Merovic arrived at the home of the Descloix family, he was a happily expected guest. The parents of Matilde jovially greeted young Merovic, and their hugs and kisses seemingly fell ad infinitum on the boy. They beamed and smiled at him and regaled him with all of things they heard from the elder Auedin; they told him a story about the legendarily gloomy Merovic: Wanting to meet and greet with all the other children at their little Matildes birthday party, and most importantly socialize with his peers; which was nothing short of a miracle to the social circles of the capital, and to the eternal relief of his parents.
Most of high society, was starting to believe that he was developing into an impotent youth, or a man with strange inclinations. Merovic inwardly cursed at Auedin for his well-intentioned meddling; the reincarnated youth, did his best to smile and interact with the other children. The whole event appeared rather comical, on the one side was a group of children pretending to be adults; on the other side was an adult pretending to be a child. For one lie reflected the other lie and both groups consequently; could not help themselves and hate each other.
The physically adult participants wandered about the party, and continued to plot and powerbroker amongst themselves, heedless of childish altercations. Matilde, sauntered towards her guest and diffused the childish spat developing; between the man acting like a child, and the children acting like adults. It took but one cold adolescent glance from her to the group of children to settle their raucous protestations. Merovic looked into the 10-year-olds eyes; a faint evanescently emerald glow, emanated from her gaze. He swallowed a lump in his throat; and felt a cold sweat trickle down his back, he could swear that something was looking at him from those pools of ocular verdancy. There was a little girl standing in front of him, for sure, but also another more alien being hidden in shadows of her irises.
Matilde gave a polite greeting to Merovic, the boy soon calmed his nerves, the pair began their discourse: “Merovic is an ugly name: I am going to make it cute and call you Merv!” Merovic was speechless, he did not know how to respond to such a declaration, he could only acquiesce to her demands. “Merv, I have seen you around the palace grounds when I wait on my mother. You always scuttle about and hide from the adults, and you like to eavesdrop when you think no one is paying attention. I am curious to know why?”
Merovic’s face went red with embarrassment: he was careful to not be seen when he was practicing his sneaking and skulking skills. Feeling young again gave him a desire to be healthy: To strengthen his body, push past his old limits, and age with a bit more grace in this lifetime; he would need to be creative in his exercise routine. Being called out on the carpet, without warning and left in fidgeting with shame; Merovic muttered in a diminutive tone: “Truthfully, I am honing my skills at espionage, its apart of my personal study curriculum.”
Matilde gracefully accepted his response and asked: “Merv, what are you studying? I can understand your desire to play the tappish footpad; but when you are not pretending to be an excited cat, you are hiding in dusty rooms. I don’t get it; what keeps you locked in a room for so long without sunshine?” Merovic recited a long-practiced excuse: “I intend to follow in my father’s footsteps; as such, I have been reading Rumelian’s laws, cannon-Law, animal-husbandry, agriculture, mathematics, alchemical texts from Hellakois and Eaygar, and among other things.” Matilde’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly: “That’s a lot of subjects to read about. How do you find the time to study all of that? A day only has 24 hours.”
Merovic grinned and replied: “it’s a secret.” Matilde glossed over his reply: “Our families are in talks about a possible engagement between us you know.” Merovic paused to consider that statement; while Matilde continued speaking: “Mother says that it would be a strong alliance between the tribes. Our family has many kinship ties with the Gauntic tribes of the Soissoneux and Mosanon; between us and your families' control over the Salii tribe and its suzerainty over the Austresii and Rudarii tribes, we would become the strongest power in Gauntal. What do you think?”
While Merovic was still young, and his future plans were still forming; he did consider what the best developments would be in his kingdom’s diplomacy. Merovic decided that he would entertain her question: “I believe for the moment; an alliance with either the Tutonian tribes, or the Longbeards of the Goss, or both in the ideal case: Would create the best long-term profits. If we had strong alliances with our eastern neighbors, we would solve two future problems: Manpower shortages occurring in eventual infrastructure improvement projects and urban development programs; secondly, prevent the development and dispersion of large foreign tribal populations. We currently share similar languages and customs with Tutonians and the Gossics, it would be better to integrate them sooner rather than latter for the purpose of assimilation.”
