Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:26:33 +0200
From: A.K. <andrej@andrejkoymasky.com>
Subject: "The Free Commune of Silvana" 2/6 (Historical - fantasy)

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THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA
by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006
writen on March 7, 1995
translated by the Author
English text kindly revised
by Bill

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USUAL DISCLAIMER

"THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA" is a gay story, with some parts containing
graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion,
family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better
not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't
care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my
welcomed guest.

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CHAPTER 2 - The first Temple. The story of Joyous, Silvan's successor,
and of his companion Silent.

An interesting document is the letter sent to Joyous, one of the first
successors to Silvan, by the Great Priest of Powerton, on the first year
of the Flower of the tenth generation (361). From this letter it is
apparent that Joyous asked the Great Priest for authorization to build,
then that he would come to consecrate, the first temple of the
community. Where this first temple was built, is just conjecture, as
many think it was on the place where now stands Temple Castle, even
though the actual building being inside its walls was built several
generations later.

Anyway, the Great Priest Wellborn answers he would willingly go,
because,

"... I know the piety of the community of the Blazing Mountain that you
so wisely preside over. I am moreover glad to make a gift to your
community, for this occasion, of all the territory going from your mount
to the White River, a land that up to now has belonged to our temple. It
will be under your total jurisdiction, including all our servants and
slaves who are now cultivating this land..."

It was a narrow slip of land and it contituted the first enlargement of
the territory of the Commune. The letter moreover ends with the words:

"... and I will pray for you, for your beloved companion Silent, for
your community and for all the commoners working in your territory. May
the Awakened protect you and keep you free and united as you have always
been."

This letter shows that Wellborn had enough clear ideas about the
community organization and about the values of freedom and unity they
professed. Moreover it uses the term "jurisdiction", and this, if not
yet a real acknowledgement of independence of the territory, is at least
the acknowledgement of his autonomy from other powers.

This letter, together with other documents, would be used later by the
community as a proof in the proceedings brought by their powerful
neighbours opposing them. It is also clear that Wellborn perfectly knew
that this community was practicing love between men, as the expression
"your beloved companion" shows.

About Joyous and Silent we have a delightful tale, written possibly
during the XII generation that, besides telling us how they met and fell
in love and finally united, shows us what was the relation between the
Companions and the Friends.

"A young Companion called Joyous, almost every day after the morning
lauds, descended to the Livewaters spring to take water for the
community. Near the spring stood five Friends' houses. When Joyous went
there, they prayed him to stay a while with them to tell the stories
about the earliest times. Joyous then sat on a stone and told them
stories. Always the children gathered around him and often one or
another of them climbed on his legs and Joyous, lightly caressing his or
her hair, started his new narration.

Amongst them there was the little Silent, the son of Good and Lilflower.
He was a really beautiful child, sweet and quiet, who just entered the
Flower age (10 years); he had black hair, smooth as silk and eyes the
color of a summer sky. When he could go to sit on Joyous' legs, he put
his head on his shoulder and remained still until Joyous ended his
narration. Then he thanked him with a sweet smile, kissed the brim of
his habit and looked at him going to fill his two buckets at the spring.

On a day when Joyous was about to take the road back to the Cliff with
his buckets filled with water, Lilflower and Good, keeping their three
children by the hand said to Joyous, "Our son wants to become a
Companion. Can we entrust him to you?"

"To me? I am one of the youngest Companions, why don't you entrust him
to somebody wiser than me?"

"Our son is affectionate toward you and he wants you as his guide."

"Take him to our Rector and he, in his wisdom, will decide who will be
the best guide to make him a Companion." Joyous answered.

"We know you and entrust him to you. What you will do, will be well
done."

Joyous, taking Silent's hand, went up to the Cliff. "Why do you want to
become a Companion, my little friend?"

"I want to become your companion." Silent answered.

"You are still a child." Joyous said.

"But I will grow up. Will you wait for me?"

"We will see. First you have to become a really good Companion. You know
that two Companions can't unite before the Fruit age, don't you?"

"That means less than five years." Silent serenely answered squeezing
Joyous' hand affectionately.

