Sitting on a bench with Phoebe in her chamber in the palace Othya read a short list of twenty eight names and a short amount of information on how to find them and where they live. It was more detailed than she had hopped.

“So these are the names?” Othya asked. She knew most of the names on the list well enough through her web of eyes and ears, but some have managed to evade importance in her opinion. “I will admit most would not make my list, share your reasons before I pass on there sentence to the Mistress of the Hunt.”

“Xenos of Heraclea is the most concerning,” Phoebe said, “he has been speaking more openly about tax reform and John the Cappadocian’s dismissal. He is against the economic plans Mater has put forward quite vindictively and has actively worked against us. Next of the most concern is Peter Vitalis of Athens who is trying to fight the legal reforms of Tribonian and has fed a one sided rivalry against him, the source of which escapes my understanding.

“The rest are openly or subtly against both Justinius and Mater for not being born as one of the Senatori. They have all in one way or another opposed everything either has put forward and are loud and insistent enough to get others to vote with them. These are the heads of the snakes of the court and the senate, the rest are the weeds that hide them in my opinion and can be pruned as needed with out threat.”

Othya nodded and decided to take Phoebe at her word, it made sense. Some of the more subtle machinations of court were too small for her to afford to exert too much of her personal attention to and too subtle for the eyes and ears she had in place. While servants are everywhere and often ignored or forgotten about most are too ignorant to know what is important. It takes a politician to properly spy on politics, and that is the domain for the Daughters of Hera and not the Daughters of Nyx.

“Then their sentences will be handed of to our sisters of the hunt and they will not see what is to come,” Othya said with a smile. She raised her hand and brushed her knuckles across Phoebe’s cheek. “You’ve done well Phoebe, you are much like your mother when she began all those years ago in Alexandria. You will be, no, you are a great Daughter of Hera.”

“I have yet to swear my Oath of Sisterhood, Othya,” Phoebe said with a smile. “Until then I am merely a niece, not a sister. Just an Amazon and not in any Sisterhood.”

“When all is to be said and done you will have earned that right, it is but a matter of time and formality.” Othya held up the layers of papyrus with the names, “your work here, ready for me at noon, half a day faster than my expectations, proves you are ready.”

Othya then sharply looked towards the door and withdrew her hand. Staring and waiting for a matter of seconds before a solid set of knocks she murmured, “Justinius.”

Phoebe nodded, “please, enter vitricus.”

The door swung open and Justinius entered with a subtle perplexed look that cleared away when he saw Othya, “ah, my wife’s favorite secret keeper, so that is how you knew it was me.”

“You walk like a soldier on a mission rather than an Augustus,” Othya commented boredly. “All marching with little grace.”

“Today I am both of those,” Justinius said with a bitter expression. He eyed the sheafs of papyrus in Othya’s hands. “Would your presence here be explained by those who escaped the hangman's rope?”

Othya rolled the papyrus and slipped them into one of her many hidden pockets. She nodded and said, “a list of potential supporters in the court and senate.”

“For Phoebe to have such a list ready for you now means that she has known of this for at least a day.”

“I am pressed for time little Justinius so allow me to finish your thoughts,” Othya interjected. “I was there when it happened and was barred from interfering in order to maintain my position as my Augusta’s keeper of secrets. I am the source of what ever information that you know. From the urgency in your brow you have only just learned of this and that means that I must get to work with weeding out further still the short list of courtiers and senators that could be supporting these events. Lastly, I did not tell you for I do not serve you, Little Justinius the Soldier.”

Othya stood and moved to walk past him and Justinius grabbed her elbow and declared, “I am your Augustus!”

“You are a man and I am an Amazon,” Othya told him coldly with an even look, “you will never have any power over me, just as no man will have power over me. I am not at your beck or call and whatever information or knowledge I have gained will always go first to my Augusta and then to you if she decides to share it. Be thankful Theadora cares for you or I would have severed your hand the moment you moved to grab me, now release your grip before I damage my Augusta’s favorite Gorgon.”

“Justinius,” Phoebe said coldly. “Let her go.”

“I rule this Empire,” Justinius insisted.

“Because we allow you to,” Othya said and placed her hand on his wrist, “because I bribed the senate to make your uncle the Agustus. Because Theadora handles the threads of the court and allow you your wars.”

Othya squeezes, digging her nails into the underside of his wrist causing Justinius to hiss in pain and released her. Othya released his wrist and looked at him with an even stair and once again tried to find what makes Theadora favor him so but only found a weak willed soldier who would do best when fallowing others orders.

Once Othya left Pheobe sighed and rubbed her brow as she looked at her step father, “I have not even a whisper of understanding as to why the two of you are always at such odds. I scantly remember any time when the two of you were not at risk of each others throats.”

Silently Justinius strode to the bench and sat, all while rubbing fresh red lines on the pulse point of his wrist. “She knows too much,” Justinius said bitterly. “She always knows too much, whats worse she creates more secrets that act as bars of a cage. She’s subtle about it and the bars often come as boons to you, my families accent to the Augustium for one. She was the one to pull the strings and sowed the gold. She knows who is against me but never acts unless Theadora tells her too.”

“Asks,” Phoebe corrected, “Amazons do not order each other around, we ask for help and it always comes because we do not ask for ourselves but the better meant of all our sisters.”

“One more difference between me and the rest of you then,” Justinius sighed. “Onto the matter I sought you out for, the report of the escaped criminals only arrived on this morn. Someone, somewhere, is hindering what I know and see and not just me but also City Prefect Tullus.”

“Then it was probably John Sosius,” Pheobe told him. “He’s one of the individuals that handle the in coming and out going messages and missives. His family is from Scythia Minor and holds land by the city of Tomi. He is known to be partial to drink and coin to by more drink. We’ve used him often to delay others from hearing from their allies before our plans could play out, but he isn’t a Gorgon and is only loyal to whomever pays him first.”

“Would his tongue loosen with some coins of our own?” Justinius asked.

“No,” Phoebe sighed and shook her head. “For one of his kind the reputation is far more valuable for him than a purse of coins in hand, the coins will run out but his reputation will ensure more come.”

Justinius sat and sank into his own thoughts as he churned the information in his mind. He hated this, the way the court thinks, like a pack of rabid, self interested hounds. It always felt like their teeth were just about to plunge into his neck.