Sharpie

"You always tell him it'll be this afternoon, or tomorrow, Domine," Attis pointed out, running both hands through his hair to attempt to make it look vaguely presentable - he hadn't expected his master to be going anywhere today and certainly not quite so precipitately. He was lucky that he'd put on a clean tunic that morning and people didn't pay much attention to other people's slaves anyway. "Um, no, you didn't, Domine," he said. "What did she say - if I can ask, that is." How had it managed to not get buried in the rest of his unread correspondence and paperwork?! @Sara

"A simple 'no' would have sufficed, Jason." As rebukes went, it was a mild one, but it still stung, and it was a moment before he could trust himself to speak in a neutral tone - anything else would just inflame the situation and it did not need that. "Maybe, Domine." He flicked hazel green eyes to his master's face briefly before looking back down to pull fondly at the horse's ears. "But would you have believed a simple 'no'?" They had come close to understanding one another, or beginning to, or something, and he felt as if he'd stepped from firm ground into a pit he was unaware was there. Fuck their traditions and laws; traditions and laws didn't erase a man's memories when he was made a captive and a slave, after all. He had never been troublesome, had never caused trouble, had never done anything to make Tiberius think that he ever would, so why did he think so, just from one simple conversation and one brief explanation? Hadn't he just said he wouldn't, in fact?! It hurt, deeply, that realisation that Tiberius would never think of him as anything more than a dumb animal, a beast of burden to follow orders. He could almost feel the cold steel close around his neck as it had eight years and a half ago in the wild Sarmatian grass. He lifted a carefully blank face to his master, his eyes no higher than the cloak around his shoulders. "Let them have their run, Domine, they will be better for it." @Sarah

"Only when I've been out and he wants the world to know I was away for about, oh, five hundred years and nobody's paid him any attention at all in that time," Attis replied. "He's never met anyone he didn't like, sir, but if anyone wants to do anything he doesn't want, they'd better know how to bribe him - not that that's awfully hard, in most cases." It also depended on what it was they were trying to get him to do, or not do, and how urgent it was that he do, or not do, the thing. "Can I ask why you got him?" Why he'd been summarily passed to Longinus was more readily apparent, of course. He hadn't thought Sulpicius Rufus was particularly a dog person - possibly why the animal had been gifted to Longinus, in fact - especially when it came to dogs the size of a small elephant. @Liv

"What, now? Right now this instant?!" Attis hadn't expected that his words would produce quite so sudden a decision... although Longinus had been doing paperwork and had never once, to Attis' recollection, passed up an opportunity however meagre of sliding out of tackling said paperwork. He couldn't help wondering whether Vitus might really be only in his thirties despite appearing easily a decade or more older. He'd have to ask the next time they had a moment to talk. "You can ask to see your friend's new baby, too, Domine," he added. Metella would like to know how the baby was doing, probably, and it was always amusing to see his master going gooey over other people's children. Not that it happened very often, but there was some sort of proprietary link to this particular one. He shrugged and turned to go and find his master's outdoor shoes; he wouldn't want to go even the short distance from his house to the ex-Consul's in his indoor slippers, after all. @Sara

"I'm sure they did," Aulus replied dryly. "They can wait, however. Now. Horatia has suggested, and I concur, that perhaps there should be a dedicated midwife in residence here, because Juno knows her priestesses aren't capable of acting in that capacity." They probably had the position as a favour from some past Consul or Emperor, treating it as a hobby or sinecure. "Obviously, such a woman needs somewhere to live, and there should be a birthing room too, although presumably any woman coming to the temple wants to pray to the goddess. I wonder how much of a sacrilege it would be to have such a room within the very walls of the temple?" And how much of a desecration those old biddies considered it for Horatia to have given birth within the very sanctuary itself, almost. He had come up here to scout out the land; rebuilding a temple was a worthy use of funds, and to rebuild a temple to Horatia's wishes would be a fitting tribute. Not that the fluttering bats consecrated to Juno Lucina would see it that way, probably. "I wonder how many women have found themselves in a similar position, coming to pray and finding themselves needing the more direct intervention of a good pair of hands," he added. @Chevi

Teutus was watching the whole operation with interest - yes, it was women's work, but his late mistress had not lived long enough to set up a loom in her own house, and Tertius had had the money to simply buy ready-woven cloth and have it made up into clothing for his household, so Teutus had never really watched the process whereby spun thread (linen or wool) had been dyed and woven into cloth. There had been baskets and baskets of spun and dyed wool appearing throughout the small apartment over the past weeks, his mother busy with her spindle almost every time Teutus had seen her. And now she was eagerly measuring thread, leaving the main room looking as if it had been attacked by spiders with an interesting diet and choice of colours for their webs. "Father freed her, you know." She probably didn't know that. "The only other slave he ever freed was me." He sighed, he had such a confusion where Charis was concerned, mostly around her child. Tertius had done it very neatly indeed, replacing Varinia and himself with Charis and her baby, although he seemed to care for Teutus. He just had a very odd way of showing it, sometimes. @Sarah

