Tessellations (Ending) -Chapter 27
This fictional work is dedicated to Ganymede. Various chapters contain descriptions of graphic sexual acts. The author retains copyright and this story can not be placed at a pay site. If it is illegal at your place of residence, or you are underage or these stories where intergenerational sex is part of the subject offends you do not read on. I want to take a brief moment to really thank Ganymede for his writing. I hope that someday many more will realize that they are great works of literature. Like all great Art I am grateful that these works have been available at Nifty.
The boy glared at the man who once sired him.
"Come and sit next to me, Saffron. What I am going to tell you isn't all bad news.
Ron refused to move. This man was his father; he felt that in some natural stirring that had nothing to do with the temporal relationship he had briefly with this man. Romanus however was accustomed to being obeyed. Ron was going to shut him out and try to ignore him until he left him alone once more.
"Please my son, I have much to tell you, and I don't want to shout it across the room."
Ron heard the voices at the door; they were dim yet loud enough for him to calculate that his father traveled with heavy guard. If his father wanted to coerce him to do anything he had the force to do it with.
"What can you say to me that you haven't already!" Ron said holding his position across the room.
"If we must spar so be it. I wish it were otherwise. The joy of my learning so late that I have such a beautiful, talented son is darkened by my knowledge that I wounded him."
"You told me that Dominic is dead. Life means nothing to me now. Perhaps it would have been better for all if I was dead all along. I wish I never came here"
"If I do one thing right it will be convincing you that your time here has been a value to me. I will try and explain that to you. Just knowing that you were alive in your grandfather's estate is one comfort that will never change."
"What! As a daughter that you had no desire to know until your wife needed a girl to promote a political marriage with Leo. I spit on the ground in his name. You, knowing of his evil and lust for boys would have given your daughter to him. If I am ever a guardian of a child, as I doubt I will ever be a father, I would never do what you did with me."
"And I hope that day comes for you Saffron. While you were on the road I made arrangements to buy your grandfather's estate back in France. It is all yours now, as I had it placed in your name. You do not have your grandfather's title but that is no matter as I have had your King give you one greater. You are now a French Baron."
"And you want me now to go away happily, pretending I have never been here. You bought me a new title to appease your guilt. Oh that makes it easy for you, doesn't it father. You can clean up the mess made cleanly. Meanwhile I am sure that Leo killed Dominic, and he will sell your secret of Greek fire as well. Your Empire will fall!"
"Leo works for the Empress. He has pretended to sell the secret to find out who of our own men would go along with him. He is what you might call a double agent. He has brought back much more information than he has ever stolen, and what he sells is not the true secret. Yet, he has hated a man enough to arrange for his death. It is the way with our royal families, in each crowning of our own Emperors is a trail of familiar blood. And sadly you are right, the Greek Empire fell, the Roman Empire fell, the Byzantine Empire will fall as well. There are always others discontent enough to let things be, thinking they can only succeed by destroying another, and we have taken too many slaves from the Northern and Southern lands alike to rest in our riches. There is too much bitterness. We also have our own problems from within. This Empire looks like heaven when the evening sun caresses the golden domes, and perhaps we are closer to heaven than some civilizations before, but we are filled with men, and this is not heaven. I suspect that other cities will grow that are greater than this one, who knows what lies in the distant future. Yet man can only be imperfect. I am thought to be a great man by some, yet I have a son who won't sit beside me."
"I can't trust you. You should have protected Dominic."
"Saffron, he is a man, he knew his risk. He would have resented more my being a nursemaid to him."
"But he was your boy."
"Dominic was more man than I when I took him as my lover. If anything we were always equals. I dare not say this let it insult you Was that not true between you as well?"
Ron felt that his father weighted each word, trying to use his best diplomacy. He needed answers, so he had to listen, and be honest in his own response. "I don't know."
"That is because you are still so young, and you never had a real father in your life. Knowing Dominic I am sure he was trying first to give you what you needed to help you become complete, and secure in your love for yourself as well as him. Then he would have gradually helped you define your own manhood. You have all the promise of being a great man, a leader."
All this pretty talk didn't help him find justice for Dominic. "So who killed Dominic, was it Leo?"
"The band that accosted Dominic in the road from Constantinople were a hired group of louses, some were already dead from skirmishes among themselves. The two remaining to be hung from the city wall, didn't know anything about who bribed them to attack Dominic. If it was Leo, we will never fully be able to prove his guilt, however I had a long talk with him and he doesn't know what I know, or how much I was told. It was enough. He has sworn to leave you alone. I found him lurking at your school, and had a talk with him before I arrived here."
"You were at the school? Did you see the drawings?"
"Of my most beautiful son! Yes...I saw them."
"I am so ashamed."
"There is no reason to be, do you not think many of our great men were not once beautiful boys who some artist didn't want to keep infinitely young in one way or another."
"I am sorry. You have been generous with me." Ron moved beside his father and took his hand."
"You do not have to go back to France if you don't wish to, Saffron I only want you to know that it is there for you, and you can return at anytime. I can send you back to school or the training you want with my soldiers. It is up to you."
"No, I don't want to go back to school. Since you know about the sculpture I was posing for, I was going to buy it for Dominic... And now... It must never be finished."
"I can see to that."
"Who is managing the land in France?"
"A reputable steward was hired."
"How do you know that he will care for my lands? I must go home and care for what is mine, and I can train there. Dominic was going to teach me my skills in battle...perhaps you can lend me another soldier who can tutor me."
"I will do that. This time the men that I send with you to escort you back to France will stay with you as your household."
