(Author's Note - my entry for the LGBTQ / Mythandlegend / Paranormal, Ethereal Valentine contest. A Roman love story, based on one of the many myths around St Valentine. Word count 1709)

Valentine sat alone in the cell. The small room was dark, except for a faint glimmer of light which fell on the desk, a pale reflection from the torch in the corridor outside. Carefully, he slid the parchment a little to the left, allowing it to catch more of the light. His pen scratched across the page, sounding unpleasantly similar to the rustling of rats in the straw. He bit his lip, trying to concentrate. This would be his last letter to Caius, his last chance to tell him how he felt.

Tomorrow, he would be taken to the arena, and beheaded.

~~~

"I'm sorry," said the Magister, not looking at all sorry as far as Caius could tell. "Your appeal has been denied. The law is most clear on this point. All soldiers are forbidden to marry while on active service. Your friend Valentine was caught in the very act of performing such a ceremony. He doesn't deny it."

"But the soldier in question was mortally wounded!" protested Caius, hotly. "Valentine was granting him his dying wish, to be married to the mother of his child-"

"Be that as it may," interrupted the Magister. "The man was still a serving soldier in Caesar's army. There's nothing to be done."

"But-"

"Next!" called the Magister impatiently, and gestured for the guards to usher Caius out of the room.

Caius clenched his fists. He wasn't going to give up. There must be something he could do, he thought, desperately. He had tried all the regular avenues, surely now it was time to try the irregular. Unless he could save him, Valentine had only one more week to live. It was unthinkable.

Like most men he knew, Caius wore an amulet on his wrist to ward off the evil eye. He'd heard tales of sorcerers who claimed to be able to create much more intricate spells but he wasn't sure how much he truly believed them.

However, at this stage he was willing to try anything, which was why he now found himself hurrying through the streets like a thief in the middle of the night, keeping to the shadows as much as possible.

He pulled his cloak more tightly over his head. He couldn't risk being seen by anyone who knew him. Visiting a sorcerer might not be considered a crime in this day and age but he didn't want anyone to know what he was up to.

The bag of coins felt heavy on his hip. It was their entire savings, but what was the point in having coins if Valentine was dead? Caius could only hope they would be enough to pay the sorcerer his fee. He needed more than a magic trick. He needed a miracle, two miracles to be precise.

~~~

"Master Valentine? Have you finished? Do you have it ready?"

Valentine folded the letter and looked up. Julia, the young daughter of his jailer stood outside his room. Blind now for all intents and purposes, Julia had struck up a friendship with Valentine from the day her father had brought her to see him.

"I've heard you're a skilled healer," Asterius had said, his voice gruff. "Is there anything you can do for my daughter?"

"I used to be able to read a scroll with a bright light, but now I can't even manage that," Julia had said sadly. "I miss my studies so much."

It had only taken one look for Valentine to see the milky growth across her eyes. "I'm sorry, Mistress Julia. There's nothing I can do for your eyes, but, if you would allow me, I can read to you."

Every day from then on, Julia would seat herself in the corridor outside Valentine's cell and they would discuss all manner of topics from poetry to science. Sometimes she would bring a scroll from her father's library for Valentine to read to her, other times they would simply talk.

At first, Asterius had worried that Julia was becoming too attached to his prisoner, but as she was careful to treat Valentine as she would any other tutor, he soon relaxed his guard. He would have been horrified to learn that Julia, or rather her maidservant, had begun to run the occasional errand for him. Delivering messages between Valentine and his notarii lover.

Valentine stood and passed the letter through the bars. "A thousand thanks," he said softly.

"I only wish there was more I could do!" said Julia, taking the small piece of parchment. "Caius shall have it tonight, my word on it."

