by W. C. Jasper
Prince Jared cursed his own blessings to have been blessed with such an annoyingly intelligent child. He thought to himself, “This is divine punishment for all the times I tortured my elders with questions like these…” He took a substantial amount of time to formulate an appropriate answer and first described to her the adoption ritual according to the House of Rash-Yaph.
Princess Jeniah: “So only Papa-Jur can now adopt people into our family until the next ruler holds the sceptre?”
Prince Jared: “Yes.”
Princess Jeniah: “Then why won’t Papa-Jur adopt Aunt Hana, Akini, Yuroichi, Yaakub-aani, Ribon, and Kaveri-ka into our family?”
Prince Jared: “Exactly as expected… What a DIVINE DIFFICULTY!” “Well… Papa-Jur does want to adopt all of them. As much as you and I want to. But, you see, we have to refrain from doing that because we don’t want our enemies to know our secrets. Even though most people know what powers the House of Rash-Yaph carries, there are other secrets that our enemies can figure out if we do this now.”
Princess Jeniah spread out her hands as wide as the horizon and asked, “So when can we adopt everyone?”
Prince Jared smiled at her unmatched kindness. He always knew that his daughter possessed infinite kindness and love, yet every time she said something so outrageously idealistic; he could not help but melt once again. He held her face in his hands and answered softly, “Soon.”
Princess Jeniah stared at him with no reaction, wanting to hear more.
Prince Jared added, “It is true that we have to keep our secrets intact. But we won’t have to keep them for too long. And then we will adopt everyone!”
Princess Jeniah: “Very soon?”
Prince Jared: “Very, very soon!”
Prince Jared knew that this conversation was not over. And the Prince’s wisdom was proved correct in a few minutes when the Princess resumed her interrogation, “Mmm… I am still unclear about this… Who qualifies as family…? What makes some people more important and special than others… It all seems very… Mmmm… Very… Mmmm… Very…”
“It seems incongruent to you,” said Prince Jared.
Princess Jeniah: “What is in-cong-ru-ent?”
“We’ll cover that another day,” said Prince Jared, “Look at me,” he said, giving her his right index finger to hold in her hand. As she grasped his finger in her tiny hands, he continued, “You will learn all about it as you grow up. No one will teach you. But you will learn on your own. But for now, Appa will tell you what you need to know right now. Your family are those who love you. Love is when someone wants what is best for you above all else. Those who protect you, take care of you, nurture you. Those who do what is best for you no matter the cost. They are your family. Clear?”
The Princess nodded in swift motions.
Prince Jared: “But this does not mean that you should love only those who love you! You should love everyone. You should want what is best for everyone! Okay?”
The Princess nodded in swift motions.
Prince Jared: “Now. About what makes people the most important… and the most special.”
The Princess climbed onto him and laid her head on his shoulder, as if she wanted to sleep. Prince Jared started patting her back rhythmically, got to his feet and started walking away from the tree. Traversing through the prop roots hanging from the roof of fireflies, still patting her rhythmically, he continued to speak, “There are some people whose only purpose in life is Jeni-ma’s well-being. Papa-Jur, Maomi-ma, and I live only for Jeni-ma’s well-being. While everyone including Akini, Yaakub, Yuroichi, and the rest are your family; we are your home. Whenever you are lost, whenever you feel unsafe, whenever you need shelter; Jeni-ma comes to us. That’s what makes us your home. That’s what makes us the most important relationships. And Jeni-ma is my home.” He kissed the side of her head before continuing, “And as for Appa…” His face reflexively looked up. He was now exiting the tree’s wings. As he stared at the star-studded, clear black sky, the words formed themselves, “For Appa, Jeni-ma is Appa’s entire existence. Appa exists only because of and for Jeni-ma. There is no Appa without Jeni-ma.”
“I’ve got it,” said the Princess with a drowsy voice, “Sing.”
Prince Jared chuckled. And obeying his Princess’ orders, he began to sing.
