Chapter 14: Disaster’s Daughters – Julia

“Julia!” The voice echoed through the halls of the house. Julia Poppaeus Sabinus sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes.

“Yes, mother?” She called back, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight streaming into the peristyle. She knew what her mother wanted. She wanted the same thing she always wanted.

“Have you seen your father?” Her mother’s voice, closer now as the woman stalked through the corridors toward her, called.

“Not since jentaculum!” Julia replied, not entirely untruthfully. Her mother emerged from the house and scowled at her, her hand on her hip.

“Do you know where he is?” She demanded impatiently. “Your sister is getting married in less than two weeks and there is still far too much to do on my own.” Of course I know where he is, Julia scowled to herself while keeping her face carefully neutral. There was a reason the traders kept the most nubile slaves aside for her father, and it had nothing to do with their ability to clean, cook or care for children.

“I imagine he’s at the forum,” Julia lied almost convincingly. Her legs managed to keep their balance as a slight tremor coursed through the ground, disturbing the birds in their bath beside the stone pine trees one of the slaves was tending. There had been quite some number of these small tremors following the much larger shaking in Februarius. Though if Julia had to say, there seemed to be more than ever following the end of the long hot summer.

“Is he?” Her mother, Decima, peered at her suspiciously.

“How many times have we had this discussion, mother?” Julia asked in exasperation. “A dozen? More? You and I both know where he is. It is simply a matter of which he is with.”

“Julia! Show the proper respect for your father!” Decima folded her arms across her chest disapprovingly.

“Then he is at the forum discussing the election with the others as I said initially,” Julia shrugged. What did the woman want from her? Honestly, Julia had no idea. While Decima certainly was no stranger to her own dalliances with the slaves; she insisted on lying to herself and having everyone else perpetuate the lie, though it flew in the face of her own questions and known facts. It was, Julia decided, utter madness. Yes, Julia decided, scowling at her mother, the woman had gone stark raving mad.

“Is the peristyle going to be ready in time for your sister’s party this evening?” Decima moved with lightning speed onto the next topic which flew through her scattered mind. Julia spread her arms to indicate the hedges and flowers and trees around her and the small army of slaves tending to them.

“You’ve pulled slaves from the fields to help with this monstrosity,” Julia pointed out as she would to a child. “The peristyle will be ready for Martina’s damn party.”

“Don’t disparage your sister!” Decima demanded.

“I did no such thing!” Julia snapped back irritably. “This marks the fifth party Martina’s had for this accursed wedding. How many times does she plan on getting married? For that matter, how many grooms will be attending? I see no reason for an endless stream of gatherings all for a solitary wedding.”

“You will have many parties when you find someone to marry as well,” Decima sighed. “When your family is held in as high esteem as ours you must thrill the populace and create a properly festive atmosphere.”

“I have no intention of getting married,” Julia scowled. “I’ve told you this before. I intend to go to Alexandria and study.”

“And study what?” Decima cocked a bemused eyebrow at her daughter. “What can you find in Alexandria you can’t have in Pompeii?”

“Hmm,” Julia crossed her arms over her chest and brought one hand up to her chin as if pondering the question. “What can I find in Alexandria I can’t find here? Besides books, scholars, philosophers, critical thinking, an actual populace, exposure to a thousand different cultures, exotic food, and a proper history I honestly have no idea, mother.”

“You are taking too much after your father,” Decima chastised her. “Sarcasm does not befit a lady of quality.”

“Then it’s good I am not her,” Julia smirked.

“Where did I go so very wrong with you?” Decima mumbled miserably, shaking her head woefully.

“Perhaps it wasn’t you,” Julia suggested helpfully. “Maybe I was dropped on my head.”

“Doubtfully,” Decima shook her head. “I would have remembered that.”

“Would you?” Julia asked the question before she had the chance to think about it and winced as she prepared for her mother to lash out at her.

“Go find your father,” Decima growled after a long pause. Yes, Julia decided with a nod. She had worn out her mother’s patience for at least a day. Perhaps more. The scarcer she was the better, Julia decided. “Tell him to return as soon as possible. We only have until dusk to prepare.”