"Don't fret, mistress, there is nothing anyone can do," said Valentine kindly. "Truthfully, I am resigned to my fate."

~~~

Caius waited impatiently in the atrium of his small house, an oil lamp burning to show that he was at home and awake. Where was Martha, Julia's maidservant? She had promised faithfully to visit tonight, bringing the last precious letter from Valentine. His whole plan depended on her. Caius turned the small bottle of potion over and over in his hands as he waited. Then he heard a soft knock at the door.

In a flash he was on his feet, ushering Martha inside. He took the parchment from her with scarcely a glance, too intent on giving her the tiny bottle in exchange.

"You must give this to Valentine!" he pressed. "Promise me!"

The maidservant shrunk back from his earnestness. "Please!" begged Caius, taking a small step back so as not to alarm her further.

"I-I will, master."

"And these are for your mistress, as promised." He pressed two small brown stones into the maid's hands. "Take good care of them."

"Yes, master Caius." Martha slipped the stones carefully into the small sack hanging from her belt.

He repeated the instructions the sorcerer had given him and waited patiently as Martha repeated them back to him, word for word.

"And Martha... if all fails and Valentine does not survive, then his body must be delivered here, to me."

"As you wish," agreed Martha, doubtfully. As a slave, she knew full well she had no power to arrange any such thing, but Caius seemed to expect it of her.

"Mistress Julia will know how to go about it," said Caius reassuringly.

He closed the door behind her and leant back against it. He had done all that he could. All that was left was to hope and pray to Jupiter that Martha and Julia between them could get the sorcerer's potion to Valentine.

~~~

"But what is this supposed to do?" asked Julia, turning the small bottle over between her fingers, feeling the ridges on it.

"I don't know, mistress. He didn't say."

Julia frowned.

"He was very insistent that Valentine should receive it, though."

Poison. Suddenly, Julia was certain. Caius didn't want his lover to suffer the pain of a public execution, so he had brought him poison. Her hands grasped each other over her heart. Could she do it?

"And here are the stones for your eyes," said Martha, tipping them out into her hand and passing them to Julia.

Julia clutched them to her, scarcely allowing herself to hope. "Tomorrow. I'll use them tomorrow."

The next morning, the day of Valentine's scheduled execution, Julia was quick to slip down for a final visit. Unhesitatingly, she passed the bottle through the bars to Valentine. "From Caius," she said softly.

Valentine faltered for a moment then took the bottle. Without giving himself time for second thoughts, he prised off the wax seal and swallowed the contents in one gulp. Then his face turned white and he fell to the floor.

Julia heard the muffled sound as his body hit the flagstones. It was as she had feared. Poison. Heart pounding, she shouted, "Guard!"

Now was the time to test her own spell. She fumbled the stones out from her purse and pressed them to her eyelids as the sorcerer had instructed.

She heard the guard running down the corridor toward her and opened her eyes.

"I can see!" She wanted to shout but the words came out as a squeak. "It's a miracle, I can see! From Valentine. A miracle from Valentine!"

She let the two small stones, now perfectly white, fall to the ground as she turned to greet her father, who had raced down to see what all the commotion was about.

"I can see, father!"

"He's not breathing. I fear the prisoner is dead," said the guard, from inside the cell.

"We must send his body home to his house, as a tribute," said Julia quickly.

"But-" her father began to protest. That wasn't how prisoners were treated, accidently dead or not. He should be buried in a common grave.

"It is the least we can do, to show our thanks for his gift to me," insisted Julia, turning her clear eyes toward him. "Look."

"You're right," said Asterius, his own eyes filling with tears of joy. The white clouds were gone. His daughter could see. She was right, it was a miracle.

Caius greeted the cart carrying Valentine's body solemnly, with head bowed.

"Thank Master Asterius for me, would you?" he told the servant. "I am forever in his debt."

He had his own servants carry Valentine gently inside and lay him on the bed, then he dismissed them both. "I wish to mourn in private."

The next day found Caius far from Rome. He was on horseback. Two saddle bags carried all their worldly goods and he led a second horse with Valentine strapped to the back.

Valentine groaned aloud. Caius stopped immediately. He had been waiting for that sound. With trembling fingers, Caius undid the straps that held Valentine to the horse and helped him dismount. As Valentine took slow sips of water from the sheepskin, Caius told him everything that had happened.

"We'll have to start again, somewhere else, but it was worth every single denarius to have you safe."

"And Julia can see, you say? Was it sorcery or a miracle, do you think?" asked Valentine, still unable to quite believe he was free and safe within the circle of Caius' arms. The nightmare was over.

"You know what? I don't care!" said Caius, and kissed him again.