Emperor Marinianus' Grand Orgy

"Did you kill him?" Umbrius whispered, and Aria shook her head. "Shame, but I'll work quickly and quietly. Just wait over there and don't touch anything."

Somewhat miffed at his tone, and suddenly self-conscious about her nakedness, Aria tried to get both out of the way and out of sight while he worked. She seated herself on one of the other couches in the room, hiding all but her head from Umbrius with the couch's low back while he worked. The thief crouched by the Stone's display case, perilously close to the sleeping Decius, and laid his hands upon the glass.

Earlier, when watching Decius open the door, Aria had been disappointed by his lack of grandiose gestures or magic words. Here Umbrius was more of the same. He was silent and barely moved as he worked his magic upon the lock. Domina Arcarius had warned her that the warding spells were invisible, and not to be careless simply because she could not see any protections.

Umbrius knelt completely still beside the case for a long spell. He was still as well as silent, and Aria was left alone with her thoughts. Her eyes went to the door, for the noise of the orgy seemed to grow softer. Had someone discovered them? She wondered. Were there guards headed for them right now?

Her pulse quickened, and she realized she was gripping the wooden back of the couch. Umbrius still had not moved. Aria rose up on her knees, staring anxiously at Umbrius' back in anticipation. The arcane thief raised his head slightly, and she saw the edges of a smile reach around his face. There was a soft blue glow from the case, and then the light died away.

Umbrius stood up and lifted off the glass top. Aria's breath caught in her throat, fearing he had just triggered an alarm, but there was no response. The Stone of Orrino was free for the taking.

With eager reverence, Umbrius scooped up the stone in his hands and held it up to the dim light coming through the windows. He whispered something to himself that she could not hear, then turned to look into her eyes.

"It's done," he breathed with wonder. "Go back to your master, your part in this is finished. I must leave now."

Without another word or glance at her, he stuffed the stone into his pocket and hurried toward the open window.

---

Decius was dreaming. He knew the feeling from a thousand other spice dreams, but this time felt different. He found himself lying naked in the middle of a dark field. He rose up on her elbows and looked around, his body missing the warmth of Aria beside him. As far as he could see, a flat, dark field stretched away from him toward a dimly lit horizon. Above him glowed the soft light of the stars and the white face of an alien moon. Beneath his feet the dark grass was soft and he could feel the night's moisture on his skin, a cool breeze blowing from everywhere and yet nowhere all at once.

Standing, he found himself no better off. A cool breeze drifted across the vast field, lifting the dewdrops from his bare skin. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a distant light, but when he turned to investigate it, it was gone again. He blew air up from his lower lip and rubbed his chin. Dreaming was not usually not vivid. Turning a complete circle, he found that every direction was equally dim and featureless, and so picked a direction arbitrarily and began to walk.

The grass was cool underfoot and made the walk easy, but Decius soon found himself unsure of how far he had gone. There was no sun, the stars did not move, there were not landmarks by which to gauge his progress, and even when looking back he could not tell where he had started from. How long had he been walking? Did time even have meaning in this dream? Vivid or not, dreams always had a surreal quality to them that usually left him baffled when he awoke.

Again, light flashed at the edge of his vision and he turned. There, to his surprise, he beheld an enormous mountain rising against the starry void beyond. At its shoulders, the sky began to glow as if it were dawn, and he heard his breath catch when he saw the light fall upon it and reveal that the mountain was solid gold! Slowly, the light crept up its gleaming slopes and across the black field toward where he stood, and Decius found himself staring open-jawed with awe.

Then there was another light, glowing deep in the heart of the golden mountain. It grew in strength, soon drowning out the rising sun behind it like a torch before a candle. Decius felt the heat even at a distance of leagues or more. His skin felt dry, his mouth parched, and his hair cracked in a sudden gust of wine.

Cracks split the mountain, radiating outward from the heart of the flame and with a terrible roar, the mountain split apart. From the ruins of the mountain came a gigantic clawed foot, then another, and then a scaled and horned head that crowned a serpentine neck. The dragon climbed out of the golden carnage and its wings unfolded to blot out the stars.

