The Year is 2132 Ch. 04

Capitulus 1V (Chapter 04)

Painful death in the Arena

"Sit down, Cherl. We have something unpleasant to tell you." Zhanet's words cause her instant distress. Zhanet is sitting with Claude, Steev, and a Roman soldier she has never seen before. Cherl's heart is in her mouth. What can be so terrible that a soldier is present?

"I won't sugar coat this. Cherl, it is possible that Sylvi and her mother will be executed. They ran away last night and were apprehended by the harbor patrol at the inlet eight kilometers to the west of here. The patrol is there in case raiders come ashore at that point. Their duty is to warn the countryside of the marauders. Sylvi and her mother were caught trying to board a boat in the harbor. They had offered the boatman a sum of money to take them elsewhere, and he reported them to the patrol."

"Oh NOOO. How could this happen? Why were they running away? They seemed content here. They were grateful to be off the streets. Why? Why?"

"Cherl, it's a long story. Firstly, I have to tell you that Claude's advocate has been trying since you purchased Sylvi to prevent a Roman custom to apply to the girl. Every Roman slave, by law, must be branded to show ownership. The advocate has been attempting to have that changed to a tattoo in Sylvi's case. Wait." Zhanet sends for Delia; when the girl arrives, she is told to remove her chiton. She looks at the soldier, but no one tells him to leave; she unpins the shoulder and the chiton drops. "Delia, bend over, spread your legs, and pull your buttock cheeks apart," Zhanet demands. There is a tattoo, about an inch long, on the inside of her left cheek. It is a replica of Claude's signet ring.

"Stay there until I tell you to move; you are a part of this situation. Just hold your cheeks apart until I tell you that you can go." The girl doesn't move, but she is embarrassed to be in this position in front of the soldier.

"Cherl, this is the story I've pieced together. Sylvi went to your room yesterday morning just after Cordele left you. Evidently, she smelled her mother's perfume on you and assumed you had forced Cordelia to have sex with you. To spite you, she went to Delia's bed and sprawled in an inviting way. Delia awoke, saw Sylvi's exposed genitals and couldn't resist. She licked Sylvi until the girl started orgasming. Sylvi was so loud that she woke Milla; Milla called the other girls in to watch. Sylvi must have had a dozen or more orgasms before Delia stopped licking her. By that time, they had to prepare the morning table, and that's when you found them chattering. Watching Sylvi losing her virginity excited them all. Not breaking her hymen, just being tongued by another woman. She didn't reciprocate, though. She knew enough to defer that for you, but it was enough. She spitefully disobeyed you and that's when the rest of the problem began.

Later yesterday, Claude's advocate came with good news. He had obtained permission to have Sylvi tattooed instead of being branded with a hot iron. The problem was that Claude, being her actual owner, as he had paid for her, and I had to sign affidavits to the effect that Sylvi was obedient, and we would be responsible for her future obedience. When I tried to sign it, Claude reminded me that I could be tried for treason for signing a false statement to the Roman government. I could be executed if the truth came out, and with the gossip in this house, it could happen.

Cordele must have heard the argument and decided to take Sylvi and flee. She was horrified that her daughter would be branded if Claude and I didn't sign the affidavit. When we were all asleep last night, they took money and fled. When they were apprehended, they were checked to see if they were escaping slaves. Cordele was tattooed when Claude paid her debts, but Sylvi, as you know, is unmarked. This soldier brought the two women here this morning to check on their stories. They had said that we had paroled them and given them money. To save us from perjury, they confessed to the truth. They are locked in Cordele's room until they are tried and executed."

"Don't you mean tried to determine guilt and then sentenced?"

"No, Cherl. They've confessed. The trial is a formality. I'm sorry, Cherl. We know how much you care for Sylvi, for both Sylvi and Cordele. The advocate says nothing can be done to stop punishment."

"What if Sylvi is branded? Won't that satisfy the law?" Zhanet's face told her the answer. Cherl sat and stared into space. She couldn't believe that they must die; that she would lose them. She was too emotionally drained to cry. This world was an Eden for her, but it was a horrible place, a hell, for its own citizens.

