Sapphire:Sessions:20120721

THE MEETING

Chalker returned his room after the cleaning up. His signet ring is glowing. The ring is a special magic ring. All the king’s couriers have signet rings, but Chalker’s ring is unique. It contains one large diamond and three smaller stones. Each stone represents a person who can contact Chalker through the ring. The large diamond is the king. The stone on the ring represents the queen. The stone on the left represents the prince, and the stone on the far left represents his mother. All of the stones were glowing, which meant that everyone would be present at the meeting. This was unusually since it was about 8 o’clock at night, and his mother was usually at home, and not with the royal family. The rings work like a mind link. The people stare into the rings until they are pulled into a kind of meeting place. They are not physically together, but they are linked mentally. They can see mental representations other people in the meeting. This was the first time they all had request a meeting together. Usually, the meeting is between Chalker and king.

Chalker sits down to begin the meeting, when he realizes that he is not alone in his room. He turns to face the person. He sees a very plain man dressed a courier for Doylena. Then Chalker notices the man’s eyes. He has seen these eyes before. The first chosen Mensep is sitting in front of him. Chalker bows and sits down, and waits for Mensep to speak. Mensep smiles and says” I have decided to grant a favor, and bring you to a meeting and return you back here.” Chalker: Who asked for the favor? Mensep: That is not important. Chalker: Did the king as you for a favor? Mensep: No. Get dress. We must be leaving. The signet ring has stopped glowing. Chalker gets dressed and waits for Mensep next move. Chalker has more questions, but Mensep seems not in the mood for talking and Chalker has a bad feeling that Mensep is not happy about this “favor”.

Mensep walks to the wall (not the door) and touches the wall, and a door appears. Mensep opens the door and motions Chalker through. Chalker shakes his head, and motions no after you. Mensep gives Chalker a look of warning and Chalker walks through the door. They step into a little room. Mensep crosses to the door and steps out. Chalker follows and finds that they were in a guard’s shack outside the castle in Dolyena. Chalker follows Mensep to the castle door. Chalker noticed that some things seemed off. The sun was shine like it was about 1o’clock in the afternoon, and they passed several guards who acknowledge him but did not seems to notice Mensep. Once inside the castle, a page approached Chalker and said “follow me, the royal family and guests are waiting for you.” As he walks to see the king, he notices that people are giving him an odd look, and they still don’t seem to notice Mensep. Chalker is racking his brain trying to narrow down all the things he has done to get himself called in front of the king. As he gets closer to the throne room, Chalker counts ten couriers. Five of the couriers are the older more seasoned couriers, and the other five are newer (even though they are older than Chalker). Chalker is trying to get a read on situation from the couriers, because they usually know what is going on. The younger couriers sneer at Chalker, like they usually do. Chalker is not one of their favorite people. They think he gets favorable assignments. They are correct and Chalker is not concern with their feelings. The older couriers give nothing away, even the oldest one, who owes Chalker a big favor. You know the saying “don’t kill the messenger.” Well, Fin (the oldest courier) found out that people usually hurt the messenger when bad news is delivered. Fin delivered an answer to Malprin merchant rejecting a business proposal. The merchant showed his displeasure by return the message pinned to Fin arm with a dagger. Chalker visited the merchant and now the merchant only has one arm. The door to the throne opens and the room is full of people.

There are a number of people on the back row. His step-brothers Sidfall and Raymont and step-sister Zilla (the earl’s children) are on this row. Chalker crosses the row to greet his step-brothers and his step sister. The next rows contain his grand-parents. One side is his mother’s parents; Duke Belford and Duchess Sefa. Chalker gets a big hug from both of them. The other side of the row is the Earl’s parents; Earl Grassley and his wife Londa. Chalker gets a pat on the back from them (they can barely stand Chalker). The next row contains the rest of his family excluding his mother. On one side were his step-brother Duke Renherd and his brother Kilroy. They all but mug Chalker. The other side of the row is his Step-father; Earl Herto and is half brother Luda and half-sister Nada. The Earl is unusually friendly and his brother and sister are just happy to see Chalker. In front of Chalker is a table with two chairs. His mother Clarity is one of the chairs. His Mother gives him a wink and Chalker relaxes a little bit. Chalker looked back into the crowd and motioned for his step-siblings to come to the front row with the rest of their family. They meekly came to the front row and sat down. When looking back at the crowd, Chalker noticed that all of the people are his family (more or less). He turned to face the throne. On Chalker’s right sat all of the princesses (the king and queen daughters) and their husbands and children. On Chalker’s left sat princes’ wives (princess). Chalker gave a small bow to each side. On the thrones sat King Trexa and Queen Raymora. The King sat on the throne and Queen sat to the right of throne. To the right of the queen sat three princes. These are the sons of her sons. The princes sat in the order of their potentially succession to the throne with the son of the crown prince closest to the queen. To the left of the King sat the princes. The princes sat in the order of their potentially succession to the throne with the crown prince seated next to the King. Chalker stepped to his right and bowed to the princes. He stepped back to his left and bow to other princes. Chalker stepped in front of the Queen and made a deep bow. Chalker stepped in front of the King and made a deep bow, and then went down on one knee. The King said “stand up Chalker”. King: Go seat in the seat next to your mother. Chalker went to the table and his mother gave his a big hug. Mensep was standing behind the open chair. Chalker sat down and waited for the King to tell him the reason for this meeting. King: Thank you messenger. I was pleased when I heard that Chalker would be coming to town for a brief visit. The rumors about him have become a problem that I need to fix. Chalker thought to himself “I was not planning on come home this soon”. Mensep: I am glad I could help. King: There is a rumor spreading that Chalker is not the son of the late Duke Carlson.

