Notes at the beginning of the chapter today!
There was a great fire in Rome in spring of 80 AD. It burned down the theatre of Pompey, the Parthenon and a bunch of other important buildings along with many apartment complexes. It wasn't as big as the great fire of Rome in 64 AD that destroyed 10 of Rome's 14 districts, during Nero's reign, but the fire of 80AD was still quite bad. I couldn't find whether or not it happened during the 100 days of Games to celebrate the opening of the Colosseum, but I'm just going to say it did.
Ancient Rome had a firefighting forse called the Vigiles Urbani (the "city watch"). I'm just going to call them firefighters. They had buckets, hooks, axes and wagons with water in them with ancient pumps to spray on the fire. Their main role was put out small fires before they got large or to knock down building to create firebreaks to stop the spread. They would also beat people found stealing.
Ancient Rome did not have nearly as many fire safety rules as we do now, so fires happened with frightening regularity. Since most people did not have kitchens, and chimneys had not been invented yet, people would regularly start a fire in the middle of their living room to cook food. There were no fire exists, the roads would be full of merchant goods that were fairly flammable, and people had olive oil for lamps everywhere. So yeah. Fire. I think we should all take a moment to appreciate modern fire safety standards.
On an unrelated note, when a little blood is mixed with water it ends up looking like a lot of blood.
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"Fire!"
Percy startles awake. It was late at night and Percy had only just gotten to sleep. The Plinius family Lars was floating above his bed with a serious expression on his face.
"There's a fire in Rome, Perseus. It is quite large and if it spreads it might burn down the Plinius domus. Wake the family and make sure they are prepared to flee!" The Lars says.
Percy is out the bed and scrambling to put on his green tunic before the Lars is done speaking. He runs out the door and bangs on all the bedroom doors. "Get up Gaius! There's a fire in Rome."
Gaius opens the door dragging his bedsheets with him looking incredibly groggy, "What? Perseus?"
"There's a fire in Rome. I'm going to go put it out. Make sure everyone is awake so they can leave the house if they need to," Percy said then ran out the front door.
The heavy black smoke was easy enough to see under the light of the moon. Before going toward the smoke though, Percy ran down the Via Julia to the Tiber River. He ran straight into the water. With the twist in his gut, he pulls the river water with him as he ran back onto the road and toward the smoke. The river floods the roads behind him, and he shouts at people to move aside as he passes. The fire was several blocks away in a crowded district not far from the theatre of Pompey.
A cart with a terrified horse is on fire and running down the road toward Percy. Three people are trying to calm the horse to prevent it from spreading the fire, but the poor girl is screaming in terror. The flaming cart is dropping burning grain as it passes, starting small flames along the road.
"I got you, don't worry," Percy said to the horse, sending a wave of water over her backside and then into the flaming cart. The cart apparently carried crates of grain, so Percy was able to put them out quickly.
"Prince!" the horse calls, "Thank you Prince!"
"Get out of here, buddy, before the fire tries to burn you again. Calmly! No need to start a panic," Percy says as the horse runs, then trots, off. The small flames along the road are quickly put out as Percy runs past with the river behind him.
When Percy arrived at the fire it was chaos. People were running out of nearby buildings with as many possessions as they could carry. The Ancient Roman firefighters were coordinating evacuations, moving or destroying anything on the roads that might catch fire and a row of them were passing buckets of water from nearby fountains to throw not on the flames, but on nearby buildings. Food stalls and barrels that had lined the busy streets were being cut apart and moved away from the flames in the hope that they would not spread the fire to the other side of the street.
Two apartment buildings were engulfed in flame and two nearby apartments were close to catching fire themselves. The roar of the fire combined with shouts of firefighters and the screams of people stuck in the apartments. The top floor of one apartment had already collapsed and it looked like the buildings were going to fall apart soon. He could see faces of terrified people looking out from the windows, calling down to people below. A woman drops her baby from the second story to a man below.
