Chapter 146

Liane had told Manall what Anddra had told her and she asked him if he knew more about what has happened.

It was Filann who gave her and Luke the information about what had been going on before Toallin and Mugin had come back.

"What Anddra Jecolin has told you, miss Shaayla-Car, is true. I know of at least seven announcements which made some harvest adult men the husband of a fifteen year old harvest girl. Meanwhile those girls have mature over time, most of them have reached adulthood, and not all those forced marriages are unhappy one. The partner are getting along and have made the best of what happened to them. They have formed new house hold and some have one or two children. Among several of those forced marriages, there are also couples whose partners still live more or less separately. I mean, they don't really live together as partners. To the outside world, they are married, but indoors they live apart. They do have a shared household, but there is no relationship between them. They eat together, the man provides the income, the woman keeps the house clean, but they both go their own way."

Manall nodded.

"My grandson is right, Shaayla-Car. I know about those announced forced marriages while the governors were away. Many times I have objected against an announcement, but as Cornell had more or less, cast me out of the harvest men's group my resistance was futile. I have tried to convince Josferin Kamalin and Rastin Woldrin to use their prerogatives as chair and vice-chair of the Council of Elders to resist the decisions of the Harvest Council, but they didn't want to interfere in matters of the harvest men's group. I hope that the oncoming joined hearing of the Harvest Council and the Council of the Elders and our governors will provide a definitive answer regarding the justification of these forced marriages. That's my main objective, for there are too many marriages among the younger adult harvest men for which the designation 'marriage' is not justified." Manall said and sighed. "It all has been getting out of hand, Luke."

"You shouldn't blame it all on yourself, master Manall," Luke said, "Partially it all has happened because the occupation of Ribana has put the normal way of living upside down."

Filann laughed a bit bitter.

"Perhaps, we should thank admiral Matrik for choosing to occupy Palomintar Four and especially the continent of Myr for his ludicrous plans. Thanks to him several young harvest adult men, I know, have become aware in Cantamaga that a marriage should be based on mutual respect and love between partners who have met many times before they were ever thinking of a marriage." He said.

"Filann, why haven't those young harvest men who were adults when their marriage was announced have objected against their forced marriage." Liane asked. "What does it mean among the harvest men that a young man has reached the adult age?"

Filann looked at his grandfather.

"Not much, miss Shaayla-Car, for the young adult lives with his parents and his father still makes all decisions for him, including the moment his marriage is announced. He is not asked for permission; he is expected to conform to what is customary among the harvest men. I did that myself, for when my marriage to Sumall was announced, I started building a house and everything that goes with it. Only when Sumall and I moved into the house did I discover what a miscalculation I had made, for I never met her during the construction of our house either. Only when everything was finished did Master Pohinn bring his daughter to the house I had built."

Liane frowned.

"Do I understand right, Filann, that despite your marriage with Sumall had been announced in public, that Sumall hadn't been informed that you had become her husband?"

"Her parents told her that I would become her husband after she had left school at the age of thirteen. When our marriage was announced publicly, she was not present; I was named as her husband, she was mentioned only by name. As long as we wouldn't live in the shared new house our marriage wasn't thought to be consummated." Filann said sarcastically, while he looked at the two Jedi, "I now understand that the word 'consummate' must have a different meaning in a marriage. I can only hope that the Council of the Elders and the governors are willing to see my comprehension of the word."

"Also the Harvest Council has to agree, son," Manall said.

Filann shook his head.

"No grandfather, I recognize you as the chair of the Harvest Council, but I no longer recognize any decision that council makes. There's only one council that can make decisions in our community and that's the Council of the Elders in cooperation with the governors, and those decision count for all Quelans, whether harvest men or Quelans from Ribana.

In the future there shouldn't a distinction between the harvest men's group and the Quelans of Ribana, for we are all Quelans and we all live in Ribana."

""Master Manall, do you think there is a way to find out whether a partner in a forced marriage will speak at the joint hearing and defend your point of view?" Luke asked cautiously. "I know that Filann and Cemall will stand with you, but they are your family members."

