With You I Will Stay

KASSANDRA

Kassandra was to be married. She knew this. She had known this for quite some time. Her father's servants were indiscreet at best and imprudent at worst. None quite cared for her father's reputation. He'd long since given up on tightening the loose lips of the servants. There were far too many to make any real difference with it. Even if he tried, even if he sentenced all who did not keep his secrets to death, the replacements would continue the tradition in a dizzying cycle until it drove the man mad. And Kassandra did not need another parent that lost their mind to the windy cliffs of the seaside. Her mother had already been taken from them in that way. No. Perhaps it was best that he did not seem to care. At least, then, Kassandra had her father to love her. Her new husband certainly would not. It was plain to see why he had accepted her father's marriage proposal. Her father, Cleanthes, was a wealthy man, being King of Vasíleio, and there were rumors that Kassandra herself had been blessed by the Titaness Rhea, mother of the gods and patroness of fertility, and birthed by Aphrodite.

Of course, that was not true. She had been blessed by Rhea when she was but a babe, but her mother was a mortal princess from a kingdom nearby who had lost her mind and thrown herself from the cliffs shortly after giving birth to her husband's only male child. Her second brother, however, named Athenaeus, was birthed by the goddess Aphrodite, but he was the only half-god child her family had to their name.

In any case, Kassandra considered herself unremarkable. She had wavy, dark hair, which was common of her people, unlike Athenaeus, who was blessed with the ever-coveted golden-red ringlets that all self-respecting parents wished their children would turn out to have. Kassandra's eyes were the eyes most common to her people, though she inherited the long, thick eyelashes that women used kohl to make themselves appear as having. She was not as symmetrical as was the expected standard. She was average in every single aspect of her physical being and her only astounding quality was the exact thing that made potential suitors shy away from the proposed marriage: intellect. She was smart. She could grasp the concept of mathematics, excelled it, actually. She knew how to read and write in at least three different languages, good for politics, not for attracting suitors. She was able to learn skills quickly, almost effortlessly, but could never quite seem to grasp the home-duties her instructors attempted to teach her. Though she was dressed in gilded cloths, with the best beauty products her father could afford in an attempt to draw in suitors, she had yet to be married, though she had long since come of age. She was a poor excuse for a woman, her only full brother, Briarus, muttered behind her back to the servants.

She paid her brother's harsh words no mind. It was true that he held little love in his heart for her, but the same could be said for all her siblings towards each other. Her older sisters had been married long before she came of age and her only younger sister was too young yet to be worrying about anything other than playing about in her room. Briarus, despite looking her twin, was largely involved in his lessons as Crown Prince. There had been a time, when the two were younger and their older sisters were not yet married, with the exception of Euthymia who was the oldest of her mother's children, that the two had been as close as close could be. But then Briarus grew up and began his training and grew distant. The only one with whom she was truly close to was Athenaeus, jealousy be damned. The two, when not consumed with studies, spent hours in Athenaeus' room, reading books and chatting about the stars and legends and such. They had to be careful, though, because if Athenaeus was caught allowing her to speak so freely and read his books, he would be punished and his books would be burned and Kassandra herself would be locked in her room for as long as her father saw fit.

The only solace Kassandra had in her life were the moments she stole with Athenaeus, and even those had to be fleeting nowadays. When Kassandra was finally married off, she would have no solace. She would have to sit still and look pretty and be meek at all times. Her husband would likely want children and she, as a wife, could not say no to her husband. Women were expected to stay home at all times, to not interact with men who were not related to them or their husband, and to take care of and birth as many children as their husbands desired. Furthermore, women were expected to produce more male children than female. Males could continue the family name, raise the status of a family through marriage to a woman of higher standing or by hard work during wartime. Females only served to breed more of a family's bloodline. They belonged fully to their husband's family once they were married off, meaning that it would not help a woman's family were she to marry someone whom she wanted to. Women were simply pawns in the men's game of worldly chess. The real power was in the men who would become the next players. It was a simple truth that all knew well. She had no reason to doubt its verity.

That is, until she met the girl-guard.