Initium novum [Completed - being edited/rewritten]

Chapter 36

I have never seen such celebration made for me, as the one which Titus and Gaia made for me at the mansion. Valeria told me, that Octavia couldn't wait to finally see me.

When the car was coming to the mansion, she was already standing there with Julius, Cladius, Titus and Gaia.

As I got out of the car, she ran to me and hugged me. I was happy as never in my life before to see her, she kissed me on a cheek, grabbed my hand and led me to the house, so I didn't even had time to greet with others.

In the house there were all the servants greeting me back, they even made a giant cake on which were twenty one candles and there was written "Welcome back Antistia". The cake was right in the middle of a table to which Octavia led me right away, the others followed. Titus told me to take a seat, so I sat on a chair in the head front, the other sat around me. Servants brought bottles with wine and filled our glasses.

Titus stood up, with him all other and he said, "Let's have a toast for this glorious day. Day in which, your beloved niece; girlfriend; and mother has returned to us after a terrible accident. Let's toast to her, and to her health."

"To your health, Antistia." Said everyone.

"And happy birthday," said Octavia.

"Oh, sweetheart," I said, "thank you, thank you so much. How do you know now that I will have birthday?"

"I told her," said Valeria. " I thought that we deserve a big celebration for once."

"I have no words," I said and was about to cry, but that would be tears of happiness.

"Sometimes words are not necessary," Gaia said. "Come now dear, make a wish and blow off the candles."

I took a breath, and blew the candles off. My wish was to keep my loved ones safe.

After that, Gaia cut the cake onto pieces and we all were given a piece, since I haven't eaten a good food in more then four weeks, I enjoyed it very much, it was just delicious.

Then Octavia went away but came right back with a paper in her hands. "Look what I made you." She gave me the paper and a necklace made of Gaia's special fiber decorated by three gemstones, one red, one white and one black. In the paper, there was drawn a red heart in which was written "I love you."

"Gods," I said, "this is beautiful. You did yourself?"

"Almost." she said.

"A tutor helped her." Valeria said

"Your tutor? Will you tell me about him?" I asked Octavia.

"It is she, her name is Elisabeth," Valeria said.

Octavia told me what for past four weeks she was taught how to write, read and draw. I found out that her tutor, Elisabeth is in fact one of the most, if not the most famous painter in Apollonia. Gaia told me, that Elisabeth, also know as One-handed because of the fact that she was born only with one hand, was the one who painted temple of Apollon in the city center. From what Gaia told me, I understood that Elisabeth was skilled in every way and didn't normally do a tutor, but for Octavia she made an exception, I was honoured for that.

After some time, Octavia was tired and went to sleep, I stayed with the others. I talked with Julius about his job as a secretary of Victor Maximus. He told me that the official work is boring, only being in office solving paperwork and making schedules, but he had learned a lot about the army infrastructure, at least the basic structure of the Defence (Reserve) Army. The unofficial work was more interesting, because as a secretary of Victor and the member of Ordo Illuminatis, he had access to variety of things. Julius told me, that the Imperium is really at war with the Confederation of Icarus, and that even though imperial armies are doing their best, they can't capture any of the five hundred islands, the war was on stalemate. But COF had assets on main lands too, Julius asked me if I knew what was the Malia's Accident. I said yes, because I did, from my foster father, Adrius. The Milia's Accident was, by what the imperial regime said, an accident during which steel forges exploded, killing over two hundreds people and injuring more than thousand others, among which were forge-workers, civilians and guardsmen. But from what Julius told me it was no accident but a successful attack done by the Confederation. The others were not listening to us, because Valeria was talking with Titus and Gaia, so I asked Julius on something what I was thinking all day, what were the Ragnarök Protocols. He looked at me with a face which showed a surprised.