tears and quiet hate, Kaia touched the back of her head. “It’s not so bad, we’ll forget all about it soon.”
Aea crossed her arms and looked at the ground. She wouldn’t forget about it, and it was bad. She did not have much in the ways of possessions, but the things she did have were meticulously maintained. It made her feel better to have clean things. Clean clothes, clean hair, clean bedding, clean goat. Aea loved nothing more than washing her things with crushed flowers and sea water. She used to lay naked in the surf and let the sand scrape over her skin again and again, carrying every particle of dirt and grime away with it and softening her skin until it was silky and glowing, though she stopped doing that when she fell asleep and got stung by a beaching jellyfish. She fucking hated jellyfish. It would be nice to have a bath in a real tub; there were no jellyfish in a tub.
“Okay.” Aea said quietly, holding her hand to the spot. Kaia was unconcerned about her own clothes, but she didn’t have to worry about them over much. She looked clean and lovely even covered in burrs. There was nothing to be done about the epiblema, though. Aea could whine about it and insist they spend the money they earned on a new one, but that was impractical and childish.
Kaia took her hand and she resolved to banish the stain from her thoughts, like Kaia said. Tonight was to be fun. Aea thought about using her cut to play die in one of the taverns to double her earnings, and that did lift her spirits. She made a mental list of things she might do with her money—there were investments, like Gatheron talked about, and she could make even more money from those. She wanted pomegranates. A new epiblema. Shoes. A blanket. New daggers. A horse. A falcon. A few houses. A ship. Gilded armor. New lyre strings. A didactic. A history. She would need a fortune to fulfil her list.
“Help me find someone,” Kaia said. “Then we can get some money and feast on all the pomegranates we can find.”
That snapped Aea out of her momentary funk. She could do that—she was good at finding targets with more than a few bronze coins on them, though she’d yet to find one with any silver. She would tonight, though. Tonight, she would find somebody with drachme, she could feel it. Aea met Kaia’s pretty grin with a bright smile of her own. Most of all, she should use her coin to buy presents. She would like to get Kaia something especially nice. The blonde was always so focused on hunting and chores that Aea wasn’t sure that she ever gave a thought to what it might be like to have a bath in a real tub. Kaia was her favorite person, and although she wasn’t Hektos, she didn’t need to be. Aea’s father and her cousin resided in two different places in her heart, but they did so equally, and she wanted to show Kaia as much without so many words.
“Okay. We will hold out for a very rich one this time. And when we have our fortune, we will sneak away another time and you will be a Colchian princess for a day.”
Aea pulled Kaia along with her down the street a bit more. The crowd thinned enough to be considered quiet as opposed to the overcrowded heart of the avenue and Aea spotted a small patch of free room in front of a large tavern’s marble column. She headed to the spot and stopped to lean against the cool stone, her eyes turning outward and toward the street.
Although the street was quieter, that wasn’t to say it was actually quiet. There was still a grand clamor and commotion from the street before them, and the tavern she leaned against was raucous and merrily drunk. “If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?” Aea glanced at Kaia, a guilty and sheepish grin crossing under her epiblema and crinkling her eyes. “Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.”
She had not ever seen a particularly beautiful man before. Then again, when they hunted the roads, the prey were rather faceless. Every now and then, a face would become less formless and nondescript, though the prey was gone one way or another before Aea had ample time to study him. She'd never considered the topic of aesthetic aloud before, but seeing so many men tilting one way or another as they made their way down the street made her curious. Everybody had at least one beautiful thing about them, even someone so scarred and burned as her Uncle Gatheron. Whether it was a smile, lush hair, graceful fingers, or an attractive carriage, everybody had something all their own, and so they were all beautiful in a way. A leaf did not have to be verdant to be lovely in its function and color. She wondered what Kaia thought of the subject, for she'd not ever been vocal about it herself. Whatever he might look like to Kaia, Aea would try her best to spot him for her cousin.
“I guess there is no harm in trying. Perhaps somewhere a little ways from here.” Kaia looked intently at the women of the night and Aea followed her gaze. The idea suddenly struck her to take their money; surely they had plenty of it. Then again, they were probably as broke as she and Kaia were, else why would they let other people touch them? Aea shuddered and pushed the image of a million hands from her mind as they gripped and clawed at her. Disgusting.
She was sure that one day, her father would give her away for a nice goat or two, but even then, she wasn’t going to suffer the touch of a stranger. When Kaia had become a woman and Aea thought she was hemorrhaging, Hektos brought a whore to camp and paid her to deal with things. Mercida was her name. She’d looked so tall and stately to Aea at the time, elegant and world-wise. The whore had taken she and Kaia away from camp and taught them how to care for themselves, what it meant, and how to avoid the sort of advances that would follow. Mercida had said that it was painful the first time, novel the second, and a chore most of the time after. She’d said that should they ever feel the need to deny their husbands, it was easy enough to get them too drunk to perform or to hold a dried pig innard for them to ‘flop about in.’
Aea let her cousin lead her down the street. The taverns looked brimming with people and full of life. She wanted to go inside and look around so very badly, but first they needed money. She had to be patient. “Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring? You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food.” Mercida had certainly said as much as she pulled out her coins and let them see how much she’d earned just that morning.
Aea’s stomach rumbled at the thought of food and her excitement quickened in her pulse. Soon, they would have money enough to gorge themselves until their stomachs were round. “I am hungry. We will dine like royalty tonight! I would like to try a pomegranate, no, ten pomegranates!”
They moved far enough down the street that the whorehouses had given way to taverns and gaming halls. Aea stopped and looked from one side of the street to the other, her eyes ever searching for quarry. She was like a bottomless pit; no matter how much she ate, she was always hungry an hour or two later. Dinner had been hare and parasol stew, and that had been hours ago.
Suddenly, she was brutally attacked by a goblet of wine and even after Aea yelled at her assaulter, she did not feel better. Her epiblema. As she stood fuming, teetering between angry tears and quiet hate, Kaia touched the back of her head. “It’s not so bad, we’ll forget all about it soon.”
Aea crossed her arms and looked at the ground. She wouldn’t forget about it, and it was bad. She did not have much in the ways of possessions, but the things she did have were meticulously maintained. It made her feel better to have clean things. Clean clothes, clean hair, clean bedding, clean goat. Aea loved nothing more than washing her things with crushed flowers and sea water. She used to lay naked in the surf and let the sand scrape over her skin again and again, carrying every particle of dirt and grime away with it and softening her skin until it was silky and glowing, though she stopped doing that when she fell asleep and got stung by a beaching jellyfish. She fucking hated jellyfish. It would be nice to have a bath in a real tub; there were no jellyfish in a tub.
“Okay.” Aea said quietly, holding her hand to the spot. Kaia was unconcerned about her own clothes, but she didn’t have to worry about them over much. She looked clean and lovely even covered in burrs. There was nothing to be done about the epiblema, though. Aea could whine about it and insist they spend the money they earned on a new one, but that was impractical and childish.
Kaia took her hand and she resolved to banish the stain from her thoughts, like Kaia said. Tonight was to be fun. Aea thought about using her cut to play die in one of the taverns to double her earnings, and that did lift her spirits. She made a mental list of things she might do with her money—there were investments, like Gatheron talked about, and she could make even more money from those. She wanted pomegranates. A new epiblema. Shoes. A blanket. New daggers. A horse. A falcon. A few houses. A ship. Gilded armor. New lyre strings. A didactic. A history. She would need a fortune to fulfil her list.
“Help me find someone,” Kaia said. “Then we can get some money and feast on all the pomegranates we can find.”
That snapped Aea out of her momentary funk. She could do that—she was good at finding targets with more than a few bronze coins on them, though she’d yet to find one with any silver. She would tonight, though. Tonight, she would find somebody with drachme, she could feel it. Aea met Kaia’s pretty grin with a bright smile of her own. Most of all, she should use her coin to buy presents. She would like to get Kaia something especially nice. The blonde was always so focused on hunting and chores that Aea wasn’t sure that she ever gave a thought to what it might be like to have a bath in a real tub. Kaia was her favorite person, and although she wasn’t Hektos, she didn’t need to be. Aea’s father and her cousin resided in two different places in her heart, but they did so equally, and she wanted to show Kaia as much without so many words.
“Okay. We will hold out for a very rich one this time. And when we have our fortune, we will sneak away another time and you will be a Colchian princess for a day.”
Aea pulled Kaia along with her down the street a bit more. The crowd thinned enough to be considered quiet as opposed to the overcrowded heart of the avenue and Aea spotted a small patch of free room in front of a large tavern’s marble column. She headed to the spot and stopped to lean against the cool stone, her eyes turning outward and toward the street.
Although the street was quieter, that wasn’t to say it was actually quiet. There was still a grand clamor and commotion from the street before them, and the tavern she leaned against was raucous and merrily drunk. “If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?” Aea glanced at Kaia, a guilty and sheepish grin crossing under her epiblema and crinkling her eyes. “Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.”
She had not ever seen a particularly beautiful man before. Then again, when they hunted the roads, the prey were rather faceless. Every now and then, a face would become less formless and nondescript, though the prey was gone one way or another before Aea had ample time to study him. She'd never considered the topic of aesthetic aloud before, but seeing so many men tilting one way or another as they made their way down the street made her curious. Everybody had at least one beautiful thing about them, even someone so scarred and burned as her Uncle Gatheron. Whether it was a smile, lush hair, graceful fingers, or an attractive carriage, everybody had something all their own, and so they were all beautiful in a way. A leaf did not have to be verdant to be lovely in its function and color. She wondered what Kaia thought of the subject, for she'd not ever been vocal about it herself. Whatever he might look like to Kaia, Aea would try her best to spot him for her cousin.
“Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring?”
Kaia balked at the question and shot her cousin a bewildered stare as she continued to speak, “You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food."
If Aea were not Kaia’s blood, the blonde would have likely turned violent at the suggestion, but Kaia knew that Aea was not being malicious. Nevertheless, the colour of shame and embarrassment stained Kaia’s cheeks as she shook her head. No amount of money in the world Kaia realised, would be enough for her to allow men to do with her as they pleased.
Aea was probably right of course, she probably could do well for herself as a whore. However, she’d tried so hard to be more than that. She could hunt, she could fight and she could kill. Kaia would much rather be known for those skills, than being a whore, even if it meant that she would spend some nights going to sleep hungry.
“I’d much rather steal from men, than let them touch me and pay me for it,” Kaia answered simply for a quick, forced smile.
The conversation thankfully moved along at the mention of Aea’s permanent hunger, before some drunken fool spilt his drink all over the back of Aea’s epiblema. It was a right shame that the drink had not found Kaia instead of Aea, as Kaia knew she would have only been minorly annoyed at best. Aea on the other hand was rather particular about her particulars. Her garments were more to her than mere utility, so to have her best epiblema stained in such a way would likely sour the younger girl’s mood greatly. Kaia just hoped she could distract her cousin enough that they may still enjoy the night, despite the unfortunate setback.
As luck would have it, Aea seemed to be of the mind to not squander their night over some spilt wine. Aea took quickly to request to find their first target. “Okay. We will hold out for a very rich one this time. And when we have our fortune, we will sneak away another time and you will be a Colchian princess for a day.”
Kaia gave a small smirk at the suggestion, though she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat at the thought. Kaia could only imagine what it must feel like to be a royal. Kaia could spend all the time in the world imagining what she could do with the wealth of a princess, but it was the power and respect that appealed most to Kaia. To have an entire land love and adore her, simply for being their queen or princess; what did that feel like? How did that even happen? Kaia looked around her and let her gaze settle on a nearby whore. Kaia knew probably more about that whore than she did of the real Colchian princess, yet Kaia felt no reason to have any affection for the whore at all. So how could people truly adore a person they did not know? Was it because they felt a true sense of belonging to a place; something Kaia never had? They travelled so often, attachment to anything outside her family was foolish and a waste of time.
Despite her musings, not much time had passed since Aea’s comment. Kaia let Aea lead her down a street, taking note of how the populus thinned as they went. Aea seemed fixed on the clearing in front of a tavern. As the younger of the girls leaned against the cool stone, Kaia took stock of their surroundings.
“If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?”
Kaia turned her attention back to Aea and noticed the way her eyes crinkled. Kaia raised a brow and was about to ask what Aea meant, when her cousin continued, “Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.”
Oh. Kaia understood now. The blonde gave a sly smirk as she contemplated the question, her stormy eyes absently flicking up towards the stars in thought. First and foremost, Kaia knew when and where to draw the line in regards to her fantasies. There was no use pining over what could never be, but there was also no harm in stretching her imagination to imagine what her life—or things in it—could be like.
Kaia thought back to the man she’d lain with and what it was about him that moved her to bed him before taking his money at knifepoint. If Kaia were to guess, she would have assumed him to be anywhere from five to ten years her senior. He had a decently well built frame for a commonborn man, which came from him working his father’s farm. Perhaps that was what appealed to her. He was one of the more abled bodied men they’d attacked, but even a man who was easily bigger than her could be rendered defenceless when naked and caught off guard.
However, she hadn’t seen his body properly before she made her decision. So what had it been? Kaia thought back to how she and Aea came to pick him as a target and remembered that he’d been unusually kind to his aging goat when it began to struggle on the road. Despite his frame, they’d considered him a target due to the sensitive and gentle display he showed the animal. Perhaps they should have moved onto another target; most of the men they preyed on gave them no reason to feel guilty, for they showed the worst aspects of being a man, however Kaia remembered insisting they target the farmer’s boy, he had been handsome, but not in the same way as her uncle Cassero. The bard was like a walking manifestation of honey and milk, but this man had been different. Perhaps he wasn’t really even that attractive, but his solid stature combined with his gentle nature caught Kaia’s attention, of that there had been no doubt. Even when he laid with her, he’d been gentle.
And yet, that wasn’t an answer Kaia was willing to give. She wondered if Aea half expected her to describe that man’s features, but truth be told, his features had been rather plain. He had deep, dark brown eyes and the parts of his face she could see that wasn’t covered in course stubble was sunkissed. His hair was brown too, but seemed darker from sweat and dirt. Beyond that, Kaia couldn’t remember anything noteworthy about his face.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us,” Kaia began, partially stalling for time so that she could think on her answer some more. “Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes,” Kaia mused out loud, somewhat pleased with her deflection from the farmer’s boy.
“What about you? Who would you choose?” Kaia asked curiously. They’d never really talked about what they fancied about men. Kaia wondered at what Aea found attractive.
Lani
Kaia
Lani
Kaia
Awards
First Impressions:Lean, athletic; Straw-blonde hair, stormy blue eyes, and a nearly permanent scowl.
Address: Your
Kaia balked at the question and shot her cousin a bewildered stare as she continued to speak, “You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food."
If Aea were not Kaia’s blood, the blonde would have likely turned violent at the suggestion, but Kaia knew that Aea was not being malicious. Nevertheless, the colour of shame and embarrassment stained Kaia’s cheeks as she shook her head. No amount of money in the world Kaia realised, would be enough for her to allow men to do with her as they pleased.
Aea was probably right of course, she probably could do well for herself as a whore. However, she’d tried so hard to be more than that. She could hunt, she could fight and she could kill. Kaia would much rather be known for those skills, than being a whore, even if it meant that she would spend some nights going to sleep hungry.
“I’d much rather steal from men, than let them touch me and pay me for it,” Kaia answered simply for a quick, forced smile.
The conversation thankfully moved along at the mention of Aea’s permanent hunger, before some drunken fool spilt his drink all over the back of Aea’s epiblema. It was a right shame that the drink had not found Kaia instead of Aea, as Kaia knew she would have only been minorly annoyed at best. Aea on the other hand was rather particular about her particulars. Her garments were more to her than mere utility, so to have her best epiblema stained in such a way would likely sour the younger girl’s mood greatly. Kaia just hoped she could distract her cousin enough that they may still enjoy the night, despite the unfortunate setback.
As luck would have it, Aea seemed to be of the mind to not squander their night over some spilt wine. Aea took quickly to request to find their first target. “Okay. We will hold out for a very rich one this time. And when we have our fortune, we will sneak away another time and you will be a Colchian princess for a day.”
Kaia gave a small smirk at the suggestion, though she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat at the thought. Kaia could only imagine what it must feel like to be a royal. Kaia could spend all the time in the world imagining what she could do with the wealth of a princess, but it was the power and respect that appealed most to Kaia. To have an entire land love and adore her, simply for being their queen or princess; what did that feel like? How did that even happen? Kaia looked around her and let her gaze settle on a nearby whore. Kaia knew probably more about that whore than she did of the real Colchian princess, yet Kaia felt no reason to have any affection for the whore at all. So how could people truly adore a person they did not know? Was it because they felt a true sense of belonging to a place; something Kaia never had? They travelled so often, attachment to anything outside her family was foolish and a waste of time.
Despite her musings, not much time had passed since Aea’s comment. Kaia let Aea lead her down a street, taking note of how the populus thinned as they went. Aea seemed fixed on the clearing in front of a tavern. As the younger of the girls leaned against the cool stone, Kaia took stock of their surroundings.
“If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?”
Kaia turned her attention back to Aea and noticed the way her eyes crinkled. Kaia raised a brow and was about to ask what Aea meant, when her cousin continued, “Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.”
Oh. Kaia understood now. The blonde gave a sly smirk as she contemplated the question, her stormy eyes absently flicking up towards the stars in thought. First and foremost, Kaia knew when and where to draw the line in regards to her fantasies. There was no use pining over what could never be, but there was also no harm in stretching her imagination to imagine what her life—or things in it—could be like.
Kaia thought back to the man she’d lain with and what it was about him that moved her to bed him before taking his money at knifepoint. If Kaia were to guess, she would have assumed him to be anywhere from five to ten years her senior. He had a decently well built frame for a commonborn man, which came from him working his father’s farm. Perhaps that was what appealed to her. He was one of the more abled bodied men they’d attacked, but even a man who was easily bigger than her could be rendered defenceless when naked and caught off guard.
