759 - It’ll help him know his sacrifice was worthwhile

My mother could psyche-heal me as the psyche-healer couldn’t, having information that he did not. Or should I say, goad me. Sometimes it feels the same.

“You have the habit so ingrained now, of doing everything as fast as possible, beforehand if you can,” she said. “You are trying to die beforehand, withdrawing from the world, telling yourself it does not need you, when for all you know it might need you desperately, any time. You are twenty-six, Chevenga. You have four more good years in you, by your own reckoning. Why do you want to throw them away? You swore to do twice as much and love twice as much, my child; is this that?”

Shefenkas on Haiu Menshir

By Shemeias Shaeasilas
Pages of Arko, Mikas 12, 53rd-to-last Y.P.A.

A Pages investigation undertaken by this reporter has determined with certainty that former semanakraseye and Imperator Shefenkas Aijeresas, better known as Fourth Shefenkas Shaearanoias, is currently on Haiu Menshir.

Since shortly after Shefenkas was removed from the Crystal Throne by fodaisin, everyone associated with him, from succeeding Imperator Artira Shaearanoias to family members in Vae Arahi to friends in the Imperial guard and staff, has either professed not to know his whereabouts or refused absolutely to reveal them, sometimes angrily. (I quote one, namelessly: “He’s his own person now, so it’s none of your [swear-word] business where he is. You people hounded him mercilessly while he was here, then tore pieces off him during the fodai campaign, and now you want to pick his [swear-word] bones! You think we’re going to let you?”)

It is known that Shefenka’s original intent was to return home to Vae Arahi, but neither he or anyone in his large immediate family have been seen there since.

Since Yeoli history shows that Yeoli semanakraseyel who have been fodai’d out of office have a tendency to suicide, we at the Pages deduced that he might have fallen into that state and been urged by his family to travel to Haiu Menshir for healing.

Inquiries at the University Hospital and the House of Integrity in Haiuroru revealed nothing, as Haian confidentiality laws strictly prohibit the revealing of any patient’s name except to close kin, this reporter was repeatedly and emphatically told. I asked them to ask Shefenkas, on the off-chance he happened to be there, for his permission for me to know he was there, but they refused to do even that. Inquiries at the Yeoli embassy were equally fruitless; no one would say definitively that he is not on Haiu Menshir, just “No comment.”

However, further investigations requiring great patience and perseverance bore fruit when this reporter spotted two Arkan men sitting on a beach near the Hospital. On drawing closer, I recognized them as Kallijas Itrean and Skorsas Trinisas, Shefenkas’s two alesinae.

They both emphatically refused to confirm that Shefenkas is on the island of the healers, but their own presence there, and indeed the fervency with which they reacted to this reporter’s presence, is proof clear enough to satisfy the Pages. It is simply implausible that his alesinae would be on Haiu Menshir if the now-chainless ex-Imperator—Yeoli law forbids a semanakraseye to own any possessions, so he acquired none while he was in office—were not.

Excerpt from the personal journal of Intharas Terren, High Editor of the Pages of Arko, for the eight-day following Mikas 16, 53rd-to-last Y.P.A.

“Boss, it is not fair that you take out the ‘great patience and perseverance’ line for looking too self-serving, after I—with no training whatsoever from the school with no name!—crawled on my belly like a worm for beads under these thorny south-seas plants, got bitten all over by these vicious little bugs, stuck my hand in some rotten fallen fruit that it still smells like, was told by Skorsas and Kallijas “you belong in the cess-pit with the rest of the shen” and “you should count yourself lucky that being on Haiu Menshir keeps me from beating you to a blood-oozing blob of scum,” respectively, and finally was given the bum’s rush by two University Hospital peacekeepers who must have got lessons from the Haian warrior, so much my arms still hurt—to get the kyashin story. AND DID IT.”

May house-donkeys fik angels; I have to admit, my pubic weasel scrawler has a point.

