The Breaking — Chapter 7

Life settles into a steady cadence: mornings in the library helping Thukidides, and afternoons alone in your chambers. I pass the time reading and thinking, and learn to keep an ear open for the sound of your footsteps in the anteroom so I can greet you with a cup of wine. On occasion, I accompany you as cupbearer to events inside and outside the palace, but during the evenings you choose to remain in your chambers, I observe your mood, then strike up a conversation or read you scrolls from your library to suit, acting as your own personal hetaera except in one crucial way: you no longer force yourself upon me, and haven't since Valerius's symposium several weeks ago.