The Immortal Being (April 13, 2021)

It was strange being here again. Returning to the place I had left so long ago. I walked under an aqueduct, as the soldiers with their broad red shields marched past me. There was excitement in the city, apparently there was to be some type of entertainment in the colosseum today.

The last time I had been here, here in the city called Rome, it had just been seven empty hills. Now it seemed like it had become the center world.

I had heard rumors of this place even as far east as the mouth of the Yangtze. I had expected the empire to have fallen by the time I finished my walk across the continent. But it had not, if anything the empire had grown larger. But it would fall, and I would live on, it had happened before, and it would happen again.

I slowed as I reached the latest place I would call home. The officials had attempted to say I couldn’t own property, and that I wasn’t a citizen. I had changed their minds, you learn a few tricks after so much time. I opened the large door and brought in the single horse that carried everything that had been worth bringing with me on my 7,000 mile and eight year long walk.

As I stepped inside the courtroom a servant came sprinting down the stairs. “Hello mistress.” He bowed deeply, “I am the head of the household. How may I assist you?”

I looked him up and down. “Do you have a wife, or children?”

He nodded, “yes of course. They will serve you as well madam.”

Out of the front of one of the saddle bags I pulled out a stack of parchment, the servant’s had come with the house when I had acquired it. Then removing the seal I kept on my person I sealed the papers and handed it to the servant. “Take your freedom, and your families. This house, it’s yours more than it is mine, I only need a room and nothing more. If you wish to stay, then stay and I will pay you for your work. If not, go. Tell all of the others who worked in this house that it is the same for them.”

The man looked absolutely dumbfounded as I took my horse and my few positions, to my newest room. All of the other servants left, expect for the head of the household and his family. He had five children and a wife, two of the children did not make it past childhood. The last three when they became adults left to go seek their own glory. The head of the household and his wife stayed on. They both grew old, the wife died first, and not two weeks later the man was on his deathbed.

I opened the door to his room, he coughed and looked at me. “How is it possible?”

“What?”

“It’s been thirty winters since you walked in through that door, and you haven’t aged a day.”

“I don’t know.”

“Promise me you’ll look after my children.”

“It's a big world, I can’t promise I can or will do much for them. But if I run into your children, grandchildren, and great children. I will make sure they are alright.”

The man nodded and smiled, “thank you. But I have one final question?”

“Anything.”

“Do you even know my name?”

“I may not be like most humans, but I am just a human. You Zachariah, you’ve known me for most of your lifetime. I’ve known you for barely a moment of mine . When you're gone, it will be like a stranger you bump into in the street, their name remembered for a moment and gone the next. . . Farwell.” As I spoke my final word he died.

The body was removed, and my life continued on.

I sat up in bed, then slowly got up. Picking up the katana that had been given to me by a blade-smith for saving his granddaughter. I had watched that girl grow up, fall in love, and die, then her children, and eventually her great children where the family name ended after the village had been burned.

I laughed as I looked out the window, that’s why I was thinking of burning. An army was marching on Rome. The Republic, was it’s end. I wondered what happened next? Would this vast nation finally break apart, I guessed it would. I got dressed, and then packed up the very few things I wanted to keep and slung it on my back. Including the sword. I left the house and started my slow walk towards the pier.

The army invaded, brushing past me. Day turned to night, and night into day, and day after day I wandered towards my destination. Listening and asking, the emperor didn’t fall, and instead had expanded. With a new ruler. By the time I made it to the docks, this ruler had already been killed, stabbed to death by his own senators. I hired an entire ship, and as I stepped aboard the captain stopped me.

“Is it just you madam?”

“O yes.”

“Well, you don’t have a chartered course.”

“Is there any empire that is grand?”

The captain thought long and hard about it. “Persia or Egypt I guess.”

“Persia, I was there not too long ago when Cyrus ruled, but it’s been a very long time since I have seen Egypt, we go there. I wonder where their story will end? Sooner than mine I would guess.”

I went to the cabin and the ship set sail within the hour, or maybe it had been a week. It didn’t matter much. It’s not like I was running short on time. Time to everyone else was so precious; to me it was like dirt, I threw it away, if I knew how, I would give it away. Because just like dirt, for me it was unending.