Dahala’s armor felt warm on her shoulders as she saddled her war
stallion. She hated horses and this spirited light war horse was
no exception. They tended to be headstrong and they smelled bad,
though, admittedly, their fur could be soft. The feel of the
saddle reminded her of the smooth leather against her own skin
under her armor. She loved leather and when the horse died,
either in combat or if she slit the foul thing’s throat, she’d
make herself a new jerkin out of it’s hide.

She swung up into the saddle, the girth tight around the horse’s
barrel, the cinch squeezing it snugly. Though she was still a
virgin, she was not quite the valiant knight most thought her to
be – mainly because she, and her five sisters, enjoyed the teas-
ing she could give the men – and the sound thrashing if they
overstepped their bounds. Still she was kind by nature. She was
a tall woman, broad of shoulder, narrow of waist, and quite
lithe. Her musculature did not detract, rather, it enhanced her
shapely figure. The long flowing blonde hair left hidden, along
with the firm curves, inside the full plate armor she wore.

The fourth circle held the Giant, who looked down at me and
grinned evilly. He threw a boulder at me, which I shattered with
a slap, and then I raised him off the ground as Heracles did to
Antaeus, and crushed the life out of him, redoubling my strength.
In the fifth circle, I slew the Minotaur by taking each of his
horns in a hand, and breaking open his skull. I was imbued with
the powers of a demigod at least by this time, walking into the
sixth circle, the one holding the dragon. The fight was hard,
the flames of the dragon almost enough to make me falter, but
then I realized that they were power too, and took them for my
own, absorbing it into my shield while I made my heart’s thrust
with my blade. The dragon’s blood fountained out, covering me,
and by its power my skin was made invulnerable like that unto the
skin of Achilleus.

He was right, the commercial establishment in this state really
wanted that trade agreement and what the establishment in this
state wants, it gets. The reporters were quashed and their
stories killed. Oh, I know that the powers that be have a liber-
al image in Minnesota but there is an iron hand beneath those
velvet gloves.

With the impending successful conclusion of the negotiations and
Kontar’s departure, the moment that both of us had avoided talk-
ing about was fast approaching. Kontar was the first to bring it
up, about a week before his departure, one night when he was at
my house.