by Jim Spencer
He tried his best to wipe his tears in time, but was sure the person had seen them. It took him a while to realise that it was Sana standing there. She didn’t say anything, but he knew she felt uncomfortable.
‘Some clothes for you,’ she finally said. And with that, she made her way out of the tent, leaving him to his solitude.
*
‘You ok?’ Cordell asked him, as soon as he came out
‘Yeah, why?’ Arion asked.
‘Something I’ve been seeing lately. You seem to be more isolated than usual.’
‘I’m fine.’ he lied.
‘You know, Arion. It’s good to talk.’
‘I know. I’m just not ready for that yet.’
Cordell gave an understanding nod. Arion knew he was not one for emotions, but he was clearly worried about him. And Arion could feel a burden every time he never spoke or was alone. He kept himself in the company of everyone during the next few days, as news came forth that a batTalion was making its way towards Tribe country.
‘So they’ve completely got away from negotiations and decided to go for the battle.’
‘I don’t know,’ Cordell interjected, ‘It’s only one batTalion. Might be a welcoming committee.’
‘Come with me?’ Ruto asked Arion.
‘To where?’
‘We’ll meet them out in public. No weapons.’
‘No weapons! Are you crazy?’
‘I have faith they will not shoot.’
He almost scoffed as he said, ‘Faith won’t get you past them.’
‘Maybe not, but humbleness will.’
‘That will just show them you’re soft.’ Arion argued.
‘Which, in the worst case, will give us time to develop our skills for the inevitable.’
‘Come on Arion. He’s got a point. With us on the other side as it were, they have to negotiate.’
Arion nodded as Cordell called his men over who came at once. A couple of them were half dressed, clearly revelling at having not to train all the time. Cordell shook his head but didn’t say anything. They made their way out
*
'Alright pal,' Patrick said to Arion.
'Hey Patrick, long time no see.'
'I knoo. we just been so busy, takin' in local scenary. if you know what I mean.'
'Right.'
'Oh come on. you can't tell me you haven't noticed her.'
Arion didn't say anything, as her father was walking very close to them, but Patrick being the way he was, carried on. He couldn't deny it though. Sana was the prettiest woman he had ever come across.
'You have noticed, ain' ya?'
Arion nodded in an inconspicuous way and Patrick started to laugh.
'Hey, if you got your eye on her, then I'll back off. I don't mind, plenty of stuff to see, you know,' he said, with a knowing smile. He had never seemed happier in his life. Arion didn't answer his question, but he couldn't take the smug smile off his face. Patrick understood that as a sign.
'Hey fair enough. i know when one's taken. Ya lucky fucker.'
And on that happy note, they made their way across the great field to meet civil country cavalry, who were equipped with gas masks. Something which tribe country took as a bit of an insult.
*
‘Welcome,’ Ruto proclaimed simply as civil country representatives came forward. An entire tribe of at least two hundred armed men stood behind them, but only two came forward. Behind Arion, there were only fifty at best, including the soldiers.
‘I wish we were meeting under better circumstances,’ the high chancellor began.
‘Don’t play games, chancellor,’ Arion interjected, ‘We know exactly why you are here.’
The high chancellor attempted to keep a composed face, but his anger was clear. Eventually he spoke,
‘Very well, I was going to be civil, but I suppose that isn’t needed.’
‘What brings you here?’ Ruto asked him.
‘I am here to bring back Arion.’
‘Me?’ Arion replied, surprised by this.
‘Of course. The great country of Civil does not want its greatest scientist to be…unhappy with us.’ He seemed to be choosing his words carefully as he spoke.
‘So I’m your greatest now!’
‘Of course,’ the high chancellor remarked.
‘Where’s Tali?’ Arion asked.
‘He’s in civil country.’
‘he waited a moment to wait for Arion to speak. When he didn’t, he continued,
‘We would like you to come back, along with Ruto here.’
‘And my daughter,’ Ruto interjected, who until now had been watching in mild curiosity.
‘Me?’ Sana asked her father.
‘Yes, Sana, you as well.’
‘Anyone from here is welcome, of course,’ the high chancellor spoke. Sana simply nodded. Arion couldn’t help but feel a certain mark of respect for Ruto. Even amongst everything, he still considered his daughter to be a representative for all the women and men in society. There was nothing there to suggest that she was inferior in any way. His idea was, if the person is intelligent, they deserve to represent their people.
‘I’ll go with you under one condition,’ Arion spoke.
‘Oh yeah?’
‘We have constant security around us, who are in my charge, not yours. And we go back for three days only. In which time, I hope to negotiate some kind of a ceasefire from civil country, not tribe country.’
‘Now Arion, there has to be a cease fire from both sides.’
‘Not if only one side is attacking,’ Arion argued.
He had no answer to this but to nod once.
‘You accept my terms then?’ Arion asked.
‘Of course I do,’ though it didn’t seem to be the case.
‘Ok, let’s go.’
*
‘This is a trap, you know,’ Cordell told him as the fellow tribesmen gave their instructions to the next person in line, which turned out to be a teenage boy. Although Arion only knew that when he heard him speak. Once Ruto walked away from his tribe and gave them a salute of sorts, him and his daughter began to go with the rest.
