The Solstice

“What are you doing?” Asked Artemis curiously, coming up behind you to peer around you in a manner that was pretty unique to her.

“Mincing meat” you reply, large knife in hand and piles of pork before you. Without a meat grinder, mincing had to be done by hand and with a knife which meant chopping it up into really, really small pieces, and then chopping it some more.

“That . . . that’s a lot of meat,” Artemis commented as she looked around the room you are in. you had spawned in a . . . few pig carcasses for your purposes since you had big plans for it.

“Yes, yes it is . . . not sure if it will be enough” you reply, using your large bronze knife to push a pile of the freshly minced meat to the side to make way for another cut of pork. “Wanna help? I’ve uhh . . . got a bit to do yet” you ask and watched as the silver fox brightened with delight.

“I’d love to!” she chirped, tail swishing happily. You go to spawn in a knife for her when a ray of moonlight shines in her hand, manifesting into a knife of her own.

“Wha- when . . . how?” you ask dumbly. Your only reply was a giggle and a mischievous look from your silver lover.

“Come on big guy, this meat won’t mince itself!” she told you “oh uhh . . . it could mince itself actually” she corrected with a frown as she looked around “why isn’t it?” she asked.

“I felt it would be more satisfying and rewarding if I did it all myself” you say calmly as you start mincing up another cut of pork.

“True” was Artemis’ reply as she grabbed a cut of pork herself and began mincing. “So what’s this all for anyway?” she asked as the two of you got into a steady rhythm.

“The Solstice” you reply, brushing another pile of minced meat to the side to make way for more.

“Going to make a feast of sausages are you?” Artemis asked, brushing a pile of minced meat to the side to make way for more.

“Not quite, I’ll show you what my plans are when it’s time to begin, for now though, we need meat” you say, brushing a pile of minced meat to the side to make way for more.

“Oooh cryptic” Artemis cooed. “With this amount of meat, you definitely intend to feed the entire city” she said, brushing a pile of minced meat to the side to make way for more.

“You bet I do, that solstice will never again be named after Him in this town after we have our little festival” you reply, brushing a pile of minced meat to the side to make way for more. Both you and Artemis take this moment to look down at your gathering piles of meat.

“We’re going to need baskets” the both of you say at the same time.

****

“What are you two doing?” Cattleya asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she walked into your preparation room. The sun had only just begun lighting up the outside world but you and Artemis had been working for hours now.

“Mincing meat” both you and Artemis say simultaneously.

“It’s both cute and creepy when you two do that” Cattleya replied before turning sipping a cup of tea she was holding in the other hand.

“Wanna help?” you ask as you push a pile of minced meat to the side to make way for more.

“Ummm sure?” Cat replied, taking another sip of her tea. “What are we doing?” she asked.

“Mincing meat” was the simultaneous reply from you and Artemis. Cattleya groaned.

****

Cattleya didn’t stick around for too long, leaving after only a few hours. One thing she did do though, was to pop in every now and again with large baskets that came up to her hips. She’d fill them up and then leave again. Where she was getting those baskets, you didn’t know and you didn’t really care either, they were the storage you needed.

You and Artemis kept working through the morning, right through noon, past the setting of the sun and into the early hours of the next morning. It was here that the next phase of your plan would come to fruition, as this was the day of the Solstice.

With the meat minced, you began setting up an outside kitchen in the middle of the city’s main square, the Forum. Of course you would need a massive kitchen for your plans to come, and making it by hand proved to be time consuming but as the sun began to lick ever so lightly at the sky, you had completed your work and could begin on the next stage of food preparation. This involved carting out many, many, many hessian sacks of flour before starting the process of converting this flour into dough. It wasn’t any dough either, it was a soft, fluffy and light dough. Once kneaded and cut into appropriate sizes, you rolled them into small little circles while Artemis got the fires going under several very wide drums of water.

One of the drums that Art had got going was left aside for soup but the others would be for the dumplings you had been working on. Once there were enough little circles of dough, you ran back into your city home, from where you teleported back to your villa, grabbed a basket of meat and teleported back. This then allowed you to start cooking the dumplings, once they had their meat and other ingredients in them and were pinched shut.

The first few people out on the street stopped to wonder what was going on and asked how much you were selling the mysterious new pastry for. They were utterly shocked when you told them it was for free and handed them small rectangular plates made of wood. You were slightly surprised when those wooden plates returned to your kitchen when the people were done with them.

Soon word began to spread that there were free pork pastries in the main square and people began to arrive. Some wished others a merry Christmas, but many just simply said ‘Happy Solstice’. It did, however, surprise you when some women began asking to help and soon you had a full team of volunteers working in your kitchen. With all the extra help you began expanding your operation with more drums, and more benches as the dumplings and soup was thrown into mass production.

