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It still runs through your veins, forcing your heart to be strong if you want to continue to live. You are something special, just like me.”
This is the body of the race that conquered the Solar System.
“You look like a Bronze! A fool’s Gold! One of the lowbred bastards who looks more khaki than Gold. You must be perfect.”
“You will be the son of a relatively unknown family from the far asteroid clusters. Soon, the family will be dead in a shipping accident. You will be the lone survivor and the only heir to their debts and poor status. His name, your name, will be Caius au Andromedus.”
Cassius au Bellona, it reads. Son of Praetor Tiberius au Bellona, Imperator of the Society’s Sixth Fleet and perhaps the only man on Mars to rival ArchGovernor Augustus in power. Apparently the families hate one another.
There are one thousand cities on Mars, each ruled by a Governor, the ArchGovernor presiding over all. Each city is set in the center of a hundred mining colonies. The Governors manage these colonies, with the individual MineMagistrates like Podginus overseeing the day-to-day.
“Three sorts of people graduate: the Peerless Scarred, the Graduates, and the Shamed. The Peerless can ascend in society; the Graduates can as well, but their prospects are relatively limited and they still must earn their scars; and the Shamed are sent to the distant, hard colonies like Pluto to oversee the first years of terraforming.”
The Houses. I know these. There are twelve loosely based on underlying personality traits. Each is named for one of the gods of the Roman pantheon.
The SchoolHouses are networking tools and social clubs outside of school. Do well, and they’ll find you a powerful family to serve. The families are the true powers in the Society. They have their own armies and fleets and contribute to the Sovereign’s forces.
The Sixth Fleet is commanded by Cassius’s father, while the smaller Fifth Fleet is under the ArchGovernor’s direct control.
Most of the ships are owned by families who owe allegiance to either Augustus or Bellona.
a Praetor commands squadrons within that fleet. What I could do with that power …
But like our spiritual ancestors, the Romans, we too can fall into Decadence.”
We are not the masters of the Solar System because we are born. We are the masters because we, the Peerless Scarred, the iron Golds, made it that way.”
“In time you will receive your Scars from my sword,” Augustus closes. “But first you must earn them.”
“Cassius!” Julian calls. Cassius stands and throws an arm around his thinner, prettier twin. I didn’t piece it together before, but they are brothers. Twins. Not identical. Julian did say his brother was already in Agea.
He disagrees with the rules, but he follows them. It is possible. I can do the same until I have power enough to change them.
It is Olympus, Fitchner explains, an artificial mountain where the Proctors watch each year’s class. Its peak shimmers with a fairy-tale castle. Lea
“You and the Proctors can see everything, yes?”
“He’s the ArchGovernor’s son, Darrow. And he makes Titus look like a blubbering child.”
“I like to win. Family trait. And sometimes cheating is in the rule-book.” She smiles. “You get a merit bar every time you recapture your standard. So I arranged for it to be lost to House Diana by someone else several times.
Then rode out to capture it. Got to Primus in a week.”
“Who gave the Jackal the holo of me killing Julian?” I ask. “Well, you don’t dally away time.” He did something just as I spoke, and the sound around us localizes. I can’t hear anything beyond an invisible five-meter bubble. Didn’t know they had toys like that. “The Proctors gave it to the Jackal,” he tells me. “Which ones?” “Apollo. All of us. Doesn’t matter.”
I don’t understand. “I assume it’s because they favor the Jackal. Am I right?” “As usual.” His gum pops. “Unfortunately, you’re just not allowed to win, and you were gaining momentum.
No one can be allowed to win. I thought the gorydamn point was to carve our own ladder to the top. So if I’m not allowed to win, that means the Jackal is.”
The best of Gold is supposed to rise, yet they already have chosen a winner. Not only does this ruin the Institute, it ruins the Society. The fittest reign. That’s what they say. Now they’ve betrayed their own principles by taking sides in a schoolyard fight.
The Drafters, my real bosses, watch every move from their palaces, ships, et cetera. They are very important people as well.
They don’t understand. Golds don’t do this. Golds don’t sacrifice for one another. Leaders take; they do not give.
“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.”
she is the Jackal’s twin sister.” Virginia au Augustus. Sister to the Jackal. Twin. An heir of the great family, the gens Augusta.
The only daughter of ArchGovernor Nero au Augustus.
Kept cloistered and out of the public eye to ward off assassination attempts,...
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She is what Golds can be, should be. Yet her father and brother are what Golds are.
Perhaps that’s because I’m more like the Iron Golds. The best of the Peerless. Those like the Ancestors. Those who nuked a planet that rose against their rule. What a creature I’ve become.
“And others. But yes, Imperator Tiberius au Bellona has more than fifty nieces and nephews. He has nine children. That Goliath, Karnus, the eldest. Cassius his favorite. His seed is strong. Mine is … less so. I had a son worth all of Tiberius’s put together. But Karnus killed him,” He’s silent for a moment. “Now I have two nieces. A nephew.
Interesting 😂
son. A daughter. And that is it. So I collect apprentices.
“My condition is this. I will give you what you want for your silence. I will buy you Pinks, Obsidians, Grays, Greens. I will sponsor your application to the Academy, where you will learn to sail the ships that conquered the planets. I will provide you with funds and patronage requirements. I will introduce you to the Sovereign. I will do all these things...
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wrong. I am the spark that will set the worlds afire. I am the hammer that cracks the chains.
That is a family. Love. These people are all about glory, victory, and family pride, yet they know nothing of love. Nothing of family.
Words are a weapon stronger than he knows. And songs are even greater. The words wake the mind. The melody wakes the heart.
With him, I will rise. I will attend the Academy. I will learn to lead fleets. I will win. I will sharpen myself into a sword. I will give my soul. I will dive to hell in hopes of one day rising to freedom. I will sacrifice. And I will grow my legend and spread it amongst the peoples of all the worlds until I am fit to lead the armies that will break the chains of bondage, because I am not simply an agent of the Sons of Ares. I am not simply a tactic or a device in Ares’s schemes. I am the hope of my people. Of all people in bondage.
I love this so much! 😭
“I will forsake my father. I will abandon my name. I will be your sword. Nero au Augustus, I will make my purpose your glory.”
Rise for glory, for power, for conquest and dominion over lesser men. Rise, my son. Rise.”
Ok but why is this the best last line of a book???
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