One Nation, Under Jupiter

JULY 7, 2766

My eyes creaked open, greeted by a blinding light above my head. I shook myself back into consciousness, only to find myself strapped to a hard chair in a strange room. In front of me was a plain wooden table. A bare lightbulb hung overhead, weakly swinging back and forth.

"About time you woke up," said a shadowy figure in front of me. "I was beginning to worry they gave you too much."

"What is this?" I asked. "Where the fuck am I?" The man stepped forward, revealing the prestigious uniform of a legate. In his left hand, he clutched a pack of cigarettes.

"You're in the richest neighborhood in New Antioch," said the legate with a smile.

"Aurelius Taurus?" I said, shaking my head in disbelief. "You're supposed to be in the Orient. What's the matter, they run out of little girls over there?"

"Funny, funny guy," muttered Taurus, freeing one of the cigarettes from its case. "You're lucky the Emperor ordered me to leave you unharmed."

"The Emperor?" I repeated. "All right, what is this? Am I still dreaming?" Taurus leaned against a wall, shoving the cigarette into his mouth.

"You see, Diagoras, I'm sworn to protect Nova Roma from all threats, foreign and domestic. There are plenty of soldiers able to keep up the fight in Arabia, but there's an enemy back here that needs my attention just a little more." My eyes widened in terror, a sharp pain piercing my stomach.

"You're...you're talking about me," I said nervously. The legate shook his head, smiling to himself.

"Don't flatter yourself." Taurus pulled a lighter from his other pocket, lighting the cigarette. "If the Emperor was afraid of you, we would've nailed you to a cross and hung you out somewhere you could serve as a warning to others months ago. You're not a threat. You're just a mediocre writer with a big mouth and a crazy plan. But even you have your uses. That's why you're here." The legate held out the pack of cigarettes towards me. "Smoke?"

"...Mediocre writer?" I repeated, adjusting my position in the chair. Taurus smiled, shoving the cigarettes back into his pocket.

"You heard of the Sons of Horus?" the legate asked, taking a drag from his cigarette.

"Course I have. Egyptian cult, protesting the war in Arabia, took Caesar's head..."

"Took Caesar's head," said Taurus, blowing a puff of smoke into the already musty air. "That's what did it, you know. Normally the Emperor doesn't get this hung up over a bunch of whiny protesters. His plan was just to declare them illegal, kind of a formality in these cases, then carry on as usual, shrug them off from then on as a nuisance. But then they had to take Caesar's head. Tell me this, Diagoras. What's the hardest part of being Emperor?"

"Oppression gets boring after a while?"

"Pollux, you think you're so fucking clever, don't you?" Taurus took another drag. "The hardest part, from what he's told me, is that you've got a reputation. You're not just the head of the Roman Empire, you're a god. You're the gods' living representative on Earth. That kind of title comes with heavy responsibilities. The big one is you can never look weak. Never." The legate stepped closer to the table. "Imagine what'd happen if people saw the Emperor crying. Suddenly, the living god doesn't seem so godly after all. People don't take him seriously, then next thing you know the whole government's crumbling down."

"Wait, the Emperor cries?" I asked. "He's the Emperor. What's he got to cry about?"

"The fact that he can't cry." Taurus flicked what remained of his cigarette to the ground, grinding the ashes with his foot. "Try paying attention for once. Anyway, the guy's a god, and gods can't be bested by men. That's your basic cosmic hierarchy. And here we've got some idiots with a hacksaw decapitating Julius Caesar...Caesar himself, the patron of all the Emperors, and so far they've gotten away with it. There's a chance old Caesar will still be headless by the Augustalia, and that's just inexcusable. The Emperor can't look weak, which means the Sons of Horus can't go unpunished. The story's just not allowed to go that way."