Praetorian Rising, стр. 20

Jacob shrugged, one shoulder lifting slightly higher than the other as he grabbed his half-empty mead glass and drained it effectively in two loud gulps. "Yes, perhaps. I'm not one to follow the teaching of this oh so holy lord," Jacob said with a twitch as though his words didn't quite fit with the teachings of his youth. "In my opinion, The High King had to prepare for the backlash of his actions, no? You make the martyr of one, the rest will follow."

"What do you mean?" Camille asked, dropping her fork full of meat to pay closer attention.

"Well," Jacob said as he shoved a hefty amount of buttered bread between his lips. "Wouldn't you be afraid of a Praetorian’s retribution if you banished one of their own? And not just a Praetorian, but from the stories I've heard, one of the best."

He has a point, Camille thought with blooming intrigue. "What is this law exactly?" Camille asked between small bites of bread.

"The Aspera Munera," Brian stated in an official air.

Jacob reached into his pocket and slammed a crusted, grimy piece of paper down next to Camille's plate. "She lives with Peter, nuthead. She's not going to know what the rules are."

"Why not?" Brian asked blankly, staring at Camille as though she were a rare bug to be examined.

"Yes, why not?" Camille asked with slight hesitation.

"Peter was part of the rebellion," Jacob said matter-of-factly. "And he doesn't follow the teachings of our Holy King. Peter is a follower of the old ways."

Camille's jaw dropped wide open. "He what?"

"Yeah," Jacob continued, shoving a sturdy piece of meat into his mouth and slowly chewing. Camille inwardly squirmed with impatience, but she waited in silence for him to continue, not wanting to miss a single detail of what he said. "Peter isn't just a butcher Camille; he was Rogue, one of the head resistors in the rebellion against the Praetorian exile. Most Daeites were resistors to the High Kings law."

Camille felt her chest contract at Jacob's words. Peter was a follower of Ma'Nada. Every story he'd ever told had been from the sacred text of Daeism, but he'd never showed her the written word. He knew it all by heart, every story and every line. It was only now Camille understood why. Everything he'd taught her about his belief wasn't just a secret between them but a crime against the crown.

Brian seemed to be just as surprised as Camille but didn't look so taken aback by it that it affected his appetite. How did she not know this about Peter and yet Jacob did? Not that Peter would have told her, but in all her time with him, how did she not see it on him? It was true that he never spoke of the High King in great favor, but he'd never voiced a passionate dislike for the ruler of Aspera either.

"I've never heard him talk about these things," Camille said as she reached for her mug to take a small sip to wet the dryness of her throat.

"No, I can imagine not. Peter isn't one for sharing stories of his past, but my parents know. They told me when I met you to 'beware of the old man's heathen teachings,'" he said with a chuckle. "Don't worry Cam, I don't care what Peter believes in or who he prays to."

Brian's mouth fell open at Jacob's harsh tone. "You don't mean that."

"I do," Jacob said without flinching. "Peter isn't the only 'heathen' in Sierra Village. Just because the High King tells us to follow in step doesn't mean that we must. Peter fought against the High King’s rule of Aspera. There's no way he'd want to talk about the rules of Aspera, let alone follow the demands some absent king enforces on his kingdom." He then leaned toward Brian in open jest and elbowed him in the ribs. "Next thing you know she will start asking about the Lowenhaar prophecy," Jacob snickered openly. "It's all hogwash if you ask me."

Camille's gaze flew to Jacob's face, focusing on one single word. "Absent?"

The soft amber of Jacob's eyes hardened as he stared at Camille with a slight note of bewilderment. He nodded then with a small shrug of his shoulders as though accepting her complete ignorance without question. "Yeah. The High King hasn't been seen since the fall of the rebellion; it's been a little over eight years now. Once the heat of battle died down, he vanished, and King Regent Metus took over."

"Jacob," Brian said in a hushed whisper. "We aren't supposed to talk about the prophecy. Someone might hear us. You remember what happened to the last person to talk about it?"

"Oh, shove off, it's not like anyone believes in it anyway," Jacob replied on a scoffing note.

The idea of a prophecy meant little to her. It was as realistic as the stories Peter told her and Lunci before bedtime. But the realization of the High King's absence from the throne at that very moment was like a gold mine. Camille was no longer listening to the back and forth banter between Jacob and Brian as her mind struggled to retrieve any details in the depths of her memory that would solidify what they were telling her.

Instead of finding a correlation in memory, her mind felt ready to burst with Jacob's words. It was overwhelming to hear all of this in one day, but she needed to push through it—she wasn't sure when she might get another chance. "Tell me more about the Aspera Munera."

Jacob traced his finger along the worn sheet of paper that appeared to have been folded and unfolded over one-thousand times. The edges were frayed and brown and curled at the corners. Camille was a little nervous to breathe on its surface, for fear it would crumble into dust as both Jacob and Brian recited the paper's content by memory.

Most of the rules seemed straight forward and palpable. All Asperians must follow in