Hey there...

Once again bringing you things you'd never thought you'd see...;P

Well, this chapter contains the next two parts...#3 and #4...

Disclaimer:
Evangelion doesn't belong to me or anyone else on this list. Live with it.
I've borrowed the characters with situations to make a grand story of love
and betrayal and men in skirts...Er...Togas...Live with it.

C&C, as always, is wanted and welcomed;
gargoyle@glasscity.net
gargoyle9@hotmail.com
or
gargoyle4@hotmail.com
Flames will be sacrificed in the name of Caesar!

Many thanks to me prereaders...Adrian Forest and Dave Menard...Thanks! ^_^

Oh! And thanks to Elsa Bibat for the nice review on the SLR! Thanks! ^_^

So...Sit back and enjoy!
Salud!

***

The horse huffed under him. Caeles wasn't used to riding one of
this size. The brute bucked slightly against his commands, always
reminding him that he wasn't that much of an authority figure for
the horse, and that, given special circumstances; he'd get stepped
on. Only the company of so many other similar brutes kept his own
calm.

The army stretched on in front and behind him and flanked the
small group that consisted of Caeles, General Kalendis and Certus.
The man he'd met a couple days ago was back in the huge, black
battlewagon that rolled along a few yards back. Caeles was quite
sure that he'd never seen something like it before. He'd heard that
something of that nature was being used in the campaigns in
Nubia; he'd just never seen one before. What was it like? Saying
that it was like a small insula on wheels didn't do it justice for all
the ugliness of it. The hulk of the wagon looked out across the
undulating hills kind of reminded Caeles of the fishing voyages he
took when he was younger. Just a little boat out on the sea,
bobbing lightly back and forth.

"Hey," the General said from his right, "Are you all right? I mean,
you haven't taken any food in the last few nights, you must be
hungry."

Mistura Kalendis. She was something of a mystery to him. Sure,
she was wearing a man's armor and her long, black hair was
somehow all trapped underneath the cold plate of her helmet, but
Caeles had never heard her first name. He realized that fact the day
after he had first met her. All his civilian teachers, all his military
peers, even those soldiers tutoring him, who supposedly KNEW
her, all referred to Kalendis as a man. Did they not know? Did they
even care? Were they that blinded by her talent as a soldier? And
just how does a woman, especially one as beautiful as the General,
get to know about warfare?

Caeles hadn't seen much of her in the couple of days after his
arrival, but he supposed that she had her hands full with the
barbarians. Certus had been his connection and she was certainly
pretty in her own way, but not stunningly beautiful like the
General.

"No," he replied as he got back to where his mind should have
been, "The fish for the last couple nights have been very good.
And the bread in the morning too...Though, I thought that it would
be tactically inefficient to carry around such foodstuffs when lesser
fare would work just as well..."

The General kept an easy, interested look, then shot a look to
Certus, who had been riding back a pace.

"And you feel all right?" the General asked, turning back to him.

Caeles nodded

"I'll keep an eye on him, ma'am," Certus offered from behind them.

Caeles' hands began to sweat. They were talking about poisons. It
worried him that he might indeed be the target of an assassination,
but he worried more that they wouldn't talk to him about it. He
wanted to show Certus the evidence in the mornings, but the plate
and the goblet had been cleaned up and spirited away. And the
bread had been left in the same spot on the table each day, so
Caeles had thought it was Certus. Apparently not. General
Kalendis had slowed her horse to match that of her aide, leaving
Caeles out front. Talk of assassination made him look out across
the hills. Perhaps a waiting archer, the lone man with a bow, who
knows?

He shut his eyes for a moment and tried to calm. He looked back
over the hills that seemed to go on forever and found no terror in
them. Just awe. For the hills lead to the south where the Alps rose
and formed a natural barrier between where he was and those
provinces in which he grew up. His home, his old home. They
were heading back to his new home now.

***

The Fate of Hearts
By
Joshua Trujillo

***

Part III - Urba Tertius

***

The hills of flowing dead, brown grass broke into a flat plain of
flowing dead, brown grass. Caeles asked the General how she dealt
with the monotony of the march.

"I think about home and what needs to be done there," she said, a
far off tone to her voice, "Mostly chores. But sometimes there's
more..."