"I would like the eunuch Genesios to be among them."
" Yes my lord. You give orders as well as I do." Romanus smiled, this boy never failed to amaze him. Genesios would be the most able to help Saffron's wealth grow by properly managing his affairs in the future. There was good reason why eunuchs and the success of the Empire were tied tightly together.
"You must find a real bride for Leo, and make sure she is old, ugly and nags him to death!"
"I wish...that I could. Well perhaps I can spend some time with Leo's mother, with a list of appropriate names, the woman of great pedigree that a Byzantine mother would want to continue their lineage. I do not think she will be humored by the idea that Leo was going to marry my son. I should not tell you this but I got other offers for you as well Saffron, sight un-seen, but I will not insult you with discussing it, just be aware child that you have made more than a few waves, and broke a few hearts...there is some Viking somewhere who ordered a saga written about you..."
"Then if it's any compensation to them, my heart is broken as well."
"Well we better get to business...I would like to see you leave here early in the morning. I can work all night to get your party gathered."
"Why because of Leo?"
" Don't worry about him. No, it has more to do with your old father, the more time I spend with you I become loath to let you go."
Romanus rose, and Saffron with him. They kissed in friendship, love and departure. (Like any man and his much beloved son, when one is leaving and may never return.)
Romanus was never so busy. He gathered the supplies and men needed for Saffron's journey with men, hand-picked because he felt the Saffron might like their looks. He had been unable to destroy the drawings of Ron because the artist had instinct that this project would be halted, and he left with them to Rome, where he was to work secretly on the sculpture of the angel this time in pure snow marble. The pink stone was smashed up and later the pieces would be used to tile walls and courtyards.
And the sculpture... Saffron was never to see it as it took several years to complete and then it remained hidden in the basement of a cathedral for several generations.
As Saffron started to return home. Romanus had a long talk with Zoë. Leo was chastised the next day for putting her in a bad light with his idea of marrying a boy. She didn't want to be compared to any of the Caesar's!
Saffron's travel home was rather uneventful. When Genesios started to order him around, he but the man in charge of teaching the eight year old... It appeared that the little pest, Yan had his usefulness after all. Only the eunuch and the little boy were not afraid to tell Saffron how they really felt. The boy chided him for pretending he wasn't a rich lord to begin with after he woke up and heard that Lord Saffron was returning home, and he was now an official page.
Many of the soldiers let Ron know that they would be happy to warm his bed. He was pleasant to them but kept from selecting a favorite, thought there were a few times he was tempted to spy on them as they bathed in a lake, and compare their cocks so he could select the one that was the most powerful, he was at that age when he needed sex, but for some reason he could not. He knew it was pointless now to wait for Dominic, yet he shied from finding a new lover.
Saffron kept in touch with his father, thought it would take months to exchange letters. One spring afternoon as he was returning from the pond, a courier from his father's house road over the hill. He alit next to Ron and handed him a letter.
My Dear Son,
The bearer of this letter is here to convey his adventures, and then he is your man if you will...
Saffron had already dropped the letter as he saw the deepest brown eyes in a face newly scared. It was Dominic.
"You are alive?"
"I am here to serve you. I am battle worn, and I would understand if we are not the same as we were once before."
Saffron took him by the hand, and led him into the woods where they had first made love so many seasons before.
He didn't want to hear the story now of how Dominic was attacked and slowly healed. He only wanted to taste his mouth on his.
The birds were slightly disturbed as the man took the youth, taller but still a boy in his shadow. Slender and carefree as ever, and madly in love.
Dominic reached up and unpinned the heart shaped fibula from the shoulder of his tunic, and let it fall over silken limbs as Saffron explained what a heart really meant to men and boys.
"You have grown your hair again, Dominic said as he released the letter strap that tied it back. A waterfall of pale gold fell down. "Oh Saffron you are more beautiful than I remember."
"I'm stronger too" said the boy gleefully as he pushed Dominic down gently with new muscles.
"So I am not too ugly for you?"
"Let's see. Saffron ran his fingers over the ridge of a scar above his brow. Humm maybe you'll do now for Leo. He was looking for a woman with strong features. No, not for Leo, you are too much a man."
"But will I do for Saffron?
"I think yes."
"But I am so much older than you, and you deserve to love a young man who is as grand as you."
"Dominic...I thought you were not one to speak, hush now, and kiss me.
The men grabbed the boy now with all the passion and hunger stored up for so many months.
It only ended when his flesh lance pierced his lover in the gap leading into his softer body. The white foam came and came as another cock answered the call, and Saffron reached his climax the same time that Dominic thrust inside of him.
Their bodies heated and flushed with passion, the two hugged each other in the deep green grass, breathe slowing quieting down from the joyful pace and rush of a few moments before.
Far away men scampered with the business of life and cities, war and fending off another famine. But in this grove in France love was eternal.
...
A little boy took his father's hand as they wandered through the most beautiful buildings in Southern Europe. "I don't like to see God looking so sad, it makes me sad... But look at that angel. That is really what an angel looks like dad. I saw one once, you know the day I was burning up with a temperature. The angel looked like him. He was so beautiful, so you know that when God is sad he calls his angels, and their voices make him happy. Can I take a photograph of the angel? I love him."
The father handed his camera to his son, and instructed him to open the lens as far as possible, as they couldn't use a flash in this great building. However there was an eerie light about the sculpture that defied the darkness of the cavern like ancient structure, and there was something about this angel that defied the gloom with it's beauty. He paused to wonder about the story behind it, while waiting for his son to signal that he was ready to move on.
The End