Dawn over Rome

"General Acacius has fallen," exclaims Emperor Geta. "But he left us the most precious thing he had-his daughter! The sun of our Rome!"
If the road leads to the abyss, only a madman would walk it with submission. But does a prisoner have the right to choose?
"In the name of peace, I shall take his daughter as my lawful wife!"
Peace is merely a word behind which violence hides. Oaths sworn in blood do not smell of blessing but of a curse.
"Smile, my little bird, you are to bear the emperor's child," a warm, sticky whisper. "And remember, your whore of a mother is still alive."
She is his. She will be his. Just as the sun belongs to the sky, just as fire devours wood, so too was Helena made to burn for him alone...