Disclaimers: See Chapter 1
Additional Note (Please Read): This tale is a companion with, Xena & Gabrielle: A Twist of Destiny. If you haven't read both stories' chapters preceding this one, you should do so now. A fond thanks to my Beta, Jinxie 2013, and fellow readers. Also, a special shout out to Amazonfire. Please continue to enjoy. ;-)
The Conqueror & Ri
A Twist of Destiny
By Ahkiken
Chapter 42: Solidarity
Leaning in the bedroom's ingress that was contiguous to the Conqueror's antechamber, Akemi adoringly observed the napping woman who slept at the desk. Vesper, the evening god, had arrived, and Meleager enjoined the Chambermaid to awaken their Lord for the council in the War Room. Discovering that the Conqueror had returned to Corinth when she'd surprisingly appeared and requested for her to summon the Chancellor to the Throne Room, she was gladdened, yet, abashed.
The Oriental servant's hairstyle and attire wasn't majorly maintained nor spectacular during her mistress' absence, ergo she rushed off to do the Overlord's bidding; not relishing being seen by the Conqueror in such an unpleasant state. While the Gerent conversed with Meleager, Akemi used that Cronus to thoroughly comb her dark tresses and change out of the usual vapid tunics she'd chosen to exhibit on a steady basics. Now dressed in a violet peplos, whereby revealing smooth legs, and wearing lustrous black sandals, she was comfortable to be in the Conqueror's presence again.
Aware that she had to disturb her sleep and discharge the Chancellor's task that was given, Akemi stalled a little longer to enjoy the sight of the beautiful Conqueror. Ri's stay in the Corinthian castle and recent incident in the kitchen hadn't abandoned Akemi's memory, nor the erstwhile Handmaiden's rodomontade that the Lord of the Grecian Empire kissed her in Minerva's temple. Withal the Chambermaid wouldn't let that distract her from the prime goal she had made a priority of attaining. She'd already begun inducing strife in her arch nemesis' life by fabricating to Prince Lyceus, but if the storyteller decided to still try stealing the Japian female's savior away, she would destroy Ri.
Finally sauntering to the Conqueror's dormant form, she set two items on the table and started remorsefully rousing her Lord. Warily shaking the Conqueror, Akemi watched her groan in protest and infrequently stir, prior to cobalt irises blinking open. Espying the Chambermaid, she became perplexed, then wakefulness assailed her senses, and the Ruler's head lifted off of the wooden surface.
"Akemi?" She inquired in a drowsy tone.
"Yes, my Lord. Pardon me for the disruption of your dreams, but Chancellor Meleager commanded me to wake you for the War Room's confabulation."
"It's okay." The Conqueror kneaded her tired eyes, carping, "Evenfall has come too soon."
"I've taken the latitude of preparing water and mint leaves for you to use." Akemi proclaimed.
Glimpsing the couple of necessities she required to freshen her breath, the Conqueror averred, "Thank you, Akemi."
"You're welcome... Is there anything else you wish me to do for you?"
Henting a single green flower, the Conqueror answered, "No, you may go."
The Chambermaid was privately flabbergasted that she wasn't permitted to linger in her Lord's company, quizzing, "My Conqueror, are you positive I'm not needed?"
"You've done more than enough." The Conqueror replied. "You can resume your devoir after I've departed. At the moment, I have an avidity for solitude."
Akemi grudgingly concurred and curtsied in reverence whilst pondering on the Conqueror's yen to be by herself, 'The Lord of the Realm has been gone on progress for a moon, and perchance there's arduous matters she must minister to.'
The Japian's lowly spirit improved substantially from the inference, and she boosted her resolve further with the knowledge that she'd see the blue-eyed female later. Therefore ambling to the small lodging that was connected to her Lord's bedchamber, Akemi temporarily tarried, scanning the Conqueror as she chewed on the aromatic herb. Noticing the Conqueror's stringent visage, she became worried for her outward disposition.
Hampering to erase her severe expression, Akemi was unable to stymie telling the Conqueror how she felt, "I'm happy you've come back. I...I've missed you dearly."
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Akemi." The Conqueror grinned, thereon recommenced manducating the leaf in her mouth.
"It isn't an acclamation, my Lord..." The attendant recognized that the Conqueror's smile didn't impact her stony pupils, and she offered a sympathetic look, saying, "Just truth."
