The death of Emperor Maximian has been blamed on those now hanging on the wall while Constantine and Maxentius are under house arrest on orders given by Emperor Galerius. I hope Constantine is safe.
Galerius has proven himself the wily cat, and Maxentius is certainly a deadly snake of a man. Had I saved Constantine’s life on the wall of the city to only learn that he will be found dead from a knife in the knight, or hanging on a cross next to the others?
I shudder to think how he will handle a family where power goes above all other thoughts of loyalty to kin. Perta was kin, and now I live among those who will all soon now that he betrayed them. I am the niece of a traitor among the betrayed.
Darek continues to prepare for the move to the…show more content… I stop him, and I look at him eye to eye. Forever yours?
“ I know that a bit, I don’t know... a bit much,” Hanau says. “ Sounds like those things we'd laugh about in stories we heard as kids.” His hand wrapped around mine he starts walking again leading me along the trees. “We aren’t really grown up yet, are we?” He says. “I mean, look, we are fifteen, but I still do stupid stuff like fight with you, leave you-“
I stop, and he looks back at me.
“ Hanau,” I say. “You were never wrong about leaving me, not then.” We remember the others, Gota, Tussah, Corus, murdered by a dead man at the bottom of the city wall. “I tried to fight a soldier with a torch. Turned my back on a man charging at me with a sword?” I say, trying to lighten the mood. “I'm surprised that I haven't found a way to not to get myself killed.”
“ I guess we're still growing up?” He asks.
I nod. “ I guess we are.”
“The ring isn’t supposed to mean we’ve grown up,” he says. “It doesn’t mean we will be together, let’s face it, we might be dead tomorrow. But it does mean that even when we fight, or you go and try to get yourself killed, I’ll be there, now and…show more content… A puff of smoke rises, and I hear everyone start moving, whispering. I turn to hear the name of the guild I will be placed into, but nothing is said. For a moment of silent dread I believe I will not be selected, that I would still be the outsider, unwanted. Darek walks over to me, takes my hand, and raises it in the air. My blood runs down my arm.
"Behold, the Roman girl has been claimed as one of us." Darek addresses the Fravashi, and cheers rise. “It should be fitting that a Roman belongs in the Guild of the Eagle. Is it not the totem of her father’s people?”
Serrat greets me into his guild. The Guild of the Eagle. The mapmakers, those who know the secrets of tunnels and paths unknown to all. I would not be a fighter or muscle, things I could have been, should have been had I been the same girl I was before all of this, this thing called growing up. I could have, but I'm not that girl anymore.
I don't run anymore, I no longer run the streets of my home and feel the wind on my skin.
I am Arianna Canyar. I am no longer Roman. I am not longer a messenger, or even an outsider of the Fravashi, the guardians of peoples I do no know