Julia nodded after a moment and shrugged, stepped into the shade of the portico, hurrying her pace once she reached the inner rooms to better facilitate her escape from her mother’s increasingly mercurial moods. She ignored the slaves and servants clustered in the halls and rooms and quickly exited the villa.

Her mother had become progressively more unhinged it seemed the longer they’d stayed in this hideous backwater tourist town. The idea of spending several months away from Rome had initially appealed to her, but as several months dragged on and became half a year and now almost a full year, the appeal had faded. Now, with her father involving himself in local politics and even running for office and her sister marrying some low-rent local aristocrat it was increasingly obvious their retreat had become a full-fledged rout and she was going to be stuck in this hellhole until she could escape to Alexandria.

The town had been nice enough, she thought as she walked at a brisk but easy pace along the cobblestone roads, ignoring the bustle of traffic as merchants and slaves and gladiators rushed to and fro along the Via dell’Abbondanza toward the warehouse her father had purchased upon their arrival. The town had, however, quickly worn out its welcome with Julia as the warm nights gave way to warmer days. While in Rome, their house on the Palatine Hill benefited from the cool breezes flowing over the great walls of the city the winds blowing off the sea here in Pompeii offered little respite from the sweltering heat.

Not to mention the stench from the multitude Fuller shops tended to linger in the air, the shiftless breeze simply moving the smell listlessly from street to street. Julia paused briefly to stare at yet another fascinatingly lewd fresco recently added to the wall of a newly opened taberna.

Her fingers played over her breasts beneath her stola and tunic before she blushed fiercely. Who kept making these damn things? Whoever it was had made them anatomically correct to a nearly uncomfortable level. She would have to check for herself after the party tonight to make absolutely certain, she decided, her grin becoming quite lewd as well as she hurried past the forum toward the eastern edge of town.

Her father’s warehouse looked the same as every other warehouse pressed against the eastern wall of Pompeii. The red roof shingles shone dully in the early afternoon sun and the brightly painted door stood closed mockingly. With a sigh and shake of her head she pushed the door open and stepped into the cool darkness.

“Mother has asked me to retrieve you and send you back to the house to help prepare for Martina’s party this afternoon!” Julia called. After walking in on an uncomfortable number of instances involving her father and their multitude of slaves Julia had learned the hard way to stay at the door.

“Shit!” Came the predictable hoarse call from one of the back rooms. This exclamation was quickly followed by the predictable scramble as her father searched about in the partial darkness for his clothes. Julia shook her head and leaned against the wall, waiting. “Stall her!” Came phase three of the predictable reaction.

“G-Good evening!” The girl was probably no older than she was. Her long dark hair was disheveled, and her dark nipples were plainly visible against her milky skin as she struggled to right her tunic, emerging from one of the rooms on the south side of the warehouse.

“Ah, and a good afternoon, for afternoon it still is, Cressida,” Julia waved jauntily. Cressida had been a relatively new addition to her father’s growing stable of slaves, each younger, seemingly, than the last.

“Ah, ha ha,” Cressida chuckled in embarrassment, trying to smooth her hair.

“You may want to worry a bit less about your hair and a bit more about your other assets,” Julia grinned at her. The girl paused in confusion. Julia motioned toward the girl’s chest with a smirk. “The ladies are out and about apparently shopping, Cressida, dear.” The girl’s face grew redder still even in the partial darkness and Julia felt bad for her. It wasn’t her fault her father was scum. However, you could say whatever you wanted about the man, Julia mused, his taste in women was second to none.

“Y-Your father is…” Cressida trailed off, glancing about nervously as if hoping for something to strike her fancy and make the explanation for where he was more plausible. Julia briefly considered watching the girl twist in the breeze her father had set for her but decided she was simply too pretty to leave hanging like that.

“It’s quite all right,” Julia waved Cressida’s attempt at an explanation away. “I’ll tell him you were exquisitely artful in your ruse. Just have him come to the villa before my mother loses what little sense she has been left with.”

“Thank you, Miss Julia,” Cressida sighed gratefully. Julia cast one more appraising gaze at the young woman before shaking her head ruefully and making her way back outside.

You are reading story Katsu Bites at novel35.com

As she walked back toward the villa, ignoring the main road in favor of the smaller streets Julia allowed her imagination to run wild as it so often did. She was not in favor of slavery itself, nor was she precisely opposed to it, either. For her, as she assumed for most citizens of Rome, the institution of slavery was simply the way things were. She had considered partaking of her father’s slaves from time to time herself. Cressida had been one she’d considered, though the notion was plainly off the table now.

