Arizona let out a long breath, before moving forward and taking the offered seat in front of Callie. She found her eyes lingering on the Queen for a moment; the years had blessed Callie with tempting curves and deeper features that accentuated her beauty. Callie was wearing a silk night shift with nothing beneath. The swell of her breasts were lower than any kind of support would allow, and her nipples pressed against the material of the shift, dark against the white material. This is going to be agonising.

The fireplace was ablaze with an unyielding flame, as Callie looked at her clandestine past. The green military coat the blonde was wearing was unbuttoned at the collar now but still looked uncomfortable. The indigos of the blonde's eyes lacked the warmth Callie was used to.

There was a frisson between them that was quite distinct, yet subtle and wanton all at once. Of course with the passing years Callie has now read of such liaisons between women in books of verse, but surely such activities only occur between the pages, or in closed chambers, never to be talked about.

Shaking her head and turning her attention to Arizona, she stifled the flush now rising in her face.

"Tea?" Queen Callie asked with a friendly and disarming smile. Still sitting a bit stiffly, Arizona nodded. The Queen didn't move.

"Yes, please. I don't take anything in it," Arizona said.

"I wonder if that's a white lie to try and make this less awkward for yourself. Or if it's true. Hard to tell," the Queen said as she took up the tea pot sitting on the table between them. Steam rose from the second cup as she poured, then held out the cup and its saucer for Arizona.

The captain took it, and took a gentle sip. A little more bitter than she was used to, but it was pleasant.

"I've never liked the smell of whale oil," the Queen said as Arizona took another sip. The captain raised an eyebrow.

"The candles. More pleasant an atmosphere as well. Romantic in their own way," Callie said, as she lifted her own cup to her lips.

"To be fair your grace-"

Callie lifted a hand again, and shook her head.

"Please. You can call me Calliope or Callie."

Arizona stared a moment, taking another sip then a breath as she pondered her words. Finally she set the cup and saucer down on the table.

"Why exactly am I here?"

"Do you play Chess, Captain Robbins... or might I call you Arizona?"

"As I said earlier, Captain Robbins is fine. And I am familiar with the game," the captain said with some confusion, lost once more.

"There are many who say the world is in Chess. That it teaches you about strategy, and tactics, and even court. I disagree, and that's why I still have my crown. Do you know why?" Callie said.

"Because a game of Chess is isolated. There is no bigger picture," Arizona said.

"Precisely. On a battlefield the weather may play it's hand as it did at Agincourt. Or reinforcements may arrive. Or you may have less soldiers or artillery than the enemy. And there are no boundaries. No limits to what you may do to try and achieve victory. In chess, a pawn is but a pawn. In battle, a Rifle Company Captain may take her soldiers through the woods and ambush the waiting enemy cavalry as they readied to flank towards the cannons."

Arizona lifted an eyebrow, but said nothing yet.

"In court, pieces shift from one side to the other on what may seem a whim. Pieces are knocked off, only to be swiftly replaced. But there's one piece that takes charge, sets the game in motion. You are that one piece, Arizona. And I wish to make you my colour. That is why you are here tonight," Callie said.

Arizona thought of correcting Callie's address of her name but refrained.

"I'm just a soldier, loyal to whoever wears the crown. Of course I'm on your side." she said

"Monarchs had lived on and died on the assumption of their soldiers' loyalty. I will not make that mistake. Nor do I need a spy to start an inquisition. What I need is a hero. You, a woman in an occupation of men, and idolized by the people, You are the hero the world needs," Callie said.

"I'm not sure the people idolize me," Arizona replied.

"Not as yet perhaps. But those who know your bravery, do. But your story has scarcely been heard. Let me handle that. What I want from you is a transfer to the Queen's Guard for a term of two years. I don't foresee a war in that time. I want you in public Arizona, so that your story doesn't fizzle out. I want you to be the next Robin of Loxley. Don't concern yourself with how this aids me, just know it does," Callie said.

