Asran took the Praesit home after the sparring match. The flying subway train flew through the air on tracks it seemed to make for itself that formed only as the car moved. It was one of the strangest conveniences in the Deux Cities and also one of the most normal things in a place built on merit and structure.
The Praesit system was public, cheap and efficient, which made it the one transport everyone used regardless of rank. That was part of the point. In a society like the Shvé Civilization, equality did not mean sameness but it did mean that some systems were deliberately kept open to everyone. The Praesit was one of them.
He sat near the window for part of the ride and watched the city slide past beneath the glass. That was when he noticed the Transparent Cars.
There were a lot of them.
They moved along the roads below in neat streams. Their bodies were clear and glossy in the fading evening light, almost like moving sheets of glass with engines hidden somewhere inside them. They were another invention of the Towermaster, designed for ordinary road travel, though "ordinary" only applied in the way it always did here.
They were mostly used for transporting large groups of people or hauling cargo, which was why they were everywhere despite the fact that almost nobody had a private one. In the Deux Cities, private ownership was still shaped by merit and public transport remained the standard for nearly everyone. That was how the cities kept their rhythm. The Transparent Cars made it easy to see just how many people were out there, going somewhere together, even if they were all on different tracks in life.
Most of the cars he passed were full.
He watched faces turn in the glass, people staring out at the city with the same mixture of awe and uncertainty that newcomers always had when they first arrived. A lot of them were clearly headed towards the lower Deux City. He could tell because the cars were packed with people whose clothes were simpler. The lower city held those with fewer merit points while the higher city belonged to those whose contributions had placed them further up the system. The Academy District sat in the upper city, which explained why he had classmates from both levels. The Praesits made that movement possible. They were cheap enough that even students from the lower city could reach the upper district without it becoming a burden. That was one of the few ways the meritocracy remained practical instead of cruel.
Asran got off at his stop and stepped into the station platform with the sound of the Praesit fading behind him. For a moment he considered using a Teleportation Rune like he usually would. That would've been faster. He could have crossed the distance in a blink and gone straight home without thinking about the walk at all but he didn't want to. Not tonight. The sparring match had left him more awake than usual and he felt like moving through the city on foot for once.
So he walked.
The air outside was calm. The city lights began to settle into that warm evening glow that made the higher districts look almost unreal. The streets were broad and clean, lined with structures that balanced old Shvé design with newer ORS practicality. Some of the buildings reflected the sunset in polished glass. Others carried panels that glimmered softly as the day began to shift towards nightfall. Asran kept his hands in his pockets and followed the sidewalk at an easy pace.
That's when he noticed her.
She was standing near the edge of a viewing platform where the cityscape was seen at and beyond the horizon. The first thing he saw was her white silky hair that looked almost luminous. Then he saw her eyes, which were bright gold and strangely steady. Her skin was dark bronze, her expression was calm and her smile was faint but warm enough to stop him in place for a second he couldn't explain.
She turned her head and looked at him as if she had already noticed him long before he noticed her.
"Do you enjoy walking?"
The question was simple. Her voice was soft, clear and very composed. Asran realized, with a slight delay, that he hadn't answered. He blinked once, then looked away for a second and back again, as if that might make the moment less obvious.
"I uh... I just wanted to walk."
She smiled a little more.
Even detached as he was from a lot of things, he still appreciated beauty. He had enough sense to recognize when someone was beautiful, and she was very beautiful. He stayed where he was and kept his expression neutral with effort. She glanced back at the sunset and then at him again.
"Would you like to watch it with me?"
Asran hesitated only a little. She added, almost casually:
"I'm not going to kidnap you, by the way."
That made him stare. Her smile widened just enough to show that she had noticed the reaction and found it entertaining. Asran let out a short breath through his nose.
"I can defend myself."
"That wasn't the question."
"I know."
"Then answer it properly."
He looked at the horizon again. The sun was lowering now and the sky over the Deux Cities had begun shifting into gold and red. He could have kept walking. He could have left. He could have made up some excuse and gone home. Instead he found himself nodding.
"Sure. I'll watch it with you."
She stepped slightly aside so he could stand beside her and he did. The distance between them wasn't large but it felt deliberate enough that he didn't feel crowded. The Transparent Cars still drove along the roads, the Praesits continued their routes overhead and the lower city beginning to glow in the distance as more people returned home or moved to their night shifts.
"Are you satisfied with the life you're living now?"
Asran looked at her. The question was so direct that it felt almost rude, except her tone wasn't rude at all.
"Are you a politician?"
That made her smile again, this time with a little more amusement.
"In a sense, yes."
"You actually have some control over the Deux Cities, don't you?"
