The Cat Who Knew How to Cry

11. THE ABYSS (part 2)

The noble knight Enbri's "feats" had long become the buzz of the town. They resembled one another as cuckoo eggs do, and the "blessed" citizens benefited from them about as much as the mother birds whose nests were ruined.

The scene played out as follows: Enbri would show up in some small, deeply provincial state that had not yet heard rumors of his deeds, and start destroying what others had built... Excuse me, I mean, he would begin combating the laws and traditions which he saw as the reason for all of the local inhabitants' hardships, and then offer fresh new alternatives in exchange.

Like a proper cuckoo bird, Enbri kept to the shadows for a time, putting his reformist ideas in the mouths of influential friends that he seemed to acquire with mind-blowing ease. Enbri was an excellent orator, the kind who could convince a Harnian to buy a waterbed. His selflessness was irresistible, his enthusiasm infectious, his speeches were refreshingly sensible, and his projects seemed planned down to the minutest details, such that the half-elf's high-ranking victims were counting their lucky stars to have chanced upon such an invaluable assistant.

The poor things! Too late came the inevitable realization that his ideas, just as he himself, were slightly rotten. The consequences of his projects grew increasingly more deplorable every time. Enbri was sincerely distraught by them, but this did not save him from his comrades' wrath once they faced the repercussions of the reforms the sleazy salesman had pawned off on them. They ran the half-elf out of town...

Yet our conscience-less, honor-less knight always returned. This time he'd undertaken to defame the authorities, accusing former colleagues of treachery, of cynically abusing his brilliant ideas and distorting their true meaning, which led to such dire consequences. His followers increased in number by the day... Suddenly the hapless state was on the brink of civil war.

Thank the Infinite, Enbri's followers never once managed to win a battle. The war would end as rapidly as it began: either the authorities managed to explain to their subjects that the half-elf's ideas, which seemed so appealing to them, were in fact leading the country to ruin, or they simply eliminated all the rebels. Then they set about catching Enbri: in the first case, all together as a group, in the second, only the government troops.

Enbri was astonishingly lucky. He would either elude his pursuers or miraculously escape from prison. Wounded and broken-hearted, the half-elf crawled to the next friend who had not yet had the chance to be let down by him. There the "valiant" knight licked his wounds, regaling his enthusiastic audience with stories of injustice, cruelty and betrayal.

Once, one of Enbri's friends, deeply touched by his tales, gathered an army and moved troops to the estate of the ruler who had offended him. Upon reaching the place, seething with righteous anger and determination to avenge the noble associate of their master, the soldiers heard the true account of what happened in the conflict. His naiveté exposed, their commander was beside himself. After apologizing to the would-be enemy, he turned his army back, intending to teach Enbri the last lesson of his life. Alas, the slippery half-elf nosed out the news and escaped retribution yet again...

Enbri's latest victim, Czar Anshog, came closer than any before him to ridding the Infinite of said pointy-eared individual, but the sweet cup of triumph eluded him as well. The half-elf slipped out from virtually the executioner's raised axe and reached Tialianna's temple.

"And just why, pray tell, did the Tanae allow him to enter? Slippery bastards!" Nela was livid. "If I got my paws on that k'tshanss, I would use both my claws and teeth to keep him still!"

"I think the priests simply didn't want to lose one of their favorite visual aids," Nomarr murmured, perching his luxurious chops with some difficult on the crown of a snake-headed caryatid. "Is it harmful to refuse to follow one's Path? Listen to Enbri's story and answer the question yourself!"