by Daniel Caet
“The truth is that I do not know what can happen, my lady Agrippina, I bring these herbs especially for you from Hispania. I myself go to the port of Ostia to pick them up.”
“The herbs can come from Mount Olympus, Galvus, but I tell you they don't work at all, they're not like the ones you've given me other times. Headaches do not go away!”
“I really don't know what to say, my lady,” replied the man with a face that indicated he knew that he was getting into trouble.
“If my lady allows me the intrusion,” I said, approaching her with all my impromptu stink, “I can recommend an Egyptian remedy that will certainly help her.”
The woman turned to me with a frown clearly annoyed that a stranger got into her conversations, but when her eyes settled on me, her face changed immediately, and a half smile filled her face.
“And, what remedy is that, if one can know?” she asked directly.
“It's really simple, you just need to add black lotus petals to the wine.”
“Black lotus? I have never heard of that plant,” replied the merchant.
“That's your problem, Galvus, you never know anything,” the woman replied with a dog's face. “You will do whatever it takes to find those petals, or I will make sure that all of Rome knows about your ineptitude!”
“Of course, my lady, I will find them, even if I have to go to Egypt myself for them,” the man replied, bowing his head in submission.
The woman turned again to look at me and this time the smile was complete and filled her face.
“And to whom do I owe such good advice?”
“My name is Kashir. I just arrived in Rome from Egypt,” I said flatly. “I had been told that Rome was full of wonders, but I see that they had fallen short.”
“I am not prone to falling for flatterers, Kashir,” she replied curtly.
“Sorry if I offended you, my lady. My intention was just the opposite.” I replied pretending to feel sorry. “May I know what your name is?”
“I'm Agrippina, from the house Julia," she replied with obvious pride and stretching to appear more imposing. No doubt she expected some kind of reaction from me, but seeing that this did not happen, she decided to reinforce the message. “I am the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus, the greatest emperor that the world has ever known.”
“It is an honour for me to meet a member of such a noble family,” I said, pretending a bow that evidently filled her with pride.
“You can walk with me if you wish, Kashir,” she said disinterested to immediately start walking without even waiting for me to answer. “And what has brought a merchant from Egypt to our city?”
“I am a trader of exotic and wild animals,” I lied. “Without a doubt, in Rome I can find a great market.”
“Wild animals,” she replied, looking at me with wide eyes. “How exciting! It is true that in Rome we have a special love for dangerous creatures. And, tell me, what contacts do you have in the city?”
“Actually, none yet, my lady, I just arrived.”
“Call me Agrippina, please, no doubt the gods have put us in each other’s path with the intention that we become friends.”
“You honour me, Agrippina.”
“I think the best way I can correspond to your kindness recommending a remedy for my terrible headaches is to help you establish contacts in the city for your business,” she snapped condescendingly.
“Oh, I don't want you to think that I abuse your good will, Agrippina!”
“It's not abuse if it's me who decides to do it. In fact, I think I have the perfect time to show you the best of Rome. In three days, I will give a party at my house for the best of Roman society. You must come so that you can present yourself in society with dignity.”
“I wouldn't want to bother you in your house, my lady, after all, I'm just a foreigner,” I replied, feeding even more her ego.
“Nonsense!” she replied, pretending to be angry. “I insist. Also, I think it would be ideal if you could bring any of your beasts so that everyone can see the quality of your merchandise.”
“Your wishes will be orders for me, Agrippina!”
“Perfect then! I will send one of my servants to tell one of yours how to get to my house,” she said as he turned to leave. Without even having had to enter her mind that woman had bitten my hook, and now she returned home anxious to see me again and, no doubt, to exhibit me as some kind of exotic and flashy trophy, and for me, she could parade me as much as she wanted if in return I had the opportunity to approach her son.
Three days later, and as we had agreed, I went to Agrippina's house in the Collis Hortorum, the hill of the orchards, the area where all the great families of Rome had their residences. This time I decided not to walk the streets of the city but to be transported by porters who took me on a bunk, not only to avoid the tumult of my last walk through the city, but because I had a special surprise for Agrippina, literally out of hell. Agrippina had asked me to take one of my beasts and that was exactly what I did, a Xajet demon transformed into an impressive panther of enormous size. Of course, that night the demon would throw himself into the city on the hunt for his dinner in the form of some stray drunk, but that didn't matter to me in the least as long as it didn't attract attention.
When we arrived at the house, the double gate of dark wood opened to give way to a small girl with dark skin that took a few seconds to realise what was before her. Her eyes went from the panther that walked next to me to my face and back to the panther until her face broke down and she ran away terrified inside the house calling loudly for her domina. I had to make a titanic effort not to burst out laughing. An instant later, Agrippina came half running to the door trying to understand what was happening, and seeing me holding the beast with a fine chain like someone holding a lamb, her eyes opened, and a huge smile appeared as a welcome.
