Chapter 298: The Dawn of Change

Emperor Augustus and I shook hands, cementing the deal.

“Do you have time for hammering out some details?” He asked as an advisor stifled a yawn. They had to work extremely hard with the whole ‘single-handedly running an empire’ thing, and I’d just demolished their entire night’s sleep.

And I’d bet so much money that Augustus would grab breakfast, freshen up for a few minutes, then get right back to the empire-running business.

“Only a few minutes, then I need to report to Ranger HQ. Daily stand-up to make sure there’s nothing we need to be dispatched on.” I gave my best ‘winningly apologetic’ tone.

“Of course, of course.” Augustus said. “The Sentinels and Rangers do such fine work, I’d never want to interfere or get in their way.”

Yet he was at the top of Night’s guesses as to why Julius had vanished, given that the balance of power of Ranger Command had tilted towards the Senate, which Augustus somewhat controlled.

I mentally shook my head.

Focus. Entirely irrelevant to the topic at hand. I was tired, and [Sunrise] was good, but didn’t substitute sleep, especially not after the emotionally taxing day and mentally taxing night.

“When is a good time for you to begin the process? Does it take particularly long?” Augustus asked.

“I could probably do the first person later today.” I mused. “The skill does have a cooldown, and I’m not quite sure how long it is.”

I thought about it for a moment.

“I hope you understand when I ask to turn you back after the policy changes are made.” I hedged a bit. He waved my concern off.

“Naturally. I hope you understand that I’d like to see a demonstration before making the large changes?”

That was fair. I’d made a lot of claims, but I hadn’t backed any of them up. Nobody had seen the gnoll, and a lot of faith had been placed in my personal honesty and integrity.

“Sure.” It was a small thing after all. My worst-case scenario was turning back some dude, then nothing happened. I’d get mightily annoyed at Emperor Augustus - to say the least - but it wasn’t the end of the world.

I’d have time to plot my revenge.

“One last note, and I’ll leave this problem for your advisors.” I said, placing a bit more trust in them than I probably should. “I believe it’d be beneficial to trace the citizenship lines of a number of women, and grant them citizenship. Sort of a retroactive thing.” I said. “It’s heritable from father to son, it’ll also be heritable from father to daughter, then from mother to son and daughter. Why not just… poke at it and make everyone who would’ve been a citizen, an actual citizen?”

“We’ll discuss it.” Leandros, the lawyer, said after a moment.

That was likely to be a no. I could argue this another day, before a bunch of Sentinels got dispatched to my villa.

“Right. I’ll swing by this evening then?” I asked Augustus.

“Agreed. Does your skill require anything to activate or operate? A sacrifice, material, anything of that nature?”

There were some skills that needed material to work, [Carpenters] being the famous example. Needed wood to [Carve], just like [Farmers] needed seeds to [Plant].

I was going to say no, then paused, getting an idea.

“No, but I recommend bringing some food a bird might like. Or just like. Some nice offerings for White Dove.”

Looks were exchanged, and there were some nervous mutterings.

“She is very real and will personally show up to curse you. I honestly wouldn’t mess with her.”

“Listen to the Classer when she’s describing her skills.” Augustus stated, without turning back.

“Anyways, it’s been great, but I really gotta run now.” I apologized, but waited a brief moment for Augustus to nod and dismiss me.

I could have just left and stepped on his toes a bit, but why bother? Manners and politeness never killed anyone.

I stepped out of the Senate, taking a moment to stretch and bask in the light of the sun, rising just above the horizon. I took a deep breath as the sun kissed my skin.

It felt like freedom.

A different type to be sure. It wasn’t physical shackles that had been lifted from me, more emotional ones that I’d lived with for so long, I’d forgotten they existed.

Speaking of chains, it was time to tend to the one I’d voluntarily placed on myself.

My stomach grumbled as I made my way to Ranger HQ, which was blessedly close by. Most of the fancy government buildings were somewhat clustered together.

In no time at all, I was in the meeting room. I’d slightly misjudged how late the meeting started, the current time, and how far away the Senate was from Ranger HQ, and I was early.

Much better than being so late that Hunting and co were dispatched to see what was up.

The Sentinels trickled in one at a time.

“Most excellent.” Night said once we’d all arrived. “Does anyone have any items of concern before we discuss yesterday’s activities?”