Caeles huffed. All he needed to do was to put his things away.
And, perhaps, attend to his studies. There was also the matter of
his father and whatever his father wanted from him. That could
take up his whole time at the city. But that was almost a false hope.
A new set of foster parents? What were wrong with the old ones?

No...Not that. The General said that he'd been remanded over to
her. Which meant that, in essence, she was his mother now. Caeles
smiled to himself. He liked that thought.

***

Two additional days passed on the road back to the city. The army
marched further south and Caeles' list grew longer, especially
when thoughts came about his father. Like, how could one man
engender so much faith in people, and yet bring Caeles to the point
of insane anger?

The saddle wasn't exactly something he'd been used to in his days
and, after a few days; it'd began to chafe. Caeles shrugged his
shoulders and yawned slightly.

"We're almost back," Mistura said from behind him.

She brought her horse up next to his and pointed across the small
ridge of hills toward the north.

"Off that way is Gaul," she said, "On the other side of those
mountains the other way is Gallia Cisalpina. I've been told that you
like to get your bearings to Rome when you get to someplace
new."

Caeles raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"It was your father that told me," she said, "You shouldn't judge
him as harshly as you do, he's a better man than most and he's got a
greater plan than just Rome."

"I-I don't criticize him!" Caeles stammered.

"You talk in your sleep," she smiled.

"..."

"Don't worry," she said conspiratorially, "I won't tell anyone. I was
going to ask you about your accommodations one night and you
were already fast asleep. And I heard you talking about your
father."

"I've already sent word ahead for you to have your own room," she
continued, "That way, there won't be any explaining necessary."

She winked at him and fell back to a side group of Legionnaires.
Caeles felt slightly nauseous at having the anger at his father found
out so easily. He'd have to figure out how to keep his mouth shut at
night. If the General had been anyone else, Caeles most likely
would have been under arrest for speaking out against him. Caeles
shook his head.

The group crested a small rise and the sight took the breath from
Caeles. Spread in the valley between two mountains lay a huge
walled city, bigger than his hometown, bigger than Pompeii. To
Caeles, bigger than Rome itself. He saw that there was an aqueduct
dropping from the mountains into the city and that a river seemed
to emerge from the middle of the city. So much to take in! So
much to wonder at the glory of the Empire!

"Urba Tertius," Mistura said as she rode up once more.

Certus rode in close behind them.

"I've been wondering something..." Caeles said.

"Why is the city called Urba Tertius?"

Caeles nodded.

"The first city," Mistura explained, "Was sacked by the Gauls
almost 200 years ago. The second was almost burned down when
Caesar came through, about 70 or so years ago. But that second
city was so big that some of it survived and that's what the third
city was built on. Especially the governor's estates. Most of it
survived Caesar."

"Wow! You were there?" Caeles wondered, "I mean, you don't
look that old!"

A slow smile spread across Mistura's face, creeping on the edges
of some other emotion as the edges twisted up on her face. Behind
them, Certus tried to keep herself from laughing.

"I'm NOT that old!" she bellowed, a little vein in her head clearly
visible, "And you'd do well to mind your tongue."

Caeles muttered a quick apology and tried to cower as best he
could on horseback. Her expression softened and she shook her
head. Mistura sighed and smiled slightly at Caeles.

There was a slight pause and Mistura turned sharply in her saddle,
"And stop laughing, Certus!"

***

So much to take in, in so little time. The main gates swung aside
on massive hinges as the army approached. Caeles could see
exactly how big the gates were when he went through. To think
that this city could ever be sacked again was just foolishness, this
was a fortress. It was the epitome of Roman defense up here in the
wilderness. Caeles thought that two horses could probably be
stacked on top of one another and still not touch the top of the gate.

The buildings inside seemed to be so out of place with the giant
wall around them. There were villas and smaller houses
everywhere. In between the buildings, he could see gardens and
small piazzas nestled away. How beautiful and private! The main
road that led toward the center spoke of the city, a great fountain
there in the center plaza of the city. Caeles wondered as he passed
it. The great towering figure of Jupiter graced the center of the
fountain, gilded in gold and riding a great chariot of bronze.
Waters flowed around several parts near the outer edge of the
fountain and into the huge retaining pool at the bottom. Caeles
wondered briefly how they could get a statue so incredibly tall into
the city. In pieces, most likely. Standing well above the buildings
around it, it just seemed so out of place...

