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How To Deliver Justice (with KiraMusani

Clair nodded.
"Hmm, yeah okay, we can have it come up like this, using the hilt as leverage as it delivers the blades to you in a reverse grip. That way you can't accidentally grab the blade and it won't have a chance of stabbing a friend by accident," she asked while drawing out the design in her book for Olivia to see.

Diana nodded along with Groveshire as she explained.

Clair looked over as she noticed Olivia doing the same, closing her book so nobody else would see what they were discussing.
"Polo?" she asked before looking toward Princess Calla.
"Oh, well in that case I don't think I'll earn any points in this next game, I have no idea how to play polo" she admitted.
 
Olivia shook her head. "Have you ever seen it be played? You're swinging a long handled mallet at a ball, from atop a horse."

Princess Calla rolled her eyes. "Way to oversimplify it, Olivia... Let's start simple, though. Can you ride a horse and do you have exceptional balance?"

Grovershire groaned, and glanced at Diana. "Wish we had enough time to properly train her. If we ever need one of your Greek gods or goddesses to intervene it would be now. Isn't Artemis the goddess of nature as well as the hunt? Maybe you could ask her to give Clair the abilities of hunting, which whacking the ball sort of is, and communication we naturally have between horse, or nature in this case, and rider?"

All Diana would have to do is just ask for Artemis to come. The goddess would do the rest... But Artemis wouldn't help unless she was asked, this was different than the training/teaching she did with the Dunwynian princess.
 
Clair shook her head in return to Olivia, looking down in shame as she admitted.
"I think this may be my first time hearing of the sport."

She then looked at Calla.
"Umm, I cannot, and I don't know, never really tested my balance before..." she replied, feeling even more ashamed of her shortcomings.

Diana looked to Grovershire.
"Though I could, calling down a goddess is not something you do for simple games of competition, had we be need of her for war or some life-threatening situation, yes. But not so she can do better in the competition, it would be a total abuse of their help and an insult," she replied, wanting to be stern but spoke in a soft sympathetic voice.
 
The duchess frowned, but finally nodded her understanding. "I don't like Clair going in with no chance of even getting one point."

"She wouldn't be alone. There's bound to be other noblewomen who have either never ridden a horse, or are not particularly balanced. Wait a minute...." Princess Calla's eyes suddenly lit up. "Can you keep score, Clair? If there's just four others of like situations, you would be on a team of scorekeepers, watching the games, keeping tabs of who scored and for which team, and you would be in the king's private box with the others, watching EVERY match!" She sighed. "It wouldn't matter if I play as Avenger or myself, I know how to play polo as either. I have to go in. There's 55 suitors. If only FIVE don't know how to play, it makes 10 teams which equates to 5 matches!"

Olivia glanced over to the king's table, who looked worried. He excused the three with him at the table, then motioned for her and pointed to the princess, and waved them over, a concerned look on his face. "Princess. You and your first place suitor are being summoned by the king. He looks upset, concerned upset. Something's happened."

The two excused themselves and went to speak to the king.

"I don't read body language that well, but the king looked deflated, ladies. I'm a little worried myself, now. Has something happened in or to Birmingham?" Grovershire stated.

What happened, but wouldn't be mentioned until morning (because the two would be sworn to secrecy), was the departure of nearly half the suitors! There were now only 30 left!
 
Clair blushed.
"Well I could certainly keep count if you all taught me how everything is scored" Clair was embarrassed she did not even know that much about it, but perhaps it was not too complicated and she could learn in time without the assistance of a goddess.

Clair waved to them as they left and leaned in to listen to the whispering that commenced.
"I am also not good at reading faces, so will take your words for it that it is not good"

Diana sighed a little.
"Probably a bad development, but I don't think it's their cause, not looking like trouble as just general bad news is my guess"

-------------------------------------

The next morning Diana was once again awake early as Clair woke with the alert, having spent most of the night working on the device Olivia had requested, luckily she was able to scrounge some materials with a little help.

