Chapter 6 : The Prelude
Arner sighs as he waves his gaze toward the horizon where everyone's future lies.
Arner: I... my plans? Well, I want to know the secret hidden in the map of evolution. I want to know what lies inside it. What was enough to make Umbreal encrypt it?
Card: Arner, the cipher key, as you know... exists.
Arner (to himself): Exists?! How?
Card: Do you know "The Supreme Gathering"? The highest political destination in the world. It's almost equal in authority to "The Tower Governor's Castle," where Mr. Umbreal's corpse lies, and where the meetings of the Six Nobles are held. Its head... I mean the Supreme Council, is Lady Asman Araiz from the Araiz family, descendant of Umbreal's assistant who invented the cipher key. But what's truly unknown is the mechanism of using this key.
Arner: A key? The Six Nobles? The Supreme Gathering? What is this? Do I really not know all this? I've heard of these things, but they were just surface-level information.
Card (to himself, with a shocked expression): How can he not even know about his own world? I'm really starting to believe he sleeps like a Kola. But didn't he say he knows about the Interpretation Union and doesn't know about the Gathering? Strange...
Well, Arner, you'll know all this when you pass the Patrice test.
Arner: I contacted my father yesterday and asked him about the necessity of being a Baropatris. He answered that the Baropatris work for one of the cities chosen by the individual according to their beliefs. But the goal of these cities is one: to fight the Parties of Delirium. The difference lies in how they implement that. Although I know there are cities ruled by nobles, I don't know their number or their function. In short, my knowledge is just terms I've heard.
Card (to himself): So that's how it is... but if I give him a full explanation all at once, he won't understand. Hmmm...
Card: Arner, you'll learn everything gradually. But I'll repeat the question: what path will you follow?
Arner (to himself): I feel lost, even though my goal is clear. But the path to reach it is what matters. The Interpretation Union didn't achieve any results — that's what my father told me, and that's why he resigned. As for the work of the Baropatris, according to my father, it's a job that takes a lot of time and could distract me from my goal — like my uncle, who leaves early and returns late, either from confrontations or office work. Hmmm...
He rises from that exercise that stretched his body, just as their dialogue stretched his mind.
Arner: I... haven't decided the path, but at least I've narrowed down the possibilities.
Card: Alright, good. That's a good step. Let's go back home, because lunchtime is near now.
After fifty minutes, on one of the trains connecting Kurhait and Kurma, like a blue lightning bolt that becomes more beautiful the faster it goes...
Arner: Card, why did we come here?
Card: To get to know this world... from your mother's side.
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© Anouar Amroud. All rights reserved.
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