Amora
If you told me earlier on in my life that I'd be on a journey with a thief, a mercenary, and the daughter of my guardian (who might be dead), I'd laugh in your face.
But now, it was real.
As if she were a magnet Kleio found a tavern and sent me away to find Eva with Iris. Locating Eva wasn't hard, she was blissfully browsing stalls near the port side still happy that Kleio would be accompanying us on our odyssey. Because of this blissful mood when I mentioned the news of an extra person joining us, it didn't seem to bother her.
Quickly we made our way back to the tavern to not anger Kleio further, we were then sat at a table where Kleio had already finished her 10th cup of wine and she was nowhere near stopping. I sat across from Eva and Iris sat next to me because Kleio was making too much of a fuss.
"So, nobody knows where we could find Phobie?" I began
"Who?" Iris questioned, not knowing the full details of her trip.
As nice as Eva was, she didn't want me in danger and decided to keep most things secret one being the fact that I was spartan royalty and planned to take out the queen that had control of almost half of Greece. She believed it best if Iris found things out slowly until we were sure we like to trust her. In my opinion, nothing seemed off about her, but that may have been my tendency to always assume there's good in people.
"A Spartan Polemarch," Eva explained.
"Oh, I think I may know something!"
Kleio chugs down her wine and slams it onto the table. "Speak," she demands.
"Cranky ass." The thief mumbled.
"Test my patience and you'll see more than just cranky."
"A while back I was sniffing around Delphi, anywhere near the oracle is bound to attract wealthy travellers and gossipers. Luckily for you, I overheard some weird Athenian-looking women. They were discussing a spartan polemarch and how the cult had her 'contained' somewhere." Iris explains.
"A cult? What is that?" I questioned.
"Religion extremists, you know?" Iris answered as of it were common knowledge.
"Despite her status, she lacks common sense and a lot of knowledge. You'll have to excuse her." Kleio commented.
I opened my mouth in shock at the insult Kleio got out of her drunk state.
"Glad to see you're all getting on." I never judged Eva as sarcastic, but now I was proven wrong.
"As I was saying, I was curious, so I followed them, and they had a super creepy hideout. They wore masks with a cloak, and they reside right under the oracle's temple in Delphi." Iris finished.
"I guess our next stop is Delphi," Eva stated.
"Then let's go." Kleio got to her feet, ready to rush out of the tavern.
"Wait, wait, wait, don't you think we need a plan first?" I stopped her, clearly pushing a nerve.
"I have one. We bust down their doors, slaughter every one of those Athenian dogs and take back Phobie." She shrugs about to walk off again.
"We can't do that, we need to stay low-key, I know you're used to rushing into things with your sword but you're with us now and things are different," Eva explained. Better her than me, if I were to explain she'd take my head off on the spot.
Reluctantly Kleio sat back down. "What's the plan?"
"Currently Iris knows the most, so we follow her lead," I suggested.
"I knew you were nuts, what makes you think we can trust this filthy Malaka!" Kleio raged.
"Calm down, Amora has a point, as a thief she's also the stealthiest of all of us." Eva defended me, and Iris.
"Not stealthy enough if she was caught by me."
"It was a joint effort." I chimed in.
"Half the time you were wheezing."
"I've never had to keep up with a murderer before in my training."
"I told you," She slammed her hand on the table. "I'm not a fucking murderer! You're not looking into a fucking mirror!" Kleio walks off in anger. Eva tries her best to keep her here and calm but it's no use, Eva isn't her weakness in every situation.
"I feel like I've been caught in the middle of some really tense lesbian drama." Iris breathed out.
"What?" I asked.
Iris just shrugged, clearly knowing it wasn't her business to comment further since she had no idea what was going on. Eva doesn't push any further either.
"I'm going to go find her, she's probably vomiting her guts out."
I mentally cringed at the image as she rushed off after Kleio. I looked at Iris, and she was fiddling with her fingers on the table.
"Thank you for not saying more." I begun.
"I like causing trouble, but I figured if I said more, you'd be in too much trouble."
"It's appreciated." I got up from my seat and she followed, if we're going to get to Delphi quickly then we needed good horses and food. "Do you know where the stables are?"
"Right this way your highness," She bowed before me, obviously meaning it as a joke but I was still shocked anyway she must've noticed my unresponsiveness. "Did I say something wrong?" Iris noticed the awkward silence after her statement but continued to lead the way.
"No, you were spot on in fact."
"What?"
"I trust you, so the real reason why we're here is that...I'm the heir to the Spartan throne."
It was as if her jaw dropped to the floor, she looked at me astounded, but said nothing so I continued, "Paris' sister poisoned and took over Spartan court. But luckily, I and Eva killed her before she could harm any more innocents. However, we did leave Eva's mum to fight a war I started...and we have no idea if she's alive now. Before we left, we were given a list, which had names of Krista's associates," I took out the scroll and gave it to her.
Our small walk ended and we stopped not far from the stables, and she took a good look at the list, maybe memorising it.
"Holy shit I know one of these names!"
"Wait what?"
"Ptolema, she's a very rich Athenian, now that I think about it, I think when I was eve-dropping on those women, the other referee to one as Ptolema."
"You're amazing!" In the heat and excitement of the moment, we end up high giving each other and hugging. We pull apart quickly trying to dismiss the awkward situation.
"If you're a princess, then how could anyone hate you," Iris asked to break the silence once again.
"What do you mean?"
"Kleio." She gritted her teeth, pointing back to the tavern.
"She blames me for the war." I shrugged it off.
"Oh, she's one of them."
"Pardon?"
"Some people chose to cope with the war in different ways, but she wasn't the only one hurt by the war. Both my parents died, and I had no extra family, no backup plan no special skills. I lived on the streets of Phokis all my life, in the shadows stealing what I could to survive. I didn't blame anybody for what happened to me, I tried my best to move on and try to survive. And now I owe you an immense amount of gratitude...you've saved me."
"I'm very glad I did; I have a great feeling about you," I smiled encouragingly
Iris clutched her heart dramatically, her other hand on my shoulder and her face scrunches up and she cries...well pretends to cry, "I'm so touched, I have a great feeling about me too." She then laughed throwing her arm around my shoulder, "I have a trick to show you."
"Which is?" I smiled rolling my eyes sensing it was going to be something beyond ridiculous.
"Bargaining." Iris winked and raises her eyebrows at me before walking to the stable owner, trying her best to bargain for the cheapest price for 4 horses. I stand and laugh at her first few failed attempts, but she assures me that she'll get her way eventually. I begin to think that she planned to annoy the owner into giving it to her for free, but he seemed hard-headed and wasn't letting it up easily.
Just when their conversation seemed like Iris was getting to a reasonable deal, my attention shifted to rustling and gagging coming from behind a stack of hay. My guard increases and my hand over the handle of my sword lowers as I approached the haystack cautiously. The gagging was followed by coughing and vomiting.
I slowly peeped my head over the stack and there I see her kneeling over a pool of her vomit.
Kleio
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-Artemis