When Fates Unravel

Disclaimer : The characters of Xena, Gabrielle, Lao Ma, Solan, Argo and other Xenaverse characters mentioned in passing in this story are the property of the good folks at RenPic, whom I also thank for the inspiration of the season six episode "When Fates Collide" thus opening up this "strand" of alternate reality, allowing me to tell a Lao Ma story at last. I made use of a quote from the episode to indicate our safe return to the real Xenaverse, but I have of course, shaped an alternate Xenaverse to suit the needs of my own warped imagination - that bit's all my fault folks!

Sexual Content : All the women in this story are lesbians, and while not overly explicit in love scenes, I leave you in no doubt that they do NOT share beds and baths to conserve body heat and water respectively. If lesbian love is illegal where you live, is against your religion, or if it just plain offends you, then read no further.

I would like to dedicate this story to Ms. Jacqueline Kim, with my gratitude and admiration for her luminous portrayal of Lao Ma in the two part season three story "The Debt".

And finally... for those of you with an operatic bent, see if you can spot the rearranged opera title I managed to slip in. (No, it's not Butterfly, madam!)


When Fates Unravel

© Cyclops MMII

Gabrielle's grief and rage knew no bounds.

To have found the love of her life, only to learn that Caesar's obsession with his destiny had deprived her of a life with Xena, this was a living Tartarus. Even worse, as she rode away to safety and the rest of her empty, loveless life in the drenching rain, she knew that Xena was being nailed to a cross. She could almost feel the nails pierce her own hands, and as her gut lurched in sympathy with the Empress' agony, she saw the temple of the Fates.
What she saw inside the temple horrified her.

The world's true course had been perverted by the greed and ambition of one man. The Fates pleaded with her, but she had no heart to listen or take their pleas on board. If the world should end because she destroyed the Loom of the Fates, so be it. As well as ending her miserable life, it would also end the unjust suffering of the Empress of her heart.

She flung the torch into the gnarled, knotted mess that Caesar's lust for power had made of the Tapestry of Life.

The flames flared and coruscated around her, many of them from strands that had been discarded. One particularly bright one snaked out and licked at her breast, just above her heart. Gabrielle felt herself snap out of the horrible reality she was in, and was drawn in by the flame.....

"Gabrielle? Are you all right?"

She wasn't sure why she should understand this strange language, after all, she was Gabrielle, fêted playwright and poet of Greece and Rome wasn't she?

Wasn't she?

"Your skin feels clammy. It might be the fever coming back, come, you should rest."

The woman's voice was gentle and full of concern for her.

Why? I'm just a slave, thought Gabrielle. Of course, it was all coming back to her - the fever. All that nonsense about being a famous writer was just a feverish imagining of hers. She had been lucky enough to have been bought at last by an enlightened mistress who wanted her to teach the Greek boy who lived in her household, and who had come to value her story telling gifts.

That had come after the new slave had been nursed by her mistress through that nasty bout of fever. Her florid imagination must have turned that kindness and appreciation into fame and fortune in the fever-dream. That was it. It all made sense now. Her acute sense of disorientation began to pass.

Her recent good fortune was almost as much of a fever-dream to her. Her adult life had been spent in slavery, sold from one household to another, and at last brought her to the Kingdom of Lao. The Kingdoms of Chin were now at peace, thanks to the efforts of the houses of Lao and Ming in combating the threat of the Tartar tribes from the steppes.

Gabrielle had been broken and beaten, filthy and in rags, and was muttering a desperate prayer in her native tongue when the elegantly dressed, very rich and clearly very important Chinese woman stopped and spoke to her. In Greek. Badly accented Greek, but understandable, nonetheless.

The shock of hearing her native language being spoken by one of these exotic people rendered Gabrielle temporarily speechless, but not for so long that the woman might have lost interest in her. When the woman found out that she was indeed Greek, Gabrielle was bought in an instant, taken to the woman's palace - for her new mistress was the Ruler of the Kingdom of Lao.

Another fever-dream surely - Lao Ma herself had tended to the filthy slave, bathing her, dressing her in fine, clean new clothes. And as she did, she told Gabrielle about the Greek boy - son of the General of her armies - at least as far as the slave could understand, for she had never before heard the title by which Lao Ma called her General. It seemed that the General was often away for long periods, and feared that the boy would grow up unable to speak or understand Greek.

Lao Ma had now solved that problem.

"Or are you just nervous of meeting Xena at last?" asked Lao Ma with a smile in her voice.

Gabrielle's ultimate fever-dream - Xena.

Gabrielle had finally come to understand Lao Ma's General was the mother, not the father, of Solan, the bright, lively twelve-year old boy who was her charge. Warrior Princess was the mother's title. Or rather one of them, as she was also known as the Builder of Nations.

"Yes, my lady, I'm sure that's all it is. I hope she'll be pleased with how I've taught her son."

For some reason, the title itself and the name of the Warrior Princess set Gabrielle's heart and mind awhirl. Now, in a few hours, the Warrior Princess would be home, and Gabrielle would be able to lay this ridiculous agitation to rest, when some chunky, battle-scarred Amazon, who probably looked more like a man than a woman, would walk in.

"I'm sure she will be well pleased, Gabrielle, you have nothing to worry about."

But Gabrielle had worried.

When she was recovering from the fever, she became very ill-at-ease. What use, what place could she possibly have in this household? There was no lord or master to require the use of her body, nor any need for her as a kitchen drudge or housemaid. It was clear from her immaculate appearance that Lao Ma had no need of a personal maid.

"You will teach the son of the Warrior Princess, that is why I bought you," Lao Ma had explained firmly and slowly to her agitated patient.

"But my lady, I am not a teacher. I've only ever been a slave, a plaything for warlords, sheikhs and princes, to be discarded at their whim. I wouldn't know how to teach anyone anything," Gabrielle had protested, tears welling into her tired eyes.

"My dear, in my house you are no longer a slave. There is no man here, or any who might visit here who will be allowed use you as you have been used in the past. You are my servant, and as such you will be properly fed, sheltered and clothed, you will be paid for your work. And in time, when Solan is grown up and you have saved your earnings and if you wish it, you will be free to return to Greece."

Gabrielle wasn't sure if she was still hallucinating, and the idea of being fairly treated, of being able and allowed to go home some day was so overwhelming, that she had for once, nothing to say. Her new mistress continued with a smile at the girl's open-mouthed expression.

"I think you are intelligent enough to make a fine teacher. But Solan is a lively boy with a playful nature, and I think it would help you if you had a more willing pupil at first. You may have noticed I do not speak Greek very well."

Gabrielle nodded, not sure if criticism of Lao Ma's poor accent, limited vocabulary and sketchy grip of grammar would be appropriate.

"You can begin your new career by teaching me."

In the month that followed, Gabrielle found that not only had she had a natural flair for teaching, but Lao Ma was an able student.

"Xena is not the most patient of teachers unless she is teaching the arts of war, Gabrielle," she had explained.

Some weeks after that particular lesson, as the day of Xena's return dawned, this statement came back to haunt her. Would the Warrior Princess turn her to mincemeat for filling her son's head with nonsense about poetry, drama and history? For all Lao Ma's reassurances, she was worried, and it showed.

"Gabrielle, of all her gifts as a warrior, perhaps Xena's finest is the high esteem she has for knowledge and learning. You have nothing to fear from her."

While the girl had become more relaxed around her mistress, mere mention of Xena seemed to throw her into a lather of apprehension. Lao Ma noted that her words seemed to have reassured the former slave, if only for a brief time.

Hours after this exchange, Gabrielle was called to the hallway of the Palace, along with many of the other servants, to welcome the Warrior Princess home. The commotion outside as the lead party arrived and dismounted was great, and seemed, to both Gabrielle and to the ruler of the kingdom of Lao, to last forever - but finally, the door was flung open.

Kneeling, with her head bowed respectfully to the ground, Gabrielle caught sight of the booted feet and loose, baggy trousers first. Overcome with curiosity, she turned her head, risked a sidelong glance, and looked up and up, and up.

Her heart, already beating fast, stopped momentarily as the intense, pale blue of this tall woman's eyes registered. Her heavy travelling coat was dusty and travel stained, and she had a long scarf wrapped around her head and face to protect it from the elements - which only seemed to make those eyes beam even brighter.

"Welcome home, my Princess!"

The joy in Lao Ma's voice was evident, as she moved towards Xena, her arms open wide. The warrior unwrapped the scarf quickly, and the smile it revealed stopped the breath in the slave's body. Just as well, for Gabrielle knew if it hadn't she would have cried out - "Xena, please take me away with you, we're not meant to be here!"

Lao Ma almost ran to the Warrior's embrace, and moments later, Gabrielle finally dropped her gaze back to the floor to hide her consternation. Lao Ma and Xena had greeted each other with a kiss. Not a kiss of friendship, but one full on the lips, the kind that only lovers hungry for the other's touch give each other.

"My home is wherever you are, my Queen," said Xena softly after the kiss.

Gabrielle's tears dripped unnoticed onto the floor as the happy couple swept past the line of servants, and went off to celebrate their reunion in private.

*************

Solan's lessons had been suspended to let him spend some time with his mother, and the tutor was left pretty much to her own devices. Her offer to help the rest of the house staff was politely but firmly rejected, as in their eyes, it would have meant a lowering of her status as teacher to the son of the Warrior Princess. So, she took refuge in the library, burying herself in the dullest scrolls she could find.

This Warrior Princess was no chunky, mannish Amazon, but a tall, strong, beautiful woman. Under those bulky, dust-stained travel clothes that much was plain to Gabrielle, who dreamed of her on the night of her arrival, riding across the steppes, her long mane of black hair streaming behind her in the wind.

Her fantasies were further fuelled by the fleeting glimpses she had had of Xena in the following days :

Dressed in red, her hair tied back so tightly into a neat queue, it made Gabrielle's head ache just to look at it. She was sitting in the garden with Solan, her face by turns solemn, then alight with amusement or delight as she listened to her son tell her how he had spent his time while she was away.

As she left the dining room, with Lao Ma's arm linked through hers, the couple gazing adoringly into each other's eyes, oblivious to the loyal servants scurrying round attending to their needs.

