my once-holy symbol,' and I showed him my silver necklace that has the tiny silver open book with the tiny little scribbles in it that you can't read no matter how close you hold it to your eye, which I did once when I was smaller but poked myself in the eyeball and couldn't see for two days, so I don't do it now.
Magistrate Jarvis snorted and said, 'Arkie'd be better off sticking to his shoe business. People don't have a need to read or write all that much. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way.'
I was going to ask what he meant by that, but he looked at my satchel and asked about that, too, and I said it was just to hold all my papers.
Jarvis sighed and said, 'You'd better be getting on out now. Try not to get yourself killed before nightfall,' and I promised, and he let me go.
I was almost out the door when I remembered what you wanted, so I turned around and said, 'Can I ask just one question?'
Jarvis was heading back to bed, but he groaned and said, 'If it means I can get to sleep afterward, sure, anything.'
So I took out my papers and my pen and tried to remember the question, and I asked him, 'Do you think the gods did right when they sank Istar to preserve the balance of the world and to protect the freedoms of will, thought, and action among all beings?'
Jarvis stood real still for a while, which made me a bit uneasy, and I slowly began to roll up my papers in case I had to run for it. His face got old and white, and his black moustache looked droopy and dark, but he only said, 'Why would you ask me such a damned foolish question as that? By the Abyss and its dragons, no, that wasn't good at all. The gods ruined everything for us. Istar had evil on the run. We had those goblins and minotaurs and other scum in our grip, and we were smashing down the wizards' towers right and left. We could have had a golden age here on our world, the first true age of freedom ever, but the gods broke Istar and turned their backs on us. I was a soldier for Istar before the fall. I was out here in Ergoth hunting down blood-crazed barbarians when the sky lit up to the east and the mountain fell on my homeland. Then the earthquakes and windstorms came, and there was suffering and starvation for all of us who were left, every damn one. That was twenty-two years ago, and I remember every moment of it, every single thing, just like it was yesterday. The gods did us wrong. The good gods turned evil and sold us out. They sold us into a pit of serpents like the lowest goblin whelp.'
Jarvis didn't look much like the Jarvis I knew. He looked more like someone else, and I thought maybe I'd better be going before he threw something at me even if he did promise not to. But Jarvis only stared at me some more and then said, 'Get out of here,' so I left and didn't write anything down at all until now.
I walked around town for a little bit after that, thinking about what Jarvis had said and wishing I could get something to eat, because I hadn't had anything so far, what with being chased and thrown in jail and starting fires by accident. I wasn't getting very far on my assignment, and I didn't feel very good at all. I finally got a drink of water from the town fountain, and that helped a little, so I sat on the fountain rim and bunched myself up because if was still a little cold, and I wondered why you were so worried about Ark finding someone who understood why the gods had destroyed Istar, and how you would feel if no one ever understood but Ark and me, and how you would feel if sometimes even Ark and me don't quite understand, either, since the Cataclysm seems to have made everyone so rudeminded. And I didn't understand how not understanding would cause everyone more problems later. Nothing made any sense then, and it still doesn't now, but I'm getting ahead of myself, because it's boring to be here on the rooftop, even with the nice view.
Anyway, I was sitting by the fountain when a man riding a horse came over. He wore a little bit of armor, so I knew he wasn't from town even if I didn't recognize him anyway, since no one here wears any armor because goblins never come to the coast and the barbarians aren't bothering anybody this year, because they're all sick. The man looked like he was very old but very strong, and he had a moustache bigger and thicker than Jarvis's, but it was full of gray hair. He rode his horse up to the fountain and got off and let his horse drink while he stretched and scratched his backside and began to rub his horse down. It was about the time when he pulled a cloth out of his pocket and began wiping off his armor that I thought he might be a knight, because only a knight would do that. Nobody else cares what his or her armor looks like.
