The Syrian streets were thick with blood.
The roman troops had ambushed and seized the Syrian village by its throat. Lilith, an eighteen year old Czechoslovakian girl, and her older twin brother Ishtar, had hid inside the basement of their small humble home.
"Brother… I fear lives are forever forfeit…" she said, and Ishtar wrapped his arms around her.
"Steel yourself sweet one, I shall protect you." the brother reassured.
She nodded… And then looked fearfully to her brother as they heard the front door to their home being smashed to bits. The two kept extremely quiet, praying to the Gods that the Romans mistake their home as an empty shack, and depart. But their prayers went unheard. Feet could be heard descending farther into their home, down to where the hidden door to the channel beneath the hut was surely discovered. Lilith trembled as they listened to their impending doom becoming louder and louder until silence once again ruled the air. The two listened a moment more before they sighed, relieved.
"Behold dear sister, we are safe-
The basement door crashed open and Roman troops filled the room.
Lilith looked to Ishtar, who clutched his sister in his arms tightly, refusing her to be whist away from him. There standing among the men was their leader, and he approached them.
"You… I've heard your names on the tongue of every Roman's lips… And now I know why…" he raised his hands and spread his arms apart, smiling at Lilith's trembling. By the Gods how Ishtar wanted to separate his head from his body for staring in such a way. "Aren't these two not of extreme and rare beauty!?" the Roman leader asked, and the troops roared in agreement.
Lilith and Ishtar were paternal twins.
Ishtar's thick raven tresses were tied into a ponytail that fell about his waist. Ruby eyes glared at the Romans with all of the fiery hatred hell could conjure. His tanned, slender frame was hidden under a brown long tunic top with matching pants and brown slippers. Full lips snarled at any soldier that attempted to close the distance between them.
Lilith's snow colored tresses was also tied into a ponytail that fell about her waist. Amethyst eyes blazed fury towards the Romans that remorselessly destroyed the lands she and her brother had known as home since the age of ten. Her tanned, shapely form was hidden under the pastel blue long tunic shirt with matching pants and black slippers. Full lips also curved into a snarl when the soldiers got too close.
The twins rose and the brother pushed his sister behind him. The leader smiled. "I am-"
"I know who you are… Roman dog." Ishtar snarled.
Lilith could be seen trembling behind her brother. "Legatus…"She whispered in terror, making the man smile.
The leader of this violent invasion was none other than Gaius Claudius Glaber, the Legatus, or commander. He was the husband of Llithyia, daughter of Albinius, a powerful senator.
"Capture them!" the command was given.
Ishtar and Lilith, having nowhere to go, quickly found themselves bound and kneeling. Tears stained their dirtied faces as Ishtar gritted his teeth.
"You fucking bastards… You all shall pay dearly…"
Glaber kneeled in front of the older brother. "And what is it that has caused you both such pain?" he asked, like he really gave a damn, the sonofabitch.
Lilith leaned on Ishtar's shoulder with swollen eyes, and Ishtar's now amethyst eyes gazed at the man before him. "You shit bag Romans killed our parents…" he snarled, shoulders shaking as the tears spilled from both Czechoslovakians' eyes.
Glaber stood and placed his hands over his heart. "My hands are clean of Syrian blood… However, I do know of a house that recently executed a man and woman… Both Syrian."
Ishtar and Lilith looked to each other, their eyes narrowing dangerously as Lilith's eyes slowly bled red. There was another unknown fact to the Romans, a dark, scary fact that made the twins all the more valuable, and all the more dangerous.
"Who?" they asked, the Roshyban blood in their veins heating and boiling with overwhelming anger that almost made the markings on their arms glow. It was the markings on each person's arm that revealed the truth about them, however, no one knew of the symbols or what they meant. None but Lilith, Ishtar, who they told, and their father... Ishtar calmed both himself and Lilith down enough that their markings did not show, preventing giving them away.
Glaber smirked, like the deceiving snake he was. "The house you two shall be transferred to… The house of Batiatus!"