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The Time Riders: Part 15

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The Time Riders: Part 15
Modern Servitude Compared To Ancient.

Based on a post by BiscuitHammer, in 16 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.



Mooredale Secondary.

Becky was pinching her eyes as she listened to one of her

students try to explain how light was both a wave and a particle. He was
saying 'umm...' so often that she began to think she was listening to the Prime
Minister. Well, that wasn't fair, the PM was a Gen X'er, it was kind of their
thing and all of them did it, with a few notable exceptions.

"Thank you, Cory, please sit down before you hurt

yourself," she sighed, sitting up straight while the students all
snickered at Cory. He sat, blushing. Becky put her glasses back on. She didn't
need them, but she thought it helped with the image she meant to convey.
"People, I gave you this assignment over two weeks ago, and you need to be
able to articulate this on your final exam. Does anyone know how to
answer this question?"

Becky groaned inwardly when Gina Felton put her hand up. She

gestured resignedly for the student to stand.

"Light acts or can be measured as a particle or a wave

depending on when and how you try to observe it," the smarmy student
began. Becky, along with most of the students, just shut their eyes. The bell
didn't ring soon enough for Becky's liking, but she needed to get these twerps
out of here.

"Don't forget, assignments on radiation due

tomorrow!" she called after them while they all hurried out of the
classroom. She wished she actually kept a bottle of whiskey in her desk drawer
sometimes. Mark had avoided looking at her as he left, as if trying to dodge a
velociraptor. Thank God she couldn't get out of eventually giving him a passing
grade, because he definitely didn't deserve anything more than a Z-minus.

"Another day with the peerless minds of the

future?" she heard Kay drawl from the door. "Don't worry, babe, moron
students have always been a thing. Do you know about a TV show called 'Welcome
Back, Kotter'?"

"Yeah, I used to watch reruns of it with my dad was I

was little," Becky sighed, shaking her head. "These kids aren't funny
enough to be Sweathogs, though."

"Maybe, but you get through to the ones that

count," the older woman said, strolling in and pulling a chair around to
sit in backward, straddling the seat and resting her arms on the back.
"They can't all be thick as shit, can they?"

"Most of them are in your classes too, so you have the

same info I do," muttered the blonde, removing her glasses and rubbing her
temples. "They really took it out of me today, I can't wait to get back
home so that Nanu can f’

She pursed her mouth shut and stopped talking. She looked at

Kay, who was smiling slyly.

"I knew it," the teacher breathed, wagging

a finger. "You do have something going on with Nanu, you're bi,
Fischer."

"Fine," Becky said, rolling her eyes. "It's

preferable to having everyone thinking that I'm boffing Simmons in any
event."

"None of the gals would blame you," Kay said

coyly, smirking. "Besides, if you're looking after that Nanu girl for the
rest of her life, looking after you is the least she can do."

"Gross, Kay," Becky said, frowning. "She

didn't trade in being a slave to become a prostitute. I want her to
thrive."

"Just keep her from singing," laughed her

co-worker. "Ya' gonna bring her out again to our next bitching fest?"

"She'll want to go, as long as there's food and

Zeppli," Becky said, standing now. She needed to get out of here. "We
have a play date this Friday, actually, with my profs from university."

"Oh, wow, you mean the Viking god and the zillionaire

heiress you told us about?" Kay queried. "Lucky bitch. Can you take
pics?"

"Probably not the sort of visit one takes pics of, or

at least doesn't share," Becky pointed out, gathering up her things from
the desk. "It's going to blow Nanu away, I'm pretty sure."

"Ya' wouldn't need to be Nanu the slave to be blown

away, trust me," Kay pointed out. "In any event, don't forget the
audit tomorrow. The suits are coming in to make sure we're teaching the right
way and being inclusive about grades."

"I am so fucked;” Becky grumbled, stuffing her

cellphone in her purse.

Home.

"So what new and exciting things did you do today?"

Becky asked as she sat Nanu down for dinner. They were trying meatloaf in gravy
tonight, along with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. Nanu was almost
drooling as she looked at the food.

"I tried some of your toys out," Nanu said,

waiting while Becky put butter on the carrots. "I got scared and quit
after trying to use one of them."

"Let me guess, the egg?" Becky mused,

smirking. Nanu nodded. "I thought that one might freak you out. Don't
worry, I'll show you how to use all of them safely, and then you'll love them.
What else did you get up to?"

