#kings of the subura

[labeteenmoi]

Kings of the Subura

Part 2

Fandom : Those About To Die

Pairing : Tenax x OC

Warnings : Mentions of violence, rape and slavery

Summary : Wavering feelings and power teachings

Note : if you want to be tagged for the next chapter, just raise your finger

The bell rang.

“The race is on! Bets are over!” the man behind the counter shouted as he closed the jar filled with betting odds amid protests from the latecomers.

Another chariots race Tenax already knew the results of. He didn't even have to fix it anymore; he had the greatest power in the Subura: information. Tenax knew all there was to know about anything race related: who runs for money, who runs for glory, who runs for life. He also knew about all the power struggles involved: who owed who, who owned who, who fucked who. Incidentally, what the horses ate for breakfast and how much quality shit they had had mattered too, and he knew that too.

However, all that power, his pride and joy, mattered a little less lately. As he was distractively watching the chariots enter their second lap in a cloud of dust as they passed in front of the stable’s door, his mind shifted to the creature that roamed his house like a caged tiger, yearning for freedom, or at least for a hint of it in the streets of Rome, something he had always denied her.

Almost a month had passed since he had brought her home and the least he could say was that this woman’s pride was beyond imagination. No matter how good the care and security he provided to her, she resisted fiercely and that was probably the very reason she was growing on him. He liked it, her irrepressible spirit of rebellion—not in deed, she did what she was told, but her attitude was untamed, her eyes insolent, her repartee sharp on the rare occasions she bothered to answer him. Briga was far from purring while rubbing against his leg — she still seemed constantly tense, on alert, watching his every move whenever he got too close to her, but Tenax could see a change in the way she looked at him, a formal coldness had slowly replaced the ostentatious hatred she used to address him, and sometimes, he could swear, there was even a hint of curiosity.

It was only in the quiet, soothing moment of Claudia's bath that she seemed to find real comfort. The occasional glances he threw at her at that moment, a moment far too tempting for him to constantly be able to hold back, gave him the opportunity to witness a few rare moments when she let her animal sensuality express itself. In the incandescent darkness of that room, she looked something like a snake, undulating and glistening. Then she would see him and stare as if she had spotted a prey; fascinatingly deadly.

What never ceased to amaze him was how oblivious she seemed to all of this, oblivious to this aura of danger that emanated from her, unconscious to the attraction she exerted on him. Either she had no clue, or he was extremely good at hiding it. Anyway, it could be of use for his business. Not that it was his plan all along, he wasn't the kind of man to do things on a whim usually, except when it came to her apparently. Tenax could recognize an opportunity when he saw one.

The last silver fish tipped over to a cheer from the crowd announcing the final lap. Tenax's eyes widened in the ray of sunlight that streamed through the door's skylights as if suddenly coming to. The rider of the blue faction, Scorpus, had taken the lead, as usual. He didn't seem very happy about it though, whipping his horses with rage.

Tenax didn't linger after the race ended that day, each time a little less than the last. His home had gained in appeal lately, in a way, he wanted to return there more and more as the days went by.

At this twilight hour, it was bath time, so it was not surprising to find the first rooms empty. However, the quiet of the place struck him as soon as he passed through the door. No light came from the kitchen which was unusual, and the slight whispers of Claudia and Briga's conversations in the bathroom were muted.

Tenax stiffened, moving cautiously towards his room. He pushed the door open wide with a slight creak. The air that reached his face was thick, loaded with humidity and floral scents. Someone had indeed used the bathroom but as he moved a little further into his bedroom he saw the bathroom was empty.

When he turned again, peering into the darkness at the back of his room, a movement of air made the hair on the back of his head stand on end, immediately followed by the cold contact of a blade on the side of his neck. He froze for a couple of decisive seconds. Gritting his teeth angrily, he suddenly stepped back, hitting hardly the body of his assailant that he carried in his momentum against the wall behind him. The knife bearer let out a slight hoarse gasp under the heavy shock. Tenax immediately realized that this body was much lighter than he had anticipated. It was her, of course. He turned around quickly, pushing aside the hand that held the blade with one arm and grabbed the slave's neck, who didn't seem surprised.

"What are you doing?" he growled sharply.

Briga grabbed the hand on her neck.

"...You should have knocked." she muttered sarcastically under her breath.

Tenax took a breath, trying to calm down a little. He loosened his grip on her throat just enough to let her gulp.

"Drop the knife now." he snapped with a hint of worry in his wide opened blue eyes.

Her eyes narrowed as she formed a slight smirk before letting go, the kitchen knife fell heavily to the floor with a loud clatter.

Tenax sighted lightly, she could have pressed a little harder on that knife if she had really wanted to, cut just a bit at this exact point of his neck and he would have bled to death at her feet no matter how quickly he had reacted. She knew how to kill, now he knew, and it could be useful in the future, well, since she had chosen not to end his life on the spot of course. He should have felt dread but instead, he felt somehow aroused. The aftermath of gambling with his life when the odds seemed quite off. Suddenly, his thoughts interrupted: something on his peripheral vision seemed strange, there was way too much skin.

Lowering his face, his eyes fell on a damp chest to which were stuck soaked strands of her black hair that heaved with each deep breath she made. He moved away a little, realizing that he was still pressing his all body against her, and then saw her stomach and further down, her legs; she was naked and still wet. Tenax's hard gaze faded little by little, as it travelled the firm contours of her body.

The fine grain of her skin, tanned no doubt by the sun of her native province, appeared clearly to him now that he saw it so close. Claudia's care had borne fruit; she was immaculate, as if she had never been bruised. Despite the dizziness of such a magnetic vision, he began to feel observed and suddenly raised his head and met her piercing gaze. Briga was indeed watching him in silence, without any sign of embarrassment at being thus exposed to Tenax's eyes, without any sign of aggression despite his proximity and the contact of his hand on her neck, the elbow of which grazed the tip of her breast. She was too busy scrutinizing his reactions to her nudity to care much.

Briga still didn't know if she could trust him and somehow, she needed to prove to herself that he was just like these others perverted men who caused all her troubles. She needed to confront and kill this increasing attachment feeling he had awakened in her over the weeks she had spent with him. She had seen his haunted eyes when he thought he was alone in the room, the inner struggles he sometimes seemed to have when coming home. She had heard the screams at night, his wanders in the darkness of the apartment trying to catch his breath. He had secrets and dark thoughts that usually seemed to disappear as soon as he laid eyes on her. Do vile men ever feel remorse?

Maybe he was different after all, and that mere thought was enough to make her mad. More than once, she had trusted a Roman only to be painfully played in the end, how could she still be so naive? So, she often looked on his face for the same scornful looks that she had seen on the faces of her Roman delinquents. His occasional, not-so-accidental glances while she was taking her bath couldn't be that innocent.

Tenax suddenly had the feeling he was somehow being put to the test. That was some vicious way but certainly the most effective one, clever girl. He did want to feel more than just her neck under his hands, he wanted to smell these scents of rose oil all over her body which turned out to be all the more intoxicating once applied to her skin, to kiss her lips, but above all, he wanted her to want it too. He was closer than ever. So close, and yet, that enticing creature was expecting to see him losing control. He would hate not to disappoint.

He raised his head in a controlled inhale, hardening his expression.

"Where is Claudia?" he curtly asked, closing a little harder his hand on her neck.

She startled slightly, blinking at the pressure.

"She’s resting," she let out looking him straight in the eyes, "she felt ill.”

Tenax sustained her look, he wasn’t sure she was telling the truth. After all, she had just reminded him that she wasn’t as harmless to him as she had let him believe lately. He searched her face for any signs of a shifty glance but saw none, she seemed sincere enough to reassure him. He asked more calmly:

"Where is she?"

"In the guests room."

As she had answered in a soft voice, veiled by the pressure on her trachea, his eyes had landed on her lips. She talked so rarely that he had barely ever seen them moving. Fleshy velvety dark-rosed lips that never smiled, only sometimes grinned disdainfully at him when not firmly shut. But now they were parting slightly under his sudden hypnotized glance. Briefly looking up, he saw a glimpse of confusion in her eyes as she witnessed his softening mood, felt her breathing becoming barely perceptible under his hand but her pulse quickening.

Strangely, his own pulse caught the same rhythm as hers. A warm sensation invaded his own chest, a shiver ran up on his skin and before he knew it his hand was no longer holding her neck but simply laying on her collarbones, still held by hers.

It was as if time had frozen, the surroundings had disappeared, and they were all alone in the middle of an undefined mist. Their gazes travelling over their faces, he slowly leaned in, uncontrollably attracted towards her mouth that trembled a little at his approach when, suddenly, the walls of the apartment began to shake from violent blows.

Tenax and Briga opened their eyes wide in surprise, abruptly emerging from whatever spell they were under. The knocking started again, someone was banging on the apartment door with their fists and shouting "Tenax!! I know you're here!"

Tenax suddenly turned his head towards the door behind him:

"Scorpus!" he breathed shortly. "Get dressed," he addressed Briga eagerly.

She took a few seconds to react, her mind still foggy from what had just happened, then hurriedly grabbed the dress lying on the bed. Tenax opened the door without waiting and at the same time Scorpus burst into the apartment in front of a dazed Claudia who had rushed from the corridor.

With a quick glance, the man caught a glimpse of bare legs in the half-open bedroom door as Tenax was closing it.

"Scorpus! What's going on, my friend?" Tenax said hurriedly, opening his arms wide to the newcomer with a faked smile, pretending to ignore his rudeness.

The man had stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the closed door behind Tenax with a disconcerted look, before looking back at his host who was advancing. He seemed to regain his senses and pointed an accusing finger under the latter's nose:

"Where's my money?" he barked.

"Scorpus, I warned you not to bet on the lap," Tenax sighed, "the white faction has been running new horses that are younger than yours..."

"What?!" Scorpus shouted indignantly, "You didn't tell me anything!" he bellowed.

"Of course I did, you were probably still drunk…" Tenax retorted, shaking his head in disapproval.

The man sighed heavily, ostentatiously rubbing his eyes in disappointment. He looked up at the closed bedroom door, holding his hips, and seemed to ruminate for a few moments before fuming loudly:

"I lost big on that, Tenax!"

Tenax approached him, opening his arms again in a gesture of comfort as the man cast furtive glances at the door. Ignoring his friend’s approach, he kept on:

“And who’s in your room there?” he asked suspiciously, pointing toward the bedroom.

"Nobody." Tenax hastened to answer as innocently as possible.

Scorpus wasn’t listening, he walked around Tenax who didn't have time to hold him back, and pushed the door open, revealing Briga inside who suddenly sat up. Seeing that she had had time to get dressed, Tenax let out a discreet sigh of relief.

The newcomer stared at her for a few moments, stunned, while Briga, motionless, gave him a stone-hard look.

"Who are you?" he finally asked, visibly intrigued.

Briga remained unmoved, eyeing the visitor up and down.

Scorpus tilted his head, seemingly offended by the girl's silence.

"Who is she?" he insisted to Tenax behind him.

"No one," he sighed as he stamped his feet on the ground, "just… a slave..."

"A slave!" Scorpus exclaimed, a smile growing on his lips. He looked back at the girl, ogling her without shame. "What's your name?"

Silence still as the only answer, the man was starting to look seriously upset.

"Briga is her name, and she won't answer you..." Tenax intervened.

"Why? She can't talk?" he asked curiously before returning his interested gaze to the girl. "I bet this pretty mouth can do other things though..." he mumbled to Briga, whose eyes narrowed in return in a murderous glare.

Tenax heard it too and rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Because she hates you, Scorpus. She hates all of us, don't take it personally." he sighed heavily, shooting a complicit grin at Briga whose fierce eyes oscillated between him and the visitor. It had been a while since Tenax hadn’t seen such a fierce look on her face, he could tell a cold anger was slowly rising in her, her knuckles were turning white.

Scorpus stamped his feet, hesitantly waving his body towards Briga but held back in the face of the hostility emanating from her.

"No one hates Scorpus, I'm not a fucking Roman." He retorted in a mock-outraged tone, ostensibly giving her a smile of the kind he usually gave to his future conquests. Nothing seemed to stop this rake in front of a beautiful woman.

The thought of the knife left on his bedroom floor crossed his mind; Tenax started to fear for his friend’s life if Briga ever remembered it as well.

“What else can I do for you, my friend?” he cut in impatiently, loud enough to catch both their attention.

“Oh, well…” Scorpus mumbled, trying to stall for time before being openly dismissed from the place, “you’re not going to help me, then?”

"There's nothing more I can do Scorpus…"

"You should take her to the races one of these days," Scorpus unexpectedly eluded, "I'm sure she'd appreciate seeing the great Scorpus at work!"

He puffed out his chest, a display that still didn't seem to impress Briga whose gaze had not softened one bit.

"Or else you introduce her to your debtors, Tenax, if she looks at them long enough like that, they'll quickly settle their debts!" Scorpus noisily laughed.

Tenax chuckled. Of course he had thought of it, he had realized her silent hard looking presence could indeed have a certain power of persuasion. Surely others besides him could perceive this feeling of danger that her attitude gave off, Scorpus did seem to feel it as well or he would have been closer to her already, Tenax believed.

“I’ll consider it Scorpus,” he answered, “now I have things to do.” He concluded firmly, tilting his head towards the door.

Scorpus bit his lip in frustration, nodding at Briga with a salacious look.

“Of course, my friend!" he eventually gasped, "I’ll see you at the Circus in three days!”

Slowly stepping back without taking his eyes off her, he added with a wink:

“See you soon, Briga…”

Tenax accompanied him through the entrance door, holding his breath for any new try at poking at his slave. Scorpus passed the door but suddenly turned back and whispered in his face with a dubious look:

“What were you doing in there with her?”

"Goodbye, Scorpus" he replied with a contented smile, closing the door in his face.

Tenax held the door for a little longer, taking some time to recollect his thoughts. Finally turning around, he caught eyes with Claudia, holding her hands together in a confused expression.

"I’m sorry, Master, I…"

"I know." Tenax interrupted gently, "Are you feeling better now?"

"Hum… yes, thank you, Master."

He glimpsed at Briga, just long enough to see her staring into the void, when Claudia kept on:

"I’ll prepare supper right away, Master. Briga, please come, child." She called in a still sleepy hoarse voice.

Her name came to her as a distant sound in the air, only after some instants she seemed to have heard it and raised a confounded face to see Claudia and Tenax looking at her in puzzlement.

The way this man had looked at her had shaken her core. All these weeks locked in the security of Tenax’s apartment almost made her forget what it was like to be preyed upon like this, submitted to the depraved eyes of men willing to abuse her.

Regaining her senses, she saw concern in Tenax’s eyes, and it reminded her that she could breathe, he was there. Swiftly seized by the soft and warm sensation of being so close to him only instants before, for a mere instant she wished he was holding her again, leaving her all the more stunned.

"Briga?" Claudia called gently.

She shook her head and walked across the room quickly at the renewed call, unconsciously avoiding all the eyes on her; a confusion that first left Tenax speechless. It seemed so unlike her to appear overwhelmed like that and something told him it wasn't just about him and the unexpected letting go they had experienced a few minutes before. In some way it was bothering him and that was so unlike him.

Briga had eaten with Claudia in the kitchen as usual, mostly in silence from what Tenax had perceived from his sit at the table, only to reappear in front of him for the sole purpose of clearing the table. He tried to cross her eyes that she seemed to avoid.

"That will be all Claudia, you go rest home, the cleaning can wait." He announced suddenly, staring at Briga who finally met his eyes with a hint of suspicion; it was unusual for him to send her home so soon.

Briga immediately stopped and waited by the table in silence, staring at Tenax, both wary and curious about what would happen once Claudia left. When she did, the heavy silence between them lasted for a moment until Tenax calmly ordered:

"Sit. Please."

Please? That was new and rather intriguing to her. She was more used to him showing who the master was than that. Further arousing her curiosity, she complied and took a place at the table in front of him, keeping her hands on her lap and her eyes firmly locked on his.

He took a slow sip of wine, pondering how to address the elephant in the room.

"You didn't like the way Scorpus looked at you." Tenax finally let out.

Briga took a breath.

