Your Magic, My Promotion (Nimueh)

[Princess Polyxena]

There was a few more days left until it was Princess Polyxena's Birthday, and the servants of the castle were very busy with the arrangements of the celebration. Her mother, as always, wanted the celebration to be very grand. So she spent a lot of her time giving directions to the servants on how she wanted things to be arranged. Xenia found this to be very boring as she didn't find her birthday to be very special. But then she thought that it would be a good opportunity for her to meet new people.

Xenia felt like going for ride in the forest, which was very near to the castle. But as she went to the stable to gather her horse, she saw her mother was already there. Her mother explained to her that she was not allowed to go for a ride in the forest at the moment because there had been several incidents where thieves had stolen and attacked people. After a lot of entreaties and Xenia's abilities in persuasion, her mother allowed her to go a little ride into the forest, but with the escort of guards. Making Xenia feel not so very free and happy anymore for she enjoyed nothing better than some time on her own.

As they rode easily to the forest -- with some guards riding in front of the Princess, while the others rode behind her -- Xenia saw a little snake that looked injured. This might be a snake, but it was injured and as Xenia was very much lover of animals and people and helping them, she stepped down from her horse to try and help it. Just as she did, one of the guard got in-front of her to stop her from approaching it because they felt it was too dangerous. One of the guards then got down from his horse to try and help the poor snake, when suddenly the snake's head leaped up and tried to attack the Princess. Luckily one of the guards quickly intervened and killed the snake swiftly with his sword. It was at this point that Xenia felt very dizzy and fainted for the snake scared her so very much, so much so she thought it was going to kill her.

Tag: Nimueh
Timeline: Before Series 1
Place: It starts to the forest behind the castle, and continues in to the castle of Graecia

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In the condition Camelot was right now, it was more than ever important for Nimueh to put out her feelers far beyond the borders of the five kingdoms in search of possible alliances. Uther had so many kingdoms under his harsh influence and so many countries had followed suit with the ban on magic in fear of enraging the easily angered king even more and maybe provoke a war. Nimueh herself would have liked war far more than this show of cowardice, since war meant chaos, death and poverty – the obvious evidence that a world without magic could not function and would never be glorious. It was too bad so little people seemed to see the obvious, and still were under the illusion that a life without magic was desireable. Oh well, they soon would see, Nimueh had a few plans brewing, and she was more than willing to put them to action.

First things first though, and for backup, it was always important to secure alliances. Her eyes had fallen on Graecia this time, which might not be your first choice of alliance on first glance, since it was a little small and not very mighty in comparison to for example Camelot or Mercia, but then every little helps was the saying, and Nimueh had always been known to be succesful with quite unconventional ways. Like always, she wasn’t doing this all spontaneously, she had first taken a few days with examining the kingdom and its people and rulers, to find the right point to apply the perfect dose of pressure or appeal to make things go her way. First from afar and at the same time more closely and intimately through her scrying font, and now sje had already spent a few days in Graecia herself, before she decided to make her move.

The Princess Polyxena, a young sweet girl, was who Nimueh was aiming for for a first contact. There simply had to be a way to get acquainted with her and maybe get her friendship so she would have an easy entrance to the King. From what she had seen so far, the girl seemed quite gullible and guileless, so for Nimueh, the Mistress of Manipulation like some people had called her, this would be a figurative walk in the garden.
Unfortunately though, the day didn’t started out very promising, since Nimueh had been waiting for the princess to go riding out alone like she sometimes did, but now she saw her being flanked by several guards. Guards weren’t really posing a problem for Nimueh, apart from them seriously deterring her from making a more private contact with the princess. How should she possibly approach her now, with so many people present? But Nimueh didn’t give up just yet, patience was a virtue after all.

And then luck was with her once again. The sweet princess apparently had happened upon a snake and wanted to examine, or maybe even help it, since it looked injured. Only that Nimueh knew that this kind of snake was preying upon just this instinct in every living being – curiosity – and only faked this state of defenselessness to lure her prey closer. Her bite was poisonous and could paralyze or even kill a smaller animal, a human however was not in much danger. Sure as the sky was blue the princess fell for it, and had it not been for one of the guards, she surely would have gotten some nasty bite. With just the hint of a smirk, Nimueh watched the scene unfold and thought it to be the hour of fate. Poor little shocked princess, she really looked quite shaken up right now, and those stupid guards, men after all, probably had no idea how to deal with this. The hand of a woman was called for!
“Dear Goddess, that could have ended badly!” she exclaimed giving up her cover and rushing towards the princess, adoping the concerned mothering type of her repertoire. “Are you quite alright, my child?!”

