Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to Harry Potter or Spartacus. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am only a writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.

Chapter Eleven - Events Set In Motion

Ilithyia was enraptured at what she beheld. True to the expectations set at the time of her arrival, a series of games had been set up to honor her and her family. The arena of Capua wasn't as large, nor as grand, as some of the venues she'd patronized over the years, but its legacy was far more storied. Giants of the arena such as the Lion, Crixus the Stone Wall, Gannicus the Invincible, Oenomaus the Survivor, all had started on these sands and risen to become living legends.

Now she was watching bout after bout from a place of high honor with Gaia seated at her side. Initially the top box had also held a few dozen businessmen and local government officials, and she'd paid the proper amount of lip service to their clear jostling for favor, but once the festivities had shown signs of beginning they had all left to claim their seats. At first the blonde was curious why, but then trumpets had sounded and the two men set to open the games came onto the sands and began an intricate dance.

Leaning over to her guide, Ilithyia asked, "Whatever are those men doing?"

"Oh?" Gaia looked over the railing and started cooling her face with a richly colored feather fan. "Barca and Oreon? They are 'showing the crowd the goods' as my Harry calls it. Observe; see how they lunge, how they flex, how their muscles are perfectly oiled to catch the light? See the grace of their movements? In the House of Batiatus we recognize that the Arena is more than a mere place of bloodshed and chaos. Rather, it is a place of showmanship. A place for the mob's fantasies and deepest desires to be made manifest. The Games are power, and power must be displayed where it does the most good. What better stage for it than this? These men have trained hard for years to please the crowd; and the crowd, seeing that effort, loves them for it."

Ilithyia watched more closely, and once she finally managed to stop drooling over all of the finely displayed man-meat she saw that her companion was exactly right. The cheers of the locals had risen at least eight octaves in volume since this show had begun. Men had started beating their chests with their women ripping their clothes off with lust and excitement, and even her former supplicants' faces were turning red from screaming right along with the others.

That last piqued her interest as well, and she discovered the cause moments later as the horns sounded for the second time. With the booming nose Barca stepped into the center of the space and pointed from one important man to the next to single them out as he announced, "Capua! I dedicate this fight to you! All that I am is of you! The fine food that made me strong was bought and supplied by Citizen Antonius! My pauldrons were forged and fitted by Blacksmith Remus! The clothing that, the gods willing, I shall wear out of this arena were made and provided by Citizen Marene! And my body was trained by the House of Batiatus! My victory is for you!"

The second man made a similar speech, but Ilithyia made note that Gaia quickly lost interest in any further proceedings on the sands, instead moving over to a plate of fresh grapes. Her motions were easy and agile, and after retrieving a bushel she settled back into her cushions with greater grace than many Senator's wives that the blonde had known.

"You lose interest so soon, friend Gaia?" Ilithyia sat back down as well, but at an angle where she at least could still keep an eye on the proceedings. The fighters had retrieved their spears and were beginning to circle each other.

"I can already guess the outcome." Gaia waved a hand dismissively and the slave girl that the Roman woman had seen her guide leave at the door came up and placed a fresh goblet of wine in her fingers. The two shared a fond smile and the slave returned to her waiting position. "Barca is from the House of Batiatus, and Oreon is from the stalls of Solonius. Lessor stock, though the bastard likes to brag they are better than they truly are. Our men are trained far more efficiently, are more experienced, and have a lot more to prove."

"Prove? To whom?"

"To Harry of course. Have I not explained full thought to eager ears as yet? All of the original stock in our house purchased their own freedom some time ago; with a few minor exceptions. They stay in the Arena to show my husband that he was right to believe in them. That he was right to show them the way forward. They want to be what he is. Men above all other men. In comparison, Solonius' jackals fight only to survive; and that is why they will always fail."

"Hm." Ilithyia watched for a while, and soon picked up the minute ways that the fighters differed in ability. Yes, she'd made many a study of gladiators in their natural habitats, and she decided that her new friend was right. "Is it always Batiatus and Solonius against each other?"