Arizona blinked, unsure of what to think. It was like a golden thread being handed to her with no questions. She looked down at the tea a moment, watching the steam rising up from it.

"What's the catch? No one hands out anything for free," Arizona eventually said.

"The catch is that if you publically align yourself with me, you will be making enemies in positions of power. They may try and stop your ascent, and they will attempt to drag your name down to the mud."

"I've lived in the mud. It's not so bad," Arizona said, and Callie laughed.

"The rest of the price. Well, it won't be paid by you. To be blunt Arizona, you are a rough piece at the moment. But... with some molding, I might make something else of you," Callie said, and rose to her feet. She moved around the table and stopped just beside Arizona.

"I'm here by offering you a position of General of the Queen's Guard Unit. And I want you as an ally" Callie said, extending a hand. an olive branch.

Arizona stood up, coming face to face with Callie.

"Our history…." Arizona's voice lingered for a moment as she saw the recognition set in the eyes in front of her, "This high-rank position has nothing to do with our former closeness, right? There are no ulterior motives?"

"What could those ulterior motives be? You are a war hero Captain Robbins, and that's why I'm offering you this position"

"If this was just about being a war hero, this conversation would have happened in your court, your grace"

"You are right! It should have. But….I—I also saw you for the first time in 10 years, and I wanted to have a conversation." Callie's heart raced as she cautiously stepped closer to Arizona, unsure of what to expect, yet eager to rekindle their former closeness.

For her part, Arizona felt a visceral mix of emotions: both palpable excitement and muted trepidation. She had yearned to rekindle their connection but was cognizant of the potential ramifications this could bring.

"That's not a wise idea, your grace. What's in the past should be left behind there." Arizona said as she took a step back. She steeled herself for what she knew must come next, yet at the same time could not help but feel paralysed by the enormity of it all.

Callie tightened the lapels of her shift close, feeling hurt at Arizona's rejection. She was meeting Arizona after such an interminable absence, and the least she deserved was the friendship they once shared. But Arizona was guarded, way too closed off, ignorant of the emotions that lay strewn between them.

"Wha—what is that?" Callie asked as her eyes lingered on the exposed collar of the Captain's neck. On the right side of the pale neck, were faint cerise coloured stains, undoubtedly a streak of womanly lip paint. Anger and confusion set in, as Callie tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

Arizona's hand instantly went to her neck, wiping wildly at the stains that were probably there from her earlier romp with that maid. Her face flushed, as she thought of an appropriate response.

"I uh—-I think it's just some stains from earlier this evening, the maid must have left it—when we were—" the rest of her sentence died on her lips as Callie raised her hand, as if to silence her.

"You just got here….—Which maid? What's her name" the queen asked as she stared at her former lover, her voice a constrained one, anger simmering in undertones.

Arizona squared her shoulder in defence, for she will not stand here and listen to the Queen's presumptuous berating over her personal life. She again pondered on her response, she didn't wanted to disclose the details but she also didn't actually rememb—-

"You don't even remember her name!" Callie finished her thought, and for a moment Arizona was surprised. After all these years, the queen still was able to read her like an open book.

Callie felt anguished. For she had no right to judge Arizona on how she led her life, but still the ache around her heart deepened. Because it had been so difficult for her to move on. It hadn't been that she hasn't tried, for she had tried, just once, and that sealed her mind and heart into believing that there would be no one else like Arizona. For sure she wasn't practising abstinence in the hopes that her lover would return, she did it for herself. And here was her lover, changing women like flavours, a new scent everyday.

She shook herself out of her agony, and walked to her bedside desk, a few ruffles of paper and she picked the thing she was looking for, and came back to stand in front of Arizona.

"Was this a lie? I have questions, Arizona," Callie took a deep breath, reeling her emotions in, "..,and tonight you will have to answer them. So kindly tell me, Was. This. A. Lie." she said as she extended the letter Arizona had left her.