"You may stop pulling your buttocks apart, Delia. Go help your sisters prepare for the next meal. Do NOT put your chiton back on. Perhaps you will continue to feel shame when the male servants look upon you naked, and your friends will know how you've helped cause this debacle with your insatiable sexual appetite. You may not have sex with any of your sisters for two weeks. Do you understand?" Delia, shamefacedly, nods.

Three weeks later, Sylvi and Cordele stood before the Roman magistrate; their chitons were dropped to their waists and belted. Woman appeared before the tribunal bare breasted. They were sentenced to "the worst possible punishment." Oddly, although that meant death, the word death wasn't spoken. It was up to a panel of three to declare how they must die. The punishment would be complete when they were deceased or by sundown. When Cherl asked what the possibilities were, she was told: on the stake on tiptoe, so they could never survive until dark; hanged; whipped to death; hung by the ankles and bled to death; the list went on and on, each punishment named was worse than the one before. There were none that they could survive from dawn to dusk. Cherl felt that she herself was dying. She thought that she would smuggle them a drug to end their lives with a non-painful death. When she mentioned this to Zhanet, she shook her head no. They must forfeit their lives in the arena where a crowd would watch for entertainment. Anyone preventing that amusement would have to take the prisoner's place.

Steev and Zhanet were trying to console Cherl when Zhanet mentioned that Sylvie would die never having experienced the pleasure of performing cunnilingus on another woman. Cherl's head jerked up and she stared at Zhanet; she asked her if she could be permitted to speak to Claude's advocate. She asked Zhanet what the worst possible punishment for the women could be. Zhanet began to enumerate what she had told Cherl before. In the midst of her recitation, Cherl jumped up and ran off. Zhanet and Steev looked at one another. He shrugged his shoulders.

Sylvi and Cordele were still locked in Cordele's room. This Rome had no prisons. Prisoners were locked in any place from which they couldn't flee. Sentencing was carried out on the following Sunday for the crowd's amusement. The women were not happy to see Cherl. They had let her down and caused her much stress and anxiety. It was difficult for them to face her. Nevertheless, she hugged them and offered her sympathies. She told them she wished that they had come to her for advice and help instead of running away. They told her that they were so distraught that they ran without thinking. When they had realized what they had done, it was too late. They kept apologizing over and over as though it were she who would be punished. They asked her which punishment they would receive. They knew from the past how criminals died in the arena.

"I want you both to think of what the absolute worst possible punishment you could receive would be. It's important. You mustn't ignore my request. I'll see to it that you are fed and treated well until Sunday. Please don't count on this, but I'll try to help mitigate your sentence." The women thanked her for her past generosity and for all she had done for them. They apologized again for letting her down. They hugged and kissed and Cherl left.

The following day, Dies Jovis, Thursday, Cherl spoke with the advocate, but he was skeptical of her idea and kept shaking his head no. She pleaded until he threw up his hands and left. Dies Veneris, Friday, was like a day of mourning in the household. No one spoke or looked at one another. The younger girls cried off and on throughout the day.

On Dies Saturni, Saturday, the advocate returned and spoke to Cherl behind closed doors. He told her that her idea had been received by the panel and would be accepted only if the prisoners facing execution before the two women provided enough of a spectacle to satisfy the bloodthirsty 'patrons of the arts'. Members of the household tried to quiz Cherl about the advocates words, but her answer was always, "You don't want to know."

Cherl spent several hours trying to coerce Sylvi and Cordele to carry out her plans, but they were adamant in telling her they would rather be dead. In a fit of pique, she snarled at Cordele, "Don't you love your daughter? Sylvi, don't you love your mother? You must do this or die."

Cordele whispered, "Missie, you mean well, but the fact that we love each other prevents us from carrying out what you ask of us."

"Think about it, Cordele. You are the mature one. Swallow your pride or whatever it is that stops you from taking this way to live. I'll talk to you again in the morning. I know you'll want to spend your last hours alone together tonight. I love you both. Please decide to live."

"We love you, too, Cherl, I mean Missie. We'll think on it, but I doubt we'll change our minds."

"Well, if you decide to take my advice, you'll need to practice some before you go into the arena tomorrow. Tonight, It will be without thousands of eyes watching you. May Jupiter give you strength."

