Hakon
“So?” Ragnar asked as he took a look sip of the fresh bottle of mead before he slammed the empty cup on the table. “Who are you voting for?” he asked as he grabbed one of the fresh bottles and filled his cup.
Hakon gave a soft grunt, and brought his own cup to his lips to take a small sip. It was better than the open barrels of mead which were spread across the fortress of Jomkeep and the world at large.
The feast halls of Jomkeep were filled with member of the Imperial Guard, active, and long retired. Although Guests, and family were forbidden from the fortress, the city which had sprung up and surrounded the Jomkeep were themselves celebrating around the great fortress. It seemed like the whole world had been drunk for days as the mead and other drinks flowed freely.
“Come on,” Guard Hogg said as he set his cup down next to Ragnar’s to be topped up. “He doesn’t need to answer that, but we all know he will vote for Frea’s candidate,” he said with a soft chuckle.
Hakon gave another low grunt and sip of his cup. He wasn’t big on drinking. It tasted good, and he liked it, but it also dulled the senses, and that he did not like. He also didn’t like Frea’s candidate. The man was a fool, at least he thought so. He was of Highpass stock though, but that wasn’t enough to make Hakon vote for the man.
There were more than a dozen candidates seeking to be elected to the position of Imperial Lord General of the Jom. A position and title which was thousands of years old, and one of the few in Furse Space that could be traced back to before the fall of the Empire when Furse Space was united.
“Not that it matters, but I’ll be voting for the only real choice,” Ragnar said as he set the bottle down and picked up his cup for a long drink. He let out out a loud burp before he spoke again. “Dagfinn Lynch. The man has more experience than any of the other candidates.”
Hakon had to agree. Dagfinn, the Giant was known not just throughout the Jom, but Furse Space and outside. Brother of the former Imperial Lord General, and the only reason the fleet had escaped the clutches of defeat in the Dragon’s Head Nebula that had taken Imperial Lord General’s life.
Dagfinn was a skilled warrior and commander. He was also a wealthy man who had served in the Jom for much of his life, and gained the riches of a hundred completed contracts. He was also kin to the King’s of Fist and the famous Clan Lynch Aegis. His name alone was likely enough to get him elected, but the man had skill that Hakon could not deny.
That skill did not matter to Frea. She hated the Lynches with a passion that few could ever understand, perhaps none could understand. Frea was the rightful heir of both the Kingdom of Highpass, and the old royal family which was removed and replaced by the Kings of Fist and Clan Lynch Aegis. A right which she would likely never see, but which had brought Hakon to her side and forced him to swear his oath to her.
Hakon understood some of her anger. Dagfinn had been part of the fleet which had attacked King Rodger Ash Dawn who had reclaimed that lost throne. Hakon had fought in that battle to defend his kill when the king’s famous warship ‘The Long Serpent’ was boarded. He fought with a mad passion but had lost sight of his king in the chaos of that battle, and although his body was lost, Hakon knew the rumors were false, and he was dead.
“I’ll vote for the person I think can do the best job,” Hakon finally said and took a long drink of his cup that drained the golden mead. “Maybe this will help me discover who that is.”
Those who sat at the long pub table with him laughed, and Hogg slapped him on his back lightly.
Those seeking to be elected to the position of Imperial Lord General had spent vast sums of their wealth on that mead, games, and more, in the hopes of swaying last minute votes to their side. Drinks flowed for freely throughout the Jomkeep.
It wasn’t surprising to Hakon that the Giant, Dagfinn Lynch was leading in all the polls. The Giant had been outspending more than most other candidates combined. His election campaign was in overdrive, and those who agreed with Frea were a small minority.
Hakon had become impressed with the display throughout the world of Jom. It was his first election, and members of the Imperial Guard of Jom had been recalled from all other Furse Space, and only those on active contracts remained off world with their vote already under lock and key in the fortress itself. He had never seen the world so full of members of the ancient order of the Jom.
Fights were commonplace outside the Jomkeep. It was forbidden for members of the Jom to quarrel with one another but so long as challenges were issued and accepted they could spare with one another, and those spares took place throughout the world day and night as members drank. There had been a few arrests, but not as many as Hakon would have thought with the amount of drinking that was taking place.
Hakon had been surprised that there had been no deaths. It was one of the greatest crimes a brother or sister could do, to kill one of their own, and even the dulling of their senses had kept the drunk fools more such action as they fought one another in the streets. Maybe it was the law of defending another member of the Jom, and the punishment that came with the crime of the death of a brother or sister that was not legally justified.
Avenging a brother or sister of the Jom was one of the thirteen laws that made up the code of the Jom. Killing a member of the Order of Jom on the world of Jom was a sure way to find your own death.
Frea had fought her own fist fights, been thrown out of more than one drinking hall, but Hakon had to admit it had been fun to watch as she defeated foe after foe. No doubt she was in another fight, but he had tired of watching her show off as the challeges came and were accepted. Those fights often ended in blood, curses, and were followed by laughs, and shared drinks.
