@kidemxnas
“That is enough,” shouted one Trojan soldier from the row below where Paris stood. “I don’t know,” he explains, holding what had been the forward-pointing apex of his helmet in one hand, now a scrap of bronze that could no longer regain its shape had Hephaestus hammered it down himself. I don’t know. How could it be? the idea resounds in silent looks between the other fighters from other end of the arena.
“Idiot, have you no eyes?” the other answers. “Did you not feel brunt of their strength as I? Did you not see them mount as they did? So others say that they can also mount their steed over the surface of the sea and the standing heads of harvest corn.”
“That is no act of a mortal,” a third one recounts bitterly, his legs locked in a stiff position from where they sat and lapped at their wounds. “That is the lost sister of the Furies.”
Agreeable, submissive, and lending an ear to the carving blade of these sibylline murmurs, Paris gleams under the callowness of his idleness but is no stranger to these men’s grievances. Though by way of luck (rather, reluctance to partake in the training grounds) he remained unscathed, the thought of this supposed sister of the Erinyes inflated the same panic he’d felt when they had ravaged the fields and claimed their prize. It clings to him to the late hours of the afternoon and leads him to turn upwind into the port of Gytheion where the scent of sweat and blood has weakened in lieu of the animated sounds of merchants. In a matter of minutes, Paris is no more than a distant star from the market place. It is at that the dockside where ships are made fast by mooring that he takes his place.
“You have beat three of my best men,” Paris announces from behind her, his expression smooth and welcoming (which is not quite the same as “pleased”).
"I know not which city you hail from, but Sparta has much to offer for the mighty and beautiful.”









