"Followers?" Renara replied with difficulty, her voice trembling slightly as she forced a bitter smile onto her lips. "Me?"
"Yes — you," Caesar answered without hesitation, his tone calm but cutting. "What's the problem? Every single one of us is a follower of something greater, every one of us bound by invisible chains. We are all slaves to ideals, to people, to dreams. I follow my father, and my father follows his unshakable dreams."
His finger rose and pointed toward her like a judge declaring a sentence. "And you — you follow your sister and your ever-whispering elders, those same men who dragged your honor into the mud and reduced your empire's planets to fewer than forty. Do you realize what that means? A downfall unparalleled since the legendary founding by your great-grandfather, the one who shed blood and tears to raise this realm from nothing."