"I followed your instructions about using the

lapp-topp," Nanu continued, poking the mashed potatoes with her fork.
It smelled good, but looked like lumpy white shit. How strange. But Mistress
had them on her plate too, so Nanu was clearly missing something. "I
looked at pictures of Kana-da, and of Rome, and of my home;”

"Rome probably doesn't look anything like you

remember it," Becky said, sitting down finally and pouring wine for
each of them. It was actually Falernian wine she'd brought back with Mark from
their initial visit to Imperial Rome, where they'd first met Nanu. She intended
to bring a bottle or two along for the playdate on Friday.

Nanu nodded. "It is all ruins. The mighty Romans

have fallen. They were not as strong as they thought. Who destroyed them,
Mistress?"

Becky shrugged as she began to eat. She had made sure Nanu

could use her cutlery properly, and Nanu watched her for cues about how to
proceed. "It was a slow decline, my love, over a few hundred years. But
there were nomadic tribes called Huns who began the fall, and then the people
of Germania finished it, the tribes you call Goths."

Nanu made a face. "The tall, smelly straw-heads?

They made Rome fall? Where are they today?"

Becky didn't know quite how to answer that question. Did she

talk about Germany and the Third Reich? Would that make sense to Nanu? Or the
fact that they were the industrial engine of Europe?

She almost laughed at the thought of trying to explain

'goth' subculture to Nanu.

"What is this called, Mistress?" Nanu

asked, masticating on a mouthful of food. She tapped with the fork at the
steaming brown mass on her plate. "It's very good, if hot."

"Meatloaf," Becky replied. "It's the

ground-up meat of a cow and pig, held together with oats and egg, that baked in
my oven. It's like a meat cake covered in gravy."

"Gray-vee;” Nanu said, looking at the sauce curiously.

It occurred to Becky that Nanu had no analogue for gravy in her own era, and
Becky had no damn idea when gravy had been invented. She'd just ask two people
she was certain would know when she saw them on Friday. She swore those two
knew everything.

"I like everyone we have met so far, Mistress,"

Nanu said, resuming eating. "Even Steve, after he let me try his fire
chicken. That hurt so bad overnight, Mistress."

"I know, baby, and he won't do it again,"

Becky assured her. "The next time you eat hot wings, it'll be because
you like them and want to. He's probably just glad to know he's not on your
grudge list."

Nanu nodded. "I had an invideo list when I lived in

Rome."

"That doesn't surprise me," Becky chuckled.

"You wrote down the names of people who pissed you off so that you take
revenge one day?"

"Well, no," Nanu admitted, blushing a

little. "I was a slave, I didn't have a stylus or any parchment or things
to write on. When I was mad at someone, or they hurt me and I was crying, I'd
lie in my straw and I'd close my eyes and whisper their name into my palm to
help me remember it."

"Did that work?"

"No, I usually forgot," the Egyptian girl

grumbled. "My memory is shit."

"I'm sorry," Becky said, snickering and

trying to control herself. "I promise you, my love, I'm not laughing at
you. You just have a funny way of saying things."

Nanu sniffed indignantly and continued eating her food. At

least food understood her and didn't mock her.

Except for the burning chicken. She'd be whispering into her

palm about it that night, for sure.

Friday morning, finally.

"Should I be nervous, Mistress?" Nanu asked

while Becky was setting out her clothes, humming to herself. Nanu still didn't
have the hang of coordinating her outfits, and left to her own judgement, she
usually ended up looking like a crazy homeless person. Ergo, Becky was in
charge of dressing her for when they went out.

"Even I'm a little nervous, but I always am when I

see my profs," the blonde told her, smiling. "It's been about
three years since I last got together with them, we met up at a certain club.
But I'm also feeling excited. I always have the time of my life when I'm with
them."

"You're the only person I know of who's ever felt

that way about their teachers, then," Nanu said, sitting naked on the
bed and watching. "Except for maybe M-ark, but he gets to fuck you."

"Just wait until you meet my teachers, then,"

Becky replied, smiling slyly as she held up a shirt for Nanu to wear.

Fifteen minutes later.

"This is not the same direction we went to meet your

other friends," Nanu observed, looking out the window as they drove.
There were fewer of the giant buildings, the so-called 'sky-scrapers', and many
of the domiciles were larger, more ornate, with larger spans of grass than at
other houses she'd seen. "Do wealthy farmers live in these places?"

