He could not now go to Athenia for any reason if he wished to keep away from the Stravos family. Well...he could go but it was a risk not worth taking at present. This meant that, in Greece, at least, he was limited to Taengea and Colchis. Currently Taengea was in turmoil and not overly interested in buying much of anything that they did not need. They were not pleasure spending the way they normally did and this meant that most of his business was confined to Colchis. And Colchis was really, really boring at times.
His ship was docked, offloaded, and most of his men were already off to the whore houses or taverns. He sat on the top railing of the ship, not wanting to go to the whore houses. It was...a hard step down from what he’d been used to up to now for the last year. Lukos shifted his thoughts away from that subject. He’d been a fucking idiot. Getting into all those politics over a woman and now it had come to nothing at all. She was dead. He was back to square one. No more incoming gold from Stravos. Queen Persephone was on the run, so there was no payment from that quarter and Thalia was dead. Oh yes, life was just fucking grand.
From his vantage point on this top rail, he could see the whole harbor. It was new and much cleaner than the old one had been, having been rebuilt from that terrible storm. His gaze followed person after person as they meandered their way around each other and he saw a slender woman with light brown hair. She looked out of place and at first, he thought she was that Drakos woman. There were only a few Imeeya’s in Colchis and only one ‘Lady Imeeya’ among those. It wasn’t hard to track down who she was and where she lived. He’d all but promised a visit.
In one fluid motion, he moved from sitting to standing with perfect balance, trying to see if the woman was Lady Imeeya or not. It would be just about perfect for his current black mood to give her a little bit of a taste of how badly she’d made the mistake of not taking up his ‘generous’ offer of walking her home. He disliked not succeeding in swindling her. It was beneath him, of course, but anyone could be petty and that’s what he felt like being currently.
The woman half turned a bit, as though drawn by his gaze and looked up at him. Then her eyes slid away and she walked on. Lukos sat back down. Not Lady Imeeya.
Loud thumps resounded up the stairs coming from the hold and he glanced over in time to see Arktos’s bald head emerge ahead of the rest of the man’s mammoth frame. He said nothing as his first mate stumped onto the deck and looked vaguely about as though assuring himself that there were only the appropriate members of the crew on guard, and then stumped his way down the the gangplank and onto the docks.
“Going to the whore house?” Lukos called. Arktos whipped around and gave him a grin and a rude gesture.
”You ought to do the same, captain,” he called back. When Lukos returned an even ruder gesture and a smirk that meant he wasn’t actually kidding, Arktos laughed, waved him off, and continued on his way.
With a sigh, Lukos realized his options for the coming night were rather limited. He could stay here on the ship and just go to bed early, or he could join the whoring and gambling his crew was doing...or….Here his eyes caught sight of that Drakos woman look-alike again. Or, he could cause some real mischief.
With a shark’s grin, he slid off the railing and onto the top deck. From there, he went down the stairs on to the middeck, gave orders that no one but crewmen were allowed on the ship whilst he was gone, and made his way onto the docks. Because Colchis was a city that was half built into the very rock it sat on, he had quite a few levels and stairs he’d have to hike. He looked up at the richer houses that looked down from their higher tiers. The buildings were nearly red in the evening light.
It took the better part of an hour to sift through the evening crowds and make his way up the stairs, winding his way through the streets of Midas. He could have reached the house before the gray of dusk if he’d not happened upon a few different men he knew who insisted on placing their new orders for whatever it was they wanted right then and there. A fair bit of gold was now in his pocket and he was considering that perhaps he should roam the city more often by the time he got to the front gates of the Drakos house.
He rattled the metal gates with his palm and waited until a servant hurried out to stop the noise.
“What is it you want?” the servant was giving him a suspicious glare because he was clearly a sailor. In a shirt of faded red and wearing trousers, rather than a respectable chiton, he gave himself away as someone of heavily inferior rank to the people who owned this house. His dark skin betrayed that he was in the sun often, which further sunk him in the estimation of this house slave.
“Tell Lady Imeeya that Lukos is here,” he said without bothering with subterfuge. And he said it loudly, just in case any of her more nosey neighbors wanted to hear.
With her heart in her throat, Essa sat alone in her family’s private library. Any servant walking by happened upon nothing out of the ordinary, or so they thought. The young Drakos girl was in her favorite chair that provided her with a lovely view, legs curled up, light brown hair let loose so it fell around her face like a curtain and lastly there was a book in her hands. What they didn’t see, however, was that between two pages lay a letter. Essa’s brows were pinched and she was gently playing with the pendant around her throat, pulling the gem from one way to the next. Essa hadn’t meant to find it, she had no idea it even existed until earlier. But now that she had it, she was left in a state of utter confusion.
