The One

THIRTY

The council meeting was interesting, to his surprise.

Politics, in his mind, were about opinions.
But, though it was, everything here was a discussion on why something was right or wrong.

They kept asking input from experts brought in or attending.

To his surprise,
he was asked to the stands during a discussion on safety while navigating the open plains.
Where he had to confess all you could do was hire a 'guide' from the area for protection,
these guides usually had all kinds of deals to keep their overpriced business alive.
Deals with other parties that basically guaranteed you'd be attacked or robbed if you did not go with one of the guides located in a certain area.
A problematic venture, that immediately had councilors calling for bans and aggressive laws to prevent such business.
Agnus proposed the governing bodies should probably set up their own guide program for an affordable price or even free so people had a choice, choice was important.

He stepped back, Onida thanking him for his insights.
As he turned Aya was called to the stage and started talking.
Agnus stopped, he was loud on the wooden stairs to his seat and wanted to hear her topic.

She had papers, which she had put down in front of her.
"Council, I would like to discuss the topic of wages."

Certain people in the council shifted and groaned.

"We are getting more and more reports of people being offered wages that cannot pay their bills or even afford them enough food to keep the employee healthy, this is possibly cheaper for employers then slavery. As slave owners had to provide shelter and food."
She spoke in a surprisingly mature voice.

"Well, we warned this would happen with a slave ban!" A plump counselor called.

"Yes, counselor, you voiced that concern and we said we'd deal with that issue once it came up." She shifted her papers, "it has come up and we propose a minimum wage instated by law."

"How will you police this?" Asked another skeptical face.

"We are working on that," she said, "but it's important we instate this as soon as pos-"

" Ridiculous! We can't just decide what people pay others for services! " Barked a women, she was dressed in a dress similar to his mothers  but was covered with jewelry to communicate her apparent wealth.

" Madame councilor, I could pay you the wages we now see popping and see how much you'd enjoy it? And remind you the majority of our people are having to live of these. " Aya said calmly.

" That still doesn't change the fact that we have no business deciding these things for people! "
Aya wanted to retort but the women barked over her,
" Just like the young man before you mentioned, people should be allowed how and where to spend their money! Have a choice! I expected more from you! " She said in a scolding tone.

Agnus was instantly enraged though.
He walked back up the speakers stage.
He realized to late he had trapped Aya in front of him, but that was fine.
He put both his hands in the rail on either side of him and looked at the women that had spoken.

" Madame councilor, I will not have you drag my words so far out of context as to assume I do not support a minimum wage rule! " He roared.

The lady shot him a fierce look and started to open her mouth.

" Let me be very clear that I do not think we have the resources to provide and finance guiding stations and protection for every venture across large areas of the open plains. We should give people a choice if they want to spend more. But maybe we should limit people like you from using the affordable options meant for normal citizens as you can afford your own guides, there's a law. If you want to create separatism? That goes both ways." He said, returning her fierce look.
"Let's not forget, madam councilor, afford such luxuries as safety is an issue due to exactly this! We should make minimum wage and tax them. Put a somewhat odd amount of tax on these wages so they stand out and are easily checked.
Even the most thick tax collector could.
Then we make a system where employee's can request a part of these taxes back so we can compare if the employer filled everything correctly and payed the correct taxes for his employees. 
It's not that hard." He grunted.

He looked down at Aya's papers, he had probably come up with a pretty good system to check wages and employment just by remembering the whinny little tax collector that stressed his mother so much throughout his childhood.

Aya turned slightly, seeming to smile but he couldn't be sure.

She spoke though,
" You see, council, if we put our best men on this we can solve these kinds of things in a matter of minutes. I hear your complaints, but truly, I don't think any of us can agree to let the majority of our people labor in poverty while the rest still bathes in wealth they refuse to share.

We should not be blinded by our own positions or wealth. It's not like we will ever have to live or know that life once we get here. Unless we are really dumb.
But for those of us that have known it, this is important for a reason!"
She grabbed her papers quite suddenly and turned.

Agnus raised his eyebrows at her, now facing him.

He stepped back and allowed her through,
"You speak well here." He said quietly as she brushed by him.

~

"You!"
Onida walked up to Agnus who was actually discussing the tax system differences between regions with his mother and Kur. Trying to figure out why there were differences.

He tightened his lips, " oh no, here we go. "
He had predicted he was going to receive a scolding at some point for stepping out of line.
He turned to her, realizing to late this was a threatening posture with his build, size and stupid outfit.

He put on an apologetic face.

She poked him full in the chest however,
" you! "
She smiled and she continued in the animated way of talking that always made Morten turn into a 12 year old.
" That was just, woo! You made Aya look like an absolute unit! "

" Scuse me? " He said, frowning.

" Well,
Aya is a cute little bird on her best days. She may look defiant, but there's always this touch of 'on the verge of tears' there that several council members like to try and coax out by overwhelming her with stupid dialogue.
They even like to jump her with big words knowing she's a former slave and isn't used to them," she said, looking annoyed.
"But you!" She pointed at him.
"Holy shit, the way you stepped up behind her? You looked about ready to eat the next idiot to open his or her mouth to argue her point!" She beamed.

" I just, didn't want them to twist my words... " he started.

" It doesn't matter! That was a show no one will forget any time soon. Hopefully they will give her more value next time. Even Morten was eating it up! And the way you fixed the problem,
I have no clue why we didn't think of taxes. " Her voice faltered on the last bit.

" Morten? " Agnus frowned.

" Yes, he was the guard on my left, the masked guys. "

" I didn't know he was allowed active duty yet? " Agnus asked.

Onida shrugged, " he still can't sit or move exceedingly well. But he just has to stand and look big enough to break a jaw which is easy next to me."

Indeed, Agnus realized he hadn't even thought either of those man could be Morten because they had looked very big.
"Good," he said, not meaning to do so out loud.

"What?" Asked Onida.

"Eh," Agnus said, not even having registered he had said that, "Just nice that I have someone to talk to about this?"

" You have Kur too, right?" She asked slightly confused.

Agnus nodded, " But Kur is a former heavy labor slave turned army trainee and political man. He's not at home in free and open world issues of the great outdoors, he's never seen actual battle besides the siege we all experienced and Morten isn't very political which makes him nicely neutral. "

She smiled at him, as if she understood exactly what he meant.

" So you are keeping Morten around? " He asked, smiling at her.

She nodded, " He's a good spirited guy with his head on straight. I don't know if I can say that about all the guards hanging around. You should know.. "

He did know, having been training them.
" Young Man with big dreams," he said.

She smiled and started walking away from him,
"Keep this up sir, you seem to be a valuable asset to my council"