As we all split off to take our things to our rooms, and father went to the living room to continue working on paperwork, Alcyone and Aethusa joined the three maids in the kitchen to finish making dinner. Half an hour later, the sweet tone of Alcyone’s voice could be heard throughout the house calling us to the dinner table.
The main dish was Lavraki, or sea bass, a lean, white fish with a tender, flaky, yet firm texture, that has a mild, delicate, and subtly sweet flavor, and is prized for its clean taste that can take on and emphasize the flavor olive oil, lemon, and oregano Alcyone used to season it with.
There was also Atherina, a type of tiny smelt, in a couple bowels set on the table, that had been mixed with flour and sliced onions, deep-fried and served with vinegar. Atherinia are to fish as onion rings are to potatoes, so you sort of treat it like an onion ring and eat it.
For greens there was Briam, a baked roasted vegetable casserole, featuring potatoes, zucchini, eggplant, onions, and tomatoes roasted with olive oil, garlic, oregano, parsley, and rosemary. There was also feta cheese lying alone on a plate, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with oregano.
Once everybody had dished up their portion to go along with their Lavraki, father began to talk to Taygete about what to watch out for “Daughter, as you get used to living in Athens, you need to keep in mind that this place isn’t like being back in the country where you grew up. Everybody here isn’t necessarily part of the Alcmaeonidae tribe, so you need to be conscious of the people around you and where you go. Try not to go anywhere alone, and keep your daggers on you for personal defense. People will try to abduct you as an Alcmaeonid and hold you for ransom if given the chance.”
Turning to Ariphron and me next, father continued “As her big brothers, the two of you need to watch out for her. For the next couple days, you’re going to need to walk her to school and show her the way.” To which we could only nod in agreement.
After that, dinner ended peacefully and I went back up to my room to unpack.
— ◊ —
Having unpacked what little stuff I’d brought back from the country estate and gone to bed early after a long, tiring day travelling back to Athens, the realm of sleep soon enveloped my consciousness. Not half an hour later, a warm, wet comfortable feeling was evoking a pleasurable sensation in my nether regions, pulling me back awake.
Having left the window shutters open, the room was lit in moonlight casting everything in shadows. Looking down, a shadowy lump was between my legs, grasping my manhood in its soft hand and taking the head of my manliness in and out of its mouth. As my eyes became accustomed to the dim light, I began to recognize the facial details and naked figure of my Lover and Mistress Aethusa who was making me the object of her affection and desire.
“Aethusa, Darling, you didn’t have to sneak in here in the dark of the night to be with me. I would have been much happier if you had come to see me after dinner while I was unpacking so that we could have spent more quality time together.” My voice tinged with a edge of disappointment.
While stroking my cock up and down with her hand, Aethusa said “I didn’t want your father to know that I was your Lover and Mistress. I get the sense that he really doesn’t approve of us being together due to me just being the daughter of a merchant.” She explained with trepidation.
With conviction, I replied “Who I have a relationship with and fall in Love with is up to me, not my father Xanthippus. Besides, I’m pretty sure Father already realizes you and I are Lovers. Now come up here and kiss me already. I really missed you!” And with that, I reached down, grabbed her under her arm pits, and pulled her up on top of me to seal her lips with mine in a deep, passionate kiss.
With that we started making out with the intensity of lovers that had been separated over a Summer, and I started running my hands all over her body, up and down her back, over her curvaceous ass, clasping her voluminous, amazingly shaped breasts and eventually down to her vagina, which I found to be totally sopping wet, evoking soft moans from Aethusa. That didn’t stop me from going to work on massaging her clit, causing her to moan even louder.
“Darling, you are totally wet. You must have really missed me.” I teased with a naughty smile on my face.
Having caught her breath, she confided “Of course, Dear, I’ve been fantasizing about us making love since you showed up at the door.” With conviction she then reached down with her hand, lined up my cock with her hole, and pushed it deep inside her, letting loose a deep sigh with a almost delirious look of pleasure on her face.
“Oh, your cock is all the way inside me. It feels so good. I’ve missed making love with you.” Aethusa confessed.
“Now that I’m back, I guess we’ll just have to make up for lost time.” I quipped back, and began thrusting up inside her, running my hands all over her body, massaging her ample breasts, and grabbing her ass, all while continuing to passionately kiss her.
Once she began to get tired, we rolled over with me on top and continued our lovemaking, switching through various positions until finally climaxing together. Collapsing down on the bed together, I pulled her into my arms and gave her a tender kiss. “Darling, it makes me so happy that you are back in my arms. I could stay like this forever.”
“I missed you too Dear. I’m really happy you’re back.” Aethusa admitted before nuzzling her face into my neck and cuddling into my body.
