Two barbarians don't make a horde

[Atrice]

She hoped for Jason too, that he'd get to know his cousin better. Having any kind of relative here, that you actually cared about, that was rare for a captured foreign slave. Either slaves were born into the households, and then they might have family and they were at peace with their position. Or they were captured and the desire for freedom was beaten out of them, or they ended up like Cynane. And maybe Jason. She felt they had something in common, there was a connection. Odd how they never spoke before, but now that they did, she would want to see more of him. Get to know him better.

Cynane explained about the only relative she knew that she had in Rome, but it wasn't someone she wanted to see. Ysulda probably didn't even know she was here and that was for the best, for both of them. Cynane wasn't sure she'd be able to keep her anger in control, should she stand face to face with her cousin again. Jason said he was sorry to hear the story and she nodded, she was sorry too. Then he shifted, reaching for the knife he'd used and suddenly spoke of brotherhood by blood.

"I think some may do it. But it's mostly the men." She explained and tilted her head, "You wish to do it... with me?" It surprised her, but it also made her feel a little happy. They'd only really gotten to know each other today, but he must feel what she felt too. A strange relation, it had nothing to do with love or attraction - although he was easy on the eyes - but it had to do with respect and maybe even kinship. A kinship that was felt within.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"You're a warrior, I'm a warrior, why not?" She had no family here - that wasn't exactly a shock, Romans didn't like their slaves (the ones captured in war) to have any real knowledge of where their relations were, after all. He'd heard vague references about someone named Spartacus, and a slave uprising a hundred years ago or so, that had ended with thousands of slaves being crucified along the Appian Way. A very nice mental image and stark warning, as it was probably meant to be.

"You shouldn't need to be alone," he said. She probably had friends here - he did, after all - but there was something about having a shared history (or rather, a similar history) which none of the other Palace slaves had, being mostly born into slavery.

He carefully cut his wrist, the smallest nick, allowing a few drops of bright blood to bubble up, before offering the knife to Cynane.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

She had never done a thing like this before, but then again, she never considered it and no one else ever offered it to her. But Jason gave a simple and good reason for why they should do it. They were both warriors, caught here in Rome, so why not? This was deep though. Meaningful. To become family by blood like this, it was more than just a friendship. It meant she had someone who would be there for her, didn't it? She'd have family. Jason didn't want her to be alone.

"You're one of a kind, Jason... Tiranês." She said, before he cut his wrist with the knife. Blood bubbled up from the tiny cut and she took the knife from his hand. Then she did the same to her wrist. Jason had clearly done this before, knew the procedure, so she'd let him show her how it was all done. Cynane only heard about it, maybe she'd seen some of the older boys do it when she was a child, but she had never been part of it. Did he even know how big this was for her? How much it meant? And not just the whole swearing blood brotherhood. But she was also letting him take the lead. It was very likely he did not know how uncommon that was for her, to willingly let a man lead the way. Well, he'd be her brother know. He'd learn with time.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

Romans were predictable, with their straight roads and stone buildings and soldiers in nice straight lines, all wearing the same armour and carrying the same shields as though pressed out of a mould. Tiranês came from a people where spontaneity, even if it was a planned spontaneity, was a large part of every-day life - you couldn't march in a nice straight Roman line if you wanted to bring down a deer for the evening meal, after all.

He took her hand, gently, bringing the two cuts together to allow their blood to mingle. A few drops landed on the ground between them, commingled so that it was impossible to tell which was her blood and which was his. It was a solemn thing, a ceremony between two warriors that was as old as the steppes, and now her blood flowed in his veins and his blood flowed in hers, binding them together heart and soul.

Something the Romans with all their predictability and rigidity would never understand and never be able to take away.

"Tabiti, witness this, that I take Cinnia of the Brigantes to be my blood sister," he said quietly.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

They both fell silent, while performing the ritual that he clearly knew better than her. He took her hand gently, just holding it, to let their small cuts meet and the blood mingled. It barely hurt, to her, and she watched too as the blood dripped to the ground between them. Slave blood, spilled in the palace garden, but on purpose, done by slaves and without it having anything to do with fights. She didn't take any time to consider that the Romans might consider it weird or even wrong. It was her body, no matter what they said. And they didn't oversee her all the time. 

