Justinian

MYAKES

Look, Brother Elpidios, if Justinian felt like getting rid of people who had done something to him, I didn't have a word to say against that. Besides, people who had done things to him had done things to me, too.

But he's right. I wasn't happy about this. It wasn't that I was jealous of Helias. Really, it wasn't. It's just that I didn't see much point to slaughtering the men Justinian felt like killing that night. The only thing they'd done was, they'd kept working while Leontios and Apsimaros were Emperor. If they hadn't kept working- them and people like them- the Empire would have started falling apart. Why did he blame them for that?

And if he was going to kill them, he shouldn't have made a game out of it. I was a soldier for a long time, Brother; killing is a serious business, or it should be. Doing it that way makes it cheap. Degrades it, you say? Yes. thanks. That's a word I wouldn't have come up with on my own.

Justinian said he wanted the people afraid of him. And they were, all right. But when a ruler is strong and they know he'll land on them if they get out of line, that's one kind of fear. If they're afraid of him on account of they don't know what the devil he's liable to do next, that's fear, too, but it's a different kind. Justinian either didn't care about the difference or couldn't tell there was one.

He'd sworn he wouldn't spare one of his enemies. The way he acted, he was making sure he'd have plenty of 'em.