myu 2017 NaNoWri novel as of evening 29 November 2017

Name of the book: Dent
          Author: Michael W. Bell
    Type of book: Fantasy 

This is my 2017 National Write A Novel In A Month book (not finished!). This is a sequarl to my 2015 novel.

In the beginning:
This novel is partially about an ancient tragedy in which members of a religious Monastery was forced to flee for their lives. A voice talking to them reveals they must flee well to the west of their city. 
The other story is set in the present and invoves members of the same Temple, along with the ruling clan of their cities’ government, attempting to determine why these ancient Monks fled. 
In addition, the modern people are trying to determine why at least two very strong drugs have started entering their cities. 

Their land is bordered to the north by a vast sea with extends from the endless ocean to the west. The sea was thin and very long, extending from a narrow pass between the endless ocean and their sea. The Central City was near the location where the land turned north. The northward turning was marked by a large city – called Sanding City -  whose economy was based on an elegant wood, fishing, production of wines and a limited amount of crops. The Central City was located at the mouth of a vast river which extended deep through the desert into vast mountains. There were cities alongside the river which few knew on. One of these cities bore the  name of southern Branch.
To the west, were five cities which depended upon the and a network of rivers which served the cities. Actually, these rivers supplied water for crops and nearly all  of the citizen’s water needs. This water need made them dependent upon the Central City was shipments of beer, wine, some distilled liquors and large shipment of potable water sent by state owned and maintained roads to the five cities.  

It was known the Monks of the Temple were a warrior Monastery and were known for their Martial Art abilities, their good services to the people of the vast city they lived  and their apparent tendency to remain closured.  Only the highest ranks of both the city and federal (Empire) government knew there were at least two other monasteries across the continent north of the central desert. One Monastery was in the ironically names “Southern Branch” and none of them knew of the small Monastery south of the Fifth City.
The peoples of this land was a mixed  lot of Humans, Orcs, Half Orcs, Elves, Half Elves, Hobbits. There were stories of other species living in the waste lands and haunting ancient abandoned cites. They were figures of horror to the people south of the great sea as well as north of the Standing Cities.
Still, the Emperor maintained embassies in the capitols of very civilized states. Fishers had amiable relations with the fisher folk north of the great sea.
The Coast Guard and Armies of the Northern Empire and their counterparts in the civilized nations north of the great had fought bitter battles against monsters in the north and monsters who presumed to invade the south lands.
Still, the thread was still minor and the rulers of the south hid tis information. Since there were more nation states north of great sea, there were more governments. Sadly, the Emperor of the Central Nation – located in the Central City – did not appreciate how the cities west of him were forming their own polities and he did not know about a number of small cities who were able to become independent simply by forming little cities in areas the Army did not patrol or which the Army was bribed or scared away from.
 
Describe the land
Describe 


Prolog: 
About 440 hears before, a Temple of the Way had been established in the Assassin Guild House. The Emperor and his senior staff of Mages had foreseen a time when these Monks were be necessary to the survival of the Central City. It had been a short step from this to experimenting with genetic modification of their fetuses of those who would be futures Monks.  A number of these genetically enhanced children had been raised in this Guild House Temple and had finished their growth in a new and public Temple of the Way at a distance from the assassin House.

There had been a number of sports created and miscarriages. Some 90 breeding pairs had been sent to the new Temple where they were studied and only the healthy ones were allowed to reach adulthood and to reproduce.  With hopes they had solved the various problems, the Mages began a second programme of modifying genomes and creating new fetuses. Of the first “batch” only the fetus which would later be called “Dent” was allowed to live.  A second surviver was Dent’s wife Loraine. They were not told this but figured it out themselves.
About three years after the births of Dent and Loraine, a boy who eventually called himself “Ten”
 was born. Eventually, there were thirty males babies and thirty female babies creatred.  Aside from Loraine and “Ten”, they range in age from eight to 12 years younger than Dent. 
Over the years of their upbringing, the age difference between Dent and the youngest began to loom largely to the youngest and Dent was seen less as an eldest brother and more like an Uncle. 

Then, 380 years before the present, an unknown force attacked the 30 males and 30 females in their quarters. The unknown assailants were visitors at the Temple and did not appreciate just now dangerous the 60 Monks were. They especially did not realize that Dent and Loraine had four children of their own. Everyone in the Temple felt an extreme urgency in their need to protect these children.
The outsiders did not know the 60 young Monks were Masters of various martial arts, had been trained by Paladins and Maser Fighters and had been trained by the Master of Assassins and the Master of Thieves.  Still only 28 of the Women and 19 of the Men survived to escape the Temple. 

Then, with the help of the House elders and others, the surviving Monks  fled the Central City.

In the present time, a medical emergency had erupted and the various analysts determined that someone in the far west of the Empire was taking action with potentially horrific results.  The current Grandfather of Assassins (who had been the Grandson of Assassins 380 years before) , organized an expedition to seek out people in the far west of the kingdom who might know about the medical disaster afflicting the Empire. 

After an unexpectedly uneventful trip from the Central City west to City 5 (City of Last Refuge),  a small group envoys arrived at a small fishing village. 


The government of the Central City was a complicated entity with the Emperor at its head, courtiers who served as advisors or headed agencies or Non-Government Agencies and hanger on. Sometimes, it would be very hard to tell the players from the distractors.  High in the Cabinet, which was the closest to the Emperor, were the Grandfather of Assassins, the Head of eh Religious Council and the Heads of several Intelligence collection and analysis agencies (and NGO) . These intelligence professional supposedly did not exist. 





STORY: write about the SILENT LUCIDITY coming into port
Talk about it seeming to be a quiet fishing port with apparent weapojs  ports ihn some of the buildings

Have the SILENT LUCIDITY tie up at a convient port. 
The Emperor, at the encouragement of the Grandfather of Assassins, the Heads of the various medical commissions and medical Non Government Organizatoins. The Coast Guard Operating Base provided a fast courier boat called the SILENT LUCIDITY. 
The courier boat was some 90 feet long, 18 feet across the deck and drew 6 feet of water. She had two masts with sails in the classic fore and aft rigging. There was what appeared to be a jib sail but it was furled. 

It was not visible but the craft, called the SILENT LUCIDITY, had a winged keel. Technically, sujch things were only allowed on sport yachts but the Emperor and his council had approved it for certain classes of Naval Vessels.

The SILENT LUCIDITY had raced west across the southern edge of the Great Sea, keeping about 20 miles north of the coast. It had not been an excessively rough transit but everyone on the boat wouldf be happy to cme ashore. 

Arrival  in the government section of the City 5 port was wonderfully uneventful. The Sailing Master, Warrant Officer Glen van Gelen tacked once and came along side the arrival pier the SILENT LUCIDITY was assigned,. Sails were dropped and the boat drifted slowly forward before slowing to the poiknt where lines could thrown over and the boat dragged to a halt.
The brow (gangplank) came across and the Assistant Harbour Master walkied to the edge of the SILENT LUCIDITY , saluted the Sailing Master, Warrant Officer Glen van Glen.
“Welcome to the Military Port.  I am Assistant Harbour MasterUnruh Dent, of the House of Ten. Do you require any services and what might we help you with?”
“I am Chief Warrant Officer Glen van Glen.Permit me to introduce my Commanding Officer. He can brief you and the Harbour Master on our business at hand.”
“Certainly, Sir.,”
Captain Carter Syrian walked over and intreoductions were exchanged.
“Shall we visit with the Harbour Master, then, Captain Syrian?”

They left the SILENT LUCIDITY and began the short walk to the Harbour Mastger’s office. Behind them, Chief Warrant Officer van Glen led half the crew on a far more significant mission: finding that first beer! 
As the first approved tavern laid just past the Harbour Master’s office, perforce they followed the first party.
When they arrived at the Harbour Master Office, they were met with something new: an open mesh metal box hanging from metal ropes. They entered this box and the Assistant Harbour Masterrang a bell, The wires above them began to shorten as they were wrapped around a metal drum and the box rose into the air. The box was surrounded with a granite shaft.
“Relax,” Master Dent advised, “we have very fast acting breaking devices that will stop this box should it fall.”
This did not especially comfort his passengers.
The office they were led to had largte windows, hard wood floor, a meeting table on one side and a detailed map on one wall. The tab le had sufficient chairs for the visiotors and both Port Master and Assistant. 
Everyone looked at Assistant Harbour Master Dent who cleared his throat and spoke: 
“Gentlemen, I wish to introduce you to our Harbour Master,  Claudius KG, of the House of Dent.  Harbour Master,  I introduce these visitors:
“Captain Syrian, Commanding Officer Fast Courier Boat SILENT LUCIDITY,”
 “Senior Paladin,  Justiciar Colonel  Robin Winton, commander of the 19th Battalion,”
“the Monk, Master of Dragons Pitrov ap Gina. He is the Senior Teacher of Arts at the Temple of the Way, in the Central City. He is currently a Sergeant of the Staff  corps.”
“the Mage, Warlock Merlyn,“
“the Illusionist  Phantasmist Strength of the Ocean and ,“
“two Masters Monks from the Old City, which is the Second City of the Central Kingdom. They are Miken ap Emma and Data ap Emma. “
“I did not ask their business and decided to be patient. Captain Syrian, if you wish?”
Captain Syrian had carried a binder of papers with him. He set this on the table, riffled through it before pulling out a large piece of partsmith which had seveal seals on it He then handedf this to Master Dent.  Master Dent handed the paper to Harbour Master KG. he took the  sheet and sdaid “Please take seats around the table. I will have refreshments brought . Then,  shall we talk?  I just need a moment.
Captain Syrian,  Colonel Winton, and Senior Sergeant ap Gina, knowing what the letter said, waited to see how the Harb our Mastger woujld reAC T. The Harbour Master clearely read the letter twife before putting it down and saying: “I believe our cofcfee has arrived.”
Refreshments served, verbally appreciatred and scones eaten, the Harbour Master opened discussion.
“The letter from the Emperor staff spoke of a looming disaster affecting the Central and Eastern portions of the Inner Kingdom and said you would have more knowledge. It also made the interesting suggestion that peacefujly relations could be established between the Inner IKingdom and some unspecified polity. Since this city is part of the Inner Kingdom and since I am an official of said Inner Kingdom, I am puzzled.”{
“No one is questioning your loyality, Harbour Mastger KG or that of your assistant and your staff or even that of City 5. Our concern is with the spread of two drugs across the northern tier of cities bordering the Inland Sea.  One of these drugs is highly addictive but is not fatal if used properly. The other drug seems designed to be lethal. We are tryhing to trafce the origion and spread of these two drugs.”
“Do you believe we have anything to do with this?”
“On the one hand, we don’t think so as the intelligence analysts don’t believe the drugs came from here.” 
The Harbour Master, Claudius KG, of the House of Dent, had been provided copies of the intelligence summaries from sources he did not want to think about.
“On the other hand, producing these drugs in this city but keeping them from being found in this city could be a very useful stragety>”
“This is a reasonable assumption that must be substanciated by good intelligence. If not, you could waste a great deal of time and resources trying to find threats that don’t exist.”
“That is very true,“ Pitrov ap Gina interjected softly. I assume you are familiar with the concepts of Compartmented Intelligence?”
“They were covered very carefully in my Officer training when I served in the Coast Guard and again in Customs training when I transferred to the Harbour Master Corps.” It has been covered in much greater detail, he thought, when I attended the Staff College or an intelligence service my guests don’t know about.
Colonel  Winton thought to himself, “I wonder if he could be a member of that intelligence agency we wqave been lead to believe exigts out here?”
“Our analysts state there is a high probability that this drug production is run  under the rules of complartmented  intelligence. That is, very few are given access to the ideas and materials involved, ecords are most carefully protected and secreticity is maintain consistent with not shouting ‘SECRET! SECRET!” This can be most difficult.
“Well spoken, Seargeant ap Gina.”
“More to the point and we must trust you under the auspices or rather authority of the Official Secrets Act. There is a different mater to speak of. May I assume you will botrh respect my urge to excessive caution?”
The Harbour Master and Assistant Harbour Master looked at each other and Master KG said “yes”. 
“I strongly suspect both of you know what I am about to speak of. I do not wish either of you to fear breaking other oats of loyality so I will simply say thisThere are hits, almost myths, that a secret city exits behind the edge of the Fifth City. This city was founded by people living there centuries ago who took in refugees. We need to met with these people and establish peaceful relations on a nation state to nation state level.
“Please explain,” Assistant Harbour MasterUnruh Dent, of the House of Ten urged.
“We need to be extremely cautious in making first contact with an old and secretative polity.  If this city is real, they have kept themselves in hiding for centuries and probably have a very good set of reasons for doing so. We muwt not violate their privacy and must not cause them to react with violence if they fear us. Thus, we must hae covert contact. My little command is made jup of people who could help affect this. This is a matter of secrecy at the highest levels.”
“Would we know anything of this ‘mystery city’?”, Master Dent, of the House of Ten, interjected.
“Your names tell us more than you might have realized. ‘Dent;’ and ‘Ten’ were two members of a Monestary who were forced from the Centgral City perhaps 380 years ago. We can find no recrods relating why they were forced from their haome and certainly no records concerning why anyone would want to send cloistgered Monks into the world. To usw, this is an inexplicable act of evil.”
Both Harbour Masters looked surprised and then while looking at each other, had a short conversation in an unknown language which sounded partially as gruff as Orcish, had he high pitdched notes of Hobbitt and the caddences ofr both Elve and the standard Human tongue. Looking police they had reached  decision, boh looked at Captqain Syrian. 
It was the Paladin, Colonel Wenton, who spoke.
“There is a potential problem with loyalities. We can accept that you may he divided loyalitiesd. You are loyal to the  and we believe you are also loyal to your home, this hidden city. We can accept your continuing to serve qas Harbour Masters as you have always gidven good service. We presume your people in this hidden city have the same high regard for both of you and for that is rewarded by your continued presence in these positions. 
“Our problem,”the Harbour Master spoke, “is one of trust. You command one of the more dangerous warships Captain Syrian; you command a high speed courier boat that could carry several very powerful mages or even squads of Special OFreces troops or Assassins. You Colonel Winston are known to command the 19th B attellion, a unit which specializes in Special Forces operations. “
“We appreciate your concerns, gentlemen,” Colonel Winston spoke. “That was a consideration when the Planning Board designed our dipliomatic mission. Would you take the word of a Monk of the Inner Temple of the City? Sergeant  ap Gina as a Senior Monk, holding the rank of Master of Dragons.  He is widely regarded as a poor excuse for a liar and his word can be trustsed. He and has wife are about to adopt these two junior Monks.

“Do you truly want to adopt these two young men?

“Yes, I do, Maser KG. It took me a day or two to get used to the idea but both are fine lads  and I accept  them as my own.” 
“Can we trust your government?”
“I’d like to think so. Regardless, the pardons are legimae  as I trust the word of thse who so assurrd me of their legimatcy. A person can easily serve as Harbour Master and whatever functions as are required of you. The two neeed not be in convflict.  I suspect you are external agents responsible for ensuring agent reports are analyzed locally  and manage agent activity. 
“Yes and what else?”
“Thee is no ‘else’ Master KG. I simply do not know any more than what strikes me as eh apparent truth of you two being agent handlers. 
“I suggest we negociate a laison between the intelligence agency you do not officially have and the intelligence agencies we do not officially have.” Colonel Winston’s voice was dry and dripped of iirony.
“We will have to arrange for you to visit our ‘mystery city’. We can send a messanger this evening and make the arrangememnts.  We will propose a departure time in the mid morning with a proposed arrival time in the early afternoon. WE will arrange for you to have hoseback gransportation from the harbor to where you’ll need to go. “
‘We can arrange fror a traditional dinner tonight and a nice breakfast tomorrow. We realize you colud prepare your own meals butr I’ll be blunt. I got fairly tired of the cooking when I served on several different Coast Guard Cutters. Thee were times, in fact, when our cook worked sails for a while and members of the deck crew or even officers would prepare the meals. 
The Harbour Master smilled. “We were always happy to have our cook back.”
Captain Syrian smilled also and said “If we’re at sea making a high speed run, the boat is rocking too much to allow fror eleaborage meals. If our Sailing Master is recovering from the stresses of the spells reqjired to do high speed, everyh one else needs time to fully recover their appitates. So, we often have simple meals. There are other times when we are moving in a stealthy mode to and from contact with personnel on shore. We simply do not want our presence known when we are sneaking up upon the shore. Thus, we do not want to have smelly meals. 
He paused.
“Simply put, we woujld apprecaie your meals. Please coordinate with my chef as he would be very upset if he doesn;’t not get the change to show off.”
The Harbour Master smilled. He too had experience with touchy chefs when he had commanded Coast Guard vessels. There were times when he had simply let his boat drift on gentle seas while some of his people put out fishing poles and his cook and assistant cook prepaed eleaborate meals. It was always good for morale (especially his own!).
“My Chef will be with the second liberty parety and they are going to leave my boat in a couple of hours. Perhaps it would best  to disccuss food and the wine to pair withg it befoe he has a couple of drinks?” 
“A good choice Captaiun Syrian.”
On the way out, Master KG murmured to the office secretary, “Please have the Chef and his first assistant meet us at the Courier boat SILENT LUCIDITY.” His Secretary nodfded in acknowledgement. 
The Harbour Master locked the papers given him and his Assistant into his office safe. Then, the group put their hats on. Left the Harbour Master office and walked to the SILENT LUCIDITY. 
The group trundled to the brow of the SILENT LUCIDITY, where a Shore Patrol officer was standing guard.  Captain Syrian nodded to him and then addressed his crewman who stood on the opposite side of the enterance to the brow from the Shore Patrol officer.
“Please have the cook meet his here.”
“Yes, sir”, and the messanger charged up the brow to the sip and a couple of minutes later, the messanger and the stocky cook returned.
“Chef Anthony, we have a project for you.”
“Mr. KG, if you please”, Captain Syrian addressed the Haqrbour Master.
“Chef Anthony, I present to you my Chef Chef Sanders and his Sous Chef Gibney. Gentlemen, I present to you Chef Anthony of the Special Boat Service and the Chef of this vessel. We would like you to produce a fine meal for the personnel of the SILENT LUCIDITY and for my staff and I.  We will profice the raw materials and set up an outdoor tent, tables and chairs.  Are you interested?
When a Senior Officer of Harbour Master status and the Captain of a Coast Guard boat are in agreement thee was only one possible answer. They are stated “yes, sir”.  
The tables were set up and put under a lage tent.  The three Chefs had gone to the base offices next to the Harbour Masater offices and they had began preparing a feast. They ended up serving chicken, roast lamb, three varities of vegetables and a great cheese and nut course. They also prepared an apple cobbler desert tht took some time to prepare but whichy was ready after the main course was finished. All in all, it was a fine feast. 

Not knowing when they would be leaving the next mornhing, all hands made sure their dress uniforms (called  “Dress Reds”) wee prepared and then made sure they were in duty closets and ready to be put on. Then despite the fact tgahtg some of them were used to working the night watches, all hands turned in a couple of hours afcer desert. The visitgors also turned in.  the Captain, XO nd Sailing Masger felt confidientenough in the new found relations with their hosts that tghey belieefd he hosts would proect them. 

The night passed quietly and itg felt ofdd to be able to don their black working uniforms shortly after dawn. They took their choice of coffee or tea from the duty urns which apparently had been filled by visitors from ashore who had quietly entered the ship and quietly left.

Breakfast was a wonderful chioce of different fruits, cous cous, eggs cooked to order and  incrdibly strong coffee. Everyone was pleased; everyone smiled.

The Harbouor Master and his assistant had enjoyed breakfast with the rest and had met edarlier with an Elve who had gone to wait at a table near the feast. He verbally briefed the two local leaders  and the three walked to the SILENT LUCIDITY. 

There, they went through the usual ritual before enteruing the ship.
What they did not see was the Assistant Harbour Master had prepared a report the afternoon before and this had been sent by rapid transportation to the hidden City. In the city, the leadership had discussed what to do, had already decided to allow their visitors to enter their city and had sent messengers to their port facility. This port facility was built around a fish processing plant, looked like a simple fishing village and had both open port space and hidden boat berths.  

They had also sent an envoy with specific orders and carefully corelographed locations for the ship to be upon entry into the outer harbour of the fishing village. Over the centuries, buildings had been carefully placed and channels carved to allow boats like the SILENT LUCIDITY to hide  in the open with very little showing.  
Captain Syrian lead the two Harbour Mastrers  and the Elfe to the large utility table in the center of the boat. It had been clean and  had not been set for the coming noon meal. The Elve set a leatgher sachell on the table, straightened up and looked at the Harbour Masters.
“I wish to present Patrick, an envoy from the place we will be visiting. Patrick, I present to you the Commanding Officer of thisw vessel, Captain Syrian, The Executive Officer, Lieutenant Seemes, the Sailing Master van Glen and a group of visitors you’ll be introduced to later.  Do you  wish to begin your briefing now or perhaps a bit later?”
“I am Partick, third Son of Matillda, of the House of Dent.  My parents, Penrod and Matilda and my Minder, Lenard, all agreed it would be beneficual for me to take this laisson mission.  Is it safe to speak? Is everyone on this craft cleared for classified information? Are there outsiders near?”
“Relax, Patrick,” the Harbour Master said, “this craft is surrounded by members of the External Guard and no outsiders are close enough to hear you. Everyone on this boat are either members of the Special Boat Squadrons or are envoys from the Emperor. 
“Very well, then. I am a member of the Internal Guard and have patrolled the outer parameters of our city for 12 years. In that time, I attended andf graduaterdf from the Centgral University, which is a branch of a much larger University system located some distance from here. I specialized in lnguages and the history of several disciplines of what is called ‘magic’. I am working on my Masters in an interdisciplinary field of the history of intelligence analysis.  If there are no questions, I will proceed.”
Patrick paused and then opened his satchell and paused.
“It might be helpful if we could display standad maps of the area. Mr. KG, and Captain Syrian, if you could present your maps that woujld help.”
Cpatain Syrfian nodded at his Sailing Maser and Warrant Officer van Glen brought over a fleet issue chart of the area from City 5 west pasdt the tiny fishing village to the west. The Harbour Mastedr, Mr. KG, laid out his version of this same area and revealed a much more detailed chart. 
“Mr. van Glen, would you know why your fleet chart is so sparce?”
“We were told there was nothing of interest out here. We were also told that other units patrolled the areas west of City 5 and that we did not need to know. I asked my XO about this and was told the same.”
 “More to the point,”Lieutenant  Rolando Seemes, the Executive Officer interjected, “I wasd told that classificied fleet operations  were carried out in this area. I was told to beware of the ‘evil barbarians from the North’ who occasionally maruae south to this region. We have had contact with some of these ‘evil mruaders’ and find them to be excellent people. They also tell stories of ‘evil  barbarians’ but the egvil in their stories maurde from the south againt them.”
“Thank you, Mr. Seemes,” Patrick responded gravely, “we know of many stories of peaceful contact between fishing boats and even a limited amount of sanctioned trade between the two areas, north and south.”
“We have had dipliomatic contraft with some of the nationsof these northern people,” Captain SYRIAN STATED. “They spoke of an interesting little natin state in the west that had been trading with one of their island nations for centuries. We suspected you were uut here.”
Patrick pulled out the first chart in his bundle, a highly detasiled chart of the area from City 5 to 100 miles wewt of City 5.
“After departing from this port, we will need to take these courses to avoid the fishing vessels known to be planning operatons in these fishing grounds (he pointed out the courses and and expected fishing fleet locations on his chart). Your Sailing Master can use his wind control spells and whatever magic he uses to stabilize the SILENT LUCIDIY for a 30 mile run in this area (he pointed to the charts) and a 5 mile run in this aera. This all depends on if any fishing vessels have wandered into the planned trajectory of the SILENT LUCIDITY.”
The Sailing Master and both his CO and XO smilled. 
“We can easily spot intruding fishing boats and either evade them or reduce our speed and interpenetrate past other boats. “ The CO was positive about this.
“Then perhaps we should consider getting underweigh immediately. The Elders of the city asked me to convey their desire for immediate contacvt and suggested we not daudle.”
Captain Syrian nodded in agreement, the Harbour Maseters nodded in agreement and the XO said “we will set the Special Sea and Anchor detail and depart after you leave the SILENT LUCIDITY. The winds are light and it would help if we could be pulled into the outer harbor by longboats.  Mr. Patrick is welcome to observe and we will be happy toi return him hbome.”
“We were planning on asking you to take Mr. Patrick home with you. I was going to ask on the basis of he can provide expert help in entering the hidden lagoons of the Fishing Village.”
“Mr. Patrick is happy to accept your office,” Patrick said in an amused tone of voice.
The Harbour Master gathered up his  briefing material and said in a wry voice “I did not know how much better their charts are.”
The crew had battened down the ship’s interior after lunch and were already in their utility uniforms. The leading  Chief boatswain mate had quietly gathered the crew up and they hadf gone on deck. Ahead of the SILENT LUCIDITY, a longboat with 8 oarsmen and a coxswain were waiting. 
“Pass lines,” the XO said and two sailors on the bow handed over the tow line to the  longboat.  A second longboat came up along the starboard side and took a second tow line and attached it to their sten. The SILENT LUCIDITY had two longboats prepared to pull them through the harbor.
The Assistant  HJarbour Master askedf the XO, “Do you really need two oats to pull you into the outer harbor?”
“No, we don’t, we can easily depart under full sail if we need to. It is just safer to leave with longboats.”
The visitors having gone ashore, the brow (gang plank) was taken ashore and the line handlers ashore removed the lines from the ballards. Then, the Siling Master gave direction to the long boatrs and they began manuevrering to take the SILENT LUCIDITY into the outer harbor.
The XO took over directing the longboats while the Sailing Master and the Senior Boatswain Maer inspected the sail control lines and made sure the sailors were ready to deploy the sails as directed. They were.
The longboat coxwains were skilled, long service, sailors and they toed the SILENT LUCIDITY into the outer harbour easily.
They disengaged the toe ropes and the crew hauled them into storage on the SILENT LUCIDITY. Then, the Captain gave the nod and the sailoires raised the main sail and the boat began moving into the sea. They raised the forward sail – both jib sails – and proceeded a couple of miles into the sea. 
Sailors used pelorus to measure the angle between the boat and places on shore. One took the angle of a large flag pole and on the other side of the harbour, the angle of the bome of the Harbour Master House.   This was then plotted on a chart and told the boat’s position. 
Sailing Master van Glen reverted to Mage van Glen and he went below deck to refresh his memory of the spells he would have to use.  Patrick, ever ingerested in the actual practice of magic, watched as van Glen began reading spells, organizing them in his mind and practicing the gestures and words associated with gestures. The spells did not take affect as van Glen simply had not been putting his will into them.  After about an hour, van Glen closed his eyes and appered to sleep. Patrick knew the Mage had entgered a stqate of profound concentrawtion and was ofrganizing the sequence of spells in his mind and anticipating what could go right and what could go wrong. 
Several minutes before van Glen was needed on deck, the CO sent a messenger to put van Glen on alert. At the messagner’s “wake up sir”, van Glen popped alert and said “thank you”. He then went to the head, peed, and reported to the Captain.
“I’m ready , sir.”
Two sailors walked with their Sailing Master to his duty post and tied him to the aft mast. Both inspected him to ensure  van Glen had on a bright orange flotation device and carried a kit with flares, signal mirror and emergency food and waer. Sailing Master van Glen also inspected his sailors to ensure they wore the same garb as they would be on deck during a hazardous time: thje time van Glen would be rasing winds and attempting to keep the ship from heeling too much. The sailors were attached to safety lines as they would have to move about the deck to adjust lines and avoid the masts when van Glen gave the orders which lead to the ship tacking or jibbing. Even the Captain or Xo, whichever was at the stern and in vommand, wore the survival garb and were strapped in.
Below deck, sailors had either retreated to their racks (beds) when van Glen had gone to the head. Other sailors locked down chairs around the big table and belted themselves onto their chairs. Then, they tried to read or to write letters. Some claimed to preferring to read at the table whilst sailing under high speed but many thought they were lying. Actually, most regarded the violence of sailing under high speed mode to be a fine time to lie on their racks and try to get some sleep.
In the distance, they could see mast tops and became somewhat more alert to the need for fast response to these threats. Fortunately, they were sailing much slower and the other boat’s crews were also alert to the need to avoid collisions.
After the first high speed run, Patrick laid out charts on the table and invited the CO, XO, Sailing Master and leading  Chief Boatswain Mate. 
This harbour was originally and undeveloped simple harbour used by a group of fishing vessels. They brought in fish which were off loaded and taken to fish houses to be cleaned, packed in salt and sent by either boat or wagon to be traded in city 5 and City 4.  After the ‘awakening’, when they became much more interested in political events, the people of this fishing village began to build shelters for various boats and built a deep basin behind the shore buildings. You can think of this as being an artificial harbou hidden by bujildings tght are clearly on shore. These buildings are high enough to hide the average boat. We will be sent there and might even have company. Don’t be surprised if we have company.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Captain Syrian responded in a dry voice.
“It would be a good idea to go in under sail as some of the fishing boats could have boaty spotters reporting to some hypothetical enemy. While we don’t really expect an enemy in fishing boats, it would be best to consider such possibilities.”
“We are capable of entering port under sail.”

