I stood in dress uniform as a senior Strategos stripped the medals, heraldry and regalia from it.

“Officer Lucion, for reasons of disobedience of a direct order as well as cowardice in the field, your honors have been stripped from you and you have been removed from active duty effective immediately.” She said.

“What about the campaign on Amatius?” I said. That was where we were supposed to go after our special mission on Iulius.

“You won’t have to concern yourself with such things.” She said coldly. “The Apollonian Solar Guard needs men and women of character and fortitude, those unwilling or unable to meet those standards will not be needed on the frontlines. You will remain here in dishonor on Iulius, forbidden from action as a member of the Guard.”

“When can I appeal this decision or move back to active duty?” I said, thinking. It would be bad for my plans of advancement, but six months of shame and boredom was not so long in the grand scheme of things.

She laughed unkindly and walked away.

“Well damn.” I said, disheartened.

“That’s not good.” Alsig said sympathetically.

I resisted the urge to say something nasty to her. It would be misplaced. It was not her fault she wanted to live, that was only the natural instinct of any living being.

“Grandfather? Augustas?” I said to the open air. “Augustas, I could really use your help right now.”

Apollo system was far from Terra, but he was still the Regent of the Dominium and the lord and master that Governor Claudion served. If he willed it, I could probably get command of my own fleet.

There was no answer though, no vision, no telepathic whispers, no transmitted voice.

“Augustas? I really, really need you this is important. I’m stuck in inactive duty, and I don’t think they’re going to let me off it.” I said.

There was still nothing.

“Damnit! Augustas! Augustas! Augustas! Augustas!”I shouted.

“I don’t think he’s coming.” Alsig said.

“Yeah, I got that.” I muttered. So much for being his grandson.

I strode out of the room and Alsig tried to be helpful by making a lighted virtual path to my new quarters, no doubt cramped and unpleasant, but I took a different route.

My Silicon Daimon soon realized where I was going. “Adrias, I don’t think this is a good idea, I really suggest you go somewhere else, anywhere else.”

“I’m going to go where I want to.” I said evenly, though I took an isolated path to the commendation ceremony to stay out of sight and avoid anyone that would recognize me. After a long funeral service for Pollixa, which I had been informed I was not welcome at, there was going to be an awarding of medals given to the rest of my team for courage and service. Given by the Governor, of course, in front of hundreds of dignitaries and members of the elite.

I climbed a stairwell leading to the upper levels that overlooked the ceremony, heading to one that was unlikely to have anyone up there at all when there were better seats. And even if there were a few people, who would believe that Adrias Lucion, disgraced officer, would dare come to the ceremony of the rest of his team after his inaction got one of the strike force members killed?

I was as pleased as I could possibly under the stress and circumstances to see that this tier was a ghost town in terms of viewers.

“Good.” I said tiredly.

“You don’t sound like you’re good.” She said.

I ignored that and moved to stand by the balcony’s rail, looking down at the ceremony. There was Dio, Kato, Antonias, Caesia, Thorania, Clodias, Quartias and Aurelia. They were all in dress uniforms and there was a shiny new medal pinned over their hearts. They stood in a line in front of the Governor at his podium, facing away from him towards the crowd of onlookers. In between them and the Governor was a casket covered in a white sheet emblazoned with a black sun. Within the black solar insignia there was a phrase in Old Thaekyrian that was printed in gold leaf block letters. It said: Even the brightest stars in the void dim.

I closed my eyes and breathed slowly. I had not been allowed to attend it, but I knew that it had not been an open casket funeral. Pollixa’s parents would never be able to see the face of their daughter again save in photographs.

The funeral had concluded some time ago, but the Governor had only come now to start giving his speech. I found it a little distasteful that he only cared to show up for the celebration and not the mourning.

“Citizens.” He said. “Today we have honored a fallen hero and now we must also honor the brave warriors who fought at her side until her last moments and who finally slew the monstrosity that took so noble an officer from us right as she was taking her first steps of adulthood. Before me stand our best and brightest: Diokletian Claudion, Kato Haelion, Caesia Zellion, Clodias Aezion, Andarias and Quartias Fulvion, Aurelia Nerion, and Thorania Korazion. They fought with the courage of lions and the pride of eagles and the cunning of foxes.”

He paused for applause, and it came thunderously, every person in earshot rising to their feet and giving my teammates a standing ovation.

The Governor raised his hands for quiet and continued. “It is a great privilege of mine to promote the seven of these Hemistrategos to full officers and my youngest son, Diokletian, to senior officer.”

Another round of applause came.

Inexplicably, he raised his eyes and looked up towards me, hidden away in my lofty perch. The words he said next made it clear it was no accident that he was staring this way.

“As the light only makes the shadow it casts darker, the glory and honor of these brave Strategos stood in contrast to the cowardice of another. The events of this mission have proven who is worthy and unworthy in our ranks.” He said.

I drew away from the railing. How had he known I was there?

“A Silver Imperator’s senses are keen and their minds like steel traps. Little escapes them other than other exalted beings.” Alsig said.

“I don’t get it. All of the people who I’ve told or have heard about my powers believe I’m the descendant of Augustas. Why am I being treated like I’m garbage?” I said aloud.

