The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 23

Ky woke up early once again. He’d spent the remainder of the day going over specifics with the legates who’d remained at the meeting. Ky found he liked Auspex who, unlike Eborius and Pius, had an open mind and was willing to consider the value of ideas before rejecting them. He actually seemed more flexible than Velius and Aelius, who were generally more traditional and whose decision to listen to Ky had more to do with the exercise during the battle than anything else.

As he had the last few days, Ky got up early enough to walk out in the plaza at the center of the governmental complex, taking in the fresh air before he was once again locked inside a musty room, trying to convince stubborn people to do what was in their best interest.

The irony of spending his whole life on a space station and now being disgruntled about the lack of fresh air wasn’t lost on Ky. Of course, the station he lived on had very effective air filtration systems, making every room comfortable. Ancient earth with its marble construction and tiny windows, required because of the lack of workable glass for protecting larger windows, meant that any indoor room ended up being stuffy. Of course, the lack of electric lighting also meant that burning candles or torches further muddied the air.

Lost in thought, he would have been surprised by the footsteps coming towards him if the AI hadn’t pinged him, letting him know someone was approaching. Ky’s annoyance at having his morning reprieve interrupted faded immediately when he saw his visitor was Lucilla.

“Hi,” he said, half standing.

“Sit, sit,” she said, sitting down next to him. “Father said you had more meetings this morning, so I thought I might find you out here.”

“I find it soothing, sitting out here before locking myself away in dark rooms for the remainder of the day.”

“I imagine.”

They both sat quietly for a few moments, Ky was unsure what else to say. While he enjoyed her company, he found himself sometimes at a loss for words with her, not wanting to say something that might make her not want to spend more time with him.

“You look tired,” she said, breaking the silence.

“I had a late night with the Legates, or at least those who stayed for the meeting.”

“I didn’t mean just now. When we met, one of the first things I noticed about you was how unstoppable you were. After the ambush, that first night, I almost felt like giving up, but it didn’t seem to get to you. Now, back here, safe in Devnum, you seem … I don’t know, somehow diminished.”

“I’m fine.”

“Please, don’t do that. Everyone needs someone to talk to. Saying your troubles out loud helps you take the weight of them off your shoulders. You told me you weren’t sent by the gods and you’re just a normal person. If that’s true, then you need someone to talk to more than anyone. My father’s put the weight of our entire Empire on your shoulders, hoping you’ll save us from what’s coming. The weight of that must be crushing.”

“It’s not, at least not really,” Ky said, and then sighed.

Back home they had mandatory psychological counseling for pilots, and he had Sara to talk to about his concerns and his troubles. He never put much into the idea that counseling was needed, but Lucilla was right. He did feel tired. If he was being honest with himself, that was probably why he took these moments before his day started. The air wasn’t the only oppressive thing in them.

He held up his hand to stop her chastising him again for being too stoic.

“What I mean is, I’m not bothered by the faith your father has in me. It might sound conceited, but I am the only person who’ll be able to pull Rome through this. I’m not saying that because I think I’m special or somehow better than the rest of you. Hell, the way these men fought during the battle, the way they faced those odds, sure that they were going to die, I’m not sure I could ever match that. What I mean is, thanks to where I was born, I have knowledge that just isn’t available to your people. If I was honest, I’d say yes, I am tired, because I’ve seen what Rome needs to do to survive, and I’m worried we’ll fall short of that.”

“How so?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try. I might not understand it, but I’ll listen to you tell me. Just saying it out loud could help.”

Ky sighed, looking at his Lictores. While he trusted his men, he still had to play his cards close to his chest. The people of this time were wildly superstitious and even his allies could take some of the things he might say wrong. Thankfully, once Lucilla sat down, they’d expanded their perimeter out, giving him the space to have a private conversation.

“There is just so much that has to be done. For all the difficulty people are having accepting the changes I’ve been proposing no one, besides maybe your father, can see what’s ahead. The changes to the military, removing slavery, the tax code, these are all just the beginning. We have so much that needs to be done before …”

“Before what?”

“Before what comes next. I know everyone’s focused on this army being readied to come for us in the spring. That’s the right thing to focus on of course, because if we don’t survive this, nothing else matters. Aside from your father and Ramirez, I’m not sure anyone thought about what comes after that. If we do manage to defeat this army, not a sure thing by any measure, what happens next? Do we really think the Carthaginians will just consolidate their losses and walk away? They’ll leave Britannica or just keep to themselves in Londinium?”

