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These pages were last updated: August 29, 1997
ŠJuly 1997
The following is a bit of alternative fiction based on certain characters from the Xenaverse. It is not meant to infringe on anyone else's rights. If you don't agree or disapprove, please go read something else.
Now it is possible, had they not been so tired they fell asleep almost as soon as their bodies were on the bed, they would have conversed about the oddities of the day. Probably, if they had not awakened aroused, they might have discussed the implications of fire acting as an entity. Afterwards, there were other things to occupy their attention as acting envoys, so Arete and Kalai never got around to getting greedy or overconfident or all the usual pitfalls of power. Instead, they went on with their lives, maybe with the awareness that there was something a bit magical going on, but mostly content being occupied by being in love and on a honeymoon.
This, unfortunately, was not the case with one Amazon and her lover, who spent a good portion of the next morning in the temple library trying to figure out a way to wrest the rings, which they'd assumed was the source of Arete and Kalai's power, from the two young lovers. Word of the joining, which to the dark Amazon was a blasphemous occurrence, and the priestly cautions had reached the village previous to the couple's arrival. Somehow she convinced herself, and her lover, who was a little less doubtful than herself, that the ceremony had been bogus and had only been conducted to give the appearance of legitimacy to an obviously unnatural situation. The competition should have been forced to a completion with only one winner and where the Queen regent's (she wouldn't even go into what she thought of the notion of Ephiny as regent) researchers had found that abominable old law she did not know.
The Amazon's reasoning was based on the suspicion that they, meaning anyone connected in the shameful arrangement, were involved in a plot to take over the Amazon Nation and lessen the already weakened nation by having it mocked by outsiders and thus more vunerable. Her eyes narrowed at the thought of that usurper, she couldn't even attach the title without mentally sneering, Queen Gabrielle. *She* wasn't even an Amazon, just some lowlife who shouldn't have been given the right of caste in the first place. At least Ephiny was an Amazon, misguided maybe, but of the Nation by birth. (In this case, the Amazon objector was deliberately ignoring an interesting facet of the Amazon lifestyle, which was that *all* Amazons were "adopted" into the Nation. Birth did not guarantee that a woman wanted to be an Amazon, nor did it prevent "outsiders" from becoming Amazons. Her lover remained silent about her own heritage, not wishing to be the object of a diatribe or more importantly to her, to lose the dark one's affections).
The Amazon was of the opinion that the rings were not made by the Gods, for why would they bother, but by some powerful sorcerer (probably that priest in Amphipolis and priests could not be trusted) and that anyone could wield that power if they knew how. And this brought up another annoying aspect. She had been the one to douse the hearth and set the fire, along with a rumor about their all too grouchy neighbors, to test Arete and Kalai. And what had they done? They'd acted as if they had no clue, when it was obvious that they could have stopped the fire at its inception or at least as soon as they'd known about it.
At first the plan had been simple, poison the women, take the rings. But her partner pointed out that the deaths would cause an uproar and a search, which could cause problems later, if they suddenly showed up with the rings of power on their fingers. Then she'd thought about having outsiders kidnap the women and then kill them and then bring the rings to her, but her lover pointed out the likelihood of discovery on that one too. Plot after plot had some disappointing flaw.
The Amazon flicked a finger at one of the scrolls deposited on the table and watched it roll in response. Her nostrils flared. If that damned Yvonne had kept her mouth shut about the hearth fire, she could have. . .she wasn't sure what she could have done, but it had been inconvenient that the young priestess should be so honest. At least the two women were separate from the rest of the villagers. That meant no one could get too close to them and maybe if something "accidental" should happen to them, no one would feel too badly if it were she and her lover who took upon themselves the duties of the four corners (but blessed if she knew what those duties were supposed to be. Probably nothing, considering it was a sham anyway. It was just an excuse for power). Silence settled heavily in the library as her thoughts wound down.
Her lover, who'd been partly looking at scrolls and partly listening, settled into reading yet another legalistic treatise in search of some qualifier, some fix to their problem. She held the scroll close to her face, using a scrying glass to make out the print. Her mouth moved as she read the text. It was her preference that they find some legal way to resolve their problem. She kept having visions of the lovers' ghosts coming back to haunt them somehow, not to mention the possible vengeance of Xena. Now there was a woman she didn't want to tangle with. Besides, according to Amazon law, which she had researched as thoroughly as their library allowed, the joining was indeed legitimate and had several historical precursors, including two that involved a competition very like the one carried out in Amphipolous.
In fact, she'd found one interesting set of scrolls about the joining of *seven* Amazons (She'd been surprised at that, having assumed that they were only mythological figures. All the Amazons knew the myths of the seven, though not the history) which had been conducted the mystical purpose of defending the Amazon Nation. Apparently, the Nation, when it was still powerful and acknowledged in its own right (instead of as "those strange women warriors"), had to deal with a powerful enemy and had to rely on magic as its last defense. The women had been bound together in a joining so powerful that it was said the whole world quaked. She doubted that, since she knew bards tended to exaggerate. It had a similar clause too. As long as the emblems of power were carried and passed on, then the nation would succeed. The loss would cause the nation to fall. Everyone had assumed that it meant that the nation would cease to exist. No one had thought it meant simply dwindle from power. She stopped reading and gazed thoughtfully at her lover, and wondered, briefly if their efforts might not be a mistake. Then she shook her head. Of course not, it wasn't the same situation at all. They weren't faced with some magical beasty or vicious warlord type. All the borders were peaceful now. There was no need for magical intervention.
She finished the scroll, dropped it on the accumulating pile and started reading the second part of the set. Her feet, which had been propped up quite lazily on stool, dropped to the floor as she sat up in shock. She looked at her partner and then at the scroll and began reading aloud. It turned out there was a challenge made, based on an old code, in regards to the legitimacy of the joining. She dropped the scroll on the table, failing to read the rest of the commentary. They had their fix.
At that moment a messenger entered the library and bowed. "Chieftess, the envoys are prepared to meet with you."
The Amazon grinned and thanked the woman, then she turned to her lover, the village librarian, as soon as the messenger left. "Find that code. I'll find someone else to play guard for me." Her lover nodded and began researching in earnest. She might have to send a messenger off for some obscure text, but she would find it.
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Xenite Temple | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
These pages were last updated: August 29, 1997
ŠJuly 1997