Barefoot, freshly bathed, a deep purple silk robe wrapped carelessly about her, her hair still wet around her bare shoulders, her arousal obvious through the fine silk, when she was hurrying to Lao Ma's bedchamber.

This last was the most troublesome of all, as, even while awake,
she found herself imagining Xena's arousal was for her, and that the warrior would run to the tutor's room, discard her robe and proceed to make love to her.

Pure fantasy, for Gabrielle was sure that the Warrior Princess had completely forgotten she existed after their brief introduction the morning after Xena's return.

She was mistaken in that belief.
Xena's keen eyes missed nothing.

On the afternoon of her homecoming, Xena was writing up her tour and campaign notes into a full report for Lao Ma. Her concentration was slipping, and her hand went more than once to the elegantly decorated scroll box on her desk. More than once she hesitated and took the erring hand back. In the end, she flung down her brush, and stood up to stretch. Bones cracked, muscles twinged.

"By the gods, I'm not cut out for sitting at a desk all day."

She turned to the window, and the bright golden head caught her eye. The tutor. Where had she come from? Had the Fates led Lao Ma to the market that day? She had yet to speak more than a dozen words to her, but already she believed she knew what the young woman would say, how she would react, in a conversation with her.

"I can't believe it either, my love. That she should be in that market on the one day of the year that I should go there. She is surely a gift sent to comfort you and Solan, so far from your homeland."

Xena turned at the sound of Lao Ma's voice. She was carrying a tea-tray.

"I know how much you love writing these reports for me, so I thought some tea might help," she smiled as she put the tray down on a small table near the window. "You should take a break - don't be so hard on yourself!"

Xena smiled back, guiltily wondering what her lover would think if she could read her mind. She moved to slip her arms around Lao Ma's waist and snuggle up to her.

"If you stay to have tea with me, not another word will be written," murmured Xena into Lao Ma's ear as the Chinese woman began to pour the tea. Some spilled into the saucer as Xena started to nuzzle her ear. Her cheeks dimpling in amusement, Lao Ma put the pot down.

"I'd better leave you to your own devices then!" as she broke out of the circle of Xena's arms and slipped swiftly out of the room.
Xena picked up her cup and turned to the window after the study door shut, but the tutor was gone. Feeling oddly frustrated, she tossed the scalding tea back in single gulp and grumpily settled back to finish the report.

*************

Gabrielle was grateful for the return of her pupil, and for the distraction their lessons, and preparation for them, gave her. It was late in the morning about two days after Xena's return, and Gabrielle was discussing a section of Homer's epic retelling of the Trojan War with Solan. Thanks to some early summer sunshine, their classroom was the garden.

"That's a load of very old harpy droppings, y'know," came a lazy drawl from behind her.

Forcing her heart back into her chest cavity, Gabrielle turned and with remarkable self-control said in very light tone :

"And you would know because you were there, I suppose?"

"Yup."

"Oh, really?" she retorted, her voice now loaded with sarcasm.

Xena's eyes started to sparkle, but it was her son who answered.

"It's true Gabrielle! Mom and Queen Helen were friends once, real good friends...."

"Hey, Solan, that's enough - you know how I feel about name-dropping!" Xena corrected him sharply. "Now get inside, I finally got round to unpacking and Lao Ma has some things for you," she finished in a softer tone.

"Thanks Mom!"

After flinging himself at his mother to give her a fierce hug, the boy was gone so fast he set up a small dust storm.
"Besides, I've yet to meet this literary treasure Lao Ma found in the slave market who's been filling my son's head with that heroic Homeric nonsense about what was just another nasty little war," she grinned wickedly at the young tutor who was blushing furiously.

"It's Homer's poetic skill I admire, your highness. I really can't offer an opinion as to his historical accuracy. Having been a humble slave most of my life, I didn't have the opportunity to go to Troy, or meet soldiers who fought there. If I had, I could have written a different sort of story about it - more realistic."

As soon as the words were out of Gabrielle's mouth she regretted them. Am I mad? This is the best I've been treated in all my miserable life, and here I am, throwing verbal gauntlets at my pupil's mother. Sure way to get yourself sold off to some monster, again, idiot.

Xena's reaction took Gabrielle aback.

The warrior was sitting at the other end of the bench facing her, and after a few seconds' amused scrutiny she threw her head back and laughed. A knot of tension melted inside Gabrielle.

"Y'know little bard, I really believe you would. And could."

It was even money as to which of them was more amazed by this statement. Xena had read some of the scrolls the young woman had written, at Lao Ma's request, concerning life and culture in Greece, and she had been very impressed and moved by them. An odd thing indeed, as Xena had very little time for such writings as a rule.

"I'm not a bard," said Gabrielle in a small, determined voice, "just a slave who can read and write."

"Oh, you are most definitely a bard! But I didn't come here to argue with you. Just to find out if my son has been behaving himself, respecting his teacher, and to tell you that he likes to pretend he's dumber than he is so he doesn't have to work too hard. Lao Ma can be very indulgent with him when I'm away. She overcompensates, I guess. "

Gabrielle laughed aloud, surprised at the woman's candour about her son - she had almost expected that as an absentee mother she would neither see, nor admit to, any flaw in her son.

The conversation that followed was wide ranging and left Gabrielle in no doubt that Solan's intellectual gifts came in large part from his mother. She realised she had a whole lot of studying to do to give her new charge the education his mother desired for him.

"...as for the rest - the military stuff I can handle, and the philosophy you will find is best left to Lao Ma," said Xena finally. "Any questions?"

"Who's his father?" blurted Gabrielle, who had relaxed so much during their talk, that she felt a sort of ease and familiarity she had only ever felt with her family, before her abduction. Xena's gaze hardened, and for a moment Gabrielle, wishing she could bite her tongue off, thought she was going to be sent off to the market again.

"Just another man who betrayed me. A Tartar," she answered at last, unsure why she felt compelled to tell this young woman something she no longer spoke about to anyone other than Lao Ma and Solan. "It's a long story - don't ask."

Gabrielle's mouth snapped shut on her other unasked questions, and she nodded, relieved that all the gruff voice had asked for was silence.

Xena gave a brisk nod in reply, then rose.

"Enjoyed our chat. Talk more later."

**********

During the weeks that followed, Gabrielle learned that this laconic style of speech was more representative of Xena's character than their first freeform conversation. She also learned precious little more from Solan about his father other than his name and that he had been - past tense, as he had died in battle around the time the boy was born - Khan, or chieftain of his tribe.
After the first few days, she began to see less of Xena, as the warrior was now relieving her lover of many of the menial burdens of running the household and the kingdom. Consequently, she saw more of Lao Ma, as her mistress now had time to teach Solan philosophy. Gabrielle often sat in on these lessons, and found much to admire in the Eastern way of thought.

She had little time to ponder the nature of her reactions to her increasingly fleeting glimpses of Xena, as she spent hours in the library to research the materials for Solan's lessons. She was determined that the boy would have the education his mother desired for him, and that she would earn her respect and gratitude, if nothing else.

She was engrossed in some scrolls one evening - it was about a month after Xena's return. So engrossed, that the first she knew of having company was the brush of fingers against the nape of her neck. It was electrifying, and it made Gabrielle sit bolt upright, her scroll forgotten. She watched Xena walk - no, prowl was a better word for her gait - to the far side of the table to sit opposite her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Xena apologised as she sat down.

Gabrielle nodded her acceptance of the apology.

"I thought this might have been the fashion when you left Greece, but Lao Ma tells me you were in... quite a state when she found you."

"It was easier to cut it all off than try to tease it out," said Gabrielle with a shudder, recalling not just how filthy she had felt but how little she had cared about her condition and how much she had wanted to die. She fingered the short hairs at the nape of her neck as if to reassure herself that she hadn't lost all of her crowning glory.

"How old were you when the slavers took you?"

"Fourteen."

Xena's eyes narrowed, and she swallowed hard.
"Zeus! You were just a kid. You're not much more than that now. Just how old are you anyway?"

Gabrielle jutted her chin defiantly.

"I'm no kid, I'm about twenty-two now, I guess."

Xena's eyebrow rose.

"You guess?! A scholar like you can surely count better than that," she said in a light, teasing tone.

"There's no-one to remind you to celebrate your birthday when you're a body-slave, or a concubine, or a harem slave, or just a general dogsbody. One day's pretty much like any other, so I kinda lost track."

"I should have remembered that. Sorry. I guess I should shut up. Your turn now."

Gabrielle wasn't sure if this was really an invitation to quiz the warrior, so she waited a moment, thoughts percolating in her mind. Both of Xena's eyebrows rose, and she gestured impatiently.

"Well? Solan tells me you have no problem finding a million questions during lessons - whassamatter? Cat got your tongue?"

"You said you should have remembered - you were a slave once, too?" Gabrielle rose to the challenge in the blue eyes and watched Xena's playful mood evaporate.

"Yeah. I was a bit older than you were before it happened to me though, so I gave as much trouble as I got sometimes."

Gabrielle glanced down at the scroll she had been reading, and began to make connections.

"Borias was your master?" she asked, her tone indicating that she already knew what Xena's answer would be.

"Yup. Been busy snoopin' have ya?"
Damn, damn, damn, thought the tutor, she's slipped away again!

Xena rose, clasped her hands behind her back and stumped out of the room.

"Won't interrupt your work any longer. G'night."

With a heavy sigh, Gabrielle returned to finish reading the scroll, which documented the events that led to the unification of the kingdoms of Lao and Ming.

Xena seemed to appear from nowhere.

"Lao Ma rescued a prisoner of Borias. She was Xena - a woman from a land far beyond the setting sun. The house of Lao found her to be an able soldier and military tactician, and appointed her Warrior Princess to their armies."

And there ended that volume.

And there began another little puzzle.

Since she had seen Xena at work on her training regime, and practising her sword play with the men of the army of Lao, she was inclined to believe Solan's claim that she had fought at Troy. Her strength and speed were impressive. How could Borias have captured so fine and able a warrior?

Ambushed her while she was separated from her troops? Outnumbered her in battle? Was it the way of his people to treat so fine a warrior with such contempt as to make her slave? She tucked another long list of questions away in her mind when she went to bed that night.

**********

A couple of days later Gabrielle was sitting in the garden, as she had, at least for this once, passed on sitting in on Solan's philosophy lesson. She had been reading yet another scroll to assuage her growing curiosity, but this new one revealed no answers to the riddle of Xena, only more questions.

