News at the
House of the Hand
-
By Teel James
Hand Press, Innéthel Printers, Spring, Year Two
of Ahrimiar Kenaçyen’s Sitting
First this author must comment upon the recent
explosion at the House. The Innovators
of the House had taken Ahrimaz’s comments concerning the so-called ‘gun cotton’
quite seriously, but apparently not seriously enough.
The research facility had made tiny amounts,
based on the ideas that came out of the journey to greet the Rummmumalos
Ambassadors and had proposed to make a rather larger quantity.
The Innovators, led by M'sieur had planned for their
demonstration to be in the open courtyard before the Great Hall until a late
season ice storm had them move into the Hall itself. The Emperor of Strange Inné, Ahrimaz, gracing
the gathering after his regular morning training with Swordmaster Rutaçyen, was
just straightening his cuffs when he entered and saw the quantity of gun cotton
they were about to light.
His bellow of “NO! Out out, everyone out NOW!”
Undoubtedly saved a number of lives, since most witnesses had been in the
military and reacted to the command with alacrity. Ahrimaz leaped into the centre of the Hall
where M'sieur Lachemi was just lighting the fuse, grabbed him and his
assistant by the collar and bodily dragged them through the partially open doors and outside into the freezing rain,
even as the flame reached the small pile of gun cotton and it exploded.
Of the hundred or so people, already fleeing the
hall when the gun cotton went off, forty-one were trapped in the rubble of the
galleries crumbling. Four elderly people
who either did not hear, or react in time, were killed outright in the blast.
Ahrimaz and the Innovators were all three
injured slightly by the doors of the Hall as they were blown off their hinges
and splintered. Everyone had their
hearing damaged to some degree, the Liryen priesthood and the Imaryan healers
report, but it should come back in a few days.
This reporter heard, with his own somewhat damaged
ears, Ahrimaz say to the dazed Innovator, M’sieur Lachemi, “Didn’t I tell
you? What did I tell you?” All three lay on the ice covered cobbles,
half buried in enormous gilded splinters that could have, with a bit more
energy behind them, become lethal weapons.
“M’sieur… I should have attended more
carefully. Emilié, take a note.”
“What? Oh, yes M’sieur.”
We encourage the researchers and Innovators to
not disregard the information supplied to them, especially in regards to the
safety of Innéan citizens.
We also thank the Rummmamalos Ambassadors for
their invaluable assistance in freeing our citizens from the mostly ruined
centre block of our Governmental House.
The committee for Maintenance and Repair are already discussing the logistics of rebuilding the public venue.
**
Healing of
the Emperor: Continues
-
By Teel James
Hand Press, Innéthel Printers, Spring, Year Two
of Ahrimiar Kenaçyen’s Sitting
The spectacle yesterday, of Didara the Curious,
carrying a screaming, cursing flailing Ahrimaz, through the town hoisted up to
near second story height, by one ankle, is easily explained.
The House healer Limyé explained that the
Emperor made an abortive attempt at self-harm while in the Ambassador’s
presence and when prevented, proceeded to argue with Didara. Unfortunately
things escalated until the Ambassador acted, with both dispatch and alacrity.
This reporter was first made aware of the
incident when the howling Emperor was carried, swinging, past the Broadsheet’s
glass windows. His coat hung inside out over his head and muffled the worst of his invective and impecunious language. This reporter rushed outside and proceeded to follow the Ambassador as she carried Ahrimaz
down to the river and proceeded to dunk him in the icy water to, as I later
ascertained, “Cool his head.”
She then placed him, dripping and mortified, upon her back and calmly
walked back to the Ambassadorial Hall and the hot pool in their reception
theatre, where this reporter was barred from immediate entry.
Ahrimaz declined to explain, when interrogated
later, turning an intriguing shade of embarrassment red. This reporter intends to continue following
the healing of Ahrimaz, and continue training with the man.
The High Priestess of the Veil, the honourable
Mara d’Rom, has accepted Ahrimaz into the ranks of her priesthood, his
investiture to proceed later in the spring when the weather turns.
“We don’t want to give our new priestesses
and priests lung thick by having them go into the Veil when it is freezing,”
she said. “However much we pride
ourselves in controlling the water temperature around us, acolytes and students
and new clergy often have difficulties there, so of course we take that into
consideration. Ahrimaz will be
re-invested, since he, in his other incarnation, was invested as a priest of
Liryen then.”
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