Vanneth the Barbarian vs Eleanor, the Artist.

Once she had her eyes clear, Eleanor looked around the arena until she saw Zoraida. Of course it was her. She must have had the documents planted, so she could convince Enferia the painter was a spy!

If Eleanor hadn't already been crying, she would have at this point. Her arrest and humiliation had all been a ploy by her ex-lover. She thought back to the time, when they were happy, but Eleanor was always trying to bring out the best in Zoraida. She told her not to execute those ambassadors, not to burn those villages. She saw the good in Zoraida, and tried to steer her to a more noble course. And what thanks did she get? She was cast out, and told to leave Nysia, where she had lived her entire life.

As a final message to her lover, she removed the much-admired portrait of the queen that hung in the most public part of her castle, the great hall, and replaced it with another. While the old painting resembled the queen, Eleanor had made improvements to her appearance, and Zoriada loved the image. The new painting showed the queen nude, with the stark reality of her less-than-lean body, and a few real details exaggerated to make her look somewhat worse. Eleanor had remembered smiling the widest she ever had when she switched the paintings without being caught. Since the painting was hung high on a wall behind the throne, Eleanor guessed the public would see it long before Zoraida noticed, and the queen was not someone to whom anyone wanted to bear bad news. So the painting hung there, as predicted, a little over a week before Zoraida noticed.

Little did Eleanor know the extent to which Zoraida would hunt her over the next year, and into another kingdom to extract her revenge. But now she knew, as she sat there exposed, body scraped raw from shaving, and covered in green paint.

Zoraida celebrated in a way that nearly shocked Makurro. It's not that the queen was truly reserved, but she was acting like a narcissistic child who had just won a game of hide-and-go-seek. She stopped her cheering and smiled wide when Eleanor's eyes met hers. She was glad that Vanneth had given her message.