Gabrielle wondered if Solan had ever read this account, or if he had been told the true circumstances of his father's death yet - he had actually been executed by Ming Tzu. Still, she knew it wasn't her place to tell the boy, or to query the wisdom of his parents in choosing when to tell him.

Parents.

Yes, Gabrielle thought of Lao Ma and Xena as his parents, for the boy had clearly been brought up surrounded by their love - for each other and for him. And for all it caused her heartache, she and the whole household knew and accepted the nature of the relationship between the Ruler of Lao and her Warrior Princess.

"You seem troubled Gabrielle," her mistress' soft voice broke in on her meditations. "Did you read something that upset you?"

"Oh, my lady," she murmured, "no, I'm just a little confused and puzzled."

Lao Ma gently retrieved the scroll from the tutor's hand and examined it.

"Ah, I see - this old tale. We are safe from the Tartars, Gabrielle, you need never fear being taken slave again, you are safe in my home, in my kingdom."

"Oh, I'm not afraid of Tartars, my lady. I know Xena and your army took care of them. I'm wondering how a former slave could command an army to defeat Ming and the Tartars. I couldn't."

"Have you not asked Xena about this already? She mentioned something to me about your incessant questioning," Lao Ma smiled.

"Incessant? I asked her two, maybe three questions, tops! After the reaction I got, I wouldn't dare ask any more!"

Lao Ma's smile faded. Xena's moods were as changeable as spring weather and if old wounds were probed, a storm could erupt. The Chinese woman had weathered many of them.

"You were a slave far longer than Xena was, but there is much that is painful in her past which she finds difficult to talk about. She has, for the most part, led the life of a warrior - I think Solan already told you that she fought at Troy?"

Gabrielle nodded.

What Lao Ma told her after that answered some of her questions, but clearly, Xena's lover was reluctant to reveal more about her than she felt the reticent warrior would allow.

Borias was not alone in his betrayal of Xena - an earlier betrayal by a Roman soldier ended with the Greek nailed to a cross with shattered legs and left to die. Her rescue seemed lucky, but close pursuit made sure that Xena's legs healed badly, leaving her crippled, almost constantly in pain and vulnerable. She fled eastward to escape the Romans, and ended up a captive of Borias' tribe.

At last it was clear to her how the Warrior Princess could have been captured and enslaved, and as a former slave herself, Gabrielle needed no further explanation of Solan's origin. Willing or not, Xena would have been used just as the young tutor had been.

That Lao Ma had been instantly attracted to Xena when she met her, crippled as she had been back then, at negotiations with Borias didn't surprise Gabrielle in the least. What did surprise her was that Xena and Borias appeared to be working together. In the end, a difference of opinion in how to handle the kingdoms of Chin led to Xena being handed over to Ming Tzu in chains.

There was more to this tale and to Xena's rescue than Lao Ma told her - that much was obvious from her mistress' expression, the light in her eyes, and the tone of her voice.

"And when I learned of her prowess, she became my Warrior Princess."

This was far too telegraphic for Gabrielle. Her curiosity had been her downfall in the past, so she had learned to keep it under control and still did with Xena, but Lao Ma didn't frighten her.

"Were her legs still... damaged, my lady? How could she have fought Borias' army?"

"Oh, they were healed long before those battles began, Gabrielle. Now, I think it is time for Solan's next lesson."

The tutor bowed her head obediently. She knew a polite dismissal when she heard it. Xena wasn't the only tight-lipped one in the kingdom of Lao it seemed.

That afternoon, she sneaked into the armoury and watched, enthralled as Xena continued to teach her son the skills of a Greek warrior. The warrior's practices with her Chinese soldiers had been fascinating, and very different to this one. It wasn't merely the differences in sword play or the energy of the moves that held the tutor's attention now, but the Warrior Princess' change of wardrobe.

The short-skirted battle dress was made of dark brown leather and seemed to have been grown over Xena's own skin rather than fashioned to fit the magnificent body it both covered and revealed. The leather gauntlets and arm bands were decorated with swirling bronze designs that echoed those on her amour.

The high boots she wore seemed to draw attention, as well as giving protection, to her long legs. Her hair, normally under such tight control, swung unbound and floated freely about her shoulders as she moved.

For an hour or more, she showed Solan how to thrust and parry, how to block strokes to defend himself, and the importance of knowing exactly where his feet were to balance and survival. And for all of that hour and more, the tutor took in nothing about swordplay, but everything about the Warrior Princess' body.

When Solan was dismissed, Gabrielle tried to slip away, only to discover that Xena's concentration on and absorption in the lesson had not been as complete as she had thought.

"Never seen Greek warriors in battle before?"

The voice was a little breathy from her exertions, and it sent a shiver up Gabrielle's spine. She turned back to answer her mistress' question, and had to take a steadying breath for herself. Xena had discarded her armour and sword, and was walking towards her. Her long thighs parted the straps of the skirt, and Gabrielle's gaze was drawn to them, as one of the magic needles the Chinese used in their navigation aids would have been drawn to the steel of Xena's sword.

"Actually... yes... from too close up for my liking... right in my back yard in Poteideia...."

Xena stopped a yard away from the tutor, whose voice trailed away as Xena bent to pick up a cloth from the floor.

"Of course, how stupid of me. The slavers."

Gabrielle nodded, her eyes now moving with Xena's hands as the warrior wiped the sweat off her face, then dabbed at her chest. There the tutor's gaze rested when the cloth left it to scrub damp hands, studying the small scar and the mole on the older woman's right breast.

"But they were nowhere near as good as you!" she blurted out, blinking hard to break what was turning into a stare. She looked up into Xena's amused eyes.

"Ya liked that, huh?"

"Yeah," breathed Gabrielle, as one large, warrior hand was lifted and extended to reach round to the back of her neck.

"You letting it grow?" asked Xena, in a rather wistful tone, as she fingered a stray lock of red-gold hair on Gabrielle's nape.

She shrugged.

"I suppose I should, it's not really right for a woman to have hair this short all the time," she answered. "I don't really mind it being short though it was a bit of a shock at first when I woke up after but my hair had been in such a mess there was really no other way to deal with it and after a little while I realised I... I ...I kinda liked it... that way... anyway... d-d-do .... you ....like... i.."

Xena had begun to grin - just a little at first, a quirky, lopsided grin that made Gabrielle babble to hide the confusion it induced in her. As the tutor's words sputtered to silence, the unfinished question made the grin develop into a dazzling smile.

This brought such a heat to Gabrielle's face that she gulped in astonishment.

Xena bit her lips to stifle the laughter that welled up inside her, but something in the servant's eyes stopped it completely.

"Yeah, I like it. Actually." Her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears. Xena's hand dropped to her side, and she stepped back, feeling as as if she needed to move away from the heat of a fire. "I... ah... I'm pretty good at cutting short hair - a skill you develop when you travel with an army of men."

She continued to step backwards, prompting Gabrielle to answer. She didn't want the warrior to run off on her again, though this was definitely different from the other times she had done so.

"Is there no end to your skills? You seem to have so many!" she said in wonder.

Xena balled the cloth between her hands and tossed it onto a bench, still in retreat.

"Well, if you want to avail of that particular one, let me know. Bath time's good. Easier to cut short hair when it's wet. No reason you can't keep it short if you like it that way. You aren't in Greece any more Gabrielle."

"Uuuuhh"
Gabrielle's brain turned to porridge. She still hadn't gotten used to the notion that the servants used the same bathhouse as their mistresses, albeit at a specified time of the day and week. The communal part was second nature after her life in harems.

"See ya, little bard."

After Xena's quick exit, Gabrielle scanned the armoury for other onlookers before snatching up the cloth from the bench. She tucked it inside her tunic as she hurried away.

**********

Afternoon of the following day found teacher and student engrossed in some history scrolls - Solan loved the ones which dealt with political intrigues. Gabrielle was barely a scroll ahead of him, and she was finding the cunning and duplicity of her native politicians and rulers breathtaking. She had said as much to Lao Ma, who was now sitting with them in the garden, earlier that morning.

"Who in Tartarus ordered this trash for the library?!!! Have you taken leave of your senses???!?!!!!"

Gabrielle's blood ran cold as Xena, dressed for Solan's sword play lesson, stormed into the garden. Veins stood out in her neck and forehead, and her face was flushed with fury. Too terrified to answer, the tutor looked to Lao Ma for help. Her mistress blinked, as if in disbelief at her lover's behaviour.

"If you tell me what the text is, perhaps I can help. It would also help us think if you stopped shouting," the Oriental's voice was low and calm.

"I thought I told you I never wanted to see a word of this poisonous, puffed-up toad's self-promoting yak dribble in this house!!!!!!"

The scroll landed at Lao Ma's feet with a clatter and a sound of tearing parchment. Gabrielle winced - she didn't care if it was harpy dribble, she hated to see good parchment abused.

"My love, you will burst a blood vessel if you don't calm down," said Lao Ma, a slight edge in her voice now. It had an effect - Xena snapped her mouth shut on her latest tirade, and stood clenching her jaw as her lover quietly retrieved the scroll.

Solan gripped Gabrielle's arm tightly, and the tutor patted his hand to reassure him, wishing there was someone who could do the same for her. She glanced over Lao Ma's shoulder.

"Oh. It's 'De Bello Gallico'," she read out, as the Oriental struggled to decipher the Roman alphabet. "It's Julius Caesar's best-known work.... "

The look of shock on Lao Ma's face spoke volumes more to Gabrielle than the famous military tome ever could.

A Roman soldier.

"Solan, go inside. Now."

Xena's voice seethed with barely suppressed fury, and her son complied with relief and alacrity.

Julius Caesar was the Roman soldier who had crucified Xena.

Gabrielle knew this as surely as she knew she would be sent to the slave market in the morning. Her eyes brimming with tears, she somehow found the strength to speak.

"I ordered it, your highness. You said Solan should learn from the finest military minds. I thought...."

"I DO THE THINKING ROUND HE....."

"Enough!" Lao Ma barely raised her voice as she stood up and stretched her arm in front of her, hand held palm out and facing Xena. The warrior seemed frozen, incapable of speech, every muscle in her body straining in vain to move her. When she began to turn an even deeper shade of red, clearly having difficulty now in breathing, Lao Ma turned to Gabrielle.
"Leave us Gabrielle. I will send her to you later after I have calmed her down and she will apologise to you for this dreadful outburst."

