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Trapped in the past?

Claudia didn't know exactly how it had happened, but the guy she'd been trying to snag an artifact from had caught her instead. She remembered being dragged through some kind of portal, and a conversation with some very strangely-dressed individuals that would have scared even some of the toughs she'd known in her time on the streets. It had been hours before she really understood what had happened, to get even a slight grip on the foreign words and sights around her. Somehow, she'd been sent back in time, when exactly she wasn't certain, and given over to these scoundrels to do with as they pleased. It wasn't until she saw the city that she even knew where she was. Nobody could mistake Rome, even this ancient shining city.

Her wrists tied together and into a string with the other unfortunates, the only real indignities she'd been spared were being stripped of her possessions and raped. From the little she could catch, they thought she would being them quite a small fortune as a wonder. Maybe even one of the senators would find her worth having, and it wouldn't do to damage the goods unnecessarily. Still, she had quite a few bruises and a blackening eye from the casual 'encouragements' she'd received. A halting attempt at what she knew of Latin and Greek had only resulted in snickering laughter and an incomprehensible reprimand with a threatening knife at her mouth. Apparently their definition of 'damaged goods' didn't include the ability to speak.

Now, she was turned over to the slave auction, and there, nothing could have prepared her for the indignities. Her clothes, much the worse for wear after all the travel were unceremoniously stripped off her in front of the noisy crowd as one man gave a long-winded description of her, enthusiasm clear even through the language barrier. She struggled against the touches of interested parties, only her bonds keeping her from being able to strike back.

She'd yanked away from yet another impertinent squeeze when she finally saw a familiar face. It made her gasp, her thoughts latching onto the name that went with it in what might have been a prayer of salvation, but she had to get his attention. And if he was the one from this time, she couldn't just call him by name. Not his real name. Still, she knew one of those he'd used in the millenia he'd been hanging around pretending not to be an archangel.

"Loki! Help me!" The words were in modern english, and that was probably a mistake, but she was too distracted to try for something more appropriate to the era just now. She had to get his attention, maybe get the eager shoppers to give her some space. She had to get out of here.

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Gabriel had been taking one of his trips outside Scandinavia to keep abreast of what was going on in other parts of the world. It wouldn't do to be blindsided by any threats or incursions into his domain, for example. There may also be wanting to see and do something new as motivation.

News of the rise of the Roman Empire made it's way even as far north as he was. This was helped, of course, by a detachment of Roman soldiers that managed to get lost, although they didn't actually cross the sea. The news from traders who plied both sides of the water were what made it across.

All this led to Gabriel making his way to the city of Rome to investigate. A change of clothes later to mark himself as from further lands but not far enough to potentially get trouble stirred up against him later, he had mostly free run of the city in the guise of a provincial on his first big trip away from home to see where the laws and trade goods were passed on from.

Further leading to him being in the market, looking at the goods available, be they different kinds of food, fabrics, or livestock. Which included the portion set aside from the rest where the slaves were sold, be they ones sold between buyer and seller with little fanfare or up on the auction block where as many potential buyers as possible could see some of the better ones who might fetch a higher price.

He didn't take much notice of Claudia at first, pressing his way elsewhere. He noticed the hair color but didn't really look at her. Then she was shouting his other name and his head snaps around to her so he could focus on her. Then his eyebrows go up as he takes the time to really look beyond the surface. Well then. That was interesting.

Claudia felt a moment of relief at the response, but he was just looking. That wasn't going to keep her from ending up in some kind of whorehouse or harem or whatever. Nobody there gave a damn about anything but her looks, it seemed. She tried to think beyond the manhandling and bargaining that seemed to be going on fiercely around her. Even her clothes where being examined, although most of her possessions were useless in this time and place, even if her phone and other electronics hadn't been removed before she'd been sold. Still, she had his attention. And she needed to keep it. She took a moment to think, and decided on ancient Norse as the one least likely to have any eavesdroppers.

"Loki, please, get that feathery ass of yours over here and fix this!" she called out above the crowd. She needed help, and she needed allies. Even if it would be a paradox of sorts to deal with the archangel she loved this far in his relative past.

That gets his eyes narrowed at her. No one should be making references to feathers regarding him. What was his future self doing?

His expression smooths out and he strolls over to look her over as if he was just another buyer. Unlike several of the others, he didn't check her over with his hands, sticking to looking with his eyes.

Then the auctioneer was done talking Claudia up and started taking bids. Gabriel let most of the initial bids get done and out of the way, giving a few of the buyers time to drop out as the price went higher than they intended to pay before inserting a bid of his own that was promptly topped by someone else. All told, it took about twenty minutes for the bidding to die down, with a few little mental nudges to push out some of the ones willing to take the bidding unreasonably high for the fiances of his cover.

