"Nice to see you again, Emericus!" Bion called from Aquila. "The fish were slow to bite today, so my stand's empty. Could you give me a hand?"

Emericus's lit up as he walked over the dock towards Bion. "Hey! Yeah, of course." He put down the basket with two circular loaves of bread and took a bucked of small, silvery fish in each hand.

Bion left the boat with another two buckets and together they walked towards land.

"How do you like Pompeii so far?" Emericus's footsteps resonated at the same pace as Bion's on the wood. "Have you found anything interesting?"

"I went for a walk last night. This city is so beautiful!" They had reached Bion's cart and he laid up the fish for display as he talked. "I saw the Amphitheater, which was huge! It's hard to imagine it ever being full of people. Maybe we could go there sometime to watch, I don't know, something? And I saw the bathhouses, they were closed but still incredible from outside. Wanna go there someday? I'd say we deserve it. And I also saw the Temple of Jupiter. His statue was incredible! As if it had been sculpted by the gods!"

Emericus fixed a rigid smile on his face, concealing the thought that he'd never be allowed in either of those places. "All of that sounds lovely but I don't think I'd be able to-"

Bion interrupted him, "I'm sure you'll find the time. Maybe if I'd help you, you could take a day off?"

"Or maybe you should concentrate on what you're doing?" Emericus gestured at the fishes laying in unsorted heaps. "Or is this your new market plan? If the customers can't see what they're buying, they won't know how much to pay."

Bion laughed and began to sort them into a wavy pattern. "Whoops, got a bit distracted. Not a bad idea though. I could use some extra money."

Emericus leaned over the fish. "So, what offer could you give me after my assistance?"

Bion faked a hurt look. "Don't you think a conversation with me is worth as much as your help?"

Emericus glanced at Lysandra's father who had caught up with him and now waited across the road. Why did he have to be here? He smiled at Bion's comment but took a step back. "As nice as it is to talk nonsense with you, I have things I need to do."

"Yeah, it looks like your father's waiting."

Emericus shook his head. "What? No, he's my master."

Bion's jaw dropped and he leaned forward with hands on the edge of the cart. "You're a slave?"

Emericus blinked, surprised this was news. "You didn't know?"

"How could I? Slaves don't act as you do. They don't have shoes! Who are you trying to trick?"

"No one! I'm not hiding anything. Sorry, I just..."

"Just what?" Bion snapped.

Emericus fumbled for words. "I didn't think it would matter to you."

"Of course it does!" Bion shouted. "That man owns you like a dog!"

Exasperated, Emericus looked around. Master Hadrianus had crossed his arms and shot a dark glare at him. Hopefully, he hadn't heard Bion.

"I'm sorry, I have to go." He couldn't help but look back when he'd gone halfway. Bion grasped the edge of the stall, glaring silently at the fish.

Emericus crossed the street with his gaze set on his feet. "I'm sorry," he said. "The fish wasn't as good as I thought. I'll find better ones somewhere else."

Master Hadrianus sighed and rolled his eyes. "Do that later. There's a lot for you to do at home."

Emericus walked a few steps behind, head low while master Hadrianus poured instructions over him.

As they entered the atrium, master Hadrianus went to his study and Gaia came carrying a basket with a pair of knives and thread. "Good, you're back. Wait, where are the bread and the fish? And the basket?"

Emericus looked down at his empty hands. "Shit! I'm so sorry Gaia, I put it down, and then some stuff happened and I completely forgot it."

Gaia sighed and raised her gaze to the roof. "Vesta, give me strength."

"I can go get it right away! I'll be back faster than you can cook asparagus!" He backed towards the open front doors.

"Wait. There's not enough time. I'll use what I have here and you can buy bread from the idiot across the street when you're done in the garden. We need flower arrangements for the dining room and the atrium."

"I'm on it!" Emericus lit up, took the basket Gaia had prepared, and hurried outside through the kitchen door to stay out of master Hadrianus's sight. The garden was as wide as the house and enclosed by stone walls on three sides. Paintings of rolling hills with cypress, pines, and sheep behind a small mulberry tree and a pink rose bush gave the illusion of being in the countryside. Next to the rosebush, covered in the pastoral scene, was a door set in the wall, hidden from anyone not knowing its exact location. Four red-painted pillars lined the white facade and extended the house's roof over a porch of marble. Closest to the kitchen door grew vegetables and herbs and on the other side stood a marble statue of Jupiter with orange carnations under it. Thoughtfully cramped in the rest of the space were flowerbeds and bushes crossed by a path of white gravel.

Emericus took a deep breath and struggled with the thoughts bubbling in his mind. He filled the basket with pink roses, white lilies, violets, and ornamental grass. Had Bion asked him on a date? Even if he had, perhaps that was irrelevant now that he saw Emericus as just a slave. 

At least they'll be able to see each other. That has to count for something.

When his basket was filled, Emericus dragged his feet back to the kitchen where Gaia cut vegetables. "I've been thinking." He swallowed and began to bind a bouquet. "If someone, hypothetically, would assume that I wasn't a slave, and then realized I was, what would I need to do to make him see me as he used to? Hypothetically."

"He?" Gaia smiled. "Well, hypothetically, there's no way to hide who you are. The only way forward would be for him to accept you. That isn't an easy thing to do. Compared to a free man, you have nothing. You are no one. You were shipped across the sea and sold, as I once was. That's the way of the world."

"He'll never see me the way he did?" Emericus dropped the flowers on the table and leaned against it.

Gaia put a wrinkled and calloused hand on his shoulder. "I wouldn't get my hopes up. I'm sorry."