White faced, her eyes as round as full moons, the young woman nodded and left. She risked a glance over her shoulder before she ducked indoors. She saw Xena slump, coughing and spluttering, into her lover's arms.

********************

The movement of another body settling into the bed woke her, so that when a hand sneaked over and reached to fondle her breast, she was ready for it. She gently slapped it away.

"Have you apologised?"

She felt warm breath on the nape of her neck, and Xena's nose brushed against the skin while her fingers started to work loose the fastening on the long braid of her hair. At this Lao Ma came fully awake, and twisting away from Xena, she sat up and turned to face her.

"No, no, no, Xena, you will not get out of this by using your considerable physical charms."

"I apologised, just as you asked. Check with her if you like! I don't see why I needed to - she's just a servant, for Zeus' sake!"

One second Xena was caressing a breast, the next she was stroking empty air.

"JUST a servant? Listen to yourself! What were you to Borias? What were you to Caesar? And how did they use you? Would you sink to their level?"

Lao Ma was securing her robes about her, her eyes flashing her displeasure in the subdued light of the room as she stood at the side of their bed. Xena lowered her eyes.

"You were no more and no less than Gabrielle was when you came here. Did *I* treat you as they did?"

The mumble was inaudible.

"What was that Xena? Speak up! Remember it was I who made a Warrior Princess of a servant. With an open mind and heart, *anything* is possible."

The room was so quiet, the sound of hearts beating was almost like thunder.

"Well??"

"No, you didn't treat me as they did."

"Then let me know when you figure out why you had to apologise to Gabrielle. I have no wish to sleep with a tyrant ever again."

Xena groaned and flung herself flat on the bed as Lao Ma swept out in a billow of amber silk. Her heart felt as if it was being torn in two, her body as if it would explode. With another deep groan, she threw an arm across her eyes.

"Hades!"

It was a useless gesture, nothing could excise the vision of the bard from her mind, just as she had been unable to stop herself devouring the younger woman's marble-skinned beauty in the bathhouse. And it was all Lao Ma's fault for suggesting that performing the service of cutting the girl's hair was an ideal opportunity for Xena to explain and apologise for her rage.

Gabrielle knew Xena would join her, and that she had calmed down and would explain things to her. Lao Ma had prepared her for that.

It must have been the sight of the scissors in her hand that made the tutor flinch, Xena had reasoned later, but there was no reason she could divine for the knife this reaction drove through her hardened warrior's heart.

"I'm sorry for this afternoon Gabrielle. Please, come out of the water and I'll explain myself while I cut your hair."

Xena laid the scissors down to pick up a towel which she held out for the tutor as she stepped out of the bath. Xena put on her most impassive expression out of sheer necessity.

The lash marks on the milky skin of the younger woman's back made the warrior's gorge rise. She fought down the urge to tear something apart - preferably the son-of-a-Bacchae who had inflicted the scars on this sweet kid. As soon as she got that feeling under control, a new wave of emotion nearly swept her away.

Lust.

It had to be lust, pure and simple. She was in love with Lao Ma, the woman who had saved her from the miserable, stinking life she had been living with Borias, from certain death at Ming Tzu's hands. How could this young Greek girl take over her heart so soon when all she had done was teach Solan?

Gabrielle wrapped the large cloth around her a couple of times and sat down, waiting. She kept her back to Xena, for somehow, from somewhere deep inside herself, she knew that this might be the only way to get the older woman to speak.

It was the silence that finally brought Xena back to reality, and picking up the comb and scissors, she began to tell her story and to trim the tutor's hair.

"I came back from Troy to defend my hometown, and after I had defeated the warlord who had threatened us, I found there were more towns and people who needed my help. I was hired to defend a Greek colony in Italy, and that's when I met Caesar. I took him captive.

"For weeks I sailed from cove to cove with him while I negotiated with Rome for his ransom. That was my undoing. I should have slit his throat the way I had his soldiers', but no, I kept him, I was fascinated by the aura of power, his intelligence, his belief in his destiny.
"He was like no man I had ever met before, and I began to believe I had met a worthy match. That we might rule the world fairly together. For the first, and last time in my life I fell in love with a man. When he was ransomed, he promised he would come find me.

"He kept his promise, but not the way I had foolishly dreamed he would. He tracked me down in the end, near Alexandria, and I let him board my ship. It was an ambush. The next morning he crucified me, along with all my men, whose legs had been broken, on the beach."

Gabrielle was as still as a stone when Xena's voice faltered. The comb and scissors moved slowly, rhythmically, and small spikes of golden hair fluttered onto the white towel.

"How did you escape?" The sound of her own voice nearly made her jump. She wasn't sure how she had found the wherewithal to speak.

"I didn't. I was rescued. I hung there for two days, listening to my men die one by one, before he ordered his men to break my legs."

"Why do they do that?"

"You die faster when you can't support your weight with your legs. He wanted me to know that I was alone and powerless when I died."

Comb and scissors stilled. Gabrielle thought she was going to have to prompt her again, but as the snip, snip started up, so Xena resumed her story.

"I was hanging there, praying to everyone on Olympus, to any god or goddess that I might not have heard of, to make the end come quickly, when M'Lila appeared out of nowhere."

"M'Lila?"

"A young slave girl I rescued from Caesar's troops. She was born in the land of the Pharaohs, but had been sold as a slave. She taught me things about making the body powerless, ways to fight, that I had never imagined. And she loved me, gods know why.

"She took me to a healer who reset my legs, but while we were there, the Romans tracked us down. They killed the healer, then M'Lila, and I lost my head. Much as you saw me lose it today. After killing them all, I escaped and ran for my life, wretched as it was. Just when I thought I couldn't carry on any longer, I was taken in by a wandering tribe of Israelites.

"When they got close to Roman territory again, I left them and made my way east on my twisted legs to get as far away from that murdering bastard Caesar as I could."

A few more snips and Xena put the scissors and comb down, and stood up.

"There ya go. Done. And you know why I... exploded."

Gabrielle stood up to shake the clippings off the towel and looked up at Xena.

"I can see why you feel like that about him. He sounds... so cruel. Even the way he talks about the Gauls in that book. If he's as ruthless as that, then don't you think Solan should know? How would he know not to trust Caesar if he never learns about him?"

Out of the mouths of babes, thought Xena, as she idly wondered if Lao Ma had known what the tutor thought when she set up this appointment for them. The expression on the girl's face was hopeful, fearful, full of sympathy and determination. Xena was starting to feel as if a large abscess had burst inside her and all its foul poison was finally draining away.

"Know your enemy. Yeah, you're right. I'm letting my hatred blind me and it just might put us all in danger some day. I'm so sorry, Gabrielle."

"It's okay. I understand now," whispered Gabrielle huskily.

Xena screwed her eyes shut to squeeze the tears back, and bit her lip hard. She came close to drawing blood. Taking a deep breath, she opened them again.
"No it's not okay, you didn't know, you didn't deserve to be treated like that. That bastard shouldn't make me hurt you, even if he can still crucify me. Please, forgive me?"

Gabrielle wasn't sure what there was to forgive, but the anguished pleading in Xena's voice demanded a response. She reached up and kissed Xena quickly and softly on the lips.

"Yes, I do. And have you ever wondered where you'd be if that hadn't happened? Would you rather be in Rome with that puffed up toad? Or here with Lao Ma?"

Afraid of what she might do next after that kiss, Gabrielle snatched up her clothes and hurried away.

Xena stood staring after her, her parted lips on fire, her heart pounding. She felt dizzy, light-headed, as the poison in the festering sore that had been Caesar drained away. He had become nothing more to her than a nasty experience that had changed the direction of her life - pointed her in the direction of Chin and the great love of her life.

Such wisdom from one so young. And that fleeting kiss. As light as a butterfly's wing, but it wounded Xena to the quick. Now lying on the bed they had shared for so long, her heart and mind were full, not of Lao Ma, but of the golden girl who had come from the west to teach her son.

At last, exasperated by her sleepless state, Xena rose and went to her study.

************

Gabrielle sat on the verandah in the cool of early morning, now a favourite part of the day for her as she could steal some time to herself before the bustle of the day began. She slipped a hand inside her tunic and removed a cloth. The one Xena had dropped in the armoury. She placed it on her lap and gently smoothed it.

"Where are you Xena?" she whispered to herself. "Athena, wherever she is, please watch over her and keep her safe."
It had been four days since Xena had left. Lao Ma had been tight-lipped at first, but Gabrielle learned that it was nothing new for the Warrior Princess to take off without telling anyone.

"She has done this before. If I were troubled, I would take a spiritual retreat at a monastery, but Xena takes her horse, her weapons and heads off into the mountains."

"My lady, I wouldn't have ordered that scroll if I'd known..."

"Hush," Lao Ma held a hand up to silence the tutor. "If she will not tell anyone, or confront the pain of it, this will continue to happen to her. She would not listen to me, perhaps you got through to her."

Gabrielle had hoped so, but four days later, she wasn't so sure. Her mistress had decided after their evening meal that if Xena had not returned by morning she herself would set out to search for her.

The tutor held the cloth to her lips and kissed it - it still held Xena's scent - on the morning of the fifth day.

"Please Xena, come home to us. I never wanted to scare you away."

The jingle of horse-harness made her heart leap, but it was just the chief groom leading Lao Ma's horse to the door. Moments later, the ruler of the kingdom of Lao strode purposefully into the yard. She was dressed in travelling gear, and while she seemed a little smaller than when she was dressed in her court finery, there was still an aura of assurance about her that would set her apart from any ordinary travellers.

Gabrielle was too far away to hear any details of the discussion between servant and mistress, but she was sure the loyal groom was trying to persuade Lao Ma to take an escort. Thus the tutor was the first to hear the sound of nearing hoof beats, the first to see Xena ride into the courtyard on her big golden mare, Argo.

Lao Ma turned and moved quickly to hold Argo's head while Xena dismounted, yards away from where Gabrielle was standing in the shadows.
"Well?" the oriental asked imperiously, as if she were resuming a conversation broken off mere minutes ago. Xena stood regarding her contritely.

