Like a switch had been turned on, Mali stopped her argument, and eating, in favor of frowning at Il San. "Updates? Impossible. Not even new subjects of debate. First and foremost, not everyone can be as open-minded as Gorolo and you. In any case, the time for new views has ended. The Divinity is still too essential for the King to listen to our words on any such matters. Especially after the Change… If anything, the King would throw us out of her Hall quicker than you can blink if the topic of releasing the knowledge of the Divine Art is proposed again. On that point... little research can be done on Vessels and this has been raised again in the past month by the Prince."

Mali grimaced at her mention of the Prince, but she continued, "Hmm, well, one thing that I can tell you is that Gorolo has really taken to the task to advocate for the Divine Art to be spread across the continent again, much more than the previous years were it was a touch and go topic for him. His claims lay on the fact of test materials, the more people exposed to the Art the more data gathered. Truly, a good argument, but he has little to no supposition on how to control the aftermath of the exposure.

“All may be peaceful now, but something like the Divinity could easily tip the scales the Six Unity worked hard to maintain for years. I personally agree with the King, and we already work hard to control the information released on the Divine Art, imagine having to control people when the Divinity reaches them with such ease. I certainly don’t want to live in the Jaded Era, thank you very much."

Il San could only nod grimly at Mali’s words. He did want the spread of the Divine Art, and he understood the implications of that. Thoughts of this brought him back to the talk he had with Gin. The birth of the Divine Art had indeed been great, the sparse historical records stated just as much. Though, the records never went into much detail about how that balance was achieved. The Archivers from the School of Thought in the Research Department still worked extensively to find and unfold the history of the Art to its fullest glory.

On the matter of its growth, however… ‘prosperous and invigorating’ was a truth veiled in a lie. Prosperity was indeed a phase, and it had been invigorating. However, the positives only stopped there. Lawlessness had been easily synonymous with the Divinity, and it had crept from the bottom up. The exclusivity of the Art itself had started in the Jaded Era, and the current King’s mother, the former King, had had to fight tooth and nail to get everything under control. As compared to other continents, Yerek had suffered the most with the inclusive nature of the Divine Art.

Raging wars had met the birth of their current King. Her growth, likewise of those of her elder and younger siblings, was mixed in clashing metal and flowing rivers of blood. From fighting for the inclusivity, the Royal family turned their support to the exclusivity of the Art, just like their foe had wanted. Only, their foes were never meant to be on the list as their executions were already guaranteed. One good thing that did happen, the former King did manage to live long enough to see peace on her lands once again. The young King had then gone on to grow the Nation of Jade by gaining more dominions under her.

As compared to the well known ‘chosen ones’ aspects of the Divine Art, the selection was very stringent. Certain criteria should be met by an individual to be accepted by the Schools, and in turn for the Night of Immersion. The money aspect was devised as a show of one's dedication to the prosperity of the Nation, as the amount wouldn’t only enter the coffers of the University, but also helped to finance the Nation to a steady development. The reduction of the monetary value of the families made for a great deterrence of the rise to power of those in the Noble Ward as well. Aside from this, it was true that Il San had no concrete demonstration of how to control the Art for it to not be a burning hell like the Jaded Era, but he believed that more than enough journals of study of this had been written, and an experiment wouldn’t hurt.

The decline of the gods’ stones would be in their favor as well, though debatable, and the stringent restrictions could be taken higher by the release of the Art. This was the proposal that Il San believed Gorolo had explained to the Divine Court. The release could start from the wealthy of the bunch to those that held government positions, and downwards. But as the escalation happened, the results from the candidates would also increase. To Il San, this was doable, and he would have liked to test the plan and see the results. However, one thing that they couldn’t guarantee was the collective mentality of those with the Art. At the moment, there was a steady control of those with Divinity, most within the confines of the Ward. Now, would the Ward and its esteemed persons allow for the mixture of those not 'titled'?

Il San would readily degree as well. The King was the say all of the Nation, however, she couldn’t do things as she well pleased least she was written off as a tyrant. Least she made those that were subject to her rise against her. The biggest flaw of centering those with Divinity at the Ward and Palace was that the King slept with a double-edged sword. A sword hanging by a thin thread that relied on her discretion to keep it afloat. The arrogance of those in the Ward also knew no bounds. Just because they had to sacrifice their wealth to the nation for the acquisition of the Art, it meant little as they saw it as a ticket to act with the highest degree of privileged accession*.

The worries the King had towards this were many, Gorolo and Il San knew this best. However… the Change couldn’t be kept as it was, especially with no headway for it. The Immersion of the gods’ dust, the unknown Vessels, and various other topics needed had their own ways of being handled, but there would come a time that the methods had to, also, change.

"What has the Prince said about the Vessels," Il San asked with a hint of interest. It was a hint, but he was, in fact, very curious about this particular subject.

Mali's furrowed brows deepened, "... Since there is little headway made from the research results he wants the King to have one Vessel prepared for experiments. I tell you, Il, he becomes bolder as time passes."

This didn’t surprise Il San all that much. The princeling was someone with his guts out through and through. And who could say anything to him? How would it, what you say, create any difference other than being in his bad books? If there was ever a contradictory human, Malakim (Marak) was that walking contradiction. And by far a person ahead of the herd if anything nice was to ever be said about the otherwise walking disaster in human skin.

Putting the matter of the Prince aside, Il San asked his key question, "Mali, what exactly are Vessels?"

Mali had to pause. The question was not hard, it wasn’t tricky. It had a simple description to follow up with the answer, too. Only, as ‘well known’ as the Divine Art was to its users, what they considered known was but the surface. Besides taking the time and effort of forming the knowledge accepted by those below, they had to keep most of the new discoveries and other hidden information for the higher up only. There were three levels of acquiring such knowledge.

