2.4 Men's Rights: Manifesto

The drunkards ambled around the market for a bit, and with Thomas' vague directions, Valdek asking around, and Kyros fans who were eager to help, they somehow managed to reach the house in about ten minutes.

Kyros knocked on the door.

A few moments later, it was opened by a little girl. She looked at his face and his red hair, and casually said, “Oh! Great Mage, you are here. Come on in, my lord.”

Kyros wobbled in, followed by the rest of the gang.

The little girl noticed her drunken father. This elicited no major reaction from her, but she was surprised when a dwarf, a dark elf, and an orc followed at his heels.

“My lord, this is my—”

“Hey! I know her,” Kyros said. “You are… Esmeralda, right? From the flower stall. You are Mildred’s daughter.”

“And mine, my lord,” Thomas added.

Esmeralda did a little curtsey.

“How old are you, Esmeralda?”

“I’m ten, my lord.”

“Very good. Thomas, I did not know that you were married to Mildred. Very nice woman. Small world, eh?”

Thomas smiled awkwardly, made even more so by the drink. “Yes, my lord.”

Esmeralda turned to her father. “Dad, and these are?” she asked, pointing at the rest of the group.

Before Thomas could answer her, a little boy, around the same age as Esmeralda, wandered out from the inside.

“Oh! Another kid. Is this your son, Thomas?” asked Kyros.

When the boy noticed the Great Mage, he just stood there, stupefied from shock, and only recovered when Esmeralda called out to him. He quickly ran over and hid behind her, avoiding all eye contact with the Great Mage and the rest of the party.

“Eh! No, my lord. This is Bertie, my daughter’s friend. His parents run the fruit stall close to my wife’s.”

“Ah! Yes. I remember them. Nice people.”

“Dad, why are you here with the Great Mage? And why are you all drunk? And who are these guys?”

“Esmeralda, these are Master Stonebottom, Valdek, and Thokk, and Valdek,” Thomas said, pointing at his companions and the empty air.

They waved at Esmeralda and Bertie. Esmeralda waved back. Bertie did not dare.

“We are planning something important. Go and get us some sheets of paper and a pen.”

“What are you all planning? Dad, don’t tell me, you are going to become a terrorist?”

“What? No! I am not going to be a terrorist. Where did you even hear that word?”

“In the Meridian Mirror. It said that if you don’t have a job, you become a terrorist.”

“Don’t read that trash magazine, Esmeralda. I am not going to become a terrorist. See, the Great Mage is here. We are planning a political movement. Now go and get the papers.”

The little girl did not look fully convinced, but did as her father told her to. If there was going to be a terrorist plot, she wasn’t going to sit down and watch it unfold; she was going to be involved.

As Esmeralda left the room in search of stationery, Bertie followed her close behind.

Thomas used this time to show his guests around his modest home. The trinkets he had brought back from the war elicited much curiosity and questions, despite most of the spectators not being in a state to comprehend what they were. And everyone was happy when Thomas brought them all some water to drink.

Soon Esmeralda and Bertie returned with the pen and papers.

The little girl sat on the couch and placed the papers on the nearby coffee table. Bertie sat next to her. The Great Mage was offered the chair next to the couch. Thokk and Master Stonebottom sat on the floor in front of the coffee table, while Thomas and Valdek remained standing nearby.

“So, what are we writing?” Esmeralda asked the adults.

“Okay, so, Esmeralda, do you mind if I call you Esme? No? Okay, write this down.” Kyros started dictating. “At the top you write, ‘Meridian Men’s Rights Gang, Demands and… and…’” He looked at the others.

“…Grievances,” Valdek said helpfully. “And it’s group, my lord, not gang.”

“Yeah, Grievances and Gang. And then below that you write, ‘To.’ So who are we addressing this to?” he asked his drinking buddies.

“Should be the people of Meridian,” Thomas said.

Master Stonebottom shook his head. “No, no. That’s too vague. We need to be specific; or else they’ll just throw it away. It should be addressed to the Queen.”

Valdek had some doubts about a political manifesto written by a child, but he did not voice those concerns, as then, the task of writing it would fall on him as the only sober adult.

“Sounds about right,” Kyros said. “So, Esme, write down, ‘To, Sera, Queen of Stormhaven, Meridian Palace.’ And then, below that, ‘From.’ Do we write Meridian Men’s Rights Club, or do we need a specific name again?”

“Specific name is better,” Master Stonebottom replied. “Should be from President of the Group.”

Thomas concurred with the idea. “And of course, everyone will agree that the Great Mage should be our President?”

The entire group nodded.

Kyros smiled widely. “Thank you, everyone. I humbly accept this position as President of Meridian Men’s Rights Association. And Thomas, I am appointing you as my Vice-president. As for Master Stonebottom, no one here is more suited to be our Treasurer than he is. Valdek…” He thought for a second. “You can be the Assistant Treasurer. And Thokk, Thokk will be our Ambassador to the Orc tribes. Everyone agreed?”

All the adults in the room once again nodded, happy with their positions.

Kyros continued with the letter. “Esme, write this down, ‘From, Kyros Magnus, President of the Meridian Men’s Rights Council.’”

