For the fifth time, Aralim wandered the Great Gardens of Keb’kres. This time, he had Miresh along—she had managed to step away from her studies with Master Velad’na. As they wandered through the vine-encrusted steps and looked up at the eclectic collection of trees, Aralim explained his thinking to her thusly: “As you know, I’ve often enjoyed the kapok trees as a metaphor for the Path. They grow so large, absorbing nutrients from the area around them—yet they are so oblivious to the smaller trees that begin to grow out of their very own crevices.”
Miresh nodded. They had discussed the kapok tree several times since arriving in Numa’nakres four years earlier.
“But in this garden,” Aralim countered, “We see other trees escaping the shade of the kapok, and I can’t help but feel that there’s something to that as well. Whether it be: ‘being at the right place at the right time allows you to overshadow even great beings,’ or perhaps: ‘through the support of others, you can rise above your true place’…. I’m not sure, but it truly has been interesting for my meditation.”
Their lantern staves earned curious glances from most of the gardeners, but some of the tourists seemed to recognize their look. Narr—whose robes concealed a breastplate as wide as two men—drew far more glances than the pilgrims.
While Miresh was primarily training, Aralim and Nill spent most of their time exploring the streets of Keb’kres. They frequented taverns of low and middle class—thanks to the coin that Nill had brought with them. It seemed she was far better at managing their Rema estate than Aralim—who didn’t try to manage it at all. When he wasn’t chatting in the bars with the Empire’s humble citizens, Aralim sought them out in shelters for the homeless, in the busy harbour, and in the outlying lumberyards and farms on the fringes of the city.
Soon, Aralim would seek out the Magistrate of Keb’kres, but for now he enjoyed the company of the people he was starting to see as representative of a force farther along the Path than even the Emperor. Without the lumberjacks, the fishermen, the merchants, and the builders, there would be no Emperor. The more powerful a spirit was, the less it cared about those farther behind on the Path—so he did not see the commoners themselves as far along the Path. But the Empire they composed together was so much greater than any of them individually.
If the outlying Empire was scheming against Rema and the Emperor, it warranted further study.