[Princess Polyxena]

Xenia slowly regained her senses. She didn't understand what exactly had happened, but the last thing she remembered was that the snake nearly killed her. She looked around for the snake, but one of the guards said that he had killed it. Suddenly she saw a young woman, standing next to her with a worried look upon her face, asking her if she was alright. She had never never seen her before, but she answered her a little groggily, "I think that I'm fine." She tried to get up but she couldn't, so one of the guard and the young woman helped her to get up.

After a little rest she started to feel better, but the guards seemed to be very quiet and readied themselves to continue their ride with their horses silently. It seemed as though they were mad with her, and this was confirmed when one of the guards who was more friendly to the Princess said with a strict tone, "Why my Princess, you didn't listen to my warning?" Polyxena didn't liked to spoken to like that, especially in front of new people because it made her feel embarrassed. The same guard looked towards the young woman standing next to the Princess, pointed to her and shouted, "You! How dare you stay here and stand next to the Princess? Get away from here now!" Now this really made Xenia angry. Her and her family were well-known for their kindness towards people, no matter who they were. "How can you speak to her in this manner? You clearly don't have any respect to me, your Princess, if you speak to others in this way in front of me?" Xenia scolded the guard, ashamed of the manner in which he spoke to the young woman who had helped her.

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Nimueh wasn’t fazed much by how the soldiers treated her. Being offended by the behavior of such petty creatures was so beneath her, she only threw a slightly pitiful glance at them as if to say: poor fools, you don’t know who you are dealing with… Only those who had a lacking self-esteem would need to establish their superiority with words, Nimueh was of the firm conviction that ignoring them altogether would show them their place far better and more effectively than when she reacted in any way outraged. For now, her main focus was on the young princess anyway, and she knew she needed to seize the moment, if the girl was defending her. She might not do it yet for the right reasons, but at least that was something Nimueh could work with. For now, she needed to play her part, that was of utmost importance, and she had already laid out a rough plan in her head, how she wanted to proceed.

Part of this plan was that she would act as if she didn’t even know who she had been approaching, because innocence and ignorance were often the best ways to lure someone into a false sense of security. She also needed to get these guards off her back, since she didn’t want any witnesses to what she was going to bring the Princess to do for her. Chances were her guards were not quite as gullible, and then where would she be? But first things first.
Feigning astonishment, Nimueh opened her eyes wide and took a little step back, as if out of shock, but then quickly caught herself. “Oh dear, I had no idea you were the Princess Polyxena herself!” she exclaimed. “It is an honor, truly, and I’m sorry approached you with such familiarity. I just was concerned to see you in distress and between us”, she lowered her voice and smiled, “men often don’t know how to deal with that. They just know how to deal with the object of danger, not with those who are affected by it.”


She was ignoring the guards now completely, a tiny sign of her higher status, but she doubted the princess would pick that up. For now, Nimueh might just be a random woman, but she wanted to turn into so much more than that for her plans’ sake. Who knew, maybe the sweet princess would not be averse to a little more adult female company?

[Princess Polyxena]

Xenia was really disappointed with the behavior of the guards. They were never normally like this, but maybe it was because they were afraid for her health and safety and reacted as such. Now the young woman standing next to her started to speak. Oh she really didn't know that she was a princess, and had only come to help because she worried about her. She then stepped away from the princess.

She really started to like this woman. Due to everything that had happened, she didn't have a chance to look at her appearance. She was a young woman with long, almost curly, brown hair. She has bright, blue eyes and her skin is pale and very white. She did not look like a noble woman. She probably was travelling from place to place, and happened to be passing through this place, at this time. Xenia believed in coincidences and this was certainly starting to feel like one.

She looked at her with a kind smile, and said sweetly. "It is okay my dear. I'm a princess but I don't want you to be afraid of me. Don't pay any attention to the guards."