Chapter 578: A New Day In Thessaloniki
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It is now the May of the year 1465.
Morning.
As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, a small fishing boat full of barnacles and algae slowly made its way into the port of Thessaloniki. There’s only four people on board, including a man with a sword by his side, an old fisherman tying up the sails of the boat, a woman with her face covered in a piece of black veil, and a child closely huddling to the woman shivering against the early spring coldness. There has never been silence at a port, with all the gentle lapping of the waves against the hull, the seagulls gliding through the waters hoping for a morning catch, and workers hustling up and down the ships under the yell of the merchants offloading goods, hoping for a good trade for the day. But none of those voices could be heard by anyone on the boat, for they are all having deep thoughts in their respective minds.
It seems just like another regular morning for the city of Thessaloniki, coming to life with sound of vendors setting up their stalls on the designated market places, distant chatters of locals doing their business, children running around playing or finding some work to do. The port of Thessaloniki has been growing steadily ever since the peace brought by the Caesar a decade ago, it has grown even faster after the Caesar incorporated the entire Epirus, and lord Julian incorporated almost the entire peninsula of Achaia into the state. The city has grown increasingly prosperous and wealthy, contributing to almost half of the state’s funding and one tenth of the state’s population along.
It is all because of peace.
The small ship glided smoothly into the harbour and docked, with the child jumping onto the shores first looking at the sceneries awed by such a busy merchant port full of fancy stuff that he has never seen before in Constantinople. The man dropped a few coins onto the hands of the old fisherman, appreciated the journey, and came onto the shore as well before helping the lady getting up to the dock, leaving the old fisherman to his own business preparing to sell the sea goods he’s got on that small ship of his.
Only in a calm sea like the Aegean and a soothing season like the Springs can you have a small wooden fishing boat sailing all the way from the island of Imvros to the port of Thessaloniki and of course, one must not forget about the peace and order brought by the only power that dominated this area of the seas.
The man is non other than Mauro, Giovanni Giustiniani right hand man, and the lady is of course Giovanni’s wife Therma, and the child is Giovanni’s little son, Giovanni Junior Giustinianni-Sphrantzes.
These three men have been through a lot of things in the past one month, first they are sent to the isle of Marmara under Antonius by Giovanni Giustinianni with their identities hidden and the promise that they shall return to Constantinople in days.
The three men lived a rather comfortable life on the island of Marmara at first, residing in one of Giovanni’s secret estates deep inside the hills on the island with communications from the city every two to three days. But all channels of communications are interrupted from the second week onwards no matter how many times did Therma herself go to the port and send letters to the city. Mauro realised that something is going on, and by Giovanni’s orders to protect Therma and her son, he forbid Therma from communicating with the outside world any further, and locked up the estate no matter how much protest are being lodged by the woman cursing him repeatedly and even smashing things up in her room, and he began patrolling the premise with the dozen of men he brought with him on a daily basis.
However, just a few days after Mauro locked his mistress up in the estate, an accident happened.
Around twenty men in masks stormed the estate in mid night, killed the guards Mauro brought with him, and began searching room to room for Therma and the boy. Mauro realised about the attack and immediately transferred the lady, the boy and himself into a hidden basement under a trap door. The intruders, who could not bare the consequences of returning to home empty handed, set fire to the entire estate and went off.
It is only after this accident that did Therma finally learnt about the situation they are in right now, and from that day onwards she became quiet, keeping all the thoughts and words to herself, while praying to God almost all the time for her husband. Mauro realised that the island might no longer be safe for them to reside in, and so he rented a boat, disguised themselves as a family of three, and sailed to the Ottoman fortress of Şarköy, rented a carriage and a donkey, went all the way to the Ottoman fishing village of Seddülbahir, rented a boat to Imvros, where they settled down finally to take note of any information about Constantinople. And they received a shocking news from the passing by Genoese merchants:
Giovanni Giustinianni and George Sphrantzes attempted a coup to seize power for their own selfish motives, resulting in the deaths of both Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos. May they rest in peace in heaven by God’s grace. However, Senator Germanicus and Senator Innocentius, two of the most loyal and faithful civil servants to Rome, returned to Constantinople with their men and quashed the revolt. In his final hours, Giustinianni was killed by his own men’s blades because his lieutenant Fabrizio recognized his evil scheme and turned back to the Senate, representing law and justice. The other perpetrator, George Sphrantzes, who was once a trusted advisor to Emperor Constantine XI, confessed to his crime, was stripped of all his titles and possessions, and was publicly hanged in the Forum of Theodosius.
The city of Mesembria is lost to Abbas Pasha of Bulgaria eventually, with the Ottomans conducting another wave of purge inside the city killing all the citizens who cooperated with the Romans against the Ottomans in the past years. But that is completely fine, because they sacrificed themselves for the greater goods of the entire Roman Empire, at least for this Genoese merchant, because he has trades in Constantinople, not in Mesembria, what happens in Mesembria means nothing to him.
Therma Sphrantzes felt her world turn upside down as she processed the explosive information. However, she knew that she cannot weep, or collapse, or show any form of emotions in front of the merchant, as it would raise suspicions and attract unwanted attention. She made an effort to conceal any form of emotion on her face, aware that some merchants are willing to sell information for a price. From that day on, she purchased a black veil from the marketplace to conceal her emotions and protect herself from prying eyes.
Therma Sphrantzes grew up after this event, she is no longer that honeybee sinking into the shell of love provided by her father and her husband, shielding her from any outside darkness; she is now on her own, and now she needs to protect her son, by herself.
Even the kid too realised this change from his mother and his uncle Mauro as he became less rowdy on the trip.
The three men left the island of Imvros quickly fearing that they might be tracked, and rented a fishing boat that is just about to go out for fishing to take them for a ride to Thessaloniki, and after staying on the fishing boat for three days, they finally stepped foot on the wooden dock of Thessaloniki.
They are finally on safe grounds, after playing hide and seek with the agents from Constantinople for more than two months.
"We need to meet lord Antonius." Said Mauro, after taking a big breath of the morning breeze, exhaling all the deadness he had for the whole period of time. "And that is when we shall finally be safe, ma’am."
"No, general Mauro." But instead, Therma Sphrantzes turned down Mauro for this time, which is extremely rare ever since that burning of estate. "We cannot be sure of what is Lord Antonius thinking at the current moment, we need information first."
"What do you mean? Ma’am? We do not have anyone else to trust apart from Lord Antonius..."
"It is already May, general Mauro." Therma interrupted with a stern look. "Antonius has channels of information all over the known world, he must have known about my husband’s death a long time ago, but why has he not acted? Has he forgot the friendship with my husband? Or has he started to get corrupted by power as well... cooperating with that filthy senate? If he is, aren’t we throwing ourselves into another wyvern’s den?"
"We need to wait, investigate and analysis before we act, general Mauro."
Mauro looked at Therma with eyes of disbelief.
This woman has truly become another person in this two months’ time.
