The Traitor's Son Chapters 74-76
By Zelamir, adapted by Pueros

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

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Herewith are the next chapters of the saga of Marius, son of the traitor, Sejanus. The original story was by Zelamir but, with the author's permission, has been adapted and rewritten for Nialos by Pueros.

The rewrite conforms to Pueros' own style and the text has been substantially expanded, with significant additions and changes also made to subplots. For example, recent chapters, including these episodes, are all the work of the adapter. However, the main thread of Zelamir's original story has been maintained, namely what ultimately happens to young Marius.

Pueros hopes that his rewrite does Zelamir's original story justice!
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Chapter LXXIV

As a free boy, Marius had possessed a natural agility and physical confidence that now, as a young slave prostitute, was to serve him well, assisted by long hours of practice and occasional vigorous applications of a light stinging whip by his trainer for any lapses in concentration or skill. The boy so developed and honed his acrobatics' expertise that he was soon proficiently performing a short but hectic public tumbling act on his own.

Wearing only the customary minuscule black thong, Marius would undertake a routine of cartwheels, back-flips and handstands, invariably, given the late evening scheduling of his act, as torchlight glistened on his oiled and sweating body. Uncommonly for an acrobatics' act, many clients' eyes amongst the crowded array of reclining customers frequenting the 'House of Ganymede' at the brothel's busiest time would be focused on the energetic and skilful action. Such attention was testament to the fact that, despite the recent reduction in usage of the boy's body for direct sex, his exceptionally lovely form, whilst being paraded in a hectic burnished whirl of activity, was still of some interest to the majority of patrons.

Nevertheless, as usual, no appreciative applause or other sign of praise for Marius' act ever emerged at the conclusion of his performance. Rewarding in such a manner a young slave prostitute for his skills was simply never considered by any of the clients. However, the boy inevitably subsequently left the brothel's entertainment area with a contented sense of achievement at a job well done.

Marius' contentment would have been far less if he had known what Fabius and Felicia, and his acrobatics' trainer, had planned for him. The boy's tumbling was essentially actually just preliminary preparation for a much more spectacular act, one that would be life-threatening if performed inadequately.

Marius' instruction was soon expanded to include tumbling whilst delicately balanced on a long but very narrow horizontal wooden bar, suspended at each end on very heavy and sturdy metal supports. Urged on by his trainer, and motivated by frequent applications of the man's light whip across his bare bottom following any lapses in concentration or skill, the boy quickly exhibited a great sense of balance and gained proficiency in this activity too. He only very rarely fell off and then generally only when attempting something different or particularly spectacular.

Marius saw nothing sinister or frightening in his act, especially as he had quickly learnt how to fall off the horizontal bar without hurting himself, apart from feeling the trainer's light whip sting his bare bottom for his errors. The boy considered the new dimension to his performance to be simply an enhancement of the entertainment.

A regular pride in his act also emerged, especially after Marius skilfully managed to conclude each training session with a successful back-flip from the horizontal bar to stand on his feet on the floor. Such achievement was accomplished despite his body aching from fatigue and his flesh smarting from the frequent flicks of his coach's stinging light whip. The boy would even grin and wriggle in delight if the man or other onlookers praised him.

Marius was to give his first public performance of his revised act on the evening of the first day of the latest of Rome's many festivals, when the city was crowded with not only its own populace but also provincials flooding in to enjoy the celebrations. The boy's initial inkling that there might be something more to the entertainment that he was to provide than he was currently aware came when, after morning ablutions, he was summoned to see Felicia.

The freshly washed and groomed Marius was greeted by the smiling and seated Felicia with the words "Ah, Cycnus, our star tonight. I'm really looking forward to watching your new act and I want to make sure that many others want to do so too. Remove your thong!"

Marius had by now stood naked before Felicia on too many occasions to be concerned or embarrassed by her command to strip naked in front of her. Consequently, the boy quickly complied with her order and lowered and stepped out of his minuscule thong to reveal, as was common in such situations, a little cock that was already semi-erect.

"I see that you're feeling lively again today, Cycnus," Felicia commented in reaction to noticing Marius' still expanding cock, which is good because it's what our clients like." As with stripping, the boy was now too inured to such remarks to be concerned or embarrassed. However, what the woman said and did next would radically change that situation.

