Disclaimers: See Chapter 1

Additional Note (Please Read): This tale is a companion with, Xena & Gabrielle: A Turn of Fate. If you haven't read both stories' chapters preceding this one, you should do so now. Thanks to the beta who taught me a lot, and every reader whom is still entertained by my tales. A heartwarming shout out to Silvermoonlight; I hope you're recuperating well. ;-)

The Conqueror & Ri

A Twist of Destiny

By Ahkiken

Chapter 40: Evanescent

Rays of light beamed through the window and onto Meleager's face, awakening him from sleep on the incommodious chair. Rubbing his lower back, he recalled how he'd gotten in such an agonizing predicament. He had listened to Iona rehash yesterday's noon's occurrences regarding the storyteller's oddity, prior to sharing his meal with the adolescent at the dinner table.

After eating, they both settled chairs on the right-hand side of their comatose loved one. Candle-marks had passed without bringing a change to Gabrielle's condition when General Darnelle entered. Discovering what'd happened to the bard, he hurried to Ri's chamber and saw that his daughter and Chancellor was sitting next to her.

Latterly overcoming his shock at the new appearance of the cropped blonde, Darnelle gave his condolences, offering a prayer for the gods to heal her. Thereon, the averse teenager and her father exited the room, leaving Meleager to watch over Gabrielle by himself. Shortly afterwards, he joined her in repose, snoozing on the wooden furniture that would fundamentally pain him now.

Meleager quietly grunted as the soreness lessened, musing, 'That's the final Cronus I'll doze in a hard seat.'

Whilst Meleager's cyan irises perched on the dormant woman, he quickly forgot the abatement of his aching old bones, and mentally bellyached that the pretender's inertia state was plausibly drastic. Rising onto his feet and placing a hand on her gauze-covered forehead, the Chancellor's visage was remorseful, wondering if his uncouth treatment of Ri had caused this affliction. Dropping on his knees, he self-consciously berated himself for not being kinder to her and failing to appreciate the trust she'd bequeathed to him.

"Please, forgive me, Ri." Burying his head between the space of the petite Amazon's neck and shoulder, Meleager hampered the droplets from escaping burning tear ducts, pleading, "You have to get up, darling. Awaken...and be well. Please."

During the Chancellor's riveting entreaty, he was oblivious 'bout the Omphalos shard's fading glow on Gabrielle's silver ring, thus ignorant of her eyelids undulating open. Blinking to wholly allay the vague pounding circulating around her brain, she'd submitted to the dull throbbing and stared at the ceiling, guessing where she was. Unfortunately, the disoriented Gabrielle couldn't educe how she'd come to find herself lying on a bed in her doppelgänger's dwelling.

'I was in...the kitchen, talking to Minya, before Iona took her place, referencing to appraise the elegance of my...no, Ri's new clothing. Then it's all a blur.' Gabrielle invoked the tarnished memory, shifting her frame slightly to discover she felt thoroughly enervated.

Her marginal movement necessitated Meleager to rise imperceptibly and descry his semblant niece. The feverish gasp he expelled had finally made the Samurai aware that someone else was inside the room and in close proximity to her. Suppressing the desire to remain indolent and slanting her head sideways, Gabrielle couldn't trust the sight she beheld. Forthwith, the bard's widened orbs moistened and she used extensive strength to elevate her appendage, desiderate to grasp the past irretrievable individual, preceding he became nothing more than an evanescent vision; vanishing from view.

"Meleager..." Gabrielle murmured in stupefaction, ignoring the toilsome work to purely wiggle her fingers.

"Ri!" The Regent of the Realm blared, praising every deity for being exorable to his petition, "Thank the entire Pantheon for your recovery."

Hearing the timbre of the Chancellor's voice and knowing he was indeed real, the tears cascaded out of Gabrielle's eyes. The last time she'd seen Meleager the Mighty was multitudinous years ago when a corrupt judge named Arbus perfidiously betrayed his official title and it's code of ethics by unscrupulously adjudicating him to be guilty for murder. Albeit, Xena's perspicacious nature proved propitious, saving the quondam drunkard from the execution. Quelling the remembrance, because it involved the Warrior Princess also, she persisted to weakly lift a weary arm to him. Noting what Gabrielle was trying to do, he tenderly clasped her hand beneath the blanket of fur.

