Cairo

Chapter 10: False Affections

"What happened to your face?" Cane asked as the trio stepped off of the train. "I forgot to ask with you looking like you were about to get into a huge fight with that woman."

Cairo touched his swollen cheek lightly with two fingers, winching just a bit as a prick of pain aroused where he touched his wound. He shrugged, sticking his hand into his pocket. "Coaltrice got mad during the rating. Demitros said something he shouldn't have."

"Why was she so mad?"

They were at a dirt road now, just arriving on the outskirts of the city. For miles, the only thing they would be able to see would be farm lands. Each city in Cairo provides its own source of food, so each city has its own stip of lands outside of the city where the farmers live. Cairo's mother was one such person. With a reluctant sigh, Cairo lessened his pace. There was only about a mile or so left before they hit his house.

"The old monarchy was brought up. Demitros called her a 'queen unfit to rule.'"

"I don't get it. Why would that upset her? She got something wrong with being called a tyrannical brute? The image she's spouting sure doesn't help her any if she really does have a problem with it."

"Not really. She's not someone that cares what other people think of her as long as she gets what she wants. The reason she was mad was because it means we haven't moved on at all in the past twenty years. We made the Government to suppress corruption from the monarch, but the corruption never went away even with the new Government. No matter how much they try to hide it, it's still there, and that's what's upsetting her."

"Because they found out?" Cane asked with growing wariness that both Cairo and Aerie could sense.

"Because they found out and there's nothing she can do about it except to step down. Right now she's the root of the problem. Even though we know and that people know that, it won't happen anytime soon. Coaltrice is a proud woman and she'd rather die than do that. Sometimes I find myself worrying that it might end just end with her dying, but then I remind myself I shouldn't really care."

"If it's for the sake of the whole country, I would. Why put people's lives in misery for the sake of her pride?"

"It means that everything she's worked her whole life for would be in vain-the suffering she went through, the sacrifices she's made, the losses she's had to bear; everything, every last little thing would be all for naught, and she can't accept that somewhere down the road she made a mistake."

Cane snorted. Shoving his hands into his pocket, he bent forward just enough to get a good look at his feet as he walked. "That really makes me trust the Government. The more you talk about them, the more I hate them. Even the people at the supposed core are sketchy at best. 'We have people to deal with the people' my ass."

"It's not as easy as it sounds," Cairo said. His eyes were almost glazed as he stared off at the road in front of him, watching the horizon shift the more he walked. "I don't trust anyone there anymore, but I believe they all came with good intentions of helping the people or reforming the country. One way or another they all lost their way. Now there's only a handful of people who deserve even half my trust, less that deserve all of it. Aidan doesn't really help that case, though-he was rotten the moment he was born."

"Who is he, anyway?"

Aerie pointed off into the distance at a house. It was a small and blue with smoke rising from the chimney. She bent forward to look at Cane. "His name is Aidan Yalles. He's the third Commander of the Fire Mages, otherwise known as Coaltrice's dog."

"Speaking of which," Cane said, "what exactly is rating? I mean, it felt like she was about to go experiment on your Kleptos or something."

"No, Coaltrice just hates when I come in to get my Kleptos rated, because now it's the second time that I've broken their glass (this time was by far the least damage-last time Aerie shattered the whole thing, sent glass flying everywhere, I even had to get stitches because some pieces hit me). She only rated it, though. You're aware there's a rating scale: S being for the strongest; A-F for the rest of them. We have the Kleptos go into a room, try to break the glass wall, and determine their rank from that. I haven't seen or heard of any Kleptos besides Aerie and Dementors to have the power to break the glass. It's infused with something that nullifies Kleptos power and has sensors that detect the power levels, kind of like one of those things they use to determine the magnitude of earthquakes."