"I figured it out."

"It took you long enough," Lao Ma's tone was even, but it was clear she was not in a mood to be conciliatory.

"Yeah," agreed Xena, "it was tough one. You were right."

Xena leaned in to kiss Lao Ma, but she would have none of it.

"Let's go somewhere quiet so you can tell me what you figured out and see if you got the right answer, then."

With a rueful grimace, Xena nodded and followed Lao Ma inside.

*************

Gabrielle headed for the bathhouse with relief.

While the household had relaxed after Xena's return, and Solan was thrilled to have his mother back, the young Greek was ill at ease. To all appearances, things were back to normal. Xena and Lao Ma shared their bed as before, went about the house and their duties much as before and were affectionate to each other.

And that was where Gabrielle's unease began.

Herself a devoted lover of women, she was sensitive to, and could easily recognise small shifts in the feelings of couples. She began to notice an air of carefully constructed calm replacing Lao Ma's naturally serene demeanour. Xena seemed to have an added layer of self-containment.

Worse, their displays of affection now lacked the spontaneity, joy and playfulness which had both enchanted and grieved her when she had first observed them after Xena's arrival from the campaign. Much as she desired Xena for herself, she could take no pleasure in the growing air of melancholy that seemed to envelop Lao Ma as the days went by.

As for Xena... well, Xena was just Xena, only more so. More mysterious, and far more inscrutable than her lover's people were said to be.

The tension of watching them and waiting for a silly misunderstanding to bring the house of cards down had her feeling strung out. She was in a brown study, pondering all this when she wandered onto the steamy bathroom, absently dropped her robe on a bench and climbed into the tub.

"Just the way I like it," she sighed as she settled herself comfortably in the water.

"Yeah, me too. Wash your back for ya?"

Gabrielle shot to her feet and turned her back to Xena to hide her confusion.

"Th-thanks."

The word came out as a squeak. Xena must have watched her every move since she'd come in. Thank the gods the water was so hot that her blush would have passed unremarked.

"My pleasure. Thanks for your wise words about Caesar. They helped me a lot."

Gabrielle was at a loss for words. Wise? Me? she thought.

"So..." continued Xena. "I don't want to blunder about saying things to hurt you, so can I ask about kids? I mean, you've obviously had at least one... if it's not too difficult for you..."

Gabrielle shook her head, as Xena began to sponge her back.

"I can talk about it now. I can't have any more now anyway, so it's way in the past."
"Things from the past can still hurt," observed Xena quietly.

"True. But you learn to go on."

"Can you?" prompted Xena after a minute or so had passed in silence.

"Yeah, sure. I got a horrible infection when I was working in this brothel in Baghdad. I would've died, but for one of the women there. That was - let me see - about four years ago, and in spite of all the men who've used me since then, no more babies."

"Oh gods..." groaned Xena, as the sponge fell from her hands.

"Oh, it's okay," said Gabrielle cheerfully, and she turned to look at Xena. "I'm kinda glad about it now."

"Don'tcha want to have a family some day?" Xena looked as stricken as she sounded.

"And have my kids grow up as slaves? No thanks. The slavery thing kinda helped me get over it, now that I think about it," she said sounding decidedly chirpy.

"But you aren't a slave now!" protested Xena, who seemed outraged on her behalf.

"Hah! I guess if I could have counted on being free some day, maybe it would still matter, but you know, I kind of feel that teaching Solan is as much challenge from a kid as I can handle," she replied with a twinkle in her eye, and an impish grin.

Xena chuckled.

"I know what you mean! But he's my kid. Hows about yours?"

"Ah. Right, mine. If my first two pregnancies didn't kill me, nothing will. I lost both babies around five months. That was at the first place I was sold to. They got rid of me after that, and I was a bit of a wholesale hot potato for a year."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Got sold from dealer to dealer. They couldn't seem to shift me. Eventually I ended up in Rome, a temple slave to this weird cult. They thought I was part of a prophecy come true - my colouring and my hair, you know - but they were so disappointed when I produced a boy that they killed him and sold me. I mean, go figure - it's usually girls they don't want. "

"Zeus!"

"Oh he was better off Xena, I don't think he would've lived long anyway - he was blue at birth, and he wasn't interested in suckling. Neither was I come to think of it. I was only sixteen. The trader who bought me from them was Persian - I guess none of the local guys would touch me because they knew my history.

"So that's how I ended up in Baghdad, where my daughter was born. I called her Hope, because I thought that even if I could never be free, she might get to be free someday. But they only wanted boy children from the slaves to turn into eunuchs, so they killed her. And then they sold me to that brothel."

"Hades! You should have been at home, betrothed to some decent guy who'd've looked after you!"

It was Gabrielle's turn to laugh.

"Some guy? Ooh nooo... I don't think so!"

"Why not? If you hadn't been taken by slavers?"

"*You* ask me that? What happens with men happens - it's the way of the world. I've been bought, sold and owned by men and had to put up with what they did to me. But I'd be the same at home as I found myself to be in the harems. Men may have used me, but when I wanted the touch of real love, I looked to the women there."

Xena's bright blue eyes widened, and her heart began to pound.

"And sometimes, even the mistress of the house, or the great ladies who would visit her, would ask me to dance for them, and pleasure them, often more than one at a time," said Gabrielle softly. "They were always fascinated by my pale skin and the colour of my hair."

A shudder racked Xena's body, and she gulped hard.

"It was much... much ... longer back then of course," the tutor added. "But you like it like this. Don't you?"

Xena nodded mutely as Gabrielle waded closer to her.

"Want to touch it?"

Blink. Gulp.

Their breasts were now touching under water. The Warrior Princess was well and truly mesmerised, and the younger Greek made her move. Grabbing a handful of Xena's dark mane in one hand, she pulled the older woman's head back and began to kiss her throat. She placed the other hand on the small of her back and pressed their bodies closer together.

When Gabrielle's hand slid farther down to caress a muscular buttock, Xena went from lying like a limp doll in her arms into full action mode in a heartbeat.

She wrested her head from Gabrielle's light restraint, and swooped on her mouth as if she were starving for kisses. Cupping her hands beneath the smaller woman's tight little backside, she lifted her off her feet to bring their heads level.

With a whimper of relief and joy, Gabrielle gripped the broad shoulders, wrapped her legs around the warrior's waist, and ground her throbbing sex into the taut belly.

This provoked an instant reaction.

Gabrielle was released and pushed away.

"No, no, no, no, no NO!!! I can't I can't I can't!!!!"

Xena was clambering out of the tub.

"Your highness, I'm your servant, and I wish to serve you, so why not?" pleaded Gabrielle to the naked back as she righted herself in the water.

"WHAT? You want me to use you the same way one of those bastards who owned you did?"

Xena whirled round as she tied her red robe closed over her dripping body.

"Believe me, highness, you look like no man I've ever seen, or I wouldn't have offered myself to you. Besides," continued Gabrielle as she noted the proud nipples thrusting through the dripping silk of the robe, "you want to take me. I can see that you do, so why stop if you want to and I'm willing. I live to serve you, my Princess."

Xena's face flushed with anger - this was Lao Ma's endearment for her, no-one else's.

"Why?? Because I am in love with Lao Ma, that's why! In every way possible, save one, she is as much a wife to me as she once was to her husband. I cannot, will not hurt her for... for someone who has just come into my life. I will not hurt my wife for you! Do you hear?!"

"I know I can't take my lady's place, but if she is away, or has her courses, or she is ill, or your needs do not match hers, I can serve you in that way. That's wha...."

Xena's fists balled at her sides and she shut her eyes tightly. It was the muscle twitching in her jaw as she clenched it shut to stop herself screaming that gave Gabrielle pause for thought.

"You are not some plaything to be used and tossed aside at anyone's whim. If you persist with this, you will be sold to someone who wants to use you as you desire. Do you understand me?" she ground out fiercely.
Tears sprang to the green eyes and ran down the tutor's cheeks.

"Your highness, I offered..."

"ENOUGH! Say that once more, just once, and I will take you to market myself, and I'll PAY someone to take you if I have to! Do you understand me NOW?!"

Gabrielle nodded, the thought of separation from Xena having robbed her of her breath.

*************

The next few weeks amounted to a separation.

At least they did to Gabrielle.

To Lao Ma it seemed as if Xena - the old Xena, who was an open book of conundrums to her - had returned. She had come back from the bathhouse one night still soaking wet and had made love to her with an ardour that took her back to their first days and nights together.

But conundrum became paradox as the initial joy and surprise was supplanted by Lao Ma's acute observation and sensitivity. There were rather more displays of affection in front of the household staff than seemed usual for them, and it made Lao Ma edgy until she pinned down the quality of them that had, at first, eluded her.

Performance.

It was as if Xena needed to prove something to someone. Lao Ma knew the answer to the "who" question, but she didn't want to face it just yet. She retreated to her studies and her meditations, until finally, from a secluded corner of the garden, she saw it in front of her eyes and could no longer deny it.

Xena thought she was unobserved, and for sure Gabrielle and Solan wouldn't have heard her catlike approach, or noticed her as she hid behind a clump of bamboo near where they were sitting. The warrior's attention was not on her son. It was all on the tutor.
"You have nothing to prove any more, my princess," Lao Ma whispered to herself, then slipped quietly, unnoticed, back to the house.

*************

Gabrielle wasn't sure how you could live in the same house - a very large house, granted - and manage not to meet someone from one end of a month to the other, just catch fleeting glimpses of her.

At first she had thought it just as well - she was overcome with embarrassment whenever she thought of how she had thrown herself at Xena, and then thrown herself at her again and again, totally ignoring the warrior's glaringly obvious rebuffs. She finally figured out that she was more embarrassed at having her services refused by a mistress, than she would have been if she'd had to talk to Xena the morning after.

Then as the second month wore on, she felt their avoidance of each other was becoming obvious and that Lao Ma would soon start asking awkward questions. The Oriental had at last begun to refuse Xena's puppyish public displays of affection with all the frazzled tolerance of a puppy owner. Fortunately, puppy owners are often distracted, and so it was with Lao Ma. She appeared to have distractions of her own to deal with.

The armoury and practice fields were now off-limits. Deemed too dangerous for non-military personnel by the Warrior Princess herself, there were guards to bar the way now. A regime of lessons, meals and study left Gabrielle a dull girl, and dull girls amuse themselves as best they can.

