First, she visited the market to get the finest fabric her silver could buy. That and a couple of apples. A discreet homage to the name she had taken after meeting Iulia. A name she was about to abandon, unbefitting of her future life.

Then, she sat by the edge of the river, atop a solitary outcrop of dark rock well outside the city, where few people walked by and no one would have the time to be curious about her.

In silence, looking at the water flowing along in eddies an snake-like shapes, she ate one apple to hush her stomach. After she finished, she threw the seeds into the current. Perhaps the river would take them away and they would find a place where to grow into a tree. A tree that would feed those living in a kinder land than this.

Time to start sewing.

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