Episode 10.3.b
>Villa of Salvius, Southwest of Londinium, Britannia, 81 CE<
While you are answering, Salvius's eyes go to the mark on your arm and widen.
"Why didn't you tell me you carry the signum?" he demands. "Are you playing with me?" He holds your gaze hard, searching it, and whatever he finds there, it is not guile. With a visible effort he masters himself and goes on.
"Good," he says. "Then I am ready to bring you into the Societas Potentium. Come to the lararium."
You might think of running. You would not get far: Salvius's guards are in earnest.
He takes his place before the lararium and raises his right hand, palm open, the old gesture of the ius iurandum. "You will swear by your Lares, and by the gods, and by the manes of your ancestors, the Recentii, who, though they are enemies to my blood, have never once been without honor. Say the words after me."
per Lares meos iuro, per deos, per manes maiorum meorum Recentiorum: signum quod gero Societati Potentium fide obligo.
He waits. The words are plain enough: the mark you carry, bound in faith to the Societas Potentium, with your own dead as witnesses.
Prompt: Swear the oath, or refuse. Weigh what swearing binds you to, and what refusing costs.
