Tiberinus

[Patricus I]

"The god am I, whose yellow water flows
Around these fields, and fattens as it goes:
Tiber my name; among the rolling floods
Renown’d on earth, esteem’d among the gods.
This is my certain seat. In times to come,
My waves shall wash the walls of mighty Rome.”

-Tiberinus, The Aeneid

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Philip stood alongside to a fountain in Rome. The water trickled and sprayed as it had for a thousand years, carving beautiful streams of water along the granite. He was in old Rome, a center open only to pedestrians. However, none were to be seen.

He walked to the fountain, finding his reflection to shimmer in the bright sunlight. A drip of hair fell loose around his eyes as he peered down. His track suit, a cashmere white, seemed to glow. As he looked, movement caught the side of his gaze. Three, small robotics patrolled the cobblestone path. He had the distinct feeling they were searching for him, so he frowned and walked swiftly away.

He came around a corner as a shadow crept from above. He turned to find a black ship, round in the front and square in the back, perhaps ten meters in length. It approached too slow to be jet-propelled, and he gasped when a projectile suddenly burst from below. Philip watched it destroy historic buildings one by one, even as he believed it was doing far less damage than it was capable.

Before it saw him, he hurried away, next coming to the Ponte Sant’Angelo bridge crossing the Tiber River. The patrols churned from behind, and without any other way to escape, Philip crossed the bridge. There, standing at its center, he watched the shadow of the ship turn toward the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. The projectiles bombed the dome, which exploded in horrifying fires.

As Philip watched, he could feel the heat of it on his face. Before he could depart, the robotic patrols rolled upon the bridge from both directions. Trapped, he looked both directions, then clenched his jaw and jumped over the side, falling feet-first into the murky waters below.