Ash.
Ash and fire.
Percy ran toward them, pulling the river water behind him. While he'd been largely powerless to stop the might of a volcano, he could put a complete stop to this. The water became a wave that crashed against the walls of the neighboring buildings, cooling them and preventing the spread of fire. The nearby fountain shot water several paces into the sky. It quickly overflowed and sent freshwater flooding the nearby roads. He sent the river water around the burning buildings, setting up a water barrier between them and the surrounding city blocks.
Now for the two flaming apartments. If Percy sent water into the apartments directly, people might drown; if he didn't, they would burn. He pulled the river toward him and sent it rushing up one side of the buildings and pouring down the outside of the other sides like a waterfall. He sent a stream of water into all the windows and doors, enough to cover the floor but not enough to drown people. He then jumped into the river and pushed himself up to the top floor (the fifth floor) of the nearest apartment complex.
He's going to need to go floor to floor, apartment to apartment and get people out. Apartments tended to be two rooms, a living room and a bedroom, likely shared with an entire family by the number of blankets and hey mattresses. The furniture was knocked over and moved about strangely due to the water flowing over the floor and the walls broken down by the inferno. The first apartment was empty, but the next few apartments had people in them, and Percy was able to open stuck doors and put out the flames of wooden beams or brick piles that covered hallways. A man with a burnt leg was stuck under a fallen table. Percy moved the table around and help the man up and out of the apartment.
He found two crying and terrified babies in two different apartments. Percy picked them up, set them on a nearby floating table and wicker basket. He sent them floating down the stairs with a surge of water to the front door below.
Like Moses. But with more fire.
Once he was finished with the top floor, he flooded the whole floor and rushed down to the next floor.
Percy was not able to save everybody. He found bodies. Bodies of burnt children. Bodies of a young couple crushed by falling bricks. Bodies of a sleeping family on their hey mattresses. Suffocated. He grabs their bodies and sends them down the stairs to the street below with a wave. Keep moving Percy. If you stop now more people will die. Percy moved on.
An apartment had four children in it. The eldest daughter was trying to protect her siblings from Percy with a knife. Normally he would understand but they wouldn't leave the apartment because their mom wasn't back yet. Percy explained the building was on fire and their mom would want them to leave. The ten-year-old girl told him that if he tried to kidnap her siblings, she would stab him. Understandable.
Percy threw the kids out the window anyway. Yeet!
He made sure the water caught them in a waterslide that slowed their descent and deposited them dry and unharmed on the other side of the street. He waved from the window down at the shocked kids and their protective sister.
The second and first floors were largely empty as people had been able to climb out of the windows. Once outside, Percy spent a minute coughing some of the smoke and dust out of his lungs, then he moved on to the next apartment. The fourth floor had already collapsed.
Percy went in. An hour later he came back out, having saved who he could. Burnt and suffocated bodies lined the street where Percy had placed them. The roads were still shallow rivers flowing in a circle around the burnt apartments. Percy coughed again, lying down in the flooded streets to let the water clear his lungs for a second.
"My Lord!" A man came forward dressed as a firefighter. Percy sat up. The man bowed low, "My Lord, the theatre of Pompey is on fire. We've managed to contain the flames, but-"
"Lead me to it," Percy said, and followed where the man led. Once he was closer, he saw a pile of debris and a few barrels that were on fire in the middle of the flooded road in front of the theatre of Pompey and some smoke coming from further inside.
"They're olive oil barrels my Lord, the merchant moved them away from the apartments before realizing they were on fire. He tried to put the barrels out with water but ended up spreading the fire instead," the firefighter said. Percy brought the river water up and over into a bubble. The bubble wanted to break from the heat of the flame but Percy held the water in place until the air in the bubble filled with carbon dioxide and the fire was snuffed out. Percy wet the barrel caps and placed it onto the charred barrels before soaking the burnt curtains and rugs. Then he went inside and flooded the wooden seating area, parts of which were burning.
