"...then Theramenes proceeded to sit symposium-style down on the ground with the infamous Conium liquid on his cup, playing games with the poison."said Aurelia , mildly chuckling, sitting with one of her legs crossed on a decorated with flowery patterns couch.
"The guards just stood there and watched him. They asked him to get over with his death sentence, or they'd make him drink it. Theramenes, being the playful soul he always was, toasted to his executioner and former friend, Creteas. 'Cheers to the beautiful Creteas!', he said, before drinking the Conium."said Aurelia, with me letting out a chuckle.
"...cheers to the beautiful Creteas.."I said, trying to elegantly suppress my laughter.
The guy sounded like he was having fun, even when coming face to face with death. The balls on this man! Playing games with his poison, throwing vulgarities at his former friend, this guy became a legend.
How can I not laugh? It's a good story I've never heard before. It has to do about the Thirty Tyrants of Ancient Athens after the Pelopponesian War. Ah, Ancient Greece will always have a special place in my heart.
I couldn't hold it in anymore, and neither Aurelia could. We just let our laughter echo in the empty luxurious living room. It's been a while since I laughed with someone. Now that I think about it, I don't really have any friends in this world.
"Just picturing it makes me want to laugh! 'Cheers to the beautiful Creteas!', ha! The guy is a legend."I said, casually drinking my tea. Not any kind of formalities or anything. Just typical girl talk. Well, if you except the fact that we're laughing at a guy who landed the best one-liner before he died.
We just took our time laughing together. It isn't anything special, just two girls enjoying themselves.
"Ah, it feels good when I can drop the archaic pronouns. Thee this, thy that; I feel strange when I do that though..."said Aurelia, bringing the cup of tea on her red, skinny but still beautiful lips.
"I wholly understand what you mean. The Imperial Palace can be exhausting sometimes. You always need time off from it."I said, chuckling again with her.
"Oh, really? So that's why you were exiled, then?"said the witty Aurelia, before the two of us resulting again to laughter.
" 'Tis* nothing but a vacation."I said arrogantly. ('Tis= archaic literary abbreviation of 'this is')
"Oh really? Confident, are we?"she said, in her fox-like manner.
"After I share with you my plan, I'm sure you'll agree my return to the Palace is only a matter of time."
"Is that why you chose to keep the Tagmata here? They're here to kill you. Even under my supervision."
"The reason I let the army stay, is because I wanted to talk to you."
"Talk? Engage in parley? I might not want anything to do with it, you know."
"I think you'll be much more entertained than annoyed. Ignorance is bliss, only when your head is standing firm glued to your neck."I said, trying to be more passive-aggressive.
Aurelia was just silent. She couldn't keep it in. Her laughter; I was mesmerised by it. But this is no place to drool over someone's elegance.
"Oh, that was a good laugh! Yes, I almost forgot! You're the Evil Princess alright!"she said, bringing the tea to her mouth again, relaxing more in the process.
"Alright then. May I hear your malevolent scheme then, Your Imperial Highness?"
***
"...ok...wow. I, uh...am rendered rather speechless."she said, looking at me like an extraterrestrial.
"Alexander The Great? Military reforms? Pushing the enemy back? What exactly are you trying to say?"said the girl named Aurelia Taliesyn.
"Pushing the Barbarians out of our lands is our objective; how about we take it a step further?"I said, with a faint smile appearing at the corners of my lips, imagining what kind of paths for me, yet unopened, will reveal themselves.
"It is an interesting approach. But I think you haven't thought too much about it. What army are you gonna use? The Tagmata, the guys who are sent here to kill you?"said Aurelia.
"Have you ever heard of the Opis Mutiny, dear Aurelia?"I said, after making a short pause, thinking of what I can use from my lectic arsenal.
"Yes, I have. In the Elden Gaia, Alexander returns from the land we call today Ios, then India, after securing the Indian king Porus on the river Hydaspes. Then, his troops dissatisfied by his Persianization, mutiny against him."said the erudite Aurelia
"That is correct. It is believed to be the greatest speech of all time."I said, sipping my tea, while still looking Aurelia in the eye.
