Chapter 14
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Streets of Constantinople, late 531 A.D.
Harry walked through the streets of Constantinople, having just returned from the campaign along the eastern frontier. New of the death Kavadh I of Persia had reached Harry's, now known as Hadrian, legion and expectations to the end of the hostilities had caused his very successful legion to be called back from the front lines. Hadrian was glad for the respite from the constant battle, it gave him time to wind down and hopefully get rid of the nightmares that had been plaguing for almost two years now and caused him to lose precious hours of sleep.
It has been four years since he was stranded in this era after his use of Kamui and he had changed greatly from the boy of 15 he was before. The promise of manhood that was seen on him before had become reality and he was now a tall, broad-shouldered 19 year old man that walked with confidence and strength. He had been forced to grow up from the naïve boy he was before in order to survive this era.
It hadn't taken Hadrian long to realize that something had gone wrong once he landed in the clearing he arrived at. A few spells confirmed he was in the right place... just the wrong time. He had transported to Greenwich Village almost a full millennia before Columbus even thought of sailing west. Attempts to use Kamui to go to his own time had failed for some reason so he had tried to go to Ulthane's dimension to then travel from there to his own time.
That had almost gotten him killed.
When he came back to consciousness in the same clearing he had appeared in, he remembered something he had dismissed in his magical studies of history.
The years from 13th century B.C. when Salome lost her position of Sorceress Supreme of this universe to the time Merlin became Sorcerer Supreme in the 6th century A.D. was known as the Age of Chaos. This was due to many reasons. For one, the title of Sorcerer Supreme was given to someone not of Earth and since the idea of life on other planets was unknown in that time, it was thought that the position of Sorcerer Supreme had been lost. For that reason, what had once been a loosely associated community of magical beings had descended into anarchy amongst themselves as they fought for what they thought was basically a crown. It wasn't until Merlin was named Sorcerer Supreme and brought order to the thousands of magical beings on Earth was there an end to the constant fighting amongst magicals.
This was made worse by the fact that the portals to other dimensions had been blocked off and almost none of the sorcerers of the time had any patrons. The Vishanti especially were cut off from the planet until a little before Merlin became Sorcerer Supreme. The gods did not dare patron anyone for fear that the person would become a target by jealous sorcerers. The Magi especially were known to be especially ruthless in this time as they targeted anyone not associated with them with even an inkling of power.
This brought Harry to his current problem. Harry had quickly left what would someday be known as the Americas and flew toward Europe in hope of finding someone to help him return home.
In hindsight, this was a very bad idea. While in his own time, the sight of him flying would be too brief due to his speed as well as passed off as some kind of experimental governmental aircraft, in the current era it was quickly identified as magic. The problem was that the ability to fly at such speeds was rare even among the strongest of sorcerers and Harry quickly became the target of curiosity amongst magicals.
This was made worse by the fact that while flying over Gaul he had been drawn to a magical fight happening between six sorcerers, one of them against the other five. Being the stupidly noble person he was and recognizing that the five fighting together were using dark magic, Harry had stopped to help the one fighting alone.
He had quickly come to realize the difference between magical fights in his time and now. Every spell was lethal, every movement planned for a greater purpose and it was only thanks to his advanced and obscure skills, not to mention heavy usage of Kamui's intangibility, that he survived. However, the one he tried to save wasn't so lucky and was mortally wounded in the fight although he managed to take the other five with him. With his dying breaths he revealed himself to have been chosen as the first Earth-based Sorcerer Supreme since Salome and passed on the title to Harry himself before dying.
Harry had quickly found out that the Sorcerer Supreme position in this time gave him no power-ups or special skills beyond usage of the Cloak of Levitation, something Harry didn't use anyway. This was due to the fact that the pathways that let the Vishanti empower their Sorcerer Supreme on Earth were cut off for some reason. This, more than anything, was the reason that there had been no Sorcerer Supreme on Earth since Salome. They had sent their current Sorcerer Supreme to Earth in order to find a way to fix this problem only for him to be killed and pass on the title to the man who just passed it on to Harry.
Just wonderful.
The only good part was that the damaged pathways to their patrons also prevented any demonic attacks from outside their dimension. Harry had been ecstatic to find he didn't have to fight Nightmare or anyone like that yet and hoped to keep his new position a secret.
His hopes were dashed when word had somehow gone out that Harry was the new Sorcerer Supreme. Hundreds of magicals had swarmed to kill him and claim the position for themselves, not knowing that the position was basically useless without a connection to the Vishanti. After the third time he was tricked by someone pretending to want to help him, Harry realized something.
There was no White Council to enforce the laws.
There was no higher authority to help him.
There was no Dr. Strange to bail him out of trouble.
He was completely on his own.
After realizing this, Harry changed his name to Hadrian and stopped holding back on his enemies. Every fight was to the death and every day for the next two years from late 527 to early 529 A.D. was spent plotting and murdering his way to a position of power where he proved he deserved his position as Sorcerer Supreme. After various brutal demonstrations that his youth was not indicative of his power, most magicals stopped actively hunting him. That didn't mean they wouldn't try to kill him if the chance presented itself, it just meant they wouldn't waste resources hunting him.
