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Jean had one final opportunity to collect information from the academy where she had once worked. She was leaving her current residence to gather the personal possessions left behind. The possessions included two slave-women given to Jean when her work team was performing well.
Acquiring the slaves once more had not been easy. In order to secure them, Verda, Jean's owner, had a month-long negotiation with the Irenshoa controlling the city of Rome. In the process, Verda had managed to get the Irenshoa to164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZdtjNlF5tV
consider the ancient Greek notion of "underslaves." Here, slaves could own other slaves. Often, underslaves performed menial work, like scrubbing floors, while their owners might perform household bookkeeping. The Irenshoa, having come from the Americas knew what slavery was, and they had reintroduced it in a minor way.
Verda had heard a rumor that they were now considering instituting the underslave concept with prisoners of war. Captured officers would become the slaves of local nobility, while lower-level soldiers would be the underslaves of those officers. The Irenshoa thought it would be another way to pit natural allies against one another. Verda thought it might be an opportunity to disrupt the current state of affairs, one where most Roman citizens had become content.
On the way to get her slaves, Jean felt self-conscious walking to the academy by herself. Many Native Americans did not walk alone, and it had become increasingly less frequent. The Irenshoa had begun a policy where they164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡha4mWxiCQY
performed most of their actions at night, making the fact they were in charge less noticeable, and thereby less salient, in the minds of the city inhabitants.
Once at the academy, Jean stopped by her old supervisor's office and opened the door. Inside, she saw his wall map that looked like a Roman woman's high-heel shoe. Earlier, Jean had told Verda about the map she had seen, but had never paid attention to. Verda emphatically instructed Jean to memorize what it looked like, as this would be Jean's last attempt to view it.
"Jean?"
Jean jumped to what may have been her greatest height ever from being startled.
The voice belonged to Dawn, one of the women she had worked with on her former team.
Jean knew Dawn sometimes passed off others ideas as her own. Verda called this "leverage."
Dawn took Jean to the academy's library. After they entered, Dawn pointed at a thick book: "VaVinchi - some guy - drew sketches."
Jean opened to the page in the book with a sketch for a deep-water diving suit. She quickly sized up how the technology to create moccasins could create this suit. Jean lost focus, daydreaming how she might enter a deep-water ocean164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnjy4VNgQID
and walk away. Not cheat death like others aspired to.
Cheat life.
Then she remembered what one of Verda's slave-boys had recently told her: "Everyone serves a master, merely different ones."
Jean understood she couldn't escape. She was a slave to the excitement her mind generated.
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