Decius was on his knees, he realized, and the dragon's horned head turned toward him. Blazing red eyes fixated on him with malice and a maw open wide enough to swallow the world. Decius gasped as the moon plunged from the sky, hurtling toward a fiery grave somewhere beyond the flaming line that demarcated the horizon. The earth shook at the dragon's foot thundered down to earth, the monstrosity beginning its advance upon him.

Behind the dragon there emerged a light, soft and white at first, but growing in strength as it broke through the dragon's fires. It was a face, Decius realized. A woman's face half-hidden beneath a hood. To either side her arms stretched out wide beneath a gray robe, her hands somehow fencing in the spread of the dragon's fire below. She was impossibly tall, taller than the dragon, than even the mountain that had birthed this terror, and though Decius could not see her eyes beneath the hood, he felt them fixed upon him.

"Awake!" a woman's voice whispered with the thunder of an avalanche. Decius reeled, knocked from his knees onto his back in the black grass. The dragon's horned head loomed above him now, he could hear its clawed feet crash down to either side. Yet above the dragon towered the higher face of the hooded woman, and beneath the hem of her hood, Decius thought he saw a glimpse of her eyes burning blue-white like ancient stars.

"Awake!" she whispered again, and Decius felt himself falling. The ground receded above him, the dragon grew smaller in his vision, but the piercing stare of the hooded god burned white in his mind until he saw only darkness.

---

His eyes sprang open, and he found himself staring across the room at Aria and a cloaked and cowled man. She was still naked, her golden belt lying on the floor where he had dropped it, but her posture was guarded. The man, however, paid her little mind and instead swung his leg over the sill of the open window. Decius' eyes went to the Stone or Orrino's case, where he saw it was open and empty. He at once knew what had happened.

Even addled by spice, wine, and the scent of three different women in one night, his mind raced with the possibilities. They had not noticed his awakening, surrendering the first move to him, but should he strike or call for aid? Should he try to reclaim the Stone from the thieves or block their escape? The emperor's guards would respond quickly, but would they be quick enough to apprehend the thief? Or would the thief turn on him and annihilate him with the Stone's power?

Decius took a moment to assess himself, even as the thief swung his other leg over the windowsill. Enough spice coursed through him that he felt comfortable engaging in sorcerous combat, at least under the usual circumstances. The Stone changed everything.

The golden mountain loomed large in his mind. He saw the moon fall again and, before he realized what he was doing, he was conjuring a whip of midnight.

With lightning speed, a tendril of pure darkness lashed across the room and struck the thief on his shoulder. It coiled around his arm and yanked him backwards to the floor. He cried out in surprise. Aria screamed in shock. The Stone of Orrino tumbled from the thief's pocket and rolled across the floor.

The man turned over and swept the fallen hood from his face. Beneath the cowl, Decius saw a burning silver mark on his cheek.

"Umbrius!" he cried, "Out of prison already?"

Umbrius scrambled to his feet, his eyes lingering on the fallen stone. Aria hid herself behind the couch again. The thief's eyes crept along the floor to Decius' bare feet, then up his bare body until their eyes met again. His lips curled in a sneer.

"Of course it would be you. The gods must hate me with the fury of a desert sun."

"Of course it would be me. I don't suppose you would entertain thought of surrender."

Umbrius snarled and lunged for the Stone. Unable to allow his enemy such an upper hand, Decius dove for it as well. Together, they conjured tools for the task—Umbrius a spectral hand and Decius another of his whips. Umbrius' conjured hand seized the Stone first, but the sharp crack of the lashing whip shattered the conjuration and sent the Stone tumbling to the floor again.

Decius cast a new spell, a keening wail that mimicked the warning pipes that the palace's guards used. He cast a glance at the closed door, telling himself that he heard the pounding of boots approaching.