Hadrian had also used those years to find the state of the magical world of the era. What he found was very interesting.
Apparently, the Roman Empire was like a coin. On one side you had the non-magical side that was recorded in history. On the other, Hadrian found that the reason Emperors changed so often was because each Emperor was actually magical, starting from Augustus down. For this reason, the Emperor was often killed off by an aspiring nephew or son who became more powerful, magically speaking, than the current Emperor and replaced him. It made sense since no magical would allow himself to be ruled by a mundane of all people. It was for this reason that dynasties ended so quickly. They tried to keep it hereditary but Squibs were often born in the lines for some reason and the magicals quickly killed the rightful Emperor to replace him with one that had magic.
The Western Roman Empire had fallen almost 70 years ago and with it, any semblance of order in the West. The current Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire was Justinian I who had gained the throne from his uncle after the latter mysteriously fell ill and died. Hadrian had no idea whether he poisoned him or not since he inherited the title during a time of warfare and it may have been the enemy. Either way Hadrian didn't care and it didn't concern him.
In late 529 A.D., after cementing his position as a powerful sorcerer, he tried to claim a seat in Justinian's magical council in order to have access to both the Clock Tower, in order to see if he could speak to Kischur, as well as the large library of magic accessible only to members of the council. However, he had been told he could only become a member after having at least a year of experience in the military. It had basically been a ploy to get the Sorcerer Supreme to fight for them in the current war and turn the tide in their favor. Hadrian didn't want to but could see no other recourse and agreed.
Harry signed up as a simple legionary, since he had no proof of nobility for a higher position, called Hadrian and became a member of the 8th cohort of the 5th legion.
The following two years of warfare were a nightmare of entrenched positioning and attempts to fortify positions along the frontier of the empire. Bad calls and bad leadership had led Hadrian to sometimes have to fight his way through droves of enemy soldiers with nothing but his magic, his shield and Laurus to defend him. Most times he was the only living soldier left of his cohort and this, sadly, led him to slowly but surely rise the ranks until he was now the 1st centurion of the 2nd cohort of the 5th legion. He would have preferred it if he won the position due to his merits alone. However, he was given the position mostly because he was one of the only ones with any seniority left alive in his entire legion after the first three months of warfare alone.
Laurus had drawn a few eyes due to most legionaries using spatha but they chalked it up to him being magical and let it go. Most legionaries out on the field didn't care what you fought with as long as it worked. Hadrian always fought with a clipeus shield on his left arm, that had a back-up gladius strapped along the inside just in case, and Laurus in his right hand. His charges into the thick of the fighting were always a welcome sight amongst the legionaries.
In Roman warfare, magicals were usually used to counter the enemies' own magicals. Unfortunately, Hadrian was the only magical in his entire legion that could summon a decent fireball, much less fight toe to toe with the powerful sorcerers the Sassanid Empire were throwing at them.
For this reason, it was quite common for Hadrian to face 5 or 6 powerful Sassanid sorcerers at once in a simple engagement alone. The major battles usually had Hadrian fighting 15 to 20 sorcerers at once, each second thinking he would slip and die, his heart pounding in his chest out of pure adrenaline. This more than anything forced Hadrian to abandon any semblance of mercy and take no prisoners as well as not waste time in meaningless incantations. After 2 years of entrenched warfare with seeming end in sight, Hadrian had mastered the art of using only enough energy to kill his enemy quickly and efficiently (and at times silently) and moving on to the next.
After all, necessity is the mother of all invention.
His gaining a position of command had also instilled Hadrian with a sense of responsibility over those under his command. This responsibility had caused Hadrian to always make sure his cohort stayed alive even in the worst of positions. At first, Hadrian was forced to use most of his own energy to keep them alive. But after some months of brutal experience, Hadrian could now successfully lead his troops into most engagements and complete his assignments without losing more than a handful of men at the most.
This had quickly gained Hadrian his surname of Invictus, which meant undefeated. His cohort became well known among the regular legionaries as having the highest survival rate in the Iberian War and that they completed every assignment successfully, even when they were ordered to defend a position alone against an overwhelming number of enemies. His troops had quickly learned to abandon the conventional modes of engagement and use any and all dirty tricks to survive and win. This meant anything from picking the proper terrain for ambushes to throwing mud in the enemies eyes for an advantage.
In fact, the victory at Dara had largely been due to Hadrian's cohort managing to defend the gates of the city alone while the rest of the army attacked from the enemies' flanks. Hadrian had done this by spending the entire night before placing basic magical "mines" all along the ground in front of the gates. When the enemy army rushed forward and attacked the gates, Hadrian waited till there was a maximum amount of enemy troops in range and detonated them, killing half of the enemy army in one fell swoop.
It was actually the first time the idea of magical mines were even thought of and Hadrian didn't know whether to be proud or ashamed for adding another angle to magical warfare.
