45 Chapter 44

"What is dad doing?" I finally asked out of curiosity when I noticed that he was gone for longer and longer periods of time and always seemed so exhausted and smelled funny when he finally arrived home.

There was a brief period of silence before my mom responded. "He is taking care of the forest we are currently living in of course". The sentence seemed slightly forced and before I could ask for more information, she added "eat quickly and then get to your chores. The sun is already up so high and we haven't gotten any of our work done".

I could tell that my mom was not going to tell me what I now realized was some sort of cover-up. I therefore chose to target the 'weakest link', my brother Jasper. He had such a kind personality and yet was the one family member that would tell me what was what, so I volunteered to help him with the laundry. I was given my own small basket of clothes to carry. I was able to follow behind Jasper without using my aura with only a slight bit of additional directions coming from Jasper. I could hear his feet shuffling along the ground, but a few times I miss heard the direction and almost stepped into an animal hole.

We made our way to the brook where we did the clothes washing. It felt so peaceful. There weren't a lot of trees on the section where we washed and without the shade and dense trees, the air around was almost warm. The sound of the water flowing around the stones was soothing and I decided that I would make my way down to this spot to cultivate.

It turns out that my basket held almost all of my clothes and I worked at lathering the soap all over them before passing them to Jasper to scrub. He would then pass them to me and I would rinse them in a large wooden tub filled with fresh water. Once they were as thoroughly rinsed as I could make them, I put them over on a table made for holding the clothes that needed to be wrung out and dried.

"Jasper, what is dad really doing?" I asked as we worked.

"Just what mom told you...working in the forest", Jasper said. His voice sounded odd, but I reasoned that it could be because he was doing a physically demanding job.

"Jasper." I paused "I need to know...What is dad doing in the forest? Why are we here?"

Jasper gave a heavy sigh, before coming over next to me. "Here...sit down" he said as he guided me to a log bench. "Dad was...or is one among a few handfuls of elites. His job title is that of the Protector of the Empire. When our emperor is crowned, he will always have at least 12 men and women who are among the strongest that are directly answerable to him. He may have more, but never less. They must also have absolute loyalty to both the Emperor and the Empire."

"Why 12?" I couldn't help but ask since it seemed that the number was important.

"Because there are 11 kingdoms that are under the Empire's domain or control, you could say. These Protectors go to the different kingdoms and ensure the safety of the people under the Kings' rule, but also to ensure that those Kings abide by the original agreement laid out by the founders of their respective kingdoms with the Empire. The Protectors are the eyes, ears, and arm of the Emperor. Our law also states though that when an Emperor comes into power, he must start off with at least 12 Protectors and may not add any additional Protectors once he is in power."

"Do any of the Protects die? What happens if there are less than 12 Protectors"

"Yes, they do. Our current Emperor started with 30 Protectors. He is now down to 25. 5 of his Protectors died in the service to the Emperor. When an Emperor only has 11 Protectors, he is forced to retire and one of his blood who can gather at least 12 Protectors takes over as the new Emperor. He must be both very strong and have strong, loyal men and women who are willing to serve as the Empires Protectors during his reign."

"Have there ever been more than one heir who were qualified to take over?"

"Yes" Jasper said in almost a grim tone.

His tone almost made me not want to ask, but I felt I needed to know so much more about this world around me and it's workings. "What happens then" I asked in almost a whisper, although it dawned on me that I had no idea why I was whispering.

"Then the potential emperors all go together into a special room in the cathedral. One walks out, and the others are no more."

I hadn't really expected anything pleasant, but it took me a minute before I was able to steer the conversation back on topic. "What does that have to do with dad in the forest?"

"To the public and the Imperial court, dad has retired from his duties, but he has instead taken the position of the shadow of the court".

"Shadow...like killing secretly? Or spying?" I couldn't think of any other reason for someone to be in the shadows.

"Essentially...yes."

"Oh, so that's why we are living in the forest!" I exclaimed. Happy that I now understood our reason for moving to this backwoods despite our dad's supposedly high status.

Jasper cleared his throat and said "I better get back to scrubbing before mom notices". I could feel and hear him walking away from me.