Chapter II Part I

Chapter II – Wheels

Deep within the Makarium State Buildings is an unassuming door. Unassuming in every way other than it is so far down a narrow corridor lit by only a couple of old arc-lights, the smell of ozone filling the narrow space. Where as most of the rest of the State Building was adorned with gilt and gold, as well as every legal symbol known to humankind, with all the pomp and ceremony associated with Legality. This one corridor was almost bare stone, like a tunnel to a crypt, and just as claustrophobic. The Door, simply made from steel, with little adornment, stood like a great barrier protecting the contents of the room from the world, or perhaps visa-versa. Grand Lawyer Bhrata Pellsim approached The Door, key in hand, the key handed down from each generation of Grand Lawyer to the next, the key to reviel the secrets of the Makarium, that's what was behind The Door.

Inserting The Key into the lock, Pellsim slowly turned it, feeling the mechanism inside resist against the force, until with a satisfying clunk, the key set into motion the whole lock. The faint sound of wheels and cogs turning inside the door, each of the locks releasing in turn, the noise reverberating down the narrow corridor.

And then silence, utter and complete scilence.

Pellsim pulled hard on the handle, and the door swung open to reveal the room. A small, yet concise library, for the most part single cards, all indexed and catalogued into wooden drawers. Drawers that covered every every part of the wall from floor to high ceiling, front to back and side to side, each one a meter deep and filled with cards. A single tall library ladder on runners allowed access to each of the drawers.

In the centre of the room sat a single table, with a single chair at one end. Upon the table just 3 items; a large feather quill, a single sheet of parchment, and the largest volume that existed within the Makarium.

The parchment was the single most important secret, a deceleration of the council of Grand Lawyers to preserve the Pellsim way of life and society, no matter what the cost. The quill being the sacred pen used by each of the Grand Lawyers to apply their marks. And at the very bottom a symbol that perhaps, given the circumstances at the time, should not have been there. Just a circle with an offset cross, looking for all the world like a broken crosshair, but never the less a symbol that sent a chill through Pellsims veins.

The volume, sitting upon it's rest, whilst not as important, was considerably older than anything else within the room, even within the building.

It was The Laws, as written by the founders of Society, Wulfren and Victori.

Pellsim had come simply to put some more cards into the drawers. Looking at the cards, he selected each one according to alphabetic order, and then inserted each card into it's proper place. Each card contained just a few headings, the date, a location, and finally a name. Each and every single card within those drawers represented a person, a life, a death, a sacrifice for Society.

“If only they knew” he whispered to himself, before closing the drawers.

Turning The Key back in the lock, and hanging it back around his neck, Pellsim gave the room a revered look before heading back down the corridor to more comfortable surroundings. He knew that he would be back again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and every day until he passed The Key on to the next.