“Probably not.”

“Their empire is vast. They’ve conquered Germania. Africa. Persia. They’ve incorporated all of those peoples into their slave armies. The army we defeated at the battle, even though it outnumbered us greatly, was a drop of oil on the ocean. The army they’re preparing at Londinium is a minor force. Up until now, they’ve counted Rome as all but conquered. A non-entity. They’ve discounted our victory as a fluke or the failing of the expedition’s commander. What are they going to do once we defeat an even larger force?”

“They’ll decide Rome is a threat after all,” she said without hesitation.

That’s one of the things he liked about Lucilla. She might be from a backward society, but she was the farthest thing from stupid. She had a clever mind. Had she been born in his time, he was certain she would have gone far, almost certainly surpassing him in every way.

“Right. They’ll amass armies capable of covering the entirety of the isles. We’ve seen reports of the forces they used against the Persians, and know that was only a fraction of their strength. Every victory we have will bring larger forces down on us.”

“So it’s impossible?” She said, more baiting him than seeming to actually think that was true.

“No, at least I don’t think so. I think Rome has a chance, or I wouldn’t have thrown my future in with your people. For that to happen, though, Rome has to change. By the time Carthage gets serious about us, Rome needs to be almost to the industrial revolution level of technology.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that.”

Ky realized she probably meant that literally. Looking over what he’d just said, he realized there was no proper translation for what he’d said, making it come out in his native tongue, and not the current version of Latin.

“The growth of civilizations happens in a pattern. Not always identical, not always in the same time frames, but it still holds to the pattern. We start as hunter-gatherers, living in caves. We domesticate animals and begin farming. We form communities and develop iron, until they reach the level of society that Rome currently holds.”

“Other places are doing this? Don’t they just look at what we developed, like we looked at those inventions of the Greeks, and build upon that?”

“There are other areas of the world that have no interaction with Rome. You know this. You’ve seen some of the pottery and items traded from the far side of Persia or across the plains of Asia. They didn’t always have contact with the Persians, or those nomads in Asia before they became Persians. Eventually, they came into contact with Mediterranean civilizations, like the Greeks, or had that contact forced on them when Alexander marched east, but they were already civilizations at near the same level of development when Alexander met them.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“The thing is, this isn’t the end of the pattern. I’ve shown you how far beyond yours my civilization has developed. We weren’t granted some kind of special knowledge from the gods. We went through the same pattern of development as you, but we are much further ahead in that pattern.”

“How much further ahead?”

“I’m not sure I can explain it in a way that makes sense, and it doesn’t really matter. What matters is I have a target for where I think Rome must advance, in order to make up for the massive disparity in manpower between you and the Carthaginians. We haven’t even scratched the surface of it yet.”

“You think we can get there, change that much, we’ll have a chance?”

Ky sighed and looked down at his hands, clasped in his lap.

“Yes, but getting there’s the hard part. There are so many things that have to be changed, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of it yet. Right now everything we’re focusing on is directly related to the military like funding a larger army, getting more funding, or new weapons. Long run though, we’re going to have to go way beyond that and every aspect of Rome is going to have to change. Growing food, medicine, transportation, sharing information, hell, even how we get rid of waste. Each of those alone would be a daunting task with hundreds of moving parts, but together I’m struggling to see how we’ll get it done. I can only keep my eyes on so many things at once.”

Lucilla reached out and grasped Ky’s hand between hers, meeting his eyes as he looked up at her.

“Nothing you’ve done so far has convinced me that you are a normal person just like us than right now. It’s actually refreshing to see you’re just as dumb as we are.”

“What?” Ky said, confused.

Whatever he thought she was going to say, that wasn’t it.

“You’re overthinking this. You’ve got all these wonders you want to show us and the only thing you can think to do is hold our hands through each step, teaching us as a parent teaches their smallest child.”

“In a way, that’s what I have to do.”

“It isn’t. We may be backward and ignorant, but we aren’t stupid. Look at these people,” she said, pointing at figures walking here and there across the plaza. “We can be imaginative, driven, and inquisitive. Look at your men here. We can be loyal, tenacious, and dedicated. You don’t think you can work with those qualities? Break it into smaller parts. Teach us what we need to do to get to the immediate next step. Some people will fight you or only do exactly what you tell them to do but others will rise to the challenge. They’ll look beyond your base instructions and try to see the next step. Have them manage these next steps for you.”