It was true that Caeles had never been to Rome, but he supposed
this level of opulence only mirrored the greatness that was the
Roman capital. For the glory of the Empire, this was certainly one
of the greater cities...But why had Caeles never even heard of it? If
the town was so renown, as indeed appeared the case, then why
had he never heard of it, even in passing?

Legionnaires and Centurions spread out through the city as they
made their way back to their barracks. The battlewagon lumbered
slowly ahead through one of the main streets. Certus pointed
toward the wagon and Caeles followed, not quite knowing what
else to do, a level of shock evident at the city around him. A block
later, a distinctive roar came to his ears and Caeles could make out
the sounds of gladiatorial combat in the distance. He had been to
the arena in Pompeii with one of his friends when he was studying
there, but he hadn't liked it that much. Learning about the real
battles was much more interesting than watching prisoners being
killed in a mockery of them.

Caeles pulled his horse back into the rest of the group as much as
he could. He saw Certus across the column at a stand of some sort
and angled his horse toward her where she met him halfway.

"Apples?" Caeles wondered.

"Here," she said as she tossed the shiny green apple to him, "I
haven't eaten in a while and dinner won't be for a couple hours
yet."

Caeles nodded and looked at the apple in his hands. It truly was a
wonder. Apples, in Germania, in the middle of winter! Caeles took
a bite and thrilled at the sweet, slightly tart flavor of the fruit. Ah,
the wonders of the Empire...

Light sloshing noises floated gently down from the aqueduct
overhead. Caeles squinted up at the arches that held it firmly in
place. Below the suspended river of water flowed the vital peoples
of the city. Here, a baker selling bread and other confections.
There, a butcher with meat fresh today. There was even the hint of
a fish market nearby...Fish! Here, dozens of leagues from the
nearest sea, fresh fish!

Caeles would have swooned had it not been for the cautious
stamping of the vindictive brute underneath him. He pulled up on
the reins and tried to steer him back towards the path following the
wagon...Into a second set of gates, beyond which he could see the
governor's estate.

***

The sun was on its way down, casting cool pinks and reds across
the white walls of the estate. Mistura watched as the battlewagon
pulled into the gates, followed by Certus and Caeles. That boy was
certainly difficult to read. But he seemed nice enough to get along
with, so she let it be. She'd only met his father a couple of times,
but she was struck by the similarities between them, even down to
the little things, like the way they fidgeted when they rode
horseback...

Caeles dismounted and stretched, clearly not used to so many days
in the saddle. Certus brought him closer as the door of the
battlewagon opened.

"So, Caeles, what do you think of the governor's estate?" she asked
him, "Welcome to your new home."

"It's...Big."

Mistura laughed easily.

"Well that's one reaction," she said, "The house itself was built on
a spring so that the inner gates could be closed against a siege."

"The steam coming from the top there," he asked as he pointed to
an area near the roofline, "Are there many ovens working?"

"We have four great furnaces that provide heat to the villa in the
winter as well as ovens for the food and ways to heat the spring
water as well. It's quite complete," Certus said as she adjusted her
cloak.

"That must require a great many people," Caeles said, following
Mistura inside.

"Many more than you might think, young Soter."

It was the man from earlier. Certus had told him that the man was
the governor, name of Aequus Neocorus.

"Welcome to Urba Tertius," he said curtly, "General Kalendis, I
need to speak with you."

He and the General walked off in one direction, disappearing into a
building at the far end. Other individuals came and went from the
inner courtyard and Caeles wondered if he was supposed to follow
one of them to his room. He could do with a nap after all that
riding.

"Well Caeles," Certus said from behind him, "I think I'll see you
up to your room and then find my own. I'm tired."

Caeles nodded and smiled. He was too...

***

The door closed slowly as Certus left. Caeles looked around him.
The room was simple and clean. Nice. There was a small window
that opened onto the interior gardens that smelled pleasantly of
flowers, even in this day of winter. He smiled at the thought. It was
good to be Roman. It was a good view, too. The inside of his room
held a bed to one side with a table opposite. Certus had said that
ink and stylus were going to be brought up sometime tomorrow, so
he'd have to make due with his guilty pleasures.

On the table, aside from a small, brass lamp, were a couple scrolls.
Caeles set his bag on the chair and unrolled one of the scrolls.
They were maps. A large map of the Empire, all holdings marked
and numbered. The other map held a couple different maps inside,
but all seemed more tactical than geographic.

