Herald of Steel

"First of all, my condolences, Nestoras is most likely dead." Alexander delivered the heavy news. to Cambyses

And she seemed to take the news pretty well.

"Um," Came only a slow, single nod.

There was no sign of shock on her face, no crying, not even a yelp.

After all, she figured as much when Aristotle, not Nestoras had arbitrarily arranged her marriage.

A while of silence later, she muttered a small question, "Who told you?"

"You misheard. I said 'most likely' dead. We have yet to receive confirmation. But the Adhanians have surrounded and then killed or captured almost everyone. Only Damious and his soldiers managed to survive." Alexander explained.

"No one would have missed him if he died," Cambyses said grinding her teeth.

Then came a hopeful interpretation, as she looked at Alexander with pleading eyes, "But that means he may be alive, right?"

Alexander stared back at the pleading eyes, which were begging to agree with them.

But Alexander heartlessly dashed her little flame of hope, "We will have to wait till at least tomorrow morning, to say anything definitively, but if he was alive, he should have been back by now. Or at least someone from our group should have."

"Hahhhh." Came a long, heavy sigh, that seemed to contain an endless mix of emotions.

The girl had lost both her brother and father within a few hours and although she did not get on well with either of them, sometimes even to the point of hating them, they were still her kin, sharing the same blood.

Now, she felt all alone in this wide, cruel world.

"Well, let's be honest here, Cam," Alexander endearingly called her to break her out of her melancholy.

And then dropped a bombshell, "Him dying was not really that bad. It might be actually quite good."

The balls on this guy to say such a thing to a poor girl that had just been orphaned!

"....*Silence*....." Cambyses only looked at Alexander placidly, choosing not to even dignify that statement with a response.

"Come on Cam, don't look at me like that. Octavius, Nestoras, and Aristotle, these three only saw you as a convenient tool to appease me. They never cared for you." Alexander again poked Cambyses insensitively.

"Is this your grand plan?" Finally having enough, came Cambyses's low roar. "To make me so angry that I kill you and then I follow you out of guilt?"

She then burst out, "You homeless stray cur, that's my father you are talking about. Your parents might have left you to die by the ditch, but at least my father fed, clothed, and reared me. Don't you dare talk about him like that!"

By the end of her tirade, Cambyses was so angry that she started brandishing her dagger in front of his face.

But Alexander seemed to not even notice this display of hostility.

He simply pointed, "Oh, then what about Aristotle? Would you feel the same way if he died?"

The surfacing of that name seemed to cool the girl, drowning her just anger for her father with endless loathing.

She also felt that this was Alexander's true objective and that everything else he had said was just a smokescreen to get her to answer this question.

She had felt like this before, like being a puppet, merely controlled by Alexander to get what he wants

And she hated the feeling.

So she decided not to play this game and directly asked, "What's your plan out of this, Alexander? Cause the best I could think of was a double suicide."

"Oh, my, I did not think you were that determined my love. But I would hate to leave this earth without first tasting that ass, hehe." Alexander made an obscene joke with a vulgar smile.

This caused Cambyses to flush with embarrassment, and she shouted in frustration, "You rogue scoundrel. If you don't want to tell me, then fine. Don't tell me. "

"Haha, when did I say I won't tell you? You are the star of my plan, of course, you have to know." Alexander informed.

"Me?" Cambyses was understandingly confused. Then her eyes turned sharp and her voice hardened, "What do you need me to do?"

"What do you think you are doing?" Alexander returned the question.

"Huh?" Cambyses seemed to have not understood the question.

Alexander repeated, "What do you think you are doing, here and now?"

"Umm," Cambyses looked at the peeling on the floor and the cut beetroots pieces on a cloth she had spread across and said confusedly, "Cutting beetroots?"

"Yes, cutting beetroots is part of the plan," Alexander nodded enigmatically.

This only drew a displeased look from Cambyses, unhappy with not getting a straight answer.

