The Anchors of Aydreon

Chapter 12 A Lost Friend
We call that person who has lost his father, an orphan; and a widower that man who has lost his wife. But that man who has known the immense unhappiness of losing a friend, by what name do we call him? – Joseph Roux

Even though Benefix had already sent word to King Chelten about the ambassador, the airship was not due to arrive until the next day. Jian was very upset about this as he thought that freeing one anchor was not making that much difference in the turmoil that currently engulfed Aydreon.
“At least Marcadia is safe,” Serah had said, for the first time wondering where Jian was from.
“I took the chance,” Benefix was saying to Jian, “Of visiting the magitechnologists at the Astrolab. They were very…”
“Freaked out?” suggested Serah.
“Cagey?” suggested Jian.
“Circumspect,” said Benefix. “They don’t want to start a panic, but I could tell that they knew something was wrong.”
“What do you think they are going to do about it?” Jian asked.
“Nothing at this time,” Benefix said. “I don’t think they are too sure about what is happening and they don’t want to look foolish.”
Jian decided to go out and try to gather some more information. Nico and Serah spent some time with Bartholomew the cat exploring the Cathedral and just talking about nothing in particular. Frequently Nico noticed that Christoph, Benefix’s bright red-headed guard was nearby. He didn’t give it much thought, except to feel a warm glow that Benefix was watching out for him through his guard. He even noticed him when he went back to Fairview to say hello to Jochim. When he got to the halfway house, Jan Seirzant was at the table. “Hi,” Nico said. “Is Jochim here?”
Jan Seirzant, neat and trim as usual looked up from some paperwork and said tersely, “Not anymore.”
Nico was shocked for a moment and couldn’t imagine where Jochim could be. “Well, where did he go?” he asked.
Jan Seirzant turned in his chair finally giving Nico some attention. He sighed and said, “I don’t know.” After a moment he added, “He just left.”
Nico was too stunned to say anything. He hadn’t known Jochim long, to be honest, he hadn’t known anyone very long, but Jochim had been kind to him and he was going to miss him. Nico continued to stare at Jan Seirzant. There was something he wasn’t saying, but Nico had no idea what it could be and no way to make him say what it was. Jan Seirzant turned away back to his paperwork and Nico sadly walked back to the Cathedral, seeing Christoph’s fiery hair glowing in the sun out of the corner of his eye following him all the way.
When he got back, Benefix was seeing to the last of the packing. He smiled when he saw Nico and said, “Just got word, the airship has been spotted heading this way. It should be here by the morning. You want to get a good night sleep, tonight!”
Benefix led Nico over to some soft couches and sat him down. “I wanted to have a chance to talk to you alone, Nico,” he began.
Nico, so full of his own sad news blurted it out, “Jochim is gone! Jan Seirzant doesn’t know where he is! Maybe he’s hurt or something.”
“I had heard that,” Benefix said gently.
Nico looked at Benefix in amazement. “You heard that Jochim was missing? How? Why? He’s just another nemo.” Nico couldn’t help keep a little bitterness out of his tone.
“I sit on the council with the Presbyters. Jan Seirzant does a good job keeping us up to date with what is happening in the halfway houses. Besides, I do care about what happens to our children in Validian, Nico.” After a moment he continued, “Bad things sometimes happen, even to good people. I think you are beginning to see that. We all do what we can to help. Like you, you are doing your part to help all of us.”
Nico gave a little nod and he thought about that a bit. “I guess,” he said eventually. Looking down at his feet he continued, “You know, Prevost, I’m still not sure that I’m the foundling you are looking for. I mean, there’s not really a way to tell, is there, if the sanctuary has been put right. And I don’t feel like I have any special powers or anything. What if we go to Jakodan and I mess everything up so bad it can’t be fixed and the Aydreon is doomed forever?”
Benefix didn’t answer right away and Nico began to feel a little nervous. He looked up at him and surprised a smile in Benefix’s eyes. “Nico, you are the right person. I believe that. You are exactly in the right place at the right time. And as far as having special powers, well, you don’t really know, do you. Maybe you’ve had special powers all this time and you’ve just forgotten. You still haven’t gotten over that nasty crack on your head you got in the avalanche.”
“I think if there was something special about me, the Prevost from Wickliffe would have been more excited to see me, Prevost,” Nico said dryly.
“That was a very brave thing you did, when you put on the ring and went into the cottage. Jian said that you showed real courage when you did that.”
“He did?” asked Nico, widening his eyes.
“Yes, and he was right. And you were very kind to Chrysalis, too. It sounds as if she did not have much happiness in her life. I think that shows that you can be very special.”
“Do you think Chrysalis made it, to... to an afterlife?”
Benefix hugged Nico’s shoulders. “I’m sure she made it to a good home.” They sat like that for a while longer. Each not feeling awkward but just happy to sit together and share the moment.
“I hate to keep asking you to put your life in danger like this, Nico.”