However, she hadn’t seen his body properly before she made her decision. So what had it been? Kaia thought back to how she and Aea came to pick him as a target and remembered that he’d been unusually kind to his aging goat when it began to struggle on the road. Despite his frame, they’d considered him a target due to the sensitive and gentle display he showed the animal. Perhaps they should have moved onto another target; most of the men they preyed on gave them no reason to feel guilty, for they showed the worst aspects of being a man, however Kaia remembered insisting they target the farmer’s boy, he had been handsome, but not in the same way as her uncle Cassero. The bard was like a walking manifestation of honey and milk, but this man had been different. Perhaps he wasn’t really even that attractive, but his solid stature combined with his gentle nature caught Kaia’s attention, of that there had been no doubt. Even when he laid with her, he’d been gentle.
And yet, that wasn’t an answer Kaia was willing to give. She wondered if Aea half expected her to describe that man’s features, but truth be told, his features had been rather plain. He had deep, dark brown eyes and the parts of his face she could see that wasn’t covered in course stubble was sunkissed. His hair was brown too, but seemed darker from sweat and dirt. Beyond that, Kaia couldn’t remember anything noteworthy about his face.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us,” Kaia began, partially stalling for time so that she could think on her answer some more. “Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes,” Kaia mused out loud, somewhat pleased with her deflection from the farmer’s boy.
“What about you? Who would you choose?” Kaia asked curiously. They’d never really talked about what they fancied about men. Kaia wondered at what Aea found attractive.
“Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring?”
Kaia balked at the question and shot her cousin a bewildered stare as she continued to speak, “You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food."
If Aea were not Kaia’s blood, the blonde would have likely turned violent at the suggestion, but Kaia knew that Aea was not being malicious. Nevertheless, the colour of shame and embarrassment stained Kaia’s cheeks as she shook her head. No amount of money in the world Kaia realised, would be enough for her to allow men to do with her as they pleased.
Aea was probably right of course, she probably could do well for herself as a whore. However, she’d tried so hard to be more than that. She could hunt, she could fight and she could kill. Kaia would much rather be known for those skills, than being a whore, even if it meant that she would spend some nights going to sleep hungry.
“I’d much rather steal from men, than let them touch me and pay me for it,” Kaia answered simply for a quick, forced smile.
The conversation thankfully moved along at the mention of Aea’s permanent hunger, before some drunken fool spilt his drink all over the back of Aea’s epiblema. It was a right shame that the drink had not found Kaia instead of Aea, as Kaia knew she would have only been minorly annoyed at best. Aea on the other hand was rather particular about her particulars. Her garments were more to her than mere utility, so to have her best epiblema stained in such a way would likely sour the younger girl’s mood greatly. Kaia just hoped she could distract her cousin enough that they may still enjoy the night, despite the unfortunate setback.
As luck would have it, Aea seemed to be of the mind to not squander their night over some spilt wine. Aea took quickly to request to find their first target. “Okay. We will hold out for a very rich one this time. And when we have our fortune, we will sneak away another time and you will be a Colchian princess for a day.”
Kaia gave a small smirk at the suggestion, though she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat at the thought. Kaia could only imagine what it must feel like to be a royal. Kaia could spend all the time in the world imagining what she could do with the wealth of a princess, but it was the power and respect that appealed most to Kaia. To have an entire land love and adore her, simply for being their queen or princess; what did that feel like? How did that even happen? Kaia looked around her and let her gaze settle on a nearby whore. Kaia knew probably more about that whore than she did of the real Colchian princess, yet Kaia felt no reason to have any affection for the whore at all. So how could people truly adore a person they did not know? Was it because they felt a true sense of belonging to a place; something Kaia never had? They travelled so often, attachment to anything outside her family was foolish and a waste of time.
Despite her musings, not much time had passed since Aea’s comment. Kaia let Aea lead her down a street, taking note of how the populus thinned as they went. Aea seemed fixed on the clearing in front of a tavern. As the younger of the girls leaned against the cool stone, Kaia took stock of their surroundings.
“If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?”
Kaia turned her attention back to Aea and noticed the way her eyes crinkled. Kaia raised a brow and was about to ask what Aea meant, when her cousin continued, “Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.”
Oh. Kaia understood now. The blonde gave a sly smirk as she contemplated the question, her stormy eyes absently flicking up towards the stars in thought. First and foremost, Kaia knew when and where to draw the line in regards to her fantasies. There was no use pining over what could never be, but there was also no harm in stretching her imagination to imagine what her life—or things in it—could be like.
Kaia thought back to the man she’d lain with and what it was about him that moved her to bed him before taking his money at knifepoint. If Kaia were to guess, she would have assumed him to be anywhere from five to ten years her senior. He had a decently well built frame for a commonborn man, which came from him working his father’s farm. Perhaps that was what appealed to her. He was one of the more abled bodied men they’d attacked, but even a man who was easily bigger than her could be rendered defenceless when naked and caught off guard.
However, she hadn’t seen his body properly before she made her decision. So what had it been? Kaia thought back to how she and Aea came to pick him as a target and remembered that he’d been unusually kind to his aging goat when it began to struggle on the road. Despite his frame, they’d considered him a target due to the sensitive and gentle display he showed the animal. Perhaps they should have moved onto another target; most of the men they preyed on gave them no reason to feel guilty, for they showed the worst aspects of being a man, however Kaia remembered insisting they target the farmer’s boy, he had been handsome, but not in the same way as her uncle Cassero. The bard was like a walking manifestation of honey and milk, but this man had been different. Perhaps he wasn’t really even that attractive, but his solid stature combined with his gentle nature caught Kaia’s attention, of that there had been no doubt. Even when he laid with her, he’d been gentle.
And yet, that wasn’t an answer Kaia was willing to give. She wondered if Aea half expected her to describe that man’s features, but truth be told, his features had been rather plain. He had deep, dark brown eyes and the parts of his face she could see that wasn’t covered in course stubble was sunkissed. His hair was brown too, but seemed darker from sweat and dirt. Beyond that, Kaia couldn’t remember anything noteworthy about his face.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us,” Kaia began, partially stalling for time so that she could think on her answer some more. “Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes,” Kaia mused out loud, somewhat pleased with her deflection from the farmer’s boy.
“What about you? Who would you choose?” Kaia asked curiously. They’d never really talked about what they fancied about men. Kaia wondered at what Aea found attractive.
“Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring?” Aea considered the women carefully as they moved and rubbed themselves against each other like cats. When she looked back at her cousin, she did not expect to find Kaia’s eyes so wide and astonished.
Oh, no, Aea did not mean to call her a whore in the sense of now. That one time Kaia took that dirt-covered goat fucker to bed had been something of a nerve-wracking experience for both of them. Aea was left pacing outside the room while the two of them were inside, and whenever she would press her ear to the door and hear silence, her heart would pound too fast and she had almost barged in to make sure the beast wasn’t breaking her cousin on more than one occasion. But she stayed her hand, and Kaia had been fine.
Aea only meant that Kaia was wise to the ways of men, and that she would make a fine professional whore. Next time some dirty goat-heard wanted to plug her, he’d have to pay. It was better than doing it for free, surely. “You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food.”
She thought her logic was rather sound. When Kaia’s smooth cheeks bloomed pink and the blonde shook her head. Aea clamped her mouth shut. What? It was logical. What was wrong with whoring? Aea would do it if she’d be any good at it, but that was unfortunately not where her skills lay.
“I’d much rather steal from men, than let them touch me and pay me for it.” Kaia’s smile looked more like a grimace and Aea frowned softly. Whoring was legal, though. And easier.
“But why?” Aea muttered, glancing at the women yet again, “I would be one if I would be any good at it. You are lucky, Aphrodite smiled the day you were born. You have a way to...well…” Leave. To have a full life. Aea shook her head, “It doesn’t matter. Whether you are a whore or a thief, I will love you. It’s just that being a whore carries much less of a risk for beheading. I only want you to live a long time, and be happy.”
The conversation jumped to the coming night ahead, though Aea’s mind kept wandering back to the topic of whoring. She found herself quite puzzled over Kaia’s staunch refusal to even consider it as an option. Frankly, it was foolish. The blonde had already lain with a man, so it wasn’t as if she were saving herself for a husband. She could make a great amount of money, and with Aea by her side, they could secure her a bright and prosperous career. Kaia would be safe, she would have food all the time, she would have shelter, and people would shower her in gifts and affection.
And yet their old goat and threadbare clothes were more appealing. It was fucking silly. Kaia was squandering her gifts and spitting at the feet of the goddess that blessed her. It was not fair. It was one of those moments that Aea imagined strangling Kaia in the privacy of her mind, shaking sense into her, beating reason into her pretty blonde head. Whatever. Kaia wanted to hang like Aea would one day, that was on her. She’d better hope Aea met the noose before her though, else Aea would find a necromancer and kill Kaia all over again for her stupidity.
Just then, a drunkard tipped his wine onto Aea’s head and she saw red. What she wouldn’t give for a way to simply buy a new one and forget all about the one wrapped around her face. But she couldn’t, because she had no money. Fucking fuck.
Aea ground her teeth together and wrangled her temper before it imploded. Now was not the time for a legendary tantrum. It was supposed to be a fun night, a good night. Aea counted backward from ten and imagined opening the man’s fat throat, of feeling the warmth of his blood spraying across her cheeks and tacking into her eyelashes. She could taste it, the phantom liquid on her tongue, and it calmed her. She imagined cornering him in an alley and carving into his big belly, inducing all sorts of groveling and whimpering from his pathetic, drunk, fat little body.
She would get to force somebody to her mercy tonight. Maybe not that man, but somebody. She would be powerful for that moment when her prey’s life hung in that precarious space between escape and finality.
It helped distract her from her ruined epiblema, though she kept touching the stain, self-conscious that somebody would see it which was fucking ridiculous. Nobody gave a shit about her stain. She knew that. It was just...she gave a shit about it.
Aea and Kaia trailed down the street and when Aea found the perfect observation point in front of a large tavern, she hurriedly leaned against the column to claim her spot before anybody else did. Her eyes swooped up and down the street, but she did not see anybody particularly promising, which was usual. It was laughably unlikely that the perfect target would just happen by at that very moment. All they had now was time.
Aea thought again at the prospect of whoring and found that her irritation for her cousin had faded into nothing. She hated how jealous she got, and how very wrathful it made her. Every damn time. It was as if she were cursed by some spirit of greed who wanted all things and could not stand when others had them. And she had the worst outward reactions to the things and people she envied.
Once, Hektos had told Kaia she’d done a good job when she chased down an escaped quarry. Aea had been the one who caught him, and Kaia struck the killing blow, but Hektos did not even acknowledge Aea’s hand in the success. She’d thrown Kaia’s quiver into the sea for that one.
Aea rubbed her temple as if it would physically clear the streak of white-hot rage that kept bobbing to the surface like a corpse in a river. Once she hurt somebody, she would feel better. It wasn’t even the violence that thrilled her; only the reassurance that she was here, she was real, and that at least for a moment, she could be something more. She would be visible, tangible, and she would catch a brief glimpse of what it might be like to be great.
Hades, she didn’t even have to stab anybody to do it. Just as long as they thought she would, her prey would dissolve into a helpless heap, and she would be their lord and master until she deigned to allow them escape. Aea licked her lips and glanced at Kaia, “If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?”
She did not realize what she was asking until she pondered on it for a moment. Aea told herself it was a silly question to pass the time, but she could not lie to herself so well. In the black hollows of her mind, she imagined having someone she desired at the point of her knife, and what she might do to him. Aea crossed her arms and rubbed away the forming goosebumps. She did not know what she would do; she would be just as likely to drop her knife and apologize profusely as she was to humiliate him. She would like to think she would be able to compose herself, but she was not so sure.
“Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.” Aea flicked her eyes to her cousin, and a slick smirk drew over Kaia’s face before she tilted it up to contemplate the sky. The blonde didn’t answer for a few moments, and Aea found herself genuinely wondering what kind of target she was thinking about. She assumed Kaia would say ‘handsome and rich,’ but she was really considering the question, so perhaps not.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes.”
Aea snorted and felt her mood lightening considerably. And just like that, the whorehouse, the wine stain, the absolute fury that once stirred in her breast for no reason other than bad emotional control—it all dissolved.
“I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.” Aea was joking, of course. But the more she considered it, the more she wondered what she might look like had she been born a man. Would she be handsome? Tall? Strong?
“What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea opened her mouth to say ‘rich and stupid,’ but then she closed her mouth and really thought about it. If she could have anybody at the point of her knife—who would it be? She hadn’t seen a truly beautiful man before, nor a truly competent one outside of her family...but no, that wasn’t true, was it? She’d seen a beautiful, competent man before—several, in fact—but that had been years ago when they had joined a raiding group up North and she could not remember any of their faces. She remembered one, and although his exact features escaped her memory, she remembered his eyes and his cocky half-smile. She remembered sneaking glances at him when he wasn't looking because there was no way she couldn't not look at him.
She did not realize she’d closed her eyes until she’d opened them to look at Kaia. “I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were.” Blue and blonde, like Kaia, but darker. “But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
Aea held her chin in her fingers and narrowed her eyes at a man who was striding down the street, looking a little too alert and confident to have been on the avenue for long.
“It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long. For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
Arra
Aea
Arra
Aea
Awards
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
“Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring?” Aea considered the women carefully as they moved and rubbed themselves against each other like cats. When she looked back at her cousin, she did not expect to find Kaia’s eyes so wide and astonished.
Oh, no, Aea did not mean to call her a whore in the sense of now. That one time Kaia took that dirt-covered goat fucker to bed had been something of a nerve-wracking experience for both of them. Aea was left pacing outside the room while the two of them were inside, and whenever she would press her ear to the door and hear silence, her heart would pound too fast and she had almost barged in to make sure the beast wasn’t breaking her cousin on more than one occasion. But she stayed her hand, and Kaia had been fine.
Aea only meant that Kaia was wise to the ways of men, and that she would make a fine professional whore. Next time some dirty goat-heard wanted to plug her, he’d have to pay. It was better than doing it for free, surely. “You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food.”
She thought her logic was rather sound. When Kaia’s smooth cheeks bloomed pink and the blonde shook her head. Aea clamped her mouth shut. What? It was logical. What was wrong with whoring? Aea would do it if she’d be any good at it, but that was unfortunately not where her skills lay.
“I’d much rather steal from men, than let them touch me and pay me for it.” Kaia’s smile looked more like a grimace and Aea frowned softly. Whoring was legal, though. And easier.
“But why?” Aea muttered, glancing at the women yet again, “I would be one if I would be any good at it. You are lucky, Aphrodite smiled the day you were born. You have a way to...well…” Leave. To have a full life. Aea shook her head, “It doesn’t matter. Whether you are a whore or a thief, I will love you. It’s just that being a whore carries much less of a risk for beheading. I only want you to live a long time, and be happy.”
The conversation jumped to the coming night ahead, though Aea’s mind kept wandering back to the topic of whoring. She found herself quite puzzled over Kaia’s staunch refusal to even consider it as an option. Frankly, it was foolish. The blonde had already lain with a man, so it wasn’t as if she were saving herself for a husband. She could make a great amount of money, and with Aea by her side, they could secure her a bright and prosperous career. Kaia would be safe, she would have food all the time, she would have shelter, and people would shower her in gifts and affection.
And yet their old goat and threadbare clothes were more appealing. It was fucking silly. Kaia was squandering her gifts and spitting at the feet of the goddess that blessed her. It was not fair. It was one of those moments that Aea imagined strangling Kaia in the privacy of her mind, shaking sense into her, beating reason into her pretty blonde head. Whatever. Kaia wanted to hang like Aea would one day, that was on her. She’d better hope Aea met the noose before her though, else Aea would find a necromancer and kill Kaia all over again for her stupidity.
Just then, a drunkard tipped his wine onto Aea’s head and she saw red. What she wouldn’t give for a way to simply buy a new one and forget all about the one wrapped around her face. But she couldn’t, because she had no money. Fucking fuck.
Aea ground her teeth together and wrangled her temper before it imploded. Now was not the time for a legendary tantrum. It was supposed to be a fun night, a good night. Aea counted backward from ten and imagined opening the man’s fat throat, of feeling the warmth of his blood spraying across her cheeks and tacking into her eyelashes. She could taste it, the phantom liquid on her tongue, and it calmed her. She imagined cornering him in an alley and carving into his big belly, inducing all sorts of groveling and whimpering from his pathetic, drunk, fat little body.
She would get to force somebody to her mercy tonight. Maybe not that man, but somebody. She would be powerful for that moment when her prey’s life hung in that precarious space between escape and finality.
It helped distract her from her ruined epiblema, though she kept touching the stain, self-conscious that somebody would see it which was fucking ridiculous. Nobody gave a shit about her stain. She knew that. It was just...she gave a shit about it.
Aea and Kaia trailed down the street and when Aea found the perfect observation point in front of a large tavern, she hurriedly leaned against the column to claim her spot before anybody else did. Her eyes swooped up and down the street, but she did not see anybody particularly promising, which was usual. It was laughably unlikely that the perfect target would just happen by at that very moment. All they had now was time.
Aea thought again at the prospect of whoring and found that her irritation for her cousin had faded into nothing. She hated how jealous she got, and how very wrathful it made her. Every damn time. It was as if she were cursed by some spirit of greed who wanted all things and could not stand when others had them. And she had the worst outward reactions to the things and people she envied.
Once, Hektos had told Kaia she’d done a good job when she chased down an escaped quarry. Aea had been the one who caught him, and Kaia struck the killing blow, but Hektos did not even acknowledge Aea’s hand in the success. She’d thrown Kaia’s quiver into the sea for that one.
Aea rubbed her temple as if it would physically clear the streak of white-hot rage that kept bobbing to the surface like a corpse in a river. Once she hurt somebody, she would feel better. It wasn’t even the violence that thrilled her; only the reassurance that she was here, she was real, and that at least for a moment, she could be something more. She would be visible, tangible, and she would catch a brief glimpse of what it might be like to be great.
