05-30-2023, 06:38 PM
Rosemary Arnott had learned a lot over the past two weeks. Her horror and distaste in the hidden cabin had abated somewhat as she learned useful survival skills that she’d missed out on, going straight from school, to (a single year of) university, to sitting on the Council. In the end, it was kind of fun; certainly, more so than a Council meeting. She could never quite forget why they were hiding there, however.
She hadn’t spent much time with her aunt before this, and the more she spoke with Claire, the more she became drawn into her tales. “Tell me more about the civil war,” she’d asked one morning last week. “I think I’ve only heard propaganda. From both sides.”
“Some of the propaganda is fairly accurate,” Claire had replied. “Which depends on what year you are talking about. You see, in the early years, the war was exactly what the democracies claim. DKS were wannabe-revolutionaries who wanted to create a better Kerlile, who were ruthlessly put down by, well, us. The later years, though, are more like what you would have read in school here.”
Her aunt had sighed, throwing another log on the fire and producing a beer from Goddess-knows-where. “DKS were idealists, and like many idealists, when their worldview was broken, they broke with it. Each and every injustice inflicted on them drove their leadership into a darker and darker place. They became… disillusioned. And cynical. In 1992, most of them viewed the world as a generally fair place where good would eventually triumph over evil. When the tide of the war turned, the world suddenly became an evil, hostile place.”
“How do you know what they were thinking?” Rosemary had asked. Her aunt had just looked at her, with a sad, weary expression. And Rosemary had swallowed, understanding the meaning implicitly: the interrogations had been thorough.
“You see, Rosemary,” her aunt had continued. “In the later years, DKS became desperate, and willing to do whatever was needed. They copied their adversaries’ interrogation techniques, they shot prisoners in cold blood, they recruited five-year-olds as messengers in the middle of the warzone… because the ends justified the means. There is no good and evil in war, Councillor. Not in the end. War makes monsters of us all.”
In the end, it had been almost like a holiday: a grim, potentially deadly holiday, filled with tales of the horrors of Kerlile. But it was also the freest Rosemary had been in years to actually ask questions without anyone ridiculing her for not knowing, or directing her to propaganda pamphlets. And no Council meetings! But all good things come to an end, and her aunt received the all-clear from her mother in some coded way she did not understand. And then they were on their way back to Grapevale.
*
Over in Andhrapur, Claire’s triplets were sitting in their fancy hotel room watching movies banned in Kerlile. They’d arrived on Friday after changing in Laeralsford-René Gramont International Airport. They’d thankfully made it out of Kerlile without trouble, the first hurdle. Thankfully, Grapevale International Airport had been busier than usual with Kerlians going back-and-forth for the Olympics. The hassled passport control official had glanced at their permanent-exit-permit stamps and waved them through without paying much attention.
The flight to Laeral had been full: when Violet had booked tickets, first-class was the only one with seats available. Good thing they were sufficiently wealthy. Aside from themselves and a few businesspeople (including some rather nervous looking men), the rest of the plane was full of people heading from Laeralsford to Hanshui. They stayed in the airport to change flight, practicing their French on random duty-free employees.
Once they’d boarded the flight to Andhrapur, all three of them felt more relaxed. Their family had old enemies in Laeral, and although it was likely said enemies had long since forgotten them in the intervening century, they couldn’t be 100% certain. Also, they didn’t want anyone to notice they were seventeen and get irritated about the lack of accompanying adults.
Arriving in Andhrapur was another thing entirely. None of the trio had visited before; it had merely been plucked out as the best option on the list. Nasvari International Airport was large and crowded, making the orderly airport at Grapevale seem like it belonged to another universe. Throngs of people were milling around, and the heat was like nothing they’d experienced in Kerlile. The passport control people had done a double-take at their passports; though whether that was because they were Kerlian, or identical triplets, was impossible to tell.
Regardless, they were given entry and immediately went to the nearest shop selling smartphones to purchase three with local SIM cards. Then they made their way to the hotel Violet had booked online, sweating in the hot, muggy weather. Someone walked past them with a dagger and they jumped, before noticing that many Andhrapuri around were wearing daggers or knives on their person – especially men.
