Atlas Of Megaras

PEACE DOESN'T LAST LONG

The Polis of Megara was overjoyed. We had recently signed the peace treaty to end all wars with the neighbouring Polis of Gortyn. Everyone was out on the streets milling about, smiling and laughing. It had been a week since the peace treaty was struck and the relief on everyone's faces was paramount. The Agora too was filled, there was no space to stand. It was the last of summer days and people were out buying or bartering whatever they could so they could be ready for the winter months when food and wine was scarce.

With great difficulty Eda and I had managed to get a seat at the Bakery. The brightly coloured cloth awning over our heads did the bare minimum of protecting us from the sun's rays.

"It's nice to see so many smiling faces for a change." Eda, my sister handed me a loaf of bread. Now let me tell you about the bread from Alexander's bakery. It is the best in the world. Softer than the most expensive silk on any market, it paired well with anything. Meat stew, cheese, butter- it even worked well with honey.

"Yeah, it will be quite for a while, Eda." I bit my lip, I wasn't supposed to call her that. "No, don't call me Eda." She hissed looking around suspiciously. "Call me Aegeus."

"Yes." I swallowed the bite I was chewing. "So, how's the business?" Eda drank deeply from her cup of wine. "It is going well, it won't go well if you keep calling me- "She looked around again and whispered, "Eda."

"I know that better than you. You picked a nice name. "Aegeus meant protector- a very nice name for someone who moonlighted as a lawyer.

"The war brought me many clients, not so sure now." She said swirling wine in her glass. Eda sighed and looked up at the skies. Eda was very clever. She had learned to read and write at the age of four and could weave an entire chiton by the age of ten. I always knew that if she was born a man, she would have rivalled the Great Hero Diomedes in battle strategies. But born a woman she was stuck to disguising herself as a man.

I huffed, we are really a duo of misfits.

"So, I'm going to invest some of your gold in building a canal on our estate." I nodded.

"My money is yours after all." It was better off in the hands of Eda. I have no idea how she did it, but she had a Midas's touch to money. She could multiply even the smallest amount of money to 10 times it worth in a year.

"Will you tell me what you got me from Gortyn, now?" she begged, turning her doe eyes on me. "Aegeus, if I hadn't known better I would have assumed your pleading eyes won you all your cases."

"Now you are getting rude." She said, turning away from me.

"Okay, okay." I raised my hand in defeat. "Zeus's sake, you are very persistent." Eda turned and smiled, "It better be something good. You made me wait for a week, Atlas."

I did do that. Nothing is more fun than watching Eda getting more and more frustrated trying to look around our house for her gifts.

I gulped down the cool wine. I walked over to my horse, Balius. I pulled the bag lose form the saddle and tossed it over to Eda who barely managed to catch it. She opened it and pulled out the first gift – a gold comb, encrusted with opals and carnelians. She held it up to the sun watching the sunlight bounce off the carnelian. She shrieked with delight, before looked a bit embarrassed.

"I might just blow my cover one day like this." she said, pulling out the silver armlet. It was made to mimic a vine of flowers creeping up the arm of the wearer. It looked very real, the flowers painstakingly crafted with pure silver, each flower was unique. And at the centre of each flower there was a single polished pearl the size of a pea. Believe it or not but the bracelet had costed me more than a month's pay in my army wages.