“I don’t think you appreciate how complicated these changes can be.”

“I think you’re making it more complicated than it needs to be. Sure, the end goal might be complicated, but you can break it into smaller pieces. Have those who show they’re capable manage that step and when they get far enough, show them the next step. Some of these people will surprise you. They’ll figure that next step out for themselves, and all you’ll have to do is fine-tune their innovations. If you have as many areas to cover as you say, then you’ll be able to go from one team to another, managing through them, rather than trying to handle every step yourself.”

“She is correct, Commander. Delegation is the only way to achieve stated goals before Carthaginian forces are able to array themselves in full against the Romans. Example workflows include …”

“Thank you, I’ve got it,” Ky sub-vocalized. To Lucilla he said, “I guess you have a point. It’s hard to look past my own prejudices.”

“It’s heartening, knowing someone who is capable of so much has as much self-doubt as the rest of us.”

“You have no idea,” he said, laughing finally, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders. “Thank you. This has been very helpful.”

“I’m glad I could help. Like I said, everyone needs someone to talk to. One of the first things my father taught me about ruling was that no one can do it alone. Look at those he surrounds himself with. He’s chosen them carefully, to make sure he has people he can share some of the burdens with, people he could talk to when his perspective becomes jumbled.”

“It must have been hard to find the right people for that.”

“Father said that, before she died, he relied heavily on my mother. He had someone he could trust implicitly, share his worries and concerns with, and someone to talk out the things that were weighing on him. When she got sick, she made sure that he had people around him he could rely on in her place.”

“That sounds nice,” Ky said.

“You can talk to me, you know. I might not understand everything, but I will listen. Sometimes, just saying the words out loud might be enough.”

Ky thought back to how things were before, in what he was starting to think of as his old life. He’d had people to talk to then, to share his troubles with. People like Sara, who would hear him out without judging him. Of course, his troubles then paled in comparison to how things were now. He only had to worry about the success of test flights and his qualifications, not the future of a civilization. If he needed people then, he certainly needed someone now.

“That would be helpful. Thank you,” he said, standing. “I have to meet with the senators from the merchant guilds. Will you be around later?”

“I will be at the triumph of the victors this afternoon.”

“The what?”

“Father didn’t mention it? He said you’d be there.”

“Your father has a bad habit of not telling me things he expects me to do until the last moment. I think he feels he gave me too much time to dwell on your use of slaves in gladiatorial combat on the first day of the games, and thinks if he springs these surprises on me, I won’t have time to argue.”

“You’ll have to forgive him his manipulations. Considering the environment where he’s spent his entire life, it’s the only thing he’s ever known.”

“Maybe, but you might suggest he’d find me more useful as a partner than a pawn. Either way, let’s assume I’m going to be there.”

“Excellent, I’ll see you there,” she said, briefly grabbing his hand before walking back towards the palace.

Ky thought that, for a moment, he could still feel her touch as she walked away, and wondered at the situation.

“Sir,” one of his Lictores said, reminding him of the time.

“Right.”

He again met the Senators in the currently empty Forum. This time the gathering was much smaller. While these men controlled, or at least represented, the real money in Rome, they had less traditional power than their landed contemporaries.

“So he arrives,” Hortensius said.

While he wasn’t a Senator, he had deep ties in the merchant community and was the one Ky had asked to pull together this meeting.

“I’m sorry I was delayed.”

“Now that you’re here, we have much to discuss,” one of the men said.

“Ky, this is Kaeso Accoleius Prilidianus. He is the most senior of the gathered senators.”

“And the second richest man in Devnum, after dear Hortensius, although he’s too noble to admit it. We’ve been hearing rumors of new tax laws you intend to put before the Senator. As it is our interests that will bear the weight of these new laws, I would have thought you would have spoken to us first.”

“I spoke to the men who stand to lose the most under the new tax laws first, since they’d be the most likely to oppose it.”

“You think farmers have the most to lose?” one of the other assembled me said. “We’re the ones expected to pay these new levies?”

“True, but you will also have the most to gain by them.”

Several of the men started speaking at once but were silenced by Kaeso.

“Explain it to us,” Kaeso said.