"Thank you, Domine," Attis said, meaning it sincerely. It was one less thing to worry about, although no slave could ever quite dismiss that fear from the back of their mind, and Longinus joked entirely too often for comfort about selling Attis, or otherwise getting rid of him from the household permanently. Though they both knew he'd be lost without Attis to ensure he was scrubbed and turned out properly. Metella didn't even have that sort of assurance, not really, although she was gradually beginning to fill the role of body-slave to Cassia Antonilla rather than merely her nurse. What role she would have once she had a baby to care for was anyone's guess. "If all theatre is drivel, Domine, maybe you should sponsor some writers to come up with something that isn't pure drivel - that would help empty a strongbox or two." The idea of a palaestra was... it was a good one, in fact. "That sounds perfect. I'm sure your friend the Consul probably scouted several sites when he was considering where to put his baths, one of those might be a good place for a palaestra." And probably the big hulking Dacian, Celsus, would prefer to throw medicine balls at their master than to go running half around the city before the break of dawn. Attis certainly would! @Sara

"I don't," he confessed. "Though I do happen to know my father's clients, I'll have to have a think." Even if they didn't have a daughter looking for employment (one or two of them might), they'd probably know somebody who did. "It seems my lucky stone was better for you than for me," he added, half wishing he could ask for it back, though he really had no need of it now - he had his mother and really didn't need the thing she'd given him to remember her by, not now. @Sara

It might well be Aulus' imagination, but he could swear the chief priestess looked as if she'd bitten down unexpectedly on a lemon. She wasn't short, as Roman women went, but Aulus was tall for a Roman man; her head was approximately level with his chest, which lessened the effectiveness of her approach. And probably didn't help with the overall sourness of her presumed disposition - Aulus conceded that perhaps he was being less than generous because it was his wife and child that had been endangered. And not everyone was unaffected by blood and pain, something he was all too familiar with from his own military background. "Thank you. I hope it would not be inappropriate of me to take a walk in the sacred grove?" This was a temple for women; while there were a few things Aulus had in mind, none of them were blasphemous in any way and he could only hope that his very male presence (and Felix's) would likewise not be blasphemous. "Oh, no, not at all - of course you may," she managed, though the sour lemon expression seemed not to have dissipated very much. "Thank you. Felix." @Chevi

"If you won't buy, then hire someone - you said he gives you an allowance, so use it. And then you'll know it's her choice and you won't be forcing anyone. You'll find someone." Gods knew she needed someone - he could only imagine what sort of contract his father must have forced on her, in order to keep her bound to him despite granting her her freedom. Tertius wouldn't have freed her if he didn't think he could somehow bind her to him in a different way, even more than through their child. He would never understand how his father couldn't see what he did to people around him and why they might resent him for it all. "Ask my father's clients, especially some of the older ones. They'll find you someone, I'm sure." She might prefer someone not Roman, but she would have to go to the slave markets for that and he really couldn't see her doing that, not from choice anyway. @Sara

"I don't know how," he confessed. "Everything around me has been so utterly insane for the last two years. More." He set the jug down. "You can't count. Three. Three ex-slaves trying to make sense of something that just won't make sense. And I will see what I come across - let you have first refusal of whatever jewellery or - whatever, that I find that you might like." He swirled the dark red wine around in his cup. "Cicero," he said, correcting her pronunciation. "And if you want to read history, start with Livy. He's pretty readable, and will give you a very good idea of the sort of stories Romans like about the city's past." And something occurred to him. "Something else - not to do with reading, but for you. Get yourself a girl, slave or free, doesn't matter. Someone you can trust, to be your maid. Someone from outside the household." She needed her own ally within the house, now more than ever, and Tertius would not begrudge her a maid of her own choosing unless he wanted everyone around him to start muttering about his eccentricity. @Sara

Two days after Saturnalia, 76AD Winter was quiet, as far as business went. It was dangerous to sail from about November through to some time in February - it didn't mean that ships didn't sail in those months, just that those months were more prone to storms at sea and so the most prudent sailors preferred to winter in some port or other. Which was just fine by Teutus, who was well enough aware that he had built flexibility into his business plans. Winter was a time to ensure the warehouse was clean and tidy, ready for new stock to come in. And right after Saturnalia was a very quiet time indeed, with no need for Teutus to leave the house for business purposes. Which meant that he was at home today, watching as his mother set up her new loom. "I don't think I mentioned it earlier, Mama," he said quietly. "Charis came by over Saturnalia... I invited her to dinner in a week or so. Just her, and her baby." @Sarah