Hades, she didn’t even have to stab anybody to do it. Just as long as they thought she would, her prey would dissolve into a helpless heap, and she would be their lord and master until she deigned to allow them escape. Aea licked her lips and glanced at Kaia, “If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?”
She did not realize what she was asking until she pondered on it for a moment. Aea told herself it was a silly question to pass the time, but she could not lie to herself so well. In the black hollows of her mind, she imagined having someone she desired at the point of her knife, and what she might do to him. Aea crossed her arms and rubbed away the forming goosebumps. She did not know what she would do; she would be just as likely to drop her knife and apologize profusely as she was to humiliate him. She would like to think she would be able to compose herself, but she was not so sure.
“Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.” Aea flicked her eyes to her cousin, and a slick smirk drew over Kaia’s face before she tilted it up to contemplate the sky. The blonde didn’t answer for a few moments, and Aea found herself genuinely wondering what kind of target she was thinking about. She assumed Kaia would say ‘handsome and rich,’ but she was really considering the question, so perhaps not.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes.”
Aea snorted and felt her mood lightening considerably. And just like that, the whorehouse, the wine stain, the absolute fury that once stirred in her breast for no reason other than bad emotional control—it all dissolved.
“I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.” Aea was joking, of course. But the more she considered it, the more she wondered what she might look like had she been born a man. Would she be handsome? Tall? Strong?
“What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea opened her mouth to say ‘rich and stupid,’ but then she closed her mouth and really thought about it. If she could have anybody at the point of her knife—who would it be? She hadn’t seen a truly beautiful man before, nor a truly competent one outside of her family...but no, that wasn’t true, was it? She’d seen a beautiful, competent man before—several, in fact—but that had been years ago when they had joined a raiding group up North and she could not remember any of their faces. She remembered one, and although his exact features escaped her memory, she remembered his eyes and his cocky half-smile. She remembered sneaking glances at him when he wasn't looking because there was no way she couldn't not look at him.
She did not realize she’d closed her eyes until she’d opened them to look at Kaia. “I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were.” Blue and blonde, like Kaia, but darker. “But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
Aea held her chin in her fingers and narrowed her eyes at a man who was striding down the street, looking a little too alert and confident to have been on the avenue for long.
“It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long. For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
“Kaia, have you ever thought of whoring?” Aea considered the women carefully as they moved and rubbed themselves against each other like cats. When she looked back at her cousin, she did not expect to find Kaia’s eyes so wide and astonished.
Oh, no, Aea did not mean to call her a whore in the sense of now. That one time Kaia took that dirt-covered goat fucker to bed had been something of a nerve-wracking experience for both of them. Aea was left pacing outside the room while the two of them were inside, and whenever she would press her ear to the door and hear silence, her heart would pound too fast and she had almost barged in to make sure the beast wasn’t breaking her cousin on more than one occasion. But she stayed her hand, and Kaia had been fine.
Aea only meant that Kaia was wise to the ways of men, and that she would make a fine professional whore. Next time some dirty goat-heard wanted to plug her, he’d have to pay. It was better than doing it for free, surely. “You could make a lot, I think, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof again. It looks like a fun profession, they do seem to like to dance a lot, and look at the pretty outfits they have! You would not have to get married then, and I bet they have the best food.”
She thought her logic was rather sound. When Kaia’s smooth cheeks bloomed pink and the blonde shook her head. Aea clamped her mouth shut. What? It was logical. What was wrong with whoring? Aea would do it if she’d be any good at it, but that was unfortunately not where her skills lay.
“I’d much rather steal from men, than let them touch me and pay me for it.” Kaia’s smile looked more like a grimace and Aea frowned softly. Whoring was legal, though. And easier.
“But why?” Aea muttered, glancing at the women yet again, “I would be one if I would be any good at it. You are lucky, Aphrodite smiled the day you were born. You have a way to...well…” Leave. To have a full life. Aea shook her head, “It doesn’t matter. Whether you are a whore or a thief, I will love you. It’s just that being a whore carries much less of a risk for beheading. I only want you to live a long time, and be happy.”
The conversation jumped to the coming night ahead, though Aea’s mind kept wandering back to the topic of whoring. She found herself quite puzzled over Kaia’s staunch refusal to even consider it as an option. Frankly, it was foolish. The blonde had already lain with a man, so it wasn’t as if she were saving herself for a husband. She could make a great amount of money, and with Aea by her side, they could secure her a bright and prosperous career. Kaia would be safe, she would have food all the time, she would have shelter, and people would shower her in gifts and affection.
And yet their old goat and threadbare clothes were more appealing. It was fucking silly. Kaia was squandering her gifts and spitting at the feet of the goddess that blessed her. It was not fair. It was one of those moments that Aea imagined strangling Kaia in the privacy of her mind, shaking sense into her, beating reason into her pretty blonde head. Whatever. Kaia wanted to hang like Aea would one day, that was on her. She’d better hope Aea met the noose before her though, else Aea would find a necromancer and kill Kaia all over again for her stupidity.
Just then, a drunkard tipped his wine onto Aea’s head and she saw red. What she wouldn’t give for a way to simply buy a new one and forget all about the one wrapped around her face. But she couldn’t, because she had no money. Fucking fuck.
Aea ground her teeth together and wrangled her temper before it imploded. Now was not the time for a legendary tantrum. It was supposed to be a fun night, a good night. Aea counted backward from ten and imagined opening the man’s fat throat, of feeling the warmth of his blood spraying across her cheeks and tacking into her eyelashes. She could taste it, the phantom liquid on her tongue, and it calmed her. She imagined cornering him in an alley and carving into his big belly, inducing all sorts of groveling and whimpering from his pathetic, drunk, fat little body.
She would get to force somebody to her mercy tonight. Maybe not that man, but somebody. She would be powerful for that moment when her prey’s life hung in that precarious space between escape and finality.
It helped distract her from her ruined epiblema, though she kept touching the stain, self-conscious that somebody would see it which was fucking ridiculous. Nobody gave a shit about her stain. She knew that. It was just...she gave a shit about it.
Aea and Kaia trailed down the street and when Aea found the perfect observation point in front of a large tavern, she hurriedly leaned against the column to claim her spot before anybody else did. Her eyes swooped up and down the street, but she did not see anybody particularly promising, which was usual. It was laughably unlikely that the perfect target would just happen by at that very moment. All they had now was time.
Aea thought again at the prospect of whoring and found that her irritation for her cousin had faded into nothing. She hated how jealous she got, and how very wrathful it made her. Every damn time. It was as if she were cursed by some spirit of greed who wanted all things and could not stand when others had them. And she had the worst outward reactions to the things and people she envied.
Once, Hektos had told Kaia she’d done a good job when she chased down an escaped quarry. Aea had been the one who caught him, and Kaia struck the killing blow, but Hektos did not even acknowledge Aea’s hand in the success. She’d thrown Kaia’s quiver into the sea for that one.
Aea rubbed her temple as if it would physically clear the streak of white-hot rage that kept bobbing to the surface like a corpse in a river. Once she hurt somebody, she would feel better. It wasn’t even the violence that thrilled her; only the reassurance that she was here, she was real, and that at least for a moment, she could be something more. She would be visible, tangible, and she would catch a brief glimpse of what it might be like to be great.
Hades, she didn’t even have to stab anybody to do it. Just as long as they thought she would, her prey would dissolve into a helpless heap, and she would be their lord and master until she deigned to allow them escape. Aea licked her lips and glanced at Kaia, “If we were to get the perfect target, what would he be like?”
She did not realize what she was asking until she pondered on it for a moment. Aea told herself it was a silly question to pass the time, but she could not lie to herself so well. In the black hollows of her mind, she imagined having someone she desired at the point of her knife, and what she might do to him. Aea crossed her arms and rubbed away the forming goosebumps. She did not know what she would do; she would be just as likely to drop her knife and apologize profusely as she was to humiliate him. She would like to think she would be able to compose herself, but she was not so sure.
“Hypothetically, of course. If you could choose his face, his character, and his profession.” Aea flicked her eyes to her cousin, and a slick smirk drew over Kaia’s face before she tilted it up to contemplate the sky. The blonde didn’t answer for a few moments, and Aea found herself genuinely wondering what kind of target she was thinking about. She assumed Kaia would say ‘handsome and rich,’ but she was really considering the question, so perhaps not.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes.”
Aea snorted and felt her mood lightening considerably. And just like that, the whorehouse, the wine stain, the absolute fury that once stirred in her breast for no reason other than bad emotional control—it all dissolved.
“I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.” Aea was joking, of course. But the more she considered it, the more she wondered what she might look like had she been born a man. Would she be handsome? Tall? Strong?
“What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea opened her mouth to say ‘rich and stupid,’ but then she closed her mouth and really thought about it. If she could have anybody at the point of her knife—who would it be? She hadn’t seen a truly beautiful man before, nor a truly competent one outside of her family...but no, that wasn’t true, was it? She’d seen a beautiful, competent man before—several, in fact—but that had been years ago when they had joined a raiding group up North and she could not remember any of their faces. She remembered one, and although his exact features escaped her memory, she remembered his eyes and his cocky half-smile. She remembered sneaking glances at him when he wasn't looking because there was no way she couldn't not look at him.
She did not realize she’d closed her eyes until she’d opened them to look at Kaia. “I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were.” Blue and blonde, like Kaia, but darker. “But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
Aea held her chin in her fingers and narrowed her eyes at a man who was striding down the street, looking a little too alert and confident to have been on the avenue for long.
“It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long. For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
“But why? I would be one if I would be any good at it. You are lucky, Aphrodite smiled the day you were born. You have a way to...well…”
Kaia knew her cousin was being kind, but it was not Aphrodite that smiled on her when she was born. She had smiled on Callie, but not on Kaia. If anything at all, it seemed Aphrodite had a wicked sense of humour.
“If you really wanted to do it, I’m sure you could,” Kaia supposed, though she was of the mind that Aea had much more to her than that. However, given Aea’s penchant for keeping her clothes clean, Kaia supposed the lifestyle might suit the younger of the girls. If that was the case, then Kaia would happily help see to it that Aea were successful, but if Aea had any hopes of ever being a whore, she would first need to fully become a woman.
“It doesn’t matter. Whether you are a whore or a thief, I will love you. It’s just that being a whore carries much less of a risk for beheading. I only want you to live a long time, and be happy.”
At that, Kaia’s expression softened. Kaia had not been expecting Aea’s sudden devotion, but she understood it all the same. Aea was right of course, whoring was legal, but being a thief was not. Kaia could very well live a fruitful life as a whore, but the thought of being at the disposal of any man who thought to throw a coin her way made Kaia’s skin crawl. The hungry glances were bad enough, Kaia didn’t think she could tolerate anything physical. Life would be easier if she could, but it was not meant to be.
“No one will be chopping off my head anytime soon,” Kaia promised with a grin. “And I expect the same of you.” If Aea wanted new, clean epiblemas, then she should be allowed to have them. Kaia would give her cousin hers if they weren’t already in a worse state than Aea’s. Kaia did not care for her clothing like Aea did.
The night moved along rather rapidly from that point, and soon enough, Kaia found herself outside a tavern with Aea leaning against the column. Kaia allowed herself a moment to enjoy the cool air on her warm cheeks. She felt so alert and ready for action, she couldn’t imagine going to sleep anytime soon. She wondered how much of the night her and Aea could afford to spend before they would need to return home to be rested enough for the day to come. Their fathers and uncles expected the two of them to be asleep, so would not excuse their exhaustion the following day. It was a fair price to pay though; Kaia could feel that success was within their reach.
Aea suddenly asked Kaia of her perfect target, to which Kaia took a good moment to consider. Her father and cousin especially expressed their concern that her own blonde hair was both beautiful and highly coveted, but Kaia didn’t see the appeal as they did. Dark features were handsome, so Kaia supposed that would help, but ultimately their perfect target would be someone that would be rich, yet defenceless.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes.”
Aea gave an amused snort before responding, “I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.”
Kaia gave a grin, realising her mistake in naming Aea’s features. “If you were a rich man, I would definitely rob and debauch you,” Kaia teased, wondering for a moment what Aea might have looked like if she were male, though Kaia simply couldn’t picture it. Although Aea fussed over Kaia’s appearance and worried over keeping Kaia hidden, Aea was blessed by Aphrodite too. Her figure had more of a fullness to it than Kaia’s and her hair was always so silky, even when matted and dirty. Her sharp features and bright blue eyes really made her face quite striking; Kaia was sure that if Aea were born a noble, she would be a highly sought after bride.
But alas, like Kaia, Aea was common born and so far out of reach of any sort of nobility, it was nearly painful. Life really was not fair in that regard, but Kaia stopped herself from going down that rabbit hole. She did not want to ruin the night by sourering her own mood.
“What about you? Who would you choose?” Kaia asked, turning the subject back on Aea, her honest curiosity serving as an excellent distraction. Aea did not answer right away, though Kaia did not prompt her. The fact that Aea was taking such time and consideration only made Kaia even more hungry for the answer. It was nearly strange how eager Kaia was to find out, as if Aea were about to tell her some delicious secret.
Aea closed her eyes and continued to think. Kaia was just about to resign herself to thinking that Aea had chosen to ignore the question, when the brunette finally answered, “I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were. But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
Kaia raised a brow, both amused and satisfied with the answer. Kaia wasn’t sure why, but there was something pleasing about knowing that information about her cousin. Now, if ever Kaia saw a man that fit the description, she could try and usher him towards her cousin—minus the killing them part.
“Do you not want to survive the night after all? I suppose I’ll have to have all the pomegranates if you go and get yourself killed by your perfect target,” Kaia joked.
“It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long.”
Kaia gave a small snort of amusement, but remained silent as Aea continued to speak, ”For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
Kaia flicked her gaze towards the potential target with as minimal movement of her body as possible, so as not to draw the man’s attention. Aea was right, he was not nearly drunk enough to be one of their usual victims, but it mattered not. Kaia felt as if she and Aea were practically invincible this night. What most caught Kaia’s attention though, was that Aea used beauty to describe the man.
A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth as Kaia began conjuring a plan in her mind. Thankfully the man did not seem to be Aea’s perfect target, but she had called him beautiful, so that was good enough. If the man was not drunk enough, then they would need another way to catch him off guard; what could really compare with him being naked and drunk on his own fulfillment and satisfaction?
“No, I think he will be a perfect target,” Kaia murmured, before flashing her cousin a devious grin of excitement. “I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please.”
Kaia leaned in closer to her cousin and spoke both quickly and quietly. “Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.” With that, Kaia grinned, then turned around and approached the well dressed man, her excitement and giddiness helping to make her warm smile all the more genuine.
“Pardon me,” Kaia began, effectively catching the young man’s attention. “I have a somewhat sensitive request. You see my sister over there?” Kaia asked, glancing over her shoulder towards Aea, before looking back at the man. She saw his eyes dart to Aea then back. Good.
“Well you see, our father has set her up to be married soon. However her betrothed has a reputation for—how should I put this,” Kaia paused a moment for effect, “for experienced women. My dear sister is pure and I fear she will not be happy in her marriage if her husband is displeased. Please, you look so very kind, just the type of man my sister needs to help her with this situation,” Kaia pleaded, completely lying out her ass. There was every chance she’d overreached, but Kaia remained sincere. Hopefully if she seemed absolutely genuine, the man wouldn’t question it. But would he go for it?
Lani
Kaia
Lani
Kaia
Awards
First Impressions:Lean, athletic; Straw-blonde hair, stormy blue eyes, and a nearly permanent scowl.
Address: Your
“But why? I would be one if I would be any good at it. You are lucky, Aphrodite smiled the day you were born. You have a way to...well…”
Kaia knew her cousin was being kind, but it was not Aphrodite that smiled on her when she was born. She had smiled on Callie, but not on Kaia. If anything at all, it seemed Aphrodite had a wicked sense of humour.
“If you really wanted to do it, I’m sure you could,” Kaia supposed, though she was of the mind that Aea had much more to her than that. However, given Aea’s penchant for keeping her clothes clean, Kaia supposed the lifestyle might suit the younger of the girls. If that was the case, then Kaia would happily help see to it that Aea were successful, but if Aea had any hopes of ever being a whore, she would first need to fully become a woman.
“It doesn’t matter. Whether you are a whore or a thief, I will love you. It’s just that being a whore carries much less of a risk for beheading. I only want you to live a long time, and be happy.”
At that, Kaia’s expression softened. Kaia had not been expecting Aea’s sudden devotion, but she understood it all the same. Aea was right of course, whoring was legal, but being a thief was not. Kaia could very well live a fruitful life as a whore, but the thought of being at the disposal of any man who thought to throw a coin her way made Kaia’s skin crawl. The hungry glances were bad enough, Kaia didn’t think she could tolerate anything physical. Life would be easier if she could, but it was not meant to be.
“No one will be chopping off my head anytime soon,” Kaia promised with a grin. “And I expect the same of you.” If Aea wanted new, clean epiblemas, then she should be allowed to have them. Kaia would give her cousin hers if they weren’t already in a worse state than Aea’s. Kaia did not care for her clothing like Aea did.
The night moved along rather rapidly from that point, and soon enough, Kaia found herself outside a tavern with Aea leaning against the column. Kaia allowed herself a moment to enjoy the cool air on her warm cheeks. She felt so alert and ready for action, she couldn’t imagine going to sleep anytime soon. She wondered how much of the night her and Aea could afford to spend before they would need to return home to be rested enough for the day to come. Their fathers and uncles expected the two of them to be asleep, so would not excuse their exhaustion the following day. It was a fair price to pay though; Kaia could feel that success was within their reach.
Aea suddenly asked Kaia of her perfect target, to which Kaia took a good moment to consider. Her father and cousin especially expressed their concern that her own blonde hair was both beautiful and highly coveted, but Kaia didn’t see the appeal as they did. Dark features were handsome, so Kaia supposed that would help, but ultimately their perfect target would be someone that would be rich, yet defenceless.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes.”
