Difference of Culture (2/4)
It's actually several months before Haalfrin remembers about the Fam Tablet that Dakka gave him.
Sure, Dakka comes by to visit him about once a month, but the dragon is under the impression that Haalfrin didn't like the thing, so he never mentioned it again.
In reality, Haalfrin just forgot about it…
Anyway, Haalfrin does remember about the Fam Tablet when he finds it behind a shelf; it probably fell there at some point, though Haalfrin has now idea HOW.
Being in another one of his lethargic depressions, Haalfrin picks the thing up, shrugs, and thinks, 'Meh. Nothing better to do.'
So, he holds the tablet tight and starts moving his mind through it….
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After several days of using the thing, Haalfrin comes across a 'historical action' story that was recently written about the last battle of the Threshold and the beginning of the Eternal War.
Of course, the narrator cites "Lyr Belna" as their primary source, though he wasn't consulted directly in the making in the story. Instead, the story writers just read the man's book and decided to make a fun Fam Story about it.
Either way, Haalfrin is actually excited to watch something on the Fam tablet for once…
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This 'historical drama' is the fictional story of a soldier who became a 2nd Gate mage and was forcibly drafted into the Threshold.
(On a side note, Haalfrin is confused about why they didn't just base their story on a real Threshold soldier for this little 'action drama'. However, some guy called "Jonri Tela" – the writer of the story – didn't want to do this, since he knew that he couldn't make the story completely accurately, and he didn't want to upset one of the Arkin.)
…
Basically, the story follows this fictional soldier and his stay in the Threshold. Along the way, the humans get into a lot of wars with the Rehkin.
At it's heart, this story is about a soldier named "Hendri" being forced to fight in the Threshold. He was deeply upset about being there at first, and he was originally trying to desert the army and find his way home again.
Hendri eventually had the opportunity to escape for good, but then he had already fallen in love with one of the female mages there. He couldn't possibly leave her behind, right?
Throughout the story, Hendri and this lady fall deeper in love, and they both become disgusted by the wars and killings between Brancotte and the local Clans (especially the Hawks).
Throughout their stay, the love interest faces a lot of persecution for being a woman, and Hendri tries his best to shield her from that.
Things get worse for them when his love finds out that she's pregnant, since apparently, it's against the rules for female soldiers to get pregnant. (That wasn't actually true in the Threshold. Mages live for so long that being out of commission for 9 months makes next to no difference.)
Anyway, the Ant invasion happens. Hendri and his wife manage to escape through the World Gate, since they would rather treasure the happiness inside her womb than sacrifice their lives for a corrupt government that doesn't care about them.
…
Well…, this is how the story went. On paper, Haalfrin doesn't have much of a problem with it. However… something about it makes him upset.
The way it was executed, and the ideas it implicitly implied, makes him deeply uncomfortable – so uncomfortable, in fact, that he ends up stopping the story just before the ending. He then sits in his chair for hours and gets lost in his thoughts.
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-Several days later-
Right now, Dakka is standing in the middle of a large courtyard… Well, calling it a "courtyard" is a little strange, seeing as how the whole thing is underground – deep beneath the Elder Dragon's palace.
This courtyard used to be one of Mistress Arla's many herbal gardens. She even made this place with artificial sunlight lamps to help the herbs grow.
Ever since Queen Fina took over, she kept the lamps and turned this place into a courtyard.
Right now, Dakka is concentrating really hard on his hand. Ever so slowly, the hand grows scales, and the claws elongate.
Ever so slowly, the dragon's hand is growing bigger and bigger… and the bigger it gets, the more red Dakka's face goes with concentration.
Just transforming small parts of his body is unexpectedly difficult.
Still, Dakka isn't discouraged by this. Before, he was only able to grow scales on his hand, but now, he can make it several hundred times heavier – very handy, indeed, when he's swinging his fists.
While Dakka is in the middle of his daily training, the door to the lonesome courtyard slams open, and Fina comes shuffling in. "DAKKA! GET OVER HERE!"
"What did I do wrong!?" Dakka hollers back. Despite feeling a little frustrated, he drops what he's doing and goes to meet his wife at the door.
"Take me to the Valor Hall. NOW!" Fina says with a voice that won't accept any arguing.
"Why? What's wrong?" Dakka asks while he bends down and sweeps Fina up off the ground. He slowly walks through the doors and up the long, winding stairs.
