AU: Romano, a young servant, is sick of carrying water from the local spring to his master´s kitchen. He gets an offer he just can´t turn down.

Featuring: Romano, Spain, Hungary, Austria.

Segovia: The Aqueduct of the Devil

...

Once upon a time there was a serving girl living in the city of Segovia, or, so we say to protect the culprit´s identity. It was actually a boy though. His name was actually Romano, and he lived in one of the large monumental buildings his Boss owned across the dry lands of Spain. Romano´s boss was kind to him, but he was busy man and could only pay attention to his young charge after dinner, when they both went up to the stone city walls and watched the stars complete their lazy walk over the sky. To make things worse, dry lands are called dry lands for a reason and getting water was a struggle. Since his boss was always busy protecting them both it was up to Romano to walk several times per day to the top of the hill where the lonely spring run, pitcher in hand, and carry the water all the way back to the house, to water the fields and serve his master´s kitchen.

Romano hated that task. Well, he hated any task in general but that one he had a special hatred for. It was hard and exhausting, and honesty, he was quite a lazy fellow. Besides, he fantasized, if it were not for the need of water in his master's house he would have time to accompany his boss in his travels and spend more time with him. He felt like with so many obligations on both side, his boss never noticed him, and for some reason he really really wanted to be noticed.

"I´d love to have you along, Roma, but we need someone here to take care of the house and bring water from the mountain top." He hated the task, he hated the water, and he hated the pitcher! He hated it all so much that one day, in the middle of a tantrum, he threw the metallic pitcher to the ground and cursed and swore that he would sell his soul to the devil if he did not have to carry a single glass of water from the river to the fountain ever again.

Hold and behold though! The clear skies were illuminated by a supernatural lightning. When Romano turned towards the light, startled, he found an elegant man with black hair, glasses, and a red suit standing right behind him. The sunny street got filed by soft, metric piano music that seemed to follow the stranger like a shadow. "I have heard that you hate that jerk that is your master, and that you hate fetching water for him. Is that true?"

"Yes! Yes it is" He did not, but he hates that Spain made him work in the slightest. And worse! He hated that no matter how hard he tried to work he never seemed to get his boss´s admiration. What was the point to do any work if his boss never seemed to notice it? With his heart pained by unrequited love and his feet hurting he felt close enough to hate to believe his own words.

" And I have heard that you would do anything to get rid of such an unpleasant task."

"Yes! Yes I would!"

"Oh! What a fortunate coincidence... Tell me, Romano, how would you feel if I told you I can take your problems away? I can make water come to your doorstep without you moving a muscle Because it turns out that I can. I can build a structure so mighty and magnificent that would save you all those walks up and down the ramp between your master´s home and the river, and deliver the water right to your door. And the price would be simple, just your immortal soul."

Romano looked up, suspicious, He was tempted to accept. He was a nation after all. It is not like he used his soul all that much anyway, and he was almost immortal, so he would not have to face hell in a very long time. But still, he was a religious nation, and he was pretty sure that a soul is one of those things. Feeling his hesitation, the devil made an even better offer

"I'll make a bet with you. I will build the entire thing in one single night. If I fail, I will return your soul back to you. Else, your soul will be mine and you will live with me forever. How does that sound?"

Romano looked at the man up and down. He was thin and didn't look too impressive. His hands were delicate, with long pianist fingers. They were the hands of a musician, not of a peon, and all the rock around this land was hard granite, hard, stubborn and insensitive like his boss's heart! Romano smirked and agreed, congratulating himself on his cunningest. There was no way he could ever lose that bet.

Oh! He was so clever! He would accept the deal, and, since the stranger would never have time to finish the entire thing, he wouldn't have to pay, but he would already have part of the structure built for free, and he would have to make a shorter way to fetch water from them on! Besides, even if he lost, what did he lose anyway? He wouldn't die in a very long time.
With a predatory smile, he shook the stranger's hand and accepted the deal.

The stranger pushed his glasses up with one finger and shook the kid´s hand. Romano felt his breath drain from him the moment their hands shook. No, it was not his breath, it was something deeper, as if his mere essence was being dragged out of him from his mouth, Romano fell on his knees and bent over his stomach, trying to keep that mysterious something in, but it was no use. When the terrible drawing sensation died out the elegant stranger smiled and disappeared into thin air, taking the metric piano music with him. Romano run back to his master´s house and hid under the bed for the rest of the day.

