Lucius reined his horse to a stop in front of Marquin's shrine. The soldiers who surrounded him constantly as his bodyguards also halted, glancing to Lucius for orders. "Dismount and attend me," Lucius ordered, swinging down from his horse.

For over a week, Lucius had been trying to figure out what had happened to Diana Numa, Decius' daughter. Her body had not been among the slain at Vican's villa, and although his soldiers had searched the surrounding countryside thoroughly, they had found no sign of the girl, either dead or sheltered by the locals. And Lucius doubted his brother would have accepted his daughter back into Fure, knowing that she was wanted dead and rightfully so. Even if Decius did seek to disregard Lucius' mandate, he was smart enough to know she wasn't safe there.

There was only one place his soldiers hadn't searched, and that was due to their regard for religious convention.

Lucius, however, knew such pretenses were worthless. The gods were dead, if they had ever existed in the first place.

Striding up the steps of the temple, he paused outside and glanced at his men. "You will accompany me inside and obey whatever command I direct to you," he ordered. "Or it will be your head."

He noticed one soldier glancing into the entrance with a look of trepidation on his face, but the man said nothing, so Lucius marched inside.

The Forelooker, a young woman with pale skin and a dark coil of hair, braided and loosely pinned up, sat on the temple floor, surrounded by candles that flickered. A snake was coiled on her lap, staring at Lucius with its slit eyes, its tongue flickering.

"Lucius Sipio, king of Fure, brother to Decius Numas," the Forelooker said, without opening her eyes. "What brings you to the shrine of Marquin?"

"I do not come to seek the wisdom of your scrolls," Lucius spat.

The woman opened her eyes, looking up at him. As she did so, Lucius saw the dark veins in her neck, the telltale sign of Ascantal heritage. "I know, Lucius Sipio. You still come here to ask a question."

"You are Ascantal," Lucius accused.

The Forelooker tilted her head. "That is not a question. I am only the Forelooker."

Lucius drew his sword, causing several of his soldiers to draw in a quick breath. According to weak tradition, weapons were not to be drawn in so-called sacred places. "Forelooker, your gods are dead. Perhaps you should join them."

The Forelooker lifted an eyebrow at him. "Marquin wrote about you. The eagle heir, achieves the throne against all odds, ends a terror. But yet, I see you have become that very terror, despite the stars' writing. Pity. You could have been great."

"I don't believe in prophecies," Lucius seethed. "Understand that, woman. They are only rubbish, and deserve to burn, so you may not mislead this people anymore. And I do not need to fulfill a prophecy to be great. Now, answer me this, or I will kill you. Did someone leave an Ascantal girl with you?"

The Forelooker looked at him, her expression impassive. "Those who enter this temple to stay are not human or Ascantal, Furian or barbarian. They belong only to Marquin."

"Yes or no," Lucius fumed, pointing the tip of his blade at the Forelooker's throat.

The Forelooker didn't answer. "I advise you, Lucius Sipio, to leave now, before Marquin becomes angry."

"Hell to Marquin," Lucius said, lifting his sword to strike.

One of his soldiers darted in front of the Forelooker, who hadn't moved or even flinched. "No! I won't let you kill her!"

Lucius lowered his sword, glaring daggers at the disobedient soldier, the one who had seemed uneasy earlier. "And why not?"

"She is the priestess of Marquin, his Forelooker," the soldier said, his face pale. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead but he did not move. "You will not touch her!"

With one move, Lucius' sword flashed up and cut through the soldier's neck, sending his body toppling to the floor as blood spurted everywhere, spattering the Forelooker's white dress. She didn't even flinch; sorrow filled her eyes at the twitching corpse of the disloyal soldier. The snake in her lap hissed, drawing back.

"I will do what I wish," Lucius said quietly to the soldier's headless body. "I am not weakened by your religious scruples."

"You desecrated Marquin's temple," the Forelooker stated. "Marquin will not take that lightly."

Lucius stepped forward, slashing down just as the snake struck at him. Its head was severed from its body and flopped to the ground, the serpentine body thrashing, the tongue flicking in and out angrily.