Felicia picked up from the floor at the side of her chair a small square piece of wood, light in both colour and weight and with edges about a foot long, which was suspended from a short piece of cord, attached through holes drilled into two corners. The woman subsequently happily showed Marius the previously hidden writing on one side of what was obviously a sign.

The wording declared in Latin:-
'HOUSE OF GANYMEDE
HIGH-CLASS BOY BROTHEL
CAELIAN HILL
CATERS FOR ALL TASTES
THIS IS CYCNUS
SEE HIS VERY DANGEROUS DEATH-DEFYING ACROBATICS TONIGHT!'

Marius was a highly intelligent boy and immediately perceived correctly in horror who would shortly be wearing the sign and in what state and where. The boy realised that he would soon be paraded round the streets of Rome whilst naked and sporting the advertisement.

If such a realisation was not bad enough, Marius also began to worry seriously about the phrases on the sign suggesting that his acrobatics act tonight would be 'very dangerous' and 'death-defying'.

Chapter LXXV

Marius was, of course, unable to question Felicia about the worrying phrases because to do so would be to break two of the boy brothel's main prohibitions, namely that he should not speak without permission or enquire about or query his owners' plans for him. As a young slave, the boy's duty was instead just to accept whatever fate, or rather his master and mistress, had schemed for him.

Consequently, as the naked Marius subsequently left the 'House of Ganymede' under the usual supervision of the burly German adult slave and whilst sporting the demeaning sign dangling from his neck, he remained unaware what the worrying phrases implied. However, such ignorance was quickly forgotten for now, as he rapidly encountered the teeming narrow streets and wider avenues of festival-time Rome when completely nude and advertising his place of work, a boy brothel.

Marius' acute shame and discomfort was not helped by the fact that his bare body had again been effeminately decorated with makeup, with kohl rimming his eyes, rouge on his lips and cheeks and gilding on his nipples. The boy's naked form had also been oiled once more so that he glistened under the overhead sun, whilst his golden hair was adorned by a flowery laurel.

Marius' humiliation was compounded by the maintenance of an erection, which wobbled as he walked behind the German slave. The latter guided him at a distance by a long chain linked to an iron slave-collar, similar to the type that had been originally used to lead him and two other new acquisitions from the slave-market to the 'House of Ganymede'. The boy's hands were also unusually tightly manacled behind his back.

The reason for the unusual distance at which the German slave guided Marius by the linking chain, and for the manacled hands, quickly became apparent. Any festival- attending passers-by, who looked like prospective new customers for the 'House of Ganymede' and who wanted to fondle the naked boy, would be allowed briefly to do so without inhibition.

The German slave would temporarily stop if any such prospective customers showed interest in Marius and stand at a distance whilst they intimately visually and manually examined the boy. Meanwhile, the manacling of the young prostitute's hands prevented him from interfering by instinctively attempting to protect any of his private parts

Few Romans of the Patrician or Equestrian classes would want to be seen intimately inspecting a boy prostitute in such a public manner, as they had their family reputations to consider. However, wealth was not just confined to those of such status. There were rich Plebeians too, as well as both resident and visiting foreigners.

Even rich Plebeians, and some foreigners, often had coarser attitudes to those of the Roman Patrician and Equestrian classes and were therefore not averse to examining intimately some of the young goods that the 'House of Ganymede' had on offer. Their crudity sometimes extended to ribald comments when proceeding with their brief inspections.

Marius' face inevitably blushed intensely whenever his progress through the teeming thoroughfares of Rome was temporary stopped to allow such prospective customers briefly to examine him. The very public nature of the intimate inspections, when his aroused genitals and cute curvaceous bottom were invariably the main objects of attention, compounded his disgrace, especially when other people stopped to watch and shout contemptuous insults.

The fact that many other boys, including slaves, as well as girls and women, took time to observe Marius' debasing predicament and often express their own rude scorn greatly added to his unhappiness. However, as was unfortunately common, the boy's cock proved resiliently different, remaining defiantly hard in apparent enjoyment of his shame, even frequently tingling and being brought close to climax when being fondled.

