Heir of Aurelian

Chapter 25 An Act of Humiliation

The night had come and pass, and in the dawn of the following day Marcellus stood within the city of Rome, bound, chained, and naked. He was not the slightest bit ashamed of his actions, nor his appearance, as he noticed the lustful gazes the women of the ancient capital were giving him. With a slight wink, he immediately gained the favor of many young women, who he knew would be glad to help “mend” his wounds after his sentence had been fulfilled.

Such a shameful response to his predicament caused the men in the crowd to cry out in fury. Many of their wives and daughters had been staring at the chiselled and scarred body of the Roman General since the moment the guards stripped him of his clothes.

“Traitor!”

“Scum!”

The men in the crowd hurled their insults while the women said a silent prayer for his safety. After all, the effect of the lash could easily kill a man if he endured too many. Honorius gazed upon the scene with a wicked smile on his face as he issued the sentence to begin.

“Titus Claudius Marcellus, for bringing humiliation to the Glory of Rome, I hereby sentence you to walk in shame towards the cathedral at the lower level of the city, and repent to the lord God Almighty for your crimes.”

Marcellus gazed back upon Honorius with a smug smirk on his face, spitting on the floor as if to taunt the Emperor, whose face darkened when he witnessed such an unseemly sight. As for Placidia, she was standing by her brother’s side, struggling to keep her eyes away from Marcellus’ lower half. After all, it was her first time seeing such a thing. When the emperor noticed this, he frowned before issuing the order to commence the sentence.

With the wave of a hand, the guards who escorted Marcellus pulled back their whips before leaving a violent lash on the defeated General’s back. The sting of the leather strips as they flayed the flesh from his bones nearly brought Marcellus to his knees, however he simply gritted his teeth and endured the process as he marched forward in the streets.

As he passed by the uneducated plebeians, they continued to hurl their insults while tossing refuse at him, staining his body with filth. Every few steps, the crack of the whip resounded in the air, and blood spilled onto the stone streets of Rome.

At a certain point, Marcellus passed by his villa, where Sigefrida and Aeliana stared at him in disbelief. They never thought that Honorius would make him pay such a heavy price for his mistakes. Sigefrida could feel the icy gaze that her master’s mother was giving her from behind, as if the woman blamed her for this unfortunate event._.

Marcellus gazed upon his slave and mother and simply smiled. However, in the next moment, the whip stripped more flesh from his back, causing the man to grimace in pain. He could not keep up the facade for long, and thus he continued his walk of shame. Sigefrida had every urge to rush forward and rescue her master when she saw such cruelty inflicted upon him, but Aeliana stopped her by grabbing hold of her wrist and slapping her across the face.

“You dumb bitch! He is in this mess because of you. If you try to interfere, you will only worsen his sentence! Learn to use your fucking brain!”

A red palm print stained itself upon the barbarian women’s otherwise flawless appearance as she welled up in tears. She could not believe she had caused such suffering to her master. The poor girl had every instinct to jump upon Marcellus’ sword, and pay for his sins with her own life. However, such a thing would only bring him grief, and she could not allow it.

Eventually Marcellus reached the doors of the Cathedral, where was by now stained in blood and filth. The priests of the chapel washed him down before they allowed him entry. After kneeling down at the altar, he said a simple prayer, not to the Christian God, but to his personal deity, Sol Invictus.

“My god, the unconquered sun, please give me the strength to endure what is to come, and lead my people to glory!”

He said the prayer in such a low voice that nobody could tell he was worshipping a pagan deity in the house of the Lord. After doing so, he had finished his sentence before collapsing onto the floor of the chapel in a pool of his own blood.

Several days passed before Marcellus awoke, lying face down in his own bed. The wounds on his back were covered in medicinal herbs and wrapped in linen. By now, the bleeding had stopped, and he had begun to heal. Though he was still in immense pain, he gazed over at the side of his bed to see Sigefrida and Placidia kneeling by the bed. There were also a few other young women who he did not recognize. Evidently, they were skilled in healing, as they were the wounds who fixed him up after his walk of shame.

Placidia was the first to speak when she noticed the man had opened his eyes.

“Marcellus! I’m so happy that you are okay!”