 It was an uneventful crossing to when they were approaching the entrance to their destination, the fishing port, in the late afternoon, after a 5 hour trip. Captain Syrian ordered both mail sails lower and to prepare to raise the jib sail from the forward mast.
They heard a loud whistle and looked towards a light house at the left side 0of the entrance  to the port. A man using large signal flags sent them a message: “REQUEST IDENTIFY”.
Captain Syrian told his signal man “send our code name”.
“Yes Sir” and the signal man sent “SL”, the code name for SILENT LUCIDITY
The shore signal man then sent “ZMO”, the code for “stand by a moment”.
The boat’s signal man acknowledged with “WILCO” or “will comply”.. 
Finally, the Port signalman sent “PROCEDE” and the SILENT LUCIDITY signal man  was told to reply “R” or “Roger”.
 Captain Syrian ordered “raise the jib and continue on a southwest heading. Prepare to turn due south when ordered.”
The SILENT LUCIDITY was subject to a westerly wind and slowly picked up speed. They wee using bo0th pelorus to navigate by piloting and at a preplotted location, Captain Syrian gave the order to turn straight south. The harbour was close to a mile deep and the SILENT LUCIDITY was barely inside it when a high speed catamaran came along side.
The catamaran was flying the “PILOT ABOARD” flag and a smiling man waved at them.
“Hello, Patrick! Captain Syrian, I am one of the Pilots. Request permission to come aboard.”
“Granted.”
Two of the sailors on the Pilot Boat raised a portable ladder and put it over the rail on the SILENT LUCIDITY. The pilot climbed the ladder easilyu and dropped onto the deck. He stood at attention, gravely saluted Captain Syrian and intoned “request permission to come aboard, Captain”. 
“Permission granted. You are?”
“This is Lenard . He is a pilot and my Minder.”
“We have time, Captain.” He then went to Philip and hugged him. After releasing Philip, Lenard turned towards the officers. 
“Captain Syrian, I plan on taking your ship to the entrance of a hidden cove. We will enter a canal to the cove. It woujld be safest for all if we tie off the bow to two tow teams. When we come to the base of the ‘hidden cove’, we will raise the main sail and this will take us fully into the cove. We will then tie off to your bow and stern anchor capstans and pull the SILENT LUCIDITY in to the pier. Oh, there is a visitor awaiting on the other side of the cove. As they say, they are ‘not from around here’”> 
He smilled…
Three of the special party,  Pitrov ap Gina and the brothers  Miken ap Emma and Data ap Emma looked at Lenard in shock. He could easily have been a relative, perhaps a second cousin or at least a member of their tribe.
He had the yellow eyes of the Temple Monks and an armona similar to that of ap Gina and his two new sons. 
“We have matters to discuss.” Lenard smilled happily.   “Shall we continue?”
Captain Syrian nodded.
With ease and a  very comforting attitude, Lenard took the SILENT LUCIDITY to the entreance of the channel and tugs were tied off the bow. The boat was smoothly towed a quarter of a mile and then brought into the rather large cove. Across from them was a ship of unknown design. The flag on the stern bore an unknown design and what had to be the ship’s name, on the bow, was written in a script unfamiliar to those on the SILENT LUCIDITY. (The name SILENT LUCIDITY wasonly to several linguists on the obviousdly foreign ship. 
A horn was blown on the foreign vessel and their was dipped and then raised to it’s previous height. 
Unbidden, the ship’s signal man removed a signal horn from it’s on deck storage box and at Captain Syrian’s nod, played the opening stanzas to the Special Boat Service anthem.  The XO spoke urgenly to the Leading  Chief Boatswain Mate who quickly went to their nation’s flag on the stern.  There, he and one of his strikers lowered the flag and returned it to it’s previous full height.
“Captain Syrian,” Lenard the Pilot spoke, “the Captain and senior officers of that ship would like to meet you and your senior officers. Are you interested in a state-to-state meeting? If so, I can write down their names for your reply.”
“We would be honored to met them. My officers are Commander Carter Syrian, Commanding Officer, Lieutenant  Rolando Seemes, Executive Officer, Chief Warrant Officer Glen van Glen Sailing Master and Mage and Chief Boatswain Mate Abraham Kane, Assistant Navigator and First Lieutenant.
“Are you open to ship visits and ship tours, Captain Syrian?”
“Certainly.”
“Are you willing to meet with the Captain and Senior Officers of the other ship? This would be at the Officers Club. I know it sounds presumious to have an ‘Officer Club’ at a place in a fishing village but her eare enough fishing boats ande visiors to make this worthwhile. Also, people here have a sense of humour about this and also have the ‘sailor’s club’, which is fairly nice.”
“Again, certainly.”
“Very good Captain, I will arrange a meeting. Perhaps yu should have a light meal to sustain you and your officers? I will have to visiti the Harbour Masters Office to make a verbal report of your entrance to our harbour. First, I need to take my leave of myt little one.”
Lenard walked over to Patrick, they spoke briefly, then Lenard gave Patrick a sincere hug. This embrace between Elve and genetically modified human could have seemed ackwrd yet it felt perfectly natural. 
As he was leaving, Lenard suddenly turned and addressed Patrick: “Be sure to give my regards to your parents and to mine.”
Then, after facing Captain Syrian and saluting, he turned and  left the SILENT LUCIDITY,
Patrick looked at Pitrov and said “so, it looks like y0ou’ve met your cousin.”
No one replied.
“I suggest we join Captain Syrian and his officers in their snack as it will take a couple of hours to reach our destination. I don’t know if they are expecting us quite yet. Your Mage and your Chief Boatswain Mate brought us here quicker than was planned for,”
They ate a light meal of sliced meat, soda bread, baked apples and strong tea. Then, the group of visitors put on their boon docker boots, broad billed hats and haversacks with spare clothing, some medications, and they strapped on their preferred weapons. They were with a military group and no one would have believed such a group would ever be unarmed. 
They were met by Patrick on the dock and then walked behind rustic looking building and into a wooded area. Thee were horses waiting for them. 
============================================================================================
Contact (Present)
They rode through a wooded area for almost two hours before coming to the base of a hill. 

Pitrov ap Gina of the Court of the Inner Kingdom lead his group up the hill. Grass easily higher than everyone’s heads was ahead of them. The ground was lost under the grass they trampled beneath their boots. One of the group thought he saw a hint of strange motion in the grass and signaled a stop.
They looked around and saw nothing; they continued trekking up the hill. 
Pitrov ap Gina dropped to his right knee and parted the grass at the ridge of the hill. In the distance he saw a strange building. He saw nothing more as trouser covered human legs were suddenly in front of him.
The Paladin Justiciar Robin Winton, casually glanced around and remarked:  “We have some visitors.”
Behind them were four tallt, slender and heavily armed Half-Elves.  They smiled and one said “we also have visitors.”
The Human in front of Pitrov ap Gina smirked as he said “any ideas of why we have visitors”. 
“That is an interesting question and our best answer is ‘you invited us’. Perhaps, I should say your people invited us?” Pitrov ap Gina spoke for his group.
“I wasn’t told of such an invitation. Perhaps the elders can answer your question?”
“I’m sure they can; this is not a place one simply stumbles upon.”
One of the Half-Elves murmured something and the man nodded. The Half-Elven moved easily through the high grasses. Moments later, he reappeared and stated:
“The Old Ones will receive the visitors.”
The visiting group walked through the grass and found themselves atop of a hill with short grass.  In the distance, In front of them, was   short grass leading into a large field. Long haired sheep were cropping the grass. In the middle distance was a building that appeared to have been cut out of a large rock spire. Other rock spires dotted the sky in the distance and what appeared to be various crops.
Humans and Half-Elves stood across the grass field; some were young Humans holding Half-Elven children. The crowd appeared to be a casually mixed group of both species with adults holding children of both species or simply standing with children. As they got closer, they noticed two things about the Humans. The first, the humans did not look any of the Human peoples they were used to the cities.
Second, the humans looked very much like PItrov ap Gina’s  close relatives and this was a shock as there were very few of PItrov ap Gina’s people. It was a well kept secret that Pitrov ap Gina’s people had descended from genetically modified fetuses created centuries before. 
The final mystery was presented to Pitrov ap Gina and his comrades just before the entrance to the beautiful building. There were clusters of Humans and Half-Elven and Orcs and even a small number of Hobbits whose body language said they were relatives.
This was stunning to the people of the Inner Kingdom who were used to various races not associating closely.
The door opened and they were taken into a large room that could have been a throne room except the three thrones were too plain looking and there were seats for an audience in the room. 
Three elderly adults – an Orc, a Half Elve, a yellow eyed human – rose from their chairs and walked towards the visitors. A middle aged human walked behind the elderly human. The Half-Elf was female and wearing a floor length skirt. The skirt was moving and to Pitrov’s surprise, a very young Hobbitt girl peeped out at the visitors before hiding behind the old lady. 

The other three adults laughed gently and the Orc said, in excellent human: “You did promise Oiada the Youngest a fun time if she visited us today!”
Patrick moved to the front of the group bowed toward the Elders  and said “perhaps I should make introductions?”
He received a nod and then began to speak. Pointing towards the group of visitors he said: “I present “Captain Carter Syrian, Commanding Officer Fast Courier Boat SILENT LUCIDITY,  Senior Paladin,  Justiciar Colonel  Robin Winton, commander of the 19th Battalion”, Mage, Warlock Merlyn, Illusionist  Phantasmist Strength of the Ocean, a senior Monk, d
 “Senior Paladin,  Justiciar Colonel  Robin Winton, commander of the 19th Battalion,” Master of Dragons Pitrov ap Gina. He is the Senior Teacher of Arts at the Temple of the Way, in the Central City. With the strong encouragement of our Oiada, he has agreed to adopt two Master Monks. Their names are Miken ap Emma and Data ap Emma. They are the sons of our Emma and are soon to be the sons of Pitrov.
“Did you have sound grounds for bringing them to our city, young one,” the younger human spoke. 
“Yes, Younger Father, I do.”
The very young Hobbitt had been peeking out from behind the old ladie’s skirt and curiousity overcame fear. She darted out into the open and lunged toward Parick. She fell to one knee bu immediately regained her fee and lunged behind Patrick. She stuck her head out a couple of times while clearly deciding if it was safe to do so. Finally, Patrick reached down, picked the small child up and held her with his left arm.
“I wish to present the leaders of our city.” Pointing to the Orc he said “This is Strength through Mercy, ;she is Happy Wisdom and he,” pointing towards the human, “is Alponse wee Penrod the 5th. Next to him is his son, Alponse wee Penrod the 6th.”
“Very interesting. You have six generations of male children named ‘Alponse wee Penrod’?”
“Not quite, Strength of the Ocean, we are not that linguiustically traditional. Five’s grandmother is named Alponse wee Penrod the 3rd.”
“Now that we each know the other’s names, let us take comfortable seats and we can tell you of the time of the beginning. It was a time of peaceful existing, with the ever present threat of invasion from overwhelming outside forces. To us, came an angry, despairing and grieving man leading his people to a place of hoped for sanctuary. He was just coming into his own time and he would become glorious. 
His name was Dent…
======================================================================================= 
In the village called the House of the Fish (14 generations ago)

After fleeing for weeks, their group had been winnowed by murder or illness down to 5 men and 20 women.  All they could see for the future death and the horrid feeling they would never have homes again. They were in the aftermath of serious combat, combat in which they had killed  and family members had been killed. They did not know why they had been attacked during what should have been a simple and even nearly routine recon of the outskirts of City 5. They had been aided by a group of Orc in bars in City 5. 
They were in shock and no one, not even the Elder, Dent, was capable of thinking.

Dent, his four brothers, and 20 sisters took seats in their five wagons  or on their favourite horses. In a gesture of unexpected sensitivity, the Orcs took the unridden horses far enough back to be out of the sight of Dent and his people. To Dent and his people, it seemed pointless to proceed with all their supplies but the Half Elven and Orcs did not agree

The Half Elven and Orcs respected the grief of Dent and fully understood these people who were numb and simply could not think.
In the late evemolmg, the group stopped in front of a hidden road house. 

It took several minutes for the Half Elves to get Dent and party into the hidden road house. There they were given strong drink and encouraged to drink.

“Drink to the memories of your family!” This was a wonderful Orc toast that even Dent and company drank to.

“Drink to the vengeance you will have!” Dent and family enthusiastically drank to this toast!

“Drink to the lives you must allow yourselves to live.” No one could imagine an Orc speaking a toast like this and all – Dent’s humans, Half Elven and Orcs – slowly drank this toast. It was suddenly a pensive rather than a festive atmosphere.

“What are you feeling, Dent,” asked Rigina?

“I fear we have lost hope. For years, we had hoped to take spouses and to have children in our blood lines. We do not know who tried to kill us All we know is someone has seemingly driven us to here. We are grateful that you have taken us in. Right now, we feel useless and without futures.”

“That is a rather defeatist attitude, Dent!”

“Look at yourself and your people, Rigina. I said ‘your people’ because you have much more than a safe breeding population and we don’t. I married and fathered four children. I know how strong this need is and how much my people wish they could become parents as well.”

“’With God, all things are possible’, Dent.  I can’t say things will be better tomorrow and all I can say it matters will look different. Not better, just different. I believe you have options that none of us can see. Will all of you trust in God, yourselves and us?”

Most of the Mystics were too sunken in despair to respond but more nodded in agreement  than Rigina had expected.
Dent and family were eased into dining a little and then eased into beds. 

The next day, the group saddled up again and proceeded the final way into the fishing village called “The House of the Fish”.

This village consisted of a large lagoon with broad channel opening into the Great Sea. If had apparently been worked upon and was both larger and smoother that natural. This was not something Dent and his people would notice for some time.  There were fishing boasts in the harbour tied up at three quays. There was a sail loft, a boat yard, fish processing plants, housing, food storage and even a light house. In the distance were smoke plumes which suggested some sort of housing. 

It was a peaceful and apparently prosperous looking little community. 
There was some vessels which flew banners unknown to Dent and his people had they any interest in thinking of such as exotic mater. They did not.

The Half Elves were thinking of Dent’s many dilemmas and wondering what they could do to help. They could tell that Dent and his family were a strong and exotic people when they were not sunken in despair. They were worth saving and both Elves and Orcs were getting some ideas…

Later the next day, they left the fishing village called the House of the Fish. It took the group two days to reach their final destination, an unknown town.  Viewing this town was enough to bring Dent and family out of their stuper.

In the distance were fields of various crops. Closer by were tall spears of soft rock. There appeared to have been some effort to carve openings into some of these spears. This reminded Dent that someone had once told him that buildings were simply remodeled caves. That suddenly made sense.

There were houses and other building consistent with an active village. There were subtle indications that this was as village at peach with itself and with the world. Dent  and his family took unconscious comfort from this.

Then there were the Elves who were smiling at Dent and his family and several times Dent heard “the 20 and the 5, of course!”
This sounded strange andf made no sense.  They simply assumed these were Elven concepts and that they were be briefed on them if needful.

Late in the afternoon of their arrival and after the refugees had been given lunch and lagers. They were beginning to come back to life but were still in shock. 
Still, they perked up when told all the elders which to meet with them. GThey did not realize that they thought they had failed to truly survive on their own and were ready to turn to anyone who offered them answers or at least the comfort of apparent answers. Even Dent wanted a leader to follow.
A human they had not been introduced to spoke: “You have already met one Elder, Rigina of our Elf population. Next to her is Thunder On The Craig, leader of our Orc  population  and next to Thunder is Forrest Martin. Forrest is both the Mayor of the House of the Fish and brings a balance and an outsider viewpoint to our little leadership group. Our community was founded centuries ago by a group of businessmen who moved from what you call City 2 deep into the so called western desert. As you can tell, this area is blessed with more rain that would be expected.”
“How did they recruit your ancestors, Rigina?”
“They were kidnapped by humans.”
“That is unfortunate.”
“It is ancient history Dent,” Thunder On The Craig replied in a gentle voice. “”You no more had anything to do with that then Forrest did. Our ancestors were kidnapped and forced here at the point of swords. The Orcs were forced to work in the mines. The Elves were forced to work the fields. Even the ancestors of Forrest were kidnapped and forced to work in the mines and fields. His ancsstors died in the gases of the mines. They could work the fields but not with the effectiveness of the Elves. They were sent to the primitive fishing village.”
The old Orc looked at the old Human.
“My human ancesstors coujldf work the ocean with better than human ability. My ancesstory came from far to the east and are a blend of what is called ‘standard human’ and another human species, the  Denisovan. My point is we formed a working economic city state. My people could work the sea with fishing and smuggling to other cities. The Elves sustain the community with crops and animal husbandry and the Orcs could work the mines. They found some fascinating forms of geology which are not apparent from the surface. That can wait.”
Dent glanced at his family, who looked interested in what they were hearing. He saw the possibility of hope.  
“My people have never been long in the sun and I do not know how well we could survive extensive exposure to the sun.”
“Your skins browned greatly Dent and I would have to examine your people to see might have skin damage. I suspect that your designers would have taken skin cancer and skin leasons into consideration when rearranging your genomes.  You can not work in the deeper areas of the mines simply because there are mutagenic gases in some areas. Some centuries ago, the Orc working the mines were giving birth to ‘sports’ or offspring who were genetically different from their parents. What saved them was the arrival of a group of Mages, Monks and Alchemists from the Cengtral City. They were members of your sect, Dent.  Are you religious people?”
“Yes, we are. We worship a single God and are Monothestic. We believe our God sent a daughter to live among all of us. His Holy Daughgter brought Wisdom to us and tauvght us Martial Arts as a way of defending outselves. These Martial Arts are also a form of worship. We live in small communities and while we welcome outsiders, we find it easier to live among our own. We do not actively prosolitize but it is not unknown.”
“Your people were on a ‘Directed Pilgrimage’ as they reportedly said and told our ancestors of the mutagenic properties of the gases in the mines. Their Mages and Alchemists made changes to the Orc genetic codes. These were changes the Orc people voted on. The entire Orc population voted in approval of these changes.”
There was a pause before the refugee called Ten spoke: “These changes were to make the Orc population more intelligent, with greater emotional control and more empathy. This much is obviousw. What other changes werew there?”
“Those were the basic changes. They also made future Orcs immune to the mine gases. This immunity could be recinded as needed for future ‘genetic work’ on the Orcs.”
“What became of the people who kidnapped and enslaved your peoples?” Elizabeth, one of Dent’s sisters, was a historican.
“They worked from City 2 but did not give an honest answer to the location of where the Orc, Elves and Forrest’s people had been taken to. Under the influence of the mine gases, the kidnapers spoke freely. We knew of islands in the Great Sea north of us. We simply had them send lying papers back to their main office. The location we gave is known to the Merchant Families as being home to canibals. Then, as additional supervisors arrived from City 2, we interrogated them and sent them to live with the canibals.”
“You sound like you were there,” Dent commented.
“I was not and thank you on complementing me on how well I have aged! These events were from 10 to 13 generations ago. We consider a generation to be 25 years, by the way. 

<>
<>
The Orec leader say “you must grieve for your lost family. I know this is very hard but you must and we will help you.
Perhaps now is not the correct time, the Half-Elve inerjeted.  We will have time.
Are there medical problems you will need hnelp with?  My ancestry is basically human with some Denisovanian ancestry.” He paused, shrugged and in a wry tone said “the denisovans are a speciaes very closely related to both humans and Neandertjhals. Both are human species found in the land mass both to the northwest of the great sea and in the cold regions of the land mass north and east of the city called  Sanding City.

Mourning byh Dent et al and then by the entire commumity.
This were not the Orcs Dent el al wsere used to as theyu were far smarter, had better emotional control and got along better with people 
To Dent el al, the Orc and Half  Elves were veryh much like the peole they had grown up withy. 
About a week later, several groups  came to Dent, Ten and Elizbeth. 
Arfea we a separate species from standards  humans? Yes
Are we in process of speciationa?  I beleikve so.,
What should we do?
Dent paused to think and said “What do you want to doi my young one? Do you wsant to becme parets or do you want to let our variation die out?
“We woujld like to be parents!”
Good! Wenow have a goal but what is the way to readh this goal?
We don’t know, Dent.
The next day, Dent's people were looking at the various untouched rock spires and the buildings their hosts were using.

Ten walked to one and chiped at the rock with hisw knife. The rock came off easily in little chunks. 

"I wonder if people could cut rooms into these sp;ires", Ten asked?

"What kind of building plans would be needed and what woujld theese rooms be used for?"

"There would hae to be some urban planning because when the rock is removed, you cannot replece it. I think wse cold come up with a plan of what buildings could be carved and for what use. We would be buuildikng fotr the ages."

"We would have to build models of what the structures would be like. The Orcs would be the ones to decide if this can be done."

Later, they went before the Leadership Council. This was composed of 5 Half Elves, 5 Orcs and was about to admit Humans. They explained their ideas.

"Why do you want to do this thing", the Senior Orc asked. 

"Because it is estically pleasing," one Mystic answered.

"Why ask our permission?"

"We can think of plans for rooms but we don't know what various people want or need, Elder One. These changes would last for a very long time and must be changes that your descendants will like."

"Then, too," another Mystic continued, "none of us are engineers and we fear that rock spires could collapse if we started digging without intelligent thought."

"We are always mindful, Elder Thunder on the Craig, one does not make changes to the Monestory with the permission of the Senior Monk, he senior instructors and the Head of Maintenance. It is our home, after all," a young woman who called herself "KG" remarked.   

The Eldest Orc, who was quite different from the general concept of an Orc, wsa highly intelligent and was beginning to approve of these "Humans"...

"We will consider your words." With these words the Mystics knew they would be turned down. "Give us a list of what uses you think can be made of the spires and what each use could be. I would like to see library offices in some of the spires, with the majority of what libery space we ned in surface built houses."  (This old Half Elf would have been horrified if he had known just how large their library would eventually become!)

"I would like to see rooms in the spires for histories of both the Half Elves and Orces befor and especially during our time together. Perhaps you should have room for Humans. That depends on you, you know." This had been a younger Half Elve speaking and his remarks had been less than subtle.

"We can tell everyone of your plans."

It would be over a year before the Mystics were able to come up with plans and more than that before building could begin.
Two day later, and before anyone realized that none of Dent’s brother could be put at any risk,  his four brothers andf several Orc were talking of water.  The combination of their different world views had lead to a field trip  some twenty miles into the southern desert. Their observations and old knowledge lead some interesting conclusions.
After returning from their field trip with the Orcs, the four young men came forth to discuss their trip. 

"Eight of us think there could be a major sea under the sands. Rock of Solid thinks the rock floor under the sand could actually be hard dirt above a limestone layer. We could have thousands, perhaps hundeds of thousands,  of acres of water under the dry surface. We can raise crops there, in what appears to be a sand desert waste. “
The Council of Elders knew the "eight of us" meant the four Humans and four Orc.
“We went out 20 miles and sound an oaisas spoken of in very old songs. We think that outsiders would be unlikely to penetrate deep enough into our desert to find farm lands even further out. We can place emergency shelters there and raise food there.” 
This was spoken by an Orc who had never offered evidence of being an intellect; no one had ever noticed his fondness for reading both old legends and geography reports smuggled into their little city; reports written by the people to the north of the Great Sea. 
."We spent the night camping under the open sky. There were thin clouds that seemed to vanish when the moon camer ouit. Our visual range and hearing ranges are different and this expanded capability should have allowed us to detect any threats. We did not detect any tghreats. This morning, we did not find evidence of anyone near us. :
“If we can move farming things and selected seeds far enough out, we think we farm out there. Must be caeful to prevent atgtackers from coming to future crops. Must find ways to free water and grow crops.” This Orc was not very articulate but was an excellent fighter and had an uncanny knack of discovering which crops had insect infestations. He was quite highly thought of…
“None of my brothers can go outside this city without heavy guard and only if totally necsaary. I don’t know how were are to prevent the death of our species but we do know my four brothers are absolutgely necessary.”
“We didn’t wish to mention this, but, we took a platoon of Orc guards wsith us.”
“We know that Ten,” Thunder on the Craig replied. “Our Orcs had to take supplies from combat stores,  the four Mystics had to check medications from the dispensary and the External Guard watched you leave this city and tracked you.  Of course they reported back.”
“We realize that young warriors like to act without waiting for the  Elders to delay them,” Ragina added. “This is something we could allow under special conditions, that is, conditions in wich we were sure you would find something interesting and woujld not be discovered. After all,  there is the External Guard marching in oversight.”
“We believe there is a way for Dent’s people to reproduce safely. This requires the five men be as safe as possible for perhaps ten years. We can have a meeting later today to discuss this.
There was dead silence.
“I am looking forward to learning about this myself as”, he gave the other three Elders a wry look,”I have not been told of this myself.”
“We were not completely sure of the details Dent,  and did not want to put you in an untenable position.  Having said this, let us examine your maps and written reports.  Shall we go to the formal dining room and use the main table for your briefing?”
It was a merry and very happy group that went to the formal dining room.
Dent and his fellows were called to the Formal Dining and took places around the table.

