Revenge of the Chef: Hating Kismirth part 5

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

“I can’t let you back,” said Nummentzartt. “I mean, I can let you in to get your things, what’s left of them after the fire and the Doippmers which sure ain’t leaving much, but you’ll have to find a different apartment to live in.”

Niia snarled, “Well, that’s ridiculous. We’ve been living here for six years now, we’ve paid our rent on time every month, you’ve not had the slightest complaint about us from any of our neighbors. You can’t blame us for some criminals breaking in and destroying the place!”

Nummentzartt’s ears drooped. “No, I can’t blame you, and that’s a fact. I’d give you the second-floor apartment, it’s a bit nicer than your old one was, if it were up to me, and that’s another fact. Same rent, even. But it’s not up to me, and that’s another fact, and the sort of fact that comes in with straw and torches and blugeons.”

“What? You own the building, Nummentzartt!”

“I’m as sorry as a puppy as got into a bag of pepper, Niia. But when they came to burn your place, they stopped by my office first. I’ve still got them bruises. Said they’d be back for me if I didn’t kick you out.”

Niia bristled. “How can they do this? It’s not legal or moral, to beat up an honest landlord, much less to burn a citizen’s apartment!”

“They can do it ’cause they’ve got the government with them, Niia. When the Doippmers came to do their burning, three city guards were standing by and watching and helping hoist the straw. The Minister of the Guard is a Vepri, so the guard’s not going to be telling the Doippmers what they can and can’t do. And what they can do is break my ribs if I rent to scl… you.”

“What kind of justice is this, Nummentzartt?”

Nummentzartt’s ears drooped. “It’s no justice at all, and that’s a fact, Niia. I’m a Vepri myself, ninth generation on their test, and I pays my dues, but even so I’m getting my ribs thumped and my tenants burnt. No justice!”

* * *

After two troublesome days, Chiver came to Niia’s cafe. “I’ve finally found us a place to live.”

Niia set aside her mop. The cafe was still closed, and she did not want to spent from their suddenly-shrunken savings to hire a cleaner. “Chiver, your ears are flat and your tail is tucked. You don’t look at all happy about it.”

“I’m not happy, Niia. I called on every apartment in the nicer quarter, and in the student quarter, and none of them would have us. We’re on a list, you see. But there’s a building on Air-Dyuvel Street, it’s not too bad, the Doippmers said they could rent to us.”

“What! Air-Dyuvel street is nearly all the way across the city from here! And it’s not a safe place to live!”

“It’s the Khtsoyis ghetto, that’s the truth of it. But this apartment’s on the first floor, and the Khtsoyis in the building are in the Gezirk, so there won’t be trouble,” said Chiver.

“We’ll share a building with the criminals to avoid trouble?” Niia was incredulous.

“They don’t tolerate trouble in their own homes,” said Chiver. “And the Doippmers don’t care what happens in Air-Dyuvel street, so we’re safe from them.”

Niia looked at her cleaning supplies. She set the mop against a wall and stomped on it, and the handle splintered under her weight. She threw the filthy water over the tables. Chiver took her hand. “Niia! What are you doing!”

“Wrecking the place so that whoever gets it next, won’t get much. I’m not staying in Choulano another day, Chiver,” said Niia. “It’s not a proper city, if we get beaten and poisoned living here, and then sent to live with the criminals if they’ll have us. Are you coming with me?”

“Leave my family and friends and everyone?” whined Chiver.

Niia stripped off her leather gloves and hugged her partner. “I know it’s hard for a Cani to pick up and go. But it’s not safe to be your friend or family member here, any more. You got beaten mostly because of your uncle, after all.”

“That and antagonising them,” said Chiver.

“Well, do you think you can stay here safely, laying low and not antagonizing anyone, and hoping that the Vepri decide you’ve been punished enough? It’s not like they’re thirty-six ounces of pissed at you and now that you’ve had your dose it’s all goody-good with them. They’re making an example of you, of us, so that other teachers and landlords and restauranteurs won’t resist them.”

Chiver thought about that, rubbing bare patches of skin where his fur was barely starting to grow back. “Where can we go? Sprelna’s Vepri are worse than ours, and I don’t think that Draffmoug or Gurtzmanoy are any better.”

“Leave the whole snake-god-bitten branch. Leave every branch! I’m going to Kismirth.”

“Kismirth. We’ve got some friends there already,” said Chiver.

“And we’re taking that scudbutter Tzantschalffer’s skayak to get there,” said Niia.

Chiver thought for a moment. “Under other circumstances I might have ethical concerns about that. As it is … when do we go?”

Comments

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Yay now they can be a whole different kind of miserable! Assuming they don't get gaoled for attempted theft from a local anyways.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

They didn't have to be miserable in Kismirth. It's generally a nice place!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I didn't say they had to be! But you aleady gave away that they will be.