"I've seen this filthfy look on Roman's faces before." she bitterly said, thinking back to what these men had done to her.

Tenax nodded slightly, showing he knew well what she was referring to.

"Hmm… You see, I’ve learned in the streets that rage arises from fear, it’s like a defence mechanism. As impressive as your rage mays appear at first sight, it mostly reveals weakness."

She slowly tilted her head and intensely glared at him, unsure to appreciate the direction Tenax was taking there.

He softly smiled at her expected reaction; calling her weak and getting away with it was probably a privilege all his own and he certainly appreciated the sensation it provided. But beyond that, he mostly wanted her to understand his point, it was key to the purpose he aimed for. So, he resumed, calmly but more firmly than before, imposing her to listen through.

"When men look at you like Scorpus did, it means they covet you and that, Briga, gives you power; the power to either refuse… or accept, at your own terms. In my world, that is called an opportunity. You could use that to get what you want. You could use them..."

"Refuse or accept?" she interrupted sharply with an ironic frown, his voice almost hissing, "As when you have the choice? What power do you have when you are held by both arms… or chained?"

For a split second Tenax felt his mind on the verge of wandering; finally, there was a chink in her impenetrable armour, willingly giving away an ounce of what might have happened to her. He felt the urge to know more, but now was not the time, so in a controlled inhale he simply nodded thoughtfully, holding her stare with a surprising intensity:

"We are all bound to something."

Briga narrowed her eyes, wondering in what way could a man like him ever feel restrained. It just then occurred to her that outside these walls she did not know anything about him. She didn’t know much about him even inside these walls for that matter.

She observed him silently for some time. Being used by people, using other people… This would have never occurred to her before, not in the simple life she used to have back in Lusitania. But now she was in Rome, very far from her home, her way and her life. Adapting may well be her only way out of there someday.

"So, does that mean… I could use you?" she finally addressed him, biting her lip in an equivocal way.

She was getting it. Tenax rejoiced inwardly. He grinned back and playfully answered:

"You are free to try."

"Am I? You do want something from me… but you’ve never looked at me like that." Briga dared, eyeing him up and down ostentatiously. There was indeed a shift in the balance of power between her and Tenax, she could feel it now; something about domination that felt quite pleasant.

Tenax straightened up imperceptibly, a contented pout on his face. He knew the feeling that Briga was displaying, maybe a little too much. She still had a lot to learn though, he had to put her back in her place. He stared deeply in his slave’s eyes and softly said :

"Hmm…Well, that must be because I don’t covet what I already own."

[egocentered]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Those About to Die (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con Relationships: Tenax (Those About to Die)/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Tenax (Those About to Die), Claudia (Those About to Die), Original Female Character(s) Additional Tags: Romance, Slavery, Sexual Content, Ancient Rome Summary:

What made him wander around the slave market that day, he could not say. Somehow, a dark and bruised human form caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

"Now this one should be firmly handled for she’s kind of a wildling," the slave merchant loudly claimed as he pushed the girl to the front of the stage in a rattle of chains, "beware of your throats! "

Tenax hold his stance as the lean creature rose in front of a suddenly quiet crowd. Chained both at her wrists and feet, her black dishevelled long hair hardly dissimulated the bruises and swellings on the tanned skin of her face; and the ripped dress could not cover the shades of purple marks on her arms and thighs, and yet, there she stood tall and proud, glancing at the crowd with a ferocious disdain in her clear eyes.

[wewererogue]

Tropes: The City Narrows

[by TV Tropes, beware of links!]

Every town in the multiverse has a part that is something like Ankh-Morpork’s Shades. It’s usually the oldest part, its lanes faithfully following the original tracks of medieval cows going down to the river, and they have names like the Shambles, the Rookery, Sniggs Alley… Most of Ankh-Morpork is like that in any case. But the Shades is even more so, a sort of black hole of bred-in-the-brickwork lawlessness. Put it like this—even the criminals were afraid to walk the streets. The Watch didn’t set foot in it.

— Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

In the setting of a large sprawling Metropolis, there is always a certain spot that contains the dark side of city life. It will be the place where the police rarely tread and where those who attend to certain unsavory professions rely on their own methods of protection. It will have its own nickname from the locals, it may even be marked out on the official map. Its level of actual malice may vary; it could be a terrifying, silent place where the protagonist is in constant danger for each moment that they spend in this dark corner, or it could be a rather lively and cheerful area with an active Black Market that forms an actual market and where gamblers, whores and dealers collect for decadent revelry. The latter is more common when The City Narrows are the Not-So-Safe Harbor district and are thus filled with pirates’ and sailors’ entertainment in levels that would make Frank Miller blush.

It will also manage to be made entirely of back alleys that seem to only back onto more back alleys. It is basically the back alley of the entire city which is what distinguishes it from the Wretched Hive: the Wretched Hive is an entire locale of crime and vice but the City Narrows is the subsection of the city that you can accidentally wander into from the nice side, if you walk too far along the Wrong Side of the Tracks (however, as in the above example of Ankh Morpork, a Wretched Hive may have a Narrows area if the subsection manages to be even worse than the rest). So you can expect plenty of “What’s a nice girl like you doing here then?”

A subtrope of Wretched Hive and Wrong Side of the Tracks. It is Truth in Television to a degree; that degree being how much you can tell the inhabitants of a real life version of this trope that they live in their city’s arse end and not be given a Glasgow Grin.

Night at the Subura by Milek Jakubiec

Examples (a selection)

The Narrows of Batman’s Gotham City also appears in abundance in The Dark Knight Saga.

Suicide Slum in Metropolis, from Superman

Hell’s Kitchen, NYC, had this reputation in real life; consequently, it serves this purpose in the Marvel Verse.

Sin City: Even as scary as the rest of Basin “Sin” City is, The Projects are the scariest parts.

Judge Dredd: Sector 301, dubbed “The Pit”, had a reputation as the most crime-ridden area of Mega-City One.

Five Points was this in Gangs of New York, as well as in Real Life, in the 19th century.

The Shades of Ankh-Morpork on the Discworld.

Thieves’ World, the shared world fantasy series created by Robert Lynn Asprin, has the Maze in the city of Sanctuary.

Knockturn Alley in the Harry Potter books. It’s the place where the stores sell artifacts of doom instead of normal magical artifacts.

In Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian story “Rogues in the House”, the Maze.

King’s Landing in A Song of Ice and Fire has Flea Bottom. Never, ever enquire too hard as to what goes into the bowls of brown served there.

The Cauldron of Camorr, in The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Brown Sector, commonly referred to as Downbelow, on Babylon 5.

The Court of Miracles in The Musketeers, which is ruled by the King of Thieves. So called because when lame and blind beggers return to the Court, they’re “miraculously” cured. The Cour des Miracles was a real area in Paris named for that reason.

Shadowrun: The Redmond Barrens of Seattle (which even have a mall that is one gigantic black market), the Shattergraves of Chicago, and the Aurora Warrens in Denver.

In Planescape, the city of Sigil has the Hive, one big lawless slum where criminals, anarchists, death-worshipers, and demons fight for control.

The Slums district of Amn in Baldur’s Gate II, home base of the Thieves’ Guild, full of beggars.

In Dragon Age: Origins, Dust Town in Orzammar is regarded as a breeding ground for Casteless, criminals and the outcast members of Dwarven society.

In Mass Effect, the worst parts of the Lower Wards on the Citadel are implied to be like this.

[source] (43)

[ducavalentinos]

“Caesar was born and raised in the Subura neighbordhood of Rome, just a short walk from the Forum. The area was an odd choice for Aurelia and her husband of the noble Julian clan. The Subura district was a lower-class neighborhood in a small valley known for tradesmen, prostitutes, and foreign residents, including many Jews. It’s likely, in spite of new family connections, that Caesar’s parents lacked the money needed for a home on the fashionable Palatine Hill. Since Caesar lived in his family house in the Subura for over thirty years, he must have gained a familiarity with the rough-and-tumble life of the Roman streets that few of his upper-class peers could have known. His later populist politics may in fact be due to his childhood friends and surroundings as much as political opportunism. Whatever the reasons for his family’s long residence in the grimy Subura, it created in Caesar a unique individual —a patrician descendant from kings who knew intimately the lives and sorrows of commons Romans.”

Philip Freeman - Julius Caesar

[labeteenmoi]

Kings of the Subura

Part 3

Fandom : Those About To Die

Pairing : Tenax x OC

Warnings : explicit sexual content, violence mentions, alcohol abuse

Summary : The perfect date ;)

Tagging the beloved readers @pckji @somebirdortheother and @darkrose33

Notes : if you want to be tagged for the next chapter, just hit me

In the now well installed night, Tenax’s appartment was plunged in darkness, only the faint moonlight rays allowed to see where to put your feet to reach the long wooden table.

That's where she headed, mechanically, distantly hearing Tenax closing the entrance door behind her. Her mind lightly fogged by the wine, Briga felt his eyes on her back, his footsteps following her and his breath’s increasing intensity as he got closer. She turned around and was taken aback by his immediate proximity, more than she had perceived.

Tenax was only contours in the darkness, and a lunar flickering glow in the eyes that were leaning in on her. She barely had time to hold a breath in as his lips landed on hers.

That had been quite an interesting day.

That morning, as soon as Briga had joined Claudia and his master in the kitchen, he had declared:

"Claudia, please braid her hair. We’re going to the races."

Tenax held back a smile while observing Briga’s reaction, almost as well as she held back her thrill.

Four days and four nights had passed since the last race and just as much time following the other's actions out of the corner of their eyes, as if nothing had happened and yet, something had changed in the way they looked at each other. A curious tension was growing between them, and Tenax's discussion about the balance of power was not unrelated to it: each tried to keep the upper hand on the other, both in denial the obvious attraction.

He held his breath when Claudia brought her back, dressed like he'd never seen her before. She wore a sober grey dress but made of a thin and flowing good quality fabric that enveloped her silhouette lightly, making her appear even more slender; and a long, soft braid rested on her shoulder, falling to her waist. Her dark hair thus disciplined gave her a wise and serious air, but her smooth tanned face with its cold pale green gaze made her seem inaccessible, severe. This pleased him, very much. Above all, he liked that her appearance hid so well the ferocity that slumbered within her.

"Let’s go." He finally let out in a controlled exhale, forcing himself to take his eyes off her.

She followed him down the stairs, barely breathing, trying to refrain the excitement of finally seeing the sun and the sky wide open over her head, so concentrated that she almost bumped into Tenax when he suddenly stopped in his tracks when reaching the last door separating them from the outside, and turned around.

She looked up at him, surprised. There was a vague concern in his eyes that seemed to search her face for the words he wanted to say.

He hesitated. Was it safe to let her out, wouldn’t she just disappear at the first corner of the crowded streets. Should he impose his authority, threaten her as to keep her close. But when he saw a look of sincere disappointment growing on her face, he changed his mind and turned around, finally opening the door.

She followed his steps outside and stopped. Intense golden rays of sunlight of the late morning fell upon her and Tenax realized that was all she was longing for, to revel in the warm and comforting light. So, he waited for her to have her fill, watching her face raised to the sky with closed eyes, her skin seemed suddenly made of gold.

She had almost forgotten where she was, bathing in the soothing light of the sun. When she regained her senses with a deep breath, Briga saw Tenax staring at her intensely.

"I’m ready." She said, a slightly amused pout on her lips.

Tenax cleared his throat for good measure and continued his way without a word, leading her through the streets of the Subura.

She had never seen so many people in only one place, crossing paths and saluting each other; children running through their legs, dogs barking, merchants shouting, smokes and smells of food, sweat and flowers. A joyful chaos that respectfully parted on Tenax’s way, like a king honouring his grateful subjects of his presence. She followed right behind him for a while but as the crowd got denser, he slowed down to let her reach his side.

He sometimes commented the streets and tall monuments they crossed, and she would silently watch and listen with an unmoved expression.

They reached a large dim-lighted tavern. Like most of the streets they had been through, it seemed as if the place had been built in the basements of the city, like an anthill in the ground that only reaches the surface and the light of day through a few rare interstices. This one was in the shadow of the impressive Circus Maximus, a construction so large she could only have a glimpse of it from the outside.

"This is my betting tavern, the largest one in Rome." said Tenax with a proud smile, waving his hands as if he were making the place appear by magic.

He would have liked to see at least a hint of admiration appear on her face, but she remained stony. With a resigned pout, he took her to a table where several large men were eating and talking loudly; at their approach they became promptly silent.

"This is Briga, she works for me." Tenax declared with authority. They all nodded respectfully while eyeing her with curiosity. "Take a seat," he added to her intention, "I have some matters to discuss."

As he left her there and headed to the betting counter on the other side of a used brownish curtain, she turned to the men that kept watching her in silence while chewing on their food. Surely, knowing that they shared the same master prevented them of showing any kind of disrespect. She did appreciate that Tenax did not mention her as his slave, a fair gesture that somewhat made her feel at ease while she glared back at them.

After a few moments of intense mutual gauging, some stares becoming wary, others warming up; a tall, bald man gathered some bread and fruits onto a plate and pretended to hand it to her before placing it on the table next to him. She observed his gestures and as he waited, she nodded slightly before taking place at the table as silently as a cat and eating a few grapes.

"Wine?" asked the bald man while lifting a jug.

He had a little defiant air this time, a small, amused smile lifting the corner of his lips and hold still as if waiting for a particular answer.

"Yes." Briga finally let out with narrowed eyes.

"She talks!" happily let out one of the men.

His peers chuckled in unison before resuming their conversations as the man poured her the wine.

After a moment, Tenax popped out from behind the curtain and tilted his head in surprise at seeing her sipping on a glass, installed at the table with his men as if they had been long time acquaintances. He approached behind her and grabbed a slice of apple from her plate, hovering over her shoulder. She froze instantly, feeling him against her back, his arm almost closing on her chest as he picked the fruit. Such proximity felt strangely intimate, and the men next to her seemed to have the same feeling from their equivocal grins as they watched their master’s move. He had done it again, giving her some confidence before tauntingly taking it back. It felt amusingly annoying to her but she kept it to herself with the straightest face she could summon.

He stood-up, biting the apple with an amused grin, faking innocence in his intentions.

"Don’t you have anything else to do that would be worth my money?" he called out ironically to his grinning men.

How strange this degree of loyalty from all the people that surrounded Tenax, she thought. All of them had stood up like one, with no objection nor annoyed sigh on their lips, and left the room on the instant. Perhaps if he paid her, she would act the same way.

"Is the wine good?" he asked with a smirk.

"I’ve had better." She daringly answered while taking another sip.

Tenax chuckled: "Good enough for what it’s for, though."

Indeed, it was. It was suspiciously spicy on the tongue but with a sweet aftertaste, it didn't take a whole glass to start feeling her head and eyelids a little heavier. It reminded her that it had been a while since she hadn’t drunk wine, making it even more intoxicating.

"Come, I have matters to see at the stables before the race starts." He ordered, however reaching out his hand to help her up.

Briga’s eyes oscillated between the hand and his face with a discrete interrogative air, wondering if he could see that her senses were getting a bit numb, and chose to ignore his help with a defiant glare. She could play too after all. He snickered briefly at the attitude but seemed more amused than annoyed.

The stables were even more plunged in the darkness than the tavern, and the heavy smell left no doubt to where they were. Her master took her inside what he called the blue faction one and left her in front of the first box where a beautiful brown stallion was nibling on some hay, while he attended to whatever business he had there again, disappearing in the depths of it.

As she approached the box, the horse lifted his head when suddenly a familiar voice raised behind her:

"That is a beautiful beast, don’t you think?"

Scorpus. She rolled her eyes but didn't turn away from the animal.

The man came closer, speaking softer as he advanced:

"It’s heavy but fast… and powerful!... Do you want to touch it?" he added, his tone heavy with innuendo as he reached her side, eyeing her silhouette with a malicious grin.

His eyes suddenly lit up when she turned her head to him.

"You!" He searched his memory for a few seconds. "Briga! I’m happy to see you!"

His enthusiasm was quite disturbing to say the least. Despite the salacious words he had addressed her, he seemed a bit different than the first time she met him. He looked refreshed, wearing a clean blue toga under a leather breastplate with white pants, and smelled good. His wide smile reached his eyes, giving him an air of sincere sympathy. She even found him attractive, and for that, she blamed the wine.

