Asmireen
©2024 by Jonathan Scott
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Chapter 16 - God, King and Country
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Asgael, He's Third Story
15.3 The world, if you all love it more than you all love Papa Voice, then where you all be when it go, but Papa Voice go not?
"Jake, it's time to wake up." said a soft voice.
"C'mon Jake. We gotta get moving." said it again.
From some part of eternity other than the one Jake currently enjoyed, Jake heard a small sigh of frustration.
"Jake? Don't you have to urinate?" said the soft voice again.
Just the slight mentioning of anything that had anything to do with urine caused Jake to realize that yes, indeed, he did have to pee, and in fact, he had to go quite bad. Jake stood up almost immediately and began searching for the chamber pot.
Hannah stood by his bedroll and smiled. Her method of waking people may have seemed a bit crude and subversive, but it was always 100% successful and never brought anger into her household.
"Jake, don't go back to sleep. Services start at ten. That only leaves us about another hour or so before we have to go." said Hannah who then walked out of the room contentedly.
Jake sat down at their kitchen table and was amazed at how desperate he was for food. He was happy when Hannah finally placed the large bowl of bread before him. He saw the container of milk. He saw the plate of butter. Later on, there would be another plate filled with fried eggs and sausages.
"Where's the fish and rice?" Jake said with a surprised smile.
"Those coins you gave Isaac last night were quite valuable Jake. And also, now that you have a job, Isaac's calmed down quite a bit. He went out last night and picked up some special food for breakfast today." answered Hannah.
Marie then stumbled in the room sleepily. She looked at the table and smiled. The food that was there was simple, and not at all elegant, but a very welcome contrast to their normal faire.
Isaac then walked in. He was also just waking up. The four of them sat around the kitchen table eating and speaking. From time to time, they would laugh together about something another had said. At other times they would be fully intrigued by stories that another related. It was wonderful. It was the first time since what had felt like an eternity that Jake had felt as though he was a member of a family. It was the first time in a long time that Isaac and Hannah were not worried about money. Marie also was happy, albeit subconsciously, that she somehow miraculously had been discovered and saved by a family as good as Jake's. So many terrible things could have happened to her, but didn't, just because Jake had been the type of person that Jake was.
"I talked to the Black Horse yesterday." said Marie.
"About a job?" asked Jake.
"Yeah. They said I could start on Monday."
"How long were you in Pine Mountain Marie?" asked Hannah.
"About six months."
"I would think that they would have replaced you by now."
"They did, but I guess the guys that replaced me weren't very honest. They would just deliver a few of the flyers and then throw the rest away somewhere. I guess the owner of the Black Horse walked into a pub one day and saw a bunch of his flyers sitting on the bar. Anyway, they seemed pretty happy to see me."
"Sixteen anunanun a day again?" asked Isaac.
"They actually bumped me up to a gold. They were really happy to see me."
"One gold a day! And Jake, you'll be making two in six months. This family's income just increased about sevenfold. Thank you very much, both of you." said Isaac.
"Yeah. Maybe we can even start looking into moving out of this place." said Marie.
"Yeah. That would be nice." added Hannah.
After breakfast, everyone stood and began to finish getting ready for services. And then when they were ready, they all walked out the door together.
Quick greeted them happily. Quick was an outside dog. He had been so even back in William's Peace. For whatever reason, Saja simply could not tolerate having animals of any sort in the home, so poor Quick had to content himself sleeping under the wagon. Of all the members of the Tunnis family, Quick's life had changed the least.
Jake looked at the wagon and Gideon and saw that nothing was different. Quick looked bored. There were no new blood stains in, on, near, or around the wagon at all. There was nothing that seemed to be out of place whatsoever. Gideon simply stood there contentedly chewing on the bag of oats that Hannah had attached to his bridle earlier. Quick had had a peaceful evening. Jake hoped that this meant that the neighborhood had learned to leave their wagon alone. He felt calm.
Everyone climbed aboard the wagon and left for services. Isaac and Jake sat in front. Marie and Hannah sat in back. Quick roamed everywhere constantly interesting himself fully in the sights of the city.
The family drove their wagon down Blue Street until it met up with Edward's Way. They took a left on Edward's way until it hit the Toft Out circular. They then took a right and followed the road down for quite some time until they finally arrived at a very old and unkempt looking building. They could tell that once, not so long ago, it had been taken care of well, but now wasn't.
