Plummet

Questioner

People of all sorts had goals. You found a cobbler on the street, his goal was to educate his only son. A nobleman with his nose buried in accounts, his goal was earn more money to sustain his extravagant lifestyle. A little girl running behind a pretty butterfly, she must get her hands on it to admire the beauty up close.

I was one of them, and much like any other man hungry for the aftermath of having achieved his goal, I pushed deeper and deeper into the quicksand I already had entered.

Bia had been a total disaster, so now I had to find someone else to give me inside information. Anh was of a lot of help but she lacked in the most important aspects... she didn't know what Hue liked, disliked, appreciated... in short, she couldn't help me make the Princess happy within two months. I needed a more direct course, someone who wouldn't arouse suspicion.

Time was passing steadily, it had been more than two months of me having set foot in the Palace. With no correspondence from the Lord, I realized that it was only Anh that kept me on track with my mission. But she was disgusted at my request to meet the Lord again. She feared I would fall for his honey tone and sweet words. Quite far from it, all I wanted was answers from him. But no amount of loving words, embraces or sweet gestures would redeem that idea in Anh's eyes so I quite gave up. I had to maintain a healthy distance from her in any case. There were too many people keeping an eye on me in this Palace.

On a brighter note, just the day Lord Lac's summon for me arrived, Princess Hue succeeded in launching for the first time with a crossbow. By that I meant that she hit her mark for the first time with precision, but about Lord Lac's other request about making her a better person... we hardly even talked these days.

I had a feeling that she thought about me. In some corner of her steely heart, she probably regretted the harsh words she had spoken. My silence was certainly making her impatient. She had expected me to pursue her, to be as dishonorable as she thought me to be. The fact that I had given up altogether, and was no more even interested in polite conversation, must have struck her as odd.

Call this brilliance. I saw her watch me with a frown, unable to understand why I was ignoring her. She didn't love me. No, Princess Hue did not. But she was intrigued. She was interested. She would fall right into my arms if prodded enough by the right people and the right circumstances. 

People that I didn't have. Circumstances that I couldn't create.

Call this helplessness.

In any case, in the evening, when the court had been dismissed and the Lord usually settled down for an hour of relaxation, I stepped out of my chamber in the Lord's direction. He expected me within ten minutes, and I was determined to be on time. I would get, at most, five minutes of audience. That was all one could expect, and only from the best of nobles.

"Tutor Pham," he nodded at me from within his chamber, as he saw me walk towards him and bow. He was such a mystery that there was no way he could be the one-dimensional kind man he appeared to be. "Tell me," he asked, "how has the past week been?"

I bowed low, "The Princess is making tremendous progress every day, Sir. She will be able to wield your legendary crossbow within a month."

He nodded, smiling in a sad way, "That is very good news indeed, Tutor, but I am asking about your week." he gestured at me come in, but I bowed, shaking my head.

This time, his kindness filled me with frustration. Then I looked down. I had no answer for him if he continued to act as if we were old buddies. It was disrespectful, and that was exactly what I wanted. To anger him, so that he would do something that would recreate his tyrannical image in my mind.

Unsuccessful.

He nods "Do polite greetings irk you, Tutor Pham?" his voice was not sarcastic. He was not sarcastic. But the question that I meant to ask him all this while bursts forth.

"Yes they do, Sir, because it's the first time they are being addressed to me." We were talking at the threshold to his room, there was a wooden doorframe between us, I tried to be respectful but the cover was lost almost instantaneously. Lord Lac patted my shoulder, as if he understood.

"There are a lot of things that you don't know yet, young man."

I grit my teeth inaudibly as he turns to walk back inside - signaling the end to our meeting. But I needed answers, "How corrupt was my father, Sir, that it cost his life, and then my mother's and mine, to repair?" I was satisfied when he stopped in his tracks, I would get answers now.

"Tutor Pham, what are you talking about?"

Enraged, I hissed, "Seventeen years ago, Sir. You must remember, for the seizure of our property must have been the heftiest addition to the Royal Treasury." Just to maintain the formality, I bowed although he couldn't see me, "I am well past that now, Sir. I don't grudge the State anything and am willing to lay my life down for Yokel. But it evades me how a ruler as benevolent as you can be so cruel to a widow and his son."

Lord Lac turned to me, puzzled. His eyes were as firm as ever. He was very kind in words but his eyes held the firmness of any strong ruler, "No, Pham. While the properties of several corrupt officials had been confiscated, I do not remember any Pham being dealt with. And had it been the 'heftiest addition', I would have remembered. You must be mistaken."

I coloured. So much like a noble to deny having any hand in a brutality. It was all I had to hear. Anh had been right, he was a man with a strong grip on words, but his tyranny sprang up in places so undeniably that I couldn't help accept it. I bowed for probably the fifth time today, especially low. "If Your Highness says so, then I must be mistaken."

He continued to look at me, eyebrows raised in a doubtful manner. Had I raised his suspicion? The possibility couldn't be ruled out, so I bow even lower, "I shall take your leave now..."

He nodded, slowly. I grabbed the opportunity to walk away without turning my back towards him.

The only question was, what had he been thinking?

+ + +

"How much is remaining?" The Lord asks me, of the loan. Apparently, my father had been taking loan upon loan for the past ten years. What had been brought out of that money was confiscated, and the house and all the land we owned but the loan amount was still a long way.

Seeing no way out, Mother and I have come to the doorstep of Lord Lac's cousin. He waives loans as if they are nothing, because despite being exiled, he has money in abundance from his mother's fabulously rich family. His mother had been the previous Lord's sister. Elder sister - inheriting quite a large sum and a dowry. Which is why he believes he is much more entitled to the throne than Lord Lac.

And in exchange for the loan, all we have to do is pledge our lives to his cause. Bring Lord Lac down. Family feud had erupted despite how close the earlier Lord and his sister had been. Lord Lac had finally banished his cousin under the charges of alliance with the Reazons, a small band of vicious fighters planning the Dragon-lord's downfall.

He lives on. Almost every house has his silent supporter. Loans waived, corruption encouraged. That's what he does. But in our fury, it all seems right. It is right.