Slave Girl 2: Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Standing at our kitchen counter we enjoy our lunch together as our new fox friend watches on and adds the odd yip or bark into the conversation.  We eat with our fingers and lick the sticky honey and rich oil from each other’s fingers then wash it down by passing our bottle of wine back and forth.  As we chat and eat I quietly wipe what honey I could off of the counter.  She did such a good job I would hate for her to feel discouraged now.

“As I was cleaning up I was thinking.”  I wash my mouth out with a swig of wine.

“Uh oh.  That’s never a good thing.”  Rosa smirks.

“I’m not just muscles ya know!”

“I know baby.”  She titters.  “What were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about that codex we found.”

“Oh?”

“The one with the Atlantean writing in it.”  I say.  “I thought instead of selling it maybe I could…try that.”

“Write?”

“No.  I mean the process in the book.  Fermentation.  Distillation.  Turning a liquid into another liquid.”  I say.  “Peisandros had his brewing.  Perhaps I could do this?”

“Oh.  To what end?”

“I don’t know.”  I say.  “Perhaps to sell?  I mean, it will depend what we get out of it.”

“You want to sell something that you don’t even know what it is?”

“I mean, it’s something, right?  And it isn’t exactly common knowledge.  Whatever we get out of it…we’d be the only ones making it.  Right?”

“How can I argue with that?”  She says with this sort of slightly amused but absolutely supportive motherly look that suddenly reminded me that she was nearly twice my age.  It was so easy to forget that she wasn’t just a couple years older than me as she appeared.  “It’s ambitious.  I’ll give you that.”

“The process uses grains.  It’s all about grains.  Rye, wheat, and barley specifically.  I think Ceres wanted me to find it.”  I say.  “It seems to draw out the essence of the kernel and concentrates it, creating a drink from it?”  I speculate.  “If I cannot grow my goddess’ crops I’d at least like to use them to make something.  Do you think she’d approve?”

Rosa sinks her fangs in and chomps a hunk from the bread then chews it daintily as she mulls it over.  “I think she would if you do it to honor her.”

“I would!  And you could help.”  I hurry to say, wanting very much for her to be a part of this.  “I can understand the Latin notes but I cannot read Greek, never mind Atlantean.”

“Well…neither can I.  Not Atlantean.  Not really anyway.”  She swallows.  “I cannot read anything anymore Quin.”

“Hold on.”  I say.  “I thought about that too.  If you could teach me the Greek alphabet I could read out the letters and…I dunno, it would take awhile but with the later notes I think we could muddle through.  If not, we could try to find a scholar or something for translation.”

“I guess it might be a fun to try.  A project we could do together.”

“Exactly!”

She tilts her head.  “I’ve never heard you talk about anything but farming before.  As a profession I mean.”

“Well…I have to adapt, right?”  I say.  “This land wasn’t what I planned but…neither was meeting you.”  I take her hand and squeeze it.

“You are quite a man Quin.”  Bringing my hand to her mouth she kisses it.  “I never pictured you as a merchant.”

“EW!”  I protest.  “I would be a craftsman thank you very much.  Somebody else can sell the stuff.”

She smiles.  “Okay, I can see that.”

“We can always sell the book later if it doesn’t work out.”

We finish our meal with a fresh enthusiasm about our future.  Building off of this new optimism Rosa was excited to show me something.

“Okay.”  She says as she stands with the tips of her fingers touching the counter.  “Watch this.”  She turns around and walks to the end of the counter with even, deliberate steps.  There she takes a sharp left turn and takes a few bold steps into the open.  Danae watches her curiously as she passes by.  She stops and turn to her right where she holds her hands out a few feet apart.  “Stove.”  

“Yeah!”

She points to the alcove to the left.  “Washing up area.  Latrine down the hall.”  She points to the right.  “Window, hello Danae.”  The fox ears perk up and she barks.  “And preparation area.”

“Yes, that’s right.  That’s all right.”

She looks my direction and winks.  “I know.”  She then spins around and, staring straight ahead, walks confidently forward.  As she passes by two doors she taps the them in turn.  “Warm storage.  Cold storage.”  

“We’ve got cold storage!”

“Well, coolish storage.”  She says.  “It’s got a cupboard with those same type of tesserae Gaius showed us.  I found it last night.  I haven’t braved a trip in there yet today.  It’s um…disgusting.”

“Ugh.”

She stops just short of a set of shelves built into the wall.  Reaching out she pats the lowest one.  “Good sturdy shelves.”  She then turns ninety degrees to the left to face the hall just to my left.  She walks forward.  Knocking on a door along the way she says.  “The peristyle.”  Without pause she continues on.  As she passes by me  I hear her under her breath counting.  “…three, four, five…”  She comes to stop at the edge of the room and nods forward.  “To the Atrium.”  She snaps back toward me and holds her hands out.  “Last but not least, the Master.”

