A/N: I posted a poll on my profile about the type of story I should write after I finish "Forever Is A Long Time." Check it out and cast a vote if you want a say in the genre of the next story. Thanks again for all the reviews.
Vox Vi
Epilogue: Minerva's Last Laugh
Luca's eyes snapped open when she felt the bed move, someone crawled in and adjusted her covers. A cold hand slipped across her middle, two generous breasts pressed into to her bare back and two lips pressed the shell of her ear.
"Luca, are you asleep?"
Luca shifted around inside Drusilla's embrace. "You are cold!" she yelped, when Drusilla rubbed her feet against Luca's calf.
"Your daughter woke me in the middle of the night with a dream," she said, trying to nestle closer. "I want you to warm me now."
Luca slipped a leg between Drusilla's and tugged the woman closer until she was flush against her body. "What was it this time?" she asked.
"She dreamt that she was flying inside the belly of an iron bird," Drusilla explained sleepily. "That she was flying her grandma-ma Makenna to Hibernia."
"Oh, dear," Luca said. "I'm sure Mak will tell us tomorrow at breakfast that Corie is a genius and that there will indeed be flying iron birds in the future."
Drusilla laughed softly. "Today."
Luca let her lips trail over the woman's forehead. "Hmm?" she asked, kissing her way down to Drusilla's lips.
"It is already today," Drusilla murmured against the Emperor's lips. "Your stepmother will tell us in a few hours at breakfast that our 3-year-old daughter is not actually precocious, but is being gifted visions of the future from the divine Minerva."
Luca had begun to plant kisses along the woman's jawline and then, when Drusilla adjusted herself, along her throat. "Good," Luca whispered against the jasmine-scented body beside her.
Drusilla cupped the back of Luca's head gently, trying to guide the woman to one of her covered breasts. "What is good about your mother planting ridiculous ideas into our daughter's head?"
"I meant good that breakfast was a few hours off," she said. Luca pulled back and looked at Drusilla. She'd only grown more beautiful in their four years together. "Now I can make love to you properly."
Luca trailed a kiss down to the top of the woman's breast. With one practiced hand, she unbuttoned the small clothes that covered the breasts and they sprang out of their hiding place. Luca licked her lips and cupped mound, letting a thumb rub a coral tip. It pebbled instantly and Luca bowed her head to take it in her mouth.
Drusilla moaned. "Darling," Dru whispered. "Darling?"
Luca hummed against the nipple, releasing it with a pop. She turned her attention to its twin. "Luca," Drusilla said again, a little more loudly.
Luca sat up and threw off her own small clothes, and turned her attention to the woman in bed. Just as she was about to dive for another round on the pointed tips, Dru put a hand to the woman's chest. "Luca," she said.
Finally Luca looked into the woman's shadowed eyes. "What?" she asked impatiently.
"Do you remember the...?"
"The?"
"The phallus that the goddess of Wisdom gave you?" When Luca nodded, Drusilla cleared her throat. "I want to use it."
Luca thought for a minute, trying to remember Minerva's instructions. "It must be inserted properly and will be good only once," the goddess had said.
Luca kissed Drusilla's lips. "Do you want me to put it on, love?"
Drusilla shook her head. "No, Luca," she whispered, covering her face slightly with a hand. "Iwanttouseit," she whispered quickly. "I want to—I want to be inside of you, darling. Can we do that this once?"
Luca swallowed hard, visions of a busty, phallic endowed Drusilla raising her temperature and releasing a flood of moisture between her legs. She jumped out of bed and retrieved the locked ivory box from a nearby chest.
She crawled into bed, holding one end of the curved wooden phallus like a gladius. "Insert this end," she said, tapping the short tapering end that she was holding. "This end will go into you, after you are good and juicy."
Drusilla was looking at Luca with smoldering eyes and the woman groaned. "I'm ready," she said in a hoarse voice.
Luca crawled across the bed, kissed the woman's mouth before swiping a finger along the woman's center. It was drenched. Then she captured the woman's lips again in a hard kiss, deepening it just as she inserted a finger into her. Luca swallowed Dru's groan, as the woman clasped her shoulders to keep from being crushed to the bed.
Luca eased the finger out and then pushed it in, adding her thumb to brush the woman's swollen clitoris. "Oh, Dru," she whispered. "You are so damned wet."
Dru bit down hard on her bottom lip. "Luca!" she said.
The tip of Luca's tongue followed the length of a corded vein at Dru's neck, while her hand between the woman's legs grew more insistent.