The fact that Hadrian was in the middle of a war didn't stop the political machinations of the roman magical council. Hadrian spent many a night on the field defending himself from everything from assassins that attacked while he was taking a piss to assassins dressed as prostitutes to get him to lower his guard.
All in all, the bloody politics of the magical council had turned Hadrian into a cunning and smart man who could spot a lie or half-truth a mile away while the bloody battlefields along the eastern frontier had taught him how to command troops and pick the best battle plans with very little information. Both experiences had taught him patience as well as how and when to wield his magic most effectively. He was no longer the stupid boy that yelled out incantations and threw around magic like it was going out of style. He was now more likely to dodge all of the enemies' attacks and then kill then with a quick lightning-enhanced sword thrust than waste magic trading spells.
Hadrian was now walking toward his newest accommodations in relief, having just come back from the ceremony that gained him a seat on the magical council. The council hadn't even waited for him to rest before inaugurating him into the council. Probably out of fear and a need to suck up to him.
He was still wearing his legionary armor, having no other clean clothes on him, and carrying a magically expanded bag with his stuff on his back. With the money he had won during the campaign, Hadrian had bought a small house along the Marmara Sea District which was unofficially known as the magical district of Constantinople. While not publicly known, anyone of importance knew that magicals lived here and stayed clear.
Hadrian reached his newest place of residence and experienced eyes searched for any traps, magical or otherwise. After a few minutes of searching for anything through all of his senses and even activating his Sight, Hadrian walked into his new home.
The house was built in the ancient roman style instead of the new byzantine style that was all the rage nowadays. It consisted of a main door that led to a vestibulum or entrance hall that led to the atrium or formal entrance hall. On either side of the vestibulum were a taberna which were large rooms that were usually used as shops to sell goods. Harry was planning on selling both enchanted clothing in one and the services to inscribe runes on most things in the other. He might take an apprentice or two to help him but only after making sure they were completely trustworthy. If he couldn't find one, then he would buy two young slaves with magical aptitude in the market and put a loyalty seal on them. It might sound cruel but in these times where slaves were sometimes used to strangle their owners in their bed, it was a necessary measure.
In the atrium itself, there was a fountain in the center as well as four cubiculum along the walls, two on either side, which were small rooms for when guests stayed the night. Across from the vestibulum was the door to the tablinum or study where the owner could have meetings with important guests. On either side of the tablinum was the dining room to receive guests and the kitchen. Beyond the tablinum was the peristylium or garden which held the private rooms for the master of the house and his family along one wall. The garden was used among magicals to grow potion ingredients and Hadrian was planning on using it for this very reason. Beyond that was another dining room for family gatherings only and the exedra or garden room where the tools to maintain the garden were kept.
While traditional, the layout allowed Hadrian many places to place runes and enchantments to protect the residence as well as various places to make a bottleneck in case of attacks. The only avenue of attack was the vestibulum which was only big enough for two men to stand side to side, something Hadrian could easily defend against. Houses nowadays were too open and had too many avenues of attack for Hadrian's taste and so he preferred to waste more money building a house to his specifications than feeling unsafe in his own home.
As he crossed the threshold into the vestibulum, Hadrian paused as his senses detected people inside the atrium. The fact that he didn't detect them till now told him they were especially skilled at hiding their magical auras meaning they were high level magicals at the very least. He slowly walked into the atrium which had already been furnished for him and stopped as he took in his unannounced guests.
There were three women waiting for him in the atrium, sitting on the edge of the fountain Hadrian had installed. All three were stunningly beautiful even to Hadrian's high standards and dressed in clothing that both enhanced their beauty while maintaining their modesty. There were two dark-haired women and one purple-haired woman sitting side by side on the fountain's edge with the purple-haired woman on the far left.
Hadrian took in the women with the eye of someone wondering whether to kill them now or wait for them to explain themselves. The fact that they were a threat was a given. They had managed to evade his senses until after he had entered the household proper, something which spoke of their prodigious magical skills. However, the fact that they hadn't tried to attack told him they came in peace, not that that changed much. Plenty of people had come to Hadrian in peace only to attempt to kill him once he declined their "generous offers". For now, he would hear them out. If they attempted to force the issue, he would baptize his new home in their blood.
After sizing up their magical threat level, Hadrian moved on to their physical attributes. The purple-haired woman had wine-colored eyes that spoke of long experience and confidence in her skills. Her clothing did nothing to retract from her womanly figure which showed long, full figured legs which she brazenly showed as she crossed one leg over the other and large full breasts only slightly smaller than the dark-haired woman in the middle. Instead of having her hair in braids or wrapped in a bun, she had her long purple hair loose and flowing down her back. She was wearing the common byzantine robes for women but instead of white, red or green as the primary color she wore purple. A brave act since purple was usually the color of royalty alone. She either thought herself royalty or was powerful enough to get away with it. From the arrogance hidden in her eyes, probably a mixture of both.
