The Preacher Man

It was time for my promotional testing. It had been two years since I had become a CL-2 laborer of the Security Guild at Anqara, and ten days since I had become a CL-26 third-level Ruling Royal at Karbala. Over the course of these last two years, I had successfully completed twenty-four rides on the Asad. But riding the Lion does not change the cycle for adult promotional testing. Every adult male except the Cunif Califar is part of this process.

I had taken Abigail's advice and spent a great deal of time in early December reading the legal code concerning my authority. In a show of solidarity with the Karbala monastery, I exercised an archaic part of the law and used my power as Domine to join with the Initiates for the Priesthood. I was wearing the same white robe of an Initiate, the only difference were the small temporary squares on my arms, emblems bearing the three bars of purple, red, and green that identified me as CL-26.

I would spend the full day with the class, including the morning and evening Prayer testing. As an adult though, I did not have to face the culling gate afterwards. That fact was a stark counterpoint in what otherwise was turning into a very enjoyable day. Perhaps a dozen of the young men in the classroom with me now would not be alive tomorrow, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to save them.

The boys were in shock over me in the first hour. We met moments before the beginning of the Prayer of Ascension. At first they were stunned to see me, thinking that a CL-26 Ruling Royal and the Domine of Karbala had come to join the CL-16 Royal monitor for their testing. Their minds could not comprehend why I was wearing the white robe of an acolyte.

They stumbled through the first Prayer, affected by a combination of awe and fear. But the mood changed completely during the following Hour of Purification. Unlike Anqara, the Priests here decided against free-style sparring. They picked a much gentler alternative.

The Karbala monastery's specialty in the martial arts is classical Judo, and we were graded on speed and form as both thrower and throwee. In the one Hour of Prayer, I must have thrown and have been thrown about thirty times each.

There's nothing quite like it, the bonding that occurs within a group practicing martial arts. The testing of the arts fosters great respect and trust, and by the end of the hour, many of the boys were lining up hoping for a chance to throw or be thrown by me. I had been accepted as one of their own.

During the morning and evening Prayers, I would be tested with the entire class of 578 boys. But during the afternoon, I joined the group who were the acolyte members of the Priesthood. Our written testing consisted of two three-hour exams, the first from 10:40 AM to 1:40 PM, and the second from 2:20 PM to 5:20 PM. The remaining time between the Prayer Cycle consisted of three forty-minute breaks. There were no meals. By tradition, Judgment day is a fasting day for Priest acolytes.

Karbala in some ways is a more relaxed monastery than Anqara, and I don't mean to imply anything negative in this. During the three rest periods, the boys were openly chatty and giving each other frequent hugs of encouragement. I was deeply touched by how many of the boys patted my shoulders and even encouraged me. It was such a rare opportunity, the chance to act informally around a Ruling Royal, and we all knew how unique this moment was.

I took a deep breath and another look at the clock, 5:09 PM. Time to get back to work! The tests by design were far too long and complex for the boys to complete. It was only through my greater experiences, access to information and perfect memory that was allowing me to finish all the parts.

The last section was a combination of ancient history, Guild affiliation, and solar astronomy. They listed a number of townships, and asked for each the ancient name, the home Guild, and as close as possible, the times for sunrise and sunset today.

I had to smile at how easy this was for me. I had glanced at these data years ago, including the solar tables, and with my memory, the test was as simple if I were copying the answers from a book.

Bandar Arenas was called Punta Arenas, home of the Priesthood, with sunlight today from 3:32 AM to 8:30 PM. At the capital, solar noon is always very close to calendar noon, and matches it exactly every twelfth year, the alignment year.

Giza was once called Grenada. Bonus questions: How big is it, and how far from the nearest mainland? The Caribbean island fortress is 344 sq km in size, the smallest island in the world hosting a township, and 150 km from the South American coast. It is the home of one of the Genetics Guilds, the one specializing in the anti-aging drugs. Sunrise today would be at 5:41 AM and sunset at 5:06 PM. In the back of my mind, I was surprised they put Giza on the test. Security and the Priesthood guard the home of the anti-aging Guild with great secrecy. The town is almost never mentioned in the news.