Becky snickered. Since the area they were driving through

was not overly urban, with buildings heaped on top of buildings, Nanu thought
they were visiting a rural area. Affluent suburbs like this must have felt
strange. "No, wealthy people live in places like this, but they're not
farmers. These are like the villas of wealthy Romans, I guess, like the
Flavians. They're politicians, lawyers, merchants;”

"Do your teachers live here?" Nanu asked.

"No, not quite," Becky said, still driving

and wondering what Nanu would think when they reached their destination. "It's
hard to describe, just wait and see."

They continued driving until they turned onto the Bridle

Path, and Nanu was gazing in wonder at all the endless trees that concealed the
neighborhood from public view. They began passing houses, all of which were
affluent, of course, but weren't much more impressive than the ones they'd
passed to get here.

Then they began reaching the oldest estates, and Nanu's eyes

grew wide. The lots grew in size, and sometimes she almost couldn't see the
houses. Endless grass and trees, and the houses Nanu could see were huge.

Becky was feeling a tingle of excitement as she turned up a

long, winding driveway, lined with trees. Some carefully arranged rocks at the
entrance had the letters of a word carved into them, but Nanu only caught a
glimpse of it as they turned.

BLACKWELL

"Was that word in the big letters a name, Mistress?"

she asked.

Becky nodded. She hadn't been here for some years. "The

family name is Blackwell. This place is over a hundred years old."

"Black; weh;” Nanu said slowly.

Nanu was staring at all the trees and the extensive lawn

with its topiary when Becky got her attention. "Here we are, darling."

Nanu's eyes widened when she saw what they were approaching.

The long, massive building was made of gleaming white stone, stretching a long
way in either direction. A great fountain in the middle of the black road
greeted them, and they circled around it to stop in front of the place.

"I no longer think you are wealthy, Mistress,"

Nanu murmured, gaping out her window as Becky turned off her car, sitting still
for several seconds and staring at the steering wheel.

The blonde took a breath. "Okay; I'm ready;”

"Quid est?" Nanu asked. Mistress had been

speaking her dreadful En-gush.

"Sorry, honey," Becky said, squeezing

Nanu's hand. "I was just getting myself ready;”

She got out of the car while Nanu tried to unbuckle herself.

Becky came around and opened her door, letting Nanu out before they turned and
walked up the short flight of marble stairs to the big white doors. Someone was
already waiting for them, a serious-looking woman in grey clothes.

"Is that one of your teachers?" Nanu asked

quietly as she held Becky's hand. "She looks like a teacher."

"Miss Fischer, welcome," the woman said, smiling

and nodding her head. "I am Tatyana, seneschal for Mr. and Mrs. DeBourne."

"Thank you, Tatyana," Becky said, coming up the

stairs. "Please, call me Becky, and this is Nanu."

"Hello, Nanu," Tatyana said, smiling.

"Hi," Nanu said, remembering how to greet someone

and holding up her hand to wave.

"Nanu doesn't speak English, we communicate in

Latin," Becky explained. Nanu figured her Mistress was telling the stern
woman how she didn't speak En-gush, so she just listened quietly.

"Then you will need to be my translator, since I

confess that aside from English, I only speak Russian, and no Latin,"
Tatyana replied, gesturing for them to enter and then following. They stopped
in the grand foyer, and Nanu was Uhking around, her jaw almost on the floor.

"I'm sorry if we're early, I didn't want to compete

with traffic," Becky confessed, handing the seneschal a bag in which she
was carrying two bottles. "And I've always been terrified of being late
where the profs are concerned, so better to be early. I brought some wine I
thought they might enjoy."

Tatyana nodded. "They are in a virtual conference call

at the moment. I have standing orders to make you both as comfortable as
possible until they greet you. Let me call the staff, and we'll get
started."

Nanu watched as the stern woman brought her wrist up to her

face and spoke quietly into some device wrapped around it. She then put her
wrist down and waited patiently. Nanu was still looking all around, as if her
head was on a swivel. The ceilings were so very tall! Everything was white,
with gilding. The giant staircase at the back of the entrance hall was flanked
by two huge suits of armour, each of them holding a menacing weapon. Nanu
resisted the urge to hide behind her Mistress.

What kind of teachers were these?

Soon, she heard people approaching, and then they were

assembling behind Tatyana. When they'd all fallen into place, Tatyana began
introductions.