"I am hardly normal people," he managed, and shrugged. "I'm just as Roman as any of them, what makes you think I'd be any better for your son than they'll be?" He set his cup down. Even without being present, Tertius' actions (or their results) managed to hurt the people close to him; he had seen the expression Charis' face as he admitted out loud that he didn't like her son. It wasn't the baby's fault, it couldn't possibly be, because what had he done other than to be born and declared free? Nothing. He wondered if Charis' presence in Tertius' life had hurt Varinia - maybe not, his mother had had years to get used to not being around Tertius, after all. "Don't thank me yet," he said and got up to cross the room for the jug of mulsum to top their cups up with. He needed it, she probably didn't, but she was a guest and it would be churlish for him not to give her more when he was having more. Mulsum was not the best for getting drunk on, but that could wait. "I don't know. I don't know many wives of senators, not really. And you're hardly one to be ostentatious in the things you like to wear - I can't see you being comfortable dripping in jewellery, after all. Though I think people will take you more seriously if you do have some expensive things. Like earrings, or a necklace, that obviously cost money." Charis, like Varinia, was a woman of tasteful elegance rather than tawdry ostentation. He would keep some things for her to look at and have first refusal of, if he found anything she might like before she came to call the next time. He had absolutely no compunction about taking his father's money in such a cause. @Sara

There was the ghost of a smile, quickly gone, as she promised she wouldn't bring Tertius. His father had never bothered to visit him here, and he rather hoped that he never would, he needed his own place away from the confusion and awkwardness that sometimes seemed to wrap around Tertius like his toga. This was going to be a thing for as long as he had any sort of friendship with Charis, for as long as he had any connection to his father's household at all. "I..." He took a breath. "He will have my father's friends, and their sons, people he will be friends with. I don't think it would be fair, to him, to bring him around someone he will know doesn't like him." And there, he'd said it. "I am... not someone he will ever look up to, I don't think." He was not Rome's foremost expert on children but he knew that they could be extremely perceptive - Antonia certainly could, and he had no reason to think Charis' son would not be equally so, once he was old enough to think and to ask questions. Although maybe he should try; he would be the boy's legal guardian if Tertius died before he was of age. Just another example of that awkwardness and complexity. Why did things have to be like that? He was pretty sure that nobody else in the entire insula had such complexities in their family lives. His mother would no doubt manage to talk him into spending time with Peregrinus, of course. His mother could charm the birds from the trees, probably. "Bring him, if you like. I daresay Proserpina can look after him while we eat." @Sara

"I've lived with awkward for the last... oh, years. Why change the habit of a lifetime?" She continued speaking, though, and he sighed. Well, that was exactly what he'd seen in his father's face when he looked at Peregrinus - with the exception that he hadn't replaced Charis with Varinia. Teutus and his mother were both excluded from Tertius' nice cosy family life, even if his father wanted to include Teutus in it somehow. It would never be on equal footing with his new child and surely he would come to appreciate the fact that Teutus was no longer there to make things uncomfortable for him and Charis and Peregrinus? "Of course you can come for dinner - shall we say in a couple of weeks or so, once the Saturnalia nonsense has died down and everyone's got over their hangovers?" He hoped that she would not feel the need to bring her infant son with her, though. @Sara

"How many barbers are there in just one of those areas?" Jason asked, more as a rhetorical question than because he expected an actual figure. "Could he... I don't suppose he lives in one area and works in another, most people live and work in the same place." Because it was easier and cheaper to pay one landlord than two. At least, from everything Jason had learned in his time in Rome, and also that was what common sense told him. He glanced between Lucius (who seemed somehow an innocent despite his patrician accent and his vigiles uniform) and Theo. Alexius was more the muscle of the group, though the idea to use raisins was a good one. "Would it be worth starting with the Elysium, trying to talk to the girls there? They might know a name, even if they haven't actually been told one." Slaves listened, after all, and could put names to faces even without formal introductions. In a lot of cases, that was simply a survival skill - and slaves knew how to survive, if nothing else. @Chevi @Atrice

