A bath of warm milk and scented oil to help her skin keep its youthful appearance and perfumes that excite and attract the attention of men and women.
Her gown covered her breasts and intimate areas but left everything else exposed to help the men around her forget that they were men and not beasts. Finally, her servants placed Jacob's cape around her neck but instead of tying it, it was held in place with white silk string.
With her preparations ready, she ordered her servants to take one of the few accessories she had managed to obtain and wrap it with red silk.
The cold wind made her shiver, and her heart nearly stopped when she found a knight and a soldier waiting for her outside. The men didn't say anything; they just waved at her, signaling they were there to escort her to wherever Judicious lived.
She lowered her head and allowed the men to lead her to wherever they planned to take her. She could hear her guards following them, and the unexpected appearance of the knight and soldier made her wonder if she had done anything wrong. Her worries were soon proven wrong as she found Jacob and Ricardo waiting for her nearby.
She was about to step away from her group when she noticed something that shouldn't be there. Behind Jacob's right leg was something or better said someone who shouldn't have been there.
The girl, Jacob's daughter, the woman she had to replace, hid behind her father's leg like a dog who had never been allowed to leave its master's home, and now that she was outside, she didn't know what to do.
Nefertari smiled at the girl, but the girl buried her head into Jacob's leg. For a moment, Nefertari wished Jacob was wearing his armor instead of the grey trousers he wore when he wasn't wearing it. That way the girl would have hit her head on the armored leg and given herself a bruise.
Remembering why she was here she greeted Ricardo and Jacob who greeted her in return. She would ignore the girl's insult, but she would not forget it. Her time as a slave taught her that there is more than one way to destroy a person's life and even make death impossible to achieve.
She had to admit that she enjoyed seeing the fear in the eyes of these beneath her, and felt her chest swell with pride when she noticed the envy in the eyes of the women who wished that they had been in her place.
Yet as she walked she began to feel something that she didn't recognize, it was a feeling that she had never felt before.
The people around her, those who Jacob claimed weren't slaves but citizens of his kingdom looked at Jacob with warm eyes. Nefertari knew that those same people still feared angering the man, but she couldn't see the fear that should have been there. There was only warmth and admiration.
She turned and noticed that Ricardo the leader of the Soldiers was being treated the same way, however, unlike Jacob, the people only had respect for the leader of the soldiers. There was fear in their eyes, but it was the kind that people had whenever they looked at a guard who said their name when the city was under curfew.
They finally arrived at Judiciousses home but Nefertari couldn't help but feel disappointed in what she found. During her time as a ruler and as a slave she had seen the palaces and estates where the Romans lived, but Judicious's house did not have any of it.
The best way that she could describe the man's home was a three-floor house that was surrounded by stone walls. While the walls were smooth on the outside and there were guards walking at the top, the house had none of the elegance that a person in the Roman's position should have had.
The inside was no better there was a fountain where a small shrine where Judicious's family prayed to their gods and while there was a table set up where all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meats, and fishes were waiting for them, there wasn't as much wine or music.
Nefertari hid her disappointment something that became even harder to do when she noticed the lack of incest. The Roman and his wife had even forgotten to make the air pleasant for her to breathe.
The girl let out joy filled cry before running past Jacob and taking one of the two infants from what Nefertari could only assume was Judicious'd wife.
As time passed more Romans, soldiers, and knights arrived, and while they exchanged pleasantries she couldn't help but feel bored, especially since all of the men paid little or no attention to her.
That meant that she only had Judicious wife and the women that the soldiers had brought with them.
She was going to consider the entire thing a failure, as even her gift was treated as something that wasn't worth much because one of the other women had brought a shield that was made of steel, and Judicious had treated it as a family heirloom.
"So about the two of you going north?' She heard Judicious say to Ricardo and Jacob, who looked at each other and placed a pair of large scrolls on the table.
"We were planning to talk to you about that." Ricardo says to Judicious before he unrolls the scroll revealing a map of his kingdom. Nefertari could see that the soldiers' lands were mostly covered in farms while the rest were divided by military outposts and a small city where the none combatants lived.
Jacob unrolled his scroll and it showed several small towns and villages that were surrounded by several small farms. Nefertari could see that the villages had been set up in such a way, that if anything happened like an attack, they could sustain themselves at least for a time.
"We were hoping that you could give us the set up of your walls, in exchange we offer the set up of the inside of our territories." Jacob says to Judicious before turning to look at her.
"My men and I will enter the forest and cut down as many trees as we can. We will kill as many of those things as possible before retreating."
Ricardo begins to speak as if he and Jacob had rehearsed this conversation before coming here. "My soldiers will kill as many as we can before they breach the walls, but make no mistake the enemy will break through our defenses,'
"We need you and your men to deal with those that manage to get through." Ricardo finishes his explanation.
Nefertari had never seen the creatures that lived in this world but judging by how Judicious lost his smile and now looked at the men in front of him as if they were mad, she understood that whatever was beyond the walls was something truly dangerous.
"Even if we combine all of our resources, we don't have the men to fight those things. Have the two of you forgotten what it took for us just to build the border and how many of the slaves" Judicious stops talking bows his head and asks for forgiveness.
"Have you forgotten how many citizens died before we could bring settlers here?" Judicious asks Ricardo and Jaacob, before pointing at the area where the ocean was.
"Those things won't just come from the north, they will come from every direction just like they did back then. We would need a thousand of what we have, and hundreds of thousands of what we don't.'
Nefertari listens to the heavy silence, she waits for someone to say something, but she doesn't have to wait long.
'Just say it and my fortune is yours to pay for it, but you will have to pay back whatever you use for your territory, that isn't used during the fight." Once again Jacob turns to look at her, but this time his words are for her.
"That includes you. Gather what you need for the fight, and work with Judicious so that your people survive, but remember that you will have to pay me back for anything that isn't used for the war."
Nefertari didn't know how to react, her position had been acknowledged, but it was an afterthought. Jacob had shown her that while she was important, she was barely above those she looked down on.
She nods before turning to look at the maps on the table, knowing that she will need to present hers to the men.