Rigina and several of her fellows joined Dent, his four brothers and twenty sisters in a large meeting room. Imtroductions were made and Rigina had glasses of a strong ale distributed.

"You are trying to get us drunk", Dent commented.

"No, we are trying to get you relaxd and calmer for the coming converrsations."

A drink and then two drinks later, Rigina finally began teh conversatons.

"I know you are grieving your dead and missing your homes. How many of you miss your homes?"

Most of the Mystics raised their hands.

"Think for a moment. Is this feeling of loss for your homes or for your City One? How many miss your homes in the Monestary of the Guild House and how many miss City One itself? First, a show of hands for those who miss your home Monestary?

All the Mystics raised a hand.

"How many of you miss the Temple of the Way?"

All the Mysitics raised a hand.

"How many of you miss City One herself?"

Only a handful raised a hand; Dent did not raise his hand.

"Why didn't you raise your hand, Dent?"

"I spent my live in both Monestaries and only a small amount of time in the City. I never learned any love for them. They were just peope to me and often aggreviating people at that. I...miss...my family. I miss our parents and grandparents. I even miss the Grandfather of Assassins. People say he is evil and I suppose he is; no one is purely evil or not evil. He was also the one who brought thoughtful gifts on naming day, religious holidays and special occasions. Sure, there were others who brought such gifts but still..."

"How many rememeber hos many times Dent was also one ' who brought thoughtful gifts on naming day, religious holidays and special occasions'. We see him as more than an eldest brother, he is more like a favourite Uncle." Elizabeth spoke from the heart and most of the others agreed."

Dent found he could not speak.

"Then," Rigina spoke softly, "this is most very interesting and could be a problem."

"Do any of you think you can return home?"

No one replied.

"There is a way you can safely have children. It will require some aid from my Mages but is safe and will not harm you. Are your curious?"

"Yes," Dent replied for the group.

"You are already different from the usual humans and most of you woould not be able to have children. 

"We have devised a breeding plan that would allow you to have children. This would also result in eleminating or reducing the work needed to prevent incest later. We call it 'the 20 and the 5'?"

The Mystics got started looks as they tried to figure what was intended.

"The plan is called the 20 and the 5. "Each man would have to take four wifes. We would then carefully select which of their children would mate with which other children. We can help you control your emotions."

"I will not be participating in this!  I will do everythng else I can to help those who decide to participate but I simply will not be involved in this reproduction scheme!"  Dent was highly adament.

"Are you sure Dent? You are needed.

"I know that I am needed, just as every one of my people, every one of you and your Elves, every one of the Orcs, everyone of the peoples of the HOuse of the Fish - both Denauvia-Humans and Human - are needed. There are things I can do and will do. I simply will not be taking an active part in the reproduction game. For that matter, are there not Hobbits near here?"

"There is a small tribe of Hobbits living around a major oaisis to the northwest of us. The people of the House of Fish employ them to smoke fish and to process sea weed into a fermented 'delicity'. We trade what we call 'surplus preferred grain' for this fermented sea weed. We devote 12 acres to raising this 'preferred grain' but have never needed more than 20 acres of grain to support the Hobbitts fully. We have decades of this grain - which the Hobbitts prefer above all other - stored in caves in the limestore subsurface. We are fully prepred for an expansion of the Hobbitt population!
 
"Good", and Dent smilled. 
=================================================
“There is another and related plan we have been contemplating. We would like to work on this longer. To change the subjevt, we know of a group of Hobbitss. That are a minor tribe and perhaps  only  one or even two clans. We are hoping the People of the Valleyh can take in a coujple of hundred Hobbits andf care for them.
“I believe you mentioned earlier that you are growing crops for them. Is there any safe way to affect delivery?
“The people of the Hidden Kingdom (first contact with Dent in first novel) can manage delivery.  But this happy news is not what we are needing to talk about.
Just over a week after the initial metting, teh Mystics asked Rigina to met with them and discuss her proposials.

"Here is our proposal and one we hope you can live with for the decades to come. Have all of you read our plans?"

"Each man will have to pick five wives. Obviously, Jose and Elizabeth will be married. Each of the wifes will have five sets of twins. We can arrange for the twins to be one male and one female." 

"Any questions?"

There were none.

"Then the children of two men - Ten and Jose for example - will marry and each of these wives will have 5 sets of twins with one being male and the other being female. The children of Rene and e would marry. This part is a bit complicated, perhaps."

Again, there were no comments.
“Rene and James will marry and each of their wives will also have 5 sets of twins with one being male and the other being female. Edh man will father  5 wives times 5 reproductive events times 1 set of twins for each reproductive event or 5 times 5 times 2 children or 50 children each. As an aside, these parents will be rather busy and while the Mothers may be ble to keep up to a certain extent, the Fathers will be overwhelmed. Each of these families will need the support and help of the entire community. That means the Elves, Orcs, visiting  Human-Danuvian and anyone else who might be here and sufficiently trusted. 
“When these children grow up and are of reproductive age, the children of two men, say Ten and Jose, will marry. This would be 50 reproductive pairs from the children of Ten and Jose. There will also be 50 reproductive pairs forms the children of Rene and James. We4 are planning on each new set of parents to have 3 sets of twins. This would be 50 sets of parent times 3 reroductive events or 150 sets of twins. The result of 150 sets of twins is 150 reproductive pairs.   One generation of 150 sets of parents would result in 300 babies. If they choose to have two set of twins, we’re looking at 600 babies.
No one said a thing but it was clear that all of Dent’s people were watching and listening intently. Dent was listening but he was truly concerned with the reactions of his people and he was pleased with what he was seeing. While Dent had been raised to see his people as his brothers and sisters, the truth was Dent was the Father Figure; Dent was the Patriarch of His People! 
"The grandchildren of Ten and Jose will marry the grandchiuldren of Rene and James. With these great grandchildren, all those humans will have the same set of great grandfathers. Then, these people, guided by Half Elven elders, will decide on marriage or at least who can reproduce together."

Again, there were no comments.

"Have any of you got any questions?"
“This sounds good in the general but you have not spoken in the specific. Please do so.”.  Angel was normally very quiet but could speak loudly and firmly when she felt the urge. She was feeling the urge very strongly and wanted answers.
“As head of the committee planning a possible mating plan that would allow the brothers and sisters of Dent to build a viable population, we had to consider some hard truths. Those truths were building a base population and making future mate selection easier. There are two variables to be addressed: the male parents and the female parents. If a traditional boy meets girl, they court and have offspring is applied, eventually there will be inbreeding. It simply will happen. The easiest way around this is to remove the male ancestory from the equations. Our proposed plan will do this. What  happens  after this is mating choices will be based on the female genetic lines.
Ragina paused for comments but there were none. Dent and all his people were giving her their complete attention. It was intimating to her.


"We are concerned with how many children will be required? How will be children be convinced to mate with, ah, marry which of other sects. I say sects to indicate the children of each Father."

"Our presentation on that is still be worked on and we will show it to you soon as we can! Our overview was just that, an overview. As an aside, we need to collect the sperm of each man and store it in a storage system we were given by the Mages of the . It is good to have powserful friends. 

"We have discussed this many times," Ten replied, "and we have even picked the wives we like. this is going to be more than passing strange, I fear."

"Are all of you using some form of conception pevention?" Rigina was finally asking the question the Half Elves and a number of female Orc had been asking.

"I will answer that," Dent stated, "there is one procedure my ladies are using and two techniques my gentlemen are using. The combined affect is a lack of pregnancy.  As Rigina has told me, they have safe drugs that will allow conception with the aforementioned twins. The twins would be one male and one female. This will be a long term process that will last three generations before our people can be free mate as they see fit."

Dent paused, clearly waiting for any response.

"We will be deciding the reproductive future of out people. This is something we must do if we are to have generations of offspring to come."

"We will simply have to raise our offspring with the knowledge of which families they must merry into."

"Then, why not tell us which of my gentlemen will marry which of my ladies."

With that remake, there could be no doubt that Dent was not going to join the reproductive lottery. Dent was twelve to fifeteen years older than the others, being the first male of his modified line to be born. His wife was the first of the women of the modified line to be born.
“Let us finish our presentation and we can continue this discussion then.”
The meeting adjourned and the Mystics left for training in the citie’s workout area and also continued teaching their fellow citizen of this hidden city.
=================================================================
As the years went by, Dent was moving from oldest brother to aging father; he was aging but only declined a small amount physically and remained sharp mentally.
================================================================================================
About a week later, Dent’s people had come up with lists of 5 potential wives for each potential husband. No one was perfedtly happy but they were generally happy.

After the lists were read off, Dent objected to one choice and Rigina objected to two others. These changes were amicably made and the 20 and the 4 were more happy with these lists.

"When can the first matings begin," Ten asked?

"One week," Rigina replied. "We believe the four groups must also have appropriate marriage ceremonies."
“You are overlooking the importance of this event,” Forrest the human-Devonian said. “We  have never had multiple marrianges ogf this magnitude and for the salvation of a race, a species actually. The participatns should be in appropriatge  attire.  A couple of our clothing experts can take measurements and we can discuss designs. This will allow time to discuss dowreys.”
“I appreciate how dawreies are a normal consideration but I don’t think dowreys are appropriate n this situation.” Dent had never understood the point to dowreies.
Then, the Senior Orc, Thunder on the Craigs, leaned forward, rapped his knuckles on the table, and spoke:

"Comrade Gentlemen, you are now family and we accept you as Orc among Orc. We like to take our young men around our lands before they marry. Thus, we need to show you the farm lands, the mining lands and the desert. We will not allow you to enter the ore bearing  mine areas because you can not physically survive the poision gases. However, there are areas in the mines that you can survive. The work there can be hard but it will not lead to deaths. We intenselyh dislike unneedful deaths amojng all all peoples. We want to show you the desert. There are sand seeps, which amaze us."

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------__________
A week later, anAfter a month living in the hidden city, dent was recognized as being a major figure as well as leader of his tribe: the Mystics.
“We have been a rather qiet and settled village for a number of years.  There  hs not been much to talk about until recently and now we have a great deal to discuss. I belive yu have the most concerns and should take the floor, dent.”
“Thank you Regina. The first is I think we need to name this little city of ours. You will forgive me if I  include myself and mine as residents of this little city:”
“You have been citizen of our ‘little cityh’ since the dayh we agreed to bring yu into shelter here. You may continue.”
“Thank you, “ Dent gravely replied to the old Orc. “For one thing, we should name this city something that defines it as more than just another random colledton of people. The name ‘Sanctuary’ shojld work to formerly bring us all together. It also expresses what we are about and will give all our people a symbol.”
“I like it. We will need to get everyone’s opinion and agreement if the name is going to be used. As the leaders of the various groups, we could simply order outr people to use it?”
“We could,  “I worry about the survival of the people of Sanctuary. Changes are coming and we need to protect our people from them.” This proved to the others that Dent was truly a Monk.  “We will need to increase our food production, create housing, arrnge for more water and probably more consumable items. We might have to create covert trade with the ‘Cities’. It might be best if we had sea borne trade with City 4 and possibly City 3. WSe did see vast areas of land without people where we could crate a mock town and claim we are trading from that town.”
“Go on.”
“We face an existential threat to our existances here. When the Emperor and unknown members of his Court decided to create us, they had to find a safe place for us to grow up and to live. The House of Assassins was seen as the perfect choice. Consider this, a sect dedicated to both killing and to controlling killing is very likely to be seen as the sun scourse of killing. Thus, the House has always stood on the edge of the razor. At times, they have had to tap dance their way out of horrible situations, other times, they have had to slow dance with various coutiers and groups of ‘concerned citizens’ and to face the worst theat of all: complicity. 
Dent paused to let the other elders think of the consequences of what he had just said.
“We were taught this by a philosopher in the Temple portion of the House of Assassins. Life in the House was probably different than what you imagine it to be. It was very highly controlled and embrassed the ideals of protection against all threats. For example, everyone one4 of us who managed to escape the House did so because we knew where the secret passageways were. Those who did not escape were murdered in their quarters or wounded and died in a secret passageway during their escape. “
Dent paused to collect his thoughts.
“Our departure from the Central City was an existential crisis in that we could all have been killed. Our reproductive potential was very nearly extinguished.  I see a similar situation here in Sanctuary.  The Orc and Elf populations were seeded here to work the mines. After your ancestors rebelled against whoever had imprisioned your ancestors may have forgotten their original plans. They may have gone looking for your elsewhere? They may have simply tabled their plans and revealing Sanctuary could allow them to resume their war on our peoples. I don’t know and I doubt anyone in Sanctuary knows either. The problem is do we dare take the chance of going open and risk being assaulted?
“They may be gone,” Regina commented.
“They may be lying in wait,” . Walking toward them was a man dressed in a multi colored blouse with ballooned trousers and a huge mustache. He was also wearing lace up boots with the trousers bloused. It gave a strange combination of clown clothing and military footware. 
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Forrest Martin!”
The oddly dressed man walked up to Forrest and held his right arm out in a formal greeting; each clasped the other’s forearm and with hand cupped their elbow.
“I was hoping to see you Forest! It would appear you have gone on walk about?”
“Yes, I have, Parker. I need to speak with you in both your ‘Parker, son of Summerset’ and your ‘Master Dresser’ persona. Perhaps we can go to my Mayor’s Office?”
“You have been gone two days Forrest and your Secretary will want to detain you to discuss matters that really do not need discussion. Why don’t we go to your home and talk?”
They walked to Forrest’s house. 
Forrest’s Secretary was told of his arrival and was happy he had not come to the office; she had friends over and were working on quilting. 
Forrest’s wife was teaching reading and attempting to teach writing to several grades of student in the town’s elementary school. The fishermen having brought in the day’s catch earlier were processing it in the fish house. The fishermen were tired and would have liked to simply go home and leave this chore to the fish house people. The problem with that was the ‘fish house people’ were probably even more tired as they had been working on farms irrigated by a mixture of salt water and precious fresh water and wished they could go home as well..
Forrest’s three children were in a work study programme (as were all the children over the age of 10) and were either in classes or working on the farm land.
Drinks in hand, the two men sat down on chairs on the house’s porch.
“What brings you to our little town Parker?

“The old witches have devinated a need for me to be here. Or, it could just be my wife wants to go explore an old ghost town near the current encampment.”
“By ‘ghost town’ do you mean an empty town or a town filled with ghosts?”
“Yes”, Parker replied. “And you?”
“I have been down south visiting our new residents. Did you know we have taken in a group of refugees?”
“Humm, no, not that I have heard.”
“There are 25 people, refugees from the Temple of the Way in the Central City, who were granted homes in Sanctuary. Their leader is an older man called ‘Dent’.”
“Yes, we have met but there were many more when we parted company. What happened to them?”
“That is part of the problem. They were attacked in two different cities, City 3 and City 5 as I believe they said. All, especially Dent, want to know why they were attacked. The attack in City 5 happened just after they rested at the Temple of the New Way.”
“Interesting, very nteresting,” Parker remarked in a disturbed voice.
“Now, I know Brother Stegg and Brother Jacques because they have visited here before.  Brother Dent and his people decided to check out City 5. They had spent some time recoupering from their losses and felt they were ready for a visit to the outskirts of City 5. Either they did not anticipate an attack in the quote City of Last Refuge3 unquote or they thought they were strong enough to prevail.  Dent entered the outskirts of City 5 with 3 couples formed from his people. They were abruptly attacked and only Dent had the skill and simply rage to survive.”
“I know Dent better than he realizes,” Parker said. “He is a very religious and very gentle man. That is how he was trained to be. He can also fall into a battle fuege and become one of the most devastating fighters you can imagine. He is a fully trained and skilled combat assassin, ever if he does not want to admit to it. How did they make contact with your town and with the place down south?” Even in the privacy of Forrest’s porch, neither man was going to ever utter the word “Sanctuary”. 
“A number of our Orc from the House of Fish and from that other place went into town for a routine recon. They were there when Dent et al were attacked and were quite taken by Dent’s Orcish rage. They saw themselves in our Dent.”
“Have you fishermen gone into City 5 to ask about the killings?”
 DenisovanBrother Stegg, the Temple Master and Brother Jacques to speak with government officials and any religious organizations in City 5. It occurs to me that different religious sects might have overcome any hostilities between them and might be sharing information.”
“Whaty  type of information, Dent?”
“Is the City government sending tax collectors around to see how much money is coming in the collection plates andf how much of that is being reported to the tax collectors,” Dent replied.
“They might send some kind of ‘religious police’ around to collect tracts and listen to sermons. Perhaps they might think the selection of hymns, the subjects of prayers, sermons and meditations and the tracts offered could be seen as subversive.” These were clearly original thoughts for Reginda.
“The number of persons who come to each service, who they sit with and who they talk with might be significant,” Dent continued.
“Or they just might be Church friends who only see each other during and after religious services. These are good thought, but, they might not be significant.”
“There are other and more subtle ways to find movement of the military for example. If a command is going to be sent from, as an example, City 2 to City 4, then the personnel in this command will want to receive letter from ‘the folks back home’. When planning a troop movement, the Planners should determine which camps, which cities , which ports the command will be at and when. They can send the movement plan to the various intermediate locations and mail can be sent by high speed courier boat or even by fast horse or camel. If you can obtain a copy of these movement plans, you can make inferences”
“There are other ways to obtain information and we in the Hidden Kingdon utilize a number of them. We would like you to develop methods and make plans to deploy then. At the moment, you are not in a position to send out people but we are.”

“Have you heard anything about why we were sent far to the west and who ordered the attacks?”
“No, we do not.”
“On that note, I think it is time for us to retire for the night. Susan is the Training Master for our morning drills and I dread, almost, what she might have in mind. She was talking the Elder Drin, the grounds mantanence person and was glaring at me.”
Dent grinned.
“Later tomorrow morning, I am going to reintroduce everyone to the ‘falling wall’. Some of my youngest were not advanced enough in their training to train on the wall. They will be after tomorrow. 
Moments later, Parker and Regina were along.
“What do you clearly want to tell me in private, Spy Master?”
“I would rather no one tell Dent and his family that a sim;ple and logical explanation fort why they were attacked is that a scientist was somehow watching them.  Then, like a small boy poking a stick into an ant nest and stirring it around, they saw the appearance of Dent and his young ones as a chance to ‘stir the stick’. The only thing that has kept them safe is not one knows about this city and it’s people. Your External Guard is hellishly effective at maintaining an invisible border. Some of the more extreme Guards have created a psysic border.
“Parker the terrifying thing about your ‘mad scientist hypothesis’ is since we know nothing about him, her, or it, we can lay our fears on him, her, or it and that creature becomes ‘the sum of all our fears’.”
“We should write a book of fears and perhaps call it ‘the sum of all our fears’?”

“It would force us to face our fears, Parker but may not be the best thing now. My husband is dead, my children grown but I have hope. I have the time to work on a list of these fears at least and perhaps add explanatioins to expand my listinto a book. And you?”
“I will do the same thing. Actually, I have been maintaining a record of fears and adding new lists of fears and explanations of them on a weekly basis. Some fears have died on their own, some fears I hide to keep them from becoming real if examined and the rest just play their games.” Parker shrugged “Life goes on and someday, this could all be curiousities hidden in history books.”
“Maybe we should write our books and arrtange forf them to be sent to varous readers in the Central City, the Sublime Nation and even the other cities. Regardless, since our future replacements will have to read this material, we can let them decide on what to send.
About 380 years later and after the peoples of Sanctury had decided to reveal themselves to the Emperor and his Court in the Central City and sent several bvooks about themselves. They also insisted they be treated as a separate polity and there in laid future threats.

The next morning’s exercise started with lenghtly stretching, then a jog around the usual route, and alternating fast run and fast walk around Dent’s new five mile running route. This disturbed Dent not at all and that upset the young woman leading the exercise. Eventually, they wound up back at the mess hall and had good breakfasts. 
Dent clapped for attention and said “I suggest everyone spend the rest of the morning working on private projects or just meditating. There are several books I plan on studying and seeing which I will read. Then, just before lunch, we shall have a bit of specialized training. Enjoy!”
No one was thilled by this…
In the late morning, Dent inspected his wall and found it more than to his likeing. The padding was very nicely done, with padded rails aound it. Behind the top of the wall, a narrow balcony extended from Dent’s wall to the physical wall of the building. There was a steep latter going from the floor to the little baccony.
Dent then went to retrieve his people and brought them to their first viewing of “Dent’s Wall”. 
Most of Dent’s Monks recognized the layout of the “Falling Wall”. Only a handful of the youngest, who had not been trained on “the wall” was puzzled by it’s purpose. 
“Have you tried this yet, Eldest Brother?” Ten asked Dent.
“Of course not, the Elves just got it finished this morning. You’ll notice it has three ropes for the pleasure of the students to climb the outside. There is a steep set of stairs, otherwise called ‘a ladder’ on that end. Behind the wall is a narrow balcony which touches the wall of the building.  I would like everyone to climb the ropes and then make controlled falls down the front of the wall. I acknowledge that we have not practiced rope climbing and we did have a period of sickness several months ago. I fear that such climbing is a perishable skill that must be relearned . Still, all of you have had the training. I think. Who has not had actual training in wall technique?”
His three youngest sisters raised their hands.
“We will go over the basics and I will ask for voluenteers to tutor you three. Let us see if the skills have perished in me!”
Dent stood in front of his wall and did a standing “conventration of focus” exercise. Then, he moved smoothly to the wall grasped one of the ropes and smoothly climbed to the top of the wall. 
“Remember, a high level skill is the ability to come to a halt while on the side of the wall. Another high level skill is the ability to move sideways. I have seen one Great Master fall slowly, halt, reascend and then continue to make a graceful and slow slide to the surface.”
Dent moved slowly to the side and appeared to either be holding himself up by only his left hand on the rope or by somehow hanging in front of the wall. Then, he released the rope and put his left hand near the wall. He hung there for a handful of seconds and slowly descended the wall. Briefly, he stopped again and moved several feet to his right (and further away from the rope). He ended his demonstration by making a slow descent to the floor.
“That is how it is done. In practice, it requires keeping a serious spell in your mind to control your descent. Another spell is needed for the horizontal movement. Any comments?”
“I’m told there are two other spells needed for upward movement. Perhaps you know these spells, Dent?” Ten had spoken with some amusement.
“I do not, Brother. Perhaps you can teach us?”
“Perhaps I can.”
Ten then took another rope and quickly ascended to the top of the wall. As Dent did before him, he moved slowly to his right several feet. Then he descended several feet, stopped and move to his right. Ten then laughed and said: “Oh no, I think I am going to fall. I had better get back to my rope!”
Ten then move left towards the rope but also climbed the bare wall until he got his left hand on the rope.
“Why Dent, I was able to ascend!”
“Yes, you did, and you will teach everyone your spells!. Showoff!”. Dent growled and then laughed. 
“Now, if you would, you could come down and help teach everyone else.”
It took about five minutes for each of the remaining 23 students to climb to the top of the wall (some 14 had lost their rope climbing skills and were awarded remedial training) but only one student fell. He landed easily on the padding and made a very nice backward landing. (He also was awarded remedial training.)
“Master Ten, you will have to teach your Wizard Ways to the rest of us!”
“Master Dent,” KG spoke, “did you know that Master Ten could ascend?”
“No, KG, I did not not.  Sometimes our Brother likes to keep secrets.”\
“Do you keep secrets, Dent?”
“I have but only those I have been ordered to keep. Would you like to be briefed?”
“Are these interesting secrets?” Katerina asked.”
“Some are, some are not. Some secrets have expired and have not; some ancient secrets are things that could come back to life some day and some can compromise related secrets by intelligence analysts using imagination. Are you interested in gaining such knowledge, Katerina?”
“I might be,” she replied.
Parker had watched the demonstration with amused interest and had listened to Katerina’s reply with the professional interest of a spymaster who realizes he might have an apprentice in the making. His wife, Flavia, also watched and said softly “I have spent some time talking with that girl. I think she has the imagination and the intelligence to become a good analyst. We might do well to start a branch of the Intelligence Academy here. 
After lunch, Dent and his family were told to shower and also asked to “wear demure undergarments”. 
“You are going to have trial fittings this afternoon and you’ll be seen by about ten experts. Some of these experts are of the “male persusian”. You might not want to distract them.”
While Dent’s sisters wore panties, no one in their culture had worn bras. This in turn led to some delicate moments for both the dressers and those being dressed. 
All were told “do what your dressers tell you to do and do not resist. They do not take kindly to resistance!”
Dent was “blessed” with an only slightly homely Orc dresser. She said “I have to see how firm you are, Mister Dent. It will make a difference in how your suit lays.”  Then, she began rubbing Dents chest and worked her way slowly to his knees, missing nothing of interest on the way. Dent was reduced to gasping and “leaving a mess in his underwear”.
His middle aged Orc dresser said “you feel good and even smell good. Next dressing, I will find out if you taste good.”
Dent was called to a special dressing where “his” Orc teased him and then found him tasty to her liking.
Dent was teased about this for the rest of his life.
Dent later learned this Orc had dressed – and enjoyed –two of his sisters, one of his brothers and two of the women  (that he did not know) of the “House of the Fish”. 
After their evening meal, everyone was invited to “An Evening Musical Interlude” featuring Elves who could sing and who  play some musical instrumernts. Several of Dent’s family could also play musical instruments.