"Your god means nothing to me," Lucius stated, yanking the Forelooker to her feet. "Where is the girl, Ascantal witch?"

The Forelooker just glared at him as Lucius gestured to his soldiers. "You, take four and search the back. Bring me the girl."

The Forelooker stood silent as the soldiers departed. Within several minutes, they had returned, gripping a little Ascantal girl by the arms. Diana Numa was too frightened to put up much of a struggle, her large eyes wide and terrified.

Recognition flared in her dark eyes as she saw Lucius and Diana murmured something, a word that sounded almost like "Uncle."

The Forelooker looked at Lucius with scathing eyes. "I warn you, don't desecrate this temple any more than you already have."

Lucius didn't reply, still looking at Diana, who seemed less frightened now that she had seen him. He looked for Decius in her features but failed to find him there. All he saw was the lurking monster, hiding beneath her innocent eyes.

"My king," one of the soldiers said. "When we searched the private quarters, we found this." He held out a dagger, the hilt burnished gold and mounted with a deep amethyst stone in the center, glittering in the candlelight.

Perplexed, Lucius took this dagger. He had read about this, learned it in his lessons as a child. The inscription on the hilt confirmed his suspicions: this dagger had belonged to Cero Furius, the founder and first king of Fure, the House of whom had since fallen into disrepair and now was dead.

Furius had been an Ascantal.

"Where did you get this dagger?" Lucius asked, turning to look at the Forelooker as he rubbed his thumb across the engraved lettering spelling out Furius' name. "This was an heirloom of Furius House. Why would you have it?"

The Forelooker didn't answer.

Lucius laid the blade against her throat, holding her gaze. "Are you of Furius House?"

"Don't kill the girl and I will tell you," the Forelooker answered.

"I swear on Augustus' scepter," Lucius said smoothly. "Now answer me."

"I am Silvia Furia, last member of the dead Furius House," the Forelooker told him. "Remember, the gods will hold you to your oath."

Removing the blade from her throat, Lucius gave her a thin smile before turning and thrusting the dagger into Diana's chest.

Even the soldiers holding her looked shocked as Diana cried out, her breath coming fast and ragged as tears surged to her eyes. Blood welled around the dagger as the soldiers released her, her little body crumbling to the ground as she sobbed in pain, looking startled and confused and scared, all at once.

Then she was gone, along with all her pain and fear, leaving only her still corpse behind.

"You swore!" the Forelooker accused, throwing herself at Lucius. Her nails clawed at his face as he staggered back from her weight, struggling to keep her away from his face as blood ran down his cheeks like tears.

His soldiers stepped in, grabbing the Forelooker and hauling her off of him. The woman panted heavily, her Ascantal form fading away as she glared at Lucius. "You broke one of the highest oaths."

"To a god who is dead," Lucius said, wincing from the pain stinging his face. He gently touched the bloody trails down his cheeks, swearing under his breath. "I swore to myself to kill all Ascantals, and I hold that vow in much higher regard than the one I gave you. You will die, as well, but I will wait to kill you until the end. The last vestiges of Furius House, killed by the triumphant king of Sipio House – yes. I will kill you publicly, to show the damnation of your people."

He turned, picking up one of the candles from beside the still twitching snake corpse. Striding through the corridor into the scroll chamber, Lucius lit the first wall of scrolls on fire and then stalked out.

"I swear, Marquin will punish you for this," the Forelooker said in a low voice as Lucius returned to the main chamber, the fire gaining strength behind him. "Augustus and all the gods will. And Verula will summon his people against you."

"Pity your only saviors are already dead," Lucius said with a wicked smile, wiping away the blood from his face again. "At least you'll get to see their failure and realize your own blindness before you, too, join them in death."

---

Diana's body was left outside Decius' door.

On seeing her small, bloodied form, Decius felt all of his anger surge through him again as he dropped to his knees. Gathering her limp body to his chest, he stood and made his way to the back gardens, his entire body trembling with grief and anger. His beloved child, the last member of his family, was now dead. What was left for him?

Only watching Lucius die.

