He raised an eyebrow as she remarked about throwing herself at men. Could it be that the harpy had a sense of humor? Unbelievable! He had to have heard wrong. Still, maybe she wasn’t the angry, intolerable, verbally abusive woman he’d originally taken her for. It was possible. No. There had to be some mistake. At any rate, he’d meant that as more of a general comment, like what the stories said happened when all the great heroes came home from their quests and were loved by everyone everywhere. Of course, he would have payed a considerable amount of money to see her make an idiot out of herself.

Of course, that whole train of thought didn’t last long. She had to go back to ranting about his failures, conveniently without getting specific in the least. Tiberius was half tempted to drop the crates, but seeing as it would only do his men harm, he decided against it. Instead he pivoted to face her directly. “You know, you’re right,” he said, sarcasm dripping off his voice. “I should throw everything to the four winds and shout at the top of my voice to fix things. What would I say though and to whom? Huh? You’re lacking a few specifics there Miss. Let me tell you something. There’s a whole bunch of people who talk about what should and shouldn’t be done, the court. And that’s all those painted buffoons do. Someone’s got to actually do things around here, and it looks like I’ve been volunteered for that task. So go on, talk. Try to change the world’s most stubborn minds. Meanwhile, I’ll be out there,” He nodded off toward the north, “making sure you talkers can continue your verbal sparring uninterrupted.”

Well, it was a good thing she didn’t want him to be seen as a traitor or killed, as honestly, he didn’t much care for the idea either. More than that though, he didn’t really see how it was possible. The king didn’t seem to think that his reports were anything worth fretting over, it was an annoying problem, caused in no small part by the lazy serpents known as the court, but what did he have to say that was treacherous? Well... besides his utter distaste for the politicians the king saw fit to surround himself with. Nothing, not really. He wanted to be ready for war, the king knew that, and ignored it. Ok, so there were problems. Still, in order to get that far on the bad side of the government, he’d either have to insult a fair number of people or march to war right now, neither option making very much sense to his mind.

As he finished his mental rant, he returned to what the woman was saying having not missed much. Fortunately, he was just on time to find the missing puzzle piece that would explain their current relationship. “You’re one of them!” he exclaimed. “I should have known it. No one else could cause me as much trouble.”

“You don’t think I’ve tried talking to them?” he asked as she finished. “Miss, I assure you I have, but the problem is that I’m seen by a lot of them as being... how did you put it? ‘Someone whose force-fed immoral garbage in the guise of ends justify the means’, I believe. People see what they want to see. They don’t want to worry about their safety, so they dismiss me as some uneducated robot. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely fair. There are a few people who have their wits about them, but in my experience, they hold the minority.”

Nodding in resignation, he was glad to find that there was at least one thing they agreed upon: the court was a room full of pompous idiots. It was sad that the one thing they agreed upon had such grievous implications for their country. Tiberius only hoped the fools would come to see before it was too late. After all, there was only so much a captain could do without the support of a country behind him.

“I know what you mean,” he said. His mind wandered off to the men he’d stationed on the northern marches, despondent, weary, wondering why they were up there when the king and court both said there was nothing to fear. “The men aren’t sure what to make of it.”

Setting down the crates, he wiped the palms of his hands off on his tunic, then rubbed the back of one of them across his forehead. “Do you really think they might listen if you round them up? The court, I mean. Do you really think that we could drum up some support?”

“True. It’s rather difficult to present a united front when we’re trying to rip each other’s throats out,” he agreed. Of course, just when it seemed like they might have been able to carry on a decent conversation, the politician decided to jump off the deep end. The steel came back over him and he began slowly shaking his head. “Now this, this is treachery,” he hissed. “And this is something I will not be a part of. My, my. All this talk of wanting the best for our country and here I’d almost started to believe you. Civil War? A coup? Are you completely out of your mind? Just like the two of us, our country won’t be able to stand if it can’t hold a united front. How the blazes are we supposed to fight each other and whatever may be unleashed at us in the days ahead? What you propose is a surer way to destroy our country than if we simply allowed the government to stay fat, dumb and happy until they got the wake up call. At least then we’d be able to mobilize! I may have spoken to the court with you, tried to get them to open their eyes, but I will not keep the counsel of someone who is willing to destroy everything I love and have worked hard to protect!” Picking up the boxes once again, he began walking swiftly towards the tower.

“I can’t believe you! You suggest a course of action, then say that I must be willing to risk civil war if I take it. In what world does that not sound like treason?” he nearly shouted as he glared at her. Then a harsh laugh broke through the stream of words. She thought that he was twisting her words? He was a soldier, he called things as he saw them, and there seemed to be very little to second guess in this situation. How could she last against real politicians that would do everything they could to twist bizarre meanings out of her words? “And you’re a politician? They’ll eat you alive!”

Suddenly he took a deep breath and allowed his muscles to loosen. “Listen, if you truly didn’t mean to imply that, then I’ll just mark it off as another episode of monumental idiocy. If you can help me get support in the court, then I’ll take what help I can get. But know this, at the end of all things my allegiance still lies with the king and country and I will not betray them, moreover, if I hear so much as another treacherous word out of you, you’ll be going to the Tower with the tip of my sword at your back. I don’t like watching traitors die though, so I’d rather you avoided that option.”