"You couldn’t wait to see the great Scorpus, right?" he bragged.

She took her thoughts back; there he was, the one she had previously met.

"Are you all by yourself?" he questioned, tilting his head, getting closer to Briga.

"No." she retorted coldly, overtly turning her eyes away from him.

"Oh… Where’s your master, then?" he almost whispered in her ear with a hint of disappointment.

She winced at the mention of her status of slave, he was probably the last person she had wanted aware of that, he had showed a bit too much interest in it when he had learned.

Then she recalled Tenax’s words about how her impulsive aggressive reactions could undermine her in the eyes of others, and it provided her enough determination not to recoil at his closeness while calmly looking at him in the eye.

"He’s looking for you." She lied, implying that he was nearby in any case.

Scorpus’ smile turned slightly bitter.

"Yeah… it’s a shame I can’t take care of you right now…" he murmured, his eyes conspicuously landing on the neckline of her dress. "But come see me after I win the race, beautiful." He added, gently grabbing her waist and pulling her against him with both hands. She repressed a flinch at his touch.

"Why would I do that?" she sighed back, fighting the urge to extract herself from his grip.

His eyes fluttered at her words and his smile widened seductively: "Because… I know what you want…"

Her look turned a little lascivious. His face was so close to hers that their lips almost touched.

"Do you, now?... Charioteer…" Briga sough with a touch of scorn in her voice.

Scorpus snorted in surprise. What was with that tone of hers? He was the great Scorpus, the faster and most skilled there had ever been in Rome, not just any charioteer. How dared a mere slave talk to him down like that? For once he was left speechless, his frowned look flickering between indignation and dazzle at such effrontery.

Finally receding, his now irritated expression seemed to announce a scathing retort, but a loud voice cut him short.

"Scorpus!" shouted Tenax from the other end of the stables, "Shouldn’t you be at the weigh-in by now?"

Scorpus sighed heavily, biting his lip with an irate look at Briga who remained impassive, trying her best not to show her relief.

"I'm not done with you, slave." he grumbled, shaking his head grimly. "Well, I’m here, aren’t I?" he bawled suddenly at Tenax while moving towards him.

"You always liked to make yourself desired…" sneered Tenax with a sarcastic smile.

"Were’s the entertainment in races without me anyway?" Scorpus playfully reacted.

As he reached Tenax, he took a quick back glance at Briga who was petting the horse.

"You’ve brought your pet, I see." He maliciously whispered to Tenax who displayed a forced smile in return, "I preferred her when she didn't speak…" he bitterly grunted as he left.

A burst of pride made Tenax smile as he looked at Briga in the distance; Scorpus wasn’t easy to turn down for he had unfailing self-confidence; which usually really impressed the ladies. But from what he had seen, his friend's ego must have taken a hit, probably even more hurtful coming from a slave.

It was with that same smile that he joined her. She expected to receive some kind of reprimand, not knowing exactly what Scorpus had said to him.

"Let's go see the Circus now!" he announced cheerfully.

Her hard gaze softened then; she even sketched a smile for the first time. If he had known, Tenax would have offered her wine much sooner.

One must be at the higher places to grasp all the splendour of such building as the Circus Maximus was. The race was about to start. Already the drums and cornets were sounding to order the spectators to take their places before the emperor Flavius Vespasianus arrived in the arena to bless the spectacle.

As they took their seats in the last, uncrowded row, Briga looked around the entire perimeter of the magnificent structure. To her amazement, the building seemed even larger from the inside, immense and powerful from the hubbub of so many people in one place.

"Finally, you are impressed!" chuckled softly Tenax at her.

She gasped with a soft grin: " You Romans are not afraid of excess, for sure."

"There is the emperor, look." He declared, pointing his finger at the balcony where a distant, white-dressed figure appeared under cheers of the crowd.

"Small." She ironically commented, at what Tenax openly cackled.

"It must be why they all build such tall monuments, something to compensate for…" he joked, and she smiled so widely that her cheeks revealed dimples that Tenax had not known existed until then. Her gaze was transformed, bright and sparkling as if she no longer carried deep wounds within her.

He remained entranced at her beauty for a moment before starting to wonder what sort of awful circumstances might have led this young woman where she was.

"How did you find yourself on that slave market?" he asked out of the blue with a disconcerted look.

Her smile slowly faded on her face as memories began to flood into her mind. She breathed in deeply, feeling her throat tighten a little, and fixed her gaze on the chariots which had just roared off to the sound of the trumpet. It did not distract Tenax from watching every tiny movement her eyes and mouth made while probably recalling the origin of the events. He wasn’t sure she would answer, she may just as well shut down and decide not to speak at all anymore. He was preparing for this turn of events when, with her absent gaze fixed on the track, she said:

"I killed a Roman soldier."

"Oh…" he let out, widening his eyes in astonishment. Giving it some more thought, he wasn’t that surprised that it had to do with something violent. He was about to ask her to say more but she nibbled her lower lip like she was dithering, so he held back.

"So, they put me on a boat to Rome." She let out in a sigh, still avoiding Tenax’s look.

Tenax suspended his breath for a second, thinking there would be more to that story than the elusive answer she had just given him, then nodded slightly when he understood there wouldn’t. She kept her eyes on the chariots running around on the track, a metal fish-like sculpture would tilt down with every new lap completed under the cheers from the crowd that seemed to increasingly support the racers.

"That’s what people bet on at your tavern, then?" Briga unexpectedly asked, at last fleetingly meeting his eyes after two laps of uneasy silence.

He could tell she was trying to divert his thoughts towards another subject, and she was right sensing that he could not stop wondering what had happened.

"Yes..." he retorted, finally watching the track for an instant, "Scorpus is the one they mostly bet on. I’m sure you remember him." He sneered gently.

"I do." She commented sharply.

She seemed to loosen a bit, but there was still some defiance in her eyes, perhaps perceiving her master’s frustration and the burning questions he had on his mind to which, he was certain, she wanted to answer, but maybe not so easily. Both struggling mentally to know who would snap first, they barely talked much until the end of the race when most of the crowd stood up chanting the name of Scorpus who had won the race.

Tenax suddenly stood up as well.

"I have to check on the bets. Let’s go." He bluntly ordered without a look.

She followed silently, trying to keep up his pace, her eyes on his back while trying to repel a tingling feeling of guilt for apparently making him mad.

When they almost reached the bottom of the stairs, the crowd suddenly rushed in all at the same time, flooding the space they were in. So many heads and voices overwhelmed them, joyfully shouting and scrambling in between them, making her lose sight of Tenax. She stopped, trying to resist the flow pushing behind her, a hint of anxiety arising in her chest as she searched for him in the multitude. Her chest started tightening, making it hard to breathe, the air itself was becoming warmer and thicker, seemingly burning her throat at every breath she tried to take, coating her lungs and squeezing them. She found herself gasping for air when someone grabbed her hand and pulled her aside, extracting her from the crushing pressure of the mob.

She panted deeply, stunned by the suffocating sensation she had just felt before realizing she was firmly holding the hand that had grabbed her. She recognized Tenax’s dark brown toga, raising her eyes to a reassuring look on his face. Without a word, he pulled her gently towards the gigantic gates of the circus and did not let go of her hand until reaching his tavern.

"Alright, stay here." He commanded her as reaching a table near the tavern counter and making her seat. "You, bring her wine." He ordered unceremoniously a young man holding a pitcher before heading to the betting counter.

The place was darker than before from the well-advanced afternoon and its receding sun, and much crowded and noisy than at noon.

Briga was finally catching her breath when the boy brought her a pitcher and a cup. She poured herself a glass and drank more eagerly than she originally intended. The spicy beverage soothed her throat and her spirits. She had been so unsettled by the panic she had felt when overwhelmed by the crowd that she barely remembered how she got there.

Tenax soon joined her with a short-breathed sigh, as if he had rushed his chores, and sat at the table in front of her, holding an empty cup that he promptly replenished with wine before adding some into her well-emptied one.

He took a sip, staring at her wary eyes over his cup, before saying:

"There’s a lot of people here, huh. I too felt quite crushed the first time I found myself in Rome."

She snorted:

"How did you get here?"

That wine was definitely stronger than the one back in Lusitania, and quite treacherous. As saying this she could already feel its disinhibiting effects taking control of her tongue.

"By foot." He joked softly with a playful look.

Briga narrowed her eyes with a smirk, appreciating the wit.

Tenax was dying to ask about the circumstances of her actions, and he could just as well have said it out loud because she unexpectedly addressed the matter on her own:

"His name was Caius." She said, looking into her cup before bringing it to her lips, taking a sip to give herself courage.

"He was part of the battalion detached near my village in Lusitania, by the sea." She resumed, holding her cup with both hands with an absent look. "As Romans do, they just acted like they owned it, but well, at least they paid for the fish and meat they bought me almost every day. This soldier came to see me more and more often, he was friendly. We started spending a lot of time together after a while, talking, sometimes hunting, fishing. He was nice, I thought."

She took a deep breath and another sip under Tenax’s scrutinizing stare. He had ears only for her, so much so that the shouts and the commotion of the tavern's many customers did not even reach him.

"One day he told me his battalion was returning to Rome the next day, so he wished to see me that night, he had something for me. I said yes. The fool I was thought he wanted to kiss me." She bitterly snickered. "But when I arrived near the forest where he wanted to meet, he wasn’t alone. Two of his friends snuck up on me and held me down while he raped me." Her mouth twitched with anger at the memory and her hands squeezed her cup harder. "He laughed so hard when he saw the blood between my legs. "I had never fucked a virgin!" he said."

Tenax raised an eyebrow, both in disgust and in surprise; she looked to be in her twenties and for all he knew at that age girls are usually married, if not with children already.

"Then his friends’ turn came." She kept on in an exhale, her eyes still in the void. "I pretended to have fainted, so it would be over quickly, and when he came over me again, to bloat, I caught the sword at his belt and stabbed through his neck with it." Briga paused, raising a chilling look at him. "He did not laugh much then."

Tenax could literarily feel the cold anger raging under her skin, he could tell she only regretted not making him suffer more.

"His friends panicked and knocked me out; I woke up chained in a boat heading to Ostia." She concluded sternly.

Tenax hummed softly with the most neutral pout he could muster. She was proud, he knew that much, and the wine aiding, she would most probably overreact at any kind of condescendence. Even if he suspected other things happened between Ostia and Rome, he chose to leave it there for the time being.

"I still don’t see why you dislike Romans that much." he smoothly jested.

Briga sniggered briefly, her eyes slowly softening into an amused wavering look on Tenax.

"I may be a little thin-skinned." she let out with a smirk.

He chuckled back softly, already caught in a kind of fascinated contemplation. She seemed so strong and vulnerable at the same time. Innocently hoping for a kiss from the man she liked and ending killing him for his disgusting betrayal. At that instant, picturing her story in his head, he found himself overcome with resentment, he too suddenly hated those damned soldiers for what they had done to her. She probably never had the chance to experience any kind of sweetness, nor pleasure, only violence. Not even a kiss.

At this thought he caught a glimpse of her lips where a trace of smile lingered and felt an irresistible urge to repair that unfairness. The wine was working its magic on him too it seemed. The air suddenly grew warmer, and a salacious tingling began to taunt his crotch.

He cleared his throat sitting up in his chair, trying to recover his composure under Briga's now inquisitive stare. When she looked at him like that, he always had the feeling she could read him, almost hear his thoughts. He couldn't have it.

"Do you know why I bought you?" he bluntly asked all of a sudden.

Briga tilted with a cold look, biting her lip in a restrained rise of annoyance.

"I was cheap." she retorted sharply.

Tenax pouted softly, hardly repressing a smile at her repartee before locking his eyes on hers with authority:

"Yes, they couldn’t sell you for much anyway…" he said, facing the growing anger in her eyes, "but no. You were unwavering." Tenax paused, observing her mood shifting. "You were beaten, mistreated, humiliated, and yet you stood tall and proud, indomitable in the face of the fate that awaited you. That’s what frightened them all. That’s what struck me the most. You reminded me of myself."

Something flickered inside her. Many questions arose in her confused mind about his past, but it was the pleasant shiver that ran through her skin that prevailed and kept her tongue-tied. She thought he just wanted to fuck her, like the others, and realizing Tenax may be truly different, an unexpected, aroused twitching shook her lower belly.

She swallowed, speechless in front of this man who was looking at her so intensely that he could probably guess her thoughts, when a loud voice echoed in the tavern.

Tenax widened his eyes, recognizing Scorpus who had probably already celebrated his victory widely. He turned and saw him staggering between the tables, laughing, an overly made-up woman under each arm.

"Time to go." He addressed firmly at Briga without a glance as he stood up and set off to meet him. From his eagerness to go ahead of Scorpus, she sensed his annoyance. That loud man really had a terrible timing, always showing up when things were getting serious between them.

She stood up behind him and did her best to remain out of Scorpus’ sight.

"Congratulations on another victory, Scorpus!" extravagantly rejoiced Tenax.

Scorpus smirked with undisguised satisfaction.

"Fortuna favours me, always!" he brazenly declared, wavering his head rendered heavier by the excess of strong beverages.

Tilting his head to catch a glimpse at Briga who was looking down, he licked his lips before resuming in a drawling voice.

"Yeah, hum I’m having a celebration with these huh… beauties! Would you like to join, you and… your slave?"

Briga ticked at the words and raised a riled glare at Scorpus who gloated, seemingly satisfied of the way he had caught her attention. She cursed herself for this lack of self-control.

"Hum… Another time." Intervened Tenax with a tensed smile, stepping in between their glances.

Before Scorpus could replicate, Tenax intimated to Briga to pass him by with a tilt of the head, which she did while still staring at Scorpus with a now disdainful look.

His smile faded.

"Why is she looking at me like that?" he mumbled almost indistinctively, turning around as they were leaving. "Whipping!" he started shouting at them angrily, "You should whip her, Tenax! Show a slave how to behave!"

They continued without turning around.

"You enjoy your night, Scorpus!" Tenax shouted back.

As soon as Scorpus’s voice could not reach them anymore, Tenax sighed and threw a quick glance at Briga; she looked upset.

"You could have fallen on a worse master." He said in a light tone.

She looked up at him with a perplexed look before getting his meaning and sighed. The vapours of wine in her body seemed to have receded with this unpleasant encounter but suddenly resurfaced when she crossed his eyes, he was right but why would she admit it?

"No whipping then?" she enticingly questioned.

Tenax chuckled softly, she just kept surprising him. As he eyed her up and down, he felt a warm rush in his veins, wondering if she had any idea of how she made him feel.

"No need." He retorted with an inflated voice, suggesting that his natural authority was sufficient in itself.

She chuckled too; a letting go that she thought would never happen again. This growing bond was a new feeling and so pleasant that she could well get used to it.

The path seemed much shorter for the return than for the outward journey. They hadn’t stopped, nor watched the buildings around them, walking straight towards Tenax’s apartment with a rising anticipation in their chests that rendered them too breathless to speak.

As they arrived, they instinctively slowed down their pace, almost lingering on their way up, each uncertain of what the next moments would be made of and what to do with all the excitement blooming inside of them.

It’s with this persistent incertitude that Briga had entered and turned around when reaching the table to find herself facing him closer than ever, mere instants before she felt his soft lips on hers. The stupefaction made her forget to breathe but her body took over and she exhaled shortly as his lips retreated from hers.

He soon leaned again and pressed her mouth harder, closing the remaining space between them, making Briga recoil against the large wooden table behind her. The retained eagerness was breaking out of their bodies as their kiss became more frenetic and their exhales in each other’s cheeks deeper and faster.

Tenax pressed her head as he parted her lips with his tongue, entering her mouth as she let out an amazed moan and grabbed his toga fervently. He pushed his body against hers tighter and slowly moved his hands along her neck until under the ties of her dress on her shoulders. Gliding further, he liberated her shoulders from the fabric and bared her chest, clenching his fingers to better feel her firm skin under his touch, the roundness of her breasts and the curves of her waist and hips.