Joyous took him to the Rector who examined him for a long time, then
enrusted him to Wolf and his companion Elm asking them to insruct him.
Silent slept in the novices' house and diligently applied himself to all
his tasks. Every day he picked a flower and deposited it on the
threshold of Joyous' house and each time he met him he greeted him with
a warm smile.

Joyous was watching the boy grow up, and the more he was growing up, the
more beautiful he seemed to become. When in the Great Cave they sang the
lauds to the Awakened and to the Master, three times per day, their eyes
often met and those of Silent became bright, those of Joyous wer filled
with sweetness.

When at last Silent entered the Fruit age (15 years), he could leave the
black habit and wear the light blue one of the Companions.  With a
ceremony he pronounced the vows of freedom, poverty and love, then went
down to Livewaters for the thanksgiving song to his parents for having
given him life.

Silent, after he became a Companion, each day deposited on Joyous'
threshold a fruit. Until one evening, after the song of the lauds,
Joyous went near him and said, "The flowers you gave me were perfumed,
the fruits you are giving me are sweet."

"I am glad you appreciate them." The boy happily answered.

"But... there is another fruit that is now ripe and that I would like to
taste. Why don't you deposit that one on my threshold?" Joyous asked
with a smile.

Then Silent went up in front of the door of Joyous' house and sat down
to wait. When Joyous retired for the night, he found him sitting there.
So he took him in his arms, shifted the curtain and deposited him on his
leaves pallet. Then lit the lantern, pulled off the boy's habit and,
lying on him, savoured him all the night long.

They intensely loved each other, day after day, until Silent at last
reached the age to ask the Rector to unite him with Joyous. Their love
grew and stregthened so that soon they were held up as an example for
the novices about how the true love uniting a couple of companions was
to be."

Later, Joyous became the Rector and, as we have seen, he built the first
Temple. The statue of Joyous and Silent in the Cave is the third on the
right of that of the Founder. Silent is represented crouching down near
Joyous, to remember when he was waiting for him at his door threshold,
even though he is represented as a twenty-year-old boy. In his left hand
he holds a flower and with his right one he offers a fruit to Joyous,
symbolizing his total dedication. It is believed that this statue was
carved at the beginning of the year 400, that is in the XII generation.

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The Stronghold and the Fortress. The First Statute. The Forum of the
Heads of Families. The story of Trusty and Severe

During the XXIX generation, when Primus was the Rector, the surrounding
empire was scoured by raids of barbarians coming from the west. The
Companions, fearing the incursors' ferocity, decided to fortify the top
of the mountain and built the Stronghold that stands on the tallest
point of the Blazing Mount, right above the Cliff, and that winds round
it going down with its walls and also encircles the Great Cave with a
powerful wall.

>From the documents it is noted that also the families of Livewaters and
of Temple participated in its construction, and for the first time are
also named the families of Borough. In fact, in the archives there is a
deed dated 3 Fl XXIX (393) with which the Gall family of Richton gives
his farms in Plane to the community, and Borough stands almost at the
center of Plane. It also states that the Companions were organized in
ten working teams and the Friends in ten more, and as we know that each
team was composed of eight men in total, including those that because of
their age or because of other tasks could not work at the Stronghold
building, the total population of the community must have been composed
of about 200 Companions and 300 Friends.

There is also a note of Rector Primus where we can read that it was
needed to keep on guard four shifts of twelve men; that is, he
specifies, about one tenth of the total population. Also dating back to
this period is the purchase, made in Powerton, of fifty swords, fifty
lances, fifty bows and a thousand arrows with iron tips. To pay for all
those weapons, the Companions bound themselves to carve the eighty
statues for the tower of the Main Temple of Powertown. Unhappily, the
tower crumbled in 1027 because of an earthquake and doesn't exist any
more. It had to have been really beautiful, as is shown in some ancient
drawings conserved in the State Archives.

In the upper part of the Stronghold there are twelve "houses" for the
Companions. For those, that is, who worked two of the four shifts. The
other two shifts were worked by the Friends. In a different writing by
the Stronghold commander, witten a few years later, a ruling was imposed
on the Companions being on duty that they be divided from their
companion, working with other men, to avoid the possibility they could
yield to the temptation to make love during their shifts. Evidently it
happened because the Companions always were on duty during the night.