But Umbrius was not deterred. He summoned a new hand, and his flesh-and-blood hands reached to his belt and hurled a pair of knives at Decius, who fell naked and flailing to the floor to avoid them. One passed cleanly over his head, but the over slashed through his bare shoulder and drew blood. Decius gasped in pain, clasping a hand to his wound, but his mind worked quickly to summon a glittering shield that defeated the next pair of thrown knives.

With Decius on the defensive, Umbrius rushed forward and snatched up the Stone again. But this time, he found a barrier of ice blocking the way. He growled with frustration, but then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. To Decius' eyes, he shimmered and the light began to pass through him like smoke. Umbrius stepped through the barrier.

Decius wasted little time of his own in summoning a great gust of wind to blow his foe away. The sudden gale whipped through the room, scattering Umbrius, rolling the Stone into a corner, and upending the couch Aria hid behind. The girl tumbled to the floor with a scream of fright, and the wooden furniture frame clacked on the stone floor. Decius let his glittering shield fall and rushed for the Stone.

He snatched it up, feeling its raw power thrumming in his hand. The Stone had been awakened by the discharges of magical energies all around it, and reached out for a new wielder. Decius raised it to his eyes, exulting once again in the power he had once commanded. Memories of his time as wielder of the Stone rushed back into his mind and he smiled with triumph.

They were all ripped away as a bolt of lightning blasted him. He was hurled across the room, the Stone flying from his grasp, and he came to to find himself lying dazed against the wall, the Stone rolling lazily across the floor to come to rest beneath a couch.

Decius struggled to stand, finding his legs too weak to support him. They collapsed beneath him and he crashed to the hard stone again. Grimacing, he looked up. Umbrius was advancing toward the Stone.

He had expended much of the spice flowing through his veins already, but he knew he must stop Umbrius before he claimed the Stone of Orrino. With another look toward the door, hoping the emperor's guards were on their way, he summoned what remained of his strength for a final assault.

His mind's eye pictured a flash of blades, and three swords burst into being between Umbrius and the fallen Stone. They gleamed in the low lamplight, then flashed toward the thief. Umbrius fell back, but quickly conjured a shield to protect himself. The blades struck a glowing barrier of sorcerous energy and glanced harmlessly off.

With his foe distracted at least for the moment, Decius again tried to rise. His legs obeyed him now, if only barely, and he scrambled low along the floor toward the Stone. It had rolled to the other side of the couch, and he dove underneath its low seat to seize it. But it proved just out of reach, and he found himself wedged beneath the couch. With a grunt of exertion, he pushed himself upwards and freed himself, crawling backwards to escape the pin.

A weight crashed onto his back, driving him back to the floor. Umbrius' hand seized him by the hair and pulled his head backwards. Murder gleamed in the other man's eye and on the blade of the knife in his free hand. The blade lashed forward and Decius cast a desperate spell of warding. Umbrius' hand caught fast in midstrike, the blade flying from his grasp to clatter to the floor. Decius threw a vicious elbow into his attacker's flank and Umbrius grunted in pain as he slid off.

Scrambling to his feet, Decius hurled himself over the couch and snatched up the Stone again. He turned, ready to incinerate his enemy with a torrent of flame, but the thief was on his with all the speed of a pouncing cat. They toppled over another couch with a crash, and Decius lost his grip on the Stone.

He rose, looking for the errant artifact, only to find Umbrius between the two of them. The thief looked to Decius, then to the Stone, and rushed for the latter. Decius caught him halfway to his goal, and the two of them grappled on the open floor, each unwilling to loose his grip for fear that the other would seize the Stone and deliver a killing blow.

Decius stared into Umbrius' eyes, feeling the heat of his foe's hatred hot in his soul.

"Girl!" the thief called, "Grab the Stone and give it to me!"

"Don't do it, Aria!" Decius retorted, "He will bring ruin upon us all!"

"You won't have to be a slave anymore!" Umbrius called, and Decius saw Aria rise up from behind the fallen couch. The Stone glowed in the evening light at their feet, each of them so close but unable to bring it into his grasp.

