Life as a New Hire Ch. 14

He was 160 kg, almost 2 meters tall, a jaw made of chromium-steel and a bar bouncer. When he picked me up off the floor and helped me outside he told me I had a good punch. He wasn't even angry with me. He was amused. I am far luckier than I deserve. His name was Amos. When I found out he had a sister, I got a good look at her picture to make sure I never, ever hit on her.

Felix wasn't that guy. He also wasn't getting back up. 'Best' of all, no one was going see how he was. I hoped I hadn't killed him, or broken his neck. Before I could go to him I heard a voice behind me.

"Is this the part where you take his underwear as a trophy?" Dora asked.

"For the love of G - the Goddesses, tell me you are joking," I gasped.

"I got you!" Dora snickered.

"Is someone going to help Felix?" I inquired. I sensed a bit of combat etiquette I was ignorant of. My previous Amazon opponents had always came to me when the fight was over and I'd lost.

Usually they stood over me until I regained consciousness. Felix wasn't getting that courtesy. He was being studiously ignored and I would have been separating myself from the 'lioness pride' to help him. It was moral judgment time - Felix wasn't worth the grief I'd get for disregarding the lesson the rest of the Amazons were administering.

I waited at the closest mat edge, doing my cool-down with Yasmin and a few of my female...I guess I had to consider them friends now. What Felix did in front of them was bad, but they had gone above and beyond in coming to this gym and shattering his sexual anima and turning the crowd against him.

Worse, while the 'new' hires couldn't justify an official corporate campaign against Felix, at the gym he was vulnerable to a propaganda blitz. By lunchtime tomorrow every woman in the building would know of Felix and his predilections toward the female gender. Amazons would still desire him alright. Felix better watch his precious Henie though in case someone decided to explain to him who was really the boss.

After eight minutes, Felix stirred. He leveraged himself, took in his surroundings before letting his gaze settle on me. Any anger over my rudeness was dissipated by the social hostility focused on him. I silently offered up a water bottle. Felix hurriedly sprang up then blew the macho display by nearly tumbling back over.

Felix took the water, splashed some in his face then drank the rest.

"That was fast," he finally spoke. "Damn fast."

"It was what it was, Felix," I stayed neutral. "I hope this settles matter between you and I." I could read it in his eyes - no way in Hell was this over.

"I'll stay away from Brooke," Felix conceded. "Until next time."

"It was never about Brooke, Felix," I sighed. "It was about using a woman to get at me. I never cared about anything like that before yet I do now so just don't do it." Felix snorted in amusement. He took up a towel and began drying off as he exited the gym.

"He should be..." Oneida got out. I took another gamble.

"No, Oneida," I rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. "He did what a thousand other men would do. He's an egotistical pain in the ass. He is also a fighter, brave and he refuses to accept defeat easily. You can't instantly dissect his good qualities from his foul ones."

"It takes time," Daphne supported me. She was also soothing any anger over the over-familiarity I was showing to Oneida. "Along with the rest of us, Cáel is showing Felix the delicate position men will hold in our world. It is a learning process for all of us."

"Felix is not a good man," Oneida stated, "not like our Cáel," she added, clearly crushing on me. Eeeekk!!

"Umm...ladies, thank all of you for your help this evening," I looked over the group around me. "Having the room divided over Felix's predations wouldn't have done any of us much good. I'm glad this morning's encounter was brought to light. Thank you all." If someone does you a favor, thank them.

If it is a woman, make doubly sure you tell them exactly what they did and risked for you. They will appreciate it - it strengthens your bond aka the promise of sex. Yes, I'm a sex-obsessed bad little piglet. The looks my Amazons were giving me told me how well my words were working, except for Yasmin, who seemed terribly amused by the whole romantic spectacle.

The resulting shower scene was its own interesting ballet. As a male, I couldn't be in the center. As a gravitational point in space, the tightest group of Amazons decided on who got into which orbit. Yasmin, despite me being on 'date' with her, was exiled to the periphery. I wasn't going to get into a shoving match over a six minute shower.