The dark-haired woman on the far right had deep blue eyes and was just as beautiful as the purple-haired woman but with a different air around her. While the purple-haired woman had the air of a seductress and used to having men obeying her for that very reason, this one had the air of someone used to being obeyed due to her power alone. She had a full bodied figure much like her friends but rather than attract attention to her curves, she seemed to try to hide them, probably due to not being as curvaceous as her friends. Despite this, Hadrian could see that even the loose tunics she was wearing could not hide her full breasts that were around a C-cup in size and legs that were muscular without detracting from her femininity. He only saw this because she also had one leg crossed over the other and despite her attempt to cover them in her long dress, his sharp eyes still caught sight of them. Unlike her friend, she had her hair wrapped in a bun that was tied on top of her head. She was wearing the common byzantine robes much like her friend, but hers had blue instead of purple as the primary color.
Hadrian briefly wondered if the colors had any meaning before dismissing it and turning to the one sitting in the center and who was the obvious leader of the group.
If the ones beside her were beautiful, the only word to describe the leader was a goddess. Truly, Hadrian doubted even Aphrodite could match her beauty. Her skin was an unblemished ivory that looked as if it was carved by angels over centuries, going slow as if to make sure not a single blemish was made. Her chocolate colored eyes had a look in them that was both seductive and dangerous yet had an ageless quality to them that spoke of experience beyond her physical age. Unlike her purple-haired friend who despite her best attempts, still looked better suited for a brothel than polite company, she looked every bit a sophisticated roman woman. No, she looked more like a queen gracing her subjects with her presence.
Her hair was black like a starless night sky and loose like her friend's, but hers fell down her back in waves that somehow made her look respectable even in these sexually restrictive times. Her clothing was made to cover most of her skin and had red accents, marking her as a member of the non-magical Senate. Hadrian gave thanks to the god for the fact that she was currently leaning back on the fountain with one leg over the other, letting him get a glimpse of her wonderful legs. Her legs, despite Hadrian's best attempts to not be distracted, still grabbed his attention and made her friends' look ugly in comparison. They were long and slender while still being slightly muscular in a way that only added to their attractiveness. Her chest was the biggest of three and even her loose roman-style dress couldn't hide them from view. She was currently looking at Hadrian with a small smile on her face that looked both seductive and inviting, as if she knew the effect she had on him and was more than willing to explore it.
Hadrian gathered his wits and cleared his throat, much to the leader's amusement. "Good afternoon, ladies," said Hadrian in flawless Latin. It had taken a while but the heavy usage of translation charms and pure necessity had turned Harry into quite a linguist. He spoke perfect Latin, Greek and various other languages necessary to live in these times "I would invite you into my home but it seems you have invited yourselves already."
The slight rebuke went ignored and the leader of the group stood up, her friends following suit. "We only came here to greet you. We are neighbors now and I wish for us to be friends at the very least."
Hadrian smiled but internally scoffed. Friends was a word that didn't exist in this time of betrayal and war. The idea that these beautiful women were nothing less than extremely dangerous and attempting to ally with him due to his position and reputation was amusing. Hadrian decided to play along for now and see whether their intentions were advantageous or disadvantageous to himself in the long run.
Despite this, Hadrian kept his thoughts firmly protected behind strong mental shields and smiled at them politely. "I would be delighted to be friends with such beautiful and cultured ladies. May I have the honor of knowing your names?"
The purple-haired woman smiled seductively at him and winked gaining a low reprimand from the her dark-haired friend, causing her to roll her eyes. The leader ignored them and simply smiled softly. "My name is Selene and these are my friends, Circe," the purple-haired smiled at him invitingly, "and Morwen." Unlike Circe, the other dark haired woman only gave him a nod of acknowledgement. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Hadrian smiled pleasantly while his mind was a whirl of thoughts. Other than Circe, none of their names sounded familiar. Even Circe was just due to her name being the same as the century old witch from Greek tales. Hadrian doubted this was the same woman since it was confirmed that the original Circe was dead. It was also known that the original Circe was a known man-hater yet this one seemed quite flirtatious to the point it would be scandalous to anyone else in this time period. Despite this, he stayed on his guard just in case.
Hadrian took Selene's hand and laid a kiss on the back of it, smiling internally as he saw Selene flush slightly from the feel of his soft lips on her hand. "It is an honor to have such beauty counted amongst my friends and I hope we will get to know each other better in the coming days."
Selene managed to control herself and simply smile at him indulgently. "I'm sure we will. Come, girls. We have much to do and I'm sure our friend here wants to retire for the day."
Circe winked at him as she left and purposefully added a sway to her hips that Hadrian had to internally admit complimented her hips. Morwen simply gave him a curt goodbye and walked out without a word.
The last to leave was Selene and she stopped at the threshold leading outside and turned back to Hadrian with a smile. "We're having a small get together in three days and your welcome to come. It's only us and some old friends who are here for a visit. We would be happy if you would come as well. We might die of boredom otherwise."
Hadrian simply smiled while wondering what her angle was. "I'll see what I can do, ladies."
Selene nodded. "That's all I ask."
Hadrian watched the admittedly attractive trio of women walk toward their house which was further down the street before starting to place defenses and wards around his house to prevent any further uninvited guests in the future while trying to get the image of Selene's smile out of his mind.