As they gathered and the news was delivered, Diana nodded, she had thought as much, though was still surprised at the amount of girls who had left. Clair meanwhile gasped and covered her mouth.
"30? That is so many, do you know why they all left? Was it the traveling we were about to undertake?" She asked.

On the carriage ride, Clair would sit beside Olivia and hand over the contraption, she was clearly tired as she explained it to her as she had made the night before, wanting her notes on it and if it needed to be improved or changed at it. Currently, it would hold a sheathed dagger along her upper arm, with an easily accessible trigger on her wrist she would not be hit by accident that would cause the dagger to be extended so the handle was easy to grab, once she grabbed it the device would release it and move down again to make sure it didn't interfere with any of her movements in combat.
 
Olivia huffed. "Who knows?! With that lot, someone probably pinched a finger or stubbed a toe, or some nonsense line like that. Of the 25 who left, more than half were experienced polo players. Or at least, experienced on horseback riding."

Olivia looked the device over, nodding and even doing a quick test with it. "I'd like to put this to the test in the scavenger hunt later this season. I think you should take a nap, you look spent. Didn't ask for this right away."

She and Princess Calla switched positions so Olivia could confer with Diana.

Calla would have a score sheet with her. "I hope you can be awake enough for this. We're going to have to shuffle the teams, father said last night there might only be four players per team. Here's the sheet, team name goes here, provided we have a chance to name our teams," she pointed to the top right hand corner. "Names go along these lines." She ran her finger down the left side. "These are long blocks, because either you hit the ball into the net, or you assist a player, who hit it into the net. You mark with a straight line in the appropriate box. If you're not sure if an assist happened, ask father or one of the other score keepers. This far box, is for penalties against a player. It's very important you watch the referees and see who they're pointing to, you don't want to give the wrong player a penalty if it was someone else. After the game, you count up the marks in each box, and write the number at the bottom of the page. More often than not, assists and points scored for the team as a whole, will match."

Calla sighed after looking at Clair. "We're about two hours from Birmingham. Take a nap. Please."

Meanwhile, Olivia talked to Diana. "We're down to four Amazons. One of your sisters, not named Cassandra, was one of the exiting nobles. The Roman, Persian and Ottoman nobles also left. As far as that region, only the representative of the Kingdom of Naples is left here. Ramsford and Gaul, that is Beaumont and Versailles, didn't leave. Should we continue as planned last night and team up with our friends, or attempt to extend an olive branch, in the hopes one or the other doesn't slap it out of our hands? The least Gregor will have on the team is four, and we know this exodus definitely forces Calla to play polo as the Avenger. There's six including Clair who don't know how, which means the seven seats in the box will be taken up by the king and the scorekeepers. The princess is even out of the box and we'll have even numbers playing among the suitors, including Avenger."
 
Clair nodded at Olivia's explanation, assuming she was correct.

Clair gave a tired smile at Olivia wanting to test her device soon, though it faded a little at request for a nap, as she realized how tired she was.
"Sorry, I ahhh" She yawned. "Must have gotten a little excited, I'll rest when I can"

As Calla joined her she looked at the score sheet she was presented, following along and making notes in her personal notebook about all the rules and information she was given.
"Okay... I'll try and rest... then study this when I wake up..." She said already in a more sleepy tone as she closed her eyes.

Diana nodded along with Olivia's explanation.
"Right you are, it would not hurt to extend an olive branch, however, do we think the people we have here are best suited for this game? if so we should decide our team based on who stands to earn us the most points yes? If we knew if Clair was going to be forced to play or not, sadly I would say we look everywhere, not to be crass, but she would be dead weight by the sounds of it. And in a game such as this, she might as well be a cinderblock around our legs in a swimming contest." She replied.
 