"You don't need to worry, Luke. There are many more who are dissatisfied; whether they will all speak out, I do not know yet, because I will not put any pressure on them. First and foremost, it must be their story they want to tell, not because I am the chairman of the Harvest Council, but because it concerns their way of life that they want to change. I do not want to reveal to the Jedi Knights in advance who will join me, because you are not directly involved in these matters, and that is not the intention either. I only ask you to give me as much information as possible about what is going on between the two groups of Quelans, because you see more, feel more, because the Force tells you about the deeper discontent, frustration, and feelings that exist within our community.

Shaayla-Car, what Anddra Jecolin told you about the increase in announcements of forced marriages is valuable, but I need to find out which marriages are involved, and for that I have my grandsons, because this concerns their peers. Some a bit older, others a bit younger."

Manall laughed confidentially at his Jedi friends.

"You'd better concern yourself with my youngest grandson, for what I want to achieve is also done for him."

Manall brought his visitors to the door and Luke and Liane left, but halfway down the path to Cantamaga Filann came running after them. They stopped at waited for him to catch up with them.

"Miss Shaayla-Car, is Anddra alright?" He asked and blushed.

"She is, Filann. She wants you to help, once you both are back on Myr," Liane said and she and Luke sense the happy feeling those words caused in Filann's mind.

"I hope I will meet her here in Cantamaga, miss Kenobi. I don't know where she lives, but as we all will be here for some time it might be possible to meet her and have a word with her." He said and again he blushed.

"She told me, Filann, that she won't avoid a meeting with you," Liane said.

"Really, that's very nice of her. I was afraid that she didn't want me to help her, because I've told her about my marriage with Sumall. I feared that Anddra would have some strict ideas of getting help from a married man like me." He responded.

"Anddra is a very sensitive and strong Quelan woman, Filann."

"Miss Kenobi, will you give her my regards if you would meet with her again?" He asked.

"Absolutely, and I'm sure that she loves to hear from you." Liane answered.

"Thank you, miss Kenobi. Have a nice evening in Cantamaga with all the other Jedi. I'm going to have my dinner with my grandfather." Filann and ran back to the house.

Luke and Liane watched him go and smiled at each other.

"There goes a man, Shaayla-Car, who, I sense, most certainly will become an even happier man in the future." Luke said.

Liane smiled.

"I will tell you more details Anddra has told me, when we will be in our guest room, Luke,"

Luke grinned softly.

"It's not really the task of us Jedi Knights to take the initiative for a marriage, my love, but in this case I will support your efforts," He said and put his arm around her shoulders.

Lorann looked at his elder brother and grabbed his data pad.

"Will you tell me all that has happened when you met the leader of the Urams, master Oltomyran and how he took you to that large clearing and what has happened there. I will listen to you, but meanwhile I will be drawing, don't let that distract you. I want to hear what has happened there, so I can make a great drawing of it." Lorann said.

"You have been there already, Lorann," Filann said.

"Yes, I have, but you told me that when you were there, there were hundreds of Urams coming down from the trees and gathered around you and Oltomyran."

"Yes, that was so great, but I also felt a bit scary, but Ben and miss Shaayla-Car has come with me. When Oltomyran took me with himself, no he invited me to come with him, for he probably sensed I was afraid, Ben and miss Kenobi followed me and the Urams leader at a safe distance. While I was standing in the midst of the clearing with Oltomyran they were waiting at the edge of the clearing." Filann said.

Filann noticed that his brother had started to make a sketch on the drawing pad, but he remembered what Lorann had said.

"It was dark, when I entered the nut wood with miss Kenobi and Luke and the nut wood looked so wonderful. The edges of the vegetation looked illuminated. When the leader of the Urams appeared miss Kenobi greeted him and explained who I was. At first he didn't want to accept my presence, but miss Kenobi told him that not all those who would enter the nut wood had the same abilities as the Jedi Knights and you and Chati. Ben was telling me what Oltomyran told miss Shaayla-Car and at last Oltomyran asked me to step forward.

I felt really scared, Lorann. He is a large bird and those piercing yellow eyes seem to see right through me. I told him why I had entered the nut wood and that it hasn't been good that the nut woods had been chopped. I said that I wanted that the Quelans and the Urams would live in peace again, for the Quelans would only gather the fallen nut and leave the nuts on the trees for the Urams.