Still, it seemed rather unseemly to force that sort of physical intimacy on another person. She was certainly no romantic as such, but the notion of achieving intimacy due to one’s status alone did not sit well with her. She wondered how many of her father’s slaves he’d bedded by now. Cressida had been a rather recent acquisition and the one she’d most had her eye on, but there was the newest who also had caught her eye. An exotic girl named Sucaria, who intrigued her a great deal.

Sucaria had come from the wilds of northern Gaul and her long red hair and skin like alabaster was quite intriguing. She was tall with a powerful body and piercing green eyes which reminded Julia of a forest under clouded skies. Julia was certain her father had not bedded her and the notion of doing so before her father both intrigued and repulsed her.

Her thoughts thus occupied she suddenly found herself thrown violently against the side of one of the houses she was passing, wrenching her shoulder painfully in the process as a tremor, far more powerful than those which had come before, jolted the town. A roaring like a million lions all screaming at once in the Colosseum in Rome assaulted her ears.

She turned in fear and wonder to find a plume of smoke rising like an ancient serpent into the air from the crown of Vesuvius to the northwest of the city. She stared slack-jawed in awe as the column blossomed at its apex and began to spread like the dark cap of some terrible mushroom across the October sky.

Julia dragged her gaze reluctantly from the unfolding nightmare rising like a fierce wave of midnight above the mountain and dragged herself back to her feet, wincing in pain. While certainly no physician she felt it reasonable to assume her shoulder had been dislocated as any attempt to move it caused sharp, shooting pain to radiate from her shoulder down her arm and across her chest and neck.

She found a place where the pain was more manageable and used her uninjured left arm to hold her right in that position as she began to make her way toward the villa. Purple lightning flashed across the sky from the burgeoning cloud and the day quickly became dark. She turned down a side alley and stopped. Mist began to expand around her. Rising up from seemingly nowhere she soon found herself nearly blinded, the buildings to her left and right vanished as if the blackest of nights had descended upon her, only the swirling mist filled her vision.

“Quite the predicament,” a soft, feminine voice said from the mist in front of her.

“Wh-Who’s there?” Julia demanded, stepping backward a pace, still holding her wounded arm protectively.

“Just a traveler,” the voice replied breezily. Suddenly a figure emerged from the mist. She was tall and strangely dressed. Her long robes of crimson silk adorned with mysterious flowers and images were gathered at her narrow waist by a thick cloth belt and her long pale hair was gathered atop her head in a style unfamiliar to Julia.

Though her dress and wooden shoes were strange, they were nothing compared to the woman’s face. Her face was alien, though attractive. Her eyes were almond-shaped, and two long animal-like ears pushed up from her hair and swiveled attentively, as if searching for some sound or movement only she could detect.

“You seem to have found yourself in something of a predicament,” the woman said, her smile revealing a pair of elongated canines glinting dully in the swirling fog.

“What do you want?” Julia demanded, trying to sound braver than she felt.

“Straight to the point,” the woman chuckled. “I admire that! Not to put too fine a point on things, Julia Poppaeus Sabinus, I want you.” Julia’s eyes narrowed as she studied the woman opposite her.

“I have no idea what you’re referring to,” Julia scowled. The woman was dangerous, plainly. Even with both arms Julia was not exactly a force to be reckoned with. She had gone through a bare basic degree of training against her father’s wishes and knew the fundamentals of the blade, but certainly not well enough to defend herself against a foe out to harm her. With a wounded arm, Julia was painfully aware of how truly helpless she was.

“My father will not pay for my return,” Julia warned the woman. “I am the second daughter and worth nothing. If you let me go, I will promise to say nothing to the city guard. Then we can go about our day and forget this incident.”

 “Sadly, my dear girl, you are not wrong,” the woman shook her head sadly and sighed. “In the growing darkness from the eruption of Vesuvius you will get turned around as you try to navigate the dark streets while hurt. Your mother, father and sister will escape to the sea and find passage across the bay to the south to Surrentum. They will search for you, of course, but you will not be there.

