There was a book in the library and Canna took it. It was as good as hers now along with the whole house. Though it was more of a manor than a house with its 9 bedrooms and endless amount of hallways.
With the book in hand she walked to the window and sat down on the worn out armchair that screamed old money. It was a history book filled with stories from a time that was so deep in the past that it felt almost unreal. Surely things couldn't have been happening so far back in time, Canna thought, just like things wouldn't be happening in the future either. She only knew the time she was in and everything else felt fake and foreign but still she was curious and so she read.
The book was filled with horrible stories, of famine and war and despair. How kings feasted and the poor starved, and then how the poor fought and the kings died. And it happened again and again, like it was the cycle of life itself. It felt more like a sad endless tale instead of the history of mankind.
On page 58 Canna read the story of an interesting rebellion. Peasant farmers had grown tired of watching their children starve while sending their grain to the local lord as tax. There had been a drought like no other and food was more scarce than ever, so scarce even that it was barely enough to fill the lord's dinner table to his liking.
So one evening the peasants took their pitchforks and torches and impaled all of the lord's men, letting their blood feed the soil in the absence of rain. Then they captured the lord who was nothing without his armed guards and took over his castle. They celebrated their victory by feasting on the food that was still warm on the lord's table and at the end of the feast they burned the lord alive, dancing along his pained screams.
Canna couldn't bring herself to feel bad for the lord, not even for his painful death. She also couldn't blame the peasants for standing up for themselves. She didn't feel bad nor mad. In fact, as she stood up and put the book back to its shelf, she could only feel sad.
She walked down a flight of stairs to reach the grand dining room where her friends already were, making noise and celebrating. The whole way down she felt sad because of the story, she just couldn't understand. They were starving, a whole village of starving people and yet all they ate was the lord's dinner when they could've eaten so much more.
What a waste of resources it truly had been, Canna thought as she picked up a fork and sat down. The businessman on their table was roasted nicely, the meat falling apart as they dug in.
What a waste of resources indeed.
