ICHaFBI 24

------
=I, Corvus; How a Fool became Imperator of the O'Reillys - Chapter XXVI -=
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
----
----<Character & Faction Directory of I, Corvus>----
----
===Political Wrangling===
Imperial Anteroom, Senate Building
City of Nova Roma, Latium District - Gaul Continent
Alphard IV, Corvid Principate
18th June, 3036
----
The Imperial family, such as it was, sat awaiting the return of the senate. The past week had been taken up entirely by swearing in the new senators, almost a hundred in total. Zielinski and his bloc had tried to fight every single one of them, but there were clear precedents for all of them established in Bill S-1, and it was only a matter of time before all the Imperator got his way. That time had passed, and the new senate, with all one hundred and fifty eight senators, would meet today for the first time.
 
Their entourage was absent. Senators weren't welcome here, for the sake of appearances. Maximus Phallus, Gurdeep Vulcan, and Josephina O'Leary had all joined the ranks of the senatorial class. Gnasher and Xiahou were elsewhere, ensuring their safety.
 
Livia tapped her feet against the marble floor. The chairs were all too high, built for men like Marius and Harcourt. She fidgeted with the purple trim of her palla. It was far from her first time here. The senate had been a second home since her ascension as Consul. She could feel the gazes of the old, experienced, distinguished men and women whenever she was in their presence. She thought back to father's words. He'd always called her a natural leader. Leading children her own age paled in comparison to herding people who'd served in the senate for longer than she'd been alive. For some, Corvus was the fifth Imperator they had served, and she suspected that most expected to survive through a sixth or seventh.
 
She glanced over at his cousin and was relieved to find the same uncertainty. The Roman style hadn't penetrated Lothian society yet and as High Mistress of the League, Lucia had taken to wearing more practical clothing. Now, in her palla and stola, she looked like the awkward girl Livian remembered.
 
Corvus however, was an island of stability. There was a book in his hands, as always. It amazed her how and where he was able to read. She closed her eyes and repeated her mantra. Her hands kept fidgeting, against her will. The urges in her mind, so long suppressed, still found their way through sometimes. At least it wasn't her face; fidgeting was normal, if not quite polite, but if the urges spread to face, the way they had for her uncle….
 
The thought made it worse. She busied herself with fixing her stole. It was perfect already, Agrippina had seen to that, but it served to keep her hands from wandering. She closed her eyes while she fiddled and repeated her mantra to at least calm her on the inside.
 
Mercifully, the senatorial page came not long after. The senate was assembled. It would not do for a senator to arrive after the Imperator. Somehow, that had evolved into the Imperator waiting upon the chamber's pleasure, although even Zielinski knew not to push too far.
 
Corvus offered a hand to each of his "daughters" and the three strode into the senate chamber hand in hand. The senate offered the expected applause, although the senators standing at the back and in the rows of stairs between seats cheered with far more vigor than the others. She noted the need for the building itself to be remodeled and filed it away for later.
 
As planned, she scanned the assembled dignitaries for any sign of wavering. She found none. Lucia and Corvus would be doing the same as they approached the senate floor, as would their agents amongst the senators. She caught Lucia eye. Her "sister" gave a smile, which Livia returned. Both melted away as Corvus' hands tightened over theirs. She looked up, and followed Corvus' gaze to the Niopian senators.
 
He knelt down next to Livia and made a pretense to fix a spot of her makeup, as if she were a child. She felt a twinge of anger at the implications, but accepted it as necessary, since it gave Corvus the chance to speak softly to her, before the senators closed in. "The delegation from Niops. I c-c-can see it in their f-faces. I don't know what's wrong. Girls, I need you to s-sort it out."
 
Livia nodded and put on the greatest facade of confidence she could muster as she headed towards the Niopians, hand in hand with Lucia. It was do or die. They had planned for a margin of five votes. Not a strong majority, but enough that one, even two whole planets could defect and still pass the bill. Yet Niops was home to three worlds. Losing all six of their votes would be devastating.
 
She and Lucia split up, each targeting a senator they had thought to be a personal friend of Corvus. "Dr. Freedman! It's an honour to finally meet you, my uncle has told me many times about the intellectual discussions you and he shared while he was your guest. I can't describe how pleased I am to get the chance to share in them."
 
"The pleasure is all mine Consul. You honor me by even deigning to recognize my existence among such illustrious company!" The older man lacked the poker face of the more experienced senators. While he bowed and said all the right words, she could feel now what Corvus has noticed.
 
She cut to the chase. "I hope we can count on your support for Bill S-53. Corvus considered Niops to be his crowning achievement and your people his most loyal supporters."
 
"I...well….we of course, are his most loyal supporters. But uh, we have to be loyal to our people. I'm sorry, Consul, I cannot support the bill."
 
"Niops doesn't have any slaves. How could your people possibly be harmed by its abolition?"
 
"Well, it's not the abolition itself, Consul. It is, uh, well the rest of the bill you see."
 