‘Who was that young lad?’ Cordell asked.
‘He was my nephew. Great warrior in his own right, but not with the pride of an elder yet. He has my brother’s support, so they will listen to him.’
‘You trust them?’ Arion asked.
‘Well of course,’ Ruto asked, as if offended that this was even a question. Arion noticed his mistake quickly and apologised. ‘That’s ok, my lad. You are unaware of our customs.’
‘Oh, come on dad. Don’t be like that to him,’ Sana suddenly spoke.
‘Well well. Of course I will not raise my voice to you, my daughter,’ he said. Sana became red in the face. In the midst of this, Arion could see the weapons being hidden away out of sight from civil country. All army officials that Arion trusted had a GP weapon, the rest were simply escorts. It was the only way he could be sure everyone would comply. After a moment, as the army officials made their way into the vehicle associated for them, Sana came closer to Arion.
‘Sorry about my dad,’ she said, ‘he can be a bit blunt sometimes.’
‘He trusts you though.’
‘He always has, yes’ she answered this in a similar fashion to how her father did. He elaborated.
‘I mean where I come from, I haven’t seen any women in high ranking positions. When we rebuilt our society, we had to prioritise and after a bit, people simply forgot to include them.’
‘I see. Well, father told me that everyone banded together when civil country banished us.’
‘You weren’t banished. You caused rebellion,’ Arion interjected.
‘Is that what they told you?’ she asked, more as a statement, than a question.
‘Well, yes,’ Arion answered, more defensively than he intended. He apologised immediately, which she didn’t mind.
‘You apologise too much.’
; ‘Can’t help it.’
‘It’s a good quality to have,’ she said, though she didn’t elaborate. They sat in the enclosure of the cabin, with their crew, as it were. Everyone was wearing tribal clothes, which consisted of big shawls covering most of the body. Like wearing a mattress over your head. It was surprisingly comfortable.
‘Do you think your people will negotiate with us?’ Sana finally asked.
‘It’s worth a try. If my actions can lead to some form of peace, then we have some progress.’
‘Not much,’ she reminded him.
‘Yeah well. Some progress is better than no progress.’
‘What you two lovebirds talking about?’ Patrick asked them suddenly. Arion hadn’t even realised he was sat next to them.
‘Nothing, just about possible terms we may have to discuss.’
‘Oh aye. I can see what ‘terms’ you were talkin’ bout,’ he answered, in a not so subtle way. Arion shook his head, but didn’t say anything. Patrick was wise enough to change the subject as Ruto came closer, clearly curious about them two.
‘So you fink they’ll negotiate, after what you saw?’ he asked, asking Arion about the message interception.
‘Probably not. But if I can avoid war, even if only for a second, then it’s worth a try.’
‘They won’t listen,’ Ruto interjected.
‘They might,’ Arion argued back.
‘Unlikely, my man,’ Cordell interrupted, ‘believe me, I have experience of this.’
‘Why you coming then?’ Arion asked. He could very easily have rejected and Arion wouldn’t have minded.
‘I want to know what they’re up to.’
‘Making more enemies right now is not the best option,’ Sana broke in.
‘They don’t care about enmity, only power, young one,’ Cordell answered her. She shook her head.
‘What’s up?’ Patrick asked, finally bringing himself back into the conversation.
‘You men all think alike. Can’t you simply accept each other and leave it at that?’
No one had any answer to that.
*
They sat in silence for the rest of the journey as they made their way back into civil country, which for the first time in a while, didn’t seem so civil to Arion. The metal shutters were still partly up, which Cordell smiled about. Clearly no one had worked his trick out. They came close to the entrance and into the major crack near the entranceway. The crack seemed noticeably deeper Arion noticed. The construct would have to be filled in later.
This was usually done by an outpost squad who would collect debris and bring it back to civil country. From there, what was not minerals or ore, would throw them into complete gaps and create walls. It was how they could get so much material so effectively. Most of the world was either a dilapidated wasteland, or were simply leftover monuments of a lost era. Arion wondered how much more had been pillaged to make this country what it was today.
The transport stopped just near the major hole in the ground.
‘We walk from here,’ the high chancellor said.
‘How did you get the vehicle here in the first place?’ Arion asked.
‘That’s one of the reasons it took us so long to get to you. We had to simply carry it out in the end.’
‘That must have been difficult,’ he remarked. The high chancellor gave an awkward kind of smile before speaking,
‘Not much we can do without our great scientist here.’
There seemed to be a hint of sarcasm in his voice which Arion did not like, but he did his best to hide that feeling. They made their way into the grand complex which span many miles and which he now felt was containing him inside a prison. He had always felt somewhat of an outsider in this environment, but having experienced the outdoors for himself, he honestly didn’t see how people could live encaged indoors.
Nonetheless, he made his way inside as the rest followed and was greeted by his family members who seemed very happy he was back. He couldn’t describe their behaviour, but it was so ecstatic, he had to wonder whether it was genuine.