“At the moment, the landowners wield most of the power in the Senate. Why? Some of it is tradition, this is true, but in reality, a lot of it is because they pay the lion’s share of the taxes into the Empire's treasury. If they become dissatisfied enough they could withhold some of their taxes, making things very difficult for the Empire. I thought you, of all men, would understand the power of controlling the purse strings. I understand not wanting to part with your hard-earned money, but it isn’t just to do a civic duty. It will help you build real power in the Senate, instead of being relegated to some secondary voting bloc.”

“And yet, we still have to pay for it.”

“Yes, but once I explain the specifics I think you’ll see you’ll be gaining more than you lose, not just because you’ll advance your own political party, but in more tangible ways. I’m assuming Hortensius has explained some of this already, or the Senate rumor mill has.”

“Some,” Kaeso said. “There’s talk of new designs. New ideas. Our concern is who gets to decide who gets these new designs. Who profits from them.”

“Anyone who is capable of doing the work the Empire needs will get them. Not just military contracts but municipal ones and ideas that don’t come with a governmental contract, but which will be lucrative and necessary to take the Empire to where it needs to go. There will be plenty to go around.”

“We were thinking perhaps we could recommend a committee that,” Kaeso started to say, before Ky cut him off.

“While I understand your desire to maintain some control over these new technologies, I can’t allow them to be hoarded and doled out to supporters and friends. I’m willing to work with you all to ensure you all have the opportunity to profit from these ideas, but Rome’s need is too great to allow any limits to be put on these ideas.”

Some of the gathered men seemed less than happy about that, but Kaeso seemed to be built more in Hortensius’ mold, seeing the benefit in the situation rather than trying to force them to the breaking point. Of the gathered men, he’d been listening the most intently, his eyes shrewd and calculating, despite his stoic expression.

“That sounds fair,” he said, speaking over his grumbling compatriots. “Tell us about some of these opportunities we’ll be receiving in exchange for our new taxes.”

Ky spent the next several hours walking the men through some of the technologies he’d be introducing. As with the other men he’d already worked with, they’d grasped some of it while the value of other parts required seeing to truly understand them. Ky didn’t tell them everything he’d be introducing, since much of it was premature and would either create the wrong types of anticipation or were out of their grasp.

A brief overview was enough for these men, however. They weren’t technicians. All they needed to know was if the new ideas would find a market. If they could see the potential buyers, that was enough for them.

By the time he was finished, Ky felt strongly that Hortensius would keep them together and he’d have their support on the new laws.

Ky was back in his rooms by early afternoon, sketching more diagrams and details he’d promised the foundries when he was interrupted by one of his Lictores pounding on his door. Unusually for them, they didn’t wait for Ky to respond before they opened his door.

“I’m sorry Consul, but the Emperor has asked you to come to the forum, urgently.”

“The forum?” Ky asked, looking past the soldier to one of the Emperor’s men who stood just over his shoulder.

“Silo showed up a few minutes ago with enough senators to create a quorum. They ignored the traditional period of notification for all the Senators to gather and called the body into order.”

“He doesn’t have enough for that on his own,” Ky said.

Since he began working on getting enough Senators to support his new laws, Ky had spent time making himself familiar with the specifics of the Roman legislative system.

“He has enough to open the Senate to debate,” Carus said, arriving at a run. “My contacts just reached out to me as well, and said we must get there.”

“Have we lost some of our bloc?” Ky asked, following the Emperor’s man towards the Forum.

“I don’t think so, but some of the men we’ve talked to have started to arrive. These debates are recorded by heralds who will announce them to the people afterward. Many of them are not strong enough in their seats to not take part. For many Romans, politics is the greatest form of public entertainment. The Senate heralds draw large crowds.”

“Do we have men we know are solidly behind us?”

“Yes. This all reads as a desperate move by Silo. He’s able to do the same counts as we have. He’ll have worked out he’s losing his majority. He’ll also know some of the men we’ve already counted will still have to be present for the debate. He may hope by calling a vote now while our bloc is not all in Devnum, he’ll manage to outmaneuver us.”

As they entered the outer chambers of the Forum, Ky stopped and faced Carus, “Can we get enough of our men here to vote down whatever he puts forward?”

“Maybe, but it’ll be close. The men from the northern districts are still at their mines, trying to get their workforces ready for the new orders you’ve promised.”

“There're no new orders till these laws are passed.”

“They know that, but they also know the way imperial contracts are structured, they must be ready to start when they accept them. None of them want to leave the initial orders to their competitors because they aren’t ready for them.”

“Shortsighted,” Ky said.

