CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The guards put me in Rowan’s office, shutting the doors behind me and standing there outside, clearly deciding there’s no way I can escape.
The trouble is, they’re right. Rowan might have had me put in a room like this because he thinks I can slip out of a window and make a run for it, but the dampener around my wrist and the fetters I wear make climbing essentially impossible.
I can’t fight my way out, and even trying to would be as good as an admission of guilt.
I wonder if Alaric is planning some kind of last minute escape.
I go to the window, looking for any sign of him.
It’s possible he might have colluded with Rowan to help me, but I can’t see any signs of people approaching.
There are guards throughout the palace gardens, clearly prepared for any infiltration by the resistance.
Maybe Selene is hoping the resistance will make an attempt, so she can capture more of them.
Alaric’s escape from the prison must have been a blow to her.
It's just about the only thing that hasn’t gone Selene’s way in this.
She’s manipulated everyone in the city, building her fame as a gladiator, then setting herself up as an authority figure.
She has foreign representatives meeting with her, senators doing what she wants, other cities looking to her for leadership. Now, she’s the one conducting my trial.
I look out beyond the palace gardens to the colosseum at the heart of the city.
Rebuilding work is happening all around it, trying to extend it and make it more impressive, ready to hold Selene's grand tournament.
Everything I've heard from her suggests that will be the moment when she announces herself as a ruler, and if I haven't done enough to convince the Senate here, I won't be in any position to stop her.
At best, I’ll be thrown back into the prison, trapped and reduced to a powerless prisoner.
At worst… Selene said she didn’t want to kill me, but it would be so easy for her to change her mind.
She might have me impaled on the edges of the city, or on the walls of Ironhold.
She might have me dragged through the streets to be vilified, before being publicly executed.
Can anyone stand against her now? Alaric is out there somewhere, with the rest of the resistance.
They’ve been able to achieve small victories, but it doesn’t feel like enough.
Rowan… officially, he has the most power of anyone in Aetheria, but he has deliberately limited his office as First Senator to stop anyone from using it to make themselves emperor.
He can’t just order Selene killed, and I’m not sure if anyone would listen now if he did.
I look through his papers while I wait, greedy for any information about the city. A part of me hopes he might have left me something here that might help me escape my captivity. What I find instead only makes my heart sink more.
There are reports on his desk showing that Arboria and our other neighbors have issued proclamations, recognizing Selene’s authority within Aetheria.
It should be damning evidence of her treachery towards the Republic, but she has enough control here that I doubt Rowan can do anything with it.
Maybe Rowan left the papers as an explanation of why he isn’t able to do more to save me.
I don’t blame him. I understand how impossible his position is, even as I wish he were some kind of benevolent emperor right now, able to order my freedom and Selene's incarceration without having to work with the Senate.
Marcus is a different matter. He could have spoken up for me.
He should have at least tried to save me.
Instead, he was complicit in finding fabricated evidence to condemn me.
He didn’t make any attempt to say that it was fake, just went along with Selene’s plans.
As always, Marcus seems to be doing whatever is most expedient for himself.
I was a prisoner, a slave, the first time I came to Aetheria.
I was brought to the city in chains and forced to fight for my life in the colosseum.
Even then, I felt freer and more in control of my fate than I do now.
At least then, I could ensure my survival through my own skill with a spear or trident.
I was a pawn in someone else’s game many times, but at least it was a game, and I had a chance to play it against those who would control me.
The emperor was a deadly enemy, but Selene feels deadlier.
She has robbed me of any way to fight against her, is seeking to remove me from the field of play completely by seeing me locked away in the deepest prison Aetheria possesses.
She plans to make me into a spectator while she takes full power within the city.
What will she do then, with me, and with the Republic?
When it comes to Aetheria, the answers seem clear: she’s already spoken about her vision for a renewed empire, ruled by those with the most magic.
The grand tournament will just be the start of that vision.
Soon, there will be laws allowing her soldiers to kidnap people to fight in the games again, or making it obligatory for nulls to serve those with power.
With me, will she just keep me in a cell? Will she see me tormented until I beg for death? Or will she quietly kill me when the time is right? I don’t know, and not knowing terrifies me.
A knock comes at the door, and I jump as much as my chains allow me. I wasn't expecting anyone to knock. I'm a prisoner, after all, not a guest. The guards open the doors; obviously Rowan has told them to be polite.
“The senate has rendered its judgement,” one of them says. “It’s time.”
Time for me to learn whether the Senate has seen through Selene's lies, or will condemn me as a traitor.
It's too late for me to run, too late to fight.
All I can do is return to the Senate chamber and hope the verdict goes my way.
It's just that, as the guards march me back, hope is hard to come by.