After hugging for a while, I looked tenderly down into her eyes and gently brushed the hair off her face. “There is something important that we need to talk about. You mentioned that you got the sense that Father didn’t want you to get too close to me. As you know, I’ll be required to marry for political reasons to a noble woman most likely of foreign nationality, which means I would never be able to make you my legal wife.
“With this being my Senior year at Athena Academy, it will be my last chance to find a political wife as well as a merchant’s daughter who is also a noble woman to be my work wife. Since I intend you to be my Mistress that manages my mansion here in Athens, I would like your help in finding women that will get along with you and not be a source of strife. If I don’t find a woman of noble lineage to marry, Father and Grandfather have already hinted that I would wind up in an arranged marriage. In a situation like that, there is no telling what the woman would be like.” I disclosed with trepidation.
“Well, Pericles, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want you all to myself, but I’ve already come to terms with the fact that you also have Deinomache as a Mistress. All that I ask is that you pick someone that is nice to me and doesn’t look down on me because I’m a commoner.”
“You know Aethusa, you could easily find yourself a wealthy merchant or a low-level nobleman to make you his legal wife. A great beauty like you would be able to pick and choose.”
“Why would I do something like that when I’ve already chosen you? I’ve already got a man who is a wealthy merchant and is one of the leading noblemen in the city.”
“I guess there is nothing for it then, I’ll just have to hang onto you and not let go for the rest of your life.” Then I got up between her legs, lined my cock up with her hole and shoved it deep inside her pussy again, starting another bout of lovemaking.
— ◊ —
The next morning, I woke up with Aethusa in my arms and made love to her again. Climbing out of bed afterwards, I threw a work-out jersey on, pulled up a pair of pants, and grabbed my sword hanging on the wall to do my daily exercise routine. Heading out the door to the deck in the back of the mansion and down the stairs into the gardens, the bushes, lawn, deck, and patio furniture were covered as usual with a heavy dew from the overnight temperature drop.
The layout of the back yard was reminiscent of father’s country estate with a series of five raised beds that father was undoubtedly doing a four-year crop rotation in. The set of beds looked like they were going through a rotation incorporating Nightshades, and other heavy feeders, like tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and peppers, the next growing Brassicaceae such as broccoli and cabbage, then another bed with Legumes with beans and peas, and then the last bed with Root Crops like carrots, onions and garlic. The fifth bed was spices and perennials that could be harvested year-round by Alcyone and the houses maids.
There was a small well for water located just off the porch which had an altar to the goddess Hestia, the goddess of hearth and home, located in an open spot on the back wall of the house.
The true absurdity was the horse barn at the end of the cobble stone driveway made of stuccoed stone with a clay tile roof that matched the main house. It was so well constructed, it would make a better house than many of those in the slums. To think that it was only used to house two horses and store the carriage and various required tackle. The barn even had a cistern for collecting rain water from its roof to provide water for the horses.
After warmup stretching exercises followed by strength training of 100 each pushups, sit-ups and squats, came sword training of ten sets of ten repetitions of each sword slash in the proper form. Finally, I went back inside to wash up, wipe the sweat off and dress for the day. So much nicer to get to the back yard to do workouts through a door out the back of my room.
— ◊ —
After breakfast that morning Ariphron and I walked Taygete to Athena Academy for the first day of the Fall Semester. The walk to the Academy through several affluent neighborhoods and shopping districts wasn’t nearly as dangerous as father had been blustering about the night before. Ariphron and I pointed out various landmarks, parks, and monuments to Taygete and gave her a little narrative on their historical significance.
We soon arrived at the wrought iron swing gates at the academy entrance in the perimeter’s cut stone wall surrounding the school property. Next to the designated entry point was a bronze plaque mounted to the stonewall prominently displaying the school's name to help visitors identify the institution.
Beyond the gates was beautiful green landscaping with the manicured lawn, shrubs, and trees contributing to a welcoming and aesthetically pleasing entrance. From the gate, a paved pathway led to the main entrance of the school.
The Athena Academy had a prominent main building with stone steps leading up to it, with the triangular pediment upper part of the front of the building depicting a scene with Athena and Apolo engaged in intellectual discourse. The façade of the building itself was decorated with busts of prominent figures and included a frieze with murals. There were also statues of Athena and Apollo on both sides of the double door main entrance.
Once through the front gate, Ariphron took off for the main building and his homeroom. Meanwhile, I led Taygete by another pathway around the side of the building to the outdoor amphitheater where the commencement speech was to be held. Once there I warned Taygete “The Welcoming Speech is probably the same canned speech as every year with words of encouragement, a focus on the importance of learning, and a reminder of the opportunities that lie ahead. Blah, Blah, Blah, right, whatever, the important thing is this will be your first chance to meet other first years and get a look to see who else is in your class. So have a good time and start meeting lots of new people.”
