Venus the Mother Ch. 01

Author's Note: This is another tale is the same Alternate History setting as "A Private Triumph". It is not necessary to read that, but it will introduce the character of Rhoda. This story will have three chapters, centred around a different sexual scene each, and different aspects of the festival of Vinalia Urbana. I do hope you enjoy.

Chapter I

A Centurion's Theatre

Rhoda set her amphora of wine upon the steps of the temple with a soft smile. Around her, other women gave their own offerings, all in the form of wine or flowers of varying colour and shapes. It had turned the steps into a colourful tapestry as Rhoda took a step away, glancing upwards to see the priestess standing in the doorway with arms raised to the sky, her white robes fitted to expose a singular breast. It still glistened in the sunlight from where another priestess had suckled before the offerings had been called upon, as a daughter to mother.

As the first Amazon had to Venus centuries before.

When the last woman stepped away, the priestess lowered her arms. Two others emerged from the temple behind her, also with a single breast bared. They followed behind the first as she descended the steps, until she reached the cluttered array of offerings. The other two stepped on either side, arms held out as if to offer embrace.

"Go now, to your families. Venus's love for you all, her daughters who carry Amazonia into the future," the priestess called out, and many women bowed, Rhoda included.

When she rose again, the centurion tugged on the hem of her tunic and turned to move back to the street. Banners and pinnets of red and white fluttered throughout the city, and white and red rose petals were scattered across the streets as the first day of Vinalia Urbana truly began.

Passing by couples who danced, who proclaimed their love for one another, who kissed in the daylight, Rhoda wore a smile. The daylight was so often pure, and gentle. Tonight though, would show the other side of Venus. One did not become a mother through chastity after all.

"Soldier! Hey soldier!" a young feminine voice called, and Rhoda turned to see a woman she did not recognize running towards her. Behind her a man laughing and blushing, a white rose in his hand. Rhoda raised an eyebrow, an amused smirk on her lips.

The light blue tunic she wore was common for off duty legionaries, and it's sleeves were short enough to show the IX tattooed just below the left shoulder. It would certainly be easy to tell what she was.

Then the young woman was upon her, almost leaping into her arms. She must have been at least a decade younger, with not a line etched in her face, even as she grinned. Her soft lips pressed hard to Rhoda's own. They were soft, flavoured with a touch of wine and honey. After but a heartbeat her body pressed firmly against the centurion's own. Soft limbs and breasts against hard muscle. The feel of it earned a groan into the unexpected kiss. Lips parted and tongue flicking through the caress, before the woman broke it.

Still wearing her raised eyebrow and an amused smirk, Rhoda looked at the other woman, whose lips glistened with the soldier's own saliva.

"May your daughter grow to be as strong and beautiful as her mother," the woman said, as she ran her palms along Rhoda's arms, callused fingertips tracing the swell of dip of the centurion's battle sculpted muscle. Then her eyes flicked upwards and she leaned in.

Breasts once more pressed against Rhoda's own, and those soft lips grazed against the centurion's ear.

"My name is Nephele. Come meet me here tonight, if you wish to aid me in becoming a mother as well," she said, then kissed Rhoda's cheek and ran off without another word.

Rhoda stood there watching as Nephele ran back to the laughing and blushing young man and grasped his hand. He was pulled along with her into the swirling and dancing crowds as people continued to laugh and sing. Unable to stop a laugh of her own from slipping out, Rhoda watched, but couldn't find the young couple again.

Licking her lips, Rhoda put her back to the growing crowd, and started on her way home once more. It took a few minutes of manoeuvring to get out of the market, where even this first day of the festival merchants hawked their wares. Spices from Arabia, wood carvings from Gaul, wine from Greece and Velathri, it all came through this port, out into the Adriatic.

Soon she was on the cobbled streets of Ariminum again, where the scents of bakeries and roses swirled together. Citizens on their way to and from festivities all talked between themselves, filling the streets with the buzz of conversations that drowned out footsteps and the call of gulls from the port. Slaves dressed in simple tan tunics scurried about, tending to the errands of their mistresses and masters that they may enjoy the festival. Moving along the streets, Rhoda's eyes drank in the sights of red and white streamers fluttering from red tiled roofs, and windows set in their sun baked walls.