“Possible problem.” Ocean said. “Heard a few reports of a Ranger team of one person going around. However, it’s unclear which team it is, and they’re not following a known route, nor do they seem to be on a return trip to Ariminum after a team wipe.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Could the reports be out of order? Dates mixed up?” Nature asked. Ocean nodded.

“Could be Team 5 if three dates are swapped and they detoured.”

“Is this concern actionable at this time?” Night politely asked. Ocean gave a slow nod.

“Anyone sitting in on Ranger Command meetings, keep an ear out.”

I sent off a quick prayer to all the gods and goddesses that my name wouldn’t come out of the hat for sitting in on a few Ranger Command meetings. They were bad enough when I was the star of the show. Sitting around?

Bleack.

“Are there any other matters?” Night formally asked.

“Got a somewhat important one.” Acquisition said. “Of all people, Dawn’s got a price on her head. One dead, and a large one alive.”

That would scare me more if I wasn’t on team Night, although it did send a little trace of fear through me. Who wouldn’t have a moment of ‘oh shit’ when told that random people wanted them dead?

Still. Between my healing and magic, I had complete confidence that I could handle any problems. My biggest concerns would be someone going after Auri or Autumn or any other family members.

“Tell me everything. This will not be permitted to stand.” Night leaned forward, a predatory gleam in his eye. “I want names, locations, the fake sponsors, the real sponsors, everything.” He practically hissed, and I foresaw a violent night. “As soon as the meeting ends, Acquisition, meet with me.”

Welp. Alrighty then. Mission for someone not called Elaine!

“On that note. Dawn. Ocean. I must have a discussion with the two of you as well after this.” Night said. “Onto other events of interest.”

There wasn’t anything else, and we did a quick recap of our rescue of Acquisition the prior day. Each of us involved told us the story from our own point of view.

Which was remarkably the same, except for Hunting. Travel, burst into the building, kill everyone hostile to us - or everyone they found, depending on the Sentinel in question - save Acquisition’s kids.

“Acquisition. It is time for your portion of the tale.” Night said.

“Ok, sure.” He leaned forward, capturing all of our attention. What Acquisition did wasn’t exactly well-known, and after I’d leveled up a bunch, he was easily the oddest Sentinel.

“As you know, I keep a pulse on the undercity. The best thief in Remus and all that.” He waved his hand. “It’s something of an open secret that I’m a Sentinel to the various gangs, but it’s also a secret. Not everyone’s in the know. I play it off that I’ve stolen a job, and manage to steal a bunch of money, authority, etc, by being a Sentinel. Whenever I’m challenged, I get to respond by asking who else can brazenly walk into the Senate, steal a senator’s coin purse, and openly walk back out, with the guards saluting me the entire time?”

He shrugged, like it was perfectly normal.

“All in all, I’m a well-known wealthy commodity to the underground. The issue is, it makes me a target. I don’t bother you all when my vaults are broken into, my coins taken, or mysterious notes are left under my pillow. Standard [Thief] shenanigans really. I just find out who did it, take my stuff back, and generally embarrass them in some way. I keep it non-lethal, to stop any ideas about true revenge. Keeps most of the riff-raff away, but those with drive, those that burn, they go after me.”

He paused a quick moment for questions. Seeing that we had none, he continued.

“The Blackstorms took that for weakness, and weren’t around the last time Night had a gentle discussion with the local gangs about their activities relating to Sentinels. They had already been on my radar for causing issues, and I was this close to going to Ranger Team 1 about them.” Acquisition pinched his fingers real close.

“Came home two nights ago to find my kids gone, and a ransom note. It didn’t mention anything about being a Sentinel, but it did warn me not to go to the guards or the Rangers. It had a carefully prescribed route that I needed to take, along with the amount they wanted. I figured I’d play along, get my kids back safe, then rain hell on them. Money can be easily reacquired, my kids less so. I left a hundred different clues around my place, in such a way that whoever might’ve been watching me wouldn’t be able to tell.”

He gave a nod to Hunting, who nodded back.

Acquisition gave a detailed accounting of everything the Blackstorms wanted him to do, along with the counter-measures he’d taken. Subtle, but there.

“In the end, I was in the middle of the handoff when you all came knocking. Tried to teleport the knife out of the goon’s hands, but only got one. Other one had a skill that interfered. Hostile teleports and all that. Shit timing on your part, a tiny amount of time later and we would’ve been clear. Fortunately, Dawn was around. Spent the rest of the day at home.” Acquisition finished.

