Laertes Oresteson did not waste a moment's sleep on the men he speared on his pike, or the ones that crumpled to his feet at the swing of his blade. Weaker men than him had tried to pillage their way to this land rumoured to have women made of milk and honey, led by a feeble king and a Queen even fairer still.
Ambrosia Marcella Leviticus had watched the battalions ride off to war. She had seen countless rows of brothers, fathers, sons and cousins riding off to slaughter, rampage or die. Although she watched their figures become dots in the distance and then smoke in the distant sky, Ambrosia had never feared for their return. It had never even occurred to her that they would not return.
So, when the masses of troops wearing the wrong uniform rode in on the sunset of the next fortnight, Queen Ambrosia was gathered with the rest of the ladies to await their fate.
"Do you know who I am?" Said a gruff voice, that deeply vibrated in my core.
I had seen him take lead, assigning the other men to their tasks - stripping the walls of their tapestries, hanging new ones, finding and pooling all the goods that could be seen - I could tell that this man of dark russet complexion was the leader of the party.
He directed his question at me, black orbs assessing me savouring every ounce of control. The man quite literally dominated the room, making my home, my court almost as alien as the horde of colossal men that had gathered in it.
"I do not."
This was true, it was not like men to involve women in their business. Up until this point, I knew what I needed to know; there was a war to be fought, a threat to be vanquished, and it would not take long.
The war had raged on for more days than either I or the other women could count. Children kept us busy for most of the time with their constant needs and when there was nothing, there was the smoke dwindling on the edges in the distance.
My answer had amused him. A slow sneer sliced across his face. "But I assume you know what situation you have found yourself in?"
I looked from the defined veins that coursed past his thick neck, through chiselled arms, all the way down to his calves and sandals strapped on his feet.
"Yes."
I could not help the unsteady gulp as I took in his face too. Beneath the layers of grime, it was clear that his tresses were sandy, his nose was hooked and defined, his eyes cat-like, and his mouth plump promising a disarming sweetness.
"And that is?"
I could feel the shivering of the women and young girls around me. It was long past evening, and we were gathered in the marketplace, paraded to by the foreign men, who dragged us through mud that stained our faces and burrowed under our fingernails. We stood, forced to watch them slaughter our children and elderly.
It was miles too cold for us to be wearing the weightless fabric of our summer tunics in the chill of this night.
Naturally, we cowered together, huddling for warmth. And there I was at the front, forced to face off the mountain of the man with my nipples clawing for attention through my dress.
I was a woman, with no name and no title now.
"I am to be a slave."