606 - What Has He Done?

The morning pigeon messages were still on Kallijas’s desk when the second batch was brought in by his welcomist, along with the flying couriers' packets from the Western Empire. We’d been working on a tricky situation between two districts along the North-West coast.  Kall knew that area because he’d been stationed there.  It was a contradictory law of inheritance that the Quadrians had exploited, gaining followers from the more populated district by telling them their version of the law would be the true version.

I was just puzzling the archaic legalese, with Irfimas – the newest historical legal expert on the High Office staff – when Kallijas took a moment to read through all the messages, piling them up to burn, file, or take further notes on.

“Ah.”  I could hear the joy in his voice, even with only the one word.  “Sheng is coming for a short visit, a few days.  It’s marked personal, so no state formality required.”

“That’s good.   When?”

“He should be arriving the day after tomorrow.”

“So what personal thing?”


Kall waved the thumbnail scrap of pigeon message at me. “Pigeon, no space to explain.  Probably complicated.”
 

So what personal thing would Virani-e need to come to Arko for?

**

He and his entourage came spiraling down out of the reddening sky, just before Rim sunset, Chevenga flying himself in the famous blue and green wing of his, reinstated as semanakraseye by such a landslide.  Krero was first down on the landing spot on the Marble Palace roof, right next to Idiesas, who saluted him as senior.

Kall and I had both come up to receive him, when the flight had been spotted.  “Kallijas, hello!” Krero’s greeting was familiar and not as profane as I was half expecting.  “You look almost as tired as him…” He jerked a bare thumb up at Chevenga, still descending.  

“Marble Palace Elite Captain!” His salute to Idiesas was perfect as was his response.  “Idis… let me get my warriors set up with you so Cheng can settle.”

“Welcome, Krero.” Kallijas had a smile on his face.  Their relationship had certainly changed over the years.  “I’m certainly not as tired as he is, I actually listen to my wife and my healers.”

Krero snorted a smile but didn’t stop, overseeing Chevenga’s bodyguard expertly. They fitted into the Marble Palace security easily, of course, but as his best friend's guard captain, Krero was still fussy and not inclined to cut corners.  Even if he was coming to a familiar place, too many people had tried too long and hard to kill him, for Krero to relax his vigilance.

Kall was right there as Chevenga’s feet hit the roof and had him enveloped in a hug the moment the harness came off.

“So how are Laisa?  And Kyriala?” Was the first question, as he hugged me in turn, enveloping me as if I were much younger.  It was wonderful. 

“They are in excellent health.  They're in the women’s wing," I said.  "Doing some arcane wedding stuff.”

After the usual kafuffle of seeing everyone settled, Kallijas satjust the three of us down in the Scarlet Feather room, that we’d had all the peep holes and listening holes that we knew of sealed.  We sat down with kaf for both of us and a cupp of ezethra  for him.  Kall said “A personal matter?  You’ve arrived on the wings of your suppressed rage about something, Sheng.  Can I… can we help?”

I blinked.  I hadn’t recognized that Chevenga was angry, but I suppose that his alesinas would know him well enough to see it.  It had to be important.

There was this odd light in his eyes, a kind of intent I suppose.  “Kallijas, Minis, you still have a bureaucrat working for you by the name of Eosenas Dusakis, in the Department of Roads.  I need to have a word with him.”

It was so far outside of what I thought was coming, some kind of earth-shattering disaster, that it took a moment.   
Another Arkan war crimes lawsuit? Something from the war that affects him personally? He's angry with this bureaucrat?  What has he done?

Solstice and Elves

The Solstice it is coming, the egg is in the nog.

Please give a friendly man a friendly little dog.

If you haven't got a friendly dog, a friendly cat will do,

If you haven't got a friendly cat may the Ten bless you!

Ten bless you, Sers, Ten bless you!

If you haven't got a friendly cat may Ten bless you!

The Solstice it is coming, the lights are on the tree.

How about a turkey leg for dear old me?

If you haven't got a turkey leg, a turkey wing will do.

If you haven't got a turkey wing may Ten bless you!

Ten bless you, Sers, Ten bless you!

If you haven't got a turkey wing may Ten bless you!

The Solstice it is coming, the cider's in the keg.

If I had a mug of cider I wouldn't have to beg.

If you haven't got a mug of cider, half a mug will do.

If you haven't got half a mug, may Ten bless you!

______________________

May I remind everyone of the lovely little 'donate' button!

______________________

My husband is here from Tulsa and we will be working on Immigration papers all week. Blue is here too, and Cat has just graduated from art school and is now an Artisan Blacksmith, so the apartment has a full complement of elves and I shall be very very busy and  not be posting lots, over the holidays.  I'll get back to a more normal schedule in the new year!  Cheers!

