"There's...nothing left of me."

An Early Medieval Drama

Gregory of Tours writes:

“Theodoric of Italy having married a sister of king Clovis, died, and left his wife and a little daughter. When this girl was grown, because of her fickle temper she refused the counsel of her mother, who was looking out for a king’s son for her, and took her slave named Traguilanis, and fled with him to a city where she hoped to defend herself.

And when her mother raged at her furiously, and begged her not to disgrace further a noble family and said it was her duty to send the slave off and take one of equal rank with herself from a royal family, whom her mother had provided, she was by no means willing to agree to it.

Then her mother, still raging at her, set an army in motion. And they came upon them, and killed Traguilanis with the sword, chastised the girl herself, and took her to her mother’s house.

Now they belonged to the Arian sect, and as it is their custom that of those going to the altar the kings receive one cup and the lesser people another, she put poison in the cup from which her mother was going to receive the communion. And she drank it and died forthwith. …

The Italians were indignant this woman, and they invited Theodad, king of Tuscia, and made him king over them. When he learned what the harlot had been guilty of, how she had slain her mother on account of a slave whom she had taken, he gave orders that a bath be raised to a great heat, and that she be shut in the same with one maid. And when she entered the hot vapors she fell at once on the pavement, and died, and was consumed.” [1]

I could find no reference to this story reflected in truth. The actual daughter of Theoderic and Audofleda (the sister of Clovis I, King of the Franks) was Amalasuntha (c.495–534/5) who is an amazing woman and very deserving of her own bio one day. I have included a woodcut image here of Amalasuntha from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).

INTERNATIONAL BOOK GIVEAWAY!

I’ve decided to hold my first giveaway as a way to thank all my lovely mutuals and fantastic followers - I really appreciate all of you ♥

3 winners will be randomly selected with a raffle generator. The giveaway will end on June 1st 2016 and the results announced on the day after. 

Each winner may choose 2 books from the following categories (or another book of the same series if wished). Full list of books here. They’re my favourite books, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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Giveaway ends June 1st 2016

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I do not have enough savings to continue paying for my accommodation and healthcare. If I become homeless, that will be life threatening to me. Please consider donating even a small amount. Thank you for your support.

Rin sat on the woven chair across his date. A guy…rather unusual, but he wasn’t opposed to it. He gave him a glance through- probably not the most polite thing to do, yet the temptation was irresistible. Rin took note of his dark hair, the way they swept across his head. A well-dressed man; he wondered how his family had gotten a hold of a guy like this.

And then, there was his eyes.

A moment passed and he couldn’t help being captivated by the other’s ocean blue eyes, a shade he only remembers from that one time on a ship. It was almost like staring into the waves that washed against the hull back then- slow, but strong, resolute.

Uh. Okay. Flip cards, flip cards. What do I say?

It was only then, Rin realised he hadn’t said anything. The nervousness of meeting this man for the first time had him trying to scroll through his mind for a reasonable one-liner.

“My name is Nanase Haruka,” he started, even though it seemed that Rin knew his name already. He thought for a moment, about what his name meant: cold, dignified. Neither of those words seemed to describe what he saw right now. Long, red hair that swept this way and that just right, and how his eyes seemed to hold a spark in them. It was captivating, in a rather quiet and subtle way.

“I just turned eighteen. I also swim..”

He kept it a little simple, but then realized he left out an important factor.

Send a ♧ and I’ll generate a number towhich your muse will catch mine…# generated: 13. Being sexually assaulted

    “Stop— don’t!” Haruka said outloud, his voice breathless as if hehad been struggling too long beforehand. Perhaps he had. Right now, hewanted to get out of this situation.

Haruka was currently pinned againstthe building, surrounding by a few menwho had their hands on his body. Onewas working on his pants, trying to bringthem down he was sure, while anotherunbuttoned his shirt, running a hand alonghis chiseled abs. They had cornered himthere, being held back by the biggest ofthem all, pinned and bound.

“Die, you bastard!” Rin yelled, whacking the head of the leader with his fist. The sheer impact rattled his own bones, but that hardly seemed to matter to him after he had seen the fear in Haru’s eyes. The thug was bruised all over, eyes oozing some sort of puss, head lolling from side to side as Rin continued to deliver blows that caused his own hand to bleed.

Sousuke had been the one to stop him. The beating in his ears subsided. When he glanced around, almost in confusion, he saw Haru at a corner, half-stripped by those assailants. Like something had gone off in his head, Rin dropped the unconscious man and rushed towards him.

Rin put down the bottle of lukewarm, murky water. Swallow. He knew he should swallow.

But what was the point of all this, anyway?

The redhead spat. A cohesive column of water flew across the room, breaking into droplets within a few meters. He leaned back, eyes rolling to the back of his head. His eyelids fluttered to the blinking light, as if sending signals to one another. A housefly buzzed above him, swirling about his head like a halo.

Loud buzz, quiet buzz, loud buzz, quiet buzz…

“Help!”

The voice was almost like a CPR machine. Stat, thundered against Rin’s chest as his heart monitor snapped back to life. He jerked up, smacking the housefly and throwing the bottle aside.

