Serinina faces some personal issues and a tragedy within her new family and had to learn to deal with it
and she lashes out in anger

The feeling of treachery was thick in the air as Lady Hippolyta and her daughter Dianna stepped off of their trireme followed by their best troops onto the Golden Isles. They had reached a friendly port and docked with Fawnae's people. They had departed in secret and took with them the core of their most experienced and best troops with them and made the voyage around the Mediterranean and around the peninsula and into the narrow channel docking in Fawnae.

They were met by Lord Fawnae and his escort as they disembarked. The Amazons hardly needed an escort, but it was nice to have. They felt that they had to warn them about what was coming and help them prepare. They had slim hopes that there was any way to prevent it or defeat Serinina when she came, but they needed a chance and that was why Hippolyta and Dianna betrayed Penthesilia and Serinina. Hippolyta felt Serinina's anger at what she suffered here but she also felt she was taking her vengeance way too far. When Hippolyta had heard that Serinina had attacked the Goddess Athena and gravely hurt her, she knew then that this was a course they could no longer follow.

Hippolyta looked up at Lord Fawnae and asked, “Will a group of strong female fighters going through your land to meet the King's family and his daughter Patinea cause any problems, my lord?”

“I don't think so,” he replied. “It is unusual but the priests won't bother us. And this has been approved by the royal family, so this will go without incident. And if not, that's why we have my escort. They are lethal."

Fawnae grinned and they began marching toward the capital to their meeting. They knew that this was going to be rough. The Kingdom was still ruled by the priests' iron fists and their misogynistic ways. But secretly, the King had a much more tolerant view of women and was looking for ways to improve the lives of women and had secretly nominated Patinea as his heir. Edwyn was the official heir apparent, but he was going to step aside for Patinea. Edwyn was in love with Patinea.

A day later, they had reached Denaerk, the capital of the Golden Isles. Hippolyta and her daughter had seated themselves at the royal council table. Edwyn and Victoria had seated themselves beside them. Patinea had seated herself at the head of the table along with her friend Actonia. Lady Fawnae and Falconette stood behind Patinea and the council meeting began.

Patinea began, “I know that I have made many terrible errors in the way I handled this entire situation.”

Hippolyta said acidly, “You can say that again. Basically, you, Falconette, and all the rest are a bunch of fucking idiots. I hate the fact that we have to come help you bunch of fools. You don’t deserve it."

“Then why are you here?” Patinea inquired at them.

“For your people who will be stuck in between this power struggle and vengeance,” Hippolyta replied. “They didn't ask for it. That’s why we are here. I don't really give a damn about all of you. But since you are the power on the Island, we have to deal with you all whether we like it or not. And we don't like it.”

“I can accept that,” replied Patinea. “How about you Falconette?” She always valued Falconette's advice.

“I admit we made errors. Had we known about the spell and Serin's path and the Goddess we would have handled it very differently. But none of us knew how powerful he would become or how favored by the Goddess. And so blessed, he would be able to totally turn his life around, enjoy femalehood, endear himself to the girls and become so devoted to her. But we were all blindsided and he became convinced we all hated him.”

Edwyn spoke up, “Yes, that is still what he believes and it really isn't hard to see how he can think that. I am still connected to his feelings and his thoughts. I felt his suffering at your hands. I saw what you all did to him."

Edwyn continued with a new accusing tone to his voice, “No wonder he turned the way he did. Most of this is to prove he can be a competent leader, and exceed Patinea. Patinea will be a king. Then Serinina will make herself into an empress. You will beat rebels. She faced savage Spartans, outnumbered defending a town from massacre. And she is doing a good job. And behind it all, she can't help but keep wondering how you would handle yourself in the same situation. Sometimes, she even wishes she had your strength to help her. She still admires you Patinea. Even if she hates you with every part of her being. She admires your courage and your strength and how you proved her wrong about girls.”

Falconette asked, “I have been beaten by her many times. The first time was when she was very young and living as a boy. She came to the school to ask for help to restore Actonia's brother's masculinity. He changed her to punish Actonia and prove a point. Then he began attacking us and almost killed us.”

