As is typical of me, I've once again taken someone's drabble and exposed it on the mountainside. Peter will probably think, "I wrote that?" when reading this.

Even I'm not sure what to think.

"Quo Vadis"

By Joseph Manno and

Piotr Mierzejewski

"There is a hierarchy of inherent honor, ordained by the gods themselves: Barbarians; feoderati; citizens; denizens of the City; and, at last, the noble born—like you."

That is what Tertius had been taught, and, at first, practiced while serving as Liberty's security officer—at least for a time.

He had, then, mistaken distance for Stoicism... and quiet arrogance for virtue.

Yet everything he'd seen and learned had served to reeducate him.

Tertius allowed himself a rare smile—a soldier's ration of joy.

Ironic that it is only here, among the "unworthy," that I learned to be a better Roman.