To Karani Aicheresa
Currently residing at the University Hospital, Haiuroru, Haiu Menshir

From: Veraha Shae-Aniya and Denaina Kotelai
Hearthstone Dependent, Vae Arahi
atakina 65, 1553

Beloved Karani:

Across Yeola-e and the Miyatara as the wing flies, we send our love as always!

We were not meaning to write again so soon, but something has happened that we feel you should know right away, and pass on to Chevenga when you can. Everyone here feels a great deal of concern for him, as you know, and it’s common knowledge that he’s there, whether someone overheard one of us or they’re just guessing well.

Well, some days ago, a woman from Terera came up to our rooms, carrying a sack. “I know your child who was our semanakraseye has not a copper bit to his name,” she said. “After he saved all our lives and freedom, I will not allow that. Here is what I can spare; give it to him with my love.” The sack was full of ankaryel. Later that day, two more people did the same. The next day, there were a dozen, the day after, more than thirty. We had to take the money to the treasury and ask them to store it there, marked for Chevenga. And we took all their names, telling them that we would give him the list with the money.

But then one of those people wrote a letter to the editor to the Terera Pages saying he’d done this, and why, and that every Yeoli who cherishes his or her freedom should do the same. And send their name. The Terera Pages printed it.

Karani… we almost don’t know what to do. People from all over Yeola-e are sending ankaryel! By courier, by wing, by donkey, by carriage… chests of coins, scrip on the bank in Terera, bits of paper saying “I love you, Chevenga” wrapped around one or two coppers from little children, gems with notes saying “This was my grandmother’s, get the best price for it…” The city of Tinga-e has sent a thousand gold, the city of Leyere five hundred, and there’s going to be more from other towns… Plus things like shirts, keys to towns, avowals that even though he’s not semanakraseye he will never, ever pay for lodging or food in their places, offers of lifetime supplies of grain and salt and shoes and soap and bricks and incense and every other sort of thing…! We can’t even keep up with counting it all, right now, so I can’t say how much it is, and have no idea how much it will be in the end.

And the love, in the letters that come with the gifts… Karani, if Chevenga has any doubt that all Yeola-e still treasures him, he should banish it from his mind. We cry like babies when we read them. If doing that would be healing for him, we can start sending them to you… will you ask his psyche-healer? Such an outpouring we never expected, though, really, we should have.

Waiting your next letter eagerly as always, with love for you filling our hearts,
Veraha |~| Denaina

To Karani Aicheresa
Currently residing at the University Hospital, Haiuroru, Haiu Menshir

From: Veraha Shae-Aniya and Denaina Kotelai
Hearthstone Dependent, Vae Arahi
atakina 68, 1553

Beloved Karani:

You won’t believe this! I don’t know whether you’re reading the Arkan Pages, but there was a story in it saying Chevenga is definitely on Haiu Menshir. But it also had something in it about him being destitute because of the law forbidding a semanakraseye to own anything. So now Arkans are sending him money!

We get their letters translated by a scribe from the Arkan embassy. They’re thanking him for all the good he’s done for Arko… there are many from women and from slaves who were freed, but lots of other kinds of people, too. Even people who were followers of his when he was in the bloodsport place, saying, “I sent you favours before, so now I am again.” All-Spirit, some of these people must be incredibly rich! But there’s one thing their letters almost always say—which way they voted. Most of them say “I voted charcoal.” But sometimes it’s “I voted chalk to fling you down because I didn’t really think it would happen. But now I understand you really meant it, I regret it and I’m sorry.”

Karani, Arkans love him, too. Can you believe that? Arkans—who’d have thought? It makes us cry even harder. Tell him, please tell him, and we’ll send these too, the originals since he reads Arkan. It’ll help him know his sacrifice was worthwhile.

Our son is wealthy now... in under a moon, he is wealthy. We have no idea what he’s going to do with it all, and more keeps coming. He never need worry about lacking for anything, as long as he lives. It’s got to help him to know that.