The Crowned Roman Guard
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Livius hides behind a vagrant's disguise while Marcus Vitellius tightens his grip on Ravenna; Julia still does not know the bodyguard she insults is the emperor.
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Ravenna's rebellion reaches Livius, the Roman emperor, as a minor disturbance. He knows the walls of Ravenna from training and refuses to believe the place betrayed him. He orders a horse and a vagrant's disguise and goes to Ravenna himself.
On the road, thugs threaten Metella Vitellius, daughter of Ravenna's Ruler. Livius intervenes. She offers him a pin worth five pouches; he refuses payment, and she calls him a low-born vagrant.
In Ravenna, Julia's father treats Livius as a guest beyond noble rank and tries to arrange a marriage with Julia. Livius keeps his identity secret and refuses to be followed. At Julia's charity stall, he saves her, and her father calls him Julia's fiancé. Julia rejects the match. A tracking scent on Julia's perfume bottle points to a traitor inside her family.
Julia's father offers Livius deputy commander of the Third Legion. Livius declines because the emperor's decree allows promotions by military merit only. Julia admires the emperor and would only marry a hero like him. Livius accepts the bodyguard position instead.
When assassins target Julia, her father asks Livius to protect her. Livius checks her room and identifies the maid as a poor disguise. The maid is Shadow, the Brotherhood's second-ranked female assassin, who specializes in disguise and infiltration. Livius spares her and sends her away. Julia believes he watched her bathe; her father insists the marriage will happen anyway.
At the charity stall, Marcus Vitellius, the Ruler's son and Livius's childhood friend, abuses refugees. He claims, "I am the Roman Emperor's brother." Julia confronts him. Marcus offers a deal and demands one night; otherwise the refugees are cleared. Livius intervenes. Marcus recognizes him as Julia's vagrant bodyguard. A fight follows. Marcus summons the Vulture gang, Rome's biggest criminal syndicate. Its leader Ursa Domitor threatens Livius and says he has killed bears, squashing Livius is nothing. The standoff leaves Livius's identity hidden and Ravenna's rebellion unresolved.
