As told by Mathew Serig: “We headed towards the small city of Lelodona, about sixteen thousand or so residents, to check out some possible properties. Lelodona was along the river, not far from timber country. A few days in the city, which reminded me of again a northern Italian town, yielded a possible building or two. Or maybe buy some land outside the city.
We looped north thru the wine country of Appia, about a week or so from the capital of Avenmare. I wasn’t a drinker, I just like the scenery. And they were having their harvestfest. It reminded me of an Italian fest I had gone to as a kid. The dress was similar, the music was similar. The food was fairly similar. I thought stay there for a couple of days. Three days. Okay, four days. I felt, just a little, like I had gone home, to my original homeland, sort of. I told myself I really do need to get out of the Capital more. This fest was a nice way to sort of finish off this trip.
I was happy with how well things had gone with Opunenza. He wasn’t an eccentric, he was an idealist, a dreamer that had made a grand dream come true, to some extent. He dreamed of some utopian society that . . . I was a bit ambivalent about. Maybe he was some proto-magical-communist that wanted to overthrow the nobles via some bloody revolution because they were a bunch of ignorant, spoiled brats that screwed everything up. Maybe. On the other hand, I had never seen homeless people, starving people, in real life, not just images, before I had come to the Capital. I could empathize with the images, but it wasn’t the same as actually seeing them in person. I could understand Opunenza’s desire to have a not just more equitable society but one free of pain and misery that so many lived in. Who wouldn’t. I also understood his not-so veiled frustration with the nobles. They were the trustfund babies of society.
Of course they were crappy students – they didn’t have to learn their lessons they were born into wealth and privilege. I thought that most of the nobility I had met over the years were ignorant, as in not knowing, not stupid. Ignorant, spoiled brats that thought their shit didn’t stink and were busy in mostly hedonistic pursuits – which is why Tom got along so well with many. There were a few kind ones and responsible ones that realized their position came with responsibilities, but many did not. The only reason I did business with them and acted as something of a financial advisor to some, just tips, was because this was the society I found myself in and you can’t have money, in some cases more than some nobles, and not have them resent you. And if they resent you they can tear you down. Yes, money is power, but patents of nobility are power – the power to make the law. The power to have the ear of the king. The power to take my money and freedom away. Who the hell was I? I was some refugee, foreigner, that with his two cousins had in a short time made more money than some noble families could ever hope to have.
I had two choices once we made money: one, hope that I can just keep my head down and try not to get destroyed by the nobles; two, make nice with the nobles, show them I’m not a threat, show them that I can be useful, and maybe have a better chance of survival in this fucked up aristocracy. Try to make allies as much as I could. There was Lady Wenmont who was decent and kind, older, truly genteel – we were on good terms thru our philanthropic works. Lord Doven – retired military commander. Lady Fulmuth – who I think had a crush on me, but I wasn’t sure as she was a known flirt. She was rich, and pretty decent, although she kept the decent part hidden and presented as a somewhat vacuous trollop – sort of.
If we had no money, then we’d have a certain amount of freedom, but no safety or food and all struggle. A little money and a chunk of freedom, but still gotta work hard and food can be expensive and hard to get. The more money you have, yes the necessities are met, but more and more people know you and want to get to know you and everything about you. We needed protection. We needed to be seen as useful members of the Avenmare. So, I saw we, at least I, had to do this dance with the nobility. I’m useful to them, and they can be useful to me and my cousins. In an aristocracy you can’t be as rich and well known as me and my cousins and be commoners – it’s a threat to the nobility’s system. As long as we were going to be in this system,= we had to work within it’s confines.
I thought I had to do this dance, but I wished I didn’t. I wished I could be in a farmhouse with some good-lookin’ wife, that couldn’t reproduce, and just make love and lie in bed together all day long. Take long walks, with her or myself, thru the green pastures, and watch the stars come out at night and lie underneath them and the moon all night long. Just fuck off and to hell with everything. But that wasn’t the world or situation I was in. I did the dance with the nobles for protection and opportunity and for some land that lasts forever. Luckily I was also Gifted. That in-and-of-itself afforded me and my cousins some societal protections.
I wanted to reach my fullest potential and I felt that in this world I was finally able to do so. I hoped that Tom would straighten himself out and fly right. I hoped that Anne would fall in love with a good man. I hoped Mineeo would drop dead. I wished Melinda had been older. I hoped Fulmuth couldn’t have babies. I hoped Greencrest and her niece were honorable no matter what, and that Greencrest’s partner was less of a fuck. I hoped Opunenza wasn’t a revolutionary communist mage. And I hoped that most of all things going into the winter would be nice and quiet and boring. For now, I just wanted to sit and sip some tea, eat this wonderful roast chicken and vege, and enjoy a few hours of somewhat familiar-sounding music and smiling faces before I’d have to get up early and head back to my worries. That didn’t seem like too much to ask for.”
