Page 43 of Dark Princess: Shadows
"Drova wasn't paying attention." She smiled coldly at her daughter. "She was too busy concocting plots to undermine the relationship between the clan and the Kra-ell."
"I had my reasons," Drova said under her breath.
28
MORELLE
The storyteller painted pictures in Morelle's mind of a world different from anything she had known. She had listened to many of his tales over the past few days, but this one captured her imagination in a unique way.
"The founding fathers knew they were creating something unprecedented." The storyteller's voice carried the passion she had come to associate with his most engaging tales. "They gathered nearly two and a half centuries ago to design a framework for governing that would stand the test of time."
She was fascinated by the concept.
Two and a half centuries were less than a blink of an eye in the lifespans of societies. How had a document written not too long ago effected such a change so quickly?
On Anumati, laws were handed down by the monarchy, and they had been established for many thousands of years.
"Most of them were young men, but Benjamin Franklin was not young at the time of the crafting of this document, and he wasn't healthy either, suffering from a number of different ailments,but he was a brilliant human and my favorite. He knew how crucial this document would be for future generations."
Morelle wondered why there were no women in that group. Had it been by chance, or had women been intentionally excluded?
In either case, she did not approve.
"They debated every word, every concept," the storyteller went on. "Some wanted a stronger central government. Others feared centralized power. The small states worried about being overwhelmed by the larger ones. It took compromise and wisdom to find solutions that would work for everyone."
Questions burned in Morelle's mind. What were those states that the storyteller was talking about, and why did they want to combine into one large country?
Had they faced a common enemy and needed to unite to defeat it?
How had they enforced those compromises?
What happened when some of the states disagreed and refused to comply with the document?
She wanted to ask all these questions with a burning passion, but her body remained frustratingly unresponsive.
"The Constitution they created wasn't perfect, but it was revolutionary for its time. It established checks and balances, divided power between three branches of government, and most importantly, it allowed for amendments as society evolved."
The gods' laws were absolute and unchanging, and the Kra-ell were equally stubborn in their ways.
Had been, Morelle reminded herself.
Everything might have changed over the thousands of years she had spent in stasis. For all she knew, Anumati could have been destroyed by either a natural disaster or an enemy more powerful than the gods.
It was also possible that another rebellion had obliterated the old ways and established a new order.
"They believed in the power of reason and discourse," the storyteller continued. "The ability of people to govern themselves through representation and the rule of law rather than the whims of a monarch or tyrant."
That one energized Morelle's blood. On Anumati, everything was up to the Eternal King. Her mother supposedly had autonomy over the Kra-ell, but she couldn't do anything without the king's approval. Even the settler ship had belonged to the gods and was loaned to the Kra-ell.
No wonder it had exploded.
They had probably given her mother the oldest clunker they had.
"Of course, they didn't get everything right." The storyteller's voice took on a warm tinge. "The original document had serious flaws, particularly regarding slavery and voting rights. But they built in mechanisms for future generations to correct those mistakes through amendments."
Slavery?
The gods were slavers, and in the past, they had enslaved the Kra-ell, but that was a very long time ago. Hadn't they abolished the abhorrent practice on Earth?