The Absolute After Eltreis: The Crusade

II WILE II

My thoughts became an endless pool of questions. From where the Shol Tritausen headed to which day the Shol Great Elders could have decided to slay the Blends, my instincts demanded for more answers as his figure left my sight. Still overwhelming fear weighed me down. A confrontation with a being like him could not repay what could have come if I did. Some strong Shol power defined his mystique, let alone a direct leading from the Shol Elders. He would have been quite tall for me to handle without a weapon in hand, after all.

When enough timely distance separated us two, I pushed myself off of the balcony railing and hugged myself, passing the set of vacant and couple-occupied tables, and then entered the archway for the stairs again. By now the wall incense burned bright, leading me down each steep step. Guards kept their heads bowed at the bottom. Down the endless halls lied nothing but these, no Tritausen in sight.

I chose my right as my sandals clacked with each step. Wall tiles and black armor blurred and spicy whiffs burned my sniffing nose in passing as I moved a while for a flight of stairs. The massive painting's cracking details grew clearer as I went up several floors and walkways. A cold presence chilled my feet upon landing at the fourth floor. Masted across the rightmost wall lied a large window, revealing Shol auroras waving in the night skies above a couple of four-legged Trau hauling a carriage across the long passageway below. I turned to the other side of the hall, meeting a tall, metal door bolted into the sanded walls.

I leaned back and pulled the door open by its circle handles. Its banging skidding captured the attention of the other eight Justices on the other side, the room's inner coldness bursting onto me. I rubbed my arms upon entry, stepping down the side aisle past each row-spanning desk. Light conversation echoed. This was the Cymerian Justices Legislative Chamber, where we Justices ate, lived, and slept. No, I jest. This is where we read legislative bills, Nodi, raised by commoners and members of the High Counsel.

Down each step I searched for my go-to allies. Justice Nyce Girol returned to her stack of papers, fiddling with her necklace. Justice Losse Egmen watched me down. Justice Rari Laniu seemed invested in a law book as other hooded Justices with their flashing seams turned for me. A stone table held a stack of blank Nodus sheets at the bottom and center. I took one.

So many vacant seats separated the members. It wasn't until recently that our Kingdom cut down our once-plentiful legislative body to a mere ten members, counting the King.

"Planning to submit a redemptive Nodus?" Justice Laniu lifted his silver eyes down to me. Leftover chatter subsided. I stroked my wrist.

"I appeal to submit one, yes. And I will submit it on behalf of the Shol." Looks exchanged. I blinked hard as my body flashed warm to combat the chilly air.

"And what specifically is this Nodus about?" One let out a husky titter.

"It's about a possible threat to the lives of Tritausen half-bloods. A Tritausen, a Shol Tritausen, came to me a few moments ago and told me the Shol Elders are considering to, as he put it 'wipe out' the half-bloods."

"Blends," another corrected with a contemptuous smirk. Whispers started. A breathy snigger escaped. Losai glared his straight face back at me as I searched into his eyes with concern. The distracting, sandy wall behind them all remained.

"Pffta, Nodus dismissed," one waved his hand. "This issue can be resolved simply with a tightening of our military forces and territory in Seson. See? Problem solved." He raised his hand in search of unanimous agreement. "For anyone who agrees, say I." A few followed.

I lowered my head. "Many of you agree that my approach was rather unofficial anyway, yes?"

"As you would have expected," Justice Laniu said. "Next time you wish to submit a proper Nodus, Justice Celt-Sone, be sure the issue cannot be resolved immediately first, as you should know." He told the hand-raising Justice his agreement with a nod, then raised a brow back to me. "You should know what's best for Seson's protection, if a serious threat truly lies."

In my time as High Commander and even as Justice in the High Counsel up until that point, I haven't had to deal with a Shol member threatening to eradicate Blends including myself. There were historical instances, and the Elders even carried out some casualties in the past. A threat like that meant a war neared. So, for the Justice to say that I knew what was best, especially without the help of the others, I denied him to myself.

"Where is this Tritausen now?" Another said.

"I don't know. He departed before I could catch up to him." And then I answered their question about his appearance. "His eyes were bright, narrow... He was tall, had silver hair. And he did show me his Mark of Shol right on his wrist."

"Didn't you go after him?"

"I did not, but I should have. I'll wait until he shows up again, if he does." I threw in a quick apology, still taking a blank Nodus back with me to a seat at the top, back row beside Losse, who focused hard on a stack of papers before him.

"His identity is rather obscure, the Tritausen," he said. "Perhaps Por would know of him."

I minded his family's Tritausen slave, Por-Vie, and her tendency to know tribes well. Understanding that she was of another tribe, however, I stole a part of Losse's paper stack and set it before me.

"He said the Shol Elders sent him directly. Apparently he managed to get here through my Shol."

Losse continued skimming over a Nodus with a stamp marking over it, probably cross-referencing between resolved and unresolved Nodi as he always did. He said, "If you still search for him, I can heed for him."

Whether his traveling nature would bring him to find the Tritausen or not, it would most likely had been a while before he could have discovered anything. I thanked him and started on an hour's worth of reading, taking notes of a merchant's complaints on using travel expenses on Tritausen slaves. I dismissed the Nodus with Losse's red stamper and moved on to the next. The next one outlined concerns of military leaders recruiting full-blooded Tritausen to their armies. I marked notes on each derogatory word, on the verge of stamping it as well. It was the usual complaints, involving either the desire to segregate Tritausen or to increase their rights, whether it be law, military, science, whatever related. Fresh wounds still lied open in our civil system.

Reading every word seemed endless. As soon as the Great Gong rang for the night, we Justices departed our duties for the day and left the imprisoning Legislative Chamber for our personal business. Losse and I took a walk (after I took a quick stop to my room and throw on a jacket) in search for the Shol Tritausen throughout every corner of the halls and gardens. Scornful Shol Officers offended by my presence told us they found no illegal Shol users anywhere. According to them, no Tritausen walked on sight. So, I retreated to my room to rest for the night.

I could say I lived in the Legislative Chamber, as I started the cycle again the next day, dissecting each complaint and piecing together a Nodus I could use to deal with Cymel-Seson's protection, per one of the Justice's suggestion. By the end of the nine-day week, the same view of the Justices Residences tired me. My duty period excluded the last four days of the week. So as soon as the Great Gong rang once more, I went to my room, gathered my writing supplies from my organized compartment desk, took my old travel journal, even folded up a few of the many jumpsuits stashed in my dresser, and packed them all into my pocket-full backpack, going out for the barn at the inner core of the edifice.

Inside the smelly stables huffed Trau through their narrow nostrils, kicking their coupled toes into the straw below them. I went down the aisle past their stomping and yelping, stopping to silky one shaking its body on the far end. That was Ira, my assigned Trau. I reached over her fence and pet her black, rough nostril beyond the muzzle that held her mouth closed. She licked at me. I asked her how she was as I removed her from her stable by her reins. She yelped upon hearing my jingling bag.

I held the bag close, preventing any more noise as I rubbed her long neck, and climbed up her broad back with a grunt. She still yelped, and after some devoted coaxing and petting, she huffed to silence.

"There we go," I pulled her reins. She trotted us out of the stable with my leading to the long passageway afar. With a few pats of her toes on the cemented road, she started faster with my inclination.

To Cymel-Seson we went.