Kael stirred his cup and looked across the table at Syleena.
The coffee was unusually bitter compared to what he was used to, but after months on the road whatever bitterness he could find in the form of coffee was a welcome one.
"The Claymores have officially come out as Luminaires." Syleena sat with a cup of her own and a sketchbook open across her crossed legs.
Kael took a sip and looked out over the endless stretch of farmland surrounding Sole.
He had expected something like this. From the beginning he had found it curious why the Claymores painted themselves as mortals, but it was becoming clearer now. They hadn't simply stayed idle after the two family heads died. From the fragments of news that had spread far enough to reach them, Claymore had stepped forward as a bank operated by Luminaires for mortals and Luminaires alike. And not only that. Almost arrogantly, with both family heads gone, Elric Claymore had claimed both Velthoria and Farkath under his rule. Not a single city in the surrounding region had moved to contradict him.
Part of that was Elric being rank five. Part of it was simpler. Every city that had a Claymore bank needed to stay on their good side. Contradiction was an expensive luxury.
Kael didn't have all the details, but he was impressed by the political architecture of it regardless. Years of quiet work had clearly led here, possibly decades. By now more than half the cities on the western continent had some form of Claymore influence threading through them. Even Sole was no exception anymore.
"Were you expecting it?" Kael asked.
"I never gave it much thought. But it gave my father a bad taste in his mouth." Syleena deepened her voice slightly. "'The day Luminaires operate for mortals is the day the idea of equality forms in their minds.'"
"He's not wrong." Kael said. "The desire for equality always grows more insatiable in proportion to how much equality already exists."
"They're mortals, Kael."
"Mortals or not, Luminaires need them. If the idea of a better world takes root, who's to say they won't stop harvesting crops, stop fishing, stop doing the thousand things that keep everything running."
Syleena raised an eyebrow. "Then we'd just kill them."
"You underestimate the human spirit. They're only mortals because they haven't awakened. Cultivate enough resentment toward Luminaires and it will eventually bring down the hierarchy Luminaires have spent oh so many years carefully constructing."
He moved his gaze past Syleena toward a small wooden building.
Julian was moving hay to the horses, and Valdina a little further back was hanging freshly washed clothes on a line.
This was their house. After ten months of traveling they had finally reached Sole. And while Farkath lay somewhere far away under snow, here there was nothing on the ground but blooming flowers, harvests and running water. There was a reason the capital sat this far south.
He looked at the reflection in one of the windows. Behind him a high stone wall rose toward the sky, a construction so ambitious he hadn't seen anything like it anywhere else.
The capital was different from every other city he had been to, in ways too numerous to list, and the hierarchy was more visible here than anywhere.
From above it might have resembled an onion, ringed by so many inner walls, and in a sense it almost was. The further in one went the purer the green.
At the outermost edge, the outskirts, lived the peasants and mortals. If war ever came, this was the first layer to be consumed. Behind the first wall something closer to a proper city emerged, apartment buildings rising high, roads paved in cobblestone, the highest concentration of work and therefore the highest concentration of mortals. It reminded Kael of Farkath, but a more modernised and deliberately ordered version of it. Then came the second ring, where the more successful mortals had settled. Judges, officers, business owners.
Sole was different from other cities in one specific way that Kael had noticed. It seemed to value mortals more, not in any genuinely caring sense, but it gave them more. More freedom. More structure of their own. They had built their own communities with elected leaders, governed by something resembling democracy. Of course, to them Luminaires were still something close to gods. Harm or scheme against one and you were hanged. But within those limits they had been given room.
Kael saw it clearly though.
They were being given what most Luminaires were also given. A sense of false hope. The feeling that the ladder could be climbed, that effort had a destination. Give everything you have and you too could become a judge in the second ring!
By fabricating that feeling of upward movement they removed the incentive to revolt. No coup, no civil war. By making Luminaires the unquestioned apex, the threshold for treason rose high enough that informing on someone who planned it became more valuable than joining them.
Kael hadn't read it or seen it confirmed yet, but he had no doubt that propaganda along the lines of; report your neighbours and be rewarded beyond imagination ran through this city like water through a pipe.
Then came the third ring. This was as far as a rank one Luminaire could go without additional qualification, a privilege granted simply by having awakened. It was also the highest ring a mortal could reach by climbing the political ladder, and for many it was the ambition of a lifetime.
And a fourth. From this point entry required meeting multiple criteria. Outside of special occasions a rank three or higher was the baseline, and even then it wasn't guaranteed. Information about what lay beyond became scarce and difficult to verify, but from what reached the outer rings the change was apparently stark. Buildings more elaborate, roads harder.
And then the fifth and final. Here only those who had moved past the weight of ordinary ambition and awakened as rank four could walk freely. It was also where many Luminaires of lesser drive chose to spend their lives, gambling, drinking, finding pleasure by whatever means. The ceiling they had reached became the floor they never left.
There was a rumoured sixth, where the high societies rested. People so gifted and highly ranked that their ambitions shaped the rules and decisions governing the entirety of the western continent. Kael had no doubt things would become clearer the higher he climbed.
"What will you do?" Kael asked.
Both of them were standing without a foundation now, completely alone in a city that owed them nothing. Long before reaching the capital they had agreed to stay for some time. They both needed to build something solid enough to stand on. A base large enough that neither of them would ever have to depend on anyone else again.
Syleena didn't respond right away. She leaned back in her chair with a soft sigh.
"Who knows. My name has lost the prestige it once had. For all I know I might as well open a small restaurant."
"You could start a daycare. There isn't a child alive who could counter the mind pathway. Not a single tear would be shed" Kael added dryly.
He knew she wasn't walking in without a plan. Never. With her knowledge, her motes, and the way her mind worked, what she could achieve by slithering into the right political circles was genuinely frightening. But at the same time, undeniably thrilling.
Kael's eyes turned a fraction colder. He wanted her motes.
"Children." Syleena murmured. "I like them no more than you do."
Not long after, Valdina appeared at the door and waved them over.
"You two. Come and eat. We've made a feast."
The four sat around a small table outside, wooden benches beneath them. It was by no means a feast that would meet noble standards, but in the eyes of those sitting around it with the sole exception of Syleena, it did.
They talked, shared laughs and rumours, and most importantly ate.
Julian and Valdina had crossed the western continent more times than most nobles ever would, but it was still worth celebrating. They were mortals, and by any measure they had found two young people they now considered friends.
Julian set his glass down, drawing a sharp breath from the sting of the alcohol.
"So if I'm understanding correctly, you two will be exploring the city for quite a while."
"That's the idea." Syleena nodded and took a sip of tea, holding the cup with both hands.
"Mm." Julian considered this.
"Well, you're more than welcome to visit whenever you want. We're not going anywhere for a while, not if I have any say in it."
"It's been a pleasure traveling with you." Kael said.
He wasn't lying. They were mortals, but their knowledge of the road and the ease of their company had given both him and Syleena something neither had expected. Not ease with each other exactly, but ease from the dangerous world around them. It had allowed Kael to focus on things that would otherwise have consumed far more time than he was willing to give.
Valdina clapped her hands together.
"Oh, you two must come by when our grandchildren are around sometime. They would absolutely adore you."
Both Kael and Syleena nodded, sharing no real interest whatsoever.