"Don't be like that. It will be just easier to show you." Noticing such, Alexander reassured the girl.

Then he bought up an older question, " You still haven't answered me, 'Do you see Aristotle like you saw your father?' It's important."

"Why? You intend to kill him?" Cambyses asked calmly and then quickly followed up with, "How?"

Alexander was surprised by the eagerness with she asked the latter question and so decided to reveal his list of targets.

"Him, Pallidus and Damious." He told.

"Did you decide to kill him all the way back when you came out of the command tent? Was that why you tried so hard to convince me that Aristotle was trying to kill you?" Cambyses suddenly seemed to have entered zen mode as she felt she could barely make out the stretches of Alexander's plan.

Alexander was genuinely feeling a bit proud that his disciple could see so far and so he decided not to insult Cambyses's intelligence.

He frankly revealed, "In order to marry you, both Nestoras and Aristotle had to go. I planned to convince them but yes, I did have a backup just in case."

This nonchalant reveal, especially with how casually he admitted to planning her own father, almost crashed her soul.

Yes, she and her father had their differences.

But still, he was her father and her own lover had plans to kill him.

Who could bear such a news?

She felt so hurt that even her tears refused to flow, almost freezing inside her eyes.

Seeing the wounded woman, Alexander surprisingly did not try and explain himself.

On the contrary, he seemed to add salt to it, "In some twisted way, I was quite happy to hear that Aristotle had arranged a marriage for you. And with Damious nonetheless. Now you have no incentive to protect the old fart. The stars have aligned to help me."

"Because you can get close to them using me and then kill them?" Cambyses asked in a robotic voice, eyes blankly staring into the distance as if she could see Alexander's plan.

" Close. You" He said pointing his finger to Cambyses, "will kill them."

This statement seemed to bring back color to Cambyses's eyes as she turned to look at Alexander and repeated, puzzled, "Me?"

She could think of no way she could kill all three men simultaneously.

"Yes, you. Why do you think I spent so much time trying to convince you Aristotle was an enemy? Because I needed your permission? No, it was because I need your help." Alexander heartlessly revealed.

*Silence* Cambyses was so shocked by the barbed words coming out of his mouth, that she literally had no response.

'Was she just a tool for him?' She asked herself as she just blankly stared at Alexander with teary, out-of-focus eyes.

Looking at the rapidly plummeting loyalty stat of Cambyses, Alexander decided it was time to explain some things to the still a bit naïve woman.

He started with a heavy breath, "Hahhh, Cam. Let me tell you some hard truths we didn't tell you."

"Slaves can be killed by their master's anytime for any reason. This is a reality that's very hard to understand for anyone who is not a slave. This fear of dying anytime anywhere made me do things. Things I am not proud of."

"But I did do them. And sometimes I did use your influence to do them. But I never did it just for me. How do you think you managed to protect Mean from Octavius? It wasn't easy for me to protect her from the shadows. But I knew how much she meant to both of us."

"And so I bore the hardship and did it. But as I struggled, I faced the impossible obstacles ever-present for a slave and understood that for a slave to survive, to live, to truly have any real chance at being treated as a human being, I would have to earn my freedom and become a freeman."

Cambyses here decided to interject Alexander, "What did you do to protect Mean?" She asked curiously.

"Ancient history," Alexander lightly brushed off.

But she insisted, "I want to know."

So Alexander gave a very brief summary, " I had a few people always follow and look out for her. I told her never to be alone. And I asked Nestoras to restrict Octavius and ensure Mean's chastity as a reward for my continued innovations."

This was news to Cambyses because even as Mean's mistress she was unaware of the danger her beloved slave was.

"I didn't know anything." She said mournfully.

"She insisted that you were not told anything. She was afraid you would pick even more fights with Octavius." Alexander disclosed.

This revelation made Cambyses think that maybe there were things in the back she was unaware of and she decided to backtrack on the thought that maybe Alexander was not just using her to get his freedom.