‘Oh Arion. Where have you been?’
‘Arion, are you ok? I heard your father died…’
‘Arion, Remember me?’
‘Arion, I heard you were getting married?’
The only thing he could think of, was why there were so many of them, and deep in the resorts of his mind, he was hoping to introduce his family in a less embarrassing light.
‘Come let me take a look at you, my son,’ one of his aunties’ said, as she grabbed his hair and practically smelled him. ‘You need a wash, my dear,’ she managed to say, after wafting the so-called bad smell away. He wanted to tell her that he had in fact had a shower earlier that morning with a device that tribe country had created called a oxinator. It was a small round device with a suction pipe of sorts. You would hang it from the ceiling and it would combine elements from within the room to create water. According to Ruto, it was another one of Tribe country’s invention that was discarded as useless and unproductive, even though it had no environmental harm whatsoever, as the water would evaporate in the air anyway.
The only embarrassing part about that was that Arion hadn’t told anyone he was going to take a shower and Sana almost walked in on him naked. His towel was half off, so she certainly got a glimpse of his rear but seemed to panic and ran out. It was the first time he had seen her act, dare he say, girlish.
‘I’ve already had a shower aunty. Earlier. Here, I would like to introduce my colleagues.’
He gestured for them to come forward. Cordell came ahead and greeted everyone in a somewhat forward manner, which took the attention away from Arion slightly. The rest of his group came reluctantly and some simply refused by saying,
‘I’m fine here, thanks,’ laughing as they said so.
‘Who’s that?’ one of his cousins finally said.
‘Who, that?’ Arion said, pointing to Sana and Ruto. Only when he pointed them out did they seem to realise Ruto. Her reaction went from suspicious to almost terrified. She didn’t exactly hide it very well.
‘This is Ruto, from Tribe country, and his daughter Sana. They are here to help with negotiations.’
‘So you not staying?’ one of them asked.
‘Only for three days,’ Arion responded. There was a collective mumble of dissatisfaction at this.
‘I wish I could stay, but I need to get things done.’
‘What about your dad’s property?’
‘I’m not concerned about that,’ he finally said.
‘Not concerned? It’s your right!’ His uncle finally spoke.
‘I know. I don’t want it,’ he finally said. There was a considerably light amount of reTaliation to this claim. Almost as if they were waiting for their chance to cease it in the first place. It didn’t matter, he had made up his mind. He wasn’t staying in civil country anymore.
Chapter 14
The next day he sat in the chamber where the cabinet would meet to negotiate terms. Tali would be there also, no doubt. Arion almost felt sorry for him here. He had spent his entire life in a bureaucracy that was living off other people’s fears. From what Ruto had told him, civil country was possibly the biggest terrorist organisation out there. Although in all fairness he knew one point of view was simply an opinion, but he couldn’t help but agree with what he said.
Ruto had always been a man of honour and had seen many things, including a previous attempt at peace which landed in most of his tribe being killed after an ambush. So he was glad for all the security. Not that Ruto needed it. His mere presence was enough to scare people into submission. Although Arion had too much pride to honestly admit that to him. He remembered his family’s reaction to him.
They seemed to be more in fear of him than curious of him. He didn’t help by staying mostly quiet. As for Sana, they seemed mostly envious of her, or so it seemed to Arion. He couldn’t tell sometimes, they were hard to read. He simply remembered sitting down being mor
e interested in looking towards Sana than anyone else. He had never been particularly good with women. He had managed to narrow that down to extreme honesty. Or as his aunty had once said to him,
‘You’re honest to a fault, you.’
He hadn’t quite understood what she had meant at the time, but later, he agreed. After all, he would rather be honest and hurt someone, than lie and make them feel temporarily better. The only exception he made to that rule was to lie if it meant to stop someone from being emotionally hurt, say if they would probably not be able to live through it if he told the truth. Other than that, always the truth.
‘You lost in thought again, kiddo.’ Cordell bought him out of his reverie.
‘Sorry. I can’t help it lately.’
‘I know. Father on your mind and all.’ Arion didn’t reply as everyone sat in their respective chairs and the lights dimmed to bring up the screen for the meeting to begin. Arion was somewhat offended that the high chancellor couldn’t even physically attend a meeting of this magnitude. The screen came up with the high chancellor’s face illuminated.
‘Welcome to my guests is in order,’ Atan gestured towards Ruto and Sana who nodded. He didn’t address Arion as an outsider which was a good thing he thought. Tali got up, smiling wearily towards Arion before continuing. Arion felt bad that he had to leave him the way he did, but there was no choice. He made a mental note to ask him to come later.
‘Although I do enjoy the pleasantries, unfortunately I have to get to the main point, which is why we have been summoned. We want to keep out very hard fought peace with tribe country and want to establish a strong relationship that can endure the ages. For this, the high chancellor, Atan is willing to pardon such acts of treason from the recently departed and begin negotiations to help bring these conversations to a satisfying close.’
Ruto shook his head as the words were spoken. Arion couldn’t believe Atan was so cowardly as to use Tali as his newsgiver, and the soldiers began protesting this statement,