Once it was over, he was the winner with a few of the losers grumbling as Claudia was dragged back off the stage to be put back in basic clothing and turned over to him as he counted out the money to be turned over to the person actually in charge of handling the cash and listening to one of Claudia's handlers assurances that once properly broken in, she should be useful at whatever tasks he had for her.

The auction was almost worse than the inspections. She'd been pinched and prodded and then left to stand as the tensions mounted and the bidding to end. It was fierce for a while, but Gabriel had won in the end. So at least she probably wasn't going to be left to be property of some stranger in a time where civil liberties had no real meaning. At least she wasn't going to be branded like some animal.

She almost collapsed in relief when the whole thing ended, but it didn't stop there, instead she was given some scratchy material in a tunic of sorts that left most of her legs bare. No shoes, either, but then, she wasn't that important, apparently. While a part of her wanted to try to grab the archangel by the arm and drag him off somewhere safe, that would probably be bad. So instead she waited, watching him with an air of defiance she couldn't quite keep off her expression. He may have bought her, but that ownership wasn't going to change the way she'd act. "Well, Trickster?"

If she took a moment to think about it, she would have realized that branding would have had a negative impact on her value. What if her buyer wanted to resell her somewhere down the line for some reason.

Gabriel ignores her until he's done with his transaction and has received the papers detailing Claudia's status as a slave. Then he's given the end of the chain attached to the manacles on her wrists. He promptly wraps his end around his hand to keep a firm hold of it lest she actually tries to break free. Then there's a sharp tug to make her move forwards and a "Follow me," in Latin.

Time to get her away from here to someplace private. He hadn't originally intended to rent a room to stay in but it looked like he was going to have to, once he found an inn catering to people buying slaves with quarters to keep them in, anyway.

"Illigitimi non carborundum," Claudia murmured, just loud enough for Gabriel to possibly hear. She knew it was nonsense in 'real' Latin, but what the hell, right?

Still, she didn't exactly protest to being lead down the street on a chain like some dangerous animal. From the descriptions she'd managed to translate into something resembling English, she was pretty sure she was considered just that. A barbarian wonder from distant lands. There were a couple of times she ended up tugging on her end, like when she would have had to follow him through some kind of stinking offal in front of the butcher's and other noxious things that people barely seemed to notice. Most of the city was clean, though, at least cleaner than most might expect. She just had no idea what her place might be in it until she could get back to where she belonged.

There's a few stops made while Gabriel looks for someplace suitable to talk to her. The first ended up being a place for clothing where Claudia got stripped of her barely adequate tunic for a short-sleeved linen one that went to her knees with a sleeveless off-white stola the natural color of the wool over it. Then there was a stop right next door to get her some shoes to afford her feet some protection.

Further down the line was food in the form of bread cheese and a piece or two of fruit, these options not requiring cooking. Then and only then, did Gabriel find the kind of inn he was looking for.

A conversation with the proprietor later, Gabriel leads Claudia into the room he's rented, locking the door behind them to prevent interruptions and laying down an auditory illusion to cover their actual conversation with the sounds of him telling her what he expected out of her in terms of her duties. Along with other things.

"All right. How the hell do you know me?" he says, using Norse, dropping the satchel holding the papers regarding her and the food on the table in the room. Not that there was much in it. The table, bed, chair, and a hanging lamp were it, along with the curtains for the window.

Claudia was mostly just trying to think, and while she definitely wanted to get out of the manacles, she wasn't sure that was going to happen. The inn was hardly a pleasant surprise, any more than the clothes or sandals, but it was more than she'd had.

"It's hard not to when we live together," she said, glad that the knowledge of the language she'd gotten was like she'd grown up speaking Norse instead of struggling for translations. "The endless supply of cookies may factor in there, too."

Gabriel looks at her skeptically. "Why would I be living with a human woman and have told her who I am? At least, it seems safe to say that you know more names than just Loki, considering your references to feathers."

"It's not something you tell everyone, but staying out of family squabbles don't work forever. Especially when someone has the brilliant idea of trying to let your big brothers finish what they started." And she'd nearly lost him because of it.

"I think originally you were just trying to blow my mind with that. Or I blew yours because I wasn't exactly surprised. And then I built the house as a supernatural fortress. Nobody else from either side can get inside."

Gabriel's jaw tightens at the reference to Michael and Lucifer. "So, do they kill each other?"

He would like the answer to be 'no'.

"The brothers they were supposed to wear to the big dance had other ideas, and shoved them both back into time out," Claudia said. Then she gave him a sympathetic look. "It was probably the best choice of a whole bunch of bad ones. But then, things are usually a bit of a mess. The more people you have in one place, the easier it is for monsters to hide and all that. Add to that people don't really believe in a lot of things that can't be seen or measured..."

