Penance of a Tiber

[ferdaboy 3488]

Penance of a Tiber

 

It is a terrible thing for a boy to go to war. 

 

Yet only prostrated on the chopping block could Titus Tiber admit this to himself . As he lowered his head to the pod of lobster-red enlisted state soldiers, memories of his life flooded from every which way - but they all sprung from one fateful moment at the dawn of the War of Two Emperors, where before he could even count the bolts, his commander put a crossbow in his hands and commanded him to gun down Joseph’s army. 

 

The youth was nursed on the tales of Donald Dabber and Pertinaxi triumph, but they did not soften those nascent memories of war and turmoil. The red fields of Leuven, the roaring battles of Rodenbough, and the sea of blood that dashed against Helena in her failed sacking - with each victory, the boy’s heart hollowed. These were hard and vicious things asked of a child, but they were in service to his country and the dragon banner of his ancestors, so they must be good.

 

Thus, when the day came that a great Renatian exodus to Morsgrad was called, Titus Tiber did his bidding as he was trained to do. He wed to a good woman befit the heir to Tiberius Horen, and lived among a strange and foreign people at the command he was given. But Helena was his heart and home - it was all he had before he knew war. He was drawn to it as though it were his birthright and it was not long before he returned and found employ as one of many of the Lord Protector’s master-at-arms. Training a young Joseph Clement, Titus found some peace in his service, but with every swing of their wasters, the Pertinaxi asked himself. 

 

How can this boy be so innocent?

 

This ten-year old youth was untrained in war, so mild-mannered that he could not even ride a mare unassisted. At that same age, Titus had killed a score of men with lance. More than peace, there was a black ire and envy boiling in Titus. Helena had grown soft, with lumps and lethargy, since the days of his boyhood, and that stirred rage. But the fact that the boy could be elated, happy, good-spirited and kind in the face of that stirred hatred, a mad jealousy for what he could never have.

 

So when the great pagan banners of the Duke Godric were risen in the name of the AIS to destroy Oren, Titus became known as a great butcher of men. A common Ruberni cutthroat, he slaughtered travelers like cattle in war against the empire. These actions were thoroughly against his code as a patriot of man, yet completely in line with the doctrine of war impressed on him at the age of six. He killed conflicted, and wasted away as a man, deliberating which mantra mattered more to him. 

 

It took time for him to realize, but it was humanity. It always was. For what good was fighting if there was nothing worth fighting for?

 

That bitter truth had Titus turn down his sword and return to his homeland. He found common work clearing pests as an auxiliary but the itching of guilt always gnawed at the back of his throat, that someday a soldier or lord may spot him and end it all as it righteously should. 

 

That day finally came when an aged Titus Tiber stumbled upon the Baron Selm and Archchancellor on envoy to Selm. Titus knew the Archchancellor some twenty years ago as a close friend to his cousin and elected to join them - but the old Rhenyari’s sharp gaze read through the Pertinaxi like a book. 

 

For one last beautiful night the trio drank dwarven brandy and enjoyed the gardens of Selm, musing the philosophies of redemption and atonement, until by morning the Archchancellor’s writ found six state soldiers waiting at the entrance of the beautiful barony. Titus was arrested, detained, and brought before Varoche Hall to declare his innocence - the Baron Selm his judge, Simon his solicitor. He could not lie to these men.

 

 

As he kneeled before a massed crowd of onlookers and jeerers at the traitor Tiber, blade kissing his neck, Titus took it all in with one last long look. His last will was that his child be taken a ward to the state, given his cap and plate, and be raised to never act in the way he did. He knew that was his atonement - the workings of his son, who may just have a better life than he.

 

Spoiler

ty to dib for helping me alot with creating this pk post

 

[garentoft 9265]

Somewhere, somehow, Achilles mourned the death of his cousin and friend. Perhaps they were to see each other soon enough?

[Axelu 4333]

Maria of Beaufort, princess of the Imperium Septimus and the elderly mother to Titus, jiggies mirthfully, mourns the death of the son who pre-deceased her - the son she, in truth, knew little of as he became a man. 'What kind of man did he grew up to be?' She pondered, yet the vacancy of any answer gave her no respite.

[LithiumSedai 5750]

”Woe be to Mankind upon the day thieves and usurpers judge true Dragons as traitors,” lowly muttered an ancient Waldenian knight, shaken by the news of the Renatian’s martyrdom. He traced the Lorraine across his cuirass, reciting a prayer for Titus in his mother tongue. “Yet if a son of Horen and Renatus bears the worth of a thousand of these Helenans, bei Gott have we evened out this debt in blood, and shall collect it tenfold once more.” 

 

---

An old Renatian by the name of Charles de Rennes adds a friend’s name to the tally of veterans gone, lighting a candle for Prince Titus. Elsewhere, another Charles mourns the same.

 

[rukio 8924]

Edyth, weeping in a self imposed solitude for a week, grieves for the man who she had known most of her life. ”I will never forget your lessons, may you rest well in death, Titus.” 

[trinn 5146]

 

 

Adeline recalled standing by the fountains of Helena amidst the marching of soldiers, the banners of Renatus flying atop galloping horses and the Pertinaxi cross gleaming in rays of sunlight. In the middle of the bustle, she sees her young cousin, Titus; her words stopped short of calling out to him, bidding him to come play in the Palace Gardens, as he walked armoured and carrying his crossbow aloft though he was no taller than herself. She recalls pausing, as the young boy was pushed towards the crowd of bloodied war veterans.

 

 

“Hello, Titus.” Adeline  greeted upon his entrance to the Seven Skies, the young girl greeting her childhood friend with an unacharacteristically gentle smile. “Come sit. I think that you need some rest, after all this time.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

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