With a hiss, Wooyoung pulled the bandages off his side. The wound didn't throb as bad as he had feared, but the fist-shaped bruise on his skin had assumed purple darkness. It would have looked pleasing to the eye like a night sky if it didn't bring such pain.

Wooyoung set the bandages down to twist his upper body left and right with careful consideration. Slight pain zapped through him when he leaned too far to the right, but if he didn't parkour over the roofs of Rome later, he would be fine. He doubted parkour was part of the Roman dining activities. If he had a choice, he would pick a seat that had him leaning on his left shoulder.

The servant helping him with his bandages and clothing that evening was young. She could barely be of age and the youth hadn't left her cheeks yet. She kept her eyes lowered throughout their session and didn't react to his mumbled thanks. When he flinched in pain upon her first touch of spreading the soothing ointment on the injury, she muttered an airy apology. Her touches were light as a feather afterwards and she did her best not to contact her skin to his. Wooyoung felt as if he were a sick patient one had to avoid, but he didn't mention it to her.

He moved in accordance with her movements. As if he were a mannequin she had to dress, his arms lifted and sunk as she wrapped the scratchy cloth around him. The bandage sat snugly without restricting his breathing. Once he lowered his tunic back over his side to cover his body, the white cloth disappeared under his clothes.

The servant stood back once the work was done. Her hair fell in front of her face as she lowered her head demurely. While Wooyoung pulled his sandals on his washed feet, no noise escaped her lips. By the time he rose from the bed to fix the flap of his toga that he carried over his arm and return to his arrogant posture, she had opened the door for him to leave first. Wooyoung couldn't help but address his soft voice at her.

"Thank you for your help. Take care."

Wooyoung smiled at her, but he wasn't sure whether she saw it. When he left the room, she closed the door behind him to skitter away through the corridors in the opposite direction. Her swift steps disappeared in the well-ventilated corridors that let the air of the evening in. The sun set outside to bathe Rome in an ocean of orange and reflected off the tall buildings that disrupted the tightly perched houses. Once Wooyoung had reached the foyer to wait for Linus to arrive, he watched the spectacle from a window. Despite having seen the sun many times in his life and having noticed the difference in its intensity through the centuries, it had become a symbol of Babylon for him. The sun-bathed dunes had been something special.

Linus didn't take long. Soon after, he stepped through the extravagant doors that led to his area in the back of the house. His tunic was white, and the cloth wrapped over his shoulders was a festive purple. He was alone, but he approached Wooyoung as if they were the best of friends. When Wooyoung turned to watch him near, the man opened his arms in a greeting gesture.

"How are you this evening, my friend? Did you rest?"

"I did; thank you for your hospitality. A cosy dinner might just be what I need to unwind during the night and return to my voyage with fresh energy tomorrow." Wooyoung bowed his head politely to show his gratitude. Linus grinned at him until a golden tooth flashed in the corner of his jaw.

"I agree! Nothing better than that. I'm glad I can show you true Roman culture so that you may tell the people in rural Faesulum about it. The parties of my neighbour are infamous for his excellent taste in wine and his company." Linus didn't stop raining praise on his people as he picked up the gift he had prepared on a pedestal next to the entrance door. He picked up the pretty amphora under his arm. The object was corked shut, and Linus noticed Wooyoung's curious gaze on it.

"These are fine olives from Greece that I brought with me after a recent trip there. As a present," Linus explained. Wooyoung liked that. Guest presents were a precious gesture in their society, and an old norm they had no reason to get rid of.

"Will he be mad if I bring none?"

Linus guffawed. His breathing rattled and shook in his throat, probably with some lung disease that came from his adding age. Still, he swallowed any coughs.

"Oh, of course not. You are a guest of mine, so he won't expect you to bring one. Just enjoy your time." Linus opened the door for them and let Wooyoung step out first. The sun retreated behind the horizon and its last rays peeked over the tips of the hills in Rome. The first stars already showed in the sky and the temperatures dropped once the warm sun left. In the hedges of the neighbouring house, the cicadas begun their nightly song as Linus and Wooyoung passed it.

To enter the premises of the other mansion, they had to pass a wooden gate first. Once more, Linus opened and closed it for the two of them.

The villa offering itself to them was even grander than Linus' home. A spread of grass decorated with symmetrically cut and placed bushes divided the gate from the pergolas that connected the far mansion with the gardens. Wine vines ranked up the white pillars of the marble pathways that created a U-shaped extension to the house and enclosed the inner yard. Some guests milled around outside and traversed between the open yard and garden. Some of them held expensive chalices with wine in them as they chatted and murmured to each other.

The centre of the area was taken over by a large pool that could be used for the swim grades of a school class. A fountain decorated its midst and four Venus statues poured their water with serene smiles on their marble features.

Awed, Wooyoung marvelled at the expensive exterior of the mansion. Every hedge and flower bush sat neatly in its place and matched the surrounding flora. The designer had spent many hours making sure all rose bushes were trimmed right and wrapped beautifully around the statues in the gardens to compliment them.

