Authors note: I have been watching I Claudius, recently and I have been inspired! Take this into consideration when the Emperor Augustus appears. I have also revised chapter 1 and made some alterations. On another note I shall be making a link with my next story to my website which has new eternal darkness pictures! (I drew them)

Some more historical facts: 1. Augustus did not take the name 'Augustus' until 27BC along with the title of 'Emperor,' before this his name was Octavian and he lead as 'princeps civitatis' – 'first citizen.'

2. In 32BC the Second Triumvirate (Augustus, Mark Anthony and Lepidus lead with dictatorial power) broke and there was a civil war in the struggle for power.

3. The battle of Actium in 31BC saw Antony and Cleopatra defeated by Augustus and he became the sole leader of the Roman Empire.

4. The Palatine Hill was where Augustus had his palace which has a lovely view of the city of Rome (it's nice I've been there!)

5. Hecatomb is a sacrifice of 100 oxen.

6. Latin – 'Greetings'¹

Day 2 – The Second Hour (8 am)

Augustus woke up with his face in a puddle of his own vomit. The smell filling his nostrils made him retch. He rolled onto his back and he raised his left hand to shield his eyes from the sun.

'Can I help you?' A passer-by gave his hand to help Augustus up, which he took. He muttered his thanks and glanced at his face – for a brief moment it was that of a rotting corpse, its hair was falling out and flesh hanging from bone. He rubbed his eyes quickly and looked again, but instead it was the smiling face of the helpful man. Pius once again gave his thanks and walked off.

'What was that?' Pius thought to himself. This was not the first occasion of this had occurred, recently it had been happening frequently and each time left him scared and confused. He fell to his knees and cried to the heavens, 'The All seeing gods are playing tricks upon me! Do I not give you sacrifices? Do I dishonour thee? I do not deserve my lot!' Such outbursts from Pius such as this were not uncommon; in fact he was rather fond of monologing.

Onlookers crossed over the road to avoid the strange man crying to the heavens.

A voice called him back to his senses. 'Salve¹Commander! Emissionaries have been searching everywhere for you! We have some urgent news! I can't give it to you here!' He helped Augustus to his feet and motioned that they should return to the headquarters.

---

The doors swung open. Augustus strode into his office uncaring that his senior officers were witnessing him dishevelled from sleeping in the gutter. His face, hair and shirt were wet with perspiration and he felt exceedingly ill. He sat down on his throne-like seat and pressed his thumb and forefinger onto the bridge of his nose, he felt a tremendous headache coming on. The officers on the other hand were shocked at his behaviour but tried to hide their disgust.

'Well?' He demanded.

'You have a letter from Caesar Augustus.' Quintus, the senior tribune produced a letter out of the folds on his cloak and handed it to Pius. He turned the letter over and beheld the imperial seal; merely looking at it reminded him of the last time he was in his Emperor's presence…

'The Caesar will see you now.' A clerk ushered Pius into the consul's office.

The room was large, the marble on the walls were bright contrasting well with the scarlet of the drapery. There was a balcony overlooking the Palatine hill. Livia was sitting outside on a marble bench being fanned by two muscular male slaves. Octavian himself was looking at a map which hung upon the wall. He was a stout man of a cheerful disposition and it was easy to see why his soldiers liked him. He turned smiling to Pius and called him over. They greeted like old comrades with a manly hug.

'How long has it been my friend?' Asked Octavian.

'Too long. Indeed it has been over three years since I last was in Rome.'

Pius and his legion had fought beside Octavian in the civil war against Marcus Antonius and he had taken part in the Battle of Actium, the victory that had left Augustus the undisputed leader of Rome. Pius had returned alongside Augustus on his triumphal return to Rome. Pius was then just twenty four and a senior officer in the army. He had made a name for himself at the battle of Actium, fighting through the enemy to retrieve a captured eagle. This resulted to his promotion to the rank of legate.

After the end of the Civil War, Octavian (leading as a princeps civitatis) had sent Augustus to Gaul to defend the borderlines. Not a very fitting role for an aspiring young leader such as Pius; however Octavian was just waiting until an opportunity for his favourite legate to prove himself to arise. The moment had finally come.

'Pius, I have heard rumours of a magickal artefact to be found along our boarders in Persia. The precise location is unknown but it is said to be around this region,' he placed his finger on the Eastern Syria boarder.

'But Caesar what is the purpose of finding this artefact?' Pius asked.

'It has been told to me in a prophesy that if I find it then Rome's rule would last a hundred millennia!' He left out the fact that the person who claimed it would become immortal; this piece of information had been told to him by his wife, who was keen on having the both of them deified. 'The reason for my sending for you is this, I would like you to go to Persia with your legion to recover the relic and give it to me. You will report directly to me!'

'I would be honoured Caesar!' he knelt and kissed the hand of Octavian. He retracted his hand and waved Pius' thanks away

'It is nothing my friend! Now that the matter is settled I have another favour to ask of you. Will you accompany my wife and I to dinner this evening? My daughter Julia has been exceedingly anxious to meet you…'

Pius tore open the letter, breaking the seal with his thumb and forefinger. He perused the contents; it was of the same subtle threats that the last letter contained and demanding news of the artefact's whereabouts, it was evident the emperor was growing impatient.

