The sun shone out of the window of the palace, illuminating a room that was well-crafted, and showed of great prestige and status, if not necessarily great wealth. Which, true enough, it was. Prestige a plenty was in evidence. Nothing less for an Emperor.
Or a would-be emperor. The situation for the people of Mareteren was a complicated one. There were...complications...
They were a people in exile, in almost every sense of the word.
Mareteren meant 'great land' in the language of the former Roman-Thracian people. And it was a great land; fertile, rolling hills, a bountiful coast and seas, mountains on the horizon. It rained at an almost perfect rate; not too often, and not too little. A great land.
But their hearts ached. Ached, ached, ached. Had ached. Would ache.
Constantinople. A lost world. A lost home. The heart and soul of Roman civilization for nearly a millenium.
Gone. Burned, with the Empire they had once held. Crushed, beneath the Turkish heel. Torched by the Sultan's army. Smashed by the Jannisaries. Snuffed out.
And so, it had fallen to Anastasius Flavius to rally that people. Sitting in the sunny room. The extravagent room, fit for an Emperor.
For that is what Anastasius would be, if he wasn't now. And in that room, he would earn that name. Build it. Create it.
The Roman people would rise again. It would begin here. Here in Roma Nova, in streets that Anastasius could clearly see, almost two million people, two million exiled people, were awaiting an end to their exodus.
"Your majesty? It's time," came an almost breathless voice.
The Emperor turned, his features unreadable. "And...?"
"Well, your people are waiting."
Relief and, was it glee? passed over the young Emperor's face. "Very well. I'll be along directly." He stood up, tall, almost willowy in build, and imperious. Majesty shone from him like water comes from a fountain. As a great philosopher said, he was 'a rich, powerful ball of charisma.'
He steeled himself for what was coming.
The strong, daylight sun greeted as he walked to a new future.