"You're here." She smiled happily, relishing the touch of her lost friend. "I've missed you so much, Meleager."

"It's my fault we haven't had pleasant periods in awhile. But I'm planning on rectifying that once you are..." Meleager's asseveration ceased.

Averring his name minus the ranking designation, or even the self-proclaimed entitlement she usually always inferred, had moderately dissipated the joyous brume for the mimic's renascence. Ri's urbanity and deference concerning the status of others was well acknowledged. Nevertheless, Meleager banished Gabrielle's piddling error, believing the injury she'd suffered impacted her conduct. If it wasn't that, he prayed she didn't change her mind and decided to hold his unfair actions against him as malefic, ergo refraining from deeming they were surrogate family any longer.

"Oh, sweetheart." Choosing to ease his fear, he wiped her teardrops away, saying, "I'm unremittingly euphoric you've awoke, and hope we can make true amendments for the hasty punishments I'd shackled you to."

'Amercements?' Gabrielle was dazed by more than her prostration, and had softly begun tittering at the arrant disclosure that Iona had tersely disseminated on their first meeting. "Should have ascertained you were the Chancellor...since you're here in this world."

Her plauditory affirmation confounded Meleager, howbeit he was disarmed by Gabrielle's elated features, spurring him to grin and nicely query, "How are you feeling?"

Unobservant of the remark she evinced that adverted to different worlds, Gabrielle tested her body's mobility. "I feel lethargic...and have a small headache."

"Do you have any recollection of what occurred?"

Gabrielle tried focusing on the events beyond when she felt abnormal listlessness, but her retrospection drew a blank. "I...don't remember."

The gray-haired man's smile veered into a saddened frown, and he started his explication, "You had a nasty tumble in the kitchen, banging the rear of your skull on the floor. Mercifully, the gods protected you from having an exacerbated trauma, Ri. The Corinthian medic's perusal of you simply ceded a dressing for your minor wound that didn't require stitches."

"That's great to hear." Gabrielle replied. "I'm glad I've awoken to find a friendly person standing vigil atop me, too."

"It wasn't singularly me, Ri. Iona kept us company until her father stopped by to see you as well. Neither did I survey you all night. The instant they'd gone to their apartment, I slept on this hardened chair." Meleager chuckled, pointing to the mentioned object. "It gave me a stiff back for my endeavor to stay with you."

"Least you lingered... I'm genuinely grateful for that."

"Nothing could prevent me from remaining watchful over you."

"Just sleepiness, huh?" Gabrielle quipped, triggering a short-length jollity from both of them.

Following that, Gabrielle's lids became notably too ponderous to delay closing any longer, wherefore the Chancellor encouraged, "Maybe you need more shut-eye yourself."

"Yeah..." She agreed, earnestly asserting her double entendre, "Seriously, Meleager, thanks for being here."

With the trim Samurai's pupils shutting, thereby drifting into Hypnos' dreamland, the Regent stifled his desolation that she unceasingly eschewed calling him uncle, and began having concernment apropos to her detriment, contemplating if it had supplementary effects. Massaging the pseudo Ri's palm, Meleager noticed calluses on the otherwise smooth tissue and filed the information aside for a later Cronus, piling it amongst the numerous questions he'd retained. Reclaiming the afflictive furniture, he scrutinized his faux niece's overt matured countenance, speculating whether the Conqueror would welcome the recent transformation that differed exponentially from her former image, or resent it.

{C&R}

Its protracted voyage officially discontinued, the Grecian vessel was moored to the docks in Corinth. Paradoxical to the Lord of Greece's descension down the gangplank, her humor soared with every sandaled footfall aimed towards solid ground, 'cause soon she would arrive at her gothic residency and commence setting into motion the designs that she'd ruminated on for a moon. Plotting on shrouding her identity from Corinth's citizenry, she bedecked herself in a lengthy black cloak that overlaid the maroon-colored tunic, which also resultantly veiled the Conqueror's prized weaponry; the chakram plus the platinum lion blade.

