A.H. Septimius

There are no moral obligations in the game of empire.

If they succeed, you will not be packed off to some idyllic farm, where you can write bad poetry, we will both be executed.

The dressmakers have just arrived from Shylon; they are coming here to display their goods.___eally, that__ lovely.___ was wondering if I could have some money, please._ __hat__ the point in having your own money if you__e just going to spend mine?_ __eah, but the amount of dresses I__ planning to buy, I might not have enough._ __hen buy an amount you can afford._ Ratilla responded bearing an expression of incredulity. __h Rat._ Tizi said as she pouted, conjuring a mournful expression. __ just want to look pretty, what will they say if the wife of the Imperial Chancellor is clothed in rags? I__ only trying to play my part as the wife of the great Ratilla._ Tizi said, her eyes full of misery, as Ratilla shook his head and chuckled.

Thirty years of marriage to Erasto had taught her much, namely that men were reckless by nature, full of bluster, most incompetent, the rest fortunate to have a wife to keep them from allowing their innate ineptitude to engulf all around them.

If their social institutions were abhorrent, their unwritten constitution bordered upon the absurd. The absolutist monarchs of the ancient kingdoms of Amara looked with detestation at the Shazarian constitutional monarchy. Yet this was no time to demonstrate loathing of the upstart nation; condescension could wait until after Sixto had been defeated.

As the map of the Great Plain was being redrawn by a young Shazarian councillor, the ageing Shylonian king interrupted mid-speech to ask him his name. With a piercing glare and a haughty flick of his cloak, he retorted __ord Ratilla, Shazarian Imperial Secretary, and who might you be?_ Behind the gasps of horror, the message was clear. It was Shazaria who now bestrode the Amaran world, henceforth the office of Shazarian minister now held greater prestige than even that of foreign monarchs. What became even clearer were the depths of Shazarian treachery. The impudent youth who stood before the kings of Amara stripping them of ancient provinces, was the same adolescent reputed to have delivered an eloquent speech which swayed the Shazarian councillors in favour of war.Had this been their intention all along?

Came they, in their droves, one after the other, hundred after hundred, thousand after thousand, engulfing all before them, each line a merciless wave from a boundless sea of bold men.

Things I fear will forever change and we old souls can do little but be swayed by the winds.

He returned her gaze, yearning for sentimental solace; love which emanated from a familiar source, mattered little how bedevilling. They shared an intimate moment, a silent tête-_-tête, which seemed to confront doubts each harboured.

Throughout the empire, it was whispered that although the husband waded through mud, the wife walked upon water. She, it was said, was graced with a gentle touch which tamed the most vicious of men.

Seconds feel like centuries when I am not in your presence.

Those who looked with revulsion at the oppressive might of her arms, were obliged to marvel at the egalitarian nature of her social programmes.

Everything has changed, and nothing has altered. Oh, what a fate.

Crowns are hourly tumbling.

The ambition of men compels them to break even the most heartfelt vows.

Yet Theo had become engrossed in his own tale, transporting himself back to the night of which he spoke. In the distance, he could again see the faces he had encountered on that fateful night, the twisted bodies and pained expressions of the men who no longer walked the realms of men, but those of the underworld gods.

To discover what becomes of men who do not pay debts owed to Ratilla, one must visit the underworld.