"He is a thief!" Decius cried. "He will steal you for himself! He cannot be trusted!"

"You trust this man? A Collegium sorcerer?" Umbrius shouted back.

"Who does your master work for? Someone who wants what is best for you? Or someone with a vendetta against the world?"

Aria had heard enough. She darted forward to seize the Stone, then turned and ran for the door, leaving them to their struggle. Decius watched with grim triumph as she receded into the darkening room, a white candle in the gloom.

Light flooded into the room, silhouetting Aria in her flight. The door banged open, and with the blast of trumpets and the screech of whistles, a score of guards swarmed into the room, led by Prefect Butilinus. Their bronze bracers glowed dully in the dim light, barely noticeable beneath the silvery glow of their polished cuirasses. Butilinus leveled his blade at Decius and shouted "seize them!" as his guards threw all three of them to the ground. Decius did not resist, trying to explain the situation to the guards, but they spared him no thought and threw him roughly to the floor. One man stomped on his shoulder wound and Decius cried out in pain, but it was not use. They clapped him in irons and soon he was bundled out of the room and into an antechamber.

Flanked by two guards and with his wrists bound in bronze, he could do nothing but wait, fettered and kneeling on the cold floor. His body crackled and ached with the pain of Umbrius' lightning bolt, and now again with the pain of his restrained posture. His hands were too tightly bound to even salve his wound, though at least the bleeding had stopped. Outside, the noise of the orgy continued unabated. The disappearance of the emperor and his guards had not stopped the revelry. Nor had he expected it to. The Midsummer Orgy was the high point of the season, and the aristocracy of the empire were not ones to let a little attempted theft derail their entertainment.

And so it was well past midnight when at last the door to the antechamber banged open and Emperor Marinianus entered, flanked by eight guardsmen. He had dressed himself and left his concubines behind, and the expression on his face told all present that he was most displeased with having to do so. He stopped before Decius and his escort came to a clanging halt, halberd butts banging on the marble floor. The emperor stared down at Decius coldly for a long moment before he spoke.

"Well then," he began, his regal voice echoing off the stone with an authoritatively paternal tone, "What is the meaning of all this?"

"Apologies, Lord Majesty," Decius began with a bow as low as his chains allowed, "I regret to report that I was tricked. The slave girl was brought here tonight to seduce someone—me, as it turned out—to allow her access into your trophy room, where she might admit a thief. I fell for her charms, I admit, and bypassed your wards in search of a secret place where we might fuck. She drugged me, but when I awoke, I acted swiftly and foremostly to secure your property from the thief's clutches."

"Indeed," Emperor Marinianus mused. "We have questioned the girl and she has revealed the names of her masters who put her up to this. We have also learned from the thief the name of the one who bought his release from the dungeons. Those who accepted the bribes will suffer the consequences. As for you..."

Decius grimaced. The emperor stared down at him impassively. Decius felt as if he was seeing one of the massive stone statues of the gods that centered the temples of the Imperial Palace complex. The emperor was similarly stoic, tall, and untouchably mighty. He thought of his dream. Should he mention it? Spice dreams were all different, and yet all the same, yet this one stuck out in his mind. Would the emperor believe him?

"You were tricked," Emperor Marinianus said at last, and Decius felt relief flood through him. "I have seen the girl, I can understand how were. I detect no malice in your actions. Seeing as how the Stone is only here in the first place because of your actions, I suppose it merits a reprieve for you. My warders will inspect the lock, and fine you for any damage caused. Furthermore, you will lend your expertise to them when they devise new wards for every door in the palace."

Decius sighed to himself. He was grateful to escape a flogging or worse, but replacing every lock in the palace might take months!

"Lastly," the emperor went on, "The conspirators who plotted to steal the Stone will forfeit property to me, first among the property will be the girl. I am giving her to you. I trust that you can tame her criminal ways?"

"Of course, Lord Majesty," Decius agreed eagerly. She would make a fine addition to his harem, and his cock ached for her again."

"Wonderful. I expect to see her again next year, tamed and ready to entertain."