The sun stood high as Praefect Drax Stormborne lingered beside the fire, cloak folded tight against a thin breeze.
“Hello, brother,” a teen voice said, and Drax’s hand went to the hilt of his sword before he turned.
“Taranis, show yourself now,” he said, keeping his tone even.
“Why? So you can look at me and scowl?” Taranis’s voice came from the trees. “I’m fine here, where you can’t see me but I can see you. I see you have children now, and you look smart in the Roman uniform of their law-men.”
“You acknowledge that, brother?” Drax asked, eyes narrowing.
“I acknowledge,” Taranis replied, stepping from the shade with a faint smile. “but I do not bow not to you, my liege, nor to your Roman overlords. We all do what we must to survive.” He paused, then added, quieter, “But try anything and I’ll snap your men like twigs.”
A small boy tugged at Drax’s sleeve. “Father, who is he?” the child asked.
“Is he a barbarian, father?” another eight-year-old whispered, peering toward the tree-line.
“Julius that’s our uncle Taranis?” a smirking boy offered. “The legendary gladiator Lupus… wasn’t he exiled?”
Drax let the questions run off him like rain. He studied Taranis as if measuring a blade. Blood and oath pulled between them one brother in Roman order, the other a storm wearing man’s skin.
The campfire crackled, throwing sparks into the brittle afternoon air. For a heartbeat, the world held its breath two brothers standing on opposite shores of the same river.
Taranis tilted his head slightly, the ghost of a smile curving his lips.
“Exiled, yes,” he said softly. “But storms don’t vanish, brother. They wait for the right sky.”
Drax said nothing. His men shifted uneasily, hands brushing spear shafts, glancing between the prefect and the outlaw.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Drax murmured finally. “Rome watches even the wind that bends near me.”
“I’m not here for Rome,” Taranis replied,. his gaze flicking toward the boys proud, uncertain, wearing their father’s steel in miniature. “I came to see what became of the man I once followed into the fire.”
“You followed because you had no choice,” Drax snapped, voice sharp enough to cut the air.
“And you bowed because you wanted one,” Taranis countered.
Silence fell again. The forest around them seemed to lean closer, listening.
Julius, the youngest, tugged at Drax’s sleeve.
“Father… he doesn’t look like a villain,” the boy whispered.
“No,” said Drax quietly, eyes still locked on Taranis. “That’s what makes him dangerous.”
Taranis laughed then, low and bitter. “Dangerous? I bled for this land before Rome knew its name. If danger is survival, then yes I am a danger.”
A faint roll of thunder trembled beyond the horizon. Both men turned toward it, instinctively.
“Storm’s coming,” said one of Drax’s soldiers.
Taranis met his brother’s eyes one last time.
“No, soldier,” he said, voice like wind through iron. “The storm’s already here.”
He vanished into the trees before anyone move. leaving only the fading echo of his words and the scent of rain.
Drax stood long after he was gone, until his eldest spoke softly:
“Will we see him again, Father?”
Drax’s jaw tightened. “If the gods have mercy or none at all.”
The thunder answered for him.
Julius started to run after his uncle.
“No, child,” Drax called, voice tight.
Taranis turned, the stormlight catching on the scars that crossed his jaw. He knelt so his eyes met the boy’s.
“Your place is with your father,” he said softly. “He’s a good, honourable man.”
Julius frowned. “How did you get off the island?”
Taranis’s mouth twitched into a smirk. “I built a boat.”
He rose, cloak stirring in the wind as thunder growled again in the distance.
“Remember that, boy when the world cages you, build your own way out.”
Then he was gone once more, the forest swallowing him whole.
Drax stood in silence, watching the trees sway. His men busied themselves with meaningless tasks tightening straps, banking the fire anything to avoid the weight in the air.
The prefect’s eyes lingered on the path his brother had taken.
“Stormborne,” he murmured, the name a curse and a prayer all at once.
Above them, the first drops of rain began to fall.
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