A/N- I like to work on one-shots when I'm stuck on another story, so this is just something I decided to work on as I am at a writer's speed bump (It's not really a block-traffic's just moving a little slowly.) I will update my stories. I will gladly accept reviews and if you want to PM me, you know what to do.

The nobles of Tortall didn't think about it. The king, the queen, the dukes, the viscounts, none of them. None of them watched fourteen year old girls sell their bodies to drunk men far older than they were to try and keep a roof over the heads of tiny children, crippled men stripped of their dignity begging on street corners so that they could try and drink themselves to the Peaceful Realms, or emaciated children stealing to try and help their parents.

Yes, of course things had got better when Jonathan and Thayet had taken the throne. But when men pranced around on horses that were practically gilded and women were called things like "Peerless" and wore dresses that cost more than anybody in the Lower City made in a lifetime, they weren't easy to trust. They had, of course, ran around the land and fought legendary battles, but they didn't have everyday struggles of hunger and fear and betrayal.

They didn't hear the sobs of a young mother as she suffocated a child she couldn't support. They didn't watch their families get ran through by totally unemotional guards.

Other things they didn't see were exotic sword dances done by hill raiders in torchlight, which were considered too barbaric for court, the delicate dances done by half-naked Carthaki women that turned viciously wild and fast, or the flower sellers of the Rogue flipping knives in intricate flashes of silver that looked like fish in a dark pool.

No, they didn't see. They saw twisted plots, cradles being robbed, girls still flat-chested with youth with child, men marrying off daughters and step-daughters left and right for just a bit more money they didn't use.

They didn't bond with trust, love, or loyalty. They bonded over lies, corruption, and money.

They didn't see, hear, smell, touch, or feel anything but there own gilded lives.