Part Twenty! Things are beginning to draw together, and I think that I might be able to finish the book pretty easily after all... Though Flek and Zarien's story lines seem to need a good many more parts to get to the planned end than Astrid's and Jroldin's...
Part XX: Astrid, Governor of Araelia
Date: Amanela 17th, 114 A.U.
“Hello, this is Governor Astrid’s office,” the cheerful voice said. “Unfortunately, Governor Astrid, nor her secretary, is available right now. Please leave a message after a beep.” The computer beeped.
“Greetings, Astrid,” Brother Tomas said. “This is Brother Tomas from the Great Cathedral; hey, I have word from you—I think that we found a member of Xavier’s prophesy, so-”
He was interrupted as Astrid swept the phone off the receiver. “Greetings, this is Astrid.”
“Ah, greetings!” Brother Tomas said. “As I was saying, I don’t know if you recognize me-”
“I remember some conversation we had a while back,” Astrid said. “Please, continue.”
“Anyways,” Brother Tomas said, “Today a dwarf came in—his name’s Jroldin; he’s the son of Oldin, head of the RBI. He had this glowing circlet on his head with a blue gem in it—this circlet was immaterial. Also, only believers in the Great One could see it. Due to other information, we believe him to clearly be a member of Xavier’s prophesy—the Priest-King.”
Astrid swept all of the items on her desk to the floor, the papers fluttering through the air, as she began scribbling stuff down. “How old is he?”
“Close to sixteenish I’d guess,” Brother Tomas said. “Given his name, he hasn’t had his Naming Day yet, so he wouldn’t be quite old enough…”
“I want to meet with him as soon as possible,” Astrid said. “How soon can I talk to him?”
“He said he’ll be coming back tomorrow,” Brother Tomas replied. “I’ll bring him to you then. Any specific times, or…?”
“I’ll make the time whenever you show up,” Astrid said. “I’ll have my experts on standby.”
“Great,” Brother Tomas said. “I suppose I’ll see you then, then.”
“See you then,” Astrid said, and she put down the phone. She took a couple deep breaths, and then forced herself to smile. It seemed that her speech had had some effect. In truth, that part of the speech was more to arouse her campaign supporters than anything else, but Astrid did want to raise a team for Xavier’s prophesy to take down the elves. She pushed her hand down on the intercom.
“Greta!” she said. “Please get the experts on Xavier’s team to be on stand-by notice. We’ll be having a dwarf coming in tomorrow who is suspected to be one of the members of the prophecy.”
“A recent poll came out yesterday… It was given out by the Murdok Pollster.”
“What was it?” Astrid asked. She was in the middle of a campaign meeting with her campaign manager to discuss how to best keep the lead over her rival, Iraina. The Murdok Pollster was one of the most reliable polls for elections.
“According to the poll, 13% were undecided, 34% supported Iraina, and only 53% supported you,” her campaign manager said.
Astrid sucked in her breath and bit her lip. A mere 53%... she still had a huge lead over Iraina, but the gap was continually closing. “That isn’t good,” she said.
“No, it isn’t,” her campaign manager replied. “Iraina has jumped 5% since the last poll and more have become undecided. Iraina’s campaign has gained a lot of traction since he showed his plan for launching a huge offensive assault on the elves, and the traction doesn’t seem to be stopping.”
Astrid bit her lip. Iraina had released a very vague battle plan for taking down the elves a week ago that had become a huge hit. Even though the battle plan was extremely vague, the notion that he was actually trying to make plans had given him much needed traction.
“You’re going to need to directly address his plan,” the campaign manager said. “You have the debate with Iraina in five days and that’s going to be a key topic.”
“I know…” Astrid said and groaned. “I probably should make some speech before then showing why such an offensive plan is such a bad idea… What free dates do we have?”
“We could do it right before the debate,” the campaign manager said, pulling out his calendar, marked up with all of the appointments that Astrid had. “We could try for it two hours before the debate so that you can get everyone motivated and up with you and then, as he’ll have hardly any chance to respond, you should be able to blast him with it during the debate.”
“That sounds great,” Astrid said, nodding. “Book me up then, call the news companies and everything. Do you have a speech writer yet?”
“No, but…” Suddenly the door opened and a monk in a brown habit entered in with a dwarf, upon whose head was a glowing circlet of gold, a sapphire impressed in the center.
Astrid turned to her campaign staff. “Well, like I warned, it appears that our time is going to be cut short,” she said. “So we’ll finish this at the time that we already planned ahead for tomorrow. All right?” They agreed, and the campaign manager moved out of the room as Astrid moved her swivel chair over to the intercom.
“Greta!” she said. “Please send the Xavier’s prophesy experts in!” She then released the button and turned in the chair to look at them. “Please sit down!” she gestured to some nearby seats. The two of them sat down as the Xavier’s prophesy experts entered the room. Astrid gazed at Jroldin.
“So,” Astrid said, “you’re the one who the prophesy is at least partly about.”
“Well…” Jroldin began.
“I think so,” Brother Tomas interrupted. “Of course, we might be wrong, but if we’ll right…”
“The sign does seem to be in accordance with the Priest King,” one of the experts said. “A circlet for kingship, a sapphire for priesthood—a sign upon the head of a dwarf… It’s almost too good to believe…”
“There is only one way to tell for sure,” another responded. “According to the prophesy, a sign in the sky will draw the prophesied team together…” He locked eyes with Astrid. “I believe it would be wise to send a crew above the mountains.”