°°

The descendants from the Schools of Life in the University had their own priority. Depending on which School you were from, you had your own agenda and goals to join and accomplish. For example, the School of Thought descendants were focused on the recovery and deciphering of text those new and old, the School of Craft placed their full attention on the merger, in all its applications, of the Divine Art. The Divine Court, which was also based in the University, was where all these findings were consolidated, and this was the department that Mali had been promoted in. After the Court came the King. She had her own studies, her own focus.

The higher-ups didn't know all since, for one, they needed to pay a bulk of their efforts into research and experiment. Another, the King kept more information from them, and they believed that what the King knew could help them draw results and take some of their projects a step further, maybe even ten steps further. An example of suppression of knowledge could also be found in the history of the Jaded Era. Those of the School of Thought accepted by the University would learn about it upon their joining.

However, before then, no information of the Era would be presented to its fullest extent. Not names, not places; nothing of significance as its title should indicate. Those in the Wards weren’t privy to the knowledge, least could be said about those outside the Ward and beyond. Even Il San, who was known to be the King's confidant didn't know it all. The only grace he had was his involvement in the short but lively Conquest Era with the King, and by being close to her, he managed to hear snippets here and there. The Conquest Era of the dominions was far more well known than the Jaded Era, even the longer Era previous of Jaded had grander limelight.

The subject of Vessels was also such a topic, however, it was still shrouded in more mystery. This was one of the topics that the King had utter control over, the one topic she cared not one’s rank or prestige and influence. She wasn’t against drawing her Mastodon of Calamity and struck down those that oppose her claim on the subject. The Divine Court was the only group of people with a smudge of knowledge on the title.

The word ‘Vessels’ had once been a derogatory term towards such humans as the term had been adopted from the vessels which were used to store gods’ stones. This was due to the fact that these particular individuals were compared to the vases used for storage, as they were under the King’s careful but personal care, making them fragile, and otherwise irrelevant. However, this particular opinion did come to change, as they were currently known as ‘Priceless vases’ in the Court's, an opinion that came about when they finally learned of the true meaning behind the human Vessels.

Mali believed that Il San only knew that Vessels were an odd existence that had no foundation in the Divine Art thus being kept close to the King for safeguarding. Her certainty of this was only true as she had been the one to tell him so. She had also keyed him in on the Jaded Era, and various other things. See, Il San wasn’t the only one to have a confidant in Mali, as Mali had a confidant in Il San too. They served well with sharing of ideas and offering insights that Mali found great to have outside of the brainy people she had to butt heads with.

"I'll tell you this since you already have some inkling about them..." Mali said. She found no reason not to. What also pushed her to tell him, was the blatant involvement that the Prince was making headway towards the subject. His challenge was more than easy to see. His gradual shift from support towards the King already baring its fangs. Mali knew none of what she said would make much of a difference, but it was better the vengeful man had a step taken forward towards his opponent than having nothing at all.

Il San learned:

Vessels were an extremely important addition to what could be dubbed as the Divine Art System. They were even odder than Crafters, and too far in between. Vessels could absorb more gods' stones than normal people. They were able to grow stronger and make gods' stone their source of energy rather than a simple ‘awakening catalyst’. The most prominent factor of Vessels before their awakening was that they have no sense of the Divine Aura, not its flow or vibrations like a normal person.

An example, there could be a fight between Divine Art users and the Vessel would only see that people were flying or being pushed away without seeing the energy flow that caused the actions. At most, they would witness ripples in the disturbed spaces.

It was a simple enough description, one that didn’t need all of one’s brainpower to process. A simple enough description that caused the first phase of the Change to occur. A simple enough description that the King had given and left it at that, causing a wave of disturbance in the Court. A wave that had taken a better part of two years to settle down. A settlement that the King had had to achieve through the viciousness of threats.

It was a simple enough description for Il San to conclude the obvious.

Gin Ena was a Vessel.

When Spear had gone to report his findings on Gin, the mentioned ‘symptoms’ were the same that were observed. Not one factor was different. Spear’s discovery had also been the major reason Il San had had to make up a rather lousy excuse and invite Mali to the Distant Jade. Outside of the Fighting Art, Mali was someone with a lot of enthusiasm for the Divine Art. She was usually a playful person, but when Divine Art was brought up she became ever so serious. She had been his best bet to figure this small detail out. His knowledge of Vessels had only stopped on the small facts Mali had shared. Facts he had thought light of.

Il San sighed heavily. He had needed an avenger, but what he got was something beyond his expectation. When he looked back, the people he got as his students were not ordinary either. They all had something that made them special. He had to say his luck may have been dealt with by the gods themselves as the bunch of them were special enough for them to not repay any of his goodwill!

Il San's sigh weighed far more tons than the previous one. The card of luck you have dealt this time is far more than I had hoped for, dear gods. He now had to arrange contingency plans, no, he had to recreate his plans from scratch.

"Oh for ba's sake! What are you sighing about!" Mali, who had been talking nonstop about the implications of the discovery of Vessels to the Court, finally discovered that the one she was talking to wasn't taking in anything she was saying, so she couldn't hold herself back as she chided him.

"Apologies. These discussions tend to have me thinking about my students, which makes me rather annoyed at times. What were you saying?" Il San regained his solemn look. He couldn't tell her yet, he would take his time on the matter of young Gin and invite Mali over again for her to examine the boy but at a later date. After, he would, hopefully, know which direction to take.

Mali pulled a face, but started, "The King is starting her opposition...."