The duo finally finished chopping the vegetables and then Cambyses bought out a crude juice extractor.
Its design was crude among crude- just a wooden piece with a funnel on the top where small pieces of beetroots could be mashed by a mallet and a collector at the bottom to catch all the extract.
As Cambyses started ‘grinding’ the beetroot, she asked while keeping her head down, “So Aristotle dies, huh?”
She seemed to have finally accepted the reality that the old man, her godfather, had to die.
And although she didn’t share much love for the man, she did spend her last eighteen years knowing him.
Thus it made her sad to think that he will be killed.
But Alexander did not seem to share the same sentiment.
He pointed out, “With your father dead and him leaving no heirs behind, you are legally entitled to all his property, including me. But you are a woman. And women in Thesos can own very limited property. That means by law you need a guardian or godfather who will look after them. Currently, that guardian is Aristotle and after you get married, it will be your husband, me.” Alexander said, already declaring Cambyses his bride.
This marriage proposal sounded crude, insensitive, and tactless even to someone living in an ancient, patriarchal society and thus somewhat irked Cambyses
She cut off Alexander with a shout, “Bah, who said I was gonna marry you? Keep dreaming slave.”
“Hahaha, so which man are you gonna marry, mistress?” Alex teased.
“Why marry a man? I heard that in the east, even two women can marry. I will marry Mean.” Cambyses tried her best to win the argument.
And this unconventional answer somewhat amazed Alexander.
Because in this time period, marriage itself was seen as a sacred, inviolable concept that existed solely between men and women to produce babies and form a family.
Homosexuality was quite prevalent at the time, Alexander was even well aware that Cambyses and Mean did not just innocently sleep in the same bed, they frequently crossed scissors.
But such practices developing into marriages for the people of this time was as absurd a concept as turning water into fire.
So to hear such ‘modern talks’ out of someone essentially in the earth’s classical times, two and a half thousand years before her time, made Alexander feel quite impressed.
But he also knew that Cambyses was not really serious, she only said to win an argument.
“The water has boiled.” Alexander noticing the rolling water informed Cambyses.
Hearing this, she quickly dumped all the extracted beetroot juice, along with the mashed beetroot pieces into the hot water, to get all the sucrose to dissolve in the water.
Done with that, she asked, “So you intend to get me to poison them? Using this sweet water? And father’s drinking pot?”
With the few clues Alexander had given, the clever girl seemed to have mostly figured out the plan.
“Yes.” Alexander lightly smiled. “Aristotle is currently your owner. And by extension my owner. Unless he dies, we can never be free!”
“Fine” Came Cambyses’s sigh of resignation.
Then abruptly her voice turned icy cold, and she talked in a tone Alexander had never heard before, “You said, as a freeman, I couldn’t understand what a slave felt like. Well, then why in my life have I never felt free? Why did I feel like a slave to my father? Why did I feel like a slave to my brother and why do I feel like a slave to Aristotle? ”
Then Cambyses demanded in an absolutely domineering way, “I will help you poison everyone. And I will set you free afterward. But you have to swear to the gods that you will also get me free. Swear to me that I will be able to do things I want.”
Alexander was ecstatic that finally, all the pieces were in place.
So he enthusiastically agreed, “Sure. I will make you a freeman. Not a freewoman but a freeman, with all the rights a man has. You don’t have to pay me any dowry, you can keep all your father’s property, you can work and earn money, you can keep all your earnings, you can buy and sell land and property at your will and you can divide your assets to your children as you wish. Will that suffice?”
“No, I don’t need th.. that much.” Cambyses strangely stammered.
It seemed that she thought the deal was a bit too good to be true and was afraid that Alexander might misunderstand her as if she was trying to blackmail him during a crisis.
She then proposed a revised agreement, “I can accept all the offers, but I also want to be able to sleep with Mean without your permission.”
“Okay,” Came a quick quip. Alexander trusted Mean as much as he did Cambyses and he knew long ago that both of them were more ‘bi’ than ‘straight’.
But strangely, as far as Alexander knew, they only seemed to get it on with each, even though both had other female and even male slaves around them. .𝘯𝘵
So Alexander saw no problem with this.
“But I will give you all my father’s property as my dowry. And I also promise not to buy any male slaves without your permission.” Cambyses offered a compromise by herself.
Alexander was in fact very pleased by the latter proposal.
When he had offered her the right to buy any property, he was concerned about this. But chose to just trust Cambyses.
So Cambyses restricting her by herself made Alexander think that his trust in her was not misplaced.
But the former proposal did not sit well with him.
Alexander detested the concept of dowries, “You should keep the property. It’s your birthright.”
But Cambyses reasoned, “No, think of it as a gift or even an investment. I know you have big dreams. Dreams so big that I can’t even see them right now. But I want to see you build them. And you will need money for that. A penniless freeman is worse than a slave. At least a slave doesn’t need to worry about his food.”
This thought did cross Alexander before and he was truly in need of money. So reluctantly he decided to accept and promised, “Okay, in exchange for your help, I will show you a life you couldn’t dream of.”
“I will hold you onto that promise.” Cambyses grinned.