Given a free hand with orders for the library after the Caesarean misunderstanding had been resolved, Gabrielle discovered the pleasures of Chinese erotica, and gleefully set about increasing the House of Lao's quota of suitably stimulating material for her mistresses.

She knew that they both appreciated fine drawings and read avidly, so the tutor took delight in leaving some of the new-found treasures in the bundles of boring military texts for Xena, or among some of the drier philosophical ones for Lao Ma.

This was of course after she had studied them first to assess their quality. Then, when she had no luck finding new treasures at the scroll dealer's, she invented some of her own. Thinking up these stories drove her wild, and now she found that even the mention of a kiss between women, let alone a picture of one, set her off, and her head was full of Xena in her bathrobe.

"It was all for me - I *know* you wanted me, as much as I want to be yours." There had been something in Xena's eyes that night, and Gabrielle knew it wasn't lust alone that had made the warrior return her advances however briefly. Just recalling her intense blue eyes and how she had looked in her wet, red robe made the tutor wet too.

As the days wore on, her longing grew rather than faded, so she spent many a night either crying herself to sleep clutching the cloth from the armoury, or pleasuring herself whilst imagining Xena's caress on her body. By the end of the second month, she thought if she didn't explode soon, she would at least go mad.

*************

Solan seemed oblivious to the undercurrents that were buffeting his parents and his tutor. He did complain about Lao Ma calling off philosophy lessons, but Gabrielle managed to distract him and deflect any curiosity by substituting with some of the best comic plays she could find in the library.

She found that laughter was indeed a good medicine, if not the best for what ailed her. Of course, the sound of laughter always attracts attention.

"Solan seems very happy at his lessons these days Gabrielle. I must thank you, for I really can't seem to concentrate well enough to take him on right now."

Gabrielle looked up from the scroll she was studying, and saw how drawn Lao Ma had begun to look,
"My lady, are you ill?" she asked anxiously.

"No Gabrielle, just concerned," she smiled wanly. "Xena is... not herself somehow, and I can't see any reason why. And I notice that I haven't seen you two talking together in quite a while. Are you still afraid of her?"

"Talking with her... aaah... well, I... I'm afraid... if I ask the wrong question..." answered Gabrielle grateful for Lao Ma's assumption - a correct one as it happened - that she might still fear the Warrior Princess' temper.

"Hmmmm.... then perhaps I should tell you about Borias. Then there will be no reason for you to fear her and avoid her."

"Only if it won't make her angry with you my lady. I would hate to think satisfying my curiosity could ....."

"I think it will help you to understand her better," Lao Ma smiled tiredly. At Gabrielle's nod of acceptance, she began the tale.

"Xena fled towards the rising sun after she had escaped from Caesar, living off the land as best she could, and with a little help now and again from kindly farm folk in the land of Rus. Her legs mended in time as best as they could.

"Of course this left her with reduced mobility and agility, so she was often vulnerable, and so it was that she was captured by the Tartars. Borias won her in a game of chance from the Khan who had first captured her. Xena was just another of his slaves at first, and for her part she had no wish to draw attention to herself after the abuse she suffered from the first tribe, but was quietly biding her time for a chance to escape.

"Unfortunately her better nature overcame her. One of the concubines had a son who became very ill. Xena saved the child, and so Borias noticed her at last, for though he had long since lost interest in the mother, the boy was his son.

"Borias found out more about Xena than she had let any man since Caesar know, and he used her. As a slave, as his concubine, as a healer and then he picked her brain for the military knowledge she had. By the time his tribe reached Chin, Xena was carrying Borias' child, and he kept her under control by threatening to cut the child out of her belly if she didn't obey him.

"He devised a plan to set the houses of Lao and Ming against each other. He pretended to negotiate with both houses, which is when I met Xena. She risked her life by coming to my yurt to tell me not to trust Borias and what she knew of his plans so far.

"A few days later, I heard that Ming T'ien, the son of Ming Tzu, had been kidnapped. Borias had tried to make it look as if I had ordered the kidnap. What he didn't know was that Ming T'ien was born to me while I was Ming Tzu's courtesan, so, not only was Ming sceptical, but he and I united to get our son back."

Gabrielle's jaw sagged. "You were a courtesan? Your son... "

"Ming Tzu sold me to Lao Tzu. He kept our son, for his wife was childless. He is a very pragmatic man.

"Borias was surprised when I arrived with Ming Tzu, and our men found our son very quickly, thanks to Xena managing to tip me off to his whereabouts. He was so sure of his plan succeeding that he hadn't bothered to hide the boy well enough.

"I made the mistake of acknowledging Xena's help with a look at the wrong moment, and Borias saw this and turned on her. He accused her of cooking up the kidnap plot behind his back, and told Ming Tzu that he had only discovered that Ming T'ien was in his camp minutes before we arrived.

"Ming Tzu believed him - what man would take the word of a foreign whore over that of a man who was a ruler among his people?

"He called her a whore?!" Gabrielle was outraged.

"It is the way of most men here - women are merely objects to be used as they please and discarded when they don't. I was powerless to do anything for Xena at that moment, but I felt that our destinies were linked. Two days later, I met Ming Tzu near the border of Lao land. His punishment for Xena's 'crime' was to hunt her like an animal."

Gabrielle winced and groaned.

"I know," agreed Lao Ma, "I said as much - 'to hunt a half-starved, beaten, pregnant cripple doesn't sound very sporting.' But I offered him the use of my land for his hunt. I managed to rescue Xena and bring her here. Ming suspected me of hiding her and our uneasy truce fell apart.

"As soon as Borias realised this, he started to wage war alternately on our kingdoms. At first we held our own, but the Tartar tactics were very different to ours. As Xena grew larger I offered her a choice - either to go back to Borias, who would want the son she was carrying or..."

"Be your Warrior Princess!" crowed Gabrielle. "But how could you be so sure that she was going to have a son? Borias wouldn't have wanted a daughter."

Lao Ma smiled indulgently. "I have some skill in these matters - it was obvious to me she was carrying a male child. And no, I asked her if she wanted to stay and be my servant. That way I would know if she truly wanted her freedom. I didn't tell her that as part of her duties, I would expect her to help me with the military campaign. She accepted my offer.

"Then I discovered that I had acquired not just a spy who had seen interesting things, but also an able general. As large as she was, she trained my men in the tactics and tricks of the Tartars, and came up with some new tricks of her own with which to foil them. It was the least I could do for her to restore her mobility by healing her shattered legs properly."

"Yo-you healed them?" breathed Gabrielle in amazement.

"As I said, I have some skill in these matters," smiled Lao Ma. "When Ming saw how my army was turning the Tartar tide, he changed his mind about an alliance. When all was signed and sealed, I revealed my secret weapon - Xena. She told him the truth about Borias, and he finally believed us.

"Towards the end of our campaign, she gave birth to Solan, and two days later was back in the saddle, leading our armies to victory. She handed Borias over to Ming Tzu to deal with. You have read what happened to him."

Gabrielle nodded.

"It was my... No, they had really become *her* soldiers, and it was they who gave her the title of Warrior Princess." Lao Ma's voice became distant, and she started to shift as if she was going to get up and go.

"My lady, one thing puzzles me. May I ask you something?"

Lao Ma nodded, unsure of what this extraordinary young woman would come out with next.

"Men in the kingdoms of Chin seem to hold women in the same low esteem as men in every other kingdom I've had the misfortune to be enslaved in - and that includes Greece. How is it that you rule here in the Kingdom of Lao?"

Lao Ma chuckled with relief - she had been sure it would be about Xena. "You stopped reading after Xena became Warrior Princess then? I can't say I blame you - it's all very political and dull after that," she continued after Gabrielle had nodded in answer to the question. "Which is how you missed the account of the excitement and all the pomp and circumstance of my state wedding to Ming Tzu."

"Huh?!!!"

"You remember that Ming Tzu sold me to Lao?"

"Yes," said Gabrielle impatiently.

"Ming discovered that I preferred women one evening when Lao Tzu was visiting. When Lao saw how furious he was with me, he offered to buy me. Lao was the last of his line - he came to the throne very late in life, after a series of tragedies wiped out his family. He was a scholar and a lover of men. He was the finest companion I have been blessed to know.

"After the battle with Borias was over, Lao, who had been very ill, died quietly in his sleep. To cement the alliance between our kingdoms, Ming asked if I would marry him - then our son would be heir to both kingdoms. I agreed, on condition that the marriage was in name only, and that Xena and I would act as regents for the kingdom of Lao for our lifetimes."

Lao Ma smiled broadly at the mouth-open astonishment of the tutor, and rose at last.

"So, now you know it all, Gabrielle, and you will be better able to care for her."

And she did in fact leave at that point, leaving a baffled tutor wondering how caring for a woman who didn't want to know her any more was ever going to be part of her duties.

*************

The door was ajar and a lamp was lit.

"Xena?"

Lao Ma pushed the study door open as she ran a hand through her hair to fluff it out some more. She wasn't sure if her head ached from the tightly bound plait she had worn at dinner, or from the twists and turns her debate with Confucius had taken. All she wanted to do now was lay her head in Xena's lap for the warrior to massage the tension away.

The Greek had clearly escaped dinner to work - her desk was strewn with brushes, ink-bllocks, papers and scrolls, and the chair had been pushed back as if she intended to return at any minute. Lao Ma sat down in the chair with a heavy sigh to await her return, wishing she could have escaped with Xena.

Confucius was an old student of her first husband, and while he had been one of Lao Tzu's favourites, Lao Ma found him pretentious and boring. She had come to dread his annual visits.

Gabrielle and Solan had leavened the stodgy conversation over the meal, but they left when the boy's bedtime came round. Xena used her tried and trusted ploy, and had primed one of the servants to rescue her with an "urgent" message.

Lao Ma leaned her elbows on the desk and rubbed her temples with her fingertips to see if that would help. And so she spotted the note.

"For my wife" - it was addressed in Xena's hand.