“I guess we know why the Patels bring swords to Council meetings,” Laura joked warily as they headed past an ornate temple to the Rangpur Palace hotel where they presented their platinum credit cards to stave off any suspicious looks at their less-fancy clothes. They hadn’t wanted to draw attention when leaving Kerlile.
Now, they were being contacted by their aunt, the President of Kerlile, to inform them they weren’t in any danger. But none of the trio particularly wanted to hurry back to the Matriarchy; especially given they’d paid for the first two weeks of their stay upfront. Therefore, they were making a holiday of it. They’d go sightseeing in the mornings and evenings, and spend the hot afternoons watching banned media. And if their mother and aunt didn’t like it, well. Too bad.
*
“You must understand, Jia, that I did what I must to protect our family, and our country. I regret that it was necessary; however, in the end you are fine. No harm done,” Councillor Lia Chiu said to her eight-year-old great-granddaughter after the latter’s release from Alt-Ed.
The young girl bit her lip and nodded. She wanted to scream. Or punch something. Actually, both: definitely both. Still, that wouldn’t go well right now. Therefore, she smiled politely as her great-grandmother tried to make herself feel better with justification after justification that made Jia angrier each time. When Lia was finally done, she allowed Jia to leave and go to her bedroom.
Once inside, Jia immediately put her plan into action. She packed a bag of the essentials, and hid it as best she could before she feigned sleep. Her aunt came to check on her, as expected, but didn’t suspect a thing. Once the adults in the household were asleep, she snuck out and into her mother’s room. She crawled under the bed and scrabbled in the dark until she managed to grip the loose floorboard, and pulled it back.
Hidden underneath was a thick bundle of cash in six currencies: the Kerlian Credit, the Lauchenoirian Peso, the Zongongian Krone, the Sanctarian Pound, the Xiomeran Quetzal and finally the Laeralian Mark. Jia took all the various currencies, not knowing exactly which ones she’d need. Then, she snuck downstairs into her great-grandmother’s office. It was locked, but Jia’s mother had long ago stolen and made copies of each key for the Chiu household, and said copies were now in Jia’s hands.
She went through her great-grandmother’s filing cabinets until she found the bundle of passports, plucking out both her own and her brother Cheung’s. Cheung did not have a Kerlian passport, of course… but he did have a Lauchenoirian one since they had birthright citizenship and he had been born there. Jia’s Kerlian passport was thankfully still in date, and contained the special symbol that meant she did not require a separate permit to leave the Matriarchy.
Then she went back upstairs, grabbed her bag, and snuck into her brother’s room. She woke him with her hand clasped over his mouth, whispering for him to stay quiet. “We’re going to play a game,” she told him. “We’re going to be as quiet as we can, and if you win, I’ll buy you a triple chocolate ice cream with extra sprinkles and a wafer.”
With her two-year-old brother thus in tow, she snuck out of her family household and into the stables. This was going to be the tricky part. Cheung couldn’t ride a bike, and even if Jia knew how to steal and drive a car, she wasn’t tall enough to reach the pedals. She didn’t trust any of the adults around her, which left horseback as her only option. Fortunately, she’d been learning since she was just a little older than Cheung. She would make him sit in front of her and they could go.
“Hello?” came a voice from the stables. Jia quickly clasped her hand over Cheung’s mouth once again, and ushered him into a stall containing one of her aunt’s horses. The horse, sleeping, woke briefly, looked at them, and then went back to sleep. They hid as the night attendant at the Chiu stables walked around, looking for the source of whatever noise had attracted her attention. Eventually, she sighed, switching off the lights and leaving.
“Wait here,” Jia whispered to Cheung before sneaking out. She was going to have to saddle her horse in the dark. Which would be difficult, given she usually had help at the best of times due to her age and size. A month of bare-minimum meals would not have helped.
Somehow, she managed. By the time she was finished though, she was drenched in sweat, had injured herself several times, and felt like she was on the verge of collapse. She returned to Cheung to find him asleep next to her aunt’s horse. She picked him up and carried him to her own small horse. She somehow lifted him on, and climbed up after him. Then the lights went on and the night attendant was staring at them.
