I'KOSMAE: a Multiverse in the Balance Chapter Twenty

 CHAPTER TWENTY: Commonwealth New Year; Most of a Month in Seventeen

 

Ambros led Randy from the War Room. They walked the halls.

Randy wore a medallion, one that identified him as ‘New Citizen, Guild or Skolo: Uncommitted’. People working or socializing in the many niches on either side of the hallways saluted him gravely, each after the manner of their own Guilds.

“Why are they all saluting me?” Randy asked.

Ambros grinned: “A general principle: each one thinks that you may choose their Guild; you may one day be a consequential member of their Guild. See, it’s not just War Guild members who are working hereabouts: Thinker’s, Technical, even some Laborers, plus History...they are all here on one sort of errand or another. Recently I eavesdropped on some Road Guild Magistrae at one of the basement cafés here in War Guild Command Complex.”

Randy frowned, clearly thinking hard, then said: “So on the off chance that I might choose their Guild, they...”

“They treat you with respect, and hope for the best,” Ambros finished. As they passed through the building, people began gathering their belongings and preparing for the evening’s ceremonies.

At length they passed through the Main Hall. A woman in Dissenter’s robes, her hair in a tightly braided topknot, held forth for a group of Red Warrior students:

 

( Read more... )