Eventually Love
Chapter One
Author's note: AU: Faustus Sertorius gave Quintus the money for a wife. She was pregnant when he bought her, rather than having a young daughter.
I have again used the names from the comics, although I admit I haven't read them.
Warnings: attempted rape, masturbation, slavery themes, language.
In the noisy, smelly market, all the slaves were naked - the better to show prospective buyers exactly what they were getting.
The slave dealer watched one particular girl through a knothole in the fence. He knew someone who would want her. When he came to think about it, he didn't know anyone who wouldn't want that lithe, olive-skinned little peach. Specifically he knew someone who would and, more importantly, could pay an enormous sum for her. Senator Gallus' old eunuch knew his job and could anticipate his master's taste as if he were still young and entire himself.
With her long coiling strands of black hair, the doe-eyed girl looked like some kind of anti-medusa: one glance from whom could turn any man instantly into solid wood…He shifted uncomfortably as she did exactly that to him. He thought hard about all the coins he'd forfeit if he acted on his impulse. The captor had sworn she was a virgin and he tended not to lie when denarii were at stake but the senator's eunuch would check her after purchase and demand recompense if she were found to be unsatisfactory. So he only watched. After all, money was money and anyway, the reality would never match the fantasy.
Yes, he watched and he imagined. He imagined her soft, brown hands on his meat instead of his calloused, old fist. He imagined those luminous green-gold eyes gazing into his. He imagined her full lips closing around his…
Then, too soon, just as it was occurring to him that he could act on these particular desires without spoiling the merchandise…Ahhhh-Uhh Uhuhuhuh Ahhhhhhhhh!
Well, that hadn't taken long. He cleaned himself off into a bucket of water and put it in her pen for her to drink. He was turning to waddle out towards the street to attract some sellers for the less beautiful but more functional of his livestock before he closed for the night, when he heard a choked off snort of contempt. He turned round to glare at the pregnant Berber girl. She was cowering in the back of her pen, bitterly regretting letting her scorn become audible.
'You!' he snarled at her, a horrible smile creasing his sweaty jowls. 'I need not be so careful about you…'
He unlocked the gate to her cage and advanced slowly, belly wobbling from side to side. 'I can hardly sell you as a virgin, can I?' he leered, eyes travelling all over her body.'
Terrified, she made a break for the exit but he was quicker than he looked and grabbed her by the arms. 'But perhaps, if you please me, I can sell you as a whore…'
He chuckled nastily, pushing his ugly face up close to hers. 'I hope you can endure me for a nice long time, sweet thing. It can take ages for me to finish so soon after a good release.'
He kicked her legs out from under her and held her down in the straw, kneeling between her thighs. She was flailing her legs, hissing and scratching like a wildcat and he had to take both of her wrists in one hand to get himself free of his clothing. Twice in one evening, this was turning into a great night…
There was a sudden breath of wind as something incredibly fast blew past behind him. The poor girl gasped to see a glimpse of an almost human face behind her attacker. Then it was gone in an instant and there was no more hope for her. She screwed her eyes shut, gritted her teeth and went rigid, waiting for it all to be over.
She had no illusions about life as a slave. She knew her future would almost certainly include nightly rape by her new owner but she still naïvely hoped that whoever he was he'd be more gentle and less disgusting this gargoyle.
'Maybe, if I go hard enough, I'll be able to fuck that baby right out of you,' he laughed, gusting his faecal breath straight in her face.
A shout from the street front stopped the slaver. He froze with the hand holding her wrists pushing on her belly and the other gripping the top of her thigh preventing her closing her legs. He was furious to be interrupted but too greedy to decline any sales opportunity. He clambered upright with much grunting and adjusted his clothing to make his …excitement less obvious.
He patted the girl's bump and said cheerfully, 'Don't worry pet, I'll sell him something quickly and be back before you know it. I know what you're hoping, love, but he won't be interested in buying your scrawny little body, swollen with another man's spawn.'
He wasn't exaggerating. She really wasn't pretty in any way. Her features were unremarkable at best and the pregnancy coming so early in her life had stunted her growth. He was still sniggering over his shoulder when he came out to the front of the stall so he ran into his prospective customer.
'Oof,' he yelped, rubbing the ear that had collided with his client's elbow. The slaver looked up… and further up, into the face of a statue. An extremely handsome statue, he would have to admit. An extremely scary, handsome statue, he added to himself, as the creature lowered his pastel blue eyes to his. The merchant stepped back involuntarily and swallowed hard. Every chiselled line in the alabaster face was tight with repressed fury and while most of it was directed at him, some seemed to be simply a general rage against the universe.