Scouring the empty area that was a ways farther from her army's position, she fleetingly glowered and trudged off of the platform. Touching Terra, the Conqueror led Brutus' appropriated Nabatean horse by its reins through the throng of saluting Greek troops who'd anchored the ship. Amidst them, the older Ruler observed sundry faces, seeing heterogeneous emotions that displayed marred jubilation for her and their return home to the Empire's Capital. She was antecedently cognizant of why they wore vitiated expressions, because it affected her, too.

'I'm responsible for twenty-seven comrades who didn't survive this mission to Crete and thirty others that are wounded.' The Conqueror rancorously thought.

Perishing the deliberation, she wouldn't allow that discernment to dismantle her gaiety soul. Notwithstanding, memorizing Glaphyra's accusation anent to her employing deadly gambles, the Conqueror would never endanger another person's life so callously again. Ambling passed the faction of empathetic soldiers, she became perceptive relevant to the dual warriors shadowing her. Formulating her own plans for the family she'd spent fortnights pining about robustly, the equally ebullient General of the Sixth Army, alongside Tanis whom conscientiously awaited additional instructions, trailed behind their Liege and the four-legged animal she guided.

"Thanks to Brutus relinquishing his ride to me, I'm gonna speedily travel onward solely." Halting her steps to mount the two-toned stallion, the Conqueror espied Glaphyra, avouching, "You have command, General. Finalize our disembarkation, but curb transporting the injured men and women from their curative beds. The moment I get to the castle, I'll send carriages to this location to shuttle y'all there as well."

"Your will be done, my Lord." She assented.

"You've surpassed your previous accomplishments, General Glaphyra. In due Cronus, I'll be singly rewarding you and the one hundred forty-nine hoplites that fought in Dia."

Not anticipating a response to the eulogize, she donned the overgarment's hood, pulling it downwards till the dark covering obscured her profile and silhouetted cerulean optics. Kicking the horse's flanks, the Conqueror urged it to race off, and left the purple armored individuals bemused by her panegyric, withal for contradistinct purposes; Tanis was gleeful whilst Glaphyra shrewdly pondered how could the deceased be utterly recompensed.

"General..." Peering at their gerent dashing from the panorama of dust and foliage, Tanis heeded that something was amiss, whereby the wonderment relating to his unknown future honor had waned. "It may have slipped past the Conqueror's notice, however, the garrison for this locale-"

"They haven't been deployed." His leader interrupted him, therefore beginning a justified reproach, "Took you forever to note their tardiness, and you're actually foolish enough to think our Lord wasn't alerted to that fact also?"

"Um...I." He was rendered speechless.

Clapping Tanis' shoulder in a forgiven gesture, Glaphyra decreed, "Let's finish unloading, shall we."

{C&R}

A couple of candle-marks later, Darnelle opened and closed Ri's door, entering the abode to fulfill his promise to Iona to check on her proxy sister's wellbeing. He wasn't surprised to find Gabrielle still sleeping in bed or Meleager inhabiting the room, either.

Gaiting forward to the table where Meleager appeared to abstractedly prod the breakfast that Minya sent to him, Darnelle chose to lighten the dismaying ambiance and attain his attention. "I'm guessing the food disagrees with you, Regent Chancellor."

Au courant of Darnelle's presence since he'd walked into the erstwhile Handmaiden's quarters, Meleager continued to poke the eggs and ham on his plate, purporting in an incensed tone, "You weren't funny labeling me as General Regent the previous year, and it's less funnier now."

Sensing an inevitable chiding to strikingly get underway, he attempted to forestall it. "My deepest apologies, Chancellor. I was merely aspiring to ameliorate your-"

His Regent's unpredicted laughter silenced Darnelle, catching him off guard. He became worried that Meleager's elderly apperception had received an oppressing visitation from the three Dirae, accordingly cursing him during his grief.

The General of the Fifth Army ventured to inquire the seemingly smitten man, "Chancellor, are you okay?"

"I'm quite fine...but your demeanor gives you away." Remembering the resting woman, Meleager reduced his chortle to a snicker, and released the utensil from his grip, professing, "Dispel your anxiety, General. I am not going to excoriate you. Moreover, Vercinix beat you to the bon mot on the day he'd returned from Gaul."

