News traveled quickly in the following year after the siege of Corvinna. Aurestes raised his adolescent son Remus Augustus to the position of Caesar, in the capital of Rumelia. Nepitus went into exile in his home province of Dignitatia, swearing to raise some legions to expel the usurper. In the palace of the Salian Kingdom, the people were awash with talk about the situation.

Merovic unconcernedly prepared a couple of designs and plans of lathes and looms. He had already produced a few primitive lathes, with the help of the local carpenters, that utilized foot power or could be worked as a two-man operation, but the designs for ones powered by a worm drive were ongoing. His father was most pleased with some of the ideas that the boy had produced with spindles and looms, and Merovic became the talk of the city, his work was incredibly received by the women of the tribes.

After some preliminary checks over his designs, he ran to attend his father in the capacity of a page. His father was in the Great Hall, talking with an elder; in half an hour, a meeting with the council would occur. Clodio and the elder chatted amiably; their conversation drifted when Merovic approached: “Young Merovic, I am most impressed with the devices that you have created, I think I can speak for the tribe when I say that you are a true godsend.” The elder fawned.

“Oh, really,” Merovic thought, “you are one of the asshats, who kept sabotaging my requests for help, if not for you I would have been able to secure more deals with the merchants.” The boy kept his thoughts to himself and revealed a cherubic face.

“Thank you elder, however, I am unworthy of your praise or recognition, my talents are mediocre and everything I have accomplished was with the aid of others. If not for the care and nurturing of my father and the Ever-pure’s immaculate grace, my acumen would be of no avail.” Merovic gracefully bowed lower than would be polite, in the customs of the Gauntal.

Their discourse would be interrupted by Theodoric calling the Assembly to order. “The topic of this meeting is our Kingdom's stance regarding the new Caesar Remus Augustus. Are we to be friendly or antagonistic toward him and his?”

The elders conversed and argued the merits of either side for a while; Chlodomer and Dagobert stood out and represented the pro and con side respectively. Chlodomer began: “The Caesars have revealed themselves to be weaker than any of us have imagined. We have no reason to fear retaliation from our previous position of non-interference, therefor we should be friendly and reap the benefits of trade with the cities in the south. I doubt strongly that the citizens much care who wears the imperial diadem, we have only to gain if we are friendly to whoever is “Caesar”.”

Dagobert resolutely responded: “The issue is not one of trade but of security; if the Caesar is weak, then the legions are weak; if the legions are weak, then security is weak; if security is weak, our merchants will not be safe if we allow them to trade. We must not enter into friendly relations with Remus, he is nothing but a puppet, any relations and deals to be had with his court: Will come with caveats and demands from his father Aurestes. The man is in a weak position, and with his history of greed and overreaching ambition, it would be natural to assume that he would take a friendly posture, for a sign of weakness. He would attempt to demand and squeeze money and promises of armed alliance from us, to strengthen his hold over the Western Rumelian Empire.”

Chlodomer then replied: “Need we fear any such demands? Didn’t King Odokar’s army seize the diadem for Remus? I am sure that any demands for a military alliance would be rebuffed by his faction, and it would be a direct infringement on his interests, I doubt Aurestes would be so stupid as to undermine himself.”

Dagobert grimaced, “That would depend on reason, being a stronger motivator than greed in Aurestes. It would also depend on his current relationship with Odokar; one of my kinsmen has reported to me that the relations between the two have soured over this last year, it would not surprise me that Aurestes would want to hedge his bets with a foreign alliance, regardless of the insult that might entail to Odokar.

The Assembly was silent for a moment: The realization that Aurestes might try to use the Salian Kingdom, as a check to the Longbeards army was a troubling one.

Chlodomer then put forward a suggestion: “Perhaps we do not need to be friendly to the Caesar per se; perhaps, the best way forward is to send an emissary to Odokar and strike up a more long-term relationship with him.

Theodoric liked that idea and set it for a vote: “Do we enter into relations with King Odokar of the Longbeards, yea or nay?” The Assembly answered with a unanimous cry of “Yea!”

The council disbursed out of the room after the vote. Merovic walked by his father’s side and asked, “Father, why does King Gisiler not appear during meetings with the Assembly?” “ah, you noticed that did you? Well, when Grandpa chose to make your great-uncle king, he didn’t do it because he thought Gisiler was a capable man, but rather an easily manipulatable one.” Noticing his faux pas Clodio corrected himself: “Err what I meant to say is that the king is very busy with his personal affairs, and he trusts both his son and the Assembly very much, and because of that trust we are allowed to act in the best interests of the kingdom. The king has so much faith in us, that he fears that he would damage our ability to serve the kingdom if he meddled in its affairs; if he is needed, we need only to call on him and he will appear.”

Merovic read between the lines, and simply agreed with his father and did not press him further on the matter. They continued to walk and chat lightheartedly; they walked around the city talking to other members of the Salii tribe. Hours later a small crowd of tribal members, dragged a man wrapped in ropes to the pair. “Elder Clodio, we have a case of murder that we need you to judge” shouted one of the angry Salii villagers. “That’s a very serious charge I will need to speak to the accused, and you will need to tell me the issue if you want a judgment.” Stated Clodio diplomatically; Clodio, Merovic, the accused, and the villagers walked to the city square and held an open-air court.

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The accused stood on one side and the accusers stood on the other side. The accusers stated their case first: “My cous’n was one murdert by that man, the other man who was murdert was a stranger, nee one in the village had laid eyes on him before. Ah saw it with me own eyes. The man had nee remorse, and he divvent explain his-self. The man’s gannin’ agyenst the lawr, and ah deemand he gets propa punished.”