Aea gave an amused snort before responding, “I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.”
Kaia gave a grin, realising her mistake in naming Aea’s features. “If you were a rich man, I would definitely rob and debauch you,” Kaia teased, wondering for a moment what Aea might have looked like if she were male, though Kaia simply couldn’t picture it. Although Aea fussed over Kaia’s appearance and worried over keeping Kaia hidden, Aea was blessed by Aphrodite too. Her figure had more of a fullness to it than Kaia’s and her hair was always so silky, even when matted and dirty. Her sharp features and bright blue eyes really made her face quite striking; Kaia was sure that if Aea were born a noble, she would be a highly sought after bride.
But alas, like Kaia, Aea was common born and so far out of reach of any sort of nobility, it was nearly painful. Life really was not fair in that regard, but Kaia stopped herself from going down that rabbit hole. She did not want to ruin the night by sourering her own mood.
“What about you? Who would you choose?” Kaia asked, turning the subject back on Aea, her honest curiosity serving as an excellent distraction. Aea did not answer right away, though Kaia did not prompt her. The fact that Aea was taking such time and consideration only made Kaia even more hungry for the answer. It was nearly strange how eager Kaia was to find out, as if Aea were about to tell her some delicious secret.
Aea closed her eyes and continued to think. Kaia was just about to resign herself to thinking that Aea had chosen to ignore the question, when the brunette finally answered, “I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were. But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
Kaia raised a brow, both amused and satisfied with the answer. Kaia wasn’t sure why, but there was something pleasing about knowing that information about her cousin. Now, if ever Kaia saw a man that fit the description, she could try and usher him towards her cousin—minus the killing them part.
“Do you not want to survive the night after all? I suppose I’ll have to have all the pomegranates if you go and get yourself killed by your perfect target,” Kaia joked.
“It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long.”
Kaia gave a small snort of amusement, but remained silent as Aea continued to speak, ”For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
Kaia flicked her gaze towards the potential target with as minimal movement of her body as possible, so as not to draw the man’s attention. Aea was right, he was not nearly drunk enough to be one of their usual victims, but it mattered not. Kaia felt as if she and Aea were practically invincible this night. What most caught Kaia’s attention though, was that Aea used beauty to describe the man.
A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth as Kaia began conjuring a plan in her mind. Thankfully the man did not seem to be Aea’s perfect target, but she had called him beautiful, so that was good enough. If the man was not drunk enough, then they would need another way to catch him off guard; what could really compare with him being naked and drunk on his own fulfillment and satisfaction?
“No, I think he will be a perfect target,” Kaia murmured, before flashing her cousin a devious grin of excitement. “I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please.”
Kaia leaned in closer to her cousin and spoke both quickly and quietly. “Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.” With that, Kaia grinned, then turned around and approached the well dressed man, her excitement and giddiness helping to make her warm smile all the more genuine.
“Pardon me,” Kaia began, effectively catching the young man’s attention. “I have a somewhat sensitive request. You see my sister over there?” Kaia asked, glancing over her shoulder towards Aea, before looking back at the man. She saw his eyes dart to Aea then back. Good.
“Well you see, our father has set her up to be married soon. However her betrothed has a reputation for—how should I put this,” Kaia paused a moment for effect, “for experienced women. My dear sister is pure and I fear she will not be happy in her marriage if her husband is displeased. Please, you look so very kind, just the type of man my sister needs to help her with this situation,” Kaia pleaded, completely lying out her ass. There was every chance she’d overreached, but Kaia remained sincere. Hopefully if she seemed absolutely genuine, the man wouldn’t question it. But would he go for it?
“But why? I would be one if I would be any good at it. You are lucky, Aphrodite smiled the day you were born. You have a way to...well…”
Kaia knew her cousin was being kind, but it was not Aphrodite that smiled on her when she was born. She had smiled on Callie, but not on Kaia. If anything at all, it seemed Aphrodite had a wicked sense of humour.
“If you really wanted to do it, I’m sure you could,” Kaia supposed, though she was of the mind that Aea had much more to her than that. However, given Aea’s penchant for keeping her clothes clean, Kaia supposed the lifestyle might suit the younger of the girls. If that was the case, then Kaia would happily help see to it that Aea were successful, but if Aea had any hopes of ever being a whore, she would first need to fully become a woman.
“It doesn’t matter. Whether you are a whore or a thief, I will love you. It’s just that being a whore carries much less of a risk for beheading. I only want you to live a long time, and be happy.”
At that, Kaia’s expression softened. Kaia had not been expecting Aea’s sudden devotion, but she understood it all the same. Aea was right of course, whoring was legal, but being a thief was not. Kaia could very well live a fruitful life as a whore, but the thought of being at the disposal of any man who thought to throw a coin her way made Kaia’s skin crawl. The hungry glances were bad enough, Kaia didn’t think she could tolerate anything physical. Life would be easier if she could, but it was not meant to be.
“No one will be chopping off my head anytime soon,” Kaia promised with a grin. “And I expect the same of you.” If Aea wanted new, clean epiblemas, then she should be allowed to have them. Kaia would give her cousin hers if they weren’t already in a worse state than Aea’s. Kaia did not care for her clothing like Aea did.
The night moved along rather rapidly from that point, and soon enough, Kaia found herself outside a tavern with Aea leaning against the column. Kaia allowed herself a moment to enjoy the cool air on her warm cheeks. She felt so alert and ready for action, she couldn’t imagine going to sleep anytime soon. She wondered how much of the night her and Aea could afford to spend before they would need to return home to be rested enough for the day to come. Their fathers and uncles expected the two of them to be asleep, so would not excuse their exhaustion the following day. It was a fair price to pay though; Kaia could feel that success was within their reach.
Aea suddenly asked Kaia of her perfect target, to which Kaia took a good moment to consider. Her father and cousin especially expressed their concern that her own blonde hair was both beautiful and highly coveted, but Kaia didn’t see the appeal as they did. Dark features were handsome, so Kaia supposed that would help, but ultimately their perfect target would be someone that would be rich, yet defenceless.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes.”
Aea gave an amused snort before responding, “I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.”
Kaia gave a grin, realising her mistake in naming Aea’s features. “If you were a rich man, I would definitely rob and debauch you,” Kaia teased, wondering for a moment what Aea might have looked like if she were male, though Kaia simply couldn’t picture it. Although Aea fussed over Kaia’s appearance and worried over keeping Kaia hidden, Aea was blessed by Aphrodite too. Her figure had more of a fullness to it than Kaia’s and her hair was always so silky, even when matted and dirty. Her sharp features and bright blue eyes really made her face quite striking; Kaia was sure that if Aea were born a noble, she would be a highly sought after bride.
But alas, like Kaia, Aea was common born and so far out of reach of any sort of nobility, it was nearly painful. Life really was not fair in that regard, but Kaia stopped herself from going down that rabbit hole. She did not want to ruin the night by sourering her own mood.
“What about you? Who would you choose?” Kaia asked, turning the subject back on Aea, her honest curiosity serving as an excellent distraction. Aea did not answer right away, though Kaia did not prompt her. The fact that Aea was taking such time and consideration only made Kaia even more hungry for the answer. It was nearly strange how eager Kaia was to find out, as if Aea were about to tell her some delicious secret.
Aea closed her eyes and continued to think. Kaia was just about to resign herself to thinking that Aea had chosen to ignore the question, when the brunette finally answered, “I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were. But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
Kaia raised a brow, both amused and satisfied with the answer. Kaia wasn’t sure why, but there was something pleasing about knowing that information about her cousin. Now, if ever Kaia saw a man that fit the description, she could try and usher him towards her cousin—minus the killing them part.
“Do you not want to survive the night after all? I suppose I’ll have to have all the pomegranates if you go and get yourself killed by your perfect target,” Kaia joked.
“It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long.”
Kaia gave a small snort of amusement, but remained silent as Aea continued to speak, ”For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
Kaia flicked her gaze towards the potential target with as minimal movement of her body as possible, so as not to draw the man’s attention. Aea was right, he was not nearly drunk enough to be one of their usual victims, but it mattered not. Kaia felt as if she and Aea were practically invincible this night. What most caught Kaia’s attention though, was that Aea used beauty to describe the man.
A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth as Kaia began conjuring a plan in her mind. Thankfully the man did not seem to be Aea’s perfect target, but she had called him beautiful, so that was good enough. If the man was not drunk enough, then they would need another way to catch him off guard; what could really compare with him being naked and drunk on his own fulfillment and satisfaction?
“No, I think he will be a perfect target,” Kaia murmured, before flashing her cousin a devious grin of excitement. “I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please.”
Kaia leaned in closer to her cousin and spoke both quickly and quietly. “Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.” With that, Kaia grinned, then turned around and approached the well dressed man, her excitement and giddiness helping to make her warm smile all the more genuine.
“Pardon me,” Kaia began, effectively catching the young man’s attention. “I have a somewhat sensitive request. You see my sister over there?” Kaia asked, glancing over her shoulder towards Aea, before looking back at the man. She saw his eyes dart to Aea then back. Good.
“Well you see, our father has set her up to be married soon. However her betrothed has a reputation for—how should I put this,” Kaia paused a moment for effect, “for experienced women. My dear sister is pure and I fear she will not be happy in her marriage if her husband is displeased. Please, you look so very kind, just the type of man my sister needs to help her with this situation,” Kaia pleaded, completely lying out her ass. There was every chance she’d overreached, but Kaia remained sincere. Hopefully if she seemed absolutely genuine, the man wouldn’t question it. But would he go for it?
“If you really wanted to do it, I’m sure you could,” Kaia said quietly. Aea snorted and gave her cousin a narrowed side-glance. “Yes, I’m sure I would make a wonderful whore. ‘Hello, would you like to lay with me? It’ll be an owl, if you please.’ My words would scare them off before anything else did.” She shook her head. Aea would have to lay with a great many men before she would have enough money to purchase the things she wanted. She did not think she could stand doing it once. The thought of doing it hundreds of times...she couldn’t.
She heard a grunt in her head, then a hundred more. A hundred hundred grasping fingers reaching for her. Pressure on her skin, every inch, the flesh of men whose faces and voices she did not know. A dozen gleaming knives. A suffocating heat that turned into burning fire, encasing her in a box where she could not move, could not scream. And laughter. Tonations and volumes clashing and mounting upon each other, on and on until it was no longer laughter, but the lone cry of a faceless, formless monster.
Aea shuddered and scrubbed at her temple. Thoughts. Just thoughts. They could not harm her. If she could better stand a stranger’s close vicinity, of a stranger’s touch, then she would learn to speak well and welcome those who would pay for the privilege of her company, such as it was. But she could not endure it. When the men she killed clawed at her with their last vestiges of strength, the skin-on-skin contact made her want to scream and shed out of her body. She could stand to touch them, at least, else she would not be a very competent outlaw.
She’d never seen Kaia give such a response to strangers, though, which—in addition to her appearance—was why she could be a whore long before Aea. Kaia could do so much with her graceful appearance, and she didn’t want to. Because she thought men might do what they liked. It was silly. Of course they would not. They would be frightened of Kaia. In fact, Aea did not see why Kaia’s clientele could not be those men who were specifically intimidated by her, and only those men.
Aea could relate, she supposed. She did not want to be a farmer, and no amount of money would convince her to desire it. Farming could be the single most profitable industry in Greece, and she would still rather the road. A whore, though. A whore went places, saw things, met people, held council with the greatest minds and the worst of humanity. Sure, people got to touch the whore in question, but it was a small price to pay if said whore could tolerate it. Aea brushed off the conversation and assured her cousin that it didn’t matter what she chose to be, as long as her longevity was ensured.
“No one will be chopping off my head anytime soon,” Kaia grinned. “And I expect the same of you.”
Aea snorted and rolled her eyes, “I cannot make such a promise. My risk assessment is decidedly a malfunctioning element. I suppose I’d rather lose my head young than allow it to grow grey and useless. I’m sure, when the day comes, it will have been worth it. Like a heist. As long as we executed the greatest thievery in the history of Greece, I would consider it a great death.”
She imagined the excitement, the fear, the absolute ecstasy of a successful strategy. There would be so much money. Drachma upon drachma. And fire. A fire so great it would burn the whole building down, roaring so hot that nobody would dare approach.
“We should plan a heist,” Aea said suddenly, “perhaps not one to do now, but in the future. If neither of us are going to be whores, perhaps neither of us will become wives either, and we would have to make our fortune somehow, or we risk taking care of five grumpy old men for the rest of our lives.”
Aea hoped she didn’t die from such a venture, but she would if the other choice was marrying a goat-fucker and becoming a goat-fucker by matrimony.
“How would you die?” She cracked a knowing grin, “Covered in mud with a bow in hand and blood smeared across your face, no doubt. But where, doing what?”
She would not mind that, herself. As long as she was wearing something she meant to get dirty, then she would writhe in a puddle of wine and shit if there was a use in it. Perhaps she should be a soldier or a pirate, she and Kaia. Or infamous robbers. Mercenaries. It did not matter, for every future she would have, Kaia would be in it. That is, unless Aea went with Hektos’ plan, in which case it would be her, a husband, and his goats. Kaia could not come then.
Aea really did not want that, but when she brought her imagination down from a place of wishes and forced it to consider tangible reality, she could not actually see herself refusing and running off to avoid such a fate. Without marrying, her family would lose something they needed to survive. Kelosi would be gone soon, and they would need a way to have milk. If Aea left, they would have no means of getting a new goat, and then…well, then they would just buy one, wouldn’t they?
A twitch ran through her hands and she stared ahead for a few moments, turning the rather elementary realization over in her mind. If Aea refused to marry, her family would just dig up one of their many hidden jars and buy whatever they needed. She didn’t have to get married if her family thought her worth a couple of owls...surely she was worth that to them. The idea cemented in her mind and she moved to share her discovery with Kaia, but then she clamped down on the impulse. It was only half-formed, and she did not know how she would go about actually executing a plan to avoid such a marriage.
It wasn’t that she was against the idea of matrimony, just the groom in question. It would be nice to have a partner in the world, maybe another bandit or a thief or a murderer. She would not need a house, for he could be home. She would not need goats or money, for he and she would simply take what they needed. He did not need to be handsome, or strong, or daring, he only needed to think deeply and rise to her challenge when she brought out her blades. At night, he would lay his head in her lap and they would fall asleep without words, just basking in the warmth of the fire and the light of the stars. It would be a simple life, but she would be happy with that. Love—at least the kind between lovers—was a distant, abstract concept set in the fantastical worlds of stories and sagas. Still, Aea was sure she could fall in love with such a man. What disturbed her was the thought of being regulated to four walls, a thatch of land, and a husband who looked upon her as one might analyze livestock. They moved to the tavern and Aea, random to anybody who was not observing her mind, brought up the topic of men. Specifically, what sort Kaia would prefer robbing.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes,” Kaia said.
Aea snorted. “I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.”
Kaia grinned. “If you were a rich man, I would definitely rob and debauch you.”
Aea had been joking, but Kaia’s statement pleased her more than she expected. There was a compliment in there, something validating. She was not ugly, at least to herself, but her features were not symmetrical either. Her chin was long and pointed, her lips substantial, her smile just as large. She would be odd-looking to many people, she was sure, but it was nice to know that Kaia was not one of them. It felt like acceptance, or perhaps validation.
“I believe that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Aea couldn’t contain her own mischievous smirk, “But do be careful, or I might start expecting such sweetness from you on a fortnightly basis.”
“What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea did not have to think overmuch about her answer, for she had it before she ever knew she would need it. Perhaps it had been hiding somewhere in her mind, waiting for just the right time to come out. Aea closed her eyes without meaning to, struggling to grasp a full, sharp memory of the only time she’d been absolutely dumbstruck. It felt as if she'd been so young, but it was only three summers past. She could not find the shape of the man’s face, only his eyes and his grin. She remembered the way he moved, the way he carried himself, the way he spoke to the men around him. Even blood-splattered and reeking of battle-sweat, he’d been bewitching. What was worse was that he wasn’t even trying. Aea imagined what she might do if she could wrangle him under her knife. She’d likely be so nervous that he’d just disarm her and kill her on the spot.
But if she were not nervous, if he could not disarm her without seriously maiming himself, what would she have of him? His money, certainly. His weapons. His clothes. She would make him strip bare, then she’d tie his feet and his hands together before kicking him into the street. He’d have to call for help to get out of his predicament. She didn’t know why the thought of embarrassing him filled her with a pleased and content warmth. Perhaps it was a way to take the power he held and make it her own; or maybe it was taking back the power that he’d stolen from her. A conquest of sorts. He would hate her, and he would be frightened of her, and no matter how large and competent he was, she could bring him low if it pleased her.
The reality was, however, that Aea was not capable of taking down such a man. She was young, she was a woman, and she was only exceptional in the areas that she was exceptional in, which was usually less substantive than the average man with a sword. It was a very large problem, then, that she had a preference for robbing men that were above average in terms of skill.
“I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were. But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
“Do you not want to survive the night after all? I suppose I’ll have to have all the pomegranates if you go and get yourself killed by your perfect target," Kaia said.
Aea scoffed, “I’ll just have to sneak into Hades’ chambers and steal his, then. I’m sure Lady Persephone wouldn’t mind sharing.” A wicked thought entered her mind and her eyes widened when she realized how her words could be taken as blasphemous. “The pomegranates, that is. Not her husband!”
She tensed for a moment, waiting for something to happen. She didn’t know what. The pillar crumbling and the tavern falling upon her, a bolt of lightning striking her, a bug bite...nothing came and she relaxed. Perhaps the Gods were not paying attention, which was likely. She was nobody of import. Aea let out a quiet breath and shifted back to the topic at hand. “It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long.”
Kaia snorted, probably halfway amused and halfway in agreement. She had more common sense than Aea could ever hope for, and she always seemed to know just what to do in order to avoid certain death or maiming. She was usually the one who chose their targets anyway. Aea was only good at separating the comfortable working class from the struggling working class.
