Twins of Egypt

Chapter 23: Affairs

[[A/N: That is a statue of Augustus he's pretty good looking, just saying.]]

[September 12 B.C.E || Selene]

"They say Julia has a new lover." Tonia patiently explains as she caressed my elbow in her arm's embrace.

The slaves behind us, deaf to the ancient Greek we speak carry the shady umbrellas over us, shielding us from the sun. Our faces are veiled lightly with transparent cloths of autumn yellow. We speak in hushed tones, but no one can hear us in Augustus vast gardens.

"She just gave birth Tonia," I murmured, "it is not wise to say such ill things about her. She loved Agrippa."

"Sure," she spoke indifferently, "but now she is free and can take on any lover."

"I doubt that." I rolled my eyes and smiled as my young son passes by holding his Alexandria's hand. She is pulling him tenderly but with hustle.

"You know something," Tonia urged, "what is it?"

I sighed impatiently and before I could answer Tonia's nursemaid entered the gardens with her eager three-year-old son Germanicus and equally eager one-year-old daughter Livilla. Tonia, ever the figure of roman womanhood - attempting to reach the scales of her mother and Livia - tended her children immediately. As she silently played parent, I walked quickly away from the slave carrying an umbrella, commanding her to stay, and followed my walking children and their nursemaids. Drusilla was in her nursemaid's arms sitting and staring as the other children played or waited for the adults to summon them into the large stadium of Augustus. I lunged for Alexandria and Ptolemy.

"My joyous children," I called them over to me and they both gave me breathtaking hugs. I caressed Ptolemy's rich brown hair and kissed Alexandria's rosy cheeks. "Are you ready to watch the play Antigone?"

"Yes," Alexandria answered. She played with her small braids, apparently distracted again. Solemnly, I dispelled the depressing notions of her future as a priestess, and squeezed her in my embrace.

"Selene," Tonia approached with her young children at arms' length and looking very flustered. I have never seen Octavia frustrated over the children she had to take care of; therefore, I question why her young children suddenly flustered Tonia - who Octavia raised to be very kind and courageous. I understand that having children is very laborious, but we were raised by Octavia to be patient, no matter how trying times must be. "The plays have begun, we should leave now."

"Of course," I held my own children and followed Tonia towards the path to the stadium.

We strolled passed the gardens and stumbled back inside the large palace. "Tell me your secret," she mused a moment later. Germanicus and Alexandria were talking and laughing while Ptolemy walked in his toddler way in between Tonia and I, he talked gibberish with Livilla. I watched them communicate and smile in awe at everything around them rather than answer Tonia's petty question. "Selene," She pressed.

"Tonia," I regarded her cautiously, taming my temper, "when it is the correct time, Julia will announce it. When it is not, then she will not say anything. Do not press me, because you desire an advantage over her. Do not sink to her game."

"You are so naïve," she shouted at me, "do not sink to her game? Rome is the game. Control is the trophy. She is an arrogant woman, still dreaming of becoming empress; yet she has no husband, and all the heirs are mainly her sons, and the rest are married. They are safe from her wretched grasp. She wants more. She belittles us, all but you because she likes you. She admires you, because are like her, and you remind her of our youth, and of Alexander. Her first lover, remember? She needs to be shown where she belongs; she is not superior to us. She is our equal: Daughters of Rome."