I take her small hands in mine.  “You learned all that in a morning?”

“It’s just one room.”  She says.  “I’ve got a villa to learn.  A whole estate!”

“I was thinking about that.”  I say.  “We don’t need even a quarter of this place.  I was going to board up the rooms we don’t need and shrink our living area down to something more manageable.”

“That’s a great idea Quin.”  She says.  “At least until you’re wealthy and can hire a staff to run this place properly.”

“That might take awhile.”  I chuckle.

Her hands slip from mine.  She moves past me and collects our dirty plates.  “And don’t forget children.”  She says, to which I grin.  “Once you find a wife I’m sure it won’t be long until you need more room.”

My grin disappears as fast as it had appeared.  “Rosa…”

She cuts me off.  “I was thinking about water.  We’ve got the…”

“Rosa!”

She stops but does not turn to face me.  “Yes Master.”

“I want you as my wife.”

“As a slave I cannot marry.”

“Rosa…”

“And as an Amazon I cannot be free.”  She sighs.  “And I would not wish a child to face the same…prejudices that I must.”

“I don’t want another woman Rosa.”  I say softly.  “I love YOU.”

“A marriage is not about love Quin.  It is about connections and alliances and bringing new little Romans into the world.”  She says.  “We could use a network here.  And you deserve children Quin.  Do not deny yourself that because of me.  I would never forgive myself.”  She sighs.  “We’ve talked about this baby.”

“But…no.”

“You need a wife more than ever now.”  She takes a deep breath.  “Somebody who can help you…more than I can.”

“Rosa, you’re doing it again.”

“It’s the truth though.”  She glances over her shoulder with a wistful smile.  “You won’t lose me Master.  It is normal for a husband or wife to keep a slave to satisfy their true desires.”  Her head bowed low she whispers.  “Besides…where could I go?”

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

She nods.  “Yes Master.”

Coming up behind her I hug my beloved and kiss her horned head.  She wriggles back into me comforted by my encompassing embrace.  “At least not yet.”

“Okay Quin.”  She says in a gentle tone.  “Now, about that water issue.  I had an idea.”

“Water issue?”

“All the water up here is pretty stagnant.”

“I noticed.”

“And the house is way up here and the water is way down there in the river.”

“Yeah.”  I say.  “I’ll make some bucket runs later.”

She slips from my arms and continues on to put the dirty plates into a basin.  “You could I suppose.  Seems an awful waste of time and energy though.”

“So what’s your idea?”

A smile plays at her lips.  “Do you remember the fun we had with the bracelet?”  She giggles.  In our travels Rosa had been gifted a bracelet that the giver hadn’t even known was magical.  Once Rosa knew how to use it’s gateway magic we’d had quite the fun with it.  “In the cave?  Remember?  With the cold river?”

“Whooo!”  A shiver runs through me.  “How could I forget?”

“It could be used to transport more than dicks and balls you know.”

“That…is…brilliant!”  I exclaim.  “You want me to take half of it down to the river.”

“And I’ll keep the other half up here.” She nods.  “We could have all the fresh water we want.”

“Gods Rosa.  Yes!”  I say as my mind starts to turn.  “And that’s just the beginning.  I can think of a hundred different uses.”

“I got the idea from you.”  She says.  “Remember?”

“Yeah.  I do.”  I laugh.  “You called me a ‘Ceres guy’ for thinking of such practical uses.”

“Well it’s true.”

I clap my hands.  “Damn Rosa.  That little beauty is going to be a real labor saver.  Let’s try it out!”

Rosa giggles at my exuberance.  “Yes Master.  It’s up in the room.”

“I’ll be right back.”  I hurry out of the kitchen then bound up the stairs to fetch our magical treasure.  I find it beside the bed.  Flipping it in the air I catch it again and head back down again.  To activate it one needed magic, which only the rarest of individuals possessed.  Thanks to her father Rosa was one such individual.  “Here it is.”  I say as I march back in.

Rosa was at the window waving goodbye to Danae who was trundling back into the woods.  “She won’t come in the house.”

“Like you said.”  I say.  “She’s still wild.”

“Mmm.”  Turning around she reaches her hands out.  I place the bracelet in her hand.  She feels around the twisted twin lengths of silver until her fingertips find the two faces of Janus, god of portals.  She concentrates a moment and, impossibly, where there had just been one fused bracelet there were now two separate ones.  The moment the magic was activated Rosa’s eyes go wide and she lets out a great gasp.  “Wha!?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh…I…I…”  Taking the loop in her right hand she raises it to hold in front of her face.  For the first time today I notice that her eyes are somehow tracking the object.  Her wide pupils narrow as she focuses on it.  “Quin!  I can see it!”

Chapter 11