Chapter Thirteen
Sacrifice
SHAR 3304
“Satya, the King has summoned you,” said a messenger as Satya was finishing his lunch.
Satya: “Please inform him I will be coming soon; I have some urgent work in the city.”
“Satya, you need to come right away,” replied the messenger with a grave voice.
Satya realised at once that something was wrong and rode to the palace swiftly. He arrived at the Royal Palace in 20 minutes. He entered one of the living rooms to find the King, Queen, Prince, and General Thayman weeping and comforting each other. As soon as they noticed Satya, King Jeraash walked over to him with a broken and heavy gait, fell to his knees, bowed his head and spoke with an empty, broken, and sorrowful voice, “Forgive me, Brother, for I have let you down. I have let you and Kaveri down.”
Fear started to rise in Satya as he realised that something was gravely wrong. He looked over at General Thayman in panic and asked, “What is it?”
“Forgive us Sat—” spoke General Thayman as he was cut off by Satya’s steady and controlled voice, “Please just tell me what it is.”
Still on his knees, and with his chin resting on his chest, King Jeraash took Satya’s hands and spoke in a soft and crumbling voice as tears streamed down his cheeks, “Your father and mother have been killed due to your King’s incompetence.”
Satya’s eyes widened and he looked around the room trying to find their bodies, but he saw none. “Where are their bodies?” he asked as tears streamed down his face silently. “We never received them,” replied General Thayman sombrely. For the first time in his entire life, Satya’s eyes slipped emotion as they emanated rage and pain. For the first time in his entire life, he lost control of his emotions as he roared, “I will have his head!”
King Jeraash, who was still holding his hands, stopped him from storming off and stood up. He held his hands in his and pleaded, “Please. I know I have let you down. But on my honour, on the honour of the entire House of Rash-Yaph, I promise you, I will give you Dashaim! But, it will have to wait. For your parents’ sake and for your sister’s sake, I beg you. It is with great shame and guilt that I beg you to trust me once again. I will give you the justice that is owed to you.”
Satya broke down and fell to his knees. Sobbing and snivelling, he spoke, “I already know that it was not your incompetence. So tell me, how did it happen? I remember very well that the only reason you finally allowed them to go to Ketaar was that you issued explicit orders to only observe and return. How did this happen?”
General Thayman knew that the King was in no shape to answer and answered on his behalf with a heavy voice, “Their cover identity was working perfectly. But as you know, Ketaar has disgusting and disturbing laws pertaining to women. One of those laws is that no woman is to ever disobey her husband. Just like the crime of not worshipping any god other than Kallaizo, this too is punishable by being stoned to death. Someone noticed your parents arguing with each other. Unfortunately, they did not convey the information to the authorities right away. Instead, they continued to observe your parents and heard them pray to Sathyam. When Dashaim got word of it, he grew suspicious of how someone from Ketaar could be worshipping Sathyam. So, he ordered for them to be spied upon. Once he discovered that they were spies from Jerudia, he knew better than to fight them head-on. He knows too well how strong our warriors are. They shot them with poison-laced arrows while they were at the market and then imprisoned them. Dashaim knew that they could never deny Sathyam. So he bound them in chains and in a public display ordered them to deny Sathyam. When they refused… that is all he needed to behead them.”
“An
d how do we know all this?” asked Satya.
As General Thayman dropped his head in shame; Satya screamed bursting in rage, with his voice slipping a flavour of wrath that made everyone’s blood curdle and souls shudder, “HOW DO WE KNOW?”
It was a painfully tragic moment for everyone in the room. No one had seen Satya lose his temper until now. Even as a child, Satya was known to be unnaturally silent and placid. Nothing could make Satya lose control of his emotions. That was until now. This day, for the first time, they saw the steadiest mountain and the firmest rock crumble from the inside out. They beheld a saint turning savage. They saw their precious loved one failing to hold together the substance of his soul.