It all clicked into place. Bill S-53 wasn't really a single bill, but an omnibus reform of the whole of Marian society into the Imperator's ideal of what Corvidae society should be like. The abolition, Lucia's social programs to help slaves from becoming a de facto underclass, her own economic reforms that would break up patrician control of the economy. Niops wasn't a de jure slave society, but it was a de facto slave society. The omnibus bill would crush the Niops Associations' fake "meritocracy" as surely as it would crush the plantations and sweatshops of the Marian core worlds.
 
She made her excuses and left, grabbing Lucia on the way. "There's no way to turn them. We need someone else to defect." She whispered.
 
"Who? We vetted everyone, there's no way." Lucia whispered back.
 
"I don't know, but we have to try. Find someone. Your mom was a Humphreys, right? Are you sure we can't do anything there?"
 
Lucia shook her head. "Positive. Isadore Humphreys would disown anyone who voted against it. He's so cut off from the real world he thinks his slaves worship the ground he walks on."
 
The panic was getting to Livia. Her hands began to paw at her sides. She could see the panic in Lucia's eyes and she looked around the room for allies. Evidently, it was obvious to Aleksandr Zielinski too. He caught the man glancing at the two of them before rolling forward to open the session.
 
He held up a hand to call the chamber to order. "Senators, let us waste no more time with debate. I move for closure and a vote on the issue of Bill S-53, an omnibus bill to end the institution that has kept our nation prosperous for more than a century."
 
The old guard cheered, while the new senators booed and hurled abuse at the Senator Qui Praeest.
 
One amongst the old guard didn't cheer or boo. She bolted across the crowded senate floor and up the steps towards the senior senator from Horatius, propriety be damned. She knelt down next to his desk. "Senator Humphreys, please, I beg you listen to me."
 
Senator Gordon Humphreys, who served as governor of Horatius by senatorial authority raised his eyebrows, and nothing else.
 
In the background, she could hear Zielinski recording the second for his motion. It was now or never.
She continued. "Senator, whatever it takes, vote for the bill. We both know it's wrong, for our future, and for our people,"
 
"On one condition." He strung out his answer, exaggerating his Horatian accent to take extra time to say each syllable.
 
"Whatever it is, it's yours."
 
"If I vote for this, I lose the support of my family. I have a daughter, your age, Lydia. She'll be an outcast."
 
"I know, we used to play together in the gardens. She'll be protected, supported, whatever you need."
 
She heard Zielinski's voice calling for all in favor. Men and women began to rise to be counted. Tradition demanded, mercifully, that Zielinski begin counting on the far side of the room.
 
Humphreys leered over her. "I want you. As my wife. My daughter, you'll adopt. If the Humphreys won't have us, then the O'Reillys will."
 
She balled her hands into fists to keep the urges, and her anger, under control. She could feel the blood where her nails dug into the flesh of her palms. She fought the urge to scream no. She thought of Agrippina. The things she'd been through were a hundred times worse. That, magnified across the millions of slaves throughout the Principate. Maybe, this sacrifice could begin to atone for the harm inflicted in her family's name, in her name.
 
"Yes. I'll do it." She choked out.
 
Gordon Humphreys rose instantly. Zielinski froze when he saw, but just for a moment. He slowed down though, he knew he was finished. The vote ended 79 for, and 79 against. The Imperator exercised his right to break ties. With that, a hundred million people had their lives restored to them.
 
An enormous cheer rose from Corvus' senators. Zielinski rolled out of the room in disgust, with half the senators from the Marian core worlds leaving with him,
 
Humphreys helped her to her feet. "I hope you can handle what's coming."
 
"We can." She responded, unsure if he meant their union or the inevitable counter-coup. Either way, she was prepared to meet it head on.
----
===The Exchange of Daughters===
Imperial Palace
Nova Roma, Gaul Continent
Alphard IV, Latium District
Corvid Principate
Livia stared up at her uncle as he berated her from his garden perch. He'd assembled a sort of secondary throne room in the gardens, overlooking the field where they used to play as children. It was empty now, the children shooed away by their parents
 
He wagged a finger as he talked, his brows furrowed into the closest he could come to a stern look. "I will n-not allow this, Livia. I c-cannot allow these farces to continue. They were the death of your mother and everything she loved, and very nearly of me at your brother's hand. You know how I f-f-feel about this, and that my word was f-final."
 
"I do! And you're not sticking to your own words! You said you wouldn't allow us to be forced into a political marriage. I am choosing this! It had to be done. It's a small price to pay for a transformation that will free millions, and say countless lives."
 
"It was not your choice to m-make. I am your father and Princeps, and what I s-s-say-" Clovis said.
 
She used the pause as Corvus tried to tic through his words to interrupt. It was the lowest move she could think of, but she would have to hate herself for it later. "My marriage is not my choice to make? What makes you better than the rest then, huh? My body, my future are not my own? I choose this. Are you going to deny me my choice?"
 
He sputtered over his words. She let him choke on them for a while. She slipped her hands inside her clothes to hide her own tics. She said a silent prayer in thanks for the multiple layers of loose fabric that were a hallmark of Roman fashion.
 
Lucia clicked her teeth and pointed her head towards the gate. Two figures, almost certainly Gordon Humphreys and his daughter were making their way through the vine-covered entrance.
 
