A palmful of Assyrtiko grapes were shattered to bits by his impearl teeth. Hacked off chunks from the Rye bread and Asiago cheese. Erwin was disturbed by the behaviour displayed by his merchant friend. "Levi... there's no need for that." Erwin wrinkled his eyebrows, the philosopher had been deep in thought. His friend had been tormented for days by a slave woman that he owned. The slave woman was extraordinarily accomplished. The woman went by the name, Hanji Zöe, in her past she was a slave owned by a wealthy landowner who was sentenced to death. The woman was an experienced engineer, doctor, writer and cook. Erwin treasured the intellectual conversations they would both have whenever Levi sent his slaves to be educated by him in Athens. "I don't understand her... how does a woman like her infuriate a man such as myself, Erwin?" He wolfed down the cup of Pinot Noir wine as he paid no heed to the daggers within Erwin's gaze. "Levi... I am no parrot... I'm not here to repeat advise and you are not here to have advise be repeated to you." Erwin confronted the face of his shorter veteran friend yet he rolled his drunkard blue eyes away. Erwin's brows raised as his lowered gaze on the man's frown became discerned. "Could it be... that you're in love with Zoe?" Erwin poured himself a cup of the Pinot Noir. The raven headed man stopped dead like a black cat that had treaded in gelid rainwater. Levi pivoted around on his heel to face Erwin with a bestial glare. Crows chirped into the orchid ethers through the pattered windows behind Erwin's figure that tasted a dice of Asiago cheese. "Hah!" Levi's virile laughter flaunted around the room. "You insult me... Erwin?" Levi was draped in an Oxford blue cloak over a colourless tunic that reached his knees. The darkness around his eyes were draped with the wisps of his black hair. His knuckles whitened as they clutched onto the marble table. His psychological evaluation of the infuriated man was that he was lovesick. The topics of their conversations had changed to only one subject, the refusal to be without the torment of another, full of praise for her skills yet feeling triviality. "Levi... your symptoms indicate that you are lovesick." Erwin drew circles with his cup to swirl the crimson wine inside. His confidant remained wordless in the silence and departed from the room with a scoff.
Levi entered the atrium to find the notable slave reclined on a marble bench beside the square of pond. Cocoa-coloured shortened locks, a coral silken dress adorned with a golden shawl around her waist and golden ribbon underneath her chest. Bronze skin that complimented her copper eyes, Levi gaped mystified by the Goddess Venus. She read from a book made of scrolls made of papyrus. The timorous man did not know where to look, overwhelmed by the continuous beating of his heart, Levi slithered back the way he came.
"Dominus?" Hanji rose to her feet from the bench. Levi adjusted his timid posture before he whirled around to confront his slave and approached with a single step. "Where is your lyre? My command was that you learn to play the Amatores." Levi's azure eyes fed on her like a bee would a flower. "Dominus... I play the bagpipe. I don't play lyre." Hanji breathed in patience at his insistence. "You'll learn it." Levi hissed in cold blood. "Ugh..." Hanji grumbled a displeased frown and was to depart the atrium when the touch of his flinty grip slithered up her arm. "Huh?" The melodious innocence echoed from her lips when faced with the observant blue gaze of her owner. "Amatores." He unhanded her with slow delicacy but never with his fervent gaze. "Play it."
"I will..." Hanji affirmed and fought the impatience within her as she was a slave before her owner. Her lowered head caught onto the silence and comprehended that it was her cue to leave. "Dominus..." Her bow of respect deepened but the cue to leave never came for his Herculean hands had thrusted her into the marble pillar behind to clutch at her backside and breast, the hands roamed over her body like hungry snakes.
The echoes of her palm that met the side of his face thundered behind the marble walls. Levi's hold loosened, his eyes hid behind his blacken locks and his slow steps distanced himself from the woman.
"I'm sorry... Dominus..." Hanji reddened at the actions she had taken for he was her owner. "I love you." The confession widened her cocoa-coloured eyes. "Huh?" The verdant leaves whispered from outside the patterned windows, the roses exhaled their scents, the sky darkened into a navy blue hue. His gaze desired no response from her and with a lowered head, "Play the lyre... Amatores... I won't bother you with desire... so calm me with music." Levi muttered his demand. The echoes of his faded footsteps urged Hanji to speak, "Amatores..." Levi paused to listen to what she had to say. "Lovers... it's the music you ask me to play." Hanji confirmed and picked up the book of scrolls she had abandoned on the marble bench from before. "There was this tale I read... Apollo and Daphne... for these past few days... I've felt like Daphne... and you, Dominus... felt like Apollo. You chase me and I run..." Hanji felt herself shiver under his vehement gaze. "As I read... a great part of me... wanted Daphne to love Apollo back. That Daphne... should not fear the love of a God because she is a nymph... even after she was a tree... it was Apollo that made her bloom. Dominus..." Hanji approached her owner with delicate steps. "I will not run away."
