552 - Overjoyed to see an elevation

From:
Assembly of Yeola-e
Per the Arch-holder of the National Crystal
(Acting Demarch Artira Shae-Arano-e having recused herself from presiding)
Vae Arahi

To:
Fourth Chevenga Shae-Arano-e
Demarch
City of Arko

hyerasora 43, Y. 1551

Dear Chevenga:

I write you with respect to Assembly’s response to your letter dated hyerasora 35 requesting approval of adjoining Niku aht Tanra nar Sept Taekun to your existing marriage-fast.

Discussion in Assembly resulted in the passing of a resolution to request you and Niku both to travel to Vae Arahi to answer questions relevant to your request, in addition to your current spouses Shainano-e Anataeya and Etana Shae-Sai, who are already here. We understand, however, that Niku is severely debilitated enough to make travel difficult, so we are willing to defer discussion on the matter until she has regained capacity. She, and you, may choose. Please inform us when it may be scheduled.

In performance of my duties,
Lurao Milihae
Arch-holder of the National Crystal

†

From:
Fourth Chevenga Shae-Arano-e
Demarch
City of Arko

To:
Assembly of Yeola-e
Per the Arch-holder of the National Crystal
(Acting Demarch Artira Shae-Arano-e having recused herself from presiding)
Vae Arahi

hyerasora 51, Y. 1551

Dear Servants of Assembly:

In answer to the resolution requesting Niku and I come to Vae Arahi to answer questions, we both are willing and she agrees to make the trip expeditiously, as she can travel by double-wing despite the encumbrance of the cast. As per the preceding pigeon-message, we will arrange to arrive on hyerasora 56 or not more than three days later, depending on weather and winds.

We both look forward very much to meeting with Assembly, answering all questions and helping in any other way possible in the discussion.

Sincerely,
Fourth Chevenga Shae-Arano-e
Demarch
For Niku aht Tanra nar sept Taekun

“What do I have to do, answer three questions on ‘How to be a Good Yeoli Spouse’?” Niku growled, as Skorsas and Eosena helped her dress. “Yeoli civics exam? Do a dance?”

Aside from plaster, she wore nothing but shapeless robes these days, so Skorsas had had a gold satin one done up for today. I would be in the Imperator’s parade best including the Imperial Robe; nothing less would do for an elevation.

“I wish I could reassure you with some sort of historical precedent,” I said. “But I can’t. The closest we’ve ever come to this was when the semanakraseye wanted to marry someone who was half-Enchian. Yes, the discussion is on record, but the record is in Terera… sorry.”

“Well, what do they usually ask prospective semanakraseye’s spouses who are Yeoli, when they grill them?” she asked, as we began heading to the Steel Gate, with her on the wheeled bed.

“They don’t usually grill them,” I said. “It’s usually just a formality, gets chalked unanimously; it only doesn’t if there’s some sort of obvious defect in character.”

She looked as if she’d bitten a sour pickle. “I don’t even want to know what sorts of questions they ask prospective spouses they consider to have obvious defects in character.”

“There will be those who consider the colour of your skin a defect in character,” I said. “But that creates the opening for us to say how all people are the same colour inside the skin, how some of your people spilled their life-blood, which would be indistinguishable from ours, on Yeoli soil to liberate it, and to talk about your good character.”

Skorsas and Kallijas were both in their best too, though Skorsas is not to be slighted with the suggestion that he has but one best outfit. They both looked utterly Aitzas.

From his researches, Skorsas had told me that the one for whose deeds the family will be elevated stays inside the Steel Gate until he gets called out. “Better stay with him to make sure he doesn’t wander out because he doesn’t know it’s him,” I told them both, separately. In the meantime, there is the grandest of fanfares from the Marble Palace roof, and the banging of a gong even larger than the one in the Mezem, used only for elevations. A very thick layer of dust had been scrubbed off it. We sent out heralds as well, in case no one knew what it meant; the last public elevation had been some ninety years ago.

Soon a crowd of a good fifty thousand had gathered, and the proper personages were assembled, shining a hundred brilliant jewel-colours in the bright sun: the Fenjitzas and his retinue must be there, to bring the blessing of the Gods to the elevation, as must be representatives of the most fortunate twenty of the Fortunate Fifty, all in their best, and, of course, the families to be elevated. Laras Trinisas managed to emerge from the herb-clouds enough to be there, though he looked shaky, with the rest of Skorsas’s kin, and the Itreans were all present, too. A dear friend of the head of the family to be elevated acts as bruilkas, the one who brings him out. Idiesas offered to do that though Kall’s father, Dammas, was really the head, showing even further his great-heartedness in defeat; for Skorsas (since the head of the family must be of sound mind) it was Iska.

There is an elaborate ceremonial, in which, after the head has sworn the oath of the new caste, the members of the family step through a burning archway that has been lit by the Imperator as the Fenjitzas blesses them, and then the head receives the robe with their coat of arms and their wrist-seal. The Imperator makes a speech beforehand, holding the torch, which is used only for elevations. I added to that ceremonial, by striking the law barring the Itreans from elevation forever right out of the master statute-book with the golden pen. The Muunas-geas did indeed read “all subsequent Imperators,” but I stroked through it with confidence, having had no dream warning against. Gods are too great to abide such pettiness, and Muunas is the greatest of them.

Skorsas told me later that Kallijas realized he was going to be genuinely elevated about when I said, “One of Arko’s greatest champions ever, whose prowess I can speak of with authority, from personal experience.” He gasped, “Oh, my bright-greaved God!” to which Skorsas answered, grinning, “Not for long.” But in Skorsas’s own turn, he was expecting it no more than Kall had. Standing before the flaming arch, they both looked at me as if they were plotting together to kill me.

I didn’t think the crowd would jeer Kall, since what he had done was heroic; I was a little afraid they would despise Skorsas, saying he was being elevated only because he was my bum-boy. There was none of that; more than anything they seemed to be overjoyed to see an elevation at all, like the Ten Tens, let alone two. Afterwards we held the traditional grand fete in the hugest Marble Palace ballroom that comes with Aitzas elevations. The existing Aitzas were much more accepting of Kall and Skorsas—he was richer than a good quarter of them now anyway—than they were, say, of the Yeolis who had made themselves Aitzas on spoils of war. He knew how to fit in with them as if he’d been born one; Kallijas, of course, needed only to be himself, having won their respect with his sword.

Laras Trinisas did indeed rise to the occasion and design a Trinisas coat of arms, with much help from his son. It was a simple circle of gold chain, in the pattern that a diner leaves on the table of a fine eating establishment to indicate he is tipping. The gold chain meant not only Laras’s calling, which had been that of his father and many generations of Trinisae before, but Skorsas’s in the Mezem.

“Well, Kallijas Itrean Aitzas and Skorsas Trinisas Aitzas,” I said as the last guests were staggering out, close to dawn. “You both know what I want to hear, so let me hear it.”

They glanced at each other, and laughed.

“By my Great God Muunas, I am glad to see you elevated, my dear Kallijas!” Skorsas declaimed.

“By my Great God Muunas, also, I am delighted to see you elevated, dear Skorsas!” Kall pronounced back.

“Equal-to-equal and nothing but in my bed from now on,” I said, sighing happily. “Thank you, my loves.”