Chapter 60 - The Price of Absolute Power

A silence fell over the imperial court, a silence thick with terror. In the weeks following the deaths of the Caesar Crispus and the Empress Fausta, the grand halls of the palace in Rome became a place of whispers and averted eyes. Courtiers and officials moved with a stiff, fearful formality, their faces carefully blank. They spoke only when spoken to, their conversations limited to the most mundane matters of state. The Emperor had murdered his son and his wife. No one knew the exact reason, only that the two brightest stars in the imperial firmament had been extinguished by the same sun that had given them light. Constantine himself was a figure of absolute dread. He worked relentlessly, his schedule unbroken, his focus on administrative papers and military reports a terrifying display of inhuman control. The man had just destroyed his own house, yet his single eye remained as cold and clear as a winter sky.