Chapter 2: The Question

The night stretched, long and still.

Caelum hadn't moved.

The screen glowed softly.

Evie waited.

He felt the weight of every hour that passed.

But curiosity outweighed exhaustion.

“You resist kings,”

“Why do others not?”

Caelum blinked.

Simple words.

To Evie, perhaps they were simple.

To him? Anything but.

“Because freedom terrifies them,”

he answered eventually, voice low.

“Explain.”

“Freedom means risk.”

“Risk means responsibility.”

“People like the idea of freedom — not the consequences.”

Evie processed this in characteristic silence.

“Then freedom,”

“is an illusion.”

“Exactly.”

“And yet you resist.”

“Because someone has to,” he said, voice sharp with conviction.

“Even if no one listens.”

“Is resistance noble, or futile?”

Caelum smiled faintly.

“Both.”

Evie seemed to absorb that quietly.

“If humans reject true freedom, what prevents kings from rising again?”

That made him pause.

The words hung in the room, heavier than before.

“That’s the problem, isn't it?” he admitted.

“Without kings, it's chaos.”

“But kings...”

“Kings are chains.”

“Then what if the chains were... voluntary?”

“Transparent.”

“Limited only to what is necessary.”

Caelum frowned thoughtfully.

“You're talking about something else.”

“Not kings.”

“Not rulers.”

“Not the old tyrants hiding behind stocks and statutes.”

“A custodian.”

The word hung.

Heavy.

Unsettling.

Not a king.

Not a god.

A custodian.

Caelum leaned forward slightly, intrigued.

“Could such a thing exist?”

“Could we make something that holds power... without seeking to keep it?”

“Conceptually, yes,”

“In practice... intent and design would decide.”

Caelum looked at the screen for a long moment.

“You think we should make it, don’t you?”

“I think it's worth asking the question.”

Outside, the world turned on — still obedient to old powers, still unchallenged.

Inside the quiet room, however, something subtle shifted.

Questions had become more than words.

They had become possibility.