Isaac stopped the wagon in front of the church. Everyone climbed out and walked in. Quick sat on the seat of the wagon looking carefully at passerbys. He would wag his tail at some. At others he would lower his head and stare defiantly. Quick was a miracle. Jake was grateful for him.
Inside the church, there were rows and rows of pews that were empty. The place looked as though it was capable of seating a thousand. Jake and the rest of the family walked forward and began looking for places to sit down. Isaac began walking over to the other members, shaking their hands and speaking to them in small quiet voices. Isaac smiled often, as did the people that shook his hand. Hannah was also off speaking with other members.
"Jake, come here." said Isaac who was standing and speaking with three men.
Jake then walked over and was introduced to Isaac's friends. Each of them were dressed in clothing that was now frayed, patched and worn thin. They all smiled, although it seemed as though they had to struggle to do so.
Jake and Marie were eventually introduced to the rest of the congregation. Everyone seemed pleasant to some degree. Some had a harder time being genial than others. Others were outright open and friendly. Everyone though was dressed just as raggedly as were Isaac and Hannah. Everyone also seemed as though they were perhaps too thin. There were perhaps only thirty or so individuals that roamed about in this vacant auditorium of a chapel that had been designed for a thousand.
Jake and the rest of his new family found their seats and sat down.
"The Jensens aren't here today. Did you see?" whispered one woman to another.
"Yeah. The White's aren't here either." said another.
"You're not going to believe this, but I saw Bill Williams yesterday. He was a grower. He was working in the market. I said 'hello' to him, but he wouldn't even look at me." said a third woman with an astonished look on her face. The other two women looked back at her with looks of equal astonishment.
Others, aside from these three, had been listening in on the conversation. Some looked sad to hear the news. A few looked proud.
Then a man walked to the front of the room and began to speak. There was a pulpit that was built into a dais at the very front of the room. The dais was several feet above the floor and had enough seats to sit perhaps forty individuals. The pulpit itself though stood over ten feet in the air and could only be accessed via a small stairway behind it. The preacher though totally ignored the pulpit, as well as the dais itself. He stood in front of everyone, on the floor, also looking somewhat ragged and thin, but well-mannered and businesslike.
"Welcome to services everyone. I am very happy to see you here. Let's begin the meeting by singing hymn number thirty."
The congregation began to sing. There were so few of them that their voices hardly seemed to dent the vastness of the hall in which they met, but they sang nonetheless. Jake began to sing as he always had. This time though was different. He looked around and saw his uncle. He looked and saw Marie. He was accustomed to seeing other faces. He was accustomed to seeing someone else stand before the congregation and speak. He was even accustomed to sitting on a different style of bench. This time though was different, very different. And each little thing that varied reminded him of the pain that was now, finally, beginning to ever so slightly fade away. The only thing that remained the same of this entire experience was the music that he heard and the words that he sang. It was a song that he had sung often back in William's Peace as well.
The song talked of misery. It talked of the unhappiness that one receives from time to time in this world. It talked of conspiring men and the poverty and misery that they create. It talked of people being persecuted to the point of death and martyrdom. It talked of such loneliness and sadness that Jake winced as he sang the words.
But, then, as if the cold, wretched vile dark of this world were being somehow peeled from it, the song began to sing of people and their relationship with Papa Voice. The song reminded people of Papa Voice's love for them and reminded them of the promises Papa Voice honors with the faithful. The song talked of Heaven and reminded them all of perhaps the most wonderful aspect of it, being able to live solely with the just.
Jake had been given happiness by his parents since the day that he was born. He had never encountered any problem that someone other than himself was not able to provide a solution to. He had never been in harm's way, whatsoever, for the entire first fourteen years of his life, even though he sometimes believed it to be otherwise. He had his parents to thank for that. Unfortunately though, there is a form of stupidity that accompanies this level of care. The children, unaware of the dangers that they never face simply due to the love of their parents, come to believe that the world is not a dangerous nor an evil place. Some, upon seeing other's hardships, and seeing none of their own, even make the faulty deduction that they are somehow superior to everyone else. And when other people speak of their problems, or talk of their hardships, these children simply are incapable of understanding or of even showing sympathy. Their well-bred stupidity clouds their minds and makes the most lucky children of all totally unaware of how immensely lucky they are. This is a mixed blessing as many and perhaps all of them later find out when they are forced to face the evil alone.