"Luca!" Dru shouted, stilling the hand at her sex with her own. "I'm ready."
Luca closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Oh, you get me so excited," she said with a mournful groan.
"Give me the phallus," Dru said with a small whip of command in her voice.
Luca presented it to her with a flourish. The woman took it, examined it momentarily and then pointed the correct end toward her middle. "Yes, that's right," Luca said, as she laid down.
Dru grimaced slightly upon inserting the object so quickly. But once it was in place, she rubbed it as she positioned herself between Luca's spread legs.
Luca felt her heart as a thousand warhorses pounding with a full gallop in her chest. She licked her lips at the sight of the buxom woman with the phallus at full mast and jutting out from a nest of blonde hair.
Dru slid the tip up and down the woman's moist center. Luca's head fell back against the pillow. "Oh, Dru," Luca moaned. "That's sooo—"
In one swift motion, Dru impaled Luca and came to rest on top of her, with a hand beside each of her ears. Luca curled her legs around the woman's thighs and drew her close, moaning at the feel of Dru inside of her.
"Are you all right, Luca?" Dru asked, showing great strain.
"Oh, yes," Luca said, rubbing the woman's back with both hands. "Are you all right?"
"I want to take you," she said.
Luca leaned up and kissed her mouth. "Fuck me," she said, against the woman's lips.
Dru began to pump slowly, sliding in and out, while she continued to claim Luca's mouth. "I want you so much," Dru panted.
"You've got me," Luca said, squeezing her legs tighter and arching her back to pull the woman in deeper.
Dru kissed Luca's chin, moaned and whispered, "Oh, Luca—I'm coming!" Dru had felt a giant spring coil inside of her and when it sprung, she felt like rays of light had shot out of her very soul from her sex and her fingertips, her toes and even the strands of every hair on her head. It was as if her heart had liquefied and shot out, drenching Luca in all of the love she felt for her.
When she finally came down, she found herself panting over the woman, but still connected intimately. Luca was tucking the wet strands of hair behind her ear and whispering comforting things into her ear.
"Did you survive?" Luca asked with a gentle smirk.
Dru kissed the woman's lips once and pulled out, plopping on the bed with a leg stretched out over Luca's muscled thigh. "Barely," she said. "Just barely."
Luca kissed the woman's ear and then her cheek, as a hand cupped her breasts delicately as she rolled to her side.
Dru covered Luca's hand. "Give me a minute, darling, then I'll take care of you."
Luca snickered against the woman's throat. "I came, too," she said.
Dru opened one eye, scratching Luca's disheveled hair with a single claw. "You did?"
"How could I not?" she said. "You were so sexy. I thought I was going to explode the minute you put that thing in."
Dru grimaced slightly at Luca's touch of the phallus. She lifted her pelvis and Luca slipped the glistening wooden dildo from her and laid it on a table beside her. Dru sighed contentedly and rolled over, draping an arm across Luca's flat stomach. "You aren't going to leave that there for the servants to find, are you?"
Defying post-coital fatigue, Luca pushed herself up from the bed, cleaned the phallus and returned it to the locked ivory box that only she could open. Then she crawled into bed to snuggle up to Drusilla.
X X X X
Red and yellow azaleas festooned the Imperial courtyard. Blue birds and cardinals zipped between the treetops. Drusilla sat back, sipping her morning tea and nibbling a bit of cheese as she watched her grandchildren racing about the bright green grass. Her daughter, Valeria, sat beside her, nursing her two year old daughter.
Drusilla drew her hand along the toddler's dark hair, twisting it to a cute point on the top of her head. "I've never seen a child with such dark hair," she said playfully.
Valeria smiled, rubbing her palm over the top to flatten it once again. "I think it's from Jocasta's family," she said, kissing the girl's forehead.
At the sound of her mother's name, the little girl released her mother's breast and said, "Mama."
Valeria pinched her cheeks. "Yes, Andromeda Valeria, that is your mama."
She sat up and pushed off her mother's chest. "Play," she said, pointing to the other children, including little Cornelia who was following Janay around the courtyard.
Valeria helped her daughter jump down and patted her bottom and she was off. Makenna Healy stepped out onto the plaza holding her own daughter, a red-haired toddler with electric blue eyes, just like the Emperor of Rome's. "Pway, mama," she said. She tried to shimming down her mother's hip as soon as she saw the other children.
Makenna indulged the child. "Play nicely, Kennis," she shouted after the girl.
