Beautiful World

# 02 - The feast

Meanwhile, far away across the vast and trackless wastes of the borderlands and beyond the Fence and the plains of the southern kingdom to the great city of Serenity itself all seemed to be peaceful. If you stood on the outer walls of that city and looked inwards to its heart you would be able to make out in the upper distance, the many-towered spires of the palace all brightly lit for the evening watch and hung with flags and banners.

Today was a feast day. It was a feast day in honour of the king, and many of the important nobles had been invited to the palace to help the king celebrate.

Although the king, renowned of course for his beauty, was respected and loved by many of his people, it was only on rare occasions that he appeared in public. On such occasions, his appearances were only brief, and usually to give a prepared speech, or award medals and decorations to members of his council, the armed forces or perhaps the security services. He was something of a recluse, isolated in his exclusive royal apartments clouds above the rest of the city, and even if there were few who dared to doubt his power and authority, there were a significant number among the highest rank of citizenry who whispered that he had perhaps passed the best of his days. As long as anyone could remember, the throne room remained empty, except for the ceremonial guardsmen who stood before the throne itself. But no one talked of abdication, or if they did it was in secret. Any criticism of the king invited arrest at the hands of the secret police, the feared Triple S.

As for the rest of the royal family, they had for the most part disappeared from public view, and only the upper courts of the city knew what had befallen them.

But today was a happy day. It was a feast day, called as it was every year to celebrate the last great battle. It was a battle which had seen the defeat of the enemy, and the destruction of the Old Town all those centuries ago. Stained and unstained parted. And with that victory had come the dawning of the age of Serenity. Of all the feast days, it was the only one to rank above Glamgel Day: the feast which honoured GlamTech and celebrated the discovery of the apparently miraculous formulation that had transformed the lives of almost every citizen of Serenity. While the common folk would celebrate any feast day as best they could with gatherings in market squares and food and drink shared from house to house, the higher ranks were required to attend more formal events held within the precinct of the palace itself. The activities went on for most of the day with displays by military bands, teams of marching girls, and choruses of specially trained singers all dressed in white robes. There were also strictly organised dances where dozens of competitors from each district whirled and pirouetted in elaborate routines before a panel of grey-masked and velvet-cloaked judges.

In Upper Town, which was divided into the four different 'courts of the nobles', separate ceremonies took place, designed to celebrate and emphasise the differences between each 'court'. It was here that the relative strength and influence of the great 'colleges' of Litra, Rebuild and Glamtech were most on show. The rivalry was obvious, and each college strove to make its presence felt, but the singular dominance of Glamtech was difficult to miss. It was even suspected that the king and his royal officials encouraged that rivalry, while making sure that no one college became too powerful in its own right. The pre-eminent status of Glamtech, however, was perhaps no better indicated than in the unexplained and unchallenged determination of the senior technician of Glamtech, lord Shadwatch, to go everywhere without a mask.