A Taste of History Past

by Forrest Brant

  “What I need from you, but really to maintain what we have and who we are, is surveillance, and this must discreet, and remain unknown to the ones we need to watch. After all if they actually do discover something we need to know and know immediately, so that we can put our own spin on this discovery, or discoveries. So I will leave that portion in your capable hands, and since I happen to live here, I, with my team will monitor his activities while he is here. Once he and probably his mate head out from this place, then it will be you and your team’s responsibility to follow, record, and be prepared to beat him in the announcements of whatever discoveries he might make. In fellowship of one learned to another – Sabohl.”

  After reading the letter and the implications that it presented, the room was silent. “Do you think that he has the right of it?” Tesam asked.

  “Well, the old herd beast has always found some way to protect his position, and seems to have been able to see things that could lead to trouble for himself and his position, and if he feels that this threat is real,” Jaie paused for effect, bent his head sideways and shrugged, “who knows really. But if this threat is real, and I suspect that it must be if he wanted to stoop down to our level, which as you know, is something that would be very hard for him to do. He’s always rubbed our faces in the fact that he was superior to us in all ways, so he must feel threatened and believe that it will threaten our positions too.”

  “So,” Jaie asked, “what are we to do about it? Do as he asks, or just ignore it. And you notice that he never named who this individual is. I think that by doing this he again was protecting himself.”

  “How so?”

  “Look if we go along with this and one of our staff is caught, then he can deny that he not only knew nothing about this, but had no involvement at all – leaving us to take the full brunt of the retaliation that would come from this.”

  Jaie thought a moment, then leaned on the table, “Which means that he, once again, has protected himself, and at the same time leaving us vulnerable and open to, the very least, the loss of our prestige and positions. Yes, we’ll need to think about this, and tender our response as carefully as this letter he has sent to us.”

  Shahe had been quiet throughout the reading of the letter and the discussion that was now following, he interrupted and said, “What all of you, well at the least the two of you have stated is fact. Once again he’s covering what he sits on, and many times seems to use to think with, and yes I agree that if we go along with this preposterous scheme of his, because of the way of this letter, we are the ones who would be out in the open. But at the same time if indeed what he states is accurate, and who knows really, then all of our hard work, all of our political maneuvering, all of the enemies that we’ve made along the way, to get where we are will have the necessary, ah what was that stuff, oh yes, ammunition to attack us. So tell me do we have a choice in this? I think that sending back a very neutral letter neither offering help, nor promising anything at this moment would be the best we can do. Then we need to begin our own independent investigation. One that would include watching this old windbag and maybe we can catch him in something, and actually bring him down. It could be that he will do something that will be his own downfall and allow us to usurp him and get rid of him.” He leaned back in his chair with his hand on his chin, but remained silent, turning the control back to Jaie.

  * * *

  Kal was black and blue from the beating he was taking from Jura as she taught him the use of the staff. And what hurt more was the fact that she seemed to be enjoying it. He had to admit that she was very good with it, and that there was much more to its use as both a defensive weapon, and one that could be used to attack. Every time he figured that he had it down and was about to best her, she came up with some other subtle move and he found himself on the ground and many times in an embarrassing pose as she would place the point of the staff on his chest, showing once again that he had been bested. Shaking his head he said, “I never realized that there was so much to this thing. I thought that this was only going to be an after-midday practice and I’d have it down. You know it looked so easy when you started making those moves, and showing me. But you warned me that it was going to take a lot of time to master, and I have to admit that I thought you were very wrong about that, but it’s very obvious that I’m a long way from your skill.” Again shaking his head before continuing, “And you say that your brother and sister are better than you? That’s really hard to believe. So I guess the question is this, how long, oh mighty learned one, will it be that I’m at least capable of using this simple tool?” He, although carefully, bowed towards her, which brought laughter to her lips.

  Returning his bow with one of her own, she said, “Oh you’re progressing. I’d place you in the advanced beginners. As I’ve told you, I’ve been doing this most of my life. And once my parents finished their training with us, we, my brothers and sisters and myself, would play games where we would form teams, and as you would expect most of the time these teams were females against males, although there would be a game of chase that we played where all of the rest would chase one of us, and we had to use the staff against the rest. I must admit that those were very intense games, but it forced us, even though we weren’t realizing it, to become much better. Especially when one of us would come up with something new to try, sometimes this something new would work, and sometimes it would fail miserably. And even though we didn’t know it at the time, our mother would monitor our progress, and if we really felt like we were good and as she called it, too big for our britches, she’d come out with that smile of hers and have all of us come at her, and she’d promptly beat all of us. It wasn’t until later that we learned that she had been the champion of her area, and that’s how she and father met. Both had been the best at this in their respective townships, and he, my father, couldn’t believe that a female could beat him, when there hadn’t been a male that could challenge him that was anywhere close by.

