Loosed to Fly
Be brave and bold, little sparrow, and fly true. And let your tongue be a blade to any man who thinks you weak.
Gnaea Abella lifted her chin high as the man who had passed by several times leered at her lecherously for the third time. She tried to catch the eye of Felix, the member of Senator Rufus’ domestic staff who was handling the sales, but he deliberately avoided meeting her gaze. Of course. Likely the Senator’s wife, Statilla, had poured venomous words into his ear about that harlot daughter of the disgraced Senator Abelli whom she was forcing her husband to sell.
Eprius Rufus had been a friend to her father before he had been declared a traitor and murdered right in front of her. When Gnaea and her mother had sold themselves into slavery to avoid being forced onto the streets, Rufus had purchased the daughter of his old friend. It had been all he could do for them, as purchasing her mother would look too much like fondness for an old friend that he could no longer speak of fondly in public.
Now, four years after she had joined the household and become simply Gnaea amongst the domestic staff, she was being forced to leave. Statilla Tertia, wife to Rufus, had been jealous of her ever since she had joined the household, firm in her belief that her husband had purchased the young girl as a young plaything for himself. Despite never finding evidence of such debauchery, she remained convinced and had finally worn her husband down to sell her supposed rival.
Now, with the lecherous eyes on her and Felix’s avoidance, she felt as if she was doomed to be sold to a man who surely would do as Statilla believed her husband had done. Only this man would actually go through with such actions, using her body as he saw fit. Gnaea had seen such men before and they all had the same look in their eyes when they believed they saw a thing they could control.
But she was the daughter of a Senator and she would not be tamed by a man lesser than her.
“Look at her, my love,” she heard a woman say nearby suddenly, her voice flavored with a foreign accent that Gnaea did not recognize. “The bold tilt of her chin, how she holds herself. This one is no slave.”
Turning her head, she looked down at the pair who were standing to the right of the raised platform she was standing on with the other house slaves being sold. The woman was a tiny thing, several inches shorter than Gnaea with sun-dark skin and thick black hair that hung in curls around her round cheeks. Her eyes, however, were as empty as night and there was a ripple of fear that ran up Gnaea’s spine as she met those black eyes.
The woman smiled broadly at the attention, like a feline pleased with its catch of a fat mouse. “Hello, lovely,” she said in greeting. Then the woman tipped her head up towards the man beside her and Gnaea finally let her eyes drift to him. He was several hands taller than the slight woman next to him, a brawny man with the look of a seafaring man to him. Olive-skinned, with long hair a rich shade of blonde so dark it was nearly brown, his dark eyes upon Gnaea were almost as striking as the woman’s.
She felt like prey under the gaze of predators before the pair.
The black eyes of the woman darted away and Gnaea followed her gaze towards the lecher who was speaking to Felix now, their heads pressed closed together. Then she tapped the man next to her on the shoulder and he dropped to one knee, holding up one hand while the other braced against the edge of the raised platform. As Gnaea started to open her mouth to ask what they were doing, the woman stepped up onto the man’s knee then placed her hand in his before stepping up onto the platform with far more grace than seemed natural.
“Do you want to be free?” she asked, eyes bright and somehow deep and dark at the same time. The woman reached out and twirled a lock of Gnaea’s hair around her darkly skinned fingers, strands catching against the sort of calluses that spoke of hard labor.
Once Gnaea’s own had been lacking such but even work on the domestic staff had required things that had borne the mark of labor upon her once plain hands.
“A star such as you should be free to shine,” the woman added, smiling and waving towards Felix as the lecherous man beside him began to yell. Gnaea could not even make out what he was saying, however, entranced as she was by the woman before her. This…creature…because this surely was no mere woman.
No woman was so bold.
“Who are you?” she whispered as she saw Felix approaching from the corner of her eye, his expression thunderous.
With that same pleased cat smile from earlier, the woman cupped Gnaea’s cheek and purred, “Your salvation, lovely. Now…do you want to be free?”
Gnaea blinked.
Then she licked her lips and wondered if this woman and her companion were the answer she had prayed for during the past few nights. Surely they were? And who was she to look such a gift in the eye and send it away?
“Yes,” she breathed.
The woman smiled and then gestured at the man, calling out, “Come, Apollus, we have a man’s day to ruin. I will have this one for us.”
