I lived a thousand lives after Caius died, but none of them compared to the life I shared with him.
He lived a long life, and we spent it together, but nothing could change the fact that he was going to grow old while I remained the same as I had been when we first met.
We had a daughter, Aurelia, and we raised her without questioning whether I would lose her one day, but it became clear that she took after me and Caius worked hard to leave her a world that was less brutal than the one he had grown up in.
People like Avitus ridiculed him for the changes he made, but he stood by them, and in time most of them realized that his compassion was not a sign of weakness; it was a sign of strength, and it made him more powerful than they could have imagined.
He eventually passed his title to T
