Assessing the coherence of the Operational Dimensions Framework, as a general descriptive theory (coherence theory of truth) the ODF as a whole

CHAPTER 13

“You two have it too, don’t you?” I asked. Leeroy nodded, Tristan and Deva were at a loss for words. “Another thing, I had a key that was given to me by my mother, at least a part of it. Yellow King stole it from me. He said he needed it to open the Archway.” I tried re-piecing the story together in my head.

“The Archway? That can’t be the same thing, right?” Deva asked Tristan.

“The Archway. The Festival is coming, soon,” he answered.

“The Festival? He mentioned a festival. He said his family was coming.”

“Who was your mother? How’d she get that key? And how’d you get that mark” Deva half stood. The pitch of her voice rising.

“Faith. Her name was Faith,” I let out. “It was just a third of it. I have a letter that said she gave one to Kingsport and the other to Basc. My mother drew it on me the last time I saw her. She said it was a good luck charm.” I spat out.

Deva’s eyes narrowed.

“What’s your real name?”

“Joy,” I said sucking my lips in, unsure of what she was getting at. “Joy Haita Carter.” Immediately Deva sat back with a groan. Tristan sighed, blowing out air while leaning back in his chair and scratching his head. He seemed more taken back than Deva.

“The letter.” Tristan reached his hand out. I understood and went into my bag. I pulled out the note and handed it to him.

“A Carter? Gods. You mean to tell me this island bumpkin is a Carter?”

Deva complained while she smacked her forehead as if finding out the answer to an obvious children’s riddle.

“Woah! I told you she was different!” Leeroy cheered and ran up to me. He grabbed my hand and shook it excitedly. “A real Carter! Please, teach me your ways!” He bowed. I didn’t know how my last named changed anything, but apparently it was important.

“I understand now. We have no time to waste. I’ll go to the Court and call for a meeting immediately.” Tristan began to rise, his eyes already looking for the door.

“No, I’ll go. They probably won’t even remember you.” Deva closed her eyes and exhaled as she rose. Both Tristan and Leeroy became silent as they looked at their companion.

“Are you certain, Deva?” Tristan gave a low toned question.

“It’s been long enough. It’ll be fine,” she said, turning away from the group as if she might stay if he tried to convince her anymore. “Come to the castle before the Quarter Ball starts, until then, don’t let Carter out of your sight.”

‘Carter.’ I guess ever since I left the island my new name was ‘Carter’ or ‘Little Carter.’ Never just ‘Joy.’

I didn’t understand why it was so important. Nobody seemed to care about last names unless it came to mine. I made a mental note to ask Robert if he knew anything about it when we were away from the others.

Deva continued and opened the door into the street outside, leaving the four of us behind. We sat there in silence for several moments too long to be comfortable. Tristan sat and crossed his arms, looking away from us. He clearly wasn’t interested in continuing the conversation.

“This is boring. Let’s go to the Coliseum,” Leeroy said, standing in a hurry.

“No,” Tristan said as he leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes as if trying to sleep.

“You guys wanna see the Coliseum? They’ve got all sorts of cool things to watch there.” He gave us a sing-song voice, trying to sell us on the entertainment. At this point, anything would be better than just sitting here for hours with such a terrible host. I stood. Robert joined me.

“Come on! Don’t be a stick in the mud,” Leeroy complained as he ran around the table. He put his fists up and began play punching Tristan’s shoulder, which easily bounced the boy’s fists off. Tristan stood with a sigh. Leeroy gave a cheer of victory, raising his arms above his head and leaning back, an excited victor.

“You’re gonna love the Coliseum, Joy. There’s so much fighting.”

“I don’t think I’d like that, I’m not a fan of violence.”

“Well there’s a lot more to see than just fighting, they have boring girly stuff like, dancing!” My ears perked up.

“Dancing? I thought the Coliseum was for warriors to fight and show off their skills. I’ve never heard of dancing being a part of the shows.”

“Then come on! At noon the fighting starts, if we don’t get there soon you might miss it.” He waved for me to follow as he ran out the door. I looked at Robert.

“Sounds better than spending all day in here,” he shrugged. I nodded, and we both followed Leeroy out the door.

The streets of Kingsport were wide and only became wider. There was enough room to fit five horse-drawn carriages at once between the buildings that faced inwards. Most were houses and apartment buildings for the tens of thousands of people living this close together.

At the end of every block was a series of shops all trying to get our

attention. Almost all of them worked and I knew that even if I had all the money in the world I would have spent it all on the sheer number of interesting arts, crafts and supplies. And all that space became denser by the second with people going about their merry lives.

