"I love this city," Eurya declared, spreading her arms to the sky. She strutted down the streets of Bastion as if she owned them. Most people took a single look at her, flinched, and ducked aside. Some leered at her exposed flesh and sparkling jewelry. One, attempted to grope her. She backhanded the man through a nearby building without even breaking stride. Nicos had seen no more attempts.

"This is a lawless place," Nicos noted. He eyed his surroundings with distaste. They had long ago left the market, and his teacher led him through what seemed to be genuine slave pens. "Not a shred of honor among any of them."

The pitiable people were barricaded in like livestock, stuck in gated enclosures and chained at the feet and wrists. There was no discrimination here; every age and sex and species was on display. Their very existence was to be a merchandising prop. Occasionally, armed men would enter the pens, and trot out a slave like a prized horse for a buyer.

Nicos watched it all with disdain.

Eurya noted his gaze. "Do you pity them?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I don't understand them. Why do they obey?" The boy had noted a few rebellious looks, but the vast majority of the slaves kept their eyes down and their backs bent. Their situation was intolerable. They outnumbered their masters, yet they did not rebel. Nicos could not comprehend it.

"They are broken individually," Eurya replied. "It's a slow and painful process, but when they break, and they almost always do, it tends to stick."

Nicos' crinkled his nose. "They obey the one who did that to them?"

"They obey everyone," Eurya replied frankly. "Obedience is a loop. One that reinforces itself. They obey, because obedience makes the pain go away. When all one has is pain, most will do anything to make it end. Each time, it gets easier. More reasonable. More natural. Like an infection within their Memory." She gestured to the paddock. "Once it is done, they are placed with the others. As a group, things are not as bad. They are more compliant when among their peers. They have something again: companionship. It is a thing that can be taken away. That threat gives their owners even more power over them."

"It is an abhorrent practice," Nicos summarized.

"Quite so." Eurya peered at him with undisguised interest. "But are you willing to do anything about it?"

Nicos frowned angrily. He couldn't stop imagining the Naru, locked in those cages. The elders, Nemuba, Durz, hunched an ancient, forced to work until they dropped. Grasa, sold as some degenerate's pet. And little Shala and Toru, torn from their home and from each other, consigned to live a life of subservience. It made Nicos' skin crawl and his pulse race to even contemplate.

"I want to," he replied, as evenly as he could, "but I am keenly aware of my own weakness. I am not capable of fighting an entire city."

Eurya chuckled fondly. "I think you might not be so aware of yourself as you think, but my evaluation of your progress will have to wait until our business in Bastion is concluded. Suffice it to say that you've come a long way, in a short amount of time."

"But not far enough," Nicos replied. "Not enough to make a difference, here."

She shrugged. "What difference do you wish to make? And why?"

"I don't know," Nicos admitted. "It just irks me, is all."

"Think on it," Eurya advised. "Know thyself, Nicos. Strength flows from knowledge."

"Yes, teacher." They walked in silence for a while. The slave pens seemed to go on forever. The cages were broken only by the occasional gathering, where specimens were brought up for auction. Nicos watched as his teacher's eyes absently roamed over the unfortunate beings. The corner of her lip was turned down, ever so slightly. "You seem to dislike slavery."

"It is abhorrent," she echoed his earlier words.

NIcos considered his next question carefully. He was treading on dangerous ground here, but it needed to be asked. "Could you end it?"

"I could," she acknowledged simply. "For a time."

The boy was caught off-guard by her honesty. His next question simply slipped out. "Then why don't you?"

She smiled at that. Tilting her head in fond reminiscence, she replied, "I used to. When I was younger and more... impetuous. I used to end the practice wherever I found it. For years, I did this. I really couldn't say how long. Centuries, probably."

"Then why stop?" Nicos asked. His teacher rarely spoke about herself. The few glimpses he had caught of her life from her shadow's Memory spoke of a woman who had experienced things that he could not begin to imagine.