Cutting across the forum, with its pillars of marble and long stretch of open plaza lined with carefully groomed trees. Statues of Legates and especially brave legionaries stood proudly between, and the great idol of Juno, with Jupiter and Minerva at her sides, capped the great centre of Ariminum.

It was near empty today, most off to celebrate Vinalia Urbana with family and lovers, though Rhoda took note of a few slave born litters carrying nobles through the great plaza. And of course, a lone priestess standing in its centre, on the podium often erected for the city's crier.

Even from here, Rhoda could see the woman was heavily pregnant, her white robes hanging off her large belly, stretching around one of her heavy breasts. A young woman was standing before her, lips at the priestess's one bared breast. Something about the priestess seemed familiar to the centurion, who changed her path to approach.

As she got closer, she watched the wind streaming through the forum wave the veil that hung over her hair and down her back, the hem of her robes brushing across bare feet. The young woman pulled away as Rhoda closed the distance, knelt to kiss the priestess's feet, then continued on her day. It left Rhoda alone with the priestess, who stood with arms slightly out to the sides. The thin fabric stretched over her breast was soaked through, easily showing the dark nipple beneath. The other breast glistened from that young woman's mouth.

"Chryse?"

The priestess's eyes opened. Her look of serenity shifted into a beaming smile as she looked upon the soldier in front of her.

"Rhoda. When did you get home?" Chryse said, stepping off the podium to bring the soldier into a slightly awkward hug with her rounded belly in the way. Their hands only managing to get to the other's shoulders.

"Not long, just over a week. There was a Triumph in Roma for our return before we marched back to the field of Bellona here to be dismissed. For the time being," Rhoda said.

With a slight laugh, Chryse pulled back and glanced towards Rhoda's chest. The centurion glanced down and noticed the wet patches upon her tunic. She smirked, and looked up at the other woman while her fingers brushed the damp patches.

"Blessed by the Goddess," Rhoda said, bringing the fingers to her lips, tasting the sweet milk.

"Venus blessed already. And I remember exactly where," Chyrse said, her eyes settling on Rhoda's lips. The centurion bit them gently a moment, before letting them spring free with a pass of her tongue. The priestess felt her breath catch at the sight a moment as old memories slithered through her mind.

"I miss you," Rhoda said, and Chryse's friendly smile slipped. Sadness flitted through her eyes and the curl of her lips seemed far more forlorn.

"You miss the sex," she said, and Rhoda let out a sigh, her shoulders slumping slightly.

"I can't deny that I do. But, it's also you I miss. The long talks over wine, the strolls through the city and the woods beyond. I do miss you," Rhoda said and stepped a bit closer to her former lover.

"Rhoda... I miss you too, but why tell me this? We could not stay lovers. You are away far too often, fighting in distant lands against people I only know rumour and gossip of. I have a husband that I love, and a child on the way," Chryse said, running her hands slowly over the swell of her belly, her eyes dipped lower, afraid to look at Rhoda.

"I know. I've no intention of trying to steal your heart. I just wanted you to know I still care, and you'll always have me to help you with whatever I can," the soldier said, moving closer and gently cupping her old lover's chin. She ran her thumb just beneath the other woman's lip, before leaning in to kiss her cheek. It was little more than a brush of lips upon soft skin, but Chyrse smiled.

"Thank you," she said softly, and Rhoda took a step back without another word, just the corner of her lip curled. She started to turn, when Chryse's voice reached out again.

"I am due in just a few weeks. Some of my fellow priestesses are planning to bless the birth tomorrow evening, for the second night of the festival. Would... would you like to come? A soldier is known to have the favour of many Gods, and from tales carried across the sea, you especially," the priestess said and Rhoda paused, glancing back to the woman. She couldn't read the priestess's expression, only that various emotions were dancing across her features.

"I would be delighted," Rhoda said, and saw a proper smile curl Chryse's lips again. She turned to her, stepped closer.

"You know my home, I shall see you as the sun reached the horizon tomorrow evening," Chryse said, before sliding a hand beneath her exposed breast. Lifting slightly, she stared at the soldier before her.

"Come. Taste of the blessing of Venus. Know her beauty, her bounty, and her love. As you are a daughter to her as well," Chryse said, and Rhoda found herself leaning inwards. Knees bent slightly she wrapped her lips around the priestess's puffy niiple.

