I miss the next session of the Senate, knowing that it's my best chance.A dangerous chance, one that risks Alaric's life.Because IknowDomitian will use my absence to push for Alaric’s execution.I have to hope that Rowan will stand firm against that pressure, at least for now.
In any case, as much as I want to be there, fighting for Alaric, I know that it won't do any good.The rest of the Senate aren't listening to me now.They won't hold back just because I ask it.They'll see me as compromised, as too linked to Alaric to be objective about him.At worst, they might decide I need to be punished alongside him.
My only hope to help him is to show what Domitian is doing, and the best way to dothatis to find the proof Alaric thinks must exist.Which means that, while the others are heading to the senate chamber, I creep through the palace, making my way to Domitian’s rooms.The doors aren’t locked, because the doors in the palace never are.They’re left open so servants can come in to clean, or deliver messages, or perform other duties.
I slip into his rooms, looking around quickly, trying to judge where Domitian might keep anything connecting him to Selene Ravenscroft.The rooms are opulent, with a wine jug left next to a gilded table, niches adorned with statues connected to the arena.I guess Domitian had them brought here.One door deeper in the suiteislocked, and that catches my interest.
What’s so important that Domitian is locking it away?I guess that if he has anything incriminating, it will be in there, not out in the open.
How am I going to get in?My skills lie in controlling animals, in violence, in the healing tricks my mother taught me that have nothing to do with magic.None of them will help here.I don’t know how to pick a lock, and while Icouldsteal strength from one of the animals in the gardens beyond the palace, maybe enough to break the door open, that would be far too obvious.I can’t afford for Domitian to realize that I’ve been in his quarters.
I move to one of the windows of his room, looking out in the direction of the locked room.There’s another window there, closed with a shutter, but I guess the shutter isn’t locked.I can see the palace gardens below me, spread out in formal patterns, dominated by a menagerie that houses all the creatures the emperor collected from around the empire in a tribute to its reach and power.
It's a long way down.A fall from this height could kill me, and if one of the guards protecting the palace looks up at the wrong moment, then what I’m about to do could see me arrested and accused of being a traitor.
But I still need to do this.With Alaric’s life in the balance, I can’t be afraid of a little risk.I will do whatever it takes now to help him.
So I climb from the window, borrowing whatever grace and agility I can from the animals in the menagerie, trying to make my way over to the window of the adjoining room.I climb across, inch by inch, clinging to the side of the palace with all the strength I can muster.Even then, my foot slips, and for a moment, all my weight is dangling from my hands.My legs kick and scramble, trying to find secure footholds.I think about what it would be like to fall, to feel the impact with the ground, my bones breaking, leaving me helpless and in agony even if I survive.
Then my feet find a grip again, and I continue my way over to the window.The shutters are latched from the inside, but I manage to slip a knife in between the shutters, lifting that latch slowly and carefully.I let the shutters swing open, climbing through the window into the room beyond.
It’s an office, with papers spread out across a table of dark wood, inlaid with small tiles.There are piles of ledgers and letters, everything kept neatly, everything orderly.
I start to look through them.There are documents relating to the games, detailing purchases and bets, gifts and what I assume are bribes.There are notes on different potential fighters, detailing strengths and weaknesses.I see notes on Sorrel, crossed out, with a note on them reading simply "traitor."As quickly as that, Domitian has written him off.
There are messages from different guards, and from what I assume are spies, because they detail fragments of conversations between different nobles.Some talk about my movements.There are messages from servants detailing the day to day lives of different people in the palace, myself included.No doubt these spies are part of the reason Domitian has been able to send guards after me whenever I’ve met with Alaric, although in a city filled with magic, it’s possible there might be other ways for him to know things.
All of these documents suggest a web of corruption through Aetheria, with Domitian at its center, but they aren’t the incriminating piece of information I need.They aren’t proof of a connection to Selene Ravenscroft.
But there’s a box on the desk, locked just as the door is.Is it possible there’s something even more private in there?Something that might finally give me what I need?I can’t pick the lock, just as I couldn’t with the door, so maybe this is the moment when I need to employ more violent means.If I find proof, it doesn’t matter if Domitian knows I was here.
I pick the box up, trying to work out the best way to break into it.It’s solid looking, made from metal thick enough that I won’t simply be able to break the lock by stamping on it or smashing it against a wall.I need more strength than I have, than any human has.
But I can get that strength.I start to reach out for the animals of the menagerie, for the strength of a gorilla kept in a cage.I feel my muscles swell with that strength, enough strength that I might be able to break open the box at last.
Even as I pull that strength into myself, I hear something that makes my heart speed almost to bursting.I hear someone coming into the rooms beyond.
"Fools," Domitian snarls."Even now they won't give me deaths in the Colosseum?How much more do they want before they'll do it?We'll have to move things forward.They'll never give me what I want otherwise."
I hear his footsteps on the floor outside and the sound of a key inserted into a lock.Too late, I realize that Domitian is at the door to his office, and that he will be in here in only moments.When that happens, it will be too late for me to do anything.Domitian will have me right where he wants me, caught in the middle of a criminal act.It will be proof for the Senate that I'm complicit in whatever schemes he ascribes to Alaric.It will see me imprisoned alongside him.
I need to do something, and I must do itnow.
I can’t stand and fight Domitian.Maybe I’ll win, but even if I do, that will only make things worse for me.I need a way out of here, but there’s no time.I need a distraction, something to stall him.
In desperation, I reach out for the mind of one of the peacocks that wander the gardens, sending it into flight, sending it towards Domitian’s rooms.It flies in through the window, tail flared, wings beating.I need it to cause the maximum amount of chaos.
“Damn it!”Domitian snarls, and I see him spin towards the peacock through its eyes.“Out of here.Out, you stupid thing!”
He starts towards it, and I leave the peacock's mind.I've bought myself only seconds, and I have to make the most of them if I'm to survive this.I abandon the metal lock box, knowing that I can't leave any sign of something amiss, especially not after sending the peacock into the rooms.Domitian will already suspect my role in its presence.If there's anything out of place, he will never believe it's just a coincidence.
So I head for the window without it, holding the strength of the gorilla within me.That, and its knack for climbing.I don’t climb across this time, but down, scrambling to ground level, hoping against hope that the guards won’t spot me as I do so.
I reach the ground and see Domitian at the window.I press myself flat against the wall, hoping against hope that he doesn’t see me.I hold my breath, waiting for him to pull back.He flings the peacock from the window, then heads back inside.
Only now do I dare to breathe a sigh of relief, but it's far from complete, and let what I took from the gorilla fade from me.I didn't find what I was looking for, didn't find the proof of what Domitian is doing.I need to find another way to do this, another way to bring him down.
There’s only one other thing I can think of to do.I need to confront Marcus.
