“Long ago. We have both had other loves since.” Whoa. I took another swallow of tea, trying to grasp what I was hearing. Gehmanin, who was now an alben, had once been … and that meant … “He would have returned to me had I asked it. He wanted me to ask it, but I never would.” Unable to think of a single thing to say, I just listened. “We first met on Samos. He was a favored member of Polycrates’s court. Well, we both were, but he far more than I. He let himself be idolized; he basked in it. I considered his behavior too public, too involved with mortals for safety. We argued, and I came to see that we would never reconcile that difference. So I … left.” His voice rang with heartache. Even now, centuries later, he regretted this loss. How could these people endure such pain? “I traveled to Rome, and threw myself into study. Watched the empire thrive, and then begin to decay.