"In another life he nearly beat me to death. And this time, was the worst. She is fully female and lashed out with such power there was no way to defend ourselves. It's like fighting a goddess. Serinina's power is growing. And she said if we restored our goddess she would release the Morning Star. What is that and what can we do?”

“Some of my visions have begun to return,” Actonia stated. “But I can't see this. I think Serinina is bluffing. The Morning Star is her natural husband Lucifer. She would never free him. That would be freeing a nightmare on the world that would make us suffer just to please him. He is a force of evil. Serinina is enjoying her marriage to Ares. We don't have to worry about her freeing the Morning Star. He would burn down the entire world and laugh. She may release Kronos from Tartarus though. I have seen that is a possibility and that would be a nightmare.”

“What is Kronos?” Patinea asked.

“Kronos is a massive god, the father to all of the other gods we worship. He could destroy them all and devour our world if he is released," said Hippolyta.

“Oh,” Patinea gasped in horror.

“But I never hated Serin,” Patinea said toward Edwyn. “I loved him so much.”

“You didn't hate him?” Edwyn snarled in fury. “Let's examine what you did to him. You transformed him into a girl so you could seize his crown. And he accepts that was necessary. It doesn't even bother him anymore. He has adapted to life as a girl. Then you take every opportunity to mock and belittle him. You forced him into dresses and gowns and corsets. Then you brutalized and, even when he's sexually assaulted, it doesn't bother you at all.”

"After that, you belittle and mock him some more like, when at the championship called the Sixteen, the boys are fighting for prizes and you mock him saying girls can't fight. How is he supposed to think you feel about him?”

"And even in the end, when he begins adapting, when he sees you off to war, you mock him some more calling him pretty. When you return and he's grown, it makes no difference. He stands on stage and sings for your victory. He sang for you in front of everyone, singing praises for your brilliance and your victory. And you hated him for it. He sang for you and you hated that and teased him.”

"When he realized his mistakes and personally approached the girls he mistreated he apologized to each of them. He made personal friends with them and even converted to the religion of the Goddess. Then he forms a relationship with a boy and you got mad that he's beloved as a boy or a girl. So you took it out on Asyrn for him felling for Serin. Then Serinina gets pregnant and, to stop Asyrn, you try to force Serin into a marriage.”

"How is he supposed to think you feel about him? He thinks you hated him. And the worst of it was how you treated him Patinea. And he was forbidden to do the things other women were able to do. You went out and fought, he wanted to fight too. You let your friend go with you but not him. Do you know how much that hurt Serin?”

“I know,” Patinea raised her tone. “I know I hurt him and I know I was wrong. I had built up so much resentment at him I was unable to control myself. But I never hated him." She shouted loudly. “But I understand how it felt to him,” Patinea whispered. “So what does he intend to do now?”

“Her army is headed for Vienna right now. Vienna won't last long. And a critical matter at Troy is requiring her attention. She will personally lead the final defeat of the damn Greeks once their ruse fails.”

“It's good that you see how wrong you were,” Hippolyta said looking at Patinea. “I wish you had found that out earlier. It's just a little late now. What's done is already done and she spent those years thinking you had an uncontrollable hatred toward him for no other reason than she was born as a boy. Do you know what she wishes for?”

“What, that I wasn't born?” she said, knowing that wasn't true.

“No, she wishes he was never born. Or she wishes she was born as a girl so you would have loved her. But I still see an issue that Serinina doesn't see there. That even as a girl, she would still have the same nature and same drive to be loved and to lead and that would lead you to treat her as a rival just the same. It would make no difference if she was a boy or a girl, you would still view her as a rival. And she would probably win. You are ill-suited Patinea, and the Goddess made an error in choosing you. She only chose you because you were a girl. Do you know how hurtful this all is to Serinina? He was condemned and dismissed only because of his sex.”

“How do you think it felt to me for not even being considered because of my sex?” Patinea snarled. “It was so infuriating.”

“That's not why you weren't chosen to be the heir. It's some of the reason but the other reason is that you have a cruel heart and your nature pushes people away. And then you wonder why you weren't as beloved as your brother. Now you have the answer.”

