Sivas

'Yi, Where are you?'

'I am here, Grandfather' I shouted out as I hurried back towards my grandfather that stood there

'What were you doing?' My grandfather spoke out loudly, in a reprimanding tone. His physique made him even more intimidating, since he was a tall muscled man with a rough beard.

'...' I lowered my head and stood in silence.

'You were out again seeing books? Stop wasting time, we people live off the abundance of the land, those people that can read and speak all strange have just brought bad things to our land.' They only want to destroy us'

'Yes,' I remembered whispering out but It did not stop me from whenever I had time after finishing my daily chores from going to the little school library that held only a few books to stare at the words I could not read.

I did not at the time could not comprehend why my grandfather felt the way he did but I eventually would come to understand...

-

I suddenly opened my eyes. Dreaming of the past had become a more frequent occurrence ever since I had arrived in Sivas. Was this 'home sickness? I thought I did not know but I felt myself always contrasting Sivas with my home. It felt peculiar because even though I thought I was content, I did not feel happy. Perhaps, I simply felt lonely even though I am sure people at home would tell me that they envied my situation and that I should be happy.

'Did you sleep well?' My thinking was interrupted by a cheerful voice. I was taken aback by Mellisa's voice from the kitchen. 'Yes, I slept well, thank you' I replied as I slowly stood up . 'What about you?' I asked back as I splattered onto my face some cold water to wash away the morning sluggishness. 'I am preparing some breakfast, It will be ready soon,'

'Sorry, for leaving it all up to you,' I said apologetically, as I packed away the covers and pillows. Mellisa had already done the same.

I gazed out of the only small window of the room only to find out it was still snowing, just not as heavily as the previous day. However, a large amount of snow had already stockpiled. It seemed to easily be over at least thirty centimeters and It made me think that I would not look forward to the walk home.

'It is still snowing right? We might have to clear our way out of here to go home.' Melissa noticed me looking out of the window as she bought some porridge for both of us to eat.

'Thank you for the food,' I said as I gazed at Melissa, who I had met just yesterday yet throughout the past day had left me with a lot of different impressions of her, like how she was upbeat and enthusiastic but she could read my reactions and act accordingly, in addition to how rather calm she and dependable when I felt a bit anxious. Her incredible situational awareness was probably something I had to aspire to achieve my ambitions. It was the first time since i had come here that i had met someone that I felt i needed to aspire to become like admittedly i had only met a handful of people.

'So, what are you going to do' Melissa asked me and well I had not really thought it out.

'I usually visit the library when I can, since I am already here, I guess I might just stay here.'

'I was thinking the same,'

So, we both headed out of the room after washing the dishes. Melissa went directly to the third floor, which I knew very well because it was the floor for history books which is where I usually spent my time.

'I will probably do some cleaning first though' Melissa had gathered a few cloths and begun to clean some desks, I could not just stand beside and do nothing so I decided to help her. It felt like she was always taking the initiative and I was being led by her. I could recognise her confidence and activeness at the same time my lack of such.

'You seem used to this', I could not help but note out loud since she worked rather fast. So fast that I could only struggle to match her pace at cleaning the tables.

'Oh yeah, since I spend time here often, I am quite used to doing some of these tasks'

'Hearing that makes me feel kind of bad, I have been coming here often but never did more than just clear up any mess.'

'Do not worry, it is not a big problem, not a lot of people come here but I like it to keep it looking clean,'

Melissa was indeed a strange character. I thought she was probably a high class person because of her level of education but her skills at cleaning made me doubt that assumption. After all, the higher class tended to avoid doing menial tasks like cleaning.

'I was wondering, I have been coming to the library quite often, but i had never seen you,' I was curious since it did seem she was incredibly used to the library but in the last weeks I had visited at least thrice a week but I had never met her before.

'Oh, for the last few weeks, I had a bit of trouble to attend to. That's why' She stopped for a brief moment and smiled at me.

'But, I am happy to have met you' She said as she took a seat at a nearby chair. She had already finished her work but I still had a couple of tables left to clean myself.

'Where did you come from?' She asked in curious tone as she rested her head on her arm

I was still cleaning a last remaining table, 'uhm, from a village to the far west of the Empire'

It felt awkward to speak about myself, in fact I was not too fond of talking about myself at all. I had always been quiet and reserved so I hardly ever shared my thoughts with anyone else.

'Far West?' Melissa cried out in surprise.

It was quite rightfully for her to be surprised that I came from the far west of the empire, The far west area was the most recently conquered territory by the empire, it was mostly a rather isolated area to the other parts of the empire and it was inhabited by a few small tribes.

The empire had over five decades ago submitted many of the tribes to its authority. This did not go so smoothly and ever since then it has been an incredibly troubled area. it is an area not present in the mind of the other central parts of the empire in any way that is not as a backward and subversive area.

'I apologise for acting too surprised, I have never met someone from that area of the empire before,'

'Do not mind it, I understand,'

'What about you, how was growing up in Sivas?' I asked curiously as I sat in the opposite seat to Melissa. But I was taken aback at her sudden downcast look.

'It was rather lonely…' she said in a low tone.

'Lonely?' I repeated in surprise. But I immediately regretted it as it seemed like it was not a topic she particularly wanted to discuss, in response she fell quiet.

The atmosphere felt awkward all of the sudden and I rushed to bring another topic by asking a few questions in regards to Sivas' History.

'How has the town changed in recent years?��� I had many questions to ask regarding Sivas, especially towards its recent years and its apparent decline.

Sivas has changed a lot in the last few decades, its harsh winters place a big burden in any new citizens, hence when the Hax developed from an economic and political center into an educational and cultural center as well by creating many lush universities and large libraries it took a lot of the movement of Sivas in regards to prospective students and researchers.'

'Oh, so that also played a part in Sivas' decline' I unconsciously pondered out loud.

'I would not say Sivas had declined as such,' She retorted to my comment. 'The decline in its status as a educational and cultural center has allowed it to flourish in other areas,'

'The local administration stopped competing with Hax in education and focused on improving the standards of the work of the guilds as well as the agricultural sector.' Melissa cheerfully narrated. 'This has allowed the production in Sivas to become of not only higher quality but to be able to produce much more which has benefited the local population more so than the focus on the education sector could ever do.' 'After all, a large percentage of the students would live in the city only temporarily and leave after their education ended.' She said confidently and resolutely.

'Oh, I see' I replied thoughtfully. Melissa seemed quite emotional when talking about Sivas, it was rather interesting to listen to how the loss of students and citizens with the rise of the capital was not necessarily a bad thing. It was in a sense eye opening, as much of the works I had read till this point had never highlighted this but only expressed the loss of the symbolic educational status of Sivas to Hax.

In a sense, I began to realise that the ideas of Sivas' loss of status only served to aggrandise Hax even if the loss itself meant a gain somewhere else. It was an interesting thing to recognise that things are not always as they seem.

The gleam in Melissa's eyes as she looked at, felt like a hint that she wanted me to ask more about Sivas. I did not have any reason not too since I was rather interested to know as well.

'Tell me more, about how Sivas has changed.' I asked and within her eyes I could immediately see the joy and excitement.

Melissa told me all about the recent history of Sivas quite enthusiastically. I listened to her for hours until we finally noticed it had stopped snowing, then we both decided to go home so we parted into our own ways. On the way back home, I could only think about how hard it was to walk through such thick snow.