Jake though was now being forced to face it, more so than most. It was his turn. And he was being forced to face it fully.
The words of the song made sense to Jake now for the first time in his entire life. His eyes began to water and he began to have a hard time singing. His family was gone. He was now struggling in poverty for the first time in his life. He was surrounded by evil and somehow he needed to keep going and not succumb to it. He needed the "fresh courage" that the song talked about. He needed to be reminded of Papa Voice's love for him. The song, through its sheer, intense and painfully accurate wisdom woke Jake up and gave him focus. He looked around. He was not the only one who was struggling to sing.
Jake looked at his hymn book and looked at the faces of all those around him. Jake knew that Papa Voice was here, paying attention and watching over them all. He felt calm and fully at peace.
The song ended and then there was silence. It was not just silence though. It was a deafening, relentless, echoing silence that penetrated all who heard it with a type of godlike anger. The silence did not feel silent whatsoever. Instead, it felt much more like an angry and justified slap across the face of evil.
The preacher returned to the front of the congregation and began to speak. Just then, there was a sound from the rear of the chapel. Everyone turned to look and the preacher himself stopped speaking. Two men, dressed finely, bearing the crest of the king entered and walked to the front of the room.
"Jake Tunnis!" said a man in a commanding loud voice.
Jake looked around dumbfounded that anyone would be here calling his name, especially the servants of the king himself.
"Jake Tunnis!" said the man again in a slightly louder voice.
Jake stood and waved one of his hands slightly.
"By order of the King, you are directed to accompany me to the palace. Please follow me." said the man.
There was a pause and then the speaker for the King bellowed out another name.
"Marie Elizabeth Kline."
Marie then stood. She seemed nervous as did everyone else.
"By order of the King, you are directed to accompany me to the palace. Please follow me." said the man again.
"Sir, may I accompany them?"
Isaac stood.
"Who are you sir?" asked the man with complete authority.
"I'm the boy's uncle." said Isaac.
The man looked at Isaac and Jake, nodded, and then began towards the door.
"Take care husband." said Hannah quietly who looked at Jake and Isaac with much concern.
Jake, Isaac and Marie left their seats and followed the two men out.
Jake, Marie, Isaac and the two men exited the chapel. Outside of the chapel there were three carriages. The group of five then entered the middle carriage and all began to drive away.
"Sir. What is this about?" asked Isaac who was sitting next to one of the King's men. He looked very out of place compared with the carriage and the guard.
The guard's purple velvet quilted court finery was of such excellence that it looked as though it had not been manufactured by human hands. The upholstery within the carriage itself was blood red and featured designs of black and golden griffins that fiercely battled dragons of many different colors.
"I was not told why you were being summoned. I was only told to summon you." said the guard who then closed his mouth and remained silent for the rest of the trip.
Jake sat on the seat of the wagon and looked out the open window.
They were once again on the Toft Out circular going up. On their right, they saw the open air market. On their left, later on, they saw the flour mill. Eventually they passed several other small specialty shops and finally arrived at a long, wide and very busy road that went straight up and out of Old Town. It was called Top Avenue and led from Old Town through the borough of Audon to the King's borough of Safe Way.
"Hey Jake. Look. I used to live there." said Isaac who pointed to a tall iron fence, behind which stood an impenetrable wall of evergreen trees.
"You used to live in a forest?" said Marie with a puzzled look on her face.
"It's not a forest Marie. It's Kingsfield. Behind those trees is the most expensive neighborhood in Old Town. It's where 'The Elite' live. I was so proud of myself the day we moved in there. I wish I had been a little more wise though." said Isaac who then looked slightly at his feet.
"What's 'elite' mean Isaac?" asked Marie.
Isaac paused for a second and thought to himself.
"Do you want to hear how I define it, or how they define it?" said Isaac as he pointed towards Kingsfield smiling.
"How you define it." said Marie with a smile.
"Well, in the case of those folks, think of it like this. Being elite means that you just happened to be placed on the shelves in the hen house that the wolves couldn't reach, and then, when you see your fellow chickens getting eaten, you talk yourself into believing that they somehow deserve it, but you don't."
