The next day, I sit at Eryk's table as we wait for the second bell. Eryk can't hide how nervous he is. He must be worrying about Claire. I know I am. I just keep telling myself that she must be fine. I know we should talk about some of the stuff that happened at the party, but I can't bring it up with this heavy feeling hanging around us...

The second bell rings just like usual, and we meet eyes for a few long moments. She... is coming... right? A few more ticks pass. She doesn't show up exactly at the bell, I tell myself, but every tick that passes makes me more worried she won't show up. Maybe I should have asked Chisa to search the city, but she's still sleeping this early...

Eryk turns to me and opens his mouth to say something, only for the opening door to interrupt him. And Claire is there, John seeing her in just like always.

"Claire!" Eryk stands and exclaims before coughing into his hand and calming himself. "It's good to see you, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She gives a little wave of her hand like she's brushing off the concern.

"You were taken by a noble," Eryk points out.

"Oh, he just wanted to ask questions," she continues in her lighthearted tone, before crossing her arms and huffing indignantly. "Asked me a million different things about the turmoil in Shonamakase. I've read about it, but I don't I know any more than the next history instructor. It's not like I have any firsthand experience."

Then she turns to me and puts a finger up. "I did find something out from his line of questioning though. He believes you are from the Arinea noble family. He seems to think that your parents took the 'ne' part out of the family name, making you 'Aria,' to hide your noble status."

My mouth falls open a little. "Arinea? Who are they?"

Claire shrugs. "I don't know, probably just some low status Shonamakasean noble family."

"But... What's the chance that they have a name so similar to mine?" I ask. It was chosen for me pretty randomly by Francis, how did I end up with something so close? Isn't that a huge coincidence?

"It's not that surprising," Claire shoots down the thought. "The lower nobility have historically been a bloated class in Shonamakase. With the sheer quantity of families deposed, your name could be a few letters off from a dozen of them. Karl Liffan just happened to find a particularly close match and fixated on that."

"Oh..." So that's how it is...

"Yes, so-" She gives a small clap of her hands as she leans down a bit toward me. "Karl Liffan thinks you are from some deposed noble family, a fact I'm sure he is leveraging in his unscrupulous dealings with the noble looking to buy you." Right, he did tell them I'm a noble. Besides just my hair and how I act, this explains why they believe it...

"I thought about it. That would explain his appearance at Eryk's party yesterday; a bid to uncover any connections or supporters still loyal to your family - to you. If we follow that line of thought, he likely expects that Eryk is somehow tied up in the affairs of these imaginary supporters of yours."

Standing up straight once more, she shakes her head with a thin smile. "Quite a fiction he has built up in his head, pulling together scraps of incomplete and incorrect information, and allowing his own fears and guesses to fill in the rest. This is why learning things properly is so important. On that note, how about we get to your lessons, hm?" It takes me a few moments, taking in everything, to realize how smoothly she brought us back to what we should be doing here.

"Y-yeah," I stammer a little. "Right, that sounds good."

"In that case..." With a half step back, Claire dips into the curtsy she skipped with her arrival, greeting us like she does every day. We respond with our own greetings, and just like that, things are back to normal. Time for my lessons...

Given our topic of the morning, Claire skips ahead in my history lessons to talk about the events in Shonamakase. Like she mentioned yesterday, it was eight years ago. She starts off by explaining how the nobility in Shonamakase is different than Melphira. They don't get married, have a son, then pass the noble title onto him, like we do here.

"It's a good deal more complex than in Melphira," she explains, before getting into a little more detail. Instead of just getting married and the first son assuming the noble title, noblemen take multiple wives so they can have more children, and then choose the one they like the best. As for the rest of the children...

"For women in Shonamakase," she begins, "when they marry, they become a permanent part of their husband's family. They take their husband's last name or clan name- we'll get to clans later," she pushes that bit off with a small motion of her hands, "and even if he dies, she will remain a member of that family. If she remarries, it will be her new father who makes the arrangements."

"Mmm..." I hum along as I consider that. So it doesn't matter who was the father that gave birth to her, just the one in whatever family she belongs to at the time...

