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Lux wasn’t sure he understood, and surely his face said so.

Rafael rubbed down the bridge of his nose, as though struggling to explain what he meant. “We can’t fight in this moment. They have numbers and power that we do not. Even if we capture or kill my brothers, they’ll only become martyrs for their cause. So for a while, we gather power. We let them destroy the constructs of this world. We let old Matriaza take Matriax by the balls and tear it apart. And then, once the people—the women, the poor, the oppressed—see how bad their rule is, we doexactlyas Rion did. When people are at their worst, when they have nothing left to lose, they will fight for their freedom, even if it means putting their lives in jeopardy.”

Lux hated every word of that.

He didn’t want Matriax to become the old Matriaza. It’d taken millenniums to get Matriaza to a state that wasn’t so awful, a state where everyone had what they needed.

“I don’t like it either, Pa, but we have no choice. They have numbers we don’t. They havepowerwe don’t. But the fault in the system of old Matriaza was that by giving people at the top so much influence, so much money and strength, there would always be a lower class, and that lower class would always be stronger in numbers than the few at the top. Weneedthose numbers.”

Lux still hated it.

“Then, once we have that army behind us,thenwe take our power back.”

* * *

Rafael was right.

They could fight immediately, but they couldn’t win.

They needed power in their veins and an army first, so that was what they worked for.

Rafael had the strength needed to unbind Lux’s abilities, but they weren’t enough for this battle. They needed more. So they collected it.

Gradually, over decades and centuries, they absorbed souls of dying, souls who were evil. They didn’t want to; it wasn’t their goal. But to accomplish their goal, they had to stoop to the levels of their enemy.

After almost a thousand years, they’d absorbed thousands of souls. They yearned for the day they could release them, but in the meantime, they had to do what was needed to survive, to take their power back.

On Matriax, the boys accomplished just as they’d hoped to.

Enough people sat idly by as old Matriaza took hold of Matriax, even the mortal world. They listened when Lux’s sons preached from the rooftops that the people needed strong rulers. That one day, the maalaichte cnihme would return, and the people needed fearless, brave men to defeat them.

Over the centuries, they watched their rights get stripped away one by one.

And the people didn’t protest because people are all the same. Adaptable.

It was easy enough for them to adjust. Intellectual life had made it to the top of the food chain with just that: evolution. Adaptation.

Good men adapted as their wives lost their right to speak in public. At home, they didn’t treat them that way, so what did it matter what the law was?Theyweren’t awful; only the world around them was.

Women adapted to slavery being allowed again. Their husbands bought another person at the auction, but they weren’t cruel to them. What did it matter what the law was?Theyweren’t awful to their slaves; only the law thatallowedslavery was.

Society adapted to the lack of healers. Most still had money to see one. They felt sorry for those who couldn’t afford one, but it wasn’t their fault. What did it matter what the law was?Theyhadn’t taken the healers away; their leaders had.

They adapted to limited food. There was enough wildlife in the forests. The average husband was fit enough to venture into them and hunt. What did it matter what the law was?Theywere able to eat. It wasn’t their fault some people were too sick to hunt, or that their husbands had died.

Their adaptation to the new way—or rather, the old way—was their downfall.

Because one day, a man married off his daughter, and even though he’d allowed his wife to speak, his son in law busted his daughter’s lip when she used a certain tone with him. Because one day, it was the rich family who’d fallen on hard times, and no longer were they purchasing a slave from the auction; they were atop the podium, waiting to be purchased by an owner who was not as kind as they were to their slaves. Because one day, the rich family had enough to see the healer, but their child required a healer in another city, and they’d used every bit of coin they’d had to get to the first one, and they couldn’t afford to get to the other city. Because one day, the wealthy woman’s husband died, and she’d been jailed for hunting, as that was a man’s job, so her children died of starvation.

Only then, after all those who sat back and watched as their rights were stripped away, once their lives were on the line as well, were they willing to fight.

Once there were more oppressed than oppressors, once all but a few had been harmed by their leaders’ politics, the masses were willing to die for their cause.

Only then, were Lux and Rafael able to gather an army.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

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