When Essa woke this morning, she discovered while being dressed by her loyal maidservant Aikaterine that her favorite pearl hair ornament was missing. The ornament had been a gift given to her by her mother on her fifteenth name day, it was precious to her and seldom was she seen without it braided into her hair. Because she knew almost every servant that walked her halls, not once did the thought that it might have been stolen cross her mind. Instead, she was cross with herself for having misplaced it. Aikaterine, who grew up with Essa and had become a sister and close friend to the young Drakos girl, did all she could to comfort Essa, who was rightly upset for having lost it. After all, this wasn’t just any piece of jewelry; it had been given to her by someone who loved her. “We’ll find it, my lady, you’ll see! Come on, let’s go look!” Arm in arm, both girls began to search high and low for her missing hair ornament, Aikaterine’s optimism infectious.
Eventually, their search would lead them to Essa’s sister’s room, now unoccupied. Aikaterine glanced at Essa with a pout that clearly said she didn’t approve of entering Imeeya’s private space, especially now that Imeeya was away on her trip. “I know, but you just said you think the last place you saw me wearing the pearls was when I was spending time with Meeya while she was packing. You can wait out here, I’ll be fast, promise!” Aikaterine pouted again, blonde brows still furrowed but she said nothing and waited out in the hall as Essa slipped into her sister’s room. It felt wrong to be here without her sister, intrusive. But she needed to find her hair ornament, she would feel so guilty if she couldn’t find it. She wore it nearly every day, Tythra was sure to know something was amiss if she saw Essa without it.
On her hands and knees, Essa searched the ground, searched under chairs, under Imeeya’s bed, under tables and desks. When she found nothing, she carefully looked through Imeeya’s sheets and under her pillows, making sure to place everything back where she found it. When she still couldn’t find it, she gave a deep breath and prayed for forgiveness before she began her search through Imeeya’s drawers, specifically in the one that held all of her sister’s jewelry. She thought that perhaps Imeeya might have found it and, not having enough time, put it away. “What’s taking so long?” She heard Aikaterine hiss from behind the door. “I’m going as fast as I can!” Essa mewled back, letting out a sigh of frustration. Where could it be!? With pouted lips, Essa opens up another drawer, this one filled to the brim with papers. Imeeya’s important papers…
Meeya would kill me if I touched these! Essa knows she’s gone too far in her searching and goes to shut the drawer, ready to accept defeat when a certain paper catches her eye. It’s been folded close although it was placed in such a way that the letter was on its back and in the process of coming undone.
“Lady Tythra,” it read. What was Imeeya doing with a letter addressed to their mother? She told herself it was none of her business and yet reached for it anyway. Before she can read what the letter entails, Aikaterine peeks her blonde head into the room. “Essa, if I have to come in there--” Essa cuts her off with a wave of her hand, quickly placing the letter back in the drawer before shutting it. It’s none of my business, she tells herself again before scurrying out of the room. “I’ll take it you didn’t find it.” Aikaterine murmurs as the girls make their way back to Essa’s bedroom. With a defeated shake of her head, Essa finishes getting ready for the day without her pearl ornament and a need to know what that letter says.
Hours would go by, morning turning to noon, noon to dusk. She spent time with her mother, trying very hard not to be obvious with her glances. Did her mother know about the letter? If not, then why was Imeeya hiding it? What did it say? Tythra eventually left, claiming she had things to do in town and Essa was left all alone with just her servants. Eventually, she shakes off Aikaterine and her other maidservants, claiming she wants to read alone before she makes her way back to Imeeya’s room. “It’s none of my business…” She takes the letter and goes.
Now sat in her favorite chair in the library, Essa glares down at the letter.
“Lady Tythra,
I regret to send you this missive whilst I am not within the Kingdom itself, however I have news to bring to you which concerns your daughter, Lady Imeeya.
As I was arriving upon the docks in Midas in my previous voyage, I happened upon Lady Imeeya with some unsavory characters of which I think you would need to know, if only to ensure your daughter's safety, and I feel tis my duty to you, my lady, to bring such news to your ear. I apologize for the lateness in my informing you of such transgressions, as duties to the crown have kept me otherwise occupied, but I wish to pay a visit to your residence on the morrow in order to update you on what I have seen.