Arizona took the letter from the proffered hand, recognising her unruly scrawl instantly. The thick paper seemed worned out, probably from repeated handling. There were silent stains on the edges, and droplets like formations in the center, a sign of tears that must had been shed. The tethered lines on the draft confirmed that it was also probably torned and then glued back together. Arizona's fingers lingered on the torned lines, the pain of her departing words was a mirror to the pain on Callie's face at the moment.

Arizona was almost petrified with apprehension and a peculiar form of trepidation. With each passing moment she felt increasingly cognizant of the voluminous gulfs of emotions that still stood between them. She knew sharing a moment like this would be agonising. But she would have to be strong.

"This wasn't a lie…. I was just naive back then" Arizona lied this time. They risked too much back then and she didn't want to go back on that road again.

The scoff that fell from the ruby lips in front of her was instantaneous. Gripping. Like a whip breaking the skin.

"My father sent me to a concentration camp for a year when he found this out." Callie said recalling the most painful year of her life.

"That must be harrowing. I was sent to one too" Arizona immediately added

"Then you must know the pain and suffering such camps entail. The excruciating rituals that break you down and—

"Wasn't like that for me…"

"H—How?"

"I slept with the priestess!"

Callie held both her hands up. Physically, shielding herself from the pain Arizona's words were causing her. She was wrong about how she had thought this night would end. Arizona was different. Gone was the shy, innocent girl whose laugh was like a balm. Who believed in fairytales. Who would fight her every time Callie interjected her ideas of the king falling in love with a commoner. Whose words were always painted with gentility, hope and desire — this Arizona's words were venomous. Slithering and coiling, clenching her heart in a vice grip.

She turned around, facing the fire crackling in the fireplace. For she could no longer look at the woman she lost her heart to. What was she expecting? That they would exchange stories from days gone by, replete with moments of nostalgia and levity?

"Is this why you left? Because I was too boring? Not flavourful enough for you?" Callie asked as bitter-sorrow filled her. Her emotions were a bundle of tangled strings.

Heartache and sorrow pervaded the air as both parties grappled with the reality of their situation.

"Foolish. I was so foolish to think that we could have a future together. That we could—" Callie continued but was cut-off mid-way by Arizona. Like a sword that sliced through the air, silencing any words that were to come next.

"We could be what? A dirty secret that you hide behind the closed doors of your chambers?" Arizona's interjection was immediate and scathing. She took a step closer, staring the queen deep in eyes.

"What future was there for me, your grace? Advance as your personal maid from a chambermaid? Be a secret you hide from everyone? Be someone you are ashamed of?" Her words were bitter, tinged with disdain.

"It wasn't like that…" Callie tried as she herself took a step closer, invading the captain's personal space. They were like twin flames - each burning, each unyielding.

"And how long that future was about to last? Till you get married? Bear kids to generate progeny for your kingdom? Or was I supposed to be a side affair even after that?" Arizona's voice rose vehemently, icy daggers now accompanying the venomous words.

She stared at the shift in Callie's face, she knew her words were causing pain. But she was helpless, for she was in pain herself. The sparring was unnecessary, for there won't be a virtuous outcome. So she relaxed. She shook her head, agitated at herself for losing control.

"I did what I had to do to protect myself. A royalty and a commoner can never have a future. You yourself said that. You repeatedly told me that those fairytales weren't real…" Arizona added in a breathy whisper, still shaking her head in despair. The fire was making Callie's skin glow as copper, and it was making her judgement murkier. Callie always had that effect on her. She always felt as if her tongues are tied. That she can't breathe around this woman.

"You aren't that dense to believe what I say about a folk tale might be what I feel for a reality…" Callie's interjection broke her chain of thoughts.

The whip seared through the skin again.

"I would have thought that if that perception was just for the story, but it was your point of understanding, you can't deny that, your grace."

"Heavens be damned Arizona. What was I supposed to tell you? That I shall be risking my life? You can't be that naive to not understand that this had more to do with us being women than you being a maid. Why do you act like, it wasn't hard for me…"

"I know it was. Which is why I walked away. I did it for both of us. To protect us from our own association. I have seen life with my own eyes, you were right, life isn't a fairytale, there isn't a happy ending."