The last act was a person from the House of the Fish who could play the lute, the flute and a brass instrument that produced a small range of very deep notes.  Dent thought it was called a Tube (or something like that). From the strained look on the the  players’s face, Dent was reminded of something making fart noises with their mouths. He had made such noises to entertain his four children and a number of his youngest brothers and sisters.  Dent had made the noises and then said “what do you think of this?” This was also entertaining to the child’s parents as well…
After a while, some of these former children said to Dent “do you remember these noises” and made mouth fart noises. Sometimes the incredible memories in his people could be used against him, Dent thought.
Then, to Dent’s surprise, this performer began making pantomimes of the run Dent had taken his people on. He even got down the mannerisms of the people who had vomited and what they said to each other after finishing the vomiting. 
This comedian even had Dent’s slightly peeved accent perfect; Dent did not realize the man had been watching Dent test the falling skills of his people. Dent certainly did not know he sounded so peeved when Ten had shown him up. 
He got mock sympathetic pats on the shoulder from a number of people.
After the performance, Regina told him “you suddenly looked thoughtful after the immatation.”
“I had a sudden epithematy,” Dent replied. “I need to think it through but I think I will have something to discuss tomorrow. Do you think we can get a meeting with Parker, in his college professor mode?”
“I’ll ask him.”
Several minutes later, Regina wandered up to Parker and said: “I think Dent may have come up with a new idea regarding the problem of getting agents into different locations.”
“I was rather hoping he would, Regina. Did you know that Dent was being groomed to take a senior position in the House of Assassins Intelligence Analysis Bureau.  If they had not been driven from their home, the smart money was on the idea that Dent would have either  been a senior agent controller or analyst supervisor. In fact, he might have been the Grandfather of Assassins Chief of Intelligence.”
“Now,” Regina replied, “it looked like Dent could easily be all three. Does Dent know this?”
“No, he doesn’t Regina. We have deep cover agents in the House of Assassins and they reported out these plans years ago.”
“Don’t they watch the senior people very closely.”
“They do but they do not watch the low level people carefully enough. Reports on things such as how Dent was being trained were placed in various files. They may have thought them totally secret but someone has to clean the offices and the right people in right places can see and memorize reports with no one being the wiser.”
“Isn’t it docrtrine that spies are to be well paid?”
“Not when it could compromise the operation and get the agents killed. These agents had a tendacy to move to smaller cities when they retired and to live – unnoticed – in well to do circumstances.”
“What about us? Have we not helped with your analysis?:”
“Yes, you have my friend. We gave you the finest External Guard of any polity we know of. In some ways, you are better protected than the Sublime Nation and certainly better than any of the five cities.” 
There was a pause. 
“There is something else. Dent was being groomed to become the Patriarch of His People.  The fact he is here and not in the Temple changed nothing; he will be the Patriarch of His People.”

“Interesting.”
“We will have it no other way.” With that Parker bowed to Regina and went to find his wife.
Regina was noticed and waved over by a group of friends. She put a smile on her face and went to join them.
The next morning, the designated “Drill Instructor” insisted on intermixing breaks for pushups and situps with periods of running. 
Dent simply was not ready for this and after the last set of pushups, he had to be helped to his feet.
The next day’s exercise period featured jogging, one pass through the pullup bars and many times down the wall. This was more gentle than Dent had planned for but moving down the wall so many times was disorientating to everyone. Then, having to be helped to his feet several times caused him to keep his mouth shut.  The upside was all his people had become proficient. Several Orc, Elves and some humans had asked to be trained in the falling technique and were into the earliest stages of Monk Training. Dent harboured hopes for all of them…

During the training session on the wall, Parker motioned Dent over to speak with him. 
“I would like to do some training on spy tradecraft after lunch. Will you be available for this?”
“Yes, how many of my people can I bring?”
“As many as you think appropriate.”
“I cannot think of any I would exclude.  I cannot think of anything that would be more damaging to our morale and our unit cohesiveness than exclusion.

When the training was over, Dent motioned his people to gather around Parker and him.
“As you know, Parker is more than the ‘Master Dresser’ who has arranged for us to be subject to Orc and Elve  seamtresses and their amusements. I’m not sure he was expecting those ‘amusement’ but…”

Parker smilled gently. “Agents must be able to adapt to different circumstances.

“…but Parker is also a Master Instructor in the ‘delicate art of espionage’. I believe he has background material to impart. We did get elements of ‘tradecraft’ back home but this is going to be more focused. I think we should all attend.  Who else can or should be invite?”
“What about Forrest,” Ten asked.
“We definitely need Regina,” KG added.
“What about Thunder on the Craig”, someone added in a scpetical tone.
“I will ask him at lunch.”
“You might do well to ask Regina about Thunder,” Ten  injected. “They were talking at breakfast this morning.”
“I will then. Parker, where do you want to have an instruction meeting?”
“The best place will be the great table in the Grand Hall.” He sighed. “That sounds presumptious, doesn’t it. 
At lunch, Dent invited Regina who accepted.  She told him that Thunder on the Craig was going out with some of his mining engineers “to explore for water”. She was not sure what this meant and was willing to simply wait.”
Lunch was good but everyone was eager to hear what Parker had to say. 
Dent and his 24 people, Regina and three of her relatives who worked with the intelligence reports that trickled into Sanctuary, Forrest and his wife joined Parker and his wife.
“Your safety depends upon knowing what the threats are. This means who can be projected to be taking actions that in turn could be used against you.  “I thought you would be interested in the uses of spies. This is taken from a thesis called “The Art of War”. It was created by a philosopher general in a land far to the east.  At the moment, you do not  have the capability of using it. However, this information is worth thinking about.

7. …the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: 
    (1) Local spies;
    (2) inward spies; 
    (3) converted spies;
    (4) doomed spies; 
    (5) surviving spies.

 8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system.  
   This is called "divine manipulation of the threads."  
   It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.

 9. Having local spies means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district.

10. Having inward spies, making use of officials of the enemy.

11. Having converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes.

12. Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.

13. Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring back news from the enemy's camp.

14. Hence it is that which none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies. 
    None should be more liberally rewarded.  
   In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.

15. Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.

16. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.

17. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.

18. Be subtle! Be subtle! And use your spies for every kind of business.

19. If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together with the man to whom the secret was told.
“Shall we discuss what Sun Zu wrote. First, local spies.
“Aren’t all spies local spies?”
“It is intuitively apparent that all spies must be part of a district and therefore are  ‘local spies’. This intuitative believe runs into ‘inward spies’ or enemy officials. I am not sure what the difference is betrween the two. Yes, KG?”
“’Inward spies’ are inward or inside of the command structure. They should be aware of many more actions and knowledge. They would also be watched more closely because they pose a greater threat of taking information and possibly forwarding it to someone else; someone not cleared for access.”
“Logically, an ‘inward spy’ should have less access to message preparation methods and should not be able to leave their post to go to a courier. If I were the chief security officer, I would know the type of classified material, where it is stored and who has access. I would  be tempted to watch them.” 
Dent finished with a little shrug.
“Dent”, commented Jose, “can you think of a better spy than the chief security officer? He can go everywhere. He can take notes, take material and go to different locations because of his duties. Who watches the watcher?”
“If I were a courtier and secretly assigned to watch the chief security officer, I would have him watched as closely as anyone else.” KG was adamant.
“Why not have two oversight groups, each watching the other. Each reporting to the same Minister but with neither knowing who is in the other agency. Could this even work?”
“It would work only if the members of each group are so intimately familiar with their leader’s moods and behanvour and thinking that they can spot changes,” Ten said in a soft voice.
“We are in complete agreement, Brother Ten”, said Reginda`s older girl, “if your leader is someone whose every whim and thought you know so well that you can predict them, then this watching would work.” 
Dent, looking puzzled, said “what are you talking about”. “Nothing especially, Father Dent.”
“Please explain” Regina added. “As she said, Mother Regina,” KG added, “it is nothing pressing.”
Dent and Regina gave each other puzzled looks. Parker’ wife rolled her eyes and Parker palm slapped.  Neither  Regina nor Dent noticed but their people did…
“Shall we go to the next category, that of the ‘converted spy’. This may be the hardest to arrange. You must find him, turn him and somehow keep him from betraying you. You are going to have a security chief looking for converted spies. It ocurres to me that giving false evidence of converted spies could lead to purges and that would be horribly destructive to unit morale.” James was more interested in art, literature and poetry. He wasn’t seen as being very astute in politics but then sometime people can be deeper than thought.
“If I may change the subject, I have thinking about those ‘local spies’. This depends on drunken young people chatting as if they were in the safety of their ships or squad areas. Simply listening to them talk as if everyone around them were deaf as posts will lead to information collection. We could compare various stories and hopefully find the truth or multiple truths. Perhaps we could simply ask the officials?”
“Dent, how could information gathered from talking drunks be information we could ask officials about?”
“It depends on who does the asking! Perhaps a Monk or perhaps someone with the legal standing to ask prying questions?”
“This sounds good, Dent but I am puzzled who this Loquitur could be?” 
“I don’t know Ten and I am hoping all of you can answer my question.  Perhaps after the stress of the coming Marriages is over?”
“What is this word, Dent?”
“’Loquitur’ is a foreign word meaning ‘he speaks’. I am going to bring up another foreign word:’Jongleur’. It means an itinerant minstrel or entertainer who sang songs, often of his own composition, and told stories.”
Dent paused; Ten smilled.
“I think we met a ‘Jongleur’ tonight.”
Parker smilled. “Yes, you did, Dent; you all did tonight. My Jongleur can sing, play, tell stories and simply reply that he had heard stories in bars or in camps and dreamed up an interesting or amusing story.  He can also be silent and listen very carefully and remember what he heard.”
There was dead silence.
“A Jongleur who is also a Loquitur, and they must be, can gather information from the public because no one could believe they were listening. Their poetry could spread information out to an audience including intelligence analysts.”
“I still have some ideas Parker, I need to think on them.”
Dent and his people suddenly turned to focus towards a side entrance. Two of Regina’s daughters also looked towards the side entrance.
“Incoming,” Dent murmured. Then he changed the subject to “…hoped to see all of you married some day and this is not quite what I was expecting. I know very well that no one had expected this ’20 and the 4’ . Still, all of you are the only group I can think of which could pull this off.”
“This is not quite what any of us hoped for. Still, there are jobs that need be done. Thunder on the Craigs will be the ‘Best Man’ and will brace us I am sure. We’ll need a ‘ring girl’. I suppose we could have multiple ‘ring girls’ or ‘ring boys’.”
“I have three daughters who would love to bear rings.” Forrest stated.
“Let me see,” KG said. “We have Orc, Elve, Daneuvian, and humans. That is four groups with children. That means we need a fifth group.”
The entertainer was within hearing range.
“Why not have one of the elders both bear a ring and supervise the children. Oh, that was a smooth transition from what secrets you were speaking of and the new subject. No, I could not hear what you were saying but I could hear the change in tone.”
He got a somewhat stony reception.
“How many groups will need these ring bearers?”
“Four groups.” Dent replied.
“Then each group will have a ring bearer from each group and a second ring bearer from a different group. Group ‘A’ will have two Orc, group ‘B’ will have two Elves, group ‘C’ will have two Daneuvian and group ‘D’ will have 2 ‘humans’. It will violate the principle of each child being from a different human variation and replace it with a randomly selected double in one group each.” 
“Who will be the Best Man?”
“Thunder on the Craigs.”
“Who will be the Father of the Brides and quote give them away unquote?”
“That will be me,” Dent replied.
“I assume that Regina is the Mother of the Brides?”
“Yes, she is.”
“Have you considered this should be a religious wedding ceremony? Ah, from your expressions, it is clear you have not. Now, you could have a so called civil ceremony but that is not something done in a highly formal setting. I don’t approve of them, by the way. This means you will need the proper music, prayers, a brief homily from a respected Elder if not a preacher and the same Elder to perform the actual marriage ceremonies.  You will need a Master of Ceremonies to direct the events. This will allow the Father of the Brides to walk each future Bride up the aisle and you must walk each separately.”
The entertainer leaned forward towards Dent and said “you have been practicing your walking, have you not?”
“Yes,”
“Each husband and wives will have to be married individually. This will take some time and I think it appropriate to have a glass of white wine after each ‘tieing of the knot’. It might be good to have a break after the knot tieing. It will take a while to move the young ladies to their positions and for Dent to perform all his duties.”
He paused to let his audience absorb what he had been saying.
“You will need music and while you have musicians among the Elves and even a few Orc, I will need to teach them and to lead them through the ceremonies. We are going to have at least two days for the musicians to reheace and at least one live researsal. This will be in street clothing or workout clothing or whatever is most comfortable. There were not be a dress rehearsal with the participants wearing their wedding attire. Any ideas why?”

Donna replied: “So the seamstresses won’t be in too much of a hurry?”

“That and simply it is considered bad luck to see the bride in her wedding dress before she is walked up the aisle. As an aside, Dent, you and Regina will have to visit with your young ladies to make sure everyone is almost calm and is in perfect attire. In this case, it is considered good luck for you to see the brides in their wedding gowns and to make sure all is in readiness. Regina, it is your duty to makre sure all is in readiness before Dent arrives.

“Ladies, it is your job to simply be well rested the night before and to simply be yourselves.”

He looked at Dent and said: “Time to confess Dent. You don’t look comfortable at giving the homily and at performing the weddings?”

“I will do it but it does make me feel…a bit…uncomfortable.”

“That is perfectably understandable. I was a preacher before I became an entertrainer and have conducted a number of marriage ceremonies. As an outsider, I would probably be more relaxed and even, dare I say it?, a more comfortable presence. Stick with being the Father of the Brides for your sisters and all will go well!”
He beamed at the group.
“Have you told the chef and her staff what food you like and what wine or beer. Did you know that Forrest has conducted a somewhat illegal trade to obtain vituals for the wedding? He told the person he was trading with that he was preparing for a wedding in his clan. The Captain of the Gaul trading ship is a romantic at heart and gave Forrest fine wines and fine beers.”
“Dent, please have someone write down the food, beer and wine preferences of everyone and have someone take this list to the Chef. She will thank you for the advance warning. Now, on that happy note, I am going to see what wedding music I can use based on the religious preferences of your various peoples and on what my musicians can actually play! Also, I want to speak briefly with everyone involved to learn about those about to be wed and the Mother of the Brides, the Father of the Brides and the Best Man. Some interesting stories could be woven into my homily.”
He cleared his throat.
“A subject that seldomes comes up is the ‘prersonal relations’ between those who have just married. You will need to arrange the consummation of the weddings, who goes first (as it were) and relations between the various parties in each marriage. I hope the ‘Sublime Nation’ has people here who can advise your young people.”
“They will be arriving later today,” Parker advised him.
“On that note, I have much to do!” The entertainer gave an elaborate bow to everyone as he backed out from the room.

Several minutes later, Parker looked at the group and said “I don’t think he is coming back.”
“Dent, have you thought more about your proposal?”
“Yes, I have Parker. We have already discussed recruiting watchers in the taverns; perhaps we could get members of the Thrive Guild to do this. We might just hire bar tenders and waiters with good memories and good hearing to write down what they hear. They don’t need to understand the significance of what they hear; understanding is a puzzle for the analysts.
“Then, there are the officials. We can ask trusted Monks or Priests to speak with officials and ask them for information about events in their cities. Temples have traditionally sent out news reports on a sporatic basis. It seems like what will someday be considered important is ignored or underplayed in the now. We need these good people to report on many things.  It occurred to me that we need newsletter for the people of each city. We would need snoopy people who ask questions when something interesting is reported. These people would publish the police blotter, public statements by various persons, accidents, illness, killings, military actions. Especially military actions where military groups commit acts of violence that go unreported and which do not appear in the police blotters.”
“Would these be unbiased reports, Dent or would the interpretations be shjaded to fit one of another political viewpoint?”
“I’d like to think they would be unbiased but I know better Parker. The reports will be shaded by the facts put in or left out, by guesses mis-labeled as facts and personal opinion mascrading as facts.”

“Then why not have two of more of these new reports published. They could have explicit shading.”  James had a tendenancy to solve problems by embrassing them and seeing said problems from the inside.

“What would be the true purpose of these ‘news reports’?” KG wanted to know?

“We could find out what is happening in each  city and who responds to the reports. Those making the reports and editing them must not know they are part of an intelligence collection effort. It may be that nothing happens so the reports become first hand history and decades or centuries from now, historians can create what a philosopher wrote “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” .

“Just being snoopy is not going to work well” KG responded with.
“I agree,” Dent said. “We must give these news reports a high minded purpose. Does anyone know the literacy rate in the cities?”
Parker’s wife, “In the Monestaries and among those who live in Temples, it is 100 percent. The various guilds take in students and the ones requiring intelligent and literate workers will raise their literacy rate to 100 percent. Assassins, Thieves, Monks, Mages, City officials, military officers, merchants and a number of other guildes or professions required 100 percent literacy and often knowledge of various languages. Sadly, there are a great number of occupations that do not require formal education.”
She gave Dent and his family a very serious look.
“Even in the cities, there are a number of people with very little educations or none at all. You were lucky when you were given your escape routes from The City.You went on roads reserved for travelers. Had you gone perhaps five miles south, you would have been in areas of farming and ranching. These are hard working and very productive farmers, dairy workers and ranchers. Very few of them have beyond four years of education and hae not been taught the importance of education. They certainly don’t know the citie’s rulers are using their ignorance against them.”

“I remember when we turned south on those paving flag stones. The land looked nice to me. But, I’m not a farmer or rancher so I really don’t know.” Ten finished speaking and shrugged. 
“You’re correct, it is great farming and ranching land. It is not used because the land is thought to be cursed.” Flavis looked amused.
“Is it cursed?” Dent frowned.
“In a manner of speaking it is, Dent.” The land is not cursed in the sense we think, that is, as the result of a Mage’s actions. It is ‘cursed’ because the government of the closest cities simply do not want people to go there. There was once a great nation there and many people are afraid of awakening ghosts.”
“This is good to know,” Dent mused.
Then Dent smiled.
“We could use this land for variousw purposes and not worry too muchy of Army patrols searching there. I don’t know what we would use it for but tis good to know we have a place we can operate from”
“Suppose we were to ‘invent’ a nation state and trick an enemy into thinking we were real. We would need to use currency of the Emperor at first and for fun and to confuse, we could create our own coins. We would have to obtain gold and silver boulen from somewhere and coins. Who do we know that deserves to be robbed?”

“There is that Special Services unit that tried to kill us!”

“So true, Ten,” Dent replied. “Parker, can your people find out where this unit is and where they might have their supplies?”
“Just what are you hoping for?”
“Coins, any paper currency, gold or silver or copper, anything written that might tell us anything. I’d like to know what the units are called. If we know that, there is home we can ‘visit’ a Post Office or two and obtain copies of movement advisories.”

“I’m thinking the mark of a Nation State might be having it’s own coins. We don’t have any experts at making coins but we might find some. So, we need faces on the coins. Whose faces should we use?”
“It might be safe to use Regina, Thunder, Forrest and Dent on four coins. Who else could we have?” KG had been quick to reply.
“Perhaps we could put Parker on a high denomination coin?” Ten suggested.
“No. No! NO! A thousand times more,” cried Parker. “My safety depends on being unknown.”
“We will not need to worry about this for some time to come, I think.” Dent paused, looked amused and said in a very calm voice. “We could always put the Grandfather of Assassin’s face on the highest denmination coin.”
“That might not be too bad a coice,” Ten replied. “I doubt that Grandfather would ever see His coin and anyone receiving His coin and recognizing Him would not want to fuck with us. Who would want to take the risk?”
“There are some that would.” 
There was a sudden pause as the topic of conversation had suddenly dried up.
“We have discussed the types of spies. We have not discussed the types of intelligence to be collected. Is everyone ready to continue or would you like to take a break?”

“Then, why don’t we spend a few minutes talking about intelligence. 
No one objected.
“First, I teach the basic 5 questions. Answer these and you have your story. This story can be intelligence or it can be something in your news reports.
“Who did or did not do something?”
“What was done or not done?”
“When was something done or not done?”
“Where was something done or not done?”
“Why was something done or not done?”
“The ‘why’ is probably the most important of the questions.  It includes the first four questions and now is the ‘why’. The why can be used to find more questions to explore. The why could simply be the answer to your questions.”
“I play a game in my University Level intelligence courses. I will get students into groups of five and tell one of them the ‘who’. There task is to tell the first of there classmates they see to give a ‘what’. That classmate is told who has already been asked and they look for the remaining three classmates. Eventually, the fifth classmate has to come up with the ‘why’. Then, during the next study session, the five classmates decide what the story is. They are encouraged to go beyong the apparent story and come up with other possible stories. After that, they must analyze each story. Sometimes, there are ‘hidden truths’ revealed that I had not expected. Sometimes, there is much revealed about the people answering the questions. It can be fun.”
“Having said that, let us move onto the various types of intelligence we can collect and analyze.”
 “First is the long one: human intelligence. This is literally human contact. The first is ‘espionage’ or the subversion of someone on the enemy’s side and using them to obtain information.”The second is ‘friendly accredited diplomats’ or people visiting from another government and repesentating them. Third is ‘non governmental organizations’. These are religious organizations such as asking Brother Stegg for help. We are something of a mixture of ‘military attaches’ or representatives’. Is this a surprise to anyone?”
“It just seemed a bit obvious,” Dent said.
“We are also non-governmental organizations in that we are a religious group who do not directly work for the Central Government of the Sublime Nation. Then there is ‘patrolling’. People ‘patrolling’ observe actions and talk with people. To be very blunt, the External Patrol talks to people but they don’t take prisioners and they seldom let people go. You can think of them as a wolf pack that is immensely loyal to the people of this city and the House of the Fish. I can guarantee you were observed when you approached Brother Stagg’s Temple and where moved from their ‘questioinable strangers’ list to ‘acceptable strangers list’. When the people of this city and of the House of the Fish accepted you as family, the External Patrol moved you into the ‘protect them since they are family’ category.”
“So they would protect us from these ‘Special Soldiers’” KG asked?
“They would not let them get close enough to realize the city even exists. If they did get inside their parameter, their response would be quite violent.” Parker suddenly put a grim smiler on his face. “They would epitomize the phrase ‘friendly monster’ or perhaps ‘family monster’”.
“Next are ‘refugees’ and we could have them depending on how the City 3 pogrom against Hobbits works out. Oh, yes, the government of City 3 has decided that Hobbits are the root of all evil and want them out of City 3.”
“Is there anything different about these Hobbitts?”
‘That is a good question, Dent; yes, there is something different. The same people who genetically modified your people genertically modified about 200 Hobbitts and increased their height to about 4 feet, expanded their projected life spans by quite a lot and improved their general health. They have greatly improved immune systems and are both smarter and have greatly improved memories. You can think of them as being your little cousins.”
“Where are they?” Ten asked.
“There is a small tribe of about 80 who have recently moved into the Temple of the New Way. For some reason, a patrol from City 4 was pursuing them and thought they had taken sanctuary in the Temple of the New Way. They demanded that Brother Stegg turn them over. According to one of the Hobbitt Grandmothers, Brother Stegg told them “I know nothing about Hobbitt. Leave the Temple at once. They pushed past Brother Stegg and forced their way into the Sanctum. Brother Stegg followed them in with a bo stick and quote busted some heads unquote. Brother Jacques and an old stable man followed them in and Brother Jacques quote kicked some ass unquote and the old stable man, he was 90 years old, quote broke some legs unquote.”
Parker laughed. As the patrol was allowed to take the four injured soldiers from the Sanctum, the old man was heard to yell quote break into the Sanctum again and Brother Stegg will not be able to keep me from kicking your fucking asses again! Unquote.”
“The old gentleman is most impressive. The Hobbitt Grandmother told me Brother Stegg flowed through his motions and was simply unstoppable. You send soldiers with standard training against a retired Paladin and the old Paladin will be victorious. I suppose yu did not know that Brother Stegg was raised in the Temple and trained to be a Monk. Then, the calling of his heart was to be a soldier and  he became a Paladin. Eventually, his wife and his Commanding General told him and I quote even a Paladin Colonel must someday retire and return to the Monastery unquote. So he did.
 There was a long pause before Parker continued with “the Hobbitt adopted the Old Stable Man (Brother Charles) as an Honorary Grandfather. He was greatly honored and his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren have enbrassed the Hobbitts. His wife isn’t very thrilled at having to learn 80 more names and having to arrange 80 more birthday parties.”

“The Patrol Commander complained to the City 5 Guandamerie commander but it did him no good. The Guandamerie Commander had been one of Stegg’s junior officers before Stegg retired from the Army.”
“Finally under Human Intelligence is ‘Travelor Debriefing. You did not suffer through a true debriefing Dent; the people who talked wirh you were concerned with saving you.”
“Finally,” Parker said, “there is something called ‘Open Source’ intelligence. This is simply intelligence gathered from material that the public can find, buy and read. The interesting thing is that while there is little ‘open source’ material, nearly all of it is read within the cities and the few literate people outside the cities. The literate people in the cities slowly deceasing in number since they don’t need as many children to support the parents, the grandparents and the kids. The people outside the cities need many children to support those parents and grandparents who survive into old age and are no longer able to work. As population pressure pushes farm folk intoi the cities looking for work, you can expect the parents to have low paid jobs. They will pressure their children to get good education and thus the better paid jobs. The new city folks will maintain contact with their county cousins  They will report what their country cousins tell then and tell their country counsins things the more sofisticted city folks simply don’t talk about.”

“A cultural shift could end up creating an intelligence source for us.
“Do we have the expertise to find information, write up interesting reports and get these reports spread among the cities?”
“You have the blessing of not being experts. You can learn a wide variety of subjects since you were taught to be generalists rather than specialists.”
“The interesting thing about ‘experts’ is they are essential in their fields of knowledge. However, an ancient philosopher named Robert A. Heinlein, who lived well to the north and east of us once wrote “Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.”
“That my friends, is the quick version of the lectures. Right now, you are in the position of being theoryticans who want to work but don’t have intelligence sources.  I like your id3eas for news reports. I think you should brainstorm and see what variety of publications you can come up with.”
“Parker,” Dent said, “you have not mentioned ‘weather intelligence’.”