Exiting the building was its own paranoid experience. Yasmin and I were leaving together. She was going to take a taxi home, check up on her son, then circle around to my place. We'd figure out 'where to go out to eat' from there. Before Yasmin could stop me, I paid the cab for the trip, the wait and the delivery to my place.

(The Ash Men - a history dump, for those not interested)

I strode into my apartment, bike on my shoulder, when I realized I wasn't alone. Elsa and Katrina - sigh. Breaking and entering? Disrespecting my domicile? This was not the time to be petty, or a stickler for boundaries. I put my bike in its customary place.

"Can I get you something to drink?" I offered as I made my way to the kitchenette.

"Lemonade would be nice," Katrina stated.

"What is that orange stuff?" Elsa inquired. Yeah, they searched my place already.

"Dark orange, or light orange?" I countered.

"The darker one."

"That's carrot juice," I informed Elsa.

"I'll try some of that," she said. I fixed three drinks in tall glasses, handing them out before I joined Katrina on the sofa. Sipping my own lemonade, I turned to face Katrina.

"Oneida is becoming a problem," Katrina began. "She's told you some things she shouldn't have."

"The Ash Men," I sighed. "You two being here makes this nothing but bad news."

"Not so," Katrina corrected me. "It is a shameful episode in our history; so disgraceful we keep the truth of what really happened a closely guarded secret. Unfortunately, it is something House Arinniti has always felt strongly about and teaches their young."

"Amazons keep rather accurate histories, basing everything on lunar cycles. Our records, with minor gaps, date back to the Great Betrayal," Katrina began. "By modern parlance, around 1000 BCE, our ancestors stopped a millennia of a nomadic existence to settle in the land between the Váh, Hron rivers and Danube rivers."

"You bitches know who the Magyar are," I interrupted abruptly. Sure, that region was in current day Slovakia, but it bordered Hungary, my ancestral homeland, even though our residency was separated by over 1500 years.

"Of course I know who the Magyar are," Katrina shook her head mirthfully. "I simply can't resist busting your balls."

I muttered angrily while avoiding using actual words.

"Our numbers were enough to seize and hold the land," Katrina continued. "For centuries before that, we raided for men from tribes whose land we were moving through. After a few seasons, we disposed of the men and took some more."

"When we chose to settle down, our Council decided to raid distant tribes and steal boys to be raised among our people. At first the males were virtual slaves yet in three generations, our people began seeing males as fathers, brothers and sons. We trained them in crafts. A few generations later, we voted to train them to be guardians - protectors of our hearths while the Host made war."

"For eighteen generations things went well. We prospered, grew rich and strong. The tribes around us feared our wrath which made us proud yet was our undoing. New, stronger tribes migrated into the region from the West - we now know them to be Celts. The genesis of House Epona is from those first meetings. Many Celtic women embraced the Amazon lifestyle."

"Though they knew of our strength, the first of these new tribes quickly went from peaceful coexistence to warfare. The Host crushed them. The problem was that new tribes kept coming and coming. Dirges of Mourning replaced the sweet taste of victory around our fires. We were always winning the key conflicts but our numbers were diminishing."

"The males came to the Council and begged for the opportunity to join the Host in battle. Twice we rejected them. The third time, we relented and allowed a select few males to join us in the fight and for a time the balance was restored. Our doom crept upon us. More conflict resulted in more men taking up arms to fight."

"What the Council could not perceive was the insidious influence of our enemies and it swept upon us on the wings of ravens by night - druids. Masculine deities, ethos and egos combined with our own blind arrogance to bring about our downfall. Constant contact with the Celts brought a different cultural view to our men. They began to question why women should rule."

"Somewhere around the year 680 BCE, it began. It was not a calamity over in a night, or even a week yet once it began there was no stopping it. Most of our males, never fighters, were taken as slaves by their former brothers and their new Celtic masters. Not all fighting males betrayed us. Those males risked their very lives to sneak into fallen towns and villages to rescue their daughters."

"The penalty our enemies exacted on our remaining fighting males was meant to keep the rest in line. They burned those brave men alive, in public. They burned them slowly, in much agony - the druids showed them how it was done. There is no record of any of our fighting males switching sides, or failing to undertake any mission for the Host. We survived as a people because of them."

