He put to torch the character of Oliver Patrick. All that he had stood for. His honour, his pride, his reputation. And he made himself something else, for the purpose of something larger. He put a crown upon his own head, for a cause that ought to have died when their Queen had died, and when their Commanding General had died. He killed himself, so that their cause might live.
Breaths caught in their throats. Oliver Patrick, with a crown upon his head, stared down the Emperor Tiberius.
