I have told you, my lords, how pride led Marfisa and Madalgarius to fight, and how Marfisa, not wanting to lose him, set out to find him before Medulfa did. But before I go on with her, I want to say a little more about Madalgarius. After all, it is because of him that two beautiful maidens are pining for love.
Let us return to our young man, who knows nothing of Medulfa and cannot get Marfisa out of his heart.
I know, gentlemen, that you are surprised that Pandracon, the king of Hyperborea and Alania, of whom I have promised you so much and who is ready to take Marfisa, has not yet arrived, but I beg you to be patient. He will arrive the next day, and the night has not yet passed. So let us enjoy this walk under the stars.
Like a wounded deer, which at first runs in haste, but the more blood it loses, the more fatigue it feels, so Madalgarius ran in the throes of Love's flame, only to feel the need to rest.
He had just left Medulfa, and neither she nor Marfisa had left yet. Seeking counsel and rest, Madalgarius made his way to the Fountain of the Muses, which, along with a sacred grove and shrine, lay within the Valley of Egeria, outside Porta Capena, north-east of the Appian Way.
It was there that King Numa met his lover, the nymph Egeria, in this grove just outside the Servian wall, at the foot of the Caelian Hill. In this valley was the Avenue of the Muses: a small road that ran through this quiet and carefree forest. Madalgarius crossed it with slow steps, while his curious eyes enjoyed the beauties created by man and nature.
Where once there had been a natural cave, there was now an enclosed vaulted structure with an apsidal structure in which a statue of Egeria was placed in a niche. The interior was decorated with green and white marble on the walls and green porphyry with mosaic inlays on the floor.
When he reached the centre of this pleasant place, he broke his own silence and said these words: "There is no power of herbs, stones or words that can loosen my soul from the knot with which love holds me and wages war against me. Nothing is of use to me because Love all things conquers, so I must find the way to conquer my beautiful beloved. I want to conquer her, but I do not know if I can.
I never thought that I would find a woman with such culture, who alone can turn hours into minutes. She has such a smile when she is happy that she calms animals and breaks hearts: trees green up, stones crack and Orpheus throws down his harp in jealousy, because what he is allowed to do with music, Marfisa does with a nod of the head.
With these words, Madalgarius left for the sacred forest where Egeria had given her husband a thousand and one pieces of advice. In his heart, Madalgarius hoped that he would have the same honour as Numa. He hoped that Marfisa could become his nymph, but he did not know how to make this hope come true. It is easy to make promises when one does not yet understand the enormity of the task. How to solve the mystery of the golden apples
It was then that Madalgarius heard footsteps and his heart trembled, for he hoped for a moment that they were Marfisa's. Had she changed her mind? Perhaps it was no longer necessary for him to leave Rome, to cloak himself in glory, hoping that Marfisa would not fall in love with someone else in the meantime, or that he would not die of the pain of waiting. Unfortunately, what he saw was not his beautiful lady, but the strangest creature he had ever met.
First, he saw a white and blue light coming towards him. It was too strange not to be suspicious. Madalgarius turned away from the road and hid where the foliage could shelter him. Then a figure appeared around the corner.
An oil lantern was the first thing he saw, illuminating all the surrounding woods with a strange blue light, giving the place a strange aura. But what was more than surprising was not the lantern, but the woman holding it.
Her beauty surpassed even my own (if you can believe that). And I, as I told you, have the beauty of a nymph: a beauty that had made all the ladies of the imperial palaces swoon, including the beautiful Marfisa. But you must not believe me.
She was tall. And with a lean, slender figure that made her even more imposing and gave her an appearance that commanded respect. Her hair was short, white at the roots and dark blue along the length, leaving plenty of room for a high forehead.
She had a good bosom, not as large as Marfisa's, but perfectly proportioned: it was wrapped in a dark blue cylindrical cloak decorated with vertical ivory stripes and dotted white stars. It left the lower part of her breasts and her navel uncovered.
