Nehrim:The Grey Blossom - Volume II
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The Grey Blossom - Volume II
At the northern edge of the marketplace, several rows of houses stood on steep plateaus. In one of these rows, in a single little room on a ground floor, Aryona and Feodor slept next to each other on one bed. Between them and nestled close to his mother lay their son, Seylon, who was now a healthy boy of seven. The bright moon shone through the two tiny windows upon the bundle of people. The family rested in peace, awaiting the next morning.
Seylon awoke, stretching himself on the large bed. No one lay beside him.
His father was working already. He had become the master smith, though unfortunately his products did not go to the temple, but to the common folk. However, apart from the town dwellers, he also supplied a few other traders, even ones from distant towns such as Erothin, with war equipment, tools and other technical appliances, by sending the wares overseas.
He did not earn as much as a master at the temple but enough to satisfy the needs of his family. As already mentioned, he was saving the money left over for a better living quarters. Feodor was a capable and caring man who worked in the humid smithy into the evening hours. Seylon was to become his apprentice at some time but at this age now he just lay lazily on the bed.
His mother was taking care of the housework, like every day. Seylon wondered why she never got tired of doing the same thing all the time. Her response to his question: "One should consider for whom I am doing it." Then she smiled at her son.
He then sat up, crossing his legs, and felt the daylight. His pupils were narrowed down to tiny dots by the shining, light grey iris. The boy had shoulder-length, pitch black hair that sometimes hung in his face.
He looked around the room, still a little dazed. He saw a pile of fruit on a plate.
"That's your breakfast", Aryona said and pointed at the cut up fruits. Seylon sat at the table and ate his first meal slowly, during which time mother and son exchanged a few words:
"Did you have any dreams?", she asked.
He answered: "No. I rarely dream. It seems to me as if I fall asleep, float around in empty space for a moment, then wake up just a bit later."
"Be glad. You are sleeping well. I, on the other hand, dream almost every night, good dreams aswell as bad."
The boy incomprehensibly agreed to his mother's words.
When he finished the whole pile of fruit, he washed himself with a damp cloth and pulled on a pair of pants. Other than that, he did not wear any clothes, not even shoes. His parents did not mind, for it was hot outside anyway, and walking barefoot was a lot healthier.
"May I go outside now?", Seylon asked his mother, his eyes big. Her son's piercing eyes still impressed the woman even after such a long time.
"Go on then, but be back by midday."
"Thankyou, mother." And with that, the boy hurried out of the door, down the steps to the marketplace. He cut through the mass of people and ended up at the docks, where his best and only friend Remar lived.
Remar was the third child of a very poor family. In all there were five children. The first and tallest son was currently working as a sailor and therefore was hardly ever at home. But in return he always brought back fascinating stories from the other, distant corners of Nehrim. The rest of the children worked little, or not at all. Remar was the same age as Seylon and ran errands for some of the traders. His father had disappeared one night as he tried to leave Ostian. He probably went missing in the desert. He left behind his wife and five children, who now had to work very hard for their well-being.
Seylon felt a little happy not to have grown up under such circumstances. Remar wanted to have as little as possible to do with his family. His kin wasn't very popular because the mother was an immensely annoyed person. However, Remar felt sorry for her and so he did his work for the sake of his brothers and sisters.
Once again Seylon picked up his friend. Together they looked for a merchant who could reward an errand. After trying about half of them, they reached the smith where Feodor worked who always needed a cargo assent for a merchant ship at the docks. Today was no exception.
"You know where to go", the blacksmith said and gave the boys the envelope. "You shall receive your reward when you return here with the completed forms."
Remar nodded and turned to go. Seylon quickly hugged his father then followed him. It wasn't far to the docks.
They approached the harbour master, introduced themselves and gave the old man the forms. He was a worker for the temple. At the back of his mind, Seylon always thought that these people weren't good people; his mother always tried to convince him of that for reasons unknown to him.
The harbour master looked at the friends and murmured: "Oh, it's you again". He signed the forms with scrawled handwriting and stamped it with the seal of the temple. On a list he noted the goods to be loaded and the people responsible for them.
"Here, return this to the sender.", the old man commanded calmly before bidding goodbye. Remar took the envelope and ran back to the smith with Seylon. Seylon's father looked at the assent and was happy about the permission. He reached into the money box and took out about fifteen gold coins. That was a lot more than they received from other traders. Remar filled his pockets and wandered back to the little house at the docks, together with his friend. He went in and, as always, left the money in a drawer in his mother's nightstand. During that time, Seylon waited outside.
When Remar came back out, they both planned the following hours.
First, Seylon asked: "Have you eaten already?".
"Yes", his thin friend answered. His family didn't always have enough money for food. If he hadn't eaten any breakfast, Seylon would have stolen something for him from a merchant. Remar was never pleased with that, but Seylon always enjoyed it.