Olivia shook her head. "Clair won't be playing. See this checkmark in red?" Olivia showed the paper of the position of each noble. In sixth place was Clair, three points behind Aurora Service in fifth, who also had a big red check by her name. Several names were crossed out, with a cluster on both sides of Avenger's name in 48th. "The king gave me this as long as I don't lose it, just in case I need to convince anyone. Aurora fell off her own personal horse she brought, and broke her wrist, she's lucky that's all she broke. She's got a knot on her head the size of Londonium's famous tower¹. There's four others scattered along the list. Those the king has already marked as scorekeepers." She shook her head. "That leaves 24 suitors that can play."

Olivia then sat and thought about it and grimaced. "Damn. We both know how good the princess is in polo. We'd be fools not to have the Avenger on our team. The duchess may have excellent horsemanship skills, but her polo savvy leaves much to be desired. We'd need to at least ask one of these two. I know I personally wouldn't want to spend timeouts discussing wine etiquette, and the Gauls aren't exactly on friendly terms with Richard the Lionheart." A shrug. "So there's our conundrum. Who gets the olive branch?"

¹-The tower of London has been around since the late 11th century. It's known by the late 14th.
 
Diana read the paper and nodded, letting out a sigh of relief seeing that they wouldn't need to exclude Clair and potentially hurt her feelings. As they continued wondering who they may invite to join their team she nodded along with all her thoughts.

"Yes, seems like the Avenger would be an optimal choice, though we should not assume we will have our pick, I know you will, but picking her would be a surprise as a first pick given her position, most try to pick from the top scorers, also her polo skills are unknown, likely she should be picked last." She suggested.

"As for the ladies outside our usual preference, I suppose either would work but perhaps try "Bernice Beaumont, after all, I think the rest of our skills can compensate if she is even somewhat capable"
 
The rest of the trip was quiet, and as they reached the field in Birmingham they were going to play on, Princess Calla nudged Clair, "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. We're here."

Just as she stepped out, Gregor stopped his daughter. "Calla. For once I need you to go do something with yourself. I'll be taking the six non-polo players with me as scorekeepers. As you know, there's only seven seats allowed in the royal box."

Calla nodded and curtsied. "All's well, father, I intended to be closer to the field anyway." She excused herself, but later returned in her Crimson Avenger outfit.

"Olivia. As the first place suitor, you have first pick among all your peers to choose your team. One at a time, please." The king said as he took the paper back from her. "Clair, you are Olivia's scorekeeper. Here's your quill. Write down the ladies' names as she picks them." He handed Clair an inkwell and quill. "Use mine, thank you." He then looked again at Olivia. "You will be picking three, but again, one at a time."

Olivia took a deep breath and looked at her second place peer. Wendy Darling raised an eyebrow, but her smirk was very telling. If she wanted Diana on her team... "Princess Diana of Brittania Amazona, originally Themiscyra."

Wendy smirked. "Well played, Olivia, dahling. I will have Princess Ruby Rose Rhys of Cordonia, then." Apparently, Diana would not have been a captain. If Olivia hadn't grabbed her, Wendy surely would have!

Ariel, by default, became the third captain. "Princess Cassandra of Brittania Amazona." She called to the crowd, already tensions were starting to mount among those not called first.

Seventh place was someone else Clair had met. The Monterissan noble. She called out her ninth place peer.

Eighth place called out someone else, which left Calla Grovershire as the final captain of a polo team. "Lady Cinnamon Baker of Dunwyn."

Olivia gulped. It was her turn again. "Are you SURE we should leave the princess for last pick? We both know how good she really is, although she's never played polo as the Avenger. Bernice is good, but her better than thou attitude could be trouble. I don't think the Avenger is going to last much longer, considering who the captains are." She whispered for only Diana to hear.
 
"Ah! Where? oh, right, umm th-thanks" She blushed as she woke with a startle.

