Marcus is a simple farmer who only wishes for an easier
life. The crops have not been doing well lately and finances are getting tight.
With a child on the way and a suffering wife, Marcus’s thoughts are constantly
on his shrinking pile of gold and silver coins. Just as he begins to despair
that his unborn child will have to begin life without worldly comforts, hope
arrives in the form of Pontius Severus, a wealthy senator. In exchange for
Pontius Severus’s sponsorship, Marcus agrees to run errands for the senator
whenever summoned.
Everything seems to go well at first. His days are busy –
juggling the farm and all of the senator’s errands exhaust Marcus but he knows
that being busy is better than being without occupation. After a while, Marcus
realizes he is genuinely happy and hopeful for the first time in a long time.
With money saved up and improving climate conditions, he is able to relax and
not worry himself thin over finances or the farm, and ends up ecstatically welcoming
a son into his now comfortably established home. It seems that things are
looking up for the simple farmer.
This all changes when one day, Pontius summons Marcus and
instructs him to commit an act so insidious that even the gods shudder in
witnessing it. Though he tries to fight against Pontius Severus, Marcus knows
he is no match for the senator in a fight – physically or mentally. Heavily
burdened, Marcus does what he is told and then attempts to exonerate his deed.
But unbeknownst to Marcus, his crime is only the beginning of Pontius’s master
plan. Without realizing it, Marcus had taken the first step down a path from
which there is no escape but death.
