[IC] The gladiator and the princess

[Xion Demente]

The dungeon, that's what most of the men and him called it down here. It wasn't well lit either, a sigh escaped a mans lips. Aiden looked around from his holding cell, the games were soon to come though he didn't like fighting other men he did it to survive.

A Celt would never go down without a fight and that's what he would do, he didn't know what was in store for him oit was always different than the last. Shaking his head, "I will fight till I fall." It was a quiet promise to himself mostly he wanted out of this wretched place.

[RomanAria]

Aeliana fanned herself boredly. She was sitting on the fountain in the Forum, waiting for a group of her friends. They were fashionably late as always... They were all going to go buy gowns for the gladiator tournament that was set to take place that night, so that each of them might catch the eye of some strong gladiator. To punish their fathers, for trying to arrange their marriages.
The girls came up, giggling. Aeliana jumped to her feet to join them, swinging her fan lightly by her side.
"Ubi Puellula est?" One of the others asked, using their unflattering nickname for Aeli's little sister, the biggest thorn in their sides in the history of ever. Where is The Little Girl?
"Neque scio, neque curo." She replied, lightly. I neither know nor care.
"Ubi eamus hodie?" Asked another girl. Where might we go today?
In answer the girls joined arms and skipped off to the markets to find their perfect dresses for the day.

[Xion Demente]

Aiden glared at the guards that came close to his cell, knowing he was in the tournament for tonight. Muttering something in his natural tongue when they opened his cell pushing him out. He kept moving watching as, other men were pulled out some other roman people that had been put here. A slow breath escapes his lips, seeing his armour, he walked into the room just for the door to shut.

"Do this only to survive nothing else nothing more let them know the Celt will not bow down to them." With that he started strapping it to himself. One of the things he knew from one of the guards that helped him was this was going to be an unfair fight with it in the opponents hands or paws he had fought beasts in that arena. He watched as other men stepped in, looking at him before going about there own stuff.

Looking at the other men, he didn't give them much thought though working with them would help there chances of surviving, but he only knew Celtic language not roman he had refused to learn only a few Romans were willingly to learn his tongue and translating it for his other guards. "Well let's hope we survive this," he grabbed his sword ready for what was to come.

[RomanAria]

~Some hours later~
Aeli and her friends had found good places in the very front row of seats in the Coliseum. She'd seen the lists of competitors and was terribly excited.
((I'm going to write some dialogue in English, some in Latin. English obviously comes more naturally to me and there are some expressions that I cannot accurately translate to Latin. As it is I write Latin in a terribly American way and I shudder to think of the poor scholars who may be reading this.))
"I have dibs on the Celt." She whispered to her friends. "If he even notices me, but I don't know why he wouldn't. After all, who would be able to resist me?"
They murmured agreement that she was very beautiful indeed. She was like their ringleader, as well she should be, as a princess.
"I've got dibs on whoever's left-over, then, since this is one of those to-the-death competitions." One of her other friends, Aemilia, said. The others groaned, but good-naturedly, well aware that both girls would gladly share their conquests.
Or maybe not. As the gladiators were paraded around the arena, before the competition would begin, Aeli happened to look closely at the Celt. He was quite a catch, fearsome and quite handsome. If he would notice her. She made it a point to flutter her eyelashes and her golden fan as his chariot went in front of her.
(I know they didn't usually do a parade of gladiators, but for the sake of setting up the story...)

[Xion Demente]

(It's fine)

The gates opened, A breath escaped Aiden as the chariots pulled forward. Seeing the other men come out of the gate. His eyes forward. Dust getting kicked up behind the wheels. "Let's get this over with," he looked to the men beside him. As the chariot stopped in front of his competitor, his eyes looking over the man he was supposed to fight. By the loks of him his skin was dark, and by the scars he looked to be a slave before he became a gladiator.

His gaze going to the person behind him, to see Aeliena. He rolled his eyes when he saw the fluttering eye lashes and golden fan moving. She was Roman he was a Celt, someone who had saw his parents die by Roman hands.