Clair took the quill and paper, giving her own bow to the King.
"Umm, thank you, your Majesty, I'll make concise and accurate recordings"

As Diana was called she walked up and gave a warrior's bow.
"I am honored as your first pick"

Diana nodded at the whisper.
"Follow your gut, pick Avenger if you think she is the best next pick, I agree on getting her now"

Meanwhile, Clair was placing the names in the corresponding places, happy that the paper had sections for all the information needed, luckily that nap gave her just enough rest to stay alert.
 
Olivia nodded. "Crimson Avenger, Lady hero of Dunwyn." She called.

The other five captains also picked, but Wendy swiped Bernice Beaumont right from under Olivia's nose. "If I can't have the hero, I'll take the one we definitely know is the best of the 12 remaining." She smirked.

Millicent eyed the remaining nobles, who were all fidgeting and glaring at the captains. She already had one good player, and the ones left usually let their attitudes do the talking for them. "Lady Clara Princeton of Scotland." She called after a few minutes.

Grovershire knew the problems that most of the remaining seven had were being stuck up. With Beaumont gone, and now Princeton... There was only Versailles left who had caused Olivia and Diana any grief. Or she could take the other Dunwyn merchant, who didn't have any attitude.

Gregor cleared his throat after five minutes. "Duchess Grovershire. We're waiting. There's only seven left."

Grovershire sighed. "Sorry, Olivia. Genevieve Versailles of Gaul."

So much for the olive branch...

Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. "Lady Amanda Butcher of Dunwyn."

Wendy took the noble from Naples, and soon the teams were rounded off. The first match would be in thirty minutes, chosen by the king, himself.
 
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Once the picking was done, Diana let Olivia take the lead with how she wanted to organize the team but stood by her as a sort of assistant coach for the team.

Clair meanwhile sat at the scorekeeping table, having filled out all the girls on Olivia's team, thankfully they always called out their names as she had not remembered them. Though once they were all on there she prepared to start filling out scores, having her notes on how to do so right beside her in case she needed to refresh herself on something.
 
Aurora was seated right next to Clair in the box with the King. "You ladies remain seated. You don't have to stand through my speech. I'll motion to you when I want you all to rise." Gregor said to the six as he stood.

During this time, Aurora pointed to the top right hand corner of Clair's paper. "So there's no mistake, put your Captain's name up there, followed by where she's from." She showed hers, Clair would notice the sizable lump on Aurora's head, and a cast on her right wrist. On Aurora's paper was the name, 'Lady Wendy Darling, Berkshire'.

What followed was a 20-minute speech, and as he wrapped up, he motioned for the scorekeepers to rise. "To your horses ladies, and come through this way to greet your scorers."

Clair would be greeting all 24 polo players, split up in their teams, Duchess Grovershire and her squad, first. This would really be the time for the team name.

When Olivia and her team came by last, Olivia nodded, and as shaking Clair's hand. "You probably already have my name in the spot for team name, but if not, just the country is fine." She looked at Diana and winked. Turning back to Clair, "Lythikos Amazons."

Well, two were true Amazon sisters and Olivia could easily be an honorary Amazon sister, so... It wasn't wrong.
 
Clair nodded to the King and stayed seated.

"Oh thank you Aurora, you got hurt? what happened?" She whispered, signing 'Duchess Olivia Nevrakis of Lythikos.' in the spots that were shown to her.

Clair gave her bow and introduction to each of them, saying it was a pleasure to meet each one, blushing at Olivia as they also shook hands.
"I'll add the name for you, thanks, I am your designated scorekeeper, so will be needed to watch your team extra carefully," She told her, hoping that would explain it if she looked like she was staring at her.

Diana looked at Olivia and gave a knowing nod and smile at their name.
 
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The king decided seventh place captain and her team faced the ninth, so for the next hour those two were on the field.

Wendy folded arms as she watched the first game. The captains did have to stay atop their horses, although the rest of the team didn't. Grovershire steered her horse to Diana and Olivia. "I don't like it. Gregor's GOT to be up to something. It's going to be either me or Lady Wendy, going against you." Cheering would cause all heads to look to the field as the ninth place captain, led her team to an early lead.