Aea turned her eyes to the street and caught on a man in a bright tunic and chlamys. He was young and unscarred, and though clearly not overly wealthy, he was more attractive than the portly men clogging the street. Illogical as it was, Aea would rather corner him than the other men in the immediate vicinity. ”For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
Kaia’s gaze flicked to him, as did Aea’s, and they both silently watched him stroll down the avenue. He was looking about, as if trying to find something that was of only minor import. Kaia smirked, “No, I think he will be a perfect target.”
Aea’s eyebrows shot up and she studied her cousin’s expression. She...she was not wrong? Well, that was quite reassuring, actually. The blonde looked dead at Aea and her smirk transformed into something unnervingly devious. Aea could not say that she’d seen such a smile on Kaia before.
Kaia’s murmur sped up as she talked until her words came out hushed and rushed all at once. “I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please.”
Those words did not make immediate sense to Aea, but then they clicked into place and her eyes strained with how wide they opened.
“What?” She meant to sound more unimpressed than anxious, but her voice betrayed her and it came out in a squeak. Aea’s jaw worked around unvoiced sentences that got caught in the netting of her disbelief and inability to adapt to such a ridiculous scenario.
Kaia took a step closer. “Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.”
“But—”
Kaia only grinned and pivoted on her heel. Aea reached out to grab her and stop her, or at least she thought she did, but when she looked down at her hands after Kaia darted away, they were hanging uselessly at her side.
Oh shit. Aea swallowed and looked up. Kaia was standing in front of the man, speaking with him. Aea could not hear what was being said and truthfully, she did not want to. What possessed her cousin to proposition this man? Was it the whore comment? Aea had already revoked it! She did not think she gave off any indication that she wanted to bed this man.
The man looked up briefly and Aea looked at the sky, as if she had no idea what was happening, but that was stupid—of course she did. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. Why? Just...no. Fuck, he was coming. The slap of slow, approaching sandals made Aea keenly aware that she had not relieved her bladder in some time. She was still looking at the sky, and she was very aware of how ridiculous she appeared, but she could not tear her eyes away from it. The mere thought of looking at the man who she was to...be intimate with was now standing scant feet away. It made her skin crawl with goosebumps. Now would be the best time for a hole to open beneath her feet and send her tumbling to Hades.
“Hello.” His voice was a low alto, crisp and foreign in accent. Athenian, sounded like. She thought, anyway. Hard to tell with only two syllables to work with.
The first response that almost hiccuped past her lips was, ‘hello, do you want to have sex? It will be an owl, if you please.’ She pursed her mouth and kept any words from leaking past her teeth. Go away. Maybe if she stared at the sky for an endless amount of time, he would cut his losses and just go pay for a whore instead of emptying himself for free.
“Your sister tells me you’re...ah...to be married soon.”
Definitely Athenian. Aea did not answer. There was a very long pause, and she assumed that he would take the hint and leave like any normal person might. She, herself, would have left after her initial greeting was ignored. Perhaps he was too stupid to read a social cue.
“The stars are lovely tonight.”
There was a slight chance that he would continue. Unlikely, but possible. She did not want him to. The fact that he took a step closer rather than depart set her teeth on edge, a warm fury clawing past her full bladder and her too-fast heartbeat. She was hyper-aware. The focus she had on Orion’s constellation was consuming her peripherals, the sounds of the tavern behind her and the man’s shifting clothes before her was too sharp. Her skin buzzed, her pores tingling as if she could sense the hairs growing upon her flesh. Go away.
“It’s alright to be nervous. I don’t bite, promise.”
The audacity of his assumption pushed her further into awareness of the external. She was not nervous—nervousness implied fear, and she was not afraid of this pathetic gnat. She was just...telling him to fuck off in the most polite way she knew how. Fucking asshole, I’m not nervous. He should be the one who was nervous. She was a black-hearted killer who had ended men far larger and more capable than he. She would make him nervous. Fuck him.
“My sister is not really my sister.” Aea blinked and slowly let out her breath so that she didn’t begin vomiting words as she was prone to doing. Her eyes drew to him and locked onto his own eyes, a wide and unsure look swimming in his blue irises. The focus that was given to the stars was now fixed upon him, and she was not going to let him escape before she was satisfied that he was thoroughly horrified for thinking her nervous due to his unimpressive presence.
“Oh.” He shuffled his feet and she didn’t blink as she stared at him. His gaze dropped to the ground when hers did not give him any quarter.
There was no inflection in her tone, no facial moment in her eyes or underneath the epiblema. The blood swelling hot in her veins melted any conscientious thought she might have had at rest. She could run or she could meet this threat. An idea struck her and she did not question it, did not plan the execution, did not consider the consequences. Her psyche was no longer part of the equation; instead, her subconscious simply dug up the information she needed and her body moved. She held out her hand, palm up and flat. “This is a game of fantasy. And you’ll have to pay to play and see it fulfilled.”
He flicked his eyes from the ground to her face. She thought for sure that he would dart away at any moment. Instead, he looked left, then right, then reached to his hip and dug past the folds of his white chlamys. Aea did not allow her expression to drop in surprise, but her entire body seemed to give off one mass twitch. He couldn’t be serious.
“How much?” He cupped his palm and began counting his coin. Surely not. He should be running away in terror right now, or at least inching away with unease. Stupid man. Aea glanced at the money in his palm and saw two silver pieces.
“All of it.” Aea breathed.
He glanced up with a furrowed brow, a question on his face. She snapped her fingers to hasten him and he startled. The more one was rushed, the more one tended to make mistakes or throw whatever they could at the problem. She did not think he would really give her everything; she assumed he would hold out his purse and reveal that he only had three silver, in which case she would laugh at him until he left, which would have the added bonus of his humiliation for daring to call her a coward. Nervous. Ha. She did not get nervous because of worms like him.
The man reached to his hip against and she heard the sound of clanking money.
“I have a drachme and seven owls.”
It took much effort not to react to that. So much. She'd never even held a drachme—there was no way a whore might offer herself for such a price, for then they would all be filthy with wealth. He should see this, surely. Her clothes were tattered, and she had no doubt he'd paid for a whore before. Perhaps she was worth more than the average whore. How...flattering. Any pleasant surprise quickly fled, exchanging itself for a new flutter of anxiety. If she accepted the man’s money, then she would lay with him, and there was no backing out.
She knew it would hurt, but the pain wasn’t the thing that made her heart gallop. She could not put a name to what it was, only that the thought of being alone and disarmed in such close proximity to a person she didn’t know was unpleasant. Further thoughts of his unfamiliar body rubbing against her own made her queasy. Kaia was right, though. Even if she would not be a whore after tonight, she needed to lay with a man, just to get it over with. Just so she would know why men concentrated so heavily upon the action of copulation. She could no longer deny that the creeping dread filling her was indeed fear, and that put further pressure upon her to simply do it.
There was an unnecessarily long stretch of time between him pulling out his coins and her expression finally shifting. She’d told him it was a fantasy, so now she could relax into her growing sense of unease without appearing weak and easily killed. Aea snatched the money from his hand and held it out for Kaia to take, keeping her attention on the man. Where should they go? An alley? An inn? She didn’t know. He would, though. He was older than she by a fair bit. Closer to thirty than twenty. Then again, his skin was so pale and smooth, indicating that he did not spend much time outside. It was possible that he was older than he appeared, but his air of eagerness was almost child-like.
Aea studied his face for only a moment. She’d noted that he was beautiful before, but she’d meant it as an idea—not literally. By all accounts, he was average looking, though the freckles dusting his cheeks were pretty and she liked the purposeful shape of his thin beard. She could not sense any over-confidence from him, nor any particular cleverness. He was unarmed save for a sword upon his left hip, indicating his right dominance. She peeked at the flash of his forearm underneath his chlamys, but she could not see any scarring or hard muscle. He was not a man that she would have picked for herself, but she supposed paupers couldn’t exactly be picky, and she wasn’t exactly a goddess, herself. At least he didn’t fuck goats, so she did not have to worry about him bleeting at her at any point.
“Where...um...where do we go?” Aea muttered. She dropped all pretense of knowing what she was doing and because of the context she had given him before, she did not feel so in danger as she might have otherwise. People killed other people who did not know what they were doing, but she had established her dominion and he’d quickly aquicised. Her pulse was still thrumming hard, her mind shushed and shoved far away from whatever element controlled her actions in this moment.
His eyes flicked to the tavern behind her. She was not about to spend her drachme on a room. Since he was the one most at ease between them, he could do it. Aea crossed her arms over her chest and moved away from the pillar to enter the tavern he’d indicated. She threw Kaia a final glance over her shoulder and without so many words, begged her not to leave. Even if Kaia only stayed downstairs in the tavern proper, at least it would be close.
She was near enough to the entry to see the inside of the tavern clearly. A pressure pressed into her waist and Aea didn’t think, she only reacted by darting away from the man’s overly familiar touch, slapping his hand in the process. He didn’t protest, and she didn’t look at him to gauge his contrition. He was still following her, so clearly such an aggressive maneuver wasn’t enough to scare him off. She could not do this without him touching her, she needed to get acquainted with the idea, and fast. There would be nothing worse than getting sick in the middle of their joining—she would be mortified.
And in the back of her mind, her doubts surfaced further to the front, encouraging her to simply run with the man’s money and never look back. She swallowed the apprehension and made herself keep moving, one foot before the other. Just like anything, she was sure this would not be half as terrifying after she did it. The trick was making herself do it to begin with.
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
First Impressions:Hourglass; Glossy black hair that falls to her hips, piercing blue eyes, a voluptuous figure, and a serious, concentrated expression.
Address: Your
“If you really wanted to do it, I’m sure you could,” Kaia said quietly. Aea snorted and gave her cousin a narrowed side-glance. “Yes, I’m sure I would make a wonderful whore. ‘Hello, would you like to lay with me? It’ll be an owl, if you please.’ My words would scare them off before anything else did.” She shook her head. Aea would have to lay with a great many men before she would have enough money to purchase the things she wanted. She did not think she could stand doing it once. The thought of doing it hundreds of times...she couldn’t.
She heard a grunt in her head, then a hundred more. A hundred hundred grasping fingers reaching for her. Pressure on her skin, every inch, the flesh of men whose faces and voices she did not know. A dozen gleaming knives. A suffocating heat that turned into burning fire, encasing her in a box where she could not move, could not scream. And laughter. Tonations and volumes clashing and mounting upon each other, on and on until it was no longer laughter, but the lone cry of a faceless, formless monster.
Aea shuddered and scrubbed at her temple. Thoughts. Just thoughts. They could not harm her. If she could better stand a stranger’s close vicinity, of a stranger’s touch, then she would learn to speak well and welcome those who would pay for the privilege of her company, such as it was. But she could not endure it. When the men she killed clawed at her with their last vestiges of strength, the skin-on-skin contact made her want to scream and shed out of her body. She could stand to touch them, at least, else she would not be a very competent outlaw.
She’d never seen Kaia give such a response to strangers, though, which—in addition to her appearance—was why she could be a whore long before Aea. Kaia could do so much with her graceful appearance, and she didn’t want to. Because she thought men might do what they liked. It was silly. Of course they would not. They would be frightened of Kaia. In fact, Aea did not see why Kaia’s clientele could not be those men who were specifically intimidated by her, and only those men.
Aea could relate, she supposed. She did not want to be a farmer, and no amount of money would convince her to desire it. Farming could be the single most profitable industry in Greece, and she would still rather the road. A whore, though. A whore went places, saw things, met people, held council with the greatest minds and the worst of humanity. Sure, people got to touch the whore in question, but it was a small price to pay if said whore could tolerate it. Aea brushed off the conversation and assured her cousin that it didn’t matter what she chose to be, as long as her longevity was ensured.
“No one will be chopping off my head anytime soon,” Kaia grinned. “And I expect the same of you.”
Aea snorted and rolled her eyes, “I cannot make such a promise. My risk assessment is decidedly a malfunctioning element. I suppose I’d rather lose my head young than allow it to grow grey and useless. I’m sure, when the day comes, it will have been worth it. Like a heist. As long as we executed the greatest thievery in the history of Greece, I would consider it a great death.”
She imagined the excitement, the fear, the absolute ecstasy of a successful strategy. There would be so much money. Drachma upon drachma. And fire. A fire so great it would burn the whole building down, roaring so hot that nobody would dare approach.
“We should plan a heist,” Aea said suddenly, “perhaps not one to do now, but in the future. If neither of us are going to be whores, perhaps neither of us will become wives either, and we would have to make our fortune somehow, or we risk taking care of five grumpy old men for the rest of our lives.”
Aea hoped she didn’t die from such a venture, but she would if the other choice was marrying a goat-fucker and becoming a goat-fucker by matrimony.
“How would you die?” She cracked a knowing grin, “Covered in mud with a bow in hand and blood smeared across your face, no doubt. But where, doing what?”
She would not mind that, herself. As long as she was wearing something she meant to get dirty, then she would writhe in a puddle of wine and shit if there was a use in it. Perhaps she should be a soldier or a pirate, she and Kaia. Or infamous robbers. Mercenaries. It did not matter, for every future she would have, Kaia would be in it. That is, unless Aea went with Hektos’ plan, in which case it would be her, a husband, and his goats. Kaia could not come then.
Aea really did not want that, but when she brought her imagination down from a place of wishes and forced it to consider tangible reality, she could not actually see herself refusing and running off to avoid such a fate. Without marrying, her family would lose something they needed to survive. Kelosi would be gone soon, and they would need a way to have milk. If Aea left, they would have no means of getting a new goat, and then…well, then they would just buy one, wouldn’t they?
A twitch ran through her hands and she stared ahead for a few moments, turning the rather elementary realization over in her mind. If Aea refused to marry, her family would just dig up one of their many hidden jars and buy whatever they needed. She didn’t have to get married if her family thought her worth a couple of owls...surely she was worth that to them. The idea cemented in her mind and she moved to share her discovery with Kaia, but then she clamped down on the impulse. It was only half-formed, and she did not know how she would go about actually executing a plan to avoid such a marriage.
It wasn’t that she was against the idea of matrimony, just the groom in question. It would be nice to have a partner in the world, maybe another bandit or a thief or a murderer. She would not need a house, for he could be home. She would not need goats or money, for he and she would simply take what they needed. He did not need to be handsome, or strong, or daring, he only needed to think deeply and rise to her challenge when she brought out her blades. At night, he would lay his head in her lap and they would fall asleep without words, just basking in the warmth of the fire and the light of the stars. It would be a simple life, but she would be happy with that. Love—at least the kind between lovers—was a distant, abstract concept set in the fantastical worlds of stories and sagas. Still, Aea was sure she could fall in love with such a man. What disturbed her was the thought of being regulated to four walls, a thatch of land, and a husband who looked upon her as one might analyze livestock. They moved to the tavern and Aea, random to anybody who was not observing her mind, brought up the topic of men. Specifically, what sort Kaia would prefer robbing.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes,” Kaia said.
Aea snorted. “I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.”
Kaia grinned. “If you were a rich man, I would definitely rob and debauch you.”
Aea had been joking, but Kaia’s statement pleased her more than she expected. There was a compliment in there, something validating. She was not ugly, at least to herself, but her features were not symmetrical either. Her chin was long and pointed, her lips substantial, her smile just as large. She would be odd-looking to many people, she was sure, but it was nice to know that Kaia was not one of them. It felt like acceptance, or perhaps validation.
“I believe that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Aea couldn’t contain her own mischievous smirk, “But do be careful, or I might start expecting such sweetness from you on a fortnightly basis.”
“What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea did not have to think overmuch about her answer, for she had it before she ever knew she would need it. Perhaps it had been hiding somewhere in her mind, waiting for just the right time to come out. Aea closed her eyes without meaning to, struggling to grasp a full, sharp memory of the only time she’d been absolutely dumbstruck. It felt as if she'd been so young, but it was only three summers past. She could not find the shape of the man’s face, only his eyes and his grin. She remembered the way he moved, the way he carried himself, the way he spoke to the men around him. Even blood-splattered and reeking of battle-sweat, he’d been bewitching. What was worse was that he wasn’t even trying. Aea imagined what she might do if she could wrangle him under her knife. She’d likely be so nervous that he’d just disarm her and kill her on the spot.
But if she were not nervous, if he could not disarm her without seriously maiming himself, what would she have of him? His money, certainly. His weapons. His clothes. She would make him strip bare, then she’d tie his feet and his hands together before kicking him into the street. He’d have to call for help to get out of his predicament. She didn’t know why the thought of embarrassing him filled her with a pleased and content warmth. Perhaps it was a way to take the power he held and make it her own; or maybe it was taking back the power that he’d stolen from her. A conquest of sorts. He would hate her, and he would be frightened of her, and no matter how large and competent he was, she could bring him low if it pleased her.
The reality was, however, that Aea was not capable of taking down such a man. She was young, she was a woman, and she was only exceptional in the areas that she was exceptional in, which was usually less substantive than the average man with a sword. It was a very large problem, then, that she had a preference for robbing men that were above average in terms of skill.
“I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were. But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
“Do you not want to survive the night after all? I suppose I’ll have to have all the pomegranates if you go and get yourself killed by your perfect target," Kaia said.
Aea scoffed, “I’ll just have to sneak into Hades’ chambers and steal his, then. I’m sure Lady Persephone wouldn’t mind sharing.” A wicked thought entered her mind and her eyes widened when she realized how her words could be taken as blasphemous. “The pomegranates, that is. Not her husband!”
She tensed for a moment, waiting for something to happen. She didn’t know what. The pillar crumbling and the tavern falling upon her, a bolt of lightning striking her, a bug bite...nothing came and she relaxed. Perhaps the Gods were not paying attention, which was likely. She was nobody of import. Aea let out a quiet breath and shifted back to the topic at hand. “It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long.”
Kaia snorted, probably halfway amused and halfway in agreement. She had more common sense than Aea could ever hope for, and she always seemed to know just what to do in order to avoid certain death or maiming. She was usually the one who chose their targets anyway. Aea was only good at separating the comfortable working class from the struggling working class.