Partly interested in her Chambermaid's declaration, the Conqueror dumbly nodded and descried Akemi's exit. Once she'd left, the forty-three-year-old utilized the clear liquid to rinse the mashed plant out of her oral aperture. Ejecting the substance into the cup, she put it down and did not consider the minty fragrance that permeated her sense of smell, 'cause the Conqueror's ruminations swiveled from one discommoding topic to the next. Although Britannia and Babylon's encumbrances demanded effortful intrepidity, their plights would eventually get remedied. It was the Realm's anomalous petitions that constituted serious ratiocination.
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a beloved friend to her and the Chancellor, who spiritedly admired the popular, societal Senator. The Conqueror consented unequivocally with Meleager's determination to rescue the former consul from assassination, but her mind had to reside in reality. She knew they would have to tread punctiliously if Fortuna was to favor them in their endeavor apropos to the sequestered fugitive. Despite how bent she and Meleager was on extricating him from Italia, he remained a vassal of Rome, thus limiting Greece's interference; any dynamic approach could be insinuated as a political proclamation that the Greeks didn't respect their government's personal affairs.
'I have a huge aversion to nearly every Roman.' The Conqueror admitted, rising from her chair. 'Fuck all of them and their damned Republic.'
Nonetheless, she realized storming Rome's borders would be an overture for war, plus undermine her and the Sixth Army's sanguinary assignment in Dia. Sending her Generals to Egypt, she'd plotted on Gaius Octavian and Marcus Antonius to fight each other or cooperate together against Brutus, including his brother-in-law, Cassius. Their choices wasn't paramount, 'cause the result was bound to be the same; the Romans would grind themselves into oblivion far from her territories.
Heretofore, based on incorrect decisions, the united, prominent players of Rome could attack Greece, influencing it to become embroiled in bloodshed that would affect the Conqueror's citizens, and she unquestionably didn't want them or her mainland to suffer inner battles once more. The Peloponnese Purge was vivid in everybody's psyche who'd survived that turbulence, so their Ruler whom stopped the internal conflict had installed a troth within herself to never allow her Greek domain to endure horrific warfare. She would have to find another method to succor Cicero.
Entering her bedroom to shuck the weapons that encircled her waist, the Conqueror sifted through expansive outfits that hung in the armoire, choosing a proper apparel for the forthcoming caucus. Consequent to laying the selection on the tidy bedding and disrobing the maroon-colored garment from a slender torso, she'd crouched to remove the footwear, instantly freezing while glancing at the pair of golden bands that bedecked her breasts. The sight banished her thoughts on Cicero's liberation, and beckoned past recollections anent to how and where she got the duplicate nipple rings.
Scattered in different corners of Terra, each Amazonian Tribe had divergent praxis for initiation; tattoos, various trinkets, or, in the Conqueror's case, piercings. The twin adornments became likened to an inustion that was seared into her brain cells, and she wouldn't ever forget the Northern Steppes clan and their impressionable leader, Queen Cyane.
The powerful Serbian Amazon had taught the fledgling Conqueror numerous dexterous tactics, coaxing her to glorify Cyane, and nourished a desire to join them. If not for the Moirai's wonts for instigating disasters simply to remind a person that they couldn't or shouldn't impede one's fate, she would've deserted the painstaking scheme to surmount the Delian League as the true superior of Greece. Notwithstanding, a cataclysmic occurrence reinforced the Conqueror's original ideals, causing unmitigated strife between her and the Northern Amazons.
'History knows what end they came to.' She somberly cogitated.
Slipping the strapped soles off of her feet, the Conqueror covered herself in the warrior's garb she'd preferred, and mused over the present conundrum in reference to the warrior women. She had known for moons that they were converging near the outer parts of Corinth, purely a day's ride from her castle, and was swelling in numbers. General Draco insisted on the mobilization of the Imperial military to neutralize them before they become a threat, but she'd declined his asservation, knowing in her heart she owed the Amazons a chance to begin anew.
Their unification accomplished, the united Amazonian Nation was currently seeking an invitation to the Tribute ceremony, and patiently awaited a response. The Conqueror couldn't surmise whether they were hatching a vengeful plan for their murdered sisters in Serbia, or merely wanted an audience.
'Why bring unnecessary attention to themselves, though?' She mentally prodded, cognizant that the Amazons' appeal could range from a series of reasonings. 'I haven't messed with them, nor placed an injunction for their submission to my dominance. Hmm, maybe they misconstrue that my generous avoidance is a sly rejection to their community.'