Question of the Week: Who will give the moist comments on this post? (This is was from a blog where more than one people responds :P)
Part XX: Astrid, Governor of Araelia
Date: Amanela 17th, 114 A.U.
“Hello, this is Governor Astrid’s office,” the cheerful voice said. “Unfortunately, Governor Astrid, nor her secretary, is available right now. Please leave a message after a beep.” The computer beeped.
“Greetings, Astrid,” Brother Tomas said. “This is Brother Tomas from the Great Cathedral; hey, I have word from you—I think that we found a member of Xavier’s prophesy, so-”
He was interrupted as Astrid swept the phone off the receiver. “Greetings, this is Astrid.”
“Ah, greetings!” Brother Tomas said. “As I was saying, I don’t know if you recognize me-”
“I remember some conversation we had a while back,” Astrid said. “Please, continue.”
“Anyways,” Brother Tomas said, “Today a dwarf came in—his name’s Jroldin; he’s the son of Oldin, head of the RBI. He had this glowing circlet on his head with a blue gem in it—this circlet was immaterial. Also, only believers in the Great One could see it. Due to other information, we believe him to clearly be a member of Xavier’s prophesy—the Priest-King.”
Astrid swept all of the items on her desk to the floor, the papers fluttering through the air, as she began scribbling stuff down. “How old is he?”
“Close to sixteenish I’d guess,” Brother Tomas said. “Given his name, he hasn’t had his Naming Day yet, so he wouldn’t be quite old enough…”
“I want to meet with him as soon as possible,” Astrid said. “How soon can I talk to him?”
“He said he’ll be coming back tomorrow,” Brother Tomas replied. “I’ll bring him to you then. Any specific times, or…?”
“I’ll make the time whenever you show up,” Astrid said. “I’ll have my experts on standby.”
“Great,” Brother Tomas said. “I suppose I’ll see you then, then.”
“See you then,” Astrid said, and she put down the phone. She took a couple deep breaths, and then forced herself to smile. It seemed that her speech had had some effect. In truth, that part of the speech was more to arouse her campaign supporters than anything else, but Astrid did want to raise a team for Xavier’s prophesy to take down the elves. She pushed her hand down on the intercom.
“Greta!” she said. “Please get the experts on Xavier’s team to be on stand-by notice. We’ll be having a dwarf coming in tomorrow who is suspected to be one of the members of the prophecy.”
“A recent poll came out yesterday… It was given out by the Murdok Pollster.”
“What was it?” Astrid asked. She was in the middle of a campaign meeting with her campaign manager to discuss how to best keep the lead over her rival, Iraina. The Murdok Pollster was one of the most reliable polls for elections.
“According to the poll, 13% were undecided, 34% supported Iraina, and only 53% supported you,” her campaign manager said.
Astrid sucked in her breath and bit her lip. A mere 53%... she still had a huge lead over Iraina, but the gap was continually closing. “That isn’t good,” she said.
“No, it isn’t,” her campaign manager replied. “Iraina has jumped 5% since the last poll and more have become undecided. Iraina’s campaign has gained a lot of traction since he showed his plan for launching a huge offensive assault on the elves, and the traction doesn’t seem to be stopping.”
Astrid bit her lip. Iraina had released a very vague battle plan for taking down the elves a week ago that had become a huge hit. Even though the battle plan was extremely vague, the notion that he was actually trying to make plans had given him much needed traction.
“You’re going to need to directly address his plan,” the campaign manager said. “You have the debate with Iraina in five days and that’s going to be a key topic.”
“I know…” Astrid said and groaned. “I probably should make some speech before then showing why such an offensive plan is such a bad idea… What free dates do we have?”
“We could do it right before the debate,” the campaign manager said, pulling out his calendar, marked up with all of the appointments that Astrid had. “We could try for it two hours before the debate so that you can get everyone motivated and up with you and then, as he’ll have hardly any chance to respond, you should be able to blast him with it during the debate.”
“That sounds great,” Astrid said, nodding. “Book me up then, call the news companies and everything. Do you have a speech writer yet?”
“No, but…” Suddenly the door opened and a monk in a brown habit entered in with a dwarf, upon whose head was a glowing circlet of gold, a sapphire impressed in the center.
Astrid turned to her campaign staff. “Well, like I warned, it appears that our time is going to be cut short,” she said. “So we’ll finish this at the time that we already planned ahead for tomorrow. All right?” They agreed, and the campaign manager moved out of the room as Astrid moved her swivel chair over to the intercom.
“Greta!” she said. “Please send the Xavier’s prophesy experts in!” She then released the button and turned in the chair to look at them. “Please sit down!” she gestured to some nearby seats. The two of them sat down as the Xavier’s prophesy experts entered the room. Astrid gazed at Jroldin.
“So,” Astrid said, “you’re the one who the prophesy is at least partly about.”
“Well…” Jroldin began.
“I think so,” Brother Tomas interrupted. “Of course, we might be wrong, but if we’ll right…”
“The sign does seem to be in accordance with the Priest King,” one of the experts said. “A circlet for kingship, a sapphire for priesthood—a sign upon the head of a dwarf… It’s almost too good to believe…”
“There is only one way to tell for sure,” another responded. “According to the prophesy, a sign in the sky will draw the prophesied team together…” He locked eyes with Astrid. “I believe it would be wise to send a crew above the mountains.”
Question of the Week: Who will give the moist comments on this post? (This is was from a blog where more than one people responds :P)
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