Uncle Akko: Unfinished Tales

 

 

AKKO’S TESTIMONY

 

[Scholar’s Note by Korm, Grand High Master of the New School of Morg City, Fifth Year of the Reign of Taryn:

I was largely raised by the one I called Uncle Akko (actually my grandmother’s cousin). He was a Life Witness and a very wise and kind practitioner of that calling. It always grieved me that he had left no written record behind, and that I had always been too occupied to find an interval to write down any memoir of him until I had grown old and my personal memory shaky and overwritten by time.

Imagine my joy at finding, purely by chance, this deposition he gave in the Court Records near the very beginning of his career. The rarity of this find can hardly be stressed enough; Uncle Akko’s work seldom took him into the circles of the Great Houses, and any appearance of his in a legal court was usually at a much lower level.

Although this case happened almost two hundred years before I knew him, I can still hear his characteristic voice coming clearly over the ages and through the crackling pages of the legal documents. I am pleased and proud to append this transcription to my own Memoirs. Uncle Akko went far to forming my habits of observation and memory, but I offer this story as a tribute to him, and to his kindness and care.]

 

Bez: Hear me! Hear me! Hear me! This court is now called to order. The matter before us is the death of the most noble Lord Chem, his will concerning his estate, and the circumstances surrounding his demise. Will the heirs and family please assemble in the chairs on the right. No, no, my right … There! There! Will you please sit there! Where I’m pointing! There!

Bailiff: I’m sorry, my lord.

Bez: We’re off to a fine start if these people can’t tell their left from their right. Now, who is the principal heir and speaker in this affair?

Bort: (rising) I am Lord Chem’s eldest son, your honor, and I speak …

Grell: Not so fast! Isn’t that what we’re trying to decide here? Don’t you start off by muddying the waters by sticking your fat foot in first!

Bort: Now, see here, Grell …

Treen: Your honor, your honor! Don’t listen to either of them! It was murder, pure murder, I tell you, and they have to pay! Not a scrap of Father’s estate should go to either of them!

Bez: Madam, will you please sit down. Quit hitting those men, madam! Bailiff, will you confiscate that walking stick, and everyone SIT DOWN! Now, you, the first speaker there. Identify yourself and your other, er, fellow plaintiffs.

Bort: Yes, my lord. I apologize for my siblings. As you can imagine, our father’s untimely passing has upset everyone greatly, especially my sister Treen.

Treen: Don’t you sully my name with your lying mouth, you murderer!

Bez: Madam! Go on, Mr. Bort.

Bort: Thank you, my lord. Well, let me state for the record that we are the three legal heirs of Chem of the House of Chem. We are a fairly new Noble House, but have been established for two hundred years, receiving our Grant for services to the Crown and the Public …

Bez: Services in what area?

Bort: Eh … Fish, my lord.

Bez: Fish?

Bort: Yes, we catch, import, and sell fish in the City.

Bez: You don’t look like a fisherman, Mr. Bort.

Grell: Well, of course we don’t catch fish personally. We have people for that.

Bez: Hm. Perhaps they should have gotten the Grant.

Grell: Your honor is pleased to be facetious.

Bez: Indeed. I don’t belong to a Noble House myself, but these observations are one of the little perks of my office. Continue, Mr. Bort.

Bort: Yes, your honor. A-hrum. About three months ago our father took ill …

Treen: It was precisely three days after Summer’s Night. I recall because there was some leftover sketta that was starting to turn that was made fresh on the night, still good, mind you, but it should have been eaten, and we ate that the night before and the next morning I saw Father and wondered if it had turned, except no one else was sick …

Bez: Yes, yes. Duly noted. You have that date, Mr. Scribe? Let’s proceed.

Bort: And so Father got sicker and weaker and his stomach tetchier until finally he just took to his bed. He still ran the business, though. Had me set up a desk and move all the paperwork in and signed all the work orders himself, although I could have easily done it all on my own and let him rest. I practically ran things anyway …

Grell: Aye, and that needled you, didn’t it, Bort? You could hardly wait to be the big boss at last …

Treen: Was that it, Bort? Was it because you hated Father?

Bort: Was what because I hated Father? What are you implying?

Treen: If the shoe fits, sleep in it! You wanted him dead!

Bort: Well, if hate was a hanging motive, we could just string up Grell right now, couldn’t we, little brother? 

 

AKKO’S TESTIMONY NOTES

          The story takes the form of a dialog deposition between Akko (Korm’s uncle) and an unnamed Judge. It takes place early in his career, long before Korm was born. Akko is a professional Life Witness. The story is, in effect, a detective mystery story.

          The Judge is a skeptical, hard-nosed character, middle-aged in Morg years. He begins by being rather brusque with Akko, who is a low-level professional and seems to the Judge to be a simple, naïve fellow.

          Akko had been called to Witness at one of the Great Houses. This is rather suspicious to begin with, as he is fairly new at the job and has not the great reputation of more famous Witnesses that the nobility usually calls. But he figured it was because he was closer, and it was an emergency.

The crisis is that the Head of the House has taken ill suddenly and seems to be dying. By the time Akko gets there, however, it looks like he is recovering. The Head voices suspicions that he might have been poisoned in an assassination attempt; it might have been any of the three possible heirs attending him. He threatens to investigate when he is all better. But after some ‘business’ he suddenly and dramatically dies in the presence of Akko, the heirs, doctor, nurse, and servants.

Suspicion is rife, with the heirs all blaming each other. The Judge must settle the estate and if possible, figure out if the Head was murdered.

Akko has, as a professional Witness, a very clear memory of everything he saw, and can recount everything that happened. The story hinges, of course, on what are the appearances, and how those appearances can be interpreted. Each heir has done something suspicious near the Head. The means of death must not be supernatural or merely fantastic (like a spell – Morgs don’t use magic, anyway – or a made-up poison).

This might be a good place to introduce the three ‘dusts’ (salt, pepper, and paprika – could it merely be an overdose of paprika?). Not a poison usually but a servant introduces it maliciously (not the heirs at all)?

Anyway, Akko guiltily introduces his solution to the problem – Witnesses are not supposed to draw conclusions, only to See. The Judge is impressed and shows Akko new respect. Akko rather vaguely gathers himself together and goes about his business.  

Akko was first introduced as a minor character in King Korm, a story that did get finished.