Aea turned her eyes to the street and caught on a man in a bright tunic and chlamys. He was young and unscarred, and though clearly not overly wealthy, he was more attractive than the portly men clogging the street. Illogical as it was, Aea would rather corner him than the other men in the immediate vicinity. ”For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
Kaia’s gaze flicked to him, as did Aea’s, and they both silently watched him stroll down the avenue. He was looking about, as if trying to find something that was of only minor import. Kaia smirked, “No, I think he will be a perfect target.”
Aea’s eyebrows shot up and she studied her cousin’s expression. She...she was not wrong? Well, that was quite reassuring, actually. The blonde looked dead at Aea and her smirk transformed into something unnervingly devious. Aea could not say that she’d seen such a smile on Kaia before.
Kaia’s murmur sped up as she talked until her words came out hushed and rushed all at once. “I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please.”
Those words did not make immediate sense to Aea, but then they clicked into place and her eyes strained with how wide they opened.
“What?” She meant to sound more unimpressed than anxious, but her voice betrayed her and it came out in a squeak. Aea’s jaw worked around unvoiced sentences that got caught in the netting of her disbelief and inability to adapt to such a ridiculous scenario.
Kaia took a step closer. “Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.”
“But—”
Kaia only grinned and pivoted on her heel. Aea reached out to grab her and stop her, or at least she thought she did, but when she looked down at her hands after Kaia darted away, they were hanging uselessly at her side.
Oh shit. Aea swallowed and looked up. Kaia was standing in front of the man, speaking with him. Aea could not hear what was being said and truthfully, she did not want to. What possessed her cousin to proposition this man? Was it the whore comment? Aea had already revoked it! She did not think she gave off any indication that she wanted to bed this man.
The man looked up briefly and Aea looked at the sky, as if she had no idea what was happening, but that was stupid—of course she did. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. Why? Just...no. Fuck, he was coming. The slap of slow, approaching sandals made Aea keenly aware that she had not relieved her bladder in some time. She was still looking at the sky, and she was very aware of how ridiculous she appeared, but she could not tear her eyes away from it. The mere thought of looking at the man who she was to...be intimate with was now standing scant feet away. It made her skin crawl with goosebumps. Now would be the best time for a hole to open beneath her feet and send her tumbling to Hades.
“Hello.” His voice was a low alto, crisp and foreign in accent. Athenian, sounded like. She thought, anyway. Hard to tell with only two syllables to work with.
The first response that almost hiccuped past her lips was, ‘hello, do you want to have sex? It will be an owl, if you please.’ She pursed her mouth and kept any words from leaking past her teeth. Go away. Maybe if she stared at the sky for an endless amount of time, he would cut his losses and just go pay for a whore instead of emptying himself for free.
“Your sister tells me you’re...ah...to be married soon.”
Definitely Athenian. Aea did not answer. There was a very long pause, and she assumed that he would take the hint and leave like any normal person might. She, herself, would have left after her initial greeting was ignored. Perhaps he was too stupid to read a social cue.
“The stars are lovely tonight.”
There was a slight chance that he would continue. Unlikely, but possible. She did not want him to. The fact that he took a step closer rather than depart set her teeth on edge, a warm fury clawing past her full bladder and her too-fast heartbeat. She was hyper-aware. The focus she had on Orion’s constellation was consuming her peripherals, the sounds of the tavern behind her and the man’s shifting clothes before her was too sharp. Her skin buzzed, her pores tingling as if she could sense the hairs growing upon her flesh. Go away.
“It’s alright to be nervous. I don’t bite, promise.”
The audacity of his assumption pushed her further into awareness of the external. She was not nervous—nervousness implied fear, and she was not afraid of this pathetic gnat. She was just...telling him to fuck off in the most polite way she knew how. Fucking asshole, I’m not nervous. He should be the one who was nervous. She was a black-hearted killer who had ended men far larger and more capable than he. She would make him nervous. Fuck him.
“My sister is not really my sister.” Aea blinked and slowly let out her breath so that she didn’t begin vomiting words as she was prone to doing. Her eyes drew to him and locked onto his own eyes, a wide and unsure look swimming in his blue irises. The focus that was given to the stars was now fixed upon him, and she was not going to let him escape before she was satisfied that he was thoroughly horrified for thinking her nervous due to his unimpressive presence.
“Oh.” He shuffled his feet and she didn’t blink as she stared at him. His gaze dropped to the ground when hers did not give him any quarter.
There was no inflection in her tone, no facial moment in her eyes or underneath the epiblema. The blood swelling hot in her veins melted any conscientious thought she might have had at rest. She could run or she could meet this threat. An idea struck her and she did not question it, did not plan the execution, did not consider the consequences. Her psyche was no longer part of the equation; instead, her subconscious simply dug up the information she needed and her body moved. She held out her hand, palm up and flat. “This is a game of fantasy. And you’ll have to pay to play and see it fulfilled.”
He flicked his eyes from the ground to her face. She thought for sure that he would dart away at any moment. Instead, he looked left, then right, then reached to his hip and dug past the folds of his white chlamys. Aea did not allow her expression to drop in surprise, but her entire body seemed to give off one mass twitch. He couldn’t be serious.
“How much?” He cupped his palm and began counting his coin. Surely not. He should be running away in terror right now, or at least inching away with unease. Stupid man. Aea glanced at the money in his palm and saw two silver pieces.
“All of it.” Aea breathed.
He glanced up with a furrowed brow, a question on his face. She snapped her fingers to hasten him and he startled. The more one was rushed, the more one tended to make mistakes or throw whatever they could at the problem. She did not think he would really give her everything; she assumed he would hold out his purse and reveal that he only had three silver, in which case she would laugh at him until he left, which would have the added bonus of his humiliation for daring to call her a coward. Nervous. Ha. She did not get nervous because of worms like him.
The man reached to his hip against and she heard the sound of clanking money.
“I have a drachme and seven owls.”
It took much effort not to react to that. So much. She'd never even held a drachme—there was no way a whore might offer herself for such a price, for then they would all be filthy with wealth. He should see this, surely. Her clothes were tattered, and she had no doubt he'd paid for a whore before. Perhaps she was worth more than the average whore. How...flattering. Any pleasant surprise quickly fled, exchanging itself for a new flutter of anxiety. If she accepted the man’s money, then she would lay with him, and there was no backing out.
She knew it would hurt, but the pain wasn’t the thing that made her heart gallop. She could not put a name to what it was, only that the thought of being alone and disarmed in such close proximity to a person she didn’t know was unpleasant. Further thoughts of his unfamiliar body rubbing against her own made her queasy. Kaia was right, though. Even if she would not be a whore after tonight, she needed to lay with a man, just to get it over with. Just so she would know why men concentrated so heavily upon the action of copulation. She could no longer deny that the creeping dread filling her was indeed fear, and that put further pressure upon her to simply do it.
There was an unnecessarily long stretch of time between him pulling out his coins and her expression finally shifting. She’d told him it was a fantasy, so now she could relax into her growing sense of unease without appearing weak and easily killed. Aea snatched the money from his hand and held it out for Kaia to take, keeping her attention on the man. Where should they go? An alley? An inn? She didn’t know. He would, though. He was older than she by a fair bit. Closer to thirty than twenty. Then again, his skin was so pale and smooth, indicating that he did not spend much time outside. It was possible that he was older than he appeared, but his air of eagerness was almost child-like.
Aea studied his face for only a moment. She’d noted that he was beautiful before, but she’d meant it as an idea—not literally. By all accounts, he was average looking, though the freckles dusting his cheeks were pretty and she liked the purposeful shape of his thin beard. She could not sense any over-confidence from him, nor any particular cleverness. He was unarmed save for a sword upon his left hip, indicating his right dominance. She peeked at the flash of his forearm underneath his chlamys, but she could not see any scarring or hard muscle. He was not a man that she would have picked for herself, but she supposed paupers couldn’t exactly be picky, and she wasn’t exactly a goddess, herself. At least he didn’t fuck goats, so she did not have to worry about him bleeting at her at any point.
“Where...um...where do we go?” Aea muttered. She dropped all pretense of knowing what she was doing and because of the context she had given him before, she did not feel so in danger as she might have otherwise. People killed other people who did not know what they were doing, but she had established her dominion and he’d quickly aquicised. Her pulse was still thrumming hard, her mind shushed and shoved far away from whatever element controlled her actions in this moment.
His eyes flicked to the tavern behind her. She was not about to spend her drachme on a room. Since he was the one most at ease between them, he could do it. Aea crossed her arms over her chest and moved away from the pillar to enter the tavern he’d indicated. She threw Kaia a final glance over her shoulder and without so many words, begged her not to leave. Even if Kaia only stayed downstairs in the tavern proper, at least it would be close.
She was near enough to the entry to see the inside of the tavern clearly. A pressure pressed into her waist and Aea didn’t think, she only reacted by darting away from the man’s overly familiar touch, slapping his hand in the process. He didn’t protest, and she didn’t look at him to gauge his contrition. He was still following her, so clearly such an aggressive maneuver wasn’t enough to scare him off. She could not do this without him touching her, she needed to get acquainted with the idea, and fast. There would be nothing worse than getting sick in the middle of their joining—she would be mortified.
And in the back of her mind, her doubts surfaced further to the front, encouraging her to simply run with the man’s money and never look back. She swallowed the apprehension and made herself keep moving, one foot before the other. Just like anything, she was sure this would not be half as terrifying after she did it. The trick was making herself do it to begin with.
“If you really wanted to do it, I’m sure you could,” Kaia said quietly. Aea snorted and gave her cousin a narrowed side-glance. “Yes, I’m sure I would make a wonderful whore. ‘Hello, would you like to lay with me? It’ll be an owl, if you please.’ My words would scare them off before anything else did.” She shook her head. Aea would have to lay with a great many men before she would have enough money to purchase the things she wanted. She did not think she could stand doing it once. The thought of doing it hundreds of times...she couldn’t.
She heard a grunt in her head, then a hundred more. A hundred hundred grasping fingers reaching for her. Pressure on her skin, every inch, the flesh of men whose faces and voices she did not know. A dozen gleaming knives. A suffocating heat that turned into burning fire, encasing her in a box where she could not move, could not scream. And laughter. Tonations and volumes clashing and mounting upon each other, on and on until it was no longer laughter, but the lone cry of a faceless, formless monster.
Aea shuddered and scrubbed at her temple. Thoughts. Just thoughts. They could not harm her. If she could better stand a stranger’s close vicinity, of a stranger’s touch, then she would learn to speak well and welcome those who would pay for the privilege of her company, such as it was. But she could not endure it. When the men she killed clawed at her with their last vestiges of strength, the skin-on-skin contact made her want to scream and shed out of her body. She could stand to touch them, at least, else she would not be a very competent outlaw.
She’d never seen Kaia give such a response to strangers, though, which—in addition to her appearance—was why she could be a whore long before Aea. Kaia could do so much with her graceful appearance, and she didn’t want to. Because she thought men might do what they liked. It was silly. Of course they would not. They would be frightened of Kaia. In fact, Aea did not see why Kaia’s clientele could not be those men who were specifically intimidated by her, and only those men.
Aea could relate, she supposed. She did not want to be a farmer, and no amount of money would convince her to desire it. Farming could be the single most profitable industry in Greece, and she would still rather the road. A whore, though. A whore went places, saw things, met people, held council with the greatest minds and the worst of humanity. Sure, people got to touch the whore in question, but it was a small price to pay if said whore could tolerate it. Aea brushed off the conversation and assured her cousin that it didn’t matter what she chose to be, as long as her longevity was ensured.
“No one will be chopping off my head anytime soon,” Kaia grinned. “And I expect the same of you.”
Aea snorted and rolled her eyes, “I cannot make such a promise. My risk assessment is decidedly a malfunctioning element. I suppose I’d rather lose my head young than allow it to grow grey and useless. I’m sure, when the day comes, it will have been worth it. Like a heist. As long as we executed the greatest thievery in the history of Greece, I would consider it a great death.”
She imagined the excitement, the fear, the absolute ecstasy of a successful strategy. There would be so much money. Drachma upon drachma. And fire. A fire so great it would burn the whole building down, roaring so hot that nobody would dare approach.
“We should plan a heist,” Aea said suddenly, “perhaps not one to do now, but in the future. If neither of us are going to be whores, perhaps neither of us will become wives either, and we would have to make our fortune somehow, or we risk taking care of five grumpy old men for the rest of our lives.”
Aea hoped she didn’t die from such a venture, but she would if the other choice was marrying a goat-fucker and becoming a goat-fucker by matrimony.
“How would you die?” She cracked a knowing grin, “Covered in mud with a bow in hand and blood smeared across your face, no doubt. But where, doing what?”
She would not mind that, herself. As long as she was wearing something she meant to get dirty, then she would writhe in a puddle of wine and shit if there was a use in it. Perhaps she should be a soldier or a pirate, she and Kaia. Or infamous robbers. Mercenaries. It did not matter, for every future she would have, Kaia would be in it. That is, unless Aea went with Hektos’ plan, in which case it would be her, a husband, and his goats. Kaia could not come then.
Aea really did not want that, but when she brought her imagination down from a place of wishes and forced it to consider tangible reality, she could not actually see herself refusing and running off to avoid such a fate. Without marrying, her family would lose something they needed to survive. Kelosi would be gone soon, and they would need a way to have milk. If Aea left, they would have no means of getting a new goat, and then…well, then they would just buy one, wouldn’t they?
A twitch ran through her hands and she stared ahead for a few moments, turning the rather elementary realization over in her mind. If Aea refused to marry, her family would just dig up one of their many hidden jars and buy whatever they needed. She didn’t have to get married if her family thought her worth a couple of owls...surely she was worth that to them. The idea cemented in her mind and she moved to share her discovery with Kaia, but then she clamped down on the impulse. It was only half-formed, and she did not know how she would go about actually executing a plan to avoid such a marriage.
It wasn’t that she was against the idea of matrimony, just the groom in question. It would be nice to have a partner in the world, maybe another bandit or a thief or a murderer. She would not need a house, for he could be home. She would not need goats or money, for he and she would simply take what they needed. He did not need to be handsome, or strong, or daring, he only needed to think deeply and rise to her challenge when she brought out her blades. At night, he would lay his head in her lap and they would fall asleep without words, just basking in the warmth of the fire and the light of the stars. It would be a simple life, but she would be happy with that. Love—at least the kind between lovers—was a distant, abstract concept set in the fantastical worlds of stories and sagas. Still, Aea was sure she could fall in love with such a man. What disturbed her was the thought of being regulated to four walls, a thatch of land, and a husband who looked upon her as one might analyze livestock. They moved to the tavern and Aea, random to anybody who was not observing her mind, brought up the topic of men. Specifically, what sort Kaia would prefer robbing.
“Well, some sort of profession that would make him rich without being any real threat to us. Tall, strong and clean. Maybe dark hair, but light eyes,” Kaia said.
Aea snorted. “I should be very glad that I am not a rich man, then. Else you might rob and debauch me.”
Kaia grinned. “If you were a rich man, I would definitely rob and debauch you.”
Aea had been joking, but Kaia’s statement pleased her more than she expected. There was a compliment in there, something validating. She was not ugly, at least to herself, but her features were not symmetrical either. Her chin was long and pointed, her lips substantial, her smile just as large. She would be odd-looking to many people, she was sure, but it was nice to know that Kaia was not one of them. It felt like acceptance, or perhaps validation.
“I believe that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Aea couldn’t contain her own mischievous smirk, “But do be careful, or I might start expecting such sweetness from you on a fortnightly basis.”
“What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea did not have to think overmuch about her answer, for she had it before she ever knew she would need it. Perhaps it had been hiding somewhere in her mind, waiting for just the right time to come out. Aea closed her eyes without meaning to, struggling to grasp a full, sharp memory of the only time she’d been absolutely dumbstruck. It felt as if she'd been so young, but it was only three summers past. She could not find the shape of the man’s face, only his eyes and his grin. She remembered the way he moved, the way he carried himself, the way he spoke to the men around him. Even blood-splattered and reeking of battle-sweat, he’d been bewitching. What was worse was that he wasn’t even trying. Aea imagined what she might do if she could wrangle him under her knife. She’d likely be so nervous that he’d just disarm her and kill her on the spot.
But if she were not nervous, if he could not disarm her without seriously maiming himself, what would she have of him? His money, certainly. His weapons. His clothes. She would make him strip bare, then she’d tie his feet and his hands together before kicking him into the street. He’d have to call for help to get out of his predicament. She didn’t know why the thought of embarrassing him filled her with a pleased and content warmth. Perhaps it was a way to take the power he held and make it her own; or maybe it was taking back the power that he’d stolen from her. A conquest of sorts. He would hate her, and he would be frightened of her, and no matter how large and competent he was, she could bring him low if it pleased her.
The reality was, however, that Aea was not capable of taking down such a man. She was young, she was a woman, and she was only exceptional in the areas that she was exceptional in, which was usually less substantive than the average man with a sword. It was a very large problem, then, that she had a preference for robbing men that were above average in terms of skill.
“I don’t think I would care what color his eyes or his hair were. But he would have a beautiful smile. Maybe not a nice one, maybe even a mean one...but it would light up his face. And he would be cunning, and skilled, and far too able for me to rob. In fact, if I could choose the perfect target, it would probably be a rich one that would kill both of us rather easily. A soldier, perhaps. Or a pirate. An assassin or mercenary. A prince. Somebody mischievous and playful, but focused when it comes to slaughtering his assailants—us, in this case.”
“Do you not want to survive the night after all? I suppose I’ll have to have all the pomegranates if you go and get yourself killed by your perfect target," Kaia said.
Aea scoffed, “I’ll just have to sneak into Hades’ chambers and steal his, then. I’m sure Lady Persephone wouldn’t mind sharing.” A wicked thought entered her mind and her eyes widened when she realized how her words could be taken as blasphemous. “The pomegranates, that is. Not her husband!”