'I wish to buy,' he announced, in a voice as pleasing as his appearance and, strangely, just as intimidating.
The dealer wasn't expecting that but he barely missed a beat. 'Does Sir, have a price range in mind?' he oiled.
The customer didn't reply, instead demanding curtly, 'Show me your girls.'
'Certainly, sir,' he said, rubbing his hands…A really great night, he thought.
He paraded every female slave regardless of age before his patron, with the exceptions of his pregnant plaything and the girl he had earmarked for the rich senator.
The living statue had watched dispassionately and in silence as they were all dragged past but when the slaver finished and returned to ask him eagerly if he'd made a selection, the creature only asked pointedly for ALL the girls to be displayed for him. When the merchant hesitated, the browser wordlessly removed a clinky pouch from the depths of his toga and tossed it from hand to hand.
The trader estimated the weight of the coin and did some mental calculations, factoring in the icy dread that crept up his spine whenever those inhuman eyes turned his way, and decided that Senator Gallus could find himself another toy. He brought the Sicilian beauty out for viewing with an air of one reluctantly parting with a member of their family and was flabbergasted when the client took less than a second to shake his head.
'But…but…look at her, sir,' he sputtered, waving his hands helplessly over the girl's perfect body. 'I mean, just LOOK! Go on have a feel too,' he adds, squidging a perky breast. 'I have nothing finer than this, sir, and that's the truth.'
'But you have something else,' said the creature coldly. It was not a question.
The slaver shrugged and sighed. Cold hard cash in hand was worth more than a few seconds of stolen pleasure and besides, he reckoned the profit would pay for a several hours in the company of the lupanarium's most skilful young ladies. He had a quick leer, a grope and some choice words of advice for the Berber girl before leading her out to the customer.
When she caught sight of the living statue standing there, she froze in terror and tried to go back to the pens. She thought she'd recognised the ghostly face that had appeared behind the slaver while he was trying to rape her. In the end, the dealer had to drag her forward by the collar. He wanted to use the goad on her but something about the client's icy disapproval warned him not to.
The creature's eyes travelled slowly over the girl's body, taking in the cringing posture, the tearstains, the red marks on her wrists and thighs and lingering on her belly.
The merchant presumed that the client was being deterred by her pregnancy and used it instead as a selling point - a kind of buy-one-get-one-free deal.
'As well as being able to sing and play, cook and sew - not to mention a very willing fuck, if I'm any judge,' said the slave trader, oblivious to the marble head snapping round to fix him with a look of complete revulsion. 'And I think I am…' He nudged the big Born where his waist should be and hurt his elbow on a very hard hipbone. 'You wait a few months and you've got yourself your very own family. Eh? Sir? Whaddaya say? That could be very attractive to a…a…' The greasy little homunculus cast about for an appropriate description before plumping for convention, '…a man like yourself?
The buyer gave him a very long stare before silently dropping the full asking price and more into the sweaty palm.
'Oh, thank you sir, most gracious,' oozed the slaver. 'A true Patrician.' He continued to babble obsequiously while he passed the girl's neck chain over.
'Remove the collar,' the new owner demanded and, just before leaving with his purchase, he grasped the merchant by the elbow and bent down to whisper in his ear.
'The extra money is for a bath and a wholesome supper. See that you get both tonight.'
He handed his new property his pallium but didn't presume to drape it around her possessively. Then, to the slaver's shock the big man crouched down to address his slave.
'What is your name?' he asked gently.
'Tasa, master,' she whispered, eyes wide at her new owner's size as much as his bizarre appearance.
He winced at the honorific. 'Mine is Quintus,' he said. 'I desire no other address. You are a free woman now, Tasa.'
The merchant hissed at the extravagance.
'I am heavy with child and I have nowhere else to go, sir…I mean Quintus,' she corrected hurriedly. 'May I come with you?'
Quintus stood up and nodded down at Tasa, then he stood back and gestured to her to lead him out of the stall. She hesitated for a moment, gave him a nervous smile and left.
Over his shoulder, Quintus reminded the slaver coldly, 'Remember, a bath and some good food.'
The dealer looked down at the fortune in his hands and decided it would be unwise to disobey. In any case, it would do him no harm to be clean and at full strength for his evening of love…