“My lady Agrippina,” I said in a voice as sweet as I could compose. “I hope I haven't created a problem in your house by taking your request too literally.”
Agrippina's eyes could not turn away from the magnificent animal that was at my feet.
“Of course not, my good friend!” she replied with undeserved confidence. “My house is your house. Please, come in!” By then I had already seen that a group of people, no doubt the other guests, swirled in the threshold of a room at the back of the house trying to find out the reason for such a stir.
I entered the house with my pet and a murmur of surprise accompanied by screams of excitement ran through the room.
“My friends, let me introduce you to Kashir, the animal merchant, or as I prefer to call him, my Egyptian saviour! Thanks to him my migraines will cease to exist,” said Agrippina as a presentation. I noticed how the eyes of the ten or twelve people in the room were fixed on me, but mostly on the animal that accompanied me. The creature, quite rightly, roared in a thunderous manner at the right moment, and they all turned away from me as if moved by a spring. To continue the show, I talked to the panther in his own demonic language, which obviously nobody could understand, and in an authoritarian tone, I told him to lie in a corner of the room until I gave him a new order. The creature obeyed submissively and in the eyes of all the attendees I became the lord of the beasts, capable of mastering them only with his voice. The night promised to be fun.
Agrippina led me to one of the many benches scattered around the room and which made it seem smaller than it really was. A swarm of slaves of different ages kept moving among the divans offering food and wine to the attendees. Agrippina sat on one of them next to me and in a loud voice she began to introduce me to all the attendees scattered around the room including her children, Julius Nero and Drusus, two well-trained and athletic boys with faces that clearly resembled their mother. They both greeted me cordially, but without affection, I suppose they were used to having their mother bring home all kinds of strangers. Agrippina told me that she had three daughters, but none of the three were in the house since they were spending time in the country
with one of her friends. When the presentations were over it was evident that the person I had come to meet was not in the room. As if she had read my thoughts Agrippina explained to me the absence of her other son.
“My little Gaius is missing, but I'm sure it won't take long for him to appear,” she remarked, making me hopeful.
The party continued between banal conversations about how dangerous Rome was becoming and comments about the sexual talent of a new African slave that one of Agrippina's friends had bought the day before in the market. Apparently, the woman had decided not to wait a moment before trying the newly acquired merchandise, and she was very proud to comment that, as a result of an entire day of testing, she could not walk and was forced to be carried on a bunk. Everyone around her laughed at her occurrence, but only I could know, with a quick glance at her mind, that the woman was just telling the mere truth.
The night continued without any excitement, and the only notable thing was the numerous occasions when Agrippina took the opportunity to show how much she hated the emperor Tiberius. The man had apparently been married to her mother when her father died, and Agrippina had never been able to bear him, but since the death of her husband, Germanicus, that hatred had become sickly. A hatred that, on the other hand, was more than reciprocated by Tiberius. Agrippina was convinced that the emperor had ordered her husband to be poisoned to eliminate a possible threat to her place on the imperial throne. Germanicus had won a great name in the wars in different parts of the empire and was a respected and beloved figure by the people of Rome. Tiberius himself had come to adopt him and appoint him heir to the throne before, according to Agrippina, he became ill with fear and decided to eliminate him. The story was no longer simple because Tiberius, on the other hand, accused Agrippina of having been her who eliminated her husband in order to give herself to the licentious life that, according to him, she led. The more I listened, the better the image was defined in my head of the story of a family that was extremely complex, and in which everyone assumed it was natural to live in an environment where you could not know exactly who to trust. Perhaps it was the effect of wine, but it was not that Agrippina cared that people knew what she thought about the old man, as she called him. The conversation derived in jokes about the emperor's apparently peculiar sexual tastes, and how they were satisfied in the daily orgies that took place in his palace on the island of Capri. I could not know how much of that was true and how much it was fed by the evil gossip of unoccupied humans, but it had no relevance for what I wanted to achieve. Or that is what I believed at that time.
Suddenly, I noticed Agrippina turning towards the door of the room.
“Honey, finally! It's taken too long, I'm going to have to get mad at you,” she said loudly with the clear intention that everyone would notice who had just arrived. “Well, I see that at least you brought Livia with you, so I will forgive you.”
My eyes followed Agrippina to the door hoping to finally meet that boy who had my sword, but in an instant, none of that mattered at all. There, in the doorway, greeting Agrippina as if they were old friends and dressed in an intense blue robe that highlighted the fire red colour of her hair, was the person I thought I would never meet again. Liliath.
Her eyes looked at me intensely, and although her face did not show the slightest emotion, I somehow knew that she was as surprised as I was. The rage and hatred accumulated for centuries for the woman who had betrayed me, imprisoned and who I considered responsible for the destruction of the only real family I had known began to overflow while Agrippina led the two newcomers to me. While looking at her, I had to make an effort as I had never done to not deploy my power against her, even if that could destroy half the city. Suddenly, her singing voice echoed in my head in a mocking tone.
