GABRIELLE AWOKE before dawn, dressed silently, and headed for the practice arena. She needed to get in some quality time with the problem of the sword, because that was a problem that was solvable.

The air was chilly, and the yoga exercises she prepared with failed to warm her body as much as they failed to calm her mind. It wasn't going to be a good day. Again. Gabrielle suppressed a sigh, or maybe a curse, took out her sai and started to slowly run through her routine.

A warrior shouldn't allow herself to be thrown off her game by a little cold. A warrior shouldn't allow herself to be distracted by emotion. A warrior shouldn't allow herself to be caught unprepared by events. Blah, blah, blah. A warrior shouldn't do this, a warrior shouldn't do that. Bullshit, thought Gab and took a savage stab at an invisible enemy. A lot of that warrior should and shouldn't stuff was bullshit, and Joxer knew it. He'd said so before, right to Xena's face. So why was he pounding himself with it now? And why the hell wouldn't the idiot talk to Xena? Why was he not willing to talk to anyone except... except Nebula, for pity's sake? What did she understand about him, anyway?

The invisible enemies didn't stand a chance. They died in droves, in the matter of a few seconds' flurry of movement, and Gabrielle was left blinking and surprised. What the heck was that? She hadn't been paying attention at all. Snarling to herself, she started the series of movements over again. Pay...attention. A warrior... pays... attention. Nebula.

Gabrielle groaned in frustration and started over once more. The House of the Lion was really burning her butt lately.

And that went for more than one member of it, too.

-----

"Gods." Nebula stretched in her chair like a satisfied lioness, arching her back and groaning in a tone that was half-growl, half-purr. "I so do not want to face the Court today."

Because of him. Joxer poked at the farmers' cheese but his appetite was not its best. "Do you really think it'll be so bad?" he asked.

"I put a member of the royal House in the dungeons. It'll be bad."

"Not all the Houses seem to be opposed to you, though." She gave him a funny look, and he stumbled over the next few words. "I, I mean from what I've seen, it seems like a lot of them are playing both sides. And some, like the Fox and the Gazelle, they seem very supportive of having the law apply across the board like you're doing."

"Well, they would. They're too far out of the line of succession to really care."

"Who else is out of the line of succession? You could work with that."

"Work how?" Nebula leaned on the table and looked at him. The servants had been shooed off once breakfast had been brought, instead of required to stand at hand as normal to refill jugs and whisk empty plates away, and they were alone in the cavernous royal apartments. No one around to maybe take offense at what Joxer might say, not even Suleiman, and emboldened by this he plowed forward. "Well...it seems that only the Houses with a direct shot at the throne really have anything to lose if the laws are tightened. And the Houses that don't have a shot at the throne hate the Houses that do, right?"

"So..." Nebula spoke carefully, feeling it out. "So it's not so much an advantage for them, but a disadvantage for their enemies?"

"In Athens the demagogues have this thing they do when they want to get power. They go against their own allies, and if it works the opposition lines up behind then. It can get kind of messy," he admitted. Nebula was quiet for a moment. Blew it, Joxer thought, and traced patterns in the cheese. "It takes a lot of skill to pull it off. And in Athens, people know about that kind of trick, and they're wary, but here..."

"But here there's never really been such a split before." Nebula leaned back in her chair again. "The lesser Houses see the Lion House spurning me, but I'm still the monarch--and they fall in behind me to take the opportunity for revenge." The wolf grin slowly spread across her face again. "Brilliant." She laughed. "Congratulate me."

"You're brilliant," Joxer said dryly.

"You're brilliant for coming up with it. I'm brilliant for asking you. Same thing."

The praise felt strangely almost like a blow, and Joxer ducked his head. "It's nothing," he mumbled. "Really. I mean, Gabrielle and me, we used to sit up nights all the time and talk about..."

Gabrielle. Now his appetite really was gone. Gabrielle, and he was feeling slightly guilty though he really had no reason to, did he? Slightly guilty, and slightly angry with himself, like he should have stayed last night and talked some more with her, and maybe...And maybe what? he asked himself. Don't be more of an idiot than you have to. No chance of any maybe what, you know that. I know that, he repeated after himself silently.

But still he felt guilty.

Nebula tapped him lightly on the shoulder and he sprang up, surprised. She looked at him intently, her dark eyes warm but serious. "Don't worry about Blondie, pal," she said softly. "She'll come around." Then she sat back and the serious expression was gone once more. "Making allies of enemies and vice-versa," she said. "Well, well, well. Should be interesting."