“By the time you reach your home the only occupants you’ll find are looters searching for valuables in the unnatural darkness. Your ability to reason and intellect will not avail you as you will be dragged into a servant’s room to provide some…succor along with another woman to a pair of particularly unsavory men. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending entirely upon your point of view, they will not be able to complete the deed as you four will be overcome by a pyroclastic surge which will boil the blood in your bodies.

“Your remains will be found in the company of the other three in 1800 years where you will become tourist attractions with archaeologists and scientists locked in a fruitless, never-ending debate over what you had been doing in your final hours to lead you to what will later be designated Room 19,” the woman shook her head, silver hair flashing dully in the gathering mist. “Quite the tragic ending for our heroin, who wanted only to study the mysteries of the world in Alexandria, don’t you think?”

“You’re lying,” Julia whispered, though nothing about the woman’s demeanor or visage suggested she was in the habit of doing so. The woman sighed in disappointment and shook her head.

“Why do you all lead with that?” She clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Basic disbelief is understandable but to declare me a liar at the start is simply disrespectful.” The woman plainly was not talking to Julia, but to herself.

Julia backed away from her but never seemed to get any further. Whether it was a trick of the mist or some sort of physical presence which prevented her escape the woman remained where she was standing, neither drawing closer nor further away no matter what Julia did to grow the distance between them.

“You can believe what you wish,” the woman said. “But I am not lying. You will be dead soon enough, entombed forever with your assailants and fellow victim in ash, face frozen in a timeless scream.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Julia demanded angrily.

“Because I have another option for you, Julia,” the woman’s grin broadened.

“And what is this option?” Julia hissed, growing weary of this woman’s game.

“I can save you,” the woman said with a shrug. “I can ensure room 19 of your home has only three victims. I can give you the chance to study things you can’t even begin to imagine. To learn things even the greatest scholars of Alexandria can’t picture in their wildest dreams. I can show you a world far beyond anything you know or suspect.”

“How?”

“I have my ways,” the woman shrugged.

“And if I agree,” Julia scowled at her. “What is to become of me? Am I to be a slave? Am I to be at your beck and call?”

“You will be your own person,” the woman shook her head. “I ask only one simple, solitary thing. I ask that you help me save this planet and all life on it.” Julia giggled, ignoring the pain in her arm. Her giggles grew louder and more forceful until she had broken into a hearty laugh.

“You’re more insane than my mother,” Julia laughed. “Though your skill at storytelling is far better and quite impressive, I must say!” Without seeming to move the woman was suddenly behind her and Julia gasped and froze. The woman touched Julia’s shoulder and a brilliant light spread out from her fingertip. A moment later the pain was gone from Julia’s arm.

“I ask for you to join me willingly,” the woman whispered in Julia’s ear, causing the hair on the back of her neck to prickle. “Stay and perish or come with me, the choice is yours. Just know that you will not be given a second chance.”

Even if the woman was insane, Julia reasoned, what difference did it make? She was worthless as the second daughter of a minor politician who did nothing but sleep with his slaves and play at being important. Her sister barely knew she was alive, and her mother was growing madder by the day. If this woman took her into a dark alley and killed her at least she had gone, for once, of her own free will.

Her mother would never allow her to go to Alexandria and her father certainly wouldn’t. She looked forward and saw nothing in her future but endlessly stuck in the muddy ruts her life was destined to be mired within. Julia sighed and shrugged.

“Fine,” she finally said. “I’ll go with you, if for no other reason than morbid curiosity.”

“Morbid curiosity is as good a reason as any I’ve ever heard,” the woman chuckled. “Welcome to Disaster’s Daughters, Julia.” Suddenly the world seemed to tilt sickeningly, and Julia felt as if she was falling through the ground.

The mist vanished as quickly as it had come, taking Julia and the strange woman with it as the ash and pumice began to fall heavily on Pompeii. Lanterns flickered on in the homes and shops in the unnatural darkness driven by the volcano. People hurried through the streets, running toward loved ones, running toward imagined safety, running away from the death falling from the heavy sky, and all of them running out of time.

You can find story with these keywords: Katsu Bites, Read Katsu Bites, Katsu Bites novel, Katsu Bites book, Katsu Bites story, Katsu Bites full, Katsu Bites Latest Chapter