On the morn of Dies Solis, Sunday, four Roman soldiers and a Centurion arrive in a wagon drawn by a team of horses. They conduct the two woman to the wagon and help them board. Sylvi and Cordele are weak with fear. Members of Claude's household have readied wagons to follow the soldiers and the women. They have said their goodbyes earlier and may no longer speak with Sylvi and Cordele. The younger girls stay home. They cannot bear to watch their beloved friend and her mother die.

When they arrive at the arena, the two women put their arms around each other and with the soldiers half carrying them, they enter the prisoners' gate.

Claude takes Cherl, Steev, Zhanet and his four menservants to his box and leaves them while he heads for the office where the schedules are made. He is wearing his money belt under his toga and it makes him look heavier. When he returns to his box, he is slimmer.

He shows the arena schedule to Cherl and Steev. There are not many prisoners to be executed this day and they are scheduled one after the other. He explains that on some days, there are numerous executions at any given time. He had been hoping that Sylvi and Cordele could be lost among any given group; however, that can't happen since the executions will be sequential. Furthermore, the crowd may become bored and defeat their plans.

He has not been able to forestall what happens to Sylvi and her mother, but he has had their execution pushed back until two hours before dusk. Hopefully, the crowd will have their bloodlust fulfilled by then and things may work out; that is if the women have decided to follow Cherl's suggestion.

Before each prisoner is slain, a stentor sings out what crime was committed, and what the punishment will be, so that members of the crowd are informed of what will happen to them should they commit the same crime. This is the Roman method of crime prevention. From the number of executions, the system is not too successful.

See: 'From the Arena' in the endnotes **********

All afternoon, women have been mutilated and killed, and Cherl is heartsick that Sylvi and Cordele's turn is coming soon. She keeps watching the horizon hoping that the sun will go down soon and cut short the women's upcoming ordeal. As she's thinking, the stentor sings out their names; that they are runaway slaves and thieves; that they have been sentenced to death, and that their execution will now be carried out. Tears well up in Cherl's eyes and her heart is about to break. She wants to run, but there's nowhere to run. She can't imagine how her friends must feel as painful death approaches. She hopes they die quickly to avoid prolonged agony at the hands of her tormentors.

Claude reaches over and grips her arm. "Cherl, have heart. If my bribery works, there may be hope."

The two women are brought to the scaffold and forced to mount the steps. Their clothing is stripped away and the crowd is quiet. The women have beautiful bodies and will give the onlookers much pleasure, as they're tormented. The stentor sings out that the crowd has an opportunity to decide how they must die. He shouts that they are mother and daughter, and that they can die of pain or of shame. They will be beaten to death by whip cuts, or they will be forced to perform cunnilingus on each other against their natural inclination. He says that they will no doubt commit suicide afterwards so great will their shame be, but they will avoid the whip. If they don't kill themselves, the executioner will kill them. "Oh citizens of Rome, what is your pleasure? Pain or shame?"

There is silence for a few seconds and then Cherl hears the chant, "Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain." All of their plans have failed; she is overcome with emotion and faints. She is not aware of a new chant from a larger segment of the onlookers, "Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame."

The people have been looking at death all day and they want novelty at this point. The women on the scaffold drop to their knees. They may have escaped the executioner -- for a while. They are forced to lie on their sides facing each other's pudenda; the upper ankle is tied by rope and drawn up tightly to the gibbet. It is a painful position. Their genitals are fully exposed, and their faces are pushed into the other's pubes and they are bidden to begin.

When Cherl revives, she sees them furiously tonguing each other. She faints again. When she revives again, ten minutes later, they have slowed their efforts. They have begun to tire already, but they have settled down to a slow, steady pace. Sylvi screams as each orgasm strikes her, yet she manages to begin licking her mother's vagina before the executioner uses the whip on her. He is standing ready to lash out should either woman falter. When she realizes the crowd wants to hear screams, Cordele sings out when her daughter brings her to orgasm. She is afraid to fake the orgasms themselves as the executioner is watching the women's spasms. She pauses to take a deep breath, and the executioner's whip cuts her left buttock. Hurriedly, she begins licking her daughter's vagina again.

Cherl keeps an eye on the sun urging it to begin its descent below the horizon. It is taking too long to move, and she begins to fear again for her friends' lives. Soon, the crowd begins to tire of the sex and begins to chant again, "Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain."