"Well, that's alright then.", he said.
"Shall we go climbing then?"
"Good idea."
Since the sun wasn't very high in the sky in the mornings and the air was tolerable, the boys liked to climb around on the houses in the poor district at that time of the day. They loved jumping from roof to roof and hauling themselves up the beams attached to the outsides. People didn't like it, but ignored it anyway.
When Seylon and Remar were out of breath, they often lay down on a roof and sunned themselves. They enjoyed the child's life to the fullest. Sometimes they even nodded off.
Some people wondered why these two had each other and no one else as friends. Well, it was because Seylon and Remar were different than the other children in Ostian. The others were always busy playing games of power, where in the end there was always a winner and a loser. The winner was then a big hero and the leader of the group of children. The loser was rejected. The two friends had both been those "losers". In the end they got tired of being rejected and went and did their own thing. That's how they found each other.
The sun was climbing high, reminding Seylon that he had to be back home by midday. Also, the midday heat was becoming unbearable on the roofs.
He pulled his friend up to his feet, climbed down from the house and brought him back to his house. There, another pile of fruit was awaiting them as well as Aryona who gave them both lessons in reading, writing and arithmetics, even if not very rational but enough to get through life.
The friends first shared the meal evenly between them. The mother got a few pages of pergament and a charcoal pencil from a drawer in the cupboard and sat down at the table with the boys. She taught them the letters of the alphabet and how to make words from them. Remar and Seylon took their lesson seriously, even if the material was a little dull sometimes, for they knew that if they did not learn these things , they would not be able to live comfortably. However, arithmetics was the most fun because it had practical use. They learned this subject very fast by counting, adding and multiplying all the items they could find in the room.
The mother was finished after an hour. Remar thanked her politely for the meal and Seylon got a kiss from his mother. "Well done boys. I can see you are tired of sitting. We'll head to the sea soon."
The friends' eyes widened and they smiled at each other. Nearly every day, the mother took her son and his friend to the beach in the south-east of Ostian. It wasn't as built-up and dirty as the port in the south-west of the city. It was an even, white sandy beach.
Aryona packed three towels into a bag and set off to the beach with the boys. In the meantime, the mass of people on the marketplace was growing. It wasn't only the citizens of Ostian who shopped here, but also many travellers and traders from nearly every corner of the land.
The small group fought its way through the busy ado. After that followed a leisurely walk through the nobles' district of Ostian. From the main street, they could marvel at the truly tremendous temple palace to the left. However, Aryona looked to the ground in disdain as she saw the shameful walls. The boys admired the great construction.
After a couple of minutes' walk, they could see the large bridge to the stone quarry, to the right of which was the beach..
Apart from the mother, her son and his friend, a few other families were present. The boys ran excitedly into the cool wet as Aryona joined her friends.
The water was considerably warm, but offered more than enough refreshment for those who wanted to enjoy it.
Remar and Seylon splashed each other and jumped around the shallow water in glee. Further to the west, a few rocks lay in the water where many colourful fish swam about. Both the friends could have watched and dived after the water animals for ages.
It was gradually getting too hot for Aryona and so she waded through the shallow water near the shore with rolled up trousers. Soon after that, the two children came and sneakily splashed the woman from behind her. That was enough refreshment for the mother.
She spread out a towel on the sand and lay down to dry in the blazing sun. The children kept frolicking in the water.
Slowly but surely, dusk descended upon them. Aryona awoke from her short sleep and called the boys to her. Reluctantly they crept to the woman. "Your skin is all wrinkled, do you want to end up like the Wrinkle-Man?" The children shook their heads and dried themselves off with the large towels.
They set off home. Remar and Seylon hugged each other goodbye on the marketplace. Remar ambled towards the docks, his trousers still wet from the water. Aryona and Seylon went to their house on one of the stone plateaus.
Seylon quickly washed himself and then retreated to bed, tired and worn.
He wasn't hungry for dinner.
His mother read an Ostian newspaper in the candlelight that was distributed for free on the market. Sceptically she examined a report from a so called priest; the word "tax collector" would be more fitting:
"More and more young people want to work for the temple for it offers good work with a generous income. However, the training for this work is very elaborate and expensive, this is why the taxes must be raised for all citizens. We apologise for any inconvenience."
Aryona lowered the paper to the table in anger. The temple was only collecting the the higher taxes for itself. If anyone was allowed to work for the temple, then only the rich people from the nobles' district and they didn't have many children, it seemed. Someone from the poor district or the docks didn't even have the "priviledge" to work for the temple. Feodor was an exception, for he only worked as an apprentice and was under the protection of his master. Now he worked in a smithy on the border between the nobles' and the poor district and received a lot less money for his greater efforts than a normal trader who worked for the temple.
