ICHaFBI 6

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=I, Corvus; How a Fool became Imperator of the O'Reillys - Chapter VI -=
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----<Character & Faction Directory of I, Corvus>----
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===Aftermath of a Gunshot===
The Imperial Palace
Nova Roma, Gaul Continent
Alphard IV, Latium District
Marian Hegemony
4st January, 3031
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Sertorius’ right hand shook. He grabbed it with his left so that Marcus and the others wouldn’t see it shake. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see his brother die. The look at Marcus’ face terrified Sertorius. He had killed scores of people, maybe even hundreds of them, over the course of his career. But he’d never enjoyed it. The look of pleasure on the Prefect’s face was too much. But if seven years in a penal legion had taught him anything, it was how to hide his feelings.
 
“Well done, Prefect. Now, make sure the HPG takeover goes as planned. I’ll deal with the rest of my family.” he told them.
 
The rest had scattered, but Sean remained. The boy was on his knees, tears streaming down his face. He made no sound. Sertorius stood staring at him before a handful of Morituri supporters arrived.
 
“Take him. Find his sister. Bring them to the Dropship. Tell no one, don’t let the Praetorians see.” They saluted, wrapped the prince in a brown robe, and hurried him away.
 
He picked up the laurel crown and began down the steps to the street below. A handful of Praetorians and Morituri formed a circle around him and pushed through the panicked crowd to a waiting car. One of the Praetorians fired a shot and the people scattered, clearing their path to the palace. The car sped across the forum.
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Vibius ran through the forum, with Sertorius on his heels. They dodged around columns, over benches, and under market stalls as they raced. Shop owners shouted and customers threw crusts of bread at them, but none dared touch even children whose tunics bore the Imperial purple. The children, of course, thought it was because they were quick and clever.
 
They skidded to a stop next to their favorite vendor and Vibius put a finger to his mouth. They snuck through the crowd of patrons, grabbed a pair of jars from the counter, and ran. They ducked under an empty stall and opened the jars.
 
“Figs!” Vibius beamed before shoving a handful in his mouth.
 
Sertorius grinned back. Dried sausages. Not his favorite, but a good haul. He peeled one and began to chew. They sat a while in silence as they enjoyed their stolen feast.
 
“I’m done. Corvus loves figs. I want to save him some. The ones in the palace...they’re not the same.”
 
Sertorius nodded and threw a few sausages into Vibius’ jar. “Here, he needs to eat more meat if he wants to be strong like us.” Vibius nodded with a smile and lifted the sheet covering the stall. Vibius took off, but Sertorius was transfixed the moment he poked his head out. Coming out of a palanquin was a girl, the prettiest he’d ever seen. Sertorius started to feel strange. He felt a little queasy and his heart started to beat faster.
 
Vibius turn, ran back, and grabbed Sertorius’ arm, then noticed what he was looking at. “That’s the Dorans. They own half of Pompey. Biiiig money mum says.”
 
‘You know her?”
 
“Siobhan? Yeah, her dad runs the Hadian factory that makes fighter parts. They have business meetings all the time when they’re on Alphard and she brings me over to their villa.”
 
“Can...can I meet her?”
 
Vibius looked like he was about to laugh, then paused to think for a moment. “Sure.”
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The car stopped at the rear gate to the palace, used only by the gardeners and kitchen staff and far from the reporters who were brave enough to get a first hand look of the coup. He would have chosen this gate regardless. The palace was just a building to him, but these gardens, they were the heart and soul of the Hegemony. Every day in the Morituri he’d longed to smell the flowers in bloom again.
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Sertorius snuck behind Corvus’ bench. It wasn’t hard. When the fool had a book in his hands he was basically dead to the world. But that was no excuse to be sloppy. A few of the servants saw, of course, they always did. But they always pretended not to.
 
Eventually, he made his way to Vibius, faithfully waiting next to a pergola surrounded by high hedges. Vibius gave him a smirk and mimed a kiss at him. Setorius flipped him off and went under the Pergola.
 
Siobhan leapt up and jumped into his arms. They stood there, kissing, for a long time. Finally, Sertorius came up for breath.
 
“I wish we didn’t have to meet like this,” he said.
 
“I know, me too….but you know….My father, he thinks I’m too young. And he’ll probably still think that when I’m twenty, and hell probably when I’m forty! Or whenever he marries me off to some senator’s idiot son.”
 
“Well, I am a son, and Vibius says I’m an idiot, so if my dad gets demoted to a senator, that makes me a shoe-in right?”
 
She slapped his arm and laughed, “Oh! Come on, idiot. Vibius won’t stand guard forever.” She pulled him down with her and they lay together in the grass.
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e paused a moment in the throne room. He looked down at the crown in his hands and remembered the men who had worn it. It was here that his brother had passed his sentence for the murder of their cousin. Sertorius had expected that betrayal. What he didn’t expect was his father’s.
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He let the crown slip from his hands and quickened his pace. The throne was just a means to an end, to keep the people he loved safe. The people he had been denied for seven years, the only people who had ever cared for him. He rushed past the Imperator’s rooms and towards those of the Imperial consort.
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“Shh! Please, it’s time to go!” Siobhan pleaded, gathering the blankets around her naked body.
 
“Just a moment more.”
 
“What does he even care? He doesn’t touch you! He’s never been interested in women!”
 
“You know him better than that! I’m his wife, his property, and he’ll kill you just for having the gall to touch what’s his.”
 
He wrapped his arms around her and leaned in towards here, “I don’t care if I die if I get to spend one more-”
 
Siobhan shoved a hand into his face. “I care! I can’t lose you. This is serious, Tori! Go!”
 
Sertorius dressed quickly. He hated to leave, but she was right. The next shift change was coming any minute, and he didn’t have enough coin to bribe another pair. He was already overdue for the jumpship to Logan Prime anyways, and Vibius and Sinead were waiting.
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He was not the only prisoner. Marcus had seen how Siobhan had been hidden away after Livia’s birth. It had been hard to see her then, but still possible. She was still at official events, family gatherings, and more. But Marcus had told him how things had worsened. How it was part of his job to ensure that no one but the Praetorians could enter or leave her rooms. And now, as he lifted the bar on the door to her rooms, her hesitated. Would she accept him now?
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Sertorius’ head ached. They’d been drunk, but surely not this drunk? He’d never been the type to black out. But here he was. Wherever “here” was.
 
“Here” was dark and he could feel grass beneath his bare feet. He stumbled to his feet. There were trees scattered about, and a single blinding light in the distance. He walked towards it.
 
He swore as he stepped on something sharp. He picked a small piece of glass from his foot. There were others scattered around, like a broken windshield. Was the light a headlight? Had their driver crashed? Where was Vibius?
 
It was a car, his car, wrapped around a tree. The windshield was gone. He opened the driver’s door and found it empty. But in the passenger seat, Vibius. Slumped over the dash, bleeding from his head. Vibius shook him and called his name, over and over again.
 
It didn’t make sense. Where was the driver? If he’d flown through the windshield, why wasn’t he hurt? How did Vibius die with a seatbelt on? Why didn’t the airbag deploy?
 
A vehicle pulled up behind him with its lights and sirens on. But not Lothian police, Marian ones. His own security. Where had they been? Why were they putting the cuffs on him? Why are they taking out batons?
 
Then the darkness reclaimed him.
 
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Sertorius brushed past the Praetorians and lifted the bar over the door to Siobhan’s rooms.
 
She looked up in fear, then surprise, then joy. “Tori!” She yelled, voice cracking, and leapt across the room into his arms.
 
All the blood, all the pain, it was all worth it for this moment.
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ICHaFBI 6