I had suspected it of course. When I saw how obsessive the Wizard had been about his findings, his new path opening up, the way to become a Supreme practically paved out in front of him. But for me, finding out that he wasn’t a one off but the standard for all the powerful people of this world, well… It left me feeling very bummed out.

I had spent over two years at the side branch now and though my hair and beard had grown out enough to start concealing my face, it still wasn’t at the point where my unageing could be sufficiently obscured, to my displeasure. There was nothing I could do about that but wait however, and the one thing I had for sure was plenty of time to get my look right.

Now having gotten the general gist of the whole expanse of Calzyner history, I decided to put off the more detailed and monotonous parts for a later time and instead focus on one of the other three academic areas to shore up my general ignorance.

I was a bit unsure about where to start though. I would be living amongst the peasants and the common people as much as possible and learning about the skills and professions they used seemed like a good idea to learn about from general knowledge. It could also maybe help me decide what would be the best thing for me to do in the future to secure a living, one that would make me as mobile and inconspicuous as possible.

Geography was good too. I’ve got maybe four years minimum left in this city and finding a new home and planning out a safe route should be top on my priority list. After all, despite my fondness of this place it wasn’t unique. Every city had an Institute branch and many side branches under them which I could visit and continue my reading at at any other time.

However despite these options, I still chose politics.

When I leave this city I might not even leave the island. I had asked around and found out that there were a few villages and towns further inland where I could settle down for a few years if I needed to. Plus, I couldn’t exactly learn a trade from a book listed in the general knowledge section despite how detailed it may be.

So, once again, I set myself down, pulled some books off the shelves, sat down at my desk at the end of the day, put on my two lamps for optimal brightness and got started on my new topic of research - politics.

But there was a problem.

That problem being… that the books in the politics section… aren’t really about politics.

The history section had some record of notable figures and biographies of course, but it was mainly a record of events and incidents pertaining to battles and conquests. Most of it could be surmised to, a battle occurred, these people died, this land was won and this settlement was newly founded there. This scaled from small skirmishes to battles as big as Zhorr’s great conquest, with the occasional mention of new clans and kingdoms being founded in the inbetween.

Politics in contrast was a catalogue of current circumstances. Or to be more precise it was a catalogue of the most prominent and powerful individuals and the factions that followed them, all of whom were currently alive and interacting with one another.

The category wasn’t really politics at all, but the closest approximation I could get between the Cali and English languages. What it really was was mainly a collection of biographies and essays that featured the descriptions and ambitions of the sorcerer kings, nobles, Coalition heads and their important subordinates and the factions under their control.

The Politics section was actually a sort of a bridge between the present and history. While these currently powerful people were given mention in the politics section, as time passed and the present merged into the past with these people moving on, unless they did something monumental like become a Supreme or did something world shattering like Zhorr or Ava, they were only given a passing mention in history.

Hence, while these books painted the picture of Calzyn’s politics, diplomacy and major figures through these biographies and other works in between, it was only given in rudimentary detail due to its significant but not essential importance, hence its being the second smallest section in the library behind geography.

Furthermore, from what I had found in my research, Sorcerer’s and Warriors lived very long lives.

Initiates would generally live for a hundred years, Adherents could live up to three hundred and Masters could surpass five hundred year life spans depending on how far along their cultivation got. Only Supremes surpassed a thousand years but even they too died at random ages. One Supreme called Longriver for instance had achieved the stage of the Supreme at only 293 years old, but had somehow managed to die from some unknown cause only 118 years later devastating his kingdom and leading to its almost collapse.

What this all means to say though, is that with the leaders of the world having expansive life spans and the inattention paid to the politics section of the side branches, after a book was made and published about a faction or an individual, a lot of the information to be gathered… was outdated.

Sure I found out about the current four heads of the Coalition and that there had been 147 Supremes to have emerged throughout history who had altogether established 23 dynasties, and I knew their names, their territories, their affinities… but only up to some hundreds of years ago.

I knew nothing of the current political climate and who was against who, who aligned with who, what people were after and most importantly… who I had to be most wary of.

Faced with this conundrum, I only had one other source of information if I wanted to thoroughly understand what was currently happening in this world.

Thankfully enough… She’s chatty.

***************************************************************************************************************

“You want to know about the state of the world’s politics?” Kara asked me.

“I’m trying to read up on it in the politics section but it's all outdated and I don’t know what’s really happening” I answer.

“Well I’m not surprised. They should really get rid of that section and reduce it down to be incorporated into history, make some more room for general knowledge, but it can’t be helped. No ones going to even think about telling the Coalition heads or any other top officials that the books about them are pointless and taking up too much room in the catalogue, even taking into account how inaccurate they are.”

“They’re inaccurate?” I ask.

“Of course. No Supreme or even a Master is going to allow a book about them to be dispersed all over the world without vetting and censoring what they say about them. That section is half flattery and the other half bullshit to phrase it most accurately.” Kara said derisively.

I ponder this for a moment before I start asking some of the most burning questions I had.

“So the Association Heads… what are they really like?”

“Well of course I’ve never seen them but word does trickle down about them, even to someone at the very bottom of the ladder like me. Didn’t your grandfather tell you about any of this?”

I had explained to her that basically, Elde had been my grandfather and when he was too old to work at his side branch anymore my “father” brought him home to live with us. While he was still alive and kicking he hammered into me how to read Cali, despite my not qualifying for acceptance by the Institute during the Selection as his way to pass the time.

