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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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"Just try not to get too much of an ego," he admonishes as the shop owner comes back and it's time for Gabriel to work out exact terms with a quick "Take a break" for Claudia.

It takes roughly twenty minutes for them to get details hammered out with things written down in wax to be committed to paper to make things official once they were sure there weren't going to be any changes. Then there's a quick bit of working things out for the rest of the day, given that she wasn't there for the entire time she would otherwise have been working.

Things settled, Gabriel heads over to Claudia, taking the bread out of his bag and ripping what was left of the loaf in half, wrapping the half for her in cloth and handing it over. "This is your lunch for later. Today's schedule is going to be different than the rest of the days, since you're getting a later start but after today, most of the hard work of the kind done at the forge will be in the morning while the easier stuff is in the afternoon. Adding the finer details to whatever you've made, cleaning up some of the mess, whatever. Got it?"

"I'd ask for a language lesson, but I don't think I could work with the headache," Claudia said, accepting the food. "I'm not that big-headed. I've got a lot to learn that's finesse with the tools at hand. Not to mention trying not to introduce techniques centuries ahead of time."

She could make a mess of things if she wasn't careful, and being trapped here, especially as a slave, was not high on her list. "If only you had a way to leave a timed message for yourself."

"He's aware that teaching you the bits you don't know is one of the things he or his apprentices will be doing," Gabriel assures her. "So, you don't want to leave something to confuse people a couple thousand years from now? Spoilsport."

Oh well. Probably for the best, really. "I think someone might notice a rock with Enochian all over it or whatever."

"Can't exactly tuck it in the Ark of the Covenant for later, either," Claudia said, chuckling. "My first thought was one of your little brothers, but you don't talk to any of them."

She understood that, and why. One feathery git figuring out who Gabriel really was and the whole thing would be over. "I can try to leave a clue or three, but that is incredibly hard to manage without knowing ahead of time something's going to survive."

It would only work if it ended up in the Warehouse, really, and that was one place Gabe couldn't go. And she didn't know where they were in this century. "You don't happen to know a group of shadowy folks who like to meddle in mystical artifacts using the eye of Ra as a symbol, do you?"

"Considering it's buttoned up upstairs, no," he agrees. "And nope. That going to be some poking around I need to do sometime later then?"

Actually he's not going to bother waiting for an answer. "I should go get some stuff done and let you get to work. I'll come get you when he's ready to close up so everybody can go home for the night."

"Not sure how much good poking around would do. You didn't even know they existed until I told you. And you can't even get close enough to knock on the front door in my day, with all the warding. Considering what might react, we both agree it's a good thing," Claudia said, then gave a pretense of diffidence.

"I'll see you 'round, then."

"I also didn't know to look for them," he points out. "We can talk about this later. We both have work to do."

Ugh, work. He didn't come to Rome to work. If he wanted to work, he would have stayed home Upstairs.

He disappears for most of the day, and while there was some entertaining himself, he also did things like move them to another inn, since it was fairly clear she wouldn't cause him problems at this point. And at least this way, she can sleep in a proper bed, even if there'll be mussing of the pallet at the foot of the bed to make it look like she slept there instead. It's not like Gabriel needs the bed so may as well.

He finally reappears when the shadows are getting long, food and decent wine in his satchel. "So. How did things go?" Meant for the owner of the shop, really.

Claudia looks that weird kind of hyper yet worn out that comes after a good day of work in a creative venue. It had been a long time since she could just do stuff because it felt good or she wanted to do it. Still, she just shrugged a little and gathered the cloth that had held her lunch and waited for Gabriel to finish chatting up her new boss for the time being.

Learning about the jewelry business in ancient Rome was not going to be mastered in a day, and she knew she could spend years here and barely scratch the surface. It would definitely keep her busy until they found a way home and give her owner an income and reason to stick around. At least, she hoped it would.

Also, the more she thought about it, the more likely it was that the Empire would be home to the Warehouse's current version. That or somewhere like China or India. It had to be somewhere with literacy and cultural dominance, and one never knew where the strongest draw would be. It would be a lot of work and maybe travel to find the right way home.

Possibly not, considering the rush to close down the Warehouse at Alexandria when Rome was invading.

Some talk along with some money being handed over to Gabriel later, and Gabriel's inclining his head in the direction they were going to give Claudia a heads up before walking in that direction. "He says things went well."

