It's just too risky

“You can’t help your friends now, to go out there would be walking right back into a trap.” Cassia doesn’t respond, but she lets you lead her to the edge of the square. And then points down a street to your left.

As you approach the next open square you become more and more concerned. The square is lit by a giant fire burning near the center. The fire is consuming broken doors, benches and tables as well as many other shapes too far burnt to be recognized. In the flickering light from the fire you see armed men carrying valuables to the center of the square. Every imaginable kind of loot, from furniture and carpets to gleaming plates and candelabra is being sorted in the center of the square. Items judged to be inferior are tossed onto the growing fire feeding the frenzy. Most of all you see women carried from their homes in various stages of undress and chained together under the angry red light of the bonfire.

A soldier throws a amphora onto the blaze and the large pottery vessel shatters on a wooden beam. The amphora must have been full of oil because suddenly the entire square is completely lit. Near the two dozen women already chained you see a fat man in golden robes recording information on a ledger. He hands a soldier a metal token before taking his sobbing captive and passing her to underlings who lead her to the chain.

“Can’t we do something?” Asks Cassia, you can feel the anger and determination in the young woman's query, but you only want to get far away from this scene of organized pillage. The wealth of Athenapolis was being methodically stripped from the city, you can imagine this scene will be repeated in every square, in every estate, and every tower in the fallen city.

“We have to get out of here before we are spotted.” You tell Cassia as you lead the trembling woman back down the street you came on. “Now where?” You ask her, hoping to distract her from the image of the slaver's chains. “We can go around through that alley.” But as Cassia points to the alley a squad of five men come walking out laughing loudly, each armored man carrying two or three chickens by their feet.

You pull her into a shadowed doorway as the men turn towards you. Thankfully the fluttering wings of the poultry keep them from spotting you, but they are close enough for you to easily hear their banter as they walk by.

“Damn, this bird pecks and claws more than that little chick did in the last house.” Says a rough looking man as he swings the struggling bird’s neck and head against a nearby wall, breaking its neck with an audible crack.

“Yeah, and it looks like that bird has bigger breasts than she had too!” The laughter of the men continues as they continue back towards the fire lit square.

The crude jokes of the soldiers anger you, but also fill you with fear. If the two of you had been in the alley when you first saw the men, you surely would have been captured.

“I don’t think this is going to work.” You whisper to Cassia, your lips just inches from her delicately curved eyebrow, as you press your bodies into the shadows of the entryway. “If we are caught, I can’t fight well enough to save us. I’ll be dead, and you ….” You pause, the image of the nearly naked women being carried to the slaver’s chain was still imprinted on your eyes “I don’t want to lose you too, maybe we should just try to get out of the city.” Would Cassia trust you to get her out of the city? If you did manage to escape with her, would she thank you? Her bare thighs are warm against yours as you cling together in the shadows.