When his hands reached her thighs, he grabbed them smoothly and lifted her to sit on the table, parting her legs and lifting the bottom of her dress up until he could feel her skin under his hands before pushing his waist on hers. She gasped and tightened her legs on him, nagging the hardness she could feel growing against her crotch that he made even more obvious when pressing on her ass with both hands over her undergarment.

Something snapped in her mind at that moment, a familiar sensation that did not fit with the thrill of the moment and she broke the kiss abruptly, instinctively pulling Tenax’s tunic back with her body stiffening.

Tenax held back his gestures instantly, feeling the sudden reluctance for his touch, and waited a few seconds for them to catch their breaths. He couldn’t read her face in the darkness, but he could well imagine why she would react that way.

"I won’t hurt you, Briga" he softly whispered, gently pressing his hands on her.

She kept silent, breathing shortly. She wanted to believe him, there was this itchy sensation inside her that she knew only he could relieve, but she feared it would feel the same way as with the others.

"Let me show you." He suggested in a murmur, waiting for a consent which soon came in the form of a light caress on his back. Her body seemed to relax a little, her breathing becoming more regular and calmer.

He leaned over her, placed a kiss on her lips before brushing her chin with his lips, slowly hovering over her skin as going down her neck. He nibbled and kissed her breasts and started kneeling before her. She felt his warm breath and touch travel down her stomach, his growing beard tickling her skin as he passes, and breathed heavily when he reached her crotch and gently kissed the inside of her thighs, brushing her skin slowly until reaching the loincloth covering her sex. Briga grabbed the table frenetically in expectation. Tenax retreated his head, breathing as calmly as he could, and reached for her hips to untie it in slow motions as if not to startle her.

Her sex exposed, he grabbed her thighs and moved his face along her legs until delving his face further in between. Briga let out an uncontrolled whimper when he started kissing and licking the sensitive slit that she feared would be harmed by a man again. That was as far from harm as it could be. The touch of his lips and tongue, in turn delicate and slow, and sometimes intense as eager to consume her whole, rendered her out of breath. She had never felt such tingles in her body, such heat under and over her skin.

She started sensing a vertigo and held on to his hair, entangling her fingers in his soft locks and pressing his head ever so tight against her, frantically moaning and gasping as he held stronger on to her legs and bottom.

Squeezing his mouth uncontrollably on the very spot that gave her so much pleasant shivers, she felt the vibrations of Tenax’s gasps and lascivious groans against her, increasingly aroused by her demonstrative pleasure.

As he teased the burning and moistened little bump of flesh with his tongue, at times sucking on it, the shivers grew wider inside of her, expanded in her belly in waves until bursting through her whole body, leaving her stunned and trembling in the aftermath of the climax.

[labeteenmoi]

Kings of the Subura

Part 1

Fandom : Those About To Die

Pairing : Tenax x OC

Warning : slavery, violence, mentions of rape, sex

Summary : Slaves are easily bought but then have to be dealt with

What made him wander around the slave market that day, he could not say. Somehow, a dark and bruised human form caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

"Now this one should be firmly handled for she’s kind of a wildling," the slave merchant loudly claimed as he pushed the girl to the front of the stage in a rattle of chains, "beware of your throats!"

Tenax hold his stance as the lean creature rose in front of a suddenly quiet crowd. Chained both at her wrists and feet, her black dishevelled long hair hardly dissimulated the bruises and swellings on the tanned skin of her face; and the ripped dress could not cover the shades of purple marks on her arms and thighs, and yet, there she stood tall and proud, glancing at the crowd with a ferocious disdain in her clear eyes.

"I’ll take no claims," continued the enormous bald merchant, "as I’ll let you have her for the cheapest price: fifty sesterces!"

The crowd gasped in surprise, both appealed by the bargain of such an undersold slave, and worried by the aftermath of having around such a dangerous looking thing.

"Oh, come on people, have no fear, even wild animals can be tamed! Look at her, a Lusitanian, hardworking people these are! Don’t let yourself be fooled, she speaks the language," the man kept on, a hint of anxiety slowly rising in his voice.

But no hand arose from the now timid audience for what seemed an eternity.

"Twenty!" Finally claimed a man’s voice in the back.

Some astonished faces turned around to see Tenax rising a finger at the merchant, a confident smile on his lips. The merchant recognized him and his angry look from such a ridiculously low offer slowly faded into a somehow submissive expression before declaring:

"Twenty sesterces for Tenax, yes! Please come take your belonging."

As she was being pulled down the stage, she glared at the man who approached to stand in front of her. Despite her disillusioned expression, he narrowed his big, piercing blue eyes, searching her face with a serious look as the sign from around her neck was removed.

"I’d keep her chained if I was you, Tenax…" the fat slaver whispered as he handed him the key. Tenax took it but did not bother to answer and imperiously grabbed his slave by the arm before leading her through the crowd which parted as he advanced.

The chains on her ankles were barely long enough to allow for any real strides, so she almost jogged through the streets of the market square to keep up with the pace the man set for her. Not once he looked back at her, all she could see was his curvy brown hair on the back oh his head, and the tight grip of his hand on her arm.

A few turns further and they entered a tall building as she had only seen on her way through Rome with the men that had transported her from the port of Ostia directly to the market. It wasn’t a house; it was several houses in one. Tenax lead them upstairs and through another heavy door into what looked like a real house this time. The room was vast, adorned by a large table and wooden benches around. There was a small corridor on her left that led to other rooms and a closed door at the opposite side. He took her towards the table and flipped her over to face him.

It took her a few seconds to have her sight accommodated to the dim light of the place despite the window behind them, but as soon as her eyes crossed his, she regained her composure and fiercely held his gaze.

"Sit." he dryly said.

She did not move. A cold smirk grew on his face as he advanced closer and pressed a hand on the base of her neck.

"I said sit." he threateningly repeated, pushing her firmly.

Unbalanced, the girl fell heavily onto the wooden bench behind her and angrily looked up at a smiling Tenax. However, the knife hanging at his belt suddenly caught her attention making her stare; it didn’t go unnoticed.

"Do you know what happens to slaves that kill their masters?" He asked in a heavy tone, crouching before her.

Only silence and furious glances responded to him.

"They are crucified," he said. "Hanged on a large wooden cross outside the city for the crows and flies to feast on and the men to laugh at. If they try to run away, they are left to their master’s will." He paused for a moment, observing a slight wavering in her eyes.

"I would probably get more than my money back selling you as fresh meat to the wild beasts of the Circus Maximus," he resumed, now almost whispering. "or as amusement for the gladiators perhaps… Do you want to take a shot at any of those?"

She was giving in; he could sense as her head tilted a little. With a now satisfied smile, he reached for the key in his pocket and bowed a little more towards the chain holding her ankles. She looked with disdain at the man: how on earth could someone consider owning another human being like an object was beyond her. Still, the calm and confidence he displayed were quite disarming. She could tell he was used to be respected and obeyed without too much effort; another man who considers himself above the others, another stinky Roman. However, by the way he had observed her at the market, this one seemed a bit different; unlike the other men she had encountered so far that either looked down on her with disgust or lubricity, he seemed more intrigued than anything else.

As her expression unwillingly soften while lost in her thoughts, Tenax started fidgeting the lock of the chain. His face near her knees, the bruises on her thighs appeared deeper than he had thought. A diminished slave brings in less for the merchants, so they are rarely heavily mistreated unless they are particularly hostile. These contusions were large and fresh from their still purple color and went from the top to the inner thighs. Even if he did not doubt her hostility already, Tenax also knew the slavers had gone far and beyond discipline with that girl.

He threw the chain behind him and looked up at her, her wandering gaze and milder expression, almost sad, laid on him and turned harder suddenly, but not as much as before. Swollen torn lip, black eye and filth created a very opaque mask on her face. One would expect to see a distressed person in this state, but she seemed to make a point of not showing weakness every time he laid eyes on her.

"Good." He resumed, softer than intended. "Now that we are clear on that," he kept on, hardening his tone, "I’m your master and as such, you’ll call me so and obey my commands. That’s how this works for you now."

He paused, waiting for a sign of approval that never came.

In a frustrated sigh he stood up and proceeded to free her wrists. Again, he caught her eyes focusing on the knife now at her sight level, stopping him in his tracks. His sudden immobility rang an alarm in her head but too late to back down; Tenax swiftly reach to her neck and lifted her up against the table, knocking over the bench behind her in a loud crash. He wasn’t smiling anymore, an angry expression on his face with wide open eyes. She instinctively grabbed his wrist to alleviate the pressure, but he squeezed harder instead, making her clench her jaw in pain.

"Do not test my patience," he coldly hissed between his teeth, leaning his face so close she could feel the heat of his skin on her cheek. "Now I want to hear you say it, or I’ll squeeze all the air out of you: are you going to obey?"

The girl did not whimper a sound, a hint of defiance still in her eyes, so he kept on pressing her throat with a growing threatening glance. She soon found herself gasping for air, but he kept on, relentlessly.

"Yes…" she hardly let out in a wince of panic.

Tenax relieved his grasp allowing her to let in some air but did not let go of her neck. His features however remained tensed, only after a last infuriated blue glance he let her go.

"Claudia!" He curtly called out.

An old woman with a worried face suddenly emerged silently from the adjoining corridor, as if she had just materialized at the sound of her name.

"Wash her, and treat her wounds," he ordered without taking his eyes off the girl who was rubbing her neck and trying to catch her breath.

"And the chains, master?" Claudia asked in a neutral tone.

"They stay, until I decide otherwise." Tenax advanced imperiously towards his slave, "Until I consider her trustworthy."

Looking up again, her gaze hardened. The will of this man, determined to dominate her, further fuelled her inclination to resist him.

"Come on girl." Claudia said as she swiftly slipping between them. Grabbing her arm, she gently but firmly carried her towards the closed door, ending their little ego battle.

She let herself be guided without much resistance through the door. On the other side was a spacious bedroom with a large bed against the wall, just as dark as the previous rooms despite the window and the daylight still visible through the pierced shutter, and a small adjoining room that contained two pink metal basins of different sizes in its centre, a large terracotta jar and a few small, closed pots. There were no windows in this room, only a few flickering flames on an oil candelabra hanging on the wall diffused a little light that the ochre-coloured walls diminished a little more. The air there was warmer, almost humid, despite the absence of a door.

Claudia left her on the threshold then grabbed the jar and tipped it into the small basin. Clear water gushed out. Still without a word, Claudia poured a clear powder into the water from one of the pots, then a thick liquid from another. The slave watched her slow and assured gestures in silence; this woman was meticulous, precise. Her face, completely absorbed in her task, showed no fear but rather a sort of maternal worry whose sweetness was exacerbated by the folds of her forehead and at the corners of her eyes.

The girl did not feel threatened by her presence, the man wasn’t there to watch her, so she allowed herself to let go a little. A slight numbness began to invade her as her body seemed to relax, her shoulders sagging and her breathing became deeper, as if her chest was becoming lighter. She couldn't tell if it was the powder’s scent, the soft light, the light rustles of small footsteps on the stone floor and pots gently clinking together, or the lapping of flowing liquids with herbaceous scents mixing, but she let herself be carried away by the slight tingling on the back of her neck. It tasted of serenity, she hadn't felt this way since she had been torn from her home weeks ago, weeks that felt like years already

"These oils will soothe the pain of the blows." the old woman said softly, tearing the slave from her torporn with a slight start.

Claudia looked up, stared at the young girl in front of her for a few moments in silence, then held out her hand.

"Come," she murmured, "come closer."

The slave hesitated at first, but finally came forward. This woman meant her no harm, and the temptation of a real wash was not going to displease her deep down.

Claudia placed her hands on her shoulders and guided her to the centre of the room, gently pressing her to kneel on the thick fabric that decorated the stone floor. She stood behind her, gathering the mass of her long, tangled black hair to push it to one side over her shoulder to undo the coarse knots of the shapeless, dirty and worn dress that covered her back and that slid to the floor around her folded legs. The slave jumped as Claudia applied the cool, oil-scented water to the skin of her back, she gritted her teeth as she delicately rubbed the bruises on her limbs, and in the hollow of her thighs, particularly painful. Her thoughts strayed to the unpleasant memories of the times spent at the mercy of these men who abused her, especially the first time. She clenched her fists, making the chain that held her wrists rattle sharply.

Claudia quickly withdrew her hands, no doubt aware of the torment that was assailing the girl at that moment.

"I'm sorry... for what happened to you." she said softly near her ear, placing a comforting hand on her arm.

The slave exhaled deeply, fighting back the tears that threatened to flood her eyes. Claudia resumed her task, wetting her hair before coating it with a floral-scented powder that she distributed by massaging all over her hair. She tilted her head back to rinse, water running down her face and taking the painful memories with it.

When she opened her eyes again, straightening her head, she saw him. In the space that separated the entrance to the bedroom from that of the bathroom, Tenax was watching her. The light of day behind him was backlighting, she could not see his face, but he could see her perfectly: he saw her suddenly raising her shackled arms on her exposed chest, her face closing and her gaze hardening. There was something captivating about the vision of this fierce creature looking so vulnerable at this moment. Tenax continued to look at her despite her protective moves, not to impose his will on her though, he just could not take his eyes off this beautiful body glistening in the warm glow of the flickering flames. An unusual emotion seized him, suddenly tearing him away from his contemplation and he finally turned around, clearing his throat to regain his senses as he left the room.

Long minutes passed before noise was heard from the bedroom. Claudia came out followed by the girl and found Tenax sitting at the large table, a glass in his hand. He stared at her for a moment: she looked less wild now with her hair clean and styled in a long ponytail. She wore a dark dress tied above each shoulder; Claudia, always so provident, had chosen an item of clothing that did not require removing her chains. Her face now free of her locks, Tenax could finally see her eyes more clearly. That was where her fury resided: despite her opaline green eyes, her gaze under her black eyebrows was dark as a storm. Her expression, however, seemed more peaceful than before, Tenax noted. The vision of her slender body and damp skin suddenly returned to him, he took a sip of wine to regain his composure and chase away these thoughts.

"What's your name?" He questioned without looking at her.

The girl was still staring at him, walled in her silence. Tenax looked up and smiled with a falsely understanding look. With a sigh he got up and walked towards her, ignoring Claudia who moved away as he approached:

"I remind you that I own you now, and you'll do as I say," he said as calmly stating a fact, planting himself right in front of her. "Just accept your fate."

A slight smirk widened the corner of her mouth, Tenax understood that she had no intention of doing so.

"Or don’t!" He kept on before leaning very close to her ear, "But then you already know what I’ll do of you," he whispered. "Be smart, slave," he viciously insisted on the word, "your life could get a lot worse than it already is."

A shiver ran up her spine from the breath on her neck. Or maybe it was the threats, or the disgust she felt at that moment realizing that this damn Roman may have a point after all. She didn't want to belong to anyone, it was against her nature, but was she ready to face an atrocious death or suffer a thousand more torments in other disgusting hands for the principle of not giving up anything to him?

He recoiled slowly, watching her smirk fade from the corner of his eye. He turned around with a satisfied expression, ready to leave the room as the girl seemed lost in thought, weighing the pros and cons of now becoming a well-behaved and obedient property, this man's property.

"Briga." she finally muttered.

She would give in, for now.

Tenax stopped dead in his tracks and turned around slowly, an exaggerated questioning look on his face.

"What?"

She inhaled and exhaled deeply, as if she was gathering all the calm she could muster.

"My name is Briga." she reluctantly repeated more intelligibly.

A slight conquering grin grew on Tenax’s face, he shamelessly exposed it in front of her slave, waiting for her expected irate pout. Once she did, he approached again and grabbed her wrist firmly. Visibly satisfied by the lack of resistance other than her defying gaze, he unlocked the chain and set her arms free.

"Go help Claudia in the kitchen." he proudly ordered.

Claudia broke off their intense exchange of glances again by taking her away.

“Claudia, make sure she doesn’t spit in my food!“ he teased loudly behind them.

Under other circumstances, Briga would have found it amusing.

Claudia brought her some potatoes and onions to peel off, while she would put the meat on the stove.

"You'll see, Tenax is a fair man. Give it time." Claudia said, discretely eyeing Briga’s reaction, but she remained impassive.

