As the crowd around the stage began to thin, Steve drifted into a side street. The air was quieter here, shaded by awnings, the noise of the square fading into the background. He slowed at the sight of a small stall tucked against the wall — a woman arranging loaves of bread still steaming from the oven.
"Fresh out," she said with a smile, catching his glance. "Best before it cools."
Steve hesitated, then bought one, handing over a coin. The bread was still warm in his hands, the crust crisp.
"Big day," she went on, nodding toward the square he'd just left. "That Stark fellow puts on a show."
"Yeah," Steve said. "Quite the showman."
She laughed softly. "Well, Calot's had stranger guests. So co, so go. But it's the King that keeps us steady." Her tone was matter-of-fact, not forced, not fearful. Just a truth she believed in.
Steve tore off a piece of bread, chewing thoughtfully. "You sound like you've got a lot of faith in her."
"Faith?" The woman tilted her head, considering. "Well, I guess I do, I an, even before the two-day war, I was interested in Calot, and the king, the knights, all of it."
Steve nodded along with her words; he had heard many speak of similar things.
"I used to work in an office, it paid alright, but it was death… I just… didn't really enjoy it, you know? Like it wasn't what I was supposed to do with my life. Like I was ant for more than filing whatever paperwork my superiors put on my desk." She explained, all too eager to tell every stranger coming her way her story.
"So, when sothing like Calot appeared? It felt like a whole new world opened up before . I an, if Calot were real and reappeared, what would be next, right? I followed the news like it was water, and I was dying of thirst; it beca my life, the dream of what was behind those gates." She motioned towards the faraway gates.
"So I take it you didn't mind coming under her rule?" Steve asked, never one to turn soone down, when they opened their hearts to him.
The woman shook her head, almost scoffing at the thought. "Mind? No. Not for a second. When the King spoke, the day she finally opened the gates — I was listening. Everyone was. She didn't sound like a politician, reading from a script. She sounded like soone who ant it."
Steve listened, tearing another piece from the bread.
"She said no more inco taxes. Rent frozen. Prices locked. And more than that — she promised we'd be safe. No more being squeezed dry by n in offices who never looked us in the eye. I still rember the way she said it: the people co first."
Her voice softened, almost reverent. "And when the army ca to stop her? She didn't hide behind anyone else. She stood there herself. Her and her knights. Mordred crushed tanks like they were tin toys, and the King…"
She trailed off, glancing instinctively toward the keep, visible even from here. "She tore the sky open with her spear. After that, there wasn't any doubt left in . Albion was the future."
The woman's eyes softened, her voice shifting from reverence back to sothing more practical. "Of course, words are just words, aren't they? I didn't decide overnight. I kept working for a while, sitting in that gray little office, wondering if any of it mattered. Then the rent freeze ca. My landlord… he was a real piece of work, and since he couldn't throw out, I stopped paying rent."
"Did you feel that was okay? Wasn't it wrong to just stop paying?" Steve asked.
She snorted, "Fuck no, he was a piece of work as I said, he never did anything, he always tried to bla us for everything being broken, slow to fix it, he didn't care about us, so why should we care about him? To him, we were just moneybags, so we treated him like he did us, shit."
She smirked faintly, brushing flour off her hands. "Anyway, I packed my things and left. Ca here with nothing but a suitcase and the clothes on my back. Figured if the King was serious about building sothing new, I wanted to be where it was happening."
Steve nodded. "And you've been here since?"
"Two years now," she said, pride slipping into her tone. "They were almost giving away land for free here. Within a month, I was the proud owner of this." She tapped the stone wall behind her. "This entire inn is mine, and I run it, plus selling bread when it's not busy inside, and just to et more people."
Steve glanced up at the inn, its timber fra and flower boxes standing out against the whitewashed stone. It wasn't grand, but it was sturdy, lived in — the kind of place people gathered.
"That's a big change," he said. "From an office to running an inn."
She grinned, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "A big change, yeah. But it feels right. Every day I wake up knowing this is mine. Not the company's, not so landlord's. Mine. I put in the work, and I see the reward. Can't put a price on that."
Steve broke off another piece of bread, the warmth lingering in his hands. "Sounds like you've found your place."
"I have." Her smile softened. "And I know I'm not the only one. Ask around, you'll hear it everywhere. Calot gave us a fresh start. The King gave us that. So yeah, I've got faith. Because she earned it."
There was no fanaticism in her tone, no rehearsed line — just quiet conviction. The kind Steve had learned long ago to recognize.