That night, for the first time in two years, he slept without nightmares of the screams of dying soldiers and arrows falling from the sky. Instead, Hadrian dreamt of Selene's deep and seductive chocolate eyes, her beautiful smile and the tantalizing sight of her beautiful legs.
As soon as the door closed behind them, the smiles dropped off the women's faces and calculating looks replaced it.
"So, that was Hadrian Invictus. The new and supposedly undefeated Sorcerer Supreme." said Circe dismissively. "He doesn't seem like much to me."
Morwen looked at her with derision and anger as they walked into Selene's study. "That's because you're an idiot that always dismissed men as inferior despite overwhelming proof to the contrary." Morwen voice took on a mocking tone. "Wasn't that the reason you lost your island kingdom to men, Circe?"
Circe turned to Morwen with rage in her eyes. "That only happened because that imposter woman revealed my island's location by losing to that damn Odysseus. If I had been the one to meet him he would have been dead before he ever returned to his kingdom or at the very least, turned to the animal he was."
Morwen sneered at her. "More like you underestimated men like always and paid the price! And you're doing the same now! I saw that weak man as you call him, cut through an entire legion of enemy troops with naught but his sword, shield and magic like a knife through warm butter! He then went on to single-handedly kill the strongest sorcerer in the entire Sassanid Empire and made it look easy!"
Circe waved her off as she lounged on a comfortable chair. "Yes, yes. I'm sure he did. And I'm guessing those rumors of him being a ghost that couldn't be touched and capable of releasing flames that could turn an entire city to ash are true too." Circe snorted and brought a cup of wine to her lips as she gave Morwen a pitying look. "Is the big, bad Sorceress of Chaos afraid?"
Morwen slapped the wine out of her hand and glared down at her. "I am Morwen! I mastered the Darkhold and defeated Chthon himself, allowing me to use chaos magic on his level when I was naught but two decades old! I have been alive since Salome was made Sorceress Supreme and once she fell, made this entire world my own by destroying the paths between us and those immortal beings and therefore isolating this world from the Vishanti. I am NOT afraid of some boy, merely wary of his power. Know your place, Animal Witch."
Circe stood up and glared at Morwen with hate in her eyes. "I know my place and it's above you, you flat-chested Chaos Whore!"
Before things could get physical, Selene intervened. "Enough!" Instantly, Circe and Morwen backed down, not due to Selene being more powerful but because this was her house and therefore the wards obeyed her will. They didn't want to risk a confrontation with her in her own home.
Selene glared at them both as if scolding children and considering that she was millennia older than either, they technically were compared to her. "Despite what you may think, we are not here to discuss whether or not he is a threat. The fact that we are gathered here should be proof enough that he is so saying anything else is pure bluster on both your parts. No, we are here to see if he can be swayed to follow us and if not, whether we can do away with him before he reestablishes the paths between this world and the Vishanti." She turned to Morwen with a calculating look. "You say you saw him in action. Is it true what they say about his power and skill in battle?"
Morwen hesitantly nodded. "If anything, they underestimate his strength. I was there for the defeat near Callinicum. His legion had been cut off from the rest and it seemed they would be killed to the man. However, he took control of the legion from the 1st centurion of the entire legion and managed to somehow turn the tide enough to not only survive to rejoin the rest of the retreating army but do it while making a fighting retreat rather than a rout. He also single-handedly killed 25 skilled sorcerers who had been sent to kill him personally all at once." Morwen couldn't help but shudder as she remembered the fear she felt when she saw him seemingly run through a combined blast of hellfire from 15 sorcerers without a scratch and return the favor with a much more powerful blast of white flames. "He is certainly deserving of his position and I doubt any attempt to kill him for his position would work."
Selene turned to Circe. "And politically?"
Circe grimaced. "At first, he only survived due to his position and power but within a year he had managed to gain the allegiance of half the council through blackmail, threats or doing favors for them. The other half simply feared him too much to make a move against him. I thought that his leaving for war would be the perfect chance to strike and destroy his support and it worked... for a time. As soon as reports started coming in of his accomplishments during the war, his support in the council cemented and those that were simply wary of him before now outright feared him. No," Circe sneered but shook his head. "There is no way to destroy him politically."
Selene sat back and took in their words before deciding on a course of action. "Then if politics and force won't work, we'll have to work through subterfuge. For now, we see if we can make him an ally. However, it won't be long before those fools on the council tell him about us. If he isn't a firm ally in a month then we'll have to be rid of him." She turned to Morwen. "Morwen, what happened to the plan to steal his blade?"
Morwen shook her head with remembered shock. "It failed. The man managed to get his hand on the sword only to burst into flames until not even ash remained. Whatever that sword is, it's beyond even the most powerful sword ever made. I doubt even the legendary Balmung could match it."