She looked up at him again when he spoke words, she imagined Tabiti must be a goddess of his. Cynane had never been a very religious person, not even when she was free, and when she came here, the gods didn't seem to matter much either. She wasn't even sure who to call upon, but maybe Charis would know the right one. Maybe she should do this with Charis too? The younger woman was already like a sister to her. But right now, this moment mattered.

"I am very honored, Tiranês, to be your sister." She said with a smile to him, "It would probably not be a good idea to tell the Romans about this." And what a joy it would actually be, to have something like this happen, and the Romans would never know. It wasn't their knowledge to have. It was between her and her new brother.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"I am honoured that you would be my sister, Cinnia," he told her, returning her smile and then rolling his eyes. "There are a lot of things that it is not a good idea to tell the Romans, and a lot that they would not understand. What they don't know need not trouble them."

It was a simple ceremony - it hadn't even required the words, really - but with so much meaning, far more so than the elaborate Roman rituals that went on for hours. They were bound together inextricably as family, Cinnia's quarrels were Tiranês' and Tiranês' quarrels were Cinnia's, and she now had family out on the wild steppe of Sarmatia if she could ever get there.

"We aren't so very different at all, your people and mine," he said. "Not where it really matters. It just might look different on the outside, that's all."

She hadn't asked about the significance of what they'd done, as though she already knew of it - anyway, she'd said as much, though it sounded more like something she knew of from hearing about it. Well. It was a private thing between two individuals, whichever way you looked at it; it wasn't supposed to be a big public thing.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

She couldn't help but smile, when he said that he was honored too and then rolled his eyes, saying how there were many things you should not tell the Romans... because they would not understand it anyway. So why trouble them at all? Cynane nodded at his words, while she pulled her hand back and pressed a few fingers to the wound by her wrist to stop the bleeding.

"You're very right about all of that." She replied, before he explained how he did not think their peoples were so different within. It would look like it to the Romans, but they knew otherwise.

"We bleed the same." She said, "The Romans probably think we are the same, actually. We're captured slaves. But they would never understand what it is like, to use. People, who have never been slaves here in Rome, would not understand what it's like. We were free once. And we still are..." She paused, trying to find the right words, then placed her hands over her heart, "We're free in here." 

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

He pressed a thumb over the cut on his own wrist; it might scar (he hoped it would) but it would be a tiny, insignificant scar that might have been caused by almost anything... Insignificant to anyone except the two of them, that was.

"The Romans can take anything, except that," he said, nodding in understanding. "Tell me of your people, the Brigantes, and your home." She had only said the name once but it had sounded as if she spoke of her tribe and she had not corrected him when he had used it. If they spoke to one another of their homes, it might rouse the longing inside, but it would also stir up the memories that might be in danger of being forgotten.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

Gods it felt so nice speaking to someone who seemed to understand her - he was on the same page as she, and how often did that happen? She'd once almost had it with Charis, but Charis' master made sure to break her good and well after he found out. Hopefully Jason would not be broken the same way. Tiberius sounded like he was not the kind of master who'd do that to a slave and since Jason had already been here a few years, and still had these thoughts in his head... that had to mean he was free within, as much as Cynane was. She smiled at his comment and then he wanted to hear about her people.

"Well we don't ride horses as much as you seem to do. We do have them, but they are valuable; they are for kings and chieftains. The Brigantes are farmers, with steadfast villages, and mostly round houses built of either wood and dirt and sometimes stone." She explained. That was the simple part of it, "The tribe covered quite a lot of land, before I left. I think it may have been the largest tribe of all in Britannia. Hopefully it still is. We share our name with a goddess, Brigantia. She is much like the Roman Minerva. And we often have female leaders." She added with a little smile, now that's something the Romans would never understand. They seemed very keen on having only men in higher ranks and even in the family, it was always the men who had the last say in anything. That wasn't what she grew up with.

