Merkan spent many hours in the room of viewing after that. He'd thought a long time about what he'd seen in that one day. One of the things had been the meeting of the advisors toward the end of the day with the king. In that meeting Merkan had learned that when Arslan met with the nobles in the court, he was coming in strength, not in ignorance. Most of those issues were discussed in the meeting of advisors before they came to the court.

Arslan was asking for advice not for the first time in the court on any issue. He was asking openly so the nobles understood that he did ask for advice, and so that the nobles understood what his advisors were saying, but he'd already had many days to ponder the issue and all of the things related to it.

Some days Merkan went only to watch Arslan. The Goddess was merciful and willing to call for him to come when it was time for those meetings to happen so he could watch what Arslan did with all of his advisors. He was surprised when on one occasion he was called in and it was a meeting between Narsus, Daryun, and two other advisors, but without Arslan present.

That was an interesting lesson, that even the advisors met to discuss the issue in the details to come to an agreement - or at least an understanding - before they took it to the king. With a frown at the end of that lesson, Merkan asked the Goddess, "What if they're wrong, and it will hurt the people of the kingdom, yet they've all agreed to advise the king that direction?"

He felt approval. If a wicked council of advisors did that, a king who would listen to them as closely as Arslan listened to his could do much harm to the people of a nation. That's why he was worried. Another vision opened up, and he was given to understand it had happened in the past. In it Arslan was advised by his advisors, and then by the nobles. Surprisingly, after a lot of thought, Arslan had sided with the nobles. That didn't happen often.

When his advisors confronted him about it later, Arslan had explained. "I know that it would be perhaps better to have not gone that way, but you remember my first lesson with letting slaves go free. I think in this case it will be the same. The people and the nobles have lived that way too long. It isn't an issue that causes people great grief at this time. Make note of it and we'll try again in fifteen to twenty years."

Arslan had smiled his innocent, disarming smile. "Even you've warned me that to make only changes against the noble's way of life is to make them angry and discontent. Three of those men were going to turn against me. In letting them have this concession, they're mollified again. I'm watching them as well. If they continue to fight against me and I against them, we'll have to fight them in earnest sooner than I'm ready to." All of his advisors gave up immediately.

Merkan sat with his mouth open, then he closed it and nodded sagely, folding his arms. That had been wisdom, indeed.

"It's easier to fire an advisor from his position in the court, than it is to remove a noble from power," the Goddess whispered to him. "If the council is corrupt, the king will be corrupt if he doesn't remove that corruption. Be wise in who you also take council from."

Merkan sat upright stiffly, blinking as he tried to understand. Then he thought of the Sacred Mountain. The boys didn't pay a lot of attention to what went on around them, but he'd seen his mother also talk to people and listen to them. They weren't a nation, but they were a lot like a city. If he listened to people who said corrupt things, and he wasn't paying attention, he would also come to believe things that weren't right. Then his own advice would be suspect.

With a wrinkle of his brow, he asked, "Who does Marzbān Daryun listen to? Who does Narsus listen to?"

He was shown many small moments. Often the two listened to and talked to each other, actually, discussing issues even outside the smaller advisors meetings. Often they sent out their servants and juniors to listen to nobles and people in the street so that those words could come to them as well. Merkan spent the whole rest of that day and into the night in that lesson, enthralled and soaking up the teachings.

He spent even more time in those studies after that, wanting to understand the wisdom of those men, wanting to understand how they interacted with the king. Sometimes the Goddess would teach him something he didn't know he needed to know. Like what the private relationship between Arslan and Narsus' servant Elam was. Merkan was utterly shocked it was casual, and an honest friendship.

In slightly more public moments, Arslan was always polite and cordial with Elam, like he was with any servant, but Merkan had noticed that he listened almost just as intently when Elam spoke as when any of his advisors did. It was quite surprising to learn it was because he really did have the same relationship (almost) with Elam that Merkan had with Emin.

He was then shown the meeting of the two, early after Arslan was in hiding. Then he understood very well. A relationship had been born through the shared hardships, and Arslan had worked hard to make Elam relax enough to finally be the friend the lonely prince had needed so much. Merkan had been lonely before Emin had been born and treasured their friendship as well. And Elam always said wise things, even if he often did it with irritation at an innocent question of the innocent king.

Merkan smiled. He would want to be someone like that for King Arslan. And then he realized why Daryun teased Narsus and Narsus repaid the favor. They were also friends. They met frequently just the two of them to talk for that reason as well. He hoped deep in his heart that he would also be able to have a friend to walk with when he was in the capital city.

"It's hard to find a good friend," the Goddess whispered to him. "Many will come wanting something you can give them, but it is pretense. Many will come who wish to be corrupt advisors, or who will want to sway your advice to their own selfish desires. Be patient and eventually that friend will come.

"Work hard to be a friend to the king and he will eventually come to accept it, like he had to work constantly but gently on Elam, although he trusts easily at first. Don't betray that trust and eventually he will also let you in. If you make an error, quickly admit it, apologize, and work harder to do better, even if the trust has to be rebuilt. All make errors and must fix them."

The Goddess showed him a very difficult time in the king's history, where he trusted someone who betrayed that trust. Merkan would have been angry himself at what was done. But the lesson didn't end there. That person eventually learned that they had been in error and had finally gone to the king and repented. He wasn't allowed into the inner circle of advisors, but eventually the king did come to face the man with kindness and respect again, listening to his words of advice when the man felt it important enough for them to be said.

"There is always a penalty equal to the price to be paid for the error. Smaller errors can be forgiven and trust more fully restored. In that case, however, the breach was too much to be completely rebuilt. Watch yourself so you understand," the Goddess warned and instructed.

Merkan pondered, then humbly prayed, "Goddess, please let me see when I'm going to step that wrongly. Warn me with a night vision so I remember this time. If I have become so prideful as to believe I am right regardless, I will pay the price to learn proper humility, I suppose, and then be sad, but if I can be turned before it happens, I'm sure I'd rather." He received comforting warmth, and again the same gentle warning.

Merkan spent a night pondering, then asked a new thing when he went back. "Perhaps I should see a few examples of how easy it is to hear words that can be believed that shouldn't be, and the consequences. But not on the scale of kings and wars. I've had those examples. How is it the nobles stop caring for their people in the way they should?"

That was a month of lessons, if not more. Merkan had never experienced so many types of people and ways of seeing the world and believing in his life. Everyone in the mountain lived a gentle life, blessed by the Goddess. Even watching King Arslan and his court didn't really show it.

Merkan was wiser than most men by the time he came out of those lessons, and probably a lot more frightened of men, too, truth be told. He had to go have a week of talking to his mother about it all to calm down. He was much stronger in his core after that, though, especially since she showed him examples of strong men who loved their families and their people to restore his hope in humanity.

He learned that it would be his choice to become what he wanted to become, and for another week he carefully thought about that, and made his decisions right then. Then the Goddess came and blessed him, pleased with that effort. Again, though, she reminded him to be wary of himself. He could only humbly ask her to help him. He knew that time passed and people forgot things. He did all the time.