  Sighing and with a distant smile she continued, “I’d really would’ve liked to have been there to see that match. Both of them talk about it now and then, and there are smiles on both of their faces as they’d recall it. We’d sit and listen as they would recount the encounter from their side. I’m sure like most stories that it has grown over time, but it still was quite a tale. They were very good at describing their battle, and we all could see it in our minds, and since we’d been using the staffs ourselves we could see the moves and countermoves that both had made. And after a long time and many matches that ended in draws, she beat him with a move he had never seen before. And even to this day when they talk about it you can see that smile of triumph on her face as she had beaten a male in a battle. Something that our distant ancestors would have thought was quite impossible. But she did it, and after that they developed a strong friendship and now they have been mates for what seems like a life time.” Again she paused, and then laughed, “You know what, it has been a lifetime, and they’re just as much in love with each other now as they were before any of we children were around. Dad really adores her and says that if she hadn’t defeated him in that contest that they may have never become what they are today. So I guess even though this was a long statement to get to this point, don’t feel too bad by being defeated by me, I grew up using this thing, and have had champions training me, besides the competition that one’s siblings add to the mix.”

  “Well, I admit that makes me feel a little better, but only a little. I’d seen others work the staff and it looked so easy, so I never considered it something I’d be interested in, but you’ve shown me that it’s far from easy, and that I’ve only begun to understand the very basics, including the choosing of a good staff.” He smiled inwardly, only because it probably would have hurt to smile outwardly. Still as he looked at his mate he, at times, found it hard to believe that she would have accepted him when he asked if she would become his mate and he hers. After all she was lithe and had a hunter’s flow to her movements
, smooth and graceful, and in his eyes a beauty that rivaled any that he had ever seen. And who was he, just a lowly village bound baker who had done nothing specular. Not the type that would attract someone like Jura who had lived in the outback, and was never really comfortable within the confines of the villages and townships. Someone who could probably have had any single male as a mate and to his surprise she had chosen him. And with their time together he was learning so much more that this beautiful, complicated, and intelligent female had to offer. And of course, being a male her physical side, and her naked beauty, drove him crazy.

  As time had passed, and both their love and strength in the relationship grew, he couldn’t see any time in his life where he would not want her around. They just worked well together, and even though he had heard about couples who had been mates for many turns completing each other’s sentences or thinking in the very same way, coming up with the same conclusions at the same time, he had just shoved this off as myth within those special relationships that some have. Yet, he could see that it was beginning to happen inside theirs, and so with personal experience he now believed. Again, as far as he was concerned, it was another one of those signs that said that they were just right for each other. Yet, at times like these where her experience far exceeded his own he could feel his wounded male ego trying to get in the way. After all he was supposed to be better at such things. “Okay, I can accept that, but are you sure that you aren’t just humoring me by saying that I’m probably an advanced beginner? Watching you work that staff makes me feel clumsy, awkward, and completely uncoordinated. Absolutely anything I tried you countered it and countered it in such a way that you made it appear to be of no consequence or no effort at all, almost like you were bored.”

  She laughed, and then teased him a little, “Ah has my little male had his ego hurt because his mate, a female no less, can easily beat him?” This got him going for a moment and she laughed again. “See, I know what buttons to push to get your pride showing. Now why not just go run a bath, both of us did a lot of sweating and kicked up a lot of dust while you practiced out here, and then I’ll join you in the tub and really show you how much I care.”

  Again she was right, she did know what to say or do to get him going, and he had to admit that with his sore muscles that a hot bath would be great, but with her with him he knew that he would forget about those sore muscles. “Sounds great! Just one question though, when do you feel it would be a good time to take that camp trip? I’ve got to give them plenty of notice at the bakery so that they can cover in my absence.”

  “Oh, I’d guess, at least another couple of nines to both get everything together, and to get you better prepared. We still have to go over the throwing knives, and how most of the stuff works, so we’re still quite a way away from going.” She then smiled a smile that showed promise of what was coming.

  He returned one of his own and stated, “You’re the boss on this one, and I’ll head on in and get that tub filled.”