Selene nodded thoughtfully as she started making plans. "Alright, girls. We've decided to join together and work as a team. Any disagreements between us have to be buried until we've neutralized the threat Hadrian poses one way or the other. Between the three of us we've ruled over the magical world from the shadows for over 13,000 years. Ever since that ugly bitch Salome lost her position, idiot that she was, thinking herself a goddess. I won't allow some upstart to come along and take it from us. Since we can't kill him magically or politically, we use... other methods of attack to find his weakness."
Circe cocked an eyebrow at her. "Other methods? What methods are those?"
Selene smiled at her, knowing she would hate this. "Why, isn't it obvious? We're all beautiful, single roman women alone in this cruel city. A strong veteran soldier will be able to easily protect us from the cruel machinations of the magical council."
Circe glared at Selene as her ire grew. "Oh, no. I am not debasing myself to act like that man's fuck toy. I am superior to any man!"
Morwen looked equally vivid. "You want me, the Sorceress of Chaos to lower myself to bedding that... boy?!"
"Yes," answered Selene simply. "Because if you don't find a way to secure his allegiance or at the very least get close enough to find his weakness, he will eventually grow powerful enough that the council will no longer fear us and they'll rat us out. He'll then come and destroy us unless... he has a reason to stay his hand. Such as him loving us or at least one of us."
Morwen sneered at her words. "Do you really think the simple fact that we share his bed will stop him from destroying us if the council betrays us?"
Selene simply smiled at the millennia old Chaos witch. "You have rarely shared a bed with a man, Morwen, so you don't know one simple fact. Every great man's weakness lies in his cock."
Circe huffed at her. "You would know all about that wouldn't you Selene?"
Selene's eyes flashed at her insult but she simply smiled. "Thank for volunteering to be the first to bed him, Circe. I expect you to have shared his bed by the morning after the party in a few days."
Circe glared but conceded once she saw Morwen wouldn't support her. The fact of the matter was that it made sense for her to be the one to seduce him first since she had already come across as easy. He would suspect something less than if Selene or, God forbid, Morwen made the first move. The latter probably wouldn't even know what to do at all and would require all of Circe's help. In the millennia since she lost her island nation, Circe had been forced to play many roles in order to manipulate things to her interest. While she still believed men to be the inferior sex and little more than evolved monkeys, she no longer refrained from sharing a bed with one. Now sex was just another weapon in her arsenal and one she was quite experienced in using it against all kinds of men.
At the memory of her previous conquests, a wicked idea came to Circe's mind and she smiled evilly across at Selene. "Instead of risking ourselves on the tenuous and unsure fact that he might not turn on us if we bed him. Why not use his hormones against him?"
Selene's eyes narrowed at her in thought. "Go on."
Circe sat back, crossing one leg over the other, showing her leg off to the world. "Have you ever heard of the Betrayer's Death ritual? It was made by magical women millennia ago to help them get revenge on unfaithful husbands or lovers. The idea was to prove that a man was unfaithful by having him be present with both the wife and the supposed lover he was unfaithful with before a high priest and priestess. The high priest and priestess then perform a ritual to see if he had been unfaithful to the wife with the other woman. If proven guilty, the wife can then demand anything she can from the man in recompense, even his death."
Selene cocked an eyebrow at her in confusion. "And what does that have to do with our problem? We are hardly going to wait years for one of us to marry him and then have another of us seduce him. That would take much too long and the council would probably turn on us long before any of us got to walk down the aisle."
Circe just smiled conspiratorially. "You forget that in the olden days, the ceremonies for marriage were much simpler. For example, the oldest known form of marriage only involved the male ingesting the blood of the female followed by copulation."
Morwen looked faintly disgusted and annoyed. "That is fairly disgusting. And anyway, even if we wanted to use that as a form of marriage, how would we get him to think sucking the blood of one you two is in any way normal?" At their questioning looks, Morwen glared at them. "I am not going to be one of ones to either bed him or marry him. I'll oversee the ritual as the high priestess. Neither of you know how to properly conduct it anyway so it might as well be me."
Circe cocked an eyebrow at her. "Then who will be the high priest then?"
Selene looked thoughtful for a second before nodding. "Herpo should be coming to Constantinople in a few days. He is old enough to qualify as a high priest and he owes us a favor. Either way he will want Hadrian dead. The risk of him finding out about his horcrux and killing him is too high for him to risk."
Circe shrugged. "Fine. Then I should be the one he cheats on Selene with. It would be less suspicious since he already thinks of me as easy and Selene would be able to gain his affections easier than I would for that very reason."
Selene looked at Circe with confusion in her eyes. "Why would gaining his affections be in any way important. All I have to do it prick my finger on a rose, being the courteous man he is he'd probably suck it to prevent infection, then bed him once and we'd be married. Then you seduce to your bed a few days later and we do the ritual the night afterwards."
Circe frowned. "It's not that simple. First, we have no assurance that the exchange of blood plus copulation will be accepted as a wedding ceremony. Secondly, an emotional connection on his part is necessary. He must think of you as more than just a single one-night bedding for the ritual to work properly. Third, he must be present at the ritual altar for it to work. That means one of us has to kidnap him and bring him before the altar. That would be much easier if he trusted one of us to get close enough, say... like a close lover and friend."