Magnus of Chaossis Master Informer”
Imeeya with unsavory characters? Who? Why? What could Imeeya possibly be doing with “unsavory characters”? This didn’t make any sense. Could it be that Imeeya has a...No, Essa shook her head. If Imeeya was in love, surely she would have told Essa. Besides, Imeeya wasn’t like that. She didn’t associate with unsavory characters...So what was she doing at the docks? And why hasn’t she confided in Essa? Pinching the bridge of her nose, Essa glances out the window and suddenly wishes her mother were here. Not so Essa could deliver the letter to her, but so she had someone to wrap her arms around. She really needed a hug. This letter did nothing to satisfy her curiosity, it just left her confused and somewhat hurt. She shuts the book, letter safely inside. It was probably for the best that she returns the letter to Imeeya's room, she'd hate to misplace it like she misplaced her hair ornament. Just as the girl arches her back in a stretch, there's a knock on the door and a servant peeks his head in. "Forgive me, my lady. There's a man here for Lady Imeeya." Oh? Essa blinks. "Well, let him in, I suppose."
The day was hot but the near constant sea breezes sweeping up through the streets from the sea below, carrying with them the scents of salt water, roasting meat from the market, and the fragrance of flowers from the surrounding houses kept him cool enough to be comfortable. Just inside the Drakos manner, there was a fruit tree that was much, much bigger than he remembered it. With a cursory glance around for the servant, he moved over away from the gate to the wall, braced one boot on the stone, and then found a handhold. It was no trouble at all after that to pull himself up onto the top of the wall and drop down into the courtyard. He remembered that tree being planted when the old one had been harmed in a storm. The memory was all the more vivid because he’d been the one tasked with hauling away baskets of root and dirt when they removed the old one and then hauling dirt back when they planted the sapling. He’d been seven at the time.
Moving over to the tree, he walked around it, noting the twenty five years it had grown while he was gone. Was gone? He wasn’t back and he hoped to the gods he never would be in the same capacity that he left in. There was nothing worse, to his mind, than having to live as a slave again. With a ship and a crew and the freedom to go and be anywhere he chose, captivity was not an option. He’d die first.
Crouching down, he took his knife from his boot and pressed the knife’s tip to the soft bark of the tree. His dark eyes followed the progress to make the very easy to remember first letter of his name. All it took was two deft strokes; one up and one down to make the Lamda symbol. One thing he could do was at least sign his own name.
“Hey!” he glanced up with absolutely no remorse as the servant streaked across the courtyard and stared at what he’d done. “You marked on Lady Drako’s tree!”
“I did,” he pocketed the knife and stood. The servant’s eyes darted from Lukos to the marred tree and back again, blatantly unsure of what to do. The pirate took advantage of the indecision, knowing that the man was considering throwing him out of the front gate. “So she said yes to seeing me,” he said with a smirk, thinking this very funny. His smile dropped and he frowned when the servant shook his head emphatically.
“No. Lady Essa will see you. Lady Imeeya is not home.” And without another word, ignoring any questions Lukos put to him, the servant threw a last angry look at the tree, spun on his heel, and led Lukos into the house. He’d been in rich houses before and did not gawk at the splendor around him. It did feel incredibly strange to glance around and see with adult eyes the things he only half remembered. Some things had changed - furniture placement, new vases or statues, and then there were things that were forever fixed. The flow of the rooms and he might even have managed to make it to the library without this man leading him.
Once in the library, he took a quick look around, sorting in seconds how much this room was worth The books that filled the shelves, the rolls of papyrus, the very furniture that was placed in here. He stayed where he was until the servant left but after that, he was in motion. Though he was aware of Lady Essa’s presence, he didn’t immediately look at her. Instead, he prowled quietly around the room’s perimeter, trailing his fingers across the leather bound spines of the books, taking mental inventory of what he was seeing. Only once he had assured himself that there was one way in and one way out of this room, he moved back to the door and placed himself between it and Lady Essa.
His gaze settled on her, moving slowly over her, assessing. She was young, pretty enough, and absolutely uninformed as to who he was or what he wanted. A smile crossed his lips and he placed his hands behind his back. She was not tall like her sister but she was slender in the same way. Delicate looking with the sort of innocence that made him want to crush that demeanor right out of her being. For the right person, she’d be worth a fair bit. Not enough to be worth the trouble of bothering to take her right from her house. That wasn’t the point of this visit anyway. He hadn’t known she existed until five minutes ago.