In the rest of the letter the Emperor spoke of 'a terrible plague sweeping Rome and the surrounding countryside. The disease causes the person to decay over a period of a week; firstly the skin starts to peal and the insides start to malfunction, by the time of death the sufferer looks already like a severely decayed corpse. Thousands lie dead in its wake! I have fled Rome in fear for my life along with my wife and the rest of my family. It is my unfortunate duty to tell you that the plague has hit your farms; hundreds of your slaves are dead, along with your mother, sister, wife and son.'

'Oh Dear gods!' Augustus exclaimed, wiping his brow.

'The plague seems to be spreading to the East! It's highly contagious! I leave it to you to the course of action you should take. '

The men looked around the room trying to avoid Augustus' piercing stare. He read the second part of the letter aloud to those present, then placed the letter on his desk and pushed it from him fearfully. 'Do any of you know of this?'

One officer stepped forward; it was the oldest and Pius' most trusted advisor, Marcus. 'There have been rumours that some soldiers have contracted a terrible illness and the symptoms are those which you have just described.'

Pius inhaled heavily. 'Put them in isolation. Sacrifice a hecatomb to appease the gods.'

'At once, commander– ' He stopped mid-sentence as he noticed the early tell-tale signs of the illness on Augustus, the excessive sweating and red patches on the skin. Augustus looked around the room, his eyes dilated and slid to the back of his skull. He slumped into his chair and lost consciousness.

---

Augustus next awoke a few days later, he saw his concubine bending over him and dabbing his forehead with a cold, wet cloth. He felt hot, very hot. His sheets were drenched in his sweat. The room seemed to be spinning. There was an acute pain ripping through his stomach. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw distorted figures in the shadows watching him. He attempted to warn Alexandria, but his voice came out as a broken croak.

'Rest my love.' She gently pressed him down in his bed; Augustus was too weak to resist.

The Doctor approached his bed; an Eastern healer with a shaved head and eyes with a strange purple tinge to them. He was unusually muscular for a man of medicine but he seemed to be doing his job well. He came with a pot of a suspicious looking substance and rubbed it on Augustus' chest.

'What will it do?' Alexandria queried the man.

'It should get rid of the bad spirits in his body. He seems to be recovering now…Come to my office, we have to talk.' Then he started muttering to himself, Alex caught fragments of his words as he walked out of the room. '…They are trying to take control of him…such magick…incomprehensible…never seen before…'

Alex turned back to her beloved, he stirred in his sleep; she stroked his hair and whispered in his ear, 'I'm just going out for a minute.' She crept out of the room and closed the door quietly.

'Keep a watch over him.' Alex ordered the slave standing outside the room.

The doctor was waiting for her around the corner, he gestured for her to be silent and Alex stealthily followed the doctor down the corridor. They went past the war room; the door was slightly ajar and the second-in-command and the other senior officers were discussing tactics against the approaching Eastern army.

The doctor led her down a stone staircase to his small but comfortable room. The walls were of stone and it was lit by the torches on the walls. There was a single bed on the right wall and a writing desk and chair against the wall opposite. Next to the desk were shelves full of medicines and painkilling herbs.

He offered her the seat and she sat down. Alex noticed on the desk was a large tome bound in leather and held together by human ribs bent for the purpose. Other various papers were littered across the table. Alex out of curiosity picked one up and the doctor gripped her wrist tightly so she was forced to let go. He grabbed all the books and papers then hid them underneath his bed.

'There is something I need to tell you about Augustus. You have to believe me. I wouldn't lie to you, my dove! He's in great danger; the ancients are after his soul. They want him in their power, such magick in his body! It doesn't bear to think about if they can use him to their ends!'

'What- what – what do you mean? I don't understand-'

'I was not sent from my homeland without reason. My deity sent me to keep watch over him. To protect him! But these ancients work in insidious ways – I could tell you things that- no, I'll spare you those details.' He coughed. 'This disease which has been wiping whole villages out. It has been spread by the ancient's magick and any mortal without magickal healing will be wiped out if they come into contact with it. But you don't need to know that…What I want you to do is to go out from the town and find this herb.' He bent down and picked up the only one left in the clay bowl on the bottom shelf. He handed this to her.

'Is this for his medicine?' She asked sceptically.

'It is. He needs it to recover.' The doctor lied through his teeth; he wanted her gone from the headquarters. Alex could tell but she did not let on and swept serenely out of his room.

Rithipol remembered back to when he first received his mission back in Cambodia. Mantarok, the deity and lesser god of his people, had called him down into his lair and presented him with one of it's hearts. 'I am sending you away; far west to the lands of the Roman Empire. You must hunt down and kill this man,' Mantarok put the image of Augustus in the doctor's mind. 'His name is Pius Augustus Corvus Luciens. Make sure you get close to him and do not kill him straight away. Do it when you feel the time is right and not by poisoning. Do not worry about when boy, you will know by subtle signs around you. Go now and do as I say. You may return once the task is complete.'

He sighed and picked up the curved knife that he kept under his pillow; along its blade were strange runes carved into it. Rithipol ran his thumb along it to test if it was sharp enough and drew a small amount of blood. It was sharp and would fulfil its purpose.