DISCLOSED SECRETS, The Argument
--(A story I wrote)---
The gray stone Manor that overlooked the Bay of Luhnn’s harbor was a beautiful house, but it was about to no longer be a home. Something was wrong. The merchant, Baldon sat at his dining table. A letter lay in front of him, and the four-stemmed candle holder of the Prophets. Its light nor the letter gave the old man any encouragement as the letter was like a cold wind from the past. His youngest son came home and entered the room looking just as pale as his father. “Son there is something I need to tell you. Forgive me, but I feel I should have shared it with you years ago.”
The young man stood a chair distant from the ancient figure, “Yes, father?”
Baldon’s voice was dry and broke, “ This - This is not easy, but I have withheld it long enough from you, and it will be yours to know from here.”
The thin figure placed a resting arm on the back of the chair but remained silent.
The senior’s eyes glanced at a side table where a decanter of wine sat, then sighed, “Your mother and I are not your parents. Well, I am your father, but Sil'renda – ” He sighed again without the wine’s courage, “Sil'renda is not the woman who gave birth to you, and Sil'ynthia is not your sister either.”
“So, no one is who they were?”
Quickly the man said, “I am your father and Cal'an is your brother. Just - I married a woman named Linlus of Uruk. But she became sick, well, for another man and left us. I put her away by law, and then came to the city of Mithar. In time, I met Sil'renda of Elosh, at the Gate market. She had a daughter by another husband, one who used to beat them both horribly, but they ran away and left him by law. Sil'renda and I married, and so she became your mother and Sil'ynthia became your sister.
“I see.”
The numb words hit his father, “Are you – alright son?”
“Does Cal'an know this?”
“Yes.”
“How – long has Cal'an known?”
The old man grew ancient, “Being much older than you, your brother Cal'an grew up knowing things”
The younger’s face grew red, “And only now you tell me. For what reason?”
The father felt the cold wind return, “Linlus desires to meet with you.”
Silence.
“Fayendar, son?”
“What have I to say?”
“I just felt you should know.” The old man Baldon had finally let the secret go.
“I see. I should have known. It was only because she contacted you with the desire of meeting me, which forced your hand in telling me now. Did I get that correct, father?
It was his turn to sound numb, “I was wrong for not telling you, Fayendar.”
“Did I get that correct, father?”
“Yes, son.”
“What else is there?”
“Nothing.”
Suddenly the youngest son’s own two feet were strong enough to stand on his own, he released the chair beside him, “Well father I have news of my own to share. I came home, to tell you today, instead of waiting twenty-seven years.”
“I deserved that.” Baldon blinked.
His son’s words were like ice, “We do not always get what we deserve and many times –“ Then he came out with his own secret to disclose, “I was Disfellowshipped by the Council of Elders from the religious Order today, father.”
“What is this is horrible news you bring me!” The old man shouted
The son’s words were cut off, “Worse than learning –“
It was Baldon’s turn to be red-faced, “You have disgraced your family!”
Fayendar’s ice was above a whisper, “Which family is that father?”
But Baldon raged on, “I am serious, Fayendar! We shall be –“
He cut his father’s words off, “There is no we, father. There is an I, and I will be the one you shunned. I will be the one cut off from the family, and from my friends, and- ignored by everyone when I walk through the city market like I am not even there. I - I father, not you, not we. Oh, yes – yes you may get the looks and whispers behind your back for having such a wicked son! But you know all too well those very things because of the way you treated others for years, who were ostracized from the gathering of God! What does my petty loss, or pain have to do with anything, other than with the shame brought upon you? It is not like I was special enough to even know about my own mother! What other lies are there to learn? What investment of care did you put in me as a person, Lord of Baldon of the gray Manner?
The old man’s eyes blinked hard, for his son never spoke such before, “What was it you did?”
“So now you ask. I asked questions father, I desired to learn and so I asked questions, but asking questions is forbidden. Questions instigate doubt in others, and it is not total submission to the Order, now, is it? – I should have known all along my entire life was a lie? My religion was a snare built on lies.”
His father yelled, “How dare you say such blasphemous things in this house!”
But the son replied calmly, “A word you have lived your life not knowing the meaning to. Goodbye father, this seems to be the last time we will ever talk again.”
Baldon was disgusted and shouted, “Apostate, be gone!”
......
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