If there were problems, this would be the time to mention them.

"He's strict, but he deserves it," Claudia said, shrugging a little. She'd gotten a few swats or cuffs along the way, but no worse than any other apprentices, that she could tell. And she suspected one or to of the comments she couldn't understand were what might pass for compliments.

"I'm not going to complain if that's what you're wondering. I've had worse days in the Warehouse. Especially when the place is annoyed with me."

Gabriel shrugs a little. "I wasn't necessarily expecting complaints. Should I ask what the building does?"

...Okay, that was a little weird to say.

"The biggest time? I got zapped by a bit of lightning every few minutes when there wasn't anyone to see it happen," Claudia said, trying hard not to rub her backside in memory. "The place can be creative, though. Stuff falling off shelves, things going wrong in new and interesting ways. You just never know."

"I'm sure it thought you deserved the shock," he says without batting an eye. Remember, no hitting him in public now.

"You're not the one who's essentially in a symbiotic relationship with it. Not that there aren't benefits," Claudia said, although she's glaring a bit. "Part of the reason the asshat who sent me here couldn't just kill me. He knew enough to know that severing the link between Caretaker and Warehouse is a bad idea."

"Kill you, the place reacts, people know instantly that something was wrong," he surmises, ignoring the glare.

"Pisses everyone off, too," Claudia agreed. "And it had to be the past, because it's a first-come-first-served kind of thing. I worked pretty well with my predecessor for a while, and there wasn't really an issue because she was the 'real' deal. I only got a little of the edges from time to time, and didn't even know it until I became Caretaker temporarily. Which I'm not talking about, because it still gives me nightmares."

"Huh. And here we go," he says, heading through the door of their new inn. Then there's walking around the common room to go up the stairs to their room.

"I'm letting you have the bed since it's not like I need to sleep," he says, going to the small table to pull out the remainder of the loaf from that morning, cheese, fruit, and the wine, setting it on the table.

"You keep being nice to me, and I might think you actually care," Claudia half-teased. This was hard for both of them, at least, she assumed it was. Gabriel needed to keep an eye on her to keep his cover from being blown, and she didn't have anywhere else to be.

Still, it was kind of him to give her some semblance of comfort without making things more awkward. "You need me to put up wards or anything?"

Since those pretty much required human blood as one of the ingredients.

Gabriel cocks an eyebrow at her. "I can make you sleep on the floor instead if you'd rather."

He's not that nice. "Nah. I can manage."

"I suspect it's big enough for two," Claudia commented, but she knew she wasn't going there. This wasn't her boyfriend, they barely knew each other.

She sighed, sitting down to eat. As good as the day had been, she knew she couldn't just say here. There wasn't another Caretaker, and without that, her Warehouse was vulnerable in ways it normally wasn't. Thinking about that, though, was just getting her tied up in knots.

"Why don't you tell me about your day?"

"Besides the part that involved getting somewhere else to stay? I'll stop off at a baker's stall with you tomorrow to get your bread for the day and make sure they know they have a new customer in the form of you, since I'm not buying it for you every day. It's not like slaves don't do shopping, anyway."

He snaps a cup into existence, pouring some of the wine into it and producing water to mix in to make it a little more drinkable for humans, pushing it her way. "I put out a few feelers asking about followers of Ra. Some are bound to be dead ends but one or two may turn something up."

"Be careful," Claudia said, even as she took the offered cup of wine, sipping it. "While I know we don't have anything that can actually kill you in the collection, there's plenty that will hurt. Not to mention that most of the people try hire tend to have unusual talents. That's part of how I knew you were, well, you, even though I'm better with objects."

"Noted. Although somehow, I'm not too worried. It'll be awhile before word trickles back anyway," he says with a shake of his head. He's already had a few people try and fail to take him out. It's not worth worrying about.

Claudia grimaces at that, not liking the idea of staying here any longer than absolutely necessary.

"If anyone can dig up stuff you're not supposed to find, it's you," Claudia commented. "I'm just worried about the impact. Most people in my line of work are, well, too used to weirdness to blink at a guy who claims to be a deity. Especially when they have powers. More likely to strip-search you to see what you're using."

Gabriel snorts at the thought of anyone strip-searching him. "If they try, things will end badly for them. Which I'm sure you know."

Since future-him apparently was dumb enough to have a thing for a mortal, resulting in lots of time spent with her.

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