Tobruk was once called Puerto Eden, Chili, up the Pacific coast on the west, the second closest town to the capital after Jizari. It is the home of another medical Guild, the one that manufactures and researches virginity drugs. I didn't remember a solar chart for Tobruk, so I thought of its coordinates, 49 o 1' S, 3 o 34' W, and then estimated the sun times at 4:09 AM and 8:22 PM.

Hadramawt, the easternmost of all townships, was once Recife, Brazil. It is the home of the Fishing Guild, with sunlight today between 3:19 AM and 3:54 PM. Ah, memories, such a beautiful place. I thought for a moment of my Lion rides in their great cathedral, how pretty the stained-glass windows were.

The next two towns had a twist to the question. They were not explicitly mentioned by name, only referenced as the two townships farthest from the capital.

Anqara is the farthest at 11,296 km. It was once called Begotville, Quebec and is the home of the Specialty Metal Fabrication Guild. I laughed to myself. It would be embarrassing to err on this one! Sun today from 7:51 AM to 4:11 PM.

Next is Tehran at 11,261 km from Bandar Arenas. It was once called San Francisco, USA. At 37 o 47' N, 51 o 30' W, it is the most western of the townships, and barely misses Anqara as the farthest. It is the home of the Ship Construction Guild. Sunrise today was at 10:40 AM, and sunset will be at 8:14 PM. I took a second to reflect and compare this sunset time with the capital's 8:30 PM. Tehran is 51.5 degrees west of the capital, a solar time of 3 hours and 26 minutes, yet the sun sets later at the capital today! Such is the power of the Earth's tilt at the solstice.

Luxor was once called San Diego, USA, home of the Ship Operations Guild, the merchant navy. Sun today from 10:06 AM to 8:06 PM.

Bel'darstan was once called Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, located at the tip of the ancient Baja California peninsula, with sun today from 9:16 AM to 7:59 PM. Sister city to Cairo and Nubia, its Guild is the manager and conservator of Earth's botany. Bel'dar loved plants.

Nubia was once called the Galapagos Islands. Its Guild is the manager and conservator of the Earth's oceans. It has a total of 585 sq km of land area, with sun today from 7:15 AM to 7:25 PM. With the islands less than one degree south of the equator, these times never vary by more than a few minutes.

Tripoli was once called Talara, Peru, at the westernmost tip of South America. It is home of the Rail Construction Guild, with sun today from 6:31 AM to 6:54 PM.

Karbala was once called both the Falklands and Islas Malvenas, home of the Sheep Guide, sun time at my cathedral today would be from 2:58 AM to 7:38 PM, and ten minutes earlier on both numbers here at the monastery at Karbala's eastern end. I took a moment to reflect how different the gate testing here was, compared to Anqara. At my boyhood township, Judgment occurred during the darkest part of the year, while here the world was full of light.

I continued to work my way down the township names, my mind relaxed and not paying much attention to the time. I finished the list of twenty just as the proctor rang the bell that ended the test. Our papers were collected silently, and then we had a little time to commiserate with each other. There were many more hugs of encouragement. The final four hours of Prayer testing were still ahead, and would begin sharply at 6 PM.

Six hours later...

I was resting in a small vacant room in an old, rarely used storage wing of the monastery. The unused room had been set aside as a shelter for me. There was not much more than an old chair, a table and cot, and a single candle for light. I had entered this room at midnight yesterday, at the beginning moment of Judgment, and had slept here before the testing.

And tonight I spent my last two hours here massaging my sore muscles. There is nothing relaxing about this monastery's Prayer of Weakness. The testers had driven me and the other boys into total muscular exhaustion. During the more grueling requirements, I wondered if the testers always did this or were just trying to impress me with their extremism. It got a bit brutal.

And the final Hour of Repose was the hardest Repose hour of my life, trying to maintain the perfect form of stillness with muscles that had been driven beyond their ability to cooperate. And the testers walked the floor, not tapping the summoning stones but clicking counters that were tallying everyone's imperfect form.

Just as the midnight bell sounded, there was a polite knock on my unlocked wooden door. A female in a full burqa entered and bowed deeply. She had brought me a set of new clothes. I changed after she left, folding my white robe and returning it to a monastery washroom. I was now dressed as a Ruling Royal CL-26. My time as an Initiate was over.

