Afterword

Dear Reader,

We all know what happened next, don’t we?

Julia Augusta continually divided her Legions, narrowed her forces, and sent many home as she pressed forward. By the time she reached Fafnir, it was said she only had a force of about five-thousand.

She told Athina, just apart from the battlefield, to wait for her until the tenth of the Month of Everlife. If she did not return then, she was to march home.

On the ninth, they heard a great, terrible rumble throughout the Hellands. Yet, shortly after, the heat of the lands cooled. Archaeological evidence suggests that at that point, the spread of those terrible lands had stopped, or even reversed, and for a short period of time of perhaps three or four months, it became possible for civilians to explore the Hellands. All of its terrible creatures perished or went into hiding, for their great god-king had fallen.

Yet on the tenth of Everlife, Julia did not return, nor did the five-thousand that marched with her.

When word returned, grief, relief, and joy swept through Britannia. Alexandria, bless her ever-strong soul, did as her daughter asked: she dissolved the Principate, and returned power back to the kingdoms. Yet, even with the state of Exetia gone, its soul remained in the hearts of millions.

The culture that it held, much borrowed from Thebia, remained in many former Exetian cities. Stories of the Three, now Four Great Emperors spread, with the fourth, youngest, and brightest hailed as the greatest among them, for she was the one that had done the impossible: she had made hell kneel.

Stories of her conquering Gomorrah, marching among frost and fire, sailing through vicious seas, and traveling to the edges of the earth to uncover the truth of our mother kingdom Arcadia, all spread like wildfire throughout Britannia. A statue was built, as you all know, in the heart of Exeter: the Julia of Primaporta, which now that Exeter has fallen to the renewed Hellands, has been moved to Londinium.

And yes, it is true that the Hellands have returned. Many may question what the point of her sacrifice was at all. And to that I say: look again at what Tacitus had written, and look at what your friends, family and neighbors do daily. That is what her sacrifice was for. For centuries, she guaranteed a tomorrow for us. She guaranteed Camelot, and she guaranteed our splendorously ordinary lives.

Julia Augusta Alexandria’s life can be read in many ways, but allow me, as the compiler, to present my final thought:

She represents why life is still worth living. Naught was it her grand journeys. Naught was it her great battles. It was her, draped over Tacitus’ shoulder, watching as he wrote about their every day. So please, I ask you, who may be facing your own grief or hardships: look toward your every day. Because even our most ordinary days are filled with love and hope. It just may take some searching to find it.

And if it feels like you can’t find it in your life right now, that’s okay. Tuck yourself in, and promise yourself: you will find it tomorrow.

- Estella Celestina, Daughter of Lyrinyx.