Un Souvenir d'Événements

"A Friend Should Bear All His Friend's Infirmities"

Friendship can be founded on all manner of things, it can also be broken by an equal multitude of them too, some ridiculous, some valid and understandable. And then quite often, the bonds of friendship can be tested, sometimes to their very limits.

After the news of Erik's most recent promotion reached me, I did not have high hopes for anyone involved in the situation, not only Erik. I was aware of what he'd done in his past, he had never needed to tell me explicitly, the signs of a man wracked with grief and haunted by his actions were all too clear to me.

So when I heard of what the Shah wanted him to do, I worried for everyone's safety. After all, I knew Erik was more than capable of murder, but what's more, I knew what it did to him. He wasn't a cold blooded killer, nor was he a man who took enjoyment out of such actions.

Erik had the heart and soul of a very caring and gentle man, but his beauty was well guarded by hostility and anger. He was incredibly bitter towards the world and those in it at times, but at others, he would marvel at something as simple as a honeybee pollinating a flower in bloom, and he would be at peace with the world around him.

I've said before, Erik is a difficult man to understand. He's never set to one emotion or one personality, he changes often and rarely lets his guard down. The man has been so hurt and broken by this world that he doesn't truly know what freedom and happiness is.

In many ways, I suppose I am the same. I've always been restricted by the Shah's hold over me and my family. I have little time for myself, I'm always busy and when I am not busy, I'm sleeping. I had no true friends until I met Erik, but even then, he was always kept busy elsewhere and I saw little of him after I handed him in to the Shah.

I was a young man in my early twenties and I had no love interest, whilst every boy I'd spent my childhood with had a woman beside them, some older ones even had children, and then there was me. I was married to my job, my life was taken and devoted solely to the Shah and his wishes, there was no time for Nadir and his own hopes and dreams.

You might think that I'm about to say: "until an evening in early March where it all changed", or something along those lines, but I'm not. It remained the same for the months and years following that day. Erik's new employment meant that I was not only concerned about him but it also left me with many of the odd jobs that Erik would have otherwise been made to do.

Yes, I was tired of it. I wanted things to be different. I wanted to rekindle my friendship with Erik, but we were always too busy to see one another. I wanted to find a woman, to be happy and possibly to have a family if the Gods smiled upon me, but there was no time. And no woman would be interested in a man who worked for the Shah, for one, he would always be too busy to spend time with her, and two, it would be an incredibly dangerous life to live as they would become another instrument of leverage that the Shah would use against me. No, even if I could find a woman, she wouldn't want me.

I was always on my feet, always running after the next problem, the next criminal, the next chef for the Shah's very particular choice in cuisine. I could never stop and rest, not for one moment, not even a second.

I watched as the Shah's new palace rose and took its place in the skyline of our small town. I truly was a thing of exquisite beauty, but against the small ramshackle houses of the town, it's finery looked out of place, ugly even.

It soon came to my attention that the Shah planned to fix that. Was Erik to commission a new house for everyone in Mazandaran? Was everything to be renovated and reimagined to fit with the Shah's elaborate new palace? No. The town was to be destroyed to make room for more expansions to his already obtrusive palace. And the residents? He didn't want the poor tainting his luxury, he didn't want the risk of thieves, but more to the point, he didn't want his palace to look out over the dilapidated town made of patchwork houses and broken people with not a single dinar to their name.

My family and I were amongst them.

Needless to say, this took command of my thoughts for many days and nights. The Shah would no doubt still want my services so I assumed that he would likely wish to house me in his new palace, but what about my family? They would be cast out like everyone else in Mazandaran, no matter their relation to me. Where would they go? They had a large share of my income, but that wasn't nearly enough for them to afford any kind of house.

I briefly considered asking Erik to build a small house for them, and I would repay him in any way possible, but then I thought he would likely be too busy with the Shah's unending demands and even if he did agree, it would take too long.

I couldn't protest or rebuke his wishes, the consequences were too high. But it wasn't my life I was afraid of losing, I knew he wouldn't kill me, I was of too much value to him. He'd just go for my family. I could do nothing but wage war and hatred upon the man for his actions in the confines of my mind. All those people, aside from my own family, would be homeless. Many would die, especially those with children. It would be unlikely for other towns to accept them as they would fear the Shah and the power he held over them if these people were integrated into their society. I couldn't allow it to happen, but I had no choice.

I spent all the time I had trying to think of some way to save them, but everything I did hit a dead end. I longed for Erik, I needed his advice and help, and companionship. But I hadn't seen him in months, not since the Shah had hired him as his personal assassin. I missed him dearly, more than I thought I ever would, I wanted his companionship, as infuriating as it had been, but I knew that was now even more unlikely as it had once been.