"Your friend is thinking about committing suicide."
Without even verbally exclaiming his shock, Dakka's grip on Fina tightens, and the ground beneath their feet parts ways in an endlessly deep hole.
Intruding on Arra's privacy in the core of the world is quite rude, but the Valor Hall is directly on the other side of the world. Cutting straight through the earth's core is much more direct than circling all the way around.
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Haalfrin is sitting on a chair with his hands clasped together and his back unusually straight. The man is staring blankly out his balcony window. There is plentiful color beneath him, yet he sees none of it, for his eyes and mind is elsewhere.
The old general is suddenly shocked out of his thoughts when he hears a knock on his door.
Without even looking outside, Haalfrin already knows who's on the other side of the door. The only person with an Aura that dense is Dakka.
"Come in, Dakka. This is basically your house too, so you don't have to knock," Haalfrin says calmly.
The door swings open, and a huge dragon-man crouches down and squeezes through the door. If the entire wall wasn't Time-locked, then Dakka's horns would've ripped the dop of the frame out of the wall.
"You really need to make these doors taller. They're quite unfriendly to dragons…," Dakka laughs awkwardly. Indeed, the man's head is over 7 feet tall, yet his horns poke up in the air even higher. It's very hard to maneuver around sometimes with that rack of bone.
"Not happening," Haalfrin quickly says. "It's Time-Locked. Afraid it's permanent." He then turns to Dakka, and sees his friend carrying Fina in his arms. "What made you guys drop by? I thought you just visited last week?"
"Umm… about that…," Dakka scratches his head. "Fina said that you're… er… feeling upset. Is everything OK?"
Haalfrin sighs and looks away. "Yeah. I'm fine."
Just as Haalfrin turns his head away, Dakka lifts his hand up, and a strong Force yanks Haalfrin out of the chair and drags him over to him. The human is then hoisted into the air and is held in place in front of the dragon's face.
"Stop being stupid, Haalfrin!? You're going to tell me what's going on, or else-"
"That's enough, Dakka," Fina says sternly. "You can't force this kind of thing out of someone."
Fina then looks over at Haalfrin and says, "You know that killing yourself now would just make things worse, right? Sure, you could see your wife again sooner, but you'd die as a depressed loser. Do you really want to spend eternity like that?"
Fina's eyes narrow. "No… That's not quite it," she mumbles – almost under her breath, "There's more to it. You hate this world now… Oh, what am I saying? I should let you explain it yourself."
The Ant Queen reaches out and puts a finger on Haalfrin's forehead. "Well? What'll it be? You going to talk?"
Haalfrin looks down and lets out a breath. "All right. Just set me down already."
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Haalfrin is certainly not the type to open up about his feelings. The man is so introverted and private that most people have never seen him legitimately angry or sad before. Even Dakka has a hard time remembering an instance where his friend was upset.
So, when Haalfrin opens his mouth and starts talking, it's quite certain that he's only doing so under the influence of Fina's Spirit
The first thing that Haalfrin says is that he's been looking through the Fam Tablet, along with plenty of other literature from Lareen and Arra.
The first couple of stories Haalfrin looked at, he noticed that all of them had a few things in common.
First, war was held to be universally evil. Second, women's ONLY state in the past was of abject slavery and oppression, while men were ONLY in a state of tyrannical violence.
The first couple of times Haalfrin saw this in those stories, he really thought nothing of it. However, when the same patterns cropped up again and again, he began to realize that these really are the predominant views in Lareen.
Even this realization did little to move Haalfrin…
… That is, until he found that fictional story about an unwilling soldier in the Threshold…
"But what exactly is wrong with that story?" Dakka asks. "I watched that one, and it was pretty well made. The scripting was good, and I liked the main characters."
"I dunno…," Haalfrin sighs. 'How am I supposed to answer that question?' he wonders sarcastically. 'I mean, where to start?'
"Well? You gonna answer?" Dakka asks again. "What's wrong with that story? Why did it make you so upset?"
"…It just sucks…," Haalfrin mumbles.
"Haalfrin…," Fina says while shaking her head, "I know you're upset at the Lareen people for being narrow-minded, but you're not any different."
"Honey!?" Dakka hisses, "He feels terrible! You shouldn't be saying mean things to him."
"Truth is a better cure than soft words, and understanding your enemy's heart is the cure to hatred," Fina retorts back. "Now set me down. We need to all sit down and have a nice chat."