When Claudia brought the food to the table Tenax quietly asked:

"How are her wounds?"

"Some will heal quickly, others not..." she hesitantly answered.

Tenax, was expecting a more detailed report, but seeing the worried look on Claudia’s face he asked:

"What is it, Claudia? Speak freely"

She took a breath, anxiously looking at her master.

"She's hurt… and angry…understandably so if I may… What they did to her..." her voice trembled a little. "But she'll calm down, master, with time"

Tenax appreciated the concern Claudia showed for this girl she didn’t even know. She had all the mercy and kindness he lacked.

"I doubt it," he ironically let out, "but I’m more tenacious than she is, don’t worry."

Claudia smiled softly before returning to the kitchen where she served a plate for the two of them.

"Eat, child, you must be starving." She kindly said, addressing Briga with a warm smile at the fatigue she could see on her face.

At his table Tenax kept listening to any noise or voice that he could perceive from the kitchen. She sure would be a tough one to tame, that stubborn girl hadn’t said any more words, even to Claudia who treated her so well. But he was a man of challenges, and his appetite was even the more enhanced by her rebellious behaviour.

"Settle her in her room then you can go home, Claudia." They could hear Tenax say from the other room.

Briga froze, a new shiver ran through her realizing she would be alone in the house with this man. His intentions were still unclear to her, he seemed to live alone, no wife, no family around that would need her assistance. He enjoyed having the upper hand on her, she had well noticed that, but she feared that he would reveal himself to be much more brutal once Claudia would not be around anymore. For a second she thought about grabbing Claudia’s hand and never let her go, but she had already left the kitchen through a corridor. A few minutes later she reappeared and called for Briga. She led her into a bedroom, small but it had a bed, and a window, too small to allow a child’s body to go through it.

"You’ll sleep here, girl. I’ll see you in the morning." Claudia said before nodding gently and leaving, letting her alone with her thoughts and fears.

There she stood, motionless and alert, expecting to hear Tenax enter the room in her back and violently push her down, and be the disgusting man he surely is, as are all Romans; and abuse her, and hurt her like she was nothing more than a doll existing only to satisfy perverted and filthy desires.

A strange feeling suddenly interrupted her running thoughts: there he was, standing behind her at the doorstep, silently, his imposing presence filling the room. Her mind went blank, and her blood ran cold; she was exhausted, and he was strong, there wasn’t much she could do to avoid the inevitable, but she’d be damned if she didn’t try. She closed her eyes, breathing short, tensing her aching body, waiting for it. The door closed, a key was turned in the lock, then the silence. He was gone.

Her body collapsed beneath her as if all her strength had left her at once. There she laid on the hard bed, numb, uncontrollable tears rolling down her cheeks as she fell asleep. Resisting was hard, she had well deserved a rest at that moment.

[labeteenmoi]

Kings of the Subura

Part 4

Fandom : Those about to Die

Pairing : Tenax x OC

Warnings : explicit sexual content, graphic violence, blood, non-con sex mention

Summary : Briga is finally given a purpose in Tenax's activities, leading them to places of questionable respectability.

All roads leading to the brothel of Rome, an unexpected encounter occurs with a man from her past, to the great pleasure of her master's eyes.

Tagging : @pckji , @somebirdortheother and @darkrose33 . Hope you enjoy!

The gloomy isolated alley would have been enough to scare any man a bit too fragile at this late hour. It smelled of urine and stagnant water, and in many ways, it reminded her of the hold of the ship that had brought her to the shores of Ostia, minus the rotting fish. Tenax knew how to choose the right environment to convince merchants that they needed his protection and newcomers that they should behave. They usually ended up paying, more in the hope not to have these encounters with him than anything else.

Briga did not really understand where she stood in all that the first time Tenax had asked her to stay close, cold-staring and sullen. But after a couple of meetings where she would be brought forward and perform her part, she started noticing the person of interest would often become shy and uncomfortable. Tenax happened to find them more prone to calmly hear his arguments when they were in that state, so had he informed her.

Those were merely discussions, one-sided negotiations where her master would show his commanding side, quite persuasive already without too much effort. However, on one occasion, it had not been a gentle matter, but a debt to be collected. Less smiles and more cold-blooded threats, a tone she had never seen him adopt before; harshly gritting through his teeth with a demented expression. He was terrifying. But as the images of that moment crawled in her mind, his undeniable presence and indomitable authority, it arose admiration, and with it, some licentious thoughts.

That night, she asked for a bath before sleep, to cast away her excitement and filth, and he obliged with an intrigued eye. As he peered into the bathroom dimly lit by the oil lamps, she had slowly faced him when sensing his presence, and overtly exposed her naked body to his glare. That felt like an invitation to him, as it was meant to be. The sign he had been expecting from her since the only time he had kissed her body exhaustively.

Desirous not to ruin the moment with questions or tactless acts, he embraced her damp body, tasted her lips feverously and caressed her as if it was the last time he would touch her skin, before kneeling in front of her to provide the rapture he knew she would welcome without reluctance.

Just like the first time, he had led her to the peak of pleasure. Like the first time, he had wished her goodnight in a hasty, feverish sigh, struggling to hold back his own desire until he would find himself alone in his bed; textures and sounds of Briga’s body on his mind and her taste lingering on his lips enhancing his relief.

How remarkable the thoughtfulness from such a ruthless man, cautious of not forcing himself on her. Briga suspected she was one of the few aware of it and measured the privilege.

---- **** ----

“Tenax, we found him!” asserted Noro, one of his henchmen rushing into the tavern as they were counting the bets benefits behind the counter.

A race had just occurred and, as usual when Scorpus was competiting, the gamblers used to get generous. Now that Tenax took Briga along everywhere with him, he took again the time to fulfil his duties at the betting tavern.

“He’s at the brothel.” The man kept on huffing.

“The brothel?” inquired Tenax. He hesitantly looked at Briga who was distractedly watching the numerous coins being accounted for into leather bags while sipping on a cup of wine. “Briga, put on your cape.” He finally demanded, nodding to her to follow before going after his man.

The place looked just like a closed house from the outside, nothing in its exterior could have led to believe this was a place of debauchery. Dacia, another of Tenax’s broad-shouldered handymen, was awaiting near the entrance.

“Cover your head.” Tenax requested. An interrogative pout formed on her face, she hadn't paid attention to the destination of their walk, her mind passably numbed by the beverage she had before. “Let’s avoid confusion in there.” He added with a firm expression that left no room for questioning, so she complied.

Dacia pushed the door wide open, and they followed. The entrance was dim-lighted by some oil lamps from which emanated a musky-scented smoke, heavy curtains hung from the ceiling almost all the way around the room in front of what appeared to be corridors. The air was heavy inside, warmer. A small counter adorned one side of the room where a tired man nodded to them in silence as they passed him by, pushing aside a curtain to enter a corridor.

The sudden ardent thickness of the air in the dark corridor struck her at first, making it almost hard to breathe and when doing so, the smells assailed her. There was a pungent smell of oil that has burned too much vaguely covering the reek of sweat, foul flowers and something else she couldn't quite identify, but it fleetingly reminded her of the warm scent of the few intimate moments spent with Tenax.

As they advanced hastily, Briga noticed several other curtains over the length of the corridor and guessed they led to other rooms. As approaching the first one, came the sounds. Lascivious complaints, sighs and primal groans were rising and, as reaching it, the slaps of flesh vigorously colliding.

Briga suddenly slowed her pace, troubled as she realized what was happening behind each curtain in this hallway. She was aware such places existed but had never imagined ever entering one someday. And now she was torn between disgust and curiosity. Wine aiding, the latter got the best of her, and she discretely peeked through the gap of one of the curtains. There, she made out the back of a naked woman, on all fours on a bed, moaning while behind her a man pounded her buttocks with great force of hoarse breaths.

Seized by a familiar tingling in her lower stomach, she stepped back, letting the images of what she just saw sink in in the hope the taunting feeling would go away.

“Briga!” called out Tenax from the end of the hallway.

She came to and hurriedly joined him with a faked composure, forcing herself to ignore the shameless huffs and cries around her, avoiding the sight of entangled bodies while being eyed with a curious look by her master. He was so used to stumble upon these kinds of situations that he hadn’t thought about how she would react to it, and it turned out quite interesting.

They kept on, the heat of the place increasing as they went further, when Dacia turned around and whispered:

“He’s in there.” Pointing to an intricate corner of the house.

“Wait here.” Ordered Tenax to Briga before going in with his men.

She remained alone in a small open space, watching the three men disappear into new narrow passages, when she heard whispering her name. She pivoted and faced a curtain again, apparently closing an occupied room from the breathless murmurs emanating, still unsure of what she had heard when, amongst the light sighs, she heard her name again.

Too intrigued to restrain from looking, she peeked through the gap as before and saw in a small room rendered scarlet by the red thick curtains at the window that filtered the sundown rays, the exposed bust of a woman laying right in front of her and between her legs, rubbing his sex against hers, Scorpus, looking at her.

She should have stopped watching him, but she couldn’t somehow. Feeling protected by the curtain separating them, Briga considered that he certainly could barely guess a presence behind it and not figure how hypnotizing the view was to her. In the crimson aura of that little humid room, Scorpus, with his sweat-veiled tanned skin rolling smoothly over the defined muscles on his stomach, was wiggling lasciviously against the woman’s body, his swollen sex placed on her fleece making an indecent back and forth movement.

“Ahh... There you are sweetheart,” he let out in a sulphurous voice, “I did hear your name… You can’t get enough of me, can you?”

Scorpus tilted his head nonchalantly, visibly drunk and ecstatic. “You want this too huh… This could be you, Briga, look how good I’ll make you feel…" he kept on tauntingly, slowly penetrating the woman languished in front of him.

She seemed even more intoxicated than him, enough not to mind any of what was happening around her, but she shuddered with delight at the gentle throbbing in her pussy. This was all so sensual, too bad it involved this insufferable man.

"You enjoy it, charioteer, that's the closest you'll ever get." Briga sighed with all the restrain she could muster.

He sneered in return: "Aww damn you... Come on here slave, let’s fuck!" he added, increasing the pace of his thrusts, making the woman whimper louder.

Briga was about to sharply replicate when the curtain from the closest room abruptly opened wide, revealing a tall young man with a cocky smirk on his lips. As he started advancing, tying up his tunic while glaring at Briga with a mischievous grin, he slowed down as passing right behind her and uttered loud enough, visibly addressing to Scorpus as if Briga wasn’t there:

"You'll love it my friend...She's so tight."

As the words sank in, Briga turned around to face him, but he kept advancing in the hallway until disappearing at the corner without a glance back, passing in front of Tenax and his men which came out of the meander at the same moment.

With a swift look, Tenax caught the scowled expression at the stranger on his slave's face.

"Follow him. I want to know who he is and where he lives." he discretely ordered to Dacia, the one not holding the half-naked distressed person they had come there to find.

"We're finished here. Let's go." declared Tenax towards Briga who absent-mindedly followed them, forgetting the noisy spectacle in the room behind her.

"Hey... Slave!" called Scorpus, as Briga had disappeared from behind the curtain "Slave!" He let go of the woman’s body and clumsily jumped to hurriedly open the curtain to a now empty corridor. "Fuck..." he snarled as he stamped his foot, naked under the doorframe.

---- **** ----

In the dusty small appartement the man lived, Tenax's watched him gather the money he owed for credit bets he had placed several times. The amount had become important enough to claim it, and his constant avoidance of Tenax's men reminders had earned him a visit from Tenax himself. There would be no further warning, the next way Tenax would refund himself would be by selling his corpse to feed the beasts of the Circus, as he had warned him in the brothel. The man found it motivating enough to finally pay him back.

While at it, Tenax also glanced at Briga from time to time. She had kept silent all the way, that wasn't unusual, but she looked distracted and upset since meeting the smirky stranger in the brothel.

"Did you know him?" he suddenly asked her.

She looked back at him in surprise, as she had forgotten that he was there. Recollecting her thoughts, she knew exactly who Tenax was referring to.

"I... No..." she stuttered, struggling to voice her concern. She took a deep breath before resuming with a growing disdainful look: "He said something filthy about me… that he shouldn't know."

They exchanged a long glance, heavy with unspoken words. They both knew it could mean that they had met before in the worst circumstances, but they kept it to themselves.

As they were leaving the apartment with the due payment, Dacia caught up on them.

"He lives in the Aventinus, near the fountain square…err… he's a soldier on leave." he panted.

Briga's heart dropped in her chest; there was no doubt anymore, he was one of the soldiers who raped her with Caius.

Tenax approached her calmly.

"Let's talk to him." he murmured near her ear.

Raising her head, Briga met the fierce glaze of her master. He was determined, she could tell, and it spread out to her.

"Yes." she firmly nodded.

---- **** ----

By the time they arrived on the hill, the night had installed its obscureness, and the people had joined their homes, leaving the streets empty and silent. Dacia indicated them a house where a flickering light could be seen through the uncovered windows.

Proving there was no harm a Roman legionary could fear from the people outside, they found the door unlocked and entered quietly, reaching to the soldier in the dining room. At the faint creaking of the floor, the soldier promptly stood up and jumped to the entry where he stumbled on Tenax, entering the room in his way, and recoiled to a safer distance. That’s when he noticed the two large men behind him, preventing him from fleeing in any other direction.

"You were looking for this?" questioned Tenax raising in front of him a military sword he had found on its way.

"Hum... Do you know what it is?" sighed the soldier, forcing a relaxed attitude.

"Hmm... I'd say it's a sword only owned by the great Roman Legion’s soldiers." Tenax answered with a smug smile.

The soldier smiled pretentiously in return: "Then I guess you also know what will happen to you if you kill me?"

"Oh well, I do! I also know that to accuse me of such thing, they would have to find your body first. You see, I know a lot of things." Tenax bragged with undisguised satisfaction.

The soldier's smile faded into a pout tainted with annoyance.

"What do you want?"

Tenax smirked more widely, stalling a little to play with his nerves.

"Well, I have... questions. Have you been affected in Lusitania a few months ago?"

"... Yes, so what?" the soldier inquired with distrustful eyes.

"Did you... Have fun there?” Tenax cynically questioned.

He scoffed, annoyingly shaking his head: “What kind of fun?"

Briga emerged silently behind Tenax, a tenebrous appearance that made the soldier’s face turn troubled before regaining his aplomb as she stepped in the faint flames light, slowly walking towards him and taking off her cape.

"With me?" she coldly asked while reaching Tenax’s side who eyed her with a confident smile.

The legionary sneered and nodded at recognizing her: "Oh yes… I had a very good time with you. You’re here for more, huh?"

"Hmm…, you weren't that memorable, so why would I?" Briga playfully pouted with a frown.

"That's because Caius fucked you so hard first, ha...I can’t blame him, he had been dying to do it for so long!" the Roman joked with disdain.

He did take his time, she bitterly thought, going to the extent of teaching her his language, his culture, making her believe he cared about her in the nicest ways she had ever known. A disgusted anger had started rising within her from the moment he had opened his filthy mouth, but now she felt in her core that it was reaching the limit of what she could bear, she just needed a last little push.

She approached with soft, slow and supple steps, holding his stare until being right in front of him. While seductively matching the position of his body, she discretely grabbed the dagger hanging at the belt in her back that Tenax had handed her with an acute look before entering the room.

"Was it worth the wait?" she teasingly retorted.

"I bet it was." he nagged with narrowed eyes, licking his lips with a smirk.

He suddenly grabbed her by the hair and pulled her roughly against his chest.

Briga gasped slightly, surprised at the harsh pull on her neck and his proximity, but his move had not gone further, stopped by the immediate stomping of the men behind him. Tenax, captivated by her undulating approach, like a snake crawling toward its prey, had jumped on his feet with a fierce look, ready to intervene, but her calm and tight grip on the dagger’s handle in her back had stopped his momentum.

A flashing memory came to Briga’s mind; one of Caius’s friends had pulled her hair in that manner, squeezing her tensed body tightly under him when hammering her stinging sex.

Briga looked up at his face: "Ah... I remember you now..." she murmured with a soft smile, concealing the sudden icy shiver that ran through her.

