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From: Sictus
Date: 02 Dec 1999
Time: 13:56:29
The baths had been crowded that day, the heat of the blistering sun making it nearly impossible to feel refreshed without being neck deep in water. Even then, heated as the water was in the aqueducts that ran above the city, it was a nearly uncomfortable feeling to be immersed in such warm water, like bathing in sweat. Sictus let his eyes roam lazily around the room, the attendant waving a new clean fan towards him, the tiny ripples in the water lapping against his neck, spiraling off his flesh and vanishing into the otherwise still pool. He did not notice anyone enter the room, but he could tell by the momentary pause in his fanning that the attendant had noticed someone he was not prepared to see in the bath today. Without turning, Sictus bade the stranger hello. The attendant bowed and retreated from the room, and while waiting for the newcomer to speak, Sictus stood up and climbed slowly out of the marble bath and onto the worn tile.
"Sictus, I would speak with you, when you are dressed."
Sictus froze slightly at the voice, but soon regained his composure. Turning to face his wife, he frowned. . "Tigeula, you know very well that women are prohibited from this bath. Explain what could not wait until I returned!" "Our son has died, Sictus. He was crushed in the chariot races, and you have lost him and the money that you bet on his victory. Your creditors have already taken a part of their payment as they wanted."
It was then that Sictus noticed the deep bruises on his wife's wrist and the area of her face that she hid behind her shoulder length blonde hair. Her eyes were downcast, and she trailed barely visible blood footprints. She again began to speak, but Sictus intervened.
"They will be dead by nightfall, so swear I now, before all the gods and by my oath they will die by my hand!"
With that, Sictus stalked from the room, lost in his rage and desire for revenge. Tigeula stood facing the pool of water for some time, and her eyes clouded slowly as she walked stiffly toward the edge of the bathing pool. She drew a blade of shining gold from her robes, and with a fast motion, brought it to her neck as she pitched forward into the pool. The clean, warm water slowly reddened as her life blood mingled with the waters.
The sunlight cast gold sparkles off of the detailed and ornate armor that Sictus pulled himself into, and the blood red cloak that draped across his shoulders concealed briefly a sword lashed to his side. As he finally walked from the baths, he was met by a ring of people, staring at him. He glared at them, convinced of his own immortality against the superior numbers. Wordlessly, he pulled his sword from his scabbard, as the small mob that encircled him did the same.
"We trusted that you would support us publicly, Sictus. It is your due that your wife and child be taken by us before we take your life. Words could have kept you and your family alive, and yet you spoke against us."
Wordlessly, Sictus advanced, and swung his blade in a terrible arc. It was met by flesh, as were all his slashes. Though he inflicted grievous casualties, too many descended upon him, and as the many blades slid into his body, he felt drawn and pulled into each of the weapons that were buried to the hilt in his torso.
His laugh broke the silence in the air, and though he died, there was a part of him that lived, as it were, in a different way.
The silence around him brought him back to reality, or what little of it he had left. The spirits in the room looked at him with some expectation. He had been saying something. What was it? He could not remember, but from the expressions around him, it had been something important. He stood, and walked from the room, leaving those behind to wonder what had happened, to wonder what would make Sictus laugh aloud like that.