Be our guest! Be our guest!
Our command is your request
It's been years since we've had anybody here
And we're obsessed
With your meal, with your ease
Yes, indeed, we aim to please
While the candlelight's still glowing
Let us help you, We'll keep going
Be Our Guest

Chapter Three: Yes Indeed, We Aim to Please

The stairs were steep, but Jaron managed to make it to the bottom without asking Ophelia for help.

Outside the door, Gaelan was standing in the sunlight, brighter than he'd seemed before, and his coat gleamed.

"Who groomed you?" Jaron asked, but Gaelan just shook his head and whuffled into Jaron's hair.

He hugged the Companion tightly; glad to see him again, and then he turned back to Ophelia, who stood in the doorway.

"Now what?"

"Now we go to the Arch Building," Ophelia said. The way she said it made it clear that the A was capital, and that it was common knowledge what the building's purpose was.

Jaron turned a quizzical look her way as she came down the last few steps that led to the street. She started walking down the street, and Jaron followed her. Gaelan trailed the both of them, and when Jaron felt like the three of them had gone a full circle along the spiral that formed the city streets, Ophelia told him.

"The Arch Building is one of the buildings next to the power source for the city; it is the building where the men and women who take care of the city reside. They make the day-to-day decisions that control the city and direct what happens, and they would very much like to meet you."

Why me? "You mean your Council?" Jaron asked, a little confused. "Who is your overall Monarch?"

Ophelia gave him a sideways look. "We have no Monarch. We have no Queen, we have no King. We have no Heir, or Emperor or Empress."

Jaron began, "Then how--"

"--Are we ruled?" Ophelia finished. She gave him a look that was neither condescending or awed. It was just a measuring look, and he wondered what exactly she was measuring.

"We have something like the Councils in the East, but in Graveld we elect our own rulers by popular vote. Each city elects its own leaders, and then once every ten years the elected leaders of the cities travel to the central city in Graveld to listen to the campaigns of those who wish to rule the country. Those campaigners are placed under a charm to make them tell the truth, and those ones who the elected leaders concur on are elected to rule the country. They are called the Senate."

She spoke as they walked, and Jaron guessed that they must be at least halfway to the center of the city by now; the place where he had woken up couldn't have been that far from the "Arch building".

"So," Jaron fumbled, searching for a way to word his next question. "What are your gods like? Do you still worship the Kaled'a'in goddess?"

The look she gave him was flatly astonished. "We don't believe in any gods here. Thousands of years ago, yes, but nearly a century ago the practice of worshipping any deity was given up upon. Here and there you'll find a few sects of people that still believe, but largely worship is not a popular thing."

He stopped. "You--what? Then who do you turn to when you're in trouble? Who created us; where did we come from? Why are we here?"

She paused, turned, and smiled. "I do not think you would believe me if I told you, so why don't we continue this discussion later when we have more time? The Arch building is in one more turn."

Jaron was bursting with questions, but when Gaelan nudged his shoulder with his nose. :She can answer your questions later. Right now you have a meeting with the leaders of the city.:

:Did you know about this?: Jaron asked, turning around and glaring into those big blue eyes. :Did you know that they abandoned their Goddess?:

Gaelan blinked slowly, innocently. :I knew,: he said quietly. :But what other countries and people choose to worship or not worship is not any of our business, I believe.:

:But--:

:Remember. In Valdemar, there is no One True Way.:

:I'm sorry,: Jaron said, sighing. :It's just that I've met so many people with so many different Gods and Goddesses, to meet someone--let alone a whole country!--who didn't worship any of them is a little offputting.:

Gaelan whuffled into his chest, butting his head against Jaron's chest.

:I wish I had your confidence,: the Herald thought. Then he turned back to Ophelia. "My apologies. I was just not truly..." he searched for a nice way to phrase it. "Prepared to meet someone who didn't believe in the same things I believe."

"Understandable," Ophelia said. "I understand that many of your friends had the same reaction when they discovered our... secularity."

Jaron nodded. He didn't know what to say to that, other than, What did you expect?

After another five minutes of walking, they reached the huge tower in the center of the city, and after giving it what he considered a fair glower, Jaron followed Ophelia into the last building on the end of the spiral.

Immediately inside the doors there were two more doorways leading off to the right and the left, and Ophelia led him left, then up several flights of stairs that seemed to take forever to climb, and when Jaron judged that they were about five or six stories above the ground, they stopped, and Ophelia led him through a door.

The little stairwell opened up into a grand room with several groups of people scattered around it, conversing. Sprinkled among them were some few of the Haighlei and the people Jaron had brought with him, looking entirely at ease.

The chairs along the walls were nice, Jaron guessed, from the looks of them. They were large wooden frames covered in leather, and they looked comfortable. Too bad no one was using them.

He stepped up next to Ophelia, and all conversations in the room stopped.

"Nice of you to join us," Treehugger said in Valdemaran, extricating herself from a gaggle of men in short robes and making her way over the short distance to the door. Lori followed her like an eager puppy, eyes wide in relief.

