Read Online Preserving Hope by Alex Albrinck - Free Book Online Page B

It sounded almost as if the couple had eloped. “That… must have been a shock.”
    “It was more than a shock, Will. In our community, it was, for lack of a better term, illegal.”
    Will tried to avoid gasping with shock, until he realized it was a perfectly natural reaction to the statement. “It was… illegal … to get married?”
    “We’d agreed that until such time as our village was well-established, until there we had time for true leisure, that we’d all abstain from such relationships, for any child would be unable to provide some useful service for the rest, or make crafts we could sell for a profit. Some of the villagers performed services in the community. We have farmers who tend fields to the east; we have hunters and foragers who gather berries, nuts, roots, and small game for everyone to eat. We have a couple of cooks and bakers who make soups and bread for everyone to eat. Everyone has a means to make money and develop wealth. Everyone who could perform such a service or make such goods for sale, that is. A pregnant Genevieve could not tend her share of the fields for several months during our critical planting season; her child would be unable to help with anything for many years after that. They were, essentially, forcing the community’s internal economy and way of life into a massive disruption, and people weren’t happy.”
    Was this the cause of the future rules against marriage and children? Were the lessons of the transgressions by Arthur and Genevieve the cause of his own future suffering?
    Arthur, who had been a driving force in getting the community to where it was, found himself shunned and rapidly losing his modest wealth as he paid for his new wife and daughter to eat. For a man who believed himself royalty, who believed himself deserving of tribute and honor, such shunning was a humiliation he’d never forget. Or forgive.
    As his redheaded daughter reached the age of six, full of natural curiosity and a good cheer that brought a smile to the face of all she encountered in that small village, Arthur began a subtle campaign. They’d brought back hundreds of different “foods” from the trip they’d taken nearly seven years earlier. Those foods were stored in the “school” for experimentation by any who desired to do so. But they’d been warned: the trials of testing everything were part of the journey; they’d only find the correct combination of “foods” after they’d tried everything. It was simply the way it worked. Nobody wanted to be among those who tried the first — and thus wrong — “foods,” for it had been noted to the Travelers that some substances might cause all manner of negative side effects, including death. For six years, they had, instead, focused on a relentless pursuit of their crafts and on wealth-building Trading runs, and saw the wealth of the village grow.
    Arthur, as only he could, used his masterful persuasive skills to spread the idea that one noble soul among them could step forward and work through all of those “foods” in pursuit of the one that would unlock those magical abilities, protecting everyone else from danger. Those who were not this Volunteer would continue to produce the food and goods that enabled the community to thrive. Why risk multiple people becoming ill or dying at once and have less food to eat or fewer goods to sell? The village would greatly benefit from a single person making that research their only job, one which should pay them well enough to eat, even if they’d find themselves ill in the pursuit of those incredible secrets.
    And once that secret was unlocked… wouldn’t it be advantageous to be the first to know? To be the first to develop those skills? It would be worth it to pay to be the one there in the Schola, watching the research unfold, waiting to see if the Volunteer would discover the secret that day. They could take turns paying the Volunteer for their work in exchange for exclusive access to