"A little. It's enough to make me dangerous if I'm bored. So, are you satisfied?"
He didn't answer immediately. He was used to people asking about his grades, his sparring, his family name or whether he planned to stay in Combat or finally stop being stubborn and take his place properly. Nobody ever asked him the kind of question that required honesty instead of performance. That made it harder.
Still, he answered.
"The Shvé Civilization is great. The Towermaster made sure of that before he was taken away. His daughter's done a good job keeping it stable. The people here are loyal, the structure works and nobody really has to live in chaos unless they choose to."
She listened without interrupting. Asran went on, thinking as he spoke.
"Most people here can never even dream of seeing the Deities of the ORS. Especially not the Towermaster."
At that, she let out a small scoff.
"That part's true."
He looked at her.
She didn't explain the reaction, only folded one hand lightly over the railing and asked,
"Do you know the Towermaster?"
"No. I've only heard about him in history class."
"That's about what I expected."
"He appeared about four hundred and ten years ago," Asran said, slipping back into what he knew from school, "and made the Shvé Civilization what it is now. They say he was so handsome that he wore a mask just so nobody would fall in love with his face."
That got a faint laugh out of her.
"The mask part's true."
"You're saying the rest of it isn't?"
"I'm saying history classes always get obsessed with the dramatic details."
He frowned a little, because now he was curious in spite of himself.
"So was he actually that handsome?"
"You'd understand why he wore the mask if you saw him."
That answer was so useless and so confident that he had no idea how to respond to it. She seemed to enjoy that very much.
"What would you change if you had the power?"
"That's a personal question."
"Yes. It is."
"Why ask it?"
"Because we'll probably never meet again. So what's the harm?"
That should have made the question easier but it only made it more annoying. Asran looked away for a second and thought about it properly. If he was being honest, he'd already spent too much of his life being told to accept the way things were. The merit system, the rankings, the expectations and the way people had to wait for random shifts in their status and opportunities. He'd never liked that part. Not because he thought the whole civilization was wrong but because randomness always seemed like a lazy excuse for fate.
"The Merit Change System. It should happen on a set date, not randomly. If it's going to change people's merit points, then it should be predictable. At least then people could prepare for it."
She didn't answer right away. Instead, she studied him for a second with the expression of someone deciding whether to be gentle or educational. In the end, she chose the educational approach.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because the Merit Change System doesn't exist to be fair in the simple sense you're imagining. It increases merit points for one part of the roles in the ORS and diminishes the others based on what the system needs. It's not random in the way you think it is, but it is variable. If people knew the exact moment it happened, and if they knew what role would rise or fall before it did, they'd prepare ahead of time to shift advantage in their favor."
Asran opened his mouth, then shut it again.
"The entire point is to keep the structure flexible. If the change were fixed, people would exploit it. Families would train children around the cycle. Academies would adjust schedules. Factions would stockpile merit and dump it in advance. The whole system would become a performance instead of a correction. Also, if the system were predictable, everyone would treat the change like a target. That would turn meritocracy into a competition event. Once that happens, it stops measuring contribution and starts measuring planning advantage."
Asran went quiet. She wasn't finished.
"And before you say it, yes, it would also cause people to hoard roles, manipulate timing and force artificial rises or declines wherever they could. The unpredictability is part of what keeps the ORS from turning stagnant."
He looked down, then gave a slow exhale through his nose.
"That makes sense."
"It should."
"I was being dumb."
She glanced at him, then smiled a little.
"A little. But you're young. You still have a lot to learn."
He looked up at her, half annoyed and half impressed.
"You say that like you enjoy correcting people."
"I do, especially when they ask for something that sounds simple but would wreck half the system if they got it."
Asran had no comeback for that, which annoyed him even more because it meant she was right. She noticed and let the silence rest there for one final beat before raising herself from the railing.
"That was a good talk. I should go supervise the new refugees who came into the Deux Cities."
"You're involved with that too?"
"In a way, yes."
Then, as if the conversation were already ending whether he liked it or not, she lifted one hand in a small farewell gesture.
"Enjoy your evening, Asran Delia."
He opened his mouth to ask how she knew his name but by the time he did, she was already fading in a pulse of rune light.
Rune Teleportation.
Asran stood there for a second, staring at the empty space where she had been, then let out a long breath and looked out over the city again.
"She's definitely not ordinary."
The sunset kept falling over the Deux Cities and he couldn't stop thinking about how effortlessly she'd moved, how casually she'd spoken about the city's systems and how Rune Teleportation had been used like it was nothing at all. That wasn't a common merit. People with the ability to use it freely were important, high-ranked, or both.
He rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head once.
"Great. Now I'm curious."