"Stop, guards! That is our family slave, where are you taking him?" Asked the middle aged man while sweating profusely. His chunky hand held a dirty handkerchief, which he brought up to his forehead to wipe his tiredness away.
The two guards stopped, and looked at the appearance of the two individuals with alertness. "This is your slave, you say?" Asked the taller guard while trying to assess them.
"Just bought, too! Paid him two thousand denarii!" Responded the man with a hint of indignation while spraying saliva everywhere.
Surprised by the price, the two guards were taken aback. "What is your name?" The taller guard asked, suspicious about the man's words. He knew that the price of a male slave would hardly reach past five hundred denarii, and that a slave would usually be sold naked, and never in as good a condition as Daniel was.
"Lanista Cossus Favonius Audaios." Said the stout man right before patting his temples with the already drenched piece of cloth.
While the name of the middle-aged man caused the two guards to frown, Daniel could tell that it was not due to fear. It almost seemed that the man had identified himself as the lowest of the social ladder.. Yet, the answer the man provided seemed to put the minds of the two guards at rest.
"Now, if you may, release him-or I will take my complaint to the praefectus urbi!" Added the middle-aged man as his nostrils began to flare, and he turned red in the face.
The shorter guard turned towards his companion, and after the latter gave him a nod of approval, he placed his javelin against Daniel's back, and not so gently pushed him towards the two. "Have him and leave, then." He said before turning away, and walking off into the crowd alongside his calmer companion.
Before the two guards could even vanish into the mass of busy people, the stout man and the younger woman approached Daniel with cordial smiles plastered on their faces. "You are not a citizen of Rome.. I can tell." Said the young woman as she casually wrapped her arms around Daniel's right arm.
As Daniel looked down at the flirtatious young woman, she blinked an uncountable number of times, moistening her pair of emerald-green eyes.
The middle-aged man did not appear bothered by this behaviour. Instead, he looked at Daniel and added, "Standing around like that will only invite trouble. Come, let's leave the marketplace, lest you fancy being arrested."
Uncaring about the intentions of the two, Daniel quietly followed as the two brought him outside of the city and into a road paved in between wheat fields. Along with the three, as they left the city, a fourth man who had been left to wait at the stable with the stout man's horses and carriage, had joined the party.
Compared to the middle-aged man and the younger woman, this man was as tall as Daniel was, and had a twice as muscular body which he covered by a large blue cape. Under the cape, he wore a simple cloth around his waist which covered his leather undergarment, a pair of spiked boots that reached up to his knees, a leather waistband that protected his stomach, and a leather shoulder armor strapped around his scarred bare chest.
While the other two did not appear to care for the man's presence, Daniel was able to observe him quietly as he drove the carriage through wheat fields.
Extremely serious at any moment, the bodyguard gently whipped the horses while looking at his surroundings. His eyes would shift confidently under an unmoving pair of sharp eyebrows, as if surveying the territory and looking for possible threats. The only times his gaze was averted, was when it would land on Daniel, whom he looked at with short-lived interest.
To Daniel it was clear that this man was an extremely experienced warrior, and from his behaviour, he could infer that he had a past as a soldier.
"Young man, where are you from?" Asked the middle-aged man.
"Far away from here." Daniel muttered as his mind went back to the city he was born in, where he and his sister used to live, to the black castle, where he and his companions had created a loyal and peaceful community, and finally, to the planet created by his system, which he had inhabited with his family and friends for years.
Daniel's response, while not too cryptic, was way beyond anything the three individuals could possibly imagine, as they simply assumed he was from a poorer far away land.
After spending more than an hour together, noticing Daniel's severe lack of knowledge on both the empire and its laws, the stout man had made the assumption that Daniel was likely to be a runaway slave, who had escaped his former masters in an attempt to find freedom in the massively popular capital. The other alternative was that he could be an immigrant, but he spoke the language too fluently, and was too healthy for that to be a real possibility.
The man had also set aside the idea that Daniel could be a soldier on leave, as from his experience, all of them would carry a symbol that would identify them as members of a certain legion.
"Well, my daughter and I visited Rome for business. I usually go by myself, but the scoundrel wanted to tag along this time." Said the middle-aged man jovially while looking at the young woman. He then glanced at Daniel, and with a bright smile he added, "And good for you, had she stayed home she wouldn't have noticed you, and you'd be held in public custody, awaiting trial."
The young woman, who had almost never stopped looking at Daniel, showed her brightest smile yet. In it was a hint of satisfaction, showing that she was proud of herself.
This mostly one-sided conversation kept going for a while longer, until finally, a few hours after leaving Rome, the party came upon a group composed of around ten men. Their ages ranged between thirty and forty, and their dirty clothes, paired with the desperate eyes and malicious grins, showed that they weren't peaceful travelers.
"Kind people, this stretch of land is private property. If you wish to pass, you have to pay a toll." Said a man with a big curved nose and not a lot of hair left on his head.
The stout man did not appear shocked by this encounter. Instead, he quietly reached inside his toga, and from it, pulled a small bag of coins. He then unceremoniously threw it at the group of men. "This is all the coins you'll find on us. You are free to inspect our belongings, although I suggest you don't get near that man." Said the man while pointing his chubby finger at his guard.
The man with the crooked nose grabbed the bag from the air, and weighed it cautiously. His unsightly face seemed satisfied by the amount, yet, as his eyes moved to the guard, he caught the smell of a floral perfume drift from within the wooden carriage that the guard was driving.