Percy spent the next several hours putting out smaller flames in the neighborhoods nearby and generally making everything wet. People bowed to him in the streets and averted their eyes. He hears their whispers calling him the son of Neptune, the spirit of Gaeta, the child born in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the living god.
He returns to the apartments. The city guard had set up a perimeter around the main burnt area to keep spectators out. The guards bowed to him as he passed. Both apartments were completely filled with water, and their walls were a continuous waterfall. One of the apartment complexes had partially collapsed, the other was still standing but only barely.
The sun is starting to rise.
The street in front of the apartments was littered with bodies of the dead. They'll need a lot of funeral shrouds tonight. It started to rain. Percy knows it's his mood that causes this rain. He lets himself wallow in misery and grief so that the rain covers all of Rome and hopefully prevents the flames from rekindling.
"Perseus," a voice calls. Percy turns and sees Titus flanked by his guard as he dismounts from a chestnut horse. "I owe you an immense debt for saving my city. Thank you" Titus says.
"Hello Prince," Titus's horse says, bowing his head. Percy pats the horse.
Percy motions toward the bodies, "I couldn't save them."
"How many more would have died tonight if not for you? Fires are big as these can spread quickly and destroy districts," Titus says, placing a hand on Percy's shoulder and turning him around to look to the other side of the street, "Look how many people are alive because of you."
The far side of the street is full of people. He sees the ten-year-old-girl with her three younger siblings being embraced by a woman who is sobbing and smiling and holding her children close. A father had picked up his baby, the one Percy had floated down in a basket. A woman is embracing the man with the burnt leg. "Thank you, Titus," Percy said.
"Go home, Perseus. You look exhausted, and you have been up all night. I'll take it from here," Titus said.
"The buildings aren't structurally safe. You'll have to take them down," Percy said.
"I know. We have ballistics for that very purpose."
"There might be more fires, I should stay to put them out."
"Rome employs firefighters, they can take care of small fires."
"Will you let me know if a big fire breaks out?"
"You have my word."
Percy nods, "All right. Thank you, Titus." Titus pats him on the shoulder. People on the other side of the street whisper about the Augustus and the Living God being friends. Percy wonders if Titus is here as a kind of Ancient Roman photo op.
Percy allows the apartments to drain into the street below. As the water leaves the building, the second apartment complex collapses in on itself spewing forth a wave of filth. He takes the river water with him as he walks home, letting it flow back into the Tiber. Percy's green tunic has been charred and stained black in several places. People bow as Percy walks by. Whispers and water follow his every step.
When he gets back to the Plinius domus, a groggy Gaius asks him if he was still planning to go to the senate meeting this morning. Percy grunts angrily, and grabs his purple-striped toga. Maybe he can just sit in a corner and nap. He throws the toga on over his charred tunic and heads back into the city.
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Percy is sitting in the back corner on the senate house away from the throne in the front. He's tired from fighting fires all night and actively trying to stay mildly-annoyed so that the rain continues, but not so annoyed that a storm breaks out. He has a headache that kind of feels like a hundred voices whispering in his mind. Domitian is presiding over the senate today because Titus is personally dealing with the consequences of the fire. He looks comfortable on his brother's throne.
Percy's eyes close. The whispered words get stronger, and Perseus tries to listen to them.
Senator Marcus elbows him hard and Percy sits up disoriented. Marcus nods at the man standing in the middle of the senate hall giving a speech. Senator Celsus; that dick.
"- now the boy is asleep within these sacred halls! See the disrespect he shows us!" Celsus said.
Percy stood up and started making his way past Marcus and the back row of senators to the path down to the senate floor. "Do you want to know why I am tired, Senator Celsus?" Percy asks, "It is because I was awake all night fighting the fire that broke out in Rome." Percy pulls open his toga to show the charred tunic below, "I was pulling people out of burning building and working together with the firefighters to prevent the spread of the flames. You would know this if you had been there. But I assume you were too busy philosophizing about what it means to be a good man to do anything useful."
