It was already after six, and she hadn't got a thing done. Jane sat down at the old desktop computer in the corner - it was turtle-slow, but way better than having to use the family computer downstairs to type everything. She had only had it for a couple of months, since Mom and Dad had bought Matt that slick new laptop "for school." Yeah, right. Anyway, the old clunker had been the family computer until Dad had replaced it with the current model a few years back, so it was pretty old and battered, but it typed just fine and she could even use the internet if she was okay with the speed - or lack thereof.
She fooled around online for a while before reluctantly pulling up the half-completed English assignment. They were supposed to write two pages describing 'a favorite place.' Jane had selected the library, but she'd gotten stuck after just one page. How much more was there to say? She poked around, tucking extra words into the sentences anywhere they would fit, but that barely gained her an extra line. Suddenly she remembered the artificial ficus that sat in the corners and stretched that observation out to two whole paragraphs, but it still wasn't enough. Sighing, she enlarged the font by one size. That made it nearly two pages, and it would have to do since she couldn't think of anything else.
Next up was the History paper. She had to write another five hundred words on some aspect of European feudalism, and she hadn't decided what to write it on yet. Jane slouched down in the metal folding chair that served as her computer chair, propping her feet up on a corner of the desk as she considered her options. There were knights, of course, but she could almost guarantee that half the class would choose that. Chivalry, maybe? No - too narrow. Castles? She shook her head. The half of the class that didn't pick knights would be all over castles. Serfs were a possibility, she doubted they were glamorous enough to be a popular choice. Same thing with fiefdoms - boring, but packed with the kind of details that would easily flesh out the paper.
Jane started flipping through that section of her textbook when a block of words in the corner caught her eye. Fealty, she read. From the Latin fidelitas (faithfulness), a pledge of allegiance from one person to another. Fealty and the related ceremony, homage, were key elements of feudalism.
Do tell, she thought. Jane was familiar with the basic concept of fealty - it figured prominently in many of the novels she read, after all - but she had never studied it as a historical practice. In books an oath of fealty meant undying loyalty and bonds of honor, fellowship and camaraderie, desperate battles and last stands, and all that. That's probably not how it goes in the History book, Jane told herself, but let's take a look.
Medieval Feudalism was based on the exchange of land for military service. King William the Conquerer used the concept of feudalism. . .blah, blah, blah - oh, here we go - a vassal would swear allegiance and pay homage to his lord in a commendation ceremony. This ceremony was designed to create a lasting bond between a vassal and his lord.
There wasn't much more in the textbook, but something about it caught and sparked in her imagination and so she continued the search online. The swearing allegiance part seemed pretty straightforward, but she wasn't really clear on what it meant to 'pay homage.' She guessed that it didn't have much to do with the way she usually heard it, like when artists and musicians copied each other and then claimed it was an homage.
Finally, after chasing some fruitless threads for about fifteen minutes, Jane stumbled across a page that had it written out clearly. Homage, she read. In European culture, an act of solemn ritual in which a person becomes the vassal of a lord in feudal society. Homage was essentially the acknowledgement of the bond that existed between the two. It consisted of the vassal surrendering himself to the lord, symbolized by kneeling and offering his hands to the lord. The lord would clasp them in his own hands, formally accepting the surrender. Accompanied by an oath of fidelity, the procedure was a recognition of the service owed his lord by the vassal, and the protection owed the vassal by his lord.
Okay, so the books weren't so far off, then! Minus - as far as she could tell from the other pages she had read - a lot of politics. Jane started in on her paper with something almost like enthusiasm. Fealty was the glue that held the whole feudal system together. The kings and nobles, knights and barons that she had read about were almost like - like a street gang, or something, with the men who could gain the most followers rising in power while those who were weak either found a strong lord and pledged to him, or got squashed. Before the royal families and the monarchies got thoroughly established, kings and countries could rise and fall in a single generation, all because one man could - or could not - command loyalty.
It didn't take Jane too long to finish her paper once she got going, and she wrapped the whole thing up with the actual words of the oath of fealty. "I promise on my faith that I will in the future be faithful to the lord, never cause him harm and will observe my homage to him completely against all persons in good faith and without deceit." That pushed it up to five hundred and three words - perfect. That had actually been kind of fun to learn about! It was pretty late by this time, but she had an hour or two before she really needed to sleep, and now she was in the mood for something medieval.
She turned to her meager collection of novels, painstakingly accumulated one book at a time over the years. Everything there had been read at least once or twice - some a lot more than that - so she skimmed the battered titles for what she wanted. The Oath of the Rose? No, that was more of a romance. Cave of Kings? No, that didn't really have much to do with knights and fealty. She settled on The Sword of Garverest, the story of a free lance searching for a cause. As she changed into her pajama pants, she remembered the chintzy ring in her pocket and pulled it out. It still looked cheap and worn with its flimsy gold-colored band and glass stone, but somehow in the darkness and quiet of the night, it seemed a little more believable that there might be something special about it. She set it on her nightstand thoughtfully and laid down in bed to read.
The Sword of Garvarest was one of her favorites, but try as she might, Jane couldn't immerse herself in it. Her eyes kept creeping away from the page to lie speculatively on the ring on the nightstand. Was it possible? Could it really somehow take her on adventures in her sleep? She forced herself to look at her book again. Ridiculous.
She pushed through a couple of chapters listlessly - it didn't even get to the good part until chapter four - and then stuck a piece of paper in to mark her place, laying her book down on the nightstand next to the ring. Her eye landed on it and she couldn't bring herself to look away. Should she try it? Why not? There was nobody to see, not that anyone had witnessed the scene outside, anyway. The worst thing that could happen was that it wouldn't work. Or, well, she could get tetanus from it, or something. She debated with herself for a long moment, then slid the ring on her finger and laid back down, switching off the light and closing her eyes so that she could fall asleep as quickly as possible.
Of course, she couldn't get to sleep that easily. Her heart raced the way it did the night before a trip or a big event, and she tossed and turned trying to find a spot to rest in a bed that suddenly seemed abnormally uncomfortable. Awesome. Her one shot at adventure - not that it was going to work, anyway, let's not forget - and she was going to ruin it because she couldn't get to sleep. Jane tried to think of boring things like school and math and chores, squeezing her eyes shut in determination, and eventually she started to feel drowsy. That's it, she thought, coaxing herself. Just a little more. She started some deep-breathing exercises, and at some point between one breath and the next she slipped from awareness into sleep.
BINABASA MO ANG
Ring of Dreams
Teen Fiction"All that you have read, all that you have imagined, it can be real. All you need is the key." The old man spread his arms wide, bowing. For some reason Jane could just picture him making that gesture with wide, fluttering sleeves. It would suit him...
