Chapter 14-The laws of the brotherhood
"I am Gorberg, son of Morberg, House of Asturuds. I am who I am," he declared proudly.
"No," I shouted, leaning in close, gripping the chair to which he was strapped. "You are more than just your family, more than your house. Your family has been known for being rapists, murderers, liars. But you had the power to break that cycle, to redefine your house into something better. An image of yourself: brave, honorable, kind. That's what's inside of you, and you know it. These false promises from a king who has abandoned us, you know the truth as well as I do. Lies are his magic, and he has been lying to our forefathers for far too long. A man shouldn't live this long, but he has, and in doing so, he will achieve his goal of becoming an eternal being. We can't allow that. If nothing changes, your house will not change, the other houses will not change, and this society he built upon false hope and lies will crumble, and already has," I argued.
"You don't know anything. He came to me in a vision. I was chosen. I would come home as a hero, slaying the last bits of impurity on his lands," he retorted.
"I know it's us, isn't it? Those highborns think of us as lowborn," I
"It's true. Long before, I wanted to use your head as a trophy, a key back home, away from all of this. I would be greeted with cheers and celebration from my people. Yes, my people, not your people.. My mother, for the first time, would cry tears of joy. My father would look at me with tears of honor. He would be proud,"
"We are not the last of the resistance, Gorberg. You know that. We are much more. We are the last of anything living below the sanctums. The last of humanity, the last of a living species. Do you really want to destroy all of that for a mere title and approval from your parents who abandoned you? A king who banished you from your home? Remember, you came to us seeking our help in exchange for a home, to be family," I said.
"That's the thing. To call it an exchange, a trade, means you're not a real family. To burden your own family and tell them they are only important if they give something in return. That wasn't familia, that was a contract. And now that contract has ended," he argued.
He was right. I should have seen that. Emotion had blinded me.
"I know there is good in you, my friend. You have it, and I know it, and you know it. Your family has treated you like shit. While we have saved each other's lives more times than I can count over these years. Yet you throw it all away for the Storm King," I said, trying to reason with him.
"You want to know the story of how I was banished? It wasn't a treasonable act, but rather I was humiliating myself. I was in my castle when I received a letter from my father, saying he had secured a position for me near the king's side. I thought I was going to become a knight or a guard. But you know what they gave me at the council?" he asked.
"what?"
"A fucking fool's position. Me, a highborn, a native of the sanctums, blood of House Asturuds. Me, a fool. I knew straight away it was my brother's doing. My father was probably in on it as well, to make a mockery of me, even willing to discard our family name just to send me down to the surface level. I was merely a joke, a need for amusement. Of course, I declined the position, but word spread like wildfire, and the king wasn't happy. So he did what my brother and father had plotted for, and they succeeded," he confessed, his voice filled with bitterness and resentment.
A highborn cannot breathe properly down at the surface level, only with the aid of a mask or surgery. However, in order to live in the sanctums where the air is thinner at higher altitudes,while on the surface you need to go through a surgical procedure that allows them to handle the dense low air levels. Once the surgery is completed, they are sent to the surface level.to live in banishment , since they can no longer live on the sanctum.