Empousa’s modest villa was a traditional one. The entrance led to an open courtyard surrounded by arcades on three sides. A peristyle garden flourished in the courtyard with luxuriant flowering plants, vegetable patches, and herbs, which were periodically irrigated.A garden freshly watered makes glad the man who is tending it, Empousa would say.There were cushioned lounges and stone benches for resting and entertaining guests. An altar of the goddess Necessitas, in the middle of the courtyard, stood beside a small fountain, which erupted with water every now and then.The floors and walls were mosaics made of colored stones, tiles, and pebbles. There was paint on the walls depicting several gods and great kings.The arcades were supported on twelve feet tall columns. Quarters on the left were the andron, where the men of the household lived. Those on the right made up the gynaikon, where the women were boarded. The entrance-facing rooms were the back, the

Damon capered down the twenty-foot-high prison compound wall. He had trained himself to scale several times higher obstacles- palisades, enclosures, barricades, and even dams. His usual undertakings required him to sneak into fortified dwellings of wealthy or influential citizens.There were no guards in the inner courtyard. Perhaps the Vigils believed that no one in his right mind would try to break into a prison. Damon tiptoed around the central edifice and found no means of entry. It had no windows, and the skylight openings were too narrow for him to slide through.He scampered up the building over the plumbing and reached the edge of the terrace. Two guards were on the watch, their eyes on the Agora enclosure, with their backs to him. Damon leaped over the terrace battlement and removed two fine needles from his belt. The terrace was about fifty feet wide, and he had to sprint towards them undetected. The guards did perceive someone approaching them. But they were too

The Agrippa family had no wealth or belongings of any significant value. Perhaps a few bronze coins were lying around in the house somewhere. The furniture was minimal and decades old. Their land, if one ventured to call it that, was oddly placed in the marshes. It was unfit for farming, and weeds had made it their dominion. The only possession of worth was their home, a small wooden log cottage on the outskirts of Fugi. If they were to walk five miles to the south, the walls of the Ascendancy would come into view, towering above the tallest trees.Ruben and Lysa Agrippa had never left their land after getting married. The nearest neighbors were a mile away and preferred not to pay visits. They were afraid of getting their carts and horses swallowed by the mud. The couple had two offspring—Elias, a sprightly sixteen-year-old boy, and Rhode, a bashful nineteen-year-old girl.Their homestead had a makeshift vegetable garden built on clay and sand hauled from the