She sucked gently and milk sprayed across her tongue. Its sweet flavour roiling in her senses as a single bead of it dribbled over Rhoda's lips as she rose to watch her old lover.

"Go with the Gods my friend," Chryse said with a slight inclination of her head, leaving Rhoda to slip away.

It seems she was not going to have much free time through this festival. Not that she was opposed to it.

Stepping off the immensely clean slabs of the forum, and back into the dirtier streets of the city, Rhoda was nearly home. She slipped past a soldier dancing with a young woman in an intersection, with people clapping away as their sandal clad moved along the cobblestones. As Rhoda ducked down the next street, she glanced back at the smiling faces while children rushed out to dance a circle around the couple.

A smile pulled at her lips as she looked forward again, nearly colliding into a young slave man carrying a basket filled with an amphora of wine and bottles of olive oil.

"Apologies mistress," he said, bowing, terror across his face.

"My fault. Get about your duties," Rhoda said, clapping a hand on the man's shoulder as she slipped around him. He straightened and looked back with a slight frown, but quickly hurried off.

One last corner, and she saw the arch that entered into the courtyard of her home. Picking up her pace, Rhoda soon stopped when she saw her daughter sitting at the table beside the courtyard's well. The twelve year old girl was humming to herself, looking down at a piece of wood she was whittling with a knife Rhoda had gotten her as an early birthday present before she went to Libya.

Moving into the arch, Rhoda crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. She smiled, watching the young girl before her whittling away, slivers of wood falling to the stone floor as her legs kicked back and forth off the edge. Young Kynna was already up to Rhoda's chest, and her arms starting to show definition from the exercises she'd been doing every day, determined to follow in her mother's footsteps.

"What are you working on?" Rhoda said as she pushed off the wall and stepped into the courtyard.

Kynna's head shot up, young innocent eyes wide as she grinned as only a child could.

"Mother," she said, jumping off the table and nearly falling on her face. A pang of worry clashed with a bubbling laugh as Kynna righted herself and sprinted towards her mother. The girl crashed into Rhoda, arms wrapped tight around her.

"Watch the knife," Rhoda cautioned, reaching back to carefully pull the knife from her daughter's fingers.

"Sorry mother," Kynna said, pulling from the hug, eyes downcast. It pulled at Rhoda's heart, even as she got down on a knee, holding the knife by its blade in front of Kynna's eyes.

"Remember what I said about this when I gave it to you?" Rhoda asked, and Kynna nodded.

"It is a tool, not a toy. Meant to work and not to play. Respect the steel's bite," the girl said reaching out to carefully take the knife back.

"That's my girl," Rhoda said, kissing Kynna's forehead as she slid the blade back into its scabbard. Then Kynna's head snapped up again, and Rhoda had to yank her head back before a young skull smashed into her mouth.

"I made you something," Kynna said and turned and ran before Rhoda could say anything. Instead she got to her feet and moved to the table, sitting on its top instead of the benches while Kynna fled into one of the doors on the bottom floor of the home.

As the sun warmed her shoulders and back, Rhoda let her eyes wander up the exterior stairs to led to the balcony holding separate doors for her room, and her husbands. Then she glanced about the walls giving the courtyard some level of privacy, at least when the doors were closed, and found all the chipped plaster had been replaced. Chipped cobblestones had been replaced, and the well looked like it had a lot of work done on it.

Her husband had certainly been busy while she was gone for nearly a year. She smiled, elbows on her knees, as she let her attention return to the bottom floor. To the kitchen and storage of their home, as well as Kynna's room.

The doors burst open again, and Kynna came flying out like a comet. She was grinning almost maniacally with her hands held before her clutching something that Rhoda could only tell was wood. She bounded up over the bench to drop herself beside her mother, who looked down at her with an amused smirk.

"What's this then?" Rhoda asked, and Kynna shot her hands outwards before letting her fingers uncurl.

It was a figure carved with some skill though still showing the lack of patience that youth often did. A few extra nicks around the face, the proportions not quite matching up. But, the figure was clearly supposed to be a young woman, or a girl.

"It's me!" she said excitedly, almost bouncing on the table as Rhoda pulled the figure from her hands.

"This way, when you go away again, you can always have me with you," Kynna continued and Rhoda smiled, feeling tears welling in her eyes. She leaned over, wrapping one arm around her daughter, and kissed the top of her head.