Stepping off the chariot, as he watched them go back for the gates. He yelled something in Celt, he knew only a few could translate. "May the Ancestors be at my side!" His grip on his sword tightened his gaze hardening. He waited for the king to give the order, then he would be on the move.

[RomanAria]

Aeli frowned. She'd never had someone so blatantly snub her as this man had done. He would pay for his insolence.
"Non cognosco!" She whispered. I do not comprehend it!
"Qui?" One of her friends asked. What?
"Cur homine ignoret." Why that man might be ignoring me.
They laughed, and patted her back to reassure her, mumbling about how she was the most beautiful of all of them.
On the other side of the arena, sitting among some of the common girls, Iulia watched the proceedings. When the man shouted in Celtic, she got the gist of it. May my ancestors... protect me? is that what he said? Seems like it. And it's certainly relevant.
She was not a fan of the games, for they were too violent for her taste. Despite herself she was eager to see this gladiator's fate.
Under her breath, in stumbling Celtic, she said, "And may the gods guide your sword and give you courage."
"Qui Dices?" one of her friends said. What did you say?
"Nihil dico." I said nothing.
They looked like they wanted to argue, but blessedly fell silent.

[Xion Demente]

He frowned slightly, his grip loosening some he quickly glanced over his shoulder to lulia. The young woman had spoken Celtic to him, maybe not as fluent struggling with some words but he still knew the gist of it. He set his gaze back on the man in front of him, Alexius he had heard that was his name.

Though he knew none of them were facing each other, with that the gates opened coming out was roman soldiers. "Like always you roman scum play unfair!" Though he didn't care, with that both men looked at each other before running forward meeting the men with swords.

Aiden kept moving through the ranks, blood spilling onto his sword grabbing a dropped sword from a roman he became a man of death. Though when he saw the horse, tapping Alexius on the shoulder. He demonstrated different hand singles to where the older man could understand. Alexius understood he knew celts were known for there horseback riding even bareback.

With that he launched Aiden toward the horse, where his sword went straight through the roman that was riding it. The horse was panicking, "easy girl I won't hurt you much less think your not better than me calm down girl that's it calm down." A few minutes had passed before he had the horse under control with that he rode into the roman ranks horseback swinging his blade in deadly arcs.

[RomanAria]

Aeli gasped in awe at the gladiator's courage. Or foolishness. Either way, a man to be reckoned with. Some of her silly friends had fainted at the spray of blood, but she was just in awe of this man.
Iulia, by contrast, was muttering under her breath in Greek, Etruscan, Gallican, any language other than Latin or Celtic, cursing her father and his stupidity. Finally in exasperation at seeing the needless bloodshed, ran down the stairs and into her fathers' viewing booth. As emperor he had a special arena-side seat that was under heavy guard.
"Mei pater, siste, oro!" My father, stop this, I beg you!
He just chuckled, looking slightly bemused. "Filia mei, quorum dices? Non cognosco." My daughter, what do you speak of? I do not understand.
"Centuriae homini interfices!" You are killing hundreds of men! "Homini romae!" Roman men!
He laughed and patted her arm.
"Non cognosces, Iulia." You do not know. He motioned her out of his line of sight.
She bit back her tearful retort; such a thing as she planned to say might get her flogged or worse! And returned to her seat. Despite herself she whispered again under her breath in Celtic. "Oh, you're brave, but you waste so much life... Stop and think, after the battle, and pray they don't haunt you."

[Xion Demente]

Aiden clenched his jaw, just for the scream under him to alert him of what was happening. The horse fell side ways landing on his sword arm and leg. Yelling in pain, before he started struggling to get free. Alexius saw the Celt go down with a yell he broke through the ranks trying to move the horse off the man. Getting free,Aiden held his sword arm Alexius at his side holding his sword up and pointing it at the Romans surrounding them.

