As silence fell in the room, Marcus walked round the carved green stone by the fire and found that it had an opening in its back. He squeezed through it to descend down winding stairs which led him to a cellar resembling the basement of his villa in Arpinum. Ahead of him was the mirror he had run through months before. Should he return home though the memory of his family being slaughtered by his father’s enemies was still painfully fresh on his mind?
Behind him were footsteps coming down the stairs. He hid behind the tall mirror. The voices he could hear were of two men. One said the experiment had failed and it was time to terminate the boy. The other said they should leave him alone and he would fade away anyway with no interest in him. The first one was unwavering in his determination to hunt the boy down so there would a definite end to it. The other one would not allow it and drew out his sword. Fighting broke out.
“Stop!” Marcus cried out. “I know you’re fighting about what to do with me. It’s clear there’s no place for me in this world of yours. For all I’ve tried, I’m no more than a ghost. And I’m tired of being a ghost, seeing so many cold eyes looking straight through me. I have been told that I must continue my journey, but it doesn’t have to be here. I will go and you will have the ending you need.”
The two men, swords by their sides, watched Marcus step across the threshold of the mirror. He disappeared back into his own world. Marcus Cicero grew up to be a vocal defender of the rule of law. Fearlessly, he opposed the dictatorship of Julius Caesar and denounced Mark Anthony for his ruthless ambitions undermining the wellbeing of the republic. He was to be betrayed by the young Augustus and murdered by Mark Anthony’s henchmen.
