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PRONUNCIATION GUIDE & AUTHOR’S NOTES
Pronunciation: Latin names and words are mentioned throughout the book and are intended to be read with the classical Latin pronunciation. For instance, “c” is always pronounced hard, like a “k.” “U” is always a short “oo” sound. “V” typically sounds like a “w.” If you wish to go deeper, here's a link from Loyola University of Chicago.
Lucius – Loo-kih-oos
Silvanius – Sihl-wahn-ih-oos
Ferrata – Fehr-rah-tah
Sol Invictus - Sahl Ihn-vihk-toos
Latin Words: Latin words are used for effect and to add to the “flavor” of the story, not to reflect Latin grammar, declensions, or conjugations.
Other Names: The Roman Empire and the legions were multicultural and filled with people from all over the empire. This is the pronunciation I’m using for these names.
Ambeltrix - Ahm-bel-trees
Verlia - Vehr-lee-ah
Ariazate - Ahree-ah-Zah-tay
Tigran - Tee-Grahn
Syphax - See-fahks
Mylitos - Mee-lih-tahs
Tiridat - Teeh-rih-daht
Venextos - Vehn-nehs-tahs
Zyraxes - Zihr-raks-sees
Selene - Seh-lee-nee
Mithras - Mih-thrahs
Anachronisms: It’s nearly impossible to write historical settings without some anachronisms, especially when you’re writing scenes set nearly 2,000 years in the past. Those used are done so intentionally for the purpose of story telling and to convey sentiments that would be recognizable to people then and now. Also, there are vampires.
Contents: This book contains some gore and body horror. There are also battle scenes with brief, minimally-described scenes of animal injury and death.
PROLOGUE 109 CE
Lucius ambled toward his parent’s house. He didn’t know what to expect during his first trip home after leaving it to join Roma’s legions. Freshly returned from the mountains of Dacia, Roma’s newest province, the XXX Ulpia Victrix had marched to the Rhenus River to take up its permanent station at Noviomagus, deep in the lowlands of Germania Inferior. He’d spent the last two years after the cessation of combat with the Dacians building roads and other public works with his legion in the newly conquered province. After the long march to Noviomagus, Lucius was tired of seeing nothing but the men he’d served beside for six years.
He took a much needed and earned furlough, deciding to walk the three-day trip home from the fort. As he drew closer to the Roman-style manor house his father had built a few years before Lucius joined the legions, he sped up, eager to see his parents. He crested the hill overlooking his family’s home and stopped to take in all that had changed in the last six years.
The gardens that had been in the earliest stages were now established and showing solid growth. There appeared to be another small outbuilding or two he didn’t remember as well. When his stomach rumbled, he returned to his journey. At the bottom of the hill was food and family. When he stepped through the door, the delightful scent of food swept over him—he’d arrived during dinner.
“Lu…Lucius?” His mother Verlia pushed away from the table and got up.
When she got close enough, Lucius pulled her into a tight hug. She hadn’t felt this tiny when he’d hugged her goodbye before he left to join the legions six years ago.
“I’m glad to see you, mother,” Lucius said, voice thick with emotions. He’d missed her while he’d been away. Getting to see her again was all he’d thought about when he’d gotten word that the XXX Ulpia Victrix was being transferred back to the Rhenus River.
His mother pushed back, holding him by the shoulders, tears in her eyes. “You’re so big and strong.” She pulled him back in for another hug.
Gray streaked her brown hair and more wrinkles than he remembered creased the corners of her eyes and crossed her forehead. Lucius embraced his mother as tears of joy spilled from her eyes. His father limped over and waited for Verlia to finish so he could get a hug of his own. At six four, his father towered over him by a good four inches. The wild red hair that had been streaked with silver when Lucius left for the legions was more white than red these days.
A space was made for him at the table, and soon he was feasting on fresh baked bread and pork stew and catching up on everything that had happened in the last six years. While the food the legions ate was adequate, the taste of home seasoned the simple hearty food, making it seem like an imperial banquet. His father talked about the ways the business had grown since Lucius left.
Lucius steered the conversation away from himself, simply reveling in the domesticity of his family. Even two years after the fighting had ended, he wasn’t ready to talk about what he’d seen and done in Dacia. He hadn’t known what to expect in his first war. There hadn’t been time to think during the fighting, only to react and survive. As he rose through the ranks, his commanders tested him further, sending him to the front ranks. He’d survived and thrived, but the violence and bloodshed stayed with him, haunting his dreams with images of the killing fields.
Lucius slept poorly that night. The nightmares he’d first had during the quiet months after the fighting ended returned to plague him inside what should have been the sanctuary of his home. He woke groggily to a servant knocking lightly and inviting him to break his fast with his mother. Afterwards, he wandered out into the pleasantly warm spring morning. The only dark clouds were those in his mind as he sifted through his feelings about being home, paying no attention to where his feet carried him.
Bluebells, newly bloomed, surrounded Lucius’s legs, and a soft breeze tugged at the leaves and branches above him, the scent of the flowers pulling Lucius from his wandering thoughts and back to the present. His feet had carried him to the old haunt of his boyhood. He stood in a sun-dappled meadow, the gently swaying branches adding a shimmer to the interplay of light and shadow. The delicate rustle of leaf on leaf soothed his mind, palpably drawing out the tightness in his shoulders. Lucius inhaled deeply, holding the breath for a few seconds before releasing it slowly along with the tension that had furrowed his brow. He sat in the center of the meadow before sprawling out on his back, his hands behind his head, legs spread out, mimicking the position he’d spent so much of his youth lying in while avoiding chores.
He watched the clouds slowly move across the sky while he tried to spot shapes in them like he’d done as a boy, but the scent of the bluebells and the gentle rustle of the leaves lulled him to sleep. Sometime later, the sound of footsteps and winded breathing pulled him from his dreams and put him on alert. Lucius relaxed when the steps grew closer, and he heard his father, Ambeltrix Gaius, grunting out curses. His father’s head blotted out the sky above as he looked down at his son.