Well, the rumor is true. Duke Carlson is not Chalker’s father. Chalker’s father is Prince Hermes. I will now tell the true about Chalker Jackson parentage. A little over twenty years ago, Princes Hermes seduced the daughter of my friend Duke Belford named Clarity. Lady Clarity became pregnant because on this tryst. My good friend Duke Belford was very angry and wanted Princes Hermes head. The Duke remarked that since I had two other sons, Hermes was a spare and would not be missed. Now I had a problem. An ally was upset and I was not going to kill my son. I was trying to broker a settlement with Belford because Hermes could not marry Clarity because he was already married. Into the fray stepped Duke Carlson. Duke Carlson also had problems he needed fixing. First, the Carlson’s wife died last year and left the Duke with their two small children, and second the Duke was dying. The doctor said he would die within a year. Carlson’s solution to his problem and Belford’s problem was that he marries the Lady Clarity. The marriage would solve most of the problems. The Duke’s children would have a mother and the Clarity’s reputation would be intact. The only problems were Hermes’s wife Kara and Clarity. Kara was upset and wanted to shame Hermes and Clarity. Raymora spoke to both ladies and convinced both ladies it was the best interest to go along with the plan. Clarity married Carlson and in two months she announced she was pregnant. Three months later the baby (Chalker) was born and Carlson died. This was a problem. Clarity was married five months and had a baby. Normally, babies are not born in five months. Nobody said anything, but it was noticed.

Raymora asked Clarity what she would name the baby. Clarity said I think I will call him Chalker Jackson. Raymora: Where did that name come from? Clarity: I am not sure. I think it came in a dream, but I like. King: For two years Chalker, Renherd, and Kilroy played with the royal children. Raymora and I got to see and interact with all of our grandchildren and we sort of adopted Renherd and Kilroy as our own. This arrangement went on for about two years. The Lady Clarity began to fear for Chalker’s life. During this two year span, Chalker had about twenty near death accident. Clarity did not believe that they were accident because all of them seem to evolve only Chalker and were careful not to harm any other child. Clarity tried to tell Raymora and me about her suspicion but we believed they were all accidents. This is when Clarity fell in love with Herto. She wanted to remarry and Herto wanted to marry her. We were not ready to give up our new grandson, so we drug our feet on giving our permission. The incident that changed our minds happened a month later. All the children were playing in the playroom in the castle playroom. About five or six of the princess were watching the children. Kara (Hermes’s wife) was one of princess watching children. What was not known at the time was that Kara was still mad about the affair between Clarity and Hermes, and she hated Chalker because he reminded her of the affair. While she was watching the children, she was staring daggers at Chalker. Chalker was two years old at the time. Chalker must have noticed Kara staring because he waddled up to her and got in her lap. She seemed to recoil against Chalker, but since the other princesses were watching her, she did not push Chalker away. Chalker seemed to hug her around the neck. She looked like she might pass out. Chalker suddenly let go of her and jumped out her lap. In his hand was a necklace with the symbol of Assaraah. She looked surprised that she had not felt him unclasp the necklace. Then her face contorted and a voice (not hers) out her mouth said “give that back you” imp. Then she and Chalker had a very strange conversation (Remember Chalker is two years old). Kara: How did you see the necklace? Chalker: I just saw it. Kara: Why did you take the necklace? Chalker: It was hurting her (her?). Kara: How did you know it was hurting her? Chalker: She was turning red around the necklace? Kara: How did you see it? Chalker: I just saw it. Kara: I am going to hurt you. Chalker: Why? Kara: Because you are in the way? Chalker: Really? Then Chalker and Kara both passed out. King: Raymora and I were called to the playroom. When we arrived the court mage and priestess of Solash were in the playroom. The court mage told me that no spells were active and none of the people in the room had any magical spells on them. The priestess was preparing the necklace for transportation to her temple. She said that it was a powerful artifact and she needs help in neutralizing the necklace. She examined Chalker and concluded that since the child was holding the artifact when the attack happened, Chalker would probably die.