“Seeing my hard partying brother who is so easy going, trusting and so beloved but took nothing seriously be chosen when I was more mature and serious. I thought I was better, but he was just chosen because he was male. I hated that." Patinea stated.

“Now that's all solved and you have no reason to resent him. He is female, happy to be so. She is very serious, deadly serious at times and she's driven. She's coming after you Patinea.”

“Is there any hope to defeat her when she lands here,” Patinea inquired.

“No, even with my forces here, there's little hope to stop her. She has fought many battles, vastly outnumbered and won. She will still win, but we can make it harder for her. Actonia, do you see a victory?”

She shook her head sadly, “No. I see her making her stand at the wall the Romans built a century ago. She is having the Ansays rebuild it and make it three times as high. There will be no bypassing the wall and only a few ways through it, and she will make sure you can't get through it. That's where she will annihilate your army. It will be a total victory, or you can wait for her to besiege Denaerk and the result will be the same. Serinina will emerge victorious here. She will become the queen of the Golden Isles. Nothing can prevent that and she will kill the Goddess.”

xxxxxxxx

Serinina and Cassandra held the hand of their gravely wounded mother hours later. Penthesilia laid limp in her bed struggling to take shallow breaths. Her breathing was getting weaker by the second as Serinina clutched her mother's hand in desperation. Tears stained her face as she grasped her mother's hand, trying to give her the strength to recover from her wounds. Penthesilia was led into an ambush shortly after leaving Troy to find Helena. It was a well-timed and executed ambush by strategically placed Greek forces under Achilles. Serinina knew how they planned it, she simply had to prove it

Her doctors did all they could to stop her bleeding, but they strongly suspected there was internal bleeding that they were unable to stop. Athena was still too weak to help because of the injuries she had suffered from Serinina's attack and this was beyond Ares. He was better at killing humans than saving them. Athena was the wise one and Hera wouldn't raise a finger for them. Serinina's attack upon Athena had offended Hera and Hera wanted nothing to do with Serinina. So Penthesilia was slowly dying.

She gasped to Serinina, “You know this cannot be stopped. I will shortly die and nothing can prevent it now.”

Serinina raged at the gods once more for playing with the lives of people. A god took Serin's father away so long ago and that was considered a good thing for it set up the goddess and her vessel. Now another god decided to take her adopted mother away. Her fist tightened until her knuckles turned white. She swore her blood oath that the gods will pay for this.

Her mother gasp in her final breath, “You will be the queen shortly. You were made my heir, Cassandra and Emily both support you.”

“Yes I do," Cassandra told Serinina, "not without question but I understand you are the best of us, Emily and I would never dream of betraying you. You will be our queen.”

They held on to their mother's hands for hours as her breaths became weaker and weaker. Into the sixth hour, Penthesilia breathed her final breath. It was let out and she didn't inhale again. Penthesilia went into the next world. Serinina began weeping and sobbing as she held onto Cassandra. Serinina laid her head on Cassandra's shoulder and the two girls wept.

For all of her anger at the gods for letting this happen, Serinina knew that part of the blame was hers as well. If she had not allowed her anger to control her, she would not have attacked Athena when she had tried to stop her attack on the witches. Athena did not have enough power to save Penthesilia and the other gods were too offended by Serinina's actions to be willing to help.

Serinina shook herself. Yes, she had hurt Athena. But the gods were still playing with their lives and they had the nerve to be upset when a mortal took action on their own that went contrary to their desires.

“We have another coronation to arrange. My Queen." said Cassandra quietly.

Serinina looked sad, “Yes, but this is one I had hoped to put off for a very long time. I guess we need to go back to Themyscira to crown a new queen of the Amazons but not before we deal with this nonsense. They are almost done with that damn horse and the Trojans are eager to take possession of it. Especially Hector, and I wonder why?” She said snidely.

Cassandra agreed as they watched the Greeks finish building the enormous horse on the beach outside of the city. It was built large enough they would have trouble taking it inside the city walls. It wouldn't fit through the gates without some modifications to the gates.

Later that night, she held a council with the king and various nobles of Troy. Paris, Cassandra, Priam and his wife were there. She stated firmly, “That horse is a trap. You have to know the Greeks would never accept defeat by us without us forcing the issue. You can't consider accepting the horse.”

