Chapter 2. Demons Are Coming

AURELIA

Location: Britannica, closest legion to the core north.

I looked up at the sky, which for several months had cast a gloom upon the land even at midday, and inhaled deeply. The smell of ginger and spice lingering in the air was a testament to my proximity to the kitchen, where I usually performed my duties for the Empire daily.

The sea of rose-red tents amid scanty trees and pale green vegetation in the valley could be envisaged from where I stood on slightly elevated terrain. Since my restless mind would not let me focus, I had been asked to take a break and get some air.

In the past months, since the troops had been deployed to the core north, my beloved had sent me letters per fortnight when reports usually returned to the camp, except in recent weeks. Maybe something had happened to him? I hoped not. Foolish Julian! If he hadn’t been so eager to be deployed, I would have prevented it.

I could not tell which unnerved me more, the winds that grew colder, signaling the coming winter, a time to leave the farm and stay hungry if the stores lacked grain, or the fact that these soldiers kept consuming food and wine as though they owned the ranches and vineyards there. A small price to pay for an alliance with Rome, they said. Did it not matter to them if the original residents grew hungry and thin?

Glaring around, I could see the jobless ones grumbling, murmuring, fighting, arguing, and reveling like restless pigs. Perhaps because it had been eight months since they last saw action because the strongest rebels had been captured and sent to Rome as gladiators. I shook my head in displeasure.

As I lingered on this thought, my eyes stumbled on a shady figure lounging beside a tent at a distance. His raven cloak shielded his countenance, leaving only a pair of wandering red eyes visible and glowing.

“Aurelia!” I heard my name being called by a familiar masculine voice. I swiveled in the direction of the sound, only to see a short, stout man bumbling toward me.

“Oh, Felix,” I cursed under my breath. If he were not here to torment me with endless complaints about the Romans as usual, I would have been delighted to see him. I quickly turned to peep at the figure again, but it seemed to have vanished into thin air. My eyebrows furrowed. Perhaps I was just stressed out and hallucinating.

I managed to let out a smile as I faced the short man again, but my smile quickly faded since the look on his face wasn’t pleasant. His wrinkles seemed to have folded even more than usual, and his baldness was glistening from being freshly oiled. His white garment was rough and stained, unlike his typical stainless personality. The fact that his chest was heavily rising and falling indicated that he had probably sprinted to this place.

“Felix, what is wrong?”

“A raven came for you.”

“For me?”

“No. I ran up this hill just to have a good swim, idiot,” he handed me a small note.

“Sorry, sir, you don’t have to be sarcastic about it.” I smiled, unwrapping the note and taking a glance at the inscriptions within. “Julian!” I yelped, recognizing the handwriting. Tears gathered in my eyes as a mixed feeling of relief and fear washed over me. For some reason, he wrote in Latin, which he knew I couldn’t read.

I handed it over to Felix. “What does it say?”

“Let me see…” He quickly took a look.

“The northern front has been decimated by demons. Help us! They are not human…” he said, but without letting him finish, I pushed my body into motion, storming towards the tents with my burning heart.

“Aurelia, what are you doing?”

“Going to report this to General Claudius.”

“Are you crazy?” I heard his footsteps trailing me. “You have no audacity to. You’re not even Roman.”

“So what?”

“Are you so blind that you don’t notice the hierarchy here?”

“Felix, if we go through the hierarchy, Julian might be dead before reinforcements arrive. You read his words. The demons are coming.”

“He didn’t say they were coming.”

“Just shut up, Felix. I’m doing it…”

“You have a death wish, don’t you?” His warnings kept falling on deaf ears because I was way beyond caring about consequences now when my lover’s life was on the line.

For several weeks, no news had been heard, maybe due to the anthropological Roman method of communicating with their troops per fortnight. What if something happened to the messenger on the way? What happened to ravens, and how do they expect a soldier to return with news in times of danger when the escape routes were cut off by enemy troops? The fact that Julian had to send me a raven was enough to tell me of the dire circumstances.

“Stop!” A huge guard stood in my way, holding a long spear just as I was about to barge into the general’s tent. “What do you seek here?”

“I require an audience with the general. It’s urgent.”

He scoffed, “You should not go in, woman, because a strategic meeting is ongoing.”

“But I have news from the northern front.”

He flashed me a demeaning glare. “You have news…” he repeated my words, his stare running from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet. Perhaps it was my ragged brown apparel that gave me away or my heavy accent.

“You work in the kitchen, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, I have my orders, woman. You should leave before you are harmed.” His grim expression was enough to show that he wouldn’t hold back on striking me at the latest opportunity. After all, I was not pure Roman, and no matter how good our alliance could be, no one was ever Roman enough in Britannia.

I shook my head. “Death awaits us all,” I cussed.

“I might just butcher you for treason.”

“No, it is not a threat. It’s just a message from the North. Tell your commanders that demons are rising. Hence, the legions in the north are no more.”

“Move!” he fumed, grasping the handle of his sword.

“I will, but you had better let them know. Because if you don’t…” I let out a lopsided smile and began to back away.

“Witch!” he spitted, but I ignored him, knowing something worse was at stake. I must rescue my beloved. I may not be a Roman soldier with the strength of an eagle, but I am Odin’s daughter, and the old gods are with me.

“Aurelia, what happened?” Felix stumbled on my path again. I wasn’t surprised he had cowered away close to the general’s tent.

“We are going to rescue Julian.”

“But we’re not even soldiers. We neither have weapons nor horses. How are we supposed to…”

I shoved him out of my path. “Are you coming or not?”

“Of course, I’m coming!”