Caeles rolled the scrolls again and set them aside. From his bag, he
brought out a small leather roll. He set it on the table and undid the
delicate leather tie in the middle of the roll. Untied, he opened the
roll and smiled at his own work. Several sheets of parchment
inside held-

A giggle? The laughter of a woman...No. This laughter had been
lighter. That of a girl. The sweet laughter that he felt was absent
since the last time he was in Pompeii. But it sounded like it came
from the courtyard. Caeles went to the window and distinctly heard
a small bell sound, light and crisp in the darkened gardens. Once
more the laughter floated up to him, but it was further off, as if the
person was walking away from him. The bell chimed again and
was silent.

All was quiet. The dark of the gardens pushed against his eyes and
he withdrew. It was too late to light the lamp and do any useful
work. It would be just as well to get to bed.

***

Part IV - Imperial Son

***

Caeles rubbed his hair again with the towel. The hallways were
quite a bit colder than the baths and, at this time of night, he could
feel it. Caeles was happy. Not simply content like he was in
Neapolis, Pompeii, Brundisi and all those other towns in which he
grew up, but really happy. The baths were simply wonderful.
Much better than those of a normal Roman city. It still bothered
him that he had not ever heard of this town before. A person didn't
expect a town this advanced to be this far from the capital.

Three days had passed since he had arrived in Urba Tertius and,
while he'd met a great many people, Caeles knew that he hadn't
met even a fraction of the people around the household. Mistura
had planned a dinner tomorrow evening to introduce him to the
people that he should most get to know while staying there, in her
words. Caeles simply nodded in agreement. Important people. So
Caeles had decided to take a bath, especially since he hadn't had
one since he'd left his old home.

It struck him as odd that he was around so many people and it
didn't bother him. Normally, he avoided groups of people like a
plague, and even the normal seating arrangements in the arenas
made him panic. But here, it felt different, almost like home. As he
turned the corner for the living hall, Caeles smacked into
something not quite hard enough to be either a wall or a door and
sat down hard. He reached a hand up to his forehead, feeling a
slight lump already forming. What had he run into?

Across the hall, a form groaned slightly and sat up. It was clothed
in hard leather armor, the kind that was worn by garrison units in
the larger cities. More for protection against thieves and madmen
than against invaders of any type. The person shifted the leather
helmet up out of their face and Caeles gasped.

She was beautiful. A girl. Flowing red locks spilled out across her
face, framing her light skin and the whiteness of the tunic visible
under her armor. She reached up and rubbed the slight bruise that
was beginning to swell under her eye. Caeles felt bad. He must
have had his head down when they collided.

"I'm sorry," Caeles said as he got to his feet, "Can I help you up?"

He proffered a hand to her, wanting to apologize more once she
got herself together. She looked up at him with one gorgeous blue
eye. Both eyes snapped open as she screamed something Caeles
couldn't understand. Her left hand reached to her waist and she
whipped a sword from its scabbard at Caeles.

He jerked his hand back and shook it slightly as he could feel that
the sword nicked it. Caeles backed up as the redhead picked herself
off the stone floor as fast as she could. She screamed something in
her language again and took another swing at him, which he
ducked under. Caeles backed up, under a full panic now, and
started to run down the hall. He cursed himself for not paying more
attention to the building plans that he had in his room. He had no
idea where he was, but one look over his shoulder at the swirling
mass of screaming red hair that was behind him was enough to
convince him that anywhere else was preferable.

Cold fear burned down his back as he rounded a corner and found
that he'd come to a dead end, except...At the end of the hall was a
door! Caeles opened the door and slammed it shut behind him just
as that girl-beast-thing ran headlong into it. The door shuddered
again, but held. Caeles breathed a slight sigh. The door shook
again as the girl beat on the outside, screaming in her own
language, which Caeles could now make out was Germanic. What
was a dangerous girl like that doing in the governor's mansion?

Caeles eyes grew big as a long shaft of the girl's sword emerged
from the door, at about head level. He bolted the door and backed
off as the sword withdrew. She was aiming to kill him all right.
What a beast! Caeles had no idea where he was, but he backed up
slightly. The sword splintered the wood of the door again and
Caeles jumped back. The back of his leg caught against something
and he went backwards onto-

A person?! Someone else! Some kind of cloth flew up around him
as he tried to struggle to his feet. He lost his balance and once
again landed on his stomach on what felt like a bed. He reached
out to try to grab the edge of the bed and his hand closed around
something infinitely softer. And round. And kind of firm in a
fleshy kind of way.

