Lessons in Survival|Darkthrone, New Morilanta

[Kender Bard]

Jacob had, perhaps even surprisingly, been true to his word. A day more of hard work and the mistress of the novices had approached Pallab and informed him that his duties had been changed. He was now to tidy the temple floors and help in keeping things generally neat and nice. It was still menial work but not nearly as back breaking as carrying heavy loads of wood had been. He didn't need to work quite so long, either, as the temple had plenty of scrubbers and cleaners and so a quick pass with his broom over the floors over the temple and he was done for the day.

Jacob had also kept his agreement to tutor the boy and now awaited his arrival in the communal dining room to begin their first lesson.

[Skittlebug]

Pallab had indeed been surprised at his change in task, he had been wondering if the older boy truly had the power to effect such things like he claimed.

When he spotted Jacob waiting for him, he made his way over, grinning for a short moment before remembering himself.

[Kender Bard]

Jacob responded back with a small smirk, about as close to a friendly smile as most people were willing to offer in this place. "There you are," he remarked, rising from his seat. "I was beginning to wonder if you would show or not. How do you like your new duties?"

[Skittlebug]

"A definite improvement, but I'm sure I could do better." Sure, and determined, he wasn't going to be doing menial chores any longer than he had to.

[Kender Bard]

"Of course you could," Jacob replied. "Though keep in mind that there's only so far you can go as an acolyte. You'll need to graduate to a lower rank priest in order to have more chances for advancement. That's not an easy process and you're nowhere near ready to try. That's not precisely the topic I wanted to touch on today though." He sat back down and tilted his chair onto the back legs. "I can try to stay somewhat on topic though. How do you think people advance in the church?"

[Skittlebug]

Pallab takes a seat of his own and thinks on that for a moment. "Based on what I've seen, by allying themselves with the right people. I'm sure there more to it though, aptitude, abilities?"

[Kender Bard]

"You've only got part of the answer right," Jacob told him. "Yeah it's important to make friends in the right places, but never get too attached or, more importantly, too reliant on them. As soon as you stop becoming an asset--and really, why else would you make friends?--you become a liability and all liabilities must be cut." He made a slashing motion over his neck. "The real trick is knowing when to break things off before it comes to that if you don't think you could win in a fight or else knowing just when to strike to catch them off guard. That goes for enemies as well as friends. There's not much of a difference and one can become the other at any time under the right circumstances."

[Skittlebug]

Pallab considers that for a little while, what a cruel way to look at things. He imagined, if that was the way everyone here thought, that no one had any real friends...how lonely. Yet at the same time, "That's very...logical."

[Kender Bard]

Jacob spared Pallab a small grin. "Well, yeah, I suppose so. In a culture where emotions aren't precisely assets, what's left but your mind, right? That's another thing you're going to need to learn and practice; how to school your expression. The ability to show whatever feeling you want at any given time can mean the difference between life and death. A lot of things will, but you'll see that for yourself no doubt. You should know that when dealing with the upper class--and that includes the higher ranking priests--that everyone is probably wearing masks, so to speak. It's the lower ranks that have a harder time mastering themselves."

[Skittlebug]

Pallab begins to frown, then stops himself, considering what Jacob was saying. That was going to take a lot of work, it was nearly opposite of how things were at...home. He tries to push the thought away immediately. Thoughts of home were becoming few and far between lately, but it still stung.

"That will take a lot of practice, I suppose you're quite good at it though?" he smirks a little at the older boy.

[Kender Bard]

"Eh," Jacob grunted and waved his hand back and forth. "I'm getting there. You're right, it does take practice. I've got the advantage of being Morilantan born and bred. It's always harder for the slaves--oops, I mean, "new citizens"--to pick it up. Appearance is important in our culture though, Pallab. Just look at what I said. Morilanta knows she's a monster but she insists on pretending she isn't. The middle and upper class are all very civilized, right up until they order your execution for some stupid reason."

[Skittlebug]

This time Pallab can't help but pull a face, "Just like that, they can execute anyone?"

[Kender Bard]

"Yes," Jacob said in a low voice. "They can. Morilanta is an empire built on blood. The things you have been taught so far is the dogma that we all must utter, whether or not we believe it. And trust me, there are plenty of us who know the lie for what it is. But this is the lie that everyone is raised on. We live it, breathe it. It beats in our hearts. To deny the lie is to deny Morilanta itself."

He shook his head. "I'm rambling. Perhaps we should take a step back from the more practical instruction--I've given you plenty to think on and even work on. How about, instead, we have a little history lesson?"

[Skittlebug]

Pallab nods his head, a touch less upbeat and not wanting to put too much thought into 'the lie' at the moment.

[Kender Bard]

"Come," Jacob prompted and led the way through the temple to a balcony on an upper level. He leaned forward against the black wrought iron railing. "Well, first you should know that Morilanta is old--really old. Our history is a little fuzzy after you go back a certain amount, but there's some evidence, supposedly, that proves we descended from the first humans. I mean... We all did of course. I mean the first human civilization. One of the first. That's us. The other one is of course Anarlina. I doubt we were called that all the way back when. All people came from Naruta; that much we know. During a great war, some of the original Anarlinans and Morilantans broke away from Naruta and sailed across the great ocean to the east to land on a new continent called Contrasta."