"Things are different for men. If they don't inherit the noble title, they usually become a branch family. This means that they remain beholden to the head of the family, but their last name is changed to show they are not direct descendants, with no claim to the noble title. Of course, that's unless the main line doesn't produce a son they like. Then they'll adopt the best candidate from one of their branch families, and make him the new head. It's all quite complicated, with a myriad of plots and conflicts between the competing families and potential heirs."

I nod slowly, kind of dumbfounded by all of it. It doesn't help that I have to stop her briefly to clear up the couple unfamiliar words in her explanation. Even when I do understand, it's pretty amazing. Dealing with all of that must drive people crazy...

"So, all told, the way their nobility works leads to a bloated class of laynobles, beholden to the main line of their family, all having many children to build their own base of power, and in hopes of producing a son attractive enough to be adopted into the main family. Any questions?"

With her pause, I have to think for a bit, before one comes to me. "How do their classes of nobility work? Like how lower nobles give birth to high electors, then low electors here - how does their status work there?"

Claire smiles and nods. "Very good question. Compared to Melphira, the noble hierarchy in Shonamakase is both less strict, and more. As you know, their names give a direct indication of their class. There are three classes of nobility, low, high, and royalty, with four to six syllables in their names."

"Right..." I mumble. It would be really easy to tell their class when it's built into every one of their names... Faking things like I've been doing would be completely impossible there.

"However, in Shonamakase, noble class doesn't tell the whole story. Among the three noble classes, families compete against their peers, using their base of support from their branch families to determine who stands above one another. Larger branch families, with more power, achievements, and influence, give the higher ranked main family more sway and better standing."

"That... makes sense." If they have more people helping them, of course they will come out on top.

"Now the next point. Class in Shonamakase is set at birth and cannot be changed. The only exceptions to this are adoption or marriage into a higher or lower class and taking on the new family's name. Their explicit naming system ensures a highly rigid hierarchy... In theory," Claire adds pointedly, in a tone that makes me sit up a little straighter because I know she's about to get into something even more complicated.

"A high class noble family will continue to birth high class nobles. Their branch family's branch family's branch family's branch family, will still be of the highest class, despite their extreme removal from the main line. While they may have a high class name, the reality of the situation is very different. Distant branch families will have less and less influence the further removed they are. Even if they are royalty that can trace their line back to the king himself, when they are removed far enough, they will have no more pull than a laynoble."

"Ohh..." I hum and nod a few times when she explains it that way. So even if they have a really long name to show they're high class, being super far away from the actual titled noble of their main family will make them have less power, even compared to people who should be lower class than them. I see what she means by being more and less strict...

"Alright, so with all of that in mind, let's get onto the important part," Claire finally goes on. "As I said, their system leads to them having too many lower nobles. Or at least, many branch families with very low status. Many centuries of this meant a huge number of low status nobles, rendering the title nearly meaningless. The government of Shonamakase grew more and more unable to function properly with so many families bickering and plotting against each other all the time. However, Shonamakase as a nation, is extremely entrenched in their traditions, so the kings always refused to make any changes, because-" and she makes little quotes with her hands, "'that is how it has always been.' You see some of the same thinking in Melphira, but not nearly as much as in Shonamakase."

I have nothing to comment as she moves from that point to the next one. But it feels really silly to do things one way for no reason except that's how you've done it before... How are you ever supposed to grow or improve like that...?

When Claire goes on, I make myself refocus. "Things finally came to a head eight years ago when King Estal's wife died and there was an agreement for him to marry a woman from Shonamakase royalty to help renew the alliance between the two countries. There were so many brides offered up and so much infighting that it threatened to tear apart the upper ranks of their government. The chaos finally pushed their king, Goranumefosa, to act."

"Sorry," I raise a hand. "Their king? What was his name again? I've never heard it before."

"Goranumefosa Shonamakase," Claire repeats it more slowly, and I take some time sounding the whole thing out. Why do Shona names have to be so darn hard...? When she's given me enough time to try memorizing the long string of nonsense that's supposed to be a name, Claire moves on.

"Goranumefosa used the opportunity to cull the ranks of the nobility. Now, not all of the information on this is certain, but I have read that besides reducing the strain on their government, there were likely a number of lower rank nobles who had lost their loyalty to Shonamakase, and turned to spying for Eschalle, or otherwise undermining the government on purpose, for their own gain. The king used the chance to oust them, to solve both problems in a single stroke."

That's... weird. Why would they work with their enemies? Just for power? Was it that important to them? Why?