Miss Kenobi passed on what I had said and then he lowered his wings and invited me to touch it. As I did he started to walk with me along a dark winding path until we reached the large clearing. In the middle I saw a lake in which the sky above Tyr reflected. Thousand of tiny yellow and red points could be seen on the water surface which wasn't disturbed by wind.

I walked with the leader of the Urams to the edge of the lake and while we did hundreds of Urams came down from the trees and gathered around us. There were adult Urams which looked as fierce as Oltomyran himself, but there were also many Urams of different ages: young adult Urams, younger once which stayed together and very young ones which were protected by other adults, probably their parents or family members.

Oltomyran talked to the gathered Urams and miss Kenobi whispered to me what he was saying. He was explaining who I was and what I wanted, what my intension where. Then he turned to me and I repeated what I had said on the clearing and that I don't wanted that the nut trees would be chopped and that the leader of the Quelans had decided it would be forbidden to chop any nut tree. Then all the Urams cheered and Oltomyran stretch out both his wings to me and put my hand on those wing tips and he bowed his head and allowed me to touch the feathers on his head. He placed his wings on my shoulders and ruffled my hair with his wings. And we stayed together in silence for several moments. When he stepped back he invited Ben and miss Kenobi to join me and miss Kenobi said that Oltomyran was a great leader which he is for sure, Lorann.

At his mark all the Urams flew up and vanished among the nut trees and we were standing alone with him. He told miss Kenobi that she and Ben would allow me to walk back to the clearing all alone, for I wanted to experience the mystique, the wonder of the nut forest on my own. I walked back all alone on the winding path and it was so great, so wonderful, Lorann, for I still saw the illuminated edges around the vegetation and the two moons around Palomintar Four cast an eerie glance through the leaving of the nut trees. It was a look I will never forget. When I entered the clearing I saw the tiny little leaves on a tree stump. An indication that one day the clearing would be grown again with nut trees.

Ben and miss Kenobi joined me at the speeder and I thanked Ben for bringing me there and miss Kenobi for her help to understand what the Urams leader said and wanted of me. I never could have imagined, Lorann, that I would be the one who would make an agreement with the Urams, so that in the future the Urams and the Quelans will live in peace and respect each other."

Filann had told his story with fiery verve and had some difficulty to realize that he had been telling all he had experienced to his younger brother who was drawing intensively what he had heard.

Lorann looked up at Filann.

"Wow, great story, Filann. Look this is a first impression of what I have heard." Lorann said and show his brother the moment of the meeting between Filann, Oltomyran and the hundreds of Urams gathered around the lake.

Filann saw how Lorann had drawn the moment on which Oltomyran had stretched out his wings to him and how he had touched those wing tips. Amazed he looked up at him.

"That's great, Lorann. You've drawn exactly how I have experienced it. You're really good at making drawings of what others tell you."

"This is only a first impression, Filann. I'm now going to add more details you told me, for I want to have more Urams on that clearing and I want to draw master Skywalker and miss Kenobi standing at the edge. It was a great story, it felt as if I was standing with you on that clearing and looking at master Oltomyran.

Oh, before I forget. I've also made a drawing of what you and Cemall told me about what has happened when you gathered to first fallen nuts together with our father," Lorann said and showed his brother a full color detailed sketch of the clearing where Filann, Cemall and their father are giving fallen nuts to young Urams. In front of their father stood the leader of the Urams which gently took some fallen nuts from Cornell's hand."

"Wow, Lorann, can I get a copy of this one. I want to put this one at the wall of my room in grandfather's house. I'm now using your former room, for I haven't gone back to the house I built for that immature girl who is supposed to be my wife."

Lorann looked up and looked very intense at his brother, but then he smiled.

"As soon as I have completely finished it I will give you a drawing of both your stories, Filann, for they are important for your future I guess." He said.

"What do you mean, Lorann?" He asked a bit suspicious.

"You said you want to put the drawing of the clearing at my former sleeping room at grandfather's and the other one is the confirmation of the agreement you made, being the Quelans' envoy with the Urams leader." Lorann answered and blinked. "Come back one of these days, Filann and I will hand you the copies.

Filann stood up and patted his younger brother on his head.