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Why? Just because you two have the most vocal snobs on your team? Your king is hardly THAT petty."

"They've both bragged about it. He's expecting whichever team you get, mine or Lady Wendy's, to be trounced to indicate that their own pride did it."

Olivia glanced to Diana. "Should I ask about her snagging Versailles then, or will you do the honour? We both know THAT wasn't out of spite." Olivia genuinely asked Diana, since both of them knew Wendy had taken Bernice out of spite for Olivia snagging the Avenger. Wendy had pretty much said so!
 
Clair was ready and carefully watching to keep the proper score for her team.

Diana nodded.
"I am sure you are correct, but I cannot imagine what, or if it would even favour anyone in particular, perhaps he might want to punish the Princess for her recent activity by putting favour against the team having most of her favorite girls" She replied matching Groveshires volume as they spoke.

Diana then turned to Olivia
"Sounds like the job for a Captain, Captin" She gave her a respectful nod at her rank in their team.
 
Grovershire frowned with a grimace, wrinkling her face in the process. "Wait, just because you Olivia and Avenger are on the same team? I mean, I'm the other favorite girl in the scenario."

Olivia chuckled. "Bullseye. I get what Diana's saying. It's possible it IS you. Pitting a favorite against the other two. You forget why Avenger herself doesn't count. Not only that, but you have the Gaul on your team. Granted, I think you know why I wanted to snap her."

Grovershire chuckled. "Trust me, Olivia, I'm keeping her from burying the hatchet, alright. In yours, Diana's and Butcher's heads. Avenger is lucky she's late to the party, I've heard nothing but insults and innuendos directed especially to you and Diana." She shrugged. "I have no idea what the merchant could have said, but she's on Versailles hitlist, too."

The crowd erupted into cheers, catcalls and whoops as a referee yelled "Flagrant foul! Double assault with a mallet! Team disqualified!" He was pointing to two members of the seventh place suitor's team, her and another player. One of the ninth place suitor's girls was writhing around on the field in obvious pain.

Clair would have seen the seventh place suitor and another woman flagrantly attack the woman on the ground in pain.

"What. The. HELL?!" Was all Olivia and Avenger could say, in unison. Only Gregor and Clair would have details... And the ref, who definitely wasn't speaking. Gregor had summoned ten guards, five for each woman, to arrest both of the attackers.
 
Diana was nodding along with the others, then looked off in shock as the commotion started before moving toward the attacking girls.
"Hold your arms! Stand down or face the consequences!" She called out riding toward them with her mallet drawn.

Clair stood up and pointed as she called out the attack.
"Hey! They are hurting her!"
 
Olivia rode out quickly after Diana. "It's not our battle, Diana! Stand down!" She called, as Gregor nodded to Clair.

"I see Lady Clair. Those two will cool their heels in the dungeon." Gregor motioned for the guards to hurry to help Diana.

The two saw Diana coming and in synch charged and swung for Diana's horse's legs. Diana would see the bloodlust of her war god Ares all over the captain. They were aiming to crush her horse's legs right out from under her!

Two arrows would shoot the mallets right out of their hands. The Crimson Avenger had fired perfect shots while charging at full gallop! She pulled up just behind Olivia and Diana.

The guards thanked both heroines as they approached, swords drawn. Diana needed to warn the guard that one was being possessed by the Grecian war god, Ares!
 
Diana stopped her horse just short of where the Mallets would have been able to reach, thanks to Olivia's call out she didn't go any further, but seemed ready to take a leap off her horse.

"Careful, they are possessed by the power of Ares and what seems like a Yokai!" Diana called out, now jumping off the horse to back up the guards and help them arrest the girls without hurting them.

Meanwhile, as all eyes were on the two rampaging girls a rouge knight in disguise grabbed Clair from behind, gagging her mouth so she did not scream, and started to drag her away, moving so that as long as everyone was watching the commotion, they would not see him.
 