Have they lost the contest so close to the end? Cherl begins praying, "Please Jupiter, don't let them die."

The executioner lifts his hand to the crowd and quiets them. He cracks his whip over the women, and the stentor sings out, "There will be pain." Cherl is devastated.

But no move is made to stop the two women from licking each other; instead, another naked woman is brought out, forced up the scaffold, and dragged by her tied wrists to the gibbet crossbeam above Sylvi and her mother. The woman's wrists and ankles are tied far apart. She is spread eagled like a human X just above Sylvi and Cordele.

The woman has seen whipping executions of women in the Arena many times over a number of years and has cheered on the executioner's methodical destruction of them. She has never thought that she would be in that position while other men and women screamed for her to be whipped.

When she walked the streets selling her body, she had known she was breaking the law. Over the age when she was acceptable by the brothels, and having no other source of income, she had no choice but to offer her services to any man or woman for a few coins. Having to offer a service unavailable in the brothels and therefore able to attract certain customers; she provided an act known as 'round the world' even in that era. It consisted of both vaginal and oral sex: a few strokes in one orifice and then a few in the other until she was able to effect an orgasm. When the man's penis went from her vagina to her mouth, she could barely tolerate the strong bitter taste of constant sex. She had no idea of feminine hygiene and, even if she had, she had no way of douching and cleansing her vagina. Desperate to avoid the disgusting taste and stay off the streets for a few hours or days, she made the terrible mistake of stealing a customer's purse. The man caught her in the act and dragged her to the Watch.

Brothel operators, in order to safeguard their own profits, have paid bribes to the authorities to make streetwalking a capital crime. A magistrate finds her guilty of both her crimes and sentences her to be whipped to death in the Arena.

She is trembling with fear as she anticipates the pain and damage to her own body. When the executioner uncoils his whip and snaps it into the air, the woman loses control of her bladder. The two women, Sylvi and Cordele, below are drenched with the woman's urine.

Cherl realizes that this poor woman will bear the brunt of the crowd's bloodlust instead of her loved ones. She has strong mixed emotions.

The crowd has been down this road many times before. They are used to seeing women being striped by the executioner's whip. They know what to expect and how to play their role by letting the executioner know what they want him to do to the woman.

They begin chanting, "Puga pyga. Puga pyga. (Buttocks. Buttocks.)" Again, the executioner unfurls the whip and strikes at her buttocks; she shrieks with pain. The strikes are continued until her buttocks are striped and welted. The woman is numbed by pain and is unresponsive. She is most likely unconscious at this point.

The crowd is screaming, "Papillae, papillae. (Nipples, nipples.)" The whip flicks her nipples; then, "Mammae, mammae. (Breasts, breasts.)" The executioner whips her breasts. Blood drips down on Sylvi and her mother, but they don't dare stop licking each other's vagina. The chant is now, "Pudenda, pudenda." The whip snaps the woman's genitals; the executioner's whip continues whipping her labia and genitals. He circles her looking for areas he missed the first time. By the time he finishes, the woman is hanging limply.

Cherl is aghast that the woman has been punished so severely; however, it has taken up time and the sun is more than half way below the horizon. Her friends are safe.

However, the crowd begins chanting, "Mors mortis. Mors mortis. (Death. Death.)" and the executioner holds a knife up in the air; the crowd screams, "Ventris. Ventris. (Belly. Belly.)" He reaches down, grabs Cordele by the hair and pulls her face out of her daughter's crotch. Dragging her to her feet, he plunges the knife into her abdomen before she is aware of what is happening.

Cherl watches this as if it happens in slow motion: the knife being driven into Cordele; blood spraying everywhere; Cordele's shocked look at the impact; her stunned glance at her belly; her wide eyed stare into the executioner's face; and her collapse on the scaffold stage when the executioner lets go of her hair. He holds the bloody knife in the air and waves it at the crowd. They scream their approval.

Cherl screams, "Noooooummm," as Zhanet clamps her hand over Cherl's mouth and says, "Do you want someone to report you for anti social behavior? Be quiet! Will you keep your mouth shut if I take my hand away?" Cherl nods, and Zhanet lets her go.