The Pinecone Apothecary by S J Amit

Author:S J Amit [Amit, S J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-13T22:00:00+00:00

There were three women at the entrance, all dressed in shiny bronze silk capes. One held a golden watering can, the other a golden tray, and the third a white cloth. “Welcome to these gates,” they recited in unison. The one with the watering can poured a few drops onto the tray, and the two others approached us. The woman with the cloth dipped a finger in the liquid and glided it over my face, dipped again and glided it over Kelemance’s face, and again on Choopster’s face. It was warm, felt like oil, and its scent was sweet. “Nectar from the Caesars’ blessing as an aura to your heads. You are welcome to stay at the palace for as long as you desire,” she wiped our faces, “until one of the Caesars’ speeches charms you, or until the Caesars find you unfitting.”

Kelemance pointed at the decoration on his cape, but none of the women seemed to take interest in it. They didn’t notice my decoration either. I’m not sure they even looked at it. The three women pressed against each other as if they were a wall in front of the entrance. “Their highnesses, the Academic Caesars, will take in any person wishing to stay in the Palace of Wisdom in order to receive the Palace Wisdom decoration. However, the terms for staying, the necessary tasks and the timeframe of perseverance vary from Caesar to Caesar,” they recited together. “An Anteballegarian resident who cannot uphold the Caesars’ demands will still have to serve in the Time Management Battalion in order to receive other decorations,” they said, bowed together and finally moved over and cleared the passage.

We walked through a wide and extravagant hallway until we reached a passage which led to a giant space. Two curved walls on both sides of the space joined up at the tall ceiling, and staircases stretching across each wall led to the floor above. At the edge of the space to our left there was a group of men and women standing in rows, all dressed in uniform, standing straight and tense and listening to a man who stood in front of them. The man was also wearing the same uniform, but he was the only one who had a hat on his head. “You must enter the lives of every single person in Anteballegaria, whether they stay in the palace for a long time or not, whether they enter the palace at all or not. You are the Time Commanders, each of you will have Profession Soldiers assigned to you, and your job will be to train them in time management.”

“What should they do with their free time?” one of them asked.

“An unnecessary question! If you train them properly, none of them will have free time. If they find themselves with a surplus of time, they won’t know what to do with it. This is why distraction training is also detrimental, so that no one even thinks about leaving the walls, heaven forbid.

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