Quo Vadis Page #8

my beliefs, my very deep beliefs.

Don't force me to choose.

You mean, between me and your Christ?

Yes, choose.

I'd no more share you with your Christ

than I would with other men.

But, Marcus, don't you see?

Unless you try to understand, what we

feel for each other will destroy itself.

Destroy us.

My son, your love for Lygia,

great and beautiful as you feel it...

...is small compared with your love

for all mankind.

What sort of love is it that acknowledges

a force greater than itself?

What runs in your veins, philosopher,

blood or water?

What sort of poison are you spreading?

Are you coming with me, Lygia?

Lygia.

No, my dear.

Twice today, I've been a fool.

But I'll not go back on my word.

You can go your way.

I'll not disclose what I've seen or heard.

Something is hidden

behind your meek words, philosopher.

Yours and your fanatical fisherman's.

They strike at Rome and Roman law.

I warn you, if ever Roman rule

is threatened, you'll feel my sword.

I almost...

I wanted to go with him, Paul.

Lygia.

Even our lord knew temptation.

Your strength too will prevail

and be rewarded in this.

I know that.

Yes, yes.

These will be the imperial gardens,

where the cattle market now stands?

Yes, Divinity.

Each palace rising out of its own lake...

...surfaced with water fowl

of the rarest plumage.

No longer will the stench of pig and oxen

rise up the slopes of the Palatine.

No. It shall be landscaped

with Damascene roses.

Oh, Phaon, you are an architect

who could have laid the plans of Olympus.

- My lord, I have brought food.

- Take it away.

- It comes to life...

- You've not eaten since morning, my lord.

Be gone with it, all of you!

You irritate me.

Why do you stare at me, Acte?

My lord...

I can only say...

When all this sets with the final sun,

remember the look of Acte.

Why should I remember you?

No one loves you as I love you.

I command you to stop loving me!

I cannot, lord.

Forgive me.

For years,

she has been a thorn in my flesh.

Now that thorn will be removed.

Henceforth, you are banished from Rome

and from my sight.

One day, Nero, you will need me.

And I will come to you.

Is it not disgusting

when common bovine solicitude...

...replaces the fire in a woman's body?

Ah, but what pulsating purity

there is in fire.

My new Rome shall spring

from the loins of fire...

...a twisting, writhing, breathing flame.

What do you think Petronius

will say to this?

You doubt his approval, my lord?

I too remember his strange look at the

feast when the thought first came to you.

- I should be careful lest...

- No, no.

Petronius appreciates my genius

even more than you, dear Phaon.

It's just that he may not fully understand

the method, the means I must use...

...to bring this greatest

of my accomplishments into being.

He seems to be well-occupied

at the moment.

When I have news of Tigellinus coming,

I shall summon him with the others.

This must be disclosed to him

with intelligence...

...with, uh, sincerity.

Yes.

There you are.

- Marcus.

- Hmm?

Well, it's your game.

Only two games you've won

in three weeks, Marcus.

Does the play bore you?

I fear I have met my superior.

I fear you might have met

something else.

Other than a glare of distaste...

...I've been given no details

concerning your sudden renunciation...

...of your little Christian hostage.

Your well-bred curiosity

now breaks its bounds, eh?

It shatters me.

Well, uncle, it happened quite simply.

Your valiant Greek led me to Lygia

and a swarming hive of idiots.

Their black honey choked my mouth

and I said words I never thought I'd utter.

For their mammoth stupidity

I should've been broken in half...

...and dropped piecemeal

into the sewers.

- Fascinated?

- In a way.

Yes?

The empress requests your presence

in her pavilion, commander.

At once.

I leave you to your fascination.

I have been summoned to mine.

None of this bodes well.

Wouldn't the emperor be angry

if he should...?

Poppaea's indulgences

merely stimulate him to his own.

But I sense a fresh preoccupation

in Nero.

For some time now, he has avoided me.

My lord is troubled?

A doubled guard and yesterday...

...Tigellinus and a squadron of his

butchers left for Rome.

I feel a strange and heavy breeze.

Oh, my dear lord.

Even your little song is sad

with its note of death.

It is just words.

And I sing it joyfully.

Because love such as I feel

cannot ever die.

As always,

your entrance is proud and aloof.

I come proudly, as fast as my hands

and knees will carry me.

And as always,

sardonic and unassailable.

Unassailable?

I've never been so readily, so happily,

so expertly vanquished in my life.

I believe everything

except the word "vanquished."

I should like to vanquish you, Marcus.

Like the spider who eats her mate

when he is no longer a necessity?

Mm-hm. Something like that.

I heard today

you're planning to leave for Sicily.

Three years away,

there's much to look after.

Will you sail from here

or will you go via Rome?

Rome?

That's rather an indirect route, isn't it?

Then I shall be direct.

I know about your little

Christian hostage vanishing.

I've eyes and ears

in the Praetorian Guard.

And an arm or two

to fit your waist, no doubt?

Possibly.

Did you find her, Marcus?

Naturally.

Only to find myself a fool

and sever her chains, I might add.

You severed them thoroughly?

Thoroughly.

I'm glad.

Marcus.

Because you know how I consoled myself

when you vanished from the feast.

Spare me names, dear empress.

I consoled myself

with the thought of your death.

I fondled your bodiless head...

...running my fingers through your hair,

making you smile and frown.

May I ask what stopped you?

It is foolish to kill those you hate,

because once dead they are beyond pain.

And I hated you, Marcus.

I welcome your change of heart, at least.

But if ever she bewitches you again,

I shall know.

And since I have no hatred for her,

I do not care whether she feels pain.

You'd never turn the other cheek to me,

would you?

I don't know what you mean.

But my mouth is here.

Where is Petronius?

Have you summoned him?

- Have you called Petronius?

- Yes, Caesar.

Well, summon him again. Tell him l...

As ever, I'm impatient for you.

I have missed you, Divinity.

Petronius, forgive me

if I seem to have slighted you of late.

I have been steeped in my genius

beyond all description.

I sense a fresh inspiration.

Your senses shall leap to it.

Attend me. Attend me, all.

My lack of consideration for you

during the past few days...

...in keeping you from my presence,

forces me to impress upon you again...

...the tribulations of the true artist.

When I play and sing, I have visions

of things I never dreamed existed.

The world is mine.

And mine to end.

Music opens up new worlds for me.

Draws back the veil from new delights.

I can see Olympus...

...and a breeze blows on me

from beyond the Earth.

And in those moments...

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