Excerpt:

537 CE, Spring

The flagstones at the gates were worn and not nearly as even as she remembered. Rome was a different city now. The infrastructure hadn't changed much in the last hundred or so years, at least not yet. She knew that in time it was bound to. In time everything changed. If she listened to the new preachings that were taking hold, in time she might even learn to forgive the thing that had made her this way. Of course, according to those same preachings, her kind was among the worst kinds of evil, so her taking anything they had to say seriously wasn't very likely.

Walking through the city brought back a load of memories from the last time she had been here. Memories of an affair with purpose, a battle well fought, an attack that still chilled her to the bone, and an encounter that still left her mystified.

Seeing the very woman who mystified her across the crowded courtyard only helped to intensify her curiosity. Niambh turned under the intense scrutiny and met her gaze, an unsurprised smile overtaking her features that made Cella feel just the slightest bit uneasy.

"Funny meeting you here."

Cella smiled. "Well, the continent isn't all that big in the grand scheme of things. It was bound to happen at one time or another."

"True, but twice, in the same city, that has been more than an enemy to both of us. That seems to be a bit more than a coincidence." Niambh circled her as she spoke, appraising Cella in the same way she might appraise her latest prey.

"I have no idea to what you are referring."

Niambh smiled, the slight glint of her teeth making Cella thirst. "Of course you don't."

They walked for a while, Cella noticing some of the finer differences from the last time she'd been here. Catholicism seemed to be taking a hold, and many of the people passing by seemed carry relics of some sort. Niambh took her by the arm and ducked them into a building along the road.

It took Cella eyes a few moments to adjust to the dim flicker of the candles inside the church, but once she did she was appalled. By most modern views their kind had no right to step foot into a church.