"Should we take her back to the Bureau?" Tahira asks kneeling in-front of the child comforting them as they shake.
"I'll take her" Artemis stands in the corridor of the Roman arches, her bow clutched in her hand as she leans against the Grecian architecture. Her Huntresses wait outside, some hiding in the trees with their bows at the ready, others at the top of buildings. "Evening Hidden Ones."
"Ahh Artemis!" Bayek stands up opening his arms "It's been a long time!"
"It has Bayek" she pats him on his shoulder and he closes his arms. "This child is an orphan, the Crocodile killed her family before taking her here."
"That is unfortunate" Tahira looks up from the child "This Crocodile, have you identified her?"
"Yes my Huntresses are awaiting her return." She gestures behind her "And the return of her guards."
"We should move the children to a safe place" Tahira holds her hand out to the little girl in front of her "What is your name young one?"
"Femi" she wipes tears from her eyes sniffling.
"We'll Femi, do you know where your friends are?" Femi nods to Tahira and leads her up a marble staircase covered in red fabric "Romans…" Tahira mumbles under her breathe with the realization and disgust that this location also operates as a brothel. The children upstairs lay on a bed sleeping, they're probably only able to sleep here instead of the stables when the Crocodile is gone. "Alright" she kneels in front of Femi "Femi, dear, I need you to stay up here and stay quiet, okay?"
"Yes"
"Artemis, Bayek and I will be back soon. Whatever you do, if you hear anyone scream, do not leave this room." She stands up, grasping her bow as she turns down the stairs.
"Mmmm" a naked woman using a sheet to cover herself with tears rolling down her eyes grabs her hand.
"Yes?" Tahira asks massaging her hand with her other own, she soon realizes that the woman in front of her cannot speak for her tongue has been cut out "I will be careful" she pats the woman's arm and she lets go of her, Tahira quickly makes it down the stairs taking a right into the hall where Artemis hides behind an arch her arrow drawn.
The Crocodile, a middle aged woman with mousy brown hair, wearing a Roman gown enters the vineyard followed by several men and women.
"Ahhhh welcome welcome welcome" she turns to them after a guard unlatches her gate "You will find my twins, woman, and children are to your liking."
"Oh I do love twins-" A Roman general removes his helmet as a storm of arrows comes down upon the clients of the Crocodile, his body falls down onto the ground as blood foams at his mouth.
"Guards!" The Crocodile shouts pointing at the entrance to the great hall as Bayek hops down from the top of the arches landing upon her as his hidden blade pierces her carotid artery. Artemis and Tahira's arrows strike the guards in their eyes, killing them instantly before joining Bayek.
They reach their palms over the feather as Bayek places it on the Crocodile's chest " requiescat in pace" they say in unison as their vision becomes clouded.
The Crocodile walks down a staircase into a pool of water, reaching down to grab the waists of two red headed twin children who wear an orange loose chiton as they stand up from the water.
The children turn to her as their faces morph into that of crocodiles, they kneel into the water as the Crocodile leans back against the staircase reaching for the ties on her chiton. "Come here my slaves" she becons" undoing one arm "Come here and pleasure me"
The kneeling children's hands morph into scaled claws and their skin scales to a green shade as they legs extend into a tail, one of them reaches for her leg, the Crocodile gasps at the shift of her hem at her feet then screams as the young crocodile pulls her into the water by her ankles, digging in as red blood fills the pool, the later crocodile aims for her neck, sinking its fangs along her throat.
"So" Bayek approaches the Crocodile stepping around the pool of water that has now turned red "Tell me Crocodile, was it worth it corrupting and murdering these children" his face sits above mere inches from her.
"Was it worth living in this river of blood?" Artemis asks as the end of the marble pool shifts into a river, the hands of children reach up from it as they morph into the claws of crocodiles.
"Torturing these children?" Tahira walks through the water now turned red with the blood of those who the Crocodile killed. "Cutting off their hands and watching them bleed?"
"Discarding them as if they were nothing more than a fly?"
"Denying them their sacred rites" Artemis and Tahira stand on either side of Bayek now as the Crocodile looks up at them her eyes empty, the young crocodiles leave her, swimming down the stream as she sinks within it and their vision fades back to the present time before them. The Crocodile's body lays in front of her guests and guards, Artemis and the Assassin's glare at them in disgust. When she turns around, her Huntresses are carrying children in their arms from the brothel, a woman with a black eye and bruises upon her left side follows them to their horses.
"I will be on my way" Artemis bows her head to Bayek and Tahira.
"Until we meet again" Tahira closes the eyes of the Crocodile not everyone wanting to see that gaze fall upon her again.
"We should head back to the Bureau" Bayek collects weapons from the corpses "They are all orphans?"
"Yes" Artemis sighs.
"These Romans take pleasure in destruction" Tahira snarls "Destruction of this earth, animals, families…"
"Children" Bayek says as he places some weapons and armor from the bodies in the palms of a Hidden One who sits upon a horse so that they may place the armor in their bag. He whistles and his horse arrives, he hops on top of it.
"Farewell Artemis!" His horse gallops off as Tahira hops on her own.
Artemis turns to the Huntresses, the children sit on the horses behind them, the woman who wears a sheet tries to hop on one but grimaces in pain while clutching her sheet wanting to maintain her decency.
"Here!" Artemis beacons to her with her hand in the air as she steps upon her chariot, the woman looks up and walks to the chariot, Artemis helps her into it. "Hang on."
The woman mumbles something.
"They've pulled your tongue out haven't they?" She looks at the woman over her shoulder as she clutches the gilding on the chariot's edge. "No men are allowed in my camps" Artemis gazes forward as the woman looks up at her with dismay "And if one waltzes in on us, my Huntresses will have no problem cutting his manhood off the same way as they ripped out your tongue for speaking out about your rapist." She sighs under her breath thinking of the woman who had been stoned for doing the same "Pigs…"
Artemis and her Huntresses make it into a forest clearing where a shield of light shines dimly through the trees darkened by the night sky, the woman and children gasp in disbelief as they're transferred to a lush meadow where a waterfall filling a hot spring clicks against rocks as deer and rabbits prance on by.
"Make yourself comfortable, as I said no mortal may enter here without my guidance." She steps off her chariot, walking into the cave behind the waterfall, her huntresses following, returning with a pile of peplos and linen clothes which they place upon the rocks beside the waterfall, the light glistening over them.
"Are we in Elysium?" The woman asks, cupping her hands over her mouth surprised that she can once again speak.
"No, just the realm of the nymphs, we had to split it up since the Romans kept killing us." One of the Huntresses says, her ears morphing into that of a fawn as she plucks an apple from a tree taking a bite.
"We used to live beside mortals" a flower nymph says, dipping her toes in the water. "But it's safer here now, away from the men and women who did those horrible things to you."