She quickly grasped hold of his hand, which brought a warm smile to his face. He felt as if he had died and entered Elysium. However, he soon realized he was within his own bedroom. Causing him to raise from his slumber. The grimace on his face quickly caused Placidia and Sigefrida to push him back down while the barbarian beauty chastised him for his recklessness.

“Lie down, you fool! Your wounds still have yet to fully heal!”

When Marcellus heard this, he did as he was instructed and lied back down with an awkward smile. He decided to ease the awkward atmosphere with a joke.

“If I knew all it took was a severe lashing to get the two of you to join me in bed, I would have done so a long time ago…”

Placidia flushed red when she heard this, and tried to cover her embarrassment, but it was no use: Marcellus had seen it and snickered in response. As for Sigefrida, she flicked him on the forehead before lecturing the man on his choice of words.

“Marcellus, you shouldn’t have such a filthy mouth in front of a young maiden. Don’t you have any shame?”

In response to this, Marcellus merely chuckled before sighing heavily.

“Evidently not…”

The barbarian beauty could only pout as she heard such a shameless remark. The atmosphere immediately became awkward once more while both women struggled to come up with a light-hearted topic to switch to. That is until Aeliana bust through the door with tears of joy in her eyes.

“Marcellus, you’re awake!”

The general’s mother quickly rushed towards her son, completely forgetting about his wounds as she hugged him tightly, causing him to grunt in pain. The moment she heard this, she dropped her embrace with a worried expression on her face.

“Marcellus, I’m sorry I-“

However, before she could finish her sentence, the young general raised a single finger to his mother’s lips and silenced her.

“I know…”

After saying this, he shifted his gaze over to his favorite slave.

“Sigefrida, would you be so kind as to fetch me some wine? I am feeling rathe parched. Take the others with you…”

The Suebi slave would never disobey a command from her master and quickly rose from her kneeling position while nodding her head.

“Yes, Dominus.”

She quickly fled the room with the other girls, who had been looking over him in search of something to quench her master’s thirst. When they were out of earshot, Marcellus sat on the edge of his bed and gazed over at Placidia before interrogating her about the Emperor.

“I know that idiot brother of yours won’t let me off with a mere walk of shame. What have you heard from him since my sentence?”

Placidia had an anxious expression on her face as she revealed what little info she had.

“As far as I know, he seems to be satisfied with your punishment, but I don’t trust him. I have never known that fool to be so merciful. I don’t know what you said to him in the dungeons, but he is not happy with you. From his tone of voice, I fear he might be conspiring against you…”

Upon hearing such a thing, Marcellus scoffed. No matter what Honorius’ plots may be, the man was a fool and could not easily harm him. Thus, he had a confident tone in his voice as he condemned the emperor in front of his little sister.

“Honorius is too much of an idiot to succeed in whatever simple-minded schemes he may be able to conceive in that addled brain of his.”

Placidia could not tolerate Marcellus’ arrogance and instantly flicked him on his forehead before educating him on the severity of the situation.

“It’s not my brother that I’m worried about. It is that snake Olympius. I don’t know what conspiracy those two devils are plotting behind your back, but whatever it may be, it does not bode well for you…”

The moment Marcellus heard Olympius was involved in the foolish emperor’s schemes, he realized things were more dire than he had initially thought. Marcellus had been to the court in Ravenna enough times to know that the man was not to be trifled with. Thus, he could only rely on Placidia to inform him about their movements.

“Placidia… I know this may be too much to ask of you, but can you watch your brother and his advisor for me? I don’t need you to do anything treasonous. Just keep an ear out for whatever they may be plotting against me.”

The naive girl immediately nodded her head with a smile when she heard this, not realizing that Marcellus had just asked her to spy on the emperor on his behalf.

“Of course, if I hear anything that might threaten you, I will let you know!”

Upon hearing this, Marcellus sighed in relief before patting the girl’s dyed blonde hair. He uttered a word of caution before sending her on her way.

“Whatever you do, you must ensure that Honorius and Olympius never find out about this. I fear what they may do to you if they were to notice your eavesdropping.”

The girl once more nodded her head with a pretty smile on her face.

“You can count on me, Marcellus!”

After saying this, the girl left the young general alone with his mother. Completely unaware that she was now acting as a spy on behalf of the man.