Aurelia is a Courtesan, not an Assassin. Her world is turned upside down, however, when she kills a high-ranking Senator in self defense. Given his status, and the political power his family wields, Aurelia knows she will be executed without a trial...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Countdown: Fourteen hours, 4 deaths
Aurelia follows the senators into the vaulted hall, and keeps her eyes on Antonius as he takes his place at a large round table directly centered beneath the grand dome above.
She'd heard about the round table in Primary, of course; everyone has. At the founding of Glascoast, the round table had been crafted for the twenty-eight founding senators. The shape had been decided on based on a legend of the Ancients, where a King had chosen it to demonstrate that he was no more important than any of his men.
The senators all settle themselves around the table, sitting in similar groupings as they had in the lounge- the political lines, she assumes. At the center of the table is a truly daunting pile of proposals.
"What pile of shite did they send us this year?" Lucanus Maevrion booms, picking up one of the proposals from the stack at random. "Pass Bill 1498," he reads aloud in a high pitched, mocking voice. He immediately crumples up the paper and tosses it behind him. "Surprise, surprise," he grumbles.
"This one's not so bad- they're asking for better meals for the children in Primary school. It asks for soup, meat, fruit, and rice at every meal," another senator reads..
"Like our budget isn't tight enough with what we already spend on the schools," the Urbanis senator mutters. "Put it to the side, we can come back to that one."
"Another for Bill 1498," Laurentus Helborus reads, before mimicking Lucanus Maevrion and crumpling it up.
"This one too," another senator says.
"This one is suggesting that we all, and I quote, 'Fuck our mothers hard enough to knock the poles out of their saggy gilt asses,'" what appears to be Antonius Gemellus' friend- Eiton Taskerion- reads aloud. A few of the senators snicker. This one, too, is crumpled and tossed to the side.
"At least that one was creative," another senator says with a wince. "Here's another for 1498."
They make their way through the pile, and it is a slow, painful thing to watch. By the time that they have finished going through the first stack, all but five of the proposals have been crumpled up and cast to the side. The first insulting proposal had been mildly amusing, the second less so. Thirty in, and over two hundred demands to ratify Bill 1498, and the mood at the table has shifted entirely.
"They hate us," Lucanus Maevrion's friend says, burying his head in his hands. "They're going to turn."
"Oh, stop your whining," Lucanus Maevrion returns, but even he is beginning to look a little green around the gills. The enormity of the issue seems to be settling in for him, and many of the senators around him, at long last.
"We're looking at a repeat of Argryus," Camellia's cousin, Justicus Straemus, says.
"Except this time it'll be our heads on the chopping block," Aurelia's mark, Laerius Colonos, speaks up for the first time, a hard glint in his eye.
