He tells you about the Amazon Merchant.

Ceno closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to calm his aroused body before finally telling you what he knew. “When you left Deni, your mother ordered all of your warriors that were stationed in the city back onto their ships. Apparently, the raids on Accor were getting really bad, bad enough to where your mother needed all the warriors she could muster.”

The raid had indeed grown worse at the time. In fact, the reasons why your mother was so eager to move you from Deni to Accor was because she was afraid that she wouldn’t get another chance, at least not for a long time. As for the mustering of your sisters, your mother was planning a massive counterattack against Athenapolis with the hopes of fighting her way to the city and besieging it, however, her plans changed from a siege to a blocked when she realized that the Amazons had never taken a walled city before.

“Once your ships left our docks,” he continued, “The only Amazons that were left in our town were the ones that were banished for falling in love with the men they mated with.”

When you heard the mention of the banished you arched your brow with a bit of intrigue. It wouldn’t have surprised you if one of them turned out to be the traitor or at least in league with her. One of them could have wanted on your mother and the Amazons for sending them away from their homes, or maybe it was someone who sympathized with the banished. Before your mother died there was a major debate among your elders as to if the banishments should continue. Calista and her hard-liner supporters including most of the senior military officers, supported the banishments. They argued that those banished were no longer Amazons and would just get in the way in their weakened state. Opposing the banishments were mostly younger Sisters bolstered by members of the Daughters of Aphrodite. This coalition countered that it wasn’t just their strength that made the banished Amazons useful on Accor, their skills and knowledge alone were valuable. Even without their augmented strength these women were still very strong and were quite skilled in combat. Your mother was careful to keep her opinion on the matter to herself and recommended that you do the same. 'No matter what is decided in the end.' she explained why she refused to join the debate, 'the royal family must be seen as an unbiased arbitrator.'

Advocates of a change in the no-exceptions policy might have believed that betraying your mother would effectively end the debate as most of the Sisters killed or captured during the Battle of Elaina were older and more conservative. If this was the case their plan backfired royally. Not only did the debate to change the policy get shelved but many of your Sisters were starting to swing in favor of the banishment with no-exceptions after losing their mothers to lust and greed of men.

Ceno must have sensed what you were thinking, breaking from his story long enough to provide a quick defense for your exiled former Amazons. “Before you jump to any conclusions, Xira, I honestly doubt that any of your banished sisters are in league with the traitor. They are perfectly happy in Deni. Not only can they still fight alongside our guardsmen but they can now spend the rest of their lives with their husbands. You should see them coming off of the ship, jumping into their lover’s arms with their new child in hand.”

“Fine!” you say raising your hands, “Just continue with your story.”

Ceno gave a slight shrug before continuing his story. “In any case, my father's court made sure to keep tabs on them, in case if we needed their help fending off raiders or pirates. One day as I was walking through town, I noticed a caramel-skinned merchant woman with a very toned body. I asked her where she was from and she said she was from the East. Now, I may have never seen an eastern woman before but I can honestly say that she was not from the east. I know an Accorian when I see one, only an Amazon carries herself with that much pride.”

You narrow your eyes at Ceno, “Pride?”

Ceno’s face turns a shade paler, “Uh…n-not that you are arrogant or anything.”

“Arrogant!?”

“As I was saying!” he quickly changes the subject, and before his chances of getting another blowjob from you drop any lower. “I asked my servants to keep tabs on her to see what she was up to. From what they told me, her store wasn’t at all successful and yet she was still somehow able to pay the rent for her shop and home. Her neighbors didn’t care for her either as she was openly hostile towards them, especially the men, she had few customers and yet somehow had gold to spare. One night my servants spotted her loading a wagon full of supplies before taking the road out to Masson. I asked my guards to let me know when and if she came back and if they could find out what she was carrying. One week later she returned with an empty cart. My guards asked her if she had any trouble selling her wears or if she lost them. She just told them it was none of their business and moved on.”

“When I heard this, I knew that she had to be leaving soon. My family has ruled this merchant town long enough to know that returning to the city with an empty cart is never a good sign. At this point, I hired someone to sneak into her store and see if they could find out how it was that she was still in business. Xira, they found a hidden chest full of freshly minted gold coins from the royal mint in Accor. Someone on Accor had been funneling money to this agent from your treasury.”

You were taken aback by this. “What?! How? Only high-ranking nobles and the royal family is even allowed access to the treasury. Besides, we were under siege at the time. We couldn’t have gotten a gold shipment to Deni even if we tried.”

“My father's chief agents suspected that they had help from Athenian Mercenaries, but he could never prove it.”

You face once again turns red - this time it is rage, not lust that has you fired up. “First, they kill my mother, then they mock me by camping just out of arrow shot of my camp, and now I find out that they have been stealing from us! I WANT THEIR SKULLS BURNING ON A PIKE!!!”

You shoot to your feet prepared to storm out of the tent, find a sword, a pike, a spoon, anything sharp enough to slit the mercenary’s throats. Ceno grabs you by the wrist and forces you to face him. “Xira, rushing off to get yourself killed isn’t going to avenge your mother.”

You glare back at him but this time he doesn’t back down. Instead, he just looks at you sternly. Your veins still bulging out of your head you take slow and steady breaths to calm yourself before finally asking, “Who was she and what was she doing in Masson?”

“We don’t know,” he replied, “When I found out what she was doing I took it directly to my father, but by the time he gave the order to arrest her, she caught wind somehow and fled the town. As for what she was doing in Masson, I think she was paying off someone; shortly after she returned several members of the Masson family bloodline were killed. Any idea why they would do something like that?”

You pause for a moment. Lord-Marshal Raxius did mention that you should let at least let a few people know about your connections to the Masson bloodline, preferably with someone you trusted. You can think of no one you trusted more than Ceno but at the same time do you dare risk it? This man is a merchant prince after all and his loyalty must be to his family first; someone in that family tipped off the Accorian woman. You lived in Deni long enough to know that anything could be bought or sold if the price is right, and that Ceno might not be able to keep your secret from getting out.