Eagle Byzantium

"However, the pilgrim team does not have any military experience. I think we should really wait for the priests to send a large company, or ask the Greek emperor to send an army of four to five thousand people, and we will be responsible for cooperating." Walter also disagreed with being too hasty and reckless.

But the two lords, who had just tasted the great sweetness, forced Walter to kneel down to the cross enshrined in the tent, and asked him to swear to the Lord not to hesitate in any way on the pilgrimage.

In the end, the helpless Walter had no choice but to compromise.

The rain outside was getting heavier and heavier. Anna was lying on the couch in the palace, not peacefully. After asking the older maid to bring her a glass of warm water and drinking it all, she stood up and walked to the desk under the light. Listening and looking at the dark and boundless outside world, holding a reed pen in front of my diary, standing speechless.

Suddenly, a maid pointed to the Pharos sundial outside the window and shouted, "There is a fire soaring into the sky over there!"

"Could it be burned by thunder and fire?" The older maid also came closer, and then Anna stood up and stood in front of the window, looking at the tall sundial in the dark night, with golden and red firelight constantly emitting, piercing and tearing the ink. The sky was like a red comet swinging there, and the palace was full of people's noises and running sounds. The frightened eldest princess sat back down again, picked up a pen and wrote on the paper,

"Genesis 6505, the sixteenth year of the reign of the noble Holy Apostle Roman Emperor Alexios, the third day of the last week of September (Byzantium regarded Sunday as the first day, The third day was actually a Tuesday). The rain in the palace was like numbness, the water soaked the imperial garden, and the sundial was red and thunderous, making it uneasy day and night."

After writing these words, Anna understood in her heart the feeling of "feet numb in the rain" and "restless day and night": Marlena and her brother John. Being kidnapped by the troops led by her mother and uncle, she will go to the Holy Wisdom Cathedral with her mother tomorrow to ask all the subjects, senators and patriarchs to recognize her as the truly qualified successor to the crown prince. But regardless of success or failure, how will she face her father in the future? Her brother's previous words, "Father will be sad," were like the thunder outside the window, constantly shaking her eardrums. Tearing the little heart apart.

"Father, Father..." Anna murmured in distress, leaned on the table, then picked up the pen again, and wrote a famous quote from the Bible at the bottom of the diary. "My father is greater than I am."

But she remembered her mother's words, "Don't lose to a man." His father Alexios indeed loved him very much, but in his eyes, his daughter was always just a daughter after all. He loved her when she was not married, honored her husband after she got married, and could bring peace and security to the empire. This is the limit of being a woman - even Alexios cannot transcend this concept. What's more, her father didn't just love her, he also loved that hateful woman and that despicable brother. The power struggle in the palace was like a colosseum. No matter how gentle she is on the outside, she is always bleeding inside. Why can't she become the mistress of the empire? Moreover, it is not without precedent... When she was twelve years old, she was already able to manage an orphanage with a thousand people in an orderly manner. She was also familiar with ancient legal codes and manuscripts, and understood all kinds of laws and allusions. Her In what way is he worse than his vulgar and illiterate brother John? Just because the latter's crotch has more organs than hers? Or is it that my father’s thoughts are always based on the perspective of the surname Komnenos?

That doesn't seem to be surprising. My mother and I relied on the power of the Ducasse family.

"It would be nice if Damanzi was by my side at this time. Sure enough, I have no shame to face my father anymore. Sure enough..." Anna finally couldn't help but smile bitterly, thinking this.

In the hazy dream, Anna came to the colorful dome clouds again. She looked around in wonder, and sure enough, the strange and beautiful woman in black robes stood at the entrance of the palace in the distance again, "Anna. Komnenos, you will get the crown of the empire. No one in the world, including your father, can stop you, because the man you trust and love the most will put the crown on your noble head. above."

"I don't want to be an enemy of my father, and is the man you are talking about Gawain? Really?" Anna rushed over anxiously and asked the woman in black.

"There's no need to deceive yourself Anna, the human body is like a snake in the Garden of Eden. It is silent, but it can enter any of your areas and cannot get rid of it." The woman smiled, and then swam behind her shoulder. A giant snake with purple eyes and spitting out fire-like poison spiraled up the courtyard pillar and got into the lightning and thunder clouds above it. Soon Anna looked up in horror and saw the snake's huge black body. Shadow, in flash and clouds , hovering in it, "She is you, this snake is you, Anna. It may only be able to hide under the leaves of small fruit trees at first, but it will become stronger and bigger, and the human body is It's food and nutrients until you break out of the cage and soar into the sky. So Anna, use your sharp teeth to crush the enemies who dare to hinder you, and stand side by side with those who truly believe in love. This is nothing to be afraid of and ashamed of. ”

"Lord, save me." At this time, Anna could only kneel down and murmur a prayer.

"Go and accept your crown, but it is not here, but in a distant place of destiny. Its name is 'The Land of the Seven Ridges'." After saying that, the woman gradually disappeared into Anna's body amidst the thunder and fire. In the field of vision, she disappeared as if she had arrived.

"Land of Seven Hills, Land of Seven Hills..." Anna kept saying this as she woke up from her bed. The rain had stopped and the fire on the palace sundial was said to have been extinguished. The maid reported to her that Queen Irene's carriage was waiting for her between the palace gate and the archery path. But Anna got up with her hair disheveled and her eyes half open, thinking about the prophecy of "Land of Seven Hills". Then she laughed, "What? Isn't the great imperial capital just like Rome, the city of seven hills, with seven hills? Hills? I really don't know what nonsense that ghostly woman said in her dream. "So Anna was relieved and believed that she would succeed today. Patriarch Masdas loved her, and the subjects of the entire empire also liked to support her... Then, she sat in the huge three-sided mirror, and five skilled maids combed her gorgeous braids and put on a dress embroidered with golden icons. In front of the Grand Palace and the Cathedral today, she must be perfect.

When she sat in the sedan chair and came to the door of the Brachna Palace, Caesar's Isaurian Guards stood there, and the Varangian Guards who received the order from the Queen, the court regent Irene who was personally appointed by the Emperor before his departure, also accompanied him to protect him, "Let's go to the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom."

At this time, in the beautiful and elegant house on the edge of the Bull Square, in the damp and dark basement behind the garden, Peter sat there in the cast sunlight, and then a black shadow swallowed his sunlight. (To be continued ~^~)