[Mkguild] Birth II

[Jack Moore]

I ate dinner that night outside away from the knights, instead of inside my tent. Father was taking dinner and other entertainments with a serving girl he brought with us. Someone I chose to neglect would share dinner with me though.
"Ja-Ames." I sighed.
"If there are any gods out there, I ask you to relieve me." I looked up at the stars. "Please! I am begging you!" No response.
The fact that I couldn't name any of them didn't help.
A mass of golden curls with a fat girl growing out of them plopped down beside me. "You've been avoiding me all day." I forced a grin.
"What in the world gave you that idea…uh…" I seem to have forgotten something.
The fat girl was my fiancée. I didn't know her, something I'll elaborate on in a minute, but I knew my father wanted me to marry her. He believed such a marriage would be throwing off the shackles of tradition and another step towards being a modern man.
You see this girl was…unique. Rather than being nobility, she came from a wealthy merchant family. My father believed money would be power in the future and merchants would supplant the nobles.
I suspect he's right.
Unsurprisingly this lead to an arranged marriage to a girl I barely knew. Somewhat more surprisingly, I did not know her name.
You see, this girl was of no importance to me. The doublet I wore held more value. So I learned little about her and never bothered to learn her name.I would learn it but that's a story for another letter.
Well I couldn't refer to her as trollop, so instead I took to calling her by a pet name.
"Of course I'm not avoiding you Muffin." I said. "Why would I ever do that?" Muffin's eyes lit with joy. "I've just been busy with other things."
"Like what Jay-Ames?" I winced. At the time this girl had a way of speaking that made me despise my own name. I don't mind it now.
"I've been busy planning for the meeting tomorrow." I said. "We're meeting with someone for…something. I don't know; I'm more concerned with being so close to a cursed valley."
"I'm excited Jay-Ames. What do you think the cursed people are like?" How in the world would I know, I'd never met them.
"Not a clue." I said. "I don't want to meet one."
"I bet they're fuzzy." Muffin said. "I've heard they're monsters.
"They are monsters." I said. "They're not human anymore."
"I don't know." Muffin said.
"Ya don't know? How can you not know this?
"In Isenport, I watch people." Muffin said. "They always act like people, no matter what they look like. Even if the cursed people look like monsters, I don't think they'll act like them." 
"And how exactly would you know how a monster acts?" I snapped.
"You're upset." Muffin said. "Tell me why."
"I don't want to be here." I said. "I mean…I like being out of Isenport. I even wanna see this Keep! It's the cursed part; I am scared of cursed places. Maybe that makes me a fool, but I think the smart thing to do is avoid curses."
"Is that all?"
"Is that all!?" I cried. "To me it's plenty. I don't want to be out here, especially when I don't know why I'm here. I just know something's going to go wrong for me."
"What?" Muffin asked. "You think they're going to kidnap you? Or kill you?" No I think they're going to marry me to you. "Oh Jay-Ames, you have a silly imagination." I rolled my eyes
In my mind, I knew what Metamor Keep was. Every stranger too it knows it is the great unknown, a cursed gateway into the more unknown North. The unknown is dangerous and everything I heard about it frightened me.
"So where's your father?" Muffin asked.
"In his tent with a serving girl." I said. "She's providing…moral support to him."
"Maybe we should head too our tent then." Muffin grinned. My manhood shriveled.
"Thanks but I'm not feeling…up to it." I had three mistresses at home who I planned to remain loyal to. I would do this by not touching Muffin with a glaive, much less a part of my anatomy.
"That's okay; we can sit here and talk." She leaned in closer to me as I prayed to gods I didn't believe in for a miracle.
Without warning it began raining. Sometimes the Divine can be quite kind.
March 3rd, 707
While dinner I ate alone, breakfast I shared with my father. Or rather, he ate and I sat in misery.
"Do you know what we can learn from Metamor Keep yet?" My father asked.
"No sir, not yet." My father frowned.
"You are my legacy; you will have to be sharper than that." My father sipped and continued. "Why do we Ecclesia and Lothanasi priests on the pay?"
"Because we're probably going to one of their hells and trying to get out?" Was what I did not say.
"I don't know sir."
"Religion is a tool." My father said. "Always has been, all nonsense and all a tool for those who can use it. Metamor Keep has the next tool, the tool for the modern man."
"I thought you said they were too stupid to fix their own curse, how can they teach us anything?"
"Even morons have flashes of brilliance." My father said. "In this case, the tool of tolerance."
"Tolerance?"
"Different religions." My father sipped, "Different species. Some are human, some are animals, I've heard all of this. Yet they still hold together. Why?"
"I'm not sure sir."
"Because their leader has realized how stupid all these divisions are. He has come to realize no doubt that so long as he puts his desires above all else, as long as he  never shows favoritism he can control the people.
"We practice their religion to show we are like them. We show no favoritism, they trumpet us from the hills as great rulers." My father smiled.For a moment I saw the fangs of a wolf in his grin.
"That is how we become modern rulers. Not like these lords and Lords stuck in the past!" I stood up. "Where are you going?"
"Need air." I pushed my way through the tent flaps and managed to not vomit. Only a few minutes with my father and I felt like I had been in a pig sty.
"Breakfast as usual?" Nemo walked up beside me, Qual strapped on his back. "You always exit looking ill."
"I feel ill." I mumbled, sitting down on a rock. "I don't want to be a modern man."
"What do you want?" I swallowed.
"I don't know."
"When you decide, I will give you my countenance." Nemo said.
"My father pays you. You'll do what he says."
"I'm sorry you believe that." Nemo crouched down. I stood.
"I need to…I need some time alone."
"Your father will want to leave when he is done." Nemo said. "I can give you an hour delay, possibly two." I paused.
"Why?"
"We all need it sometimes James." Nemo said. "Have fun."
"Thanks."
AN: If any one sees this please say so 
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