Why Is a Human Standing There?

“Why is a human standing there?”

It was a reasonable question.

Each of the Great Houses of Charalm sent their head to the Ruling Assembly, which met in the Great Hall of Assembly. But, as a vestige of earlier times when the Great Houses wielded something less than total authority, there was a requirement: The head of each Great House had to stand outside one day a year, in the position of the honor guard.

On other days, a regular honor guard stood there. But each Great House had an assigned day, and on that day their head was required to perform the duties of the honor guard, which was to stand in the assigned spot for the eight hours that the Assembly met. It was purely ceremonial. But if someone failed to do so for three years straight, their house would be removed from among the Great Houses.

At least, that was the theory. It had never been tested. But the head of House Caralo had missed the last two years, and today was their assigned day. Many people came to see whether he would show up. And instead, they found the assigned spot filled by ... a human?

“Why is a human standing there?” they asked each other.

Nobody knew.

They noticed, however, that the human did what an honor guard was supposed to do, namely, just stand there without moving for eight hours. He was certainly acting like an honor guard. But he was a human.

What was going on?

After eight hours, a bell sounded, indicating the end of the Assembly session (and the end of the honor guard’s shift). The human then knelt down where he had stood. Some kind of liquid seemed to be dripping from his head.

A group burst out from the Great Hall of Assembly. They swiftly made their way to where the honor guard stood, and then they stopped. Their leader looked confused. “Who are you?” he finally asked.

“House Caralo.”

“What? You cannot be House Caralo. You are not even Charalmo!”

“I am House Caralo. Are you House Palarmo?”

“I am,” the leader of the group said proudly.

“Good. That saves me the trouble of finding you. I am the human who traveled with House Caralo for two years while he ran from your assassins. I am the human who was a few steps too far away to stop your assassins when they finally found him.”

Most of the others in the group began to move away from Palarmo. They thought, Right, humans will pack bond with anything, even something that doesn’t have two legs, two arms, predator eyes, and no fur except in a few spots. If he pack bonded with Caralo, I’d better be somewhere else.

Palarmo hadn’t gotten the message yet. “So they finally caught him. Good!” he said.

The human continued, “And so I came to do what House Caralo should do - to stand as honor guard on the designated day, and to kill House Palarmo. You have 60 seconds to make peace with your gods, if you have any.”

“What?!? Wait a minute, I...”

“One minute is all you have.”

“You cannot just kill me here, out in the square of the Great Hall!”

“Who is going to stop me?”

“The honor guard...”