She tensed for a moment, waiting for something to happen. She didn’t know what. The pillar crumbling and the tavern falling upon her, a bolt of lightning striking her, a bug bite...nothing came and she relaxed. Perhaps the Gods were not paying attention, which was likely. She was nobody of import. Aea let out a quiet breath and shifted back to the topic at hand. “It has come to my attention that I should never be allowed to choose prey on my own. Clearly I do not want to live long.”
Kaia snorted, probably halfway amused and halfway in agreement. She had more common sense than Aea could ever hope for, and she always seemed to know just what to do in order to avoid certain death or maiming. She was usually the one who chose their targets anyway. Aea was only good at separating the comfortable working class from the struggling working class.
Aea turned her eyes to the street and caught on a man in a bright tunic and chlamys. He was young and unscarred, and though clearly not overly wealthy, he was more attractive than the portly men clogging the street. Illogical as it was, Aea would rather corner him than the other men in the immediate vicinity. ”For example, my first choice is that well-dressed man who is about to walk past us. He is not drunk, he is not distracted, and he has no obvious wealth on him. Tell me, am I being shallow and seeing potential where there is only youth and beauty, or does he look like a good prospect to you as well?”
Kaia’s gaze flicked to him, as did Aea’s, and they both silently watched him stroll down the avenue. He was looking about, as if trying to find something that was of only minor import. Kaia smirked, “No, I think he will be a perfect target.”
Aea’s eyebrows shot up and she studied her cousin’s expression. She...she was not wrong? Well, that was quite reassuring, actually. The blonde looked dead at Aea and her smirk transformed into something unnervingly devious. Aea could not say that she’d seen such a smile on Kaia before.
Kaia’s murmur sped up as she talked until her words came out hushed and rushed all at once. “I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please.”
Those words did not make immediate sense to Aea, but then they clicked into place and her eyes strained with how wide they opened.
“What?” She meant to sound more unimpressed than anxious, but her voice betrayed her and it came out in a squeak. Aea’s jaw worked around unvoiced sentences that got caught in the netting of her disbelief and inability to adapt to such a ridiculous scenario.
Kaia took a step closer. “Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.”
“But—”
Kaia only grinned and pivoted on her heel. Aea reached out to grab her and stop her, or at least she thought she did, but when she looked down at her hands after Kaia darted away, they were hanging uselessly at her side.
Oh shit. Aea swallowed and looked up. Kaia was standing in front of the man, speaking with him. Aea could not hear what was being said and truthfully, she did not want to. What possessed her cousin to proposition this man? Was it the whore comment? Aea had already revoked it! She did not think she gave off any indication that she wanted to bed this man.
The man looked up briefly and Aea looked at the sky, as if she had no idea what was happening, but that was stupid—of course she did. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. Why? Just...no. Fuck, he was coming. The slap of slow, approaching sandals made Aea keenly aware that she had not relieved her bladder in some time. She was still looking at the sky, and she was very aware of how ridiculous she appeared, but she could not tear her eyes away from it. The mere thought of looking at the man who she was to...be intimate with was now standing scant feet away. It made her skin crawl with goosebumps. Now would be the best time for a hole to open beneath her feet and send her tumbling to Hades.
“Hello.” His voice was a low alto, crisp and foreign in accent. Athenian, sounded like. She thought, anyway. Hard to tell with only two syllables to work with.
The first response that almost hiccuped past her lips was, ‘hello, do you want to have sex? It will be an owl, if you please.’ She pursed her mouth and kept any words from leaking past her teeth. Go away. Maybe if she stared at the sky for an endless amount of time, he would cut his losses and just go pay for a whore instead of emptying himself for free.
“Your sister tells me you’re...ah...to be married soon.”
Definitely Athenian. Aea did not answer. There was a very long pause, and she assumed that he would take the hint and leave like any normal person might. She, herself, would have left after her initial greeting was ignored. Perhaps he was too stupid to read a social cue.
“The stars are lovely tonight.”
There was a slight chance that he would continue. Unlikely, but possible. She did not want him to. The fact that he took a step closer rather than depart set her teeth on edge, a warm fury clawing past her full bladder and her too-fast heartbeat. She was hyper-aware. The focus she had on Orion’s constellation was consuming her peripherals, the sounds of the tavern behind her and the man’s shifting clothes before her was too sharp. Her skin buzzed, her pores tingling as if she could sense the hairs growing upon her flesh. Go away.
“It’s alright to be nervous. I don’t bite, promise.”
The audacity of his assumption pushed her further into awareness of the external. She was not nervous—nervousness implied fear, and she was not afraid of this pathetic gnat. She was just...telling him to fuck off in the most polite way she knew how. Fucking asshole, I’m not nervous. He should be the one who was nervous. She was a black-hearted killer who had ended men far larger and more capable than he. She would make him nervous. Fuck him.
“My sister is not really my sister.” Aea blinked and slowly let out her breath so that she didn’t begin vomiting words as she was prone to doing. Her eyes drew to him and locked onto his own eyes, a wide and unsure look swimming in his blue irises. The focus that was given to the stars was now fixed upon him, and she was not going to let him escape before she was satisfied that he was thoroughly horrified for thinking her nervous due to his unimpressive presence.
“Oh.” He shuffled his feet and she didn’t blink as she stared at him. His gaze dropped to the ground when hers did not give him any quarter.
There was no inflection in her tone, no facial moment in her eyes or underneath the epiblema. The blood swelling hot in her veins melted any conscientious thought she might have had at rest. She could run or she could meet this threat. An idea struck her and she did not question it, did not plan the execution, did not consider the consequences. Her psyche was no longer part of the equation; instead, her subconscious simply dug up the information she needed and her body moved. She held out her hand, palm up and flat. “This is a game of fantasy. And you’ll have to pay to play and see it fulfilled.”
He flicked his eyes from the ground to her face. She thought for sure that he would dart away at any moment. Instead, he looked left, then right, then reached to his hip and dug past the folds of his white chlamys. Aea did not allow her expression to drop in surprise, but her entire body seemed to give off one mass twitch. He couldn’t be serious.
“How much?” He cupped his palm and began counting his coin. Surely not. He should be running away in terror right now, or at least inching away with unease. Stupid man. Aea glanced at the money in his palm and saw two silver pieces.
“All of it.” Aea breathed.
He glanced up with a furrowed brow, a question on his face. She snapped her fingers to hasten him and he startled. The more one was rushed, the more one tended to make mistakes or throw whatever they could at the problem. She did not think he would really give her everything; she assumed he would hold out his purse and reveal that he only had three silver, in which case she would laugh at him until he left, which would have the added bonus of his humiliation for daring to call her a coward. Nervous. Ha. She did not get nervous because of worms like him.
The man reached to his hip against and she heard the sound of clanking money.
“I have a drachme and seven owls.”
It took much effort not to react to that. So much. She'd never even held a drachme—there was no way a whore might offer herself for such a price, for then they would all be filthy with wealth. He should see this, surely. Her clothes were tattered, and she had no doubt he'd paid for a whore before. Perhaps she was worth more than the average whore. How...flattering. Any pleasant surprise quickly fled, exchanging itself for a new flutter of anxiety. If she accepted the man’s money, then she would lay with him, and there was no backing out.
She knew it would hurt, but the pain wasn’t the thing that made her heart gallop. She could not put a name to what it was, only that the thought of being alone and disarmed in such close proximity to a person she didn’t know was unpleasant. Further thoughts of his unfamiliar body rubbing against her own made her queasy. Kaia was right, though. Even if she would not be a whore after tonight, she needed to lay with a man, just to get it over with. Just so she would know why men concentrated so heavily upon the action of copulation. She could no longer deny that the creeping dread filling her was indeed fear, and that put further pressure upon her to simply do it.
There was an unnecessarily long stretch of time between him pulling out his coins and her expression finally shifting. She’d told him it was a fantasy, so now she could relax into her growing sense of unease without appearing weak and easily killed. Aea snatched the money from his hand and held it out for Kaia to take, keeping her attention on the man. Where should they go? An alley? An inn? She didn’t know. He would, though. He was older than she by a fair bit. Closer to thirty than twenty. Then again, his skin was so pale and smooth, indicating that he did not spend much time outside. It was possible that he was older than he appeared, but his air of eagerness was almost child-like.
Aea studied his face for only a moment. She’d noted that he was beautiful before, but she’d meant it as an idea—not literally. By all accounts, he was average looking, though the freckles dusting his cheeks were pretty and she liked the purposeful shape of his thin beard. She could not sense any over-confidence from him, nor any particular cleverness. He was unarmed save for a sword upon his left hip, indicating his right dominance. She peeked at the flash of his forearm underneath his chlamys, but she could not see any scarring or hard muscle. He was not a man that she would have picked for herself, but she supposed paupers couldn’t exactly be picky, and she wasn’t exactly a goddess, herself. At least he didn’t fuck goats, so she did not have to worry about him bleeting at her at any point.
“Where...um...where do we go?” Aea muttered. She dropped all pretense of knowing what she was doing and because of the context she had given him before, she did not feel so in danger as she might have otherwise. People killed other people who did not know what they were doing, but she had established her dominion and he’d quickly aquicised. Her pulse was still thrumming hard, her mind shushed and shoved far away from whatever element controlled her actions in this moment.
His eyes flicked to the tavern behind her. She was not about to spend her drachme on a room. Since he was the one most at ease between them, he could do it. Aea crossed her arms over her chest and moved away from the pillar to enter the tavern he’d indicated. She threw Kaia a final glance over her shoulder and without so many words, begged her not to leave. Even if Kaia only stayed downstairs in the tavern proper, at least it would be close.
She was near enough to the entry to see the inside of the tavern clearly. A pressure pressed into her waist and Aea didn’t think, she only reacted by darting away from the man’s overly familiar touch, slapping his hand in the process. He didn’t protest, and she didn’t look at him to gauge his contrition. He was still following her, so clearly such an aggressive maneuver wasn’t enough to scare him off. She could not do this without him touching her, she needed to get acquainted with the idea, and fast. There would be nothing worse than getting sick in the middle of their joining—she would be mortified.
And in the back of her mind, her doubts surfaced further to the front, encouraging her to simply run with the man’s money and never look back. She swallowed the apprehension and made herself keep moving, one foot before the other. Just like anything, she was sure this would not be half as terrifying after she did it. The trick was making herself do it to begin with.
“I cannot make such a promise. My risk assessment is decidedly a malfunctioning element. I suppose I’d rather lose my head young than allow it to grow grey and useless. I’m sure, when the day comes, it will have been worth it. Like a heist. As long as we executed the greatest thievery in the history of Greece, I would consider it a great death.”
Kaia nodded in agreement. She too had no desire to grow old and frail. While Kaia had a deep respect for those who managed to live long enough for age to collect them, Kaia did not ever want to be so vulnerable. She wanted to die with a weapon in hand, not from an inability to protect herself. The thought of losing her ability to hunt and fight terrified her. It would be much better to die while her body was still her own.
“We should plan a heist, perhaps not one to do now, but in the future. If neither of us are going to be whores, perhaps neither of us will become wives either, and we would have to make our fortune somehow, or we risk taking care of five grumpy old men for the rest of our lives.”
“I’d like that,” Kaia mused. Something big and fantastic—Kaia could almost taste the thrill of it. The thought of not becoming a wife didn’t bother Kaia terribly much either, though she did think she wanted children one day. She was not noble, so it really didn’t matter if she ended up mothering some bastard child if it meant having a baby without marriage. If her and Aea could pull off a heist, then she wouldn’t need a man for anything more than his seed if it so came to it.
“How would you die? Covered in mud with a bow in hand and blood smeared across your face, no doubt. But where, doing what?”
Even with her face covered, Aea’s grin showed through her eyes. Kaia mirrored it with amusement at the thought, especially since she’d been thinking about it herself not a moment ago.
“Hopefully fighting some big battle. I’d have taken down as many enemies as possible before I die,” Kaia answered. She hoped it wouldn’t be any time soon—she still had so much she wanted to see and do—though so long as she died fighting, she would feel her life was well spent.
The conversation then moved to who Kaia would prefer as her perfect target. It was an interesting question in that although it was simply hypothetical, Kaia found herself oddly invested in the idea. She was just as interested to hear Aea’s thoughts on the question as she was to answer it for herself.
“I believe that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. But do be careful, or I might start expecting such sweetness from you on a fortnightly basis.”
Kaia gave a small smirk of her own accompanied with a knowing look, “oh that’s far too often, I better watch what I say,” Kaia teased. “What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea gave her answer to which Kaia was amused. While she described the perfect man to call a companion, her desire to be met with someone who could match them was not a sentiment Kaia shared—in a target at least.
“I’ll just have to sneak into Hades’ chambers and steal his, then. I’m sure Lady Persephone wouldn’t mind sharing. The pomegranates, that is. Not her husband!”
Kaia stifled a giggle at Aea’s hasty clarification. The idea of Aea wishing to share Hades with Persephone was amusing, if not a little blasphemous. Kaia shook the thought away, before it could seem anything less than innocent humour.
Thankfully the conversation moved away from Hades and his wife and became focused on a nearby man. Aea gave her indication that he were pleasing to her, which sparked a devious plot in Kaia’s mind. Kaia did not consider Aea a timid or nervous person; she was downright terrifying when focused on her goal. There was no one else Kaia would prefer to have her back, as she knew Aea would never deviate from the immediate threat or goal. However, when not so fiercely focused on some kind of objective, Aea was far less self assured, though Kaia could not understand why. Perhaps all she needed was to just bed a man and be done with it, then she could view the world as a woman.
“I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please,” Kaia blurted in hushed excitement. With the rate at which Kaia’s plan was falling into place, it could only mean it was the right one to take.
“What?”
“Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.”
“But—”
Kaia didn’t wait for Aea’s objection. Aea had no true reason to be afraid; she could carve up the unassuming man with her eyes closed if she so needed. With that ability, there was no reason to be nervous about laying with him. Kaia would profusely deny the nerves she felt when she became a woman, but took comfort in the fact that afterwards, Kaia did not feel she would suffer those nerves again. She understood what to expect and even—to a degree—what she would want done to her in the future. Aea would have the same epiphany, Kaia was sure.
Without hesitation, Kaia approached the man and told him how Aea was her sister and soon to be married to a man who preferred women with experience. To Kaia’s satisfaction, the man showed piqued interest as he looked over at Aea. As far as Kaia was concerned, it said a lot more about him than it did her or Aea that he didn’t just dismiss the idea completely. Now once Aea had her fun, they had every justification to rob the man blind, for he was more than willing to debauch an intended woman. At least, that was how Kaia chose to look at it.
The man did not need much more reassurance before he was happy for Kaia to lead him over to Aea. What Kaia selfishly enjoyed most of all, was seeing the man’s attention fixed on Aea. He gave Kaia no sideways or pointed looks, his attention was purely on Aea. Well, if ever Kaia needed any sign that they were doing the right thing, that was it.
As the man broke the silence with his greeting, Aea not only remained silent, but kept her gaze glued to the stars. Kaia glanced at the man, but thankfully he wasn’t deterred, albeit a little uncertain.
“Your sister tells me you’re...ah...to be married soon.”
Still no answer, Kaia stared at Aea in a silent demand for her attention. If Aea clammed up, Kaia would need a contingency plan.
’Just look at him, Aea. For fuck’s sake.’ Kaia understood the nervousness, she truly did, but it really was no big deal. Perhaps Kaia should have worked on Aea a little more before approaching the man, but Kaia had feared that by doing so, Aea would have found a way to talk Kaia out of her plan. Kaia had hoped the rudeness of it all would have pressured her into bravery.
“The stars are lovely tonight.”
Oh the poor little man. Kaia appreciated that he was still attempting to gain Aea’s attention, but Kaia was going to have to accept that her plan was being foiled before it even had a chance to begin. It was no matter, she supposed. At least she and Aea would have something to laugh about later, while they feasted on pomegranates.
“It’s alright to be nervous. I don’t bite, promise.”
Kaia had to look away as if interested in the pillars to avoid shooting the man a look of disdain. He doesn’t bite, as if that was what Aea was nervous about. It was him who should be nervous. The things Aea could do to him—he had no idea. She could have him begging for his life, choking on his own blood if she so wished it. He doesn’t bite. Please.
Kaia was about to shut the whole thing down and send the Athenian on his way when Aea not only chose that moment to speak, but also decided to undo part of Kaia’s plan by admitting to not being sisters. Kaia stifled a sheepish look and tried to force a blasé expression. Aea was likely about to out their plan, so Kaia needed to make sure it seemed like that was the intention. If Aea was not going to bed him, was the plan now to rob him right then and there? Out in the open? Or were they sending the man on his way altogether? Either way, Kaia needed to be ready. Her fingers itched for her concealed blade to be in her hand.
“This is a game of fantasy. And you’ll have to pay to play and see it fulfilled.”
Oh. Well, that was good; very good. Kaia made a note to give Aea her appreciation later. So, the plan was back in motion then. Kaia made an effort to relax her composure and stood as if she knew this was all part of the plan. With how focused the man was on Aea, Kaia was almost certain she had the luxury of not even needed to worry about the man considering her too closely.
“How much?”
“All of it.”
“I have a drachme and seven owls.”
Kaia swallowed slowly in an effort to not react. A drachme. They’d never taken a drachme before. Mostly only ever a few owls at a time. Kaia did not need to chance a look at Aea to know that her cousin would be thinking very carefully about how to proceed. Whether he decided to willingly pay Aea the drachme for sleeping with him or not was irrelevant. They knew he had it, so one way or another, they would take it from him.
“Where...um...where do we go?”
The man looked at the tavern behind Aea in answer. Kaia remained still, trying her best to seem relaxed and at ease. Everything was falling into place, so she didn’t want to ruin it by celebrating their win prematurely.
