7Reminiscence
Hello friend. May I call you that? Friend? It has been a long time since that word has passed my lips. Come; sit here by the fire, right here, beside me. Tell me, would you like to hear a story? Good, I have one that will keep for many a night and it can only be told on the darkest of nights when the moon is nowhere to be seen. Stare into the heart of a fire and listen to the wrinkled voice of the storyteller, that would be me wouldn't it?
This particular story is about one of the greatest men to grace our land in over a thousand years, at least that's what I believe. He was brave and courageous and honest, well, honest in his heart. What he did for a living constricted him from telling the truth to pretty much everyone he met. He led many different lives, and not many people knew who he really was. But I did, I was one of the few people who actually knew him before he became so many other people.
You must swear you will tell no one this, ever, not even to your most trusted friend. Lean closer, his name was Damian Durante, but you didn't hear it from me, all right? Good; well he was one of the great people of this age, and many despised him but he actually brought the country back together. The merchants still may not be too happy with what he did to their shipping lines but I think in time that they'll forgive him eventually. Our story begins on a sunny day at the beginning of the Autumn Feast.
_ Twelve hours left "Oy, could you give us a hand here you. Hey, I said could you give us a hand here?" A group of men were trying to overturn a cart that had hit a pothole at high speed in the middle of the road. One of the larger men was trying to get the attention of a well-dressed gentleman walking down the road. This seemed quite odd as most of the wealthy traveled in carriages, but these days you didn't question anything, what with the weird goings on around the countryside.
"I'm sorry my good man but I really must reach the capital before the feast starts. Important business to attend to and all that."
"Well, I'm sorry to keep yer lordship waiting. It isn't often that the likes of you people would stop to even bother with us poor peasant folk," the man responded sarcastically. What did he expect from one of the pompous fops of the rich and well off.
"Yes well, I don't really have time to stop you see, so I'll be going now," the well-dressed man walked off down the well-worn dirt road towards the large city. As he passed the workmen he muttered to himself, "This is going wonderfully, I haven't even reached the city and already I'm already being noticed and disliked by the townsfolk. I just hope this day doesn't get any worse," he sighed.
Entering the city, he watched hundreds of peasants walking with carts or bundles of clothes on their backs trudge through the outer gates. Ever since the eruption at Oka had occurred, more and more of the surrounding farms and villages had been abandoned. He only hoped that all the confusion would help and not hinder his plans. Everything had been set in motion months ago. Years of planning would go down the drain if he didn't pull this off. He had his agents stationed throughout the city and hopefully he would make contact with them as soon as he got through the traffic and guards who had been set up around the inner walls of the city. The closer one got towards the center of Cheva, the nicer the streets and buildings got. Of course, there was 'Merchants Road' where most dignitaries traveled to and from the city. It was the only road where passes were required and this was only because it was the one road where the nice shops and buildings extended to the outer walls of Cheva. He wasn't going to risk that road just yet. It was late in the day and all of the merchants and visiting lords would already be at the castle waiting for the feast to begin. His forged papers would pass under scrutiny only if there were a lot of people on the road and the guards didn't check them too closely.
He closed in on the two sentries standing just before the outer walls and tried his best to look inconspicuous as he glanced up at the two armour-clad giants. They were enforcers in the guard and had been picked to serve only for their size and ability to follow orders. Arguing with them over anything was pointless because they only took orders from the commander of their squad, being incapable of listening to anyone else. Damian knew this only because of the countless papers filled with information about every possible fact one could possibly want to know about Cheva that he had documented. Over the years he and his spies had gathered little tidbits about the city and five days ago, when he had started out towards the city, he had burned the entire file after memorizing it.
Now, it would only be a matter of time before everything started to come together. The government would never know what hit them, nor would the king. By sunset tomorrow, the people would know the truth about the corrupt monsters that ruled them with iron fists. The lower classes were under the government's thumb while the merchant class was manipulated to the government's liking. Most of the royals were either oblivious to what was going on around them or they had been silenced. The lower royals related to the 'family' by marriage or distantly had conveniently disappeared. Some 'accidentally' died while others who were higher up on the social chain had been shut away in secluded chateaus. They were too widely known and people would make inquiries if they disappeared, but by eliminating anyone who would have opposed their ideas the government could make any decisions they wanted.
The king also had his way with Cheva and then let the government do whatever they wanted. But even he was subject to their ploys; in the past couple of years he had defied them more than once and so there had been several assassination attempts made on his life. Poisoned food, lame horses, and hired thugs. This was all kept quiet of course; it wouldn't do to let the people know that not everyone loved the king or that he could be killed. Several servants in the castle had also been bribed to set up accidents for the king to walk into. This meant that the king no longer had any control over anyone, not even his trusted advisors. He could also no longer keep secrets, so you could say that the walls had ears, but it was really all of the servants who followed him around. It seemed as if there was always one other person in the room besides him.
Damian knew all of this only because he had met up with one of the king's advisors at a tavern and had gotten him so drunk that he had spilled everything he knew to Damian. Of course, everything that had been said was carefully documented and grouped into categories according to the nature of the information. He rambled on about shipping lanes and the caravans from the west. Feuds with certain families and private duels that took place inside the castle walls while arguments over pricey merchandise were talked about outside.
The secret inner workings of Cheva were revealed and the people, it seems were being used only because of what they could produce. Food, clothing, children, money, anger, fear, everything was used by the government to it's fullest potential. Any anger among the lower class could be used in street riots to destroy the house of someone who opposed the government's ideas. Or maybe a mob would storm a warehouse and some bystander would be trampled in the rush; of course they would really have been there for a purpose. The bystander could have been anybody who opposed the government or someone else, whose death would benefit the Inner Circle.
Fortunately most of the population of Cheva was completely oblivious to what was really going on in their city. But for the few who did, they were either involved with the Circle and flaunting their power and wealth, or they were part of the 'underground' and had to hide from those who could expose them. The Circle would eliminate anyone who stood to gain power against them and they carried out their plans with ruthless intent. They were cold and calculating, with no care for whom they killed or destroyed.
This was what Damian had come here to stop. Five hundred years had passed since the government had come into being and since that time, they had secretly taken control of every business and home in Cheva. In some way or form, they contributed to profits and/or blackmailed certain prominent businesses. They stirred the pot or whatever you wanted to call it. Over the years they had become more and more corrupt until the very core the government became the beating heart of everyone in Cheva. They became the Inner Circle, playing god to the filthy whelps in the street and the king in his castle.
Author's Note:Well, just fixing this up a bit and clearing up some confusion on my part. I hope to get this story up and running again after my long absence due to government exams. I am sooo done!