Microstory 1198: Sevastian

< > Table of Contents

Along with his brother, Octavian, Sevastian was a legionnaire in the Roman Kingdom Army in the time before Jesus of Nazareth. The exact year of either of their births isn’t known, but they didn’t spend a whole lot of time there before a man named Darrow took them from their lives, and brought them to the future. They became known as chosen ones, which was a relatively rare type of time traveler that could be controlled by the choosing ones, rather than the powers that be, who had control over salmon. Back in his day, killing was a common occurrence. Murder wasn’t really a thing back then. That didn’t mean there weren’t consequences for killing the wrong person, but there was such a thing as the wrong person, whereas in modern day, murder refers to any killing outside of war, self-defense, accidental death, or perhaps execution. He wasn’t a particularly violent person, but since he was raised to fight for his people, it all seemed very natural, so when he was asked to be part of a small team of time traveling assassins, it didn’t occur to him to have moral objections to the idea. He still needed convincing, as he had no personal quarrel with the people that Darrow was asking him and his brother to kill. Once he accepted that this was his life now, though, he fully committed himself to the cause, and it turned him savage. Since assassinating people was all they were doing, it quickly consumed his entire being, leaving no room for empathy, compassion, or self-restraint. Had Darrow been less focused on the job, he might have thought to give them some healthy outlets, like a good sports competition, or a relaxing vacation on the beach. But instead, they went from one job to the next, disappearing so quickly that no one had any hope of understanding what happened, let alone catching them. Unlike Octavian, Sevastian did attempt to retain some level of civility, but he was no match for the slow deterioration of his own soul. Despite the fact that he was told he would never die, Sevastian was finally killed when he and his brother attempted to go after two people with almost no experience. They only beat him because they were protected by the powers, and the brothers should not have even tried.