Rainbow People Of The Glittering Glade: After Dinner Conversation, #12

By David Shultz

Synopsis - Three kingdom wards are sent to investigate the reclusive "Rainbow People" of the shifting desert.

After Dinner Conversation is a growing series of short stories across genres to draw out deeper discussions with friends and family. Each story is an accessible example of an abstract ethical or philosophical idea and is accompanied by suggested discussion questions.

Podcast discussions of this short story, and others, is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Youtube.

• Language: English
• Publisher: After Dinner Conversation
• Release date: Oct 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393435471

Book preview

Rainbow People Of The Glittering Glade

After Dinner Conversation Series

FROM ARDWAN ABASAN of House Edwin, to Lord Sovereign, King Rancor Canri XIII, and His Holiness, High Priest Jeronim Zerom,

This correspondence will give a full accounting of my excursion to the rumored land of the Glittering Glade, in my capacity as emissary to the people presumed to reside there, who fall within the jurisdiction of the Empire, and are therefore accountable to the Laws of Universal Justice. As your Lordship and His Holiness know, the land of the Glittering Glade, as we have called it in our ignorance of its true name, was rumored to have violated these most fundamental laws through the acts of slavery, human sacrifice, and the worship of a corrupting god. Before proceeding I affirm in most unequivocal terms my continuing commitment to equality, justice, and compassion, and my equivalent abhorrence and opposition to those particular, grotesque violations aforementioned. Relying on those values as my compass, after proceeding through that strange land, I have concluded that these rumors are entirely without merit or substantiation. Nevertheless, it would be beneficial to provide an explanation for their genesis, which the present account will provide in full.

Our party to the Glittering Glade numbered three, comprising myself, as emissary; our man-at-arms, Tangai Harvee, nephew to his Lordship, Lord Sovereign, King Rancor Canri XII, whose post is Captain of the Platinum Regiment; and Cyrena Giselle, granddaughter to His Holiness, High Priest Jeronim Zerom, whose official position is as political adviser, but whose natural inclination, as I came to understand through our travels, is in the mystical arts. I consider it my duty to explain fully and with absolute honesty the nature of the events that transpired. It is only right that Your Lordship and His Holiness should have a complete accounting of events, and in particular, as those events concern their familial relations and loyal servants serving in their official capacity for the Empire.

For my part, I undertook preparation for the excursion with some trepidation, not for fear of the rumored sacrifices, dark magic, or purported evil and alien god, but solely for the practical considerations of travel. Information about the Glittering Glade was spare, existing only in whispered rumors and faded legend, owing to the perhaps insurmountable challenges of traveling there. If we survived the mountain trek, there was then the shifting deserts, and somewhere within them, we were to find the Glade, with no adequate map or even approximate location, save for one we had estimated by coordinating rough accounts from drunks and madmen.

Tangai, for