Stella of Akrotiri: Deminon

Eternal love can last a thousand lifetimes when you’re an Immortal... or so they thought.

What’s become of the Immortal, Darius? His one and only wife, Stella, worries about his fate as she rules over the city-state of Deminon they founded centuries ago. She hasn’t seen Darius since he agreed to command a Roman legion against Hannibal. A fellow Immortal claims the former strategus of the Minoan armies was the victim of treachery and enslaved as a traitor to Rome, forced to fight gladiators as part of the funeral rites of powerful Romans. Undefeated, Darius inexplicably gives up his immortality—and his life—when he meets a younger, stronger gladiator in the arena.

Sure he is about to suffer a defeat at the hands of an untested Immortal, Darius does what he has to in order to preserve his Essence. With nearly two-thousand years of memories and experience leading men in battle, his Essence should be powerful enough to overcome that of the younger Immortal. Will it be enough, though, so that he can return to his Stella? To his life as King of Deminon? To see to the destruction of a former friend and Immortal whose deceit led to his arrest on charges of treason? To take revenge on the one who arranged his defeat in the arena? Or will his Essence slowly be subsumed, the memories of his nearly two-thousand-year lifespan—and of Stella—fading away in the mind of another?

When once these two Immortals had all the time in the world, time is suddenly of the Essence.