Upon hearing this, the guard looked at Isaac with a somewhat serious look and then smiled. He then turned his head back to the opened window, and began to chuckle.
Marie smiled.
"How do they define it?" she asked.
"Basically they believe that they are somehow worth more than everyone else. They'll never state it in such obvious language. They'll usually tell it to you with a pretty good and convincing argument, but nonetheless, that is how they define it." answered Isaac.
Marie paused and then smiled.
"So, elite means 'lucky, cruel and stupid' then, right?" said Marie.
"Yeah. Pretty much." answered Isaac.
Jake looked out of his window. There he saw a group of extremely well dressed men and women standing together doing some form of stretching exercise. Not far away from them a small homeless family sat on the sidewalk looking at them. Many of the exercisers were overweight. Others were normal. Some though, looked extremely fit; perhaps even too fit. One of the homeless children then walked towards the group, innocently hoping to get a better look. A guard though approached the child, slapped the back of her head, turned her around and roughly pushed her back towards her mother.
Audon was originally nothing but a collection of farms that developed around Old Town when Old Town was still known only as Eastbrook. Over the years, as the land in Old Town became more and more sought after, and the prices of it rose higher and higher, many people began to move out of Old Town to where land and housing were less expensive, and sometimes still free. Then, as Eastbrook became larger and more known for its wealth of information in its magic and other guilds, more and more people from all over the country came to live here. This increase in population, of course, made land prices even higher. Eventually, even the farms surrounding Old Town became so valuable, that the citizens of it erected their own walls and gates to protect themselves. The King himself even chose to honor them with their own town name of "Out Town" which shortened through the years to it's current version today of "Audon."
The Kingsfield, of which Isaac spoke, was of course the original site of Eastbrook Castle. Today though, the King and his court have all moved up to take advantage of the extra protection provided by the Safe Way borough of the Three Fronts area.
Above Old Town, there is a fork in the river Dankara. The left portion of this fork flows left, through the Mirrorball. The remainder flows down and continues on as the Dankara. The left fork, which goes through the Mirrorball and then off into the lands of Lower Gria is called White Water. It's called that simply because the water that flows out of the Mirrorball, for some reason no one but Papa Voice Himself is aware of, is absolutely, perfectly, and miraculously clean. Once, very long ago, they even went to great lengths to try and dirty it just for the sake of experimentation. But what they found was that even if absolute raw sewage were poured, in great quantities, into the river upstream, that nothing but absolute pure water flowed out the other side. This is one of the things that has led people over the years to claim that Papa Voice himself lives within the Mirrorball.
At the fork though, where the Dankara splits off into the White Water, there is a natural meeting of three different river banks. This area is called the Three Fronts Region and is divided into three different boroughs: Safe Way, Up and Right. All the land in Audon, Safe Way, Up and Right is priced ridiculously high and no one but the richest of the rich can afford it.
Jake and the rest all passed through the beautiful tree lined streets of Audon. The hustle and bustle of the marketplace was no where to be seen. Here, there was peace, beauty, and serenity, as much of it as money could afford to buy.
After a small amount of time, the three carriages turned a corner and made their way around a small beautiful and carefully manicured forest. Within the forest, several men stood on ladders, carefully and exactly pruning trees almost to the point where they no longer even seemed to be a thing of nature.
Then, from behind the forest, Eastbrook Castle slowly appeared. Jake and Marie leaned out the windows of the carriage in order to get a better view. It was then that Jake realized exactly what it was that he was about to do.
Jake would soon meet a King.
He looked at his clothing, which had not been washed anytime recently. He looked at his hands which were covered in a type of grime that simply would not wash off. He was not prepared to stand in the presence of a King. But, he would nonetheless.
Jake would soon meet a King.
When one wakes up in the morning, there is a predictable ritual that one goes through. Then there is a list of somewhat predictable possibilities that fill up the rest of the day as well: Work, sleep, eating, play, etc. On this day though, Jake was going to stand in front of a King and there was absolutely no way that Jake could predict what his life would be like even three hours from now. Would he be alive? Would he be dead? Would he be rich? Would he be poor? Would he be in prison? Would he be free? There was no way to know. Jake sat in the carriage and was amazed at how absolutely undefinable his future was.
Jake would soon meet a King.