Story name: The Privilege of Serving
Author: Oren the Otter
Date: Mid-June 706 CR (2 days, Day 3 of the Summer Festival and 1 day after the Summer Festival)
Location: Metamor Keep
Overview
Three diplomats arrive from Os-Var-Khai to serve the Duke against his wishes, until Oren teaches them how to listen.
Summary
In the morning of the last day of the Summer Festival, three strangely garbed animal morphs arrive at Metamor Keep, carrying ornate boxes and asking for an audience on behalf of their emperor. Duke Thomas is delighted to receive a second diplomatic envoy so soon, and holds a banquet with invitees from as many different lands as possible. At the banquet, the panda opens his box, and Emperor Ku, via a projected image, sends his greetings from the distant land of Os-Var-Khai. They are an advanced civilization, skilled in magic, whose priests and palace attendants take on animal forms to gain insight into other species. He was intrigued to hear of Metamor Keep's curses, and so offers the three diplomats to serve him. Thomas objects to the thought of slavery, and insists he can't accept it. Emperor Ku disappears, and the three foreigners turn angry. Desuka and Mong Ho rebuke him, while Ye prepares to commit seppuku. Thomas hastily acquiesces as the crowd descends into chaos.
After the banquet, Oren realizes how little he knows about the world, and decides to find himself a tutor. That night, Oren has a nightmare in which his fellow Hipoccian warriors tell him that he belongs with the Keepers. A woman representing Metamor tells him he must kill a dragon with her dagger, but he is stopped by a mad prophet, who claims there is no room for him, and then the dragon devours him. After waking up and eating breakfast, Oren visits Phil and asks him to be a tutor. Phil apologizes, as he doesn't have the time. Oren next waits in the basement with the rats for Charles Matthias, but he is also too busy to help. Gornul opts to stay with Charles while Oren continues his search.
Meanwhile, Thomas has difficulty adjusting to his servants. Desuka unexpectedly dresses Thomas in pajamas in the night; Ye serves him sushi, foul-smelling vitamin rice, and salty tea; Mong Ho summons a snowstorm to cool the room, and demands that the room be rearranged to satisfy "Fang Shui". After Mong Ho tries giving him a haircut, Thomas flees to an outhouse, where the servants have replaced the fragrant potpourri with pungent camel fat and beeswax. He asks Thalberg to keep the servants occupied while he slips out. The servants are racked with worry and shame, and they search the Keep for him.
Charles and Gornul are in the market when Mong Ho rushes past, knocking Gornul into a firepit. Fortunately, being a dragon, Gornul has only minor wounds. Oren, meanwhile, visits Lorland and chats with his friend Jesse the Roo. He suggests Oren study at Lorland's newly established library, built from Loriod's private collection of books in an old converted barn. He finds Bradfox there, teaching Barney how to read and write, but also too busy to teach him. As Oren reads a book on geography, he notices a strangely-robed equine reading beneath an elm tree. Curious, he walks over to say hello, and is surprised that it is the Duke, hiding from the Os-Var-Khaians. After a friendly chat, Thomas asks about the darkman's head that Oren gave him. Oren admits he wanted to impress him, and was thinking more about what he wanted rather than what Thomas wanted. Thomas tells Oren that, if he could help the Os-Var-Khaians understand that, he will personally tutor Oren.
Oren reads about Os-Var-Khai in a book, and realizes the solution. He visits the three servants, and tells them that the Duke is being driven crazy by their attempts to serve him. Rather than being honorable and fulfilling the Duke's needs, they have been indulging in their own desires for the Duke. As evidence, he presents Gornul's wounds that he has acquired in his service but never complained about. The servants apologize and ask for him to teach them. Oren says that Thalberg will be teaching them, with help from Gornul and Rupert. Desuka gives the two some snow plums as thanks. They also ask if they can use the ground floor of his tower as a place of worship to Eli.
Oren decides to go for a walk to relax, unaware that his life is about to be changed forever.
Characters
Main characters:
- Wasoko Desuka: A diplomat from Os-Var-Khai. He appears as a panda morph. He is slim and athletic with a topknot. He is intelligent, has an even temper, and speaks very politely.
- Mong Ho: A diplomat from Os-Var-Khai. He appears as a rooster morph. He is portly, but keeps a neat appearance with long knee-length feathers tied into a ponytail. He speaks in broken English, and has a short temper. He is the group's mage.
- Ye: A diplomat from Os-Var-Khai. He appears as a Komodo dragon morph. He has a serene disposition, and cares deeply about maintaining dignity and honor, willing even to commit harakiri. He is a scientist who specializes in chemistry and engineering.
- Duke Thomas: The ruler of Metamor Keep. He is given the three diplomats as servants.
- Oren: A half-otter man from Hipocc.
Supporting:
- Gornul: A blue dragonette who speaks in pictures. His wounds from False Winds have almost completely healed.
- Emperor Ku: Ruler of the united cities of Os-Var-Khai. He is also head of an order devoted to studying the universe in order to understand God. He speaks to Duke Thomas with an advanced magical form of projection.