"When all hope of remaining in our new homes faded, we fled east into the mountains. My ancestors were furious, frightened and shamed. They decided they had let down their guards around men and swore to never do it again. The only obstacle to this way of thinking was the handful of men who risked all for the Host's survival and still lived."

"They sent those male survivors on one last, suicidal mission. They were to return home and incite the Celts' wrath against the traitor males. For the Hell they unleashed, the druids were chosen for this final act vengeance. Amazon males slew the druids. The angry Celts fell upon their former allies, slaughtering the lot.

"Somehow, a tiny band returned to their mistresses. Their return was unexpected. In their absence, the High Priestess and Council decided to rectify their centuries' old error in judgment. Only a few Houses - Arinniti among them - knows how each Council member voted yet the final decision is something we are dealing with today."

"The 'valiant' Host went to their defenseless sons and butchered them. When the last Amazon males made it back they were rewarded with death as well. It is recorded that they didn't even resist, loyal to their last drop of blood. In less than ten minute's time, the last of the male line of Amazons perished."

"These are the 'Ash Men' Oneida mentioned. Burned to death by our enemies for their devotion to us, burned to ash by the Host to hide our shame after we killed them for the crime of never betraying us. All full-blooded Amazons are taught about the Second Betrayal - except that last, pathetic and tragic addendum," Katrina educated me.

"Oh shit," I interrupted. I was sure Katrina had more to tell me but I felt the hideous weight of this - now shared - past. "You believe that when this gets out, as all secrets do, it will undermine everything you have built. You did more than utterly betray those loyal brothers, you murdered your own sons."

"That is one of the most serious issues the Council is dealing with," Elsa finally spoke.

"That makes sense, but you are forgetting something," I shook my head. "Times change, people change, circumstances change. The Host misses the point."

"That point would be?" Katrina studied me. I believed this was more of a case she wanted me to make the logical next step.

"You betrayed us," I stated. "The lesson is not that men were lured away from the Amazon cause, it was that despite every reason to save themselves, men stayed loyal to the grisly end. If the Host is mindful and respectful, we males would rather be 'Ash Men' and safeguard our sons and daughters."

"Men volunteered to fight, they did fight and fought well yet the Host refused to acknowledge anything had changed," I then paused. "Which is why I'm learning how to shoot, and knife-fight and why Elsa is here. Katrina, with the upmost respect - you are a manipulative bitch."

"Cáel, I let you get away with a great deal," Katrina smirked. "Don't take advantage of it."

"You seem to forget that I consider being murdered by your ilk highly more desirable than slavery," I retorted.

"I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, you know you can't win," Katrina pointed out.

"I have more invested in the fight than you do," I stated.

"I'm fighting for the future of my people. You know that," Katrina bantered.

"I'm fighting for my sons to be allowed to live free of bondage, or thrown from the cliffs, and for my daughters to not be a plague on the human soul," I grinned. "You would turn my daughters into Fabiola and...you can't even agree on letting the other half of your own offspring live, as if that was something 'normal' mothers would ever discuss."

"Fabiola? Not Aya?" Katrina prodded.

"I ignore the reality of Aya because I love her. There is no saving her. Your reach makes it hopeless, she wouldn't understand and she is already too poisoned by the rest of you anyway," I explained. "Watching her inevitable slide into madness is another reason for me to seek death in battle."

"I enjoy these chats," Katrina smiled as she stood up. "You are a very complex individual and crossing wits with you has been an unexpected pleasure. Good night." Elsa moved to follow Katrina to the door.

"Elsa?" I called out. She half-turned. "Try going with French cut instead of boy shorts tomorrow."

There was a fey light in Elsa's eyes. I continued to creep closer to having status in her eyes. Not a sentient - I was that already. Amazons didn't have a glorious rival. Strong rivals you killed as soon as possible. Cáel Nyilas had become a nebulous entity treading down unexplored pathways in her until-now internally consistent World.

"I won't let you win," she gave me a molten, hungry look.

"I bet you say that to all the guys," I shot back.

"Only the ones I care about," she gave me one more promissory fuck-note, turned and left. I didn't have time to mull over my bleak future forecast. Yasmin was coming over and we were definitely not going out to eat.