Chapter 135 (2)
Austin's smile faded, and he looked down at his hands. "You noticed, then."
"I noticed before we left the city. You have been carrying something since we returned from Eldoria." Lucas paused. "Does it have to do with Grace?"
"Partly." Austin leaned his head back against the tree trunk and looked up at the sky through the branches. "She asked me something. About whether the clan and the city actually care about me, or whether they only care about what I can do for them. And I realized that I have been fighting my whole life for people who see me as a weapon. The elders want to use me. The city wants to use me. Even the Sky King—I am just another tool in his arsenal."
He let out a breath that was almost a sigh. "I told her that I wanted to learn to play the guitar. And that made me realize that I do not have many things that belong to me alone. Everything I am, everything I do, is for someone else."
Lucas listened without interrupting. When Austin finished, he reached over and slapped him on the back of the head.
Austin cried out, his hand flying to the spot where Lucas had struck. "What was that for?"
Lucas smiled. It was not a mocking smile, but something gentler, something that spoke of understanding earned through experience. "We all are tools or slaves to something or someone," he said. "That is how life is. Many people will tell you to be free, but you also become a slave to freedom. They will tell you to get power, but you will become a slave to power."
Austin rubbed the back of his head, but he did not look away.
"The city does not care about us," Lucas continued. "That is true. But not all of them are like that. Do not look at those elders who care only about their own power and their family's power. Do not look at those corrupt idiots who would sell the city for a handful of coin. Every Sky King who ever held the throne knew what they were and accepted it, but they never let it define them."
Lucas shifted his weight, leaning forward slightly as he spoke. "The Sky King Valeran—he stopped the war between the Council and the Clans. He wanted everyone to live together without war, and he succeeded. But not fully. Because only those of the Elder's bloodline, the original people of the Sky City, the Imperial Clan, and the Light Clan can become Sky King. That was the limit of what he could achieve."
Austin's eyes had stopped spinning. They were fixed on Lucas's face, dark and attentive.
"Solas became the next King because he wanted to protect the other clans and the city. He tried to show those in power that together we are unity. He tried to stop them from destroying the Clover Clan." Lucas paused. "Arthur is there for the same reason. All of them wanted a single thing: that we are fighting this battle of power, so at the very least let us fight it together, united as one, rather than divided."
He let the words settle for a moment before continuing. "They understood what most people call brotherhood. That no war can be won alone. That by showing each other loyalty and giving chances to those who truly want change, the throne could become something more than a seat for the powerful. But none of them have achieved that goal. Some died trying to almost achieve it. Because at the end of it all, Solas and Arthur cannot achieve it. Outwardly, the city shows the strength of the Sky King. But inwardly, you will realize that those who have true power are the elders. Not because their cultivation is greater than Arthur's, but because of the artifacts and the many things they possess to kill him if he does not run the city and the Sky Empire the way they see as fit."
Austin was silent for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was quieter than before. "How do you know that?"
Lucas smiled. "Because the Sky City would have become totally different with the many Kings it has had. If the Sky King truly held absolute power, the city would have changed generations ago. The fact that it has not changed tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies."
He leaned back against the tree trunk, his eyes turning toward the sky. "So what I am saying is this. You are a slave to life. You are a slave to desires. You are a slave to many things. Accept it. But ask yourself: are you fighting for what will make you proud? Are you fighting for what you want? And if you are, then find the people you know you can trust with your life—the ones who can trust their lives with yours—and whose goals are the same as yours. Push forward toward what you want to create in this world."
Lucas looked at Austin again, and his blue eyes were calm but intense. "The world is fair, Austin. It gives to those who want it the most and who are doing the work. It gives to those who improve, who grow, and who learn from what it teaches them. So think about that."
He closed his eyes and returned to his meditation, his attention turning inward once more to the flow of mana through his body. Beside him, Austin sat in silence, his back against the pine tree and his eyes fixed on the sky above. The wind moved through the branches, carrying the scent of pine and earth and the distant promise of rain.
Austin did not speak for a long time. He sat there, looking at the sky, and his face was thoughtful in a way that it had not been when he arrived. The hollow look had not entirely disappeared, but something else had joined it—a spark of understanding, perhaps, or the first stirring of a new resolve.
Lucas did not push him further. He had said what needed to be said, and the rest was for Austin to work through on his own. Some questions could only be answered in silence, and some wounds could only heal when the one who bore them was ready to let them go.