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Pausing on a ridgeline that leads to a fertile valley, I look back at the desert one last tiraveyard of armies But not me

I turn my back on it, but carry its lessons with me

The next kilometers are alrees Celsius in theclouds keep ony of roves, which I eat heavily from as I pass

Following the tracks of an abandoned combine, I find a shed and a small farmhouse that looks to have been abandoned in haste It has been looted at least once, and I’arden, I find an aloe plant, which I’m able to distill into a paste for , but does little for the deep nerve trau at all for my eye, which throbs down to the very root of the ocular nerve

—

The power is out in the far a puzzle to solve that doesn’t include i the solar panels of the combine to ith the stove, on which I cook dry-pressed curry froe to power the ancient HC in the living room The HC won’t link with the holoNet, and instead shows only a Society e instructions for all citizens to evacuate Erebos and the surrounding lands for Naran, a hundred kilometers northeast

I think of the tight showers on the Archi as I draw myself a bath I slip into the cold water and shudder It is theI have experienced since the caldariu for the tub and splay out aardly against the fraying wallpaper It’s only then I realize how ht I’ve lost Twenty kilosvictim It is e I doze lightly in the bath for hours After drinking another liter of water, I collapse onto the formaFab bed and sleep for an entire day

I set back out two ed the tattered pulseAr I look ludicrous, the sleeves barely co to my elbows, and the pants to my shins

I look back at the farm, sorry to leave it, and wonder for aback to? A future as Atalantia’s rival? A duel with Ajax when he must face what he has done? A short life of politics and betrayal? Revenge which I don’t want, even after Darrow took half rown sicker inall that, there is still an undeniable itch to return, as if ravity

I need to realize the proave to Cassius when I betrayed hie it That is what makesthat I must help liberate Kalindora, Rhone, and the Praetorians from Heliopolis It would be iood repair of Seneca’s gear, it seeions weren’t broken entirely An invasion will be co for Heliopolis One I doubt my friends will survive

The walk to Erebos is leisurely coroves of wild cypress, and orchards redolent with the smell of starheart blossoms At times I see hovercraft on the horizon, or the occasional Society patrol in the lower ath black clouds brood to the north, the worst of the storm seems to have passed

I pace ed froerines pulled from the trees My route takes hway that connects the cities that border the Ladon by land It is broken by bombardment and littered with blackened Republic assault vehicles and desiccated corpses

I sleep under a grapefruit tree and the nextalong a country road pushing a cart full of their life’s belongings They watch reet them politely and comment on the weather, as Mercurians always do They look at each other, then up and up at me and my melted face, and then they bow

“Odd weather, yes, dominus,” the man says quietly