«Perhaps between the two of us we will destroy, not half, but the whole city, dear husband.»
That attempt to provoke me would have succeeded had it not been for Agrippina's voice that made me focus again on my original objective.
“My dear, let me introduce you to a new friend. Kashir, the merchant of wild beasts. Kashir, is Egyptian and thanks to him I have found a remedy for my migraines that I am sure will end them forever. Look, he has even brought one of his beasts for our entertainment. What do you think?”
The boy before me was not very tall, and although his complexion was athletic, he still didn't seem as manly as his brothers. His dark brown hair, slightly longer than I had seen in other Romans of his age, contrasted with his intense green eyes. The boy looked me up and down with a smile on his mouth before answering.
“A magnificent specimen, mother!” he said without taking his eyes off me. “And the panther too!”
“Kashir, this is my son, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.” The woman formally introduced him, recreating herself in the names of the emperors that had existed in her family and that the boy had received in the form of a wish that he also reached the glory of his ancestors.
“We don't all call him that, really,” Liliath interrupted, forcing Agrippina to remember that she was present. “Some use a sweeter name.”
“Caligula,” said the resigned boy clearly accustomed to offering the same explanation frequently. “When I was little I used to wear my father's sandals to play war, and his soldiers gave me that nickname. I think I will never be able to run away from it.”
“Kashir, this is Livia Antonina, a friend of this house and this family. Of the few that we have left thanks to the old man, I fear.”
“You know that is not true, my dear Agrippina. Me and many others are still faithful to Augustus' blood,” Liliath replied flattering and it was obvious that was exactly what Agrippina wanted to hear. However, Liliath gave the woman no chance to reply and continued as if nothing had happened. “So, from Egypt, right? I am very interested in knowing what news you bring us from there. There was a time when I had part of my family living in those lands. They lived like gods. Unfortunately, now they are dead,” she said acidly, and I knew she was referring to Narmesh.
“In my country many people consider themselves worthy of a place among the gods, but most of us are nothing but temporary creatures, poor mortals. And the gods are envious, you have to be careful not to make them angry.”
“That's true, no one should wake a sleeping lion, unless you know you can kill him,” she said, and her eyes fixed on me like two red hot daggers.
“Well, well, this conversation is getting too serious, and this is a party! I'm going to ask them to bring some wine for you to relax.” Agrippina interrupted without understanding the reason for that conversation.
“I'm going with you, Agrippina, I want to greet the rest of your guests or they'll think that Marcius Antoninus' house has become wild without manners,” Liliath resolved, following the woman to the other end of the room.
“Don't pay too much attention to Livia,” Gaius said when she left. “She is a fascinating and very funny woman, but sometimes it is as if she had some kind of bitterness that occasionally floats. Fortunately, it's not very often” he laughed, and his face filled with an unexpected light that greatly sweetened him.
“Don't worry, I'm used to women like her. It's almost as if I knew her from before.”
“Oh, yes! It is the only boring thing of women, they are all too similar. Take off their wigs, dresses and jewels, and you could not distinguish one from another,” he said, sticking out his tongue to indicate that he was joking. “My mother would kill me if she hears me talk like that!”
“Don't be afraid, I won't tell her,” I replied, corresponding myself with a smile.
Gaius did not separate from me in what remained of the night, which served wonderfully to my purpose of acquainting him. After all, it seemed that becoming part of his circle of trust was not going to be so difficult. We spent the evening between wine and laughter, and Agrippina and the rest of the guests seemed to accept that our newly discovered complicity should not be interrupted. Gaius offered to show me the rest of the hou
se, so we went for a walk in the gardens that were bigger than I expected and smelled strongly of thyme and mint. The temperature was slightly cramped for that time of night, but it was still nice to be outside. The boy explained to me that the house had once belonged to the emperor himself, but he had given it to his father when he had adopted him. Gaius had spent his childhood in the different assignments of his father, who as a general had been sent to many places in Asia, and on his return to Rome, it had been difficult for him to get used to living in a city house; but he had learned to enjoy the other things that the city offered him and that had compensated for the lack of outdoor spaces. We went around the whole garden and went back into the house through a single-leaf wooden door that opened to a different, dark and much cooler room. Gaius let me through first and then closed the door behind us leaving us in the gloom. Suddenly, the boy approached me, and catching me completely off guard kissed me introducing his tongue into my mouth. If my mind was surprised, my body responded to his approach without hesitation, enjoying that long and intense kiss which encouraged him to lengthen it in time. It was not the first time that my body enjoyed someone of the same sex, if something I had learned in my years as lord of hell is that sex was just a kind of suit that most creatures are born with, but that, like every suit, is only used to decorate content that is normally much more precious and important or dark and dangerous according to the creature; however, that was not the way I had conceived to gain his trust.