"Yes?" Claire prompts me, which makes me realize I'm frowning. So I repeat my question for her. Claire just shakes her head, almost looking amused, before responding. "You're still a child in some ways, I see. To put it simply, people are greedy. They have this... hunger inside them, a void that can never be filled, never be satisfied. No matter how much wealth or power they attain, they always want more."

I'm staring at the table, considering that, and starting to wonder, are all humans really that way? That's when she clarifies, "Of course like everything, it varies from one person to the next. Some find it easy to be content, but others are utterly insatiable. And-" she raises a finger to make her point, "-it is not always a bad thing. Without desire, nothing would ever begin. Nothing would grow without the desire for more. Are you content knowing what you know now? Or would you rather learn and grow more?"

"Right..." I nod along as she points that out. Of course I want to learn more. Much, much more. Even I have desire, I would never have left the rail unit program if I hadn't had my own desire to learn and explore. It feels so long ago looking back, but it hasn't even been a year since then...

"It's a narrow path to walk. On one side, there is complacency and stagnation. On the other though... The true danger is when that hunger inside grows too great. When ambition gives way to aimless greed, and you begin to seek power for power's sake." She makes a big gesture with her hands, pulling us back to our topic. "Those were the kind of people, consumed by their own greed and desire for power with no goal but the power itself, who nearly brought about the destruction of the Shonamakase government eight years ago."

"They sought power in any way they could, even by betraying their own people if that's what it meant. With so many brides offered for the upcoming political marriage, there was intense infighting over who would be best to choose. There is little in terms of proof, but with how bad it got, it's almost certain that the traitors were doing everything in their power to poison the relations and turn everyone against each other more than they already were."

Claire places her hands flat on the table again. "And as I said, all of this forced the king's hand. He used his absolute authority and culled a large portion of the nobility. There's no telling just how many nobles were deposed, it could have been hundreds or thousands." Having finished with that whole explanation, she pauses, before she thinks of one more thing, and sighs deeply. "Unfortunately, Goranumefosa did not actually do anything to fix the underlying problem. He removed the excess nobility, but did not change their laws in any way to stop it from happening again."

My mouth falls open. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

"B-but why?" He already saw what would happen, and it caused huge problems for the country, but he still didn't do anything to fix it?

"I can't say for sure," she shrugs. "He may have had some plan in mind, or some reason for the way he did it. Or, it may have been ambivalence or plain foolishness. There is no way to know."

"..." I let out a long breath and sit back in my seat.

"I believe that should cover everything from that particular event. Any questions?"

After considering for some time, I shake my head slowly.

"Good, now..." After some consideration, Claire finishes up on that topic and we use the last bit of our time before lunch to get back to Ternian.

Once lunch passes, we move from just covering more new words, to grammar. She gives explanations about verbs and nouns and tenses, and why we make sentences like we do. It's kind of weird, her explaining the actual rules of the language that I just picked up and used naturally until now...

The eighth bell comes before I know it, and Claire heads out. That means it's time to go meet Laslo and buy the alba like we agreed yesterday. I have my whole bag, heavy with copper and iron coins, totaling thirty thousand barr all added up. I gave it a second count this morning, just in case.

With just a few words between us, we get going. Once we're outside, I notice it's drizzling a bit. Thinking back through Chisa's memories, it looks like it's been like this since about midday, with the rain getting heavier further south, especially in the fields outside town where rain comes much more often than in the city itself.

I rub my arms and shiver a bit. The rain makes it feel colder than it has been until now. John picks me up with a grin. "Chilly? It's about time you start wearing some heavier clothes, don't you think?"

"Yeah," I agree, as the men start quickly down the road. The thicker, heavier fabric of their higher class clothes make them look a whole lot warmer than my patched peasant clothing. A least there aren't any holes in them right now...

Before we head to Lord's Refining, we stop at Eryk's house and Irene changes me into one of the nicer dresses he has for me. It's dark green, with lots of yellow patterns in the sleeves. I drop off my stuff and get ready, then it's time to go.

"Thanks again for the clothing, Eryk."

He waves it off as expected. "No problem, Aria." I wish I had a better way of showing him just how grateful I am for everything he does... Now warmer, with the thick fabric rubbing between a couple fingers, I keep thinking about that in John's arms, on the trip south.