Reincarnated In Submission -

"Liar." His hand closed around a dagger. "The augurs warned me. A child of the Old Covenant. They said you would unmake me."

I watched him fall—watched the dagger clatter from his grip, watched his eyes go wide with the sudden, total understanding of every warlord before him. The Axis did not kill. It accepted. Every act of dominance over a willing vessel created a thread, invisible, unbreakable, tied from the conqueror's soul to the conquered's. And when enough threads gathered, they strangled.

Not mine. Hers.

It sounded like a paradox. It felt like a trap.

The first thing I remembered was the cold. reincarnated in submission

He did not connect these things to the small, obedient child who refilled his cup and never once looked him in the eye.

He raised the blade. And his heart seized. They said you would unmake me

And I began to wonder if submission—true submission, freely given—might finally be my way out, instead of my cage.