"Why?" she asked. Her hand gestured around herself. To the filth that surrounded them. "This is why. For centuries I journeyed across the world, stamping out sin wherever I found it. My partner and I, drowning in blood until my sword was stained red. And for what?" She looked around, pointedly, at the slaves huddled on either side of the street. "Nothing. The world stays the same."

"And so you no longer bother," Nicos finished for her, feeling somewhat disappointed by her apathy. His master was so strong, so unbelievably able. That she could simply walk past those things she found amoral was beyond his understanding.

"I realized something important. At the end of the day, it was just an excuse to kill those who I found distasteful," Eurya admitted. "Now, I no longer wait for an excuse. And I no longer commit myself to causes I find pointless. I leave that to the young."

It was a chilling statement from the ageless woman. It wasn't the first time that Nicos had realized just how alien her lifespan had made her thought process, but it was a strikingly personal example.

"You think I should do something about it." he stated.

She shook her head in denial. "I think you should ask yourself if you want to do something about it. I am not you. Your beliefs are not mine, nor should they be. What I find pointless, you might find righteous. The path to power requires you to follow your heart." She held up a finger. "The trick is to find a way to do what you feel is the right thing, and empower yourself, at the same time."

Nicos hummed in understanding. The pair continued in silence until the slave pens ended. In the distance, a massive coliseum loomed over the horizon. There was a line leading into it, as close to orderly as Bastion could get. Nicos could hear a dull roar, even beyond the stone walls of the structure.

"The fighting pits," Eurya explained. "One of the largest attractions in Bastion. The owner recently took a trip into the desert, in search of exotic fighters and slaves. He took most of his muscle with him. A good chunk of the city's warriors." Nicos shifted awkwardly, as she smirked at him. He hadn't told her, but she knew. Of course she knew. "I suspect he won't be returning, nor will the majority of his men." She pointed at the coliseum. "Property is transitory in Bastion. Once the previous owner's fate is discovered, someone will make a play for it. Many someones. It will be bloody."

"...Why are you telling me this?" Nicos asked slowly.

She grinned at him. "You should know the state of the city, Nicos. You should know the consequence of your actions. The outcome will affect your Memory. A great change, because of you. Always think about the future, my student. How you ripple out, across the world."

"Yes, teacher," he replied thoughtfully.

"We will be gone before this happens," Eurya told him. "The Keeper is concluding his business in the city. We'll stay the night, and leave in the morning."

"I see," Nicos replied absently, still lost in thought. He glanced at her. "Business? Here?"

"There is a Messenger Guild near the center of the city," Eurya replied. She pointed in the distance, where a tall tower stood above its peers. At the very top, he could see several enormous, roosting birds. "They carry news, letters, and occasionally passengers across the Eastern continent."

He already had a cloud manta for flight. Which meant... Nicos blinked. "The Keeper is sending a letter?" Just saying it out loud made him want to laugh. Such a large figure, performing such a mundane task.

Eurya grinned at him, clearly seeing the humor. "We're giving notice to our client that we're on the way. Wouldn't want them to look for some lesser problem-solvers and arrive at a flattened city."

"That would be bad," Nicos agreed. He snorted to himself. "It just seems beneath him, somehow."

"Normally we wouldn't bother," Eurya admitted, "but this information came from an old acquaintance. It's only right to give him time to prepare."

She slapped the boy on the back. "Anyway! I feel like a soft bed, tonight. There are some reasonable lodgings farther into the city. I'll probably only have to kill half the guests to make them leave us alone." She sounded entirely too cheerful at the prospect. "It will be your first night of sleep in, what? Four or five turns?"

Nicos shrugged amicably, even as his mind drifted to their earlier topic. What could he reasonably do about slavery in Bastion? In a single night? He'd have to think on it.

Eurya led him to a small bar near the city center. The place was not meant to be a lodging, but a few quiet words with the owner, and Eurya had appropriated the man's quarters for the night. The Keeper had not yet returned by the time Selene made her way into the sky. Eurya left the boy to his own devices, simply settling in without a care.

Nicos waited until the city slept, then slipped out the door and onto the streets.

He made for the slave pens, thoughts swirling in his mind.