"He lived about a hundred years ago, he was a lawyer and a very successful one, he became a senator and rose to become Consul. There was a civil war between a man called Gaius Julius Caesar, on one side, and Cicero and some other men were on the other side. They lost but arranged to assassinate Julius Caesar." He watched her face and laughed. "I suppose it is all just as dull as it sounds, really. That was the end of the Republic, though, because Julius Caesar's heir was a man who took the title Augustus, who founded what we have now, the Principate. Which is why you might hear my father or other senators refer to Caesar, or the Augustus, because those have become titles that the Emperor uses." He pointed his wine-cup at her. "If you think I'd marry someone just because she's rich and well-connected, you're wrong. I don't need connections, not like that. Well, not political connections, anyway." He sighed; maybe he would have, if Tertius had been able to do what he'd always said he wanted to do. But he couldn't, and Teutus hadn't been about to laze around on his father's generosity, reminding Tertius of yet another way he'd failed. He felt he was enough of a disappointment to his father - maybe they would have a better relationship if he'd been acknowledged at birth. It was hardly surprising that Tertius fought so much to be in control of everything nowadays, considering how much his current relationships had been dictated by his father's actions. "Antonia is... Well, I won't say she isn't spoiled, because she is. But she's generous and if she likes you..." His smile was perhaps a little watery; his own relationship with his sister was not without its own issues because he'd been a slave for most of her life and that was enough to tarnish anything. But he loved Antonia for her own sake - he really needed to make sure that relationship wasn't too damaged. "She's also young enough to drag you around to all of her favourite places and buy all of the things. Take her to Livia's Portico, you'll at least get a chance to sit down and look at the gardens when you need a rest." He reached for a date, pausing as Charis mentioned Varinia. "No... she didn't," he said slowly, and had to pause again to remove the date stone. "I should have guessed she would though - and no, I wouldn't have stopped her if I'd known." He couldn't begin to think what sort of friendship Charis and Varinia might develop, if left to it. "Of course you can, why would I stop you?" Gods knew Charis needed friends, and Varinia had always been the sort of person to befriend anyone who'd let her. He would let them find their own equilibrium between the two of them, the older woman and the younger, Tertius' former lover and his current concubina. @Sara

He had all but vanished from the others' conscious thoughts as their conversation turned to something else, though of course he couldn't help overhearing what they were saying. He kept his eyes on his task and his hands moving even as he let the conversation wash over him. "Your father died just before the purges, didn't he?" That was Tiberius' voice. ""Yes, he died when I was very young. By a slave's hand. Why do you ask?" And that was Junius Silanus; Jason could hear the note of bitterness in the words. It was an emotion he was all too familiar with himself, although he would not let either of the two citizens know that. Not that they would care, particularly. Tiberius was more likely to than Silanus... but his master was an odd bird and Jason still hadn't quite figured him out yet. And if Junius Silanus' father had been murdered by a slave, well. That went a long way to explaining the whole interaction earlier - and it didn't take much guesswork to figure out what had happened to the rest of the slaves in that household. He was definitely going to treat Marcus Junius Silanus with an abundance of caution in the future! @Sarah @Atrice

It took a moment before the implied meaning of Tiberius' question coalesced in Jason's mind. He had only meant somewhere for Ignis to run... for Tiberius to imply Jason might want to run away... It wasn't as though that thought hadn't occurred to him in the eight years and some months since the worst day of his life... He closed his eyes, turning his face to the sky to attempt to control his emotions and gather his thoughts into some semblance of words in the horrible inadequacy of Latin. "That... was not what I meant," he managed, and swallowed hard. "I... I would give a great deal to see my mother again, but I could never look her in the face if I attempted something so... dishonourable. Not that you Romans believe anyone knows about honour except you." He swallowed again and ran a hand along Ignis' neck to calm the horse; none of this was his fault, after all, and unconsciously turned the horse so that when he lifted his chin again he was looking in the direction of his own homeland, countless miles away. "My father was a chief, among our people. I would not disgrace him - and you and I both know what happens to runaway slaves. Domine." He probably didn't look much how Tiberius would imagine a Sarmatian chief's son to look; he had no visible jewellery other than the cheap bronze penannular brooch that pinned his cloak at the shoulder, and a single blue glass bead worn at the back of his head where it joined the ends of two thin braids, the barest hint of his heritage. And it wouldn't take Tiberius very long to think back over their whole interaction today and realise that he held a hostage to Jason's good behaviour in Jason's cousin. The chief of the White racing faction could hardly refuse to hand him over if he was demanded by an Imperial prince, and Jason would not let any further harm come to Azarion if he could help it. @Sarah