"I do not disagree, but where are you getting at?"she said.
"Words cannot change a man's heart. Though actions can. Tell me, Aurelia...what do you think lies beyond the Far North?"I said, standing up from my seat, now pacing around her.
"I...don't know. The lands of the Barbarians who oppose us, sure, but..."
"In the land beyond the North, lies glory, Aurelia. Undiscovered lands. Riches yet to be pillaged. Tribes yet to be subdued. And men yet to be bent to the will of the Empire."I said, now behind her.
"Is there anything better than glory? Men who live and die by the sword seek exactly that. They are no fools, oh no, they aren't. They are merely trying to leave their footprint in this godforsaken world. Stay alive in the memories of their kin."I said, moving further behind her, looking at the massive door which connected the Tea Living room to the next of the Castle.
"But I seek no glory. I am trying to find something more...raw. Power. I want power, Aurelia. It's my nectar and ambrosia; the thing I live for."i said, putting my two hands behind my back.
Aurelia stood up from her chair, to face me my back.
"Is there anything more addicting than success? More infatuating than power? More noble than glory?"I said, now turning to face her.
"Times are going to change, Aurelia. After that, things are rather bound to shift. So? What are you going to do? Do the intelligent and lend me your sword, or stay out of it, out of the glory of man, who is so desperately thirsty for it?"I said, opening my arms wide.
She remained quiet, or rather, stood still in awe.
"Oh, my dear Grace...my body...it tingles with anticipation!"she declared elegantly in the whole room.
"What...?"I said, taken by surprise.
"What a speech! What rhetoric prowess! I can offer no comment to grasp the magnitude of synaesthesia I felt!"she said, now reddening, coming closer to me.
"Huh?"I simply said, before she was right next to me, her silver hair glittering under the afternoon sun behind me.
"You ought to take responsibility for this. I fell for you, right here my dear! How couldn't I? Such a way with words...!"she said, now being inches away from me, breathing heavily.
I could do nothing but blush. This...this isn't how it was supposed to go!
A speech about warriors and glory isn't supposed to result to flirt and amour!
"I, uh, sorry, but what I'm discussing here is you joining me-"
"Yes, I know, I know. I'll gladly take up on your request, if that means we'll get spent more time together..."she said.
"That's..."I said, blushing again.
"Oh, so it is you who probably makes the first move, eh?"said my presumptuous partner, from now on.
She forced her body on to me, making me take a few steps back, slapping her palm on the wall i just hit behind me, blocking me of any passage.
"What are you doing?"I said, as my blood began to boil.
"Oh, I just thought you were into that sort of thing. Aren't you?"said Aurelia, breathing next to my ear.
"If you want your tongue in its position, back off."I said.
"Stop being so harsh on me~"she said, bitting with her lips my ear.
"H-hey. Stop it-"
"I wooooon't~" she said, with a musical tone.
To be honest, I didn't ever think someone might force themselves on me like this. I mean, I was thinking of engaging in things like that solely for my plans and because I have a male's consciousness, but never have I thought of...feeling good.
Experiencing romance. That sort of thing.
My body began feeling hot. I tried to force her out from me, but that only made her bites on my left ear stronger.
"I will kill you if you don't stop..."I said, clenching my teeth.
"Kill me if you want. It was totally worth it. You're good at getting teased."she said, now running her fingers on my curves of my torso and abdomen.
"Why you...!"I said, now using the entirety of my strength in response to my stimuli, to reverse our roles. I now had her pinned against the wall, holding her two wrists.
Her eyes, were exotic...so clear and blue. She kept breathing heavily at my way, now laughing silently, like the fox she was.
"Oh, dear! It seems I was caught by Her Highness! Aw, what should I do~"she said, now smiling with her white teeth to be seen.
For some reason, being called "Her Highness" upset me.
"...Vespertite. I want you to call me Vespertite."I said, with her grinning at me once again.
"Oh, we're a thing already? I thought we were just teasing each other for now."she said.
"You fucking..."I blurted out a curse.
"Oh, so foul-mouthed...I love it."she said, revealing more and more her true nature.
