The Magnaura

[_Tristan_]

Methodios walks to the centre of the hall and bows to the Basileos. Then turning on his heels, he quickly scans the benches where his fellow Senators are sitting.

Basileos,
Caesar,
Fellow Senators,

I am here in accordance with our Basileos’ will to state my claim on the ownership of Scopia.

I am no lawyer… I consider myself a soldier and I am more at ease on my charger than on the floor of the Senate.

So, I’ll try not to bore you with words.

Scopia was bequeathed to me by my fellow Crusader and sponsor Kosmas Mavrozomis. Kosmas and I believed in the same ideals and we wanted to create a House that would work for the greater good of the Empire. With his death, that ideal could have been struck down but for the fact that his gift of his land to me allowed for the continuation of House Ilios Korakas.

Now, new Senators came to join us… Annios Solomon, who was barred from it by Michail Arianitis, on pretense of oath-breaking when the same Arianitis abandoned his own House to join another in the days that followed… Nikiphoros Manouelitis, whose pledge hid some ulterior motives as I will demonstrate…

For, in the months that followed, I led my crusading army on an assault on Alexandria, after witnessing the gruesome treatment dealt to Kosmas by the fanatical heathens of the city. Blinded by hatred, I ordered the massacre of any and all of the men that belonged to that devil spawn. Thinking back, I regret the cost in human lives… But with hindsight, I think it was necessary… See where our fair treatment of Cairo led us… A city rioting, causing the death of 6000 souls and more to come… These heathens had to be shown the might of the Empire to kick out of their minds any idea of rebellion and this is what I did.

Now, some among you have wished me punished for that breach of an Edict voted by this body. Some of you saw it as a sin against God.
Our Megas set me a penance, a harsh one that put me in danger of losing my life to the riotous mobs of Cairo. But I took it up in stride and served it to the best of my abilities.

Even though our Basileos, our prime judge after God, remained silent on the matter, some decided this was not enough punishment. Manouelitis was among them. But where most remained inactive, he chose to act. He first came to me, privately, questioning my conduct in a way that made me doubtful of his commitment to our House, so I released him of his oath.

But in his scheming and devious mind, a plan had hatched. So forsaking any honor, he pleaded, he groveled to be allowed back, going as far as pledging his life to me. Fool that I was, I believed in his lies and allowed him to re-swear his oath to me. Even more, I was so moved by his pledge that I thought it deserved a reward and I granted him Scopia, a settlement I held dear for the reasons stated above, to govern. Now the fox had entered the henhouse…

Next thing I know, using the rules of a House he had no care about, Manouelitis staged a coup, expulsing me and trying to wrest from me the province of Alexandria. I relented and not wishing to press his point, he withdrew and left with Scopia safely under his control, using it to gain his entry into another House.

Now, I believe all can see that the rules that were set up by the Ilios Korakas’ Charter were nothing more than a tool into Manouelitis’ hands in order to grab some lands for himself without having to fight for it…

Most of us here had to wrest our provinces from the hands of the enemy of the Empire : be they rebels, Turks or Egyptians… We have a right to claim these lands as ours… So do we want to condone the theft of the settlements our men gave their blood for ?

Now, thinking back, I hope you can see as well as I can, a pattern emerges… The same names keep coming up in trying to bring down House Ilios Korakas and myself : Arianitis and Manouelitis…

These men are somehow in league and for the worst : dealing blows under the belt, cheating and lying… They are not even trying to build something out of it… They just want to destroy, to lead personal vendettas for reasons that escape me…

Are these the kind of men that we want to rule our settlements ?

I think not and I hope the Basileos will see it my way.

After bowing once more to the Basileos, Methodios strides out to his bench.