The parchment leaf was folded in half and sealed with the bird's- head hair brooch. She steeled herself and opened it :

Dearest Queen of my heart,

I don't understand why you push me away. I gave you my heart completely a long time ago, believing that was all that anyone could give to another, and in return you gave me yours. Now you tell me you and your heart aren't enough for me, and I must find someone who has the other half of my soul. By the gods, how I regret ever telling you that old Olympian nonsense, for what I feel for Gabrielle can only be lust and homesickness, nothing more. I have fought to stamp it out, but you seem intent on pushing me into her arms. Please forgive me if my basest instincts have made me blame you for what I am about to do,

my heart is still yours,

X.

The imprint of Xena's lips was beside her initial.

Lao Ma pressed her own lips to this spot on the parchment, squeezing her eyes shut on the tears that had welled into them. After a few steadying breaths, she opened them, feeling calmer. As she did, she noticed that the black and gold lacquered scroll box that held Xena's private papers was unlocked and empty.

A pile of parchment sheets on the desk beside the box caught her eye. It was the hand of the author as much as the colour of the ink - a dark violet - that was familiar. She smiled as she picked up the top sheet, thinking she was going to read the twin of the sheets she had been finding among her own papers.

The tutor had taken to entertaining her mistress with her own tales when she failed to find suitable prints or texts at the market. Lao Ma now had a tidy bundle of chapters of a story called 'The Philosopher and the Warrior' in which the eponymous Chinese philosopher and Greek warrior were thinly disguised versions of herself and Xena. Gabrielle had quite a talent for writing erotica.

As she scanned the first page, her smile faded. This was a different story entirely. It was called 'The War Widow and the Amazon'. The Greek Amazon was clearly the Warrior in Lao Ma's story, and the War Widow, another Greek, was an unvarnished portrait of Gabrielle herself.

As she read on, Lao Ma saw that while the new story had its beautifully erotic moments, it had a dimension that 'The Philosopher and the Warrior' lacked. It was a passionate love story, and its author-heroine didn't think that the concept of soul mates was nonsense. She believed with the utmost sincerity that she had found hers in the Amazon.

When she had finished reading what there was of the story - there was no final chapter to be found - Lao Ma wondered where she might find her lover. Brushing her hair back from her face, she caught it behind her head and pinned it there with the bird's-head brooch. As she did this, she recalled the neatly folded pile of clothes on top of the chest at the foot of their bed. She rose from the desk and went to the bathhouse.

**************

Xena winced as she lowered herself into the bath. Gritting her teeth - it was her own fault for asking for the water to be piping hot - she sat down and relaxed into it. Anything was better than listening to that bore Confucius drone on, and watching Lao Ma waste her gifts on being polite to him. Solan had refused her offer to tuck him in, so she had to wait another fifteen minutes before plan B kicked in and the servant rescued her.

She had bruises and aches in places that hadn't been bruised or aching since she was a raw recruit, and all acquired in the week just past. Was it really only a week since she and Lao Ma last made love?

The oriental had finally called a halt to the frenzied sessions that Xena, in her confusion, had instigated after the incident in the bathhouse with Gabrielle.

"What are you trying to prove Xena? To whom? I know you love me. You know I love you, but sometimes that isn't enough. The connection isn't deep enough"

"What are you talking about? You saved my life, gave me my health back, gave me your heart. I've given you mine, what more can anyone do?" asked Xena, frustrated at her lover's rebuff.

"I know all that, but I'm not your soul mate, and you know it."

With a growl, Xena sprang out of bed and flung herself into a chair at the far side of the room, wrapping her robe about her. It was her turn to withdraw.

"That's a load of ...." Xena sputtered, searching for an epithet that would express her disgust.

"Harpy droppings? I don't think so, and neither did you when you told me," Lao Ma finished gently for her. She slipped out of bed and went to sit at the Greek's feet. Xena glowered at her, determined not to give in to her.

But Lao Ma's hands slid gently along her silk-covered thighs, slipping underneath the fabric to push it away, whereupon her lips followed the trail her hands had literally blazed.

"But that doesn't mean we don't love each other," she murmured quietly, as she levered herself upright to kiss Xena's lips gently. The warrior was exercising every ounce of discipline and self control to quell her reactions to these familiar, much-loved and desired touches.

And Lao Ma knew exactly how to breach those fiercely held defences - with the utmost tenderness.

The memory of that night haunted Xena. After the Greek's defences had crumbled and the citadel stormed, so to speak, there had been an argument. Lao Ma had told her she was moving out of their bed - until Xena figured out who her true soul mate was she had no wish to torture her further. She would not lay a finger on her, and Xena was to do likewise. The quarrel ended with Xena taking herself off to her study in a huff to set up her trusty campaign cot.

For the next week, she picked six of her biggest, toughest warriors, and worked herself to a standstill with them every day. She thought this would keep frustration at bay, but at night, alone in her cot, the dreams brought it vividly to life. At first they were of Lao Ma, then the woman's face and body grew indistinct, but their lovemaking was more passionate than ever.

During the day she found her mind filled with longing to know who this angel could be, and so the bruises, cuts and sprains grew plentiful as her attention wandered. In the last couple of nights the angel's face and body took a human form - Gabrielle's. Sick at heart, Xena knew Lao Ma was right, though there would always be part of her that belonged to the ruler of the kingdom of Lao.

Her mind sifted through this evening and dinner. She had been acutely aware of every small movement the tutor made. Xena had noticed that while not as talkative as she usually was when at dinner with her mistresses, the young woman had still contributed intelligently to the conversation. More than once she had managed to prick the balloon of Confucius' pomposity with a gentle joke - how Xena had swelled with pride at that!

As she felt the water grow chill, Xena knew the time had come to face facts. She clambered out of the tub, dried herself vigourously and applied some salve to the worst of her cuts and bruises. She slipped into her purple robe, and let her hair loose from its neat queue at last. Purposefully, she strode towards her study, composing the note she needed to write in her head as she went.

**************

After settling Solan for the night, Gabrielle went to take some air in the garden. When her heavy padded jacket could no longer ward off the late autumn chill of the air, she went to her room. She realised that she was too restless as yet to sleep, so she made for the library

"Oh... I'm sorry your highness, I didn't mean to ...."

"It's all right Gabrielle, it's a big room - it can handle more than one person wanting to read here."

"If you're sure. I thought you'd still be with your guest, your highness..."

"And cut this 'your highness' stuff - name's Xena and I was born not too far from Poteideia, in Amphipolis, daughter of a soldier and an innkeeper." Xena gestured to her to take a seat, and the tutor happily complied - a thaw was imminent it seemed.

"AAmphipolis! That's in Thrace isn't it?" asked Gabrielle excitedly.

"Yup. You've been there?"

"N-n-o, I... I... I liked studying maps," stammered Gabrielle, unnerved by the strange heat in Xena's eyes. She had changed from the heavy, formal clothes she had worn at dinner into the loose purple robe, and had let her hair free from its eye-watering queue to spill down her body, almost to her waist.

"Maps. Anything else?"

Gabrielle gulped abortively a couple of times - how could a single,
simple syllable like 'maps' be imbued with such erotic import she wondered vaguely, heat gathering in her cheeks.

"Oh... books. Plays....."

"Not many of those to be found in a hick town like Poteideia, I imagine?"

"No, but I did manage to get some poetry, once, from a pedlar woman."

An eyebrow rose.

"Sappho?"

"No, she was called Lina, she came by every spring... oh... you meant the poems. Yes. Sappho."

Gabrielle's mouth dried up.

Xena stood up, and clasping her hands, along with the scroll she'd been perusing, behind her back, began to pace restlessly up and down the room.

"Read. Read!" she waved a hand imperiously at the young tutor, and went on pacing. "It's what you came here for isn't it?"

Gabrielle nodded, turned to the table and picked up the first open scroll that came to hand. So much for a thaw. Xena was in an odd mood, and she herself was unnerved by it - almost as much as she was by the physical presence of the Warrior Princess. Her footfalls were soft and nearly as silent as a cat's, but the servant was made acutely aware of when she was near by the rustle of her silken garments. The clean spicy tang of the soap and herbs she used when bathing also alerted her to Xena's proximity, and desperate for distraction, Gabrielle began to read.

There's a moment when I look at you
And no speech is left in me
My tongue breaks
Then fire races under my skin
And I tremble and grow pale
For I am dying of such love
Or so it seems to me

Oh Zeus! she groaned inwardly,she's been reading Sappho. And that particular verse - how many women have I wooed with that, from here to Athens? All Gabrielle was aware of now, apart from her mistress, was the pounding of her own blood in her heart, her veins and in her groin.

"Good choice," came the husky voice above her ear.

Gabrielle jumped.

"Then you're probably familiar with... this..."

The scroll that was dropped onto the table took Gabrielle's breath away. She had never thought to see it again. She nodded slowly, and Xena let out an anguished groan as she walked away from the table.

"It *is* you, then."

"Yes," she whispered, as she picked it up to reacquaint herself with it, as if it were an old friend. Even after their years apart the colours glowed just as she remembered them.

The picture was in the Persian style, and she had watched the artist paint it - and all the others - in a harem in Baghdad, to while away the days and weeks until the Caliph decided to take one of his concubines or slaves. The picture was of two women making love, one golden haired and fair skinned, clearly a foreign slave, the other a dark-haired, sloe-eyed houri.

Gabrielle knew there were over a dozen more paintings of their very real lovemaking on this scroll, but this one had been her favourite. The houri's face was nestled in Gabrielle's golden curls, her hands clasping the milky white hips. Gabrielle's eyes were closed in ecstasy, one hand buried in the houri's hair, holding the dark head close to her cleft, the other cupping her own breast, finger and thumb teasing a proud, rosy nipple.

Memory washed over her, and she sobbed involuntarily. Not for this particular lost love, for she had become reconciled to loving and leaving the women she met in harems or who were fellow slaves long before she reached Persian shores. The Caliph of Baghdad's harem had been.... what... four? no, five, winters ago.

"I'm so sorry," croaked Xena, who was now kneeling beside her chair. "You must have loved her very much." Her piercing eyes locked with the slave's and they were full of concern.

"N-n-no, I mean yes, I did love her, but I got sold so often... I learned to take love where I found it... that's not what's upset me."

Xena nodded, understanding at last, and tore her gaze away from the slave's jade green eyes.

"I guess it must be difficult to see depictions of your most intimate moments in the hands of a stranger."

Gabrielle blinked hard. How to tell Xena that she felt nothing like a stranger to her? That more than ever, she wanted Xena to make love to her, even if all she could have of the warrior was that she use her as a master would a servant

"Oh gods, Gabrielle," groaned Xena burying her face in her hands.

"It's okay," she said softly. "I knew the scroll would be sold, and while I never expected to see it again, I'm kinda glad someone like you got it last - you know, you and Lao Ma - who'd really appreciate it."

Absently, she reached out to touch the bowed head, and started to stroke Xena's hair. The warrior reacted quickly, pulling away from the soothing hand, and slumped into another chair, putting the corner of the table between them.

"No, Gabrielle, you don't understand. I bought this scroll in Samarkand over two years ago. Lao Ma has never seen it. I bring it with me everywhere I go, it stays in a locked box when I'm home." Her eyes were feverish now, her body tensed like a tightly wound spring.

"Why? I imagine Lao Ma would enjoy it as much as you. It's very sexy. Fatima and I used to have fun with it, why not you two?"

She wanted to give Xena - and the kind and gracious Lao Ma for that matter - pleasure in whatever way she could.

"I was afraid."

"Of what for Zeus' sake? I've read those scrolls - you had to fight against the man who betrayed you while you were carrying his child. How on Gaia's good earth could showing your lover an erotic scroll frighten you so?"

For answer, the coil unwound and Xena sprang out of her chair, pulled Gabrielle out of hers and into her arms to kiss her hungrily.
When she finally let go, Gabrielle sank back into her chair, shaken by the passion she had felt in the kiss.

"I've been... obsessed with it. I was away on reconnaissance and a campaign - the longest one I'd made since Solan's birth. I missed Lao Ma so much I was... as horny as Tartarus is hot, and the moment I saw it I just *had* to have the scroll. It cost me a small fortune at an auction. At first it was just.... beautifully...."

"Entertaining?" supplied Gabrielle tentatively, knowing instinctively that words were not Xena's strong point.

"Yeah, entertaining's a good word. But then I found myself during the days wondering who the golden one was. Where was she from? How had she got to Persia? Then I started lying awake nights after I'd... entertained myself, making up stories about her. And me. Us."

Gabrielle choked back a giggle. A less likely candidate for writing erotic fiction than Lao Ma's fiercely practical Warrior Princess she could hardly imagine. Something had been driving this woman since she got that scroll, and it was remarkably similar to what had driven her since she had come into Lao Ma's household.
"I made you a Greek in my mind, and here you are. My son's Greek tutor. You weren't enslaved, I rescued you, and we travelled the world together. Friends at first, then as lovers. What stupid, silly adventures I dreamed up for us - you getting into hot water, me saving you. Sometimes it was even the other way round! It all seemed like a stupid fantasy - until I came home this time. You must think I'm crazy. I'm sorry if I scared you. "

Xena took Gabrielle's hands in her own, then bent and gently kissed each one in turn.

"Xena, I really don't know how to explain this, but I think I'm as crazy as you. From the moment I heard your name, I've been imagining that you would fall in love with me as soon as you met me and whisk me away home to Greece. Going home has been my big fantasy all along since I was taken. Funny thing, since you've arrived, I have absolutely no ambition to go home any more. I just wanna be with you forever. Wherever you are."

Gabrielle pulled Xena closer to her.

"I truly love Lao Ma, she saved my life, my soul. I feel at peace with her... but... Gabrielle, you are the missing part of me. I feel complete with you."

Tears spilled from Xena's closed eyes, and standing on tiptoe, Gabrielle reached up and softly kissed each eyelid.

"You know the story of how the gods made people?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. It's been quite a while since I heard it last. Four arms four legs, one soul. Chopped in half, two arms two legs, half a soul."

Gabrielle smiled a watery smile. It captured the very basics in fewer words than even the best bards could manage in a conciseness contest.

"Which is why we travel the world looking for the missing part of us - our soul mate," she finished the tale for the laconic warrior.
"We're... soul mates?"

Xena felt dizzy. First Lao Ma, wise beyond words, now this... this kid, wise beyond her years, both telling her they believed this soul mate stuff. Who was she, a dumb warrior to argue?

"Yes, soul mates," Gabrielle nodded, and somehow this seemed to release Xena from the trance she had been in for the last few minutes after telling Gabrielle about her obsession with the Persian scroll. She reached for her soul mate and began to unfasten the plain emerald green gown she was wearing.

Not wanting to let Xena have too much time to think about what she was doing, Gabrielle shrugged out of the garment as soon as the last fastening was loosened.

"By the gods, you are so beautiful!" rasped Xena, as she reached out to cup a milky breast in her hand. The other was busy with the fastening at the waist of the slave's loose trousers.

Gabrielle groaned at the long-awaited contact of the large, strong hand on her heated flesh, and felt the tide of arousal in her mound. Greedily, she reached for the belt which held Xena's robe closed, and with a practised tug loosened and dispensed with it in one fluid move. As her trousers slid to the floor, Xena stepped back from her and deftly shed her own robe.

"Sweet Aphrodite!" she exclaimed at the sight of the toned, scarred body, and noted in the back of her mind that the large nipples that had thrust so insistently and teasingly at her through the purple silk were quite dark. She moved to suck one, but Xena evaded her, and with a wide-reaching sweep of both arms, cleared the table of its books and scrolls.

"The floor's too draughty here," she grinned wickedly.

Gabrielle gasped - she *knew* Xena must have made love here with Lao Ma - at the wave of jealousy that washed over her. This was immediately replaced with an image of the beautiful Chinese woman naked in Xena's arms - much as she had been in Fatima's - and a new wave hit her. A warm and wet wave between her legs.

"As you say, your highness! Take me!"

Gabrielle threw herself into Xena's arms, and was swept off her feet onto the table. In a heartbeat Xena was straddling her, her breathing already ragged, her eyes dark with desire. She froze momentarily, and Gabrielle knew someone had to ask the question.

"Are you really sure about this?"

Two unspoken words hung in the air between them - Lao Ma.

Xena closed her eyes briefly. She realised now what Lao Ma had been doing - giving them her blessing.

"Yes. Absolutely."

From then there were no holding back.

Mouths hungrily sought each other, then nipples and breasts, while hands caressed bare skin, feeling the heat build, avoiding where they really wanted to be. Both practised in the arts of love, it wasn't clear at first who would end up on top, and in the end there was no victor, as they lay gasping, side by side, spent, legs and hands tangled, drenched with their juices.

"This table is... not..."

"A comfy bed?" finished Xena, as she started to disentangle herself from the tutor.

"Yeah. Something like that."

"I know, but it does when you're in a hurry!"

The thought seemed to occur to them simultaneously - Lao Ma. The disentanglement suddenly got easier, and Gabrielle flipped off the table and started to get into her green dress. Xena brushed past her as she bent to retrieve her robe, and Gabrielle's hands went nerveless.

Xena stood up, her body a mass of goose flesh, shivering, and clutched the robe to her chest. Gabrielle gathered the shaking warrior to her, and held her tightly.

This was how Lao Ma found them.

Her eyes filled with tears, and she stepped on a scroll as she turned to leave them to the throes of their passion. Deep down, she had always known Xena would only be with her for a while. The last twelve years had been like a dream to her, and not a day passed when she woke up and found Xena lying beside her that she didn't pinch herself to prove it wasn't a dream.

Mechanically, she bent down to pick up the scroll, and the lovers realised they weren't alone.

"Lao Ma..."

"My lady..."

The scroll transfixed her as it unrolled from its place and tumbled to the floor, revealing more of the erotic images within. The pale lover was clearly Gabrielle, the dark one wasn't Xena, but something about the scroll screamed that she should have been.

"My queen, this is what you meant, wasn't it...."

Closing her eyes, Lao Ma focused on the scroll with all of her finer, inner perceptions. Xena's desire and longing flooded from it into her heart. This scroll was much loved and had been perused many, many times. Not solely for its erotic power - Lao Ma had felt desire awaken in her own body as she saw the full panoply of images within it - but for the hope it held for its owner of finding the beloved. That one special person in all the world with whom one can be truly oneself.

"Yes, my princess, the quest for one's soul mate may be the most difficult and lonely thing one can do in one's life. I have been but a loving companion to you on this journey, I see that more clearly now than I have ever done before," Lao Ma answered sadly.

Xena and Gabrielle stared at her open-mouthed.

"You *are* each other's soul mate, each other's destiny," she said.

Gabrielle found her voice first. "You can see that? I've just had this weird feeling since you brought me here that this was where I was meant to be. And as soon as you started to talk about her I knew somehow it was because of Xena."

"Yes, I see it - I can feel it, too - in the scroll. You have had this for a long time, I think, my love," she replied.

"I was so confused by it. How could I be in love with a woman made of paint, when I had you - you were queen of my heart, I loved you. I love you still, somehow," cried Xena, torn with anguish.

"I know, my princess, but you and I were never meant to last this long. Something much more powerful than any of us tells me so." Lao Ma walked towards them, arms outstretched, and took them both into her embrace. Xena, naked and shaking as she had been on the day she had first come to this house, and Gabrielle, wary and afraid, like the slave she should never have been.

Lao Ma bent and kissed the tutor's forehead.

"You should never have been a slave. Your true destiny is as warrior-bard and companion to Xena."

She turned and kissed Xena on the lips.

"You, my avenging angel, should not be here. There are many innocents in the world who need you as a champion. I can well defend myself, as you know."

The warmth of the embrace grew, and soon turned to a searing heat. Gabrielle raised her arms to shield her face, and lost sight of Xena and Lao Ma. For a heartbeat, she felt as if she and all the world had winked out of existence, and then she came to.
She was in a misty forest, dressed in familiar clothes. She turned her head to locate the direction the horse and rider were coming from and almost as soon as she did, Argo loomed out of the mist with Xena, in her familiar leather battle dress, in the saddle.

"Hey."

Gabrielle paused a moment, trying to shake her double feeling of disorientation, before answering.

"Hi."

She watched Xena look around the forest, as if she were doing the same thing. Does she remember?

"You brought the world back to us."

"I like this one better," she blurted back immediately.

"Even though you're not a famous playwright?"

Relief flooded Gabrielle, life with Lao Ma would be far harder to leave behind than life with Caesar.

"Fame! Who needs it?" she said, as she reached for Xena's outstretched hand.