At dinner time, the young boy crawled out, looking left and right to make sure no sinister strangers were lurking in the shadows. He was still scared, but there was no way he was going to miss his favorite part of the day, and the only time in which his secretly adored boss paid attention to him. He crawled out of the room and walked down to the kitchen. His boss crossed his path though, and instead of saying hi he just walked right past him. The bastard almost walked over him!

"Hey!" Romano protested, not used to such a cold treatment. His young boss turned to him, eyes proud and slightly aloof.
"Excuse me, but I am not in the habit of allowing strangers to address me with such disrespect. Who are you and why are you in my house?" Romano´s mouth fell open. The stranger knitted his brows, eyes narrowing dangerously. He expected an explanation and quick, and were not used to waiting for what he demanded. Romano´s heart was paralyzed with dread.
" I-It is me! I´m Romano, dammit! Who else would it be?" His boss tended to overlook small details, he was often too caught in his own thoughts to care about them, but this was ridiculous "W-We should go to the kitchen now! Or dinner will get cold".

"Romano and I will go, as soon as I find him, but you, whomever you are, are not going anywhere."

"Wh-what the heck do you think you are talking about! This-this is not funny y-you jerk-!" he had no time to finish his insult, a hand slapped him across the face so strong he ended up on the floor. He looked up, incredulous. The green-eyed teenager glared at him as if he really didn't recognize him.

"I don't usually hit children, brat, but sneaking into my house, insulting me and trying to pass for my friend is a step too far. I don't know who you are, if you are a spy, as I suspect you are, you better run with your life now, before I have time to realize that I am being too generous for my own good. I don't have much time to spend with Romano and I don't plan on wasting it with you."

Romano stared, completely horrified. ´You are being too generous for your own good´ was what Romano has complained about when his boss had allowed a french spy to run with his life after being discovered, just a month ago. Romano had been furious then. He had yelled, totally mad with the fear of what could happen to his boss as punishment for his generosity, and had made the teenager swear to him that he'd never let a spy leave his house alive again. With a shiver, and a broken heart, Romano run off the house and across the stone paved streets of Segovia, before his boss decided to not be a dick and honor the promise he had made to him. Night was starting to fall, the moon was rising in the sky, and in the horizon Romano could see a gigantic structure of arches being built at a supernatural speed.

Romano´s blood froze in his veins. Would he lose his boss and his soul forever?

With a sob caught in his throat, the poor serving kid climbed to the highest tree in the city to observe the construction that was happening along the mountain side. The man with the red suit and the glasses moved faster than the wind, cutting stone and piling it with a skill and celerity that no living creature should ever possess. The stranger had now two black wings and a tail, and he flew from one point to the next, carried by mysterious air currents. The cry that was caught in his throat broke free. Panic run through his spine and weakened his legs until they could barely hold him. He couldn't even keep his pants dry when he realized what he had done.

In his desperation, the kid remembered the words of priests and monks he was forced to listen to every Sunday. He climbed down the tree and run as fast as his legs allowed him to the closest chapel in town, a modest church built to keep our Lady of Fuencisla safe. He fell on his knees in front of the image of the Holy Virgin and prayed desperately, crying his eyes out. In the mists of his despair he heard the strange noise of frying eggs. He opened his reddened eyes and saw a woman glowing with warm light standing on top of the altar. She had long, flowing hair, a veil over her head and a frying pan on one hand.

"So, this piano jackass in red managed to fool you, huh?"

"No! I-Uh-I... Yes! I-I! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please help me!"

"I wish I could. I really like putting him in his place, but there is nothing I can do Romano, you made the deal voluntarily."

"I-I´m sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know! I-"

"Yes, you did know. You wanted everyone to work for you and pay your attention, to make you happy, but you refused to work for them in return. You were selfish and egocentric, and you thought you could have it all."

"YesI yes I was... I... I just wanted to-"

"Do you have any idea of how hard your boss must work to keep you and make time for you? How everyone here works to keep the city alive, so they can all have a place to live together and be friends and love and live? Is it that much to ask for you to contribute too?"

"No! No it isn't! I understand now! I do! Please! Help me!" The woman looked at him for a long time. She finally sighted, and nodded with her head. Her eyes were hard and determined, but there was compassion in them.

"Very well. Prove it."

With those words, the mysterious lady materialized the pitcher that Romano had abandoned that morning in the middle of the street and threw it at his feet. The object rolled with an ugly metallic sound. Then, the woman disappeared.