“Consider how important water is. The immense river which flows north from mountains to the eastern end of the Great Sea provides silt to fertilize farm lands, provide drinking water, water for farming and industrial uses. If we can measure the rain fall over a very wide spread area, we can estimate how much moisture is available for crops. Knowledge about crops can help us predict the how large the crops will be. This in turn leads to estimates of how large the crop yield cold be and that leads to estimating crop costs and if it would be necessary to import certain foods. Knowing the depth of streams and rivers can help us determine the extent of flooding and the impact on the strength of the economy 
“This is probably not the answer you expected but that is our current answer. The good news is no one is likely to think of this. We hope!”
He sighed.
“Here is a quote for all you future intelligence analysts listening to me: “Being an intelligence analyst is not a popularity contest...But your job is to pursue the truth.”

In the late afternoon, Dent, his people, Reginda, Thunder on the Craig, Forrest, Parker and the Jongleur met in the Conference Room where their Intelligence lecture had happened.
Dent stood and stated: “I had bottles of red and white wine set out along with glasses. Since this could be a stressful meeting, it might be a good idea to pass the bottles and glasses around.”
Ten, ever the observant, went to the head of the table and poured wines in glasses. Then, he took the appropriate glass to each Elder. The other bottles and glasses made their way down the table.
Dent cleared his throat in what everyone recognized as his “I have something uncomfortable to say” mode.
“One of the Elders, a man who only calls himself “The Jongleur”, has some words he says ‘you need to hear’.”
Dent sat down; the Jongleur stood.
“I know all of you can hear me so I won’t ask the usual question of ‘can you hear me’? This is a time to speak of beginnings and sadly, of ending. I will first talk of endings in hopes of avoiding them. The most common cause of divorse or the death of marriage is unfilled expectations. Thee is only only way to avoid this. You must all know the expectations of your loved ones. You must be able to change expectatioins the ability to meet expectations will change with time. Change the expectations and they will not go unmet. This may sound easy but it can be very painful to actually discuss expectations. A play I once watched featured a woman saying “you know how I feel”. He replied “do I”? She then kissed him and this conveyed that “yes, she had the same expectations as he did but had not expressed them”.
“You all grew up together and know each other very well. Some of you had romantic relationships over your life times. I’m told this was taken into account when the lists of brides was made. I’m also told that Reginda and Dent made changes to the lists the 24 of you made. I’m also told you were happier with the changes.”
There was no response but the smell in the room changed as each of the 24 “young one” reacted emotionally.
“I want each of the 24 about to be wed to close their eyes and raise their left hand if they think these changes were good for all.”
Eyes closed, each of the 24 raised their left hands.
“Keep your eyes closed and lower your hands. Now, I want everyone to raise your right hand if you only raised your left hands because you thought everyone was watching and you felt you had to.”
No one raised their hands.
“That is settled then! The vote was unanonmous in favour of the changes Reginda and Dent made. You will find that being married is very different from a more causual relationship, even along term relationship. You will find deciding who would have ‘the husband’ for sex to be something that could be stressful. You will have to share him. You will also have to accept he might feel more comfortable with one or two of you but he will have to accept that all his wives deserve his fullest affections and his intimate attention. Don’t be surprised if he needs some time off. He is a man, not a rabbit. His abilities will eventually decrease although it will take some time for this.” He cleared his throat. “Young men, if you feel you have lost your ability to have a proper erection, be sure to ask the Medical Mages. This is a physical problem and there are pills you can take.”

“Eventually, you will hear the gentle screams of twins, and twins, and twins, and twins and twins and these will just be yours! With your hearing, you will probably hear 15 more sets of screaming twins. Just consider this: if you can hear them, they can hear you and the other twins. Remember, all 20 sets of twins will hear the emotions in your voices and will become upset if you are upset. When you have reached your maximum stress tollorance, do something to hide this. Do a hundred pushups with your feet elevated on a chair. Put on special boots, hang from a hook on the ceiling and do situps  Remember that you must not do these situps without someone to lift you down.”
“Finally, never forget you have hidden emotions that you know nothing about and be willing to alk about them with anyone who will listen.”
“I will sit down as soon as I mention this: Why are parents and their grandchildren natural allies? Because they have a common enemy!”

Dent spoke “You will find it needful to leave the house to get away from your spouses and from the children at times. Work is good for this. We have all received ecletic educations and some are natural teachers. Even those of you who fear you are too ‘shy’ to teach will find it easy to teach your children and your nieces and nephews. I expect our Orc and Elve relatives to be inspired by the upcoming weddings and the future children and there should be Orc and Elve children born. When you arrange for child care groups to be formed, be sure to ask the Orc and Elve and human and probably Hobbitt parents if they would like their little ones to join these groups. If children are raisied together, they wee be far less likely to separate into groups by species. We must not become the outside world with it’s hatred and artificial separations.”

There were times when Dent’s urge to preach came out…

In the distance, they could hear musicians practicing. It would have sounded better if not for the fact they were playing different songs and some were tuning their instruments. 
There were mixed feelings when a smiling seamstress politely knocked on the door frame after standing in the doorway for several minutes listening. 
“We are ready for the final fiting,” she said in Common with a strong Orc accent. “It will be fun!”
Everyone rolled their eyes but they began to file out.

The final dressing was enjoyable to the Orc seamstress, if not so much for the living manakins. (People being dressed.) Even Dent and Reginda were given “special treatment” during their dressings. This was an experience they would joke about for decades to follow…


After this final dressing, Forrest Martin rode his horse back home. His wife remained in Sanctuary to help with the arrangements for the rather large wedding. At his office, he was surprised to see his secretary actually working. She was surprised to see him back so soon…
“Do we have any boats going to five’s harbor (he meant the harbor of City 5) today?”
“No, the next boat going there will be leaving tomorrow morning in mid moring. Why?”
“I need to see the Harbour Master and ask him again about the events leading to the killings of Dent’s people several weeks ago.”
“Do you think he will tell you anything new?”

“No, not deliberately, but he might slip and give me some hints.”
“It could happen,” she replied in a doubtful tone.
“So, what chores do I have to deal with?”
“Something for you to sink your teeth into”, she replied.
She liked to occasionally comment on his slightly oversized teeth.
She handed him a folder with high grade pipasious in it. This was a demand from the Central City for information and analysis about fish catches, personnel and both costs and income. Forrest was more than a little baffled and angered by this.
“Tell me again what we get from the ‘Central City’ Government?” he demanded of his secretary.
“We get snoopy demands for information, threats of taxes and warnings again dealing with ‘outsiderrs’. Outsiderrs are defined as ‘anyone who comes from the islands in the Great Sea that aren’t controlled by the Central Government and from lands north of the Great Sea’. How much trade do we have with these ‘foreign devils’?”

“I really don’t know.”
“We are doing about 22% of our trade so far this year with them. Naturally, I cook the books so this doesn’t show up. Also, my cousin is the auditor for Naval and Shipping affairs for City 5 and we work on her reports together.”
“What do we officially show?”
“We officially show 4% of our trade with those entities which make port here and offer to make trades. I always have Elbert fill out the proper reports. He always lists the serial number of the check we send with the reports. Somehow, the checks are registered with the Central City Government and then seem to vanish.”
“Vanish?”
“Your third cousin is an auditor who removed our check from the checks being sent from Accounting to the actual State Bank and he is always good about burning them.”
“I hope he does not get caught!”

“I think I will work on the safety instructions and I’ll let you work on this report.”
“That is an excellent choice,” his Secretary replied in a slightly mocking tone. “That is clearly more important that telling lies to the tax man!”
“I’ve had a long couple of days”, Forrest sang rather than spoke the words.
“Yes, I can tell,” his Secretary replied.
“What…do…you…mean…by…that?” Forrest sang.
“You. Are. Tired. You. Are. Singing. Go home, have some wine, get some sleep and come back tomorrow morning. Your boat will not be leaving till mid morning.”
“I am feeling tired and hungry.”
“I will be back shortly so wait for me!”
She left and came back with a bowl of stewed fish, rice and seasonal vegetables in one hand and a glass of local beer in the other hand. She handed this to Forrest and said: “Eat then go home, read some escapist fiction and go to bed early.”
He did.
Back in Sanctuary, that same afternoon.

The Jongleur was standing in the center of the newly built Temple.
“We will start with bringing the Grooms in first and then the Brides.  For the sake of this afternoon’s enterence, we will arrange people in order of the last will stand first. Since Thunder on the Craig is still in the desert, I will stand in for him. I will bring the Gentlemen in and place them on their marks.  Then, Dent will bring first his Ladies in one at a time and place them beside their Groom. So, taking this list, we will now form up.”
The Jongleur walked to the enterance and pinted to the first five he wanted placed and calling them name, showed them their place to stand. He then placed the second group of five, then the third and finally the fourth. He beamed at the Young Ladies.
“Cheer up, my young beauties!  You will be lining up outside this Temple and not in here. Now for our young Gentrlemen. Dent, if you would please muster your young Gentlemen here.”

The Jongleur stood in front of trhe Young Ladies, Dent walked up and called off the names of his “Young Gentlemen”.  They took their places. The irony was that Ten was only about 8 years yo9unger than him and the youngest of his “Young Gentlemen” was 12 years younger than Dent.

“I will bring the Young Gentlemen forward and place them. Then, Dent will bring his sisters, er, his “Young Ladies” up one at a time. This is going to be a very formal occasion and that means when Dent approaches each Young Lady, he will stop two steps in front of her, do an about face and side step to his right. The Y9ung Lady will then take two steps forward and place her right hand in Dent’s elbow. I will supervise.”

Then the Jongleur and Dent walked to the front . 

The Jongleur walked to the first man (Rene), stood next to him and said “walk with me and take a left turn when I tell you too. Then, walk straight ahead until I tell you to stop. Then, simplhy do a right face and stand at attention. I will return to this line and move the second man (James) forward. The third (Ten) and fourth (Jose) men will turn right not left.”

This maneuvering was carried out.

“Dent, march to the first of your sisters, the one on the left. Since you will not be in view of the audience, how you turn is up to you. Just make sure you offer your left elbow and young ladies, be sure you take his elbow with your right hand.

Dent walked to the sister first row, fargthest right, stood in front of her, did a nice about face, side stepped on step and extended his left elbow. The Young Lady, KG, stepped forward and slid her right hand into Dent’s elbow.

“I’ve dreamed of you walking me up the aisle many times, Dent.”
 
“I had no idea.” Dent was surprised.

“Most of did,” KG replied.
Dent then began a slow march toward their turning point and KG, a trained dancer, had no trouble keeping pace. At the turning point, they stopped, did sharp left turns and marched into James.

They stopped.
“Merde! Merde tête!” came from the Jongeur. Finally, c'est la guerre.”

“I have never done a multiple before. James! Ten! Jose! Two steps to the rear! Harch!”

All three men stepped backwards. 
“And we march on,” whispered KG.
She came to a halt next to Rene, braced to attention, turned to her right.
Dent made a command decision. He did an about face and retraced his steps to where the second Young Lady, Emma, awaited. The pickup went smoothly.
“I dreamed of my Father and the Grandfather walking me up the aisle, with me between them.”
“I’m more sorry than you can imagine, my dear.”
“You have become both.”
This staggered Dent, who was very glad he had kept his distance.
When he had brought 5 brides to Rene, the Jongeur nodded at James who took two steps forward. Eventually, there were four grooms, each with their five brides. 
The Jongeur smiled and said “places boy and girl! You know where to stand so move to them.”
The second rehersal went better.
The  third rehersal  was smooth but not significantly better. It was clear everyone was tired.

“Well, well,” said the Jongeur, “perhaps another four or five times? You’ll miss your dinner but what is food when it is missed in the name of art?”
“’Merde boucoup’,” Dent growled.
“’Merde boucoup’ indeed. Why not ‘c’est la guerre’?”
“Very well, then, c’est la vie’?”
“’C’est la vie’ it is then!”
“Excuse me, but what were you two saying,” Ten asked.
“We were cussing in French, the language of part of Gaul. He started with shit and shit head. I replied with a lot of shit! He replied  with ‘lots oif shit’ indeed. Then why not ‘it is the war’. This is a statement of futility. I replied with ‘it is life’ and his final response for ‘it is life’ then.”
His people were a bit taken aback.”Just a bit of harmless humour.”
“Go to dinner!” After a brief pause. “’Merde boucoup’, did any of you invite guests, Dent?”
“No”.
“Good, now I just have to figure how many are planning on coming. We have an entire village here and I suspect they will want to come. How many are going to come from the fishing village to the north: Will Parker bring his wife and others of his Pilgrimage?”

“I need to plan where the singler and music makers are going to be. They want to march around and that can not be! Merde! Merde! C'est quoi ce bordel”

“I will sleep on this and work on the integration tomorrow. So, where are you going for dinner?”
“We are planning on dining with the humans who work on the farms and construct boats for the fishing people.”
“They build fishing boats this far from the sea?”
“No, they build the ‘long boats’ which go between bigger boats.”
“I must talk with these people. I will come with you!”
Dent’s family, augmented with the Presence of the Jonguer, swept off to their dinner…
” C'est quoi ce bordel”  (“What the fuck?”)

The next morning, Forrest ate breakfast with his fishermen. 
After breakfast, Forrest’s Secretary (also his Aunt) gave him a list of things to buy in City 5 and a bundle of the Empire’s cash. Forrest nodded gravely and put both in a traveler’s purse he wore around his neck and under his left arm. After reading the contents, he was bemused for several minutes.

Forrest let the Captain of his fishing boat take the boat from their harbor and set a standard course for the Harbour of City 5. Forrest did not need to use instruments to estimate his position; he had simply taken boats in and out of the harbor since he was a teenager.

The trip to City 5 Harbour was uneventful with his Captain having the boat under full sail. The entrance into the Harbour was made easier by a pilot coming along side and asking:
“Will you be staying long, Captain?”
“I don’t think so. Our Harbour Master (he meant Forrest) needs to speak with the Harbour Master and his Aunt wanted him to pick up some supplies.”
“Very well, Captain, I’ll take you to the visiting VIP dock.”
“This is the Pilot. I have the deck and conn.”
The Pilot then gave a set of commands that clearely showed he had handled many boats in his time and brought the fishing boat to a smooth docking. His line handlers were there to put over fenders and to pass lines. This was an operation that these men had done many times and expected to do as long as they were physically capable. They were healthy men and could expect many more years doing their jobs.
The Pilot glanced at his runner and said “Please tell the Harbour Master that Forrest Martin needs to speak with him.”
“Yes, sir.”  The runner showed the truth of his name as he sprinted towards the Harbour Master’s office, which was high in a building. Moments later, the Harbour Master flag dipped and then was raised back up. Every one watching knew this meant “yes”.
The runner trotted back to the Pilot and visiting Harbour Master and said “Mr. DuPree can see Mr. Martin at his convenience . I am to take Mr. Martin to see Mr. DuPree.”

Arriving in the Harbour Master office, introductions were made:
“Harbour Master Don DuPree, I present Harbour Master Forrest Martin. Harbour Master Forrest Martin, I present Harbour Master Forrest Martin. I believe you may have met?”

“Yes, we have, Andrew,” Harbour Master DuPree replied, “you may return to duty.”
“Sir!” and left the Harbour Master Office.
“I believe we met about a week and a half ago when I came to visit you.”
“We also met a month ago when I brought you 3 bottles of City 2 Brandy.”
“I need your help in two areas. My wife wants me to buy these items.” He handed the other man his shopping list. “I also need some information and your help in understanding something.”

Harbour Master DuPree read the list and said “it looks like your wife wants a lot of birthday parties?”
“Yes said it was for birthday parties and future wedding parties.” 
“Where are my manners?” DuPree rang a bell and when his Secretary came in, he handed the list to him and said “Please have these items bought; bill this to the Harbour Master Office. Use the Official Account.”
“I appreciate you buying this stuff but I can pay for it.”
“I know. Think of this being a friendly gift and consider how much time and effort you save by not having to shop.  By the  way, do you personally like that brandy?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Andrew, please bring a botgtle of yur cousins Brandy and ghree glasses.”
The three men went to the table at one side of DuPree’s office and took seats. DuPree opened the Brandy, poured two inches in each glass and passed them around.

“As you may know, Andrew is my contact with a number of people including the local heads of the Assassins Guild, Thieves Guild, Religious Association, Military commanders and business associations. Why do I have the feeling you really came here for other purposes?”
“Probably because you’re a wise man. We fear to come inside your city. We have heard a story from visiting fishing boats and a cargo ship that groups were ambushed and killed in town. Some stories refer to killings in taverns, another was about a group of outsiders being killed in a city street downtown. This seems so unlike the ‘City of Last Refuge’ that we’ve known for years. None the less, we are few and can’t risk anyone by letting them comer into your city.”
“Do you believe these stories, Forrest?”
“No, I really don’t but some of the people working our docks have gotten convinced . I need the truth.”
“Why ask me?”
“Because I trust you, Don.”
“Then, I will provide the answers the City government gave the leaders.  Please don’t repeat what I’m about to tell you.
Forrest nodded.
“The first story is strangers were asking questions. These were the kind of questons that people wanting to do business in our city would ask. They were also the kind of questions that we fear an invader would ask.”
Forrest nodded.
“The second stgory is a group of ‘special soldiers’ sent here from someone, perhaps the Centgral City, perhaps even the Empeor or even perhaps someone pretending to be from the central government wanted this people dead. From what little I, or rather we, heard, they did not say anything worthy of being murdered.”
Again, Forrest nodded at this statement.
“The third answer is some locals simply wanted to murder some strangers. The storyh is based on the notion that we are a violent city and that we have people who are interested in killing a gbut only interested in killing outsiders Outsiders don’t have kin folki who will hunt down killers and seek revenge.”
“I don’t know what to think, gentlemen, what do you think?”
Both looked at Andrew.
“Both the Assassins Guild and Theives Guide leadership have heard these stories. There was a fight when a group calling themselves either ‘speciality soldier’ or ‘special soldiers’ tried to flee the city. Most of them were successful but only by using some sorts of Mage based weapons. They left behind a quanity of coin and both gold and silver. One of the Assassins in the local house thought he recognized the leader of a group of seven. He thoguth this leader had been one of the Grandsons of the Grandfather of Assassins in the Central Cityl If so, this Assassin is honor and duty bound to neither report this to anyone outside of City 5. He is also not allowed to discuss the matter further.”
“I think I know why Andrew,” Forrest allowed, “but please tell us anyway.”
“Our Assassin does not want to destroy the cover of someone operating inside City 5 from the Grandfather’s House. Thee isw too much chance that sending a message mentioning this mystery person, even if encrypted in the best encryption codes, could be intercepted and eventually decoded.”
“So, you are saying that intercepted encrypted messages are the most dangerous messages?”
“Yes, Mr. Martin, that is exactly what I am saying.”
“Really?” Martin paused. “Then it is a very good thing that all the messages we send are related to trade and fish!”
“What do you do that would require any special handling, Forrest?”
Forrest thought of their hidden city, Sanctuary and realized they would never send messages via the official Postal system; what little they sent out was to the Temple of the New Way, the House of the Fish and certain members of the Subline Nation.
“Aside from what we tell you here and tax demands from the Central City, we have no communications with the outside world. Perhaps we should but we don’t know where to start.”
Forrest thought of the irony that he and his people had more frequent – illegal - contact with folks from the lands north of the Great Sea than they did with those in the other cities of the nation they supposed were part of.

Don DuPree thought Forrest Martin was contemplating his people’s isolation; Andrew was closer to the truth and thought there was more going on then they realized.
“How interested are you in learning what is happening in the rest of the nationl”
“Very interested. Would they stop with taxes? Would they invade City 5 and the House of the Fish for some reason. I fear you in City 5 and the surrounding towns could lose their freedoms. What would stop invaders like these ‘special soldiers’?”
“I can give you some of our spare copies of the ‘Movement Reports’ which are routinely sent to Harbour Masters and Post Offices. After that, I will arrange for courier boats to bring the updated reports to you, Forrest. We sporatically get tracts from other other cities about events there. This may be of interest to you?”
“Yes, it will be; perhaps I should say ‘could be’. “
“Is the Gransson of Assassins living in your city, Forrest?”
“No, no, he is not out,” Forrest sang out.
“Too bad, I would have liked to meet him.”
“Assuming this ‘Grandson of Assassins’ was even here, it is reasonable that he would have gone back east, perhaps as far as City 3. If he wanted vengeance, I would expect him to strike at the battellion headquarters of these ‘Special Soldiers’ in City 3.”

“Shall we have more of this fine brandy?”
“Yes, definitely,” replied Forrest.
They enjoyed the brandy and light conversatioin until the various papers were delivered to Forreast and he was told the supplies his wife had wanted had been delivered to his boat.

“Perhaps you and your crew can stay for dinner and spend the night in our housing?”
“I’d like to,” Forrest admitted, “but our families are expecteing us back late tongith. Then, too, my wife is planning on having cakes cooked , perhaps as early as tomorrow.”
“Then, we will take our leave of each other,” Don DuPree said. “I’ll be happy to walk with you. Why don’t you put our papers in with yours?”
Forreast did so and all three men looked around the office to make sure nothing was left behind. Nothing was…
They took a leasurely, brandy gentled, walk back to the fishing boat. With a light south wind, the fishing boat Captain had no trouble taking his craft out of the harbor and onto a standard course back to the House of the Fish.

The Harbour Master told his Assistant “to walk with me”. They stopped an isolated area empty of ships and personnel.

“Did you know that Forrest Martin has a great deal of Denauvian in his ancestory. He can’t lie worth a damnation. If he gets very nervous, he inadvertently sings rather than speaking. He sang at a revealing time.”
”Why would this hypothetical Grandson go to a place like ‘House of the Fish’?” Andrew was curious.
“It could have been a safe house. It could have been that Orcs recognized him and decided to help their own. It could be something internal to the House of Assassins at a very high level that we are better not knowing about.”
“I agree Don, I agree completely. There are some things the wise Assistant Harbour Master simply does not need to know about.”
“I agree,” Don DuPree agreed. “It is a good thing I picked a place for this oh-so-secret conversation that we can say we were watching that boat leave.”
“We both know no one noticed, Don.”
“Agreed! We are, after all, just low level government officials!”
Both laughed.
“What about the coin, gold, silver and copper the ‘Special Soldiers’ left in their safe?”
“Have it robbed, bundle it up and put a nice card with it saying ‘we know nothing of your social plans but we hope this can help’.”

“Done, oh former soldier.” Andrew nodded at Don DuPree, the Harbour Master and headed to town. 
The Harbour Master created the usual log entries for his visitor and a contact report that ‘The Harbour Master of The House of Fish came to my office and received helping to buy the ingredients for a large number of cakes. The cakes were for marriages in the family of a friend of the Harbour Master.; This was paid from the covert funds in hopes of encouraging the House of the Fish Harbour Master (Forrest Martin) to serve as an informant with regard to contacts with the peoples to the north.”
This report was marked “SECRET” and sent to the Harbour Master Section of the External Ministry. It was received durijng a busy perios, was logged into a inventory listing and referenced with “City 5 friendly contacts”. Almost four hundred years later, this yellowing report was finally read and a bored clerk sent a copy to the Grandfather of Assassins. They were shocked to realize the old Grandfather of Assassins could have made contact with one who could only have been Dent…

Andrew went to the House of Theives and asked the Castellan to arrange to speak to the Heads of the Assassin and Thieves Guilds.
Andrew bowed to  both leaders.
“Honored Elders, I believe this meeting must be sealed under the ediths of both Grandfathers.”
Both nodded.
“Several weeks ago, a military group calling itself the ‘Special Soldiers’ attacked three couples and one older man who were asking questions in three different Taverns. The three couples faught will a higb degree of skill and were described as ‘assassin class’ warriors. It was the fighting of the Old Man of the group who attracted the most attention. He was described as being a Master Assassin.” Both the Leader of the House of Assassins and the Leader of the House of Theives nodded in agreement. 
“We have heard of a group of Monks living in the House of Assassins. I do not know what was special about them but they were definitely under the umbrella of the Grandfather of Assassins. This group was born in the House, raised in the House, literally called the Grandfather of Assassins ‘Grandfather’ and were being trained and groomed for high positions in the House. The Eldest was going to be a senior agent controller, an analyst supervisor or possibly the Grandfather of Assassin’s Chief of Intelligence. His name was Dent.  Without the knowledge of this group, Dent was referred to as the younger Grandson of Assassins. His opinion was solisticed; he got along very well with all the races in the Grandsfather’s House and he simply was the one to go to when there were serious problems. When his people were attacked by unknown forces, the Grandfather told Dent to take his people to shelter and stay in deep cover until it was safe for them to come out. Why they did recons of City 3 and City 5 is a puzzle that one can decipher. Two things we know! The Grandfather went  nearly insane with grief and exterminated several groups that had thought themselves immune to attack. The second is the Grandfather demanded that no one reveal the presence of this Grandson.” 
Both House Leaders knew that Andrew was more than the Assistant Harbour Master; he was the Senior Staff Officer and Intelligence officer in the northwest sector of the Kingdom. Still, he was also under the command of both House heads and could be trusted completely.
“What is it you would have from us,” the Leader of the Theives Guild asked?
“This group of ‘Special Soldiers’ is said to have left a cache of coins, gold, silver and copper in what is said to be the most secure safe in this city. I think it would be good to obtain this treasure and send it to our friend Forrest Martin. It would give our thieves and planning cells practice. It would suggest to these special soldiers that someone is unhappy with them.”
Both Elders looked at each other. The Eldest Thief sated “we agree to this action. I will convein the planning cell. They will brief a mixed crew from both our Houses who wii recon the bank and rob it when we approve their plan. Under the circumstances, I suggest we agurn until tomorrow late.”
Both Elders stood, nodded to Andrew and left.
Andrew left before sighing in relief. The classification level of what he had said was so high that either Elder could have killed him out of hand.

It was in the late evening when the fishing boat approached the entrance to their harbour. There were two lighthouses, each on a point of land bracketing the entrance. The boat’s Captain had spent years going in and out of the harbour as had Forrest. The Captain did a fine job of sailing into the harbour, tacks with excellent timing and came alongside the pier as if it were bright day light out.
There was a very bright moon Forrest reminded himself and that helped.
Either way, it was a fine landing and Forrest was happy to stagger off the boat laden down with the cake ingredients. He was surprised to find his money in the bag.
====================================================================
The Jongleur went to a place in private and using what some called “telepathy”, contacted a family member – Yetison - who was living a the Temple of the New Way. He shared information about what Dent needed and his fellow operative promised to request help from Brother Stegg.
Yetison slept to just after sun rise and had a light breakfast. Then, he attended Brother Stegg’s morning exercise programme. This was light stretching and practice in two marial arts. Brother Stegg might have been in his early 50s but he was still a retired Paladin and had been raised in a Temple as a Monk before he had gone to be a soldier and then a Paladin. 

