G/T One Shots

Wishes Three

Warnings: deception, death, ownership of people, cursing, sexual undertones

Time was a funny thing. Funny because it was relative and often irrelevant. Funny because it plays favorites.

The odd thing about time is that there are some things that you never forget, no matter the time difference.

And this was one of the things that Nadia would never forget.

It had been a fairly ordinary day, just another market day in her village. She had shifted the basket on her hip as she made the mile long journey on foot.

After all, she was too poor to afford a horse and carriage; that was for royalty and nobles, not lowly townsfolk such as herself.

And money was hard to come by in her time.

The sun beat down on her harshly as she trekked through the sand, and she stumbled on something in the sand, nearly dropping and spilling the fruit in her basket as she looked for the cause.

And then something glinted.

She wiped a bead of sweat the her hairline, brushing the stray brown strands behind her ear and back into her head-wrap as she knelt down to get a better look. Her mouth fell open in shock.

"Gold?" She breathed, digging in the hot sand and grabbing the object with the spare cloth of her simple dress. She didn't even need to look at what it was, and she re-situated her basket against her hip as she stood, making her way back home.

It would be enough to get out of Vesuvia and into a better place, somewhere with better medicine for her ailing mother. Somewhere that might not treat her as an object for her gender. A place where every nook could be new, could not be haunted with flashes of memory of her father.

With that thought in mind, she trekked back home, panting from the heat.

And as soon as she got there, she went to see her mother. "Mama," She began with a smile, "you won't believe what I came across on the way to the market." At the silence, she decided to continue. "Something golden. Something that can make you better. Make us happy."

She knelt by her mother's beside, a faint smile still on her lips. "We can be free."

Free from the people that owned them, who kept them trapped in this hellhole.

She gently shook her mother. "Doesn't that sound nice?"

No response.

And as Nadia thought and observed her mother's still form, she realized that things were off.

No movement.

No ragged breathing.

Just stillness.

And then she was shaking her mother, increased desperation. "Mama..? Mama! Mama?!?"

Her throat tightened and she dropped her basket with a clatter as her desperation grew. But after several shakes and despairing cries, it was clear to Nadia what had happened.

Her mother had died between this morning and now. And she hadn't even said goodbye.

Her gaze fell to the golden object, and she gasped, wiping at her damp emerald eyes and discarding her head wrap to dry it better. She had to make sure her eyes were seeing it properly.

A lamp. A golden lamp was laying a foot away. It would definitely be worth enough her get her away. Her heart ached, another sharp stab, as she realized she'd be alone. But it's what her mother would have wanted.