The soup was a vegetable affair, with beans and peas amongst others, all thickened up with bits of bread and handed out in bowls to happy people. It also surprised you when people began contributing, first it was some grain, then some veggies and lastly people began bringing in cuts of meat, salted, pickled or otherwise. And quickly there were venders out and about selling sweets or wine. You just had to grin as you watched a festival be formed around you. It hadn’t even gotten close to midday yet.

****

You took a seat in the city’s amphitheater and watched as a general melee wrapped itself up. Unsurprisingly to you, Vera was in the mix and wiping the floor with several members of the city’s guard with her bare hands to their wooden swords. It was not, however, the fights that drew you to this place but rather what was coming next. Apparently, this little festival had been too good of an opportunity and an Orator had decided to conduct a dramatic reading. By the time you heard about this, the amphitheater had been hosting a general melee, but this gave you a good chance to find the Orator and hand him a few scrolls. In the end, you basically ripped off the entire Elder Scrolls series but in a way that would make more sense to Romans.

You sat back with a smirk and folded your arms as the fighters left the arena and the Orator took to a stage that had been carried into the middle of the arena. The man cleared his throat and pulled out one of your scrolls.

“Now this, dear listeners! Is a treat, one of our own has hand crafted an epic of great length and gifted unto me the very first part!” the man announced, his voice almost magically carrying right to the back. “Today I shall tell you the tale of the lands of Tamriel, a mystical, magical place where the gods are strange and beasts walk the lands!” he said, grabbing people’s attention as fantasy stories were few and far between. There were only so many times one could read the Iliad before it got boring apparently. “Today I shall tell you the tale of the Emperor’s Champion! And his quest to battle a vile and evil sorcerer who hath taken control of the Emperor himself!” the Orator said. Aside from the Orator’s voice, it was a very quiet stadium for a good hour as the man read through your own rendition of the first game in the Elder Scrolls series. There were lots of gasps, ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ though, the man was a great dramatic reader. You suppose that’s why he made a living from orating.

****

As you are walking the streets, you notice a couple stumble into a small little garden off the street you had been walking. They were both young, probably eighteen, maybe nineteen and the girl was giggling like mad as they made out against the side of the house. You stopped to watch the two and snorted in amusement as the boy got his hands under the girl’s dress and began groping, not even pausing their passionate kissing. As you watched, the couple slid down the side of the building and started getting more and more passionate. You decided to be thoughtful and placed a ‘notice-me-not’ spell on the pair so they could fuck in public and hopefully be embolden by their actions. You stayed just long enough to enjoy the sound of the girl’s moans over the stop of the squelching of a horny couple fucking before you carried on.

****

“No, it was a mistake. He Who Shall Not Be Named is truly the devil” Sabine said. You had found her on a street somewhere near the church in front of a small crowd of confused looking people. “It shows the depths of ‘His’ seductive and evil power that if we do not keep our guards up, our minds, hearts and very souls will be his for the taking” she told the crowd. There were plenty of nods at this.

You took a minute to admire Sabine’s clothing choice. She was wearing a white ankle length dress with a white tabard over the top. The tabard was trimmed with purple thread and a large golden yellow sun was emblazoned on the front and back.

“But what about heaven?” One of the people crowding her asked.

“Heaven is a great kingdom amongst the clouds” you say, stepping up beside Sabine. “There you will be reunited with loved ones and, for those who have done no significant evil in life, will be given the opportunity to return to the mortal plane in a new life” you explain. “Those who have done significant good in their lives may choose to remain in the Divine City within which lies the Divine Palace, the seat of the gods” you add. You resolve to actually create this sometime soon, since you really did need an after life.

“If the gods are real instead of Christ, how come people die then!” shouted one angry looking man.

“Nobody said ‘He’ was false, just that he isn’t a god” Sabine countered softly. It was very hard to shout angrily at a teen after all, especially one as serene as Sabine. “However, the moment the Roman Empire switched to the worship of ‘Him’, the empire fell into ruin” she added, a forlorn smile on her lips. “Even though the pope lives in Rome, and it was Christians who did it, the city was still raised almost completely to the ground” she said softly. There were many clenched jaws after that.

“No! It was barbarians!” shouted the angry man.

“They had converted long before” Sabine countered.

“Nah uh! They aren’t true Christians! They’re Arian!” the man shouted. Sabine merely raised a delicate eyebrow at him and he deflated as all eyes turned to him with pity or derision.

“And you are not a Roman” she replied anyway “You have never been born there, nor have you visited have you” she added. The man just hung his head in defeat before turning away and leaving. It did not escape your attention that the wife and two children he had with him remained.