The Celt looked up at the king before yelling, "just for your entertainment you waste peoples lives. Ruin there family's, and put more lives on our heads you only want entertainment celts fight fairly you.....you hold lives over people's heads just to get what you want!" His sword dropped from his grasp, he finally yelled in roman tongue. "Go ahead kill me I already have enough lives on my hands!"

[RomanAria]

Aeli jumped to her feet, both hands over her mouth. She'd seen her father's face slowly turning purple, which was sure to mean he was going to yell and do something stupid. She saw her sister racing back down the stairs, tripping over her stola, half-stumbling to fall to her knees in front of their father, who was slowly rising from his chair, fury on his face. She couldn't hear their conversation but she knew approximately what her sister was saying.
"Siste, Pater, siste! Siste, te precor!" Stop, father, stop! Stop, I beg you!
"Tace." The word held menace. Quiet...
"Noluesse taceo!" I do not wish to be silent! "Non interficies quod virum!" You will not kill that man!
Two of her father's guards seized her arms. "Nobilis est!" He is noble!
To the man in the arena, in Celtic, she shouted, "You are a brave and noble man! Run, run swiftly, the both of you, and get out of here, or he'll kill you!" One of the guards smacked her in the head, for speaking in such a "vile" language.
She wrenched her arms free of the guard's loose hold, fell to her knees before her father again. Pleading with him.
While Aeli hated her sister with a passion, she decided that her sister had the right idea. Most of the people were riveted on the spectacle between Iulia and their father. So she added fuel to the fire.
"Siste, homines!" She yelled it to the soldiers who surrounded the two gladiators. Instantly they bristled, for they were used to the more honorary "Virum" rather than the standard "Homines". But they all faced their young princess and bowed.
"Abi a quod virum!" Get away from that man!
Shuffling, they obeyed, attempting to placate their beautiful young lady.
One of her friends, one of the sharper ones, from a very noble house, rose as well. "Stop! hold your positions!" She was shouting in Greek to further confuse everyone.
A second friend caught on and shouted in Egyptian. "Everyone flee!"
"Eiaculare flammas!" Aeli shouted. Which of course threw the soldiers into pandemonium, as only one had brought his bow, and he didn't bring oil-dipped arrows, either.
Watching the chaos, Aeli and Iulia both prayed to Minerva that the men would be clever enough to see their opening and flee, and to Mercury and Apollo that they'd be swift enough to evade capture.

[Xion Demente]

Aiden watched the chaos, his brows creasing. Before he understood it he only understood a little roman not much. Though he smiled some glad to know that some people still learned his tongue. With that he grabbed Alexius the other men, and ran for the gate it was opening. His jaw clenched, hissing in pain some.

Blood ran down his arm, as he ran the movements sending knew waves of pain through. Getting through the gate for it to shut behind them. "You are a crazy man," Aiden just stared blankly at him not knowing what Alexius had said. The guards grabbed there arms leading both of them back to there cells.

[RomanAria]

Iulia was dizzy from the blow to the head. The tournament would continue, but she had no interest in seeing what remained. She'd seen enough bloodshed for the day. One of her friends among the common girls wept freely, for her father had been one of the roman legionnaires killed. She tended to the girl as best she could, making her eat something and convincing her other friends to take her out for a spot of shopping and maybe an ale or two and some dicing, or maybe dancing, in the taverns to numb the ache. She knew those youth drank, though they rarely drank more than a bit of wine or ale.
Then she left the games as discreetly as she could. Ran to the shrine to Mercury, said a quick prayer for the dead legionnaires. Sprinted to the palace, gathered her medicines and some food (Fruit and a wineskin, since she knew that the gladiators were kept on bread, water, and grain diets.) and then headed back to the coliseum. "I brought food for the gladiators." she said softly. The guards looked puzzled but let her by.
She headed down the main hall, going half by intuition and half by guesswork, and was rather shocked and pleased when she arrived at the cell of the Celt. She knelt down and passed the food through the bars. "You foolish, brave man. They'll torture you to death for that, you know. Showing the people how monstrous their own games are. But that took courage, and I admire you for it. I brought my medicines. I'm not a great healer, but I'm better than the one they have for the lot of you." She spoke quietly in her hesitant, almost childish Celtic. Well, of course, the boy who'd taught her had been fourteen and an ill-educated slave, and she'd been six, and she'd not really had a use for it since then.