King Jeraash replied, resting his forehead on Satya’s hands and sobbing, “He sent the heads to us with a letter. He said this will one day be the fate of everyone on Earth who refuses to accept Kallaizo as their god.”
Satya looked over at the Prince and asked with an intense voice that restrained his righteous fury, “Are even you going to support a twisted sense of righteousness over justice for my parents?”
Prince Jared, who was weary of crying, was too broken to make a reply and sat with his empty eyes fixed on the ground before him.
King Jeraash responded, recollecting himself, “You know very well that he was the first one to try and set off for Ketaar. But please think about what your parents would want. They went there in the first place to remake Ketaar. Their desire was to free Ketaar of their poisonous ideologies that persecute women, their extremist religious beliefs that persecute anyone who disagrees with their religion in the smallest of things. My tribute to your parents will be to realise that dream. But if we march to war now, we will not be remaking Ketaar; but only destroying it.” King Jeraash fell to his knees once again and begged with his head bowed, “Please allow me to atone for my sins.”
“Where is Kaveri-ka?” asked Satya.
General Thayman answered solemnly, “She will be arriving any moment now.”
Satya started walking away as he spoke, “I will be the one to tell my sister. I am not strong enough to see their severed heads on my own anyway.”
The burial was scheduled for the next morning. That night, General Thayman called for a meeting with the King, Queen, and Prince. He spoke with a sorrowful and solemn voice, “How much do you all trust me?”
King Jeraash replied as he sat caressing his brother’s head, “You know that we trust you with all our hearts, Uncle. After our father, you are the one we trust. Speak freely.”
General Thayman: “Do you trust my character? My nobility?”
“Of course, we do,” answered Queen Maomi, still reeling from tears.
General Thayman: “I am going to ask you all to allow me to desecrate the bodies of our beloved.”
All three of them stared at him in shock. He made no change in his countenance or voice and continued, “We have been looking for a way to infiltrate Gessold for a long time now. And it has been absolutely impossible with Emperor Thon’s formidable intellect, cunning, and scepticism. This is the most perfect opportunity we will ever have. I propose that we send Satya and Lord Yuvan as double spies into Gessold. No one knows that Lord Fagaau and Lady Mitko had gone to Ketaar. We will make an announcement that two people who were secretly groomed by King Jahous long ago were finally sent to Ketaar as spies. We will announce false names. Then we will say that Lord Fagaau and Lady Mitko betrayed Jerudia and handed the spies into Emperor Dashaim’s hands in exchange for money. Prince Jared found out about this. And since the spies were caught and beheaded because of their betrayal, in a fit of rage, Prince Jared decided to behead them in poetic justice. Everyone knows that Prince Jared has issues in this area, and he has been known to kill needlessly and erratically. So it will be easy to believe. Additionally, we will have the King punish him by publicly sentencing him to the dark dungeons for six months. The dark dungeons being of such nature that it has only ever housed two prisoners and that both of them were the worst scum of the Earth, everyone will be shaken by the very fact that the Prince was even subjected to such a grave punishment. Of course, it will also birth doubt in the minds of most that this is untrue, for which we will make sure that some of the guards and servants will see him when he is forced to his monthly spiritual lessons. These guards and servants will be astonished that the Prince is really in the dark dungeons and will spread word about it. This will cement the legitimacy of the Prince’s actions and his consequential punishment. Of course, we will secretly ensure that he gets to spend time with everyone in the family every day, and live as much of a normal life as possible. We can also do it by secretly allowing him into the deep jungles. But, at this point, Boris himself will be convinced that this is truly what transpired. This is when Satya will have to rant to Boris and act like he is confiding in him and vent to him about how he wishes to destroy the House of Rash-Yaph and would do anything to achieve it. Once he is convinced that Satya will do anything to have vengeance on Prince Jared and the House of Rash-Yaph, he will guide him to Thon. With his parents’ heads being laid out at Thon’s feet, and being sent to him by Boris himself, he will be forced to believe Satya. And that is how we will finally infiltrate Gessold.”