---

That night, Decius, Octavius, Sarico, Casarion, and several others met outside the walls of Fure. For several weeks they had mapped out the weakest parts of the city walls in order to affect their escape. By killing the guards at the smaller gates, taking several of them in order to spread out their numbers, they were able to leave Fure behind and rendezvous at the Ascantal cemetery beyond the walls.

"This is it," Sarico said with grim satisfaction, kneeling by one of the graves and placing his hand on the damp grass. "The summoning of our people, for the saving of our species." He looked up at Decius. "No turning back now, Numas."

"I know," Decius replied quietly.

"We kill Sipio, and then you are king," Casarion said gravely.

"No," Decius said, looking at his father-in-law with furrowed brow. "I will not be king. I will be dead."

Bewildered, Casarion looked at Decius. "If you survive, you will be our king."

"But I will not survive," Decius said calmly. "Once Lucius is dead, I will follow him into Gravium's throat, Augustus willing. There is nothing left for me here."

"You know the rules," Sarico said. "An Ascantal can't be king, not since Furius. You are the only human our people will trust. You must be king, if Fure is to heal and mend after all this destruction and bloodshed."

"No," Decius snapped. "Lucius took everything from me, everything I loved. It is the third time I have lost everything. First my blood family, then the family who raised me, and now my own family. There are days I just want to die, for there's nothing worth living for anymore. And then there are days I want to watch Lucius die first, because he's the one who took everything I loved, everything worth living for. It doesn't matter if I lose my life, or my house, or my status, or whatever else Lucius or you think I have left to lose. I don't want it anyway. I claim the underworld as my house now, Gravium's throat my atrium. I just have one last thing to do before I join my family there. And I will join them there, when all this is over, Augustus willing. I don't believe I will survive my impending battle with Lucius, for I know him and how he fights. It will be hard to beat him, and I doubt I'll make it out alive. And I believe Augustus will be willing to let me die. Fure's healing is not my concern. Only Lucius' death is. You will have to choose another king."

"That is a concern for later," Sarico said. "For now, our concern is also Lucius Sipio and how to kill him." He grinned slightly, glancing at the lines of graves. "And for that, we need an army."

Octavius shifted, looking unnerved. "Can someone explain to me again what we are doing out here?"

"Legend goes that the Ascantals were hunted close to extinction once before," Sarico began, rising. "We were few and hopeless, and together, we called on Augustus for his mercy. He sent us Verula, who summoned our dead back to life, raising an army from the earth to fight with us against our foes. Ever since, we have known that the Ascantal people will never truly die out, not while our dead are buried in the earth to await the summons. Ciceri was where we buried our dead until Vican took control over it, for that is where Verula dismissed his summoned army. Now we have this cemetery, which will work just as well. All our kin will hear the summons, if Verula approves it."

"You're going to summon the dead?" Octavius asked.

"Yes," Sarico said simply.

"Let us do it, then," Decius said quietly.

Sarico stood, spreading out his arms. "Come, my brothers, my sisters. As Verula led the dead to victory once before, may he allow me to lead you as imperator. Our people are dying, our people cry out from their misery. Grant us mercy, grant us reprieve, grant us vengeance! I summon my people to drink at Verula's cup and spring from the ground, to fight life's last battle and win an everlasting draught from Verula's cup. Verula calls you to be whole once more! Verula, hear our cries and give us vengeance!"

Decius started as the graves around them erupted, Ascantal corpses clawing their way out of the enveloping earth. Their dark veins were even more prominent in their translucent skin, which stretched over their bones in a grotesque fashion. The Ascantals were gaunt and their empty eye sockets were blank, but they rose from the ground and stood, all looking at Sarico and the group clustered around him.

Octavius made a gagging noise in his throat as they all looked around at the second-life Ascantals, their key to defeating Lucius. The corpses stared back, then with a resounding snap, unfurled giant black wings, like a bat's.

"Yes, we have wings in the second-life," Sarico said to the astonished Decius and Octavius. "Long ago, we were stripped of our wings, so now, in the second-life, the gods give them back to us." He raised his arms. "Brothers and sisters, Ascantals of the second-life, let us rain Verula's vengeance down on Fure and its king, Lucius Sipio!"