Below this was an ankle-length skirt, tied at the lower part of the waist. It had a slit at the front to allow the legs to move freely and was of the same shape, fabric and ivory colour as the cape around the chest. The sleeves, tied at the elbows, came down to cover the hands.
It was an exotic and wonderful look: complemented by that strange black hat, the brim of which was curved until it resembled the ears of a mouse, just as black as the nail varnish that decorated her nails. Most striking of all were those eyes, blue as the sea, which in some way Madalgarius could not explain seemed both astonished and unimpressed.
"Oh, you'd better leave her alone..." I said, hiding at Madalgarius' side, "...if there's one thing you want more than to have a deity near you, it's to have her far away."
"Wait, what? Varuclezia! And how long have you been here?" he exclaimed.
"Oh, long enough, but not too long," replied I.
"Long enough... but not too long?"
If there is one thing you need to know about me (as Madalgarius is discovering to his cost), it is that it is not always best to expect a straight answer from me. I don't know why, maybe because I like to tease. But let's get back to our lover.
Madalgarius turned his head towards the mysterious blue-haired woman and followed her with his gaze until she disappeared. Then he turned to the other strange woman, the green-haired one.
"And what are you doing here?" said Madalgarius.
"I should be the one to ask you..." I replied, "...after all, you wanted me to introduce you at the palace so that you could take part in the games. Now you are running away?"
"I am not running away. Things have... changed. There is a woman who has conquered me, and she doesn't want me until I have proved my worth in some great feat," said Madalgarius.
I did not reply but looked at him like a woman meditating on something mischievous. Or at least I think I was, I didn't have a mirror. Surely there was something dark in my thoughts. After all, some tension was needed to make this little love story between Marfisa and Madalgarius more memorable.
But since he had been looking at me in vain for some time, I replied: "You see, Madalgarius, it is said that there is no greater pleasure against an ungrateful person than to give him what he deserves. Go and do a deed so great that Marfisa will never be able to look at you without feeling ashamed of having rejected you".
And having said this, I stood up, with my hands on my hips, my face high and grim, and not a little pride in my voice. But he, like those who do not realise that they have before them the voice of truth and reason, still hesitated and replied: "You make it easy, but it is not as if what you are asking me is an everyday thing. Besides, a lot of time could pass, who's to say that Marfisa won't have forgotten me by then?"
To which I said: "If you're made for each other, it won't take much for her to fall in love with you again, and if that doesn't happen: better alone than badly matched, don't you think? I've had experience with socks, and in the name of that experience I tell you, if the colours don't match, better leave them alone."
Madalgarius immediately became more resolute, though perhaps a little confused by the metaphor of the two socks.
Have you ever seen a person so full of enthusiasm? Madalgarius was simply adorable, with those two eyes full of life. He looked like a little fox ready to catch his swan. But what made him even more majestic was that smile full of enthusiasm that made him shine with his own light.
We walked down the Avenue of the Muses together, side by side, talking. We were about to part when he had a doubt and said: "Listen, who was that blue-haired woman we saw in the valley of Egeria? She did not look like an ordinary person. Could she have been a nymph from the Selva Hercynia?"
For a moment I didn't know what to say, but in the end, I answered: "You'd better leave her alone, partly because I don't think you'll ever see her again. Sometimes she hangs around the Muses' places, but even I'm not sure I want to be near her, just as people aren't sure they want to be near me".
"So I am right..." said Madalgarius, "...she is not an ordinary woman."
"No, she's not," I said.
"What about you? Are you also not human, but a nymph? For otherwise your beauty could not be explained."
I giggled, leaned towards him with my hands behind my back and said: "Come on, leave those compliments to your beautiful Marfisa, or she'll get jealous."
"What can I say? I've always been a curious little fox, it's not like me to leave unexplored paths..." said Madalgarius in a polite tone, "...you really don't want to tell me? How many compliments on your beauty do I have to pay?"
"By the gods! Have you no shame in courting a woman while Marfisa is waiting for you? I am even married! What if my husband hears you? Go, go, and don't come back with that face of yours until you can boast of glorious deeds and such," said I, still laughing.
