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

Chapter 18

Translations:

Chaire. = Basically by greeting someone that way you are more or less wishing them to be happy.
Dulce periculum. = Danger is sweet.
Vale. = Farewell/Goodbye
Salve, Imperatrix. = Hello/Greetings, Empress.
Salve. = Greetings/Hello.

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Octavia had found solace deep within the Roman capital, hidden from Senator Blake and the many Praetorians that searched door to do door looking for her each day. Lexa was among the first to be questioned about Octavia's whereabouts and if she was aware of her father's indiscretions over twenty years ago.

Of course she had no knowledge of it and she was pretty sure not even her mother Becca knew of Maximus' infidelity. Perhaps not even Maximus knew that his long lost daughter had found her way back to him and almost lived under his roof.

Fate was a humorous thing; it could either bewitch you or bring you a lifetime of good fortune. Currently, Octavia was getting the short end of the stick and there was no way she could change her own fortune.

Senator Blake was relentlessly searching for her; his reason not yet made clear but neither Octavia nor Lexa could imagine his reason was positive.

A week and a half had passed since Octavia's disappearance, and a scrawny peasant boy approached Lexa in the market square when she came from Cassia's linen store after she bought a black dyed coat lined with wolf fur.

"Are you Alexandria?" The young boy asked, shivering under torn clothing he wore. Perhaps it was a foolish question since she was the only female member of the Praetorian but the woman that gave him a few aureus told him to make sure he was speaking to the right person.

"Who's asking?" Lexa kneeled in front of the boy, knee crunching the snow under it. The streets were matted thickly in snow and most braziers had not been lit yet making streets eerily quiet and barren of many settlers.

"The lady that sent me to find you of course. She has asked me to bring you to her. She said something about you fighting together and dying together as sisters ... at least that's what I think she said, she was talking really fast."

Lexa smiled at the young boy, recognizing the half right phrase he said. 'We fight together and we die together sister.' It had to be Octavia. The phrase however now held an irony of its own because it turned out that they in fact were sisters of shared blood.

"Thank you." Lexa's eyes drifted over the boy as a new set of shivers set over his small frame. "What is your name? And where are your shoes?" His feet were very pale and his purple veins were starting to show through the translucent skin. She felt sorry for him, he was out in the cold because of her.

"Adenious... my name is Adenious and I'm afraid I don't have any shoes. Can't afford them." The boy averted his gaze from Lexa's, twiddling his thumbs as embarrassment set in over him. The blush on his cheeks was the only thing warming his entire body.

Lexa stood up from the snow and held out her hand to the boy, offering it for him to take. Hesitantly he looked up to her again, finding kind green eyes staring back at him. Small flakes of snow had fallen on her brown braided hair and she almost reminded him of his eldest sister.

"Before you take me to my friend, let us get you some shoes first. I know a kind lady who would love to help." A warm smile crawled onto Adenious's face. He didn't know the woman that stood in front of him and his mother always told him not to speak with strangers but he felt that he could trust her.