Families, Wills & Ex-Companions

No more than a few days have passed since Sven's dagger landed imbedded in the chest of Marius, and yet it seems an eternity of waiting and waiting for any news of his health. Supposedly no new is good news. Though I cannot help but worry every idle moment that Marius will die.. and leave me to uncertainty. Too, I am reminded time and again of the night Giselle died in my arms.. my former owner, just prior to Marius.

"Does Marius have a will, Damos?"
I have spent the day outdoors with Asia, trying to keep my mind from fretting over the fact I've not seen Marius in three days.. nor has the Physican been down to give us any word of encouragement or otherwise.

"Well.. of course he does, Asia,"
I replied after a moment of confusion. She, above all who know my master best, ought to know that he has an iron will. In fact, he may well have the strongest will on all of Cos.

I do believe she could sense that I knew nothing of what she spoke, and after a small bit of laughter escaped her, she explained to me that a will is a legal written document that specifies the last wishes of a deceased man, and how and to whom his belongings must be dispersed.

I have no idea then, whether he has such a will or not. Nor where such a thing might be kept. But Asia did tell me that if he were to die.. she would surely take me as her own.

"Does Marius have any family, Damos?"

"Yes I do believe he had a mother and father," I replied again after a moment's thought. For I am certain that all people must have a mother and father at some point.. even me. Although I have no knowledge of them.. either mine or Marius'. "Though I know he has no sisters or brothers. Oh.. and there is Bijou."

"Who is that," she asked?

"Marius' Ex-Companion." I am not sure which stunned her more.. that my master had kept this secret, or that he'd had a companion once at all. But she stared at me rather incredulous for a few moments.

"Well.. she does not need to be informed of any of this. Most epecially of his will, if he has one." Of course, I nodded, agreeing with her. I had very little knowledge of Bijou anyway. Except that..

"She comes to see him once a year." Again she looked stunned. And suddenly she was curious too.

"What does she look like, Damos?"

"She is very pretty, Asia."

"Where does she.. sleep.. when she comes to visit?" Again I was confused for a moment. Was that jealousy in the lady's eyes? But alas I know very little of Bijou.

"I do not know, Asia. She stays in my master's private rooms until it is time for her to leave. I've never peeked to see where she sleeps."

The Physician's Orders

"Perhaps you'd like a second opinion from someone more qualified than myself," he said with a spark of sarcasm in his voice that I'd not readily picked up on at first.

Perhaps I had been a little presumptuous in charging the Physician to take the best care of Marius.. as if he'd planned on anything less. And while he'd managed on the first try to at least shoo Asia and Cali from Marius' private chambers.. I was a bit slower in heeding the man's orders that we clear out and leave the poor man to recuperate in peace and silence.

Despite my master's supreme preference for discretion, I did not care who saw it when I beheld his sleeping face in my hands and kissed his lips. It was not the sort of obligatory kiss shared among men.. but one that lingered and suggested that I loved him more deeply than mere kin or friendship.

Prior to her departure from his chambers, Cali had told me that she believed those who sleep the unnatural comatose sleep can hear words spoken around them. I know not whether this is true.. but when I did finally release my master's face from my hands, I whispered these words to him: I love you, Master.

Marius Takes a Fall

In those first few hours following the stabbing, I laid beside him on his couch, unable to tear myself away from Marius and let go. In all the ten years I have lived under my master's roof, I have never once seen him quite this way.. vulnerable and weakened. Less than a god. And it frightens me.

Marius, please. Wake up.

Less that an ahn after Anya had arrived and departed the Wine Festival leaving all the song and dance and merriment behind her in a whirlwind of indifference, Marius and Asia returned to me moments before a shout rose above the cacophany of music and general drunkeness.

"SLAVE!" It was the voice of Sven. The woman kneeling at my feet stiffened and clung tightly to me.

I do not know what compelled me to tug her right behind my back as if to hide her either. She had been given to me. By Anya. And as a gift from Sven, no less.

"That's my slave!" Asia too, cried out and pointed right at the woman following Sven with a rope tied around her neck. And sure enough.. there was Calico. "Marius.. do something! He has my slave!"

It all happened so frightfully fast, I am still sick and dizzied by it. Sven let go of the rope and made a grab for Asia, threatening us all as he held her in a choke-hold and pressed a dagger to her throat.

"Give me my slave!" He shouted with a rare insistance I've never seen in his eyes before. Kari trembled behind me, causing me to tremble a bit too. And yet I was still reluctant to let her go. Anya had given her to me.

Marius drew out from the surrounding crowd and raised his hands as he approached Sven, offering a trade to the Artist, "Your slave.. for mine." And he pointed right at Calico in his attempt to bargain with Sven.

I don't know whether Sven assumed Marius was armed, but in that instant he shoved poor Asia to the ground and threw his dagger.. right at my master's heart.

In the sudden confusion, Sven vanished. There were screams and people running about frantic while Marius slowly sank down to the ground holding the hilt of a dagger that had been deeply imbedded in his chest.

I fear.. this is all my fault.

Anya

During a small interlude when I had become separated from both Marius and Asia, I was suddenly face to face with an unusual lady I had not seen in more than two years. She is not like many of the other women of Jad, nor like any of the women from the nearby Peasant villages. Her eyes are fiery and her features often sharp. She is a dancer, yet not in the sort of traditional slave dances that many other women are well acquainted with. But of the sort that felt to me, intimidating. Enough that I had dreamt of her off and on over the next two years.

Anya is her name, and she is Sven's woman.

Today at the Wine Festival she threw a woman right at me the very moment I had smiled and called out her name. A kajira woman.

"Keep her, Damos. She is yours. A gift," she said without a smile. And my own faltered for a moment, unable to take my eyes from her long enough to see exactly whom she had bestowed upon me.

"From Sven."

"Thank you.. Anya. Thank you."

And just like that she had turned to go, leaving me with a gift and a burgeoning fondness in my heart for the Artist once again when I at last looked down upon the red-haired woman Karihisma, kneeling at my feet.

Cosian Wine Festival

The day after Kajuralia - that world-wide holiday in which all slaves and masters trade roles from sunrise until sunset, the Cosian Wine Festival is an island-wide event hosted by more than two-thousand vineyards from Selnar to Jad. It is to be the first Cosian Wine Festival Marius has attended in more than fifty years. And only the second one for me.

I feel I literally dragged myself home that day, following a paga drinking game with Sven and Rufus that I was sorry I had won the first two rounds of. I no longer cared that I had apparently lost everything in the third. I don't even remember the third round! All I wanted was to lay me down in my own bed and mourn my aching body. I do not think I have ever been this sick in my entire life.

Though Marius would have no part of it. He did not have to say it either, but I knew deep down, that he was quite wroth with me. I was forced to rise and bathe, and accompany both him and Asia to the Cosian Wine Festival. Funny.. but the last thing in the world that I want right now.. is another drop of alcohol.

As the day wore on, my spirits did begin to rise out of their mire. Moreso after I was encouraged to drink my fill of wine when the crowds ventured from one vineyard to another. Though I did not tell Asia for the longest time that I had last seen her runaway kajira in Sven's tent. For I knew if Cali was returned, I would still be forced to whip her. And I just cannot do this. I do not have it in me to strike a woman. The only choice therefore was to keep my mouth shut and say nothing of Cali's whereabouts.

There is a little something though about wine's potent effect on loosening tight lips. Also the fact that Asia often takes advantage of me in ways I never suspect until it is often too late.