Over the next few days, Janis was in the tower mostly to check on things. Kaarthen knew her to be making another move in the drawn out game of favor and dominance the Goddess' Priestess and Champion played. Marcos seemed to be especially busy in the Citadel briefing and reporting changes with Sellis and arranging for new statuses, diplomatic officers, emissaries, and trade terms. While Kaarthen was treated for the most part as another woman of the tower since she resided there with them, Janis seemed to be the grand matron for the tower's attention seeking women. When Marcos came into the women's room, he noticed the different shades of yellow the woman all wore. Coming upstairs to the roof, Marcos was astounded to see Janis teaching magic to several women as they sat around mimicking her closely.
Dinner was especially strained when the Priestess was visiting but eventually Janis left to return to Pessilberg, and the Warrioresses left to find their adventure west.
Kaarthen spent her winter days in the tower slowly growing larger though not yet showing her pregnancy. Her large frame did much to hold in the growing life within her.
Being cooped up in the Tower was mind numbing after a while, and she ran out of distractions. She turned to anything she could to find some stimulation. She even started going to meetings in the Citadel with Marcos, but it was like being in a bird cage, and it also resulted in unsavory attentions from the nobles being cast on her.
Walking with Marcos back from another strategy meeting in the map room a flushed maid with a few grey hairs, ran up to them.
"Milady? Lady...Panthi?" She blurted in a rush.
Kaarthen grinned at the name. Amazon's didn't have last names, nor did most Sisters except those born outside the culture's ways. She could use the name of her enclave but she never had a need for a surname.
Kaarthen turned to the panting girl. "Sister Kaarthen is fine."
"An audience with Milady Sepremset is requested for this evening."
Marcos turned at the name. "Oh? What is her audience for?"
"Milady wishes to meet the wife of our esteemed high advisor." The maid said giving a deep curtsy.
Marcos seemed to think it over then turned to her wordlessly. Kaarthen knew that he wasn't concerned anymore with what people thought of them. Other women in the tower had as much if not more time with him, but Kaarthen had time on her side. Titles were unimportant compared to that, and though most women coveted being a wife or a companion to a man so powerful, right now she would rather be out in the forest.
"I have time now." Kaarthen sighed.
Winding around to through the halls into the apartments of the Citadel's long term guests, Kaarthen was brought to the suites of Lady Sepremset. Kaarthen was allowed to wait in a small shadowed parlor area next to the long narrow windows that looked over a balcony. Outside the day was overcast and the snow made everything a clean bright white. The wood paneled room was stifling with a small fireplace roaring with a crackling fire.
Kaarthen found the Noblewoman to be a tall pale dark haired woman of sultry beauty. Her slender frame was cloaked in a long dark robe drawn tight. She silently moved around the room and fixed tea for them before sitting.
"It is a pleasure to meet you." She said sitting after placing a cup before Kaarthen. "I am disappointed we haven't met earlier."
Kaarthen nodded silently wondering what she wanted.
"Hmmm." The dark-eyed Noble regarded her closer and grinned trying to appear friendly. "How is the tea? Are you not familiar with our customs?"
Feeling anxious and trapped for some reason, Kaarthen looked around but the Goddess stopped her fidgeting and kept her from touching the offered cup. Looking up, she read the woman before her. Her mind was methodical and straightforward in its desire to find a weakness in the savage she though Kaarthen to be. Simply put, she was a conniving bitch who wanted to blackmail, or subjugate her. Kaarthen's tea cup was drugged, and even the sugar was laced. If this woman had leverage by getting something out of Kaarthen, she figured she would have control over Marcos as well.
Hearing enough of her thoughts to understand no good could come out of talking, Kaarthen shot the conversation. "This is disgusting tea." Kaarthen said without even touching it. "It would have been better if you had let a servant prepare it." She stood and moved out to the door.
"Wait! You can't just!" Lady Sepremset reached out and snatched at a hand but only scratched her.
Kaarthen spun and regarded her closer with narrowed eyes. "Do not touch me."
"I'm not done with you!" Lady Sepremset shouted at the towering Amazon. "And that's 'Milady' to you! Don't act as if you are even close to my title. Walking around like you're a titled Noble...Disgusting... You would be nothing if you weren't by that man's golden hand."
Kaarthen spun on a heel to the door. "Now get out and whore yourself for meal!" The irate Noblewoman called to her retreating back.
Kaarthen's trip back to the Tower was a blur. Seeking a quiet place, she found an area in the library to pull herself together before something bad happened. Something Apocalyptic happened anyway, Mara's mind had gone quiet. Somewhere she was focused on something.
Dulia walked in from the maproom holding a stack of research papers. "Was that you slamming doors?"
"Yes," Kaarthen muttered.
"Be at ease." She said stopping in front of Kaarthen as she sulked. "Has your audience spiked a nerve? Since you are unaffiliated with all but this Tower, nothing untoward with the Lady Sepremset should have happened."
"How do you..." Kaarthen regarded her closer. "That bitch insulted me."
They spoke for a moment together and Kaarthen understood that unprepared, she was sucked into the Noblewoman's prepared territory with no plan.
"So when you left you did the simple thing, and the right thing. But, that was the last thing she wanted to happen. Since you weren't formal, you got to see what she was like informally also." Dulia rolled her shoulders.
"How can I get back at her?" Kaarthen said nodding.
"Well she is a widow of a general honored by all, so we don't move directly against her. However..." Dulia set down her stack of papers on a table nearby and came to stand infront of her. "She was his second wife and is childless. Her title is really only half-noble. A half title just means it won't be passed to children if she had any, or be kept if she married again. The children from the first wife kept the General's title, I believe, but they left the woman here when they came of age. It was a sad piece of drama a few years ago."
Kaarthen nodded. "So..."
"So, if you got a full title you could do what you wanted to her, unless you found some kind of leverage over her."
"That's what she was trying to do to me." Kaarthen spat.
"That's why Master hates stagnate nobles, their behavior devolves until they're all just trying to blackmail each other in an endless cycle."