According to witnesses, the child had a conversation with Kara but it was not Kara’s voice and Kara talked in the third person before the attack. As the priestess was leaving, Chalker woke up. The priestess rushed over and prayed over Chalker. After a few minutes the priestess declared Chalker was not possessed. The court mage also examined Chalker and confirmed that Chalker had no spell on him. Chalker’s mothers, Clarity, rushed into the room and gather Chalker and removed him from the room. Kara did not wake up for about two weeks. During those two weeks, the royal investigators tried to find out how Kara received the necklace, and how no one noticed the necklace, and how Chalker saw the necklace. The investigators could not find an answer. Since Chalker was only two years old, he couldn’t tell the investigators how he say the necklace and after awhile, he would not talk about it with the investigators. When Kara woke up, some of the answers came out. Kara told the investigators that she was very upset about Hermes’s affair with Clarity and went shopping to calm down. She went into the shop that sold gold jewelry (she gave the investigators the location of the shop). She figured that this affair was going to cost Hermes greatly. While she was shopping a lady approach her and offered her a beautiful necklace. Before Kara could object the lady had slip the necklace around her neck. Kara said she was in control of herself for about two minutes before she felt rage about what had been done to her. She was so angry that she seemed lost. So she went to temple row for some guidance. She ended up at the temple of Assaraah. A priest met her at the door and led her to the back of the temple. There were a number of priests waiting for her. They began to chant and soon she had an angry calm and a mission. Her mission was to kill Chalker. She didn’t understand why she wanted to kill Chalker, but she liked the idea. So she tried to kill Chalker quite a few times during the next two years plus. During these two years, she felt compelled to visit the temples of Assaraah and Aaoo every month. She was angry all of the time and she noticed that her health would deteriorate if she went too long without trying to kill Chalker. That is what she was thinking of when Chalker climbing into her lap. When Chalker removed the necklace, she felt like a fog was lifting from her mind. Before the fog cleared completely from her mind, she felt a force to over my mind and body and I heard a voice coming from my mouth addressing Chalker. She felt the force lash out at Chalker and then she blacked out. After this incident, it was decided that it was okay for Clarity to marry Hereto. We were not sure who wanted Chalker dead, but he was now a danger to all of the grandchildren. Clarity and the boys (Chalker, Renherd and Kilroy) moved into the Earl’s home. The only people who knew at the time about Chalker’s parentage were of course his mother and father, the Queen and I, and Kara. I told the Crown Prince about a year ago. I am not sure who figured out that Chalker was a child of one of the princes or how they figured it out, but since it was coming out and Chalker was scheduled to return today for a short visit, I decided to clear the air about this matter. It is my pleasure to introduce Prince Chalker.

Chalker approached the throne and bow to the King and Queen. Then everyone in the room stood up and bowed to Chalker. After that formality, his grandmother (the Queen) jumped down from her throne and hugged her grandson publicly for the first time. The congratulations lasted about an hour before the King said that Chalker had to leave. The King and Chalker (with Mensep) walked from the throne room to the castle front doors. The walk was long and slow. Chalker filled the King in on all of the happenings since the last time they had talked. The King was silent as Chalker told him of the mischief that Malprin was causing up the coast. Chalker: Malprin knew that a group with a representative from Dolyena had stopped their slave trade in a city-state about 350 miles inland from the coast. After Malprin was run out of town, we stopped their last convey of slaves and brought and freed about a 100 slaves. The group proceeded to the coast and found that Malprin has a relationship with the King of the port city. The king allows Malprin to transport slaves through his port, but does not let Malprin sale slaves in the city, but rumors are that some of the local nobles have brought slaves. There is a ship from the Calventine Empire. I have not personally had any contact with the ship’s captain or crew, but Rory arranged to buy the last slaves that Malprin had in the area through the ship’s captain. I plan to meet the ship’s captain soon. Malprin is aware that the group is in the City. One last thing, Assaraah has a hand in what Malprin is doing. I am not sure what Assaraah is planning. I had a meeting with a special priestess of Assaraah last night. I did not learn a lot from the meeting except that Assaraah is interesting enough to send a priestess to this City. I will keep you informed. The King hugged Chalker when they reached the door and they said their good-byes. Chalker and Mensep walked back to the guard shack. Chalker asked Mensep one question. Chalker: Is this the message that I was supposed to deliver? Mensep smiled and said “no”. Chalker walked through the second door in the shack and was back in his room. This is when he heard Rory yell “orcs”!!

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