Morwen scowled. "Seems onerous and bothersome for just one man. Why can't Selene simply stab him in the back while they're fucking?"
Selene frowned slightly at Morwen's vulgarity. "Because that whore Medea already tried that route while he was out there in the battlefield. It was thought that since he would be so stressed from constant battle that he would be easy to seduce and kill during the act. By all accounts, she succeeded in seducing him to her bed with her innocent, coy act but the next morning our scouts found her dead in her tent by her own dagger in her chest."
Circe scowled. She had been the one to train Medea millennia ago and Medea had been one of the last living people from Circe's time. Circe had saved her from been killed by King Aegeus who had been displeased when he found Medea trying to kill his long-lost son Theseus. Circe used that and Jason's betrayal of her as proof that men were little more than animals and had taken Medea under her wing. She had worked for Circe since then until Hadrian, it seemed, managed to kill her.
"Yes and Medea was a master at getting men to lower their guard while in the bedroom with her," said Circe spitefully. While she may have trained her and had her work under her, there had been no love lost between them. Medea had tried to betray and kill Circe herself many times after her apprenticeship was over and only stayed in contact with Circe because she was stronger politically. "If she failed then none of use stand a chance. He seems to never let his guard down even for a second."
Selene nodded slowly. "Then it's decided. I will marry him using the old way Circe described and then convince him to bed Circe soon afterward. It shouldn't be that hard to convince him, he is male after all. Then I'll spend the time between then and the ritual to get him to fall in love with me. Is there any specific date for the ritual?"
Circe frowned and nodded. "It can be done during any full moon but since Morwen and Herpo are going to be acting as high priest and priestess it's best to do it under the lunar eclipse which is in two months. For the marriage ceremony, we have to pull out all the stops to make it seem like a marriage without him knowing. He has to greet you with a kiss in the cheek at the very least, you have to wear royal blue and silver which are the oldest colors associated with marriage, and the rose that pricks you must be a white rose. Luckily, we have plenty of white roses in the garden and you can use the fact that you need to buy a dress in those colors as an excuse to meet him tomorrow. We'll also move the party for next week during the diadem moon. That moon had always been a sign for Juno, goddess of marriage, and anything helping us is a good thing. You can inform him tomorrow. I imagine he'll be in the market buying clothes and furniture for his house."
Selene nodded thoughtfully and smirked. "Then we have a plan then. We should each get ready for each of our parts. That means that Morwen need to learn how to perform the ritual as well as buy the ingredients and materials necessary."
Morwen shrugged and followed Circe out of the study to learn how to perform the ritual.
Selene was left alone to think in her study. She thought of all possible angles and possibilities where this could go wrong but decided there was no other way to secure their position. Strong as they were, they couldn't survive if the entire roman magical council rose against them with Hadrian at their side. They'd be killed and Selene refused to be killed until she achieved her destiny and rose to godhood.
Selene's mother had been young when she bore her, but she would be dead before Selene spoke her first words. The tribal elders had believed her to be a goddess even from within her mother's womb and in order to prove it, gave her very own mother to her to be the first victim to her powers. Selene had been barely an hour old before the tribal elders induced her powers early and forced her to feed on her own mother. As she grew up, the tribal elders ordered her mother's people to sacrifice themselves to her until none remained. In the end, they sacrificed even themselves before she was even 5 years old, leaving her nothing but sustenance and her name.
Selene understood then that they must be right and she was a goddess. She simply needed enough energy to ascend to her rightful place.
Selene had long been trying to achieve her rightful godhood through the ritual known as Darkhallow. It was an ancient ritual written in the Darkhold which Selene had read while it was in her possession before she gave it to Morwen. The original rite is performed by creating a void that draws in all life, among other energies, within about an area of a couple miles. The Darkhold says that it is considered important that the one performing the rite attempts to summon as many spirits as possible in the immediate area in order to gain a greater level of power.
However, Selene circumvented that by absorbing the minds and life force of at least a hundred beings right before the ritual is performed. In this way, she is demonstrating her power by holding their spirits within herself. That plus the life energies drawn to her by the ritual would help her ascend to godhood.
Selene added many things to the ritual over the millennia to increase the chances of it working, from doing it only on Halloween where the line between mortal flesh and immortal spirit can be briefly crossed, to doing it only on Halloweens that occurred concurrently with the lunar eclipse, to adding more area and therefore, souls to the amount being sacrificed. She had also created a dagger for the ritual that would enhance the magic in the blood spilled to make the runes and would finish the ritual without a lengthy incantation by simply using the dagger to kill the one the blood belonged to.
The closest she had been to ascending was 400 years ago when she ensnared a foolish Senator named Eliphas into giving his blood for the ritual in return for her. As if she would have followed through with her side of the bargain. Everything had been set for a decade beforehand and she thought nothing could prevent her ascension.