"Do your people have female leaders?" She then wondered, curious to find out if her people and Jason's people had more in common.

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[Sharpie]

"The chieftain is a man, but it would be a very foolish chief who did not listen to his wife, and there are women in our councils - they are affected by the decisions made as to where to pasture, perhaps more than the menfolk because they have to think of the young children." He smiled. "Oh, of course horses are valuable, but we breed them, of course, and every Sarmatian child is born to the saddle."

Perhaps one day his people would ride their horses westwards - perhaps even to the very gates of Rome itself. That would be a sight worth seeing! An impossible dream, of course, but who knew what might happen, and vengeance was a powerful motivator.

Though the deaths of a few people was a small enough thing to seek such vengeance for - people died all the time on the steppe. Life was not easy, there, something that Tiranês' longing for it conveniently forgot.

"The most important of our deities is a goddess, though - Tabiti. She is... I suppose she is like the Roman Vesta, in that she is the goddess of fire and the hearth and family. She is also the protectress of our chiefs." It was Tabiti that he had invoked in their brief, private, ceremony a few moments ago.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

When was the last time a man made her smile? But Jason did it. How could she not smile, when he so cleverly admitted that only a foolish chief did not listen to his wife. And there were women in their councils too. Cynane imagined any Roman of high rank would rather drop dead than see a woman as a Senator or even step foot in the Senate. But Jason wasn't a Roman. 

"It sounds like it's a good place to be a woman." She commented. Jason continued, telling her about their most important deity, who was also a goddess. The one he invoked just before. She wasn't quite like the Brigantia that Cynane grew up with, but in a way, she imagined she was.

"They sometimes named Brigantia The Bright One, or the High One." She replied, "But Brigantia is also a river goddess, among other things." Cynane added, wanting Jason to know about her goddess, just as he told her about Tabiti. She looked at him, still with a rare soft smile on her face, "I'm sure Tabiti and Brigantia would get along. As we do. It feels so... refreshing, talking to you. I don't think I've met a man in Rome quite like you before. And that's a compliment to you." 

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[Sharpie]

"I think it is," Jason said, and then gave her a rueful shrug and an apologetic look. "Not that I know, of course, being..." He indicated himself - he was obviously male and could not be mistaken for anything else, even in very bad light. And right now they were sitting in a garden in broad daylight, the lighting could hardly be better.

A river-goddess would surely get along with a goddess of the hearth - fire and water were both necessary for life, after all. Perhaps all gods shared the same celestial home and merely responded to their own people and their prayers, ignoring those of other people - or perhaps Tabiti and Vesta were indeed the same goddess, merely worshipped under different names and with different rituals. Brigantia did not have a Sarmatian name, though, so perhaps she was content with the worship she received from her British worshippers.

"There aren't many Sarmatians in Rome, I would be surprised if you had met another - and thank you, I will take that as a compliment." He laid his fist over his heart and bent his head a little in her direction. "I have mixed feeling about the Romans. If it weren't for them, I would still be with my people. But I would not have met you, and I am glad to know you, Cinnia."

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

She chuckled when he pointed out that he thought his homeland was a good place to be a woman... but he didn't know since he wasn't one, "Of course. And I imagine you're satisfied with what you are." Not that you could change it anyway, but still. It was sweet, that he spoke like that. And that his people also respected and valued their women. That wasn't how the Roman men were at all. Not most of them anyway. 

They then spoke of their most important goddesses and that was interesting too, to be honest. In Rome, she knew they valued Jupiter as one of their highest gods. And in Greece, she knew they worshipped Zeus, who had quite the jealous wife because in the stories, Zeus would always sleep around with the mortals. But where Cynane and Jason came from, the superior deity was not necessarily a male one. Everything about Jason was just so refreshing and she complimented him for it. He said there weren't many Sarmatians in Rome in general and then he accepted her compliment and revealed some of his thoughts about the Romans. Was he really... for real? It was almost too good to be true. Hopefully someone wasn't playing a trick on her! 

