Forest & Kingdom Balance (38 page)

“Catherine tells me that you are just the sort of
young man to help the Kingdom get what it needs without our secret
getting out. You’re smart, self-reliant, you don’t shy away from
adventure, and most importantly, you’re trustworthy.”

“You don’t know me.” Tre wondered how Dorian could
make such an appraisal. “What happens if I slip up and someone
finds out about us?”

“I know you Tressan, better than
you know yourself.”
Catherine whispered in his mind.

“Oh ya, right, that.” He turned to Catherine with a
grin. “How does that work again?”

True to Catherine’s prediction, Tre had already
adjusted to his new worldview by the end of the afternoon. He spent
the night with Dorian in the bunkroom of a Forest supply building
as he listened to stories of the Trader Corps.

The next morning he met the Caretaker and took a
tour of the village. While he was there he saw two women in
conversation. The first woman exclaimed, “Oh! I forgot to bring the
belt that needed mending.” She took off her clothes and handed them
to her friend. “I’ll be right back.” Then she turned into a flash
of light and a sparrow flew off.

Tre just stood there. Dorian laughed, “I forgot to
tell you about that, sorry.” A short time later while he and Dorian
were at the blacksmith discussing his metal needs, Tre jumped as a
mountain lioness with a harness belt in her mouth ran past them. A
flash of light and the woman was getting dressed again. She picked
up the belt and the two friends came toward the smith.

For his first assignment in the Trader Corps, he was
told he had to go home, tell his parents that he only made it as
far as the other side of the first valley, and took service with a
forester. He would be gone for long stretches but would see them
when he could. Tre didn’t consider his assignment a particularly
exciting way to start his career. He perked up when he returned and
was told he would be spending three years in the Forest for
training.

At age nineteen he set out with Dorian on his first
trading run. It didn’t take very long for Tre’s intelligence and
skills to become legendary among the traders. Although ‘trader’
really didn’t describe what he did. They couldn’t trade any goods
from the Kingdom for fear that sooner or later someone would wonder
where the goods had come from.

The Caretaker had solved that problem when the
Trader Corps was first established, he had pointed out several
large veins of gold scattered around the mountains and helped the
Kingdom to create coins identical to the coast’s. That was just the
beginning of the close relationship the traders had with the
Caretaker and the Sentinels. Traders spoke to and worked with the
Forest more than the royal family. The traders did the work and
took the risks while Forest had their back.

The Caretaker and Catherine were Tre’s contacts for
most of his trading career, but John had been born during Tre’s
training, so whenever Tre was in the Forest, he always spent time
with the gifted young man. He knew they would need a good
relationship when John became a Sentinel.

Tre was an old hand at the trading game with twelve
years under his belt when Catherine contacted him. He was in the
Northern Protectorate, they were making the best steel goods at
that time and he had some special orders to fill.

“Tre, I need to talk to
you.”
Catherine’s communication was strained.

Tre knew immediately that something was very wrong.
She had blocked all emotion. He looked around, and then rode to the
side of the road. He sat against a tree and put his hat over his
face.
“What happened Catherine, and stop blocking
your emotions, I’m a big boy, I can take it.”

Despair and tragedy filled him, the pain and loss he
felt from her was overwhelming.
“Diana and Stefan
were killed by agents of the Red Knight.”
Another wave of
pain and loss from Catherine overtook him. He didn’t have time for
shock; he wanted to be there for Catherine as she had always been
there for him.

She was sitting at John’s bedside as she relayed the
events to Tre. It took him awhile to convince her, but she finally
allowed him to see the boy he had watched grow up. Tre was
devastated. Then that rare quality of strength that Catherine had
recognized in him so many years before, showed itself.

“Catherine, how many traders are
out, including me?”
She told him five.
“Please give them the message ‘Emergency One, thirty-five.’
Just say that only, they know that you will not contact them again.
All right?”

“I can’t just leave all of you
alone, without support.”
Her concern came through the
grief.

“You’re not leaving us alone,
you’re leaving them to me. You know as well as I do that the code
is a location. I will be there and I will get everyone home safe.
Agreed?”
Tre waited.

“If I had a choice, I’d say no,
but I don’t.”
Catherine admitted.

“Good. Is the message
sent?”

“I told them.”
He felt the
surrender in her thought.

“Hey, stop that. You have been
there for me, now I’ll be there for you. You take care of yourself.
I’ll take care of the traders. No scanning for us, no worrying
about us, I’ve got that covered. You and the Caretaker have always
had each other to lean on. Now you both have more than even you two
can handle. Here’s what I need from you. Talk to me, anytime, day
or night. Scream at me, cry to me, pour your emotions into me, do
anything but don’t hold it all in or you’ll never be the same. You
saved my life fifteen years ago by not letting me go into a world I
knew nothing about. Let me repay you in this small way. I can’t
help you do what is ahead of you, but I can listen. Please.”
Tre knew that Catherine had given of herself all her life. He hoped
that she could accept as well.

“Thank you.”
The warmth of
her thought helped them both deal with the grief.

Tre rounded up the traders and they headed home.
Catherine would contact him when she felt overwhelmed and allowed
herself an outlet. Sometimes her emotions were like an avalanche of
sadness; at other times she allowed the darker side we all have to
express itself. Through it all Tre was there for her, and he did
not show a single reaction, or tell a soul. No one but Tre and
Catherine ever knew.

Two years later they still had their hands, and
minds, full. The Caretaker was manipulating the Red Knight’s war,
spending time with Dionara, and giving John Sentinel training,
while Catherine had to handle the Kingdom, the Forest, the traders,
and all the sentinel duties. She had given up trying to keep track
of the palace in Kingsport and it worried her. She had an idea and
spoke to the Caretaker about it. He thought it was an excellent
idea and Tre became Tressan of the Palace Guard.