Stegg was happy with his life, as were his wife and their children.

Yetison went to Brother Stegg and swaited until he could have a private talk.

“Brother Stegg, do you remember when the group of Monks who came to the Monstary several months ago?”

“Yes.”

“As you may now,  the survivors were taken to a place of safety.”

“We both know were that is. I was never told how many made it to safety.”

“Only 25 did. There were 20 women and 5 men. I have been told they are the only survivors of their particular form of humans. They may have devised a way of preserving their sub-species.  I will have to find out more from family members who are in place. They are obscessed by the questions of who attacked them and why?”

“What can I do to help?” 

“Czn you go tgo City 5 and ask officials there what they may know about this? You could talk with the Mayor, Sheriff, and Military commander for this section. Whats stories have your heard?”

“What reasons for the killings have you heard?”


“The first story is a group of strangers wee taking drinks at various Taverns. They looked different from other folks, seemed nervous and had unusual body ordour. Groups of violent men were notificed of their presence and went forth to murder this fine people!”


“The seconde story I’ve heard that a group of outsiders, with strange accents, and unusual body ordours were walking from Tavern to Tavern. They were looking around, asking questions and seemed a bit uncomfortable at being in Taverns. They said or did somrthing to trigger killiings. How the misstreps of one couple in one Tavern could result in three pairs of outsiders being nearly simultaneously attacked and killed is a puzzld.”

“The third story is the Commander of these ‘special soldiers’ left a description of Dent and his people. He then had watchers walking between various Taverns and watching the Temple. When one of more of Dent’s People were spotted, the watchers reorted to their handler, who had to have been an officer of the ‘special soldier’. This hypothetical officer sent his assassins out to kill Dent and his family members. I imagine the Father of Assassins would have been very upset had he known this. 
 “If this were the case, Luther?”

“Then they should have fled for fear the Father of Assassins would teken vengeance.”

“There would be good reason for the the Father of Assassins taking vengeance. Dent and his people were raised in a Temple located in the House of Assassins in the Central City.  They were raised believed the Grandfather of Assassins was their actual Grandfather. He may have been.”

“Will you looked into this for us?”

“Certainly! I will take Brother Jonathan’s ‘trap’, which means Brother Jonathan will be driving.”

Brother Stegg rtang a b ell and his Secretary, Brother Jacques came in  the room.

“Yes, Brother, what may I do for you Gentlemen?”

“I need to go into the Mouth of the Breast today and I will need both Brother Jonathan and his beloved ‘trap’. While I am gone, Jacques, you will be in charge of the Temple. How are our Hobbitts?”

“They are not too happy, Brother Luther and are anxious to find a permanent home. They are silversmiths and artists. They fled from City 2, where they worked in the mint. They could easily forge the Kingdom’s coins. They have only been here couple of weeks.” Brother Jacques shrugged.

“I’m curious about your Hobbitt, Luthur,” Yetison said, “Were there any problems with their trip here and how did they find us?”

“They were befriended by a group of traveling merchants some 40 miles from City 2 and escorted here. These merchants didn’t seem interested in trade and after leaving the Hobbitts, went towards City 5. I have not further knowledge of them.”

“If you are going to the City to visit with the Mayor, the Sheriff and the Military Commander then perhaps you should write telling them that you will be visiting.” 

“I’ll draft notes, Yetison, and have Brother Stegg sign them. Brother Mathew has been anxous to go to the ‘Big City’; I think he simply wants to ride his horse fast.”

Moments later, Brother Jacques presented the notes to Brother Stegg, who signed them. Then, Brother Stegg turned to his old grounds keeper, Brother Jonanthan and said “I need you to take me to the City of Evil, City 5. Perhaps you can drive me there in your trap?”

“I’ll go put horse to trap!”

“Don’t forget to tell your wife and you son where you are going, Johanthan.”

“Cetrainly, Brother, certainly.” Then Brother Jonathan left as lively as a 90 year old man could be.

Brother Jacquest cleared his throat. “I sent Brother Mathew to the City Hall. I also notificed your wife of your visit and she said your cloak and your bastard sword will be waiting in the your dressing room. She insists that you put on nicer trousers, a much nicer tunic and your riding boots. She said you can dress after you and Jonathan have had an early lunch. Jonathan’s wife will not let either of you leave hungry.”

Both men were intercepted by their wifes and taken to their quarters where they were presented with nicer clothing to be work. Then, they and their wives and Yetison had a simple lunch. 

Brother Jonathan was extremely proud of his ‘trap’, a fine buggy.

The ‘trap’ was a wo weeled buggy pulled by a well bred stallion. The sea was comfortable, the horse smoothly walking and members of the Temple gave them a nice send off.

It was a comfortable afternoon and the road was actually in good condition. Part way to City 5, Brother Jonathan handed the reins to Brother Stegg and said ‘I must meditate briefly’” and closed his eyes. Moments later Stegg rolled his eyes when he heard Jonathan had begun to snore.

The trip to the City Hall was uneventful, with Brother Jonathan waking up and looking around.

The City Hall was more modest than Stegg had expected. He had served in various cities of the government and had learned to expect fancy government building from the most elaborate in the Central City to the least elaborate in the outer most cities. After all, it took money and material had to be sent to the building under construction. 
Still, this City Hall looked well cared for.

Brother Jonathan took the reins with a growled “I am the driver” and gently stopped the horse in front of the City Hall. A uniformed person came to them and politely inquired “Good afrternoon, and may we be of  service to you?

“I am Brother Stegg of the Temple of the New Way. This is Brother Jonathan, my driver anhd my grounds keeper. I sent an envoy ahead to arrange meetings with the Mayor, Sheriff and Commander of your Military District. Perhaps these gentlemen are available?”

“Yes, they are Colonel Stegg, I am told the Mayor has been waiting for you. Will your driver be going with you or would he prefer to discuss horses with my fellows and I, sir?”

Jonathan intensely disliked government offices as they reminded him of parts of his early teens when he had been forced to serve as a boy soldier. He had long since forgiven Luther Stegg for becoming an officer, and later a Paladin.

The valet joined Johnatan on the trap and they parked it on the side of the building. Then, theyh walked into the City Hall.

Brother Stegg marched up to a receptionist deak and states: “I am Brother Luthur Stegg of the Temple of the New Way. I believe the Mayor is expecting me?”

“Certainly, Sir, I will conduct you to him at once.”

The receptionist walked ahead of Brother Stegg and a relief receptionist went to the receptionist table. Brother Stegg had not been called ‘Colonel’ in many years and was amazed that anyone knew of his rank.

The outer office was rather plain, especially compared to the offices Stegg had seen. The mayor was at the door to great him.

“Mayor Lebbon, I present Paladin Colonel Luther Stegg, retired, late of the 19th Battalion Colonel Stegg has been the Temple Master of the Temple of the New Way for some years. Brother Stegg, I present Mayor Tim Lebbon. He was a soldier for several years before taking an degree in Administration and taking a position in the Political Leadership of City 5.”

“I remember you, Lieutenant Lebbon. I gave you a battlefield commissionperhaps 26 yeas ago. YHou were one of my most impressive junior officers and Infantry Platoon Leaders.”

They took seats and exchanged stories about what mutual acquantences had been doing. Finally, former Lieutenant Lebbon said: “What can I help you with today, My Colonel?”
 
“A group of refugees came to our Temple a couple of months ago. I had learned of them earlier as I was told they were forced from a minor Temple in the Central City.Who ever was after them forced them from this Temple, killing a number of them in the process. They were then attacked in City 2 I believe and were helped along the way by Pilgrims from another faith. When they arrived at our Temple, they were ill and needed rest and medical attention. They insisted on going to some place of safety. I told them about a place called the ‘House of the Fish’, where I am told, they could find safety. I was also told it would be possible for them to go further west to a number of villages of people who may have settled there in Monostatic villages.
“We know they took their wagons and went north to City 5 and hoped to take passage on bpats going to something called ‘the House of the Fish’. People visiting the Temple have told me stories of violence committed in parts of City 5. The stories are somewhat conflicting.”
“Please continue, Sir,” replied the Mayor. “I have heard stories myself.”

“The main story I’ve heard is that some of them went to taverns to ask questions about news from ‘back east’. The origioins of the stories were not specific and I wonder just how good the informant’s knowledge was.”

“The main story I’ve been told is that a group of Monks fled for their lives from the Central City, as you have said, Sir. The stories also talk about something called ‘a unit of special soldiers’ who apparently work from a Command in City 1. One story is that a group of people, 3 couples and a single man went to three different Taverns.”

“The older man did what appeared to be an automatic scan of everyone in the room; he acted like an experieiced body guard who did not care who noticed him. He then sat  near a younger couple. The younger couple began talking and asking the waiter innocent questions about news from ‘back east’. The older gentleman clearly heard what was said and was watching events unfold in the room by looking at various mirrors and at reflecting windows. He had a strong presence; he reminded some of the drinkers of an old timber wolf watching over a young couple in his pack.  Some of the drinkers left for fear of what an angry old timber wolf was capable of. Shortly afterwards, the young couple and the older man were attacked. The young couple fought with great ability and some of the Orcs said they faught like fighters trained in one of the great guild houses…this is, either a warrior house or perhaps even the House of Assassins. The older man faught with the deadly skill of a trained warrior with some of the skills of a senior assassin.”

He paused, then continued: “The older man demonstrated the ability of a Monk to crawl down walls when he went down the outside wall of the tavern. He also roared in Orc “kill them all” before he left the tavern. The Orc were asked later why they obeyed answered  ‘you don’t disobey an order from a senior officer of the House.’  This lead to the story that the leader of ‘the special soldiers’ had left orders that anyone looking like these refugees would be attacked on sight. This would take watchers in the various taverns, runners to report back to a controlling offider and troops available to attack. I’m told that between the Orcs and city Gendarmes, only a couple of the attckers survived. This is a big and messy city, Colonel, and it will be hard for the city police to find any of those involved. Finally, it could simply be a massive set of coincidents.”

“Which do you believe, Mr. Mayor?”

“I believe the ‘special soldiers’ are responsible. What was your impression of this ‘Dent’?”

“I believe him to be an honest and honourable man. That story about him crawling down the wall is quite believable. At a certain level, junior level Monks begin to learn how to ‘crawl down walls’. I have some skill in this myself.”
The conversation switched to more general topics when the door was knocked upon, then opened. 

“Mr. Mayor,” his secretary began, “Colonel Warbler is waiting for you, Brother Stegg and the nest person on your me4ting list is the Sanatation Director, Mr. Mayer. He wants to discuss hiring work to clean up animal feces in the streets. After him, the City Librarian wants you to help her obtain more books from outside the city.”

Brother Stegg stood, shook hands with his former junior officer (the Mayor) and said “I need to see the Military Head with the same questions, I fear.”

“I hope you are able to get better answers, Sir.”
Then, he walked Brother Stegg to his office door. As Stegg was going thrugh the outer door, he heard the Mayor say “isn’t this the third offer to want to clean our streets in the past four years? What wonderful deal is being offering to us this time?”

The Outer Door to the Military Department Office had a large circular command plaquie. The door was opened by his escort and Brother Stegg emtered tp fomd am pffoce wotj a desk on one side, comfortable looking seas on the other side,  the pamplets one expects to find in such an office and the door open.

A man his age was standing in the doorway smilling at Stegg.

“Colonel Tim Warbler, it is my honor to present Colonel Luther Stegg, late of the 19th Battalon. Colonel Stegg is a retired Paladin Colonel and is now the Temple Master of the Temple of the New Way, a religious facility south of here.”
“Colonel Stegg, it is a pleasure to meet you again. We met when we conducted an exercise against invaders from City 2. My carvery supported your infantry battalion.”

‘As I recall, we were victorious against the ‘evil hordes of City 3’!”
“So then ,” Colonel Warbler asked after they sat down in remarkably comfortable chairs, “what is your impression of our mayor?”  

Colonel Warbler’s Secretary brought in two large glasses of Ale.

“He was one of my junior officers before I retired. He was a fine Platoon Sergenant whom I raised to Second Lieutenant  A boat on the Great River capsized. My Sergeant was conducting river operations. He put both his squads into long boats, then they rescued the people in the boat. It had turned turtle and Tim Lebbon swam into the boat and rescued two people and a large dog. Tim later said the dog was the easiest of the three to retieve. I am still proud of his actions. Did you know I arranged for Tim to receive a valor medal as well as promotion to Platoon Leader.”

He gave the other Colonel an applogetic looks and said “I didn’t kknow either of you were in the city government. I will have to keep in better touch.”

“Some times my friend, people need to get away from their old lives for a time. You and your family will always be welcome here. Ah, by the way, your grounds keeper was granted a full pardon for his desertion about the time he turned 16. He Emperor was quite upset to find that a warlord was making his own little army of ‘child soldiers’. The records do not say what became of this recruiter of child soldiers which leaves him open to all manner of disposition.”

“So, what is this about fears of killings and fires?”

“Weeks ago, we received refugees from the Temple of the Way in the Central City. They had been attacked in the night  and had to fight their way from the Temple. They were able to obtain supplies and gained help from sympathetic pilgrims of a different religion. They were attacked in City 2 and had taken sick while visiting folks in one of the little towns well south  of either City 4 or perhaps City 5. They were traveling with benefit of maps. They were suffereing from the compulsion to continue moving to the west.”

Warbler spoke: “We had no real information regarding what had happened to them or what stories were being told. Dent, the Leader, decided to make a quick reconnaissance of the out skirts of City 5 and lead 3 couples of his people into taverns. Dent went with one of the couples. The story is that Dent acted like a body guard escorting high value subjects. The couple started talking with other people in the Tavern, asking for information and news from the East. A short while later, they were assaulted.”

“The three couples, each in a different tavern were attacked. The three couples fought well but were defeated. Their leader, Dent, fought very well I’m told.”

“These people were described as having yellow eyes, an arouma similar to that of Orcs and some thought they had claws. The Dent was clearly the Elder of the group and fought with extreme violence and screamed in rage. One story is he ordered the Orc to “kill them all”. This order was given is Orc.” (Actually, Colonel Warbler thought, the order was given in the Orc form of the Assassin Guild battle language. The bartender was one of the Colonel’s watchers and spoke assassin battle language.)
Colonel Warbler paused
“There are two possibilities: First, this was a random killing that by coincident or rapid communication was able to make coorindated attacks. I don’t believe in a coincidence and a coordinated attack requires a coordinator. 
The second is that of ‘Secret Soldiers’. We were told that ‘secret soldiers’ had been sent to track down some people running from the Central City. I questioned their authority to act in my city. I was told to stand down. I sent protests to the Western Prator and when I did not get a reply, I sent an explanation to the Military Console but have not gotten a reply.”
Stegg finally spoke:
“It occurres to me that a controller could have been responsible.”
Stegg continued with:
“It has occurred to me that the leader of these ‘Secret Soldiers’ could have left orders to have watchers circulating through the various public meeting places such as taverns and eating places. If these watchers found or thought they found anyone meeting the description of Dent or his people, they would send runners to a controlling officer who could then order attacks. r

“I wish to know who is responsible for these attacks and wish to have them tried in Court of Law!”

“As do I, old friend. There are people I need to speak up.”

“You know where the Temple is and we have services on Saturday. I’m told we set a nice table.”

“Pehaps you are ready to visit with the Chief of Police?”

“Yes I am Colonel Warbler. Who is this Chief of Police?”

“He is Police Commander Willis Meyers Foulston.”

“Have I heard of him before?”

“I don’t think so; Willis is a very private person

Both walked down a hall, went down a flight of stairs and moved down an adjacent hall. In the distance, they saw a door with elaborate badge on it. The door opened and a slender and very fit man stepped out. He wore a black outfit, trousers and fitted shirt, belt with gold plated belt buckle. He wore a simple gold platted star on the left side of his shirt. He wore no apparent weapons.

“Good afternoon, Willis. We have had a visitor today. This is Brother Luthur Stegg of the Temple of the New Way. Brother Stegg, this is the Sheriff of the City, Willis Meyers Foulston.”

“It is an honour to meet you, Colonel Stegg. Perhaps a decade ago, I was a Police Commissioner in City 2. I was invited to comer here.”
He paused.
“But enough of blathering on about me. Please, come in and we can chat. It is good form for me to offer you hospitality but I cannot do so. The city health department confiscated my coffee maker and made off with my coffee cake. Still, there are ways.”  Commissioner Foulston nodded at a Police Sergeant sitting behind a desk. “Sergeant Cambry, please have someone bring coffee for both my guests and I and sufficient coffee cake for the three of us.”
“Sir”, said the Sergeant as he trundled off. 
“There is a small Detective Mess the next hall over and they love to have fresh coffee and coffew cake.”
“Perhaps you could tell me what concerns you? I have heard two stories. There is one about an attack into your sanctuary and the second I have heard some stories about.”\

“One of the duties of the Temple is to give comfort to way farers. Several weeks ago, a group of 80 Hobbitts sought a place to rest, a place of sanctuary, from whom ever pursued them. They were in the sanctum meditating when a group of armed men forced their way into the Temple. I told them to leave. They re0plied they were law enforcement and had the right to search my Temple.
Stegg paused.
“I ordered them to leave and told one of the children to take a horse and go for the police. Since that is a distance of some ten miles, I knew matters would be resolved before the Sheriff’s Police arrived. They pushed into my meditation hall and my wife backhanded the apparent Leader and bellowed ‘language’. I’m still not sure what she thought she had heard but whatever it was, the punishment awarded was that backhand and ‘language’. I’m told I assaulted three and my old Brother Jonathan came in from the rear and assaulted two with his beloved bo stick.”
“What was the outcome,  Colonel Stegg?”
“We were victorious and they were hauled off by the Sheriff’s Police.”
“On that happy note, our coffee and coffee cake is here.”
They enjoyed the food and rich, dark, and strong coffee.

Colonel Warbler sighed then stood.

I still have papers to review. My XO has fitness reports for my company commanders and both my ballation commanders. Once I send them to Army Headquarters, I can wait for them to send them back for rewrites. Sometimes, I take the report from last year and submit it.’

Colonel Warbler stood, noddedto each of the other two and left.

“I have read the report on the altercation. Your wife said you moved like an attacking balereona. Your Brother Jonathan fought with fury.  Some of your Hobbitts attacked  ran over and started pounding on the downed invaders. When matters were settling down, your wife forced your Brotgher Jonathan to lay down down and as you know, two of medical personnel treated him. They said he wasd not having a heart attack. I was pleased to read this as your Brother Jonathan seems like an wonderful human being. How has  he been?”

“He has been fine. He resents the idea that the Temple medical staff are checking him physically daily.  Do you know the reason your Hobbitts ran?”
“They had the skills to make high grade coins. For some reason, this was cause to arrest them.”
“That is only partially correct. High levels of still, even in counterfeiting, are not probably cause and can not be used to issue an arrest warrant. I have no way of knowing what charges could be brought. I have decided it best if your 80 friends find a happy place to live. I’ve heard there is a ‘happy place’ to the west of ‘House of the Fish’.  I would like you to escort your guests there.”
 
“To change the subject, our mayor told me of your remarks. I am of the opinion that someone had watchers circulating looking for people meeting the appearance of Dent’s people. I will have my detectives hunting for these watchers and these runners and who ever was the controller. I will not have this violence in my city!”

Colonel Brother Stegg was shocked at the level of rage in the voice of the Chief of Police!

“Can you describe this Dent?”
“Tall, around 35, very fit, excellent leader, very intelligent, an intellectual, very religious even it he hides it well, and absolutely devoted to his family. He is a good man.”

“Why did you come out here? I mean no offense by that question but please realize your quest raises the question.”

“He and his kin folk were fleeing from someone. They had a moment of devine contact when his God told him to lead the family ‘far to the west’. I have not heard from him after he led his people to this city to perform a recon. It seemed like a good idea but then I have been retired for some time.” Brother Stegg sighed.

“If a retired Paladin thnks a plan is a good idea then I can not and will not agrue.The last we heard suggests that Dent and some of his family are still alive. I would like to meet him again some day.”

“As would I Chief.” Brother Stegg repled.

“I see you still wear your Paladan Colonel insignia on your cloak.”

“It is a major part of what and who I am.”

“What I am about to tell you must not be discussed and is something you need to know. Will you agree to my condition?”

“Yes, I will.”

“We are certain that Dent and his people were alive when they were escorted from City 5. We suspedct they went to a town in the vicinity of a small port called ‘The House of the Fish’. We dare not check this story as we were told to remain silent and to not investiage.”

“Interesting talk from a killer of people.”

“I do not kill, Brother Luther Stegg. I am involved in other matters.”

“That is good to know.”

“Will you grant me the confiedentality of the confessional.”

“I lived in the House of Assassins in the Central City where I studied the arts of the investigator. I became a highly qualified ‘crime scene investigator’; creating ‘crime scenes’  conflicts with investigating them,” he said in a dry tone of voice. ”I also contributed a small amount of my genetic material to Dent, his wife and all his fellows. He is one of my descandents; he and his are literally ‘blood of my blood’. Thus, Brother Stegg, the killings of his three sisters and three brothers in my city is murder of my blood relatives. I am not inclined to forgive this!”

“I want the Hobbitts  of City 2 to be safe. These people are artists and metal smiths. I know the people who escorted them to safety in the ‘Temple of the New Way’; they have had to move to a different assignment; I don’t know what it is.. You can not adequately protect them. You must send to the ‘House of the Fish’, that they may find safety!”

“As you wish.”

“I will arrange for a cargo boat to take your house guests to the ‘House of the Fish’. Perhaps you could make this a family get together, a family outing?”

“I will think about this.


“Relax Luther Stegg, you are among friends. The Harbour Master of ‘House of the Fish’ is planning on a large wedding. I suspect your family and perhaps that of your driver would enjoy a chance to get away from the Temple?”

“Yes, we would.”

“It will take a couple of days to arrange for transportation.  When you see Dent, tell him that Brother Meyers of the Leavenworth Clan sends his regards. Tell him his location is a State Secret”

“Until we meet again,” Brother Stegg said. Then, both men nodded to each other and Brother Stegg left.

As soon as Stegg was beyong hearing range and his escort had taken him to the flight of stairs, Sheriff Foulson, also known at the “Father of Thieves” told his Senior Sergeant: “Colonel Brother Luther Stegg, his driver and all those in his Temple of the New Way are members in good standing of both the houses (he meant the Houses of Thieves and Assassins). They are to be treated with respect, care and must not be harmed!”

“I will have that order issued within the hour!”

Stegg found Jonathan seated in the opening area drinking a mulled wine.

“Time for us to go home. We have some packing to do.”

It was the work of moments for the grooms to have their horse attached to Brother Jonathan’s trap. As they departed the city, a group of horse men went past their ‘trap’ and slowed down. 

“Jon, they are following from ahead.” Stegg was amused.

A second group of horsemen approached from the rear and took up formation there. Finally, when the group was in open country known for the possibility of bandits, the two groups changed formation and became one group with the trap in the center. 

The guide on  bearer held the flag of the Sheriff of City 5. 

It was a totally uneventful trip back to the Temple, especially since they knew they’d gone past locations favoured by highwaymen. Then, again, Stegg thought, they might not be too eager to attack 80 heavily armed police carvery!

The arrival back at the Monestary was as quiet as they had expected. Brother Stegg had written down his impressions on the way back (in spite of the bumpiness of the ride) and needed to expand them. Brother Jonathan drove his ‘trap’ around to the barn where he unhitched horse and asked some of the young workers to care for the ‘trap’. Jonathan had planned on caring for the horse but when 2 young workers insisted on helping, he relegated himself to supervising. (The two men, who were in their 30s, were under orders from Jonathan’s wife to care for the horses.)

Brother Stegg, having nodded to Brother Jacques and told him “We need to talk”, had written out a more detailed narrative of the trip to City 5
Brother Stegg went to his outer office and asked Brother Jacques “where is my wife?”

“She is visiting the Hobbitts.”

“Good”, Brtoerh Stegg replied, “we have much to talk about.”

“Such as?”

“The need for the Hobbitts to leave for the ‘City in the West’ (they knew this was ‘Sanctuary’) in thee days time but we’ll talk about this.:

“Certainly, Brother Stegg”, Brother Jacquest replied and thought “we most certainly will talk about this!”

His wife was in an alcove off the main room of the chapel; in the Chappel, several young novices were doing a group reading of liturgy and listening . Madam Stege was talking to the adult Hobbitts.

“Good evening, I am happy to see all of you.Have you had a pleasant day?”

“I have,” his wife replied. “for the most part our guests have but they are also worried about their future.”
“I can appreciate their fear. Perhaps I have a workable solution.” He looked at the Novices and said “I’d like one of you to bring Brother Jacques here from my office.”

Two Novices immediately ran for the stairs. Moments later, they returned with Brother Jacques.

“You were saying our guests are worried?”

“Yes,” said one of the Hobbits, “we fled here, escorted by someone’s private army and have lived here for a while. We need to feel safe and we don’t want to seem to be beggers.”

“I appreciate your problem. Do you have any ideas of dealing with this currently?”

“No we do not.”

“I may have an acceptable solution to your problems. I have just spent the day talking with the Mayor of City 5, the Military Commander of this Military District and the City Sheriff. There is a way of taking you to a place of safety if you are willing to trust us.”

The Hobbitts nodded. Brother Stegg looked at his novices and said “Why don’t you visit with Brother Jonathan about our visit to the City Hall?”

“Sir!” and they left.

“I went with Brother Jonathan to the City Hall to see if they had any information about some murders in the City seveal months ago. They did not but they knew about a group of Hobbitt who had fled City 2. The Sheriff also knew you have taken shelter here. I believe you would be best off going to a place of safety we know of. You would be safe from attack and you would find, I hope, pleasant work.”

“Where can we go that will be safe?”

“There is a hidden city well to the west of here that has offered sanctuary to people for centuries. It is not sp[oken o in older to preserve it’s safety. You should know it is occupied by people who may look familiar to you but are rather different than what you think. Are you willing to move to this city of friendly people, knowing you will be safe and knowing your lives could be much  better?”
“
Jongleur   The HObbitts glanced at each other, spoke in the high pitched HObbitt language and the one who seemed to be the leader turned towards Brother Stegg and said:

“Please continue.” 

“To start with, they are planning on a rather large wedding…”

In Sanctuary, the planning for the “rather large wedding” was going well. They’d had the dress rehersal with everyone in nice clothing but not their wedding attire. The attitude was “if the men can not see the women until the wedding, then the women should not see the men”. 