"One last thing... who is she?" said Madalgarius, pointing to my right where a young woman was standing who had escaped my sight. "She seems like a normal person to me, but considering the strange people who frequent this alley at night..."
She was a young woman with long brown hair and eyes whose skin tone was a warm ivory. She had a slim body, a sober buttock, medium breasts and above all a curious gaze that gazed at the firmament as if nothing beyond it mattered. There was nothing about her beyond that gaze that made Madalgarius so curious.
She wore a yellow and brown pallium with the following sentence written on it in black:
Qui dicunt omnia invenire, sed nullae probationes ex eo faciunt;
potest confutari ut simulantes ad inveniendum impossibile.
The belt she wore around her waist had a strange spiral pattern.
"Alone in the middle of the night?" said Madalgarius, startling her.
"Ah, no, no. I mean, yes. I mean... I was just looking at the stars, I mean... the constellations..." the woman replied nervously. "...Aesara! Aesara Aelia Libica! How do you do!"
"Um... Madalgarius?" he said, surprised at her reaction.
Aesara looked like a piece of wood, her eyes peering in all directions.
"I... I'm... sorry," said Aesara, shyly lowering her gaze like a startled rabbit.
"Come now, you've done nothing wrong," said Madalgarius, trying to calm her, but to no avail. She stayed like that, her head down, lifting her eyes to him from time to time.
"So... how far away do you think the stars are?" said Madalgarius, breaking the awkward silence.
"Ah! Good question! We don't know, but we do know that the Sun is one thousand eight hundred and eighty times the size of the Earth, and the Earth is twenty-seven times the size of the Moon; two thousand five hundred and fifty times the radius of the Earth, and the distance of the Moon is sixty and a half times."
"Oh? Fine. We just need to know the radius of the Earth."
"Oh, that's easy! We know it's two hundred and forty thousand stadia..." said Aesara, her eyes full of enthusiasm, "...isn't mathematics wonderful?"
Don't look at me. I'm as puzzled as you are.
"Huh? Someone has read Eratosthenes!" said Madalgarius.
"Well! More Hipparchus and Posidonius, but..." Aesara suddenly came to her senses and her gaze immediately turned shy again.
Madalgarius did not know how to deal with her. He had known introverted people before, but never like Aesara. Curious, he tried something. Tonight, seems to be a special night, thought Madalgarius and showed her the finger on which he wore the ring.
Aesara's gentle irises moved following the light of that gem as red as dawn. She said nothing, but her eyes remained as if attracted by something on his finger. At first it was just a glint, but as she looked closer, the shape of a ring formed before her eyes. She seemed to want to ask questions, but her lips could not move. Madalgarius, however, had already found an answer to his curiosity.
"You are a very special woman. Not everyone can see the beauty in numbers. Even less to make the listener appreciate it..." said Madalgarius, "...although you have an advantage with me, as I am used to listening."
Aesara blushed. Then Madalgarius asked her other questions about mathematics, and Aesara's eyes lit up again. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours, until only a strange presence could interrupt their conversation.
"Excuse me for asking..." said Aesara, "... but... is it normal for her to act like this?"
She pointed at me, who was taking notes on my wax pad at the side of the road.
"Oh, no. Don't mind me. I'm just taking notes for my book."
"...?" (Madalgarius).
"...?" (Aesara).
They did not ask what I was taking notes for. Madalgarius said goodbye, for he had to leave the city. Aesara opened her mouth to ask how to contact him, or when he would return, but in the end her shyness got the better of her and not a word escaped her lips. She saw Madalgarius' shoulders disappear around the corner, leaving her alone like a rabbit in the middle of the forest.
I would say at this point that we can leave Madalgarius and his new friend, for the two of them are fine compared to Medulfa and Marfisa.
The night is not yet over. Each of our two ladies took a different route in search of Madalgarius, but they both ended up in the Fagutal, where there was a hill covered with beech trees, sacred to Jupiter.
It was one of the three heights that make up the Esquiline Hill in Rome and was named after a beech forest where the temple dedicated to Jupiter Fagutal stood.