Her husband's loud knock tore Aryona from her thoughts. Feodor stood in the door in his apron and kissed his wife. They sat down at the table and talked for a while before Feodor, as exhausted as he was, went to bed aswell.
"That confounded temple is raising the tax again." Aryona said, annoyed.
"Now calm down. It's not like we can't pay them. I am earning enough money for such instances.", he answered softly.
"But think of the poor people who aren't as fortunate as we, the ones who really are poor."
"One would have to cancel their taxes and support them instead."
"Do you think this institution is so kind-hearted to the little people? What I find baffling is that the rich people in this city have to pay the least taxes, for they are, in my opinion, the biggest money source for the temple and are recompensed more because of that. The poor people are nothing for the temple, it could survive without them, so why support them?"
"A problem you discuss with me often enough. I am tired and not in the mood to think about it."
"Don't be so ignorant, the people who turn their backs on the misery are cowards, plain and simple."
"What is there to do? A revolt? The temple and above all the Ostain guard is too powerful to stand up against with this small crowd. Whoever starts a riot is removed right away, don't forget that."
Aryona sighed. "You're right. I'm frightened too."
Feodor lay down on the bed and fell asleep next to his son straight away. Aryona joined them after a while.
That was an ordinary day in the life and from the point of view from that family. From the outside, every day seemed the same as the next, but the interaction of some emotions and events rarely made them boring.
The night passed calmly and quietly.
Seylon awoke the same way he had done the morning before. He was excited to see Remar. But his excitement was braked by his mother's plans. She asked softly: "Do you know what day it is today?" Seylon thought for moment, then answered reluctantly: "Day of Repentance."
Half an hour later he was in the paved alley to the temple, hand in hand with his mother. They entered the large building. They stepped silently into the temple through a great, wooden gateway.
A "tax collector" with a list in his hand asked for Aryona's name and residence at once. She answered him. He leafed through the records and found her amongst many other citizens. "Your husband has paid already this morning. Thankyou very much. I ask you now to hear the prayer." the small man said and bowed to her.
Aryona and Seylon found a place in the front rows of the benches. Aryona listened to the priest's song of prayer. She liked hearing him. She wasn't religious, but she liked religion and its message. She only hated the institution.
Seylon sat there, bored, and planned the next day in his mind.
Finally the priest ended his prayer and the son tugged his mother out of the palace excitedly. "Can I go to Remar now?", he asked again with round, gleaming, big eyes. "Go on then. But as I said, you have to be home and midday, you hear?"
"Yes." Seylon hugged his mother heartily and sprinted down the alley of the temple palace, towards the right through the nobles' district, to the left through the marketplace and finally to Remar's family's house at the docks.
He knocked at the door and it was Remar who opened up. He looked pale.
"Let me guess - you haven't eaten?", Seylon asked.
"Not even yesterday evening. My mother scrambled up the last of the money for the taxes and there was nothing left for a meal." Remar sounded weak.
"Well, I hope you know what I am going to do for you. There's nothing at my house either at this early hour, for we were in the temple this morning and my mother hasn't had time to shop."
Remar said nothing. Seylon looked at him with his piercing gaze and spoke: "We will go through with this! These pigs shouldn't wonder why so poor children steal if they don't even have money for food." His mother said something similar.
The boy dragged Remar to the marketplace. He was already experienced in stealing from traders. It was the easiest when the trader was busy, of course, then you grabbed the goods quickly and hid it under your clothes. These procedure had to happen very quickly.
This time, Seylon put on Remar's vest. He targeted a trader who was busy with some spilt wine underneath his table. Quickly, Seylon and Remar walked past the side of the stall and Seylon briefly opened the vest and had three apples disappear underneath it.
The boys quickened their pace until they were able to hide behind the high wall to the docks. They sat down in the shadows. Greedily, Remar took an apple and bit into it. The fruit's flesh squirted. Seylon was proud of himself. But this feeling didn't last for long, for a few seconds later a sturdy guard stepped behind the wall, grabbed Seylon by the shoulder and heaved him up. Remar got up slowly and remained standing, rooted to the spot. The juice of the apple dripped from his chin. Seylon looked at him, scared.
"Come with me!", the guard barked energetically. The man tugged both children with him. His grip hurt. Seylon hated to be touched by strangers.
The guard took them to the nearest guard tower. On the ground floor was a noble, wooden desk with a lot of paperwork.
The man recited: "You are found guilty of thievery. According to the law of Ostian, paragraph eighteen, section four, your punishment will be a monetary payment." The man leafed through a small book and continued. "Of exactly 40 gold pieces from each of you." Coldly and with a stony gaze the man's small blue eyes examined both the shabby boys.
Seylon stood there, red in the face and stiff from shame. Remar's hands were shaking, he was very scared, how would he be able to pay that?
