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I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.
SCREAMING
“All men are not created equal,” he declares. Tall, imperious, an eagle of a man. “The weak have deceived you. They would say the meek should inherit the Earth. That the strong should nurture the gentle. This is the Noble Lie of Demokracy. The cancer that poisoned mankind.”
On Mars there is not much gravity. So you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it.
Jesus
Your lives, your blood, are a down payment for the immortality of the human race as we move beyond Earth and Moon.
Jesus
In the distance, drunk Uncle Narol, old now at thirty-five,
Damn I’m only 30 mfer
I would have liked for him to see me finally get us the Laurel.
Honey I don’t think you’re getting it
We grew together, and now are grown. In her eyes, I see my heart. In her breath, I hear my soul. She is my land. She is my kin. My love.
Why do I feel like she gonna die
“Live for more,” she mouths to me. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the haemanthus I gave her. It is smashed and flat. Then loudly she screams to all those gathered, “Break the chains!”
My wife is too light. She was only just a girl.
JESUS
“Dreamers like your wife are limited, little Helldiver.” She makes sure I don’t speak. “Understand that. The only power they have is in death. The harder they die, the louder their voice, the deeper the echoes. But your wife served her purpose.”
I am told the trauma killed me and they had to restart my heart.
JESUS
“Power isn’t real. It’s just a word.”
Red is rising,
and American self-loathing and self-neutering.
lol
Fortunately, they are also very stupid. For instance, this Persephone you have no doubt heard of is nothing more than a dim girl who thought singing a song was worth a hanging.”
He tips backward onto the ground. I’m dazed from striking him with my forehead. Seeing red. Seeing double. I stumble toward him. Tears stream down my cheeks. He’s twitching. When I grab his golden hair, I find him already limp. Like a wet golden feather. Blood pulses from his nose. He is quiet. He no longer moves. No longer smiles. I mutter my wife’s name as I fall to cradle his head. His face has become like a blood blossom.
:( I can’t believe this poor baby died wtf Darrow
“He didn’t kill Priam.”
I literally gasped
Oh hell. Titus is a Red.
oh
“I think you’re like that beast out there. Part of a pack but deeply sad, deeply alone. And I can’t puzzle out why, my dear boy. This is all so much fun! Enjoy it! Life doesn’t get better.”
Someone screams as they see Sevro and his Howlers cutting their way out of the stitched-up bellies of the dead and bloated horses that litter the mud up to the gate.
Jesus
“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.”
I learn from him around the campfire that he and the Howlers, Thistle, Screwface, Clown, Weed, and Pebble—the dregs of my old House—stayed no longer than a day after I disappeared. “Cassius said the Jackal took you,” Sevro says
What a bitch
Pax interrupts. “Would you let me whip you bloody, Apollo? Darrow did. Let me whip you, and I’ll obey like a Pink. Promise on the graves of my ancestors, those of Telemanus and the—”
“How fast can Sevro run two kilometers?”
!!!!!
I miss the small cot I used to share with Eo. She’s been dead now longer than we were married. I’m surprised how much it hurts to realize that.
Jesus
“Hmm. Odd. I can’t find a Pluto.” I look up at him. His eyes are different. Dead. Quiet. “Oh, there’s one.”
JESUS
A spasm. Ten impacts as the Jackal stabs at Pax trying furiously to get at me like some rabid animal digging in the dirt, digging through Pax to kill me while I’m down.
Oh my god ???
“No scuffle this time. I brought you a gift. May I present my brother, Adrius au Augustus, the Jackal of the Mountains, and his standard. And he’s”—she looks at me with a hard smile as she realizes I thought she betrayed me—“disarmed.” She drops the Jackal, bound, gagged, and naked. “Bugger my goryballs,” Tactus hisses. I have won.
lol I love her
“The audio in the storm was scrambled,” he said. “Couldn’t make out the last words you said to Apollo. So I deleted them.” One of my last words was bloodydamn. What does Sevro know?
“Darrow, Lancer of House Augustus. Rise, there are duties for you to fill. Rise, there are honors for you to take. Rise for glory, for power, for conquest and dominion over lesser men. Rise, my son. Rise.”