Gordon was in the same senatorial robes as before, but his daughter was a striking woman. She was bigger than anyone else there, but not in the absurd muscular sense as the Algenibi women she'd known. Her military uniform was immaculate, and accentuated his features. She'd inherited her father's red hair and freckles, but not his pasty white skin. She oozed confidence as she made her way to the ruling triumvirate. Both bowed before them.
 
Livia heard a quick gasp from Lucia as the woman drew near. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her cousin blush.
 
Corvus gestured for them to rise, but did not offer them seats even though they were everywhere in the garden. "Senator Gordon Humphreys, Legatus Lydia Humphreys, welcome back to my gardens. I believe it has been a long time since the Legatus has frolicked in these g-gardens, has it not?"
 
"Ten years. Which is ten years too long." The officer replied.
 
Corvus leaned in to look at her more closely, before remembering who he was and gesturing for her to come closer. "Tell me now, how d-does one rise to the rank of Legatus by the age of twenty?"
 
Her voice remained as confident and professional as before, but Livia detected a slight shift in her posture that spoke volumes on what she thought of the question, and the questioner. "By graduating summa cum laude from the Collegium Bellorum Imperial into the meat grinder at Bolan. Ten years in simulators and live training."
 
Corvus rested his hand in one hand, looking her up and down. "And that is the sort of woman who is to be m-my newest daughter, hmm?"
 
Humphreys stepped in front of his daughter. "No, Princeps, she would be Livia's."
 
"My Livia is a formidable woman, senator, b-b-but I doubt she could control a soldier two years her senior, even with your help. N-n-no, Lydia may join our family, but as my adopted daughter. But you, you will not. We will give you wh-whatever you desire, but you will not marry my L-l-livia"
 
Livia balled her fists in anger, aggravating the scars she'd given herself in the senate chambers.
 
"Let me get this straight then: you're taking my daughter away from me, but you're not willing to give me yours?"
 
Something in Livia snapped. "We are not your fucking playthings! The both of you are as disgusting as the Zielinskis! We are not yours to give, and we are not yours to cloister away either!"
 
Corvus was dumbstruck, opened mouthed on his throne.
 
The Humphreys though, they laughed. Gordon only a little, but Lydia bent over with a full bellied laugh. The rage in Livia's mind continued to build. She stalked towards them.
 
Gordon looked like he wanted to speak, but Lydia put a hand on his chest and stepped shear of him, again and said. "No, you shut the fuck up Dad, or she's gonna rip your head off." She turned to Livia. "Don't worry, 'mom', if my dad actually wanted to touch someone your age I'd have broken both his thumbs by now."
Gordon pushed his daughter's hand away and looked Corvus in the eye. "Princeps, I don't want to marry Livia. I wanted to see how far you and she were willing to go to do what needed to be done. My family, they're content to sit back on their estates, with slave labour keeping them fat and lazy. No ambition, no contribution, no curiosity so long as they're fed and pampered properly. But on Horatius? I've built a real world, a rich world, with a booming economy that is on the cusp of something great, if we can just move beyond the insanity of a slaver economy, my planet could be as wealthy as Suetonius in a decade, or as wealthy as Alphard in five. Those short-sighted idiots will abandon us, already have most likely, their anger is probably bouncing their way along the HPG network as we speak. I can handle myself, but my daughter? I want better for her. I will have her a part of your family, and on my terms. If you adopt her, then she's on equal terms with your former nieces here, and we all know how both triumvirates ended. But if Livia or Lucia adopt her? Well, then that's an entirely different matter."
 
Livia shuddered at that thought. Said like that, it sounded even more insidious. Being next in line after her just gave Lydia incentive to murder them in a different order. Yet it was worth the risk. She turned back to Corvus,
 
The Princeps remained lost in thought, mumbling to himself as he worked through it all. Finally he motioned to the servants to bring chairs forward for them. "If you are to become family, then let us t-talk as equals. Is this all you would ask for, that Lydia be adopted into the family?"
 
"Oh, I would appreciate a little more. I've served my full term as governor of Horatius, but the planet means a lot to me. I would like to spread that knowledge to the rest of the Samnium District. I want it all. Imperium over the whole District. I'm probably one of the only senators who actually read all of Bill S-1; I know there are provisions for a level of regional government at the district level, like Sato governs over the Circinus District. I want that over Samnium.
 
It all clicked in Livia's head now. The Samnium District contained Islington, the stronghold of the Marian Humphreys, as well as almost all of their estates and business ventures.
 
Corvus seemed to get it too, as she caught a glimmer of light in his eye. "I am amenable to your demands, so long as Livia is willing to accept your daughter as her own, and she is willing to accept Livia."
 
Livia nodded. These new additions to the game were strange to her, so she gave them as little as possible to work with.
 
Lydia laughed as she stuck out her hand towards Livia. "Well, it's good to meet you, mom!" Lucia laughed along with her.
 
They stayed there together as day turned to evening and evening to night, getting to know one another. The others all seemed to relax. Livia couldn't. There was more going on here, much more, and she was determined to find it.
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
ICHaFBI 24