Asmireen
©2024 by Jonathan Scott
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Chapter 23 - The End of Hope
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Calmings
10.10 The world, they understand not Papa Voice's law. They understand not many things and they even understand not that they understand not. The world, it never be with Papa Voice. Be happy and let they think you all be fools. Until they listen, there be no other alternatives.
"My Lord, we understand what it is that you suggest. And we even have an understanding as to why you would desire it. We simply feel that such a decree would be unwise." said the First.
"Lord, think of the chaos that such a decree would bring. The people lean on this religion of theirs for their food and shelter. Denying it to them would be to force them all into poverty." said the Second.
"Nahli has so permeated our society that to ban it might even bring about a rebellion." said the Third who was obviously fearful.
Then a fourth counselor spoke.
"The poverty would subside in time once everything balanced itself out again."
There was a pause.
"In all honesty, I believe everyone hates Nahli anyway. They have all simply bowed down to it out of financial need and fear. We must think about the health of the people. Nahli has destroyed the balance. Our Lord is right. Nahli should be amputated from this kingdom." said the Fourth
The Second then rose and began to speak harshly.
"Do you wish for Our Lord to be dethroned? Is your lack of love for Our Lord so great?"
The King's counselors all sat at the Great Table of Counsel. The King himself, steadfast and silent, as was his custom, sat upon his gilded throne and witnessed the anxiety that he knew would come with the pronouncement of this great decree.
Then the Fifth began to speak with much bitterness.
"We all know that your love for Our Lord surpasses your love for all, except perhaps for your love of Nahli and their briberies. You should not speak of love. It is an insult to the concept."
The Second then stood, pointed a finger at the Fifth and began to rage.
"You pig. Sire, surely you must realize that the oathes of allegiance this idiot has taken with Papa Voice surpass his allegiance to you. Sire, he WILL betray you for the sake of his god. How can you trust him?!"
The First then placed a hand on the arm of the Second and, with a calming smile, coaxed the Second back into his seat.
"Please calm yourself. Losing our tempers will not help us here."
"I beg forgiveness from you sir on behalf of my colleague. Let us return to civility." he said as he looked at the Fifth. He then began to politely bow but was interrupted.
"You cannot defend Nahli and ask for civility at the same time. It would be like defending the freedom of the avalanche as it shatters the city it rolls upon, and all the while asking the city to remain calm about it. Anyone willing to take such a position places himself as the enemy of civility itself." said the Fourth.
The King stared forward, watching all, but focusing on none.
"Certainly you agree that the removal of Nahli would bring about chaos and perhaps even anarchy?" said the Third.
"Look out the window. Do you see order there now?" said the Fifth.
"Yes, I do in fact. The stores still operate. The economy still exists. Our forces still patrol our borders. Our police still keep some order within the city." said the First.
"Is it even possible? Nahli is so widespread. How could it be removed?" said the Third.
"If the Lord Himself is no longer safe sir, how could we even consider not banning it? If we do not ban it, how long will it be before the King Himself receives injury?" said the Fifth.
"The intruders were caught and the King's treasury was never touched. You cannot destroy an entire religion simply for the bold and illegal actions of a few of its followers." said the First.
"I don't think Nahli is a religion. I have attended their services and each time, there was almost no one there except for me and the preacher. Almost this entire city is Nahli and no one goes. What the preacher did preach was nothing of any depth anyway..nothing whatsoever. I understand why no one was there. Honestly speaking, the entire meeting just seemed silly." said the fifth.
"You should not speak so rudely about another's religion." said the second.
"Well, like I said, I don't think it's a religion. All they seem to care about are these freedoms they get when they join, no matter how silly the freedoms are and no matter who's freedom or happiness is trampled upon as a result of getting them. It's just anarchy. Freedom for freedom's sake with absolutely no thought or caring as to the welfare of the people around them. It's just anarchy. How could any religion have at its goal the creation of anarchy? Nahli isn't a religion...not if you ask me." said the Fifth.
"But shouldn't people have the right to worship as they wish?" said the First, almost casually.
"But, they're not worshipping. They don't go." said the Fifth
"Does that matter though? It still should be allowed if the public wishes it." said the Third.
"There are many who believe in Papa Voice who do not attend services. Shall we outlaw Papa Voice because of the weakness of some of His followers?" said the Second.
There was a pause.
"Yes, the religious rights of all should be protected." said the Fourth as the Fifth rolled his eyes.
The First, the Second and the Third all began to nod their heads, somehow believing that the debate was concluded and that they had been declared as winners.
