Chapter 1065 — Sunlight

With the coming of the Month of Revival, the first warm current melted the snow on the plains, and the lengthening daylight dispersed the fog that had lingered so long. Aldernan, which had shivered through an entire winter in the thick mist, finally began to revive, and in this warm spring welcomed the first ray of sunlight it had long missed.

Along the ancient imperial avenue, citizens still in winter clothes, and those who had just changed into spring attire, came out into the streets. The great sun hung high above the city, its warm radiance falling on the rooftops beside them and on the crystal glass of shop windows. People talked before their own doorsteps or beside shop displays, speaking of the winter just past, of the war now ended, or of the conference soon to be held.

Black magi-cars bearing noble crests rolled over the broad, level surface of the imperial avenue, gliding steadily forward. Duke Peiyi Wendell sat within, his gaze sweeping the scenery of the streets as the car advanced.

Company representatives on two-wheeled bicycles appeared in the streets once more, their crisp bells scattering along the whole road; wheels spinning, hurried figures turned into the depths of the alleys. Carefree children played at street corners, waving old flyers and colored cloth strips picked up from who knew where—on the flyers the words concerning the church and the noble council could still faintly be made out. Men out to buy food passed along the roadside in thick coats, their steps hurried.

The magi-car drove through one stretch of road and entered the next intersection, its horn echoing along the street.

At a house by the road, doors and windows were shut tight, strings of pallid death's-head chrysanthemums hung on either side of the gate, swaying slightly in the wind. An old woman in black sat dully on the steps before the door, a black blanket bearing the crest of the imperial knightly order draped over her shoulders, a letter from some unknown sender clutched in her hand.

A knight officer in a military greatcoat paced in the sunlight. As the magi-car passed by, he looked up, and after making out the crest upon it he halted, turning to watch the vehicle drive past in silence. A hideous scar ran from his temple down to below his neck, and at the end of that scar was a collar hung with medals.

As the car drew near the Obsidian Palace, the broadcast within the city district began to sound—a few brief bursts of static, then light music: melodies the musicians had adapted from court music into a deliberately popular form.

Since a month ago, these melodies had played every day. Beneath them, some people's wounds slowly healed, some people's fates were fixed in darkness; all the undercurrents and all the daggers in the open and in the dark were stirring, and all were moving toward their end. When the melody rose again the next day, the sun would still rise and shine upon the crown of this city of thick mist, until the mist dispersed and those who survived went on facing this world that was neither beautiful nor ugly.

The arrow-tailed swallows that nested within the walls of the Obsidian Palace could not comprehend the joys and sorrows of the human world; they were merely startled into flight by the sudden broadcast, rushing into the sky in a flurry of wings, passing in disarray above the magi-car.

"Your Majesty," an attendant officer entered Royan Augustus's study and, after bowing, said, "Duke Peiyi has entered the inner court."

"Have him come straight here," Royan said with a nod.

After the attendant withdrew, Matilda, who sat at the desk helping handle state affairs, looked at her father: "Should I leave?"

"No need," Royan glanced at Matilda. "You stay here."

Matilda nodded, and some time after that, the still-imposing despite his years Grand Duke Pei Yi Wendell arrived at the study.

"Your Majesty, and Your Highness," the old duke bowed his head in salute, "good day to you both."

"Tell us how things stand in the city," Luo Yan said with an easy manner; compared to when the curse had still clung to him, his negative aura had clearly dissipated a great deal, and though he was still far from being a gentle man, the Typhon ruler no longer carried that oppressive, brooding air, "on your way here, what did you see?"

"Aldnan is slowly recovering, and so is the Empire," Pei Yi seated himself across the desk, "the situation has stabilized, those voices of doubt have all fallen silent, and those who wavered now stand in the right place. The forces we use to keep order have been weakened considerably, but the forces that would disrupt that order have been weakened far more severely. Only... Council Street and several of the upper districts are much quieter now."

"In time they will bustle again," Luo Yan said coolly, "we need only keep maintaining stability, let production gradually recover, let the supply of goods and prices in the other regions stabilize further, and once we weather this dangerous period, everything will keep improving."

He paused a moment, then asked, "What of the God of War's church?"

"The church itself proved easier to handle than expected. With the God of War's power fading, the surviving priests and templars have all lost their strength entirely; even if some of them still hold to their old faith, in the end they obeyed the arrangements of the imperial house. The reform committee has now taken up residence in the Great Cathedral and begun inventorying the assets and remaining personnel of the God of War's church. Incidentally, the numbers in those ledgers are truly... astonishing."

"The trouble lies more with the common folk. The worship of the God of War has after all endured in our nation for a very long time, and its influence has sunk into every corner of society. The ordinary people may not match the priests in devotion or organizational capacity, but those vast numbers of ordinary believers remain an unstable element."

"Which is precisely why we need the reform committee to see us through this transition," Luo Yan said, "the Cecilians' methods are very useful; they understand how to guide public opinion without inflaming the situation, letting society change subtly and imperceptibly. They turned the largest Shrine of the Dark Sun into an academic institution, and the doctrines of the Luminous Dawn into a civilizational compact. These experiences may not apply to Typhon one hundred percent, but at least they point us to a path."

Pei Yi lowered his head. "Indeed, just as you say."

Then Luo Yan mused a moment, and said thoughtfully, "Speaking of the Cecilians... Lord Pei Yi, is that warship of theirs still operating near the eastern coast?"