Jia met her eyes briefly, and then squeezed, turning the reins. The night attendant could do no more than watch as Jia’s horse shot out of the stables into the night at a gallop and down the driveway before the attendant could even so much as blink.
She hadn’t spent much time with her aunt before this, and the more she spoke with Claire, the more she became drawn into her tales. “Tell me more about the civil war,” she’d asked one morning last week. “I think I’ve only heard propaganda. From both sides.”
“Some of the propaganda is fairly accurate,” Claire had replied. “Which depends on what year you are talking about. You see, in the early years, the war was exactly what the democracies claim. DKS were wannabe-revolutionaries who wanted to create a better Kerlile, who were ruthlessly put down by, well, us. The later years, though, are more like what you would have read in school here.”
Her aunt had sighed, throwing another log on the fire and producing a beer from Goddess-knows-where. “DKS were idealists, and like many idealists, when their worldview was broken, they broke with it. Each and every injustice inflicted on them drove their leadership into a darker and darker place. They became… disillusioned. And cynical. In 1992, most of them viewed the world as a generally fair place where good would eventually triumph over evil. When the tide of the war turned, the world suddenly became an evil, hostile place.”
“How do you know what they were thinking?” Rosemary had asked. Her aunt had just looked at her, with a sad, weary expression. And Rosemary had swallowed, understanding the meaning implicitly: the interrogations had been thorough.
“You see, Rosemary,” her aunt had continued. “In the later years, DKS became desperate, and willing to do whatever was needed. They copied their adversaries’ interrogation techniques, they shot prisoners in cold blood, they recruited five-year-olds as messengers in the middle of the warzone… because the ends justified the means. There is no good and evil in war, Councillor. Not in the end. War makes monsters of us all.”
In the end, it had been almost like a holiday: a grim, potentially deadly holiday, filled with tales of the horrors of Kerlile. But it was also the freest Rosemary had been in years to actually ask questions without anyone ridiculing her for not knowing, or directing her to propaganda pamphlets. And no Council meetings! But all good things come to an end, and her aunt received the all-clear from her mother in some coded way she did not understand. And then they were on their way back to Grapevale.
*
Over in Andhrapur, Claire’s triplets were sitting in their fancy hotel room watching movies banned in Kerlile. They’d arrived on Friday after changing in Laeralsford-René Gramont International Airport. They’d thankfully made it out of Kerlile without trouble, the first hurdle. Thankfully, Grapevale International Airport had been busier than usual with Kerlians going back-and-forth for the Olympics. The hassled passport control official had glanced at their permanent-exit-permit stamps and waved them through without paying much attention.
The flight to Laeral had been full: when Violet had booked tickets, first-class was the only one with seats available. Good thing they were sufficiently wealthy. Aside from themselves and a few businesspeople (including some rather nervous looking men), the rest of the plane was full of people heading from Laeralsford to Hanshui. They stayed in the airport to change flight, practicing their French on random duty-free employees.
Once they’d boarded the flight to Andhrapur, all three of them felt more relaxed. Their family had old enemies in Laeral, and although it was likely said enemies had long since forgotten them in the intervening century, they couldn’t be 100% certain. Also, they didn’t want anyone to notice they were seventeen and get irritated about the lack of accompanying adults.
Arriving in Andhrapur was another thing entirely. None of the trio had visited before; it had merely been plucked out as the best option on the list. Nasvari International Airport was large and crowded, making the orderly airport at Grapevale seem like it belonged to another universe. Throngs of people were milling around, and the heat was like nothing they’d experienced in Kerlile. The passport control people had done a double-take at their passports; though whether that was because they were Kerlian, or identical triplets, was impossible to tell.
Regardless, they were given entry and immediately went to the nearest shop selling smartphones to purchase three with local SIM cards. Then they made their way to the hotel Violet had booked online, sweating in the hot, muggy weather. Someone walked past them with a dagger and they jumped, before noticing that many Andhrapuri around were wearing daggers or knives on their person – especially men.
“I guess we know why the Patels bring swords to Council meetings,” Laura joked warily as they headed past an ornate temple to the Rangpur Palace hotel where they presented their platinum credit cards to stave off any suspicious looks at their less-fancy clothes. They hadn’t wanted to draw attention when leaving Kerlile.
