Nikola was still staring at the candle's flame when a woman moved forward, a flower in her hand.
"Do you have a woman at home, Gege?" she asked as she blushed. She was pretty enough; Nikola wasn't blind, and so he could admit it. With her soft hazel eyes and golden skin, she would have caused an uproar on the island of Atlantis.
So, unlike the local beauties and yet, the same.
Then Nikola thought of Penemue. Beautiful Penemue who liked to wear purple and have his long brown hair loose so that his curls could fool everyone that he was a gorgeous, albeit flat chested, woman. The feather was a reassuring weight against his skin as he spoke with certainty.
"I do. The wisest and most beautiful of all. Although she is back at Troy," the woman's face fell at this, then she smiled gently and offered him the flower.
"Then take this for her and dry it. Give it to her when you see her next."
"That may never come to pass. But thank you," the sadness bled from his voice as he took the flower.
He would indeed keep it, but he feared it would fall apart before Penemue answered his prayers. The woman stepped back into the crowd, and he handed the flower to Nuo Nuying.
She put it inside her sleeve and Nikola begun to dance again. Just before nightfall he left the crowd, sweaty all over, to go pick tomorrow's clothes from the seamstress.
He could always change into yesterday's clothes for dinner after he washed. He hadn't washed them yet. Was yet to find a washerwoman in this village, and it was strange to have to do his washing when he had never had to do it before.
Perhaps Nuo Nuying would teach him? He made her a killing today, after all.
Dinner was a happy affair as Nuo Nuying counted her winnings. Thirty silvers, eighty-six coppers and the two gold pieces.
"You were sent to be my grandson! You are a gentleman. Can you also play an instrument?"
"I can't, I'm sorry," Penemue had tried to teach him many a time, but Nikola simply couldn't understand the notes well enough to produce a melody. But he could sing. Although he didn't tell the old woman that. He didn't want anyone recognizing an old Atlantean tune and ousting him.
"Well, you can't do everything," said the woman, slight disappointment coloring her voice. "But it's ok. If you keep dancing, then the noble Wei Caihong will keep coming back. He is the magistrate of our village. Even though he was sent here as a punishment by the emperor. He's been seen speaking with that lover of that undying wretch, the Emerald Emperor of Atlantis. That fallen angel-Penemue."
Nikola's head snapped towards the woman. He was on his feet and gripping her hand in desperation before he had time to consider how that looked like.
"I have to speak with Wei Caihong! Where does he live?" the desperation in his voice was clear even to his own ears. Oh, if Penemue would deem him good enough to look upon once more, then Nikola was ready to do just about anything for the angel.
To ignore any and all costs, any and all barriers.
Nuo Nuying coughed in her hand and shook her head.
"No, you really don't. Nothing good comes from speaking about the Watchers. It's a good thing they no longer have their power. It appears that the Emerald Emperor stole it from them when he sunk that dung filled island. When he caused the flood that nearly wiped all life from the land away. He was rotten to his last breath; may he burn in Hell."
"He was trying to stop the Nephilim!" Nikola defended himself.
The old lady's face scrunched up in disgust.
"Oh, is that so? Is that what his lickspittles in Troy say about him? My grandmother lived in the Valley. But there is no Valley there now!", Nuo Nuying's nostrils were flared. Nikola had known that the world would bleed with Atlantis.
It was time for him to learn of his sin.
"It's below the weaves now, and this village grew from all the refugees. There used to be a lot less water before. Why did the folks of the desert in the land of the hundred volcanos have to all drown? Why is there a new sea between the distant continents of Europe and Africa? I'll tell you why!"
Her tone was the scream of the innocent, the scream of the Atlanteans. Nikola forced himself to listen. He forced himself to stand tall in the face of Death.
"The shit filled emperor didn't want to pass the crown to his heir, the giant Pallas, because his lover cheated on him with a slip of a girl. One of his many grandchildren, at that! How must he have raged when he found the girl pregnant! Oh, what a happy day that must have been!"
Nikola sat down, all fight draining from him. He hadn't raged. He had been worried. Loved all his grandchildren as if they were his own children.
Had even told Penemue to give his immortality to Vasiliki so that she could survive the birth.
But the angel hadn't done so, no matter how much Nikola had begged him to. Vasiliki had died. Just as his sister had died all those centuries ago when he hadn't known about the danger involved in birthing a Nephilim.
"I still need to speak to Wei Caihong, granny," he murmured.
The old woman sent him a pitying look, but then she nodded.
"You'll need an invitation to his palace at the outstrips of the village. A couple more days of dancing will grant you it. But you be careful when you meet him, Nikola of Troy. He is on the lookout for another lover. Nothing good happens to those he takes in. Especially those he can't marry."
Nikola had figured as much. However, he didn't need to keep the man's attention on him for too long. Just enough to find out where Penemue was. He had, or at least will have, money now.
And he could spend quite a lot of time manning the antique shop and earning a profit from it, afterward. He could provide for both himself and Penemue and when people became suspicious about why they weren't aging they would simply move away.
With this thought, he went back to his dinner, a simple fare of steamed vegetables and rice. The silence stretching between him and the kind granny sending a chill down his spine.