Jason winced at the way his master kicked his heels against the sides of the bay he was mounted on, to get him to move. Just because he wasn't mounted on the horse Jason had been working with didn't mean that the same principles didn't apply. Though he allowed that perhaps the gentle squeeze and release of his knees had been too subtle for the prince to see as he had guided Ignis to fall in behind the bay gelding. "I..." He had to swallow a lump in his throat; he wanted to give Ignis his head, let him run and feel the wind in his hair again as he had used to take for granted. "Is there anywhere to run, Domine? It would do Ignis good to have a good run, he's going, how do you say it? Stir crazy, just kept in the stable yard." He felt an affinity with the big horse, as probably the Romans would never understand. To the Romans, horses were beasts of burden, unintelligent, tools as their slaves were tools, to be put to whatever use the Roman masters demanded. To Jason, horses were his kin, friends, to be asked to bear a rider willingly, to respond to a soft touch and a spoken word. He had absolutely no doubt that, given the right time and training, he could teach Ignis how to wait for a rider without needing to be held or tied or hobbled. Sarmatians had no fear that their mounts would wander off if left for a while, whereas the Romans would spend half a day trying to catch theirs unless they left them with someone holding the reins. If he was allowed the time, he would have to see whether he could teach Ignis that; it would surely astonish Tiberius and his stable master. @Sarah

An attempt to show where the attacks took place; grey dots are non-fatal attacks, white dots are fatal attacks

Jason was not used to maps, although he grasped the idea quickly enough - it was like looking down on the city if you were a bird flying over it. So if that was the Forum and the long shape of the Circus was there, that meant the Palatine was there and the Esquiline there... Why they couldn't actually orient the thing properly so their east was east, he had no idea... but then, Romans couldn't find east unless they saw the sun rise. Whereas Jason could just point in that direction. "The patrician girl... I found her about here," he said, reaching for a raisin and placing it where the lower slopes of the Esquiline would be. He thought it had been in Regio III but the boundaries of the various regions weren't clear and the boundary of Regios III and V ran along the side of the Esquiline before curving to the south. She had been in a room of one of the more dilapidated insulae to be found on the lower slopes to the south of the Esquiline Hill, near the boundary of Regios II and III. It hadn't been a long walk to carry her home, but any vigiles who would have spoken to her about what happened would have been from a different jurisdiction because bloody Romans. "I don't know where she was attacked the first time, though," he added, looking at the cluster of raisins. So far, a number of them were clustered around the Esquiline and more clustered around the Aventine, with the outliers being the attacks on Azarion and his friend near the Circus, in that narrow alley outside the White stables complex. There were several near the Forum Romanum, too. "Well. He knows Rome - but look where most of these are." There were three or four raisins in a heap together in the Subura, several on the Aventine or between the Aventine and the Forum... "It does rather look like he concentrates on the Aventine. But he knows the Esquiline, too - I only found Ovinia by chance, it's a pretty run-down place where he hurt her." He'd run when Azarion fought back - did he know a bolt hole down there? Probably not, but on the Aventine... he'd know the alleys there, if Jason's theory was right. "What's this group all about?" he asked, pointing at the four raisins almost on top of one another. @Chevi @Atrice

This was only their first meeting and yet it seemed to be going far more promisingly than - no, that wasn't true. Every meeting with Ovinia Camilla had been promising enough until that final one in the Gardens of Sallust. Perhaps the Gardens of Meacenas would bear better fruit? "I'm sure it can't be easy, to go from your own home back to living in your father's house. Or your brother's," he said, commiserating although he could hardly understand that from his own experience - he'd gone from his father's house to the Legions to being the head of his family. "How has your son found it?" Maybe there were cousins of his own age, and maybe there weren't. Six-year-olds could adapt easily to changes in circumstances, he thought - as if he knew anything about children of any age at all! @Atrice

Jason was almost out of ideas how they could find this one man among the vast crowds of Rome, until something occurred to him. "The places where these attacks happened," he said slowly, once he was sure he wouldn't be interrupting anyone. "Are these places that this man knows well - he's not likely to cross from Transtiberina to the Subura to kill in somewhere he doesn't know. There must be some connection - he doesn't wander all over Rome to do this, he keeps to streets he knows." Which didn't help Jason piece any more together, this whole way of living and thinking was still foreign to him. Ask him to train a horse or track a wolf and he could. Ask him to track a man on the steppe and he could do that, but find one man among a city full of people and he was out of his depths. @Chevi @Atrice

"Yes, a citizen - a plebeian," Jason said, dropping tiredly onto a nearby bench. He'd still have to attend his master after he got back to the Palace after all this. He committed the dead Senator's name to memory; he might get a chance to ask Tiberius about him without raising suspicion. Maybe. "I don't think he was a magistrate," he said thoughtfully, and downed half the cup of wine. "I don't think I've heard Tiberius talk about him at all - though I'm pretty sure he will once the news of his death gets out." @Chevi @Atrice