Honored (Book 2 of the In Search of Honor series)

Richard looked around the table from his seated position, “With that, we are back to the law about public property. Would everyone be amenable to calling it a misdemeanor, but if broken more than three times it becomes a flogabble crime?”

A murmur of agreement swept the table.

“Then let’s have a vote. All in favor?” He asked.

Everyone raised their hands. It seemed like this was an easy win once a punishment was lined up for the law.

He smiled and folded his hands together on the table, “Then let’s go back and assign punishment levels to the previous laws. First - “

They were going back to talking about things I didn’t much care about. It would be much better if I was allowed to go elsewhere instead of sitting here listening to them go over every single law in this city. My back and shoulders were getting quite stiff sitting here. My arms pushed on the arm rests attempting to relieve the pressure, but it still felt like pins were pressing into me above from my neck all the way down to lower back where sensation vanished like my legs didn’t exist.

“...the night anti-disturbance law,” The weird law name broke through to my meandering attention.

I couldn’t contain my curiosity, “What is that law?”

Richard’s eyes slowly moved over to me and it looked like his jaw was clenched, “This is an old law that everyone in the City knows about. After the daytime light disappears, you can not be too loud or disturb your neighbors.”

It wasn’t just DIshonored required to be quiet at night? “Do regular citizens of the City get flogged or something if their children scream in the night?”

Everyone’s eyes focused on me, most of their eyes quite wide and a few mouths open.

“A child’s screams would not get you in trouble!” Tom exclaimed.

Revacks scratched at his head, “And who would they flog, the mother, the child? No, that’s insane.”

I shrugged, “For the Dishonored if you woke a guard from their sleep the whole family was beaten. It seemed to be a similar sounding rule, so I thought it might be the same. It seems to be a stupid rule to me.”

Tom shook his head vehemently, “No. Well yes, in the way it was enacted for you it was stupid. The rule Richard H is talking about is more around don’t host large parties when people are trying to sleep. Hours of darkness was the rule guideline, but in reality it was only enforced if you had a party or gathering when your neighbors were trying to sleep. Everyone understands crying children and wouldn’t call the guard on someone for that.”

These people seemed to think of the Guard so kindly. The Guard I knew would enforce anything however they saw fit. If a child crying bothered them, it would fit right in with the vaguely worded current law and the extreme timeframe of hours of darkness, “You might want to make that more clear because otherwise the guard can make the law to mean whatever they want, including crying children.”

Sarah nodded slowly, “She is right, a rule that is too loose allows for interpretation by the person enforcing the rule.”

Michael puckered his lips into a sour face, “Are the specifics supposed to be ‘all night noise except children’ or something? Parents should control their children and I trust the Guard to enforce rules fairly.”

Sarah shook her head, “You can never see beyond your own face and you let your own opinions cloud your judgment over all. The specifics would be more of what it does cover, not what it excludes. The rule could be ‘Loud parties of people cannot disturb residential areas during sleeping hours.’”

Tom nodded enthusiastically. “Brilliant wording Sarah! It allows for people to be loud in non residential areas and for reasons such as their children screaming at night. I would even say that this rule is of such low concern I would call it a minor wrongdoing.”

Multiple other people around the table nodded.

“Let us take a vote,” Richard said. “Loud parties that disturb residential areas during sleeping hours are outlawed. This is considered a minor wrongdoing. All in favor, please raise your hands.”

Tom, Sarah, both Richards, a bored looking middle aged man who hadn’t voiced any opinions, and the older gentleman all raised their hands. Six votes. The rest of the table shook their heads.

Richard looked at me, “Go back to the drawing board on this one, or move on?”

I raised my hand. The very specificness of the law suited me just fine.

A brown haired muscular young man with a scruffy face who hadn’t spoken much twisted his face in a grimace, “We went from such a broad law to such a narrow law. What if there are situations we haven’t thought of?”

“Like what?” Tom questioned him.

“Like - “ He stopped, and then threw his hands up in the air, “I don’t know, that’s why they haven’t been thought about.

Sarah sighed, “Vane, that’s why we have a governing body. If something comes up not covered by our current laws. We make a new law. It really is quite simple and easy.”

Vane rolled his eyes, “Simple and easy. Really. We don’t have a King anymore. We don’t even have a way of deciding if someone broke a law other than maybe the Guard gets to decide, or is that our job now? Are we supposed to replace all of the King’s functions with this 12, sorry 13, person fiasco? We take forever to get anything done, and if RIchard wasn’t as good as he is about moving us along, I can only imagine how long this would take.”

Richard cleared his throat interrupting the young man’s outburst, “Speaking of moving things along, the vote was successful, and if you have no additional laws to suggest at this time we do need to keep this moving forward.”

Vane grimaced and then gave me a death glare. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to earn this man’s ire.

After no one spoke, RIchard continued, “The next law on the books is ‘The street shall not be so crowded that the guard cannot easily pass through the center.’”

What? My laughter rang through the quiet hilltop. Mouth closed I forced myself to contain my mirth at that one. It definitely wasn’t enforced. The guard was always having to clear the streets to get through. The only time people ever cleared the streets was when they knew the Dishonored were passing by, and that was probably only because they thought of the Dishonored as dirty.