Contents
Chapter 7. Now: Luca
Overview
Luca fixates on death’s pattern after losing two tribunes and keeps his new tribune at arm’s length. He reveals his private vigilance over Maris by assigning the tribune to watch for her nightly lamp. As the army nears crossing the Sophanes, Luca plans to deliver Vale’s summons to Roskia at the gates.
Summary
At dusk in camp, Luca watches his newly assigned tribune carefully repair and oil his armor. Remembering the goddess Kali’s deaths-in-threes, Luca recalls his first two tribunes—Deriti, who died shielding him, and Proctes, crushed at the Illyrium—fearing this third will meet the same fate.
Testing the tribune, Luca challenges his motives. The tribune, steady and irreverent toward gods and rank, claims he serves the same purpose as Luca without seeking divine favor. Luca withholds personal details, pockets another blank falcon message, and lets the tribune fit his armor.
Luca leads him to a ruined riverbank facing the Citadel and Villa Casperia. He silently watches until a lamp flares in Maris’s window, releasing his held breath. Luca assigns the tribune a singular duty: come here each sundown, and if the lamp fails to appear, find Luca immediately, wherever he is.
Before dismissing him, Luca adds a change: at dawn they will go to the gates to deliver Vale’s message to Centurion Roskia, despite the imminent crossing of the Sophanes. As they return through camp, Luca feels the war’s end approaching and questions what his long, bloody choices have been for.
Who Appears
- LucaCenturion; haunted by two dead tribunes, hides vulnerability, assigns vigil over Maris’s lamp, prepares to summon Roskia at the gates.
- The tribune (unnamed)Young, skilled, stoic; repairs Luca’s armor, rejects the gods, tasked to watch Maris’s nightly lamp, to accompany Luca to the gates.
- MarisOffstage; her villa’s lamp becomes Luca’s nightly proof of her safety and focus of his protective fixation.
- IolaFormer Citadel servant now in camp; disapproves of Luca, briefly tends the tent before leaving.