He gave her a nod of respect. "Thanks for sharing."
"Anyti," she said, sliding another loaf onto the stall. "And welco to Calot, stranger. May it give you sothing too."
Steve had more or less expected that, not the story itself, but the general situation, that people didn't mind the changes that had happened.
People weren't all fans of everything. He had heard plenty of people complain about one thing or another, yet compared to the overwhelming joy everyone seed to have. People liked Albion far more than they disliked it.
That was what he had been able to confirm after a month here, after speaking to everyone, he could conclude that much of what the world told about the situation here just wasn't true.
Still, he wasn't done yet. Calot was the heart of Albion, the heart of all the changes that had happened outside it, and the proposed risk to the world, so he needed to really investigate it properly.
Steve moved on, following the slow current of the crowd deeper into the city. The bread was nearly gone by the ti he found himself in a narrower lane, lined with stalls selling candles, firewood, and bundles of coal.
It caught his attention — because outside Calot, people were bragging about free power. Here, in the heart of the kingdom, they enjoyed none of that.
Near one stall, a boy no older than sixteen was stacking wood, his arms dusted with soot. Steve stopped, watching the practiced rhythm of it.
"Busy work," Steve said.
The boy looked up, grinning. "Always. Folks need heat. They don't get it from gas here, so they get it from ."
Steve stepped closer, curious. "Doesn't that bother you? That Calot doesn't have… well, the grid? Electricity, lights, all that?"
The boy shrugged, leaning on the pile of wood. "Maybe a little bit, it isn't like we have no power, everyone got so big batteries back ho, to charge stuff, phones, laptops, all that. But it bothers so more than others. I was always more of the active type; I spent my ti outside rather than inside, before the TV or Xbox.
Steve raised a brow. "So you don't miss it?"
The boy grinned, tossing another bundle onto the pile. "Sotis, sure. But it isn't like we are living in the Stone Age here. Sure, we have no electricity, but we have sothing better. Magic!"
"I saw magic on the way here, soone performing for a crowd." Steve said, still curious about magic himself.
The boy snorted. "Oh, that'd be rrow the Magnificent. I've seen his shows — sotis he does so even bigger things. They're pretty good, I'll give him that, but it's not real magic, not like the King uses. He's just a hedge mage, throwing sparks and shapes around for coin."
He slapped the stack of wood beside him. "But we've got plenty of the little stuff, the kind that makes life easier. No fridges? Doesn't matter. We've got magic cupboards. You stick a block of ice in, and it keeps food cold for a week, no problem. Then you just go buy another block of ice, cheap as dirt. Sa with this wood here."
Steve glanced down at the sign, his brow lifting when he saw the price. Almost free.
The boy caught the look and laughed. "Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I don't get rich off this. I get a flat wage, and a little extra depending on how much I move. The price? That's set by the Crown. Sa with bread, sa with coal, sa with pretty much everything folks need to live. No one here freezes because they couldn't pay, no one goes hungry because a loaf costs too much."
He shrugged, grinning faintly as he leaned back against the stall. "So folks complain about the rules, but ? I don't mind. It works. I get to spend so ti selling wood after school, so I get money for things I want, it's sweet really."
"Plus," he continued, "it's a city where people actually look out for each other. Can't say that about most places."
Steve let the words settle in as he tore off the last piece of his bread. It reminded him of sothing — not the future, not the world he had woken up to, but the one he'd left behind. Before television, before computers, before everything ca with a monthly bill and fine print.
Back when neighbors shared what they had, when rent wasn't the asure of whether a man deserved to live.
The boy grinned, oblivious to the weight of Steve's thoughts. "So folks miss their cars, their microwaves, their Netflix. ? I don't care. I'd rather have this. It's simple. Feels like it makes sense."
Steve found himself nodding slowly. "Yeah," he said quietly. "I know what you an."
For the first ti in a long while, he felt a pang of familiarity — not with the twenty-first century, but with the world he had lost. A world that seed, in Calot of all places, alive again.
He bid the boy farewell and continued on his way. Evening settled over the city, but the streets glowed with warm lamplight, flas bright enough that he suspected magic was at work. Even so, it didn't feel strange. It felt welcoming.
Calot felt almost unreal, like a trip to the past, but without all the bad things that would co with that; peace and security were the main points here.
Everywhere, people laughed, sang, ate, and drank, like a party that never ended, and given the smiles the people wore, for the people of Calot, the party indeed might never end.
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