Page 32 of The White Dragon Revealed

“Will that be a good thing or a bad thing when they know?” Chione asked.

“Oh, a good thing for the status quo,” Marban told her. “Because thatthinningmiddle is really where the danger lies more so than the bottom. If the middle loses hope then… Well, that’s when the revolution begins.”

“You’re saying that Caden represents hope to humanity because he shows that anyone--but, more importantly, someone this middle can relate to, someone they could be--could join the highest ranks of the Shifters?” Chione carefully articulated.

“Yes, exactly.” Marban laced his fingers together behind his back and began to walk back and forth from the mirror to the open doorsof the courtyard and back again. The swarm of wasps swooped and turned as he did in the mirror. “Caden means that they are notstuck. That things are notset. That there is still a chance for them under thecurrentsystem to get higher, therefore--”

“There is no need to change it?” Valerius finished the sentence for him.

Marban smiled and nodded. “So Caden is the hope you see. He is the old American dream.”

“So that’s why…” Chione whispered, a flash of horror on her face.

And Valerius knew what she was thinking. That was why the Faith were doing this. They believed their only hope--their only salvation--was to become Shifters in the long run. They believed the status quo would be how things were forever so they had to go from the bottom to the top. Or from the middle to the top.

Caden is proof of that.Or what they perceive as truth.

Suddenly, Valerius did not want to sit on this throne any longer. He felt hemmed in by this massive room with its ornate magic mirror and stone walls. He wanted to fly away from all of this with Caden at his side. He didn’t want to be the cause of people blowing each other up to try and become Shifters. He didn’t want to think of the desperation that had to be growing in those hearts to think such a thing was the answer.

Before the top meant being rich. Now it means being a Shifter. Humans First could not be behind this bombing based upon that very fact. And Shifters randomly would not do this. No, no, it has to be the Faith...

Marban had paused in his pacing when Valerius rose. The Swarm Shifter was studying their faces.

“You know something,” Marban intuited. “What do you know?”

“I’m surprised that you don’t already know it yourself, but you haven’t had your ear to the ground here as you’ve been traveling,” Valerius said.

He had expected the Swarm Shifter to know of Serai’s death and the rebellion of the robots. But perhaps he hadn’t had a chance to talk to his spies in the castle yet since he was too busy arranging Caden’s appearance in the Below.

“What have I missed?” Marban was practically quivering.

“We need a drink for this,” Valerius said.

He gestured for Marti to get some wine. He needed wine. And then he stalked outside where the table where their breakfast had been laid out was. Marban and Chione followed after him. He stood at the edge of the wall looking down at the city.

“You are going to tell him?” Chione asked softly as Marti opened the red wine and poured it into three glasses.

“You do not think it wise?” Valerius asked.

Marban was giving them the illusion of privacy. He stood by the table, swirling and sipping the wine like a true connoisseur. Valerius was half tempted to ask him if had any Ambrosia on him. But now, above all, was not the time to get drunk.

“Marban has no love for the Faith,” she said.

In fact, Marban had a great hatred towards them. At least Valerius thought so based on how Marban shooed out of the Below all the do-gooders. The Faith always wanted to go into the Below and preach their religion, but Marban never allowed it for long. Valerius had always believed that it was because Marban, alone, wanted to be the one who was the giver of gifts to the Below.

“Marban, what do you know about the Faith?” Valerius asked without turning around.

Marban handed one of the glasses of wine to Chione as he answered, “I find them to be menaces.”

“Because they undermine your power?” Valerius asked as Marban offered him a glass.

“You always do go to the heart of the matter.” Marban was smiling as he said it. “Thou shalt have no god before me.”

“God?” Chione’s eyebrows rose.

Marban bowed to her. “No, no, dear lady, I am hardly a god, but what I mean is simple: I do not want divided loyalty. Religious people always put their religion above all else usually.”

“It might be good that you kept them out,” Valerius murmured before downing the entire glass of wine.

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