So far, nobody was drunk enough to land in the pool like some idiots at a frat party. Wooyoung recalled instances like these from his university days, only that the houses they had desecrated had never been as noble.

The party happened exclusively in the gardens. The door to the main building at the end of the pool was closed and the lights inside were off. Other than the lit corridors of the open U shape, a terrace to the right of the main building appeared in the distance. It was tucked away in a corner to offer some privacy from the other party-goers but still invited people to join the garden community. A roof of tightly intertwined plants climbed over the area. Green vines hung from above to dangle over the group of people that had found space on the divans and chairs outside. In their midst was a platter of food and slaves hurried between the house and outside to keep it overfilled until the legs of the table bent. In a corner loomed huge amphorae with dark liquid inside that invited the guests to dip their chalices in and drink to their heart's content.

Linus was in no hurry as he strolled through the gardens with Wooyoung. He greeted several people he recognised and even addressed one of them as an important senator. The senator in question had a red nose and even redder cheeks that shone like polished apples in the light. He slurred his words as he bestowed Linus with some drunken moral and recommended the wine in the amphora to the left before he emptied his cup. His pleased sigh had Linus snicker at him.

"Blown away yet?" Linus asked as Wooyoung and he walked along the pool. They steered at the terrace, most likely to greet the owner of the house. Wooyoung admitted his amazement with the grandeur of the villa. The main building had two stories and its white facade was interrupted by many windows that broadcasted the airiness of Roman architecture. Wooyoung bet the insides were just as noble and comfortable as the gardens.

"I must say, I am quite impressed. Now if the wine is just as good as the view, I might reconsider my early withdrawal." It was all charming talk. Wooyoung would have to leave soon either way, but he wanted to depart with a good conscience.

"In that case, you shall reconsider soon! Come and taste the wonders!"

They entered the terrace area. A couple stood at the amphorae and another man who had been lingering near the seated group just took off. Wooyoung's eyes swiped over the gorgeous woman with black curls and an enticing dress, another senator-looking guy, and four or five others that laid on the divans. Their fingers plucked fruit and bread from the table in their midst and joyous conversation passed between them.

Before Wooyoung got to glance at everyone once and gain an overview of the main crowd, one of the men already rolled from his divan to stand. When he came to his feet in front of Linus, he swayed dangerously for a moment.

The woman laughed tastefully, a hand hiding her red painted lips.

"Don't fall over, fool."

"I'm not drunk enough to excuse that yet, right," the young man agreed. He diverted his attention from her to face Linus, and Wooyoung's breath got stuck in his throat.

The face that looked at them was scarily familiar. Wooyoung needed a moment to place it since he had never seen it exposed entirely, but the longer he studied those foxy eyes and the pouty lips, the more sure he got.

The person in front of him could be Suusaandar's twin. Over two thousand miles and three hundred years away from the original.

He looked slightly different. His hair was shorter and curlier than Wooyoung remembered it. It was adorned by a thin golden headband that contrasted in a modest accessory with his hair and tamed his unruly curls. They still hung into his stormy eyes as he regarded the two newcomers.

Could it be? That this man with the white toga with nothing underneath was a descendant of Suusaandar? It wasn't unlikely given the contemporary means of travel and the business relations between the civilisations.

But what were the odds?

Wooyoung had to assume that this man just looked very similar to the breathtaking concubine he had met in the Hanging Gardens. There could be no other way.

"Sandalius! It's good to see you, friend! How have you been?" Linus greeted the other man boisterously and received a hug in response. Muscles flexed under the tanned skin of Sandalius' exposed shoulder when they drew each other in close.

"Couldn't be better! I visited the provinces in the south and came back with the most delicious wines you could ever taste. They will get you drunk in no time!"

Sandalius' voice was underlined by amusement but not yet drunk. He spoke loud and clear, his authority over the setting apparent.

Still frozen into place by the beauty of the man he got to see once more if slightly altered, Wooyoung clutched his tunic.

"Oh yes, I brought you these! Olives!"

Sandalius accepted the present with sparkling eyes. He weighed the amphora in his hands before he handed it to one of his servants.

"I will have some added to our meal to enjoy them! Who is your friend?" Now, those eyes met Wooyoung's for the first time. His blood chilled in his veins at their familiarity. They had to be the same eyes that had watched him lidded and enticingly as he had bitten into that plum. But there was just no way.

"This is Wooyoung, he came from Faesulum! He had a rough start in our city, so I hoped to bring him here tonight so he could unwind."

Sandalius nodded.

"Then, be my guest! I'm Sandalius, the host tonight and I am pleased to meet you. Enjoy whatever is offered and have an enjoyable time," Sandalius said with a smooth gesture around. "Why don't you two join me here? We haven't talked for a while." When he beckoned them over, two other guests viewed it as their signal that their time with him was over. As Wooyoung carefully laid down on the divan and tried not to hurt his side, he couldn't help his staring.

When Sandalius smiled at him, no recognition crossed his eyes. His demeanour was entirely different, too.

Wooyoung shook the uncanny similarity off. He didn't want to be rude, so instead of gawking at his handsome host, he plucked a grape off the platter and delved into the conversation.