A hand closed around his wrist and wrenched his arm around him.
Bright lights flashed and popped against his eyes as the pain in his
shoulder grew. Caeles stopped trying to move and the pain
subsided. So he just lay there. Whoever had a hold of his arm was
quite strong and Caeles felt that person straddle his legs as they got
a better grip on his arm.

"Great," he said quietly, "What else could go wrong?"

And he heard the door finally come open. Mistura blinked blearily
into the room as Lycisca held a lamp high. Mistura noticed that
Lycisca had changed the color of her hair once again. She
wondered why the woman did that so often? It was her natural
color when they had been in the forest and now it was a blonde
color, but it looked like Certus hadn't had a chance to finish it all
the way. Or Lycisca actually LIKED looking that way. Mistura
shrugged to herself. Her friend was an eternal mystery.

Certus brought another oil lamp with her as they followed the
young Lagena Aestus as she stormed into the room. Flustra was
kneeling on the bed and had straddled someone under the sheets.
She looked calmly over to the group. She always gave Mistura the
shivers, with her one eye. Mistura never asked where her other eye
had gone and such, because Flustra was always so aloof and
untalkitive. It unnerved her that such a girl could somehow be
close to Caeles' father. There was still a link there that she hadn't
uncovered. Her missing eye, and the fact that she was an albino
was more than enough to keep away most inquiry.

Lagena tore back the sheet and revealed a very confused Caeles,
who blinked in the flickering light. Lagena pulled him out from
under Flustra, who didn't make any indication of feeling either
way. Mistura just shrugged. That was her way.

Lagena then wrapped an arm around his neck and held him up and
seemed to ignore the fact that Mistura was trying to keep from
laughing.

"Even though the Lady Caecus captured him, I'm sure it was only a
matter of time before I caught up to him, but no matter!" she
shouted into his ear.

He tried to gurgle a response.

"Tell me!" she shouted, "Why have you snuck in to the Lady's
chambers?! It was to take her in a flurry of lust, wasn't it?!"

"It was?" Flustra said as she pulled a sheet around her.

"Tell me just what you think you're doing here this night?!"
Lagena shouted once more.

Caeles let out a little gurgle as his eyes rolled into the back of his
head.

"Oh, for the sake of the Gods, Lagena," Mistura said, "Put him
down! He's turning blue!"

"Lagena," Certus interjected, "I'd like you to meet our newest
guest. This is the son of Effero Soter, the Imperial Proconsul. This
is Caeles Soter."

"He is, is he?" Flustra said quietly with a slight smile.

Lycisca raised an eyebrow, but said nothing at this sudden flurry of
emotion from the albino. A dozen emotions warred with Lagena
and finally one of them won out.

"Oh...Damn!" she said.

She let go of the boy who collapsed in an unconscious heap.

***

Lycisca grabbed the hilt of Lagena's sword and pulled it from its
position in the door. She looked at it distastefully and handed it to
Mistura, who hefted it and looked down the hall towards the fading
sounds. Both of them could still hear Lagena grumbling in her
native Germanic tongue all the way down the hall. And while she
had Certus to help, Lycisca made sure that she was the one that got
him safely back to bed, considering Lycisca would have to
apologize to the boy tomorrow. She'd thought that perhaps Mistura
or Certus could do it, but that wasn't really their assignment and
she didn't want to end up with any of their tasks as a result. But,
perhaps, something could be done in the future to prevent it.

"Should we keep them separated?" she asked of Mistura.

"No. No good can come from that," Mistura replied as she rubbed
at her eyes, "All we can do is hope they get along. I'm more
worried about how he'll react to Flustra."

Lycisca gave a quick, sharp laugh and looked back to the door.

"I have an idea they'll get along fine. Just call it a hunch..."

***

Joshua "Gargoyle" Trujillo
"Stone Cold Protector of the Righteous"
"Owner of The Anime Bar & Grille - Mm, mm good!"

Come and visit The Anime Bar & Grille!
Now with two locations!
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/1509
and
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/museum/1275