At the sound of her voice, Cornelia turned to wave at the woman. "Hello, grandma-ma!" Andromeda Valeria followed suit.
"Hello, Corie!" Makenna said. "Hello, Andy." Makenna blew both girls a kiss. Andy kissed her own chubby hand and blew it back, more spittle than air.
Makenna smiled, shaking her head. "That girl," she said, affectionately.
"Makenna," Drusilla said. "Have you seen Luca? She said she was right behind me when I was about to come down, but I haven't seen her."
Just as Makenna was about to say something, Luca swept into the courtyard, in her purple lined toga. She sat between Makenna and Drusilla, favoring the latter with a squeeze of the arm. "Good morning," she said.
Valeria offered the Emperor some wine, but Luca closed her eyes and pursed her lips, shaking her head emphatically.
"What's the matter, Luca?" Makenna inquired.
Luca rubbed her stomach. "My stomach is a little sour today," she said.
Jocasta entered the courtyard with a plate of ripe cheese, already cut into slices. She presented the plate to the most senior Roman at the table and its pungent aroma wafted in uncomfortable waves to the Luca. With one whiff, Luca covered her mouth and ran to the far wall, leaning against it as she lost the contents of her stomach.
Instantly, Drusilla was beside her, rubbing her back and offering a drink of wine. Luca managed to get down a little wine to dilute the tangy taste in her mouth. Then Dru led the woman by the elbow back to the table.
"Makenna," Drusilla said. "Could you please look at Luca to ensure she is not seriously ill?"
Makenna stood up and put two fingers at the woman's carotid artery, counting silently. "Heart rate is normal," she said. She laid a palm on her forehead. "No fever." She asked her to open her mouth and as she inspected, she asked, "Any diarrhea?"
Luca colored slightly at the question and Makenna made a face. "Everyone shits, Luca. Even the Emperor of Rome."
Luca closed her eyes and Valeria and Jocasta excused themselves to attend to the children under the far tree.
"Well, Miss Priss?" Makenna asked her reluctant patient.
"No, mother," she said crossly. "No diarrhea."
Makenna made a sound deep in her throat. She crossed her arms and looked down on her stepdaughter. "When was your last period?"
"My last—That's the most ridiculous question—!"
Drusilla's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with a hand.
Makenna did a double take on her daughter-in-law. "What?" she asked.
Drusilla sobered. "Luca," she said.
Luca was in the middle of one of her stepmother rants, when Drusilla repeated herself. She put a hand on the woman's knee and squeezed. "Darling."
"What?" Luca shouted crossly.
"The…" Drusilla cleared her throat.
"The?" Luca asked with a crinkled nose.
"Dildo," she leaned into whisper.
Luca's mouth fell open and Makenna broke into a ribald laugh that echoed through the entire courtyard complex. "Did you use the divine dildo again?!"
"Don't be daft," Luca growled. "I didn't use it. Drusilla…" Luca stared at her wife, her mouth coming to a grim line.
"So last period?" Makenna asked through several choking laughs.
"Twelfth day of December."
"December? My," Makenna said, earning a glare from her daughter. "So that would be…" She counted on her fingers silently. "Your baby is due early to mid Sextilius—six months from now."
Makenna took the woman's face in her hands and kissed both cheeks. "I'm so happy for you."
Luca looked a bit stunned and then blushed when the news finally hit Drusilla. She clapped her hands once. "I'm going to be a father," she said. She jumped up and hugged Makenna, twirling her around a few times. Then she looked down at Luca, who was sitting with an arm on the table and her chin in her palm. "Oh, darling," she said. "This is wonderful news. Now Cornelia will have a sister. You said you always wanted a sister."
The perspective brightened Luca a little and she allowed Drusilla to draw her up to standing. "Oh, don't be so unhappy, Luca," Drusilla said. "It's a baby. Our baby! We should be thrilled."
"I am thrilled," Luca said in a tone that indicated the opposite. "I'm just very angry that Minerva lied to me!"
Makenna presented her arm, the divine amulet around her bicep glittered in the springtime sun. "Let's see what Minerva has to say for herself."
She rubbed it and in a second, the air was filled with the fragrance of myrrh and vanilla. Wearing her hair in a braid that circled her head, Minerva stood before them, surprised to be summoned. "Makenna," she said as a greeting. "You look well. Motherhood suits you."
"Thank you," she said.
Minerva looked around for any perceived physical threat. When none was evident, she faced Makenna and lifted her brows. "What brings me here, Makenna?"
"My daughter is pregnant," she said.