“Yes, but that is how these things work. It’s one of the reasons why we haven’t been able to move any faster. Except for the merchant guild senators and those senators without portfolio, we knew we’d have trouble getting everyone else together quickly enough.”

“Go. Get as many of the Senators who support us together and get them here now. I’ll see who we have here and if any of them are able to delay the proceedings as much as possible.”

“Yes, Consul,” Carus said, slapping his fist to his chest before dashing out of the Forum.

Ky walked onto the outer floor of the forums and heard the speaker in the center falter when they saw him. It was one of Silo’s men, although one Ky hadn’t heard identified yet. Ky knew that his place was on the open end of the Forum, casing the three-sided seats for the Senators, in one of the two consul chairs. They flanked the large chair meant for the Emperor at the center of the dais against the north wall of the Senate floor and resembled more a stool than an actual chair. From Ky’s reading, they were what was traditionally used before Rome had become an Empire, their simple design symbolizing a simple soldier’s camp chair.

Ky walked past the man, something he knew was a sign of disrespect for a Senator already giving a speech, and took his seat on the Consul's chair. There were two consuls’ chairs and Ky had selected the one that had originally been assigned to the senior-most Consul. Although that was probably the right choice considering he was the only Consul Rome had had in a long time, he also knew sitting there would send a message to the other Senators that he wasn’t just a tool of the Emperor, but understood the power his office had.

The other three sides of the room were for the Senators and held three levels of stone benches angling down towards the center of the Forum, looking at the speaker, allowing everyone to see the person in the center. Where the Senators sat depended on their relation to the Emperor and his government. Those who supported the Emperor sat on the stone benches to the right hand of the Emperor’s chair. Those who opposed him sat to the left, while those who chose to remain neutral and not openly oppose the Emperor sat in the center section, separating the two factions.

As voting blocs moved and shifted with the political winds, Senators would reposition themselves as they changed allegiances. The opposition benches were fairly full, with all three rows of benches occupied. Ky couldn’t help but notice the Senators in Silo’s faction weren’t the only people on that side. The generals who’d stormed out of the meeting the day before were present, talking with Silo's men.

As the man in the middle continued to opine about the poor council that the Emperor had been receiving and how that weakened Rome, Senators continued to file into the room. Most of the new arrivals went to the government’s side, men summoned by the Emperor, while a handful found seats in the middle undeclared section. Unfortunately, some of the new arrivals turned and joined the opposition men.

Taenaris, one of the Emperor’s strongest supporters, looked across the open center, past the speaking Senator to Ky, making brief eye contact before shaking his head, his mouth tight. Ky understood the message. They weren’t going to get enough men in place. Ky almost wanted to go to the man, tell him to take all their supporters out, before anything could be proposed, to try and deny Silo a quorum. There was, however, no guarantee that all of the assembled men would go, which would leave their vote even more lopsided.

“Thank you, Senator,” Silo said, stepping onto the floor and putting an arm around the speaking man. “We will all be thinking well on your wise words.”

Ky was almost certain there wasn’t a single man in the room who’d been paying enough attention to even explain the most basic outline of what the man had said, let alone enough to think on it for more than a few seconds.

“I see enough of my esteemed colleagues have arrived that we now have a quorum. While my heart rejoices at knowing so many of you are willing to do your duty on this short notice, it weighs heavy for the reason we’re all here.”

“You don’t have a heart, Silo,” one of the emperors’ men called out.

Ky hadn’t witnessed a vote in the Senate yet, but the description the Emperor and Carus had given him suggested they were much more raucous events than governmental meetings in Ky’s own time.

Silo, for his part, seemed inured to it, ignoring the man completely.

“Our Empire is under attack, from without and from within. Armies have assaulted this very city and we have lost more of our southern territory. Rome hangs on a precipice, and the Emperor, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that this is the time to hand the fate of our glorious Empire to a man who, by his own admission, has no experience in governance. While we all appreciate the victory our glorious Consul led us to, I am afraid he may have eaten more than his stomach could handle. While we should be readying our legions to defend ourselves from the onslaught that is coming, he has decided that now is the moment to change every aspect of our society. Traditions going back to the founding of the Republic are to be thrown out and new ideas put in their place.”

