Tales of Ancient Rome: Salidia and Lydia Chapter 15 & Epidoque

Chapter 15

A New World

The Goths were finished by the end of the eight torture round. By that time they all were terror filled at the mere sight of Salidia or Lydia, babbling and screaming and crying when they saw either of the women. In our terms, we would say they were suffering from acute post traumatic stress disorder. Induced by Salidia. If it were 60 yrs. ago, we would say it was extreme "shell shock." One symptom would be paralysis of their sense of initiative; another would be compulsive, intrusive thoughts, specifically terror and fear, plus depression and flashbacks. Salidia and Lydia referred to it as "broken." They decided to forgo any further torture considering the number who had already died of blood poisoning. They wanted some slaves to show for all their effort, and twelve was more than Salidia had originally expected. She had thought she'd be lucky get a quarter of them for slaves.

Selenius paid off his bet with Salidia, and that was more fun than Salidia had imagined. Plus, she got to tease him over the grapes for months afterwards. And she had the wine sent up anyway. She knew how to milk a good situation when she saw one. Every time they had dinner together, drinking her wine, she reminded him that she didn't have to give him the wine because she had won the bet. Twelve amphoras of wine lasted a long time, and allowed her to tease him for meal after meal.

A week later the two women were on horseback on the knoll overlooking the villa. Below them male slaves worked in the fields, including the twelve Goths. Salidia said, "We defeated them. Bent them to our will, and those who did not bend to our will, we killed."

"When I was in Rome, I controlled my world through intrigues and alliances and family ties. When Caligula forced me out I came here and carved out another world to control. This world I control through the weapons I hold in my hand, and that is much more satisfying. Simpler. More dependable. You and I control all these men. They obey our bidding, or suffer the consequences. And we will defeat anyone who opposes us. In Rome I used words to fight. Here, you and I have become lethal weapons. I like this world better."

"Next week Talig will take eight of the men to Tuscany to pick up my revenue. While all those men are there, I will have them pick up all the families to bring back here, staging at the villa in Tuscany, and getting whatever they need for the trip. I will do as you suggested and use the Phoenician's money to build them houses here around the villa when we find out how big a house each family needs, and give them the remainder of the money to begin their lives here. With more people here for us to use, we can expand our world, and not just be surrounded by Cimbri and Aquitani."

Salidia would expand her world. A fight with the Aquitani would bring her more land than before, and she would have trouble getting the people she needed to control it. It would force her to use more and more women to help rule her domain, as she had groomed Lydia, her Little Lion, to help her rule. Her new land would become a safe haven and refuge for strong women who did not fit into the rest of their world, as the spirited Lydia did not fit her original role in the kitchen. And these women working to control this new land would become an ideal to women through the world and the place they created would become known as Avalon, a place of fairness and justice to women.

In time, history would forget the names of these two women, but the name of the place they created, Avalon, (Aballo), would always retain the character of the world they created for themselves, the place where women were free to be who they were destined to be. As the name Avalon drifted down through history, it always carried with it the atmosphere of freedom and fairness to women that these two women first made for it in Aballo.

Epilog

Like a Phoenix

Salidia rode down to speak to the steward, and Lydia remained on the knoll watching Salidia below talking to the steward, with her fields beyond her and her slaves working in the fields.

A lone women on a hilltop watching Salidia below her, she thought of her trip here. She began as a weak women, angry at the abuse heaped upon her, but too weak to do anything about it, and clearly frightened of the real people with power, men like Talig. Now she stood at the side of Talig, his powerful protégé whom he treated as an equal. From a powerless women afraid to speak up for herself, she could now kill any man before her, but one. And that one stood at her side. And people stood in fear when she spoke.

And Lydia was no longer Salidia's timid student who Salidia had to teach how to handle slaves. Now Lydia was Salidia's protector as much if not more than Talig. When Lydia looked down the hill at Salidia, she saw a responsibility that was hers to protect and serve.

Not all people were afraid of her. There were people who laughed and smiled and hugged her when she spoke. People that gave her back the world of love she had lost, lost but not forever. And it was hers again.

Lydia was a complex figure. Sadistic and cruel with the boys she used for gratification. Loving with Salidia and Talig. Caring, thoughtful and helpful to the men and their families. Fair as she saw it with the tanner from Tendown. Murderous with the Cimbri Chieftain and the Goth warrior she had just killed. Strong, as anyone standing before her would find out. And soon she would become the protector of her world and those within it.

Like Janus, the god with two faces who's image hung on every Roman home's doorway for good luck, the door to Lydia heart had a Janus. One side facing outward was the ferocious killer who used tremendous speed to strike before others could defend themselves. She was the killer people feared. The other side looked inward to those she loved. This was the woman who was loved by the people in the villa. And Lydia, this ferocious killer who would defend her world and those she loved against all who threaten it, would become the women who would make Salidia's Avalon a reality.

For Lydia was both Mars and a Fury, and a woman loved by the people in the villa.

Later, men would come into this world that the two women had created, and they would not only try to destroy that world and take it for themselves, but to kill these women. As Lydia had stepped out to defend Salidia against the Cimbri chieftain who had insulted her, Lydia would step out again to defend her world. She would learn to ride as a soldier, pick up a bow, and hunt these men down.

But that's another story.

The End,
for now.