"How dare you speak to me that way, boy? Your looks may have enchanted the Augustus, but such tricks will not work on me," Celsus says. One of the senators tries to pull Celsus down to whisper something in his ear, but Celsus pushes him away and continues, "Every other man on this senate has earned the right to sit here with years of service and study. Yet you dare to act as if you are worthy after having accomplished nothing."
When Percy gets to the senate floor he glances at Domitian. Titus usually puts a stop to personal arguments in the senate pretty quickly, but Domitian is just listening calmly.
Percy rolls his eyes, "I'm not in the mood for this. I'm leaving." He turns and walks toward the doors of the senate hall.
"Walk away, boy. I don't know what sorcery you have used upon our Augustus, but the Senate of Rome will never accept the foreign bastard of a lying Christian whore," Celsus says with a snarl.
Percy stops. Lightning flashes and the wind picks up as the resulting thunder shakes through the senate house. 'Walk away, Percy. Walk away from this,' Percy tries to tell himself, but Perseus' blood is boiling with rage.
Perseus shakes off his toga so that the draped cloth does not obstruct his movement. He turns around and reaches into his tunic pocket to pull out Riptide. With a twist he has his sword in hand. The two soldiers that had been standing guard at the senate doors see Perseus' sword and move to stop him. Water explodes out of the nearest fountain and spills over the sides of the aqueduct that feeds it. The water reaches forward like hands and pulls the guards out of the senate building, throwing them across the adjacent square. Perseus hears the clang of their armor as they land. The water then rushes into the senate floor. Perseus sends some water up the walls to drown out the oil lanterns hanging from the ceiling.
Perseus walks back into the senate building and toward senator Celsus as the water rushes ahead of him. Two senators step forward to try to stop him. One of them pulls out a dagger. Perseus blocks the blow with Riptide and unarms the man. He catches the dagger midair and stabs the attempted murderer in the hand. Blood sprays into the water. Then Perseus pulls both of Celsus's friends underwater. The water in the senate house is up to Perseus' shins at this point and the water holds the two men under, allowing only their flailing arms above the surface.
The skies are dark and pouring rain. Only the occasional lightning strike lights up the room. Perseus keeps walking across the room to the man who insulted his mother. The sound of the two drowning men struggling to get above water echoes off the walls. There are hectic shouts and movements from the raised seating area. Senator Marcus is in the far corner, terrified. Several of the senators flee for the doors, but Perseus uses the water on the senate floor to push them back inside. No one is leaving until Perseus allows it.
Senator Celsus pulls out a dagger with shaking hands. Perseus parries it easily and grabs the dagger out of the man's fingers. The senator falls to his knees in the water and starts praying to Jupiter.
"Jupiter?" Perseus asks as he steps forward. His words echo through the suddenly silent senate house. "Do not pray to Jupiter. My uncle will not save you from your disrespect. Pray to my mother, Sally. Pray that on this FUCKING day my mother's mercy will be more powerful than my father's WRATH."
The room lights up with a greenish glow and Perseus doesn't need to look up to know that his father has claimed him as a son. The light from the glowing trident reflects off of Perseus' dual blades.
Celsus prays and begs, "Forgive me my lord, I did not know you were a god. Forgive me Sali for my dreadful words. Sali, I pray for your mercy. Salacia, oh beautiful, merciful goddess. Spare me my wretched life, please." Salacia was not Perseus's mother's name. Perseus considers drowning the man for the mistake. The only thing holding him back was his promise to Titus not to murder a Roman citizen without Titus' permission.
Before him was a pathetic old man kneeling in blood filled water, begging for his life while Perseus stands over him with two blades. Domitian's words echo in his mind "I do not much trust the senate, Perseus, because they are liars who would sell their friends for coin". Behind him, Perseus hears senators try and fail to help Celsus's two friends out of the water. A senator Perseus does not know kneels and submerges his face in the bloodied water to kiss oxygen into his friend's mouth. Such loyalty. In one hand Perseus has Riptide, which would not harm mortal flesh, in the other he holds a cold steel dagger.
