#adding to the queue

Inga held in a sigh as Myrto and a group of the other highborn maidens paused in their path and turned to Sophia, pointedly ignoring Inga.  

“Still guiding the barbarian, Sophia?” Myrto taunted.  

Sophia smiled thinly at her.  “Yes I am.  She needs help and a friend.  Jealous that I have one?”

Myrto scoffed.  “Why would I be jealous of a girl that nobody wanted and was so desperate that she started pursuing a barbarian?  What, will your bed have furs instead of silks?”  She eyed Inga ostentatiously.  “Look at her, she doesn’t even speak a proper tongue!”

Inga did her best to hide her reaction; thanks to Gudmund’s help, she understood a lot more Greek than many at court gave her credit for, especially when she didn’t have to strain to hear from her distance to the Empress’ throne.

“Do you understand me, barbarian?” Myrto taunted.  “Or has a civilized tongue still escaped you?”

Speaking carefully, slowly, and deliberately, playing up her accent, Inga said thickly in Greek, “A little I speak, understand.  I trying.”

Myrto spread her arms mockingly.  “Look, Sophie, you trained the fur-wearer to bark!”  Behind her the other maidens laughed unpleasantly.  

Sophia didn’t even blink, although she knew that Inga’s Greek was more advanced than what she’d just spoken.  

There was more mockery of Sophia and her liking for foreigners and foreign ways, with one girl outright shuddering ostentatiously at another word that Inga had become increasingly familiar with.

Xénos.

Alien, foreign, stranger.

It went right up there with their other word for people that were Not Greek, barbarus.  Barbarian, foreign, savage, Not one of the civilized.

Inga had gathered that there was bias against marriage with those who were noble from other lands of the Empire itself.  That Sophia was courting Sigurd was seen as barely a step above bestiality by her peers.  Perverted, unnatural, even sick, especially since the Varangians had a reputation for boorishness and aggressiveness.  “The Emperor’s wineskins,” they were called,  with a reputation for heavy drinking, visiting brothels, roughhousing, adoring the Hippodrome races and brutality for lawbreakers when they were assigned to the city militia. That Sigurd supposedly had only been caught drunk once, after she and Dogsbreath had arrived, spoke volumes to his reputation for upright behavior and the Empress’ trust in him, but he was still tarred with the same brush as the rest of the Norsemen by the rest of the court.  

She did wonder how much of the other girls’ torments of Sophia came from their own biases, or from jealousy that she was forming a powerful connection, only one step away from the Empress.  Having lost their chance, they had to convince themselves that they hadn’t wanted it in the first place.  

“Well, you’ll still have at least her to keep training up while your intended is off visiting his estates, so why don’t you go feed her something,” Myrto taunted before turning to Inga.  “Sit.  Stay.  Heel.”

Inga scowled but said nothing in response.

“Feh.  And I thought your people were doughty warriors, like how Sophia pretends to be!” Myrto said and aggressively pushed past Inga, jostling her, followed by the other maidens.

Sophia sighed as they vanished into the crowd.  “I’m sorry for that—Inga, what did you do?”Inga let the small smirk grow and casually handed off the small purse of coin to Sophia.  “Bog Burglar, remember?”

Sophia stared at her, her jaw dropping slightly.  “You didn’t.”

Inga shrugged nonchalantly.  “If she hadn’t bumped into me, I wouldn’t have.”

“You stole it!” Sophia whispered furiously, leaning in, her expression both appalled and amused.

“‘Stole’ is such a strong word,” Inga replied flippantly.  “I consider it to be a fine for rude and uncouth behavior to a guest.”

Sophia snorted.  “Well, she’ll scream thief when she notices it’s gone.”

“True.  Should I put it back?” Inga asked casually.  

With a sigh, Sophia seemed to consider and then said, “I’ll leave it with one of the staff, saying that we found it on the ground.  Did you take anything from it?”

Inga shook her head.

“Good.  Go get started with the food, I’ll be right back.”

As Sophia walked off, Inga made her way over to the tables of food, still pondering.  So Sigurd would be heading off for a break from his work, which meant that the two Greek aides in his unit would be running things until he got back.  That mostly meant continuing preparations to increase their number of dragons.  Being a woman, she was out of the loop for most of it, but she was getting the impression from Dogsbreath that they were basically going to be replicating Berk’s Rookery in the mountains to the north of the city, just on a smaller scale, and researching where other nests might be found within easy reach of the Empire’s territory.  

But that wouldn’t be going in her letters back home.

She sighed as she had that thought.