"I should have accepted much earlier, Lorann, that you have talents I don't understand. I will come back one of these days and I'm sure that grandfather will love both drawings."

Filann left the room and Lorann cast a glance on the drawing of the clearing. Again he blinked and he saw the colored drawing of the clearing and a similar one of his brother meeting Oltomyran at the large clearing framed on the wall of a nice and cozy furnished room.

Liane and Luke sat on the couches in front of the open terrace doors watching the night sky above Cantamaga. They had just done a very intense Jedi meditation together and felt refreshed and relaxed. Liane looked at Luke.

"I'm almost sure that all the Quelans, at least the governors and their families will be glad if we all have left Palomintar Four and they will be among themselves." She said, "What crowd had been together in their shared dining room."

"They love to honor our help, Shaayla-Car," Luke said.

"I know, but sometimes I got the feeling that they overdo it. There were so many main and side dishes that I could have been feeding Anakin's garrison on the domains for at lest four days without them feeling hungry."

Luke laughed.

"Now you overdo it, my love," He said and smiled at her.

Liane grinned.

"I know, I have never been involved with the Anakin's garrison on Morantan. He completely secluded me from them. It still feel odd the way he raised me with those droids that took care of my meal and other chores and the teachers he had chosen to educate me. Those men were housed elsewhere at the domains. I only met them during my education lessons, but they had taught me many useful knowledge." She grinned with a smile smile at the memory of her past.

For a while they both were silent, watching the night sky, then Luke broke the silence.

"How was your encounter with Anddra Jecolin, Shaayla-Car, and why are you so concerned about her?" He asked.

"When Filann showed his concern for her absence while we wanted to leave Myr I've got some odd feeling through the Force, as if I was looking at some past events between Filann and a young Quelan girl who turned out to be Anddra's twin sister. Those Force images intrigued me, for I wondered what kind of relationship had been between Filann and that girl. Neither Cemall, nor Filann himself have ever explicitly told me about her."

Liane looked at Luke.

"Did Filann told you about her, Luke?"

"Like you said, not explicitly, but while I met him at the campsite I have sensed a few times that his thoughts went back to a girl who was had been a friend. Especially after he had told me about how he saw his marriage with Sumall."

"Cemall told me what happened to a group of young Quelans after they had arrived on Tyr. He called it a massacre as the large group of Urams slaughtered some fifty young Quelan women. While he told me he made me part of what he seen as the images lived so vividly in his mind. Afterwards he told me that he had been fourteen, so Filann must have been sixteen." Liane said softly. "I wondered why Cemall seemed still shocked when he recalled what he had witnessed and when I showed Filann the drawing Lorann had made of our ship I sensed a similar pain in his mind only more intense and more painful."

"When was that, darling?" Luke asked.

"Here on Tyr, after his successful encounter with Oltomyran. I brought him to the control room to have look at Lorann's drawing. He looked at the drawing so intensively that I wondered what he really seemed to see. It wasn't really difficult to intercept his train of thoughts. At first they concentrate on his younger brother, but immediately the admiration he felt for what Lorann had done were mingled the memories of their struggle to reach the western harbor. In he recalled a young Quelan boy whom he had been responsible for during their flight through the wild lands, but not only I saw his younger brother who surely must have been a nuisance at that time, but also a vague image of a young Quelan girl appeared, but that image vanished, reappeared, vanished again as if he didn't want to recall those memories, but his feelings for the young woman were still very strong. My conclusion was that Filann as a sixteen year old harvest boy had been in love with a young Quelan girl and that their feelings had become mutual during their journey to the western harbor. Still it felt odd that I didn't sense what could have happened after their arrival on Tyr when I sensed his deep hidden pain and that left me one conclusion. That young Quelan girl had been among the fifty victims the Urams had attacked. The loss of the young Quelan girl he had been in love with, has been shaping his behavior while he lived on Tyr, "

During my careful chat with Anddra Jecolin I've got indeed the answer to what I thought had happened after the girl had been slaughtered, for Filann has never known that the girl had a twin sister who was looking after their mother who had gone blind after she had witnessed her husband execution by Trevor's white armored ground forces. Although they were good friends, maybe even more than friends, the girl had never mentioned anything about her family.