"Should've known somebody said it already." Mitigated from Meleager's pronouncement, Darnelle's disposition resurfaced. "For a moment there, I'd feared you've declined into insanity."

"Serves you right. In hindsight, you're lucky I didn't act excessively crazy." Meleager retorted, and stood up. "Come, let me show you the reason for my blithe attitude."

Traipsing to the somnolent Gabrielle, the General's curiosity surged while loitering above her inactive form. "She remains in slumber. How does this embolden your joyful spirit?"

"Look closely, Darnelle." The Chancellor insisted.

Taking his advice, the long-haired warrior critically examined her, noticing Gabrielle's mien. "She's...smiling."

"Before I'd proposed that she should sleep a bit more, Ri was impermanently awake. She even recognized me, spoke and giggled..." Meleager revealed, caressing her cheeks. "She's going to recover without losing an iota of her memories."

"That's fantastic news, Chancellor." Darnelle had become jubilant. "Iona will be delighted."

"The denizens will rejoice also, ending feasible rumors referring to her health."

"Perhaps." Darnelle couldn't ignore the obvious. "Ri looks unwonted, though."

"Yes, she does." Meleager concurred to her unconventional, outward aspect. "Ri's shortened tresses greatly enhances her maturity."

"Many will declare she has the facet of a slave." Darnelle clarified his proclamation, prying, "Do you ken the logic for her cutting it?"

Meleager was retentive of Darnelle's daughter's admission in connection to the imposter's atypical vernacular and idiosyncratic behavior. "Iona informed me that Ri's ratiocination implies that she-"

A knock on the chamber's door deterred the Regent's avowal. Upon its opening, the two males descried the female sentry standing in the entryway, and beside her was the Asiatic Chambermaid.

"Forgive our intrusion, Chancellor, but she stressed that it was urgent." The guardswoman explained, indicating Akemi's exigent message.

"Akemi?" Meleager confusingly asked.

"Lord Chancellor, I've been apprised that an affluential plenipotentiary awaits you in the Throne Room, yet I'm unaware who they are exactly." She rejoined, nary peeping at Gabrielle's recumbent body.

'What is this about?' Meleager cogitated, bestowing his gratitude to her. "Thank you. I'll be there momentarily."

Knowing she was dismissed, Akemi curtsied, exiting Ri's residence.

The sentinel followed suit and pulled the ingress shut, as Meleager predicated to Darnelle, "A mysterious emissary arriving unexpectedly is heteroclite, nonetheless, I will meet whoever they are. In the meanwhile, obtain Hippocrates for me. I want his canny, medical expertise to analyze Ri when she awakens to substantiate her positive vigor in case I'm wrong. I'll be back promptly."

Nodding his consent, he expounded, "I'll be staying with Ri, too."

Appreciative of the General's benignity shown to the ersatz Ri, Meleager clasped his forearm in a warrior's embrace. Thereafter, he departed to traverse the castle's halls, accepting the locals' various greetings. On route to his destination, the Regent grew inquisitive, conjecturing if the visiting diplomat hailed from another assailed country that encompassed the Realm; akin to Britannia and the borders of Babylon.

The aforementioned territories remained in disarray, and although Meleager had implemented strategies to resolve their woes, his profundity was flagging on how to rescue Marcus Tullius Cicero from Rome's clutches without initiating a campaign of warfare in Italy nor Greece's frontier; something the Conqueror frankly didn't covet. Despite that, he zestfully preferred the preservation of Cicero's existence, and was steadfast in sending Generals Darnelle and Draco's armies to Rome, no matter the perilling outcome.

Drawing nearer to his terminus, a pair of saluting Corinthian Guards, whom was posted on either sides of the twin doors, opened it for him. Ensuingly crossing the portal, the Chancellor's steps came to a cessation whilst gazing at the cloak-clad being who reclined cozily on the regal throne.

"How dare you disrespect my station, including that of our..." His scarify faltered, and an obstreperous exuberant sigh bolted from the confines of Meleager's throat once the figure arose, removing her hood.

"Hello, Old man." The Conqueror addressed her Chancellor. "Did you miss me?"

To Be Continued...