Chapter 19

"So Thamos just disappeared," Justine said as she shovelled fresh tortellini into her mouth. "He had wanted to marry Risha, but she chose Hisen because he was gentler. The night before the wedding Hisen went to see Thamos, and Thamos actually hit him. Hisen was in shock because of course no one had ever hit him before so he just sat there while Thamos ran away. Risha was in tears, because, while she wanted to marry Hisen, Thamos was still her friend. She asked me what to do, and I told her that she needed to forgive him if he was sorry. Hisen said Thamos had whispered he was sorry before he ran away, so Risha and I looked everywhere trying to find him, but he was gone. It was like something had just snatched him away."

"He broke the rules, didn't he?" said Patrick as he served himself more of the pasta. Fridays were much different since Justine had started experimenting with all kinds of pasta. He wondered about putting cooking gadgets on his Christmas list for her. The season was getting close quickly.

"Well, Hisen would have welcomed him, so Thamos broke the Peace by hitting him, but why would he have run away?"

"In the game, when you changed your mind everyone chased you down."

"Yeah, but nobody wanted to chase Thamos. We looked for him because we were worried about him."

"So is the wedding still happening?"

"Yes, Risha said that she's been waiting too long for this to stop now. She really loves Hisen."

"So when is the wedding?"

"Next week I think. Drasil will make sure I make it to the wedding."

"How are you and Stone doing?"

"Well, he's decided he'll just wait for me to change my mind. He'd rather be my friend than not. So, he's back to teaching me juggling tricks."

"I'm relieved. I'm not ready for my daughter to have boyfriends."

"Well, duh, I'm only eleven, but Stone is my friend and I needed to honour him by thinking about it."

"Honour, huh?"

"The Pax are big on honour. Not like their own honour, but protecting the honour of others. Marisha said that they used to be this really violent people and they were always killing each other over stupid things, and when they weren't killing each other, they were fighting wars against their neighbours."

"What happened?"

"A guy named Darsh decided that he didn't feel like killing his neighbour because one took his cow. So, he didn't, then a different neighbour took his horse. People started coming and just helping themselves to everything that Darsh had. Soon he had nothing but his wife and children and the rock he happened to be sitting on.

"One of his neighbours came by and saw his wife and decided he liked Darsh's wife, so he went to take her away. Darsh's wife asked him if he was going to do anything to stop this neighbour, and Darsh asked her if shedding this man's blood would make her happy. She looked at her children and realized if Darsh killed the man, then his kids would kill Darsh and then her kids would kill them.

"I get the idea."

"So Darsh's wife went with the neighbour and served him as his maid, but she kept reminding him she only did so to preserve her children's lives. The man wasn't happy because she was making him look bad, but if he let her go he would look weak. So, he went to Darsh and asked him if, now that he had nothing but his children and the rock he sat on, if he would come and be the neighbour's servant too.

"Darsh replied that he would rather starve swiftly than slowly, but would the neighbour take in his children to preserve their lives? So, the neighbour ended up with a whole lot of extra children who he couldn't honourably get rid of and a servant who was making him look bad.

"He decided that he would give the whole bunch back to Darsh, only Darsh by this time was down to skin and bones, so the neighbour had to give back some of the other stuff he'd taken so Darsh could feed himself and his family. The other neighbours came to take the stuff away again, only Darsh would ask them to take care of his family. They knew what had happened with the first guy so they left him his family and even brought back more stuff.

"While all this was going on the King noticed everyone was a lot better off now that they weren't spending all their energy trying to kill each other. The neighbours who brought Darsh's stuff back were the richest of all.

"The King asked the priests to go figure out what was going on. So, they went and talked to Darsh and then his neighbours. They went back to the King and said the Goddess of the land was blessing Darsh and his neighbour because they stopped shedding the blood of her children. Then King asked all his people, rich and poor, strong and weak to come to the City and have a meeting. The meeting went on for three years, but in the end, they decided that they would rather be rich and peaceful than strong and warlike. That's when they created the guest code, and they've been living that way pretty much ever since."

"That's quite a story."

"Marisha says that it isn't told often enough. People are forgetting why they are who they are."

"I'm with Marisha. It's important for people to remember their stories."

"So what's your story?"

"Ouch, that's a good question, and I'm afraid that I don't have a good answer for you. I'll think about it though."

"I think I like Darsh. He's a bit like Jesus because he refuses to do bad things, but his story has a happier ending."

"I don't know, the minister might disagree with you on that. As I remember Easter is a pretty good happy ending," Patrick said.

"But he had to die first. That had to suck."

"True, but some things can only be accomplished if we do the stuff that sucks."

"I guess. I still like Darsh's story."