NOW I AM RIGHT HERE, AND IT’S TIME, ‘CAUSE THIS IS REAL, THIS IS REAL AND IT’S ALL MINE*

– The End** ### **The Dawn After Fire** Rome did not fall in a single night. But it cracked. And sometimes, that is enough. By dawn, the Forum lay scorched. Ash coated the statues. The marble steps of the Senate were blackened with soot, bronze doors warped and ajar. Where once roared decrees, now lingered only silence and smoke. Cassian stood alone atop the Rostra. His face, streaked with blood and dust, stared not out at the crowds—they had dispersed—but into the heart of Rome itself. A city he had never owned. A city that had claimed him, beat him, branded him. But not today. Today, he had stood on its bones and spoken truth. And Rome had listened. --- ### **Lycia – Beside the Ashes** She returned quietly, her cloak tattered, hands scraped raw. She had been through the back alleys, seen the people retreat—some in terror, some in awe. “They’re fleeing,” she said. “The Praetorians, the nobles. Volcatius too.” Cassian didn’t look at her. “He’ll return.” “Maybe. But not like before.” He glanced at her. “Did you mean what you said? That I spoke like a king?” “No,” she said. “You spoke like someone who finally believed his own name.” --- ### **Junius – The Vanishing** He had vanished into the smoke after the riot broke. Some said they saw him take the road toward Tibur. Others, that he stood beneath the Temple of Janus at dawn, torch in hand, and wept. No one ever found him. But his betrayal had turned the tide. And Cassian never cursed him for it. --- ### **Volcatius – The Road South** The disgraced patrician left before sunrise, slipping through the Appian Gate under guard, his face half-covered. He said nothing to the soldiers who followed. He carried with him scrolls, coin, and memories too sharp to forget. As he looked back one final time at the distant smoke rising from the Palatine Hill, he muttered only: > “The rabble never builds. They only burn.” But somewhere beneath his pride, he knew— Rome would never be the same. --- ### **Silvanus – Last Words** The old man sat at the edge of the ruins, legs stretched, cane propped between his knees. Cassian found him there, quietly watching the last columns of smoke drift into the golden morning sky. “You should be resting,” Cassian said. “I rested while Rome owned my back. Now I sit as a man.” Cassian crouched beside him. They said nothing for a while. Then Silvanus spoke, voice fragile but whole. > “You did it.” Cassian shook his head. “No,” he replied. “We did.” Silvanus smiled—then looked out again, as if trying to see something beyond the buildings, beyond the sky. > “Tell them what happened.” Cassian stood. “I will.” --- ### **The Road** He left the Forum as the sun rose fully, casting Rome in light that made even her ruins shimmer like gold. He carried nothing. Wore no insignia. He passed slaves and beggars, patricians hiding in peasant robes, children gathering stones for warmth. Some nodded. Some stared. A few whispered. > “Cassian.” > “The man who broke his chains.” > “The one who didn’t run.” He passed under a broken arch and did not look back. Not at the Rostra.Not at the Temple.Not even at the place where his name had once been written in chains. Because he had already spoken the truth— > “NOW I AM RIGHT HERE, AND IT’S TIME.> ’CAUSE THIS IS REAL.> THIS IS REAL.> AND IT’S ALL MINE.” --- ## **THE END**

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