Hector spoke out, offended.

“What does a woman know about war?” He said arrogantly. “You do not speak to us woman!”

She almost laughed. Maxis would love these men so much.

“The Greeks realized that any attack on us is futile. They have left camp. They are putting the final nails into the horse for us. We will accept their gift,” Hector said to her. “And we won't argue with a woman about it. We will accept the Greeks offer of friendship.”

That sealed the question of Hector's allegiance for Serinina. She knew he was working with the Greeks and resolved to figure out who he was talking to them. There had to be spies in the city.

“As you wish, prince Hector." Serinina said hiding a smirk behind her hand. The man didn't know it, but he had sealed his fate with those words.

She dismissed the rest of the council but kept Cassandra and her generals there. “Keep a close eye on Hector and under no circumstances allow them to let that horse in without a strong 24-hour guard. Whoever exits that horse will find themselves surrounded by spears and bows. They won't last long. I will closely watch Hector.”

The Council was dismissed and she quickly found Hector to follow him for the rest of the evening. She kept herself from his sight even using magic when necessary. Then it finally happened. It took long enough but it did happen.

She found him talking to a group of Greeks dressed as Trojans within the city. “Those fools will take the horse in. I made sure no one took that whore seriously. We will wheel the horse into the city and you can open the gates. The City will fall.”

“What of Agamemnon's wife Helena. She still hasn't been found. He is getting angry." Asked one of the spies.

“At least we took care of Penthesilia. She won't rescue Helena. It's up to you to find her, I have no idea where that whore is hiding. Just take the city and someone should know where she went.”

They did a Greek salute and left. He suddenly found himself face to face with Serinina when he turned to leave. Serinina glared into Hector's eyes and snarled, “I knew you were an honorless traitor.”

“My sister will never be queen." He snarled. “She has no right.”

Then the next thing he knew was blinding pain as a spear was driven into his stomach that exited out the other side, dripping with his blood. He gasped as the Amazons rounded up the other Greek spies. They were executed one by one and the city was made safe.

Later that morning, Serinina made an announcement to the city that Cassandra was appointed as the Queen of Troy. Priam was deposed and imprisoned for his treason.

When evening arrived, the Trojans wheeled the enormous horse into the city and locked the gates behind them. They knew what was going on and stood watching the horse into the night.

The guard around the horse was tripled when night fell. Hundreds of hoplites surrounded the horse with bowmen and women behind them. It was no surprise when the belly of the horse opened up and men began sliding down ropes. They quickly found themselves surrounded and killed one by one right up to Agamemnon

The Trojans pretended that the trick had worked and opened the city gates making sure there were tens of thousands of troops ready. The zone between the outer and inner gates of the city became a killing ground. The remaining Greek forces were slaughtered without mercy and the Trojan war was over. Troy remained, the Greek forces fell and made it all that much easier for Sparta to absorb Athens and the rest of the Greek states. They all surrendered one by one. Serinina began feeling like an Empress now.

With the war over, she had to plan an expedition to Themyscira to be crowned as its new queen. Finally, she had a little time to mourn and remained locked in her bedroom and began crying.

Serinina wept uncontrollably all night long. Her head was buried in her pillow and soon became soaked with her tears. Her sorrow turned into anger and then to white hot rage as she raged at the fates for this. It seems the fates want to keep playing games with her life. She would play games with them

She slowly felt her temperature rising. She was soon burning, a dark reddish like glow that consumed her body. This wasn't much but a few hundred degrees as most. But her rage grew and the dark glow brightened into a brilliant blinding yellowish glow. And she kept going. By now she was in the thousand's and it rose into a white hot glow that was over ten thousand and then an angry dark blueish glow that was over twenty thousand. She was forced to take measures to shield the extreme heat from the atmosphere, lest the extreme heat ignite the air around her and wipe out life on the planet.

She let her heat go away. There was no need to be that hot. Another idea took hold. She could execute this one very easily. She shut her eyes and reached out with her mind. She found the boy that she once loved. It was night over there and he was sleeping by Patinea. She was torn between Edwyn and Asyrn. She loved Asyrn but also loved Edwyn and they were both great. Serinina was going to make it an easy choice for her. He connected with Asyrn and sang into the boy's mind.

