And An Old Name

 

           Once upon a planet, but not this one, there was a father, a mother, a boy of middling years, and an infant daughter. They were a most happy family, a great family among their people.

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            Their home planet was much like yours, dear reader, in all physical respects, but the culture was muchly older. In appearance, it was a pretty place. Care was taken with the gardens. The streets were laid out by design. Buildings did not shock the landscape, but they seemed to take their themes from their locations and add to its essence somehow. Architecture was a much respected art form there.
            And yet, all discord had not been abolished there on that fine planet.
            It was the custom, there, in those days, for great families to compete among themselves to consciously create dynasties.  Infant children were promised in marriage among these families and a great deal of pride was taken in making a good match, a social match, and a genetic match.
            This was generally an amiable competition, but not always.  Rarely, there would be some family with affronted dignity and terribly hurt feelings.  Mothers would cry, and fathers would walk grimly in gardens after dark, wishing that there was some remedy for the shame of not being chosen by a revered family. Their wee child would not be made a member of a greater family. It stung.
            The family at the center of our story was chosen. Concentric waves of consequences echoed out from this success. Our family rejoiced and gave parties. Their relative significance took an upward step.
            However, a much wealthier, but not as socially great, family’s little daughter was not chosen by the leading, you might say even royal family, which had a young son, the greatest prize of all. This wealthy father and mother had also been giving parties in anticipation of their obvious success. In view of this, their humiliation was profound. They had shown themselves to be presumptuous fools before the whole planet. Their shame coalesced into something harder, more desperate, and more vindictive.
            The shamed father went about the market squares, which though very well planned and executed, were still market places, and we know about that, don’t we. This father, Bilo, was looking for an assassin.  By a series of subtle degrees of introductions and searchings, he found one who was willing to destroy the rival family.
            But, being a clever villain, more clever really than Bilo, he went to the head of our story’s family, the father Jer, and told him of the plan, and that he would surely carry it out if they did not pay him off with a very great deal of money. And our family, though great and old and rich with dignity, was not able to pay the assassin his fee. Possibly he would have killed them anyhow, after taking their money in addition to Bilo’s.
            What could the father, Jer, do? He decided that he must take his family to some obscure place, there to live until such time as it was safe to come back, and that the marriage of the august family’s son and his daughter could safely take place. For these contracts were binding, and once the marriage was completed life would tend to swing back into normal channels.
            There was a hurried consultation that night with a sage in the matters of inter-dimensional travel. A place was chosen. It was a plain, unknown place on a similar planet to theirs. An old house was available.  It would be enough. Among the tall evergreens, in the misty quiet, and nearby running water, they would spend their days waiting.
            As you know, a so called portal is just a momentary interface between worlds and/or times, as it were. Some adept who is able calls an alignment and the step off is made. If all goes well and it is done in secret and swiftly, it is a fine means of escape.
            Oh, but sometimes, it does not go well. Our clever assassin knew to keep his prey in sight. This he did and he saw it all. Not only that, but he captured the managing adept, and with knife to his throat, learned of the escaping family’s destination.
            Now, this creature, Nool, so unlike most of the kind inhabitants of his planet, had no desire to follow to an alien planet himself. Therefore, Nool sent a dire bird, for lack of a better descriptor, to the planet of refuge. He did not expect to see this bird again, and he collected his fee from Bilo.
            Let us back up a bit.  Jer left all his family’s property and wealth in the hands of a young relative and his wife. As it happened they inherited it all. To finance their lives on the new planet, Jer carried precious stones and gold.  For as you know, gold and precious stones occur in all the worlds.  They are generally accepted trade items on any world, as we know very well.
            The royal son grew to adulthood. He spent his time, when he had time, discovering the planet that Jer and family had fled to.  Perhaps Jer’s caretaker was of some assistance. Absolutely, the travel adept was the one who told the tale. This prince never ceased searching for his promised one. He became a pilot of one of those between worlds ships we see from time to time on our own world.
            Somehow, three storylines are intermingled. In one the dire bird sent on the assassin’s mission found Jer’s family in the gentle remote forest, and with claw and beak did his duty. However, he left the helpless child alive, as in his wickedness he thought to let her die as such was more cruel.
            In another line, the son discovered the girl’s whereabouts and wishing to protect her obscurity until such a time as their marriage could take place, merely checked up on her from time to time. Hence his conversation with Jula one night, you will remember.
            There is a third story, a little stub of a story. In this story, a mother wolf, fresh with milk and full of pity in her heart, heard an infant weeping.  When she approached the house, she perceived that there were three destroyed people inside, but there was also a girl child still living and crying in distress. She could not leave those cries behind, so she gripped the child by her dirty clothing and brought her to her den and placed her among her own children.
            Just in time, the child was spotted by Hofel, who took her home to his wife and all was most well for some years. Then the girl moved on to live among nomadic humans for a time of about ten years.
            Then all these stories meet and kiss on a meadow one night, when a circle of rainbow light appeared before young Ruza as she was running from Islu, and the prince Mak revealed himself to her.
            Just two last details should be added to tie up a loose thread or two.
            The assassin’s bird couldn't live in our world. His bones lie in a ravine in the mighty forest, slowly being hidden by windfall and blown detritus. If they are ever found no one will know what to make of them.  Perhaps they will invent a species!
            Two young hikers, with nothing of value between them, took shelter one night in the house where Jer’s family thought to hide. This boy and girl took pity on the bones and buried them near the house, covering the site so that no one would ever know it.
            When they moved Jer’s mortal remains, they found among his clothing a couple of bags containing precious gems and also small golden coins.
            Thus, the circle was completed and the tendency of the universe to right itself was manifested once again, forever and ever, world without end.

All 10,419 words of it.