“So Lady Imeeya is gone,” said with the smile still in place. “What a shame. I had to much to discuss with her.” There was a chair near the door, a bit to the side. He settled himself there, sitting with his arms comfortably on the sides of the chair, his wrists hanging off carelessly and one leg resting over one knee, as though he was sitting on a throne instead of someone else's library chair.
"You're Lady Imeeya's daughter?" he asked, knowing she was no such thing. This girl could be a cousin but the more likely answer was a younger sibling.
Essa waited patiently for her servant to return, her back to the door, brows furrowed and lips pulled down into an uncharacteristic frown. She braced herself against the window, arms wrapped tightly around herself as her brown eyes took in everything and nothing all at once, mind adrift. She couldn't piece it together, what Imeeya might have been doing down at the docks. Whatever she had been doing and who ever she had been talking to, she obviously hadn't wanted their mother to know. She could understand not wanting to enrage their mother, but was it not better to be honest? Was Imeeya not concerned that Tythra would eventually find out? And what of Magnus? What would her sister do if he returned and spoke to Tythra about the matter personally?
No longer alone, the Drakos girl turned. She watched him walk about the library, not sure what she should say. Greet him, surely, but the words were caught in her throat. Twice her lips part and twice they slam shut, Essa awkward and unsure. She very obviously lacked the grace and poise Imeeya and Tythra had. Her cheeks are hot with embarrassment. Finally the man turns to her. He's ridiculously handsome, his curly brown hair and sharp features reminding her of the heroes in her story books. His clothing suggested he was below her social class, not that she cared. He sat and Essa, frozen and shy, remained standing, her knees locked. "N-no." Why, of all times, must she stutter!? She was the lady of this house! Tythra would be so disappointed that her own daughter could not even speak without tripping over her own words. "I'm her sister, Lady Essa. I'm sorry you came all this way for nothing…" What more was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to get him something? Something to drink, perhaps? Should she tell him Imeeya would return soon and then dismiss him? Ask him if there was anything she could do since he came all this way? She wished her mother were here, talking to him instead. Essa hated making herself out as a fool.
His whole demeanor, from showing up in the first place, to prowling about the room was designed to keep the occupants of this house off balance. That Imeeya wasn’t here to witness this display was a disappointment but he’d settle for the little sister. She looked like a sweet, innocent little thing. His most favorite kind of person to deal with. When she stumbled over her words a little, the timbre trembling and halting, he smiled encouragingly at her. “Not for nothing,” he corrected.
“She didn’t mention that she had any siblings.” He raised his shoulders in a shrug. “Now we’ve met. How fortuitous.” The chair was comfortable. Designed for sitting for long periods of time but Lukos was incapable of doing such a thing. He liked to have the freedom to roam and did not usually place himself in confined spaces. For a few more seconds he stayed in the chair but then he was up, standing behind it, and looking at Lady Essa.
“I will admit to being a little surprised at not finding Lady Imeeya home. She said she doesn’t often venture too far away.” A lie. They hadn’t talked about any such thing. It was, however, a good guess on his part. When he’d met Lady Imeeya at the docks, dressed in that pale pink and looking unsure of herself, he figured she didn’t associate herself with many people beyond her immediate circle. He was also willing to bet that her little sister knew nothing at all of the encounter.
“I rendered your sister a service the other day and she asked that I come to recieve my recompense, but as I sail, I couldn’t give her a decisive day that I might be here. She mentioned something about a few coins? Nothing large, obviously. I wouldn’t want her in trouble.” Rising slowly from the chair, he moved toward the window and looked down at the city that stretched away from the house in long steppes. He’d been many places and seen many things but there was something about this city in particular that he loved quite a lot. Its overall shape and structure, the way it was built into the rock. It had a feeling of safety surrounding it. Like it was an impenetrable fortress. The houses for the rich that were built into the tops of these steppes, like this one they were standing in, also had the feeling of security, constructed into them by the very gates used to protect them.
He turned away from the window and leaned against the pane, crossing his arms and watching Essa struggle with what to do with him next. She was full young and he didn’t expect that she would have either the nerve or the desire to contradict anything he said. Of course, he could be wrong. Perhaps she was a young woman full of fire and tenacity...but she didn’t strike him that way. She struck him as a bit like her sister. Shy. Unsure. That was just fine.