Chapter 26: Vox Augusti
Sector 19 still carried the old name of England on some outdated maps, but no one used it anymore. The Roman Empire had redrawn the world long ago, and this place belonged to the nobility now.
Most of them lived here, in tall stone buildings with flags hanging from the balconies. Karisa walked the main street toward the monthly assembly hall.
God, I hate this place.
The air felt thick. She could smell the greed on the people around her. It was not a real smell, but she had learned to sense it anyway. How? Corruption sat in their smiles and in the way they nodded at each other, that’s how.
She passed groups of nobles. They carried family names tied to old gods, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva, but the bloodlines had thinned out generations ago.
The names were paper only. Karisa nodded when they nodded. She kept her face calm with a pleasant smile, but inside, she held onto one clear goal. She had come here to change things, and slowly, change everything.
While Ethan and the others pushed the revolution with weapons and raids, she would work through laws and votes. That was the plan they had agreed on before she left.
Ethan...
The memory of him surfaced without warning. His face in the low light of the last meeting. The way he had smiled when she said she could handle the nobility.
"I will do my best, Ethan. I will surely... go beyond, like you always do," she whispered.
She pushed the image of him down as the assembly hall rose ahead of her, a wide stone building with high windows and Roman guards at every door. Inside, the main chamber looked like an arena.
Rows of seats climbed the walls in a circle. At the center stood a raised platform. The heads of the major houses already sat in their places. Karisa found her seat among the middle-tier houses.
She had spoken to several of them in the days before. A few had agreed to support her proposal for a new labor protection law. It was small, but it was a start.
She had also taken a call the night before from Chief Barry and another voice she did not recognize. They had told her to watch the room carefully and wait for the right moment.
"The holy meeting of noble words may commence." The announcement came.
The meeting began with the usual reports. House leaders stood one by one and listed their monthly gains and losses.
Numbers of workers. Output from factories. Tax collections. Karisa listened and took notes. She waited for the open floor, when any noble could present a motion.
Then the air changed.
A pressure settled over the chamber, heavy and sudden. Conversations stopped. Heads turned. A figure in a dark hood walked down the central aisle toward the platform.
No one spoke. The guards did not move to stop the person. Karisa leaned toward the noble on her right, a man from House Apollo.
"Who is that?" she asked.
He looked at her with mild surprise. "You’re new. That’s the Vox Augusti. The Voice of the Emperor. Man or woman, no one knows. That mask never comes off, never, in fifty-plus years.
You’re lucky. He only shows up once every five years."
The figure reached the platform and stopped. Two hands rose and pushed the hood back. The mask underneath was smooth and pale. No eye holes.
Only a narrow opening for the mouth. Where the eyes should have been, the two-headed eagle of the Empire was carved deep into the surface.
Looking around, the Vox Augusti raised one hand, and the entire chamber fell silent at once.
The voice that came out was steady and without clear gender.
"The war of the Asian Peninsula is... won."
"What? This early?" a noble spoke. Some whispered as cheers broke out. Nobles stood and clapped.
Some shouted approval. Karisa clapped with them, but her hands moved slowly.
Clap!... clap!
The revolution had spent months moving weapons and gear to the Asian Retaliation Committee, but with this one announcement, it was clear, all of it was wasted.
The Vox Augusti raised its hand again. Silence returned.
"The Emperor is pleased with your investments. He has invoked the law to double all of your returns. So rejoice and revel in honor."
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
More cheers. Louder this time. Faces around Karisa lit up with open hunger. She kept her fake smile in place and clapped again. The greed in the room thickened even more; she could almost taste it.
The Voice continued, and with every word it spoke, new laws followed, one after another. Tax adjustments that favored large landholders.
Worker contract extensions that locked people into longer terms with fewer exit options. Trade rights expanded for noble houses only. Each law sounded clean and profitable when spoken aloud.
But...
Each one would crush the middle class and the lower ranks harder. Karisa watched the heads of houses nod and smile. No one objected. Not even a single one.
No one asked about the people who would carry the cost.
When the announcements ended, the Vox Augusti stepped down and left the chamber the same way it had entered. The regular meeting resumed, but the energy had shifted.
Nobles talked in excited clusters about the doubled returns and the new opportunities. Karisa stayed in her seat until the session closed.
Her proposal never reached the floor. There was no space left for it.
She left the hall and walked straight to the public washroom on the lower level. The door closed behind her, and she locked it.
"..."
Then she walked to the stone basin and slammed both fists down on the edge.
Bang!
The impact ran up her arms. She hit it again. Water splashed, but her breathing stayed hard and controlled.
The Emperor had indeed gone senile. That was the only explanation that fit. These laws would not strengthen the Empire. They would breed hatred. Disturbance. Suffering.
People already lived close to the edge. Push them further, and something would break. She stared at her reflection in the small mirror above the basin.
Her face looked calm, but the rest of her did not feel calm.
Her personal tablet chimed. Messages flooded in from the middle-tier and lesser houses she had spoken to earlier. The voting on the new laws had opened, mostly on the laws the Vox Augusti had spoken. They asked for her direction.
Yes or no.
Karisa started typing a clear refusal. Then a new message arrived, blocking her. It came from a secure channel she recognized. The sender sat at the center of the rebellion network.
The message held only two words.
Vote yes.
She stared at the screen for a clear ten seconds, then a full minute. Then rage rose fast. She tried the contact line for that same sender. No answer. She switched to Chief Barry’s line. He picked up on the third ring.
"Talk fast. I’m in the middle of something."
"The Voice just handed out laws that will tear the lower ranks apart," Karisa said. "Doubled returns for the nobles. Longer contracts. Closed trade. I was going to vote against all of it. Now I get an order to vote yes. From the center. What in the name of Hades is this?"
Barry’s voice stayed low. "...Vote yes."
"Huh? You too... That’s insane. These laws will create more hate, more unrest—"
"Exactly," Barry cut in. "This is not the simple game we played before. Follow the order. If the center wants the pressure to rise, then let it rise. Hate feeds recruitment. Hate brings the rebellion together.
Suffering opens doors. You are not there to protect the Empire’s balance. You are there to help break it when the time comes."
Karisa’s free hand tightened on the edge of the basin. "This is preposterous. We are supposed to fight for the people, not feed them into the grinder."
Barry’s tone hardened. "This is not a child’s game, Karisa. Follow the order. Vote yes. Do not contact the center again until they contact you. Clear?"
Silence...
"Are we clea—"
The line went dead.
Karisa stood still for a long moment. Her jaw locked. She tasted blood where she had bitten the inside of her lip. She opened the group channel to the lesser houses and typed a single word.
Yes.
She sent it. Then she looked at herself in the mirror again. The face looking back was the same one that had walked into Sector 19 with a plan. Now the plan felt twisted. She... felt twisted.