However, the fool had gotten compassionate and warned a stupid slave girl he liked who then went on to warn her father. The father had warned the authorities and they had been caught before the ritual could take place. It had only been luck that she woke up before the fires started to burn her and she used her pyrokinesis to survive. She had punished the foolish Eliphas by turning him into a psychic vampire much like herself and those idiots of the White Court and then burying him to lie alone forever. He would be unable to die unless Selene herself killed him.
However, that had taught her that she couldn't trust just anyone to do the ritual. While she needed someone foolish enough to do as she said, she couldn't leave it to chance. She need to mold someone into the perfect puppet to obey her commands without question. An onerous task but she had plans in place to make it happen.
Proof that the ritual worked could be seen in both Morwen and Circe. While not full goddesses due to not having used enough souls to completely ascend, they were essentially immortal and eternally youthful unless killed in battle. Their power had increased exponentially and they gained various attributes related to gods such as enhanced strength and stamina as well as having no need to ingest food.
Morwen's rise had been by using a small village of about three thousand souls for the ritual. She had absorbed their power and become powerful enough to master the Darkhold without being possessed by Chthon as well as close the paths between Earth and the immortal beings as long as she lived.
Circe had used the Trojan War and sacrificed the entire population of 6,000 souls of warriors still pillaging and raping women in Troy after the Greeks left. She had become essentially immortal as well as eternally youthful while her powers increased even further. She could now transform anything into anything else with a gesture alone and gained the ability to raise the dead without a ritual. She also gained the ability to manipulate reality to a slight extent using her spells.
Even with all that, Selene was still their magical equal due to millennia more experience and her mutant abilities. She couldn't wait to see how much her power would grow once she ascended to full godhood. Maybe she would gain the power to raise the dead and finally meet her mother...
Selene shook her head and turned her thoughts to Hadrian. Selene internally shivered as she remembered the feel of his lips in her hand.
As a psychic vampire of the highest order, Selene could gauge the life force of another through simple touch alone. She did so instinctively every time she touched someone. When Hadrian touched her with his lips, she had gauged his life force and was simultaneously shocked and aroused.
Most people's life force was like air, ethereal and hard to grasp as well as not being very dense. Hadrian's however was like tar compared to the mountain air that was everyone else's. It was thick and powerful and so very vigorous. Hadrian radiated life and energy like a miniature sun and Selene doubted she could absorb his life force even if she tried. It felt denser than even a a thousand million life forces combined and much more powerful.
Selene wondered if this was why he was so powerful but she shook it off as irrelevant and walked toward her room to retire.
As she drifted off to sleep, the last thing she thought of was Hadrian's deep emerald eyes that seemed to look into her soul and still find her beautiful.
AN: And there's chapter 14!
I was so psyched from the last chapter that I spent the rest of the afternoon yesterday writing this down. It was originally longer and went on to show Selene and Hadrian's first 'date' together. However, it was much too long and I would be forced to either cut out important scenes or skip certain parts to make it cohesive and I didn't like it. I prefer it this way. This chapter was how they met and how exactly Selene and Hadrian's relationship starts (what a way to explain to the kids huh? "Yea son, I met your mom when she was planning to sacrifice me in a ritual."-_-). The next chapter will show Selene and Hadrian's blossoming relationship as well as the climax which will be the ritual and the one afterward will be what happens to cause Hadrian to return to his time.
For those wondering, of course he's trying to return to his time (at least for now) but so far he's had no success so he's had to try and blend into the era to not let it be known he's from the future. You can just imagine what the emperor alone would do if he knew about that fact. Can anyone say 'squeeze him for information'?
I think you all know everyone I mentioned but I'll say it anyway. Yes, Circe is THE Circe from myths. In my story she had been in Troy performing the ritual when Odysseus met the false Circe which was Sersi from Marvel. She came back to find her kingdom in ruins and after killing the transgressors left to travel the world. She eventually fell in with Selene and Morwen and they formed the triumvirate that had been controlling thw rold from the shadows ever since. If you want to know how she looks like then look for Circe in the DC comics wikia. She looks exactly like that.
Morwen is from Marvel and all that's known about her is that she was the First Sorceress of Chaos. I used that as a base to make my Morwen. My Morwen as it says, was given the Darkhold by Selene and then used the Darkhallow ritual to ascend to minor goddess status. She then used her power to master all the spells of the Darkhold without being possessed by Chthon and then cut the paths between the patrons ans sorcerers. While the gods are still around they can't give their powers to their champions. This coincides with the fact that Hercules and all the other heroes are pre-13th century BC when Morwen casts the spell in late 12th century BC.
For those who'll ask, percy jackson elements do not exist in my story so no greek/roman duality of the gods and no sons of the gods beyond pre-13th century BC.-_-
Herpo is Herpo the Foul mentioned in the HP books. I read his entry and it never mentioned how and when he died and since he created a horcrux... yeah. I thought it would be a good way for Harry to come into contact with horcruxes before he faces Voldemort. Herpo the Foul was also the first known wizard to hatch a basilisk and was a parseltongue. I'll go into more of his history and his run-ins with the Magi who obviously don;t like the fact that he created basilisks.
Next chapter has a lemon for those that are wondering.
That's all for now so as always, Read and review!