Anddra Jecolin came back to Myr with the second group and went over to her family farm house on the hills east of Ribana. She told me that the first sight of the deserted farm house devastated her and that she didn't know where to begin. It took her several days before she found enough spirit and energy to do some minor cleaning work, but she told me that the farm house is very large and I can imagine that doing cleaning of a large house on your own must be a tedious burden, because progress was slow. Only three days before the second group would return to Tyr Anddra went to see Mugin and asked for help. Master Manall has been visiting Mugin and master Woldrin often while he had become the new harvest leader and in the wake of that the chair of the Harvest Council, a task he took very seriously. Mugin told master Manall about Anddra's visit and asked Manall to send one of the harvest men to help her. Manall decided it would be a great task for Filann, because his grandson was still under the penalty to do some community work.

Anddra told me that after she had opened the door Filann had exclaimed her sister's name Iljon. She immediately had told him that she was Iljon twin sister, but she wondered how Filann knew her.

Filann provided Anddra with some furniture including a bed with a mattress, sheets, a pillow and a blanket, for Anddra told him she was sleeping on nagawa fleeces. The other day he came back and brought carpets and curtains which he fixed for her at the window of her sleeping room and in the living room and he brought her two armchairs, a coffee table and and ion-stove so she could prepared some more meals. When he left that day he warned that the next morning we would leave to go back to Tyr, but Anddra had drawn courage from his help and worked through the night to clean and check the large kitchen with all the appliances. Feeling very tired while dawn was nearing she undressed and laid down on her bed where she fell asleep.

In the morning Filann had been watching all the Quelans who entered the Falcon and he expressed his worries that he hadn't seen Anddra. Leia ordered Han to hand Filann the speeder and while he drove away I sensed that the young woman was still sleeping. Filann managed to wake her up and brought her to the Falcon, but she was still too tired. After we landed on Tyr Leia and I brought her to her to her house at some distance of the central plaza of Cantamaga. During that short ride and while I brought her to the door I sensed she wanted to speak to some one about Filann. I promised I would see her after she had taken a good rest and would come back the next day.

That's why I went to see her after we had supported Cornell and his sons to gather a first small harvest of fallen nuts."

"I'm sorry I didn't immediately understand your concern for the woman, Shaayla-Car." Luke said.

Liane shook her head.

"That Force training you wanted me to do was extremely useful, Luke, and I lacked the time at that moment to fully inform you about what had happened on Myr just before our departure.

When I knocked on Anddra's door a complete other woman opened up. She looked refreshed and kindly invited me in. I have never seen such a nice and cozy room where I have been chatting with her. She is a perfect hostess and brought me herbal tea and lots of sweets, biscuits and pastries.

In the beginning I felt her reluctance, but during my chat with her she told me that she had seen Sumall at the market. I immediately sensed her worries about what she had seen. Sumall was in the company of ten young girls and the women at the nut bread stall describe Sumall's behavior as indecent, because Sumall challenged what seemed to be the youngest son of master Roshann to kiss her in exchange for a free candystick. The boy took his chance, Anddra told me, and gave her two kisses which she gladly returned, but then she required two candysticks. He handed her what she requested, but when she got them she threw the candy sticks to the other girls who let them fall in the mud.

Anddra told that she bought the candy sticks and some other sweets. She paid for the fallen candysticks and for the sweets, although the boy wanted to give her the sticks for nothing.

Once at home, and now Luke she did something odd, she put the bag with the muddy candysticks in a lukewarm oven to dry the mud and avoid that the stick would meld. She has shown me the bag with the dried up sticks on which the streaks of mud were clearly visible. However, during our chat I became fully aware why she has bought the sticks and prepared them.

Filann has told Anddra he has been married and Anddra became worried about what his wife would think about his help. He didn't mention Sumall's name, but while Anddra was shopping at the market she heard from different sources that the girl she had seen at the market stall bulling the young vendor boy was no one else but Filann's wife.

During my chat with her she express her dislike of Sumall's behavior and she told me she understood why Filann didn't consider himself Sumall's husband any more. I could convince her that she shouldn't worry about the problems between Filann and Sumall, for she could never be the cause of the problems between them. She seemed very happy that, once she would be back on Myr, should could accept Filann's help without concerning herself what Sumall would be thinking of it.

