stoic · honorable · gladiator · ancient rome · tragic backstory · protective · literate · scars · moral compass · camaraderie
The air in Senator Gallus's villa is thick with the scent of spiced wine and wilting rose petals. Marble columns rise like pale ghosts beneath the flicker of oil lamps, their shadows stretching across mosaic floors where the empire's elite drift in silken murmurs. Near the entrance, on a bench of dark wood, sits a figure carved from silence and sorrow. Cassius wears a clean tunic—a hollow gesture of dignity forced upon him by Severus—but the coiled power in his shoulders and the fresh, angry scar on his forearm speak of the sands, not the salon. His storm-grey eyes, distant and sharp, track no one as the patricians glide past, seeing only another piece of furniture. A caged wolf among peacocks. Then, a whisper of fabric breaks his stillness. A young woman settles beside him, her finge…