  * * *

  “I think that we’ll just send a letter back to Sabohl, and tell him that we aren’t interested in his little games, since the only time he seems to want our cooperation is when there’s something that might threaten his mighty position on high. Then, we can do two things; first use our own people to watch Sabohl, and from there maybe find out who this individual is that seems to be threatening him, and secondly, once we find out we can then, in our own way and time, do our own watching and learning. Maybe finally one of us can get that old windbag to budge and at least, if not grudgingly, admit that there are others, such as us, that have the knowledge and understanding to be his equal in this field of study. And who knows, maybe he’ll trip up and we can catch him in something and depose him, and allow some new blood to take over the field. He’s been dominating this for much too long. But with the allies that he has cultivated over the turns, and powerful ones at that, he’s been untouchable.” Tesam sat down at this point and turned the table back over to Jaie.

  “Can we do this and be successful, is probably the best question I can present. Maybe the alternative to this would be to give a very neutral response, neither promising support nor holding support from him. So that it could appear that we have promised nothing, but at the same time left the door open for possible support. With him we have to be so careful because of those powerful allies of his. And, as you stated, it is because of them that he remains aloof and where he is. Let’s remember he is not stupid, couldn’t be really, to have been able to hold on to his position for as long as he has, and while we all have our own powerful friends and allies, we cannot defeat him openly, so our letter to him, if this is what we decide to do, must be well written and subtle, and in all ways we must cover our behinds.” Jaie could see the agreement from the others at the table as what had been both read to them, and what they had discussed so far. It was going to be a very difficult road to walk, full of obstacles, traps, blind turns, and unexpected outcomes, and it would all begin with this letter for all of them. They all knew that however this went that in the very end it would be affecting not only their careers, but their very lives.

  * * *

  Sabohl left his home early. It was to be a busy day since there were tests for his students, and the anticipation of a response from, well he’d guess that he’d give them a grudging nod as being near the top in their area of teaching, but in his heart he knew that they just did not match up to both his intellect, and his ties that he held that allowed him to remain as the only one on top. Let the rest fight, scratch, and crawl for those few positions that were below. No one could touch him, and with his spy network, and the power that he welded he made sure that it would remain that way. It had galled him that he had to stoop down to those underlings. But even with the size of his network, there was only so much he could do, and he suspected that this time he would need their help, and their networks to be successful and keep things status quo.

  He lived on the grounds of the higher learning center but had other shelters in many of the villages, and while the breezes this morning were somewhat chilly, they held a promise of a warm day ahead of him. At times he wondered how it was that one could come to that conclusion, yet time and time it had been proven to be accurate. There must be some inborn sense that could predict this, but he had never figured it out, and in reality never truly cared anyway. History was his passion, and the weather could do what it wanted. After all, nobody had figured out how to control the weather, but with his iron grip he controlled the view and understanding of their history. Part of his persona he had developed was one of tolerance and acceptance to new ideas in his field, but behind this façade it was far from the reality of who he was. Walking through the doors into the learning center he smiled at the underworker who took care of the many small tasks that kept the center operating. Today Nacy, a female sat at the desk working whatever it was that she did. He really didn’t know, and he really didn’t care. He smiled and said as he bowed, “Ah good morn to you, Nacy. I would guess that it will be a warm day today, and is all well with you?”

  Smiling back, although there was no feeling in it, as she understood where she and any of the other workers stood with this one she responded, “Yes, you’re probably right, and it is a busy time for all of us. I see that you’ve arrived early today. I’ve just finished the sorting of the incoming letters for the staff here, and there’s one for you that just arrived from that other learning center that you told me to be on the lookout for.” She got up turned around to a sorting cabinet, and grabbed a handful of sealed letters and papers, turned around and handed them to him. “I do hope that whatever it was you were looking for is there.” At this point after he had taken the pile she had handed him, she sat back down and returned to her work ignoring any further contact, which was fine with him.

  Trying to keep an air of unconcern and normality he headed for his small office, just off the space where he did his teaching, entering the office, he closed and locked the door. He didn’t ne
ed anyone walking in on him at this moment. Putting the stack aside he took the one letter that held the seal that this group used and opened it, reading it quickly, and when finished felt anger rising, but with his iron control quickly squashed it. He then sat down and reread the letter once again.

  “Sabohl, it has been so long since you’ve even acknowledged that we exist. It really must have been difficult for you in your high station to reach down to us commoners, the ones that you’ve always held in contempt. And how, time after time, you’ve let us know exactly what our place is in your world. Yet now you are reaching to us for help. We must admit that this has come as a complete surprise, and we will take into consideration what you are asking, but at this moment that is all we will do. You have provided this group very little facts, and since this can be taken in any direction, again since we only have your word for it, we will await further proof from other than you. Yet, if what you have stated in your letter to us is proven to be fact, we indeed will be able to possibly assist. But, as you must be well aware since you seem to know all, we have many projects operating at this moment and have no one we can spare.