When Marius eventually saw the 'House of Ganymede' again, after being led naked for many hours round Rome's busiest festival-time thoroughfares, he had never previously been so pleased to be entering the boy brothel. However, his appreciation of the event was to be short-lived.

Chapter LXXVI

Marius was, as usual before a performance, both excited and nervous, more so on this occasion because he was about to make his public debut on the horizontal bar. The boy's thrill arose from the genuine enjoyment and stimulation that his agile and sleek young body gained from acrobatic activity, particularly when indulged faultlessly, and his uneasiness from concern that he might make mistakes, which would not only be embarrassing but also undoubtedly lead to derision and punishment.

Marius was still naked, as he was now to perform in the nude. Such a situation was due to considerations of not only aesthetics but also safety. Disaster could result if his customary thong somehow slipped during his imminent hectic and precarious act.

Marius was still decorated with makeup and his naked body glistening with applied oil. However, since his recent humiliating appearance in the thoroughfares of Rome, such adornment, plus his grooming, had been carefully refreshed. The boy's hands were additionally coated with a special resin that gave them extra grip

Marius heard the relevant piece of music from the boy flautist that should herald his arrival in the entertainment area and, despite his nerves, he immediately ran into the public arena towards the waiting horizontal bar. The boy's trainer was, as usual, standing alongside the apparatus, at one end whilst holding a whip in his hand.

Unusually, however, the trainer's whip was not light but heavy, designed not just to sting without much damage but instead to inflict a much more serious blow. Equally peculiarly, the man also held a small lit oil lamp in his other hand. However, Marius was too preoccupied with his imminent act to pay too much notice to such subtle differences in his coach's equipment, or the fact that the Major Domo, with a similar brutal scourge, occupied a position at the other end of the horizontal bar. The boy just presumed that such deployment was meant to aid effect rather than be of any practical use.

The 'House of Ganymede' was exceptionally crowded on this night. Marius was not too presumptive to assume that all of the extra clients had been drawn to the brothel by his earlier nude advertising stint. Many of the provincials present would be past customers at festival-time, whilst others would have been enticed to the establishment by acquaintances who knew of the place.

What Marius did not know was that some of the extra clients had been lured to the 'House of Ganymede' on hearing the news of the precise act that they boy was about to give, of which the actual young performer was still unaware, albeit not for much longer. Some of these customers were also not there just to view a successful activity because many wanted to witness disastrous failure.

Marius ran to the end of the horizontal bar where his trainer was stationed. In apparent response to a raising of the man's sinister whip, which the boy presumed was also for effect rather than genuine menace, the young prostitute subsequently took a deep breath, issued a short silent prayer to the gods and launched himself into the air with his arms raised.

Marius also launched himself at the horizontal bar and, after a spectacular high side-summersault by his gleaming well-oiled body and limbs, his feet subsequently successfully landed on the end of the apparatus, with some early unsteadiness of balance quickly remedied, which earned an admiring gasp from the crowd of spectators. This noise was then repeated even more loudly, with the boy also uttering such a sound but not in approval from him but in horror.

The trainer had stooped and touched the burning wick of his oil lamp on the marble floor. As the man had subsequently quickly stepped backwards, a sheet of flames had immediately leapt upwards.

In terror, Marius felt heat from the flames beginning to scorch his bare legs. The boy then noticed that the floor beneath the horizontal bar and for a considerable area around him, which had been secretly and invisibly to him coated with highly inflammable oil, appeared to be alight.

Marius turned, intending to jump off the end of the horizontal bar but he now observed his trainer standing there, with his heavy whip raised menacingly in his hand. The boy twisted round but he saw that the Major Domo was similarly barring his way with readied scourge in the other direction.

Marius subsequently briefly hesitated, as he attempted to decide what to do. A rapid decision was then aided when his sweet rosy lips were stimulated into uttering a loud pained howl after his trainer flicked him on the side of one bare thigh with the tip of his cruel whip.

"Come on, boy, ignore the flames and dance on the bar like you've been taught," the trainer next shouted, whilst lifting his whip in readiness to strike again, "for your success in doing so will be the only way you'll survive!" Marius realised that another blow of the scourge, landing squarely across his shoulders, would knock him off balance. Whilst he might be able to recover his footing after just one, the boy also recognised that more cuts delivered in the same manner would sometime inevitably send him tumbling from the horizontal bar into the flames below him.