Then I instructed her “After school meet me at the front gate and I’ll guide you home. So, you’ll need to pay attention, because tomorrow you are going to prove that you know the way by guiding Ariphron and me to the Academy!” With that we said our farewells and I headed off to homeroom.
— ◊ —
Coming into our homeroom for senior year, I took the seat in the backrow by the window and next to the Prince of Sparta, whose bodyguards Brasidas & Gylippus were seated in front of him and on the other side from me. Putting my leather satchel to the side of the chair I greeted “Hey, good to see you Prince Cleomenes, did you have a good summer break? I see you brought Brasidas & Gylippus back with you, hey guys.” I warmly waved.
Responding back with a smile, he replied “Good to see you too, Pericles. The summer break was okay, hopefully yours was alright as well, though I’m sure you spent the whole time working. This should be an interesting year, my father decided to go ahead and appoint me the Spartan Ambassador to Athens.” He said with some self-satisfaction.
I drooly replied “Oh, I see, moving up in the world. That’s a perfect role for you.”
At this point Alcibiades had sat down next to the window two rows in front of me with his girlfriend Hipparete next to him. Next to her Deinomache and her roommates had taken seats. Towards the front door Glaucus of Corinth and his fiancé Eurynome of Megara had come in and sat down next to each other.
Three rows in front of me, Aspasia of Miletus Ionia, our class representative sat down with her close friend Cleobulina of Rhodes next to her. Telesilla of Argos then sat next to Cleobulina and started talking with her about poetry.
On the other side of Cleomenes’s bodyguard Brasidas, my good friend Aiakes of Samos and Idomeneus of Knossos Crete sat down and started talking about sailing on the Aegean.
Meanwhile, Prince Aristodemus of Messene and Cimon Philaidae had come in and sat down a couple rows in front of Cleomenes and myself and began whispering to themselves, giving both of us dirty looks. Spitefully, Aristodemus taunted Cleomenes “I see you managed to gather the courage to come back to Athena Academy for another year of abuse, Cleomenes.”
A brief look of annoyance crossing his face, Cleomenes politely replied “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Though I must say, it doesn’t take much courage to ignore the buzzing of insects.” He finished with a smirk.
Cimon followed up by trying to dig into me “So, Pericles are you Cleomenes lap dog again this year? Bet you don’t have the courage to stand on your own without his guard dogs?” Provoking an annoyed look out of Brasidas & Gylippus now.
Bemused, I could only query “Huh, Lap dog? Where did you dream that up from? As for courage, why don’t you come find out on the Combat Training Sparring Floor? We’ll figure out who is scared and who is not. Hopefully, you two clowns have improved your skills from last year. A one-sided beat down of the two of you by me just isn’t any fun…” To which Brasidas & Gylippus were now expectantly smiling.
Besides the random noble men and ladies that had come in and found seats, Ice Princess Argia of Thebes, Aglaia, Student Council President and her Secretary Yelan had come in and sat down in the front row of the classroom.
Right after them the home room teacher came in and quickly took a census of the students from the podium, having known us from prior years and then gave us his version of a Senior Year Inaugural Address “As most of you know, I’m Anaxagoras your home room teacher. You should all be aware that you are the Ambassadors for your home city states and that you should work on building connections with your fellow students with future military and commercial goals in mind. Let me remind the women in the room that this year is the last opportunity to easily make marital connections which can have an impact on future military and trade with other city states. With that being said let’s all have a fruitful Senior Year!”
— ◊ —
After Homeroom ended, we had four hours of forty-five-minute, morning classes, an hour for lunch, two hours of classes in the afternoon, and then a couple hours for club activities before last bell. In the morning, I first had algebra and then general science after which I scheduled a study hall just like last year, with my last class of the morning being history. From fourteen o’clock till noon was lunchtime when I’d meet up with the others in the cafeteria and we’d eat there or go outside when the weather was nice to enjoy the breeze and the day. From noon until one I had Political Science and finished afternoon classes with Military Strategy and Battlefield Tactics, which switched to Combat Training on Tuesdays and Thursdays. From two on to last bell at four was when the clubs would meet, but I wasn’t going to join a club this year because I wanted to dedicate my time to find a political wife and a work wife.
The first couple days were a breeze with teachers introducing themselves and their subjects while handing out text books, but those days were mostly just us students hanging out and catching up on what we each did over the Summer. Plus, I wanted a chance to look around and see which women were in my classes. In the afternoon, after classes, I went around auditing the different club activities seeing who was in them and talking with various people.