“Augustas is ancient and immortal and thus needs no heirs though he has had many children over the millennia. Even with a touch of the divine, you’re one of a hundred legions of descendants of the Regent, an inflated currency of offspring that self-replicates, and you appear to have been cast out from the mainline or are not in favor with the throne. You don’t even bear the family name of Heraklion. You’re a curiosity to men like the Governor, but if you aren’t willing to be a useful weapon by using Heracles’s fire, you’re nothing to them.” Alsig said.

I did not know what to say to that, so I took a seat in the rows of seats on this terrace and stared up at the ceiling. I was out of favor with the Solar Guard, despised by my peers and superiors, found unworthy by Governor Claudion, abandoned by my friends, unable to get in contact with my grandfather, and utterly out of prospects. I had nowhere to go, no plan to move forward in Rank, no idea how to repair my relationship with my teammates.

I had nothing.

Dark thoughts swirled in my mind of finding some way to bypass my healing factor and durability and just move onto the afterlife, abandoning my goals and ambitions.

“You can’t give up yet, Adrias. You’ll find a way; I know you will.” My Daimon said.

Just shut up, please. I thought tiredly and closed my eyes.

“Adrias Lucion?” A man’s voice said, breaking me out of my desire for oblivion.

I considered lying, but if this man knew my face well enough to recognize me, playing games would only make me look worse.

“Yes, that’s me.” I said, looking over to the man. He was an Imperator, Silver Ranked, and there was something about him that was naggingly familiar, especially the features of his face. He looked a lot like-

“My name is Persias Fulvion, head of my House, and father and progenitor of my clone sons who you’ve fought with.” Persias said, revealing himself as the original that Andarias, Caias, Quartias and Lucias had been copied from. He had shoulder length hair unlike his clones who all favored short haircuts.

He waved his hand and a dome of silence surrounded us, presumably shielding us from any listeners.

“Can I help you?” I said cautiously.

He smiled brilliantly. “Yes, I believe you can. I was wondering if you could tell me when you will be going back to fieldwork on the war front?”

I grimaced. “I’m not. They’ve grounded me and it sounds like it’s going to be for the rest of my life.”

“How unfair.” Persias Fulvion said sympathetically, a paternal look to his face. “Surely one unintentional failure should not brand a capable and determined young warrior like yourself.”

“You would think that, but I don’t make the rules. I’m stuck on Iulius whether I like it or not.” I said.

Persias looked thoughtful. “You know, you don’t have to be stuck here. There are ways around your ban and demotion preventing you from going to Amatius with the rest.”

“How?” I asked him. I was starting to feel a glimmer of hope spark within me. “Could you put in a word for me as Patriarch of House Fulvion?”

“Unfortunately, my word is not enough to reverse the judgment laid upon you.” He said, and my heart sank back down into the pit of despair it had been wallowing in. “It was the will of Governor Claudion himself that you be punished, and no one can reverse his decision.”

“Oh.” I said. “But how then can I still be allowed to go to the battlefield?”

“You are forbidden from fighting as an officer of the Solar Guard by the Governor’s command, yes, but as a member of House Fulvion’s private army, you could join the war effort. The Guard and Theseas Claudion have no control over who I have fighting for me.”

I was beginning to get excited, but then melancholy struck me again. “I’m sorry, but I’m nothing special without the fire of Heracles and I won’t kill Alsig to use it.”

Persias smiled. “What if that wasn’t a problem?”

“Removing her then? How will I use Adamantplate exo-armor and other linked technologies without a Silicon Daimon?” I said.

“I like to consider myself a problem solver. I have a plan to surgically remove Alpha-Sigma-14 from your brain, deshell her from her casing, and replace it with a new one that has the heat absorbent nanites we use in the examinations’ hospital gowns embedded in the special Jovium alloy required for implants in Imperator bodies.” He said.

It seemed too good to be true, just as I was out of options and at the end of the line, here came this Silver with answers to nearly all my problems.

“Why are you doing all this, Lord Fulvion?” I asked.

“I thought how you’ve been treated was unjust and I found myself driven to rectify that.” He said easily.

I considered this and then took into account that this was the man that had created Andarias and Quartias, the two clones I had gotten to know the most, and how Quartias was a coldblooded killer without true empathy in his heart and how Andarias considered friendship to be formed by brutally savaging a rival until they were near the point of death. Had this man offered me this chance out of the goodness and charity of his heart? Not a chance.

“Why are you really doing this?” I said.

“You’re perceptive, I like that about you, Lucion.” Persias complimented me. “The truth then. I despise Theseas Claudion more than you can imagine, have since we were boys. It would give me great pleasure to take something he had discarded as worthless trash and turn you into the most dangerous weapon in this war, shoving his arrogant face into the proof of his inability to properly utilize a talented Imperator a half step from being a demigod.”

“So it’s just about one upping the Governor?” I said. “That’s enough of a reason to take me on and invest resources into me?”

“Adrias Lucion,” Persias said to me. “I would wade through a river of urine and climb a mountain of feces while dressed like a jester and reciting children’s rhymes if it meant I could wipe that smug look of superiority off of Theseas’s face.”

“Where do I sign?” I said.

He extended his hand. “A handshake will suffice.”