605 - Condemned to Hayel

Perisalas Shefenkas looked down at the letter lying on his desk.  It had been sent over on the run from the Pages, from Intharas’s desk. Under the desk his one hand scrubbed over his thigh. The floridly hand-written letter was excessive in both the size and shape of the letters, with trailing tails on many individual characters, and the language.

Manifesto Revised

It is with a heavy, heavy heart that True Arko Shall Rise announces that the unfortunate child, son of Kurkas Aan, having been corrupted in mind and heart and flesh, is unsalvageable and must, with regret and sorrow, be sent on to his unfortunate reward in the afterlife.

We, the staunch defenders of the True Arko did, at one point, attempt to save the wretched, most miserable of boys from those who would mis-teach him.  And our strina, martyred dead extort us to press on, to continue our most holy mission.

However, we cannot answer the exhortations of our dead. We will defend the True Arko to the limits of our strength, to the ends of our flesh, to the utmost of our abilities.

We grieve the loss of our chance to save the ill-omened Minis Aan, who is forzak though no fault of his own; we pray that the most Exalted of the High Gods shall have mercy upon the innocent – though besmirched, sullied, tarnished and defiled.

The way shall be cleared for the more innocent child to learn correctly, or we shall send the last scion of the sacred Aan line.  The Crystal Throne shall be emptied of despoiled, ruined and degraded men placed there by the feckless, worthless, feeble and feeble minded mob.

We will succeed in destroying the gangrenous rot that infects the True Arko, by whatever means necessary.  Arko for Arkans.  Women restored to their proper place. Foreigners out. Arko for Arkans! True Arko, return to the truth before the Empire is again destroyed by Fire and all of us shall be condemned to Hayel!

Signed by the Unomas of True Arko Shall Rise!

604 - I Take Every Advantage

Kyriala sat on the mat wearing the bright blue split-skirt thing Riala designed for her, with her old Socks on the floor next to Bella.  Her tiny white dog sat between my big black bitch’s front paws, looking like a toe ornament.

Gan sat up on one of the dog-washing stations with Tanifas’s tinies on and around him, while Farasha sat in one of the padded chairs with the cats.  Other than Altras, who lay draped around the back of my neck.  I had not let Doof sit under my chin because she kept biting Altras’s tail and digging her big bird claws into my chest.  She was sulking above, a spot of red and gold, up against the gilded ceiling beams.

Tanifas had a shaved great hound before him and rubbed a cream along his spine, filling the kennel with the scent of peppermint.  “It seems to me that you're making good progress toward what you want,” he said.  “So officially you will be two couples with Gannara being acknowledged as Minis’s alesinas.”

“At least until the bill allowing female alesinas goes through the Assembly,” Farasha answered him.

“How are your families taking this?”

“My mother is ecstatic, but she’s confused by a Jitzmitthra wedding--” Ky turned to look at me, smiling.  “I didn’t want to wait until after the year started.” Her eyes twinkled.

Gannara laughed.  “As if no one is going to figure out that we’re going to celebrate the whole rest of Jitz with no rules and regulations choking up this one.”  He twitched a thumb at me.  “Slacker.”

“Feckless squawker!”  I grinned and scratched under Altras’s chin, getting a heavy purr.

“Horse-apple.”

“I love you too, you hairy wen!”

“Minis.”  The great hound under Tanifas’s hands writhed over onto his back to get him to scratch his belly.  “How have you been sleeping?”

I blinked innocently at him.  “Since I proposed to everyone, like a baby.  Well, I have some nightmares and some weird God dreams but doesn’t everybody?”

“No, Minis,” Tanifas said gently, ran one peppermint scented hand over his own nearly bald scalp. “Your nightmares and your divine dreams are focused dreams, and point out to me where you are still injured.  Are you still recording them?”

“Um, yes.  Just writing them down is soothing.  I quit sweating and shaking while I do that and it lets me get back to sleep.”

“That sounds like a lot more disturbed than ‘sleeping like a baby’ to me,” he said dryly.  I could see my loves nod or sign chalk around me.

“You’ve been sleeping quieter than you used to,” Farasha said.  One of the golden cats, with eyes the same colour as her fur bumped up under her chin.

“That’s not saying much,” Gan said.  “It means he’s much less likely to smack me in the chest with an elbow.”

“I only did that once, and that was on Haiu Menshir when I started poking around in all this stuff,” I retorted but I was only half listening.  

What Tanifas had said was still rolling around in my head as I realized I’d been diminishing how often I was still sleeping and eating badly.  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t wake you all up.”

“Stop that, Minis.” Gan got off the ledge and moved over to the empty chair, shedding tiny dogs who stayed behind and looked at him, panting.  “I sleep just as badly and wake you all up enough too.”

