Strength lies In Differences

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You don't need a husband to have a friend, though - or to have someone to laugh with... The words were spoken with a smile that made Cynane look much prettier and indefinably younger in a way that had very little to do with age and everything to do with not looking severe and grim. Volusa wondered how much that habitual look had to do with her past and how much was deliberately cultivated as part of her bodyguard persona.

"I do, but not very often," she replied. It was the curse of being a body slave, that she was expected to be with her mistress nearly all the time. She returned the offer with a smile of her own. "I would.. I would like that, very much, Cynane. I would like to be friends with you."

For one thing, it would make it much more pleasant if she were friends with the other person who spent similar amounts of time with the mistress. Volusa thought that life would be much easier if she could trust the woman assigned to be the mistress' bodyguard. Claudia might trust her, but Volusa had kept a little bit of cynical mistrust, as she always did around people who she didn't know and hadn't learned to trust yet. And that had melted away during this conversation, and she knew that she'd step between Cynane and any overseer's lash without a thought if she needed to - she had the scar to prove she would do that for those she considered her friends.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

Of course women needed men. At least that’s how everyone seemed to think. When you were a child, your father was the leader of the household and made the important decisions and when you grew up, you had to find a husband and he’d take over in making the important decisions for you. Women had little say in it, in most cases anyway. And women needed men to have children too, of course. So they did need men, apparently. But Cynane wasn’t sure at this point that she wanted to need a man. She could be friends with women. Volusa here seemed to warm up to her now even, and while they were very different, they seemed to get along.

She wondered if Volusa ever went out on her own, and she said she didn’t. Cynane had then dared to suggest they could go out together at some point. Volusa then smiled her sweet and gentle smile and said she’d like to go out with Cynane and be friends with her. Cynane smiled back; how could she not smile? It was nice to gain a friend.

“Likewise, Volusa. Then we will leave the palace someday, together, just the two of us.” She said and her grin widened a bit, as she thought about how Volusa would also be safe from men’s hands, because she was with Cynane. She’d protect her, was it needed – and sometimes it was.

“Soon, though. Today we have duties. Do you think she’s awake yet?” She glanced towards the entrance to Claudia’s quarters.

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"I would like that," Volusa said. It would be nice to be able to leave the palace, even just for an afternoon, perhaps to go shopping (well, looking at things; she didn't have much money to actually buy anything) or maybe they could go to the baths - anyone could go to the baths, if they could pay the tiny entrance fee. Had Cynane ever gone to the baths? It was possible, of course, however unlikely, that she had gone while still a gladiatrix, but Volusa had a vague idea that the gladiators weren't allowed out of the ludus for any reason. Did ludi even have bath-houses?

She couldn't help acknowledging just how little she actually knew, of anything, really.

She turned her head as Cynane asked whether the mistress were awake yet, listening. "I think... if she isn't, she will be very soon. I should go to her, I think."

She wouldn't want the mistress to wonder where she was, not if she was gong to ask for a whole afternoon out at some point. Only good slaves could expect a reward of any sort, after all.

She turned back to the taller woman. "I... I'm glad I got to talk to you, Cynane," she said. "I've liked getting to know you."

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

It would be nice to leave the palace with someone, instead of alone. Of course she also left with someone sometimes, but that would most often be together with Claudia and even Volusa, although at such times there was little time for simple casual conversations, like the one they just had. How odd that you could work alongside someone for so long, but not really know them… but that would change now. She supposed they’d find out where to go once they found out when.

Cynane then recalled they were actually here to work though and wondered if their mistress might be awake. Volusa agreed she might be up soon at least, and then spoke nicely to Cynane about how good it was to talk to her.

“Likewise, Volusa. It is nice to gain a friend here.” She said with another warm smile to the young woman, “We’ll find out when we can get some time to go out. Now you better go see her. I’ll be out here if she asks for me.”

@Sharpie

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Volusa always liked making new friends - it was so much easier to work with someone if you were friends with them, especially when you worked closely with them. She'd always been a little nervous of the other woman, but couldn't say whether it was from her height, her general demeanour, or the fact she was British and there was some sort of 'otherness' about her. But it was very nice to find that they had things in common, and could be friends.

"I hope we might be able to go somewhere soon," she said, though she wasn't sure how easy it would be to persuade Claudia to let them have an afternoon, just a few hours, to themselves.

"I'll call you, if she asks for you," she said, and gave Cynane another smile before she returned to their mistress' rooms to begin the day properly.

 

End