King Jeraash’s eyes made it quite clear that he had already disapproved of the plan. So General Thayman continued, “We both know that this is what they would want. This advantage will save thousands of lives during the war. With their lives already lost, this is the best way we can now honour their will as warriors. By allowing them to serve their kingdom even in their death. Their bodies have been desecrated already. He even sent the heads without any fragrances … We all know what his intent was… He purposely used only the preservatives that would maintain the integrity of the heads just so he could add to our pain… It is too late for us to honour their bodies. So I am asking you to honour their souls… their spirits… their will… And Satya will gain a sense of honouring his parents’ memory. Of course, at first, it will be sheer pain for him. Every time he mentions his parents to Thon, he will feel unimaginable agony, when he displays their heads to Thon, his guilt will tear him apart. Every time he has to convince Thon with lies about his parents’ death, his guilt will burrow holes in his heart. We are asking him to make a sacrifice that is far beyond the comprehension of any of us. But with the length of time, he will see it as his parents’ last mission for this land. The last mission that he had the honour to serve with his parents. A mission that will save countless lives in the war. He will have been able to work on the mission field side by side with his parents.” King Jeraash got up in a swift motion and paced back and forth and eventually spoke, “Satya and Kaveri are the only ones who should get to make that decision.” He proceeded to leave the room and as he crossed General Thayman on his way out, he put his hand on his shoulder and spoke in a soft voice, “I know that this is harder for you than it is for anyone else. Thank you.”
When confronted with the mission, Satya was dumbfounded. But as someone, who inherited the sacrificial spirit of their parents, he already knew he was going to undertake the mission.
Kaveri asked, “Do we even know where Lord Yuvan is?”
General Thayman: “No, but he has made sure we can always reach him when required. He has left one of his falcons with us. The falcon can always track him no matter where he is. It is one of the only two falcons left on Earth who can catch the scent of their master from thousands of miles and pinpoint their location. Whenever we send a message through the falcon, it delivers the messages and then returns to us, so that we may always have a line of communication with him.”
Kaveri spoke with a sombre voice, “Aane, I know that you are in great turmoil. But let me erase any doubts in you. This is definitely what Appa and Amma would have wanted. You must do this. I am only sad that I will not be able to join you on this mission with Appa and Amma.”
She embraced him and kissed him. Her tears began to flow uncontrollably, for she knew that the pain her brother would
be enduring was going to be unimaginable. And she despised and cursed the fact that she had to tell him to subject himself to such agony. As she sobbed, Satya too broke into silent tears while only a few high pitched and almost mute whimpers escaped Satya’s throat. She kissed him once again and comforted him. And as soon as she turned around, General Thayman now beheld eyes that were resolute and tough as she said to him, “He accepts your mission. Send word to Lord Yuvan at once.”
SHAR 3305
Emperor Thon summoned Lord Yuvan and Satya to his courts. Dressed in the most extravagant red and white attire with golden decorations, he was once again watching a sensual dance by a beautiful woman. Emperor Thon enjoyed salt-roasted cashews, and without stealing his eyes away from the dancer, he spoke, “I had sent a messenger bird to Jerudia. For confirming if Lord Boris really has been caught.” His enigmatic charm was in full effect as always, “It was supposed to bring any scroll handed by Boris to the city guards in the south. But when it was delivering the scroll to the guards, a wolf swooped in and snatched away the scroll. A wolf that could only be one of King Jeraash’s wolves. Despite being riddled with four arrows, the wolf still managed to escape… And here I am… I’ve tried everything to tame the wolves in Gessold, and they would much rather die than ever obey a single order…” Satya interrupted him with his ever so calm and dutiful voice, “These are the pieces of information I forget to mention. My apologies. Just so we don’t forget, the wolf pack belongs to the Prince. The lion pride is the King’s.”