The first to reach it was our disciple of Aesculapius, Medulfa, following a rumour that a young man resembling Madalgarius had been seen there.
She had hurried back to her home in the suburbs and put on the armour she wore for the gladiatorial games: a hauberk over red gambeson and trousers, and over a long, white, fur-trimmed robe that made her look like a young, bipedal she-wolf. On her shoulders was a helmet with bristles set to resemble a wolf's mane. At her waist she carried a long metal mace made of a series of superimposed hexagons of alternating ebony and silver. It was an expensive item: a gift from a rich lover who liked to watch her in the arena.
She was not sure why she had chosen this outfit. Perhaps she hoped to please him, or perhaps it would be easier to persuade him to let her accompany him on some adventure if it was the most suitable dress she had. It was only when she left the house, with her rucksack full of everything she needed for a long journey, that she realised that this distraction could have caused her fatal delay.
So Medulfa ran. She ran and ran, following every rumour she could gather, until the news led her to the Fagutal. She began to search the forest, crossing again and again the avenue of Jupiter Fagutal that ran through the sacred grove. She looked around, looking for passers-by to ask, but found no peace.
She saw the sanctuary dedicated to Jupiter, surrounded by a circle of green beech trees and a stone fence. Inside there was an altar around which statues had been placed that seemed to be talking to each other.
Taken by the sight of this pleasant place, she immediately entered it and sat down among the statues to talk about her pains and sorrows.
"Am I foolish to fall in love with someone I have just met?" said Medulfa, bowing her head, "or is it more foolish to think that he can love me when he hardly knows me? It is said that love is the cause of ruin, yet I cannot get him out of my mind. I need him and am without him.
I am unlucky, by misfortune he arrived in Rome just today, when I was undecided whether to come to the reception for the Games. And now here I am, having discovered what love is, just when I had accepted that I could not have it or deserve it".
The moon was high and the night cold as Medulfa pondered these thoughts. No answer came from the statues; but, invited from that pleasant place, she continued to speak to them, saying: "No one wants me because of what is said about me and my past, which is partly true, though everyone says it without proof. Do you think he does not know? That I can keep him in ignorance until love makes him ignore every rumour about me? Or should I be honest because every relationship is based on trust? Bah! What am I asking myself? Do I think that the God to whom this place is dedicated would ever suggest that I lie?"
Medulfa looked up at the moon, tears streaming down her cheeks as her heart broke, unable to bear the pain of hope. "I pray you, Summanus, god of the night, look with your eye upon Rome, upon Italy, upon the whole world if you must, as far as the night covers, but give me a sign of Madalgarius' whereabouts, for I cannot bear to be alone any longer. And you, Janus, father of the gods, god of all gates and beginnings, let an adventure begin here and now that will lead me to happier ports," said Medulfa, sobbing until her eyes were blinded by tears. "I do not want to be alone anymore, do not make me seek a loveless relationship with a stranger who only wants my beautiful body, just because I desperately need someone by my side. Let me find the man who appreciates who I am".
Shaken by her own speech, Medulfa turned away and decided to rest a little. Perhaps she was tired from what she had done the day before, or perhaps it was the release of all those emotions. What is certain is that she found a corner among the trees and, with no other thoughts, fell asleep on the cool grass, her cheeks furrowed with tears. The lady was asleep and did not hear anything, not even me slowly approaching.
You can imagine my surprise when I discovered how things were developing, for even I had not expected that by helping a lonely girl in need of companionship I would end up involving another. What a headache I found myself in, for there are now two women, and men like Madalgarius are rare.
"Damn, damn, damn!" I said to myself, pacing back and forth. "What am I going to do now?" Marfisa was certainly not a woman to share, and Medulfa could certainly not be abandoned.
As the saying goes, when fortune is in the way, there is nothing you can do; and Medulfa was right to have envy in her heart. After all the effort and pain, she had suffered to become the cultured woman she was today, she deserved to be happy. But what can be done to help her?"