Minor characters:
- Thalberg: The King's chief steward. He keeps the Os-Var-Khaian servants busy while the Duke escapes. He later becomes an instructor on servantship to them.
- D'art: A hummingbird morph, and Kee's new assistant as messenger for the Keep. He is very energetic.
- Phil: A rabbit morph. He represents Whales at the banquet. He also respectfully declines Oren's request to tutor him.
- Charles: A rat morph. Although he is from the Southlands, he does not appear at the banquet; Kimberly and Oren, who only know that he is a non-native, do not know why. His palm still hurts from his wounds, but it will be normal by week's end.
- Rupert: Phil's bodyguard, a gorilla morph. His curse is deep enough that he cannot speak. He and Gornul share common ground as mute sidekicks.
- Bradfox: A gendermorph who wears a kilt, and works as a guard, and as a teacher for Barney. Although normally using gender-ambiguous pronouns, here Oren thinks of Brad as "he".
- Barney: An otter morph. He is currently learning the ABC's, and hopes to write a book someday about fishkeeping.
- Note that Barney is in full morph while studying, but is still able to speak.
Cameo:
- An child morph guard, who is the first to greet the three diplomats from Os-Var-Khai. He appears to be no more than 10.
- Garigan: A ferret morph. He represents Glen Avery at the banquet.
- Macaban: A donkey morph. He represents Lorland at the banquet.
- Sean: A young man who represents Magdalain Island at the banquet.
- David: A man who represents Astarxia.
- Yonson: A diplomat from Marzac. He attends the banquet for the three diplomats.
- Kimberly: A rat morph. She represents Barthas.
- Mitok: Gornul's father, a gray-green dragonette. He appears once, asleep in Oren's house.
- A vendor of Whelch roast. He knows that dragons are fireproof.
- Hector Phillips: A rat morph and a sculptor, and one of the rats who lives in the cellars. Charles is looking forward to seeing him again after the festival.
- Goldmark, Elliot, Julian: The other rats in the cellar, implied to be waiting with Oren for Charles.
- Saulius: A rat morph, also implied to be with Oren in the cellars. He is also seen in Oren's dream of Metamor Keep, playing with Gornul.
Referenced:
- Kee: The Keep messenger.
- Habakkuk: A headmaster of the Writer's Guild. Oren wants to send him a message, presumably about a story.
- Channing: A headmaster of the Writer's Guild. Oren was about to send him a message to get Gornul an invitation.
- Note that Channing has already left the Keep at this time; Oren seems to have forgotten this.
- Dana: An acquaintance of Oren. She is a foreigner to the Keep.
- Roger: A boy from Hipocc, whom Oren never got along with. He appears in Oren's dream as a Hipoccian warrior.
- Oren's father. He does not appear in Oren's dream.
- Metamora: A woman from Oren's dream, tied to a post, about to be eaten by a dragon. She is likely a representation of Metamor, rather than a person in her own right.
Story Connections
- Thomas refers to the diplomatic envoy he recently received from Diplomacy.
- The incident involving the darkman's head comes from Recon.
- In addition to the firepit in this story, Gornul's wounds from the Lutin arrows in Declarations of Allegiance and the rock in False Winds are pointed out.
- This story directly precedes A Lie Conceived, which shows the significance of Oren's walk.
Locations
- Os-Var-Khai is an empire of five unified city-states, located on a large eastern island called Khumar. The city-states are Os Na, Os Su, Var, Khai Hon, and Khai Or. One of their guiding philosophies is that servants are of higher status than those being served; the emperor, servant of the empire, is the greatest of all.
- The entire ruling class has taken on the form of an animal person, as a means of gaining a wider perspective about the world and the creator.
- Hipocc is similar to Os-Var-Khai, in that service is considered a privilege and an honor.
- Oren's apartment contains a stone tub along the east window. Along the west wall is a large desk. There is a tiny office space next to a fish tank and a stove and Gornul's hutch. There is a corner table where Oren keeps his book of scriptures.
- Lorland's library is a converted barn. It is clean and well-lit, with a lawn outside with benches to read on or be read to.
- Oren's tower sits just east of Metamor Keep. The Os-Var-Khaians ask to convert its ground floor into a place of worship to their version of the god Eli.
Points of interest
- The messengers arrive carrying 3 gold and silver boxes. They serve no apparent purpose other than for Emperor Ku's holographic display.
- Oren is in the middle of writing a new story, about a fortress in the frozen north called For Kwunko.
- Oren is also in the middle of reading a series of stories called "In Real Life", about a group of people who communicate from afar with magic boxes.
- Phil is reading a book called "Fire Spells", by Ignacious Layette.
- Hipoccian warriors are dressed in bright white shirts and pants, with blue vests and red capes.
- Rather than travelling overland, the Os-Var-Khaian servants traveled the bulk of their journey via ship, stopping in the Giantdowns for snow plums.
- Snow plums are a fruit that only grows in the Giantdowns. There is a legend that tiny trolls live inside the fruits.
- One month ago, a patrol brought back some snow plums; Gornul ate and enjoyed them.