"I should take your leave, your grace" Arizona stepped back, breaking the invincible shackles of unruly emotions around them. Freeing them of the impending disaster.

Her boots felt like lead as her deep footsteps echoed through the chamber. The cackling fire, synchronising with the fire within her. Callie deserved all the answers, and she should get them in its entirety.

"I did wanted to believe that maybe what we had could weather all the storms, that I shouldn't have left you without fighting, and that's why 10 years ago, I did came back." Arizona said, her mask dropping from her face, as Callie saw through her the woman she was 10 years ago. The woman who held her and her heart with so much tenderness — she was back, and Callie wanted to hold her. She wanted to hold the time still.

"You—What?" Callie's brows crinkled in confusion.

"I came back. I fought with my parents for 6 months, telling them about who I am, what I feel—for you. They threw me out on the road, without a penny. I walked all the way from Clement State to Erstfall, just to see you. Because all that fighting, the humiliation, the loss should have accounted for something. It should have been worth fighting for." her voice held that emotion Callie yearned for. But something was not adding up? For she has not seen Arizona in 10 years.

"But when I came back, I found you in an intimate embrace with Princess Erica, with your lips sealed on each other….." the words expanded in Arizona's throat as they came out, choking her out of air. Making it difficult for her to breathe. "…So I understood it well from the start. It had everything to do with me being a maid."

The statement lingered between them like plumes of smoke from the hearth, the pain evident, the suffering palpable. Arizona stood there for a moment, waiting for Callie to deny it. But she knew what she had seen wasn't some twisted humour, it was the reality. She steeled herself, her face pulling the mask of roughness and valiance back down. For emotions are superfluous. A waste of time and effort. She clicked her heels, bowed down and then walked away.

Outside she found Alexandra waiting to escort her to her room, she was grateful that the maid didn't ask her any questions. Once inside the vicinity of her chamber, Arizona took off her coat and boots and slumped on her bed. Surrendered to the momentary comfort it provided.

She had seen hell on the battlefield, saw the destructive effects of war first hand, for she could never truly articulate her harrowing experiences in words; the vivid horrors she had endured were far too traumatic. But the grief the war evoked was nothing compared to the despair she felt right now.

10 years ago when she had reached her homeland, her sole purpose was to escape her feelings for the young princess. When she came out to her parents after a couple of weeks of soul searching, the look of horror on their face was heartbreaking. But she had been resilient. She had fought them, fought for herself. When she had left Clement State, the urgency to meet Callie was profuse. She had hoped that their association would be the one that was bound by an afflatus that would have superseded all societal conventions - that theres would be an ardent love story that will remain enshrined within the annals of time.

But she had been so wrong about the princess, she had forgotten who she was, forgotten that she was a mere commoner. And that the princess might experiment with her behind closed walls, for there was no future for them. From the unyieldingness of societal and familial expectations to feeling ostracized, she had endured all that pain alone. Swearing off, to never let herself be in that kind of position again. Where people held power over her.

The rejection had turned into a blessing for her.

Though she had led a life of alienation and social ostracism in the early years….such cruelty was so ubiquitous that it had become the unspoken norm back then. But she had fought, she had not given up. She had worked in coal factories, and churned herself day in and day out to make a living. That was when Captain Timothy had found her, found inspiration in her determination for hard labour. He was like an elder brother, a family she got to choose, for who accepted her for who she was. Timothy had picked her up from the darkness of coal mines and placed her in his regiment, had trained her personally, given her his last name. There was so much that she owed to him.

But she also owed it to herself. For it was her determination that made her so courageous. Helped her rise in the ranks so fast. Become a proud war hero, that people knew well, and still respected enough. She wasn't hiding and that's what matters. Because even in the most dire situations, hope perseveres, providing strength to those forlorn yet determined to fight for change.