Gaia shrugged. "Our city is large, but not so large as to always have equal competition at hand in times of need. As the biggest ludus's in Capua we do end up against each other in the rankings fairly often, but there's always a few upstarts from other towns who wish to test their metal against real champions. There are a few in the coming bouts that you'll see. It just worked out that this round had the matchings that it did."

"Interesting." The blonde was getting a mental picture of the real politics at play in the city and it was just so fascinating that she couldn't help putting her other worries far from her mind. In Rome, the government officials and their families were the ones that held the most sway. Yet here, it seemed those that could most meet the desires of the mob had the most power. In Capua a simple Lannista could become more powerful than a Senator in the capitol. Yes, she would remember this well, and she would make sure her father knew that he simply must spend as much time in public with his Batiatus friend as he could. A process that she was going to get a head start on by visiting their ludus at her first opportunity.

The bout ended much the way Gaia had foretold. The duo danced around each other on the field, each seeking the final blow that would see them victorious, but Barca proved the far more motivated, and his thrusts and swipes moved at paces and accuracy far exceeding the capabilities of his foe. It wasn't long before Oreon was left bleeding on the sands from a dozen fresh holes pulsing out of his body and money began changing hands to settle wagers.

Ilithyia found the outcome fascinating. "Barca could have finished the other man off right away, couldn't he have? The way he moved, I'd have expected iron to meet tender flesh in but a heartbeat."

Gaia nodded and took another delightful sip of her wine. Diona always knew how to choose the very best vintages. "Easily. But he understands that the people came here for a show, so he made sure to provide one. Keep a close eye, you'll see our other warriors act much the same way."

"It seems more risk than reward could gather."

"As my husband is fond of saying, all the world's a stage. A better showing can mean better sponsors willing to put coin to training and marketing."

And watch she did. The blonde ravenously ate up the violence, bloodshed, and pure unadulterated masculinity on display for the next two hours, and she admitted rather easily that those that hailed from the Batiatus ludus did indeed offer the best performances of the lot. And the mob seemed to love them all the more for it.

In that two hours the Roman woman learned more about the intricacies of politics than years spent under her father's tutelage. She witnessed slaves cheered as heroes. She witnessed guards who led them back to their cells booed for simply doing their jobs. She witnessed the fortunes of merchants and other sordid professionals rise and fall depending on just whose blood littered the sands at the end of each vicious bout of combat. It was a world within a world. A reality where everything that you were, and everything that you could ever be, could be elevated or utterly destroyed in a matter of seconds. It was absolutely intoxicating in a way that left her weak in the knees.

Sensing that very fact relatively easily, Gaia waited until the last primary fighter had passed, and then noted, "The festivities here are about finished, minus the final bout, but if you wanted a more 'personal' look at our wares, the ludus is always open to one of your particular esteem." All part of the plan. The more exposure Harry had to the woman, the more likely he was to make her his; and, by the gods, did Gaia want to play with this one.

Gaia grew flushed at the very notion. "Truly?"

"Oh yes, my husband would especially be excited to see more of you. I'd wager I could get him to let you watch him train too. Imagine it, my husband, sweaty and glistening in the noonday light as he beats four men at once into submission…." She trailed off with a final wink. Just as she'd hoped, her companion's face immediately grew red with heat as her mind overloaded on the image.

But before she could press that particular button further, the horns for the final conflict sounded, and the crowd roared louder than ever. The squee the blonde gave as she saw Gaia's husband take the sands was music to her ears. As was the sight of the girl's thighs pinching close. Ilithyia played the model of a proper Roman lady well, but inside, Gaia could tell, she was just as lustful in nature as she was.

That said, she recognized a faithful nymphomaniac when she saw one (it was hard not to when she got so much practice looking at herself in the mirror in her bedroom) so she elected to orchestrate every possible opportunity to expose her to her husband just as she had with her darling Lucretia. It would take a bit of time, but she vowed to make it happen. Mwahahahahaha!

