The King’s Tower

Basen was looking out of his boss’ office towards the silver-blue glass monolith being constructed a few blocks away. That will be my new office, he thought. But more importantly it’s a symbol of what is to come, either bad for Synn or bad for the Confederation; either way – bad.

Basen is the personal advisor to the Hud Ker of Synn prefecture, which along with its southern neighbor of Peadraj, form a rather sharp thorn in the Confederation’s side. Gempech Drensomin V will have his own relatives banished if they called him “Hud Ker”. Basen learned that the first day as the personal advisor to the latest Gempech or king of what was the last of the old independent city-states to join the Confederation and now, almost four hundred years later, the most rebellious prefecture in the Confederated Metropolis of Gwij.

“Yes, Hud Ker?” Basen signified his prompt arrival after being summoned.

“What did you call me, you Confederation flea?” Drensomin  bellowed. “It is bad enough I have to use that insulting title when I am forced to attend those interminable meetings down in Karkasum Nesula. I will not be called that pack-animal title.” Drensomin was a large almost obese man approaching his sixth decade who towered over almost anyone in his “court” at the Synn “Palace”, as he called the prefectural capital building.

Besan was terrified and only could nod and bow with a slight but required slant to the left.

“You do that again, and I will send you back east to that idiot Portinen, and he can have you spy on another one of his increasing number of enemies; if there are any now.”

“Your highness,” Basen started to correct him by saying he is a native Peadraji but thought better of it.

“What is it?” Drensomin demanded instead of queried.

“Uh, I understand, and it will not happen again.”

“I know it won’t.” The Gempech reminded Besan of one of those ancient angry stone statues of the Gwij Bilik pantheon because of his heaving graying beard and eyebrows hiding any form of expression except for those

The King is doing something very dangerous by building this new capital building taller than the Confederation Tower, Besan thought using the correct title of his boss, which has become second nature over the three years in his service. I hope he knows what he is getting himself and the almost three million of his subjects into by literally overlooking the symbol of power of the Confederation.

The new tower will be spectacular, though, Besan admitted to himself and felt a sense of pride of being a peadraji and working for the symbol of defiance to the hegemony of the Confederation.