All That Is Evil Is Not Dark/Chapter 43

Jano looked at the large stone doors as they slowly opened and felt strongly mixed emotions. All he had seen of the Drakel lands suggested a very advanced people whose magic and technological innovation rivaled that of the temples themselves. A people locked behind thousands of years of isolated innovations. The culture, however, was leaving him cold. It was as if he were sent back three hundred years in Vandar. Back before the people's rebellion, when the ruling council of nobles ruled the peasants with an iron fist, getting fat off their blood and sweat while their own effort was in perpetual wars with neighbors and the occasional drunken hunting expedition.

Only, in some ways, the Drakel situation struck Jano as worse. How could such a highly intelligent people countenance a social structure based on stations and social order when they themselves had established hundreds of years before that intelligence and promise were not a function of genealogy but of opportunity? Rather than using this knowledge to select the most promising Drakel to advance their society, they seemed to consider this as evidence for the need to continue longstanding social arrangements.

"Those who are gifted in the ways that you say invariably are those who choose to serve us. Witness Tralin himself, clearly one of the most gifted minds of the age: he realized the benefits and wisdom of our system and chose the honorable work of T'palo. His wife and children benefit from it even now. They hold a position of honor in the K'eld."

"King Tralin has a family?" Jano asked, discomfited by this revelation.

"Indeed."

Jano was even more greatly disturbed by the culture in light of this fact. How was he to act as T'palo, knowing that for those of this culture a T'palo could never see their family or loved ones? That must have been what Tralin had meant when he said it was beneficial also that he had formed no permanent attachments.

"Honored T'palo," the guard at the gate said, falling back and bowing to one knee. "Welcome, sir, to K'eld Ner. You are the first human to enter these walls in 1500 years, and the very first to do so as T'palo."

"Other humans have seen the inside of the K'eld?" Jano said, surprised.

"Occasionally, in the times when the world was younger, a human would wander into the woods and become very lost. The De'me'thar would aid them, but invariably they would decide that their fortune would be better sought inside the K'eld in spite of the ban."

"What happened to them?"

"The ban is most specific: any seeking service must be granted entry, but adult humans could not possibly serve as T'palo so they ended up serving as bond servants." The Drakel guard looked at Jano. "No offense is intended by this, Lord T'palo. You are a T'palo from the humans to the Drakel. They sought to be T'palo from the K'eld, not to it."

"No offense taken," Jano said, but he could not help but wonder about the reasoning of the Drakel. Clearly the station of T'palo was taken quite seriously; the Drakel tended to his needs as if he himself was a king.

"The Council wishes to see you for an evening meal as soon as you are comfortable in your chamber and have had time to clean up," the guard said. "Le'tho, lead the T'palo to his chamber."