A few of them here or there really stuck out with little accessories and details I’d never seen a person wear before. On Lonely Island it was all the same ragged and practical garbs. The people here must be so much wealthier than anyone else in the world. But success and money were probably much easier to attain when you were living in such a powerful city.

For a girl in my commoner outfit, I felt uncomfortable, embarrassed even.

Whatever court I was going to see later was probably going to assume I was a street rat. I could only hope Deva’s ties to the Kingsport courts were as tight as she made it sound.

Leeroy led the way as Robert and I followed. Tristan stayed back, keeping a watchful eye on us.

“Robert,” I said in a hushed voice, even though in these loud streets it would be impossible for anyone to ease drop. “Is there anything I need to know about these three? Are they going to try to hurt us?” Robert looked back at me with a smile.

“I don’t think so. Over the last few days they’ve warmed up to me. Deva is a rebel-adventurer type. She’s got a chip on her shoulder and so does Tristan, but I think that’s just because of their jobs. They both hate the cultists that follow the Elder Gods, especially Tristan. From what I’ve learned Tristan was a member of the Crimson Elite and a well-known fighter in the coliseum, which isn’t a surprise. I think he trained Deva, they may not seem like it but they’re very close. They were hunting the Shantak for a while. With Leeroy what you see is what you get. He’s a bouncy kid that wants to grow up to be like Tristan. He considers himself a devout student of adventuring, though I don’t think he knows how to read. He’s spoken to me the most out of the three, and he’s had a sad childhood. He grew up as an orphan here in the streets of Kingsport. He met Tristan and Deva while his gang was stealing from their ship. Ever since then they’ve been traveling together. Since you’ve been gone I’ve found a lot of things in the library here. I found one special medical book, I think it’s less of a normal book and more of a Grimoire,” Robert explained.

“A Grimoire?”

“Yeah, like a magical medicine book. It deals specifically with herbs and plant medicines. I haven’t figured anything out in it, but I’m working on it.

There’s dozens of years of research in it that I would have never known otherwise. Most people are scared of it. It’s not illegal, but with all the strange things happening in town over the last few years, it has the locals in an anti-magic sentiment. We have to make sure we don’t do anything remotely anti-magical in public.” Leeroy slowed down until we caught up.

“Come on, this way is a shortcut!” he said as he swerved around the corner and into an alley. The pathway was much narrower than the street, but not so long as to where we couldn’t see the other side. The noise from the town settled down as we made our way down the cobblestone corridor. It got darker, as the looming buildings rose above our heads.

From behind a gathering of wicker bins came two arms followed by the body of a boy not much bigger than Leeroy. The arms drove into Leeroy’s shoulder, pushing him to the side. He toppled over and skid across the ground.

Robert began to run forward to make sure he was alright, but he was denied as two more boys came out from the trash bins, each one brandishing a knife.

“Back off, Oldies,” said the one in the center who had pushed Leeroy over.

“This is our business, not yours,” said one to his left, with greasy hair that stuck to his forehead and covered his eyes. Robert stepped in front of me, half pushing me back.

“Stop this right now kids,” he demanded.

“Why don’t you go screw right off, Oldie?” said the third to the right, a who’s hair was equally as messy. His stomach was so large his belly button peaked out the bottom of his ragged clothes. Robert took a step forward. But all three boys screamed and swinging wildly at him. Robert stepped back, surprised that the children would actually try to cut him. We looked on, as the first boy waited for Leeroy to stand. The had thin blonde hair that had been slicked backward.

I could tell he was the ringleader since he was the only one with the sense to keep his hair out of his eyes. Instead of a shirt the boy wore an oversized brown jacket that opened in the middle. Leeroy’s palms were red, and I could see a bump on the side of his head growing like a goose egg.

“You have the nerve to use our alleyways you traitor?! No one comes into The Rat’s territory. We run the streets!” he announced, stepping away from Leeroy. “You want to live? You better fight for your life!” he warned, raising his arms.

“Boys stop fighting!” I cried. The two other boys in front of us spread out, ensuring we couldn’t try to run around their bladed barricade

Leeroy stood, a look of fierce determination on his face, one that reminded me of Tristan’s when he took on the Shantak.

“Prepare yourself,” said the blonde bully. Leeroy wiped his face and took a step back. Taking a deep fighting stance.

“Bring it,” Leeroy replied as his eyes focused on his opponent.

“James,” the blonde boy started as he threw his serrated knife up into the air. It twirled as it came down behind him, lodging itself into the ground. “Call it!”

“Rex first, begin!”

CHAPTER 14