"You are right. Not that I'd say my feelings about the Romans are very mixed." She said, that was saying something without saying too much, but he'd know what she meant... "But yes, you are right. We would not have met, if it weren't for them. I'm glad to know you too. I almost wish we'd spoken sooner." She said thoughtfully, "If we ever get the chance, we should go out, get a drink together. Away from the eyes of the palace. If you'd like." 

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[Sharpie]

Being male hadn't stopped that Roman forcing himself on Tiranês, a painful and humiliating experience that vied closely with witnessing their treatment of his cousin as the worst thing he'd lived through.

"I am, for the most part," he said, clenching his fist as if to crush those memories. Despite his current slavery, he had good things to think about now - he had a good master (not that he ought to have a master at all, but he'd take a good master any day over a bad one), and now he had family in his new blood-sister.

He managed a chuckle. "Well. My feeling about most Romans aren't mixed at all. It grows hard to remember that when you get to know them, though I doubt they concern themselves with our thoughts and feelings." Being treated as an object helped keep that hate of his masters bubbling, not they would ever see it. Not that they cared to look.

"If we can, ever. I would like that very much," he said, and turned his head, thinking for a moment that he had been called. He hadn't, and he turned back to Cinnia and indicated her hairstyle. "Can I ask... Do the braids have a significance, among your people?"

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

She noticed how he clenched his fist, stating that for the most part, he was happy with being male. But a part of him was not? Well the Romans treated their slaves horribly, no matter their gender. If Jason wished to talk about it, she was right here, his blood-sister. And in spirit too, it seemed. She smiled when he stated that his feelings towards most Romans were not mixed at all. 

"They don't, not most of them anyway." She replied, the Romans did not concern themselves with the feelings and thoughts that slaves had. In their opinion, most slaves probably didn't think at all. They were cattle with tongues that could speak human words, that's all. Live stock that could do work that actual cattle could not. It was different with Claudia, and Tiberius it seemed, but many Romans were not like them at all. It would be nice however, to speak away from the many eyes and ears of the palace. She invited him out for a drink, should they ever get the chance, and Jason naturally accepted that. She nodded, that was a deal then. They'd have to make it happen. Then he asked into her braids. 

"I suppose they do, kind of. On an ordinary day, it wouldn't be like this." She nodded towards her hair, that was made up of braids and ringlets on her head as always, "But we do this for battle. I think to make us seem fiercer to the enemy. And since I'm a bodyguard, why not? I was also captured during a battle. This is my way to honor my people, when I'm so far removed from them." She explained. She never gave it much thought, but now that he mentioned it, there was a reason and it wasn't just aesthetic. 

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[Sharpie]

"The warriors of my people wear their hair in braids, too," Jason said. "The men have moustaches as well, but I was too young to be able to grow a proper moustache before I was taken." He'd had the braids though.

He'd been kneeling in the grass, a hand viciously twisted into his braids, pulling his head up to expose his throat to the threat of a sword... and then, once they'd done what they'd done to Azarion, and to him, they'd hacked the braids off with that same sword, a calculated humiliation on top of the dishonour.

The Romans kept their hair short and their faces clean-shaven, and expected their slaves to do likewise (the males ones, anyway). Jason had grown his hair out, a bit; it now brushed the collar of his tunic and he had to keep pushing it out of his eyes. That was preferable to looking exactly like his Roman masters, though.

An idea began to stir, and he found himself trying to work out which strands of hair could be incorporated into a braid to both keep his hair out of his face and to try to emulate, however simply, his old warrior braids in a way that wouldn't anger his Roman master. If that was even possible.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

She nodded, understanding what he said and glad to hear that there were more similarities between their people, "I'm sorry to hear that. And here they probably won't let you. The men here prefer looking young, no matter their age." She said, when he spoke of moustaches, "Some men in Britannia have beards, especially in the North. I hear it is common in Germania too. But Rome insists on being different." She said and looked at him, he had half-long hair - it wasn't short, like what the Romans preferred.

