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Today isblue, stars peeking through the atold, purple sash acrossfor the laurel wreath at the end of the procession By the end of the day, I will be given a Triumph Mask created by Violets in honor of my victory

My chariot rumbles under me Wooden wheels pulled over pavement Over rose petals Over haemanthus blossoms Over a hundred thousand flowers thrown from the open s of the skyscrapers that stand sentinel to either side of the grand avenue Hands flourish in the air Ar s the parade route Cheering for the things that went before me, the wonderful floats The fire breathers The dancers The griffins and drakes and zebracores The few re Bellona prisoners The heads of Imperator Bellona and his brothers and sisters adorn pikes For all Augustus’s personal austerity, he knows the is zip overhead Storks buzz through the air

But he knows the importance of brutality, too Flies buzz about the heads And they nip at the four white horses that pull rand boulevard into the white-stoned Field of Mars that stretches before the Citadel’s grounds

I wave to the crowd, holding up rips the them that they’ll be able to tell their own children that they sawleaves and cheer wildly, cli the Field’s martial statues and marble obelisks to see me better

"You are but a side the chariot, as per tradition

"And a whorefart," Sevro calls frorees sole were here to ride with th would make all these eyes easier to bear, all these cheers more pleasant to stomach Reds applaud in the crowd They screah, perfect victims of the Society’s entertainlorious Golds Millions will have relived the holo experience of my fall in the Iron Rain, at least until the EMP knockedof Karnus

The parade is a drea how little it means My friends are behind rin at me They love me And I lead them to a hopeful ruin It all seemed worth it once But after we take the war to Luna, what then? More lies More deaths More i do? She has not returned to Agea since she turned and walked away from me in the mines Fitchner is beside himself orry She is an axe above ht already have Perhaps this is sorand ruse Perhaps her father already knows

The Jackal noted her absence froht for the Triuht about their father

"Not surprising," he said with a sigh "Just don’t let the man come between you two as he came between her and me as children" He clapped ive me the dull headache that now pulses behind ain

Victra rides beside Roque and Lorn, languidly looking around, soaking in the sunshine and festivities She’s brought herwith Antonia, who apparently aided in taking Thessalonica from Bellona hands It’s hard to keep track of what side they’re on But Victra, for her part, has been as loyal as anyone She blows inal nu them fresh recruits Behind these lieutenants are the dozens of Praetors and Legates who led the army And behind them walk thousands upon thousands of Grays, ith es at ions of Obsidians It’s a furiously grand affair, not only forof a new era--a Solar System led by Mars, not Luna

Fitchner is not here He should be I look for him at the top of the colossal white stairs that lead to the Citadel grounds The ArchGovernor and his entourage stand there with dozens of our allies, and a skeletal, bald White who holdsmy chariot behind, I ascend the stairs, flanked by my lieutenants Silence claims the plaza My purple cape catches in the wind behind ustus steps forward