Meanwhile, down on the sands, Harry had just finished providing his own show along with his public thanks to the citizens that had made his armor and sponsored his training equipment, and now he was stretching lightly as the gates opposite him began to creak open. Solonius had long since wizened up to the fact that anyone he sent to fight the Lion was bound to come back in a sack. A sad end to a long term investment. So instead, if Harry ever wanted a challenge, he had to go with a bit of creative thinking to make it happen. It was almost funny, the challenges that came with reaching the pinnacle of your occupation.

Luckily, there were always more than a few prominent citizens in Capua happy to pony up the denari to have their names associated with a fine showing. And based on the screeching he heard sounding from the shadows of the opposite enclosures… those rich fuckers had kept the practice strong. And as the fever pitch of the people reached a crescendo he finally saw what it was that his benefactors had brought for him.

Three large baboons, or small apes, it was hard to tell. But each looked crazed, hungry, and ready to tear the first thing they saw limb from limb. It just so happened that they saw him before anything else, and the moment they did the guards holding their chains lost any chance of keeping them in check.

The beasts roared with hunger, or plain aggression, it was impossible to tell, and ripped their guide chains free of the Roman's hands as they began charging toward the single warrior that awaited them.

Harry slipped his blades free of his belt and smirked as the first, the smallest and fastest of the lot, slipped the range of the others and charged at him like a bat out of hell. Swift, agile, but stupid.

Harry waited, he tensed his muscles and willed his perception of time to quicken, but he didn't dodge. No… he waited until the fist of the beast grazed his shoulder in an attempt to knock him to the ground, and used the push as momentum to spin on his opposite heel and chop back the way he came. There was a brief moment of resistance as his gladius tore through the ape's spinal cord and then the second one was on him.

This time Harry didn't dodge. No, he let the primate tackle him, losing the sword in the process, but he rolled with the blow, swept the legs out and grappled its limbs until he was on its back with his arms around its muscular throat. A hard yank, a sudden pop, and he was left facing the third as he rolled back to his feet.

This one was smarter than the others. Hunger and fear had not yet destroyed its mind, and it watched as its brethren fell, taking it all in, and circling the human as it looked for any possible weakness. In response, Harry drew his second gladius and started clanging the flat of the blade against the metal of his shin guards, baiting the beast with a smile on his face.

With no other options presenting themselves the primate charged him, but it wasn't a wild run. No, it attempted to swerve at the last second and sweep his feet out as the human had to its cohort. Harry nimbly dodged the attempt and chopped down… hard.

The ape screeched as one of its hands separated from its body, and attempted a shoulder check that the human evaded before slipping behind it and cutting free its tail. It felt a bit odd to play with his food, but a show was a show.

Now hurt, desperate, and lusting for vengeance, the animal dropped to all fours, now three, and barreled into his enemy. A move that only succeeded in one eventuality, driving the tip of Harry's weapon under its chin and into its brain. A thoughtful beast in the end, but a beast all the same.

As the people began to chant his name he pulled the gladius free, retrieved its twin, and stabbed each point-first into the center of the arena, then offered a lion's roar that shook the walls around him, and finally waved to the top box before returning through the gate he'd arrived from.

Meanwhile, Gaia was smirking at the little gasps her guest was letting out. Death and love. Carnage and lust. Combinations she knew well. Combinations that could set a soul alight with emotions it had never before known. "Come, Ilithyia. The festivities have reached their end, and I would treat you to wine up at the ludus."

"I-I had not expected an invite so soon." The noblewoman noted in a dazed voice.

Well, Gaia couldn't admit she'd been working to catch the other woman off guard on purpose could she? "Well it is not so far a trip, all things considered, and as we've sat here I could not help putting sad thoughts to the prospect of you staying in that new house all alone. Better to be amongst friends, if possible, while awaiting your vaunted father's arrival in Capua. Would you not agree?"

"O-Of course." The blonde cleared her throat self-consciously and suddenly noticed the clear signs of arousal peaking out on the surface of her silk dress top. She hurriedly crossed her arms and stood to follow her friend under the awning of the box to start their trek back to their waiting cart. As they progressed, she had to ask, "W-Why did the Lion leave his swords behind?"

