I'm not sure how I feel about sleeping here in this place.It certainly doesn't seem to be giving me good dreams.
Clothes have been left for me, a dress of expensive blue cloth edged with gold, and comfortable slippers.I didn't hear a servant enter the room, which is also worrying.Back in Ironhold, I wouldn't have slept through someone getting that close to me because it would have left me in danger.It seems that a year of living peacefully in Seatide has left me less focused on survival.Automatically, I reach out for the animals around me, getting a sense of everything that's happening in the palace through the eyes of birds and mice.
It means I see Rowan coming down the hall and open the door even as he reaches it.He's not dressed in his formal toga today, but he's still wearing clothes finer than any he would have back in Ironhold.His tunic is embroidered with silver, and he wears bracers of copper filigree, worked with the symbols of the Republic.
“I should have guessed that I wouldn’t be able to approach without you noticing,” Rowan said.“How did you sleep?”
I shake my head.“Not well.I don’t like being in the palace.”
“Just remember, it isn’t a palace anymore,” Rowan says.He looks me up and down with a smile.“You look good in that dress, Lyra.”
I raise an eyebrow.“Did you bring me all this way just so you could admire my appearance?I imagine the first senator has more than enough women throwing themselves at him.”
“A few,” Rowan admits.“Nobles wanting to link themselves to my office, merchants sending their daughters or people they’ve paid to try to gain influence over me.I’ve had offers of marriage for my sisters, as if they’re pawns in some game to be bartered for position and influence.”
He sounds troubled, and it’s obvious he hasn’t just brought me here because he thinks he can rekindle something with me.
“I’m still not sure what I’mdoinghere, Rowan.”
He sighs.“My hope is that you can help me to resolve some of the tangled politics of Aetheria.”
"Me?"I have a hard time believing that I can do much with politicians.My skills lie in fighting and in controlling beasts.
“Do you feel like taking a tour of the city?”Rowan says.“Maybe I can show you some more of what’s going on here.”
He looks at me expectantly, holding out his arm.I surprise myself by taking it, walking with him along the halls of the palace, and then out of it.A couple of guards start to fall into step behind us, but Rowan shakes his head.
"Something tells me that I'll be safe enough with the champion of the Colosseum," he says.It's enough to get the guards to leave us alone as we set off into the city."You have no idea how rarely I get to go anywhere without guards these days."
I can hear the tension in his voice, the regret.I wonder how much the role of the first senator is wearing on him.
We make our way through the noble district of Aetheria, which is looking almost as grand as it did in the days of the empire.Only one thing is different.
“There aren’t as many magical decorations,” I say.On the days of games or festivals, the city would be festooned with illusions depicting the gladiators who were to fight, or artistic works in tributes to different noble houses.There are still a few, here and there, but not the cascades of magic I’m used to.
“The nobles don’t want to show as much extravagance these days,” Rowan says.“But they’re also holding back because they’re worried about Aetheria’s magic.”
“What about it?”I say.
Rowan shrugs."Magic flows from the stones beneath the city.It gives people their gifts and talents.But in the old days, it was fueled by the games, and before that, by sacrifices in the temples."
The emperor himself told me that about Aetheria.It was part of why he insisted on bringing any magic users from outside the city back into it, why I was brought to it.The idea was that we would die in the games, our magic flowing back into the stones.
“You’re saying magic is running out here in Aetheria?”I say.
Rowan shakes his head quickly.“We have no reason to believe that.Maybe,maybefewer people will be born with strong magical gifts, but there’s no sign that magic itself is weakening.But that doesn’t matter.What matters is what people believe.What the nobles believe.”
We keep walking, heading out into one of the merchant districts, walking through a market which bustles with people.There are several empty stalls, though, impossible to miss.
“The merchants complain that the trade routes are more difficult now,” Rowan says.“What they mean is that they aren’t able to just go out into the empire and claim anything they want.We have to build new trade links, and thankfully some of the outer regions of the former empire are willing to work with us.”
I can tell from his tone that it isn’t as easy as that.We’re already making our way from the merchant district, though, heading into the slums beyond the walls.I can see furtive glances sent our way, and I can feel the prickle of unseen eyes on my back.
“Why haven’t you done something about the slums?”I ask.
"I'm trying," Rowan says."But it's only been a year and every time I suggest something there are arguments, people telling me we don't have the money, or it will create complications, or that we need to put resources in elsewhere.It doesn't help that the gangs who helped in the rebellion are still entrenched in the slums, and the Senate doesn't want to do anything that will help them.Well, those members who aren't connected with them."
The more time I spend back in the capital, the more of a sense I get of a complex web of competing interests, making it hard to get anything done.