Thunder on the Craig had braced his “young warriors” and had marched them in and they were ready for their places. Dent had walked his sisters from their waiting area to their places next to the “brother” that duty required them to marry. No one objected as they had planne for marriage for most of their lives.

The Jongleur said “I refuse to reveal any part of my homily since I want it to be a fresh delight. So, A little girl finally got to attend a wedding for the first time. While in the church, the girl asked her mother: “why is the bride dressed in white?” The mother replied to the girl: “because white is the color of happiness and it’s the happiest day of her life today.” He paused and continued “After a little bit, the girl looks up at her mother and says: ‘But, then why is the groom wearing black?’” That was not one of my own jokes.”
“Ah, I ask myself, do I have time for another joke! Wait, I can tell myself ‘you have time for another joke.’” He  paused and said ‘you jolly Jongler do have time for anther joke!”
There was nervous laughter.
“What to say? What to say? Ah, you’re Monks!  Did you folks know threre are actually people who dislike alcohol? Religious people…”  The Jongleur paused to take a large sip of red wine. Time for another oldie and goodie:”
“A preacher was completing a temperance sermon. With great expression, he said “If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and throw it in the river.” With even greater emphasas, he said “And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and throw it in the river.” And then, finally, he said, “And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I’d take it and throw it into     the river.  He sat down and the song leader stood very cautiously and announced with a smile. “For a closing song, let us sing Hymn #365, “Shall We Gather at the River.”
“Is there a river near here?  If so, we could gather there!  But, no, this is supposed to be my homily about marriage.  Perhaps you should talk to experts and I think I arrange for that. Ah, I’m getting the ‘move along’ gesture so I will close with ‘y’all be married now so let us get desert!”
“By the way, my young ones, my sermon when I marry you will be much more serious so I hope you enjoyed my little bits of humour. I kind of wish I had written those jokes. Dent, do you have any drinking booze for everyone here? I cold use a good beer. You do have good beer, don’t you, Dent?”

“Yes, we have good beer.” Dent growled. 
“Then, lets go sample your beer and see how good it is. So, Brother Dent, I’ve looked at the invitation lists and it looks like we could fit another hundred or so visitors in his Temple of yours. Are there any suggesions? 


In City 5, the Father of Thieves was visiting with the Father of Assassins. 

“Did you really tell that old priest that we had escorted his Hobbits to his Temple? The Father of Assassins asked.”
“Yes, I did. I knew the Hobbits would have told Brother Stegg. If there is a time to claim the glory for doing ‘a good deed’; this was that time.  It was just as important to escort Colonel Stegg and his grounds keeper back home.  There are highwaymen active  on the road and I want them eleiminated. Ether that, or having them under my command and required to obey my rules. This includes payments to my House.”

“Do you realize this hidden city is not to the west of the ‘House of the Fish’? Who came up with that name, I wonder?”

“I suspected that based on the Priest’s all too earnest appearance. What is the truth?” 

“I had a reconnaissance of the area around ‘House of the Fish’ done about a year ago. I had a stealth boat drop off a combat reconnaissance squad ten miles west of the port. They split into two groups and did a recon near the shore and perhaps a mile inland. There were signs of activity but nothing that could be considered development.  Their return trip required them to patrol 3 miles and 5 miles inland. There is not city ‘west of the House of Fish’. 

“I then had the group insert five miles east of this port. They patrolled toward the hamlet and were wearing gullies suits. They found there were tracks moving north and watched occasional groups of what appeared to be humans and Orcs moving north; I say ‘appeared to be’ as they did not behave like ‘normal’ humans and Orcs.” 

“So what apparently went wrong?”

“I can’t say something went wrong. One of the recon team members asked the rhetorical question of ‘where are those people going‘? A strange voice replied ‘some things should remain a mystery. We know who you are and who you serve. Just tell your masters that others are protecting these people’. To their surprise, a face suddenly appeared in front of them. It was like a cloak had been removed. It was the face of a non-descript pale skinned human. He had strange eyes. Anotgher of the team said ‘this man is dead! The cloaked man replied ‘I was but didn’t stay that way’. Then, he said ‘time for you to go home, boys.” 

“Was he really there?”

“They found foot prints leading from my recon team towards the north; these steps faded out completely in about six steps. My teams leader said ‘time to withdraw and the team made a somewhat hasty but cover departure.’”

“What is the mental state of your team,” the Father of Thieves asked?

‘They seem fine. I have sent them into Cities 4 and 3 on different recon missions and there have been no problems. It would seem these cloaked guards exist only around an area south of the ‘House of the Fish’.”
“Perhaps we should just ignore them and hope we do need to make contact?”
“Yes.”

Two days after arriving at the Temple of the New Way, the Hobbitts had packaged their meager possession and had out only what they needed for that night and to dress the nest morning. After breakfast, they needed to put a small amount of clothing into suitcases and then were escorted out to two wagons. 

Brother Stegg left unnecessary instructions for Brother Jacques, said his good byes to his family and boarded a wagon with his wife. His great great grandson had become great buddies with a HObbitt his age and the boy and his parents also went aboard a wagon. 
The third wagon held the personal goods of the Hobbits and some presents.  Groups of mounted calvery rode iup and down the road to City 5. The soldier could tell there were watcher in the woods but they appreared to took cover quickly when any of the soldiers went bye. 
The caravan took a quick lunch break and continued traveling. They arrived at the Military docks in the late afternoon. They were greated by a 110 foot personal carrier.  They had gone betdween buildings and tree screened lanes with the result the folks in the wagons were able to enter the boat with outsiders not seeing them. As for the officers and crew of the boat, they had carried many people of different nations and simply didn’t care anymore…
Once the guests were below deck, the boat was toed partway into the harbour before the personal carrier was able to move into the Great Sea. It was a very calm sea and no one was worried about anti-nausia drugs. It was a peaceful trip and the two escort war ships were unneeded.
Diner was at 5 pm and the guests were allowed to come on deck until into the twilight. After sundown, the two enterances to the personal cabins were placed under guard. This upset the children who did not want to be locked in. Fortunately, one of the guards was a natural born entertainer. He started singing then telling the Hobbit children (and one human child) nice stories, which bored them. After that, this sailor started telling horrow stories abour monsters in foreign lands and rescues by the good guys – people of their Coast Guard and Harbour Police—and how nasty the monsters were.

The kids thought it was good fun and were not told the stoires were true and the monsters worst than they were told.

In the late evening, the boat hove to outside the Harbour of the House of the Fish. Exchanging light signals, all concerned waited until Nautical Twilight was well along before drifting into the Harbour. The Captain nade a smooth approach to the main dock and was pulled to shore. Lines went over and were tired off,  the bow (“gangplank”) was put over. 

It was only when breakfast was announced that folks realized were tied up and could jump to land if scared. The foodf was good and some people wented to go back to bed and others wanted to run on shore. This lasted until they were able to muster wagons to move people and property to Sanctuary. 

The trip took them with areas of open fields, dense wood land and some few numbers of ponds and a couple of rivers. The Hobbitts were immensely entertained by the scenery. Evntually, they realized they had arrived at Sanctuary.

After Dent and his people had come to Sanctuary, old tents complete with beds, tables and chairs had been moved out of deep storage. It was the work of a day to put up emergency shelter for the Hobits.  Later, the External Guard Pioneer Battalion would work with the Orcs and Elves to make permanent shelters.

The peaceful afternoon was shocked with the sounds of racous musical instruments being tuned up outside and other groups playing sections of songs. It would have gone better had they not been played separately.

Late that day, Dent conveniend what he called “our intelligence bureau” or our “what is going on club”?

“Luther, please tell us what happened?”

“Broteher Jonathan and I took Jon’s ‘trap’ to the City Building in the ‘City of Last Refuge’. Jon went off with the horse grooms and apparently had a wonderful time listening to gospit about the City Goernment. We’ll have to ask him about this later; he has been busy with part of his family and the Hobbitts. 
“I spoke with the Mayor, Military District Commander and the Town Sheriff. I felt a bit uneasy around the Sheriff. However, in terms of trust, the Mayor was one of my junior officers – a Calvary Troop Leader when I was  a Colonel Paladin. The Military District Commander is a Colonel and I felt very much at home with him..” He paused. “Yes, Dent, I feel at home with you the same way. I’ll get back to what the Sheriff, Willis Meyers Fourlston said. I asked all three variations of these questions:”
“1. Was there an attack against visitors to City 5 in taverns.”
“2. What was the cause of these attacks?”
“3. Were there watchers circulating around the Taverns looking for people looking for people who look like you, Dent?”
“4. If these watchers existed, then they would have needed runners to take messages to an officer and take orders back to attack troops. Is there any way of identifying the watchers and the officer. I really did not overtly ask about these watchers but I did ask about an officer controlling this web.”
5. Could the attacks have been the result of people wondering from several taverns to a common place where a group formed and spontaneously decided to attack you?”
“They did not have any answers but they showed enough interest to leave me thinking they would look into these matters. I don’t know if they can truly come up with the answes we want but one thing ovcurred to me: the common man might have clues that they don’t realize are significant. If we had some way to communicate with the common people outside of the structured ways, we might6 be able to find answers.”

“What do you mean by this,” Regindla asked?”

“Our society is very structured with somewhat rigid way to communication down but very few ways to communicate up or sideways.  Perhaps if there were some way plamplets could be created with stories and distributed outside the usual monitored and sensored communications ways?”

“That is a very interesting idea, Luthur. Why don’t we have some wine and, what did the Orc call it?, bounce some ideas off each other?”
“I will think about this. Now, I would like to spend some time with this ‘Jongleur’ of yours. I am after all, a preacher.”

He stood.

“Luther, what was it you were going to tell me?”

“The Sheriff, Willis Meyers Fouston, said quote “When you see Dent, tell him that Brother Meyers of the Leavenworth Clan sends his regards. Tell him his location is a State Secret”
  
 Dent had a sad and reminiscing smile on his face and he was clearly was a long time away.

“Thank you, Luther, this is very good to know.”

“You can trust us,” Reglinda said.
“It is a bit embarrassing to admit much of our origins, you know.”

“Why is that, Dent?”

Dent shrugged.

“We were taught to be secretive and to not make our presence known to outsiders.  We were told not to talk about being genetically engineered.” Ten shrugged.

“We’re proud of what we are,” KG interjected. “We don’t talk if we don’t think our listeners are interested what we have to say about our genetic background.”
“Would these be the Orcs and Elves of our new city, Sanctuary?”
“Yes, Dent,” KG replied.
“There is a simple answer to this matter, my dear. All of the Orcs  all of the Elves are the results of genetic engineering. There are some unusual humans whom you do not want to meet.”
“Why?”
“Because they are damaged in ways that vary from persosn to p;erson and can efen go theough phases in which they seem to change. The only good think we can say is their population is declining and they meet extinction in a century or so. They are happy about this…”
“Genetic changes are made by ‘genetic engineers’. Brother Meyers of the Leavenworth Clan was one of our senior engineers. All 25 of us have his self-control related genes; they are very strong. We also have his analytical intelligence. I remember Brother Meyers as being very dedicated to caring for others. I used to say ‘I want to be like Brother Meyers when I grow up.’ I think I have.”

“Why don’t we talk about this information reporting idea and see if we can implement it. Oh, could someone get me a foot stool?”
“Is he alright?” Brother Stegg inquired of Ten.

“Our Eldest Brother delegated the duty of ‘Drill Master’ to different people in our little group. I’m afraid he was literally run into the ground.”
Brother Stegg laughed and marched off (he thought he was merely strolling).
Dent glared at Ten: “Now that sharade is over, almost as Elderly Brother Ten, who was it that was really ‘run into the ground’”?

“What I said was poetic license.”
“What I am about to say is a family secret and must not be revealed outside the family.” He glanced around and was pleased Regindla considered herself a family member. “Brother Meyers was a brilliant criminal investigator who was sent from the House of Assassins to some undisclosed location to conduct criminal investigations. The Grandfathers of the House of Assassins, House of Thieves, House of Magic Users and the Military Clans wanted ‘good order and discipline’. They wanted illegal activities, no mater how violent, to be regulated. I had heard that Brother Meyers had taken a new name, had been granted papers to support this new history and entered the services of a distant city.”
He gusted out a long breath.
“Yes, Brother Meyers is now Sheriff Willis Meyerds Foulston. From his ‘Clan Name’, he is also the Father of Thieves.”
“Can we trust him with our lives,” KG wanted to know.
“Yes, because we already are trusting him with our lives. Brother Stegg told me earlier that the City Sheriff and thus both Fathers know we are out here. Clearly, they want us all to be safe and our location a ‘STATE SECRET’”

“So, what kinds of information are we looking for?”
“I keep thinking that stories, perhaps fiction or truth disguised as a story might revreal truths. Perhaps , coujld lead to peole reporting stories they had seen or heard. Why not write up our ambuse in City 5? We could write up the story of our attack in City 3?” 
Everyone looked at Dent.
“We must make sure we tell the readers to tell us of other stories of violence. We may change names and locations but we will publish them. What else could we put in?”
“Jokes, little happy stories and most important, letters to the public.”  Ten was dead serious.

“We will have to develop a distribution system to get this material out. Could we use the various temples and even dro them off at Taverns and eaqtting places or even in boxes on street corners withmoneyu boxes?”
“Good ideas Carroll. There will be the threat of the money boxes being stolen.”
“Keep the price low enough and we could ask the homeless to babysit these boxes. Tell them they can keep the money made, for now anyway.”
“I’ve wondered about monitoring the general economy for changes that could be dangerous to us.”
“In what ways, Ten?” KG expressed the general curiosity of the rest.

“Water is the soul of life. Isn’t that what the preachers kept telling us in the Temple? How do we know  where the rain goes when it hits the earth. What about ‘snow’? I’ve read that ‘snow’ is a miserably cold substance that changes into watr when it gets hot. Where does snow go? We’ve dug gardens and noted that sometime the soil is moist and other times it is as dry as Dent’s humour can be.” Dent looked disgusted. “Just joking oldest old Brother. It goes to river, ponds  and onto fields. Maye we could set up a system of measureing rainfall amounts, snow amounts, river heights and how big ponds are.”

“Who would wantg to know this?”

“Everyone who needs to guess the future size of crops. Everyone who needs to decide on how to divide the water from a river.  We would have to create measuring tools to measure the rain as a start.”

Ten was looking at the drinking glasses they were using. For some reason, they were using long, thin, cylinders at this meeting and were pouring cold water from a large pitcher.

“I think we have the answer here,” Ten said. “Just make standardized glasses like these cylinders and supply rulers to measure the water contained inside of them.”

“Lets come up with a size. Now, we need to know the range of rain fall we can expect. We also would need some kind of map system to tell us where the rain measurements were taken. Don’t be surprised if governments want to take this job over. If they do, they can have the jobs of reporting to the public. We have to somehow make the public want to take these measurements…”

“Dent sighed. “On that happy note why don’t we go to the Temple and listen to whatever music is being played?”



===================================================================

After leaving their meeting, Brother Stegg met his wife, who had been waiting for him and was seated on a stone bench.
“How did your meeting go?”
“I think it went well considering that a had only one piece of information to tell Dent. No,” he reconsidered his words, “make that two items. Put let us walk closer to the Temple. After all, I promis4ed to visit this ‘Jongleur’ and  discuss his wedding arrangements with him. The first item is the Sheriff said he knew of a secret city out her and is convinced that Dent and his family are sheltering here. He told me their existence here is a ‘STATE SECRET’.”
“Can he do this, Luther?”
“Yes, he can Lynn. Not in his persona as Sheriff but something else.’
He snorted.
“And this other persona is?”
“The good Sheriff,” he said without irony, “gave me a message for Dent. He said and I quote: “tell him that Brother Meyers of the Leavenworth Clan sends his regards. Tell him his location is a State Secret”.

“Wow! That is saying a great deal and a display of much trust in us, dear. “
“Really,” he replied in a slightly puzzled tone of voice.
“This Willis Meyers Foulson just told you we are members of his family. What else did he tell you?” 
“This Sheriff Fourston contributed some of his genetic material into the basic genetics of Dent and his family. Dent said he was a very caring person at that time.”
“I hope Dent does not change.”
“I’m not sure he has changed. A person can be one thing to his children and something qujite different to others. While I don’;t think Dent will change, he is really too old to change much, in the areas of anger, Dent might well be far worst than we think.”
“I think Dent would have made a fine Paladin.”
“He is a fine Paladin, my dear,” Brother Stegg replied.
“Ah, did you grasp the significance of ‘Brother Meyers of the Leavenworth Clan”?
“Leavenworth was a military prison in the mountain highlands well to the south of here. It had a moderate climate during the summer and can be quite cold in the winter. This prison was used to house thieves and those who betrayed secrets.”
“Is there more?”
“Oh, yes, there is. Using the phrase ‘of the Leavenworth Clan’ identifies him as a leader in the Leavenworth Clan. I think you will find that Willis Meyers Foulston is the Father of Thieves in City 5.”
“Based on their reactions, it seems to me that Dent, Ten and KG grasped this immediately. I wonder who the Father of Assassins is?”
“I don’t know either, my husband. But, one thing for sure, his or her idenithy will seem obvious after we learn it. We should not attempt to learn it!”
“I agree, my dear. Now, let us go be charmed by this marriage man who will be wedding our kin folk in mere days time”

==========================================================
The Jongleur was standing in the newly made Temple. He was in the front of the newly installed chairs. (The chairs had been made over a period of centuries and were of different sizes and styles. The Jongleur had sighed in dismay on seeing them.

His musicians had chairs suitable for their sizes and music stands in front of them. Of the various musicians he had available, only those about to be wed were exempt from being drafted into his 'army of music makers'. His 'army of music makers was from the Elves, the Danuvian-Humans, the few Humans living in either the House of the Fish or in Sanctuary itself and even three Orc. Actually, he needed only two Orc, the third Orc had the job of roaring "convine" at the start of the wedding and "joy" when the marriage ceremonies were finally over..

"All right sailor boys and girls", the Jongleur roared. "We can do this from the top and I know it will be great!"

The band started playing and it was awful.

Twice more, the Jongleur roared "from the top" and the results were awful. 

Then, the great great grandson of Brother Jonathan squaked out "from the top!"

The band did their best preformance!

"Why?" 

"Just to give you some grief." There was no way for the Jongleur to tell who had said this. 

"Shall we have this boy give the command to perform?"

"Yes."

"Then let us begin from the top. You do know how to follow the Band Director's baton movements?"

"For practice purposes, I will say 'from the top'." He did so and began directing with teh baton. The band did very well.


========================================================
Thunder on the Craig ran into the Temple and roared "there you are! Good news!"

The Jangleur glared at them!

"We can move stuff from water, like salt from salt water. Now, we finally have a real fresh water supply and don't need to depend on rain and the ponds!

'Silence!" We are trying to make music here and this noise simply is unacceptable. Either listen quietly or leave!"

The Jangleur was becoming elderly but he had been an Army sergeant many years before and did not take kindly to disrespect.

"Were you talking to me," the hulking and very big Thunder on the Craig replied.

The Jangleur took several steps towards them, raised his baton and shook it in anger.

Thunder on the Craig knew when to retret and he said in a softer voice "we need to talk. Perhaps outside?"

Appeased, the Jangleur turned back to begin directing his band.

Thunder on the Craig said in a whisper louder than the band "is the music alway this bad?"

Now, the band was glaring at him, the Jangleur waving his baton and Thunder said "is it something I said?"

Thqat deflated the tension and THunder lead Dent and his fgri3ends outside the Temporary Temple. (The irony of the "Temporary Tower" was that it was still in use and in good shape centuries later when the leadership of Sanctuary allowed outsiders in.)

"We have two ways of getting water and I don't include rain and the ponds. We can remove water from unclean water and we can now drill for it in the semi-desert south of here. My boys - Orc and three Elves - used mine spells designed to find certain precious metals. These spells wre modified to look for water. We found an enormouos body of water going beyond 20 miles south of our city. When Father Drought comes and the old Bastard always comes, we can use other mining spells to remove the dirt above the water and then bring up the water we need! We can water vast acres of crops."

'What about insects?"

"if we clean the seeds and cover them, insects probably will not get in with them. Once we leave them in storage past the start of the desert, the insedts will have to leave to find food. We can assume the seeds are cleaned then and take themto a pro[per planting place."

Ten continued with another question.

"What if the damned insects then grow with the crops?"

"We stop giving water to the plants and the insects must die. If we need to, we can always start over in a different patch of the desert. We have the people and perhaps the new Hobbits might feel like helping farm."

James, one of Dent's four surviving brothers, said "we will help".

"I don't think so, younger brother. You are too valuable for yur Father duties and for teaching in the Temple. Anyone can pull a hoe, very few can climb down a wall and even fewer can tech this art.I wold like to see you engaged in using your brain. You can teach, you can help plan teh gardens in the desert, youu can work in creating news tracks. Yi are needed for your brains."

James simply nodded.

"Also, during the harvest, you can bail hay while the other menfolk are digging upo poatoes with the Hobbitts.

The next morning dawned peacefully.

Dent was in charge of training that day and held it down to a walk on the usual track, an almost relaxed run on the 5 mile track and a reasonable set of exercises. The group entered the dining hall just after the Hobitts did. 
After breakfast, they were approached by the Hobbit elder.

“Elder Dent and Elder KG (they were the first two encountered) we would like to learn to fight. Will you teach us?”
Dent nodded to KG.
“Yes Elder Edward of the Cloverdale Hobbits, we can. The training starts with physical fitness testing to see how fit you are. You do realize that much of fighting depends upon being strong enough to fight? The actual art of fighting has been broken down into steps. These steps are combined to produce effective strikes and defenses. This takes a while to learn.”

“Can’t you teach us self defense faster?”

“If you want speed, we can teach you to use a cross bow. I am not sure if Hobbits can even use crossbows. All other Martial Arts such as knife, sword, slings and bo sticks as well as unarmed physical defense require time. Hobbits can use daggers, swords, war hammers.

“I know this is a disappointment,” Dent added, “but you can not simply learn Martial Arts in a hurry. A problem with Martial Arts is that a real fight might only last until a crippling or killing strike is scored. We practice a variety of such strikes, defenses, throws, counters to throws, mat work, chokes, and running. You would be amazed at how many fights are ended when the attacked person successfully runs to safety.”

“Really? That sounds like the actions of cowards!”

“Dead men who should have run tell no tales. Live men who ran when they had to can tell lies and make up reasons for fleeing a fight. My people and I have been engaged in combat training for a very long time.” Dent thought for a moment. “You work with jewelry and have made valuable coins?”

“I wish to make an engraved plate with the faces of KG and her betrothed. Teach me. I need to make this in two days.”

“Really? Really? It will take you years to learn to sketch their faces. Then, more years to master carving before you even attempt to carve their images. Badly done carvings are horrible. If you were to make coins with their faces, you must have excellent dies for the press and have repeatability. Two days in barely enough to teach you to begin to draw. Amateur!”

The Hobbit’s wife interjected. “That was his point, husband. You will not be able to learn fighting in two days either.”

“I am willing to teach you. Edward of the Cloverdale Hobbits. How many wish to learn?”

“All of us.”

“It will be some time before you fan engage in ‘sparing’. ‘Sparing’ is fighting. You must first build you strength; for that matter, I do not know how strong and agile you are. Then, there is the joy of physical training. When do you want to start?”

“Right now, Elder Dent!”

“Do you know what a pushup is?”

“No, what are they?”

“Here is how you perform a pushup.” KG eased down to the ground, moved into position and popped off 50 perfect pushups.

He did two very bad pushups. His wife bettered him by doing one adequate push and three very poor pushups.

Dent sighed too quietly to be heard and said: “you need to work your way up to pushups. Come with us and we will teach you to use the wall. You’ll lean against the wall and lower yourself until your nose touches the wall and then push yourself back upright. After you have done this ten times, we were show you a variation of situps. There are ways to physically train you for pullups.”

“What about fighting?”

“Not to worry, we will touch upon that shortly. Remember it will take time to master these actions. As I mentioned, Edward of the Cloverdale Hobbits, sparring is fighting and we will not allow a student to fight until he or she is fully capable of defending themselves. Remember this: your only true opponent is yourself and your own limitations!”

“Think of as learning to sharpen the pen,” his wife suggested. 


After dinner, one of Dent’s sisters told him “I’d like to talk with you. Is there someplace with good wine?”

“Certainly, why don’t we go to a little bar the Elves maintain?”
By the time the two had made it to the Elfen bar, two had swollen to nine of his sisters and two of his brothers. An Elf suddenly was at the back of the group. 
They  went into the bar and Dent sat at the end of a table. His group added an extra two tables and later more. 

The bar waiter, an Orc long retired from the Mines, shambled over. 

“So, you are going to brace your young ones before they become wed?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“It is what the Patriarch does. I will bring wine.” He had spoken in Orc. Then, in common: “Young hopeful people, HE has told me you want wine.” Everyone else spoke better Orc than this old one did and knew Dent had not requested wine. “What do you want to eat with your wine and his wisdom?”

The old Orc took out a pad of paper and slowly wrote down the requests. He was bent from the mines but his mind was sound,

“Shall I talk about marriage as a custom or as a tradition or perhaps an economic matter?”

“No, silly,” one of his sisters said. “How soon after getting married should you do it?”

“Do it,” Dent asked?

“Exchange bodily fluids,” one of his brothers said.

“Take her temperature with your built in thermometer”, an Elf added.

“Sallow his spit”, another of his sisters said.

“Make the sign of the ‘two backed clam’,” yet another brother chimed in.

“Timing is going to be something you will need to discuss. This can be a very delicate matter,” Dent advised. “I don’t know about our Orc brother, the one who brought us wine and fried snails, but a man has limited endurance. Be aware of that physical limitation.”

“Even an Orc stud is limited to twice a night and some nights he must rest.”

This comment went over the heads of everyone but Dent. Dent knew his brothers would understand fully in a couple of months. Dent nodded to the Orc in complete agreement.

“We were designed to respond to certain medicines once the need is apparent. That is, these drugs will only be given once the need is apparent.”

The old Orc raised his wine glass, nodded respectfully to Dent and gulped it down. 

“The Patriarch speaks wisdom,” he said.

“How many times should we ‘do it’?”  There was giggling after that question.

“That is something only husband and wife can decide,” the Old Orc answered. “You can not tell another person how to do this private part of their life!”

This time Dent raised his wine glass in salute to the Old Orc and gulped down his wine.

Then then the conversation devolved into methods and Dent just shook his head.

Some things one just found out for yourself. 