[Xion Demente]

Aiden had been staring at the wall his good arm on his knee, while his bleeding arm was still at his side. He looked to the bars at the front of his cell, a small smile came to his lips, hearing the stumbling Celtic he frowned somewhat she had met another Celt or someone who could speak it not often people could. Seeing the food his stomach growled, he got up and sat down in front of the food his right arm completely numb with pain now.

"Someone had to do it, I'll probably get whipped it's not really a big deal, I've been whipped more than enough to not let them get the satisfaction of letting them hear me scream." Picking up the piece of fruit, before he scooted closer to the bars to let her tend to his arm.

[RomanAria]

She sighed. The bars were too narrowly spaced to let her tend his arm appropriately. She looked to see the key on the far wall. They just left it up there, taunting the prisoners. Well...
She rose quickly to her feet, sized up the jump. Took three running steps, leaped, seized the key. Trotted triumphantly back down the hall, unlocked the door to his cell, and came inside. "I'll tend your arm. I'll set you free, too, if you can come up with a way to get out of here without getting either of us killed." Remembering what he'd said about the whipping, she shook her head in exasperation. "No, you don't understand. Whipping is what he does to people who... people who need to stay functional and appear healthy in society, lest the commoners ask questions." Tears welled up in her eyes. "What he does to ones who are in his eyes expendable... It's better to not know." She shuddered. The slave boy who'd taught her Celtic. He'd been taken to the basement of the palace and brought up a week later, in bloody pieces. She herself had been whipped a couple of times, being a "maga", a learned woman, and considered a witch by the people.
She gently sponged the wounds on his arm, applied an herb poultice. "Sorry, but this'll sting a little." she mentioned as she started applying it. "We've got to burn out all of the potential infection and poison, though." That done she paused. "Oh dear, I think it's broken, too. This part's going to hurt a lot, fair warning." She grabbed the limb, for it was twisted totally out of proper orientation, and pulled on it, gently twisting until the bones lined up. Having had this done to her once when she was younger and had fallen off of a balcony and broken a leg, she knew that it was excruciating.
Once she'd gotten the bones in line, she bandaged the limb bent at 90 degrees and made a makeshift sling for it out of a handkerchief, smiling at the man once she'd tied the sling around his neck.

[Xion Demente]

Aiden hissed in pain as his limb was twisted and pushed. "Ancestors that hurt, all the places that I've seen and tried have been blocked or guarded I won't be able to get out of here. Far from it, so don't worry about me much plus the only way I see of getting out of here is through the arena."

A sigh escaped his lips, "I think from the glance I've gotten at you and that other woman she's your sister plus she seemed to have taken an interest in me. I'm just tired of fighting to survive wondering if I'm going to die the next soya or not. I have refused to learn Greek or Latin, and I will still refuse people have to learn Celtic again because I'm sick and tired since after the rebellion how little people know it."

[RomanAria]

Iulia nodded. "Yes, that's my sister. She's an idiot. A beautiful one, but an idiot." She covered both hands with her mouth, embarrassed to have been so forward. "The Celtic tongue is a beautiful one. I wish that I were more eloquent with it. But as it is I'm hated by my people." She absently mixed some of her herbal extracts to make a strengthening medicine in a spare vial. She handed it to him. "This will numb pain, but... It might make you sort of "lose yourself" in that you don't remember your own moral and ethical values. Use it only when it's necessary, and only a couple drops. Much more than that and the side effects would probably outweigh the benefits."
She started to pack up her medicines, ready to leave the cell, but she was rather reluctant. This was the only outside contact the man would get for a while, after all, and she was probably the only person in Rome who spoke his language willingly (however lacking her skills in it were.) She owed it to him to stay down here until HE was the one to tire of having company.

