|
PeaceCouncil |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Main Site
Sections
Affiliates     |
The messenger was a woman, and though she was wearing Darkovan clothing, she was not Darkovan, and not accustomed to the streets of Thendara's Old Town at night. She walked warily, checking behind her back every so often in case someone might be following. Although she was not familiar with the maze of roads and alleyways she had a good map, and good directions. She was able to find her way easily to her secret destination. Once she arrived she slowly opened the creaky door and continued across the darkened room. The light from her oil lamp gave barely enough light to illuminate the walls and show that she was alone. She continued into the back room, tossing aside the black curtain. As this room was also empty she went down the trap door to the supply room below. She felt along the side of the wall until she arrived at the board that would open like a door when she pushed it. She opened it and went into another storage room. She took the top off one of the barrels and climbed inside. There was a ladder at the bottom that led down to the secret headquarters. The room was not empty. The light from over 100 lanterns filtered in from the next room. She explained why she was here and the guards let her in. Once inside she joined the circle among all the other people. There were still a few empty places for more people to come and sit in. She looked across the circle to the leader and starter of the organization, a man named Darksky. He had found a number of people to form the secret organization to help with world peace. The organization was named PeaceCouncil. In its 3 years of existence it had expanded to over 1000 members in 17 towns from 3 countries. She was from the first town in her country of Drismoon, a town named Greyclo. A few more people rushed in and sat down. The last specks of sand reached the bottom half of the sand-timer in the corner of the room. A man walked over and rang the huge brass gong. Its sound bounced around the large room, quieting the speech until it was no more. Finally Darksky got up and addressed everyone. "Welcome, all. For those of you who do not know how meetings work, this gold-plated torch will be passed around from person to person to discuss any issues. If you do not have anything to discuss, pass the torch on. If you have something to say with regards to the current issue, raise your torch or your hand if you don't have a torch. " The torch went past the first few people on its way around the circle before anyone had any issue to discuss. When it got around to the ninth person in the circle he told them about the fights between Angrelm and Greyclo. She had heard of the fights because Greyclo is her town but did not think too much of it until he mentioned that they were planning to do something to get back at Greyclo for closing the market for drug sales - the cause of a lot of fights. Since then Thendera's Old Town, the town they were all in, had also closed the market to drugs, followed by several others. Angrelm then sent out threats to all the towns if they would not reopen the market. The threat was to create a large war. Angrelm could probably destroy any town if cunning enough but if all the towns knew when they were coming they could be defeated. One suggestion was to have a close watch kept on Angrelm and to report any attack plans to all the other towns. But all Angrelm wanted was a war. The best plan would be one to stop the attacks. There was a PeaceCouncil in Angrelm but it was not very strong and the authorities were bent on shutting it down. Very members of the PeaceCouncil there were in very high roles. The best thing anyone could do was to suggest that they wait and see. They asked the messenger from Angrelm to tell what he knew and he did. "The higher members of Angrelm keep their actions and plans very secret. I could not find out anything and they certainly don't make it public. All I found out was the messages they sent out to be delivered to the other towns. 'Reopen your market and remove any laws pertaining to drugs or we will use force.' Reply messengers came back from the towns but they were taken hostage. They are in the dungeons being tortured as we speak. I do know the drug market creates a lot of revenue for Angrelm but also causes great violence and is not good for anyone else. " That topic was left unsolved except to wait and see and discussion continued to the right around the circle. The only issue raised as it continued was about Seacout's messenger which had not returned from Angrelm. Of course he was one of the messenger's taken hostage, which was voiced by another person across the circle. Final the messenger from Drismoon spoke. "I am Dryfern, a member of the advisory council for Drismoon. A messenger came to our town a few days ago and told us that Thendara's Old Town was preparing an army to come and attack us. I have come to find out if this is true." Another person across the circle spoke in reply to her concern. "I am the leader of the army here in Thendara's Old Town and I have received no such command or heard of any such thing. Is there anyone who has?" When the circle was quiet with no hands raised for a few seconds, Dryfern grabbed the torch and spoke. "Why could this messenger have thought of such a thing?" Someone else from somewhere around the circle motioned for the torch. "The messenger could simply be a prankster trying to create trouble. But I cannot figure out why. How could we try to stop such a rumour from spreading through the city and causing panic?" Someone across the circle had a possible answer and motioned for the torch. "How much political power does Dryfern have?" Dryfern started his answer before the torch was passed to him. As the question was addressed at him most members in the circle ignored the act. "I do not have too much political power. I am fairly well known in my city and my answer would likely be trusted if I had some proof to back it up. I don't even have a reason for having been here. I had to sneak out. If I wait too long though, the rumour will have rooted itself as a fact and I will not be able to do anything about it. What could I use as proof and my argument?" A quiet murmur filled the room as people discussed the answer among themselves. The discussion kept on for many minutes before finally someone motioned for the torch. Since few people noticed the raised torch and the talk was still quite loud the gong was rung. Talk quieted and the person who now held the golden plated torch started to speak. "Your situation is very difficult. I would probably publicly question how the messenger found out about the attack. You could also say you talked to someone else that came to your town, perhaps for the market, and that he said that he had heard nothing of the attack. Or you could even say you came over to this town to investigate the possible attack and found out it was a total myth. " With that answer, which no one was able to top, the discussion continued around the circle with a few other discussions on various topics. The only other important discussion was one which was talking about a group of drug smugglers which were sneaking them into Thendara's Old Town. They decided that they should report them to the authorities along with their hideout. They would suggest for a plan to catch them that the authorities would wait in the drug-smugglers hideout until their arrival and catch them then. There were a few other discussions but mostly of very minor things such as negative rumours going around - most of which proved untrue. Finally the meeting was officially ended with another resounding ring of the gong. That was the last meeting of everyone until next year at this time or under an emergency circumstance. Everyone slowly left the circle. They all headed out of the secret place - one by one as to avoid suspicion. There was no rush and many stayed to chat. Dryfern did not stay. He knew that the clock was ticking and to be later to arrive back at his city might be the creation of a war. Next Chapter |
||||||||||||||||||||
| ©Matt 2003-2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||