On the day we brought her to her house she explicitly asked me I shouldn't tell Filann where she lived, but after our chat she said that she would not longer worry if she would meet him while we're all on Tyr."

After Anddra has seen Sumall and drawn her own conclusion about her I feel that Anddra will gather evidence about Sumall's behavior. Probably not to confront the girl with it, but as a kind of reassurance for herself, for Anddra has already developed strong feelings for Filann.

Moreover, Luke, also from Udine and Carmona I have heard what those two ladies have seen of Sumall's behavior while they had watched her, being day in day with her girl friends at the central plaza as if she hadn't any duties as a married woman. " Liane said ending her long story.

"We shouldn't reveal what others have told us, Shaayla-Car, it's up to Manall to gather the necessary evidence he seeks to push through the changes he wants. He must contact the Quelans who have seen what's going on. We shouldn't tell Manall what we have heard. We only listen to what some members of this community tell us. It's up to them to inform master Manall." Luke said concerned. "We have to avoid that the harvest men's group turns themselves upon the Jedi."

"I haven't commented on the bag with the dirty candysticks Anddra showed them me. I only will come back to it when she asked me what she have do with it, but it's clear that she abhors Sumall's behavior as most of the Quelans in Cantamaga seem to do. Maybe we can suggest Manall that he has to visit the daily market more often to gather more information about Filann's unhappy marriage with that irresponsible girl.

Besides Cemall also told me on the evening before our departure from Myr that Cornell and master Pohinn had come to Manall's house at the main plaza and asked Filann about the rumors they had heard that Filann had told master Roshann that he didn't consider himself any longer to be Sumall's husband, and that he would ask the Council of the Elders to cancel his marriage. It seemed that Manall has send his son and master Pohinn back to their chores, after Filann had broken off the discussion and took Cemall with him to repair the shed at Manall's new house. "

Luke sighed.

"I feared that it would come to this. Sumall's behavior has driven Filann's patience to the limit. Not only the behavior some other Quelans have seen, but also that Sumall is refusing to become his wife. I wonder if this will be solved before we will be gone, Shaayla-Car, but there's nothing we can change about this situation. The only think I hope is that Manall and the other leaders will call for that joined hearing."

Cornell was walking over to the house of his father, knocked on the door and stepped inside. In the living room Manall and Filann were have their meal. Cornell looked at his eldest son.

"Why are you here? You have a wife, waiting for you. She has complained to her father that you have come home after being away for more than a year," Cornell snapped.

Filann looked at his father, and shook his head.

"I'm not discussing this matter with you, or master Pohinn, anymore. Just before we left Myr I have told why that girl is no longer my wife and that's all I want to say about it."

"You're bringing disgrace on our family, Filann." Cornell said, getting ill-tempered again, but he saw his father's warning glance. "Sumall still needs to get used to her status as your wife. You have to guide and than you will see that she will learn. You're the adult in this marriage. This young girl needs to be tended and guided with a soft hand. She told her father that she misses you."

"I'm sure she does," Filann said cynically. "Alone she can't start yelling and screaming for there would be no one to respond. No father, whatever she has told master Pohinn it's all a lie. I'm not going back to her. I'm finished with her."

He stood up and took his plate to the sink, before he turned to his grandfather.

"I'm going out, grandfather. I'm going to talk a long walk on Tyr, but I will be back for our evening meal." He said and grabbed his coat. Cornell stepped in front of his son.

"I'm going to bring you your legitimate home and you're going to make it up with your wife, for not seeing immediately after you've come back here."

Filann looked at his father, turned around.

"If I can't go out through the front door, grandfather, I'll take the back door," He said.

He walked through the room, opened the door the back rooms and within minutes the back door slammed to.

Outraged Cornell looked at his father.

"Father, if he comes back I want you to send him home to his wife." Cornell said. "Honyan Pohinn and I have agreed that Sumall would become my son's wife when she had reached the age of fifteen. We have postponed the announcement of his wedding until she was sixteen, but we do no longer accept Filann's obstinate behavior. He is married to her and he has to live with her."

Manall looked at his son.

