Talos III

Here is my first Wednesday update.  Look at mah rhetorics.




"This is why I work here, rather than anywhere else.  Sometimes I even sit down there, in the garden, while I try to work, but too often I get distracted.  It's better as a temporary diversion."  He stopped talking for a moment, and both of them starred down towards the garden in silence together.  "I had everything here brought from home.  The trees, the shrubs, the grass, the birds all.  I miss it, you know.  I'd never have come all the way out here had I not needed to, had the needs of our people not demanded it."  He looked over and up towards Talos, his eyes seeming somewhat more weary now.  "You do understand that, don't you?"

"Of course," the younger man replied, but he wasn't entirely sure his voice dripped with sincerity.

The elder man sighed, his body visibly shrinking into the railing as he returned his gaze down towards the garden.  "I'd never wanted to be Princeps; I never asked for this.  I'd already been alive for some sixty years when I was adopted by Tellius Bilus Castius.  He had no natural heirs, and he needed someone to carry on his duty after his death.  That's what I did.  I did my duty.  That's what we've always been taught, is it not?  Loyalty to the gods, to the state, to your family.  Duty to the gods, to the state, to your family.  How else could we have come so far, be the people favoured by the gods to rule the world of men, if it were not for our loyalty, our devotion, our piety?"

He sighed once more, but this time building himself up, strengthening himself more than at any other point in this visit.  Even his voice grew in vigor.  "So too now must you fulfill your duty to the state.  I know that you've held political office before, and I know that you've served as an officer before, but... duty is something different.  It's not always what you choose to do, but rather what you are chosen to do."

He pushed himself off of the railing and hobbled on his cane back towards the table, back to the morass of scrolls, pushing one further open, to expose it in its entirety.  "All of my natural philosophers say that this winter will bring with it an unusual cold."  He slammed his finger down onto the map, continuing, "The river Aeoxus will freeze, and we will face invasion as we've not seen in generations.  Our people have grown weak and complacent with no wars to fight.  I need you to save us from invasion."