Nero of the North

In search

Even in the late afternoon the heat was unbearable. The only respite from the scorching sunlight was provided by sparsely placed trees in Caius's garden. Both me and Cesar didn't even feel like talking to each other, too occupied with drinking water and fanning ourselves. Through a little archway on the side of the wall, we could see a bit of Rome, with the colosseum towering over everything. Since I've traveled to the city it's changed a bit again, now there were odd slim towers sticking out of the ground in some places, along the streets. They looked like elongated light poles, without the light at the top.

The whole city also seemed to change layout every time there was a storm, yet no one else commented on those shifts and everyone went along with their lives as always. I tried talking with Rufus about it, but he looked at me as if I was an idiot and asked if I wanted to see a doctor. Whatever was happening, that weird merge of modern and past Rome didn't seem like it was to stop any time soon. And it didn't look like it affected anyone.

The corpses were a bit different though. They always caused a lot of commotion and after a couple of weeks, there were special teams among the guards dedicated only to searching for those people in and around the city, each time lightning strikes. It was a sad sight, but it kept happening and people soon stopped questioning even that. They were being buried with proper ceremony, even though nobody knew who they were.

As if reading my mind, Cesar spoke up, breaking the silence for the first time since we got home: "Do you think we knew any of them? I mean... Most seem to have rather modern clothing on."

I looked at him. He was also staring out into the city, as if I wasn't even there. "Well... I did hear about a couple of people who were found in melted armor. So I think the spread is too big"

"Spread?" He still didn't look at me.

"Yeah, like... Well. Any of them could be from any time it seems, so the chance they are from our time is rather... Slim."

"And it's even slimmer that we knew any of them." He shook his head slowly, taking another sip of water.

That was the end of our conversation, leaving both of us in silence, listening to the sporadic muffled conversation or animal sound. And it would stay this way probably until late night, if Caius didn't finally appear in the house. Seeing his face made my heart rush again and I could barely keep my face straight. Or rather - I almost kept my face straight, because Caius laughed and asked what I was smiling about.

"Oh you know, you weren't home all day! I was getting worried!" I admitted, lying only a bit.

"You don't have to worry, I was with Nerva all day." He seemed to blush a bit, which peaked my interest. But I didn't ask about it.

"Sounds fun. What were you guys doing?"

"Just talking and walking and stuff." He avoided eye contact with me. Or maybe I was just oversensitive.

"What stuff?" Is what my intrusive brain wanted to say but was very effectively silenced by a thunderstrike which caused all three of us to turn around and look at the city. It took us a second to find the source of the noise. Which was clearly marked by dark smoke rising from one of the markets.

"Um... that doesn't seem good." Sighed Caius, looking up at the darkening sky. It was cloudless.

***

We got to the area in about fifteen minutes. The scorch mark had the characteristic shape of other spots where people landed and the air was filled with electricity and the smell of burned flesh. But there was no corpse, leading us to believe that this was another one of the survivors.

The three of us looked at each other, unsure what to do next. Unfortunately we didn't come to any decision before the guards arrived, securing the area and not letting any civilian get closer. That meant the end of our investigation, but the beginning of the search. The person who just got transported to Rome must have been somewhere close to the landing mark. "They are probably confused and most likely hurt, so they couldn't have gotten far." Noticed Caius.