“As you desire, my love,” the man said as he easily heaved himself up onto the platform and then moved smoothly alongside her towards Felix. Gnaea watched their backs as they spoke to the man who currently had control of her fate, her heart suddenly in her throat. They argued for a moment that seemed to stretch on into forever…until the man, Apollus, produced a sack of coins and dropped the heavy weight of it at Felix’s feet. It landed with such a thump that for a moment the entire area went silent, every eye drawn to the exchange being made.
“That is double the price asked,” the woman said, smiling without the expression ever meeting her eyes. There was a threat in that smile and Gnaea could tell that Felix felt it as much as she did, because his eyes never strayed from the pair before him as he bent to retrieve the pouch. He then produced papers from somewhere - technically not legal papers since Gnaea wasn’t supposed to have even been able to sell herself years ago - and handed them over to the man. As Felix walked away, the lecher already yelling because he knew he had no cause to stop the sale now that it had been completed.
Gnaea would not ever be his and she felt the choking collar of doom that had been coiling around her throat lessen.
“Come,” the woman said as she took Gnaea’s hand, pulling her towards the stairs that led down from the platform. “You are ours now by the laws of your people, but we don’t obey those laws.”
“I-I don’t understand,” Gnaea replied as the man stepped in behind her smoothly, the pair of them quickly steering her through the crowds that filled the square where the slave sales had been happening. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” the man said, his accent also foreign but at least one that she recognized as that of the Graeci, “that you are free to do as you wish. But I believe that my love had a proposal for you.”
As Gnaea looked at the back of the woman’s head, she felt a sense of brief unease fill her. It took a moment for their pace to slow down, but when it did the woman had led them into an alley and then turned to face her. “Come with us, lovely,” she said, boldly lifting her hand to cup Gnaea’s cheek again. “Be ours and us yours. Forever if you so wish.”
Surely she was not serious?
“Forever?” she asked and the woman smiled brightly again. Only this time she looked at all of the woman’s teeth this time and noticed that something was…wrong.
“Forever,” the woman echoed with that pleased cat smile.
And yet…though it felt like a noose she could not escape settled around her throat, not allowing her to escape this pair that had purchased her freedom and then said they would return it to her, it was not choking. It did not feel like the looming doom she had felt wrap around her throat earlier.
It felt like freedom.
Like being loosed to fly.
Graeci - Roman term for people of Greece
Gnaea Abella lifted her chin high as the man who had passed by several times leered at her lecherously for the third time. She tried to catch the eye of Felix, the member of Senator Rufus’ domestic staff who was handling the sales, but he deliberately avoided meeting her gaze. Of course. Likely the Senator’s wife, Statilla, had poured venomous words into his ear about that harlot daughter of the disgraced Senator Abelli whom she was forcing her husband to sell.
Eprius Rufus had been a friend to her father before he had been declared a traitor and murdered right in front of her. When Gnaea and her mother had sold themselves into slavery to avoid being forced onto the streets, Rufus had purchased the daughter of his old friend. It had been all he could do for them, as purchasing her mother would look too much like fondness for an old friend that he could no longer speak of fondly in public.
Now, four years after she had joined the household and become simply Gnaea amongst the domestic staff, she was being forced to leave. Statilla Tertia, wife to Rufus, had been jealous of her ever since she had joined the household, firm in her belief that her husband had purchased the young girl as a young plaything for himself. Despite never finding evidence of such debauchery, she remained convinced and had finally worn her husband down to sell her supposed rival.
Now, with the lecherous eyes on her and Felix’s avoidance, she felt as if she was doomed to be sold to a man who surely would do as Statilla believed her husband had done. Only this man would actually go through with such actions, using her body as he saw fit. Gnaea had seen such men before and they all had the same look in their eyes when they believed they saw a thing they could control.
But she was the daughter of a Senator and she would not be tamed by a man lesser than her.
“Look at her, my love,” she heard a woman say nearby suddenly, her voice flavored with a foreign accent that Gnaea did not recognize. “The bold tilt of her chin, how she holds herself. This one is no slave.”
Turning her head, she looked down at the pair who were standing to the right of the raised platform she was standing on with the other house slaves being sold. The woman was a tiny thing, several inches shorter than Gnaea with sun-dark skin and thick black hair that hung in curls around her round cheeks. Her eyes, however, were as empty as night and there was a ripple of fear that ran up Gnaea’s spine as she met those black eyes.
