140AD - The Rise to Empress || [GxG] ||

Chapter 16

Translations:

Misthious = Mercenary
Futuo! = Fuck!
Bibliotheca = Library

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It was just about the perfect day in Rome. The weather wasn't as hot as the previous season and the coldest season of the year was closer than anticipated. The settlers of Rome knew this well as stories spread through the capital and the cold started to sting their skins in the earlier mornings and late at night.

Their hiems food supply was dangerously dwindling and many were going to die if the Emperor did not fulfill his duty.

Emperor Jake was unsuccessful in winning the rich Persians favor and he was being forced to look for the next opulent settler to help him. Yes, he commanded just about the entire Roman Empire but they were all facing the imminent threat of cold.

All the crops were withering and dying and they had just harvested in time, but it wasn't going to be close to enough. Animals were going into hibernation and the others were going to become scarce due to the cold which meant meat wasn't much of an option. Hunters were also more prone to be injured during the cold season since the only meat out was wild wolves; they too starving and even more savage than normal.

Octavia had since recovered mostly, she was walking again but her skin and muscles were weak due to being constrained to her bed for so long, only occasionally taking baths with the help of servants or Valentina. Clarke's maiden Raven brought Octavia food often, bathed her and just kept her company when no one else was around. They had formed a strong bond but it was no longer as sexual, they were almost the best of friends but there was still occasional flirting.

Senator Blake had been in Octavia's quarters often, speaking with the Gladiatrix about her past. He couldn't help feel connected to her in some way ... she felt like more than a stranger, almost a ghost of his past. She looked beyond familiar, a precise image of his mother from when he was younger and she was still in her youth.

Octavia's familiar eyes had haunted him at night and he decided to see go see the High Priestess. On behalf of him, she went to see the oracle, and the oracle had told her that Senator Blake had all the answers he needed in his grasps, he just had to reach for them. He had a chest in his quarters filled with books and ledgers his father had written in but he had never bothered to read them. For the past five nights, he constrained himself to his quarters, reading every single text his father wrote of his life.

Octavia on the other hand visited Lexa on many days while she worked through her few remaining recovery days. She found it odd that the Senator visited her so often, asking about her past but she always answered his questions to the best of her knowledge.

It had been a few days since Lexa's fight in the Colosseum and she and Clarke had not spoken at all. In all honesty, it seemed like Clarke had been avoiding her every single chance she managed to grasp.

Somehow Clarke even managed to employ a different group of guards each morning before Lexa managed to reach her quarters and on the seventh day, Lexa decided to stop trying as hard as she was. Surely if Clarke needed her then the Emperor would intervene as he would catch onto her schemes.

But he never does; Clarke implores Lexa's company on her own after a fortnight, finally ready to face the Gladiatrix, or so she hoped anyway.

Lexa was sitting on her balcony, her legs crossed over one another in her sitting position as her hands each laid on either of her knees. She was talking to the gods, asking them if she was following her true route and if this truly was her calling.