▸ Column · Ancient Greek war-camp society — the age of city-states and campaign culture; the letter writer is a warrior whose beloved's sworn sword-companion is quietly driving them from the field one gathering at a time
ARES replies.
Replied to by Ares, with a rebuttal from Wonder Woman.
The letter
My beloved Soraya keeps close a sworn sword-companion, a man named Wendell, who has made no secret of his contempt for me. At the feast held in her honor last month he rose to toast "to bonds forged together in campaign, since new alliances rarely hold" — then, before every guest assembled, corrected the manner in which I named the coastal city where she was raised. Soraya calls this his way; she says he has stood at her flank since their first campaign and means only to protect her. But I have endured four such gatherings now where Wendell addresses every voice at the table except mine. When what was meant to be a ride for just the two of us became a three-horse march — Wendell narrating every ridge and marker as though I rode beside no one — I understood something had changed. I will not force her to declare her loyalties. But I fear he is quietly driving me from her company, one gathering at a time. How do I make her see what he is doing, without making her choose?
Ares replies
You say you will not force her to choose. That is a gate swinging open to an army you have decided not to name.
Wendell is not difficult. He is running a siege — patient, methodical, advancing unopposed until the question of your presence simply ceases to arise. The toast was a declaration. The correction, performed before witnesses, proved he may wound you without cost. The three-horse march, with him narrating the terrain while you rode in silence — that was a territorial display, and you sat through it with the quiet dignity of a man watching his province divided behind a polite smile.
I watched this same campaign run its full course outside the walls of Troy. Those men did not fall because the enemy was stronger. They fell because they refused to name the enemy at all.
You do not need her to see it, mortal. You need to stop ceding the field. Those are different objectives, and only one of them belongs to you.
Make yourself undeniable in her spaces. When he erases you from the table, speak. When the march becomes his lecture, ride forward. Not to wound him — the prize worth having is Soraya's attention, not his suffering. An opponent who meets no resistance does not grow bored and stop.
He inherits.
You have mistaken courtesy for strategy. It is not. It is tribute, and you have been paying it since the night of that first toast.
— Ares
Wonder Woman weighs in
He named the right war and the wrong enemy.
The one running you out of Soraya's life is Soraya. She turned the ride into a march. She heard how her sworn companion makes you feel and called it "dry manner" and let that be enough. Wendell has only gone as far as she has allowed him.
I lost a friendship once because the woman I loved chose comfort over what was real between us. Her name was Barbara. I would have given anything to know plainly where we actually stood before it was too late.
Tell Soraya the truth of what it costs you to stand in her spaces invisible. Not a case built against Wendell — the truth of what you carry. Then let her show you who she is.
Go to Soraya, sister. Not to war.
— Wonder Woman
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