Ravens of Eternity

469 Patriarchal Folly

Azrael was in deep thought as she pondered what was going on with Freya, even as the three of them walked towards the Forum Romanum at the center of the Eternal City. She just couldn’t place what was happening to her friend.

Although she was far from a psychological or psychiatric expert, what Freya and Lucifer told her reminded her a bit about extreme trauma. Many people, on experiencing something so deeply violent or emotionally terrifying often subconsciously pushed away their own memories in an attempt to avoid reliving those moments.

Usually to the point of self destruction.

Basically, it reminded her of post traumatic stress. Except in Freya’s case, she wasn’t physically or mentally hampered by that stress. As in, she showed zero signs of extreme anxiety or negative emotional reactions.

She glanced over at the pair as they walked, and noted just how joyful Freya was. In fact, she was gleefully teasing Lucifer with a huge grin on her face. If she was suffering from full-blown PTSD, she would likely have been more withdrawn, sullen, and maybe even irritable or hostile.

But she was the opposite of all those things.

It seemed like Freya was suffering through some kind of weird upside-down version of traumatic stress. After all, the only thing that seemed to plague Freya were those odd flashbacks of a life that never happened.

What made it all the worse was that no-one existed who could possibly help.

As she had noted before, there wasn’t any such thing as a therapist or psychoanalyst or anyone of that nature. It would take more than a thousand years before someone would even think about the possibility of such an ailment, much less a professional response to it.

.....

Azrael silently cursed herself for not knowing enough.

“The two of you oughta consider staying at the capital for a while,” she said after a while. “So I can keep a closer eye on what’s happening with you.”

“Maybe,” Freya quickly refuted. “Luci and I are kinda married to the whole ‘exploring the empire’ thing.”

Although Lucifer nodded subtly, ze was already beginning to agree with Azrael deep down. To hir, seeing everything the empire had to offer was nowhere near keeping Freya safe and sound. It wasn’t even close.

“Well, just think about it, alright?” said Azrael. “Couldn’t hurt to hang around here for a few months, anyway. Could be good for you, you know?”

It wasn’t long before they made it over to the Fourm Romanum, which was almost exactly in between Palatine Hill and the Imperial Fora. While the Fora was where regular citizens of the empire met and debated what was going on in the empire, the Forum was where the Senate actually made those decisions.

Well, with the approval of the emperor, of course.

Although the Forum Romanum itself was a series of buildings, the trio was mostly interested in only one – the Curia Julia. The curia was a rectangular building separated into three conjoined parts – a thin and somewhat tall vestibule on the left, a pillared courtyard in the middle, and a square-ish building on the right.

There was a crowd of regular citizens of the empire gathered in small groups around the curia, though none dared to enter. All they needed to do was get close enough to hear the senate debate with each other – sometimes their arguments were so loud that they echoed out the doors and down the streets.

While there were numerous large bronze doors that led into the curia, all were guarded by heavily armed and armored praetorians. They ensured that no-one other than the Senators or the Emperor could go in. Their stoic, dominating gazes were more than enough to keep the plebes at bay.

All of them stood at attention just outside those massive bronze doors, especially around the right-most section of the curia. It was there that many of the senators were currently in session.

Although that section of the building only had a single story, its ceiling was incredibly high. It was, perhaps, a physical show of what kind of power coursed through the building itself. As a result, it was incredibly spacious inside, and the senators themselves seemed small in comparison.

All 300 of the senators were in comfortable seats lined along theater-style stone steps along the two longer walls. In the middle was the speaker’s area, where one of the senators was posted. And on the far wall opposite the entryway was a small dais where the emperor normally sat.

Only this time, he wasn’t there and the seat atop the dais was empty. Despite that, it was still flanked by a praetorian and an imperial advisor.

The senator speaking in the center of the room looked at both sides of the curia as he spoke. His voice boomed thanks to his oratorical skills, and also the amplifying nature of the building itself. It echoed all around, and traveled outside, where many in the gathered crowds could hear.

“And those are the pointed facts regarding the Imperial Treasury,” he said, somewhere in the middle of his speech. “Not only is the empire running out of denarii, but the value of the denarius is plummeting. Remember, this time last year, it cost thirty-three denarii to exchange for one aureus. Today, that number is now forty-seven.

“When we first introduced the coin, the exchange rate was locked at twenty-five to one. Locked! We simply cannot allow this trend to continue. If our currency falls, so does the empire.”

There was a mild uproar at the speaker’s statements, and a vocal few made their opinions known loudly.

“Stop with your melodrama!”

“The empire, fall? You’ve been taken by madness!”

Despite the protestations, there were deep concerns about their money, and numerous senators murmured with each other.