Aurora Service, although in a cast and a sizable knot on the crown of her head, hollered with a Cordonian whoop as she jumped on the knight's back and started knocking him about his head with her cast, "You leave her alone, you blighter!" She yelled, raining hit upon hit upon the top of his head with her cast while holding her other arm around his neck in a vice like grip.

Princess Ruby drawn by the familiar Cordonian warcry, pointed drawing Avenger and Gregor's attention. "Someone's trying to kidnap Lady Clair! Aurora needs help!" Olivia was too busy helping Diana subdue the two.

Actually, the way Aurora was pummeling the attempted kidnapper, she might not. Nevertheless, Gregor and Avenger both charged back to the king's box, yelling, "Hell, no! Not on MY watch!"

Avenger launched off her horse once close enough, tackling the kidnapper at the same time, and losing her hat in the process. Gregor, out of breath, caught up. "Well... Done... Avenger... Guards..."
 
As Aurora bashed him in the head he used one hand to try and pry her off, letting Clair bite his hand and use her legs to wrap up his legs just as he was tackled, causing him to fall forward. The combined weight of the man, Aurora, and the Avenger then came crashing down, Clair under it all.

Diana and Olvia were capable of subduing the girls, especially with the other knights' help.

Meanwhile, as Avenger was arresting the man, pulling him off Clair no doubt quickly as Aurora also got off, Sunrise would gesture to the King, pointing toward Avengers Braid.
"Seem familiar Sire?"

As he was off Clair, it would soon be seen that Clair was laying on the ground without moving, although would still be breathing if checked, although the Guards were busy taking the man away.
 
Calla bent down, checking Clair's breathing with two fingers to her neck, like she had seen both Dr. Bristol and Monroe do countless times. She gently rolled Clair over on her back.

Aurora looked wide-eyed at the now hatless Avenger, who apparently STILL didn't realize she was missing her hat.

Gregor looked at the braid, then nodded to Sunrise. "Very." He said, sternly. He picked up the hat and knocked the dust off of it. "I'll have words with her. Send a runner to Dunwyn with two messages. One for Tuxford, Amethyst, and Dr. Monroe; the other for the Handlers. Have them meet us in Grovershire in the morning."

By now, Olivia and Diana could come over to where everyone is gathered, just in time for the fireworks.

"Young lady. Lose something?" Gregor asked, sternly.

Calla wasn't concerned with what she no longer had on her head, actually not realizing it was off, yet. "Not if I can help it, Sire. She's breathing and has a pulse. I could use someone with medical knowledge though, here. I know very little medicine, and what I do know is first aid for the conscious."

"Will an Amazon dignitary be good enough to help you.... Calla Lily?"

It didn't hit her right away what her father had said. "Yes! Brilliant, Your Majesty! Diana knows a lot of more new forms of medicine that many of our own doctors don't as of yet! Please! Get Diana!"

Gregor waved for Diana to hurry to the Avenger's side... Or rather, the princess's, showing her Clair laying there, and that he was holding the Avenger's hat, but put a forefinger to his lips. "Help her with Clair." He then pointed to another knight. "Inform the physician treating the victim attacked by the mallets, we have someone passed out here. No rush with Diana and the Avenger here, though. As soon as he can, though."

With a nod, the knight took off across the field to where the Birmingham physician worked, trying to set bones after sedating the victim.
 
Diana first started to help the woman injured from the mallets, making sure she was okay before the physician arrived and she was called to the Avenger's side.
"Come, Olivia, I am sure I could use your assistance, I'm not sure what they would need me for." She invited her as they made their way over.

As Diana arrived with Olivia she moved down beside Clair and started to check her, also starting with her breathing and pulse, but continued past that smelling her breath and checking her neck more thoroughly.
"I'm not seeing signs of any poisons, How did this happen? Olivia, any thoughts?" She asked.
 
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