In times of sorrow and need, there will always be
moments when laughter will lighten your heart, usually when you
least expect it. Little did Catherine and the Caretaker suspect
that when they assigned Tre this task; they were creating just such
a moment for themselves, actually, many moments.

In no time at all Tre made connections all over the
palace. His reports held all the dirty little secrets and intrigue
that make a palace, a palace. Everything from information shared in
secret meetings at the highest levels to the scullery gossip, and
not a bit of it relevant to Forest or Kingdom, but it didn’t
matter. After awhile Catherine and the Caretaker would set aside
time for themselves once a week and take Tre’s report together. By
the time he was through dishing the dirt on all the happenings at
the palace, Catherine and the Caretaker were laughing so hard their
jaws hurt. Healing sometimes comes from the most unexpected places,
and Tre’s first rule in life might have helped it along a bit. Rule
#1: Never let anything as minor as the truth ruin a good story.

III

General Information

Continents & Oceans:

The world’s land mass is divided between two
continents, a single super continent that stretches from pole to
pole which takes up about a third of the globe, and a second,
smaller continent on the far side of the world. The smaller
continent’s southern most point crosses the equator and runs north
into the temperate zone.

Ocean currents are circular and weak, and tend to be
associated with ocean basins. The basin currents corkscrew the
circulation of warm water from the equator migrating to the poles.
The trade winds tend to be light and variable.

Paladin was the first to discover the “S” route that
utilized the circular currents to propel his ships to the far side
of the world. He was fortunate to find one of the few islands
mid-ocean that was substantial enough to support a full ecosystem
so that he could restock his provisions.

The New Lands continent is difficult to reach,
explore, and settle. There is a mountain range running its full
length north and south ending in island chains at either end. There
are arable lands on the west coast between the mountains and the
sea mainly mid continent. The east coast and interior are largely
unexplored. There have been several attempts to sail along the
coastline to set up settlements on the east coast and to explore
the interior. None have found any large scale success. There have
been, and still may be, small settlements on the east coast that
have been cut off from the main population centers of the west.
These settlements if any, would be subject to the east coast’s
severe and unpredictable weather, as well as the rough,
inhospitable landscape that those who have returned from the east
have reported.

Climate:

The climate on the super continent has the full
range of variations, though the extremes are not severe, and while
the tropics at their warmest are hot, it is not unbearable. It
stays predominantly mild far into the temperate zone, however the
seasons are evident in the mid to upper temperate zone and beyond.
The mild climate also applies to the west coast of the New Lands
continent. At latitudes on the super continent where winter becomes
life threatening, permanent settlements are sparse.

The east coast of the New Lands continent however
suffers the consequences of the continent’s interference with
global weather patterns. This instability has created a weather
worn coast and a large area inland that varies from hellish
deserts, to water soaked marshes, to pockets of utopian paradise.
Just about every variation is represented until the eastern face of
the western mountain range is reached.

Gender and Status Roles:

Traditional gender roles are not required by
societal norms. It is not unusual to have women as warriors, or for
men to take up childcare and domestic work. It is just as usual to
have a queen, as it is a king, and for daughters to inherit as well
as sons. Circumstances are determined more by situation than
gender.

While gender roles are taken by choice, in a
non-industrialized society with a lack of stability, the
traditional roles tend to be the majority. This helps both the
individual and the society to weather the conflicts and
uncertainties of life in the Red Knight’s world.

The equality of the genders leads to several aspects
that are taken for granted. For instance in the warm, mild climate,
nudity is not equated to sex and certainly not equated to an
invitation. A woman’s choices, as well as her body, are hers to do
with as she decides. While there will always be men who feel the
can impose their will on women, if they do, they can usually be
grouped into two categories, either “lonely” or “deceased.”

Status has far more to do with one person imposing
their will on another than gender. As a slave you are subject
anyone’s whim. Farmers, tradesmen, tradeswomen, warriors,
merchants, and all those not of the aristocracy have the rights of
King’s Law, unless a member of the aristocracy chooses not to
recognize King’s Law when ignoring it is to their benefit. For
those in the aristocracy, life is a constant struggle for ascension
to greater status and power.

Tea, or Morning Drink (Originally called Widow’s
Tea):

Widow’s Tea is found growing wild in most areas of
the super continent. It is also grown as a domestic crop. When its
leaves are brewed, it makes a slightly sweet hot beverage with a
pleasant flavor. It was brought to the New Lands and is both raised
as a crop and sown wild wherever humans settle.

It is a mild stimulant almost universally consumed.
It has no effect on men other than as a morning ‘pick me up.’
However for women it has the added bonus of slightly changing a
woman’s body chemistry in a way that will prohibit conception
without affecting her natural rhythm. Early in humanity’s history,
the plant was considered poisonous, most likely due to the fact
that tribes who imbibed it regularly died out due to lack of
offspring.

Over time its poisonous reputation was easily
debunked by would be poisoners who discovered that not only did
their intended victim not die, they could very well have thanked
the poisoner and complimented them on the drink.

From very early in society’s development, Widow’s
Tea put the choice of pregnancy in women’s hands. As a result
society has evolved to assume that pregnancy is naturally a woman’s
choice and always has been. The effect of the tea is short lived.
It is generally believed that the tea no longer has an effect after
approximately a week without it. Conception can then take place
naturally dependent on a woman’s individual cycle. It is not
unusual for women to throw Widow’s Tea seeds into the wind when
they arrive in a new area. After all, you never know when there may
be a need, or an opportunity!