“The city of Aetheria is a great city,” Selene says.“The greatest in the world, the source of all magic!”
She’s saying nothing the crowd won’t already know.
“Its greatness is founded on two principles: martial might and magical prowess,” Selene says.“And traditionally, there has been one place that embodies both.”
She points to the colosseum as she says it, and I can feel the way she’s pushing the crowd with her magic again, building their excitement.
I push back.Selene has the magic to influence people’s minds, but I can influence their emotions.I reach out, feeling the primal instincts of the crowd the way I might feel the fury of a wolf or the hunger of a bear.I try to counter Selene’s efforts to rile up the crowd, but that just means they’re calmer and more ready to listen.Maybe it’s more dangerous that they’re thoughtful and attentive, in the long run.
“Think of all the great warriors you’ve seen fight in the colosseum,” Selene says.“The champions who rose through it, slaying the foes put in front of them.They were sharpened by those experiences, the way a blade may be honed, ready for battle.Think of the great names from history.Aetheria built a glorious past, and that past can inform an equally glorious future.”
Selene hasn’t proposed the overthrow of the Republic, here.Perhaps she’s worried about inciting open treason in such a public place.But it’s obvious she wants to hark back to the glories of the empire with her audience, wants them to think about how much better things would be if only there were an empress in charge.
“The games gave people a chance to rise through the ranks of Aetheria,” Selene says, “rather than being stuck in the station they were born into.Those with enough skill with magic or a blade could rise to new positions.My own upbringing was far from wealthy, and yet I rose to be the arch-magistrate of the whole city.”
Of the empire, but Selene clearly doesn’t want people reminded too much of the worst aspects of it, the people she wound have condemned to torture or death.Instead, she’s selling them the dream of a city in which any of them might rise.Of course, I know sheactuallywants a place in which those with the most magic rule over all others, and nulls, those without magic at all, are little better than slaves.
I fight harder against her efforts to influence the crowd with her psychomancy.She wears a leather dampener on her left wrist, designed to limit her magical powers, but Selene tampered with that even before the fight in Ironhold, and I know she has the skill to remove it any time she wishes.
I must be careful as I push back against Selene’s magic.We’re working in two different ways, so our powers aren’t interacting directly, and I don’t know what the effects will be when I’m pushing someone’s emotions in one direction even as she forces their mind in another.
“The games did more than that, though,” Selene said.“They let us deal with some of our most heinous criminals, rather than having to lock them away forever.They gave us a space in which to be proud of being Aetherian.Today, the Republicclaimsthe same territories the empire held, but does it really control any of them?Aetheria used to bepowerful.”
I find myself wondering why the resistance aren’t here.Alaric’s people make a point of breaking up speeches that praise Selene, trying to target her attempts to gain influence in the city.Don’t they dare to try it, here in the forum, with so many guards around?
Selene comes to the climax of her speech."Thankfully, I have friends in the Senate who agree with me.Don't I, Senator Lyra?"
She smiles my way, but all that means is that she’s good at masking her hatred.The crowd parts slightly, so that we stand before one another with clear space between.It would be so easy to throw myself at Selene across that space, to try to kill her, matching whatever powers I can draw from nearby animals against her magic.
I can’t just cut someone down in broad daylight because I don’t like their arguments, though.Besides, I’m not sure I’d win.Not here, not like this.
“Icertainly don’t agree with you,” I say.“All you want is a return to the empire and its cruelty, Selene.”
She laughs, pointedly."Hardly.I merely wish our city to be the best possible version of itself.I want to take the best elements from the past and use them to make this city stronger.Which is why my friends in the Senate are going to say that the time has come for a return to thetruegames!No more foolish ‘exhibition bouts’.Men and women will fight with blood and death as the stakes.Criminals will die on the sands as they should.It will be a true spectacle.Is that what you all want?”
The crowd roars back its support with such vehemence I wonder if I’ve failed to contain Selene’s mind control after all.But no, the answer is simpler than that: she’s telling them what they want to hear.Her words are enough, without the additional push of magic.
“And Lyra,” Selene says.“Shouldn’t you be back in the senate chamber?I wouldn’t want you to miss the vote.”
I realize to my horror that this is a trap.Selene's speech in the forum is designed to influence the people and gain support for her proposal, but it's also designed to lure me and others opposed to her out of the palace to listen.If I don't hurry, Selene's supporters will be able to sneak through an emergency vote in the Senate without anyone there to stop it.
I curse to myself and start to sprint back towards the palace.
CHAPTER THREE
I race through the streets of the city, dodging past people as I go.I’m still looking through the eyes of the birds above, and that’s why I see the men moving in on me from either direction.One of them tries to tackle me and I dodge to one side, letting him fall flat on his face.
The other moves in front of me, a club in his hands.
“Give me your money,” he snarls, but I don’t believe he really cares about it.What are the odds that a robber would just happen to target me now, as I’m trying to make my way back to the palace?And on a busy street?No, this is clearly a tactic designed to stop me from getting back in time.He’s only said it so people will remember it, and assume this is just a random attack.
Selene must know these men can’t stop me.This isn’t an assassination attempt, certainly not a serious one.But that doesn’t make it any less dangerous.All the two of them need to do is slow me down for a little while and I won’t be there to argue against Selene’s proposal.
I can’t allow that to happen, so I charge straight at the one with the club.He swings it at me and I duck, avoiding the blow, even as I kick backwards to catch the first attacker in the stomach as he comes at me from behind.I slam the heel of my palm into the jaw of the club wielder, stunning him briefly, but I don’t have time to keep going with this fight.I could spend the next couple of minutes incapacitating these men, then more waiting for the guards, but that only plays into Selene’s hands.
I keep running instead, leaping over a cart without slowing down and continuing to head up towards the palace.There’s a crowd of people ahead of me now, shouting in support of Selene’s proposal.
“Bring back the games!Bring back the games!”
