Its Government Is Well-Ordered
The convoy progressed over a road thinner than those they knew at home. It curved as it went to stay beside the sparkling Meggi Tem, which they had all called Meggi Tem River before they got to the part of the pamphlet that defined Meggi Tem as South River. “It is the major concern of all this journey,” one wag said, “that we must devise some method to let everyone back in Fennizen know of our increasing worldliness, or else what good is travel?”
His fellow employees agreed. They went to work suggesting ways to bring casual conversations around to fun Pavvu Omme Os facts and kept it up under the soothing sun and the rambunctious rain clouds that disappointed the Adabans by not carrying in snow. Certainly it snowed at home sometimes, and they realized of course that their northern neighbor must have its rain as well. Yet every poem, play, and serial set there spoke of wintry settings conducive to philosophical contemplation or else murder. The weather reminded the travelers they had come too early to see the true north. A depressing reflection.
Though the next permitted market was all the way in Mosso Eksu, a couple days away, Pavvu Omme Os did not compress itself for Stadeskosken's convenience. It insisted the Adabans pass through the villages and beside the farms, herds, and fir trees along the way, the latter of which had been planted in complex patterns determined by Omme researchers as optimal to blunt the mighty winds often suffered there, according to the pamphlet. While the scenery was standard, what the travelers had not expected was musical accompaniment. Ommes relaxed of an evening with cellos and such in their hands under the reddening sky, and at any time men and women walking along might start up a song under no visible compulsion, something usually seen in Greater Enloffenkir only when the bars closed. Not only that, but many of the spontaneous singers hit their notes. Pavvu Omme Os: a miraculous country.
Mosso Eksu welcomed the Adabans and everyone else, it seemed. Boats from the east and wagons from the north transported the world thither. The Adabans saw some of those divided skirts the pamphlet said Omme travelers liked as well as the style of scarf that trailed away to dangle over one shoulder, a fashion popular around the northern river. Civic Quartermaster Ukkip Timga Onsalkamto smiled non-condescendingly when he came to meet the Stadeskosken contingent.
“Is it only my ears, or is there something familiar about that last name?” Dirant asked Onsalkant before he corrected himself. “Or rather that personal name.”
“Perhaps one of our countrymen came here and loved it enough to throw off his old allegiances,” Onsalkant suggested.
But no. Some names are simply broader in their appeal than others. That official, who oversaw the market and various matters of supply in Mosso Eksu, was as Omme as any Os who ever Pavvued, from his height to his brown hair to his position in the military government that ruled the country. He spread his arms wide as if to grab every visitor to his town all at once and hug them to his portly frame, and he addressed them in Adaban which was better than perfect on account of his accent.
“You businessmen have such felicity to come at such a time! Yes, but, first we say what duty has us say. Ahem. Do not buy, sell, or offer for sale any item outside of the permitted market at the designated times. Here they are.” He handed Silapobenk Rikelta an official notice. “Any unlawful activity will result in a fine in addition to the normal penalty. You are expected to sleep nowhere but the facilities described in your paperwork without a specific request to, and acceptance from, the relevant official. I am he. Done! Now I want to tell you about the debate. I want to tell everyone!”
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A debate? They had those in Greater Enloffenkir, but the pamphlet warned the Adabans (and others who managed to get their hands on it) not to confuse the Pavvu Omme Os version with some university exercise of no relevance. For Ommes, a debate was an important public event. Two teams made their cases according to rules established earlier and the audience, or rather the members of it qualified based on their level, wealth, landowning status, or history of official positions depending on those same rules, voted on the winner. The hosting town then sent a summary of the debate and the results of the vote to the central government offices in Peffu Empe in order that the parliament of officers could take the will of the people into account when setting policy in that area. There was nothing binding about debate results, just as there was nothing stopping mobs from burning down the nearest lieutenant-governor's headquarters, a fact which had been proved on several occasions.
“Mosso Eksu has been renowned for the accuracy and transparency of its stargazers for longer than long. That is, while there are stargazers in other towns who made more of their predictions public they were not so accurate, and though some claim to be more accurate, psh! How can we believe them if they keep their projections secret? That is the background, the reputation of the community here which for centuries was unassailable. But assailing reputations has become very much the fashion these days. We have skeptics looking askance at everything and debunkers who weep when they find nothing not already debunked. I don't know. Should I say more? Is it similar in the Adaban dominions?”
The civic quartermaster was encouraged by the unhesitating nods of the visitors. “Then we understand each other. I never know just how much further along we are than everyone else.” The nods turned into other motions and gestures, but he ignored them. Perhaps their meanings had not made it into his pamphlet. “I don't wish to elaborate on that side subject. I want to say the teams this time are led by two of our most prominent orators today, the Heaven and Earth Evokers they are called. Eksu Pui Hikku will defend the legitimacy of stargazing and Luas Taikko Hinmi will attack it. What an event it will be! You can't vote of course, but I hope you will not be too busy to see it. I think you won't be, because the only people who try to do business then are up to some crime. I say you should have some fun even on a serious trip, but my view is only one among all there are out there.”
Silapobenk Rikelta felt some response to be required, but as to the nature of it, he had no idea. “This debate is predicted to be . . . fun? Is there something unusual about it aside from the prominence of the debaters?”
“Of a certainty it will be fun! What kind of debates do you have in your country?” Ukkip Timga Onsalkamto sighed and shook his head. “I try to remember that Adabans can never relax and enjoy. I even learned the speech so I could tell you to cheer up. I forgot again though. Please forgive me.”
“Ah, yes, it is nothing to be forgiven.” The Stadeskosken representative extracted himself from that subject with as much grace and vagueness as he could muster, but it continued to confound the lower employees while they made their preparations for the next day's market after the civic quartermaster left.
“Isn't it understood across this entire continent and over the ocean as well to continents such as Neast and Dosoroz, reported by sailors, that Grenlofers are the foremost in entertainment? No other country I know of has mastered the theatrical art of goslikenar, or even attempted it.” Stansolt Gaomat, a young man with lighter brown hair than most Adabans and a more winning smile than any but a few, selected for the expedition based on his Fluent status in Desurvyai and Dvanj as well as his proficiency as a Battler in the event of violence, discoursed on the topic even as he tossed around boxes until Silone told him to stop that last thing. Not because he feared any clumsiness on Stansolt's part, but to discourage imitators. Quite apart from the shade of his hair and his smile, few employees could match his Coordination.
The Stadeskosken group was unable to stage its own debate as everyone agreed with Stansolt, and so no rival event distracted from the great stargazing controversy. The locals, eager to discuss the matter with anyone regardless of how Adaban the other party might be, mingled freely with the travelers and pointed them to the best restaurants, the oldest shrines, and hills particularly suitable for viewing celestial bodies as they spun night by night through the unbounded sky. As a result, the foreigners acclimated themselves to the local environment sufficiently to absorb a few degrees of excitement from the ambient feeling of anticipation.