<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: times new roman;"><em>Antonius Valerianus Iustinianus ~ In hell...on his way to the first level</em></span></div><br/><div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/ad/Antonius.jpg)</div><br/>The day was warm, the sun not yet fully above the horizon as his chains clinked; each one a harpy's cry reminding him why he was here.  The Imperial Daughter, Maximiliana, sentenced him to death with her asps tongue.  It was just a few hours ago that she had lied to her father; a father that knew it was a lie but the public spectacle she made at the festival demanded he take action.  The Emperor was a good man, honorable with those he knew he could trust.  Antonius was one of those that he could trust and the Praetorian never betrayed that trust in him.<br/><br/>So to spare his life and give him have a fighting chance at eking out a few more days before meeting with Pluto's judgment for his actions in life; he trudged forward with his friend's Avitus and Drusus, both members of the Praetorian Guard, escorting him to his own personal hell.  The silence between the three was nearly deafening, the crowds watching as they moved through the streets of Rome to Antonius' new master.<br/><br/>“Caelius is a good house, Antonius...”  Drusus, a head shorter than the prisoner and much more hairy than the tall Roman, said breaking the silence.<br/><br/>“Yeah, they take care of their...property...”  Avitus added.  Avitus was much older than the both of them, was thinner of frame and his hair graying at the wings.<br/><br/>“Property...”  Antonius said softly.  The word tasted of the bitterest of wines.<br/><br/>They rounded the corner with the Praetorian's dressed in their fine purple garb and Antonius in his plain slave's clothing that barely covered his chest, the thick brown leather belt wrapped tightly at the waist where Antonius' manacles linked themselves to.  The destination a scant few yards from him, a rage threatened to leap from his chest.  Antonius breathed heavily trying to calm it.<br/><br/>The guards stopped turning to him and spoke, “We're sorry this happened, brother.” The shorter of the pair said that they still called him a brother to the guard was of small solace to the man in chains.  He had none of the rights or privileges of his status anymore.  It was amazing how much you took for granted when you could have just about anything you wanted.<br/><br/>Nodding silently he continued his walk forward.  Nothing could stop this moment short of a miracle from Jupiter or Juno, he was now the property of one Marcus Caelius-Germanicus.  It bit at him hard, festering and burning.  He was a free man, beholden only to the Emperor himself, and now he had nothing.<br/><br/>The acrid taste in the back of his throat disgusted him.  It felt of cowardice and he was not a man to be called a coward.  “That the new one?  You're early”, the large man said at the gate of the Oecus to the Praetorian's.  The look they cast to the man stopped any further impudence.  Insult a member of the Guard and you had better be linked<em>closely</em>to the Emperor himself.<br/><br/>“We...we'll take him from here, Praetorians.”<br/><br/>The pair gave a barely perceptible nods to Antonius, the only sign of their farewell.  Back straight, regimentally so, Antonius walked forward to his new<em>life</em>.  A pair of men fell in step beside him and escorted his way to the Training yard to allow for him to be presented properly to his new owners.