CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
We march from the colosseum with the crowd following behind us like a flood that fills Aetheria’s streets. Alaric is beside me now, and when he puts his arms around me to kiss me deeply, plenty of people with us cheer, as if it’s one more part of the entertainment of the games.
As we march, I see guards ahead, forming a line.
I can sense the tension of the people around me, and I try to calm them as best I can with my magic, but I’m exhausted now.
I used so much magic in my fight and in my attempts to calm the city that I'm not sure I could do more than call down a few birds if this came to a fight.
Thankfully, Alaric seems happy to deal with this for me. He strides forward, gesturing to me as me might to some performer in the theater he wants to highlight.
“Ah, gentlemen. Come to protect your empress?”
The guards hold firm. One of them, apparently their captain, steps forward. “This isn’t our-”
“Of course it is,” Alaric says, cutting him off before he can say anything that might escalate the situation. “The rules around the final contest in the arena were clear. Lyra Thornwind won. The senate was quite clear that the winner would become the ruler of Aetheria.”
The guard captain looks as if he might still command his men to take me into custody, but Rowan steps forward.
“Selene Ravenscroft is dead,” he says. “Now, you have a choice. You can either let us pass, or you can try to take on the full might of the people of Aetheria.”
He makes the cobblestones shake to punctuate his point, and that seems to be enough for the guard captain.
“Stand aside,” he tells his men. “The empress of Aetheria is coming through.”
I wince every time someone calls me the empress.
It feels as though Selene has won even as she loses, forcing me to be empress based on nothing more than my greater magical might.
She enacted the social order she wanted, even as she died.
I can imagine her laughing at me cruelly from beyond the grave, anticipating all the ways in which I’ll become just like every other emperor, given time.
For now, though, I’m carried along by the wave of ordinary citizens as we march to the palace. The guards on the gates step back to let us through, and we make our way to the senate chambers.
There are already plenty of senators there.
While some were in the colosseum, wanting to see Selene’s victory, others were clearly waiting for her return here, ready to swear their allegiance to her.
There’s even a throne set up where the seat of the First Senator used to be.
The senators look around frantically. Some of them look confused, too, as if they can’t remember where they are or what they’re doing.
Olivia clutches her skull as if experiencing the worst headache she’s ever had.
I guess that, now Selene’s dead, the lingering effects of her psychomancy are wearing off.
“What’s going on here?” Senator Octavio asks.
“A new beginning,” I say, walking over to the throne. I can see the others there staring at the golden circlet on my brow. I want to kick over the throne, but Rowan puts a restraining hand on my arm.
“You need to set things right,” he whispers to me.
I swallow back my dislike of the role that’s been forced onto me, but I know he has a point. I force myself to turn and sit regally, looking out over the senators.
“Hail Empress Lyra,” Octavio says, in the same formal tone he would probably have used to hail Selene’s victory, if she were the one sitting on the throne.
"Now," a senator says. "To our first order of business, the"
“No,” I say, and the senate falls silent.
“Empress?” the senator says.
I stand. “No. I won’t get sucked in like that. I’m not going to deal with things the way this corrupted senate wants. You wanted an empress? Well, that means I command and you listen.”
They seem shocked into silence. Except for Olivia.
“So, what’s it going to be, Lyra? The death of your enemies? Revenge on all those who supported Selene? Should I quietly take poison to avoid being thrown into some prison cell?”
I stare at her for several seconds. “I could do that. There are probably plenty of people out there who want that. And you’ve done plenty to deserve it, Olivia.
You sent assassins after Marcus. You tried to humiliate me and to sabotage me.
There are people in this room who’ve changed their votes based on bribes or threats, who profit from criminal gangs and the misery of others.
I could have you and everyone else who took part in those things dragged away until I decide which of you should die. ”
I look around, seeing which of them seems ashamed or afraid. Olivia looks both.
“But that’s not what I’m going to do,” I say.
“If I did, I would be every bit as bad as Selene was going to be. I know what it is to be thrown into the darkest pits of the city, and I won’t do that to anyone else.
Those prisons will be closed, the guards who did the worst things dismissed.
It will be just the first of many changes. ”
“What kind of changes?” Octavio asks. “The law-”
I shake my head. “The laws of the Republic were too indebted to those of the empire. We became just an imitation of it, reaching for the games to placate the people, always seeking to do things the old way. It's time for something new. This version of the senate is done. We will reconstitute it, building it based on the will of the people, not the factions of the city. Everyone here can go. In the morning, we’ll begin the work of rebuilding Aetheria.”
The senators look around in confusion, clearly not knowing whether they should try to argue or not.