Ark had told me a lot about the Knights of Solamnia when I was younger, and I never knew if he liked them or didn't like them, because the knights did both good things and bad things, but they often did them both at the same time, so I was pretty confused as to which side they were on. I got out my papers and pen so I could ask my question, but I saw the knight pull out a long steel sword with notches and scrapes cut into the blade, so I decided I would wait a little while and ask about the weather first instead. Ark always says I should think first, since I'm not very good at it sometimes, and maybe I would live longer that way, and right then I decided that maybe he knew what he was talking about.
The knight glanced at me a few times but said nothing as he cleaned his armor, every bit of it, then got himself a drink from the fountain. He acted like I wasn't really there. I forgot how hungry I was getting because I had never seen a real knight up close, and this one smelled like old sweat and leather and fur and steel. His eyes were like a gray winter sky, and the more I looked at him the less I wanted to ask my question, but I knew I'd have to do it anyway for Ark and you. I was just clearing my throat and was trying to get the question framed properly, so that I could run if necessary, when I saw Kroogi walk up from the blacksmith's shop to wash his face before lunch like he always does, and I knew I was saved. I would ask Kroogi the question first.
I smiled at Kroogi and sat up straight when he came over, only he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at the knight and the knight was looking back, and neither was looking away, and they didn't look too happy about seeing each other. I waved at Kroogi to get his attention, but he didn't wave back. He slowly stripped off his shirt to wash, and you could see the old tribal tattoos on his chest and arms from when he was a warrior with the Red Thunder People who lived east of here before they all died from fighting or being sick, which was why Kroogi left them. The knight stared at Kroogi's tattoos and Kroogi stared at the knight's armor, and neither of them said a thing.
'Kroogi!' I said, waving my arms. 'Kroogi, I have a question. Do you have a moment?' I felt safe asking Kroogi, because he was real quiet and never did anything mean, even if Jarvis said Kroogi once cut two men in half using a hand axe in a battle with Istarian army renegades before the fall of Istar, but that wasn't anything anyone would hold against him, as Istarian army renegades were not very nice and they're mostly dead now anyway.
Kroogi didn't look at me, because he was still staring at the knight, and then Kroogi began flexing his huge arm and chest muscles so you could see the places where spears or swords or arrows had cut him here and there. Finally, he looked away and bent down to soak his shirt in the fountain water, ignoring the knight.
Several more people had wandered over to the fountain in the meantime, so I knew I'd have lots of other people to ask if the knight or Kroogi didn't give me an answer. 'Kroogi!' I said.
Kroogi glanced at me as he began to wash himself using his shirt, and I knew I could go ahead and ask my question. He never said much, but he always made what he said count.
'I just have one question,' I said, and cleared my throat. It would be easier to get a response from the knight after asking Kroogi first. 'Kroogi, do you think the gods did right in dropping the flaming mountain on Istar so that — '
'Yes,' said Kroogi. He lifted his wet shirt and ran it across his chest, washing away the ash and dust.
'Wait,' I said. 'I didn't get to finish the question. Do you think the gods did right when — '
'Yes,' he said again. 'They did right in killing the murdering mongrel dogs of Istar and their Solamnic ironassed lackeys. The blessed gods, praise their names, did right in crushing out the Kingpriest's filth and purifying the lands that Istar and Solamnia had defiled, washing them with clean fire and water.' He dabbed at his forehead. His face never changed expression. It rarely did.
'Oh,' I said in surprise. This was easier than I'd thought. 'Oh, well, would you — '
'I agree that the gods did right,' interrupted the knight. His voice was like low thunder from a distant storm. 'They killed the mad murderers of Istar, who would have chained or slain us all, but afterward they allowed evil to roam the lands in the form of ignorant, filthy, barbarian scum who spread plague as they looted and burned their way across the injured lands. The gods did right in destroying Istar, but they didn't finish the job when they let hordes of masterless vermin prey on innocent and law-abiding people. The gods instead left the cleaning up to those with the wisdom to separate the grain from the chaff, and the strength to dispose of the chaff properly.'
Well, I thought this was great! Here I had two people who completely agreed that the gods had done right. I was going to ask both of them to detail their answers just a little bit more, when Kroogi's arm snapped put and he Hung his wet shirt into the knight's face and knocked him off balance. Then Kroogi screamed at the top of his lungs
