All my tricks (Odysseus and the Queen of the Amazons)

"The King of Ithaca... Odysseus the cunning."

Odysseus was greeted with frosty glares from many of the Athenians within the oval chambers but to be fair that was to be expected. The people of Athens liked to think that they were the only ones with an ounce of logic or deductive reasoning and absolutely detested the idea of anyone else being intelligent.

Hence why they called him "the cunning". It made them feel better if he wasn't "intelligent" but some dirtier word for the same thing.

He sighed a little bit and waved at the assembled Kings, politicians, philosophers and warlords,

"My fellow leaders..." he greeted them with a loud voice, "We face a growing threat in the form of a massive outbreak of... dead. You have all seen it. You have all fought against it. The dead are walking and they are attacking the living."

There was murmuring that quickly changed to the Athenians bickering about what to call the things. Odysseus didn't care what they were called! By Ares' sword he just wanted them dead! Shaking his head, he moved into a side room to try and gather his thoughts.

How was he to try and marshal this herd of cats? It was going to be a task that required the help of several powerful leaders and warlords. He paused before he decided upon one of them. Odysseus exited the side room and made his way over to a rather small delegation from a rather remote tribe... the Amazons,

"My fellow ruler and potential ally... Queen of the Amazons." he bowed to her, causing another flutter of dissent amongst the Athenians, "Would you care to come with me to a side room? I fear we need to rally together the best leaders to control this group of neighing horses... do you agree?"

Ithaia had been summoned to the gathering of the wisest minds and greatest of leaders in Athens. There had been a rising of the dead and they needed to band together to stop this plague from spreading even further, although it might be the God's wish that these things were sent to vent their wrath upon the earth it did not mean that they should not fight back.

The Amazons would never give in, they would always fight tooth and nail to the death to uphold their honour. This is the way of her people.

As a result she was here in order to get the things done which needed to be done in order to get the support to the areas who needed it most. She had already put up many fortifications in their towns and villages and her women were trained to kill, therefore they had no problems putting the undead down.

Of course it had taken them a long time to realise how to do that effectively.

Greeks were so ignorant, Ithaia commented internally, they thought of her as less because she was a woman when she was in fact higher than most of them here and should be treated with respect. This one however, a fellow ruler, seemed to be feeling the same way that she was - that they were disrespectful and idiotic.

Stiffly Ithaia nodded her head;

"I will accompany you, King Odysseus, for I feel much the same way." she murmured, holding her head high as she slipped her hand from off her sword hilt, it was her stance she took as default it seemed "I already have some ideas which I would like to discuss with you."

As she moved through to the side room, the metal silver of her armour glittered and shone with the light filtering through the hall, Ithaia's long hair swooped over her back and split slightly as it lay on the small screws and nodes of her armour.

Odysseus was one of the few Greek kings to actually accept the Amazons here at this meeting and in the world of trade. Others viewed them as barbarians and savages, who were only able to wage war and would never be able to reason as the free men of Athens and other states did... because they were women.

But someone seemed to have forgotten that the same could be said about the Spartans and they were a male-dominated society. And they had already proven their worth a thousand times over on the battlefield.

He gestured for her to follow him into the side room and began walking beside her, holding his hand atop his own sword,

"By all means I would enjoy the chance to hear your ideas." he told her as they entered the side room and a mix of their guards blocked the entrance to keep the prying eyes of Athens away from their conversation, "I have heard tale of your intelligent and logical ruling Queen Ithaia. It is a shame our states have not had much contact due to the barrier of the seas."

Sitting down on a small stone bench, he took his sword from his side to sit more comfortably and poured a glass of wine for himself before holding it ready to pour more,

"Wine?"

Itaia smiled gently as she walked with Odysseus, she thought that he was one of the people here that she would be happy to fight alongside. He seemed to be intelligent and was able to reason without the limitations of sex being an issue as they were with so many other men in this society right now.

It would be her pleasure to get to know the King better, of course he has been married in the past and she was aware he would most likely wish to be in the future. It would be frowned upon by her warriors if she took a husband, they all thought ill of men and he would have to leave his kingdom in order to be by her side.

That meant that attraction was not really an option, unfortunately.

"I have heard similar tales about your own self, King Odysseus, Odysseus the 'Cunning' I have heard it told." she smirked a little bit as she settled down on one of the many stone chairs in the room awaiting their discussion to begin "It is indeed a shame that our countries have not met before, I believe that you are one of the only rulers my women would gladly fight alongside - considering you are accepting of female warriors?"

Ithaia nodded and took the wine gratefully when asked, a soft smile on her lips;

"Time is of the essence, we need to be able to stop these beings before they can fell more of our own. Do you know where the worst affected area's are? My kingdom is relatively safe for now, I can spare my efforts to aid others should they need it."

Odysseus chuckled a little bit when she used his nickname. The nickname he had earned by fighting in the battle of Troy. And, he supposed, devising the strategy that had eventually ended the battle with the Greek armies being successful. Of course he would have much preferred a title that focused less on his ability to bring death down onto thousands of people but he recognised that it was his most famous and well known action.

He hummed a little bit,

"And if you have heard anything from Athens about me I decry it as a vicious rumour and a lie." he joked a little bit before nodding a little bit, "I am accepting of any and all warriors and workers. Ithica is a small island Kingdom and to be as strong as we are, every man and woman gives their all to the land."