"I love it," she said, and Kynna let out a high pitched squeel of glee as she wrapped her arms around her mother.

"Now. Where is your father," Rhoda said, and almost laughed as Kynna's eyes went wide, her mouth hanging open a second as if remembering something she should have said earlier. Then her face coloured, and Rhoda shook her head.

"He's in your room. Said he had a present and that I should go wait for you in the courtyard.," Kynna said with an overly serious frown that almost made Rhoda laugh.

"Alright I'll go find him. Why don't you run along and cause some mischief?" Rhoda said, ruffling her daughter's hair and earning herself a clipped and whiny 'hey'.

"Okay," she said soon though, leaping off the table again and running to the archway with sandals slapping against the ground. She paused, and glanced back, saw Rhoda still sitting on the table watching her.

Giving a hearty wave, Kynna soon vanished into the streets of the city, leaving Rhoda to shake her head. She got off the table far more gingerly than her daughter had, and glanced upwards to the balcony again. To the closed door of her room. It was not often that Attrius went in there, so she was certainly curious what he was planning.

Walking up the stairs, hand running up the banister, Rhoda kept her eyes upon the door to her room. Slipping under the overhang that protected from rain, she walked slowly, as she heard two male voices speaking to each other. She glanced outwards once, over the city and the streets teeming with people in celebration before she paused outside her own door.

As fingers settled on the latch, Rhoda leaned in closer. The voices were clearer, and her lips curled as she recognized them both, even if the words weren't clear. One was her husband Attrius. The other was his lover, Barrius.

Standing there, outside her own room, Rhoda's tongue ran across the inside of her lip. She'd not slept with her husband since Kynna was conceived. Their marriage was one of friendship, and prestige, not any true love or lust for one another. Attrius hadn't even had another woman besides Rhoda his whole life, where she had had many men as well as women. But what he had with Barrius was a beautiful thing. True love, born from the stage where they'd met.

With a gentle push the door opened, and Rhoda looked in on the two men sitting naked at the edge of her bed, talking softly to each other, both lit by candles placed carefully around the room. As the door creaked, Attrius glanced over with a friendly smile, but Barrius jumped slightly, eyes widening. Rhoda closed the door behind her, as she watched her husband's hand stroke his lover's cock. The pleasure soon calming the other man as his foreskin wrapped around the head and was pulled back.

"Well, this is a surprise," Rhoda said with a playful smirk, letting her eyes roam across both naked men.

Her husband was what the Greeks might call masculine. Friendly brown eyes looked out from under thick eyebrows. A neatly trimmed dark beard covered his square jaw, his barrel chest dusted with just as dark hair that Rhoda knew Barrius loved to run his fingers through. She had as well, those many years ago. His large arms showed great power. It worked for the stage, to wield a spear and look like a Greek hero of old.

"A gift. For your return home, for your promotion, and for Vinalia Urbana," Attrius said with a grin, before his eyes fluttered a moment, while his lover's hand ran along his shaft. From the very tip to the tangled bed of hair at its base.

"A welcome gift," Rhoda said, her eyes trailing up Barrius's thin toned arms.

Where her husband held to Greek standards, Barrius was properly masculine. His slim form toned with just a hint of muscle, his soft features and long lashes would have been difficult to determine man from woman in other cultures. His long mane of blonde hair carefully tended and oiled. His flat chest, punctuated with pale nipples, drew Rhoda's eyes along skin scraped clear of any hair. She licked her lips when she settled down between his legs. He was an impressive length, and girth, though she was sure only men have felt his cock inside them. It even looked large with her husband's meaty hand wrapped around it.

"You liked the display we had for you in Roma. We thought a repeat performance would be welcome," Barrius said, leaning against Attrius's form.

"It certainly is," Rhoda admitted, undoing the belt around her tunic and glancing behind her to toss it away.

Before the belt left her hands, she noted the chair. Beside it a small table holding an amphora of wine, along with a plate of honey covered goat cheese, and some olives. She smirked, sat down and took up the amphora. Just in time to see her husband pull Barrius in for a deep kiss. Taking a sip directly from the amphora and tasting surprisingly rich wine, Rhoda fixed the hem of her tunic, resisting the urge to hike it up.