Unassuaged that she'd have to remain in ignorance about the Amazons, the Conqueror's thinking had swerved to her Generals and Chancellor, hoping she haven't kept them in interminable suspension whilst gearing up. Lacing her boots, she used the mirror to inspect everything she'd donned, ensuring it all was impeccable. Sparsely adjusting the gray-colored chest-plate of armor that blanketed the white shirt, she ignored the barely noticeable creases on the worn trousers and began exiting her chambers.
Closing the door behind herself, she was nonplussed to descry Meleager standing in the hall outside of her residence. Because of their earlier ructions, mostly on her behalf, the Conqueror psychically became disquieted and wasn't prepared to face him alone. Having faith that majority of her remediation regarding the Empire's problematic situations would cement their solidarity, she feared it wouldn't absolve the vitriolic remarks she'd exposed him to.
"Hey." The compunctious Conqueror greeted, examining Meleager's countenance to note that he looked haggard. 'My behavior has plausibly ruined his slumber.'
"Good evening, my Liege." He rejoined. "I've arranged for Generals Nale, Draco, Palaemon, Vercinix, and Darnelle to attend our colloquy. Prince Lyceus will be there, too."
Nodding in understanding, the Conqueror queried, "What of Glaphyra and the Sixth Army's arrival?"
"She and her soldiers had gotten here while you were sleeping." The Chancellor went on explaining, "General Glaphyra is visiting the families of the deceased members from her army. Do you want me to dispatch a Corinthian Guard for her?"
"No... She's doing something indispensable, which I should've done." The Overlord was feeling guilty for the males and females whom died 'cause of their purposiveness to aid her in a skirmish that shouldn't have happened. "Darnelle will apprise her concerning the themes we'll be discussing, so let's go."
Meleager vaguely bowed, and they'd embarked towards their terminus. Other than passing a manifold of people who'd deferentially addressed them in the multiple corridors, the Conqueror and Chancellor's journey was silent, thereby agitating her. She cognized that the ex-Regent was equitably perturbed by the caustic evaluation of his judgments as he ruled in her stead. In lieu of commending the Chancellor and delicately dissuading him from launching objectives that would reverse her meticulous stratagem and do irrevocable damage to the Realm, she'd berated his opines. Lack of rest accounted for her fiery temper, but it wasn't a legitimate excuse. Albeit traversing side-by-side, she couldn't abide the quietude anymore.
Deciding to show Meleager that she was not in a saturnine mood, the Conqueror tentatively evinced, "Reposing really is a fulcrum for lucidity."
"Mm-hmm." The Chancellor hummed indifferently, opening the oak doors that led to the War Room.
They entered the passageway, and the Conqueror ceased walking to mildly grab Meleager's arm, evoking him to halt also. "I apologize for the contentious words I'd spewed. When you'd informed me of all that's betiding our Empire, I... There's no mitigation to defend my reprehension."
"Your apology isn't warranted..." Preceding his admission, Meleager sighed, "The tirade was justified."
"That doesn't suffice. I shouldn't have spoken to you in a callous manner, and for that, I'm truly sorry." She reaffirmed, releasing his appendage.
"We will agree to disagree." Meleager offered a faint smile, predicating, "I had distinguished that my course of action would clash with yours, but chose to risk contravening them to protect Cicero. Perhaps General Palaemon's laggard recruitment was a blessing in disguise. It hindered me from deploying troops and possibly welcoming disaster."
The Chancellor's disclosure intrigued his Lord as they restarted their traipse onwards. "Palaemon was the singular General who had poor recruiting figures?"
"Nale had a slow beginning, too, nevertheless, his enlistment has ameliorated. The final Cronus I've checked, Palaemon's was highly unacceptable. I had to scold him in front of the others for it."
"I'll ask him for a report today." The Conqueror pronounced, compelling a petite, strawberry-blonde to invade her consciousness. "Throughout the complexities of the Realm's status you had to withstand, you've effectuated preparations for Ri's travel to Attica and are monitoring her progress to be certain she get there, right?"
A few steps from the War Room's closed entrance, Meleager hesitated replying to the Conqueror's probe, "Uh... Ri is-"
Propitiously, for Meleager's sake, the door opened, and the General of the First Army stood in it's entryway, bestowing a jubilant beam. "Conqueror!"
"Nale." Deterred by his interjection, she gazed at Meleager, uttering, "We'll discourse 'bout her following this convocation."
"That's fine." The Chancellor swiftly assented. "That's fine."
Thereafter, receptive of Nale's opportune intervention, the Chancellor trailed his Liege to cross the threshold.
To Be Continued...