“It is a good thing that you are saying things in your nightmares, ‘Nara,” Farasha put in.  I nodded.

“The silent ones are still the worst for you.” I said, turning my head to get the most rumble from Altras.

“So all of you are spending time together, it is obvious.  I am also assuming that you are being very proper.”  Kyriala and I both nodded and Fara snorted.

“Too proper for pre-marriage partners I think.  We should all be sleeping together to make sure we won’t drive each other crazy with our nighttime noises.  Nara and Minis and I all know but Kyriala won’t know if my whistling snores will keep her awake, or the boys’ dreams.”

Tanifas sat back and sent the great hound off to snooze in his kennel down the hall. Kyriala spoke up as the click of the dog’s paws faded off to an enormous ‘whurf’ as it settled down.  “I tried to explain, Fara.  We can’t do that.”

“No,” I said.  “No one would take Ky seriously if even a hint of that got out.  The one party… we were lucky.”

Tanifas leaned forward intently.  “Farasha, your people are always very close, cheek-by-jowl so to speak, ‘m I right there?”

“Yes.  People sleep in the caravans in inclement weather and it’s as tight as a ship.”

“Hmmm.  Your people and Gan’s have good reason to carefully vet your partners.  The Niahs and the Yeolis – more than ship crews -- grew out of close-living people.  “f you all realize that sleeping together i’nt necessary, should some sleep things keep awake or piss off your husband or wife or alesinae you can go sleep in your own separate bed.  It doesn’t mean anything about your partner.  Not rejection, not anger, nothing.  It just means you need to sleep.”

Gannara and Fara looked at each other and shrugged each in their own ways.  Ky and I smiled.  “The place is big enough that everyone in the marriage has their own private suites,” I said.  “People would be very interested if all four of us slept together all the time.  And this is just sleeping together.  Nothing else.”

“I suppose it’s all right, then,” Farasha said.  “I just think it would be a good idea of Ky knew what she was getting into.”

“I think I can deal with it.  We’ll work something out once I am supposed to be sleeping with Minis.  The Assembly is going wild right now since they’ve started calling you ‘First Concubine’ and arguing if a woman can be an alesinas.”

“My children I don’t want in line for the Crystal Throne anyway,” Fara said and Gan signed chalk.

“And we all know that whatever formal titles Arko plasters on us, we as a family, are together as a four.”

“You’re doing well,” Tanifas said.  “I’m here to listen to any problems you might have, you know.”

Gan, by now, had another big golden dog leaning against his knees to get scratched.  The pack was calm and all of us had the various animals just being with us.  “We know, Tanifas, thank you.  You have the better of us since the pack just tells you if we’re doing all right!”

He laughed.  “I use every advantage.  My advice to you all is keep on this way.  It is not that long till the wedding.”

AN: Just gotten on now...

I've been driving around all day and could not write a single word.

More tomorrow.

603 - Absolutely Effortless

The office of the Chamberlain was a hive of activity, with the underservants holding their notebooks or swaths of flowers and bolts of fabric.  Even as a pair left with a glass statue carefully wrapped on a litter another group came in with a stack of bound volumes for review.

Tenii Sal Faren, the Chamberlain of the Marble Palace after Skorsas, signed before nodding the book away.  “We are going to have to be very creative with this people.  Put that down and listen.”

He rose to his full, imposing Aitzas height as the room settled, people setting their burdens down or slipping in from where they had been dispatched. As the officers of the service crews of the Marble Palace quieted he paced back and forth at the front of the room.

“We have a challenge before us,” he said.  “Nothing that the Marble Palace cannot take in stride, but it will stretch us to our limits. Each of you to your limits.”

“You may have heard in the rumours that the Radiant Mirror of the Light has requested a Jitzmitthra wedding.”  He paused for the wave of discrete whispering to subside.  “I may now confirm that this is correct.”

“The unofficial, non-existent birthday of the Spark of the Sun’s Ray Elect will be the non-event of the past century and you all may be sure we will make it a memorable non-extant celebration, whereupon the exalted will be free to marry.”

He nodded at the front row of the watchers.  “You have a question, Kishanas?”

“Yes, ser.  I heard that the affianced Luminous Reflector of Selestial Joy was proposing a Diem Gustatorial Wedding?”

“Yes.  I have been speaking with the bema and the bemas and we are conspiring to create the most spectacular of wedding clothing that may, with impunity, be spattered, bedewed, sprinkled and splashed with all sorts of food without damage.  The formal, official wedding clothes, shall be ceremonially worn on Muunas First as the Fenjitzas and Fenjitza re-bless their stepping through the wedding arch but the true wedding clothes are certain to require a herculean effort to clean.”

“Does this mean we’re going to do a ‘Washing of the Streets’ Ascension?” The voice from the back was almost plaintive and Tenii wheeled to cast an icy blue stare in that direction.