He shifted and almost woke, “Serinina, is that you? What are you doing here?”

“Shshshs,” replied Serinina. “Be quiet. I just wanted to talk to you.”

He saw the flare in her eyes and knew. “Please understand, I couldn't resist her, but you know I always wanted you. But she was the King, how could I fight her affections? Please understand.”

“Oh, I do understand,” She said dangerously. “But you could have fought for us. But you accepted her affection and slept with her, many, many times. You could have rejected her and went to me.”

“You may be that strong,” Asyrn replied. “But I wasn't. I was afraid of what she would do. I knew she was vindictive. And she bewitched me. I was unable to resist. It was unfair to blame me for it and you left.”

“What happened to my life was about as unfair as you can get,” Serinina spat venomously. “I was destroyed. You could have resisted, but you didn't. If she retaliated, she would have revealed her pettiness to the entire kingdom. You didn’t resist her. I do blame you, Asyrn. And I have a gift for you, and I have a question for you, perhaps you can answer this for me?”

Asyrn looked confused. “What question, we have been talking for about an hour now, what do you want to ask me?”

“Have you ever thought about what it was like being a girl,” Serinina looked into Asyrns eyes.

“No,” He snorted. “I am not a sissy, and neither were you. This was a life forced on you against your will and I remember how difficult it was, and now totally devestated you were when it happened. So dont think of doing this to me, please Serinina, I beg you, you must know how horrible it is for a boy. It was totally sadistic and cruel to do to you, it was so wrong.”

“Of course not,” Serinina replied calming the boy she once loved. The one that Patinea wanted so desperately. It would be fitting to do it to him but she had much better ideas. “I won’t bestow the blessing on you. You will want it more than anything else in life. You will be desperate to be pretty and graceful like a girl. You will beg for it!” Serinina smiled and kissed Asyrn full on the mouth. Then she began chanting into his mind.

“You will want to look like a girl more than anything. You will want long beautiful hair. You will wear girls underthings, you will want our gowns and our corsets, our shoes. You will associate with girls on a much more personal level than before. And you will desire boys to desire you as a girl. You will want our bodyparts, our breasts, our faces, our soft skin, you will want femininity and you will go to the Falconette and beg for it and you will remind her of how much she loves transforming boys. You Asyrn will begin dressing as a girl and want to live the life of a young woman when you wake up.”

This was going to be so fun. And the best part of it all was there was going to be no way the Hekatin could possibly break this spell. It really wasn't a spell at all. She didnt change his body at all. Serinina fundamentally changed Asyrns personality. She took his personality away and inserted a female personality in him. She didnt just insert a feminine personality in him, but she put an extremely feminine super girlie personality in this big strong macho type warrior. It was exceptionally cruel and so fun.

Patinea was horrified when she woke up and saw her boyfriend being laced into a corset. He was tightly holding onto a tall corner post with a large woman lacing him into a corset and he was crying for her to tighten the laces more.

She cried out, “Asyrn what in hell are you doing?”

Asyrn said in a sing song like tone, “I want to be pretty, like you girls are. Just wait until you see me wearing that lacy pink gown. And get my hair done, I cant wait.”

“What,” She cried in despair. “Asyrn, you were born to be a leader and lead armies. How can you do this!”

He laughed as she finished the laces and pulled a gown over his head. “So was your brother but you didnt care about his future, but unlike what you did to him, this is what I want, you should have had it done to me, but I wasnt the heir, he was. But you wanted the crown, you didn’t care how he felt about his life. You simply wanted to be King and that was it,” Asyrn said accusingly. “Considering how you treated him, how can you think I would ever want you? Youre horrible.”

“He was going to have me married,” Patinea cried. “I wanted control over my own life.”

He snorted, “You could have ran away, there are many ways you could have taken control over your life. Especially considering you were part of the Hekatin. Do you think those other witches let any man dominate them. Huh,” Asyrn snorted. “You wanted to control his life, and control all of us. Considering how you forced and manipulated me into this relationship using your spells, and those potions to make me desire you. How can you think this was real. It isnt, and I dont want you at all. DO you think Otto will desire me,” Asyrn fluttered his eyelashes as he began painting his face.

