~
Here is a feast for the mind. Bon appetite.~* Chapter 1: Intro *~
It had been 6 zurgals. Could it really have been that long? I felt as if I had lived a thousand lives, each one staring at a dirt-encrusted wall. In that time I had memorized every single stone, crevasse, and stain on the walls of my tiny cell. I had even noted the little beetles and bugs that somehow managed to burrow through the miniscule cracks filled with dirt.
The cell had a damp, heavy feeling in the air and it smelled of soil and earth. My only source of entertainment was a little spider that had decided to build its web in an estranged part of the room, well, as estranged as you could get. I studied the spider, the bright yellow on its back and legs startling contrasted with the gray, dreary room. I watched as it created its web and went about making it just so. When I had first come to this place, I had felt such betrayal and rage, that I knocked the web down. The spider went on, slowly and dexterously rebuilding its wed. I thought it so interesting that it had so much determination to keep going, even after I had destroyed all it had worked to achieve. Then it occurred to me that this spider shouldn't be here and neither should the bug. How could I have been so slow?
"Isolation, with no distractions." Isn't that what the Supreme Judges had ordered? It must have been Jovada. She had secretly put these in. God! If she got caught… Well, I wouldn't be the one to tell, thanks to her I had managed to keep my sanity, or at least what I had always had. I mean, someone must really be lacking in wits if they're willing to clock an Aarion official over the head with a latrine pod.
I got off easy, though. The only reason was because I am young. Of course having a Supreme Judge as a provider doesn't help either. He actually wanted me banished! Must have been a real shock to JS32 (Supreme Judge 32) to see his Gen brought in for a crime, and a high crime for that matter.
Most Aarions would have been tortured or banished. We don't torture people with clubs or stones, though I have read about Middle Age torture in the Historical Records Library, very messy business. We have long left those primitive traditions. Now the Supreme Judges can get you a brain wrap. Since pain is mostly mental, they just stick a brain wrap needle in you neck and the whole world, or rather head, explodes with pain. It really is a smart way of taking care of things, if you think about it. The person learns a lesson and the needle don't cause any physical damage, so the JS don't get a bad rap. If they don't learn a lesson the JS just rule mental illness and the poor Aarion is locked up in cell to rot. I never actually have seen it happen, but a lot of hearsay goes on about it. There is one think worse than torture, or even death, and that is banishment. Of course, banishment is looking better and better from my standpoint.
Obscene and gruesome stories are told about Elsewhere. There is this one story about a country called Zain, where the people there, when still young, have to cut off all their limbs to be sacrificed to their gods. I'm sure their providers help them. I mean, what do you do when you've already cut off your arms? Over the next zurg their limbs slowly grow back. It must be a hereditary thing, because I don't think my arm would grow back if I were to cut it off, then again, I have never tried. The pain is so excruciating that some don't make it. It's their way of purifying the population. The "weak" die, while the strong survive.
There are prodigious amounts of other stories just like that one, and the people that tell these, mind you, go through great detail during the gory parts. Every Gen in Aarion grows up with nightmares of Elsewhere. I, my self, have been plenty trifled by these claimed first-hand accounts. It has occurred to me that I didn't think like everybody else. Instead of being terrified of these bizarre lands, like any good Gen should. I found myself allured by the stories. I was curious to know if it really was like that in Elsewhere.
Jovada, my provideress tried to get me to give up my curiosities and wild dreams. Jovada was, and is always kind to me. I think she may actually like me, or even love me. After all, she did persuade JS32 to sneak in the bugs, but I do suspect that he chose the least liked detraction.
JS32, whose social name is Cran, seems to be repelled by me. He always does his best to keep his distance, which is just fine by me, but I do wonder sometimes why he hates me so much.
Everyone in Aarion has two names, an official and social name. Jovada's official name is CS410 because of her profession at the Creature Studies Department. As for me, my official name is Gen60180, because I don't have a profession yet, I am just Gen. My social name, I picked out my self, is Zel. It's short for Zelia, which means wanderer, other books say "one that is unexpected" and still others suggest warrior and fulfillment.
The spider and walls are fading. Finally my isolation time is up.
"Do you feel alright? " a voice asks, barely above a whisper. The room is coming into focus. I recognize it as the Warplum room, where people who have brain wraps are held. I sit up slowly, like waking from a deep slumber. I see occupants sitting on the ground, lying down, or monotonously milling around. Some are twitching and gasping for breath. I can only imagine what is happening to them.
"Gen60180," says a clipped, business like voice. "You will come with me." I stand up shakily. Then I see Jovada as she kneels to help me up. The messenger, with a flair of red silks, is already walking briskly toward the large double-doors. I hobble after him, Jovada supporting me. I have lost a surprising amount of muscle during my isolation time. I go down an immense hall, decorated with ornate tapestries and huge screens showing surreal designs blending into one another.
We finally reach the Deciding room. With a sigh of relief, I am lowered into a plush chair. I look over to the front of the room. It is like looking at 7 mirrors all at once. All the faces that stare at me have pointed and chiseled features. The expression in their dark beady eyes in unreadable. I recognize Cran, as the judge that is 3rd to the right. His mouth has a slight scare, which gives his face a sour look. His eyes seem to hold a flicker of disdain.
"Gen60180, you are here on charges of harassing an Aarion official and defiling a public road. Do you understand?" barks the JS in the middle. The deciding had begun.