Silo lifted an arm to the legates standing off to one side of the room and said, “I’ve spoken with military leaders, men who have seen to the defense of Rome their entire lives. I’ve asked if perhaps I am just shortsighted. If maybe there is some genius here that I can’t see. I had hoped that, perhaps, this was some form of military thinking unknown to me, but sadly they have assured me it is not. They have agreed that this plan will be the death of the Empire if we let it go on. While I love my Emperor and will forever support his glorious family, I cannot stand aside now. There comes a time when the child must look to the parent as the parent once minded the child. I am afraid that time is now, so it is with love that I say NO. NO, we will not be taking the slaves out of our forges and off our farms. We will not allow our soldiers to lack for arms and our children wail from empty bellies because the hands that should have made the iron and plowed the fields were taken from us. NO, we will not be disbanding the conscript levies. The Empire’s strength lies with its people, who have banded together since the days of the Republic to defend our borders. We shall not strip ourselves of those defenders in our most desperate hour. NO, we will not be giving slaves swords and putting them at the backs of our brave warriors. The vanquished do not so easily give up their anger towards Rome and only an enemy of Rome would willingly aid them in rising up against their betters.”

“I am proposing a new law that forbids the freeing of slaves except by those given that right by tradition. No amount of money paid to their owners is enough to make up for their cost to Rome. This new law will, furthermore, mandate the enslavement of enemy soldiers unless they are traded for our own captured legionaries. I do not want another sesterce spent to feed and clothe the men now held in prison camps outside the city walls when they could be added to our workforce, enriching Rome and strengthening us for the battle to come.”

“Scribes are handing out copies of the new law that I am proposing now. I call for a vote in one hour.”

“Seconded,” one of Silos men said.

Rustling filled the room as the scribes began handing out the pages and men began to gather to discuss them.

“Commander, this legislation would make it impossible to implement any current plans. If passed, chances of Rome’s survival past this year drop to under one percent.”

“No kidding,” Ky sub-vocalized. “I’m just not sure what we can do about it.”

“You can veto the legislation.”

“I can?”

“Affirmative. However, the rule hasn’t been used in over a hundred years, mostly due to the lack of a sitting Consul. In one-fifteen BCE, after the fall of Locris, which resulted in the loss of all southern Italy to the Carthaginians, a series of reforms were put in place now commonly known as the Gracchi reforms, after the brothers who proposed them. These reforms aimed to correct the faults many contemporary Romans believed led to the defeat, including stricter penalties for governmental corruption and greater control of the legislature by the appointed Consuls. Part of these controls included the right of a Consul to veto any law proposed by the Senate prior to it being passed. While the Senate at the time was not able to halt these reforms they did manage to put in caveats, which included a requirement that the Consul had to be present in the assembly to exercise the veto.”

“That’s helpful, although it does limit me from traveling outside of Devnum if we don’t have enough Senators to vote down anything Silo proposes. He’s crafty. He may have missed this rule now, but he’ll only overlook it once. Next time he’ll wait until I’m not in a position to veto him before making another attempt.”

“As you say, Commander.”

Ky frowned. While he found the lack of response irritating, normally the AI had no response for rhetorical statements, even those made directly to it. While this wasn’t necessarily out of its programming, the change in pattern added to a growing list of concerning behavior from it.

“As is my right as Consul, I veto this legislation, and end all discussion of its provisions as being counter to the best interest of Rome.”

While he found the wording strange, Ky made sure to use the exact wording the AI had found in the scans of the texts he’d been studying. He didn’t trust Silo not to look for any loophole that might get him around this move.

“What?” Silo demanded, spinning to face Ky.

“I am sure if you consult the law books and the rights and privileges of the Consul’s office, you will find this among them.”

“Those rules have not been used in over a century!”

Ky was impressed. After only the briefest of hesitation, Silo had been able to identify the rule that Ky had referenced, despite it being so old. Ky was saddened, that the man had decided to oppose the government. He was clever, smart, and quick on his feet, exactly the kind of person Lucilla had meant when she suggested he delegate some of the responsibilities that currently weighed on him. Unfortunately, these traits came with an inability to accept change and a hatred for the Emperor.

“That may be true,” Ky responded. “But they are still law, nonetheless. These rights have never been revoked from the office of Consul, nor has the office itself been diminished, despite the century Rome spent without them. I have the right of veto, and I am exercising it.”

Silo glared for several moments, seeming to vacillate between fury and surprise. Then he bundled his toga around himself and stormed out of the Forum, followed by his supporters.

Ky slumped back, or as much as he could in a chair with no back. He’d managed to put off Silo this time, but he was certain this wasn’t the last he’d heard on the issue.