"Right, as you lot might have heard, Mr. and Mrs.

DeBourne have some special guests today. "I would like to introduce Ms.
Rebecca Fischer, and her friend, Nanu."

"Welcome," they all said in unison, nodding,

except for two women in strange black dresses trimmed in white, who did a
graceful little bow that also bent their knees.

"Miss Fischer, I'll let my people introduce

themselves," Tatyana said, gesturing to the staff. Becky stepped forward,
bringing Nanu with her, and she started at one end of the line.

"My name's Dave, senior landscaper," the gruff

looking man said, shaking Becky's hand. He was positively ancient by Nanu's
assessment, bald on top with greyish hair on the sides of his head and his
moustache and beard. He looked rugged and tough for a grandfather.

Next up, she greeted a young and handsome black man. "I

am Yolatunde, but please, call me Tunde," he said, shaking her hand.
"I am the junior landscaper."

"Please call me Becky," the blonde said, smiling.

She felt Nanu tugging on her arm and looked down at her.

"They have a Nubian slave?" the Egyptian

girl asked, hardly able to keep the wonder out of her voice.

Becky chose to not try and address this issue right now, and

would simply have to see to it before Nanu said anything awkward. The woman she
now stood in front of was tall, rangy and strongly built. She had her dirty
blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, and her denim overalls did little
to hide her curves or her large bust. Her hazel eyes reflected her good-natured
smirk. "Andrea, mechanic, plumber, and electrician for the estate."

"Can I call you if I ever need my plumbing

flushed?" Becky asked as she shook Andrea's hand, feeling something pass
between them. Andrea laughed heartily. Yes, this girl would be fun indeed. Nanu
seemed in awe of how imposing this woman's build was, not unlike a gladiatrix
from Rome, but taller.

"Glenda, estate chauffeuse," said another woman,

smartly dressed in a grey outfit and wearing an odd little cap Nanu couldn't
quite figure out. "If you need to go anywhere while you're staying with
us, don't even think of driving yourself, I'll take care of it. It's how
the bosses would want it."

"Don't I know it," Becky laughed, moving down the

line. She shook hands with Marie, a slight, frizzy-haired woman in glasses who
was the botanist and gardener for the estate. She had a French accent, and
Becky was relieved she'd kept up with her French, not only because she was
afraid the profs would quiz her.

"Hey, I'm Ari," said a smartly dressed young man

with dark hair and eyes and tan features. He was handsome, for sure, but he
gave off a gay vibe. "Cybersecurity for the estate. You won't mind if I
lock your phone down while you're here, will you? For your own protection as
much as anything. It's a good idea to be behind our firewall."

"Do what you need to do, Ari, I know it's what the

profs would want," Becky said, readily handing over her phone to him. Next
in line was a sturdy woman wearing an apron and looking like she'd just come
from the kitchen.

"Theresa," she said pleasantly. "Estate chef

and sommelier. The pleasure is mine, and just let me know what your culinary
preferences are."

"I'm willing to bet you're going to be Nanu's new

favorite person," Becky replied, smirking down at Nanu, who heard her name
but had no idea what was going on. She'd just have to wait for her Mistress to
tell her.

"Hi, I'm Trilby, senior housekeeper," said one of the

women in the black dresses. She had light brown hair and was wearing strange
things over her eyes. They reminded Nanu of the 'glasses' her Mistress
sometimes wore, but these obscured the woman's eyes from view. "If you're
staying' over, I'll be seeing to your sleeping arrangements."

"Well, I doubt we are this time, but if that changes,

you'll be the first to know," Becky said readily. She hadn't been to
Blackwell Manor in some years, so the idea appealed to her.

Lastly, they greeted an enthusiastic young woman, in another

black outfit, but it was markedly different from the one the taller girl wore.
This outfit was short and tight, and Nanu ended up staring right at the girl's
big tits, which were in her face. Her legs were also visible, and if she moved
just right, Nanu was sure she could see her undergarments.

"Hi, I'm Valentina, junior housekeeper, but just call

me Val," the girl chirped, smiling brightly. Her dark brown hair was worn
in a bob, and her brown eyes radiated cheerfulness. Nanu wasn't certain but she
also looked like she might have cat ears on top of her head. What was this
creature?

"Just call me Becky, please, I'm only Miss Fischer when

I'

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