These flames had fallen back somewhat from the first vigorous upwards blaze. They were now burning with a steady glow but the heat they gave out was still considerable and Marius appreciated that he would not survive a fall into them without being horribly burnt or killed.

Marius also knew that no one would come to rescue him from his current terror and the prospect of his horrible injury or death, rolling and screaming in agony among the flames. The boy's current extremely precarious situation simply served to entertain the brothel's clients, whilst forming an exciting hors- d'oeuvre to the pleasures of their nights ahead.

"Dance," the trainer shouted again in urgent command, whilst once more flicking his whip painfully at Marius' vulnerable flank, "for my next strike, if needed, will be much harder and could send you to your doom!" His order was immediately echoed by the increasingly impatient spectators.

"Dance," shouted many clients, some whilst beating wine cups and jugs on their tables, "dance, dance!" At the same time, the trainer drew his whip back behind his head, threatening the promised potentially fatal blow.

Marius therefore repeated his earlier actions, but with even greater sincerity. The boy took a deep breath, issued a short silent prayer to the gods and launched himself into the air with his arms raised, albeit this time not at the horizontal bar but on it.

Despite Marius' terror, he somehow managed to complete a forward summersault on the horizontal bar, earning another loud gasp from the spectators, who also continued their repetitive chant of 'Dance, dance, dance……..!" In reaction to this early success and to the confidence gained, as well as to the prolonged verbal encouragement from clients, not all of whom wanted to see him survive, and the menacingly raised whips of the trainer and Major Domo, the boy was stimulated into next attempting a perilous back-flip.

Further success and increased confidence subsequently brought an amazing series of other flips, cartwheels and handstands to the accompaniment of appreciative chants and roars from the crowd of spectators. Marius' remarkable accomplishment was attained despite the intense heat from the flames below and around him, which not only frightened him intensely but also caused his body and limbs, including most dangerously his hands, to sweat profusely.

As Marius' highly energetic and thankfully so-far skilful routine proceeded remorselessly to continued loud chants and roars, his blood thundered in his head, whilst sweat poured off his naked body and his arms and legs eventually began to ache with increasing exhaustion. The boy's world had become narrowed to the horizontal bar on which he stood, by virtue of either his hands or feet, the square of flames beneath and the threatening whips that drove him on.

Marius was also tiring fast, as his 'dance' on the horizontal bar was exceedingly hectic and fatiguing. The boy knew he could not go on much longer, as the strength was rapidly waning from his young arms and legs.

Marius had, because of his increasing tiredness, almost missed his footing once. The boy realised that such potentially fatal incidents would only become more common because of his weariness and that sometime soon he would not have the strength to recover the situation, and then the flames below would claim him.

Fortunately, Marius now heard the crack of the trainer's whip. The boy appreciated, from his instruction and the facts that the scourge had not simultaneously been aimed at his naked body and the wielder had stepped away from the end of the horizontal bar, that he was being allowed to conclude his act.

Marius needed no second invitation and, with another spectacular summersault leapt off the end of the horizontal bar to land in safety and successfully motionless on his feet close to his trainer. The end of his act was met with a mixture of cheers and groans from the crowd of spectators.

Some spectators had unusually been so impressed with an acrobatics' act, particularly Marius' display of exceptional bravery and skill, that they broke convention by cheering and even applauding. However, other more cruel clients groaned and jeered in disappointment that they had been robbed of the pleasure of watching the boy roast.

"Gentleman," Fabius, who had walked forward from the perimeter to the centre of the entertainment area, subsequently shouted over the din, "as you can see, Cycnus lives to perform again. Surely, you must come once more tomorrow to see if he survives a second night whilst performing an even longer act!"

Fabius subsequently turned away from the spectators to glance with a smirk at the exhausted and profusely sweating Marius. The boy displayed clear understandable fear in his sensuous blue eyes for he appreciated that he had somehow survived his debut public performance amidst the appallingly dangerous flames but for how long would his luck last?

It appeared to Marius that his owners now not only considered him entirely dispensable but also were additionally happily ready to see his act soon conclude spectacularly, albeit permanently and horribly for him.

(To be continued)