back to Rome

[ TWO WEEKS LATER ]

At the moment we are all in the courtyard of my property, me, Julius and Jane, I was currently juggling four balls of hard metal.

I know what you are thinking, "why exactly are you juggling four balls of metal?" Well, the reason why is because at the moment we are testing Julius's shields.

It only took Julius a week to almost master his mental shielding ability, now he was able to shield himself and Jane at the same time while also being able to use his telekinetic abilities.

And now we were doing a Little extra curricular work.

I figured if Julius can make a mental shield, he could also make a regular shield using his telekinesis.

And so far we have made big strides in this ability, at the beginning Julius was only able to make a small shield the size of a Frisbee, but now he is able to make one big enough to cover himself whole, anything bigger and his mental shield would start to weaken.

"Are you ready?" I called out to Julius.

"Yeah I'm ready."

In a blur of motion, the metallic balls the size of pool balls were launched towards the still figure of Julius.

Like gunshots, the metal balls smash into the nearly invisible wall.

Unlike the mental shields Julius can make, which is mostly made out of the energy his ability makes, this kind of shield has a slight smokey look to it.

And like the many times before, the metal orbs came to a dead stop when they hit Julius's shield, then dropped to the ground, making 'clunk' sounds as they hit the ground.

"Not bad." I say, as Julius dispersed his shield.

"I don't think I could do much better while keeping our mental shields in place." He said as he pointed his finger at Jane, who was at the moment reading one of the scrolls I had brought on our trip.

Looking at them you couldn't see the orbs that were the mental shields Julius made, unlike before where it looked like small glass space helmets that reflected light around their heads, now it was impossible to see, Julius had it to perfection, where it was molded to your face, and right under the skin so it wouldn't reflect light.

As we were taking a break under some shade, one of the guards came out of one of the doors and made his way towards us.

Stopping next to where I was seated, he came to attention and held out his hand, which had a piece of paper in it.

Taking the paper I dismissed him, and opened the letter. On the top of the paper was the symbol for the Roman bank head.

This letter was one that I was expecting, the day after arriving her at this home, I sent a letter to the Roman bank head, and asked him to send people to watch the volturi, and to let me know when there are large movements made by the volturi, and it seems, there must have been something to happen.

'Sir, the spy's I have sent out at your request have sent word to me of a large gathering of people in volturia, all of which they noted as being perfect beings who wear black and red cloaks, it has also been noted that in the surrounding areas there has been a large number of people going missing, some are found, others seem to just go missing in the night.

Agustra.'

Folding the letter back up, I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face.

Noting the smile, Julius asked.

"Was that the response from the Rome bank?"

I nodded my head.

"That it was, it seems the volturi have started to gather their forces in preparation for the fight."

"Does this mean we will be leaving soon?" Jane asked.

"Yes, we will be leaving tomorrow."

And with that started the flurry of preparation for the leave.

Packing our belongings we were ready by the next morning.

Back in the dark cabin that was our new home for the voyage back to Rome, we all did our own thing to pass the time, which for all of us, was reading.

It took four days to make it to the main Rome ports. Unlike many other places, Rome's ports were massive, with hundreds of ships coming in and leaving almost constantly, even after falling to the Germanic tribes and a large part of Rome falling, due to war, fire and other natural disasters.

But through all of that, Rome still stood as one of the world's largest hubs for trade, with ships coming from all over to trade their goods.

Standing on the deck of the ship, Jane and I looked out at the massive swarm of moving ships, while Julius packed up his belongings for when we left the ship.

"What do you think will happen?" Jane asked me.

I looked over at her.

"What do you mean?"

"When we meet the volturi, what do you think will happen?"

I looked back at the ships again and thought for a moment.

"I think the volturi will try to do something to anger you, and make you attack them, possibly using your brother to do so."

"My brother, why would he help them, for all he knows I'm long dead." Jane asked, looking up at me.

"I'm sure he knows that you are alive,"

Jane stood dead still, as she processed my words.

"Then why is he helping them?" Jane asked in a quiet angry voice.

"Because to him, what he's doing now doesn't seem wrong."

"I don't understand."

"It's the whole reason Julius has been training so hard with his mental shields, the volturi has a member that can make and change your emotional ties to people, to your brother, no matter what the volturi does, or makes him do, they are always in the right."

"But he's my brother I'm sure as soon as he sees that I'm alive he will change."

I shook my head, it doesn't work that way, even if we kill the vampire that changed him, your brother will stay the same as he is now."

Before we could continue the conversation, Julius came to the top deck, and approached us.

"I swear, this will be the last time I'm on a ship for the next hundred years," Julius complained as he approached.

"Well we could have swam." I said in response.

"Pfft swam, that would have been twice as terrible, swimming for days on end, constantly wet, not thanks, I would rather be on the ship that smells like sweat, shit, and other terrible things."

I laughed.

"Well, we are almost done with this trip." I said as we all turned to look out at the port.

—----

This chapter is the last chapter, before the war with the Romanian arc starts.

Word-1200.

If there are any problems or anything that needs changed please let me know.