The mortal had tried to stab him with this dagger.
Perseus plunges Riptide into the Celsus' chest and pushes him backward. One, two, three steps until Perseus is able to push Riptide into the back of a wooden senate chair. Celsus has fallen silent with shock, looking at the blade passing through his chest, his arms flail as they fail to grasp the blade. Riptide may pass through mortal flesh painlessly, but Perseus can still use it to pin the man's toga to the senate chair. Perseus grabs one of the man's flailing arms. Taking the steel dagger that Celsus had tried to stab him with, Perseus cuts the senator's left arm off. It's almost surprising how easily the blade passes through flesh.
Perseus tosses the severed arm into the water. The blood spreads quickly. With a flick of his wrist, Perseus pushes Celsus' two friends up and out of the water. Three other senators surround them and pull them up as they cough and gasp for air.
"You live another day," Perseus says, pulling Riptide out of the man's chest and walking away, "Domitian, tell Titus that our deal has ended."
The water in the senate hall was up to Perseus' knees and filled with blood. He releases the water, which quickly starts to flow down the senate steps out into the square. As Perseus gets to the exit doors, he picks up his toga. It had been soaking in the bloody water and stained red. Percy drapes it over his shoulders like a cape and walks out of the building. The glowing trident above his head flickers out as he walks down the steps.
The people in the square move out of his way and bow as Perseus walks down the road to the Circus Maximus. He finds the shrine to Neptune and enters, closing the doors behind him. It is still filled with pictures of racehorses, but the central alter has a painting of Neptune and a candle on it. Perseus lights it.
In front of his father's stone alter, draped in a blood-soaked toga Percy falls to his knees and buries his head into his hands.
"Father? Can you hear me? I could really use some advice right now."
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The rain only seemed to be getting worse and neither Gaius nor Perseus had taken their cloaks to protect them from the rain. Marcella picked up the beeswax imbued cloth, grabbed her own palla, and followed after her son. As she walked through the roads of Rome, lightning flashed almost directly above her and the thunderclap that followed seemed to shake the air. For a moment Marcella thought to turn around, but she clutched the two cloaks close and continued on in the heavy rain.
A crowd had gathered around the edge of the square in front of the senate building. Only a few brave people were in the square itself. Two soldiers were picking themselves up from the edges of the square, dazed. Gaius, of course, was directly in front of the senate steps. From beyond the open doors of the senate house, Marcella could see a green glow. Marcella crossed the square toward her son, intent on dragging him away from the open space toward the shelter of the surrounding buildings.
The nearby aqueduct and the fountain in the square were both overflowing. The rain that fell on the square and the nearby streets was flowing unnaturally through the square and up the steps of the senate house like a reverse waterfall. Marcella reached her son and draped his cloak over his head and shoulders, though it did little good as her son was already soaked to the bone.
"Gaius, we should get out of the open. This storm is far too dangerous," Marcella said, trying to pull her son away from the steps. The water flowing into the senate house stopped suddenly, then reversed and flowed back down the steps.
"Perseus," Gaius said, eyes glued on the iron doors above. An unnatural greenish glow filled the square as a figure emerged from the Senate house. Perseus' eyes glowed with the same green light as the trident above his head. He wielded two blades and was draped in a red cloak. A wave of blood flowed down the senate steps, into the square below, and over Marcella's feet.
"Perseus," Gaius said again, stepping forward. Marcella reached out and grabbed her brave, stupid boy, jerking him back and out of the way. The green light flickered out and plunged the area into darkness. Marcella averted her eyes and bowed, pulling Gaius into a bow with her as Perseus marched past. This was not Perseus, the boy who cooked blue foods and laughed at silly jokes.
This was Perseus the god, and Marcella was afraid.