“Do you think the witches can turn me into a girl just like they did to your brother?”

xxxxxx

It was now time to go back to the Amazons and prepare for her coronation as their queen. She didn't need to go to be recognized as their queen. She already was, and she was the sovereign of many other nations by now so there was no question of who they were going to crown; who now held power. But she still needed to do this for the symbolism. Serinina prepared a voyage to Themyscira and this would be the final most important crowning she would have. This was her birthright now. It wasn't one she would seize by force or conquest. This was being offered to her because of her birthright.

The queen's ceremonial guards had already been chosen. Most were killed in the ambush on Penthesilia, but a few survived. The Captain survived and she chose another eleven guards among the best trained women on the isles. Serinina insisted on one of them being a boy and a boy was chosen.

She chose a pretty young sixteen year old boy with unruly blonde hair. He was one of the few farmhands that had not been castrated. He was meek enough as it was, and he obeyed his female overseers with no problem. He was slim, obedient and very pretty. His name was Jason and he was chosen for he had just expressed a desire to defend and fight for the queen.

The queen's personal quinquereme was prepared for a voyage to Themyscira and she boarded. Things weren't all that different. Being responsible for the Amazons was slightly different but she already had enormous and massive responsibilities as the empress of many nations now. She ruled the entire Greek isles and her forces had overran Vienna. Vienna surrendered and she ordered them to hold Vienna and wait for her before they crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy itself.

Her fleet took less than a week to arrive at Themyscira. She insisted that her personal guard, Jason stood by her side at all times. Mostly, it was for his protection. Jason was a demure sixteen year old going on seventeen. She had restored his masculinity and made him strong and confident. He was one of the only boys able to keep up with the fiercest Amazonian warriors. He rivaled Dianna Prince herself at times and even defeated her in some of their mock fights. Jason had a woman's heart, Serinina thought, and she adored him. So she insisted on making Jason a personal queen's guard and ensured he would eventually have glory as a boy, and possibly even have his own family. The Amazons had no idea what changes were coming and she was going to adore this. Some things about the Amazons had pissed her off.

They made their way down to the grand Temple of Athena, and she felt some sorrow for what she did to the Goddess. Not much, but a little. Athena was trying to protect the witches. They didn't deserve anyone protecting them. The witches were evil and cruel. They had to be destroyed once and for all and if Athena failed to realize that, then that was her mistake.

They disembarked from their grand ship and stepped onto the wet dock and made their way onto land and then went on their way to the great temple of Athena. The way was mostly paved with stone and marble. She occasionally avoided trees and other various growths. The Amazons loved nature so much, and she finally made it to the enormous temple. The temple she had built for Ares was much larger, but this was still impressive.

The Priestess that had taught her as a child was there ready to present her with the crown of the queen. The Amazons don't do anything the typical way. What she was being presented with wasn't actually any crown. It was more like a pretty tiara. It went around her forehead and had a symbol of an eight-pointed star inside of a triangle pointed down to her nose. The Priestess placed it on her and announced, “I crown Serinina Denae Ares queen of the Amazons, and leader of Themyscira and head of her family of Penthesilia. Long Live the Queen!” Shouted the Priestess and her warriors replied.

She stood there in her thick leather padded armor of a typical Amazon warrior woman and she raised her fist in the air and ignited her power once again.

“We stand upon a golden age of peace and prosperity. Our culture will lead Europe into a new age of freedom and love!” she shouted. “We will be a shining example to the European people. My first act was to appoint a boy to be my personal guard. That offended many of you, but I believe in equality. I was denied my life because I wasn't born as a girl. I felt that was unfair and cruel. I think the way you treat males is cruel and that is now ending. All male captives will now be freed!”

The Amazons protested, but some like Cassandra expected it. She knew how her sister felt.

“And males can train as Amazon warriors. That is all. I now have a meeting.”

And in another half hour, she entered into the royal council chamber once again. Only she was the ruler this time. And there was no Hippolyta or Dianna. She appointed a male to lead that island. It would be Jason when the time came.