"I will tell him, Cornell, but I must remind you that your son is a grown Quelan harvester. Moreover, since the announcement of his marriage, neither you nor Honyan Pohinn have any say over him or matters concerning him. He is now his own boss. He might be willing to listen to you, but that doesn't mean that you can tell him what he has to do." Manall said calmly, looking at his son. "I have stepped back when you became Tronama's husband, remember. I have never meddle in your affairs after your marriage had been announced. Sit down, son, for I want to have a word with you, for there are things you doesn't seem to know."

Still looking outraged Cornell sat down on the chair his son had just left. Manall looked at him.

"Why are you insisting, son, that Filann has to keep up to what has been our traditional way of life? He represents a new generation of young harvest men who have grown up among the Quelans of Ribana once we have arrived here. He, and his peers, have seen the difference between the way how our forced marriages are arranged and announced and the way marriages take place among our fellow Ribana Quelan, if I may call them that way. "

"Father, our way of arranging marriages is the best way to make sure that our children will find a partner, and not that they won't find someone to share their lives with." Cornell said.

Manall nodded.

"That is a good argument in itself, son, but is the choice the fathers make also the choice the partners would make afterwards?"

"Father, you can't expect that young boys and girls are able to make a good choice when it comes to find a partner for life." Cornell objected.

"Really, then I have to conclude that the marriages among the Quelan boys and girls from Ribana are doomed to fail, right, although I have never heard of fellow Ribana Quelans are experiencing the dissatisfaction, the frustration and the discontent I have sensed among our harvest youngster. Have you, by accident, heard of Ribana marriages being broken up?"

"Not really, father, but also among our announced marriages the partners stay together. My son is the first one to object to his marriage, as far as I know."

"I don't think so, son. I'm sure that among the marriages which have been announced while our governors weren't here, there are several arranged relationship which I should call unhappy."

"Father, partners who form a new house hold always have to compromise. Tronama and I have had different opinions especially concerning many things in our marriage, but we always have solved our different points of view. It is a matter of give and take."

"It sure is, son, but what if one of the partners only takes and never gives in return, for that's what happening in your son's marriage. Sumall only takes, because she does not want to give up her life as a young girl for the demands placed on a married woman. She expects that your son will provide her with every necessary things, she once got from her parents, and above all she wants to do what she thinks is right, but she doesn't want to give him her affection in return. I'm almost certain that she doesn't feel any affection for him. With her egocentric behavior she is making your son unhappy, Cornell."

"As I said, he has to guide her to become a decent wife," Cornell objected.

"How should he do that, son, while Sumall can only yell and scream at him, the moment she sees him."

Cornell looked more concerned.

"My son is a good man, father. We sometimes disagree, but he knows what he is talking about. I haven't always agreed with his points of view while we were working on the water project, but I have to admit that several of his ideas have worked out well." Cornell admitted. "But I can't understand why he is so obstinate about his marriage.

"Then you haven't listened well to what he said when you and Honyan Pohinn came to my house in Ribana. I give you a solid advice: go home and recall what Filann has told you about his relationship with Sumall, a relationship that doesn't exist and which have to be discarded as soon as possible if you want to keep a good relationship with your sons, for also Cemall hates the way marriages among the harvest families are arranged.

For the time being, son, Filann stay here with me. Josferin Kamalin is taking care of Lorann, so I have some a spare room to give my grandson a good shelter."

"Father, you need to call for the Harvest Council to decide on this matter," Cornell said as he stood up.

"We certainly need to do that, son. I will heed this advice." Manall said as he walked his son to the door.

After Cornell had left Manall walked through the back rooms and opened the back door.

"Come inside, son. I have send your father home to do some good thinking." Manall said and looked at Filann who sat on a nut tree that was growing in the backyard. He jumped of the branch and followed his grandfather inside.

"Grandfather, do you know where the victims of the Urams attack have been buried?" He asked.

"I will bring you there tomorrow, after I have seen the member of the Council of the Elders and the governors. What I have to say won't take long, so you can wait in the main hall."

Filann's eyes lit up.

"That's good, grandfather, for that I can have a look at the drawing Lorann has made. Miss Shaayla-Car said I should have a look at them."

"Great idea, son. and now you and I are going for that long walk you wanted to make," Manall said with a gleeful look.