The cheer that comes from the gallery is enough to shake the foundations of the senate chamber.Rowan shakes the stones of it in turn, forcing them to silence.
“I hope you all know what you’ve done here today,” Rowan says, turning and stalking from the senate chamber.
Olivia steps forward.She looks ecstatic, barely able to contain her excitement at her victory.She looks my way and smiles cruelly, apparently enjoying my defeat almost as much as her win.
“My friends, my fellow senators, people of Aetheria, we will have the true games again!”There’s another roar from the public gallery, and Olivia seems to bask in that attention, even though it’s from common folk she normally wouldn’t care about.“And we will begin that return with a grand tournament!”
She has to pause again as the people cheer.It's more like she's speaking in the public forum or in front of the colosseum, rather than in the Senate.
“But I must beg your indulgence,” Olivia says.“Such a tournament will take time to put together.We’ll need to find gladiators who aren’t cowards to fight in it, pick out those prisoners who deserve their fates.We’ll need to rebuild parts of the colosseum to accommodate it.We want this to be the greatest spectacle the city has ever seen, and the preparations for that will take many days.In the meantime, the games will continue, and you’ll get a taste of the things to come.”
I've heard enough.I've lost.Selene and her allies have won, at least here in the Senate.They've corrupted it so completely they can do almost whatever they wish.I stand and walk from the chambers, not spending any time in the ante-chambers beyond.I stalk along the corridors of the palace, heading for Rowan's rooms.
I hear a thud as I reach them and worry fills me.Has something happened to him?I push the doors open quickly, rushing inside.Rowan’s there, and a section of the marble wall is cracked where he’s punched it.With anyone else, that would have broken their hand, but Rowan’s command over stone means he’s only grazed and reddened his knuckles.
“Do I need to get water so you can bathe your knuckles?”I ask.
Rowan turns to me, shaking his head.“I’ll be fine.”
“I’m glad one of us will be,” I reply.He looks as upset by this as I feel, anger and worry etched onto his features.
"How could we get here?"Rowan says."How could people vote for this kind of brutality?Has Selene really controlled the minds of that many of the Senate?"
I shake my head.I couldn't feel her powers at work there."I'm not sure it's about direct control.Selene's powerful, but to make puppets of that many of the Senate?No.But shecouldput small suggestions into the minds of some of the senators, and offer bribes to others.There are plenty of ways for her to corrupt people.And I guess someof them truly want this.”
“Like Marcus?”Rowan says.
I nod.A part of me hopes Selene has somehow gained control over him, but only because that’s easier to forgive than the alternative.
“I still don’t get how people can do this,” Rowan says.“I hate it.I hate that the colosseum is open at all.I hate that the only way to placate the people is to give them blood and violence.How did Selene gain this much control?”
“She was seen at the games,” I say, and Rowan looks at me sharply.
“Is that a rebuke, Lyra?”he asks.“You knowwhy I was never in the council box for the games.”
“I do,” I say.Rowan has never been able to bring himself to watch even the reformed games.After being forced to fight and kill in the colosseum, he refuses to lend any legitimacy to the games by showing up to them as the First Senator.He also thinks it will make him look too much like the emperor.“But becauseyouweren’t there, other people could grab all the attention.”
“Like you and Marcus,” Rowan points out.
He has a point.Marcus and I were the ones sitting in the council box.Marcus pushed us both forward in the public eye, partly because of his own ambitions and partly because it was a way to counter Selene’s efforts to gain popularity.Only it didn’t work, not when Marcus was always in favor of the games returning to their full “glory”.
“I don’t know why Marcus did this,” I say.“And all the ones who were kept away from the senate…”
“It wasn’t enough to make a difference,” Rowan says.“Once Marcus’ whole faction voted in favor, it wasn’t even close.Keeping people away must have been a contingency plan in case Marcus sided with you, or some of his people voted against him.”
“I can’t believe he’s done this,” I say, although the problem is that I can believe it, all too easily.“I… I don’t know what we’re going to do next.”
“Nor do I,” Rowan says.“All of this feels as though Selene is tightening a rachet, everything inching back towards the kind of empire she wants.”
It feels that way to me, too, and I feel helpless.Rowan brought me back to Aetheria to help stabilize the city, but I haven't been able to stop Selene, haven't been able to even play a meaningful part in the Senate.
I head back to my rooms, anger bubbling within me, but also just a sense of disappointment and helplessness.I feel as though the things I’ve been trying to do in the city have come to nothing, as if all my efforts have failed.
Marcus is waiting for me when I reach my rooms, standing outside the door and looking nervous.He clearly knows how I’m going to react to him voting in favor of the proposal.
“How could you do this?”I ask him.“How could you vote for a return to the full games?”
He takes me by the shoulders, looking me in the eyes.“Lyra, we’re senators.We have to do the things we believe are best for the city.”
