by Ava D. Dohn
(Author’s Note: I have gleaned these notes from the thesis, The Glitter of Gold, written by Queen Adaya near the beginning of the Fourth Age of this universe. It reveals some little known facts about one of Lowenah’s chief councilors:
Ardon was one of the oldest of the children, growing up at the time when the Upper Palace was the only structure in the universe. When he was a child, he would busy himself playing in and exploring the thick jungle growth surrounding the palace. He had also journeyed deep into the tunnels under the butte, sometimes being gone for days at a time. It was from those explorations in the tunnels that he had developed an insatiable desire to explore rock formations, especially crystalline and mineral. When the knowledge of space travel had been sufficiently developed, he was one of the first children to abandon his home planet and reach out to find secrets in the stars. He would disappear for centuries at times, squirreling himself away in some mountainous planet, deep underground, studying its different rock formations. In fact, when the Rebellion started, he had been busy examining strange crystals found in the depths of an obscure planet in the outer reaches of the Trizentine. When news reached him, he had rushed home.
The details of events leading up to the Rebellion had devastated him. He discovered few of the oldest children had remained loyal to Ma-we . As time passed, the number of those abandoning her increased. Ardon had immediately joined himself to Ma-we, offering to provide whatever support he could to her. He became the only former councilor to his older brother who had not joined in the Rebellion. Ardon’s laboratory had never been revisited and, to the best of his knowledge, it lay quietly undisturbed, awaiting his return.
Ma-we eventually made Ardon one of her personal councilors. She took advantage of his slow, deliberate ponderings when complex and difficult situations arose. He was meticulous in thought, always trying to examine every minute detail. It was the way he reasoned that caused him to dislike riddles. He found himself constantly over-thinking their context, something that made him the brunt of more than one joke. Someone would ask a trick question and Ardon’s response was often some wildly long dissertation totally unrelated to the answer. They would allow him to go on and on with his reply. All the while, smiles of fellow conspirators were growing bigger and bigger. Only when he had finished was he made privy to the way he had been set up, much to the humor of the others. Never the less, it was difficult for Ardon to see humor in things he spoke about, he always being so serious concerning such things.
Ardon’s slow and deliberate thinking often caused him to miss the point when a quick decision was needed. Once Ma-we had jokingly said to him, after he had laboriously plodded his way through one of his obvious solutions that, now having received his input, she at least knew the direction not to proceed in. This wasn’t always true. For example, the recommendation he once offered, to confuse the counsel given to a certain king of the Second Realm in order to bring him to defeat, had been accepted and had proved quite successful. Having managed such a success once, though, did not diminish his oft-deserved reputation.
He also hated riddles because his mind did not grasp the mathematics of how they worked. To him, riddles were like long detours on the journey to finding the correct answer. When his mind was focused on a subject, it consumed his thoughts. Anything that obstructed his desired goal was, at best, a nuisance, something to be labored through in order to achieve his goal. On the other hand, Ma-we and most of her children enjoyed riddling. They were happy to spend many hours idling away the time, playing riddling games. This was so deeply ingrained in their minds that most of them thought in riddles all the time. Because Ardon did not think this way, Ma-we found his views and observations strikingly different from many of the others, offering glimpses into things from excitingly new perspectives.
Ardon did have some outstandingly useful qualities, too. His natural ability to observe and scrutinize the slightest details was not focused only on his study of rocks. When he applied his skills to people, he could often discover what was hidden deep in a person’s mind and heart. His eyes and ears were always alert to many subtle changes of voice inflection and body language of people being observed. From their posture, eye movement, speech patterns and the way they breathed, Ardon recorded each detail in his mind. He would later review information to develop a profile of the inner person of the one being observed. Such insightfulness often helped him draw correct conclusions of someone’s future actions.
The way he revealed his insight was also one of his assets. Ardon had no way of expressing himself other than to be open, up front and honest. His candor frequently bordered on being blunt, finesse being one of his unlearned arts. He was also willing to offer his observations publicly, without being requested. Although this did cause some disquiet, Ma-we found it extremely useful. It gave her a colorful insight into people in ways that even she sometimes overlooked.
These qualities, along with an inexhaustible desire to gather details, coupled with unlimited patience needed to accomplish his task, made Ardon the person of choice when complex issues arose. He was willing to spend the necessary time and effort to gather all the required information that would provide him with a correct answer. Then, with precise words and well-defined and logical reasoning, he would explain his findings to interested parties. It was only on rare occasion that Ardon would find himself at a loss to understand an issue when he had made it a subject of investigation. This was also true of the people he chose to study. Few could remain a mystery to him, and it deeply disturbed the man when that did happen.