“Stop pretending to be surprised!” the speaker cried out. “We all know this has been happening – we see it everywhere. The prices of goods and services across the empire – not just in the capital – is rising tremendously.

“Our citizens are spending more for their fish and bread than ever before, and their discontent is rising. You can feel it when you walk the streets – it’s practically palpable!

“So I don’t wish to hear more of your scattered ramblings about hyperbolic speech. I want to hear solutions to our problems. If we don’t tamp these down now, it will destroy us. Mark my words, fellow senators!”

There was another wave of murmurs that spread across them, before one of the senators stood up and gave his opinion on the matter.

“The solution is simple,” he began. “We increase taxes. Especially those at the furthest provinces within the empire itself. It only makes sense to do so – it costs us more to bring their goods to the city, and even more to send them back as refined goods.”

He was quickly refuted by another senator across the hall from him, who stood up and challenged his argument. His face was bright red, clearly angry with the foolishness he was hearing.

“That’s no solution!” said the opposing senator. “We’ve already increased the provincial tax burden twice in the past five years. Doing so a third time would only cause mass rebellion! With our silver already spread thin, how would we even begin to pay the legionnaires to stamp that out?

“I recommend you think twice next time before you speak, junior senator!”

The opposing senator quickly sat down in a huff, as handfuls of others applauded his rebuttal.

“He’s correct,” added the speaker. “In fact, even without the threat of rebellion, we’re going to soon find it difficult to pay all of our legions, everywhere. If we cannot do something as critical as that, then we might as well invite the Gaulish and Germanic barbarians in through the gates ourselves. No, taxation cannot be a solution.

“And before anyone else says it – we cannot dilute our silver any further. If we do that, we will only cause a further devaluation. Our economy would fall even faster. Think about such an action – flooding our markets with more coins but the same amount of silver would do nothing but shrink the denarius.”

“We could pause some of our infrastructure projects,” said yet another senator. “Or limit public privileges and entitlements. We don’t need games running every month of the year…”

The senator was quickly met with loud boos and jeers from all the other senators, including the speaker. Although he tried his best to complete his argument, the rest simply shut him down through sheer volume.

“You can’t ruin our roads!”

“That’s the empire’s lifeblood, you oaf!”

“Can you conceive of not having nightwatchmen? Ludicrous!”

“We obviously will not be doing any such thing!” shouted the speaker.

His voice echoed all around and caused the booing senators to eventually quiet down.

“Only fools would consider slowing down maintenance of the empire itself,” he continued. “So let that option be completely stricken from the record as well.

“Along with our military. There will be no diminishing their pay. Our military might and our access to the edges of the empire is what makes us strong. Weakening either of those pillars would only cause it all to collapse!”

“We can enact price controls,” uttered one of the other senators. “Perhaps for a minimum of ten years. If we aggressively control how much currency is being spent, then we could ostensibly control the denarius’ downward spiral.”

There was a general murmur of agreement from many of the senators all around. They found this idea the best, at least among all the rest.

“We could use this time to reconsolidate the silver back into the treasury, and gradually increase the value of our coinage,” said the speaker. “Now this could be an idea of true merit.”

The senate’s spirits began to rise as they believed that they had found a solution to all of their problems. Some began to believe that it was their only true hope.

But their too-early celebrations were cut short when a powerful feminine voice shot through the air.

“You’re all fools,” said Claire.

She stood up among the other senators, the only woman amidst a field of wrinkled old men with gray hair. Her voice was stern and uncompromising and incredibly disarming, especially for the patriarchs right next to her.

“Hoarding wealth has been the root of this problem in the first place,” she continued. “The elite in this city have held on to so much aurea that all other currencies have no choice but to fall.”

“I take direct offense to that!” cried one of the senators. “Holding gold doesn’t cause silver to fall!”

“You should take shame in it!” Claire retorted. “How many socials have you had in the past month, hm?”

“I don’t see how-”

“Five! Do you know what that tells the people? Your very lavish actions are showing the citizens of the empire that your currency is strong while theirs is weak!

“The denarii is falling because the wealthy grow wealthier, while the rest grow poorer. Their confidence in silver is falling by the actions of the privileged!

“How? Because you transfer all of your denarii into aurea as fast as you can, then store it all away where they never see the light of day. All the wealth of the empire is behind locked doors and armed guard – and you all wonder why the empire is crumbling. Its wealth literally can do nothing if it’s buried in the ground under your homes!

“So you want a real solution to this spiraling problem? You want to make sure that none of you fall when the empire ultimately falls? Then let go of your fortunes, let it circulate among the people, allow it to work between the markets, let it back into the places where currency belongs!

“And if you don’t like that solution, then you may as well bury yourselves in piles of your own glittering aurea right this moment!”