All of a sudden, everything came back to his senses. Sounds, real sounds surged into his ears: the moaning of zombies, feet drumming on hard surface, yelling-

Yelling…it sounded an awful lot familiar.

“Haru,” he gasped under his breath. Rin swooped up his axe, bag looped across his shoulders as he ran towards the balcony. His eyes searched the scene below him, a catastrophic mess of mangled flesh and, true enough, a young boy being dragged across the street. Despite his face being obscured by a mask, Rin could tell immediately who it was.

Instinct overrode judgment. He launched himself off the railing, the sharp curve of his axe making a beeline for the head of a zombie. He felt the loud crackling of bones through his arms. Foot planted on the face of the zombie, his arms and legs moved in opposing directions until a ‘pop’ sound was heard and his axe, released.

Rin picked out a pocket knife, switching deftly and aiming for the weak point of the zombies: a defect on their ring fingers. While it worked for the common zombies, inducing sudden seizures, a number of the other types weren’t fazed in the slightest.

“Come on,” Rin groaned, axe hacking through the throat of a large one that had charged towards them. To think that, for so long Haru was actually still alive- he never for a second thought he would see those blue eyes again, much regrettably in this situation. The metallic blood of the zombie splayed across his face, adrenaline pumping in his veins as he reached a hand out for Haru. “We have to go, now.”

Haru had had a couple of close calls in the past, a couple of times when he thought he might not make it, a couple of times when people had told him he was lucky to be in one piece afterwards, but this was by far the closest brush with death he had ever had and he had never been more terrified.   All of the endurance he’d built up and all of the practice and experience he had hadn’t prepared him at all for a group of this size that came upon him so suddenly and caught him so easily.  

Even if it was hopeless and even if he couldn’t stop them from dragging him across the street as they had a hold of his legs, he kept his arms moving, his sword swinging down at anything he could reach and his body desperately scrambling for freedom as he coughed hard against his mask several times, the running and excitement all at once a bit too much for his sick body.  If he had to go down, he was going to go down fighting, though.   The polite thing to do was to take a few out with him, right?

But then, from his position face up on the ground, he watched as a man who had to be crazy jumped off of a balcony and jumped into the fray with him.  

“Rin?”

… It couldn’t be.  After they’d all been separated what seemed like an age ago, he’d assumed that his friends had died.  It was like seeing a ghost.

Haru’s eyes went slightly wide as he watched his savior, with red hair that looked so familiar and a voice that sounded exactly as he remembered, swiftly bring down his axe, sending the offending zombies to the ground.  With a smaller knife, he then watched as Rin aimed for…. their fingers?… and strangely enough they began to fall, twitching on the ground like they’d been electrocuted.

Rin was going to have to teach him that trick - if they made it out of here, that is.

Haru did what he could to help from his position on the ground, some of his fighting spirit restored as the number of bodies that were trying to claw at him and eat him quickly lessened and he could finally reach Rin’s hand that was extended out to him.

Without a moment of hesitation, he firmly took a hold of Rin’s hand and quickly pulled himself up, finally free from the cold fingers and dead limbs that had been holding him, and for a brief moment, his bright eyes locked with Rin’s.   He wanted to ask him so many things and thank him for saving him and he was still struggling to believe that he was really here, really in front of him, really alive, and that he really had come to his rescue like an idiot with a deathwish when any more rational person probably would have left him for dead, but there was no time for ‘hello’ and no time for ‘where have you been’ and no time for ‘thank you’ because there were still zombies left and, as Rin said, they needed to go now.

Letting go of Rin’s hand he gave a quick, firm nod in agreement and turned to make a run for it, breathing hard against his mask as those remaining zombies followed in close pursuit and he looked for a place for them to hide.   His lungs felt like they were on fire and his head felt heavy as he ran, but he didn’t have the luxury of being able to take it easy or slow down and he didn’t need to put Rin in any more danger than he already had by letting their pursuers get any closer because he was weak.

Just a small distance away, he could see a windowless van laying on its side in the street, the back door hanging open.  It wasn’t ideal, but it might just do for their purposes.  Haru had spent an entire day in a locker once when he was on the run, so a van was at least better than that and big enough for two bodies.  

When he crawled into the van, Rin glanced around searching for a viable barricade to suppress the zombies. The frame, usually separating two compartments of a van, was hinging on one side.

"Get into the front row," Rin growled, almost by instinct of his protector days for his family. He yanked off the rest of the frame with one, strong thrust. Rin positioned his palms on each end of the frame, readying himself for the brunt of their aggression.

Common zombies weren't named "common" for no reason. They weren't exactly the brightest of the bunch- with the small area of the van, only about five or six of them could claw at Rin. And even then, their light scrapes meant nothing.

Rin was glad for their presence, almost, given how they served as a great impediment to the smarter, higher class zombies. He could see a few of them at the back, trying to push through their own kind but surrendering to one fact; it was not worth the effort. Sundown meant their powers would peak, and somewhere deep in his mind Rin knew there was only one type of zombie that still wanted to lick off his carcass; the rest were better off searching for some other, easier prey.

Eventually, it happened just as Rin envisioned. The ones with brains drifted off, and the common zombies started to lessen in number until the night was silent. Rin's shoulders slacked as he began to really feel the build-up of lactic acid.