Mention of Alric, Damal, and Lonfar has reminded Tric of that whole sticky situation and how annoyed he is about it. Here he now has another Manu that can maybe give him some more insight into how to deal with the mess. “Tell me, in traditional Dunefolk or Manu cultural and professional practices, what is an appropriate level of familial support one offers to other family members?” The culture is still quite foreign to Tric, and just articulating his question is difficult. There is the matter of familial obligations—which Tric’s own mother was not so good with—but also possible breaches of appropriate professional behavior, given Damal’s role as scribe. He clearly withheld desired information from Lonfar. It is possible that Alric told Damal not to pass information along, but that just does not seem like it could be the explanation. Nothing in Alric’s behavior indicated he was hiding out from his parents. That professional obligation angle seems like the most applicable one, or at least the one most likely to work against Damal here. “Maybe my question is more about traditional Dunefolk professional ethics. Sorry, as I said, I did not grow up in my mother’s culture.”
“If somebody in Dan’Tonk has breached their professional code of behavior, then you are certainly welcome to bring this to the attention of the Luminaries. As a Luminary myself, I am able to take your statement. Of course, I will also have to gather the statement from the offending merchant.”
“No, no! Everyone in Dan’Tonk has been wonderful,” Tric is quick to interject.
“Is this a matter of shoddy goods? Or chicanery? Charlatanism?” The way these roll off Roshanak’s tongue makes it clear to Tric that these are categories of offense. There really is a whole code involved here, though it is one that does not make complete sense to him just yet. Heppa is listening in rapt attention. She will have a lot to write down on her map tonight.
“It’s about a falcon scribe—” Tric isn’t sure about the proper term, but he stumbles through describing his issue, “—withholding information that is specifically requested. Or a scribe who does not fully and wholly transmit the message but allows their personal bias to affect the message. Yes, a scribe who interferes with the message.”
“Is this a crime of addition or omission?”
“Omission, definitely.” That, at least, Tric can easily answer. “But very careful omission.”
“Hmm… omission is a harder area to judge malice in, compared with if a scribe is actually changing a message.”
“I do not believe it was ever a change,” Tric says, though he does not know that for sure. “I don’t mean to go into all the details here, but there should be, say, in South Tower—hypothetically—a group of Luminaries, right?”
Roshanak tilts her head as she considers. “It really depends on the size of the population. I don’t think there’s that many of Dunefolk descent in South Tower. There might not be enough to support actually having a Luminary Council. We maintain one here in Dan’Tonk, but that’s because we have the largest concentration in all of Wesnoth. Therefore, we can actually support having the required representatives of all the arts and sciences, like astronomy, alchemy, optics, and so on.”
“But this is the traditional way disputes were settled, right?” Tric asks. He does not care so much whether there is or is not a Luminary Council in South Tower as long as he can levy the threat of their action upon Damal. Tric feels certain that Damal would feel bound by such a traditional judgment.
“Of course, back in the old country, there would also be the Paragon Council, but we’re not authorized to have one here. The government of Dan’Tonk permits the Luminary Council to exist probably because they don’t fully understand it, but if we were to try to have a Paragon Council, they would crush that immediately because that is for the warrior profession. There is no way that the nobles would want that sort of parallel government present.”
“They don’t like the falcons,” Heppa interjects in agreement, “so I’m sure they wouldn’t like that.”
“The Luminaries are welcome to settle whatever disputes we can within the community of subscribers. It is up to an individual person to decide that they care enough about their Dunefolk descent to put themselves under the jurisdiction of the Luminary Council. We do hear cases from other cities in Wesnoth that have smaller populations. We are in contact through our falcon network.”
“Although, if the problem is itself in the falcon network, that could be trouble,” Tric points out.
“That does indeed create an issue. If it is a serious enough offense, we might send an actual investigator but—”
“You have investigators?!” This is an entirely new profession to Tric. There are probably many good stories there.
“It would have to be a serious enough offense,” Roshanak reiterates.
“I don’t think this is that,” Tric hastily assures her, lest she send someone off to South Tower before he and Heppa get back there with the message for Alric.
“If these are concepts that are new to you, then perhaps you will learn some more tomorrow at Dune School,” Roshanak suggests.
“That’s true. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and as you said, I’m pretty slow,” Tric says with self-effacing humor.
Roshanak laughs, as does Heppa. “You also seem to be quite good-natured,” the glassworker observes.
“I do take after my elvish side in some ways,” Tric replies, thinking of what he has heard of Anador. With that, he thanks the glassworker for her time, and they confirm they will see her at Dune School and pick up their purchases tomorrow.