"What has been happening?" Jaron replied back in the same language. If there was a problem and she needed to say something in a language that the people of this city didn't know, it was best to keep it that way.

"Nothing, other than that these are a strange people and that they have refused to negotiate much without you. Apparently they want all of the diplomatic leaders of the different groups here."

"Which means..." Jaron trailed off, not understanding.

"The Valdemarans designated you as their leader. I am the representative from White Gryphon, and Jethryo has said that he will stand in for a diplomat or an Ambassador from the Haighlei." Treehugger waved her hand over at an opposing corner of the room. The lone Haighlei man stood out there like a watermelon seed among rice, and his formal robes were resplendent among the somewhat more casual attire of the men he was talking with.

Treehugger leaned close. "I do not know what the attitude of this people is towards those who believe in the Powers, but they do not believe. How can they not?"

Instead of looking like a calm, confident leader, she looked troubled, and Jaron didn't quite know what to say. He wasn't comfortable with it himself, and in negotiations between this country and their home countries that lay to the East, that might become a sticking point.

Marriages were made and lost upon religion; wars were declared by reason and basis of religion, and people depended on religion in times of both hardship and bounty.

He looked around at the people of Tansho, and they seemed happy enough. Why didn't they turn to Her when they needed to? Why didn't they thank Her or include her in their daily lives?

:I suggest you stop worrying at the issue,: Gaelan said abruptly. :The only thing this will make you do is stress, and there will be stress enough during the rest of these diplomatic negotiations.:

The sound of a large bell ringing startled him away from Gaelan's words, and he looked around the room for the source. Instead he found a set of pair of doors on the other side of the room open, and people were moving towards it.

He looked at Treehugger and Lori, and together the three of them--with Ophelia following--made their way towards the doors and joined the crowd.

Everyone filed through the doors on the other side of the room, and Jaron found that they were now in a room around a third of what the size of the first room had been, with more of the chairs that had been around the walls in the first room now somewhat closer together, arrayed around a huge round table.

The natives of Tansho sat down around one edge of the table, leaving not one seat empty, apparently leaving the rest for the visitors. The dozen or so foreigners looked at each other, mutually making the decision to take the rest of the chairs.

Being outsiders in a strange town in a strange country could apparently forge bonds faster than all being natives to the same country, Jaron decided as he took a seat between the last of the Haighlei and Lori. The rest of the people who had come with them from Valdemar who were in the room--the White Winds Adept, one name of Toyah, the Healer Peter, the Herald named Cunei, and Lori--sat lined up next to him in a line away from Lori.

When they were all seated, one of the men on the opposite curve of the table rose.

"Welcome to Tansho," he said formally in that odd, archaic Kaled'a'in, addressing them all. "My name is Garrick. I am the leader of the council here, and we wish to welcome you to both our city and our country." He sat back down, dark eyes passing over the foreigners.

"Have you any questions for the time being?"

For the time being? Jaron wondered. He glanced at Treehugger.

"What do you mean for the time being?" she asked, voicing Jaron's question.

"We need to move you to Veldi City. The Senate should be the ones negotiating with you, not we in Tansho."

But we're not ambassadors, Jaron thought. They were just a bunch of merchants, Kaled'a'in, and an exploration team coupled with a support team. They couldn't negotiate with an entirely new country!

:Relax,: Gaelan said, invading his mind with a calm rush of thereness. :Selenay will figure out what to do. When we contact her we can find out if she wants to send a true Envoy or not.:

:If?:

:If. She may choose to use you as her diplomat.:

:Why me?: Jaron Sent, panicked.

Shored chose that moment to poke his nose in. :Because you're the most mature out of all of us.:

Jaron got a sudden vision of three males standing side by side. One was a young teenager, barely out of puberty, one was a young man around the age of fifteen, and one was Jaron himself, twenty years old but looking incredibly wise. All of the boys were identical, save for the age difference and the eyes.

"And so tomorrow we will erect a Gate to send you to Veldi," Councilman Garrick was saying.

The youngest of the boys blinked and looked directly at Jaron. :You are the most knowledgeable of us,: he said.

The middle boy turned his gaze upon Jaron, too. :And you can take the most in.:

:What?: Jaron asked.

:You are the most able, not only among your Others, but among the people that you brought with you, save possibly Toyah and Cunei,: Gaelan added.

And Toyah cannot speak for Valdemar, Jaron realized.

:What about Cunei?:

:He was not designated as the leader of this scouting party,: Gaelan pointed out reasonably. :You were.:

:But I'm not ready!: Jaron wailed. :I'm twenty years old! What do I know about being a diplomat?:

:I think you're getting ahead of yourself,: Gaelan said, breaking Jaron's escalating panic. :Focus on the here and now, and later we will know what is to be concerning diplomats and ambassadors.:

While Jaron had been panicking, Garrick had finished explaining why they had to go to Veldi, and had opened the table to questions.

At first there was a silence as everyone pondered what to ask, and then both sides of the table were buzzing with conversation.