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athenodora-sulpicia-writer · 2 years ago

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Artemisia x FemReader

A Princess and a Commander

A/N: I haven’t written for Artemisia in a while and I missed writing for her, so when I saw a story that gave me the perfect inspiration I knew I had to give it a go.

Warnings: None

Persia was one of the greatest empires of its time and none could match it strength in battle nor its wealth in knowledge. As such like a great and successful things, there was always someone or something wishing to topple them.

Persia was ruled by the great King Darius he was your father and you were the Princess and Persia's greatest treasure.

There had been threats recently in the capital against your family, this wasn't an uncommon assurance though it seemed the threats were becoming more frequent and closer to home and suddenly the entire palace was on high alert.

You were currently sitting in court to your father's left, whilst your brother Xerxes was sitting to his left. Matters were being discussed and disputes were being settled but you struggled to keep your attention focused entirely on the matters at hand.

your mind drifted from the throne room you were sitting to the ports and watersides that surrounded your home, to you there was nothing more beautiful than the sea and if you could anywhere at that moment, it certainly wouldn't be sitting in a room discussing politics whilst sitting looking beautiful. Instead it would be sitting by the water's edge admiring the soft sounds of the water as it rippled and flowed.

"Y/n," a voice called out though it was faint and almost inaudible when it reached your ears, your mind still wandering by the sea. "Y/n!" The voice was much louder this time and it jolted you quickly out of your thoughts.

"Yes," You called out, head turning from one side to another unsure as to who spoke your name and trying to locate the disturber. It was clear though, when you meant the slightly annoyed face of your father, that it was he who was calling for you.

"Y/n, Why weren't you listening?" he asked you, his voice was stern and almost disappointed, though he could never truly bring himself to actually sound angry at you. Now you felt guilty for not paying attention and you worried that you may have missed something important, due to his tone.

"I'm sorry father," You began to answer, upset with yourself for ignoring him even though it was unintentional, "I'm not quite sure what happened, could you repeat yourself please?" You asked him kindly, giving a vague explanation as to why you hadn't answered.

"I was explaining that I've called a guest to stay at the palace for the indefinite future, they'll be assigned to yourself to keep you safe these next coming weeks." Your father kept eye contact with you as he spoke, leaning on the left of his throne to be closer to you.

"Why on earth do I need a bodyguard," You asked him, though it seemed you hadn't though your words through before you'd said them, as they came across harshly due to raised voice and unruly tone. You were no longer sat but instead standing as you looked down at your father annoyed. Why did you need a bodyguard, there were plenty of soldiers around the palace and you could take care of yourself, you weren't a child anymore.

"Y/n keep your voice down, I don't want any back talk. This is for your own safety, you know the threats that have been made, it's to keep you safe." Even now, after you'd raised your voice at him and stood taller them him, your father wasn't angry, if anything he was more concerned than anything, is eyes conveying enough sincerity to confirm the worry but even that couldn't defuse your anger.

"I bet Xerxes isn't getting a bodyguard," You argued, pointing at your brother that sat your father's left. He'd kept himself out of the conversation thus fair but now you'd quite literally dragged him into it and he seemed less than pleased with that.

"Of course he's not, your brother can protect of himself against a threat but Y/n you haven't had much training and can barely keep your attention on the matter in the room longer than five minutes," Your father began to say to you, deciding to reason with facts than scolding. "How do you expect to me leave defenceless when your life could be at risk and you wouldn't even notice.”

You knew he was only looking out for you, he was your father of course he was and it wasn't like he was making up these facts either. Each one had been true, though the attention span one was slightly dramatised, you could pay attention to things, if anything you had some of the best hearing you knew of it. You only didn't pay attention during court and other formal gatherings because it was always the same old story being repeated for the hundredth time and it got boring very quickly.

You could tell by the look in your father's eyes that there was no arguing your way out for this and as such you wouldn't waste your breath, so instead you hung your head low and asked "When will this man be arriving?”

"They, will be arriving two days from now, until then you'll have to palace guards accompanying you during the day." Your father spoke matter of factly and now you already hated this man that would be showing up and stealing away your freedom for the foreseeable future.

"Alright father," You responded disappointed with what you had been told and quickly you left the throne room, deciding to retire to your chambers for the rest of the evening but even then you heard two of the guards from room, following closely behind you and you already detested this arrangement.

The next morning followed a very uneventful evening, you hadn't dared leave your rooms because you didn't want to be followed by two men, so instead you lock your rooms doors and curled up by the window with a book, not retiring for the night until the sky was the darkest shade of navy and the stars were brighter than before.

You'd taken your sweet time getting ready that morning, if you were going to followed by to guards, then you were going to annoy the life out of them until they were begging your father to relieve them of the duties to protect you.

Then once this 'Bodyguard' arrived you'd do the exact same thing to him and even more and you just knew he'd be running to the other end of Persia driven into madness by his Princess and then your father would have no choice but to give up and return your freedom back to you.

You'd taken an extra twenty minutes longer then usual, though you'd actually spent some of that time reading and dancing about your room, since you already knew that you really couldn't take longer then half an hour to get ready, so you tried filling out the time by doing other activities.

You knew you'd already annoyed the two guards who were to follow you for the next two days, there annoyed grunts and heavy footing was giving their annoyance towards you away. Though they'd never dare saying anything directly to you as you were their Princess and therefore you held the power with the situation.

Breakfast was much different to usual, accept from the fact that you made more of a point to talk to your brother rather than your father, as you were still greatly annoyed by his decision to strip you of your freedom. People could call you childish for doing such a thing and in all honesty you knew it was but quite frankly you didn't care and quite frankly why would you call an adults actions childish because unlike a child, an adult would always have a reason to back up their decisions.

After breakfast had concluded you'd left with a simple glance and goodbye towards your father, you could certainly hold a grudge. You didn't have any royal responsibilities to attend to today so as you walked down one of the many corridors of the palace, your mind thought through all the things you could do.

After walking out of the dining hall all your ears could hear was the heavy foot falls of the palace guards following you but when you rounded a corner and began walking down a new corridor it went quiet.

You didn't care enough to stop and check why the noises had stopped, and quite frankly looking down at the floor and being in your own little world, was far more satisfying.

The only problem was that you because your focus was on the ground and not in front of you, you hadn't been watching where you were going and not long after the corridor had gone quiet, you knocked into something hard and had to stop yourself from falling to the floor.

Your quickly regained your balance and began to look up as you steadied yourself, you were now angry that someone had knocked into you but in reality you were really only angry with yourself for yet again paying attention to your surroundings.

"Hey! watch were your going," you exclaimed in a loud and very un-Princess like voice, your tone slightly angered as you looked upon the person who you'd knocked into.

You expected to be looking upon a servant at the very most some advisor of your father's waiting for an audience but you certainly weren't expecting to see a woman, dress half like a lady and half like a soldier and suddenly you had to stop yourself from gaping.

You'd never seen a woman like her, she had black hair and blue, though her eyes were a little hard to make out due to the black eye makeup she was wearing. None of the ladies a court ever wore anything but a gown and though you were always more partially in dress, you did enjoy something a little less feminine when down by the sea.

"I beg your pardon," This wasn't voice was heavier than your own, her tone wasn't angry like yours but almost surprised and amused at once, as if she'd never had someone talk to her like that and she found it amusing.

Not one to admit you were wrong in front of a stranger you continued with your annoyance, "You walked into me, the very least you can do is apologise." You argued against this woman's amused tone but it seemed your statement had only amused her more and endeared her on.

"Alright I'll play along," She whispered it seemed the comment was more to herself then you and then you could see how her demeanour changed "I'm so very sorry my lady," She began to speak and immediately you could hear her words dripping with sarcasm. "Whilst you have me apologising would you also like me to brush hair and tie your shoes.”

It didn't matter that your anger towards the woman before was fake and instead anger towards yourself, now you were truly angry with her, not only was her amused smirk and sarcasm deeply irritating but her words were down right insulting, either she didn't know who you were or she very clearly didn't care.

"How dare you," Your voice was elevated as you raised your head and began to walk past the crude woman, knocking her shoulder on your way past. "Arrogant arse," You mumbled under your breath not caring whether this disrespectful woman had heard you or not but unbeknownst to you she had.

Once you'd neared the end of the corridor you heard your guards running down to catch up to you, though you did wonder why they stopped in the first place, strange.

You'd decided to spend the rest of your day in the gardens, having your lunch being brought out instead of eating inside and then you'd tended to some of the plants had read some more of your book, before finishing the day of with some scripture writing.

Dinner was similar to breakfast, in the way that it was uneventful though you'd decided that you couldn't ignore your father for the rest of your life. So after being nudged and encouraged along by your brother, you finally cave and spent the last bit of dinner having a conversation with your father, that thankfully had nothing to do with your safety or guarding arrangements.