Sipping at some wine, he unravelled a leather map that he had brought with him. Laying it out on a stone bench, he sighed a little bit and pointed to a city that had a red cross through it,

"Corinth is lost to us. It belongs entirely to the Dead now." he explained to her before gesturing to the stretch of land between Sparta and Athens... over half of Greece. He hummed, "The Dead seem to have taken over almost the entirety of this area. They are at the southern gates of Athens in small numbers and sources say they are fighting the Spartans, hence why their King has not shown up."

He chuckled briefly,

"The Spartans do report tremendous success though."

Ithaia tilted her head to one side and merely chuckled softly when she heard that whatever had come from Athens about Odysseus was a vicious lie. Of course she knew that because they also sent vicious rumours around about her and her culture which was far from barbaric and without intelligence. Her warriors fought with blades and with cunning which made for a far better warrior all around.

"Say that all which comes from the mouths of Athens is most often a lie, I have found it in my own case anyway." she stated with a small smirk on her lips, taking off her sword as it was poking against her thigh rather insistently, making a slight red mark against her soft smooth skin.

Unable to stop a frown flitting across her features when she saw that there was already so many dead in one whole city. A whole city lost to the dead, all of those souls. Gritting her teeth she shook her head and listened to what the King was saying instead of letting her anger grow for the Gods of this world.

How could they be so angry with us, the world had not been so evil as to deserve this.

"It seems as if we should act quickly in order to aid the Spartans and stop the flow of the dead from entering Athens. If they were to enter the disease would spread so quickly it would surely be the end of most of the people here." she sighed softly, placing her hand on her hip.

A little laugh escaped her throat when she heard his joke; "Would Spartans say they are having anything but success?"

Odysseus was beginning to think that Ithaia was a woman after his own heart. She was intelligent, witty and was ready and able to take up the sword in the defence of what she wanted and what she knew to be right. But alas, Odysseus would not abandon his people (especially at a time like this) for something like this.

All attraction here must end or else their peoples might be endangered. But he knew it would be hard to actually think that way naturally,

"Yes I have also found that Athenians will waste days thinking up the most elaborate lies when the truth could be said in less than a moment and carry only a day's worth of ill-will." he joked in return with a small smirk before humming slightly and tapping his sword, "I wish such a weapon was not needed in the presence of other delegates but I know that is a thin and fragile hope."

So she was seeing it too.

Thousands of people were dead and Dead right now, with Gods' know how many trapped and isolated. There were a dozen cities and a score of towns between Sparta and Athens after all. They had sent runners to each of them but had heard nothing from many of them and many more they had heard from... when all survivors had marched into Athens as refugees.

"The trouble with the Spartans is their pride... if we aid them they will take it as an insult." he sighed a little bit before nodding, "So while we must regretfully leave the Spartans to their own defence, I agree we should focus our defences on Athens. They must pass through these lands to spread upwards in large numbers, we can halt their advance."

He laughed a little bit,

"No that's true." he admitted before smirking, "The runner looked agitated that he had even been taken away from the fighting... so for normal people I assume that means they're fighting incalculable odds."

Ithaia thought that although the political ribbing was fun they had better things to be talking about right now, she wanted to be able to save the most people as possible before they succumbed to the disease. It was however lovely to find someone that she could have a conversation with who was male, it was a different situation for her that was for sure.

"It seems as if they are content to sit on their thrones of wisdom and think about what will happen and they are unable to actually get up and do something until it is too late. They would be willing to work with us I bet, if these things were ambushing the doors of their temples and running rampant down their streets."

Running her hands through her hair Ithaia sighed softly, it was most troublesome indeed. Taking a sip of wine she thought that the Spartans were one of the most idiotic people that she had ever come across;

"I am unhappy with leaving the innocent citizens to die at the hands of these creatures but I see that you are correct, I can only hope that they win." she stated with a rueful smile. "I think that protecting Athens is the best thing also, it will allow me time to get more warriors here, as the undead or not here in a great number yet."

Unable to stop a little smirk Ithaia sipped at her wine again before turning when she heard a noise outside of the side room, it was as if a large group of very loud very angry people were coming their way;

"Gods above." she cursed softly.

Odysseus nodded in agreement with her assessment of Athens. The damn city state was getting far too self-assured. With it's navy it was a credible threat to other city states but the armies of the Dead cared not for the sea so they would not care about the navy of any city state. They were not afraid of the Athenian mind nor it's oars,

"Yes well if they continue to do so for too much longer it won't be too long before they Dead are in their streets. By that time I hope to have left this den of hypocrisy." he admitted with a gruff grunt, "I hate it here... the politicians who rule here are corrupt and their method of ruling takes too long. Who had the time to have a committee about everything? Literally everything?"

He nodded his head in agreement again. He'd found himself doing that a lot more often around Ithaia than any other ruler he'd ever met,

"The innocent of their city will be fine behind the walls of shields. Say what you will about the Spartans, they know how to fight." he told her with a small smirk before nodding in agreement, "And I will have to... what in the name of Zeus are they doing now?"

Gritting his teeth, Odysseus strapped his sword back onto his waist and rose just in time to be confronted with the 'speaker' of the Athenians,

"Odysseus! We will not stand for you making secret pacts with this... this barbarian woman!" he declared pompously, "Either you leave her presence immediately and come with us... or you shall not be welcome in our city!"

There was a clamour of agreement behind the speaker and Odysseus made a show of thinking about it before turning to Ithaia and holding out a hand for her to take,

"Would you care to accompany me and my warriors to the edge of the city my lady?" he asked Ithaia with a small smirk, "I think the Southern entrance is the closest... and where all the fun is to be had."