"A challenge." The older woman answered simply, her keen eyes not missing for a second all the physical signs that showed the blonde had deeply appreciated what she'd seen that day. "One of the weapons will be put up for sale as a Beast Killer. My husband will make quite a profit off of its auction. The other…well, if anyone picks it up before the next Games then they'll have a chance to fight him one on one. A direct and open challenge. Many give loud voice to wild thought, but few put deed to lips to match appropriate action. That challenge is a message my husband gives to Capua every time he fights."

"What message?"

"I am here. I am undefeated. And none dare challenge me."

"Incredible." Gaia blushed as red as her dress as she climbed nimbly up into the cart and sat beside her guide. "It almost sounds as if there were not a soul alive that the Lion wouldn't flinch to match steel and deed with."

At that statement, Gaia made her first frown of the day. She waited until the cart started to roll-on to ensure what she said next would be covered by the creaking of wood and metal against stone underfoot. "There is one that my Love would choose not to fight."

Ilithyia's ears pricked up at that statement. "Truly? And who might that be?"

"Theokoles. The Albino. Years ago, when Harry first became the Champion of Capua, his friend and teacher, Oenomaus, made him promise that he would never fight the man. I believe Oenomaus wants to finish him himself, but a promise is a weighty thing for my husband. He would not break his word even should the Albino himself walk into that arena and snatch up the blade to taunt him."

"Oenomaus versus Theokoles, I believe I heard of that fight." Ilithyia nodded. "They say the Albino must be part troll, or at the very least gifted by the gods. They say no man can kill him. Perhaps Oenomaus, having barely survived his clash, warned beloved friend to keep life within body against impossible odds?"

"Perhaps. Though I think I like my idea better. But tell me, what was your favorite thing about Harry's physique?"

Ilithyia gasped playfully. "Dear Gaia, whyever would you ask that of me?" Though her mind's eye did flash back to the brief view she'd taken in of the man's muscular quads when he'd been wrestling that beast into the sand.

Gaia waited until she saw the girl's eyes glaze in heated remembrance, and then waved a hand negligently in the air. "If I know what you like, I can put thought to further training that might enhance vitality of body." She winked playfully. "And what you like, others will too, no doubt. My husband's callers will increase, along with our fortunes."

"Oh, Gaia, you truly are bad." Ilithyia laughed.

"Only as bad as my friends. And we should be friends, dear Ilithyia." She leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Friends receive 'all sorts' of extra benefits."

Meanwhile

Lucretia observed the bustling of her slaves with pride as they continued to set up a room in her villa for the arrival of their new guest. Though she was not thrilled to potentially be adding another lover to her man's life, she could not deny that Harry deserved the best of everything as a matter of principle. So of course a Roman noble was fair game.

She sighed and crossed her arms as she turned her attention to the men below continuing to run their drills. She also knew that after the massive setback last week he needed an emotional boost as well. Harry had explained to her how volatile gunpowder was, but she couldn't have guessed that a random spark would be all it would take to set half the weapon factory ablaze. When all was said and done they had only managed to save a handful of cannons and three hundred rifles. The melee weapons were hardier and the hoard of their finished products had survived mostly intact since the bulk of them had been stored in a neighboring shed, rather than the main facility. The workers were busy making more ranged weapons, but it was an incredibly labor intensive process.

Perhaps some new flesh would ease her lover's pain. And perhaps sharing that flesh would make Gaia happy. Oh how she wished with all of her being to make them both happy. And with Quintus gone for the next few days yet, they would have the place all to themselves….

Her hands fell to her stomach then and a soft smile came to her face. She wasn't sure yet. Not one hundred percent, as her Harry would say. But she had just missed the window in which certain bodily functions normally took place. Would he be happy when he found out? She hoped he would. But more than that, she prayed that the sign he was waiting for to begin his war would arrive before the birth. For one way or another events would occur to take the choice out of his hands.

Harry, she knew, would never let another man take on the role of a father for his child. So Quintus would have to die; and with him, the myth of a loyal gladiator that served.

The era of conquest was coming; and with it, the world tearing asunder. It would be a sight that she believed would marvel even the knowing eyes of the gods.