Afterwards I wandered into the conference area where headmaster CL-11 Makin and about thirty other Lower Commander Priest teachers were gathered. The group represented the monastery's top teachers, and their command rank entitled them to be part of the global teleconference that determined the final global ranking at the childhood gates.

I was surprised to see the teleconference was already over. Usually these conferences go well past 1 AM and occasionally past 2 AM. But the video bridge was dark and the teachers were quiet and subdued, waiting for the final scoring results. The silent looks on their faces spoke volumes. Perhaps fifty-eight of Karbala's graduating class was about to be killed, and they clearly were sad about it. I waved to them to return sitting as I sat down myself, a Priest hand signal to be completely informal.

The headmaster looked at me in gratitude. "Thank you, Glorious Mufeto. The lack of formality will ease the pain of the wait."

"Ah, Makin, for tonight, let the informality be complete. Just call me Ilias."

He stared at me for a moment and then nodded. "As you let the boys call you. Yes, thank you Ilias for the honor. And thank you for the honor of joining with our boys. You gave them all a day to remember."

I nodded and gave the hand signal for welcome and then spoke. "Over so soon? Any word on results?"

Makin shook his head. "Just the raw test scores. We don't know what's going on now, something very unusual. Just after midnight, the decision-hub at Bandar Arenas told everyone to standby, and then shortly afterwards they shut down the entire teleconference. You came in just a few minutes later Glor... err, sir."

I frowned. "No sirs Makin, not for tonight, just Ilias if you want." I thought about his comment of Bandar Arenas going offline. I had never heard of this occurring. "Ever have this happen before?"

"No." He gazed at my CL-26 emblem for a moment. "Ilias, I'm not trying to score points with you. It truly saddens me you have no chance for CL-27. You scored twin perfects on the written tests, and your performances during the Prayers were magnificent! You received no demerits in the final hour, and there was absolutely no favoritism on our part. I judged you myself." He paused for a moment and then whispered, "How did you do that?"

I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders. We sat around for a while in silence. Eventually some women came and laid out a simple buffet. Several of the Priests looked interested in getting a bite to eat, but didn't want to go before me. They just got up and stretched and wandered over in the general direction of the food.

Makin looked at me expectantly. "You're not hungry Ilias?"

I turned to face Makin before I answered, my back to the buffet. "Oh, a bit with the fasting I guess. But I still feel attached to the boys, and they're still fasting in their sealed rooms. I don't think I'll eat before they do."

I'm sure the few Priests standing near the buffet suddenly looked embarrassed. I heard them quickly return to their chairs. I kept my back turned while they did, showing there was no offence taken on my part. The matter was closed.

We sat in silence, waiting for the electronic execution signals to be piped in from the capital. The clock reached 1 AM. Here at the monastery, the pre-dawn twilight would start in one hour, when the sun reached six degrees below the horizon.

I had wondered as a boy, what this waiting time would be like for the Priests. Would they be joking, feasting, copulating with their wives, what? Now I was finding out for real. Most were sitting motionless with their eyes closed, but no one was asleep. I realized the waiting for the teachers was almost as tough as for the pupils. Not as terrifying perhaps, but the room was filled with a terrible sadness for the pupils who would not survive the next two hours. By the Law of Bel'dar, all executions must be completed by 3 AM. Except for the Asad declarations in four days, this was the last part of the Judgment, and the capital had never missed the 3 AM deadline in all of recorded history.

The time reached 1:20 AM. Makin opened his eyes and stretched. He made a calculated gamble to test my offer of complete familiarity. "I've heard Ilias that your two wives have been spending a lot of time at the girl's monastery."

"Yes, historical research. It is the passion of Abigail and Michal is her assistant. Perhaps they'll find something useful for me."

Makin nodded and stretched. A few of the other Priests looked as if they were trying to hide their astonishment that Makin would originate such a conversation. After a moment he went on, "And taking a third wife too. Good thinking Ilias. It will cement your position with the people, taking a local wife."

I nodded and sighed, closing my eyes to signal I wished to meditate. My thoughts turned to Shephatiah. We would both travel to the cathedral later today and marry the next. I still hadn't seen her, nor she me of course. Seeing any male before her wedding would defile her. She doesn't even know I've selected her yet.

