THE GOLDEN AGE, sejanus plinth

004. sol

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CHAPTER FOUR
SOL
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AURORA SAT NEXT to her cousin Arachne in Professor Demigloss's classroom. It was the twenty-four mentors of them, sitting in a half circle. Aside from Livia Cardew, everyone had congratulated Coriolanus on having the brilliant idea to meet his tribute early, although she could see that the majority were jealous that they hadn't had the idea before him.

"Show me I haven't been wasting my time with you for four years," Professor Demigloss said. He was their history teacher, but today he led a brainstorming seminar on how to get the people to watch the Hunger Games.

"If history teaches you anything, it's how to make the unwilling comply." The man looked around the room, waiting for somebody to have a brilliant idea.

Aurora doodled in her notebook, drawing some flowers and stars, not noticing that Sejanus's hand went up immediately.

"Ah, Sejanus?" Their professor said.

Aurora looked up from her notebook and found Sejanus on the other side of the half circle.

"Before we talk about making people watch, shouldn't we begin with the question of whether or not watching is the right thing to do?" He stared at the man, who just blinked slowly.

A collective sigh echoed from the walls and after rolling her eyes, it was Arachne's turn to doodle in her own notebook.

Aurora on the other hand thought about what Sejanus had said. Why are we even watching the Games?

"Let's stay on topic please," Professor Demigloss finally replied and immediately turned away from the boy, definitely wanting to sigh too.
"How do we get people to watch?"

Nobody wanted to watch, it was gruesome. The point of the Hunger Games was to remind the districts of the war, to make them pay for it. But every time a new Games rolled around, Aurora got reminded of the war that she just wanted to forget so badly.

No matter how many times the people around her told her that she should be glad that they had won the war, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about her losses. She didn't feel like a winner, not even in the slightest.

And really, how could you get over something, especially a war, when the Hunger Games existed?

Festus Creed, a boy she had also known her whole life, had an idea.
"Simple. We go straight to the punitive. Instead of suggesting people watch, make it the law."

It was now Aurora's turn to sigh. She wasn't close to Festus, they had been many, many years ago before the war and before Aurora had decided on her lone wolf strategy.

"What happens if you don't watch?" Clemensia Dovecote asked from next to Arachne. She was another one of her lost childhood friends, although she saw her quite often at home because she was one of Arachne's best friends.

"In the districts, we execute you. In the Capitol, we make you move to the districts, and if you mess up again next year, then we execute you," Festus replied cheerfully.

A cold shiver ran down Aurora's spine while the others laughed at that. It was all theoretical, of course. But how could you even enforce a law like that?

"The real problem is, it's sickening to watch," Clemensia remarked, "so people avoid it."

Aurora nodded strongly at that, glad that the girl shared her opinion.

"Of course they do!" Sejanus cut in.
"Who wants to watch a group of children kill each other? Only a vicious, twisted person. Human beings may not be perfect, but we're better than that."