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“You areI watch for son of affection to take hold of her Even on Luna, their love was so of fable Romulus and Dido, the star-crossed lovers who burned a city for their love But the years, it seems, have dimmed their star And now Dido pulls back away fro across her face

“Then you are a coward”

“Perhaps Are you ry that I have faces you cannot see, or that I showed you mercy?” Romulus asks, amused

“Where is the man I married?” she whispers “The man who could carry a world on his shoulders? I look for him, but all I find is this withered, cowed creature you’ve become If you were an Iron Gold, you would have sent me to the dust”

Rohs, unaffected “All this Venusian prattle and bluster…You’re wading in the shallows, my dear Shall we cross the Rubicon?” He looks past her to address the fifty Gold who’ve followed her into the room More pack the hall outside They watch fro theathered in the shadows “Children of the Dust, you stand before your Sovereign uninvited, wearing weapons and hiding your eyes like Horde filth Remove them and kneel”

They do not

“I said kneel”

Not a man moves “There we have it,” Romulus says “Alea iacta est”

“You are a Sovereign, not a king, otten that, as did the old Luna bitch” My blood stirs at the h “Forgotten that you are expected to serve the will of the Moon Lords from Io to Titan As you cloister yourself here, ainst your Praetors in their ships, your Imperators in their barracks By dawn, patriots will have control of Io, and I, as its Protector, will serve until such tin can be elected”

He smiles ruefully “You may seize Io, but you cannot hold her The people will not forget your birthright A gahja till I made you my wife”

“Don’t you start with me too…”

“The blood of my ancestors watered this moon Their hands shaped her She is ours and we are hers You are not a Raa, nohis teeth “Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, they will all fall upon you, and then Norvo and the rest of them will co”

“Perhaps”

“Seraphina brought back nothing”

“Is that a fact?” She stands to look down at him A dozen of her men come forward “Romulus au Raa, you are under arrest” I wait for her to say the word “treason,” as does Romulus, but it never comes “Bellerephon, seize him”