Clodio nodded and faced the accused and asked him, how does he plead to those charges. The accused then said in a Danr accent “I did kill those men, but it wasn’t murder. I knew one of the men and accused him as Ergi, and he issued a demand for holmgang, I accepted and slew him. The other man, attacked me with an intent to kill me, I assumed him to be his sorðinn mann, and slew him too.”

Clodio sighed and looked to the accuser and asked: “How well did you know your cousin? Did he have a wife? You also witnessed the fight, did your cousin fight with the man after he killed the first?”

The villager looked to the ground and said “No, wor cous’n divvent have a wife, and a divvent knaa of any lasses he was ganin oot wi. He only ganned in effer the stramash. Ah divvnt knaa he’d chucked doon a challenge aforehand.”

Clodio then asked the assembled: “Did anyone see anything different, or have something to say to exonerate the accused?”

The audience was silent at the question, and then Clodio spoke: “On the first charge the accused is proclaimed innocent of the crime of murder. He was challenged and according to the law he killed his opponent fairly.”

Clodio then paused and looked at the villager, the villager sighed and nodded to the judge, he knew what the judgment would be: “On the second charge the accused is proclaimed innocent of the crime of murder. According to the law: he acted to prevent harm to himself, and the victim cannot be proven to be without ill motive. His actions were just, and no witness or accuser have testified otherwise; therefore, may your gods be with you, and let none other raise this claim again.”

The crowd parted and Merovic considered the issue. The accused was someone who fell under Danrlaw, but the victim was under Gauntallaw, according to the law-speakers, by custom we share similar laws, and the law is thus: “If one man calls another man, any of these three words, they may be charged with fullréttisorð (full verbal assault) by the law-speakers. The man who is called by the three words has the right to kill in retaliation for the calling of them, these words are; ragr (femboy), stroðinn (plowed), or sorðinn (sodomite).”

“Ergi and ragr can probably considered interchangeable in this context, the fact that two men were killed in this case, would be the best indicator. According to the Gauntallaw such an event would only be punishable by fine, in Danrlaw the guilty would have been outcast or banished. If the man was found guilty, would he have been charged under Danr or Gauntal law?” Merovic could only silently consider the issue as he and his father walked home.

“My son, you are a sharp lad, and I have no doubt, that you will eventually be recognized as an elder by the tribe. When that day comes I hope you remember that you may only judge by the law, and not judge the law itself.” Merovic was puzzled by that statement: “What do you mean by that father?”

“ehh perhaps you are too young to understand what the crime is, when the Gauntalic peoples followed the faith of the druids, such things were not punished under the law. Yet, after the druids were expelled by the Rumelian legions, and centuries later the church of Rumelia abrogated the faith in the old gods of this land, our laws had changed. A man’s honor and integrity are everything, for without it he cannot be trusted nor depended upon, he would be as nothing. Just as a man can only be a man, his integrity can only be his integrity; we can see the man, but we cannot forcibly see his integrity. The man and his integrity are forces of nature, and nothing in this world can change them, only those supernatural forces that made man can do so. The law is such a thing, it is the people’s recognition of the will of providence. Do you understand?”

“I think I understand Father, but does that mean if someone believes in different gods their laws will be different? Just as in the Gauntal if the people change their beliefs in different gods and the set of laws change, can we not choose which laws we want to recognize?”

“Yes and no, the law is whole and complete, all faiths would preach this. It is man's knowledge that is incomplete, so when deciding on recognizing a new law or annulling an existing one, we must base it on something affirmed. A thing affirmed is something that has been witnessed, and to which stands uncontested. The customary law is such a thing; in times long forgotten our forefathers witnessed a crime as such and such, the people by tacit agreement raised no controversy: What was recognized as a crime, now is cognized by that law, and those people who witnessed the event then had children; the children in turn recognized their parents, that act by extension recognized the law of the forbears. It is a chain that stretches beyond memory.”

“I don’t understand how a chain explains anything; for that matter, by what right does a child have, to recognize another law by another faith?” Merovic teased.

“Ha well, I will try to keep it simple, so forgive me if I over-simplify. The chain is cause and effect, the original event that gave birth to the law is the cause; the people's judgment is the effect. It’s a fact of nature that a cause can only have one effect; to have a different effect outside the original effect would be a supernatural phenomenon. Imagine, if you slapped a tree, the event causes your hand to hurt because your hand is meat, and the tree is wood. In the original event your hand hurts, now if the effect of hitting the tree is different; say the tree turns into a rainbow because you hit it, that would be an example of a new effect outside the original.

That strange effect doesn’t make sense to us, and that’s the point, when we jump then we fall down, there is no natural event where you jump and fall up. If that were the case, then the strange event would be the falling down instead; in either situation, the strange event can only be an act of God. Religion is the practice of faith, it is the culmination of the logic brought about by things affirmed, all religion relates to the laws and virtues of the god or gods recognized.” Clodio explained.

The boy then tauntingly asked: “but nature doesn’t change so why would the laws be different?”

“God decided what nature is and if it is going to change, what we understand of nature is only because he allows it to be so, it exists by his grace and it can un-exist if he wills it. Religion exists to utilize that understanding of God, and form the rites, and teach the intention by which we know the law.” Clodio snapped.

“Oh, I think I understand now.” Merovic demurely answered.

“Somedays I wonder about you my son, I will leave you with these two proverbs on wisdom; I hope you gain much from them. So, listen well and think on which of these best applies to you.”

Clodio then stated: “A wise man hears one word and understands two.”

Clodio paused to see if the boy was listening: “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question, than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”

Merovic paid attention and when Clodio was satisfied with the response he retired to his bedroom. The boy was left thinking about the proverbs, and if there was some subtext that he missed. He put away the concern as idol fancy, a dumb question best answered another day.

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