The sunset gently shimmered through a window in the canopy.
Despite everything that had happened today, he still managed to find some solace in watching the sun fall and the night sky begin to creep in behind him. It gave him some solace that no matter what happened, he could always have the ability to watch the sunset and stare at the night sky. Even when he will inevitably be on his death bed, he can always see it happen.
He sighed, quietly recounting the events of the day while watching the street lights flicker on as shops began to turn their signs showing they were closed, the workers of the shops going to the upper floors to rest, and many civilians beginning to head to their homes after a long day of shopping.
The people cracked jokes, aired their grievances, discussed local drama, and much more. Their lives were filled with such a vibrant energy, a joy that was palpable and Yakti could physically feel in himself. A joy that would quickly turn to jealousy that'd sink deep into his stomach.
It felt absolutely disgusting to him to see such a sight.
He turned his head to the right, staring right through the now open doorway the elf left, watching the gentle glow of a fireplace in the restaurant illuminate the tables as many noblemen and free serfs discussed topics of politics and business deals among each other. While everyone here looked to be friendly and caring, no such personality traits actually existed among this crowd.
*Stuck somewhere between a nobleman and his serf. Ironic.* Yakti thought to himself, turning his head back to the sunset.
He knew there was nothing to be seen if he turned his head around. He could hear the lack of the plainclothes guards, clearly something was going wrong but he didn't care for checking what it was since he knew no matter what the guards would return, they needed to after all for Perse's prediction to come true.
From the main floor of the restaurant came the elf who squeezed his way past him, tapping various sigils on the canopy before returning to the doorway.
"Sorry for the delay, this show will be starting soon. You will watch a short overview of the life of our founder: Keyen Rechaad before the canopy's magic begins. As our restaurant takes great pride in our culture and our historical founders, after the show ends the canopy will transform itself to an illusion depicting what we believe the effects of his ability look like. After the transformation is over, I will bring out your Wild Salad with your water and leave you to eat."
He tapped on the lantern in the center of the room before continuing. "If you ever wish to pause the show, please tap this lantern once, tap it again when it's paused to continue. If you need my assistance, please tap it three times.
"Should an emergency happen, an emergency exit is located behind your seat. Please inform our bodyguard outside that you'll be in need of assistance so he can properly move the canopy out of the way of the exit and guide you out.
"With that said, please relax and watch our presentation on our founder: 'The Dagger in the Wine.'" The elf bowed before tapping the lantern in some rhythmic pattern and leaving the room, gently closing the door behind him.
Shortly afterwards, the lamp glowed brightly as a circle formed above it, resembling something akin to an eye as a multitude of light blue arms crept out of the eye and began touching parts of the canopy, further creating more bright circles around it.
*Are those the arms Mihe sees when a spell is cast? Why can I see them though?* He thought to himself as the circles began to coalesce into the center, forming a ring the size of the canopy. The eye from the lamp floated up and merged into the circle, creating a line that would open up into a much larger eye sigil.
This new eye sigil gently floated down the canopy, causing it to glow a bright white that almost blinded him.
Once the eye fully fell, the canopy's glow disappeared as it began to 'absorb' some light to make itself pitch black. Finally, in the darkness, a multitude of stars began to glow and twinkle in the sky as an ambiance played in the background.
After a few seconds of waiting, a feminine voice came from all around the canopy.
"Welcome to the Rose-Crusted Crown's famous canopy magical show. Here in our restaurant we wish to provide service of the highest quality possible. Because of that, we request that if you are in need of assistance that is not an emergency, please tap the lantern 3 times. If an emergency has been established and you need to evacuate, our bodyguard outside will guide you safely.
"With that said, please sit back, relax, and enjoy our feature presentation: A Dagger in the Wine."
Lines began forming between many of the stars as the stars with no lines began to fade. Eventually, a map of the world formed but with very different borders than the ones Yakti was familiar with.
The Theocratic State of Uton was shattered between a multitude of microstates, the Gludsi Chiefdom appeared to be on an archipelago rather than the ice sheet it's on now, the People's Theocracy was split evenly between Karinomaki and the Yikkitad Collective. While the Tinaybrat Palissary wasn't on the map, the Western Palissary existed and was massive with the entirety of the Dredatski Forest and Dretian States under its control. The Raastian States were mostly split between the Palissary and Karinomaki, with the Collective having a minor share.
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"Long ago there had only existed two major countries: the Western Palissaries (now known as the Tinaybrat Palissary) and Karinomaki. Every other state was either in its infancy or was being cut up by one of the two.
"Raasti-Dreti was one of the countries that was divided in a particularly horrible way due to Karinomaki compromising on the splitting of the Raastian states. The Dretian states were, however, entirely under the control of the Western Palissary."
The scene began to pan down from a night sky to a dilapidated street. The buildings were all small little wooden shacks with some small stalls with food outside. Each shack was in poor health, doors were replaced with rags, planks of wood that were peeled off made the windows of the shacks, inside them all there was is a small mat on the floor and maybe a pot in a few houses.