Romano grabbed the pitcher and run off to the mountaintop. He filled it with water and run back to his master´s house, emptying it in the reservoir of the basement. Then he run back up, filled the pitcher in the fountain again, and run back down again. He run up and down, up and down as fast as he could. He ignored the pain in his legs and his empty lungs. He tripped many times and rolled down stony hillsides, but he didn't stop. By his side the titanic construction or granite kept growing, two full lines of arches already built, and the mysterious man was about to finish the third one. Romano felt tears in his eyes, but his feet knew the way between his house and the spring by heart, so he kept running and carrying water. His master's water reservoir had never been so full, because Romano always did the exact minimum he had to avoid trouble, but the kid did not stop and kept pushing himself further, powered by the fear of losing all he loved forever.

Down in the town, something was happening. The people from Segovia, gathered there by Romano´s masters, were marching out through the streets and into the woods with torches, looking for the missing kid. Romano could hear the voices calling for him, and that broke his heart. His master's voice broke his heart more than any other, it was strong and clear, but Romano knew it well enough to feel the terrible anguish that lurked behind its surface. Anguish that he had caused, with his stupidity. He really wanted to throw the pitcher to the ground and run to his master´s arms, but he know that he couldn't, because his master would not see in him the soul he was looking for and would just cast him aside. So he kept running and carrying water uphill and downhill. He kept working even when the darkness of the night started to fade and the blackness of the sky became dark blue. He kept running even when the man in red with the black wings was almost done. He kept running even though he could see that the day would not break soon enough to stop him. He kept working, even though he knew himself defeated, and, when he saw the devil standing on top of his wonderful construction and about to put the last stone in place, Romano´s last thought was that even though he'd have to leave his home and spend an eternity in hell, at least he'd have left a full reservoir for his master, and he would not have to worry about water in days.

As that thought formed into his heart, the lady from the chapel appeared again in front of him and with a swing of her pan she batted the sun out of the horizon and into the sky, forcing the night to end minutes before it was due to. The luminous rays hit the demon in red heads on, right when he was about to put down the very last stone of his marvelous aqueduct. The devil screamed in rage and disappeared, letting the stone fall to the ground and leaving his aqueduct unfinished by just one stone.

Romano let the pitcher fell and dropped to his knees to thank the lady, who smiled and faded away.

His boss found him at the feet of the aqueduct, curled into a ball. The man run to the serving boy, calling him, and dragged him into a tight hug that got warmth into the poor servant´s frozen bones. The kid shook and hugged back, burying his face in his master's shirt and not bothering to hid his crying. Fuck it, they could see him cry if they wanted to. He had just learned that there were worse things than looking weak. He had just learned that there were worse things than anything he thought he hated before.

" I was so worried, Roma" the green-eyed teen whispered in his ear, hugging him tighter. Romano nodded, but he couldn't speak. He just cling to the older boy for dear life and allowed him to shower him with affection and comforting words, enjoying each one of them.

"I´m sorry I´ve made you search all night" he mumbled, finally "You must be tired"

His master smiled and kissed his tears away

"It is okay, Roma. If it is for you it isn´t even hard. Let's go home, okay? You must be exhausted"

The kid looked down, but refused to let go. He didn't want to part from that embrace to walk. He didn't want to be away even for an instant. With a knowing smile, his boss picked him up and carried him in his arms. The man noticed the wetness of the kid´s pants, of course, but he didn't pull away, repugnant, as Romano had loosely feared he would.

"Let me guess, squirrels?" the young man joked fondly, to lighten up the mood. Romano wrapped his arms around his master´s neck and hid his face in the crook of his neck.

"No." he mumbled, too exausted and too wise after such a terrible experience to lie anymore "I was just afraid I was going to lose you."

On the next day the people of Segovia marveled at the story the serving boy told half way, keeping the embarassing secrets to himself. There was a lot of secret excitement among the town´s servants. The construction might have been built by the enemy of God and all, but it worked marvelously well and everyone was sick of pitching water by foot. So they decided to place the figure of Our Lady of Fuencisla on the gap of the missing stone to keep the evil influences away and call it a day. The devil´s aqueduct was used by everyone in town, except for one person. Romano still prefered to pitch his water by foot. It was tiring, and boring, and a hateful task all around, but his boss was out there working for them both and showing that he cared by fighting turks somewhere in the Mediterranean, and Romano needed a way to show that he also cared.

Or he did, for the first year. After that, lazyness won, but hey! It is the thought that counts.

The aqueduct of Segovia is a second century roman infraestructure that is still in use.

-Any similarity between this story and the story of the building of the walls of Asgard, and other stories about miracles in which the sun is made to rise early you may find in western France and southern England, is most likely NOT a coincidence. There was a lot of shared influence and culture all along the Atlantic coast of Europe people tend to forget about.