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Merovic continued his analysis: “If we furthered our relations with the Soissoneux or the Mosanon in the west; either in the immediate future, or the distant future, we would end up benefiting regardless. However, if we allied with the west before the east; we would prevent any real future relations with the eastern tribes. For the eastern tribes would be ever suspicious of our intentions; after all, why would a major power seek an alliance, over conquest, when dealing with a minor power? It would only alienate them and place them on the defensive. The western tribes do not have that problem: while the east is similar to us; they are not the same as us. The Goss and Tutonians are brother nations to each other, while we are more like their cousins; it would make sense that there would be important differences in houses with different heads of household. For the east, such a distinction would make it more important to have a relationship of equals, rather than make a beneficial deal. The west, already assumes that we are equals because we share same language and customs; therefore, the benefits of a deal are more important to them.”
“However, the above exposition depends upon the caveat; that tribes will be at peace for the next couple of years. I’m not God, if for example a meteor impacts the region or a Hussack incursion erupts in the distant east, the plan would be moot and we don't need to consider it.”
Matilde smiled at the thought “Merv, reading all those foreign books has done you justice. I hope you don’t mind that I discuss your idea with my family, I am sure they would like it.”
Merovic waved her off: “sure you can tell them, just don’t say that it came from me; I already have enough annoying comments and strange rumors about me, I don’t want to add any more to that growing pile.”
Matilde and Merovic continued to talk about the rumors, court intrigue, and current events that they knew of. Before they realized it, Merovic’s chaperone arrived to bring him home. Matilde gave a polite kiss on the cheek to Merovic and asked him to not be a stranger the next time they meet.
On the walk to the palace, Auedin teased the young Merovic: “See, I told you that you needed to socialize more, you look much more relaxed now. I know that you want to work hard for your family, but its unnatural for an eight-year-old to be so… how do I put this? Severe?”
Merovic stopped walking “Auedin, Matilde told me that there are plans in the making for an engagement on my behalf. Were you the one who proposed this?” Auedin laughed “Merovic, I did not forward any plans for your engagement. Rather, Matilde is one of the potential proposals that your parents are considering. It’s my opinion that a man should get to know his future fiancé before any talks of engagement occur, so I took advantage of the situation and arraigned for you to meet one of the candidates. Nothing is set in stone at the moment, and you might not be engaged to Matilde in the future; but I think out of all the possible girls she would be the best match as a couple. You are both similar in age, temperament, and hobbies.
Merovic paused, a sinking suspicion creeping upon him: “Hobbies? What do you mean when you say that we share similar hobbies?”
Audein looked thoughtful for a moment as he explained: “You both seem to have an excessive need to study. Both of you seem to have the same pet pee project, a penchant for back sassing your elders, and an awkward relationship with your peers. I’m surprised Merovic, I thought you would know all this, you spent most of your time at the party talking each other’s ears off. Maybe its to be expected, your black soil project is strange; and it will not surprise me if you carry some shame about it. Honestly, just imagine if it works. Are we as a tribe going to be walking around begging people to pee in buckets?
Audein scrunched his shoulders together and made his rickety voice as feminine as possible while he pantomimed the scenario: “Oh pardon me sir may I catch your piss? Oh, you don’t need to pee right now? Not to worry, we offer a special door-to-door piss-boy service and we would be oh so happy to serve. Your golden waters are precious to us good customer, as such we hope that you would kindly suffer our strictest attentions. “Eye to Eye” contact is of vital importance, in the aqueous gathering of such gilded vim.” The elders taunts and jibes seemed to compound as he made light of the reincarnator's project.
Merovic sighed in defeat: “Laugh now, but once you understand how valuable urine is to our plans for the future; I’ll remind you of this day. I will show you one of the greatest tricks of alchemy: turning urine into gold.”
“Little Merovic, that would be one of the foulest ways and means of attaining gold.”
“Audein, money doesn’t stink.”