Her heart was racing, and the beats were pounding in her temples, not from fear but rather from excitement from feeling the moment had come. As a grin formed on the legionary’s lips, she swiftly stabbed him in the stomach up to the hilt. It felt so easy and limp, as if the flesh had melted under the blade’s sharpness, opposing very little resistance.

The soldier gasped in consternation, holding tighter on her hair instinctively before looking incredulously at the handle protruding from his abdomen.

“You remember what I did to Caius in the end? Well, that, was my favourite moment.” She coldly whispered close to his ear, his head almost resting on her shoulder in shock. “I have been expecting this, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do…”

She took a deep breath, ostensibly filled with satisfaction before heaving sensually: “You're so tight...”

The soldier looked up at her with imploring eyes, opening his mouth in the attempt of forming words when Briga strongly pulled the knife sideways in a large arm movement, the blade cutting through the flesh then slicing the thinner layer of skin until it emerged from his side, spraying the ground with blood. The man fell on his knees in a spasm, his guts, set free, falling on the floor in a spongious sound, before collapsing at her feet in a final exhale.

Briga stood still, breathing deeply with her stare on the lifeless body, beneath which a pool of blood was gradually spreading, and in her hand the bloody dagger still dripping. No one dared a movement nor a word, as if grasping the magnitude of the moment. From what Tenax could see, her soothed expression and slowly blinking eyes disclosed a state of bliss more than anything else. He, on the other side, was sensing a turmoil growing in him, made of pride for her achievement and amazement by the way she had done it. She had been terrifyingly cold-blooded and yet enticingly toying with him all along, it was like she was born for this.

As if sensing his thoughts, Briga unexpectedly looked at him with fervour in her eyes.

“What do we do with him, Tenax?” interrupted Noro.

Tenax and Briga both breathed deeply, in search of control over their emotions.

“Get rid of it, carefully, and clean this place.” He firmly ordered, intimating to Briga to follow him with a tilt of the head. As they were leaving, Tenax seized the dagger from her grip before placing it back at his belt without bothering to wipe it.

---- **** ----

The way to Tenax’s apartment never felt longer to them. Somehow the intense satisfaction of revenge, with all its anticipation and fear, turned into arousal afterwards, and it kept on increasing as they walked in silence, avoiding each other’s glances until their arrival.

The door closed in the ever-lightless apartment, they found themselves finally alone and far from any eyes after a day that had felt like a week. Exhausted and out of breath, none of them had the strength to speak, but there was no denying, their arousal was palpable.

From the moment they found themselves facing each other, Briga had taken off every piece of clothing, scattering them on the ground, one by one, as she advanced towards him with only her feverish breaths as sound.

Tenax could almost touch the heat emanating from her before reaching her skin with his fingers, holding her arms as he leaned in and kissed her. Softly and restrained at first, before turning harder and burning under her tight enfold. He surrounded her body, and blindly swayed their way to his bedroom, crashing onto the bed.

Briga was burning beneath his body, impetuously sucking on his lips and tongue. Her hands frantically searched for the edges of his tunic and lifted it; he kept on removing it, breaking for a few seconds that seemed too long the contact of their lips, and plunged back into her embrace.

Beneath her fingers were revealed the rough outlines of scars on Tenax’s back. She ran over them all, kneading his damaged skin before travelling to the smoother parts on his ribs, caressing the firm curve of his waist down to his pants. A low growl escaped his throat as he felt her hands approach his crotch, already on edge, he wouldn’t take it much longer at this pace, so he slipped down on her chest, reaching for her breasts and going down as he licked their hardened tips.

Kissing his way down to her stomach, he licked the delicate, downy line that connected her navel to her fleece. He already knew this part of her body by heart and never tired of recalling it in his lonely nights, but the taste was never as vivid as when he truly inserted his tongue into the narrow slit of her sex.

She shrieked at the warm and moist contact on her inner sensitive skin, the hot and then cold sensation from Tenax’s breaths sending her shivers. Running his mouth over the length of her opening, he soon breached in and entered his tongue deeper inside her, delighting in her body arched with pleasure between his hands and her growing moans.

Sensing the near peak, Briga swiftly seized his hair and gently pulled his head away from her. She wanted more this time, she wanted what the women at the brothel had, she wanted to know what having sex should really feel like and Tenax was the only one she had ever wanted for it.

Closing her knees to his chest, she slid her feet down his torso until she reached his pants. Through the fabric, she felt a hard bump and teased it, caressing it between her feet. A heavy gasp slipped past her master's lips; the last rampart had just fallen. He helped her pull down his pants and dove back onto her, feeling the wetness of her sex against his lower abdomen, and while reaching for her mouth, he entered her.

Her whole body quivered, hands and legs clasping on him, while she let out a gasping complaint, soon followed by a breathless moan at the following pounding inside of her. As Tenax accelerated his thrusts, his mouth on hers, exchanging their breaths as if they were one, their grips on each other became frenzied.

His body felt so heavy on her, so comforting in his presence and hold. Filling every space inside of her, Tenax was not holding back anymore, and she could feel he was enjoying every bit of it. His hard cock was throbbing so deep and fast in her cunt, teasing the tingles in their insides that swelled and expanded faster than ever, that they soon reached climax and came with ecstatic moans.

[labeteenmoi]

Kings of the Subura

Part 5

Fandom: Those About To Die

Pairing: Tenax x OC

Warnings: Violence mentions, sexual mentions, rape mentions

Summary: auctions are open

Note : tagging @somebirdortheother , @pckji and @darkrose33 , next part will be the last!

Remember your place.

Those words had kept taunting her mind for the last two days since Tenax had spoken them. She couldn’t help feeling disappointed but yet kept fighting it, preferring furor over heartache. The trust he had raised in Briga had caved in instantly, the hope of regaining control of her life with him had vanished too. She knew better than this, her resentment was more against herself than anyone else.

In her core, she had always felt he was different. He had been kind, patient and supportive, in his own way. He had shown her that she had more strength and cleverness than she thought, and taught her how to use it in the ruthlessness of Rome. 

He had admired her and even worshiped her she would dare say, in the intimacy of his chamber. She may have called it love if she knew what it was. 

Alas, bliss was not on Fate’s plans.

After their first night together, others had followed. Not quite as the first one, not with the forbidden taste of blood and intoxicating sweetness of revenge, but still memorable and intense. Each time Tenax would touch her, the same exquisite shiver would run through her, always feeling like the first time. Briga would revel in that abandonment sentiment as if she could finally breathe. Every time was a discovery of sensations, of pleasure like she hadn’t suspected existed. 

Confiding in him, she had opened up more about her past with her four older brothers and how they had forged her character with their playful mercilessness, earning her the name of Briga since she was a child, as in Brigantès, the God of war. How they had died at sea with her father. How her mother had followed from disease, leaving her to care for herself before she could have her married. How she had made a living on her own and earned the respect of her peers in her village with her hard work, only to see her life crushed by perverted Roman soldiers who, one after another, had abused her trust. 

She had told him that in Ostia where she had arrived, she had been abused too. The Commander of the military camp had protected her from some drunk soldiers only to have her chained in his tent, repeatedly beaten and raped until he got tired of her screams, insults and spits, and sent her to Rome to be sold as a slave.

Tenax had listened and, with his attentive silence, had allowed her tears to run, only drying them with a tender brush of his hand on her cheeks when all the sorrow had drained.

There was an undeniable bond growing between them and, just as much, her status as a slave seemed ever more futile. 

So she thought, until Scorpus came along again.

 

Another day where Tenax had matters to handle in the Subura and Briga had been taken along. At the end of the day, she was resting at a table in the tavern, sipping on a cup of wine while Tenax was dealing with his books in the far back of the premises. 

The place was as calm as a tavern can be on a regular evening, a monotonous ruckus only disrupted by Scorpus at the other side of the room, seated at a table with a woman, sometimes surrounded by admirers, being loud and looking at Briga, obviously trying to catch her attention. 

They had crossed paths since their steamy meeting at the brothel but she somehow managed to avoid being alone with him at any time since then. Scorpus knew something had happened between her and Tenax, for some reason she could sense it by the way he had suspiciously looked at them after their first night together, and after that, by the restrained resentment in his eyes every time he looked at his friend. 

Unwilling to discuss any related or unrelated matter with him in the tavern, she overtly ignored him as long as she could, but, distracted by the liquor, she accidently crossed his glance. Scorpus stood up on the spot and, ignoring the conversations around him, joined Briga and sitted without being invited across the table with a confident smirk. Briga threw him a cold stare over a discreet annoyed sigh. 

“Tenax didn't tell you it's rude to stare at people like this ?” Scorpus questioned after a moment of intense gauging.

Briga remained unmoved as she knew how: “No. He asks me to do it all the time.”

He sneered slightly.

“Even when he fucks you ?” he let out with an ounce of aggressivity.

She smirked in return at the pettiness, slowly taking a sip before retorting teasingly: “Not when we fuck, no. I couldn’t remain so quiet, even if I tried…”

With a disdainful grin, Scorpus let out: “You're pretty mouthy for a slave… I bet that's what he likes about you…”

“And you don't, so all is well.” she said coldly.

“Oh, I like your mouth too, I'd just like it better shut by my cock.” he asserted.

Briga sensed the conversation was taking a turn, Scorpus was drunk, as usual, and getting cocky; the wine aiding too, she felt compelled to somehow provoke him. She straightened up in her chair, leaning her torso gently over the table in a flirtatious manner:

“Would you, now ?”

Scorpus leaned over the table as well, his lips straightening in a wider satisfied smile at her playing along :“Very much” 

“How much ?”

His smile faded instantly under a confused frown: “What ?”

“How much would you pay to see that happen?” Briga articulated.

The charioteer scoffed with disdain: “I'll never pay a slave to fuck !”

Her eyes narrowed with anger for a second; that cursed word, she couldn't bear it and he knew it, but she knew how to push his buttons as well. 

“I'm not yours to dispose of as you please, so it’s not me you’re actually paying. Even a charioteer should know that.” she ironically stated in a calm voice, recoiling in her chair.

He hissed, biting his lips with an irate pout, recoiling in his chair in turn. 

“Tenax is an old friend, you know… All I need to do is ask, and he'll hand you over to me.” he retorted imprudently after a moment of reflection.

“Mmm…” Briga nodded slightly with a light smirk, “He’s such a generous person, isn't he?” she ironically alleged. 

Scorpus tilted his head with an annoyed smile, her satisfied expression getting on his nerves. Of course he knew Tenax was far from selfless and, to his displeasure, she knew it too. He couldn’t believe he was being dominated by a mere slave who seemed way more cunning than he would have thought. Not only did she resist him but she even dared negotiate as if she was in any way at his same level. 

As she suddenly looked intensely to the side, he looked the same way and saw Tenax, speaking to one of his men. Coming back to Briga, she was now staring at him with a defiant air on her face and tilted her head in Tenax’s direction, openly daring him to go see her master. 

The corners of Scorpus’ mouth twitched in a furious expression as he stood up, abruptly recoiling his chair before storming out of the tavern without bothering to call for the whore he had left behind at his table.

Briga took a deep breath and resumed sipping on her cup in peace under Tenax’s interrogative glare that the ruckus had alerted. Seeing his friend visibly frustrated by Briga grew a smile on his face. He didn’t even bother to be curious about their conversation, otherwise he would have probably suspected that Scorpus’s repeated attempts at seducing Briga were more than just a fling. 

Briga’s resistance, which made Tenax so proud, only further fueled Scorpus’s obsession over her. The great Scorpus had been rejected by women before, but he wasn’t that great then. Now, things were different, and if it still happened that a woman would not succumb to his charms, he just disdainfully ignored it with a wave of his hand, he only had to bend down to pick up another willing one just as beautiful. Even patrician women fell for him after all, how could Briga act so shamelessly above her status and refuse herself to him, even humiliating him in the process? That cursed woman with her disrespectful disdain and yet he craved possessing her beyond explanation.

 

It’s with this same wavering state of mind that he caught up on her days later, coming out of the stables alone, probably running some kind of errands for her master. His head covered so as not to attract attention from the people around him, he followed her discreetly until reaching a corner of the gallery outside the Circus Maximus leading to Tenax’s tavern. There he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her diligently against a wall, hidden from the direct sight of passersby.

Briga huffed in surprise under the shock of her back against the wall before hurriedly trying to identify her assailant under the hooded cape that kept firmly holding her arms. 

Her eyes opened wide, they softened slightly when recognizing Scorpus. He kept her still with the weight of his body against her, so awfully close. His look appeared blurred, as if unable to focus on one point as it happens when one’s mind is fogged by liquor, consistent with the smell of wine emanating from him.

Breathing heavily, his facial features seemed to hesitate between anger and resignation as Briga silently waited to know his purpose with a cold stare .

“How much?” he finally heaved, looking away from her face as an admission of helplessness.

At first caught off guard, Briga lingered on her silent stare until he finally looked her in the eye with a sore face. She hadn’t planned to have her provocations taken seriously by him, even less to have him surrender to her demands.

“Ten thousand sesterces…” she declared without emotion in her tone, “to please me with your mouth only.”

The charioteer suddenly burst into a loud nervous laugh. Her desire to embarrass him was definitely bottomless.

“Are you fucking out of your mind, slave?! I… err…” he broke off with a heavy sigh, biting his lip and shaking his head angrily. 

As if an idea had struck him at once, Scorpus froze and ogled her with a mischievous smile.

“What if I just fuck you right here, right now?” he taunted, pushing her harder against the wall.

Briga grimaced at the pressing body on her, turning her face away from his warm erratic breaths.

”So the great Scorpus needs to force himself on women, like the pig he really is.” she nagged dryly, trying to control her nerves.

”You’re just a slave, I can do whatever I want to you…” Scorpus heaved near her ear, rolling his crotch against her in a lewd manner.

With gritted teeth, Briga gave a try at pulling her arms from his grip but he clinged even harder. With anyone else, she would have insisted, pushed harder, screamed or even bite, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to see Scorpus as a dangerous man despite his behavior. Arrogant and stupid, but not dangerous. A softness in his smiley eyes perhaps, or the inner struggles he tried to drown under gallons of wine somewhat tickled a kind of tenderness in her, she couldn't and wouldn’t say in any way.

She took a chance at following her instinct and let go of her resistance: ”Go ahead then charioteer, do what you have to do.” she hissed coldly at him.

With a grin, Corpus lowered his head and nibbled greedily at the thin skin on her neck, letting go of her arms to grab her breasts and squeeze them over the fabric of her dress. She didn't fight it, struggling to keep her breaths under control with her knuckles tightly shut while he leaned harder against her. For a second he seemed to waver, suddenly remaining still. 

“Damn you…” he panted heavily, resuming his groping and sucking on her neck in between raucous breaths. But as his exhales became louder and shorter, the pressure of his body felt lighter and his hands hesitant. 

“FUCK !” he suddenly bellowed, raising his head with a fuming look. With his jaw clenched he recoiled abruptly, avoiding meeting her stare before quickly walking away, frantically rubbing his eyes and growling.

With the wall for only support, Briga took some time to catch her breath. She wasn't so sure anymore she would get rid of his advances so easily, his perseverance was becoming somewhat worrying. She had thought the presumptuous amount she had requested would exasperate him for good, but even that didn't seem to repel him completely. The only thought that reassured her at that moment was the certainty that Tenax would never bargain her as a piece of meat. 

 

***

Claudia had been sent away with an eagerness she and Briga had rarely seen. Only Briga suspected the reason: Tenax had carefully scrutinized her every move that day as she went about her daily tasks, brushing past her whenever the opportunity presented itself, smiling mischievously at her when he did. Even if it was race day at the Circus, he had decided they would stay home. He wanted her and when the light of day started finally coming off, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer.

After dismissing the servant, he had called for Briga from his bedroom, inviting her to proceed to the scarlet tainted bathroom with an overtly equivocal smile, where he had embraced her hastily against the hot stone walls. Exploring her curves with his hands over her clothes, he had devoured the base of her neck with his kisses under her delighted gasps. Reaching for the bottom of her skirt, he had lifted it up until he could reach her bare legs underneath, caressing along her thighs to her crotch. He had then slid his hand under the loincloth, gently rolling the tender flesh of her labia under his fingers. When he had felt the moisture escape, he had inserted his fingers into the slit and felt Briga's grip tighten on his back.