"I could braid your hair, if you'd like? Here..." She reached to her own hair for a braid and undid the knot of the small leather strip that held it together. Then she shifted and gently touched his hair, "Did you have braids, back then? Were they like mine... or different?" She wondered. She imagined his had been different, she was a woman and he was the opposite, after all. And in Britannia, the men and the women didn't have the same hairstyles either. Jason had very soft hair, smooth to the touch, she thought. She would try and braid it the way he preferred, if he would have her do it.

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[Sharpie]

"I used to wear my hair... it was all braids, but I didn't pin them back. They came straight down, just as the hair falls naturally," he replied, motioning down each side of his face. "I don't think that would work here but... I don't know if the front part is long enough to have two braids join together behind the head - I could say it was to keep it out of my face, that way."

Though he might just be told to get it cut, two small plaits like that would be enough for him without looking horribly barbaric to Roman eyes. Hopefully, anyway.

Cynane's hair was much longer than his - well, she could get away with that, being a woman - and was a blond colour he hadn't really seen very much before coming to Rome. Even here in Rome, it was unusual.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

Cynane listened to him tell about how he used to braid his hair, and it made sense, she thought she understood what it was like. Such a different look for him, exotic was what the Romans would call it. Maybe even her own people too. But Rome was one huge melting-pot of people from different parts of the world, so none of them should really be exotic looking here. Jason suggested a way to braid his hair that hopefully wouldn't be too much for their Roman owners. 

"I think that would be a fair excuse." She said with a smile, and shifted more on the bench to straddle it and get a better view of his hair. She picked a small handful of hair that started where any bangs might, and then she began braiding it backwards, starting from the forehead and backwards. Once that was done, she secured it with the leather strip and then began on the next braid. She joined them on the back of his head and used a small bit of hair there to secure it and keep it in place.

"How does that feel? More like you?" She hoped that's what it was. Making him feel comfortable seemed important to her. 

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[Sharpie]

He carefully traced the plaits backwards once she was done, and nodded. "Better. It feels... better," he said, considering. He hadn't had his hair in a braid or plait in eight years, near enough - it had taken the first six months to a year to grow his hair back out to any sort of comfortable length.

It didn't feel quite normal but it did feel more like him - or rather, he wasn't used to having any of his hair plaited any more but it did feel much more like himself, even to have that little bit up.

"Thank you," he said. "Oh - I wonder." He extracted a glass bead from somewhere about his person; he'd found it almost buried in a flowerbed a while ago and washed it off to discover its vibrant blue colour. "I don't suppose you could thread this in, somehow?"

Sarmatians were avid collectors of pretty bits and pieces, which they often incorporated into their braids, or their clothing or even their horses' tack on occasion, and Jason was no different, even now in the palaces of the Roman emperor himself. Adding even one pretty bead would make it feel far more like his own self than he had in years.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

She had let go of his hair and sat back, while her new blood-brother touched the braids to get an idea of what it looked like. He said it felt better and she smiled again. Gods, how long had it been since she'd smiled so much in the company of a man? It was almost too good to be true. To just sit here, peacefully in the garden, talking about this and that, getting along... briefly she thought about her real brother, Herne, but she had not seen him since before the battle in Britannia. Would they have been like this too? No, probably not. He was older than her. Maybe with a wife and kids now. Maybe enslaved. Maybe dead. No, she should not dwell on the past. 

Jason thanked her and then had some idea. He had a glass bead and wondered if she could thread it into the braid.

"I can try." She said and took it, undid the braids a little and tried to join them together with the bead and braid a bit more, before she closed it all. 

"Is that something your people do? Add such hair decorations? It looks nice." Maybe she should do that too, she usually just braid and twirled the hair into something that looked good and kept her hair out of the face. But a bead or something might look interesting and she wasn't afraid of looking different, else she'd not insist that it was best she always wore breeches.

