The Inevitable Course

There are notices on the Public Boards for citizens to pay their taxes or forfeit their properties. There is an inexplicable shortage of salt in the city that only worsens each day. I find constituents with brusque responses and wary glances cast my way or, at times, a physical reminder that their faith in best intentions and honest effort is fickle at best. We, the lower castes, are looking for someone to blame. It is disheartening to think that we would look amongst ourselves, amidst our own, for culpability. Those that know me remain unwavering, of course, but I have been elected to represent all with caste beneath the high five. Even those hostile. I understand the hostility, of course. I share it. For lack of a clear villain, the mob must sate its desire to vent. Gnieus Lelius was once labeled an enemy of amity, a subverter of peace and a tyrant. He had the unfortunate honor of holding the title of Regent during the occupation. History was not kind to Gnieus Lelius. He was, in my estimation, a good man. He was a competent administrator, overburdened and underappreciated. In the end, he was a victim of propaganda and a verr led to an all-too convenient slaughter. Those were dark days in my city. With Winter approaching, the time Lar Torvis shines shorter, I wonder just how dark it will get before we see the Spring.