Ky'Mera: Griffin Storm (The Third Ky'Mera Trilogy)

Chapter 4: Meeting the Public

Meeting the Public

I tried to get them to reconsider their decision, but they refused to back down.  In the end I grudgingly agreed to their request, though I hoped that the way back to Ky’Mera would be too small for them to follow.  It may have been my wish to bring the Selua into the alliance that the other four races shared, but I believed that communication should be first step, not in-person visits out of the blue.  Eventually the Selua would join the other races, but introducing them too quickly could cause problems.  Given I had grown up in a world where that very scenario had happened two times already, I was hesitant to try it a third time.  The phrase may have gone ‘third time’s the charm’, but there was another that said ‘three strikes you’re out’.  I didn’t know which of the two would result from a rash choice, but I wasn’t willing to bet on it.

We left the CyberneticRepository as a group, with Kunose on my left and Remona on my right.  They made a kind of shield so that only Selua in front of us or behind us could see me.  The idea was to limit my exposure until I could speak to the Remo.  We all agreed that it would be a good course of action to let the Remo and Ginjo announce me publicly, rather than the other way around.  If the Ginjo and Remo found out about me because of gossip, they might think of me as a threat and send the Quinto Guard after me.  They were responsible for keeping the peace in Provora and would harm first and ask questions after.  We hoped to avoid that by going to the top first and working our way down the social ladder.

The walk from the Repository to the Lonu, or Capital Hall, was uneventful.  No one gave us a second glance as we walked down the wide streets, though given there were few out at the moment didn’t hurt either.  The Lonu was a massive building that rivaled the Repository in size, though it looked more like the Forest Spiral in Germany than the Capital in Washington D. C.  The entire building was at least fifteen stories tall and almost half that in width, though the odd thing about it was that the entire structure twisted as you looked from floor to floor.  By the time you got to the top of the structure the south wall had become the west wall, giving the building the illusion of movement as one looked at it.  The walls were the same sand-colored stone covered with cybernetic panels, but the little extra that made the building unique was the banners that hung from the edge of the roof on every side.  They had to be three stories long and ten feet wide, each a different color than the last.  They were roughly rectangular in shape but angled into a point about eight feet from the end.  In the center of each banner was a complex design that Remona told me represented each noble house that served under the Ginjo.  Just as the royal family ruled Provora, the dozens of noble families held important positions throughout the city.  Many were the heads of different companies or guilds, though some simply wanted the perks of being high society. 

It was also the duty of the noble families to provide a mate for the heir, be they male or female it did not matter.  The Gin or Gina would have the choice of all available suitors, though it was the Ginjo that made the final verdict on their pick.  Males and females ruled equally once the royal pair took on the roles of rulers, though if the Ginja, or queen, was the one born of royal blood, she would hold more power while she and her mate ruled.  It was a way of preventing a noble family from taking over the city by making it so that a male of noble blood would not be able to overrule his mate while on the throne.

Another thing that made ruling a simpler task was the fact that the royal family lived directly above the Lonu.  While the Remo lived at their own homes while not voting on a royal law, the royals lived in the top three floors of the Lonu in the lap of luxury.  Only the bottom five floors were used for governing and for formal events, the rest having been taken up by endless galleries and entertainment venues for royal use.