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[Sharpie]

"Thank you," he said, twisting to give her a better angle to work at. "Yes - not just in the hair. We like pretty things, unusual things - you'll be hard-pressed to find a Sarmatian who hasn't got all sorts of little trinkets in their hair or on their garments. Or even on the horses' bridles." Beads, coins, all sorts of interesting things, each one with a story or memory to it. It wasn't so easy to do here in the palace in Rome - Jason certainly couldn't wear the little things he had collected, but he kept them safe. He'd even managed to keep hold of one or two of his original things that he'd been wearing on that day.

"We sometimes give one to a friend, though mostly we find our own, anything that is pleasing to the eye, or special in some way," he added, turning back round once Cynane had finished. "Don't your people do anything like that?"

It was... interesting, to share this information about his own people. They never needed to say it, it was just a cultural thing that they did, and nobody else had ever really asked about his own people and where he'd come from. Cynane was the first one who'd taken any sort of real interest in Jason as a Sarmatian and it felt... good, in a way that he hadn't felt good in a very long time.

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

Jason naturally happily explained about the bead in his hair and how they generally collected pretty and unusual things. She smiled, trying to imagine beads and all other kinds of strange trinkets on garments and in the hair. Maybe even in that moustache he talked about? It sounded interesting, and like it would create a lot of variation in people's appearances. Sure people did a lot here in Rome too, but not quite as much she thought. That's why they always thought she looked so exotic... because she was female, but not dressed like the rest. And not wearing her hair like the rest. The only thing really giving off that she was a slave was the simple tablet around her neck, which she tried to forget she had on, most of the time. 

He wondered if Cynane's people had the same thing with trinkets and she thought it over for a moment.

"Maybe, but not quite the same, I think. Sometimes the women will wear strings with different beads, often as a string across the chest and sometimes as a necklace. But it's usually things that are given to us and it shows off rank and such. A woman with a wealthy husband will have the finest string of different beads." She explained, "I never got that far though, I did not yet have a husband when I went into battle. Not that I mind. Most men are..." She paused, looking at him, "They're not as friendly and easy to talk to, as you are." 

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[Sharpie]

"All women like their jewellery," he said with a teasing smile, though Cinnia had never worn anything that might count as 'jewellery' - even the simple wooden beads that he'd seen some other female slaves wearing, though he had seen her with a ribbon woven into her hair on special occasions. That was rare, though.

"I don't understand the Romans," he admitted. "It doesn't matter what rank a man is, they all seem to want to look the same, with the same sort of tunics, and short hair." He was perhaps being a bit harsh; tunics varied in colour and length and style, but there still wasn't the sort of personal variation between Roman men that there had been between men in his tribe at home with their different ornaments and tokens even if their outer clothing was pretty similar.

"I guess that most men you've spoken to here don't have the sort of story you and I have," he added, a bit more soberly. Not that he wanted anyone to have that kind of story - he wouldn't wish his memories and nightmares on his worst enemy. Well, maybe he would, but only on his worst enemy. "Anyway, you're a warrior, I'm a warrior, that makes us the same, doesn't it? Who cares what anyone else thinks."

 

@Atrice

[Atrice]

She gave him a look when he teased her about women liking jewelry. She wasn't sure if she did. But give her a new weapon or armor any day, and she'd be more pleased. Or perhaps just a little freedom. That would be better than any trinket. She didn't comment though and had mentioned that she never got married and she didn't mind much. After all, most men were scum. Except Jason and a few others. But most were scum. Jason voiced his thoughts on the Roman men and she nodded.

"The only way they really distinguish themselves is by the colors they wear. And the length of the tunics and the toga." She commented and Jason mentioned how most men here didn't have a story similar to theirs. She nodded with a little laugh, "They most definitely do not have this sort of story." And that was the truth of it. And not most men she'd known here anyway. Most of them, she hated, because they failed in understanding her and they didn't even want to. She was just a female slave captured during battle. But Jason's words made her smile again.

"Indeed." She said, shifting on the bench so she could stretch her legs again. She looked up towards the sky, "I should probably head back inside. I just came out here for a breath of fresh air. And I found it... and more." She added, turning her hand to look at her wrist with the simple, small cut on it. It wasn't bleeding anymore. But it was there. 

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