With an ease that made Kaia proud, Aea turned away and headed towards the tavern. The younger cousin threw a look at Kaia over her shoulder, which Kaia understood completely. She would not go anywhere. Kaia would be right outside, ready to leap in should the man be some sort of unassuming assailant. He would not survive the night if he made so much as a move to hurt Aea in any way. For his own good, Kaia hoped he did nothing more than deflower her cousin. Perhaps he would live through the night if he didn’t take it upon himself to try and take ‘advantage’ of Aea. He would be oh so remorseful if he thought it hurt her. He had no idea what Aea and Kaia were capable of.
Kaia stayed a few paces behind, but followed after Aea and her target. A small smirk of amusement flashed across Kaia’s face as she watched Aea slap the man’s hand away from her. Kaia nearly felt pity for the poor man, but there was no point. The day she began to pity their prey was the day she’d get them killed. They had no room for pity.
Lani
Kaia
Lani
Kaia
Awards
First Impressions:Lean, athletic; Straw-blonde hair, stormy blue eyes, and a nearly permanent scowl.
Address: Your
“I cannot make such a promise. My risk assessment is decidedly a malfunctioning element. I suppose I’d rather lose my head young than allow it to grow grey and useless. I’m sure, when the day comes, it will have been worth it. Like a heist. As long as we executed the greatest thievery in the history of Greece, I would consider it a great death.”
Kaia nodded in agreement. She too had no desire to grow old and frail. While Kaia had a deep respect for those who managed to live long enough for age to collect them, Kaia did not ever want to be so vulnerable. She wanted to die with a weapon in hand, not from an inability to protect herself. The thought of losing her ability to hunt and fight terrified her. It would be much better to die while her body was still her own.
“We should plan a heist, perhaps not one to do now, but in the future. If neither of us are going to be whores, perhaps neither of us will become wives either, and we would have to make our fortune somehow, or we risk taking care of five grumpy old men for the rest of our lives.”
“I’d like that,” Kaia mused. Something big and fantastic—Kaia could almost taste the thrill of it. The thought of not becoming a wife didn’t bother Kaia terribly much either, though she did think she wanted children one day. She was not noble, so it really didn’t matter if she ended up mothering some bastard child if it meant having a baby without marriage. If her and Aea could pull off a heist, then she wouldn’t need a man for anything more than his seed if it so came to it.
“How would you die? Covered in mud with a bow in hand and blood smeared across your face, no doubt. But where, doing what?”
Even with her face covered, Aea’s grin showed through her eyes. Kaia mirrored it with amusement at the thought, especially since she’d been thinking about it herself not a moment ago.
“Hopefully fighting some big battle. I’d have taken down as many enemies as possible before I die,” Kaia answered. She hoped it wouldn’t be any time soon—she still had so much she wanted to see and do—though so long as she died fighting, she would feel her life was well spent.
The conversation then moved to who Kaia would prefer as her perfect target. It was an interesting question in that although it was simply hypothetical, Kaia found herself oddly invested in the idea. She was just as interested to hear Aea’s thoughts on the question as she was to answer it for herself.
“I believe that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. But do be careful, or I might start expecting such sweetness from you on a fortnightly basis.”
Kaia gave a small smirk of her own accompanied with a knowing look, “oh that’s far too often, I better watch what I say,” Kaia teased. “What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea gave her answer to which Kaia was amused. While she described the perfect man to call a companion, her desire to be met with someone who could match them was not a sentiment Kaia shared—in a target at least.
“I’ll just have to sneak into Hades’ chambers and steal his, then. I’m sure Lady Persephone wouldn’t mind sharing. The pomegranates, that is. Not her husband!”
Kaia stifled a giggle at Aea’s hasty clarification. The idea of Aea wishing to share Hades with Persephone was amusing, if not a little blasphemous. Kaia shook the thought away, before it could seem anything less than innocent humour.
Thankfully the conversation moved away from Hades and his wife and became focused on a nearby man. Aea gave her indication that he were pleasing to her, which sparked a devious plot in Kaia’s mind. Kaia did not consider Aea a timid or nervous person; she was downright terrifying when focused on her goal. There was no one else Kaia would prefer to have her back, as she knew Aea would never deviate from the immediate threat or goal. However, when not so fiercely focused on some kind of objective, Aea was far less self assured, though Kaia could not understand why. Perhaps all she needed was to just bed a man and be done with it, then she could view the world as a woman.
“I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please,” Kaia blurted in hushed excitement. With the rate at which Kaia’s plan was falling into place, it could only mean it was the right one to take.
“What?”
“Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.”
“But—”
Kaia didn’t wait for Aea’s objection. Aea had no true reason to be afraid; she could carve up the unassuming man with her eyes closed if she so needed. With that ability, there was no reason to be nervous about laying with him. Kaia would profusely deny the nerves she felt when she became a woman, but took comfort in the fact that afterwards, Kaia did not feel she would suffer those nerves again. She understood what to expect and even—to a degree—what she would want done to her in the future. Aea would have the same epiphany, Kaia was sure.
Without hesitation, Kaia approached the man and told him how Aea was her sister and soon to be married to a man who preferred women with experience. To Kaia’s satisfaction, the man showed piqued interest as he looked over at Aea. As far as Kaia was concerned, it said a lot more about him than it did her or Aea that he didn’t just dismiss the idea completely. Now once Aea had her fun, they had every justification to rob the man blind, for he was more than willing to debauch an intended woman. At least, that was how Kaia chose to look at it.
The man did not need much more reassurance before he was happy for Kaia to lead him over to Aea. What Kaia selfishly enjoyed most of all, was seeing the man’s attention fixed on Aea. He gave Kaia no sideways or pointed looks, his attention was purely on Aea. Well, if ever Kaia needed any sign that they were doing the right thing, that was it.
As the man broke the silence with his greeting, Aea not only remained silent, but kept her gaze glued to the stars. Kaia glanced at the man, but thankfully he wasn’t deterred, albeit a little uncertain.
“Your sister tells me you’re...ah...to be married soon.”
Still no answer, Kaia stared at Aea in a silent demand for her attention. If Aea clammed up, Kaia would need a contingency plan.
’Just look at him, Aea. For fuck’s sake.’ Kaia understood the nervousness, she truly did, but it really was no big deal. Perhaps Kaia should have worked on Aea a little more before approaching the man, but Kaia had feared that by doing so, Aea would have found a way to talk Kaia out of her plan. Kaia had hoped the rudeness of it all would have pressured her into bravery.
“The stars are lovely tonight.”
Oh the poor little man. Kaia appreciated that he was still attempting to gain Aea’s attention, but Kaia was going to have to accept that her plan was being foiled before it even had a chance to begin. It was no matter, she supposed. At least she and Aea would have something to laugh about later, while they feasted on pomegranates.
“It’s alright to be nervous. I don’t bite, promise.”
Kaia had to look away as if interested in the pillars to avoid shooting the man a look of disdain. He doesn’t bite, as if that was what Aea was nervous about. It was him who should be nervous. The things Aea could do to him—he had no idea. She could have him begging for his life, choking on his own blood if she so wished it. He doesn’t bite. Please.
Kaia was about to shut the whole thing down and send the Athenian on his way when Aea not only chose that moment to speak, but also decided to undo part of Kaia’s plan by admitting to not being sisters. Kaia stifled a sheepish look and tried to force a blasé expression. Aea was likely about to out their plan, so Kaia needed to make sure it seemed like that was the intention. If Aea was not going to bed him, was the plan now to rob him right then and there? Out in the open? Or were they sending the man on his way altogether? Either way, Kaia needed to be ready. Her fingers itched for her concealed blade to be in her hand.
“This is a game of fantasy. And you’ll have to pay to play and see it fulfilled.”
Oh. Well, that was good; very good. Kaia made a note to give Aea her appreciation later. So, the plan was back in motion then. Kaia made an effort to relax her composure and stood as if she knew this was all part of the plan. With how focused the man was on Aea, Kaia was almost certain she had the luxury of not even needed to worry about the man considering her too closely.
“How much?”
“All of it.”
“I have a drachme and seven owls.”
Kaia swallowed slowly in an effort to not react. A drachme. They’d never taken a drachme before. Mostly only ever a few owls at a time. Kaia did not need to chance a look at Aea to know that her cousin would be thinking very carefully about how to proceed. Whether he decided to willingly pay Aea the drachme for sleeping with him or not was irrelevant. They knew he had it, so one way or another, they would take it from him.
“Where...um...where do we go?”
The man looked at the tavern behind Aea in answer. Kaia remained still, trying her best to seem relaxed and at ease. Everything was falling into place, so she didn’t want to ruin it by celebrating their win prematurely.
With an ease that made Kaia proud, Aea turned away and headed towards the tavern. The younger cousin threw a look at Kaia over her shoulder, which Kaia understood completely. She would not go anywhere. Kaia would be right outside, ready to leap in should the man be some sort of unassuming assailant. He would not survive the night if he made so much as a move to hurt Aea in any way. For his own good, Kaia hoped he did nothing more than deflower her cousin. Perhaps he would live through the night if he didn’t take it upon himself to try and take ‘advantage’ of Aea. He would be oh so remorseful if he thought it hurt her. He had no idea what Aea and Kaia were capable of.
Kaia stayed a few paces behind, but followed after Aea and her target. A small smirk of amusement flashed across Kaia’s face as she watched Aea slap the man’s hand away from her. Kaia nearly felt pity for the poor man, but there was no point. The day she began to pity their prey was the day she’d get them killed. They had no room for pity.
“I cannot make such a promise. My risk assessment is decidedly a malfunctioning element. I suppose I’d rather lose my head young than allow it to grow grey and useless. I’m sure, when the day comes, it will have been worth it. Like a heist. As long as we executed the greatest thievery in the history of Greece, I would consider it a great death.”
Kaia nodded in agreement. She too had no desire to grow old and frail. While Kaia had a deep respect for those who managed to live long enough for age to collect them, Kaia did not ever want to be so vulnerable. She wanted to die with a weapon in hand, not from an inability to protect herself. The thought of losing her ability to hunt and fight terrified her. It would be much better to die while her body was still her own.
“We should plan a heist, perhaps not one to do now, but in the future. If neither of us are going to be whores, perhaps neither of us will become wives either, and we would have to make our fortune somehow, or we risk taking care of five grumpy old men for the rest of our lives.”
“I’d like that,” Kaia mused. Something big and fantastic—Kaia could almost taste the thrill of it. The thought of not becoming a wife didn’t bother Kaia terribly much either, though she did think she wanted children one day. She was not noble, so it really didn’t matter if she ended up mothering some bastard child if it meant having a baby without marriage. If her and Aea could pull off a heist, then she wouldn’t need a man for anything more than his seed if it so came to it.
“How would you die? Covered in mud with a bow in hand and blood smeared across your face, no doubt. But where, doing what?”
Even with her face covered, Aea’s grin showed through her eyes. Kaia mirrored it with amusement at the thought, especially since she’d been thinking about it herself not a moment ago.
“Hopefully fighting some big battle. I’d have taken down as many enemies as possible before I die,” Kaia answered. She hoped it wouldn’t be any time soon—she still had so much she wanted to see and do—though so long as she died fighting, she would feel her life was well spent.
The conversation then moved to who Kaia would prefer as her perfect target. It was an interesting question in that although it was simply hypothetical, Kaia found herself oddly invested in the idea. She was just as interested to hear Aea’s thoughts on the question as she was to answer it for herself.
“I believe that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. But do be careful, or I might start expecting such sweetness from you on a fortnightly basis.”
Kaia gave a small smirk of her own accompanied with a knowing look, “oh that’s far too often, I better watch what I say,” Kaia teased. “What about you? Who would you choose?”
Aea gave her answer to which Kaia was amused. While she described the perfect man to call a companion, her desire to be met with someone who could match them was not a sentiment Kaia shared—in a target at least.
“I’ll just have to sneak into Hades’ chambers and steal his, then. I’m sure Lady Persephone wouldn’t mind sharing. The pomegranates, that is. Not her husband!”
Kaia stifled a giggle at Aea’s hasty clarification. The idea of Aea wishing to share Hades with Persephone was amusing, if not a little blasphemous. Kaia shook the thought away, before it could seem anything less than innocent humour.
Thankfully the conversation moved away from Hades and his wife and became focused on a nearby man. Aea gave her indication that he were pleasing to her, which sparked a devious plot in Kaia’s mind. Kaia did not consider Aea a timid or nervous person; she was downright terrifying when focused on her goal. There was no one else Kaia would prefer to have her back, as she knew Aea would never deviate from the immediate threat or goal. However, when not so fiercely focused on some kind of objective, Aea was far less self assured, though Kaia could not understand why. Perhaps all she needed was to just bed a man and be done with it, then she could view the world as a woman.
“I have a plan. Tonight, you will become a woman. Follow my lead, I’ll approach him, but it will be you who will take him away and do with him as you please,” Kaia blurted in hushed excitement. With the rate at which Kaia’s plan was falling into place, it could only mean it was the right one to take.
“What?”
“Do not panic, you will enjoy it, I’m sure. Just remember what Mercida said, make sure he’s not in you when he makes the noise, else you will be with child and your father will murder us both.”
“But—”
Kaia didn’t wait for Aea’s objection. Aea had no true reason to be afraid; she could carve up the unassuming man with her eyes closed if she so needed. With that ability, there was no reason to be nervous about laying with him. Kaia would profusely deny the nerves she felt when she became a woman, but took comfort in the fact that afterwards, Kaia did not feel she would suffer those nerves again. She understood what to expect and even—to a degree—what she would want done to her in the future. Aea would have the same epiphany, Kaia was sure.
Without hesitation, Kaia approached the man and told him how Aea was her sister and soon to be married to a man who preferred women with experience. To Kaia’s satisfaction, the man showed piqued interest as he looked over at Aea. As far as Kaia was concerned, it said a lot more about him than it did her or Aea that he didn’t just dismiss the idea completely. Now once Aea had her fun, they had every justification to rob the man blind, for he was more than willing to debauch an intended woman. At least, that was how Kaia chose to look at it.
The man did not need much more reassurance before he was happy for Kaia to lead him over to Aea. What Kaia selfishly enjoyed most of all, was seeing the man’s attention fixed on Aea. He gave Kaia no sideways or pointed looks, his attention was purely on Aea. Well, if ever Kaia needed any sign that they were doing the right thing, that was it.
As the man broke the silence with his greeting, Aea not only remained silent, but kept her gaze glued to the stars. Kaia glanced at the man, but thankfully he wasn’t deterred, albeit a little uncertain.
“Your sister tells me you’re...ah...to be married soon.”
Still no answer, Kaia stared at Aea in a silent demand for her attention. If Aea clammed up, Kaia would need a contingency plan.
’Just look at him, Aea. For fuck’s sake.’ Kaia understood the nervousness, she truly did, but it really was no big deal. Perhaps Kaia should have worked on Aea a little more before approaching the man, but Kaia had feared that by doing so, Aea would have found a way to talk Kaia out of her plan. Kaia had hoped the rudeness of it all would have pressured her into bravery.
“The stars are lovely tonight.”
Oh the poor little man. Kaia appreciated that he was still attempting to gain Aea’s attention, but Kaia was going to have to accept that her plan was being foiled before it even had a chance to begin. It was no matter, she supposed. At least she and Aea would have something to laugh about later, while they feasted on pomegranates.
“It’s alright to be nervous. I don’t bite, promise.”
Kaia had to look away as if interested in the pillars to avoid shooting the man a look of disdain. He doesn’t bite, as if that was what Aea was nervous about. It was him who should be nervous. The things Aea could do to him—he had no idea. She could have him begging for his life, choking on his own blood if she so wished it. He doesn’t bite. Please.
Kaia was about to shut the whole thing down and send the Athenian on his way when Aea not only chose that moment to speak, but also decided to undo part of Kaia’s plan by admitting to not being sisters. Kaia stifled a sheepish look and tried to force a blasé expression. Aea was likely about to out their plan, so Kaia needed to make sure it seemed like that was the intention. If Aea was not going to bed him, was the plan now to rob him right then and there? Out in the open? Or were they sending the man on his way altogether? Either way, Kaia needed to be ready. Her fingers itched for her concealed blade to be in her hand.
“This is a game of fantasy. And you’ll have to pay to play and see it fulfilled.”
Oh. Well, that was good; very good. Kaia made a note to give Aea her appreciation later. So, the plan was back in motion then. Kaia made an effort to relax her composure and stood as if she knew this was all part of the plan. With how focused the man was on Aea, Kaia was almost certain she had the luxury of not even needed to worry about the man considering her too closely.
“How much?”
“All of it.”
“I have a drachme and seven owls.”
Kaia swallowed slowly in an effort to not react. A drachme. They’d never taken a drachme before. Mostly only ever a few owls at a time. Kaia did not need to chance a look at Aea to know that her cousin would be thinking very carefully about how to proceed. Whether he decided to willingly pay Aea the drachme for sleeping with him or not was irrelevant. They knew he had it, so one way or another, they would take it from him.
“Where...um...where do we go?”
The man looked at the tavern behind Aea in answer. Kaia remained still, trying her best to seem relaxed and at ease. Everything was falling into place, so she didn’t want to ruin it by celebrating their win prematurely.
With an ease that made Kaia proud, Aea turned away and headed towards the tavern. The younger cousin threw a look at Kaia over her shoulder, which Kaia understood completely. She would not go anywhere. Kaia would be right outside, ready to leap in should the man be some sort of unassuming assailant. He would not survive the night if he made so much as a move to hurt Aea in any way. For his own good, Kaia hoped he did nothing more than deflower her cousin. Perhaps he would live through the night if he didn’t take it upon himself to try and take ‘advantage’ of Aea. He would be oh so remorseful if he thought it hurt her. He had no idea what Aea and Kaia were capable of.
Kaia stayed a few paces behind, but followed after Aea and her target. A small smirk of amusement flashed across Kaia’s face as she watched Aea slap the man’s hand away from her. Kaia nearly felt pity for the poor man, but there was no point. The day she began to pity their prey was the day she’d get them killed. They had no room for pity.