"My Lord, people are dying. There are more homeless now than we have ever seen in this Kingdom before to my knowledge. No business and no household is safe from the barrage of crime the flows amongst us. This lack of safety even threatens the King and the palace." said the Fourth.
"If the Fighter's Guild can be robbed, and your palace can be broken into, certainly, no one is safe." said the Fifth.
"But how can the rights of one religion take precedence over the rights of another. If we protect the religion of Papa Voice, don't we also have the responsibility to protect Nahli?" said the First, with a slight smile.
The King began to cough slightly and everyone became silent.
"Could it be that some religions are not truly religions? Could it be that these organizations merely call themselves religions simply to take advantage of the protection and respect that religion itself has historically enjoyed?" said the Fourth.
"People are dying. The King is not safe. We cannot do nothing." said the Fifth.
"I will not sit here and listen to this! You are talking about the destruction of freedom. People have the right to do as they wish. When you curtail their freedoms, you make Our Good Lord a villainous tyrant." said the Second.
"The world's balance only appears to have been upset because you yourselves have not accepted the change. Were you both to become Nahli as well, you also would receive gifts, which in turn would put you on the same level as everyone else. Do not think of Nahli as a destroyer of balance. Think of her as evolution. The powers that, until now, only the wisest of mages could enjoy are now available to all. We are growing as a race. We should not throw away this advantage." said the First.
"I heard about three ghosts and a blinker last night that broke into a tavern owned by a brick. They killed two of the guests and stole everything from the deceased as well as everything from the brick's safe room. The gift of the brick did not save him. The guests were healers and their gifts did not save them either. There is a definite imbalance now, even amongst the Nahli." said the Fifth.
The Fourth then bowed his head.
"Think about William's Peace, Owens, Downer and the rest." He said looking very morose.
"What do you mean?" said the Third.
"They are dead. That is what I mean." said the Fourth.
"These events are not related. There has been no evidence to show this." said the Second.
"All the towns and villages within five hundred miles of us are gone, you fool, and Nahli is running through our city like a whirlwind. You can't possibly believe that these events are unrelated." said the Fifth.
"There is no evidence to suggest such a conclusion and until this evidence becomes available, I will not tolerate any assumptions." said the Second calmly.
"You will not 'tolerate any assumptions?' Our responsibility is to assume, to guess and then to advise. You are in no position to regulate the speech of this counsel! And if you try to do so again, we will meet swords." said the Fifth.
"I apologize for my enthusiasm sir. I did not intend to suggest that you no longer had the freedom to speak your mind." said the Second who began to bow slightly, only to have his bow interrupted.
"Dog! You are as dishonest as you are well-groomed. Sir, you are a liar and you are purchased. You should not be in this room." stated the Fifth blankly.
The Fourth then looked at the Fifth and bowed his head slightly.
"You are too brave sir." whispered the Fourth to the Fifth.
"I will not tolerate this." said the Second who stood.
"We will duel this evening sir. My character will not be so maligned." said the Second in absolute ire as he ripped his gloves from his hands and threw them at the Fifth. The Second then turned and began to storm from the room.
The King briefly nodded his head and the kingsguards at the door crossed their polearms blocking the doorway.
"You are not excused." said the King in the softest and calmest but cruelest of voices.
"Have you forgotten that I am here?" said the King in absolute earth-shaking cold cruel power.
The Second quickly excused himself, bowed and returned to his seat.
The King then stood. He held his scepter in one hand and grasped the trailing portion of his robes with the other. He then carefully and thoughtfully began to descend from his throne and the dais that it sat upon.
"Nahli, in its unwillingness to police its own, takes the threat addressed to me by the three intruders and makes it its own. Nahli, whether it be a religion or no, I care not." said the king.
The king then bowed his head and stated gravely, sincerely and very carefully the following sentence.
"I will not be threatened."
The king then added, "...and my palace will not be insulted so. And, the plain conspicuousness with which Nahli has shattered the peace of my kingdom only gives to me more reason to place myself against it. Nahli will fall. If it does not, we may."
"That is all. Leave me. The decree will be made in the morning." said the King again.
The counselors all rose and left the room.
The King then turned and began to walk towards a wall. His guards then followed him
"My friends. Protect me this evening. For the sake of your country, protect me." said the King to his guards.
The King then placed his hand on one section of a huge painting on the wall, opened a secret door and exited the room followed closely by two of his bodyguards.
Jake scribbled on a sheet of paper in his office in the TTB. He no longer dwelt on Hank, or Quick or anything. His mind was blank, but, despite the blankness, his pencil moved. His own compulsion pushed it so.
Over and over, Jake wrote the name 'Asmireen.' Jake did not understand his own compulsion for writing it. He simply felt driven by it.