As usual, the expression of her pleasure always increased his own. Always so restrained at the beginning, her moans intensified with the increasing rhythm of his fingers penetrating her. Watching her lose control had become Tenax’s favorite view, and at it he was, admiring her eyelids quiver frantically over her incredible eyes and her lips being bitten in a vain attempt to hold back her whimpers, when someone knocked on the door.

They held their voices and moves, unsure first of what they had heard, but the knocking resumed, soon followed by a childish voice calling for Tenax.

They both sulked while puting their clothes back in place and Tenax came to the door.

“What?” harshly let out Tenax while opening it to a young boy. Briga recognized one of the orphans her master took care of.

The poor kid looked mortified for an instant until Tenax put on a vague sorrowful expression as an apology for his rudeness.

“Tenax,” the boy started, “Lady Antonia is asking for you.”

“Antonia Servilia?” asked a worried Tenax with a sudden bad feeling crawling under his skin.

“Yes, huh, she came by the tavern after the race. She wants to see you at her house right now…”

This did not bode well.

“Something happened?” Tenax kept on questioning with a rising nervousness.

“Well, err… Scorpus lost the race…” the boy added, timidly eyeing at Briga who had joined them.

Tenax looked uneasy, lost in his thoughts for a second. It was never a good omen to be summoned by powerful owners of a faction, even the more when there was money loss involved.

“Alright, I’ll go now.” he said, “You can go.”

“Huh…” the boy hesitated, stomping on his feet with anxious looks at the slave who seemed to share Tenax’s concern from her frowned look, “She wants to see her too…” he whispered.

The puzzlement in Tenax’s expression deepened as he looked at Briga, adding more to her trouble.

 

***

The Aquiline mount was a beautiful place like Briga had never seen in Rome. So different from the Subura and even more striking at this dusk. The streets were clean and bright and still full of life as if no danger lurked in the dark corners.

That was where the influential and rich people of Rome lived, and the house of Antonia Servilia and her husband, Marsus Servilius, was the definition of opulence.

They were made waiting in a richly decorated and lighted living room, almost as vast as the entire apartment of Tenax. She could see her master was trying to keep his composure, restraining from pacing back and forth during their wait. He thought he knew what this meeting would be about until Briga had been mentioned; the question of how she could have anything to do with Scorpus' defeat wouldn’t stop harassing his mind.

A gracious curly red-haired woman finally arrived, tall and distinguished, her white veiled dress floating around her in soft rustles as she walked towards Tenax with her chin held high and an arrogant smirk on her face.

“I hope you were not too busy, Tenax?” Antonia inquired upon her entry with evident sarcasm.

Showing a polite smile, Tenax bowed slightly his head at her : “Of course not, Antonia. You summoned me?”

“So, here she is…” resumed the mistress of the house going towards Briga, overtly ignoring Tenax, “the cause of our predicament.”

She smiled but there was no mistaking it for kindness by the scornful tone she had used.

“Predicament ?...” hastily questioned Tenax feigning ignorance, wary of how Briga was reacting to Antonia’s approach. To his relief, the patrician woman finally turned to him.

“Oh… you weren’t at the race today, that’s right, you haven’t seen it.” she retorted with irony, “Scorpus made a fool of himself today!”

Tenax pouted smugly: “Well… he has lost in the past already, I”m sure he will get over it…”

“He did not just lose, he didn’t finish it at all!” cut off Antonia with a rising anger in her voice.

At Tenax’s decomposing expression, she kept on: “He was completely drunk, he couldn’t even keep a straight line on the tracks before collapsing in his chariot!”

He suspired deeply at the information while rolling his eyes, clearly thinking “Damn, Scorpus…”

“He mentioned your slave's name among his incoherent and drunken ramblings, asking why she keeps on resisting him!” she kept on, turning back to Briga and tilting her head to the side with a cold smile. “Now, why does YOUR slave, Tenax, get in the way of OUR victory?”

As Tenax was reflecting on how to come out of the situation, Antonia slowly advanced further towards Briga who had kept still, holding her hands in front of her, looking at the woman with the most emotionless face she could put on. But as she came closer, planting herself in front of the slave, Briga felt a tension build up in her shoulders.

“Hmm… I really don’t see what’s to be so obsessed about…” let out softly the Roman woman, reaching for Briga’s chin and inspecting her face with an unveiled disdain.

“Don’t touch me.” coldly spit out the slave, harshly moving her head away from Antonia’s grip with an angry look.

Antonia opened her eyes wide with outraged disbelief and swiftly slapped Briga across the face in a sonorous blow. Tenax let out an uncontrolled gasp before watching Briga’s face turn into an expression of primal fury and her body tensing, about to snatch at the woman who recoiled with a fearful look. 

In a swift movement, Tenax interposed himself between them and addressed Briga with a strained face and an icy tone: “Go wait for me outside…”

The furious gaze of her master revolted her as first effect, but she complied nonetheless, unwilling to put him in an even more difficult situation, but the Gods be witness, she was dying to rip this woman to shreds.

“I beg your pardon, Antonia.” Tenax bowed slightly at the woman, trying to regain her aplomb while watching Briga leave the room with an undisguised relief.

“You better tame that beast, Tenax, or I will!” she scolded, frantically straightening and fixing her dress which didn't need it.

“I’m sure a little frustration won’t kill Scorpus, he’s a grown man.” lightly declared Tenax, eager to steer the conversation away from his slave’s behavior.

“I couldn’t care less about Scorpus’s ego!” she hissed back with a furious look, “I care about what his little craving for that girl will cost us! You are going to fix this, Tenax.”

He looked at her with a hardly dissimulated wariness in his blue eyes, holding his breath in anticipation of what the Roman woman would demand of him.

“Put your slave in Scorpus’s bed before the next race. If he’s still useless by then, I’ll make sure he won’t be a burden to our faction anymore, nor to any other faction for that matter...” Antonia demanded in a threatening voice, turning back and imperiously leaving the room without waiting for an answer.

 

Now they were both furious, and none of them uttered a word while walking back to the Subura, carefully avoiding each other’s gaze. Tenax led Briga to the tavern where only a few drunk men lingered, the rest having deserted the place to go and sleep off the rest of the night. Ignoring his handymen guarding the place, he promptly went directly to the back side of the betting counter, the most isolated part of his establishment, and stopped, his hands on his sides with his head low, waiting to feel Briga’s presence behind him.

“You can’t act like that with these people.” he started, breathing deeply to maintain a calm trône. At her silence, feeling her angry stare tickling his back, he turned around and faced her with eyes darting with anger. “You hear me? Patricians aren’t to be fooled around, even less when they’re faction owners AND senators like Antonia’s husband! These are powerful, dangerous people that will ALWAYS have their way!” he ended up almost yelling.

Tenax could literally see the anger inflating inside of Briga’s eyes, and he should have stopped, he knew only too well how unable to think she was at the moment and yet, all kinds of fears were clashing inside him at that moment, he was unable to control himself.

“You can’t overpower them so stupidly when you’re nothing. Remember your place!” he let out ragingly and out of breath.

The change in Briga’s eyes from anger to deceit was instantaneous, her jaw dropped as if she had been hit in the stomach. That is how she had received his words at the moment, physically reflecting the decomposition her mind was going through.

Tenax fleetingly grimaced in remorse at this expression he had never seen on her face before, but it was too late, he couldn’t unsay what had hurt her. 

Briga felt betrayed, again, and that was not an unfamiliar feeling for her, except she had carefully watched their relationship evolve with suspicion and awareness this time. And she had let go of her doubts, she had acquired the certainty that he was the man who would never think of her as a lesser person for they were so similar in their resilience. But she had been wrong. Whatever she did, or said, or think, she was a slave, and that seemed to be now the root of who she really was for Tenax and all the likes of him. Everything else was mere decoration. 

With a resigned pout, he called for Dacia:

“Take her home, I have to find Scorpus.” he ordered dryly, imperiously looking down on Briga who had put back on her cold mask with the neutral look she used to have before they had become close. 

Before Dacia could agree, Briga retorted sharply: “Yes, master.”

Tenax froze, almost in shock at her words. Never had she resigned herself at acknowledging him as her master, nor had he ever really expected it from her despite what he had demanded of her the day they had met. She had said it in such a direct manner, as if these were common words in her mouth. He knew it was in reaction to his own demeaning words that did not match his thoughts at all, and he really hoped she didn’t mean it either.

This was not the time, however, to dwell on the subject, and he made no protest at her cold, silent departure.

 

***

Silence was all he found when coming home after his mildly successful search: Scorpus was found dead drunk in the training room of the charioteers, snoring so loud he could be heard from outside, and completely unresponsive to Tenax attempts at waking him up.

Dacia’s guarding presence near Tenax’s apartment ensured him that Briga had not gone anywhere, and yet, upon entering it, the sounding emptiness of the place struck him deeply. Although everything was in its place, the air felt dry and the darkness heavier than usual.

His first instinct was to go see Briga that he foolishly thought would be waiting for him in his chamber; after all, that’s where she had spent all her latest nights, but she wasn’t there. So he went towards her room, suddenly seized by a hint of panic at the thought of finding it empty too. Opening the door in precipitation, he let out a relieved sigh when seeing her there, laying on her bed.

There was no way to say if she was sleeping or faking it from the door, all he could see under the faint night gleam was her back gently rising and falling at every breath she took.

But there he stood for a moment, pondering if he should approach or just let all the hurtful words fade into the night. He chose the latter, unsure on how to address Antonia’s demand with Briga or even with himself for the moment being, which would just add more bitterness upon an already draining evening.

That was a decision Tenax would regret for the next couple of days.

Briga had come out the next day acting more distant than ever. Like in her first wild days beside him, she would just disappear from his sight every time she wasn’t needed, and when addressed to, she would comply without showing any emotion and a mechanical “yes, master” was all she would ever say.

But time was running, the next race was two days ahead and she still didn’t seem any more forgiving. Perhaps it was better that way, if he really thought about it in an incongruous burst of divine optimism. The prospect of pushing her into the arms of another man made him nauseous, even more so knowing what she had endured in the past, but the man in question was Scorpus and somehow it reassured him, he was his friend and despite all his bad habits and manners, he was not a wicked man. But he also thought that Scorpus was no match for Briga, and should she refuse to submit to him, he was the one in danger in every turn of évents. He and Tenax’s ambition for the future for that matter, and having Briga defiantly acting like the obedient slave she wasn’t, was probably the best time to see things happen as they should.

He almost laughed at himself for such silly thoughts. His life would probably be a lot easier if he didn't have feelings for that woman. How could he ever demand this of her, how could he come up with an alternate plan in such little time?

The Gods, should he ever pray to them, had decided to ease things for him somehow. In a trickster way however, as they should.

The day before the race, a messenger knocked on Tenax’s door, bringing a summon from Scorpus addressed to him and Briga for that evening. Tenax did not have the opportunity to meet with him in the meantime and was planning on finding him to try and talk some sense into him. 

Although still not believing he would succeed there either; he knew too well the stubbornness and pride of the charioteer, but he did not know what else to do. And out of the blue came this message, as if the odds had finally turned in his favor. 

The timing seemed too good to be true and that strongly tickled Tenax’s suspicion that something was unraveling.

[labeteenmoi]

Bitter ends are my specialty, just so you know guys.

[labeteenmoi]

Kings of the Subura

Part 6 (last)

Fandom: Those about to Die

Pairing: Tenax x OC / Scorpus x OC

Warnings: lots of sex, mostly

Summary: where we learn that appearances may be deceiving and also what the title means

Notes: tagging @darkrose33 @pckji @somebirdortheother if they're still up to it. Thanks for keeping up with this story, that's a wrap and what am I going to do with my life now that it's over? Lol! It's been a pleasure for me to write this, don't hesitate to leave a word in the comments, a thought or whatever you fancy ;)

Hope you enjoy!

Back to the Aquiline mount, where Scorpus had his own villa, Tenax had brought Briga who had slightly manifested an emotion when informed of their destination. She suspected to know the purpose of it and almost came out of her silent treatment to beg Tenax not to go. But at that point, if the man she used to trust agreed to lend her to Scorpus, she would at least be certain of what to do afterwards.

Scorpus opened the door himself, looking surprisingly sober and almost calm if it wasn’t for that hint of nervousness pointing at the twitching corner of his lips. He addressed a polite smile at Tenax, inviting him in, and a fleeting look at Briga when she passed him by with suspicion in her eyes.

He led them to the main living room, tidy and tastefully decorated without too much ostentation, not what Briga would have imagined him to live in.

“So…” started Scorpus, joining his hands in front of him as to give himself courage,”Ten thousand is the deal.”

Tenax refrained from looking puzzled and looked at Briga who nervously bit her lip with her eyes on the ground. There was no need for any other confession of guilt from her, she visibly knew what it was all about.

As he was trying to figure out what the terms of such deal could be, Briga took a breath and stated firmly:

“Yes. But no hands and no cock in any of my holes.”

Her sudden rawness took them both aback for an instant.

“Err… I know, with my mouth only…” retorted Scorpus in a low voice with a resigned sigh and his face turning slightly red.

Now Tenax understood the content of the vivid conversations he had vaguely witnessed and realized he should have inquired about it, even if he wouldn’t have opposed any decision. He was the one who had taught her to bargain on men’s lustful interest for her, that was obviously what she had done, but he guessed she wasn’t expecting to succeed to such an extent.

Ten thousand sesterces was far above the price of any slave, and he was willing to pay this amount for mere foreplay with her. It seemed they both had underestimated Scorpus’s enticement for Briga.

That was just the beginning, Tenax now figured that Scorpus would not settle at just that, but that was a problem for another day. For now, despite how reticent he was about the whole idea, it would most probably solve all his problems at once without even having to intervene himself.

“Here is the money,” declared Scorpus pointing to a leather bag on the console near them. “Join me in my room,” he demanded at Briga with a little more aplomb.

Tenax and his slave remained quiet for a few seconds before turning to each other.

“There’s an opportunity here...” let out Briga with a hint of irony in her voice, but her eyes betrayed a form of plea.

Tenax didn't fully grasp the meaning of her words but he understood the request in her look and cursed himself for what he was about to do, for it was too late to turn back now:

“Just… get it done.” he managed to utter with a dry throat, his heart racing in his chest.

Her expression became hard and imperious, in contrast with the submissive tone she used when replying: “Yes, master.”

Tenax was the one receiving it like a blow this time, to his own surprise. He realized then what was truly happening and it just occurred to him that he never thought she would actually obey. In a corner of his mind, he had the crazy idea that she would run away.

She did not run, she simply turned around and followed Scorpus's path, and in doing so, she hoped that it was hurting him as much as she was.

Briga entered the bedroom and closed the door behind her. A few oil lamps were dotted around the wall, giving the room a dimmer light than the previous room. There was a set of luxurious furniture that matched the bed, way wider than Tenax's, and covered with purple silky sheets, giving the whole room a warm atmosphere.

She saw Scorpus pouring himself a drink from a jar in the back of the room that he swallowed whole at once. Firmly setting his cup down on the dresser with a clink, he turned around with a much more determined face than before.

Tilting his head to the side, he looked at Briga with an indecipherable expression.

“Take your clothes off,” he demanded in a smooth voice.

He seemed to have regained some assurance, leaving her speechless for a moment, but eventually Briga protested: “That is not what was agreed.”

Scorpus came forward at a slow pace, crossing the room towards her.

“I'm a man of my word, Briga, and nothing was said about keeping your clothes on.”

Damn , she thought.

“I've paid what you asked, now you have to fulfill your part.” he added, a smirk growing on his lips.

She could not turn back now and surely she wouldn't let Scorpus be the most trustful one in the room, so she complied with an irate expression and, under his overtly satisfied gaze, undid the ties of her dress and made the strings fall from her shoulders. The weight of the skirt did the rest and made it all slide over her body until falling at her feet.

Scorpus ogled her carefully from head to toes for a moment, clearly enjoying the view of her bare chest and certainly bragging internally at her submission.

“This too” he added, looking at the loincloth she still had on, “I can't do what you asked for otherwise.”