Yeah I’d totally spend the rest of the day with Auri if she’d been kidnapped and almost murdered. Probably take off a few more days while I was at it.

We had a long discussion about Acquisition’s choices, and how to better handle hostage situations in the future. What each of us would’ve done. How we would’ve handled it.

In the end, we ended up agreeing that Acquisition had handled it nearly perfectly. Get the kids to safety. Deal with the perpetrators after.

We had Hunting after all.

The meeting broke up, and the rest of the Sentinels went about their business. For Acquisition and Night, that meant talking about the potential assassins after me. They had a long technical talk about who was involved, and what type of message they’d each be turned into.

Some worked best being simply ‘disappeared’. Others were going to have a ‘heart attack’ in the middle of the night, and never wake up. A few were going to have their body parts scattered artfully in various plazas.

I had a strong stomach, medicine and all that. I’d been elbow-deep in gore plenty.

Their clinical descriptions of ‘should the arms be in one piece, or two? How many bones in their hand do we break, and how obvious do we make it’ turned my stomach, and those were simply the gentlest descriptions.

Ocean occasionally added in comments, about how so and so was in an alliance with this other person, and how they’d take it.

Acquisition and Night finished up, and I was left oddly conflicted. I reminded myself that they had chosen violence themselves, and it was better to handle it now, rather than regretfully stand over mom’s body.

I moved on as Acquisition left.

“Dawn. I would like to discuss your activities from last night.” Night said, and I focused.

Just how bloody good was his intel network that he already knew!?

“What about them?”

“You are walking a dangerous path.” Night’s tone was neutral, but I knew him. Displeased wasn’t the start of it and I went cold. “Today, you fix one injustice. You pay a hefty price, carelessly, without thinking. You enable a powerful man to stay in power longer, causing stagnation. Abuses. The normal wheel of time that permits transfers of power has been broken, and there is no telling what disaster he will cause down the line.”

I was getting heated.

“So what am I supposed to do?” I cut Night off. “Just live my whole life as a second class citizen? Be at the mercy of whoever my closest male relative is, for eternity? Permit Remus to continue to be as poor and shitty as it is? What’s the fucking point of it all, if I don’t make life better for others!?”

Night’s narrowed eyes and clipped tone were the only indications I had that he was equally mad. He just controlled it better.

“Yes. You fix one injustice today. You fix a second tomorrow. You look at the world around you, and believe that you can remake it in your image. Perfect. All will be right in the world, if only Sentinel Dawn was fully in charge.” He practically spat at me. “Every dictator believes the same thing. They look at the world, see that it is wrong, and move to reimage it to their liking. You are doing the same, while being a true Immortal. How do you know that your image is right? That it is just, and good? How do you know you are not simply borrowing trouble later down the road?”

I had the perfect retort.

“Because I’ve lived in that world.” I snarled back. “I’ve lived in a world where there were hundreds of governments, and history of a thousand more. I’ve directly seen the results of these policies. I’ve read the history of them being created and implemented. I’ve seen, with my own two eyes, how life is improved by them. I know. God-touched by Papilion, remember?”

The silence stretched between us. Ocean nervously coughed.

“Excuse me. I’d like to add in a few words.” We both turned to look at him.

“Emperor Augustus was already pressuring Dawn into using her skill on him. Either way, she was pulled into politics against her will. With our power and levels, we know this happens from time to time.” He gently rebuked Night. “Yes, her skill has an uncomfortable parallel with you being asked to turn someone into a vampire.”

There was a brief awkward pause, and I was reminded about Night’s stories about the vampire civil wars.

Or rather - the first vampire civil war. He’d said nothing about the other ones, and I had to wonder if there was some additional uncomfortable history I didn’t know about partially driving Night.

“With the amount on offer, there was going to be moving and shaking, even if Dawn ‘merely’ accepted her patriarch becoming a senator. It would be even worse if Dawn outright refused. We’d bear the brunt of Augustus’s displeasure. Right?”

I gave a small nod, while Night continued to laser in on Ocean.

“Anyways, with all that said. Dawn, your proposed changes were a bit much. We try, as Sentinels, to remain neutral. We don’t always succeed. With that being said, we stick together. We support each other. Getting personally involved in politics always inadvertently drags the rest of us into things, and we’re suddenly obligated in ways we don’t want to be. Let me make up a ridiculous example. Pretend the late Sealing - who never would’ve suggested such a thing, ridiculous example remember? - suggested that there should be a law that all women have to give birth to five children before they’re 30.”

