Or maybe he does, and has learned, as with so many aspects of the city, that the office of the First Senator doesn’t give him as much power as he thinks.Rowan spent so much time designing the Republic in ways that meant the First Senator would find it difficult to become an emperor in all but name, but those restrictions mean there’s often little he can do when the situation is dire.
"You're lucky," another of the guards says as he cuts me down."There's so much more we could do to you if we were permitted."
I don't want to think about all the things these guards, these men, could do to me that would be worse than the beatings they already administer when they remember, or the diet of gruel and bread that keeps me half-starved.I've seen the torture chambers in this place, a hangover from the days of Emperor Tiberius.They want everything I know about the resistance, but so far, they're not prepared to go further than a few beatings to try to find it out.
I’m determined to hold back what I know for as long as I can.I hope Alaric and the others will have changed all their safehouses and signals, but I want to give them the best chance possible to stay free.
The guards kick me until I find my feet, then drag me back to my cell, along corridors lit by magically glowing globes.Most of those magical orbs have additional sigils worked into them to turn them into traps that can shoot fire or lightning, acid or cold.The guards have runestones in their belts that mean the traps won’t trigger when they’re near, but if I were to run past without one, I would quickly die.
A part of me wonders if I could get a runestone from them, but there’s a magical dampener around my wrist when I’m outside my cell, reducing what I can do.The guards are cautious, making it hard to see how I might ever escape.
I'm determined to come through this, though.Determined to find a way out.That determination is the only way not to give in to despair, in a prison like this.Once that determination passes, I'll be no better than some of those who beg for death in the night, pleading for the guards to simply kill them and be done.
At least, I assume they do it in the night.There’s no sense of passing time so far below ground, no light other than the artificial glow of the magical stones.I have no way of knowing for sure how long I’ve been here, although I guess it’s been weeks now since my trial.Weeks of hoping someone can save me, either through legal pressure on the senate or mounting another raid on the prison.
It takes me several seconds to realize the guards aren’t taking me back to my cell.Instead, they take me to a room where there’s an iron bracket set into the floor, with a single chair a little way from it.
Selene Ravenscroft, the former arch-magistrate of Aetheria, is sitting waiting for me on that chair.She sits with perfect poise and comfort, apparently unbothered by being in the middle of Emperor Tiberius' prison.Her jet black hair has been elegantly bound up by servants, away from features of sharp-edged beauty.She wears a dress that mixes the white and gold of the Republic with the purple of the old empire, in a clear statement of the direction she wants to take the city in.Her left shoulder is bare, revealing a circular brand with four lines across it, symbolizing the seasons she's survived in the arena.I have the same brand on my own shoulder, the five lines on it symbolizing that I won enough times to earn my freedom there.
Selene is the only one freehere, though.Just her being here is a display of power, an indication that she can come and go as she pleases.Her violet eyes look me over as the guards throw me down in front of her, then fasten my chains to the bracket in the floor so that I’m forced to stay on my knees before her.She dismisses the guards, and the speed with which they go says a lot about the authority she wields here.
“Hello, Lyra,” she says in a sweet tone that feels laced with poison.“How are you enjoying your time as a prisoner of the Republic?”
I glare up at her, unable to keep the hatred off my face.I killed the last person who hurt me as much as Selene had hurt me.The mother of a gladiator I killed in the arena paid to systematically torture me in one of the rooms of Ironhold, the fortress where gladiators were kept outside the city.She hoped to break me, then threatened everyone I cared about.
I sent rats to devour her on her way back to her villa, but I don’t have that option here.The dampener means I can’t feel the presence of any of the animals around me.
“I wonder what you’d do if you didn’t have that dampener or those chains,” Selene says.
“Take them off me and find out,” I suggest.
Selene smiles wider, then sends a flicker of power into me that makes agony burst through my mind.This is psychomancy, the power to influence the thoughts of others, and Selene is using it to produce pure pain.It’s enough that I have to bite my lip to keep from screaming.
“I wonder what it will take for you to learn your place,” Selene says.“Beast whisperers have always been little better than animals in a lot of ways: too wild to fit in with Aetheria’s laws, too easily prey to their instincts.But beasts can be tamed, given the right incentives.”
“Did you come here to offer me a place by your side again?”I ask.Previously, she has suggested that I join her.Selene wants to create a version of Aetheria in which those with the strongest magic rule over those without, and she can’t deny that my magic is almost as powerful as hers.
Selene laughs.“I think we both know you can’t be trusted to work with me.You still don’t see the things that are needed to make Aetheria all it should be.”
"Like the games," I shoot back.The gladiatorial games in the colosseum were at the heart of the empire.I made sure that the Republic didn't allow such fights to the death, implementing safety measures, forcing the bouts to be only exhibition matches.I might as well have fought against the rising tide.Too many people spent their time trying to circumvent my protections or holding bouts to the death elsewhere.
Including Marcus.
Selene nods.“The games are a crucial part of the city.They give those with the right magical talents a chance to rise, and allow us to punish our enemies publicly.Marcus Larius has proven very helpful in bringing them back to their former glory.”
The idea of Marcus helping Selene that closely makes me feel sick.
“I’m told you aren’t telling the guards everything you know,” Selene says.
“Guards you’ve bribed,” I reply, with anger in my voice.
She sighs.“Obviously.But I wanted to tell you it doesn’t matter.You won’t tell us details about the resistance?We can get them another way.They’re still going to be crushed.”
“You’re underestimating Alaric,” I insist.
“Andyou’reunderestimating the difficulty of your situation.I'm going to leave in a moment," Selene says."And I want you to think about how much worse things could be for you, Lyra.For the moment, you're protected from the worst that happens here because I command it.I want you to think about what would happen if I let the guards pass you from one of their beds to the next, or if I commanded you to be blinded, maimed, or simply executed.Every moment you live in this place, I want you to remember that it isn't the mercy of your friends in the senate that keeps you alive.It's simply that I want you here this way.And maybe soon, that will change."
There’s a threat in her words that chills me to the bone.Selene has gained substantial influence in the city by this point.She’s used psychomancy to influence some people’s minds directly, but others she’s bought with bribes, convinced with favors, or simply threatened.She’s built up popular support through her fights in the colosseum, and has gained influence with the gangs in the slums.Selene is getting closer and closer to the point where she’ll simply be able to proclaim herself empress, or perhaps to a point where she won’t even need to.It won’t matter what she calls herself if the city runs according to her whims anyway.