One of the Elf Fathers, who had been enjoying wine with his friends, had wondered over and listened to the talk. In a soft voice he said to Dent  “ah, the talk of eager virgins”. 
The old Orc, who had brought platters of deep fried fish and deep fried carrots added: ‘soon they will think they have invented new ways of sex that no one has ever known before.”
The three older men laughed softly. Dent was amused to thing that men of the Elve, Orc and human (he thought of himself as “human”) could take the same humour in the acts of their young ones.

They didn’t realize their Fathers and Grandfathers would have laughed right along with them…


It was finally the day before the Great Weddings and Dent wanted a break in the late morning. He went to find Thunder On The Craig.
“Thunder, I recall there was a mining technique for removing blocks of rock from the mine in cubes one meter ib a side. How is this rock moved from the rock face to where ever it is dumped?

“The best mages skilled in these spells work the rock face. Those who hope to one day have the training and skill and experience move the blocks to the processing ground where  Elve Mages remove the metal from the ore rocks. The ore is then transferred to Forrest Martin, who trades it with people from the lands on the north side of the Great Sea.”

“Why them and not one of the cities?”

“Ther people we trade with do not care about our cities and do not care about our politics. They just like our very, very, pure metals. Thy give us very valuable items. If we were to trade in our cities, we would likely see our mages taken and be told ‘thank you for volunteering to serve the Government. Perhaps we are wrong to fear the Central Government as I do but I fear those who murdered your family. I do not want to see them kill more!”

It took a moment for Dent to surpress his rage and grief. 

“Nor do I, brother, nor do I!” Dent was far from over his range and grief. When you change a baby’s diapers, help him (or her) learn to speak a foreign language, you form a bond that lasts…

There was a brief pause.

“Perhaps I should tell you my real reason for this conversation. It was very interesting but I have the fear that a drought is coming. We have the possibility of taking water from the lands south of us for crops. We need to have water from the Great Sea and have the salt and crap removed from  it. But, how can we move large amounts of pure water to us?”

“We could try building a pipeline from the distillation plant to our city. I don’t’ know what we could make this out of and how we could keep this pipe from leading future enemies directly to us. The second would be to put pure water in wagons and move them via wagon. It would not move much water and I don’t know how much of the water would be used to water the horse and the driver.

“The third method is to dig a trench between the Great Sea and Sanctuary. There are a number of problems. How would the water be moved over the hills? How would we keep the water from being drank by wild life and contaminated by the same wild life? This method simply does not look feasible.”
“There is a possible fourth method, Dent,” Thunder on the Craig rebutted with. “Why not send salt water down the pipe? You must filter the salt water first and send it down the pipe. It would have to be cleaned at the City, distilled in the City and would leave salt and other dissolved crap lying around. We could move this crap by disoloving it in a stream but I think we will have better uses of that stream…”

“I don’t have the answer”,  Dent said..

“I don’t either but I know we need to think of something.”

In the mid afternoon, the Jongleur held the final rehearsal.

“There is something you must keep in mind, especially all of the ladies! Getting dressed will take time. Waiting for your walk down the aisle will take more time. Be sure to sit on the jakes before your gets dressed and work at it!  However don’t stain anything.”

“Gentlemen, you too can be struck by the need to  visit the ‘Wooden Goddess’ as you are starting to wait for your brothers to be escorted into the room.”

“This can also happen to those official conducting the services. Do not get between me and the Jakes when I am minutes from putting my robes on…

The resulting laughter had a bit of hysteria in it…

It had become their habit to run and work out, then eat breakfast and perform martial arts drills. The various people in Sanctuary loved to watch the Monks, especially Dent, flow through various routines. The main thing they came for was to watch the Monks slide down the sides of the practice wall.

During the evening meal, the night before the marriages, Dent told his people: “Sleep in till breakfast tomorrow. We will not be running for the next week. You may attend martial arts practice but I will not be holding practice tomorrow morning. You may start back up in several days but I believe a ‘honey moon’ is meant to relax, do fun things and recover from consummating your marriage!”

There were several retired thieves among the Orcs who were quite skilled at gliding down the wall. Only Dent, Ten, and several of his sisters were able to glide up the wall. It was quite entertaining.

At breakfast, Dent said “all of you know what the wedding ceremony will consist of. Some advise for all of you. You will have good days, bad days and many bland days. Remember, marriage is not about you, it is about you and your spouces. So, keep a good sense of humor and that can be hard, treat each other with kindness because they may be having bad days, and remember you are in this for the long haul. Marrage can grow better as it ages, much like a good bottle of wine. Give it the time and love to let it age gracefully.  All of you are creating family history; you should write it down. Do not forget your extended family, those you grew up with, those you have met here. Finally, remember to take joy in all things!”

“Come back in several months and all of you can share your new insights with the rest of us.”

Edward of the Cloverdale Hobbits, he of the eidetic memory, wrote down what Dent said and later would write down what others would say to their young ones on the edge of the chasm called “marriage”. 
Finally, Dent had his people and a number of others join him in the work out area and he lead them in meditations. This would have gone better but for the children who got bored. Some had the courtesy to nap and others ran around looking for fun and assaulted the people trying to meditate. Finally, one of the adults sighed and led the children outside for some game that involved chasing each other and throwing a ball.
Edward of the Cloverdale Hobbits made quick sketches of the children at play and later made engravings. The engravings were labeled “Children showing respect while their parents are trying to meditate”.

.Those about to be married mustered at different locations at 2 pm. They were sent to the Jakes and told take care of business. Then, the business of dressing began with Thunder on the Craigs and Dent dressing separately before they went to the Groom’s dressing room. There, they found Dent’s brothers being fussed over by Elven dressers. The hardest part was 

Lunch was a light one as no one was very hungry and the cooks were busy preparing the post wedding feast. The Wedding was set to begin at 3  pm.

The guests arrived just before 3 pm and were seated  by a number of Elve teenagers serving as ushers 
After dressing separately, Dent and Thunder on the Craig went to the Groom’s dressing area. There, they found Dent’s brother in different stages of dress. Most were already attired but needed help in tying their ascots, in tying their cumberbuns behing them and in getting their shoes tied. This was not a simple procedure. 

Elsewhere, Dent’s sisters were being dressed in various undergarments (which they normally did not wear) and then in dresses (which they had never actually worn but which they knew about. The next step was Elve women carefully styling their face paint in the style of both trh human customs and the Elven stylke iof the hidden city. It was interesting and would certainly be thought of as different in the outside world.

The last was putting on hats with gause covering their faces. 

All were ready and lined up when Regindla inspected the young women and Dent was summouned. He correctly identified eachg of shis sisters while they had the gauce down over their faces.

“I know it is customeryh for the brides to wear the gause down before they are married but this is not a confenional wedding. For example,  drawings wil l be made of our Ladies’ faces and my face as we go up the asile. It would be better if each one’s face were clearly visible.”

All those present including Reginda and the 20 human females were too into the moment to make remarks about hiding Dent’ face (but they thogbuht of these “jokes” later).

Finally, Dent said “time for me to go up front and stand with the two preechers and Thunder on the Craigs. Shall we go, Regida?”

In an unconsciously telling gesture, Dent turned to face the entrance and put his left arm out. Reglina walked up and put her right hand tghroughh his elboy and the couple marched in unison into the Temple and up the aisle to where they separated to await their coming parts. This unconscious act telegraphed a powerfuol message to everyone watching and they knew they were seeing the first part of a future wedding…

In the moments before the actual wedding ceremonies, the Jongleur stood with Brother Stegg. Both were in closely fit sujits with vests, cumb erbuns o0ver the bottoms of the vests, ascots and their hair pulled back in pony tails and tied with bright ribbons. Dent and Thunder on the Craig were dr4essed the same as the preechers but since both wore their hair short, they did not have hair ribbons. Instead, they wore a strange hait popular in the land called Gal north of the Great Sea. It was the first time the people olf the Hidden City had ever seen a beret.

A conductor Dent had not met was standing in front of the band. He pounded one fist aginst the other hand; the band snapped to attention  Then, glancing at the music sheets on a podium in front of him, the Conductor raised his baton and the music commenced!

It was the finest music Dent had ever heard outside of the Temple and even some places in the Central City. Two songs into the music, the music changed and Thunder on the Craig snapped to attention, the music was paused and restarted and Thunder on the Craig marched to the room where the nervous grooms were waiting. 

He marched up to James.
“You represent a proud family: the House of Dent! Live with honour!"
Thunder on the Craig turned and stood at attention. James stepped up next to him, did dress right dress and with Thunder softly calling cadence, they marched in unison up the aisle. Then, on their marks, the stopped and stood at attention. James turned left, marched to his mark. There, he stopped, did a right face, stood at attention and finally popped to parade rest.
The face of Thunder on the Craig had been covered with a fierce, proud, smile; the smile of a very proud Father.
There could have been no confusion regarding his military heritage after that.

Thunder on the Craig did an about face and marched back to bring the second groom forward, the repeated this for the third and fourth grooms. After this, he went to his origioinal place among the three Elders. 

The band played another song and it was time for Dent to stand to attention and then march back to where the brides waited. He entered the waiting room and went to the first of his sisters to be wed and said “KG you are beautiful”.  

He kissed her on the forehead carefully, to avoid messing her face paint, and they maneuvered to where her right hand was under his left elbow and they strolled up the aisle. They paused so the Elders could see h er, then turned so the audience could see both of them. The Hobbit with perfect memory had a very clear view of both. 
Then, Dent pulled the muslin down over the bride’s face and Dent walked her to her assigned mark.
Dent’s face was covered with a proud, joyhous, paternal smile. 

Dent repeated his march 19 more times and finally the entire set of 20 brides were arranged in the groups of five duty required them to be in.

With the grooms and brides in place, the band slammed into a joyeous and rather loud marriage piece. When this was done, they went to a series of soft songs and the Jongleur began his homily. He told stories about Dent and his family. He preached about the duties of marriage and the joys of marriage. He also mentioned that any problems needed to be dealt with and not hidden. Finally, he told the grooms “it is time for the marriages to begin.”

Each groom, in order, when to the left most of the brides, raised the muslin over their faces, and with their brides, turned to face the Jongleur. He then lead them through the the marriage vows. When it was over, he said “I now pronounce you husband and wife”. 

The new couple then kissed and the audience cheered.

Next Brother Stegg stepped up and conducted the marriage ceremony between the groom and his second wife. 

Then, Queen Reginda stepped up and conducted the marriage of the groom and his third wife.

Dent stepped up and conducted the marriage of the groom and his fourth wife. 

The Joggleur then conducted the fifth marriage.
Thus ended the marrying of the first groom. The marriage ceremonies were conducted for the remaining three grooms and their brides.
It was the biggest social event the city had ever seen and would be talked about for over a century. 
Finally, the last wedding song was played and the entire group went to the dining area of the “Temporary” Temple where cakes were cut and served and matched wines were served. Even the children had unwatered wine. (Forrest’s children decided they liked it better than watered wine.)

There were party favours on each table and no one left their table gift free.
Each of the newly married received gifts from their new friends and even associates.
Most important where the gift that Dent arranged for his family to receve. Each was thoughtful, knowledgeable of their likes and was covered with Dent’s love.  Some of the gifts had required the people of the Sublime Nation to obtain and somehow deliver to Patrik  .  

Eventually, everyone removed their wedding attire and they were cleaned preparatory to being put into a future museum along with the drawings and sets of engraved plates. 

Letters were written to their parents and the Grandfather and the Son and to Dent’s family in the Temple of the Way. These letters were mailed and were intercepted by thieves. The unopened letters were put in an unclaimed property safe and it was not until centuries later that a curious Police Officer wanted to see what was in the very cold storage. A package addressed to “The Grandfather Of Assassins” caused him to refrain from opening it. This package was carefully wrapped in a security envelop and sent by Special Courier directly to the House of Assassins in the Cengtral City. There, the current Grandson of Assassins took it to the current Grandfather of Assassins (who had been the Grandson of Assassins in Dent’s time.)  Opening and reading these letters and looking at the engravings was a very emotional experience for him…

Every one expected the grooms to drag the brides off for some quick deflowering. This did not happen. It seemed the grooms were more nervous about this than the brides.

The grooms would make up for their nervousness as evidenced by all 20 brides being pregnant before the month was out. Three Orc wives and five Elven wifes were inspired to become pregnant as well…

The day after the weddings, it was quiet. In Dent’s opinion, too quiet. 

He went to Thunder On The Craigs and said, “Suddenly, I am a bit bored. I need to be doing something.”

“As do I,” Thunder On The Craig replied.

“I have been thinking of the underground water north of here. I wonder if we could dig down to the water, bring it up and begin cultivating crops?”
“I was thinking of food crops for us and for food animals.”
“There is a problem, my brother, we don’t eat animals which we have named and we always name our animals. They are horses, donkeys, cattle, goats bats. The horses and donkeys for pulling plows and carriages, the cattle for the milk we drint and for cheese and the bats to kills insects. We don’t name insects!”

Both laughed 
“Which crop is in most demand now?”
“We should ask the head gardener but I would suspect hay for our four legged friends.”

“Hobbits are quite fond of carrots, onions and apples. I am a bit reluctant to plant apples since they burn through a lot of water. Maybe we could ask the House of the Fish to plant apples and water them with desalted sea water.”

“That wojld be a long term project but then we are planning for the coming centuries. Why don’t we talk with Forrest Martin before he heads back north with his wife and kids?”
They arrived at the guest housing the Martin family was using.
“Forrest, we have been thinking of raising crops. Have we mentioned that we have an interesting water supply. Thunder’s people have found there is a deep pool of water under the desert south of us. They may have ways to get to this water, bring it up and water crops such as carrots, onions and potatoes. These are crops everyone in Sanctuary like. Hobbits are also like apples but apples are a problem.”
“Why is that”, Mrs. Martin asked.

“Apples take a lot of fresh water to grow. We were hoping you could plant the trees, which do not take much water at first,” Thunder on the Craig explained. “We have a way of helping with fresh water. One of our young mine Mages has found a way to removed salt and other contaminants from sea water.”

“That would supply the water.”

“Orcs work in the mines and have had to move rock for many years. Thunder told me they have developed spells which allow them to move rocks the shape of cubes one meter on a side. Suppose these Mages could take blocks of soil up to two meters on a side and deposit them on empty land. I recall seeing some empty land which could be excavated. Well, I think I remember seeing baren land. I find my memory of time spent in House of the Fish feels dull and has missing time.”

“You and your people were given drugs to calm you, Dent. These drugs prevent long term memories from forming. You were in anguish and we could not allow you to remember this pain. If left unspoken up, your family is not likely to remember or question these lapses. We hope.”

“Thank you, on behalf of the family I thank you. Now, they are forming pleasant memories and getting an appeciaton for the limits of the young grooms.”

The adults laughed; the Martin children, who were not listening, just thought it was adults acting srangly. There was some merit to this opinion.

“How many of these Mages can you supply Thunder?”

“I could say eight because it is time to stop working in the mines. To be safe, I can only spare five. I need my people to begin cultivating the test crops to the south. Our problem is getting pipes to carry up water.

“Would 30 foot pipes work?”

“They would at first. How are you going to get them?”

“We know the breeding grounds of a very rare fish and will simply go catch one.”

“No, dear, you will not steal a baby God Fish from it’s Mother to give to humans. Can we get refined metals to trade with?”

Thunder on the Craigs replied “we can spare two cublc meters of pure iron. I will have them sent up to House of the Fish later today.”

“We can plant the little apple trees  and fig trees. We will need to obtain the pipes and saplings from City 5.” Forrest Martin suddenly smilled. “I will barter with the Harbour Master of City 5 and ask the Police Chief for an escort.”

“How many of these pipes will you need to start with?”

“I am thinking of one per acre and of ten acres of test plantings. To be safe, make it 20 pipes.”

“We have the seeds in storage.”

“We should determine how much soil these mages can move.”

Thunder on the Craig nodded in agreement.

“We can ask them to demonstrate. They have not returned to the mines because they are badly hungover.  It seems some Orc can not ‘hold there wine’ I believe I’ve heard it called.”

This time even the children got the joke and laughed. 
As they walked back toward the housing area devoted to the Orcs, Thunder on the Craig advised Dent that “Many of my people do not like even family to enter their private quarters. You are family but still…

Outside one bungalow, Thunder on the Craig knocked and then backed up. The door was opened by a middle aged Orc woman who said “what brings two Elders to my house?”

“We need to ask your son if he can move a 2 meter cube of dirt?”

“With spells or with his shovel?”

“Spells,” Thunder replied.

“Well then, come into my home and I will awaken the drunken lout.”

She held the door open and both visitors entere. They stood while growling sounds in Orcish were heard. Then, the “drunken lout” appeared. He appeared to be sober and if hung over, he hid it well.

“Elders, here? What do you need of me?”

“We need to know if you can move two meter cubes of dirt?”

“With shovel, it will take hours. With proper spells, I can do it in minutes. It would take perhaps three minutes to become one with the mass of soil, then a minute or two extra to move the soil from the ground to a disposal place. How much soil do you need to move?”

“Let us just watch you.”

“Mother, I am going to work now.”

“I heard son, work hard.”

“Yes, Mother.”

They walked perhaps a mile from the house, which meant they were just into the semi-arid land. 
The young Orc made what looked like mystic arm movements; these were actually intended to focus his attention. Then, he waved his hands upward in a waving movement and an almost cube shape of soil was lifted from the ground, held aloft for a number of seconds and then very gently lower to the ground.
“Is this the demonstration you desired?”
“Yes,” replied Dent. “How often can you repeat it?”

“Why not give him a ‘job order’”, Thunder suggested.

“We are planning on growing apple trees. The problem is trees take a lot of water and we do not to waste the water under the soil on apple trees and fig and olive trees. Thus, we would like to dig a basin on the land of the House of the Fish perhaps 100 meters long, 50 meters wide and 8 meters deep. This soil would be put on the existing land between the excavation site and the start of buildings. It could be filled with salt water from the Great Sea and the salt and other materials removed.”
“How would you remove the dissolved material?” Dent had to remind himself that simply being an Orc did not make an Orc stupid or ignorant.

“We have heard of spells to move this material.”

“Those are spells of the  Elves and Danuvian-Humans. Both groups are capable of working these spells. The Elves are theoreticians and the Danuvians are more practical, they call themselves experimentalists. They like to meet at one of the club houses. I can take you there.”
He smilled.
“I need to check something.”

Then, the young Orc walked to he hole he had dug and clearly worked a spell.
“There is no water under this hole. Press on!”

He walked about a half mile, stopped, and clearly worked another spell.

“Good, his feels good.”
Then, four times he pulled up chunks of dirt and put them on empty soil. His fifth chunk of soil included water trapped at the bottom  of the cube. He dropped it on the dry soil and water rushed out.
His last useage of his spell seemed harder and he brought up an amorpous, squirming, pseudo cube of water. The water gently placed on the soil and he turned to the two Elders and said:
“It would seem our spell can dig down to water. But, moving water is very hard. I am thought the strongest of the young Mages in this spell and I had trouble holding the spell together. Shall we go see our ‘water wizards’?”

Thunder On The Craig nodded in agreement and the three trundled off.

“Wait,” Dent said, “we have been thinking of you and your fellow Mages moving dirt in the House of the Fish and were thinking of getting pipes from City 5 and drilling down to the water. How much dirt over the water can you move?”
“I can move the soil until I reach water, Elder Dent, and then it is simply a bit harder.  We should be able to move this soil many times during a day. Others can bild derrics and use buckdts to bring up the water. Your pipes would have needed pumps and we do not have pumps here. We would have to buy pumps from the savages, who could endanger your kinfolk, Elder Dent. We will fight to protect our family in the House of Dent!”

“I know you will!” Dent absolutely meant it.

The three continued their trudge to where the ‘water wizards’ liked to ‘hang out’.

Their young Orc entered this austere room and said “These Elders may have need of your services.”

The room was perhaps half full of Orc and Elves. They gave their absolute attention to the visitors.
“I fear that drought may be coming to this area. To reduce this threat, we are thinking of digging a deep pool in land in the House of the Fish. We are thinking of flooding this pool with salt water from the Great Sea. We would plant trees in the soil removed to create the pool. We would need powerful Mages to remove salt and other dissolved material from the water.”

“What do you mean by ‘plant trees’ Elder Dent?”

“The population of this city has increased by my family and by the Hobbits moving in. Even if there is no draught, we need extra food. The pool of water to the south can suffice for various crops. Trees take much more water. It is our thought that planting trees near a better and safer water supply could supply food eventually and would shelter the pool. The pool could be used to harbour boats some day.”

“That would destroy the fresh water supply.”

“Yes, it would,” Thunder on the Craig replied. 
The group of young Mages huddled together and began talking in earnest. Some were waving their hands while making a point.
“Ah, ha,” said Thunder, “where would Mages be if they could not bring out the magic element ‘hand-wave-e-um?”

“Honoured Elders, we could remove this salt and crap but that leaves problems. How to dispose of the salt and possible life forms? Then, how to move the water to the trees? Physically moving the water requires tanks, pumps and pipes. This is a rather large investiment. It would be more efficient to dig you pool, dig an access channel suitable for boats and to simply use selected spells to move the water from the sea water to the trees.”

“It would tie up Mages simply to provide the occassionial brief watering.” 

Dent replied to Thunder: “They could build tanks to hold water and use gravity feed to move water to where it is needed when it is needed. The Mages could, I think, also direct water to the trees as needed. These are matters for the experts here to decide upon.”

“That is true,” Dent replied. “We will need to plan this, arrange logistics and obtain your parent’s permission. But, it is possible.”

As they were leaving, Thunder on the Craig said to Dent: “The easy part is done. Now, we must obtain permission from the parents of these young Mages and the blessings of Brother Forrest. Shall we go first to the Forrest?”
Dent laughed, the young Mages were shocked the Elders had any sort of sense of humour!

When they arrived back at the Martin’s temporary abode, they could tell some serious discussion had taken place.
“We can arrange for the pipes. We will have to arrange for something the people in City 5’s administration really want. The only thinkgt we can seriously offer is something we don’t want to part with. These pipes had really be needed.” Mrs. Martin was still iragte.

“Whatever the thing you do not want to part with is safe! Would that ‘thing’ be a God Fish?”

“Yes,” replied one of Martin’s children.

“We did some research and found our initial ideas were inadequate. We don’t need pipes to remove water from what we can call ‘The Inland Sea’. We talked to a young Mage who said it would be easier to escaviate the land over parts of ‘The Inland Sea’ and move water with buckets.
“Go on”, Forrest Martin urged.

“We have a growing population and something is telling me we could have a drought coming. I could be wrong but there are patterns in the weather and some of what I’ve read we could be seeing a near future drought. On the other hand, what we know about weather would not take long to preach it.”
There was dead silence.
“If what I remember of the Harbour layout is accurate and I’m told we were all drugs to help us deal with our grief, you have a wide grass park land behind some buildings. If you could build a hill there, you could hide that which is behind the hill. If you planted trees – apple, fig and olive --  you could obscure the appearance of ships for example.”

“Where would the dirt come from,” Forrest asked.

“Very good question and in theory we have a very good answer. In the mines, Orc Mages are using Magic to remove cubers of rock a meter on each side. Other spells then move the cubes outside the mine. They can move bigger chunks of dirt and can move a fair amount every day.”
Thunder On The Craig then continued: “We learned that some of the younger Elve and Orc Mages have spells which can move the water out of sea water, leaving behind the salt and other materials. This pure water can go to tanks and be emptied onto tree roots as needed. The water can also go to the trees directly.”

“The bottom line,” De3nt said, “is you can have an addition to your harbour that outsiders need not know about. Why not host visitors from north of the Great Sea? You can raise fruit trees and feed yourselves, the people in Sanctuary and perhaps have fruit left over for trade. I know there could be some problems but I hope nothing that can’t be solved or at worst, an annoyance to be lived.”

“Why do we need to do this”, one of the Martin’s children asked.

“Everyone of us in our town – House of the Fish and Sanctuary – have needed to be protected. The threats to Dent and his family are still real. The threats to the Orc and Elves in Sanctuary City may apprear to be gone but they may wake up. We are from a place far to the north and west, far beyond our government’s reach. When you children have reached courting age, you might have to go to a hidden city far to the southeast to go couting.” 
Visibly upset, she walked off.

Thunder on the Craig leaned forward and spoke softly: “That is no longer true young warrior. There are enough of your people for you and your siblings to find spouces in this city or in cities well to the west of here. Numbers of your people live in several little villages south of City 4. I have been told his by people I trust.”

“It was not always that way and Mom is buried in the past sometimes.”

“The past has a way of clinging to a person and forcing a person to bring them intoi the present and the futue. Did you meet anyone interesting?”

“One of the old Hobbits drew pictures of Mom and Dad and us kids. Better, he drew picgtures of the dresses I designed! I am going to take them home with me and put them in my room! I can’t wait to design clothing for my friends!”

“What kind of clothing?” 

“Clothing that makes them pretty. Right now, they are pretty but look like they dressed to work in a field. Yuck!”

Forrest Martin looked amused at his daughter’s distress and then smooth recovery.

“We will have to discuss this with our leaders in the House of the Fish.”

“Forrest, I have heard the leaders of City 5 know your ancestors came from that land, which is called Siberia by the way, and settled here and in other places. You are safe because they have no reason to be concerned with you.”

“How do we know that what you were told is true?”

“Because politics is often murky, my friend. Those who matter have no interest in harming you. They have specific interest in not harming me and my family. By keeping us safe, they are keeping you safe. It is as simple and as dangerous as that.”

“When are you planning on returning home, Forrest?”

“We are going to pack tonight, eat breakfast and take our return in a pair of two wheel buggies called ‘traps’. Mr. Jonathan, my Mother and I will ride in one and Father and the other three kids will ride in the second.  It will be fun!”

“Write us a letter and tell us about your trip.”

“I will!” 

“Will those married people be coming to dinner? I want to ask how they liked the clothing. Mom, can we stay for dinner?”
“Which sitting do you attend, Dent,” asked Mrs. Martin?

“We usually go to the second sitting. I’ll tell them to plan for 6 more.”
“How man will that be?”
“Thunder and his wife, Regtlinda and me, you, Forrest and your four kids.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“My newly weds will probably be at second sitting. Your young dress designer should be able to find them. 
She did and both her and KG had a fine time.

 





 



 

 
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===================================================
QRT   Jongleur   myhealth.va.gov /.; 
  the Sheriff of the City, Willis Meyers Foulston

Brother Meyers of the Leavenworth Clan