Minerva's face brightened. "Ah, congratulations are what I believe you mere mortals would say." She tipped her head in a gracious way.
"It's your fault," Luca blurted out.
Both Makenna and Drusilla clucked their teeth at Luca's lack of tact with the Goddess of Wisdom. Minerva touched her chest. "Mine? I don't recall having sex with you—oh wait, I'm a virgin. Not my problem. I think I will be on my—"
"The divine dildo," Makenna said as an explanation.
Minerva smiled, gesturing to Makenna as if that were the correct answer. "There you go," she said to Luca.
"You're the one who said, 'You must remember that it will work only once.'"
Minerva's brows knit together in thought. "I'm sure I said it would only work once on a person."
Luca shook her head emphatically. "No. No! You said it will work only ONCE. That is a completely different concept than it will only work once on a person."
Minerva touched her chin in thought. "You are absolutely correct," she said. "Congratulations and farewell—"
"You're just leaving? Like that?" Luca asked.
"What should I do?"
Luca frowned at the question. "Nothing," she growled. "Go."
Minerva gave Makenna a chiding look and then disappeared.
"You shouldn't have spoken to her that way," Makenna said.
"You do, all the time," Luca pointed out.
"Yeah, but—" Makenna decided that arguing with a pregnant woman was pointless. "So, another baby."
Then she smiled brightly at Luca, who slumped back into the chair.
"What am I going to do?"
"Do?" Makenna said, looking inquiringly at Drusilla, who shrugged.
Drusilla squeezed Luca's shoulder comfortingly. "We will have this child and be happy to be doubly blessed."
X X X X
In due time, Luca bore a baby girl whom they named Luciana Honoria. But Makenna called her Lucy. Drusilla and Luca raised their family in relative peace and prosperity, joining their ancestors on the same day when Luca was 80 years old. Lucy became the ancestress of Sabina Scipio.
Makenna, Keira and Kennis returned to Hibernia when Kennis was a halfway grown. They eventually migrated to Londonium, where they settled. In due time, Kennis became the ancestress of Cerwin, daughter of Owyn.
X X X X
The three divine dildos were mostly lost to history, though they surfaced from time to time. One had bestowed instant warrior status to a Viking woman of the Lapland within the subarctic region in 866 A.D. Sigrid, Thythrik's daughter, who was given the epithet Einhorn, was allowed to hunt with the warriors, to maintain her own hut and to keep a wife. Later, she was celebrated with a saga that described her as the most skillful woman in Hadeland and commemorated the day her wife, Gunnor, gave birth to twin girls that resembled her, though Sigrid had no brothers.
Another time, during the High Middle Ages in Florence, Italy, another divine dildo caused quite a disturbance when a peasant woman named Caterina claimed that her lover, Giuliana d'Medici was the "father" of her bastard son, Leonardo. In the end, medieval science could not reconcile the use of magic for two women to conceive and so Piero di Vinci was listed as the boy's father.
Another dildo (though we do not know if it was one of the two historic ones or the third) appeared briefly in France during the 17th century and was immortalized in the original text describing the exploits of d'Artagnan as brave woman in "Les Trois Mousquetaires." Subsequent copies of "The Three Musketeers" were altered to make d'Artagnan a man and all references to the godemiché (or dildo) were stricken from the record.
In 1789, the posthumous "son" of the Ottoman sultan was born and succeeds his father, eventually becoming Mahmud II. To ensure her own power, his mother Naksh-i-Dil Haseki hid the fact that her "son" was really born a daughter. She took meticulous care of him, dressing him as a boy and never allowing anyone but her to bathe him. She also oversaw the commission of any of his portraits at Topkapi Palace and paid the artist extra kuruş coins under the table to paint in a thick beard onto Mahmud's baby face and to paint a cloak to cover the figure's womanly shape.
Her plan worked until 1822 when a marriage was arranged for Mahmud, the first of many for his harem. But his mother was devious and contacted her cousin, Joséphine de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Joséphine sent a package of a legendary divine dildo, it arriving just as the wedding ceremony took place in Topkapi Palace between Mahmud and Bezmiâlem, a slave purchased from the Caucasus region. Much to his mother's great relief, he fathered a son, Abdülmecid, who would succeed his father in 1839.
There were at least 50 other historical events in which the divine phalluses were used to actively alter history and are too numerous to contain herein. All of these histories are for another story, dear reader.
X X X X
A/N: Reviews = chocolate on my sundae. Gimme chocolate!
Now on to Juls and Travis in "Forever's A Long Time."