We have then a document of 20/2/1 Fr XXXVI (736) titled "Solution of the
litigation between the Great Priest of Richton and the Rector of Blazing
Mount". That year arose a dispute between Donated, Great Priest of the
main temple of Richton and the community. Simple was the Rector. Donated
held that Simple had encroached on the rights of some of Richton
Temple's farms and lands on the western side of Blazing Mount. The
decision of the lawsuit was entrusted to Joung, Great Priest of
Breadmount, to Lion, Lord of Breadmount and to three eminent jurists
called from Lilvalley, Kindton and Braveton. The litigation was resolved
in favor of the community of the Companions of Blazing Mount and of
Simple, who succeeded in demonstrating that Richton temple never
possessed those farms and lands and that "nor for ten, or two and
neither one generation" ever enjoyed of their fruits. It was hence
recognized to be a tacit understanding that "now, for the past and
forever", the estates of Bank, Plane, Cottages, Woods and Terraces
belonged to Blazing Mount and to the community of the Companions.

We are by this time at the dawn of the unity and independence of the
territory. A letter from King Daring dated 26/9/2 Se XL (852) bestows to
the "free community" the privilege to build a second castle on the top
of the mountain (the Fortress castle) and to surround with walls the
built-up areas of Livewaters, Temple and Plane.

On year 3 Se LI (1023) the council of the Great Priests of Braveton and
Kindton authorizes walls to surround the friends' houses in the Cottages
estate, and so was built Serene Castle. From the documents of this epoch
it results that the total population of the territory amounted to about
1800 inhabitants, of which 500 were Companions and the others Friends.

Serene Castle was so named because from Cottages families came Serene, a
Companion to whom is given the task of drafting the first "Statute" of
the community of Companions and Friends. Here for the first time is used
the term "The Commune" to designate all the territory under the
jurisdiction of the Blazing Mount and of the community.

For the first time is formed the Forum, that is the assembly of all the
heads of Friend's families. It is defined as a "family", with all the
group of people having in common a living forefather. In this period,
the families started the use of the family names. At the death of the
commom forefather, the family splits in as many new families as there
are his sons - only the family of the elder son keeps the name of the
deceased father, the others take new family names. The Forum elects a
Captain, having responsibility with the Rector for all the decisions.

The Statute established the compulsory military service for all the
males between fifteen and sixty years of age. The Custodians of
Stronghold and Fortress had to live inside the castle. They were still
ready to host the victims of persecution but these had to surrender all
their goods, gold, money, weapons, tools and any other object to the
Custodians, remaining with only the clothes they were wearing, and had
to work with the others. If they asked to remain, all their belongings
became common property, if instead they asked to leave the territory,
they were accompanied to the boundary and here they would get back all
they had when they arrived.

Nobody could go around at night time without carrying a lighted lamp and
were forbidden to carry weapons in all the Commune territory - the night
guards had the order to immediately arrest whoever didn't obey his
order, to include even the Captain or the Rector. No stranger could buy
houses or land in the territory of the Commune. Homicide and treason
were punished with beheading. Whoever didn't pray three times each day
could be punished up to 150 prison days. The gamblers were also punished
with 150 prison days. Whoever threw dirty water or garbage on the street
and squares, was punished with 30 days of prison.

Also the sexual life was regulated by precise laws, not making any
difference between Friends or Companions. Absolutely nobody could have
sexual intercourse with a child of the Seed age (0 to 4 years); in the
age of the Leaf (5 to 9 years) it was allowed only if the two had no
more than two years of age difference and if it was voluntary; in the
age of the Flower (10 to 14 years) only if voluntary and no more than
three years of age difference; from the Fruit age up (15 years or more)
it was free. Those who didn't observe these rules, or whoever, at any
age, forced another to have sex with any means, was punished with as
many years of prison as the difference of age between them, and not less
than one year (if both were of the same age). Nobody could be united as
a steady couple before being twenty years old, but after the age of
fifteen they could be "promised".

The promised couples could not yet live together, but could freely unite
at the elder's house. The sexual relations with a united person was
punished, if reported by the companion, with a prison period equal to
the length of the illicit relationship.

No family could rear more than one small animal (chickens, rabbits,
sheep) for each member and no more than one big animal (pig, cow) for
each three members or fraction.

