73 (734) - Still with the Neverborners!

Merciers, Never-Borners Join Forces

Pages YPA 46 Risae 1 Lamp Moon

-          By Firian Kurirem, fessas

The Gate to the Winter Palace road has been blocked for eight-days now, since the last closing of Assembly, and the protestors vow to continue their vigil till Opening, after the Solstice celebrations.  They carry placards reading ‘Mercy on Us’ ‘Talk to the Ten’ ‘Save Us’ and waving petition boards and pens at any and all passers-by.

Milimar Demekas, fessas, vows that he and other protestors, who fly, were behind the aerial scattering of protest notices over the Winter Palace grounds, and the private road from the Imperial lift, since the Imperator’s security does not allow physical attendance on private Imperial grounds.

“The Marble Palace is considering charges of littering for these people," the Minister of Internal Serenity said.

"The people are allowed their voice in Assembly and with petition,” Captain Idiesas Firnen avows. “This does not give them the right to camp on private land or enter private manors without invitation. The Sunborne Elite have summarily ejected several trespassers attempting to interrupt the Imperator’s familial celebration with their pamphlets and we shall be strict on this while the Imperator is in residence.  The public tours through the Winter Palace, under supervision of course, will resume when the Imperator’s family returns to the City on the fifth of Lamp moon.”

“We will protest outside the Steel Gate and under the Presentation Balcony, now that the Games Maze has been removed,” Ser Demekas asserts.  “The Imperator, He Who Is Voted In, will hear us. Eventually.”

In amongst the Merciers there are three protestors still holding forth that the Imperator is not legitimately voted in because he does not legitimately exist, having been born during the days that do not exist.  They stand in a clear space of their own, in the centre of the Mercy crowd, with their placards that read “Minis Aan is a figment of Imagination’ and ‘He’s Not Real’ and ‘Legitimate Birth Certificate!’.  The Mercy crowd give them ample distance for their demonstration, apparently not wishing to be associated with them.

“We are here to call on the legitimately voted in Imperator, Minis Kurkas Joras Amitzas Aan, to answer the call of the people to come to Ordeal and solve this ‘no children’ problem!”  Tilara Mennas, okas, said, from behind Ser Demekas, waving her gold handkerchief vigorously in the air.

This triggered a flurry of gold handkerchiefs, even in the evening rain, glittering under the large, bright, gate lamps and street lamps all along the road to the city.  The Merciers attracted occasional attention but so far out of the city Itself travellers are enroute and disinclined to stop and sign their petition.

**

The New Bodyguard Uniform?

… not a trace of the ancient and once hallowed onyxine for the new Imperial bodyguard, though speculation is rife that the cut will be similar.  A dark burgundy is speculated, with white and silver flashes, but the uniform suppliers to the Imperium are not letting anything out prior to the presentation of the New BodyGuard after the Solstice celebration…

**

“… she went into heat during those games and nobody mentioned it to me? To the Coronet Regal? Not even a note to the Imperator?”

There was a shuffle and a great deal of throat clearing and ‘Stable Master, we… um…”

“Stable Master, we were afraid to get between them, when they’d just um played hide and seek with the candidates.”

“So when they trotted out of the ring, right past you, to begin mating right in the middle of my stable you…”

“Ser, ser, they'r Mahid horses and they wou'n’t listen and we… um… didn’t think we should call the Coronet Regal away and Eosas was in with the Haian, and… um…”

“And I was up standing next to our horse doctor because Snarl cut his pastern in the last game.” The Stable Master sighed.  “I shall inform the Imperator that I have allowed Viper to be covered by his favourite horse.  We shall see if she caught.”

**

“The Gods refrain from touching the world, for to do so They would destroy it; They are restrained by their love of their creation, and may not touch a single leaf, nor stir one feather upon the smallest bird. Not even the breath of God may touch us, and so they must watch and let us deal our own fate. For only mortal man has power in the material world. A God may only ask; a man must open himself to the Gods to let them work upon the world through him.”

Minis closed the book and looked around the hearth at his family, reached his candle to the central fire and lit his mother’s candle on one side and his wife’s candle on his other side, then held the light and watched the light grow, passed hand to hand, all the way around the circle.

“May the sun rise again tomorrow.  Ten bless us and as Doof says, ‘Let’s eat!”