In the middle of the street, a short, pudgy man with a muscular frame and eyes that looked like gems sat on a highly-detailed cart carrying massive logs of wood. Dragging the cart was a variety of humans and beastmen, so thin that their skin appeared to be merely paper on their skeletons.
One of the humanoids collapsed on the floor as the cart rolled over their corpse with an ugly crunch.
"Would you believe it if I were to tell you that what you're looking at was the state of Port Almano during the height of the Palissary? Yes, one of the wealthiest cities in the world was once effectively a giant slave camp for another country.
"This was the effects of the Woodworks Palace. While now defunct due to the revolution, it was a cruel Palace that had employed slave labor from around the Southeastern Coast and Dredatski Forest.
"What little accounts we have on the average livelihood of a person living under this Palace's jurisdiction were dark. Huts barely large enough to spread your arms out being the living space for an entire family, horrible torture techniques where sharpened fish bones and scales were attached on a branch of wood and shoved down your throat, children separated from their parents, and so much more. In fact, the average likelihood of someone surviving their first Renewal event was 40%."
By this point the cart had long moved to the distant horizon as the camera turned around to show a beach with glistening purple water before the camera moved with great speed to a pier on the end of the beach.
Standing on it was a small child with bright blue hair, fish scales seemingly wrapping around his body like vines, and large, flat ears that were more like flaps made out of a plane of fish scale, like that of a mermaid.
"You are looking at what many historians suspect Keyen Rechaad to have potentially looked like as a child. Of course, there is only one painting in history that properly depicted the man we know now as our dear founder, but there were plenty of written descriptions of him from various diaries and retellings of this story."
The child raised their right index finger, forming a small circular rift in space leading directly to outer space before a small asteroid shot out with great velocity into the water. Keyen dropped his finger as the rift closed and he picked up a small spear, throwing it into the water and drawing in a large sandyback fish.
"The first time he was mentioned in any book came from a small handbook written by a dwarven fishwife who had provided a write up."
From the lantern another circle opened up with an eye inside which let out an arm and formed a sheet of paper in front of Yakti. He examined the paper.
----
From Ontent Corporation, on the behalf of the Woodworks Palace
This letter has been written to formally inform you of the following outstanding citation(s):
| | | |
| --------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------ |
| Harassment | ~~Overuse of Magic~~ | ~~Theocratic Practices~~ |
| Inappropriate Conduct | Poor Work Ethic | ~~Thievery~~ |
| Inebriation | ~~Reckless Neglect~~ | Truancy |
| ~~Insubordination~~ | Tardiness | Violence |
Previous Warnings: N/A
Actions to be Taken:
- ~~Warning~~
- ~~Fine...~~
- ~~Corporate~~
- Local Palace
- Central Palace
- Probation
- ~~Suspension...~~
- 24 Hour
- ~~72 Hour~~
- 1 Week
- 1 Month
- 1 Season
- Demotion
- ~~Corporal Punishment~~
- If so, which kind?
Packing
- Termination...
- Corporate
- Local Palace
- Central Palace
- Legal Punishment
Notes from Employer:
"Keyen, what is going on with you? For a very long time you've been one of my best employees with your only issue being your overuse of your ability, but I overlooked that as it wouldn't cause any soul exhaustion. However, since a few months ago you've been actively rejecting my orders, putting your coworkers in danger with the casting of your ability, and even stealing our fish.
I understand that you've been recently having issues with your fish scales peeling off and an illness spreading throughout your family but this is no excuse for this behavior. For now, I have decided to keep mind your previous excellent behavior and have elected to only fish pack you rather than provide the usual punishment for this which would be, at best, temporary dismemberment of your hand, or at worst: death.
I have faith in you, do not ruin it."
Employer Signature: *Ontent*
Employee Signature: *Rechaad*
---
The feminine voice returned to explain the paper.
"What you're looking at now is a translated 'write up' document from Old Tsuntsi into MSL. This was the first historical record of Keyen Rechaad, supposedly given to him when he was merely ten.
"Unlike our understanding of the act, in the Palissary when text is struck through it means that it has been selected. Think of this as how humanoids normally will write a check mark at the end of an item to select it. Now with that established, let me draw your attention to one of the boxes"
The text for the violation of "Theocratic Practices" began to glow a bright blue while the woman continued.
"This violation is one of the most important clues we have on what kind of person Keyen was. During this time period, the Palissary had attempted to create a deity which would protect their society and the way they organized themselves. Due to their highly organized nature though, they ended up trying to create a deity that'd be an antitheses to Hunter.
"Hunter, being the trickster god of adventuring took great offense to this action and attempted to establish a church that would disrupt this process. This was what the 'theocratic practices' violation was referring to, it tells us that Keyen was a member of Hunter's church during this time."