[Xion Demente]

Aiden nodded to that, frowning some. "Fine then I'll tell you this your sister try to speak any other language to me I will not understand I know one language and one only nothing more nothing less." Hearing boots he got to his feet grabbing his food, "you might want to get out of here I already know I'm going to get a visit from the emperor so get going."

(Gonna time skip here)

He wasn't disappointed seeing the emperor, the guards grabbing him and taking him to the forum where the straps for whippings were held. He clenched his jaw as his broken arm was forced into the strap, before his other limbs were strapped in he was hanging off the ground a few feet all he understood was one word 20. He was getting 20 lashes for what he did back in the arena.

[RomanAria]

Iulia, having not had time to get all the way up the stairs, saw them dragging the gladiator away. She covered her mouth with both hands so that she might not throw up, suddenly convinced this was all her fault.
She sprinted up the remaining flights of stairs to find a crowd had already gathered in the forum. She sighed in relief at the man's sentence. Twenty lashes wasn't so bad. She'd been given fifty once, and she'd not been out of commission for more than a day afterwards. A strong man like Aiden shouldn't have a problem bearing twenty.
Aeli stood near the front of the gathered crowd, her eyes shining as she saw that the man had not been killed. Iulia walked up beside her sister, whispering quietly in Latin (the only language that Aeli actually understood) and said softly, "One chance." Aeli snubbed her, because she wouldn't do a plan that her baby sister had come up with.
"Okay, fine. I'll do it myself. And when father takes me to the basement over it, I hope you come to watch my punishment and know that it's your fault." The basement was where he privately disciplined his children, him or the butler. Usually just belts. for bigger offenses floggings, a brand. and... If Iulia interfered again... She'd probably be burned to death in front of all her younger siblings, if not in front of the whole town. Still, if one slave would be freed in exchange for her life... The activists would have a martyr. A symbol. And that would be the most noble cause she could sacrifice herself for.
For the moment she would watch and wait, and as soon as the guards went to escort Aiden back to the cells, she'd confuse them and give him another chance to escape.

[Xion Demente]

Aiden's whole body tensed, feeling the whip on his back a hiss escaped his lips. He knew he had more than to go through, by ten he couldn't hold it back anymore a yell of pain escaped his lips. His back was bloody and the pain from his broken arm wasn't helping either.

Another scream, tore through his lips as it hit his back. He couldn't tense anymore his body weak from the blood coming from his back, he had only a few more. Though he knew a few more sentences in Latin, "keep him hanging there for the night and no one touch him." Another yell tore through the mans lips sweat running down his back he hoped by the ancestors this would stop soon.

[RomanAria]

Iulia couldn't help but feel that the flogging was her fault. She watched the proceedings with both hands clapped over her mouth.
The instant the whipping was done, Aeli turned to go back to the palace.
"No, Aeliana. You stay here and you help me save this man. Because gods damn it, but it's our fault that he's here to start with, and we've got to try to help him." Iulia spoke in Greek, spacing her words apart slightly so that Aeli could catch on.
She sighed, pouted very prettily. "Why can't I free the man and you distract the guards?"
Iulia rolled her eyes, slid a dagger from the sleeve of her dress. "You don't have a knife, now do you?"
Aeli's eyes went huge at the sight of the knife. "Fine, I'll distract the guards." Aeli said in her hesitant Greek. "But know that Father will disown you for this, if not cast you out of Rome entirely. This time tomorrow it'll be your corpse hanging up there." Still, she went to do what her little sister asked.
Iulia watched as she went up to the guards around the stocks, near hysteria, about a murder down the street. You idiot, they'll know it's a sham! No one's ever murdered anyone on the Via Aurelia! But eager to please their fair princess, several of the guards went to check it out and the remainder converged to console her. She seized the moment, sprinted up behind the flogging post, severed the rawhide cords holding Aiden in place. He'd probably hit the cobbles hard, but it was better have bruised ribs than be left up there in agony all night.
In Celtic, she whispered, "Come on, we've got to hurry. They'll see something is wrong in a moment or two."