Dalan gathered his soldiers.
His meeting with the trusted inner circle of advisors and enforcers was suddenly abrupted when their recently secured planted has shown its value. They had secured a planet, one that afforded him the power to set up alerts, not to shield his subjects from external threats, but to monitor his people.
The planet's color was now a menacing shade of red, a reflection of the skill he had twisted to surveil his own people. The scholars in the university might have their so-called "morals of the universe”, to explain what exactly caused a planet to bleed from green to red, but the exact definition of these principles remained a subject of heated debate. One common belief held that every skill which disrupts the freedom of the individual was marked by a red hue, a notion Dalan found preposterous.
Dalan sneered at the concept. How could he effectively govern his land and subjects when even an ordinary slave might secretly be attuned to an assassination constellation? His barony, though prosperous, couldn't bear the astronomical cost of supporting a red seer akin to the ones found in the king's capital.
Word had it that maintaining a red seer required at least 20 gathering arrays, which allowed the seer to even identify an individual's attuned planets. The price tag and operational expenses for these arrays seemed exorbitant, but the thought gnawed at him. Currently, the barony has the funds to only use one gathering array, supplying energy to Dalan and his high-ranking officers' planets.
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Debates about why red planets demanded additional energy for their skills could go on indefinitely, but Dalan had a reputation for pragmatism. Questions that even the most astute scholars could address were of little concern to him, especially now, as he rode through the forest in pursuit of an escaped slave who had recently attuned as a Craftsman.
The fact that he couldn't compel the slave to attune according to his master plan irked him, but he grudgingly accepted the choice of craftsman. Most sub-attunements for Craftsman were already well-documented, and none posed a personal threat to him. While a highly skilled craftsman could potentially disrupt a fiefdom by creating near-indestructible armor, such occurrences had become rare since the Inquisition seized power. "No," he assured himself, a craftsman would serve his purpose well in the grand scheme of things. The slave would undoubtedly pay a heavy price for defying his master's plan, but he would be allowed to live.
Dalan's scouts shouted, directing him toward the escaped slave's location. Upon arrival, they found a man who seemed oddly well-nourished, with no sunken cheeks, a healthy weight, and an imposing stature. If not for the skill indicating him as a slave-craftsman, one might have mistaken him for a fledgling soldier. The constellation flower appeared fully absorbed, and the skill crystal softly pulsed within the slave's chest. The craftsman was alive but unconscious. A brief examination by the field medic revealed depleted mana and small lacerations across his feet.
Dalan remained unfazed by the unconscious slave's condition and issued clear orders to his men. They were to retrieve the slave, bring him back to the keep, and prepare him for transport to the northern front, where he would be compelled to contribute to the war effort. Whether the slave succumbed to the harsh realities of war or somehow managed to survive, it was of little consequence to the barony. In either scenario, it would serve as a stark example to others, reinforcing the consequences of defiance and disobedience.