You put a hand on Sabine’s shoulder and the girl smiled at you.

“I’ll leave you to it, got other people I want to see at some point” you say softly before turning around. You stop and turn back with a smirk. “Happy Solstice” you say before walking off, getting a parrot reply in return.

****

“I never expected this” Artemis told you as you both observed the city from the roof of a building.

“I was moderately surprised by how it turned out myself” you reply with a smile as you watch the adhoc festival. The sun was setting now and it plastered many of the streets in shadow, but this stopped absolutely no one. In fact, many of your Legionnaires formed into their squads and started stationing themselves around the city, patrolling the places where there were few people, so the city guard could focus their efforts on the larger clumps of people. Of course this was necessary as the drink started getting to people and they got a bit too excited but that was it.

“So what’s next?” Artemis asked softly, taking your arm and snuggling into your side.

“I think it will be time to start campaigning in earnest” you sigh. Artemis merely hummed. “Once the spring comes, we’ll set sail for Sicily” you add.

“Taking that place could take years” Artemis commented softly.

“Yeah” you reply. Artemis was about to say something, but before she could footsteps on the roof drew your attention. Artemis let go of your arm long enough for the two of you to turn around before grabbing your other arm and snuggling into you once more.

“So this is where you are hiding!” Dumont called out with a cheerful smile, Strabo walking beside him.

“Not hiding, just observing the festival” you reply. You almost laughed as Dumont finally saw Artemis’ tail swishing happily behind her.

“I see” he commented before clearing his throat and recrafting his cheerful persona. “It was a wonderful festival you crafted here today! And to think it wasn’t even a planned one! What a masterful manipulator of the people you are Solus!” Dumont congratulated you. At his words, however, both Strabo and Artemis burst out laughing. “I am afraid I do not understand the jest,” Dumont said with a frown.

“I’m quite the opposite of a ‘masterful manipulator’ to be perfectly honest” you say as Art and Strabo recover from their mirth. “We’ve had some . . . incidents,” you mutter.

“Incidents! You tried to convince the merchants and craftsmen to rebel just because you asked them nicely!” Art exclaimed before laughing.

“And there were your attempts at convincing me and my people to conquer all of Italy for you just because you asked nicely” Strabo grunted.

“You piss everyone off when you first meet them you know” Art commented as she grabbed your arm and wrapped herself around it, looking up into you with mischief laden eyes, a vulpine smirk and a happily swishing tail.

“Yes dear, and I remember our first meeting and how much of a trench you dug into the earth with your body after I blasted you” you fire back, booping the fox girl on the nose, making her let go and back up as she swatted at your hand. The sound of quiet chuckling drew yours and Artemis’ attention to Dumont and Strabo who were watching your little byplay.

“You two were made for each other” Strabo commented with a soft chuckle.

“Agreed” Dumont commented.

“Perhaps” you mutter, looking your foxy lover over. “Hey Artemis, since we’re supposedly married, I’d like to carry on a tradition of my people” you say softly.

“Oh?” Artemis asked, tilting her head to the side. With a soft smile you open up your hand and begin forming a ring. This ring was special, unlike everything else you have ever made with your powers, this ring was made from your very essence, a piece of your soul. When the ring finally formed in your hand, you felt a small hole in your being, too small to even affect your power, but still it would take some getting used to.

You walk up to Artemis and take her hand, slipping the ring onto her ring finger with a smile. Artemis gasped as she felt it slide on, looking at you with wide eyes.

“Solus! This is . . . but . . .” she tried, tears forming in her eyes as she stared deep into yours.

“They say the ring finger has a vein that leads all the way to the heart, the very depth of the soul” you say softly, brushing away the tears that spilled down your wife’s eyes.

“W-wait” Artemis muttered, sticking her hand out.

“You don’t have to do it just because I did it” you say quickly, attempting to reach for her hand only to be swatted away.

“I want to,” she said to you and a beam of moonlight coalesced into her hand, forming a ring of moonlight as you watched. Artemis then turned to you and took your hand.

“Other hand” you say and Artemis sheepishly dropped your hand before grabbing the other one and slipping the ring on your ring finger. You take in a breath as you feel a cool, soothing sensation fill your soul, taking the spot left behind by the fragment you had cut away. It felt like the blissfully cool night after a warm summer’s day, the breeze in your hair, caressing your soul. You gently wrapped your arms around Artemis’ waist and she yours. You didn’t kiss, instead you touched foreheads, closed your eyes and let time float away as your powers mixed.

Later, you will hear of a most magical event, when the moon and the sun were both in the sky, side by side and equal in size, but for right now, all you know is the cool soothing breeze of your wife’s soul.