[ragarth.livejournal.com]

So, as a point of curiosity, what do the Vepri say about you, Sythyry? Do they consider you a Vepri considering you've accomplished so much and are clearly so powerful, or a scud because you buck the trends and have put your worth in with transaffection etc.?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I haven't asked. I am certainly not a member of the Vepri organization! I am also third-or-fourth generation, and that's verified by a solid historical record and people you can go and ask about it, so I don't think they get to complain too much about me. But I suspect, and hope, that they won't be terribly happy about me.

[Sythyry assumes, without evidence, that this is zir first incarnation. Zie could be as late-generation as the latest-generation Zi Ri to have died. --bb]

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know if Ziri souls are reincarnated? Since Hzen expects hir creations to last, it could be she considers Ziri that didn't make it to be defective and never reuses them.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't remember -- I don't think any of the minority prime species are all that well studied.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

Surely some Rassimel must have done some sort of study. There was at least one obsessive enough to publish a list of all extant members of your species some two hundred years ago. I remember you looking it up and finding you weren't in it.

[rowyn]

How verified is it that Zi Ri only get spirits that have been attached to Zi Ri bodies in the past? How many times have people actually gone to the trouble of checking all their spirit's previous lives?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Very few people have done that checking! It is hard, and one rarely learns anything of use or even of interest.

One can rarely verify an "only" here; our gods are not so consistent. One can verify by ordinary means that approximately everyone is in a body suitable for their spirit. (Even Mynthe, though she never felt that it was so, was in fact a Herethroy spirit. We checked.) A simple piece of the verification: the god-connection knack is attached "properly". The details are touchy and technical, and there is room for scholarly disagreement on the validity of the test at all, but there is general agreement that the god-connection of (say) a Herethroy who had ever been an Orren would be different from one who had never been one. I don't think we're certain about this for Herethroy/Orren, much less Zi Ri/Anything Else, but we do know it in one case, and that will have to do.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Did the Vepri sieze part 4?

And I think I see part of the problem coming up. She's too proud to share a building with Khtsoyis, so she decides to move in with a bunch of monsters. x.x

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[No, I messed up the numbering]


She does have a bit of a pride. It will not serve her well.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Well, sounds like the city's due for a revolution! They've gone from pointless bigotry to repeated lawless violence with open cooperation of the government, so at this point pretty much any retaliation the non-Vepri can manage would be justified. After all, everyone in the city now has reason to fear arbitrary murder by the state.

I forget; did the Commandments of Reluu specify a theory behind a government's moral and legal legitimacy, or are they just a list of instructions "because Reluu says so"? Does this city claim to abide by the Commandments? It might be worth mentioning them.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

They were more personal than governmental, and they were pretty vague. I don't know why anyone would accept a god as a moral authority in any case.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Didn't the gods create morality when they made your spirits?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I doubt it. Moral codes have changed considerably over the last four thousand years, and vary from place to place, anyhow.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the world tree was created for the purpose of producing DRAMA!, and shared values are not good sources of DRAMA!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Unfortunate, but true.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Please forgive a monster thinking monstrous thoughts, but...

It has occurred to me, that gravity could be a particularly useful tool of mischief in WorldTree? I mean, should one be so disposed, it would be little if any trouble at all, to place large, heavy objects on a branch above the target and simply shove them off. And if one were so disposed as to desire accuracy, such a falling object could be...say..."modified" somewhat? To ensure that it "falls" on a particularly precise spot?

A few Vepri houses, perhaps?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Most cities have magical walls [domed ones -bb] to discourage such missiles. Remember when Vae threw a whole countryside at Dossimar? It piled up on the city walls; it could not get to the city proper.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, yes. Quite right, I'd forgotten about that.

Hmmmm.

It still occurs to me that there is all sorts of horrible dooms that could be wrought upon the inhabitants of this place. But then, if it is occurring to the thoughts of a mere monster such as myself, no doubt the Vepri and their ilk have already considered it and accounted for the possibility.

Possibly because it's been done before.

Ah well? Doom deferred is not doom prevented, so I suppose I shall wait to see what sort of comeuppance comes to the fine, upstanding citizens of Choulano.

BTW, is this Vepri business endemic to all of Worldtree? Or just a few cities/branches?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Heavens, not all of World Tree! A dozen cities in a row in Creitheia, only.

Except that some of the basic philosophy of the Vepri is well-established as a traditional school of philosophy, and that's everywhere. It's a long way from that to Vepri though.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Craintheia, like the rest of Ketheria, is in the topmost ring of branches though.

Also, I think the city walls would in many cases deflect your projectile.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Maybe enlist the help of the floating city of Birknazza? They're always happy to help people change their minds!

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

BTW, I was reading an article today:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/north-korea-lashes-out-at-japan-as-us-envoy-visits-china/story-e6frf7lf-1226236904809

And it made me think of you and smile, because the "The army and people of the DPRK will never forgive those who let loose the thrice-cursed vituperations" is exactly the sort of thing one of your characters would say.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[I would probably have made them three-headed vituperations! A grin, anyhow.]