Chapter 102: You Shall Not Bend

Veyris did not reply for a while as he looked at the man whom he once played with as a child. As children of the Royal House of Arathor, they had a lot of responsibilities, and their teachings were almost endless.

The first eight years of their life were the most blissful they ever had as children, and then the testing began, and the trials, thousands of children were sorted, managed, given duties and trials no children should have to endure, and soon all the fragility of childhood was gone.

Veyris had been quick to let go of this fragility, but Calyx had not done so quickly enough, and he suffered for it. With the talent of his brother, he should have gone higher, and there was a chance that he could have become an Ascendant Candidate, but he could not let go of his childish way of thought quickly enough, and so when it became too late, he had no allies to turn to, when he was seen as just a brute and a pawn.

Yet seventy years seemed to have changed a lot about his brother, and Veyris inclined his head, barely.

“Lord Protector.”

For a wilence stretched between them like a drawn bowstring as they assessed each other. It was by sheer coincidence that they had met here in this city. Calyx had never contacted Veyris once in seven decades, and Veyris was not aware that the small city out of nowhere would be the domain of his brother.

Calyx broke the silence,

“You’ve been sitting in my hall for eleven hours like some petitioner, when as my brother, you could have easily walked into my halls.”

Veyris smiled, “You are the Lord Protector of this City, and I have no right to barge into your halls.”

“Ah, yes, of course, you are a stickler for the rules, how could I have forgotten that?” Calyx nodded his head, “Still, if you wanted an audience with me, you could have sent word in advance. Or did you enter my city without knowing who governed it? Tsk tsk… You are slipping, brother, the Veyris I know left no detail like that unchecked.”

Veyris’s lips curved; it should have been a smile, but on his face, it appeared like a grimace. Few things ticked him off as questioning his professionalism, but if anyone would know this, it would be his damned brother.

“I am a Lord Captain of the throne, Calyx, and I hold the Queen Regent’s authority, and I do not need to give any word before I arrive; it has always been optional for my position, but you should know that if you have been anywhere near the throne in recent years. You must be mistaking me for a Captain, but I am a Lord now.”

Calyx’s jaw tightened, the gauntleted hand at his side flexed as if he was imagining twisting his brother’s neck,

“You think that still matters here?” he said quietly. “This is my city. My walls. My rules. You may wear the white cloak of the Lord Captain, but you are a long way from the Central Palace.”

Veyris shrugged, “I wear the cloak because I earned it. You wear the crown because it was given to you.”

The guards shifted, barely perceptible, but Calyx raised a hand, and they stilled. Veyris noticed this change and noted it inside him. Calyx seemed to have gained the loyalty of his guards, and this meant that he was not an incompetent ruler.

You would think that for someone that was pushed to the ends of nowhere, he would have not taken this post with any sort of seriousness, and focus on himself, either drowning in enjoyment or trying to ascend to higher stages, but it seemed that his brother had created a loyal team around him, how did he do this without the resources of House Arathor? If he had been pulling resources, Veyris would have known and would not have been surprised at this City’s Lord Protector before he came here.

“You always did love rewriting history,” Calyx smiled, his eyes had never left Veyris. “Tell me, brother, did you come all this way to gloat? Or is there actually a reason you’re sitting in my palace instead of commanding legions somewhere useful?”

Veyris slowly stepped forward, breaching the ten paces that were normal between Siphons of their power, until he was three feet away from his brother,

“You have the Order of Unbroken Shield in your city, brother.”

Calyx blinked, “The Order is a powerful but failing branch of the Military, and you don’t expect me to refuse their presence in my city. You may not know this, but we do real work here, and my city keeps this part of the realm safe from the endless threats that would shatter its borders.”

“They help keep your city safe, so does it exempt them from the crown’s law?” Veyris asked.

Calyx’s expression did not change, but something flickered behind his eyes. “The Commander is a powerful Angel brother, even under the Heavenly Restriction; her presence alone holds back the Rune Beasts that are in my mountains, my deserts, and my oceans. Without her presence, this city would be torn apart by battle, and this place would be an endless warzone. Did her presence draw you to my city? If that is the case, I cannot help you, because I need her more than I need you.”

Veyris was a bit taken aback inside. He knew that this city was strange, but from what Calyx was telling him, it should not even exist. Still, he was not here for the city, but for that boy.

“I do not care about your city, brother, or its protector. I am a servant of the crown and follow its will. Twelve hours ago, I detected the opening of a Fragment of Divinity, and I came here as quickly as I could. Tell me something, brother, did you know that there was a potential Ascendant Candidate in the Stoneward Asylum whose potential is so great that he should have more than sixty pools of Lumina, and is outside the records of the Concords? Is your need for protection so great that you disregard every anomaly inside your walls and do not give the relevant reports when they are necessary?”

Calyx laughed, short and harsh, as if in disbelief at his brother’s words,

“You think I report every gutter-born prodigy to you? The boy has become an Ascendat Candidate, good! He may be dangerous, but are we not all the same? He is under the control of the Commander, and if he breaks, she’ll put him down, or I will. If he rises, he will become an invaluable part of my city’s defenses. Either way, he’s not your concern.”

Veyris took another step closer, and now they were so close that the air around them began to vibrate, even though they had leashed all their powers deep in the core of their bodies, and he spoke through his teeth,

“He is my concern because I am the Lord Captain, and under my domain, every Ascendant Candidate should be known. I knew Yseult was in this region, but I did not know she had returned to the Order, or that she had a protegee; all of this was information you could have given me, so that makes it my concern!”

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