desensitized to violence they’ve forgotten it’s to have purpose. Violence is a tool. It is meant to shock.
To change. Instead, they normalize and celebrate it. And create a culture of exploitation where they are so entitled to sex and power that when they are told no, they pull a sword and do as they like.”
“Just as they’ve done to your people,” I say.
“Just as they’ve done to my people,” he repeats. “Just as we do to yours.” He finishes peeling the tangerine, only now it feels more like a scalping. He tears the meat of it gruesomely in half and tosses one part to me. “I won’t romanticize what I am. Or excuse the subjugation of your people. What we do to them is cruel, but it is necessary.”
Mustang told me on our journey here that he uses a stone from the Roman Forum itself as a pillow.
He is not a kind person. Not to his enemies at least, which I am, regardless of his hospitality.
“It’s hard for me to speak to you as if you were not a tyrant,” I say. “You sit here and think you are more civilized than Luna because you obey your creed of honor, because you show restraint.” I gesture to the simple house. “But you’re not more civilized,” I say. “You’re just more disciplined.”
“Isn’t that civilization? Order? Denying animal impulse for stability?” He eats his fruit in measured bites. I set mine on the stone.
“No, it’s not. But I’m not here to debate philosophy or politics.”
“Thank Jove. I doubt we’d agree upon much.” He watches me carefully.
“I’m here to discuss what we both know best, war.”
“Our ugly old friend.” He glances once at the door to the house to make sure we’re alone. “But before we move to that sphere, may I ask you a question of personal note?”
“If you must.”
“You are aware my father and daughter died at your Triumph on Mars?”
“I am.”
“In a way it’s what began all this. Did you see it happen?”
“I did.”
“Was it as they say?”
“I wouldn’t presume to know who they are or what they say.”
“They say that Antonia au Severus-Julii stepped on my daughter ’s skull till it caved in. My wife and I wish to know if it is true. It’s what we were told by one of the few who managed to escape.”
“Yes,” I say. “It is true.”
The tangerine drips in his fingers, forgotten. “Did she suffer?”
I hardly remember seeing the girl in the moment. But I’ve dreamed of the night a hundred times,
enough to wish my memory was a weaker thing. The plain-faced girl wore a gray dress with a broach
of the lightning dragon. She tried to run around the fountain. But Vixus slashed the back of her hamstrings as he walked past. She crawled and wept on the ground until Antonia finished her off. “She suffered. For several minutes.”
“Did she weep?”
“Yes. But she did not beg.”
Romulus watches out the iron gate as sulfur dust devils dance across the barren plain beneath his
quiet home. I know his pain, the horrible crushing sadness of loving something gentle only to see it ripped apart by the hard world. His girl grew here, loved, protected, and then she went on an adventure and learned fear.
“Truth can be cruel,” he says. “Yet it is the only thing of value. I thank you for it. And I have a truth of my own. One I do not think you will like…”
“You have another guest,” I say. He’s surprised. “There’s boots at the door. Polished for a ship, not a planet. Makes the dust stick something awful. I’m not offended. I half expected it when you didn’t meet me in the desert.”
“You understand why I will not make a decision blindly or impetuously.”
“I do.”
“Two months ago, I did not agree with Virginia’s plan to negotiate for peace. She left of her own
accord with the backing of those frightened by our losses. I believe in war only insofar as it is an effective tool of policy. And I did not believe we stood in a position of strength to gain anything from our war without achieving at least one or two victories. Peace was subjugation by another word. My logic was sound, our arms were not. We never made the victories. Imperator Fabii is…effective. And the Core, as much as I despise their culture, produces very good killers with very good logistical supply and support. We are fighting uphill against a giant. Now, you are here. And I can achieve something with peace that I could not with war. So I must weigh my options.”
He means he can leverage my presence into suing the Sovereign for better terms than she would
have given if the war had continued. It’s boldly self-interested. I knew it was a risk when I set this course, but I’d hoped he’d be hot-blooded after a year of war with the woman and would want to pay her back. Apparently Romulus au Raa’s blood runs a special kind of cold.
“Who did the Sovereign send?” I ask.
He leans back in amusement. “Who do you think?”