"Ah, the gods must be having fun," I said, running my hands through my beautiful hair. "One just wants to create some chaos and confusion, to write a nice epic story about nymphs and dragons, and now I have to solve a moral dilemma."
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself, saying: "Calm down, Varuclezia, calm down. You don't give a damn about this woman, unlike Marfisa, she's a stranger. You don't owe her anything and you don't care. You don't care! It doesn't bother you!!!"
"..."
"No, it bothers you. It bothers you a lot! Something you have to do..." I said, running my hands through my hair again, "...oh, what have I ever done to deserve this?!"
"..."
"No, don't answer."
I put my hand to my forehead and began to think. There must be something I could do. I thought and thought, but there wasn't much I could do, except give her a gift and hope it would help her.
I ran my fingers through my mane until a hair was caught between them, which I then placed on Medulfa's hand.
The hair changed shape and nature, becoming a serpent of green light that wound itself around her arm and then disappeared.
"I hope this gift of mine can help you, not least because it's all I can think of at the moment," I said before walking away. And so I walked away, speaking in a voice filled with pity: "Who would have thought that behind Medulfa's beautiful, smiling, sunny face there was so much sadness and pain? I feel foolish not to have seen her feelings and situation before, for no one should feel them. For whoever wants love has the right to be loved".
We'd better leave Medulfa and me now, because I can see that Marfisa is on her way. If you remember well, it was the little joke I played on her, thinking I was being helpful, that started all this.
She too had come to the Fagutal based on vague and unreliable rumours. Complaining to the gods and lares of this place, she turned her face towards the beech trees that adorned the hill and the sacred space. Her eyes held the tears and her voice said: "Let us hope that this is the place where Madalgarius is...", said Marfisa with a thread of hope in her voice, "...for I do not know where else to look in this city."
With these words she set off down the path that crossed the Fagutal, and without knowing it, much less intending it, she made her way to where Medulfa lay.
Neither of them had any idea of the fatal encounter that was about to take place. On the contrary, they both felt light-hearted and full of good will.
Our young girl walked through the forest, her soul aflame with love and anger. She no longer cared about the games if it meant she would never find Madalgarius again. She had to be forgiven by him or find Medulfa and convince her to give up Madalgarius.
As she walked, she glanced around, listening for every sound, until she saw a woman sleeping in the shade. She knew it was Medulfa.
She was still resting under one of the beech trees. Marfisa immediately caught up with her, intending to dissuade her with good or bad manners. But she restrained herself from waking her in a bad way. She sat down on the ground under the same tree, made herself comfortable and waited patiently for Medulfa to wake up.
Although she resented having a rival in love and disliked the fact that she had secretly tried to reach Madalgarius before her, Marfisa remained a woman of dignity and civility.
In fact, despite her anger at meeting her, Marfisa felt something stir inside her at seeing her so calm. Medulfa was smiling happily in the grass and had the look of a girl in love. She was like a mirror: looking at her, Marfisa could not help but see herself in her.
But within minutes, her rival was awake, and when she saw Marfisa close and looking at her, their feelings changed. Immediately, Medulfa sensed the thoughts and emotions that Marfisa was feeling. She stood up quickly and said: "Do not think that I will leave you, Madalgarius, for I saw him first and have no intention of giving him up."
Marfisa said, "I would have preferred to speak to you, for it is not my custom to resort to violence before I have tried every other means. But if you say that it is not possible to settle our quarrel with you in peace, then I have no problem with coming to blows right away. Indeed, to tell you the truth, it would be a pleasure to settle this matter at once."
"Then I will give you pleasure at once, for I too do not like open questions," Medulfa replied boldly. "Let war and peace be your pleasure, I do not mind. But if you consider peace already closed, because you do not want to renounce Madalgarius with peace, then I will force you to renounce him with war".
Marfisa allowed Medulfa to rise, put on her helmet and took the metal mace. Marfisa did the same, putting the swan-shaped helmet on her head and drawing her sword while wrapping her cloak around her other arm for protection.
Another battle was about to begin, in this long night that seemed to have no end.
