Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

The Fires of Pompeii (Part 2)

"Announcing Lucius Petrus Dextrus, Chief Augur of the City Government," a servant said, before stepping aside. A man with an air of authority stepped forward, a cloak slung over his shoulders that covered his right arm.

"Lucius," Caecilius greeted. "My pleasure, as always."

"Quintus, stand up!" Metella hissed to her son.

"A rare and great honor, sir, for you to come to my house," Caecilius continued. He held out a hand to Lucius, but the other man didn't remove his hand from under his cloak.

"The birds are flying north, and the wind is in the west," Lucius said, with an air of great importance.

"Quite. Absolutely," Caecilius answered, sounding puzzled. "That's good, isn't it?"

"Only the grain of wheat knows where it will grow," Lucius said.

"There now. Metella, have you ever heard such wisdom?"

"Never," Metella answered. "It's an honor."

"Pardon me, sir, I have guests," Caecilius said, gesturing to the three. "This is Spartucus, and Spartucus, and, uh, Spartucus."

"A name is but a cloud upon a summer wind," Lucius said.

"But the wind is felt most keenly in the dark," the Doctor returned.

"Ah!" Lucius said, taking it as a challenge as he stepped forward. "But what is the dark, other than an omen of the sun?"

"I concede that every sun must set," the Doctor said.

"Hah!"

"And yet the son of the father," he gestured to Quintus, "must also rise."

"Damn," Lucius said. "Very clever, sir. Evidently, a man of learning."

"Oh yes. But don't mind me, don't want to disturb the status quo."

"He's Celtic," Caecilius put in under his breath.

"We'll be off in a minute," the Doctor finished.

"I'm not going," Donna said as they moved back toward the TARDIS.

"It's ready, sir," Caecilius told Lucius in the background.

"You've got to," the Doctor said to Donna under his breath.

"Well, I'm not!"

"The moment of revelation!" Caecilius continued, lifting up a cloth and revealing a tile of marble with what appeared to be a circuit printed on it—a circuit several thousand years too modern for 79AD. "And here it is! Exactly as you specified. It pleases you, yes?"

"As the rain pleases the soil," Lucius said.

"Oh, now that's... different," the Doctor said, coming over, all thoughts of leaving abandoned with his curiosity piqued. "Who designed that, then?"

"My lord Lucius was very specific," Caecilius told him.

"Where did you get the pattern?" the Time Lord inquired.

"On the rain and the mist and the wind," Lucius said airily.

Matt eyed the tile. "But that looks like a circuit."

"Made of stone," the Doctor said.

"Do you mean you just dreamed that thing up?" Donna inquired.

"That is my job," Lucius said, "as City Augur."

"What's that, then, like the mayor?"

"Oh, you must excuse my friend, she's from... Barcelona," the Doctor said, before dropping his voice. "No, but this is an age of superstition," he told Donna. "Of official superstition. The Augur is paid by the city to tell the future. 'The wind will blow from the west,' that the equivalent of the ten o'clock news."