In this manner, the Great Mage Kyros Magnus continued to dictate a very official manifesto and list of demands of the Meridian Men’s Rights Group to a ten-year-old girl, with the other founding members chiming in whenever their particular grievance was being addressed. Esmeralda continued to write, unchallenged, with Bertie silently looking over from the side from time to time. When they had reached the end of the document, everyone was quite satisfied with what they had achieved. Once it was finished, all the founding members signed it (an ink pad was brought in to take Thokk’s thumb impression as he did not know how to write), followed by Esmeralda, and then Bertie. Nobody asked why the children were signing, as they were all too happy about the job well done and too drunk to care anyway.

Once the document was ready, the men grabbed a few more pens and pages and were about to head out to gather signatures when Esmeralda stopped them.

“My lord,” she said, addressing the Great Mage. “What are you guys planning to do?”

“We will get some signatures, Esme, and then give this list of demands to Sera.”

The others agreed.

“That’s it? But why would the Queen listen to you?”

“What do you mean, child?”

“I mean, my lord, you have complaints about your wife in there, but Lady Liriel is also the Queen’s best friend.”

“Second best,” the Great Mage corrected her.

“Yeah, second best friend. So, if me and Bertie complained to our teacher about her second best friend, why would she listen to us? She’ll just throw that paper away.”

“Hmm… You make a good point.” Kyros thought for a few seconds. “What do you think we should do, Esme?”

“I think we should organize a protest.”

“You mean, like the theatre company actors did a few months ago? Placards and all?”

“Yeah. My mom said that they won, and the owner had to pay them three months’ salary. So, if we protest, we’ll also win.”

Kyros thought some more and then turned to his compatriots. “What do you all think?”

Thomas and Master Stonebottom were very happy with the idea. Thomas in particular was proud of his daughter for coming up with it. As for Valdek, he wasn’t sure if protesting against the crown was considered a treasonous act in Stormhaven, like it was in his native Noxumbra, but he was here anyway, and he was the one who had suggested the name for the organization, so he might as well go all the way in. Thokk on the other hand, did not know anything about protests. He was just happy to do what the Great Mage told him to, as he firmly believed that it would solve all of his problems with his grandfather-in-law to be.

Once everyone had agreed that they were doing the protest, Esmeralda and Bertie brought out cardboard, sticks, crayons, and gum from the inside. The men and the two children spent the next fifteen minutes brainstorming, writing, and poorly assembling placards for the demonstration.

When they were done, the entire group headed out to get some signatures and protest before the palace.

*     *     *

Esmeralda carried the papers and the pen, and the Great Mage carried Esmeralda on his shoulders, where she sat comfortably, with his long, curly red hair occasionally serving as a handhold. Thomas, Master Stonebottom, Thokk, and Bertie held the placards, while the task of giving Bertie a shoulder ride fell upon Valdek.

The midday sun shone brightly as the would-be protesters walked through the streets of Meridian. People watched them with great interest. This was nothing unusual, as the Great Mage was a sight of awe and wonder wherever he went, and he was impossible to miss. But the rest of the gang, and their purpose, also garnered some interest from the citizens of Meridian. Some followed closely behind the group, trying to figure out what the protest was all about, while others simply tried to catch glimpses of the Great Mage. Girls swooned as he walked. People of all ages, races, and genders came over to pray and ask for his blessings, and many were eager for autographs. The Great Mage’s own enchanting smile and casual entreaties managed to keep the crowd at bay, never letting it get large enough to turn into a mob. But even the people themselves were mindful of overcrowding. The Great Mage was not just a celebrity. He was also the friend and neighbor they had known since he was a little boy. He came every day to buy stuff from their stalls or hang out with them, and they were not going to make things difficult for him. Meanwhile, Esmeralda and the others gathered as many signatures as possible from all kinds of people, with Kyros greatly easing their task by spreading the sheets of paper widely among the crowd with his magic. Even though everyone readily added their signatures to the Great Mage’s cause (whatever it was), they politely refused when asked to join the protest at the palace, citing work or some other business that needed their immediate attention.

And thus, the gang, after waddling through the market district and accepting a free carriage ride from a Kyros fan through the financial district, reached the palace district thirty minutes later, with a tail of teenage girls still somehow following them at a distance. The palace district housed not just the Meridian Royal Palace, but also the mansions of many noble and wealthy families of the capital, including Master Stonebottom’s. The crowd here was more polite. They did not often get too close to the Great Mage but bowed respectfully and admired him from a distance. But there were still a fair number of fans who came over to introduce themselves or ask for his autograph.

The Great Mage and his companions managed to make their way through the district and finally reached the palace. Here, Kyros took his comrades to one of the side gates, lest they inconvenience the Queen and the palace staff by protesting at the main gates. Once at the protest venue, he conjured up a few clouds to give them some cover from the sun and enhanced their voices to be carried over long distances by means of a spell.

And thus began the first and only protest of the Meridian Men’s Rights Group against the crown of Stormhaven, with a couple of worried and nervous palace guards watching it all very closely.