Hippolyta and Emelia

"What sort of question is that?" said the one to the left, the slightly shorter one who had dark brown eyes. "And why are you dressed like that three days before the Feast of the Earth Mother?"

The other one, the one with green eyes, seemed a bit more troubled. "She must come from another land. Surely she's not from Xeon, for none of them have red hair like hers. Are you one of the tribesmen of the north?"

"My name is Nendi. I came here from the north," which was true enough.

"Nendi," said the dark-eyed one. "We don't have many people from other nations coming through this city, other than the Xeon, but I've never heard a name like that. For what purpose did you come here?"

Nendi realized she had absoulutely no idea what to say. But then the other one whispered, too quietly for most people to hear--"She's a prophet, Hippolyta. Hypatia said that a prophet of the Earht Mother would come soon to guide us. Why else would she come here now?" Hippolyta? Nendi had heard several people called that name at the feast, all named after a woman she'd heard mentioned in several songs, a great queen. Was this her?

"She's been saying that forever, Emelia. We can't wait for a messenger from the gods to come. Anyone can see that this is against their will."

As she listened to the two women argue among themselves, Nendi found herself humming the song again. And then she saw that these women were the ones she'd heard tell of in that song. It was a long and complicated tale, which had taken up about a third of the feast in the telling, and she could remember only the general thrust of it. And how true that was she did not know. But from what she could remember, Hippolyta and Emelia were the first to unify the tribes of the nation that would be Aqualaria under one banner, long before the rise of the Great Empire. In those days those tribes were ruled by the nation Xeon, who were themselves descended from barbarians who had served in the army of Atlantis before it fell. They were cruel and wicked, or so the song said, and they tried to set their own gods up over the Earth Mother, the oldest goddess of Aqualaria. But Hippolyta and Emelia fell out and came to make war on each other. Nendi couldn't quite remember why--a man they both loved had something to do with it, but he was not the most important part. In the end, Emelia died without child, and Hippolyta gave birth to a daughter whose descendant was Hipparcha, first queen of Aqualaria.

Perhaps that was why they looked different from the tapestry. She had heard a number of songs making fun of those who lived in the south of Aqualaria, in Aqualaria Cistrygia, now considered a mere backwater. But all the oldest stories took place here too. Perhaps that was why the tapestry looked different from the women as they truly were--they were remembered as looking more like the later queens who came from the north.

1. Nendi questions the two women further.
2. They are accosted by Xeon soldiers.

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