Outside the room, Roxanne continued to pace about, restlessly. She was very uneasy. Everyone who had walked into the room had cast her ugly snares. Roxanne was frustrated! She did not understand why she always got one strange form of reception or the other. Did Americans really irk Europeans that much? If so, they had no reason to worry. Once her three months here are over, she would return to her land, her home.

Behind her, an anxious woman hurried over to the door she was currently standing in front of. When the woman saw her, her senses told her to stop.

Hera, the younger queen of Ahab, stood behind...