"Bait...? But that's dangero—"
Blood drained from Laemno's face as he realized his blunder, quickly cutting himself mid-sentence.
"Oh? Dangerous? How so?" Anthea's smile slowly became a grin. "That's an odd reaction from a supposedly oblivious eleven-year-old boy. This confirms my suspicions. There's evidently a third party involved."
"You tricked me!" Although he voiced his anger at her, he was mostly frustrated at his own stupidity.
"How childish, but I can't blame you on that account, can I?" Anthea gracefully rose up from her seat. "Your situation becomes much less interesting yet more believable with the added factor of outside interference. I don't know how they've managed to escape the Luminous House's watch and make contact with you, but this at least explains the gaps and inconsistencies I've been noticing."
The Grace of Blossoms moved towards the exit, and her light-bearing hair followed like dazzling rays.
"A poor child, corrupted by the malice of ignorant mortals. I shan't strip you of your last days of freedom, but I'll be watching. You need to meditate on the teachings of the Sidereal Revelations and accept your fate. Your death will be the salvation of an entire kingdom. Shouldn't that prospect fill you with zeal?"
Something stirred within Laemno. Perhaps those were the fleeting emotions of his previous self before the nameless young man from Earth had transmigrated into his body. Nevertheless, they bubbled akin to a strong wave, reaching desperately from the depths of his subconscious.
"Never. Call me selfish if you want, but all my life, I've been caged in a tiny prison, unable to experience what most other people took as a given. This sense of luxury, holiness, and baseless reverence hold no meaning to me. I merely want freedom—the freedom to choose my own path, the freedom to suffer the consequences of said choice, and the freedom to brave through them without the shackles of a so-called fate."
"Even if those consequences will cause the suffering and demise of countless innocent people?"
A feeling of strength rose from Laemno's gut, twisting his expression into a toothy grin. At that moment, he didn't fear the Grace of Blossoms, the Hallowed Sovereign, or anyone else for that matter.
"I want to live; those innocent people want me to die. Am I wrong to not care the least about their wellbeing?"
"You're very articulate for an eleven-year-old boy, but that's all you are." Anthea's tone oozed amusement. "You'll still live as long as we want you to live and die when we want you to die. Do not presume to have a choice."
"I am very petty. If I have no other option but death, I might decide that I can choose when to die." Laemno slid further under his covers, enjoying the softness of his pillow. "Who knows? I could jump out of the window right now, choke on my own tongue tomorrow, or even stab myself minutes before the Sacrificial Ceremony."
"Human baseness knows no bounds." Anthea shook her head dismissively before resuming her exit. "I look forward to your public execution, cute little Laemno."
—
In the middle of Priene, amidst bustling rows of buildings and colonnades.
Nysa took a leisurely walk under the ornate, silver-and-white stoae with her servants. Shops and temporary stalls extended as far as the eye could see to her right, surrounded by crowds of women and slaves running errands for their households.
However, the marketplace's cacophony seemed to quiet the further one approached the center.
Not unlike a barrier of manifested status, the outer colonnade separated the lower strata of Hierapetra's social hierarchy from the rest.
To Nysa's left, a public yet somehow exclusive area expanded into a rectangular open space. Its borders were marked by specially adorned columns carved with the particularly meaningful word citizens.
Stronger than legions of guards and louder than a thousand warhorns, that simple word stopped anyone who didn't fit that specific criterion from stepping past the outer colonnade. Only men earned citizenship rights in the Kingdom of Stars and Astrologers, though women could attain a similar status when joining the Temple of Stars.
The rest, including children, slaves, and foreigners, were treated as second-class residents at best and property at worst.
Rigid customs, traditions, and unspoken rules reigned over Hierapetra's society, and few dared to brave them in fear of public scorn, though that didn't matter to Nysa. Under the shocked gaze of her slaves, she trod over the sacred ground of the nation's upper strata without so much as a single thought spared at the consequences.
This was the agora of Priene—the cradle of Hierapetran judicial, religious, and political activities.
While a Kingdom in name, Hierapetra never had a king in recorded history. According to the available texts, it simply retained this designation from its founding days in the Fourth Era, also called the Heroic Epoch.
Nevertheless, modern scholars insisted that the Hierapetra from the Fourth Era—before the descent of the Hallowed Sovereigns—and the current Hierapetra shared few things except the name. When the nation's Hallowed Sovereign and patron Goddess, Adonaios, took control at the end of the Heroic Epoch, the entire country underwent drastic changes.
As a matter of reference, they were currently in the Year 1911 of the Sixth Era. The seven nations followed the Hallowed Calendar, starting at Year 0 from the beginning of the Fifth Era, commonly named the Depraved Epoch.
Returning to the matter at hand, the Kingdom of Stars and Astrologers had never crowned a king since taking its current form. Its ruler had always been the Goddess of the Celestial Sphere and the Mother Dawn, Her Divine Majesty, the Hallowed Sovereign Adonaios.
However, it would be naive to expect a deity to actively partake in the worldly act of human governance. Aside from exceptional times, Hierapetrans were allowed to supervise themselves so long as they followed the Sidereal Revelations. Hence, the nation's judiciary consisted essentially of appointed magistrates from the Temple of Stars.
The Aristocracy acted as a loosely-united governmental body whose primary purpose was to propose laws. Said laws would then be discussed and voted on by a Common Assembly comprised of the entirety of Hierapetra's citizens.
Those public debates often occurred within the agora of each city. The voting results would then be taken into account and further discussed in the agora of the Divine Capital before an edict would finally be issued.
This made Priene's forum the most critical political hub across the Kingdom.
Leaving her slaves and the marketplace's clamor at the entrance, Nysa carefully navigated inside the agora's garden square. She soon encountered some closed domes, most likely used as pseudo-courts by the judiciary, and a few scattered altars dedicated to the Hallowed Sovereign.
Deeper within this oasis of serenity, the echo of manly voices started to resound in graceful speeches, far removed from the unsavory racket of the outer colonnade. She soon noticed a group of men chaotically seated on the grass, roughly bordering a platform of chiseled marble.
Everyone listened to the speaker standing on top of it, some with nods of agreement, others with clear disapproval.
"This is it," Nysa mumbled under her breath, her steps steadying as she proceeded towards her target.