The Assiniy's Legacy

Where She Has Been

"WHERE have YOU been, you INSOLENT? Your father' state is falling!"
Said Chouffirah, Mordan's mother.
In his spote next door, he replied
"I was just at work, how on earth can I know he has fallen sick?!" A little silence occured, then Mordan added "How can I help, I shall bring a healer now."
"No. Tamirah, the daughter of Cylindra the neighboor has just gone for the renowned healers. Just don't face me, now."
He closed the door, shook his head despairingly and walked off slowly to the stairs while staring at Frski and his mother and Lorian, his father,  inquiringly for a bit. He went to the bathroom of his room on the top of the house, and while shaving his face from his disturbing light beard with a sharp knife in front of a stratched old mirror, which could hardly show his facial details, he couldn't help but wander about feeling responsible for what happened
However, it is clear for him that he has no blame to bear. The best thing he can do about this issue right now is to search for a healer, regardless of Tamirah's decision.

He glanced right and saw his godbrother Frski, a skinny fourteen years old but tall figure, he was sitting on the edge of the large open window of his room; his hands were crossed, and his eyes were fixed down, he raised them to meet Mordan's and said.
"Mor," Frski said griefingly, "Don't tell me you don't think I am responsible for this."
Mordan had put down his shaving knife and took his towel before he headed to the room, and while drying his face he said, "No, Frski, no", he lowered his towel then met Frski's grey eyes, "That's because I don't believe in non-sense!", he was standing in his spot with his arms down stretched, watching intently Frski's wide eyes, he added "Listen brother, those people out there tend to blame 'the other guys' for their own problems, and it doesn't matter how much stupid their arguments are."

Frski, a tall Salawanian boy of Yoqorian origins, he has curly red hair and a freckled pale face with a long and slightly hooked nose. He stood up, quite as tall as his elder godbrother, he said while waving his hands to Mordan:
"Can't you see that while I am here, old Lorian is sick, everybody in the streets are saying so!"
"Superstitions, father is sick because he has a sickness, it is the obvious thing, that is not about your origins, brother. Why should you be looked at as a bad omen?"
Before Frski tried to argue back, a familar voice had been heard down the street.

"Mrs. Assiniy! Mrs.Assiny?"
Both godbrothers looked out of the house edge, it was Tamirah, the famous daughter of neighbors.
"Tamirah, I need a talk with you." Mordan said, and she asked him to tell his mother about the fact that she hasn't found good healers and that she would try again right now in other areas, he did so and he added that he would go to help her, then he went back outside.

"Mordan, I am really sorry for what happened to your father! And sorry I couldn't help!" She said griefingly, waving slightly her head up and down, her skin was bronze, her eyes brown, and her nose small, and she was wearing the wednesday traditional long single big brown braid on her back, she has been usually wearing a dress that is neither too long nor too short, Mordan thought it was probably due to the fact that she has always been very active. Long and overly elegant Salawanian robes are impractical.

"It's okay, things like that happen. Is it real that you didn't find healers?" He said.
"Actually I am still thinking about one place, the scums, but I just hate dealing with those ones.", she answered.
"I have thought about that place too, I have a plan for it. Anyway, let's first walk a bit please, and tell me, don't you find it strange that healers became so scarce? I have always thought this would be the case very soon." He added.
Her brown eyebrows raised, "I did find it strange indeed, they were not that scarce the previous times.."
He continued while walking in the approximities near some exited children playing by dragging a long rope;
"You've once mentioned some circulating tales about the southern kindgom suffering from a severe pandemic this year, I reckon most local healers were summoned there to help as a part of alliance contracts."
"Probably, yes. And let's not forget, Mor, that we already lack a new generation of healers, current old ladies have never failed to mention dissapointment about that, and you can already guess the reason."
"Yes," he said with a smirk, "those_ 'Eunophian fathers' keep discouraging what they call 'finite knowledge' and promoting their 'infinite' version, it became like a blasphemy to study healing or anything."
He thought of the old librarian he knew, and who kept informing him about how science had just became seen as an irreverance. He laid his back on a wall and said, "This is all new Tamirah, The Eunophian religious system has never been as domineering as now. I do think that is not random, it is pushed by some people behind the curtains."
"Yes, but why would this be the case, the kingdom needs knowledgable people for it's own benefit."
"Yes, that is the sensible choice, but first_ what was the name of that sea-world where Jekwendir and the other guys from our old childhood gang went to attack?"
"Yushinda's realm, Mor"
"Yes_that one, they went to get Yushinda's gold and treasuries as part of a religious purpose. Do you see the benefit?".
Then an idea crossed his mind, what if ignorance is in itself preached by Eunophians for an additional purpose? Would it make sense, as Tamirah pointed out, for people in power to desire poverty and ignorance for their nation? It may, he thought...
"Is that why you didn't go with them as a paladin years ago?" She said, and added, "You know, many people thought you did, you have disappeared for so long."
Mordan grinned and rubbed his neck, "I am a library rat, Tamirah, I prefer to stay in that sacred place, and when I go out, I pass from the unpopular alleys of the edge."
"Neverthless, they're seeing you often in the streets these days, what made you change your mind?" She asked
"Nothing special, I just want to get some money on my own." Then he said, widening his eyes, "I am also curious about what people are worried about these days, do you have a clue?"
"You mean the decree 22, right?", and he was silent, so she continued, "It is the talk of the day, a decree launched 8 years ago by the King of this nation, Soron the third, it gave legal permission to a huge foreign company that switched many manifacture shops from their owners to the company's hands, people were often careless about that, the problem came now, when they're trying to apply the decree on the pounding heart of the city, and of the country, fishing and fish products manifacture. You know that Salawanians breath thanks to this field for hundreds of years.", Mordan nodded, and she continued, "Then that is the problem, many fish factories near the harbor are now a part of that foreign company, some say it's from the mighty Benissian empire."
Mordan looked on the ground apprehensively, and he felt intrigued that such an empire might be involved in such a crise, and they decided to continue the discussion while heading to the scums to find a healer for his father.

He has always trusted Tamirah, she is a bit older than him and used to take care of him when they were kids in an old children gang more than ten years ago, he has always felt that she acted like an older sister. He reminsced sometimes about his childhood days.

As it seemed that she wondered where he had disappeared, he also couldn't help saying:

"Tamirah, where have you been the last four years since you last quited Salawan?"
She looked at him in wonder,
"I have told you that I went south to study knitting, haven't I?"
"I am not sure Tamirah, I have a funny feeling that you didn't." He said in a serious tone.
She grinned and said, "Oh, stop your silliness, Mor!", and she changed the topic.

She knows very well that she had once gone for something much more impressive than any mundane activity known by the towns of the kigdom.

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