“No. He spent all of his focus on getting me able to read Cali. Then he died.” I replied.

“Well, not to speak ill of your grandfather but he really should have told you more about the world while also teaching you Cali. But, what’s done is done, no point thinking about what ifs.” She commented.

“Now, as I’m sure you know from what you’ve read, the current four heads of the four associations are Martus, Ellea, Jorn and Selene of the Scholar, Trade, Martial and Pleasure Associations respectively. Despite whatever any Supreme may say these four are the most powerful individuals in all the world because of not only the number of Warriors and Sorcerers under their command, but also because they are four out of the only seven Grandmaster Warriors in all of Calzyn, and no Supreme can touch them.”

“But…I thought the Supremes were the most powerful though?” I interjected.

“That is a common misconception amongst the unanointed. If the Supremes really were the most powerful then do you think they would allow the Coalition to live free, outside of their control, when the overwhelming force and focus of the Coalition could be utilised by them to conquer Blessed Lands, the consequences be damned. No. The Supremes are certainly at a higher stage of the Path and have more firepower than Warriors but they could by no means defeat a Grandmaster Warrior.”

“Think about it.” She continued “When a Warrior becomes a Grandmaster they are basically pure mana and their bodies have been enhanced to impossible degrees. Supremes may have great and terrible spells they wield, but these spells are all essentially just mana, and a Grandmaster is far too durable to be defeated by a Supreme’s spell and too fast and strong for a Supreme to even think about pushing them back when facing them head on.”

“But then, how did the Glenna Skybringer escape and establish her own dynasty? Or Zhorr become the most powerful man alive” I questioned

“Because she was a gravity Sorcerer. Her magic could specifically make her faster than any of the Masters alive at the time. As for Zhorr, he was in a Blessed Land that amplified his power so that no Master could touch him. Plus, it was only when some more Supremes emerged and society started dividing that Grandmasters started appearing at all. Resources that had gone to Sorcerers now went to Warriors. Grandmasters, rarer even than Supremes it turns out, began emerging as a result and were discovered to be even more powerful. Along with this discovery, rallies to subjugate Supremes were scoffed at after what had happened with the first two and the advantages that had become apparent for the Coalition with the now greater resources. So the Coalition buckled and allowed the formation of Supreme dynasties to reduce their expenditure on their own Sorcerers and instead develop better Warriors.”

Hearing what Kara was telling me, it actually made a lot of sense. There were currently around fifty Supremes alive and only four Coalition heads. If the Supremes really were the most powerful and Sorcerer’s had an inflated sense of self in comparison to Warriors, no way would they allow the Coalition to continue going on, the fate of the world not in their hands as they probably thought it should be.

I was just coming to this realisation when Kara interrupted me some more with some new information for me to process.

“Now, back to the four heads. Martus “The Mighty Oak” is by far the most loyalist of the Coalition heads. He despises the Supremes and how they turned their backs on the Coalition and have impeded the development of humanity with their supposed greed and pride for millenia. His epithet is a result of his wood affinity and his reputation as not the fastest but definitely the most patient, wise and enduring. He is the oldest of the heads and pioneers the research of the Institute to find a way to exceed the Grandmaster level as well as discover the means to become a Supreme. He is the most mysterious but his origin is known very well. The story about him goes like this…” Kara went, before she broke out into storytelling mode.

“In his early days, before he achieved his peak, Martus, a young Warrior and son of a high member of the Scholar Association, fell in love with a girl. This girl was brilliant, beautiful and bountiful. But, she was also a sorcerer and heir to a Supreme and his kingdom. Martus attempted to woo her but as a princess and royal sorceress, she looked down on him as a simple Warrior and ridiculed him for his affection. Martus was humiliated, and retreated away from society while the girl flourished and thought nothing of the pain she inflicted. Naturally time passed and the years went on and this young sorceress, the pride of her family, achieved her destiny and became a Supreme in her own right. But unbeknownst to anyone at the time, Martus had also achieved the power of a Grandmaster. At the moment of her announcement, after stewing on his scorn and humiliation for years, Martus took his revenge and killed her, the founding Supreme of her dynasty, and all the other members of her clan and kingdom too.”

Wow.

“The world was shocked and the Supremes were outraged, but what they really were were terrified. They almost united to try and destroy Martus but having achieved his revenge, and in the face of the Coalition’s, which he loved, catastrophe, he publicly swore that he would remain in the Institute alone, forever. Dedicating his life and energy to research, only leaving if the Coalition was ever in danger so as to keep the peace and affirm the strength of the Coalition. The Supremes settled on this and with time Martus took the helm of the Institute faction where it flourished and prospered, but in turn became the most opposed to the Supremes, undermining them wherever and whenever they can and always trying to rally the rest of the Coalition to unite and root out these “cancers” as he considers all of the Supremes to be.”

Getting to this point Kara stopped and looked at me, seeing my puzzled gaze.

“Why wasn’t this mentioned in the history books?” I asked, flabbergasted.

“As a condition for peace it’s said. The Supremes maintain their pride but it's an open secret anyway and a popular story amongst the members of the Coalition too, so a lot of good that does” Kara exasperates.

Having said this, she pauses to organise her thoughts, before continuing on.