Road to Equality

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‘How’s you, baby!’ As she entered the newly-christened Sariten courthouse, Zubaidah was greeted with a warm hug from Salleh - and a slightly-colder smile from Kihya, ‘Salleh, give her some respect!’ ‘Aha, sorry, I know you get all protective about her, Bata.’ ‘Quite right, I do!’ 'Oh, poor Batuttah, you know the young miss and Salleh are equals?’ ‘Only in the Hashashin! But here in Tisifun, nobody speaks to Sukhainah like that.’

‘Come on, uncle, I know you’re just being protective, but I’m not a child anymore. Besides, the Mansur household has no special place in Tisifun anymore. That’s what I’ve spent my time here trying to establish! That nobody is better or worse than anybody else due to their name.’

‘I know, I know.’ ‘Eheh, Kihya told me that you were like a father to Zuzu here, but I couldn’t believe it! My dear Bata finally got to play father. Isn’t it heartwarming?’ ‘Salleh, if me and you hadn’t fought together, I think you’d be the next casualty.’ ‘Alright, alright, I’ll stop!’ 'Yes, please do that. It’s embarrassing to see the de-facto leader of Tisifun and the head-mentor of the Saffat branch squabble like this.’ ‘Rude, but fair…’

‘Sorry, uncle, did he say the ‘de-facto leader’?’ ‘Ah, yes, we have much to discuss, don’t we…’

‘Well, let’s start there. After your departure from Tisifun, there was a small debate about who would lead the city when the Ash Company was travelling away from Parthevia. I remember that you said Tisifun could not be your permanent home anymore, so I thought that we should make our town able to function even without the structure of the Ash Company. I nominated Collia to take on that position, since he had almost single-handedly kept Tisifun safe for the last few years, but he refused. He nominated me instead - ’ ‘ - and old Bata received unanimous agreement from not only the entire board of the Ash, but the Nazairi and Pazari workers, the merchant’s guild in Amakh and even the Shar over in Lamet!’

‘That’s absolutely wonderful! But I can’t say I’m too surprised, uncle. You deserve this more than anyone, hands down. It was you who managed to move us all where we needed to be so we could better Tisifun. You were the one who made this city able to thrive. And let me guess, you have begun plans to do more of that?’

‘Look out the window.’ Gesturing towards the south-facing window, looking onto the old Mansur estate, he invited Zubaidah to look outside, ‘You - ’ And there she saw the once-great hall of her family, its columns standing tall and free amidst a new market-square, refurbished with blue dye, ‘You really did it…’ ‘I turned it into a monument for those who lost their lives in the revolution, no matter their side, and more recently against the Shah Kosrow.’ ‘It’s beautiful. I’m sure that they’d be pleased to be remembered this way.’

‘It was their deaths which brought us together. We realised that Parthevia had not seen justice for them. Neither did we have any way in which we could deliver it.’

‘We had no judges; no courthouses; no formal laws.’ ‘And then someone came right in and solved our lil’ problem.’ 'You mean, it wasn’t you three?’ ‘Ah, no, we are simply representatives for the courthouse.’ ‘You know, the sort of thing where he needed us on his side to make sure everyone’d be onboard!’

'Sorry, who do you mean by ‘he’?’ ‘Hmm, there he is! Just on time. Or late, I suppose…’ Peering gout of the window again, pointed towards a someone jumping off a horse outside, Zubaidah realised that she intimately knew who they were talking about, ‘Wait, you mean…’ ‘I know right.’ And then the door flung open to reveal a familiar cheshire-like grin, ‘Rafi?!’ ‘Afternoon, miss!’

‘I think you two will need some space, hmm?’ ‘Wanna go get a few pints a few down at the market?’ 'Not the worst idea you’ve had.’ ‘Hmm, as long as you’re paying, I wouldn’t mind.’

‘So, uhh, yeah. I’m guessing they told you everything?’ ‘Not exactly everything, but enough. I can’t believe this…’ ‘Me neither, to be honest.’

‘So how did you get around to set up this courthouse in Tisifun?’ ‘Well, actually, it’s not just Tisifun. Turns out a bunch of other towns of northern Parthevia have signed on and taken it up. Seems that even Salehi is leaning towards it too.’ ‘How in Solomon’s name did you manage that?’

‘Well, as you know, it’s been in the works for a while. Was mostly thinking how we could better curb all the banditry. It’s the biggest issue we’d had, even after the Rostami reforms, and not just in Tisifun but all of Parthevia. I know we put out the job initiative, which re-employed a ton of people, but we still had bandits. I mean, just take the Silver Scales. People like that need to be punished - or at least give a way for their victims to get recompense. So I went and found an old version of Tisifun’s legal code, and just updated it.’ 'So that’s why you wanted access to the old Rostam library?’ ‘Yeah, it was pretty useful - and made it easy to cross-reference Reiman and old Parthevian law. Batuttah helped me, of course, but he decided to leave me to it for the most part. Turns out that making ledgers for the Al-Layh made me decent at all this legal stuff. Who would’ve thought! Oh, but there was a big problem after I drafted and published it.’

‘Ah, how do you enforce the law?’ ‘Exactly! That’s why I brought Kihya and Salleh into the picture! I thought that the Hashashin could portion some of their plain-clothes as a police force. They already have the training, especially when it comes to the more violent crimes. You know, the murder and whatnot.’

‘But what about the non-violent crimes?’ ‘Well, that’s the best part about the old Parthevian system! It had two courts; one for violent crimes and another for civil ones. I’ve adapted it slightly from Tisifun’s original code, but basically now each court has five judges, making ten judges for each town. So they can represent the widest section of society, two judges must come from each branch of local life. For example, Tisifun has representatives from the old nobility, the Ash Company, the merchants’ guild, the specialist workers like the Pazari, and the general public. Of course, their terms are able to be limited! But we wanted representation from each facet of Tisifun’s population, so the law took into account all of our complexity.’

‘Oh, sorry, was I rambling?’ ‘Not at all! Well, a little bit.’ ‘Ah...’ ‘Alot's changed since we first started out on this, hasn't it?’ ‘Strange to think I was some wannabe bandit at the start of it all, huh.’ Strange that you thought anything like that could be your calling. But this? Well, this courthouse business is exactly what you need to do.’ ‘But if I continue...’ ‘You'd have to step down from the Ash Company?’ ‘Well, yeah, exactly, and I don't want to - ’

‘Let me stop you right there. You have been my most treasured colleague in this business. You've made the Ash Company successful, more than anything I could do alone. But you are also doing something here in the Sariten which I could never even dream of doing. You always wanted to find somewhere you shine, and make Parthevia brighter. Well, you've found where you can shine brightest. And it's here.’

‘I might lose one of my most treasured colleagues, but I'll never lose you. Even if my work takes me away from Tisifun or Parthevia or even the West as a whole, I'll never really lose you. Because, above all of that, you're my treasured friend.’