[ but he goes to his desk and opens a drawer, rifling through a few sheets of paper until-- ]
Here you are. Nothing to do with the Desolation, but that can't be helped.
[ it's a letter, dictated by a legate of the roman army who has recently come stationed with a legion of soldiers in Hispanic Baetica.
he tells of how much he misses the senate back in rome, of how barbaric the local populace is here, and of various goings on in the camp. the legion had recently been stationed at the very southern coast, near the pillars of Hercules, and the legate recounts a dream in which he wades out into the meditteranean ocean and attempts to swim from the shore of Baetica to that of Mauretania Tingitana.
the dream has come to him every night since he came here, he confesses, and he cannot but think it is an omen.
of course, he has feared the water since he nearly drowned as a boy and has avoided the ocean for all the months he has been stationed here, but there is, in these dreams, a sense that if he does not make the attempt soon then there will be dire consequences.
the letter ends with an entreaty to the recipient to again ask for his transfer away from this legion to any that is sufficiently far from the ocean.
Whether Trevor reads the whole thing or not, Elias waits for him to look up and adds: ]
He was found dead in his tent a few weeks later. Lungs full of seawater.
no subject
[ but he goes to his desk and opens a drawer, rifling through a few sheets of paper until-- ]
Here you are. Nothing to do with the Desolation, but that can't be helped.
[ it's a letter, dictated by a legate of the roman army who has recently come stationed with a legion of soldiers in Hispanic Baetica.
he tells of how much he misses the senate back in rome, of how barbaric the local populace is here, and of various goings on in the camp. the legion had recently been stationed at the very southern coast, near the pillars of Hercules, and the legate recounts a dream in which he wades out into the meditteranean ocean and attempts to swim from the shore of Baetica to that of Mauretania Tingitana.
the dream has come to him every night since he came here, he confesses, and he cannot but think it is an omen.
of course, he has feared the water since he nearly drowned as a boy and has avoided the ocean for all the months he has been stationed here, but there is, in these dreams, a sense that if he does not make the attempt soon then there will be dire consequences.
the letter ends with an entreaty to the recipient to again ask for his transfer away from this legion to any that is sufficiently far from the ocean.
Whether Trevor reads the whole thing or not, Elias waits for him to look up and adds: ]
He was found dead in his tent a few weeks later. Lungs full of seawater.