The woman smiled broadly at the attention, like a feline pleased with its catch of a fat mouse. “Hello, lovely,” she said in greeting. Then the woman tipped her head up towards the man beside her and Gnaea finally let her eyes drift to him. He was several hands taller than the slight woman next to him, a brawny man with the look of a seafaring man to him. Olive-skinned, with long hair a rich shade of blonde so dark it was nearly brown, his dark eyes upon Gnaea were almost as striking as the woman’s.
She felt like prey under the gaze of predators before the pair.
The black eyes of the woman darted away and Gnaea followed her gaze towards the lecher who was speaking to Felix now, their heads pressed closed together. Then she tapped the man next to her on the shoulder and he dropped to one knee, holding up one hand while the other braced against the edge of the raised platform. As Gnaea started to open her mouth to ask what they were doing, the woman stepped up onto the man’s knee then placed her hand in his before stepping up onto the platform with far more grace than seemed natural.
“Do you want to be free?” she asked, eyes bright and somehow deep and dark at the same time. The woman reached out and twirled a lock of Gnaea’s hair around her darkly skinned fingers, strands catching against the sort of calluses that spoke of hard labor.
Once Gnaea’s own had been lacking such but even work on the domestic staff had required things that had borne the mark of labor upon her once plain hands.
“A star such as you should be free to shine,” the woman added, smiling and waving towards Felix as the lecherous man beside him began to yell. Gnaea could not even make out what he was saying, however, entranced as she was by the woman before her. This…creature…because this surely was no mere woman.
No woman was so bold.
“Who are you?” she whispered as she saw Felix approaching from the corner of her eye, his expression thunderous.
With that same pleased cat smile from earlier, the woman cupped Gnaea’s cheek and purred, “Your salvation, lovely. Now…do you want to be free?”
Gnaea blinked.
Then she licked her lips and wondered if this woman and her companion were the answer she had prayed for during the past few nights. Surely they were? And who was she to look such a gift in the eye and send it away?
“Yes,” she breathed.
The woman smiled and then gestured at the man, calling out, “Come, Apollus, we have a man’s day to ruin. I will have this one for us.”
“As you desire, my love,” the man said as he easily heaved himself up onto the platform and then moved smoothly alongside her towards Felix. Gnaea watched their backs as they spoke to the man who currently had control of her fate, her heart suddenly in her throat. They argued for a moment that seemed to stretch on into forever…until the man, Apollus, produced a sack of coins and dropped the heavy weight of it at Felix’s feet. It landed with such a thump that for a moment the entire area went silent, every eye drawn to the exchange being made.
“That is double the price asked,” the woman said, smiling without the expression ever meeting her eyes. There was a threat in that smile and Gnaea could tell that Felix felt it as much as she did, because his eyes never strayed from the pair before him as he bent to retrieve the pouch. He then produced papers from somewhere - technically not legal papers since Gnaea wasn’t supposed to have even been able to sell herself years ago - and handed them over to the man. As Felix walked away, the lecher already yelling because he knew he had no cause to stop the sale now that it had been completed.
Gnaea would not ever be his and she felt the choking collar of doom that had been coiling around her throat lessen.
“Come,” the woman said as she took Gnaea’s hand, pulling her towards the stairs that led down from the platform. “You are ours now by the laws of your people, but we don’t obey those laws.”
“I-I don’t understand,” Gnaea replied as the man stepped in behind her smoothly, the pair of them quickly steering her through the crowds that filled the square where the slave sales had been happening. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” the man said, his accent also foreign but at least one that she recognized as that of the Graeci, “that you are free to do as you wish. But I believe that my love had a proposal for you.”
As Gnaea looked at the back of the woman’s head, she felt a sense of brief unease fill her. It took a moment for their pace to slow down, but when it did the woman had led them into an alley and then turned to face her. “Come with us, lovely,” she said, boldly lifting her hand to cup Gnaea’s cheek again. “Be ours and us yours. Forever if you so wish.”
Surely she was not serious?
“Forever?” she asked and the woman smiled brightly again. Only this time she looked at all of the woman’s teeth this time and noticed that something was…wrong.
“Forever,” the woman echoed with that pleased cat smile.
And yet…though it felt like a noose she could not escape settled around her throat, not allowing her to escape this pair that had purchased her freedom and then said they would return it to her, it was not choking. It did not feel like the looming doom she had felt wrap around her throat earlier.
It felt like freedom.
Like being loosed to fly.
Graeci - Roman term for people of Greece
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