I paused for a while, but she continued.
"I had my eyes on you since I first saw you down there, but now with that, I fell for you even more."she said, not a tinge of shame in her words.
We just paused, and my heart skipped a beat. We held each other tightly, a fact which I didn't really paid much attention to.
She closed in her face, just breaths away from me.
"Kiss me already."she moaned.
I did exactly that. I pressed my two lips on hers, with pathos surging inside me. This sort of hedonism, this pleasure, it was a first for me.
Have i just fallen for her?
With me still grabbing her by the wrists, we kissed each other back, applying more and more pressure. It wasn't long before we used our tongues.
"Hehe, I knew you were naughty..."she said to me, between kisses.
"Shut up."I just managed to say, before we broke off from the wall and started kissing all around the room, until we landed on one of the couches.
She was on top of me, pressing her one of her knees on my abdomen, our salivae getting mixed together, our tongues wrapping around each other.
I stopped to catch my breath.
"Why did you stop?"said Aurelia, herself panting too.
"Sorry. I just...need...to catch my breath."I said.
Silence, for it was short but both thought it lasted for ages.
"Have you ever done this before?"she said, breaking the ice.
"You are not my first kiss. But I guess you are my first real kiss."I said.
"Well, you are my first kiss."she said, resting next to me.
"Hey, Vespertite. Do you like me?"she said, with her looking up at the ceiling.
"I don't know."i said. Her silent sighs signaled her faint disappointment.
"You're questioning both of our sexualities, and now you're saying 'I don't know?' At least say that you liked it."she said, now moving her head toward my direction.
I remained silent, and after a long pause and no thought, I blurted out a preposterous proposition.
"Hey, Aurelia? Want to conquer the world together?"
She sprung from her resting position, her head now looking at me, again like an extraterrestrial. She didn't resist; she laughed.
"Where did that come from?"she said, thinking I'm joking, probably
"I'm being serious here."I said, annoyed.
"Wait, really? So, that's...a confession?"she said, crawling like a cunning cat slowly at me.
"I don't know. I just felt like it and said it. I'm not good at romance."I said, my mind still fuzzy.
"I don't know about the world, Vespertite, but I sure as hell want to conquer you "now again on top of me.
"Oh, so you want a round 2, huh? Fine then. Bring it on."
And so, we just went back to our crazy little world. I don't know for how many hours we were closed inside the tea room, finding ourselves, exploring our bodies and experiencing our hedonistic sides, with no interruption.
At some point, I went on to lock the door of the room. We slept next to each other on the couch after many hours of experiencing the forbidden pleasure of a female's body, until we arose from our sleep and got back to it again.
I think at some point we took our clothes off and embraced each other, our feminine scents wrapping around our noses, with our bodies coiling around each other as we kissed under the moonlight.
We were chasing each other in the room, drunk from pleasure, and when we catched each other, we wouldn't just break off. It was perfect.
It was like Aristophanes once said; my other half separated by the gods, roaming the planet, just collided with me so uncontrollably, it made me not want to break off again.
It made my male side jealous that I couldn't experience her as a man. But this wasn't what she wanted. She loved me, and not some random dude from another world.
For each embrace, our pleasure and love deepened. This wasn't just hedonism or sexual arousal; we didn't do anything dirty after all.
We were just experiencing a side of ourselves we sought out so bad, but we just couldn't make up our minds of what it is.
Now, I'm sure we found out.
I don't know if it is love or something. But I am a hundred percent sure, that when I was with her, it just felt right. I'm sure she feels the same.
I am ready now. I have a partner-in-crime now. One who understands my plan, one who has military knowledge, and one who most importantly, loves me.
My Syndicate continues to recruit more people for my cause. All that remains now, is to take the land of Gelida all under my influence. Make the people love me and revere me.
All is going under my control. Just as more people are leaving my sister's side, more and more people are coming by my side.
"Alright, Miss Greedy, let's conquer the world together."said Aurelia, as she chased and grabbed me for the last time, before we slept together on the couch, for I don't know which time it was.
All I know is that everything is going perfectly, like a clock.