Jake tried style after style of writing. He would sometimes draw the letters in a strange formation where letters would sometimes appear within or on top of other letters. He would sometimes draw the letters as though they were all hooked to each other like paper clips that had sat too long in the back of a desk drawer. Once he even drew the letters randomly out all across the page, very far apart from one another.
The moment though when the compulsion finally turned into revelation was when Shane walked in.
Shane stood there and yelled at Jake for perhaps fifteen minutes about not having done his work. Shane was normally an acceptable man to work for, but then again, Jake was normally an acceptable employee to have around. Today though, Jake's laziness had given Shane the very understandable need to inspire. Unfortunately, the method of enforced inspiration used in the Fighter's Guild usually involved loud volumes and plenty of profanity.
It wasn't until Jake heard Shane scream the word "Asmodeus" at him that Jake's eyebrows raised in interest. Shane continued to scream and Jake pretended to pay attention. All the while though, Jake pondered over this new word.
Asmodeus
In his mind, the entire while that Shane stood there yelling at him, Jake rearranged the letters of this new word over and over. Jake was so mesmerized by his compulsion that he even forgot that his own boss, Shane, was standing in front of him screaming at him.
Shane finally screamed one last time, threw something onto the ground, and then left the room.
Jake looked at the floor. On it were several sheets of paper. He picked one up and began to draw on it. He then wrote the two words that he had been fixated on, one above the other, on the sheet of paper.
Asmireen
Asmodeus
Almost immediately, he recognized their similarities. Both began with the same three letters, "ASM" and both were the names of some type of immortal being, one being a supposed god, the other being The Devil. He then looked for other similarities, but all he could find was one. Both names also shared a letter "E." So, he wrote all the similarities together on one brand new single sheet of paper.
ASME - Immortal Beings
Jake knew that he was close. Jake knew that he was very close to the thing that his soul was screaming at him to find out. What was next though? He did not know, so he began to play with the first word's letters, spelling them over and over again in different ways.
Jake then felt his entire body relax. He had found the answer. He picked up a new sheet of paper. wrote something down on it and then stood up from his chair and walked out of the room.
"Wow. That was simple. If that really is the truth though, then why would he leave such an obvious clue." Jake thought to himself as he walked down the hallway.
He was not happy about the answer that he had found. It somehow seemed incorrect. But, the compulsion that Jake had been feeling over the past few days was now gone. He felt free of it. Somehow this freedom confirmed to Jake that his answer was the right one. Jake left the answer on his desk for all to see.
As he walked down the halls of the TTB towards Gideon and Monk, his mind was perfectly clear. He felt fully at peace. Jake began walking directly to wherever Zeb and Adam were. On his desk though was a paper that read the following:
Asmireen and Asmodeus
are the
Same Immortal Beings
Jake would spend the rest of that afternoon speaking with Zeb and Adam. Both were highly intrigued. That evening, he mentioned his discovery to Isaac and the rest of his family as well. At first everyone laughed. They thought that it was cute. Eventually though, everyone looked at Jake awkwardly. They all realized that Jake was somehow serious about this. How could a fourteen year old make such a bold claim though? Jake would eventually go to sleep frustrated, with the answer still reverberating throughout his mind.
During the night though, something terrible happened.
You see, it seemed that all would be well in Eastbrook again. The King was ready to proclaim to the world that Nahli would be forever banned in his kingdom. This would come as a shock at first. There would, no doubt, be confrontations concerning this change. There would also, no doubt, be some deaths. Many perhaps might even leave the country with their gifts in hopes of finding places where they could live free from supposed religious tyranny. There was going to be a long but productive rebuilding of the land. It would have taken several years, but it would have been successful. This portion of the world would have returned to its happy enough state of balance.
Unfortunately though, none of this happened. Because you see, the King died that evening. Somehow, with a dozen guards posted all about his bed, the king's throat had been cut wide open. The guards remembered hearing no sounds. They remembered seeing no one enter. They remembered nothing out of routine whatsoever. But, nonetheless, the King's royal blood stained his bed and the floor all about it and there was no one to blame.
Which of course meant that his death was blamed by all on Nahli.
The next morning, rather than a decree banning Nahli, Eastbrook received notice of the death of the King and the news of the soon to be crowned prince.
Eastbrook wept, but not nearly as hard as they should have.
Also, the next morning, Hank would hang for his crimes. Jake would not attend. No one that Hank knew would attend. There would be no one there to comfort him in his last moments of life. Instead, Hank would die alone before a mob. The people that were there, rather than offering compassion and pity, came to throw rotten vegetables and insults.