Again, she stalled for a moment but ended up taking it down. The charioteer lingered his gaze upon her before leaning his face in, close enough to kiss her. She instinctively recoiled her head with distrustful eyes.

He smirked again with malice: “It's only my mouth, as you said. You didn't specify where I could put it or not…”

She grinned bitterly in return, he was cleverer than she had anticipated, turning her terms against her. She took a long sigh and put on a resigned pout, letting him proceed.

His lips touched her closed mouth in a soft peck. She had no intention of actively participating whatsoever, she wasn't completely consented to it after all, but he forced the entry of her mouth with his tongue, a greedy humming emanating from his throat, making her taste the spicy sensation from the wine he had that lingered on his tongue. Briga tried to retreat from this invasion but he clasped his arms around her, holding her head firmly as he increased his kisses intensity.

Slowly, he took her to the bed, making her grab his arms so as not to lose balance, and let her mouth go only to make her sit on the edge. Standing tall above her, he reveled with a triumphant smile in having her looking at him from her position below, naked and submitted. He knew the reality to be far from it but at that moment that's what it looked like to him, her mildly embarrassed expression adding to his fantasy.

He took off his tunic, exposing his tanned muscular torso and the bulge over his crotch and licked his lips lasciviously at the light that shone in her sudden troubled eyes. The memory of his sweaty body in that incandescent room at the brothel had arisen in Briga’s mind and did not leave her unmoved, striking the first blow to the shield of reluctance she had raised within since finding herself alone with the charioteer.

Advancing nearer and looking down on the slave, Scorpus inserted a leg in between her knees and made her spread her legs. Reaching for her face, he leaned over and kissed her harder than before, feeling the breach in her resistance.

Under his assault, Briga felt pushed back and laid on the silky sheets, unwillingly offering her breasts to his touch and licks. Her body reacted to his caresses more than she wished it had, her heart beating faster and a distinctive heat rising under her skin. Scorpus teased it even more, running his mouth down her stomach and drawing wet circles on her skin with his tongue, gently sucking and nibbling at the tender skin, his beard softly tickling her while approaching her crotch.

Lips locked shut, Briga fought the urge to whimper but, when he reached her pussy, hovering his lips over it with hot breaths, she felt her will shrivel. With one long lick along her slit, he made her give in to the shivers that ripped a raucous moan from her throat. It took only a few more gentle licks and suctions on the sensitive flesh of her labia to understand that all resistance was futile.

No matter how hard it was for her to admit it, Scorpus was good at it, dedicated and delicate. He seemed to have resigned himself to only pleasure her and had decided to give his best nonetheless. Entranced and moaning as if receiving as much as he was giving, he slided Briga up on the bed with his arms around her folded legs, the smooth texture of the sheets aiding, allowing him to lay on the bed and at least grind his painfully erect cock against the mattress for a little relief.

Laying her whole body on the bed now, Briga breathlessly cried when he dove his tongue in her hole, and grabbed his soft dark hair for good measure of encouragement. Emboldened by her demonstrative gesture, he grabbed one of her hands and put it on her dripping sex, guiding her fingers around the slit and pressing on it while he licked her. When she reacted noisily to it, he pushed her own fingers back and forth inside of her. The nerve of that man had no limits, using her to do what he could not.

He knew what he was doing when he fleetingly pressed his tongue on her butthole. All kinds of shivers ran through her body, making her cry his name shamelessly, feeling her pleasure on the edge. He groaned loudly, compulsively grabbing her skin as if out of control, pushing his crotch as hard as he could to achieve the relief he could not hold anymore, when she released a scaldent flow of juices from her pussy, trapping his head between her thighs in tensed jerks as she came too.

Scorpus let out a few breathless “ fucks” with his final jerks, his forehead resting on her lower abdomen, finishing ruining the cleanness of his underwear.

Sitting back, he wiped with the back of his hand his mouth and his beard stained with Briga's intimate fluids while observing her body lasciviously lying in front of him and her legs spread, offering him a breathtaking view of her glistening sex. Her still heavy breathing lifted her chest in a rhythm that gradually calmed down. He smiled, satisfied: "What a mess you made me put here... My pants and my sheets!" he teased her.

Putting himself back on all fours, he slowly advanced over her until having Briga completely beneath him. She was looking absently at the ceiling before meeting his stare as he stood over her.

“I told you you would love it,” he murmured with a slight smirk, “next time I'll fuck you properly.”

Briga came to her senses, looking him intently in the eyes, and with a slight smirk retorted: “This is going to cost you, charioteer.”

Scorpus scoffed amusingly, biting his lip: “Oh, I can afford it, slave ! But you'll be the one asking for more now that you know why they call me the Great Scorpus !”

She retained an amused smile in return. It's true she had been quite amazed by the way he had fulfilled his part, despite not being what he wanted in the first place, but that, she would keep it to herself.

Starting to lift herself up on the bed, Briga tried to push Scorpus back but felt his limbs trapping her slightly under him and looked up a his smiley face leaning over hers with an interrogative air.

“One last thing,” he said, “Kiss me.”

She feigned annoyance before eventually pecking his lips.

Scorpus shook his head slowly with a hint of deception clipping his lips.

“No, not like this. Kiss me like you kiss Tenax.”

Had he known that she would rather bite him than kiss him lately, he would surely reconsider.

“I don't kiss Tenax.” she retorted coldly.

“Don't you take me for a fool now, woman. I've seen how you two look at each other...” he let out, almost sounding offended. “You owe me that at least, for the way you treated me…” he concluded with an innocent pout.

He had a point, not because she felt bad, but he did have a lovely side, she actually felt she owed him more for turning her humiliating scheme against her. He wasn't the selfish lover she thought he was after all.

She rolled her eyes with a sigh for good measure before locking her eyes on his. Gulping, she eventually leveled up her chin and reached for his mouth in a soft brush of her lips first, soon pressing more. Scorpus lowered his head, giving her the opportunity to deepen the kiss, and so she did, inserting her tongue in his mouth in delicate undulations. He smelled and tasted of her, just like Tenax after the first time he had shown her how good it can feel to be touched.

With that memory on her mind, she came out of Scorpus’ room. The time she had taken to put her dress back on had let her skin cool down and the redness of her face fade away. Tenax, on the other side, had reached quite the opposite point, looking embarrassed and somehow mortified, pacing in the living room. Briga glared at him coldly while he seemed to be awaiting some kind of sign with a hint of guilt in his eyes. But she remained silent and cold and walked out the door.

***

A bitter anger had built up in him all along their walk to his apartment. Briga had remained shut but her look never weakened when he looked for it, there was no trace of shame whatsoever, only resentment. Tenax did blame himself now, but what was he to do? He still didn't see how to get out of this situation without sacrificing something he cared about, whether it would be money, Scorpus’ life or Briga’s trust. He wasn't so sure now which loss would be the easier to recover from.

As they reached his place, Briga directly took the direction of her room.

“Wait.” demanded Tenax, as calmly as he could, making her stop in the corridor. She took a few breaths before turning back on her tracks to him.

Instead of going on, he stalled, lighting an oil lamp in the entry and placing on the table the heavy little leather bag containing Scorpus' payment while Briga awaited with a suspicious look.

The wavering flame reflected in his eyes, revealing their serious expression.

“Did he hurt you ?” he finally let out.

“No.” simply retorted Briga, clearly unwilling to elaborate.

“Did I ?” he questioned back without delay.

Briga kept silent for an instant, wondering if this was an apology introduction of some sort, but she wasn't sure he had felt sorry enough in any case.

“Does it matter ?” she answered with tainted irony.

Tenax snorted lightly, visibly trying to keep his calm with a long controlled breath slowly rising his chest.

“I told you, these people are powerful, dangerous. With a snap of their fingers, they can destroy everything I’ve built…” he started explaining, talking slowly but one could sense a rising anger in his tone. “...and everything I’m planning. Without Scorpus and the Patricians tolerance for my business, I’m fucked!”

“I'm sure you had lots of good reasons…” she retaliated, speaking just as slow, “Who am I to reproach?”

“Enough with that!” he cut her dryly, raising his voice a notch.

“I’m glad I could be of use to you…” Briga kept on, feigning to ignore his increasing anger.

“I didn’t have a choice, Briga! YOU left me no choice, you shouldn’t have played with him!” he almost shouted, a visible tension building in his shoulders as he started to approach her.

A disgusted pout deformed her lips at the pettiness he was displaying, but Briga kept on teasing him with her faked submissiveness, somewhat enjoying making him irate: “I’m a poor learner, master, couldn’t trick him like you taught me…”

“STOP IT!” he yelled in her face, keeping his fists clenched against his body so as not to grab her harshly. “Enough of this master nonsense! It’s not you…”

There were too many intricate feelings at the same time running through her, her face could not pick one at a time and they all materialized in succession in the space of a second: resentment, satisfaction, doubt, hope. As her features finally softened at Tenax’s pleading look, she questioned softly: “You don’t want me to act like a slave, Tenax?”

Shaking his head, he took the time of a sigh before answering: “You were never a slave to me, Briga.”

That’s what she had come to think after spending so much time with that man and she was relieved to hear him say it. A short term relief however, soon replaced with a bitter feeling that made her tight lips tremble at the thought of what she was planning to do.

But not yet.

Reaching for his face, she cupped his cheeks in her hands, closing the gap between their bodies: “I know. I’m no one’s property.” she whispered, her warm breath on his parted lips that quivered under her touch. His body seemed to melt in her arms, the tension leaving his muscles along with the thirst he had been increasingly feeling from having her so distant from him.

“I’m sorry…” he blew softly.

“It’s the Rome rules, I know…” she cut him off, seemingly forgiving with resilience in her eyes, bringing his face closer and pressing her chest on him.

“Don’t leav…”

Briga silenced him with a kiss, taking in the air from his mouth and the words she wanted to be left unspoken. There was no doubt she would not have changed her mind regardless of anything he could have said to keep her with him, but she refused to see him beg, that was beneath the man he was. She knew that much, they were so much alike, that’s how he knew she would leave anyway.

But for now, she wanted to revel in the reassuring arms of the man who had saved her, engrave in her memory the scent and taste of the one who showed her how to survive and thrive. She owed him that much, even if he had chosen his ambition over her.

Their longing for each other was freely set out in the kisses deepening and their arms clasping around their backs frantically. Blindly reaching the bed, they got rid of their clothes in quick and swift gestures before laying on the mattress, filling the room with breathless moans and grunts, with the slapping of their hands on their bodies in eager caresses and the rustling of their blazing skin against each other.

Rolling over each other in turns, Briga took the upper hand and clasped her body on him, pinning Tenax to the mattress, devouring his lips, neck and chest with kisses before sliding his swollen sex inside of her. Abruptly grabbing her thighs in surprise at her movement, his whole body tensed in a breathless rattle. Taking a rest, Briga enjoyed the moment with delight, teasing his cock with contractures of her pussy, she felt it throb in return.

Tenax bit his lips with a grin at the boldness and tried to lift his chest up, but she pushed him down firmly and started pounding on him. Slowly first, feeling every inch of his length inside her tight walls as she went up and down, then faster, increasing her pace as the pleasure grew more intense and their hands more frantic on each other.

So she rode him until they both came into each other's arms, panting and sweating, falling over on the bed out of breath. Sleep quickly took them, relieving their exhausted bodies and confused minds for a moment that both wished would have lasted longer.

***

Tenax had grown used to the view of Briga’s bare back slowly rising with every sleeping breath she took under the pale beams of light of the morning. Her skin looked like velvet, so appealing to the touch that he couldn’t help succumbing, ending up waking her up despite his genuine unwillingness to do so.

That was probably the first thought he would have for a while when waking up alone, just as he was the next day. Unsurprised but still denying what he knew had happened, he rushed into the kitchen and then in her room, only to find these rooms just as deserted.

Hearing the front door open, a cold shiver ran down his skin as he turned around and almost scared poor Claudia with his haste to look around. From the disappointment in his eyes, she had understood that Briga had left, leaving as the only trace of her stay fifty sesterces on the table from the money that Scorpus had paid, and an empty space in their hearts

Tenax smiled at the coins and the irony of her message. Fifty sesterces was the price set for her by the slaver at the market and that he had bid only at twenty. She had been so kind in repaying him with, as a bonus, the added value he had saved. A clever way to tell him he made a good deal perhaps. He could well imagine the mischievous smirk she must have had when leaving the coins. That’s when her words struck him, the opportunity she had talked about at Scorpus’s villa, before he made her go with him, was for him to show what kind of man he was, what rules he was willing to break for her. He had failed her.

***

A few dull days went by where Tenax would handle his affairs, keeping his mind occupied so as not to think of her. No one around him really dared asking where Briga was. He thought they might be afraid to hear that he had to get rid of her for some reason; Tenax had a grim reputation after all, but he didn’t realize what they were seeing when looking at him: his sorrow.

He focused, he worked, he moved, he talked, but in the little moments when he didn’t, he looked absent-minded and sad, as if he had lost what made him smile.

Only Scorpus was too preoccupied with himself to bother caring about Tenax’s state of mind.

“What… What do you mean, she’s gone?” the charioteer had asked with great disbelief, “Where is she?”

“She stole the money you gave and ran away in the middle of the night, Scorpus. She could be anywhere by now but… not in Rome anymore, that’s a certainty.”

“How would you know? Have you… Send someone to find her, Tenax! You can’t let her go like that, you…” Scorpus was hardly containing himself, visibly angered by Tenax’s lack of combativeness.

“Sure, Scorpus, and what if they find her? Huh? You think she’ll just nicely come back knowing what awaits her here?” Tenax retorted with a rising annoyance.

Of course Tenax had thought of it. He had even acted for that purpose, but only to know if she was fine, he would never dare hoping to bring her back. He supposed that she would go back to Lusitania, wondering whether she had deliberately omitted to specify the name or precise location of her village during their conversations, so Ostia was an obvious first step in her journey. That’s where he sent a trusted handyman, but he never found her. No surprises there, Briga now knew how to lay low.

However, during the time she was supposedly there, word was that the Commander of the local military camp had been found dead in his tent, naked and gutted with his own sword, no trace of the murderer.

Tenax had chuckled when hearing it, feeling it was like a farewell blink she had sent him, or perhaps a thankful gesture for what he had done for her, maybe just a need for closure. He wouldn’t overthink it because all he came back to was the last night she had given him and all doubts just faded away. She would be fine.

But he wasn’t about to tell Scorpus, he would have been able to send someone on his own to look after her and just create an enormous mess as he usually did.

Scorpus angrily bit his lip, shaking his head with a heavy sigh: “... Fuck…”

But after a second of reflection, he had looked Tenax in the eye with sudden distrust : “You… You released her, didn’t you? You gave her her freedom so she could take off, you bastard!”

“I… would never.” Tenax sighed with actual sincerity.

Owning her was the only way to keep her, he had always known. Like she had said, she had never really belonged to him, she had never accepted the rules of this city, no matter how good she could have become at navigating them.

Unless he had told her that his ambition was not for himself only anymore, that he had plans for the future, great plans, for them both. That was Tenax’s only regret. He couldn’t help thinking it might have changed something, it might have made her stay.

The hardest part now was to let go of the silly dream that, with her, they could have become the kings of the Subura.

[labeteenmoi]

I feel it coming, I feel it coming baby... The third chapter of the current fanfiction that is.

[labeteenmoi]

It takes me so much time to deliver one chapter, that I feel the need to announce it: it's coming!

[egocentered]

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Those About to Die (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con Relationships: Tenax (Those About to Die)/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Tenax (Those About to Die), Claudia (Those About to Die), Original Female Character(s) Additional Tags: Romance, Slavery, Sexual Content, Ancient Rome Summary:

The bell rang.

“The race is on! Bets are over!” the man behind the counter shouted as he closed the jar filled with betting odds amid protests from the latecomers.

Another chariots race Tenax already knew the results of. He didn't even have to fix it anymore; he had the greatest power in the Subura: information. Tenax knew all there was to know about anything race related: who runs for money, who runs for glory, who runs for life. He also knew about all the power struggles involved: who owed who, who owned who, who fucked who. Incidentally, what the horses ate for breakfast and how much quality shit they had had mattered too, and he knew that too.