Alicja
Inside the gates, after being bowed to by the gate guards, the road was wide enough for two wagons to pass by each other. That was handy because just beyond the road, after the span of a narrow sidewalk, there were stone walls. Shear stone walls, three stories high. Roads branched off blocks, and more stone and more walls followed.
We seemed to be taking the 'uphill' route which made sense, if we were going to the top. That's where most Keeps and Castles were kept, right? At the top of things?
There were a lot of people following us now. That bow the gate guards gave us confirmed us as people of interest. I looked behind us, but I couldn't count that many without being rude.
"We're being followed," I said.
"Are we?" he said, without looking around.
"You knew that," I said.
"Yes, of course. My hearing and nose told me that some time ago," he said and gave me a grin.
"You really can smell that well? To tell if it's one or several people?" I asked.
"I can tell you take B-vitamins. And you eat a lot of tomatoes. Spaghetti sauce perhaps?"
"I like Italian," I said with a shrug. "So, you're not worried about this?" I asked, motioning to the growing crowd behind us. "And you've only been gone two months?"
"I... well, to the first question, no. Why be worried? They just want to watch. Who knows, I might actually get the whipping this time. Never can tell. Right?"
He struck me as having a history along those lines. Like this wasn't the first time a crowd was hoping for that. Like it came from a real experience. Eeek.
"Please tell me you aren't serious," I groaned.
"To the second question," he said, ignoring my plea, "yes, only about two months. Maybe a few days after. I'll have to look at a calendar."
"You haven't been counting the days to getting your revenge?" I asked.
"Revenge? No, I'm not after revenge. I want to keep it from happening again. I want those men in jail for the crime if the judge says so, exiled if he doesn't. I want to keep them from coming across. I want it to be a legal obligation. Humans never cross for good reasons. It's always pillage, murder or rape. They're always driven by bizarre myths and Catholic gods."
By the time he reached the end of that minor rant, he was sounding a little viscous. I bit my lip, and thought about what he was trying to say.
He slowed a little, "It's a matter of ethics," he said after a bit, his voice calmer. "Not morals."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
He stopped and put his hands on his hips, his eyes looking at the ground— it was really a good look for him. Every eye waited — then he said, "Ethics are a choice. They're the law. We have them because we made them up. We know that. They are man made. We all agree to them because it's better for all — rather than to have it normal to act otherwise. For example, we all agree that I shouldn't be allowed to just hit anyone I passed on the street. Right?" He looked back over the crowd, his hands and arms in the 'am I right' expression towards them.
A lot of them nodded their heads in agreement. Many of them were seriously involved with our discussion as well.
I nodded my head as well, "Sure. Because if that's normal, if we're allowed to just hit people, we'll never be able to build trust bonds or do business."
He bowed, "Exactly." And started walking again.
The way he did it, the bow, it felt like the normalist thing anyone had ever greeted me with. Weird.
I followed and caught up to his arm, ".. And um, Morals are?" I asked.
He stopped again, "Well, I mean, morals are descriptions of what is 'right' and 'wrong'. That's the knowledge of gods. Good and evil. Religion gives us morals. And a man can do the most gruesome of actions to another man, more than you can imagine, if he's doing it to save your soul, or in the service of his god."
Ok... that was intense.
I had to catch up again. I noticed from the crowd that I wasn't the only one a little freaked out by him just then. If they had any doubts — this wasn't a boy they were following, but a full grown man...who had some opinions.
Not wrong opinions, however, I thought to myself. The worst of what man has done to man, has always been a matter of belief. Beliefs were hard to change. Making the damage so much more.
Laws, you could just rewrite, or rescind. You didn't do it out of hand. You made sure you were making a better choice — it took an act of congress — but you didn't have to get god to co-sign... Or worse, his followers.
Several debates had opened up behind us, and some people stopped to listen to the ones arguing. When I say arguing, I mean in the debating way, they weren't fighting. But rather having a discussion about what they heard.
Looking back to him, I said, "To change the subject, who is the Regent?"
"Uncle Max," he said, his brow a little tighter when he said it, and that could have been an eye twitch. Or a bug.
"Uncle? That's not the royal title I'm guessing."
He flashed me a grin, "No." Then he added, "He's not family, not my father's brother. He's his best friend and has been for many years before I was born."
"Brothers from another mother?" I said.
That got a short laugh out of him, "Yes, I guess that's the way of it."
There was more there, but I didn't want to push him. Still I wanted to know what we were walking into. I mean, there was a crowd. That could only heighten the tension of whatever it would be, right? If someone was going to stand in judgment, that judgment is always swayed by the feeling of a crowd. Because you weren't just saying it to the judged, you were saying it to them as well.
Maybe I was just paranoid, and didn't like crowds following me.
That felt truer.
I sighed. There were so many now. I couldn't see the end of them.
"So, what's the worst that could happen?" I asked. It was always better to ask. I guess. Better than letting my head make stuff up? Maybe.
"I mean, I could really get that whipping?" he said, with a shyish shrug.
His manner now — included the crowd. They were an extension of him. He looked to them as he might search his own memory. Am I right, he asked. But it was like he was really asking. He wasn't inciting them one way or another. He wanted to know what they thought. It was important to him.
I'd never been in this situation. So many people were paying attention to what I said and how I said it. They wanted to know who I was? Where did he find me? Was I a dragon? Questions and speculations were offered and shared and passed on to the back of the crowd for debate and more speculation.
And it was building. Hypotheses were made. Adding to it came suppositions. Then conjectures, which morphed into reflections, venturing into rumor...
...suspicions...
...uncertainty...
...more speculation.
"We're not sleeping together!" I yelled out over the crowd when I turned around, my fists clenched... "I came from the other world. And we are bound!" ...and then I saw all of them looking at me in shock, and I blushed, turned back around and started walking.
Let him catch up this time...
He caught up, and fell instep beside me.
"That was, unexpected."
"Don't want to talk about it right now, or perhaps ever. Just got a little freaked, ok?"
He put his arm on my shoulder and hugged me to his side, "Perfect," is all he said.
My blush was hard enough to still hurt when we reached the top. At the top, was the largest house. Which made sense, right?
It didn't look much like a castle or much different from the other homes around it. Just bigger. Much bigger, yes. And there were guards. Lots of guards.
These were serious men too. The kind on TV, really didn't measure up. These were the kind of men who didn't smile on duty. I wondered if they got attacked much?
We crossed the gate onto the walk which was paved with a deep red flagstone up to the huge double doors of banned lumber. I looked back to see what the guards would do with the crowd, but they followed inside the gate as well. Apparently all they had to say was, "To bear witness." In answer to the challenge of, 'State your business.'
This was a public house.
"Huh," I grunted.
"What's that?" he asked.
"I'm just wondering how much of your life is on display? Publicly, as it were."
He looked around, then back to me, "All of it."