THE END OF MAN IS KNOWLEDGE
So I take it that you think I may need your eyes and ears some day soon. Why?
Lyr wonders, sometimes, where his shyness stemmed from. As a younger man, it had not been so apparent; no, he had simply been quiet, and observant, and less inclined to rambunctious behaviour. Now, however, his quiet has manifested into shyness; and that shyness into introversion. But, what is more than that—Lyr is undone by Marisol for a deeper, more intrinsic reason. Authority. His father, growing up, had always stressed the importance of that. The intricate niceties of social, Court life; the station of the rich, the middle class, the poor. How to thank soldiers for their service; how to remain silent in Delumine’s endless library; the authoritative stares of other scholars devoted to Oriens. Always, always that authority was wound as taunt as a guitar’s strings.
Her eyes are heavy on him. Lyr cannot discern if it is distrust, or if it is merely her composure. He forces himself to relax, corded muscle by corded muscle, until he takes upon himself a semblance of relaxation. He even manages a small, knowing smile. “Sovereign—when are eyes and ears not needed?” Lyr adds, hesitantly: "My father was a monk for Oriens, a scholar devout to Novus’s religious practices and history. In all of these histories he studied, do you know what he railed about?”
Lyr feels overcome with the passion of what he speaks; and yet he remains polite, composed. He has relaxed even enough to glance about the citadel’s grand entrance hall, the stained glass, the marble, the way he thinks he can hear the distant sea upon the cliffs. When he glances at Marisol again, it is with the most confidence he has mustered thus far. “Men go to war. Even in times of peace, they seek out destruction. If it isn’t today, or tomorrow, or even a year from now—it will be one day. And wouldn’t you rather be the Sovereign who took precautions, than the Sovereign who didn’t?”
I HEARD THEM SPEAKING OF PERENNIAL QUIET
I HEARD THEM SAY THAT SORROW IS JUST HAPPINESS
AT A DIFFERENT DESTINY, A DIFFERENT COLOURED LIGHT
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