On the morning of December 1'st I informed the headmaster of the girl's monastery that I was exercising my Domine rights and claiming Shephatiah for myself. He looked a bit surprised but pleased. When we got into the details for the wedding date, he pointed out something to me I had not realized.

Strictly speaking, girls should not know who their husbands are until after their virginity is sealed by a Nikahaldi. This way, if they are divorced and re-married, the new husband is the only husband the woman is aware of. So even though Shephatiah was reserved for me, the headmaster convinced me to wait a month until there were other possibilities for her marriage partner. Otherwise Shephatiah would be marked as defiled and culled with Abigail if I died.

So later this morning Shephatiah will learn she's being transported to the cathedral for her marriage on Judgment 3, but that's all. It would take a Royal decree to eliminate her expected seven-month period of graduate study, so she'll probably guess a Royal wedding but not be certain. As I stood by the window, I tried to imagine her emotions, wondering what she would think. As far as she was concerned, her new husband was destroying her hope for seven more months of continuous consciousness. Would she hate me for that?

Girls are usually given one extra month for studying and final preparation for each advanced level of class. Thus girls of 0.0, two thirds of the entire graduating female population, are married in January, class 0.1 in February, and so on. Abigail was 0.9 and we met in the explosion at Qataban in late September. I had saved and defiled her just a handful of days before her marriage gate, when she would have been made available for immediate selection on the mating rolls.

Shephatiah had been expecting to study for an extra seven months and marry in August. It's probably the easiest time in a girl's life, graduated from the classes but still cloistered at the monastery. They have much free time to reflect and explore their individual fields. Of course, the coming horror of the virginity drugs must be an absolute nightmare. And from Shephatiah's perspective, I will have stolen her seven-month study buffer. My mind pondered the new risks I and my wives were about to face. It seemed as if all the dice in the universe were up in the air.

I got up and walked over and stared at the stars through the window. The moon was still below the horizon and I had a good view of the pinpoint lights of heaven, so cold yet so beautiful. Would we ever reach them, explore them? Xerxes hadn't launched a probe out of the solar system in four thousand years, and even the occasional interplanetary probes are sent mostly for mapping. So little real extra-terrestrial science is being done. How did we lose our way?

The monastery bell sounded a soft 2 AM chime. I looked to the southeast, wondering if I could see the first hint of the coming dawn. Perhaps!

I love watching the precession of the heavens from the office windows at my cathedral. Sunrise here at the monastery today will be at 2:49 AM, the sun breaking the horizon just four degrees east of due southeast. Then it make a great arc in the sky, reaching the azimuth of due north at 11:09 AM with a maximum altitude of sixty-two degrees. Afterwards will follow a symmetric arc to its sunset at 7:29 PM, just four degrees west of due southwest. The sun today will arc over almost three quarters of the sky...

"Thinking of the boys?" Makin whispered. He had walked up quietly and was standing by my side.

"Trying not to, I guess." I whispered back.

He nodded. "Yes." He stood silently with me for a moment and then commented, "I've been a teacher now close to two hundred years."

I stared at him. "And you're only a CL-11?"

He shrugged. "It's allowed, passing on the promotional testing until the fifth and final gate. I love life... I don't regret my decisions to maximize it... But... This waiting seems to get more difficult each year. And trying not to think gets more difficult too... Ilias? My earlier questions about your wives. I didn't mean to pry."

"Huh? Oh no, that's okay. How about you Makin, happily married?"

"Me? Oh, I have a good set of wives, ten of them. I'll probably look at the rolls this month and select another, perhaps marry a 0.3 in April." He paused for a moment and then smiled good naturedly. "Most work here, the others are on loan at the girl's monastery. They're all good wives, hard workers, I rarely have to discipline them, thank the Holy."

I sighed. "The same for me, no discipline problems..."

We stood in silence, watching the stars slowly process. Near the equator, twilight can be fairly short, with the sun rising in altitude with very little change in azimuth, 90 degrees straight up. But here today the twilight would be lengthy. The sun would be breaking the horizon at a very shallow angle, less than 45 degrees, a 1.0 degree rise in altitude with a 1.5 degree change in azimuth as the sun began its majestic journey from the southeast to the north.