“Go,” I say. “And be thankful I don’t hold you accountable for everything you’ve done.”
They start to hurry out. A part of me wonders if I could have Olivia arrested, since I'm sure she played her part in the attack on Marcus. But I don't. This is a time for rebuilding. Most of the people around us go as well, leaving just me, Alaric, and Rowan in the senate chamber.
"You're dismissing the senate?" Alaric asks in a worried tone.
“Just until we can produce a fairer version,” I say. I sigh. “There are so many things to do. Selene did a lot of harm.”
“Not just her,” Alaric points out. “The whole system is the problem.”
“And that’s why I put the crown on your head,” Rowan says. “We squandered our chance before. Now, we need to make sure that we truly change things. And if that means you ruling outright, then that’s just what’s necessary. It’s just a question of where you want to begin.”
I know immediately what I want to do first. There will be ambassadors watching my every move in the coming days, and there will be endless meetings as we try to find a way of ruling Aetheria that works for its people, but before all that, there’s one thing that cannot wait.
*
I stand in the middle of the colosseum in the morning sun.
It’s still filled with rubble, and Selene Ravenscroft’s body still hangs in place atop a spire of stone.
The building is empty now, because we’ve made sure it’s empty for what’s to come.
I’ve even driven out the animals within it, because far too many have already been hurt here for the entertainment of the crowds.
I’m alone, for now, here to do just one thing.
I take off the circlet of golden leaves, setting it down in the middle of the colosseum and walking away.
I’m still technically the empress until Rowan and I can come up with a better version of Aetheria’s constitution, but I’m determined that the rule of a single figure is not going to be the answer.
I walk out through this place that has seen so much death over the years. Selene’s body is the last. In that sense, her impaled form is a tribute to the fallen as much as to the failure of her schemes. There will need to be a more fitting tribute in time, but for now, I need to hurry.
I move through the empty spaces of the colosseum.
Without people, it’s merely a shell, a hollow thing that can neither help nor hurt anyone.
As I told the citizens just last night, they’re the part of Aetheria that matters the most. I can still feel the pulsing of the stones that amplify magic in the colosseum.
Good. That will make the next part easier.
I walk out onto the grand boulevard beyond the colosseum, lined with statues of those who've fought.
There are people waiting. Rowan is there, and Alaric, along with a group of men and women, the other two have found, ones whose magical talents will help with what we must do.
There must be at least a hundred of them.
There are more people watching beyond them, obviously having guessed that something is happening. Maybe a few have even gotten hints of what we’re going to do here.
“Will they be enough?” I ask Rowan.
He nods. “If we use our magic correctly.”
“And you’re ready?”
He nods again. “I think I’ve been hoping for this moment almost since the senate forced me to help with the rebuilding.”
I can still remember my first sight of Rowan as I returned to Aetheria, dressed in his senator’s toga and using his control over stone to help reconstruct the colosseum. Now, it’s time to do the opposite.
“Then let’s begin,” I say.
There isn’t much I can do to help with this part. I’ve already done what I can, summoning beetles to eat the wooden supports of the stadium, then sending them away. This part is for Rowan and the others.
I feel them starting to use their magic, each of them working in a different way.
Some conjure planes of force or summon wisp like constructs.
Some use telekinetic abilities to tear at beams, while Rowan just uses his control over stone.
The magic builds and builds between them, into something that demands the world change.
The colosseum collapses slowly, seeming to fold in on itself. It’s important that we destroy it that way, rather than blowing it up in a conflagration of power. It’s at the heart of the city, after all, and the destruction such an approach might wreak would be incalculable.
As it is, the noise and dust as the colosseum collapses is enough to make me feel blind and deaf, losing sight of the tumbling walls and the sections of building that drop one after another, stone pouring into the center of the arena to make a mound that’s still higher than all the buildings around us.
It feels like an age before the dust settles, and I can see the aftermath.
The colosseum isn’t there anymore. There’s rubble, so much rubble that I’m sure it will take weeks of digging to clear it all.
But there are no walls standing high over the city anymore, set with niches to hold statues.
There are no stands for people to sit in while they watch the fights. There’s no stadium at all.
It feels... strange, seeing that absence. So much of my life in the last couple of years has been spent around the colosseum that I can feel its loss like a physical wound, but it also feels like a relief.
Alaric steps forward now, spreading his hands wide as he calls on his illusions to show people what might be there, given time.
He depicts gardens filled with sculptures and monuments, places for people to meet, and crucially, for them to remember.
He only holds it for a few seconds, but even that is crucial.
This is a moment not just about the destruction of a cruel past, but about moving into a brighter future.
Now, we just have to work out how to get there.