From alt.pub.dragons-inn Tue Mar 15 23:16:30 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7117 Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!pacbell.com!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!po.CWRU.Edu!rev2 From: rev2@po.CWRU.Edu (Robert E. Vogel) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: REPOST: [Azend/Zjiria] An Introduction Date: 15 Mar 1994 01:58:51 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Lines: 140 Message-ID: <2m34or$mr6@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> Reply-To: rev2@po.CWRU.Edu (Robert E. Vogel) NNTP-Posting-Host: owl.ins.cwru.edu ADMIN: The following a reposting of a story a while back. This thread runs parallel to the [Zjiria/Azend] thread. *** I awaited patiently. The air was unusally hot and humid with bugs all over my body. The audience gathered around murmurred, an ever shifting wave, always moving, never leaving the same place. They never realized how much of their life would always be like that, always going, but never getting anywhere. I awaited patiently. I suppose that since I knew the outcome in advance, I was so willing to accept it. Death. I let my eyes fall to the red chalk encircling me. Merely three handspans away, and absolutely lethal. The door at the back of the dias finally opened and the honor guards stepped out. Immediately, the murmurring of the audience grew. They stepped to either side, their hands resting on their halberds, gaze straight and away from the door. Then the Serpent Lord stepped through, his strides long and sinuous. I could see his face was without a bead of sweat, despite his huge and intimidating armor. His armor itself writhed as he walked, hyponotic and chilling. I suppose that the effect of the moving scales put terror and awe into the common people. Frankly, it gave me a headache. The audience quieted. The Serpent Lord stopped at the end of the dias. His eyes burned into me, his hatred for my very existence livid and he showed it. This man, I thought, needs a bottle or four of strong wine. He looked out toward the audience and spoke in a loud, powerful voice, "The judgement has meet and it has decreed, that one Azend, former vizier, has been found guilty of treason and plotting to assassinate the Serpent Lord. These crimes are punishable by only one thing each: death. The judgement has decreed that this sentence shall be carried out." He turned his stare back to me and hissed his approval at the rumbling in the audience. I took a breath. It's showtime! "Mighty Serpent Lord, I beg a last word, a final request!" I was on my knees, humble and pleading. It wasn't the most comfortable or dignified position, but it had to be done and it had to be done right. For artful drama alone, I held my palms together. His Awfulness did not say any thing; he knew that I had the right to plead and there was nothing he could do to lawfully bar it. "I, Azend, this miserable worm before you, who does not bear the right to step in your shadow, nor deserve the honor of your presence, especially your all commanding voice and eyes, may they always glow with illumination and blessings from the gods..." I admit, I was laying it a bit thick. "...has always stated that I am, first and formost, a man for the people, a servant to them. I have said as many times as there are stars in the sky and wells in your desert, may it bloom into fullest beauty at the rise of every sun and may every man yearn to visit it, that as a man for the people, so also is the Serpent Lord, may his scales never shead nor his fangs ever dull, a man to the people. Did not your predecessor call upon my wisdom to calm the people when the spring rains did not come as the sorcerors commanded, for their fields were turning to dust and their children starving, and did I not calm them with my soothing words and bear the dust that choked them, living with them until the rains finally came? And did not your predecessor honor me with a single phrase, "lifeblood of Inansta's spirit," may our glorious empire never crumble and may its domed cities shine with glory forever?" I was getting warmed up and His Awfulness was looking suspicous, but the audience was hooked. "Far be it a man of my current position to dare mention that Your Supremcy in decision is questionable, but I do feel so strong motivated out of my concern, nay, not concern for my life, such a slug in the garden of life, but for the people. Your times are turmoil, may the demons who ever walk this earth pay in blood for the tears of agony they have wrought out of it, and dark indeed. Need you bring more darkness into it, need you call on the worst punishment and risk dividing your people, who have shown their respect most high for their sacrid Serpent Lord but yet sworn their love, little though I deserve it, to their ex-vizier? "Would it not seem that, indeed, for the sake of the people, whose bloodshed and strife would burn into my last thoughts for fear of the disaster..." "Get to the point!" His Awfulness yelled, his face betraying that he had indeed been convinced and was loathed to acknowledge it. I bowed my forehead to the ground, then raised my head high to look at him as levelly as possible. "I admire Your Supremcy's decision for pointedness. I'll endeavor to comply." His Awfulness can get a very red face when he is angry. I made a note to mention it to his doctor if I got the chance. It could become a serious health risk. "As the prophets have said, we are not alone in this world. Others like us, others not like us live among us. Some greater than us, some lesser. Some but yet live a great distance away, travelable only by the stars, may the gods be willing. "I ask merely, for the sake of the people, not the sake of my life, that I be sent far away, exiled for life, my body doomed never to rest in this soil. May my soul perish if otherwise shall occur." The room exploded at my oath. Even the hardest criminal of Inansta would hold such an oath to death for fear of the demons seizing his soul and carrying off to the depths of hell forever. The Serpent Lord looked blankly at me. I knew it had taken him aback. He knew I was serious, that I meant to leave Inansta forever, for the sake of the people, just as I said. Bitterly, I thought if he understood anything of what it meant to be separated from Inansta forever. The Serpent Lord cleared his throat and the room silenced. "The judgement has listened to the advice of the comdemned and found his plead...worthy. It is the decreed that the sentence of death be removed in favor of the sentence of exile for life, may the body be doomed never to even rest in the soil of Inansta. On pain of the condemned's soul." The audience awoke to talk, but the Serpent Lord continued in a louder voice and they became quiet again, "Nothing shall the condemned take with him." "But the clothes I wear," I put in. "He shall be sent to someplace dangerous, where his life, as it remains, will be sorely tested." "But death not assured." He glared at me, but I said with a shrug, "I do this for the people, and if the people discovered that I was sent to certain death..." The glare intensified, held, then, "But death not assured. "Is there anything else the condemn wishes to say?" I thought of my empire and the Serpent Lords I had served before in my life. I thought of the people who walked the streets of Inansta, the beautiful dancing girls who swept young men's hearts away. I thought of the rich and hot bread the bakers made, soft and delicious. I thought of the marketplace, with merchants bustling everywhere, and every face with a cheerful smile. I thought of the sun rising on the red desert and the heat glowing off the golden domes of the palace and civil centers. I thought of the cool rain of spring washing down my face and the wind as it sang the songs of the nomads to me at night. I thought of the paintings of the demons, the triumph of the gods, and the victory of the warriors defending their homeland. I thought of tall arches and huge spiral staircases. I thought of great stone walls and magnificent gardens. Then I thought of nothing but a bleak emptiness. "No, Your Supremcy," I said, "the condemned has nothing more to say." *** ADMIN: Yes, I'm back! Comments, questions, flames, all wished for and respected! And more to follow... -- I would think that I was dead but for the pain... ---Rabied Rat's Revenge