I narrowed my eyes at Ocean, who held up his hands.

“Ridiculous example! Anyways, pretend one morning you show up to the daily meeting, and BOOM! Sealing’s played politics, and gotten a new law passed! People are now unhappy with him, some are happy, and presto, we now need to band together to protect Sealing, and suddenly other people are sniffing at us for more favors. Now we’re spending as much time fending them off, defending policies we don’t like, and not doing our jobs.Politics.” Ocean practically spat.

I felt a tiny bit of embarrassment. Ocean was the Sentinel who needed to keep a pulse on all things political, and he hated it. I’d probably just kicked over the hornets nest for him.

Would still do it again in a heartbeat.

“Either way, I believe you are amassing power and abusing your Immortality in a way that shall cause me significant problems down the line.” Night said. “I understand where you are coming from. You went out, and solved a problem close and dear to your heart. It speaks well for your character, that you do not simply take this lying down. You are one of my Sentinels. However. The way you went about it speaks poorly of your judgment. Your faith in other Sentinels. Your ability to work with us, to find a method to present the solution in a less ham-fisted hammer. At a point of political meddling, you become a power, a player on the field. If that is how you act, if that is what you wish to be, I will treat you as such. You will no longer have Acquisition looking out for assassins for you. You will no longer have me fixing problems of your own making. You will be, for better or for worse, a player, with everything that entails, for better or for worse. If you do not wish to be a player, then cease acting like one, and we shall no longer have an issue.”

I’d been forming counter-arguments against what he said. Ready to bring up that he was willing to treat me like a progenitor.

My mouth snapped shut at the end, as the full implications of what he was saying sank in. As the earlier discussion that Night and Acquisition had fully sank in.

Night was, as always, right. If I started to enact large-scale changes, if I had Emperor Augustus’s ear and kept twisting it, I’d find myself chest-high in the shithole of politics. I’d already made some compromises, how many more would I make?

And I was dragging the rest of the Sentinels into the mess, kicking and screaming. How would I like it if, say, Nature decided that roads were an affront to nature, and had to go, and lobbied to stop building and paying for roads? I’d be annoyed that I was suddenly, involuntarily in the mess. I liked roads!

Bit silly - I thought all the changes I wanted to do were right and correct, and nobody would object to them. However, I didn’t know the secret inner workings of the rest of the Sentinels. Maybe some were fervently against government intervention, hated taxes, and would simply be upset that their taxes were going up just for the government to meddle more in people’s lives.

Friction.

I’d been debating dozens of policy changes, along with working out how to get the leverage to make it happen. For every force though, there was a counterforce, even if it was only human greed. My plans?

Yeah. Night was right - I’d be acting like, and looking a lot like, a small [Empress], the [Power Behind the Throne]. That wasn’t a world I wanted to get involved in, but I did want to tackle the indignities and shit of the world.

“I’d like to meet you in the middle.” I leaned forward and proposed to Night. “We’re all Sentinels. All Rangers. You wouldn’t ask any of us to turn away from corruption, from doing what is right. No matter the risk to us.”

Night nodded. “That is the precise reason Ranger training is designed that way. I expect nothing less than the best.”

“And this is me giving my best.” I countered back. “Let’s compromise. If I see some particularly egregious issue, I bring it to you. We discuss. We see if there’s a way to handle it in a way you’d approve of. Alright?”

“Dawn’s got a point. I don’t see the same issues she does, she’s got a unique perspective. Remember the dockworkers issue 20 years ago? That was heading towards open rebellion, but we stepped in and pressured the people in power to make changes before issues happened. Dawn’s actions, while ridiculously, foolishly, heavy-handed aren’t that much different.” Ocean pointed out. “Honestly, if she’s stopped even one rebellion with what she’s done, we’d call that a win.”

Night thought about it for some time.

“There are a few points I would like to discuss…”

Night, Ocean and I continued to talk about the issue for hours, before coming to the conclusion.

“Alright. When you see an issue offensive to you in the extreme, bring it to me, and we shall discuss.” Night agreed.

I closed my eyes and slumped back in my nice chair.

At last.

I needed to get home, and get some damn sleep.

Sadly, duty called.