Two days had passed since Marcus Antoinus had departed on what was supposed to be a brief and straightforward expedition—an undertaking that, by all prior estimations, should not have taken more than a couple of hours. The target of the mission had not been located in a distant land or a far-flung province of the Empire. No, it was just outside the heart of Rome itself, near the forested region where a brutal ambush had taken the lives of several Roman soldiers days earlier. That was the location Marcus had set out to investigate, to root out the unknown assailants and restore Roman honor with swift and decisive force.
And yet… he had not returned.
Not a word. Not a messenger. Not even a whisper in the wind.
The silence was deafening.
It was beginning to unsettle many, but none more so than Gaius Julius Caesar himself.