Nico said nothing and just waited. He was kind of scared too, to tell the truth, listening to all this talk about war-like Kings. Benefix was worried; he could see it in his face. But then he remembered Jian would be with him and that made him feel more confidant, especially when he remembered how he had handled the bogbear.
“Jakodan, it’s not like Validian,” Benefix was saying. “It’s a very war-like place. People are dying in wars all the time. All boys are asked to serve in their military. You might see some very…unpleasant things while you’re there. And you’re sure to be in some danger. Try to stick close to Jian, remember, he’ll protect you. And listen to Serah, she really knows a lot about things.” Nico nodded his head after each instruction. He squeezed Benefix’s hand. He wanted to tell him that everything was going to be all right, but he couldn’t find the words.
Suddenly Bartholomew came streaking in the room, tail down ears flat with Serah laughing and running after him. Several moments of chaos later revealed that Bartholomew had taken Serah’s hair ribbon. Nico was able to capture the blue-gray cat and gently convince him to let the ribbon go. “Here,” he said laughing, “here’s your ribbon.”
“Ewww, I don’t want it now!” Serah said breathlessly. “Here, let’s do this!” and she tied the pretty purple ribbon around Bartholomew’s neck. “I have more!”
Indeed, Nico was beginning to think purple was Serah’s favorite color as that was the only one she ever wore.
“But Bartholomew is a boy cat!” Nico was protesting when Jian walked in through the door. One look at his face and everyone became quiet.
“What is it?” asked Benefix.
“I’ve been listening to the news in the tavern. Things are really escalating in Jakodan. Not only is the Cathedral under siege but many people have lost their home and lands due to the flash floods. To make matters worse, the Kings are squabbling again and nothing is being done to help the refugees. The whole place is like a powder keg waiting to blow.”
Benefix repeated the news that the airship was close. “Good,” was Jian’s terse reply. “We need to hurry!”
Everyone went back to packing and getting ready. That night at dinner, cook prepared a special meal for them. Plain, savory food is what Nico now considered home cooking. There was a hearty beef stew and fluffy white dinner rolls. But cook ha made a special effort and roasted some peppers just for Serah. Both she and Benefix seemed to enjoy them very much, but Nico noticed that Jian didn’t have any and he followed his example.
Nico spent most of his time questioning Serah about some of the strange customs of the Jakodan people. From the way he spoke, Nico surmised that Jian knew the geography of Jakodan well, and was acquainted with the military and how it worked. But Nico was worried he would blunder in this strange culture.
“Well, the people are arranged in classes. Obviously, the most important people are the Kings and their family. Family name is huge over there. When you are introduced you have to have like three names besides your first one. One tells who your father is, one tells who your mother is and the third is given to you based on something you’ve accomplished. Because all boys are asked to serve in the military, it usually comes from some campaign you’ve been in. Some people, like Kings have even more names.”
“I don’t have all those names,” Nico said nervously.
“Well, that’s ok,” answered Serah, “You’re a foreigner so they won’t care about you. They probably won’t even ask your name. But is important that you use all the names you are told when you address someone.”
“Ok,” said Nico, “I’ll remember that. What else do we need to know?”
“Well, insignias and color is important too. Each clan and class has its own uniform and color. If you are wearing the color of a rival clan, you could be captured or even killed if some other clan is fighting at the time.”
“What do they fight about?”
“Mostly land. The whole country is divided up into provinces and they fight about the boundaries. Especially when the spring floods come and change the course of the rivers. Everyone wants water on their land. Of course the mines in the mountains get fought about a lot too. But don’t worry too much about that, Benefix has gotten us all clothes that are brown or tan. Those colors don’t belong to any clan or guild, so they should be safe. But it will be clear to everyone that we are outsiders and they might give us a hard time. Jakodans want to join a United Continental Congress even less than Marcadians!”
“There are some words you want to be careful about, too,” continued Serah. “For example never call anyone ‘sir’. Sir is an actual title and if the person you say it to isn’t a ‘Sir”, well there could be trouble.”
“Hopefully people will be much too worried about the floods to give us much notice,” said Jian. We’ll try to get out to the valleys and begin looking for that barrow without calling much attention to ourselves. Once we are away from the towns and villages, maybe no one will bother us much.”
On that note everyone said good night and turned in. Nico had a hard time falling to sleep. He was very nervous about tomorrow’s trip. Marcadia had seemed a lot like Validian and Nico had felt very comfortable there. But Jakodan seemed like a mine field. One wrong step and he could land them all in trouble. “I’ll just have to use my talent for being invisible,” he told himself with a nervous laugh. “Hey, Bartholomew,” he said to the blue-gray cat sleeping at the foot of his bed, “Maybe that’s my special power, no one can see me.”
Bartholomew opened one yellow eye and stared at him for a moment. Then he got up and stretched his long back, sauntered slowly up to Nico’s pillow, turned around three times and plopped himself down on the top of Nico’s head, as if to say, “I know where you are!”
Nico smiled and finally dropped off to sleep.