Now, they were being contacted by their aunt, the President of Kerlile, to inform them they weren’t in any danger. But none of the trio particularly wanted to hurry back to the Matriarchy; especially given they’d paid for the first two weeks of their stay upfront. Therefore, they were making a holiday of it. They’d go sightseeing in the mornings and evenings, and spend the hot afternoons watching banned media. And if their mother and aunt didn’t like it, well. Too bad.
*
“You must understand, Jia, that I did what I must to protect our family, and our country. I regret that it was necessary; however, in the end you are fine. No harm done,” Councillor Lia Chiu said to her eight-year-old great-granddaughter after the latter’s release from Alt-Ed.
The young girl bit her lip and nodded. She wanted to scream. Or punch something. Actually, both: definitely both. Still, that wouldn’t go well right now. Therefore, she smiled politely as her great-grandmother tried to make herself feel better with justification after justification that made Jia angrier each time. When Lia was finally done, she allowed Jia to leave and go to her bedroom.
Once inside, Jia immediately put her plan into action. She packed a bag of the essentials, and hid it as best she could before she feigned sleep. Her aunt came to check on her, as expected, but didn’t suspect a thing. Once the adults in the household were asleep, she snuck out and into her mother’s room. She crawled under the bed and scrabbled in the dark until she managed to grip the loose floorboard, and pulled it back.
Hidden underneath was a thick bundle of cash in six currencies: the Kerlian Credit, the Lauchenoirian Peso, the Zongongian Krone, the Sanctarian Pound, the Xiomeran Quetzal and finally the Laeralian Mark. Jia took all the various currencies, not knowing exactly which ones she’d need. Then, she snuck downstairs into her great-grandmother’s office. It was locked, but Jia’s mother had long ago stolen and made copies of each key for the Chiu household, and said copies were now in Jia’s hands.
She went through her great-grandmother’s filing cabinets until she found the bundle of passports, plucking out both her own and her brother Cheung’s. Cheung did not have a Kerlian passport, of course… but he did have a Lauchenoirian one since they had birthright citizenship and he had been born there. Jia’s Kerlian passport was thankfully still in date, and contained the special symbol that meant she did not require a separate permit to leave the Matriarchy.
Then she went back upstairs, grabbed her bag, and snuck into her brother’s room. She woke him with her hand clasped over his mouth, whispering for him to stay quiet. “We’re going to play a game,” she told him. “We’re going to be as quiet as we can, and if you win, I’ll buy you a triple chocolate ice cream with extra sprinkles and a wafer.”
With her two-year-old brother thus in tow, she snuck out of her family household and into the stables. This was going to be the tricky part. Cheung couldn’t ride a bike, and even if Jia knew how to steal and drive a car, she wasn’t tall enough to reach the pedals. She didn’t trust any of the adults around her, which left horseback as her only option. Fortunately, she’d been learning since she was just a little older than Cheung. She would make him sit in front of her and they could go.
“Hello?” came a voice from the stables. Jia quickly clasped her hand over Cheung’s mouth once again, and ushered him into a stall containing one of her aunt’s horses. The horse, sleeping, woke briefly, looked at them, and then went back to sleep. They hid as the night attendant at the Chiu stables walked around, looking for the source of whatever noise had attracted her attention. Eventually, she sighed, switching off the lights and leaving.
“Wait here,” Jia whispered to Cheung before sneaking out. She was going to have to saddle her horse in the dark. Which would be difficult, given she usually had help at the best of times due to her age and size. A month of bare-minimum meals would not have helped.
Somehow, she managed. By the time she was finished though, she was drenched in sweat, had injured herself several times, and felt like she was on the verge of collapse. She returned to Cheung to find him asleep next to her aunt’s horse. She picked him up and carried him to her own small horse. She somehow lifted him on, and climbed up after him. Then the lights went on and the night attendant was staring at them.
Jia met her eyes briefly, and then squeezed, turning the reins. The night attendant could do no more than watch as Jia’s horse shot out of the stables into the night at a gallop and down the driveway before the attendant could even so much as blink.
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax