ENNIUS PACED THE yard of the Avilius house. He'd ordered Ixillius back to the encampment after the learning the vile news that Alex's grandfather had arranged for an engagement, and then Ennius had dismissed the dripping boy and come immediately to the Avilius house. Thankfully he had arrived ahead of Alex and the messenger sent to the encampment to bring her. He'd composed about a hundred conversations in his mind by the time the two horses arrived.
Ennius focused his attention on his brother's claimed sister. She looked more upset than he'd expected and he worried she'd taken the news to heart of her marriage being broken and the engagement being binding.
"Why are you here?" she asked, only curious as she slid off Max's back to stand in front of him.
"To speak for you regarding the laws surrounding marriage," he answered darkly, tucking her hand protectively into his elbow.
"I believe I can explain marriage law just fine," a voice called down from the top of the steps and Alex looked up to see... an older version of her gigno. He was flanked by a middle-aged man in overly fancy attire for the time of day, and who was being attended on by a small battalion of slaves. Ennius squared his shoulders in preparation for joining the conversation on behalf of Alex.
"And I'm certain I also speak the laws quite well." The freeman messenger who had led Alex into the yard removed his helmet. A visible shock rattled through everyone in the yard – slaves included – excepting Alex. Ennius's arm stiffened under her hand as recognition hit him, and a similar look to the Legate was mirrored by the Emperor's cousin. Her grandfather, however, had already transitioned into a disapproving glare – likely over how his son was dressed.
Sertor and his father exchanged a quick argument before the elder of the two turned on his heel and stalked back into his house. Sertor took Alex's free elbow in hand and ushered her and Ennius up the stairs and into the house as Ennius quickly relayed the events that had brought him to the yard. Once they were inside and facing her grandfather, who was settled comfortably among the friends and neighbors that were here to celebrate the news of the engagement and learn first-hand any potential rumors, the cousin announced the engagement and began listing off the requirements of Alex's subsequent marriage with him.
Alex watched the old man who reclined on the couch in front of her as the cousin droned pompously about his expectations for her marriage with him. Avilius Victrix was a tyrant, she knew her father's stories and the stories from the Legions. She looked to her left at her gigno, but he was just looking back at her to see what she was going to do. From what she'd seen in the yard and remembered from her childhood, her gigno gave respect to his father from habit rather than actual agreement. The rebellions he'd engaged in against the old man had, as their gruff argument indicated, left him grudgingly respected in return. That was all based on a lifetime, though, and she was new. And a woman.
"You will, of course, wear appropriate attire for the wedding and all days following," the cousin continued, frowning at Alex's leather leggings, man's tunic, and armor visible inside her Legionnaire's cloak. "Which I assume will have to be purchased if that is all you have from traveling with the..." he glanced at the Legate and visibly adjusted what he was going to say. "Legion," he finished, lamely.
Alex wracked her brain trying to think of anything she'd learned from Verus, Ixillius or Brasus over the past months that could help right now, maybe even anything from when she was young that her gigno had told her... she felt a smile pull at her lips as she came up blank on the right way to respond, but with a fairly decent wrong way.
"You think dressing this way looks bad?" she asked the cousin. The room was full of other guests, all highly ranked local socialites here to witness the engagement.
"I think that looks ridiculous," he countered, then paled a shade as the eyes of her commander turned to him with a glare that had ten more years of training over anything Verus dished out. "For a woman to wear," he added, much too late.
Alex glanced around the room and pushed back her cloak so that her armor and weapons were all clearly visible. She stood in line with her gigno and Legate, both dressed similarly, and clearly not men who looked ridiculous.
"What do you to think of a woman to fight?" she asked.
He guffawed, his eyes searching the room for someone to share the mirth and finding only her grandfather chuckling along. Avilius Victrix's amusement seemed to now be aimed at the cousin, who awkwardly stopped once realizing that he was alone in the outburst. The majority of the guests were now muttering the common rumors from Minerva's 1st, and Alex felt a one-sided grin curl her lips as a recounting of the match she'd had with Victoria in the alley carried further into the crowd than the speaker had intended.
A crier passed on the street, calling the hour, and could clearly be heard inside the hushed room. Alex wanted very badly to get back to the encampment after Ennius had whispered to her on the stairs that a messenger boy had already paid Ixillius for her freedom on behalf of her grandfather. Alex needed to get to her husband and find out what that was all about, because her gigno had carried the message sent by her grandfather.
"This conversation topic has grown weary." The cousin stared hard at Alex, attempting to look down at her even though she stood a few inches taller than him.
"I agree." Alex nodded once and put her helmet back on, and then turned to face Ennius. "On your permission." She waited to be dismissed by the Legate.
"Return to camp." He held out a roll of paper and a small letter purse. "Deliver this to the Prefect. Inform him I'll be returning within the hour after your arrival." She took and tucked the items into her cloak pockets without saying anything, bowed politely to her grandfather, and then strode out into the hall. The Emperor's cousin yelled after her, and then started yelling at her gigno and grandfather.
"Alexandria," her gigno's tone was warning and overly loud as his hand clamped onto her shoulder. "You disrespect the Emperor."
"I do not!" She spun as she replied, knocking his hand off in plain sight of everyone in the room.
Behind him, the gathering hushed to listen. She bit her tongue against the first words that sprang into her mind. Her gigno's face was hidden from the crowd, but he was smiling. He winked like when she was young, whenever she wasn't certain about what to do; his silent way of saying he would support whatever she did. She squared her shoulders and glared at him as if they were actually arguing, making his grin grow.
"I do not disrespect the Emperor," she announced, her voice ringing clearly, "I dislike his arrogant cousin, and reject the agreement he made with your father without my consent. I know the law for marriage because I am married. I do not agree to end my good marriage with my good husband for that," she stabbed a finger at the cousin. "I do fight, and my husband gave me permission to train more civilians – men who enlisted as we marched to Verona and are now proud Legionnaires. I do not need a fool husband who does not respect Rome's Legion, as that proves he does not respect Rome."
Sertor didn't try to stop her this time, pride glowing on his face as she turned and strode outside. Alex took the stairs down two at a time and swung onto Max, urging him into a canter and blowing out of the yard like a small storm. Ennius quietly stepped beside Sertor before the older man was able to compose his features to look as though he had actually lost an argument.
"Augustus will not be pleased the engagement he blessed was rejected," the younger man cautioned quietly so that only Sertor would hear him over the din of conversation exploding behind them, purposefully keeping his back to the room so his own expression was hidden.
"Possibly," Sertor replied in the same tones. "Or, since he knows nothing of the arrangement and will not be pleased his blessing was lied about to my father, he'll forgive her quickly. This cousin and my father would've only learned about Dria's... arrival after the 1st was outside the city." Sertor smiled widely at the Legate's shocked silence.
"Verus only told you," Ennius finally whispered. "And you'd have just arrived from Rome to know that Augustus didn't know of the engagement." He composed his features into a frown at Sertor's clothing. "During your travels to and from Rome, did you happen to pass the Imperial Messenger, a freeman named Aetius Vitus, about whom I've heard so much? He was supposed to report to me but never arrived in Verona. I'd assumed he was intercepted and sent directly to Rome on news of greater importance," Ennius baited the older man. Sertor was able to hold the laugh inside, although only barely. "You're a terrible man, uncle," Ennius chastised, accurately realizing the past weeks quickly inside his thoughts from what his brother and his First File had unwittingly provided, and that Sertor had purposefully just given him.
"I am," Sertor agreed in a whisper. "That is why Augustus favors me, and gave me his blessing three times while I was in Rome."
"Three times?" Ennius asked, trying to piece together the final details.
"Three times," Sertor confirmed. "Once for my daughter's current marriage, once for me to adopt my son-in-law, and once for my choice of successor."