Project ZEAL

Scene 35 - Eyram Green (chronotriggerfreak)

Gargeth Wardell found his accommodations most unpleasant. For one thing, the secretary chick who hung around in the entrance hall outside his door attended to every resident of the Choras town hall (that is, what they called the rooms where all of the elder's friends who were too dirt-poor to live alone resided in luxury)...so she could only attend to his needs every hour or so. And for another, his wooden chair was stiffly uncomfortable and didn't lean properly.

He was halfway through the process of discovering this by falling over backward when the secretary rudely intruded, bringing in a guest. From the looks of him...swanky suit, collection of fancy stationery-based documents in his hand, that stupid bowler that he so elegantly rolled off his head and hung on the hat rack...he was one of the elder's higher-ups.

Garg quickly collected himself from the floor whereupon he fell and discovered that this interruption pissed him off. It wasn't the embarrassment of being caught falling over backward, no, and it wasn't that this guy was once probably just as lowly scum as Garg and still got better treatment, not that. It was that the secretary only said, "The elder will be in to see you shortly." That was it; then she left. No, "Hello, Mr. Wardell," or any, "Would you like anything, Mr. Wardell?" Not so much of, "I had some real fun before, Garg; when can we do it again?" as of nothing. Of course, it wouldn't be appropriate with such a fine gentleman in the room, but still, could she have been any colder? It was like a bad omen, for a chick he'd had an experience with not to mention anything about it the next time she saw him... it was almost as if she was sure this would be the last time she saw him.

Well, if she didn't have time to worry about him, then he couldn't afford to spend any time worrying about her, either, not with the elder's lackey standing in his doorway. So he set his chair upright, sat down, and then made the gesture of standing up again to invite him in. He didn't bother to close the door behind him; he obviously didn't think much of Garg's privacy, which meant neither did the elder. How could the elder treat him that way, when Garg had promised him so much, and both of his treacherous families had expressed their support? Surely the elder knew he was not a powerful enough man to deal with his own nobility and the eldership of Porre.

"Good morning, Mr. Wardell," said the gentleman.

What was he doing here, anyway?

"A fine one, thank you," Garg replied, "but I'm not quite sure we've met."

"Oh, excuse me, I forgot that we haven't. My name is Eyram Green. I've been assigned as the legal counselor in your case against Mr. Levine..."

"Who?"

"I believe his first name is Toma. As I was saying, I will represent you in the case of the Rainbow Shell."

"Will you? That's nice, but..."

"Excuse me for being late, gentlemen," said the Choras elder as he hobbled in, leaning heavily on his cane. "I see you've met Mr. Green, Gargeth."

Garg shuddered. What was his mother thinking with that name? Gargeth. Honestly.

"Please, sir, call me Garg."

"Nonsense. If I'll call you anything, it'll be Mr. Wardell. We are all, after all, men of stature, are we not?"

"Yes," said Eyram, "and that is why I must insist that we hurry this along."

"If you don't mind my asking," said Garg, "why did you call us, Elder?"

"I believe I can answer that." Even as the elder opened his mouth to speak, Eyram circled around into Garg's view and interrupted. Garg wouldn't forget his disrespect for authority, and he would be sure no one else would, either. "Quite simply, your requests to study interregional law and represent your case in any pending legal proceedings have been denied. It has been concluded that your experience with scholarship is insufficient when considering the imminence of the matter at hand."

Oh, Mr. Green spoke well-cultured enough, but despite whatever confusion he may have hoped to achieve, Garg understood every word he said...and probably could have spewed it back with more verbiage that the man could handle. Again, Garg would remember this subtle spite, but for the moment he found it more suitable to play dumb.

"So you're telling me that the elder won't sponsor my legal studies, is that it? With his infinite income spent on infinite corrupt things that I could reveal at any moment, he can't..."

"Please, please, Mr. Wardell, settle down," the elder said, himself finding a small, wobbly wooden chair to rest in. "It's not that I can't afford to let you study, but I just..."

"Well, if you'll excuse me for saying it, Elder, then I don't see why I can't just study it no matter how useful it will or will not be. I mean, with the favor I'm doing you here, I think it's the least you could do."

"Why would you ever want to study something you won't find use for?" said Eyram mockingly.

"You seem to be making yourself a fine living with your useless studies," Garg mocked in return.

"That's enough," the Elder said as loudly as he could at his age. "If we can't behave civilly here, then we won't be here at all. Now, Mr. Wardell, I'll be fine with it if you want to go ahead and study interregional law, but I'll take no blame for your disappointment if I don't think you're ready to win whatever case we find ourselves up against in this whole debacle."

"Thank you, Elder."

"Let's depart, Eyram. If there's to be something for Mr. Wardell to take over, we have a case to prepare."

With that, Eyram Green and the Choras elder walked out of Garg's dormitory, shutting the door behind them. Even as the door clicked softly shut, Garg could hear Eyram's furious explosion at the elder's submission. Chuckling in the growing silence of his room, Garg leaned backwards in his stiff wooden chair and fell over.

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