She shrugged a little, uncertain what to say. "I'm glad the world's still around, but details should probably not be something we talk about. We're already courting paradox, right?"

"Assuming you didn't create an entirely new timeline just by coming here," he points out as he takes a moment to absorb what she's said. Well then. At least he doesn't seem to be losing either of them even if they're out of the picture.

"Believe me, it was not on purpose. Once was more than enough for me, and that was only a few centuries," Claudia said. She tried to run a hand through her hair, but the manacles made it difficult. "Do I have to keep wearing these? They're pretty uncomfortable. I don't know what people were thinking."

Gabriel eyes her for a moment before walking over and undoing them, setting them aside. "That you would fight or run away given the chance, given that you've apparently been pretty combative? That's one of the things I was being told while I was paying for you."

"I got kidnapped, shoved through a portal, and then had all my clothing stripped so they could inspect things. I liked that jacket too. And the boots were just the right amount of broken in," Claudia said. "Given that, how cooperative do you think you'd be?"

She rubbed at her wrists, glad to have the weight off them, even temporarily. "The guy wanted me out of the way permanently, but if he killed me, everyone would know almost immediately."

"Sending you back in time seems a little extreme," he says with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not getting your clothes back for you. You stand out enough as it is."

Considering the red hair and being in extremely good physical shape. Honestly, someone like his cover shouldn't have been able to buy her. Depending on whatever skills she had that were relevant for the time, the price could have been increased even higher to the point that no one who wasn't one of the noble families could afford her.

"He needed me to be alive but impossible to locate," Claudia said. "One of those times when I hate my work. I don't want to think about how moody things will be when I get back. She'll find some way to get even."

Explaining the Warehouse would be another thing she probably shouldn't. Still, she had to think about it. "What year is it, anyway?"

"By what calendar?" Gabriel asks, eyebrow still raised. "Hadrian of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty is the current Emperor. Which reminds me. You do not want to use my real name in public. There was some recent... unpleasantness in Judea, and any references to myself, my Father, or my family in general will get you a closer look than you want."

"That is a bit of a problem, I guess. Figuring it without an astrolabe and an almanac would be outside my abilities anyway. Not to mention it would take at least a month to get enough observations to hazard a reasonably accurate theory," she said, with a sigh. "I remember enough of my ancient history to know that there's a habit of feeding the followers of that new sect to the beasts in the Coliseum. Not a fate I'd like to embrace."

She wasn't much of a Christian, but even knowing about it or defending it could result in public death or torture. "And the Library at Alexandria's long gone, so finding any of the people in this century that work for the same folks I do...not really on the table, either. It would have been nice to think up some kinda of secret message to the future."

"It's more the Jews who don't follow the new guy. Romans badly misjudged public reaction to assorted statues they added to the temples. Some of the responses were a bit violent." To put it mildly, given there was a few years of war.

Anyway, time to move on before there's too much dwelling. "Wishing you actually paid attention to history so you can find the right people, are you?"

"If only it were that simple. What's recorded and passed on is only a particular version of what actually happened. From this time, it's mostly the Roman view of events, since not a lot of the people they have brought into the Empire are exactly literate," Claudia pointed out.

"So I guess for now we'd better figure out what we're going to do. After all, at least in public, I'm your property, and that's not exactly a role I'm well-suited for."

"It's been noticed. A few people were recommended to me to make you behave properly," Gabriel tells her. "You're not going to be staying in here with me; there's other quarters you'll be in. You're only here right now because I'm supposedly telling you what I expect out of you in the way of behavior and duties. I think what we need is for me to wrap things up here so we can move out of the city proper."

"I don't speak the language, exactly, either. I suppose that's not a horrible thing. Am I supposed to be your concubine?" Claudia asked, although she wasn't really sure how publicly that role would be expected to be played out. If Gabriel was playing a local, well, the Romans did have a sense of extravagance.

"Please tell me you said something to the effect of enjoying breaking in your new slaves personally. Cosmetic bruising I can live with, but I'd prefer not to find out firsthand what they'd expect to do to recalcitrant slaves."

By now, she couldn't really help glancing at the food. It wasn't much, but only one of them actually needed to eat. Another thing it wouldn't be good to advertise. She doubted even bread and cheese was considered suitable for someone of her standing. Probably gruel or broth.

Is she really going to complain about him getting decent food for her?

"You do know they expect more out of female slaves, right?" he asks with raised eyebrow. "Fieldwork, different kinds of house-work, scribes if they've been educated for it. That's only what I've seen so far over the last day or so."

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