While Noigllado's capital, Novarista, had a large white castle and grand manor houses, with the illusion of a sky, the entire nation of Azuelgatt, on the Ark's other side, could not have been more different.
The sky, if you could call it that, was nothing but darkness. Huge pillars held up the interior of the Ark, and homes were built of every block of stone that had been brought aboard the Ark so long ago. The light came from huge, flaming torches that gave the place a yellow glow. Although Azuelgatt's queen, Aldilla, lived in a palace, even she had less than the people of Novarista.
That land is where Nox Catorce lived.
He had been raised by Adhuk Neuendorf, the former captain of Noigllado's guard. As he'd heard, he'd been left to die when he was a year old, and Adhuk had saved his life and brought him to Azuelgatt.
And the boy had heard stories of Noigllado's treachery against Azuelgatt. The history between the nations had been strained, as Azuelgatt had formed after people had wished to exist outside of Noigllado's influence. Many emperors of Noigllado had attempted to conquer the land, until one of them had stopped the invasions. Still, there had been conflict; Azuelgatt's rulers had wanted to manage on their own without help from a nation they felt untrustworthy, but the emperors still pressured them to be allies. Worst of all, four centuries after a firm peace treaty had been signed, Queen Amira of Azuelgatt was dead at the hands of Noigllado soldiers and her daughter missing, forcing her sister Aldilla to take the throne. And, Nox thought, Noigllado still had the nerve to call Azuelgatt their enemy when all strife had been their own doing.
In Nox's mind, the whole kingdom was corrupted. Not only did they, the council, the soldiers and, he believed, the empress oppress Azuelgatt, they imposed horrible poverty on their own people who lived outside the capital. Agiona law demanded most people pay so much tax they could barely live.
He had learned this from his friend Hannes Farrugia.
Hannes had come from Noigllado like Nox, but she was raised on the outskirts. There was illusion of a sky, like in Novarista, but no house could be found that wasn't made of reclaimed wood scraps. Hardly anyone had enough food to be comfortable, and Hannes, an orphan raised by nuns, had spent her life providing what little food she could along with them. But day by day, the hopelessness of the situation began to beat down on her. She, a mere commoner, could in no way interfere with Agiona's law.
But there was someone who could.
At the age of eleven, Hannes had stolen away from her little village and crept toward the grand door that kept Noigllado separated from the rest of the Ark. Through metal corridors she had gone, so foreign to her, who had known nothing on the ground but synthetic grass and nothing above her but a blue sky. It may not have really existed, but it was better than this, Hannes had thought.
Finally, on the day she arrived in Azuelgatt, she was shocked at how different—and impoverished—the place looked. Nothing above them but darkness, and nothing below them but steel painted to resemble sand. She had found the person she was looking for that day: Queen Aldilla. Only another ruler would be able to bring down the unjust Agiona.
Noigllado's army, Hannes learned, was strong and outnumbered Azuelgatt's. The people didn't dare cross the Ark to ask for aid from a country bent on conquering them. But Shamshir, a strong warrior and general of Azuelgatt's army, was also part of a secret resistance sharing Hannes's goal: bring down the corrupted ones ruling Noigllado and restore justice to the Ark of Zektbach, for everyone.
For the next four years, Hannes had bonded with this resistance, which she was surprised to learn also included citizens of Noigllado like her. There was a young woman called Malacia whose beloved had been imprisoned when he'd refused to pay the Agiona tax. And of course, there was Nox Catorce and Adhuk.
Just like Hannes, Falo was surprised to find the conditions of this nation that he'd only heard refused to cooperate with Noigllado's plans for the salvation of all the people. How could he not have known people were living like this? Surely Empress Matin didn't know about this, and Agiona…they couldn't know about it either, could they? They had been nothing but good to Matin and the people of Novarista.
Now that he thought about it, Falo had seen people outside Novarista with harsher living conditions on his way to Azuelgatt. He had thought little of it, assuming that a refugee ship had a limited amount of nice materials, but a whole kingdom was in trouble here. What was the meaning of this?
Then he saw the boy.
He looked like he didn't belong there, among people who wore common clothing. The boy wore a pink velvet suit. And that blond hair, slung over his shoulder in a braid, and those sky-blue eyes peering out of his pale face…
Falo would have thought he was seeing Matin if he didn't know.
This must be her brother. Falo blinked his eyes. Yes, it was clearly Matin's twin.
So why had Zalieri told Matin her brother had died as a baby?