“My first act as your queen is to change the line of succession. The crown will go to the one who Ares and Athena choose, regardless of sex.”

“What if they don't make their wishes known?” Lady Antiope asked.

“Then we hold a series of trials and determine who is the smartest and strongest heir and on from there. You may be ruled by a boy in the future and you will have to accept that.”

Serinina sinisterly smiled at the women and nearly hissed, “Many of your male captives will receive military style training with Spartans. That's why I allowed them to land here and make a camp. Your males will be trained and protected by them. Let's hope I don't receive the same problem I had with the Spartans and the Helots. I would hate to have to have over twenty thousand Spartans here just to protect your former male captives. I would be greatly disappointed if I had to.”

“You won't,” Lady Antiope said. “We are compassionate and mature women, unlike the men. We honor and respect our queen and her wishes will be obeyed without issue. I will see to it that the male captives won't be attacked. They can be trained by the Spartans or I will host their training in the way of the Amazons. I would gladly train your boy Jason if you wished, my queen Serinina.”

Serinina saw that lady Antiope was being sincere and smiled softly. “That's very kind of you, thank you for your offer maybe I will let you train Jason. He is free and it's up to him.”

Jason spoke softly, “I would love to train with Lady Antiope, my queen.”

“Okay,” Serinina replied. “He will train with you for a few weeks before he takes his formal place as my guard. I am sure he will be a lot more loyal than Elverus. That traitorous toad.”

Jason was taken by Lady Antiope to her Isle and he was shortly put through the same Amazon woman's military training that they all did at a young age. Serinina observed for the first few days to make sure there was no abuse taking place.

Jason dealt with the harsh new reality of his training as an Amazon woman. He did farming for the Amazons but wanted to be a warrior for them. It might seem very weird but he respected and loved the Amazons or he would have left and risked being killed. But he saw how the rest of the world treated women and saw that women were fierce and free here. It was no wonder they guarded their island so brutally. Perhaps some of it was in excess but not by much considering how the rest of the world treated women.

Jason was put through the grueling training program of the Amazons, and thought he wouldn't make it. He enjoyed it and persevered and succeeded in not collapsing the first few days. Serinina couldn't watch it all. She had to return and find Helena. She thought she knew where Helena was hiding so she had to return to Anatolia.

Serinina gave the appropriate orders to her fleet to prepare an expedition to Anatolia and Troy. Cassandra was already their reigning queen and they seemed to love her. Paris nearly worshiped her. They had such a supportive relationship that she wished Patinea and Serin shared the same.

So she took charge of the preparations for the fleet departing and handled the provisions for the crew during their voyage. These were more of the tedious things a queen needed to concern themselves with and she knew they did tax Patinea too. She mentioned how she would prefer to be fighting than dealing with the provisions and food rations for her army. But this didn't bother Serinina. She made sure her crew had the best rations for their voyage and made sure her fleet had its full complement. One of the ships was short and she increased the wages to make sure it had its full crew complement. She threw herself into preparing her fleet for departing.

Finding someone who did not want to be found was difficult. But that was the problem. She had a good feeling about where Helena was hiding and she wasn't hiding that well if Helena was where Serinina thought she was. There was a great and a very powerful empire far to the east that is following a strange and new religion that proclaims there is only one god. Their Caliph as they call their ruler Umar and his wife Fatimide were friends with Helena. No one thought that she would flee to the Caliphate for protection but under their religion, they strove to protect women. Abusing women was a grave and unforgivable sin that condemned the abuser in the afterlife. Helena felt safe there unlike at Troy which seemed likely to fall, or the Greeks who just wanted to use her as an example of their culture's superiority. Why wouldn’t she feel safe there? That was the better question. So that is where she had to go and hope she could convince Helena to return to Troy with her sister Cassandra.

Luckily, she knew their language, Arabic. She would have to brush up on the language on the weeklong voyage to Anatolia so she required her guards and close advisers to also use the language when speaking to her.

They landed at Troy without issue and they prepared to travel across Anatolia to the Rashidun Empire. Their Caliph had been informed and he was waiting for them. She prepared her small group to cross the harsh Anatolia Desert and she made sure they had animals that could handle it.