“The Marble Palace will not fail in this!  We have carried on through every disaster, through Imperial whim and dream and desire.  We have carried on through war and famine and crisis and sack!  If I hear one… one person voice any doubt that the Marble Palace staff is capable of Selestial miracles, I shall insist on reviewing that person’s fitness for their post!”

“This will require miracles!  The actual Ascension will be on Diem Wards Back and the officiants… in the middle of the Ten Angel’s Fountain... will be the Marble Palace kennel master and the animals of the Mable Palace, probably including the new pestiferous flying monster that insists on shenning at every opportunity!” Someone in the back groaned, but the sound cut off under the Chamberlain’s piercing stare.

“This is going to be the wildest non-existant set of festivals we’ve ever had to do,” someone said solemnly and then someone snorted, two more smothered outright laughter, and then with a sound like steam escaping under the lid of a boiling pot, one of the head chefs began laughing and that set everyone off.

Everyone but Tenii.  For the longest of moments he stood, holding a stern expression on his face but in the face of his staff’s laughter, couldn’t hold it and his lips curled.   

“Indeed.  Something that should have been simple… rags for riches, back to front and upside down, is going to need the most careful of planning to make it all appear absolutely effortless.”

602 - I Am Grateful

Reknarja, Crown Prince etc.

To:  Minis Aan, Spark of the Sun’s Ray Elect etc...  [All the appropriate titles... if this were written by my secretary – my welcomist you would say – it would be perfect, but since Sukala’s cave and subsequent letters I am assuming you don’t mind if they are here in spirit if not in actuality.  If not, let me know and I’ll certainly put them all in next time.]

Dear Minis,

Thank you for asking after my family.  My father is doing very well, though still somewhat bemused by all the changes after my brother and I came home from Arko.  His hints of ‘perhaps you should set a wedding date’ have all turned into ‘how big a nursery will you need in the Tor’?

Jaliala sends her best and says that she will look forward to beginning a correspondence with your betrothed, Kyriala.  It will be interesting for the whole lot of us to travel to your wedding and coronation as per your invitation... Jal loved the roses pressed into the paper and the silver ink...  She tells me she will be the first Princess of the Crown of Tor Ench to travel to another country in such a State visit and that a wedding is the absolutely most appropriate reason for her to do so.

It is indeed interesting -- I am, in fact, grateful -- to be the favoured son, since this whole mess with Jakanarja started.  Just between you and I and the iron staple on the High Tor Gate, I think he’s happier than I’ve ever seen him.  He and Kelaepo have been braving the wild blasts of hot air from both Father and her Mother and he is currently living in the Hyerne palace, defying the conventions against men.  He is not terribly pleased with the other women’s attitude towards him, but they are certainly talking marriage and perhaps alternating between the Tor and the Palace at Thenai.

Personally -- and this is just a feeling on my part -- I think they’ll end up on the border somewhere, until Kelaepo makes her bid to become Queen when Segiddis retires.  They are aware that him being her first husband and her being his first wife will make her attempt very much harder.

I have been very good and not inquired how relations are between him and her other husbands.  I’m still reeling myself, honestly, though I must admit they are fierce warriors.  In fact I wonder if that is what drew him to her in the first place.  I admit that I am very much happier with my near perfect wife, a most excellent Princess, but perhaps Jak was put off by the rapacious delicate flowers who hurled themselves at him shamelessly for the past few years.  I’ll have to write and ask him.

It seems that Siavenka... hmmm Viranahay now... is spreading the brightly coloured crap monsters around.  Did your new pet actually maredai-  um... crap on the statue of the Fessas God?  The Pages story made out that it was a good omen, since it was the sort of trick He would appreciate; were they just putting a good face on it?

Oh, before I forget, the outcrossing of your Mahid horse that you sent me have produced a lovely line of foals out of my personal horse... they are the most amazing coats that are stripped gold and black on legs and face and neck, with a buff body and while they are not as big or heavy as your Dulis, have incredible staying power.  And of course they will be very flashy if that coat pattern persists. We shall have to see how that line develops.

Your friend,

Rek

**

Exerpt from the Pages – “...the affianced of the Spark of the Sun’s Ray Elect remains reticent on the identity of the elusive artist, Banaksias.  Says she – “My brother, the lord of the Manor Liren, granted access to the one room in the Liren manor .  I, personally, have no idea of the identity of the artist in question.  It is entirely possible that some person gained access to the room with my brother’s blessing and I am grateful to the bottom of my heart that Banaksias graced my show with their work.”

She went on to say, “Perhaps if other Aitzas families would consider opening their homes to the public for shows of an artistic bent they might find that artists otherwise fearful of reprisal emerge from the faceless mass and cast a light upon the realities of life in Arko the City.”