A full hour had slipped by since the negotiations had begun—an hour thick with measured words, veiled threats, and carefully masked ambitions. The grand chamber that hosted the talks between the Amun Ra Empire and the Roman Empire still seemed to hum faintly with lingering tension, as though the walls themselves remembered every argument laid bare within them.
On one side stood Queen Cleopatra, radiant yet inscrutable, accompanied by her ever-watchful advisor Apollodorus. On the other were the towering political forces of Rome—Crassus, Servilia, the Pope, and at the forefront of the debate, Fulvius, Rome's silver-tongued negotiator.
Truth be told, for most of that hour, the discussion had been a duel of words between only two men: Apollodorus and Fulvius.