Before the bandit with the crooked nose could even stretch his neck to take a look at the person that was inhabiting the carriage, the guard jumped off, and with a swing of his right arm, forced the cape to uncover his muscular body. He then walked to the side of the carriage, and from a hidden compartment, he pulled two short swords.
As the man's hands touched the two short swords, his entire disposition changed. His already impressive stoic figure was now that of a tiger, lethal on short distances, and quicker to shorten said distance. Even Daniel, an expert in virtually every form of weapon, could not help but be surprised by the man's aptitude.
Needless to say, after witnessing the man's choice of weapons the bandits could not help but retreat in fear. They knew that even if they came out victorious in that fight, none of them would be spared from a deadly injury, or an untimely death. Unwilling to see such a future take place, the group of men retreated to the side of the road, and allowed the party to continue undisturbed.
Before the group could leave, the stout man looked at the bandit with the crooked nose, and said with an almost kind tone, "Use that money to turn your life around. The path you're taking leads to nothing good." His words vanished in the wind as the group of robbers watched the carriage get further into the distance.
The travel continued through several more wheat fields, hills and wooden paths, and lasted until the sun began to set. The destination of the middle aged man, his daughter, and his bodyguard seemed to be a large square-shaped mansion built on a several hundred meters tall cliff.
From within this mansion the sound of clashing swords and occasional screams could be heard incessantly, but that did not appear to bother the party of three, who rode the carriage and horse through the large wooden gate, and enclosed garden.
"Come inside, take a bath.. Then join us for a meal." Said the young woman while graciously stepping off the carriage. She then walked through a long row of white pillars, and into the estate, where she was welcomed by a pair of simply dressed young women, who joined her, and followed her wherever she went.
The middle-aged man nodded at Daniel before following suit, leaving him and the bodyguard to be received by two more simply dressed young men. These two emotionless young men walked Daniel through a series of corridors, as the bodyguard tightly followed behind-then into a large rectangular room.
Made out of a mosaic of differently colored tiles which created a variety of picturesque images, this room was built to accommodate a small pool. Surrounding this shallow pool was a row of white pillars, which were in place to support the balcony that covered the edges of the room itself, leaving on the roof a square hole that allowed for the moonlight to shine through.
As the group entered this room, the bodyguard stood by the entrance, while the two emotionless young men turned towards Daniel, and tried to help him remove his clothes.
Daniel stopped them before their hands could reach him, implying that he could undress himself. The two young men respected this decision, turned around, and headed towards the sides of the room, where a series of jars were resting next to a wall. The surface of the liquid contained in these jars was covered by a thick layer of petals, and each emanated a piercing perfume which could be smelled from the other side of the room.
Once Daniel entered the small pool, the two young men carried one of the jars, and poured a small portion of its content into it, causing its intense perfume to lighten, and merge with the water. As he bathed, Daniel noticed that the sound of swords clashing had become more intense, and was now paired by the constant shouts of a man, whose tone was filled with a mixture of anger, disappointment, and exasperation.
After the bath, Daniel was given new clothes and taken through a second series of corridors and into another room, were the stould middle-aged man called Cossus, and the young woman, which Daniel earlier during the day learned was called Lucia, were laying comfortably on couches placed in a semicircle that surrounded a few tables filled with food. Alongside them were several other people, among which an aloof middle-aged woman whose appearance resembled that of an older Lucia.
This group immediately noticed Daniel's appearance, but their reaction was not that of welcoming hosts, but of amused guests. They looked at him up and down before taking large swigs of wine and digging into roasted meat and fruits with their greasy fingers.
"What price could you have possibly paid for such a perfect specimen?" Asked a man with salt and pepper hair before chomping into a chicken leg. "I did not think you could afford someone like him."
The aloof woman seemed bothered by the man's comments, to a point where she looked angrily at her husband Cossius, wondering the same thing as the previous man.
Her anger was not eased even when the stout man raised his greasy hands in an attempt to calm her down. "Not at all!" He said, "He isn't a slave, he is a friend we have met at the marketplace. He was lost, and about to be taken away by the urban cohorts. I simply invited him to share a meal with us."
This answer caught the group of individuals by surprise. "Then bring a chair in! And a cup!" Said the man that had just spoken, as a previously prepared chair was hurriedly placed by the empty space around the table. Daniel smiled cordially before taking a seat, and accepting a cup, which a servant immediately filled with red wine.
Daniel quietly looked at the cup for a few moments, unbothered by the expressions of the people present. He could not help but remember how, in the past, he was able to live peaceful days, drinking with Alesia as they looked at the artificial sky Daniel had created for her. He could not help but worry that the sweetness of those moments had ruined drinking for him, as nothing could match them.. But that was but a fleeting thought.
"To new friends!" Exclaimed the man while raising his cup and pointing at Daniel, bringing him back to the present.
Aware that this cheap wine wasn't the fine liquor he was used to drinking, nor were these strangers the friends he was used to drinking with, Daniel accepted the toast with a nod of his head, and unceremoniously downed the whole cup. Then, as the last bit of wine went down his throat, Daniel witnessed the stout-man explode into a golden mist, formed by uncountable sparks of karmic power. These sparks kept drifting in the air as Daniel closed his eyes and felt their power become part of him.
