A/N: It has been forever since I've seen Ashes to Ashes, or a More Permanent Hell, so if I messed up details, please forgive me. Anyhow… I don't own Forever Knight or LaCroix or Divia. That's about the long and short of it. Please R+R.
She used to run into my arms, the smile on her face so pure that it banished any thoughts of the war, or the government, or even Flavius, with his sour breath and annoying manner. If she could love me, then everything I'd ever done was forgiven. If I could father such a bright, beaming child… well, then how could I be as evil as my own people thought I was?
I laughed at the irony. I was General Lucius Ofonius Merula, untouchable, unbreakable, unconquerable- to everyone but her. Divia. My goddess, my child, quite possibly the only thing on this earth that I loved.
This time she didn't run to me.
I called her name and opened my arms, but she didn't make a move towards me. An enigmatic smile graced her pale face and she merely inclined her head, showing respect to a general, not love to a father.
Perhaps I'd been away too long. Perhaps she'd never received my letters… Wait, of course she never received my letters; I'd never sent them. Perhaps it had finally struck her that as I was a general in the emperor's army, I was to be respected.
Or perhaps she finally understood the things I'd done in Gaul.
My arms dropped to my sides. Her name died on my lips as she disappeared around a corner. I barely heard Flavius's mutters about her, barely tasted the wine in my glass. I could only think that I'd finally done something that even she couldn't forgive me for.
My goddess had forsaken me.
She used to run into my arms, the smile on her face so pure that it banished any thoughts of the war, or the government, or even Flavius, with his sour breath and annoying manner. If she could love me, then everything I'd ever done was forgiven. If I could father such a bright, beaming child… well, then how could I be as evil as my own people thought I was?
I laughed at the irony. I was General Lucius Ofonius Merula, untouchable, unbreakable, unconquerable- to everyone but her. Divia. My goddess, my child, quite possibly the only thing on this earth that I loved.
This time she didn't run to me.
I called her name and opened my arms, but she didn't make a move towards me. An enigmatic smile graced her pale face and she merely inclined her head, showing respect to a general, not love to a father.
Perhaps I'd been away too long. Perhaps she'd never received my letters… Wait, of course she never received my letters; I'd never sent them. Perhaps it had finally struck her that as I was a general in the emperor's army, I was to be respected.
Or perhaps she finally understood the things I'd done in Gaul.
My arms dropped to my sides. Her name died on my lips as she disappeared around a corner. I barely heard Flavius's mutters about her, barely tasted the wine in my glass. I could only think that I'd finally done something that even she couldn't forgive me for.
My goddess had forsaken me.