And last, in the Forum nobody could speak until the one who was allowed
to speak had finished. To avoid speeches being too long, a water-clock
was used that emptied in about one hour.

Regarding the laws about sexual intercourse, there is a text relating
the story of Trusty Sweets of Livewaters. He was an artisan of a potters
family. He first felt sexual urges as young as twelve years old,
therefore he was going to spy on some of the elder boys at the
confluence of the Livewaters River with the Silvan River. Trusty became
fond of a seventeen-year-old boy called Severe. Therefore, one day when
he had the opportunity to meet him alone, he asked him to teach him to
make love.

Severe answered, "I cannot do it with you, we have five years of
difference."

"But I want you to be the one teaching me."

"I cannot, you know well that. Why don't you ask Kind? He is fifteen,
the right age for you, and he knows well how to make love, I can assure
you of that."

"I saw you naked and what I saw pleased me. Kind's body is not so much
different from mine, I'm not interested in him." Trusty answered.

"Even though he is not yet well developed, he is good at making love,
believe me... Ask him..." Severe insisted.

Trusty then asked him how Kind made love, since he could say that he was
skilled and Severe explained it to the boy. But Trusty wanted Severe and
not Kind. He spied on them and saw that Severe at times made a sign to
let Kind know that he would be waiting for him, and Kind, in night time
slipped inside Severe's hayloft where he was waiting and, in the dark,
they made love. Trusty hid himself nearby, heard their pleasure moans
and was excited. The two boys almost never talked and this gave him an
idea.

He searched for clothes similar to those of Kind and, when Severe gave
the sign to tell Kind that on that night he would be waiting for him,
Trusty took it away before Kind saw it, and waited for the night. He
then climbed up to Severe's family hayloft, and Severe welcomed him
without suspecting anything, pulled him to himself and undressed him.
Then Severe started making love to him. Trusty moaned his pleasure and
did with passion all the other wanted.

When finally Severe started to take him, he said amazed, "Tonight you
seem tighter than usual, don't squeeze so, Kind." But when he finally
succeeded in penetrating him, he whispered, "You are more hot and
agreeable then ever." And Trusty felt happy. Severe was strong and
detemined, but also gentle and tender and Trusty moaned with pleasure
under the firm strokes of the youth he loved.

"Kind, without me putting up the sign, will you come also tomorrow
night?"

"Yes..." Trusty whispered, then dressed and went back to his home. They
met for several nights, until a day Kind asked Severe why he didn't
invite him to his hayloft any more.

Severe said, "What are you saying? We are meeting every night now!"

"Every night? It is almost ten days since you have made the sign."

Severe didn't insist - he guessed at once what could have happened.  In
fact for a number of days Trusty had stopped insisting that he wanted
him to make love. So that night he hid a lantern under a bucket so that
it didn't die out, but its light was not visible, and waited. When
Trusty came, first he stripped him then uncovered the lantern, "Trusty!"
he said with a stern expression.

The boy didn't get agitated, caressed him and said, "You like doing it
with me, don't you? Let's do it again."

"You know it is forbidden!"

"If you continue doing it with me, I'll keep it secret. But if you
refuse, I will tell that you forced me and fucked me, so you will go to
jail. What do you choose?"

Severe was troubled, then Trusty started making love with him until he
succeeded in arousing him and making him participate. In the light of
the lantern, the boy saw the excited expression of the youth and was
really pleased.

Severe was more and more troubled and insisted with Trusty, praying him
to put an end to those encounters, but the boy refused resolutely. So
then one day Severe went up to the Cliff and asked to talk with
Companion Tiger and told him all that was happening, asking him help and
advise. Tiger told him what they had to do. So that night, before Trusty
arrived, three companions hid in the hayloft.

When Trusty came, Severe told him, "For the last time, I beg you, I
don't want to have sex with you, it is forbidden by the law!"

Trusty answered, "But I want to make love with you, and you know very
well that it will be better if I don't report you, because everybody
would believe me and not you, and I will swear you forced me, and you
will be sentenced to five years of prison. You like making love to me,
don't you? I'm able to arouse you and give you pleasure, isn't that
right?"

"Yes, I like you, but we are not allowed. Let's stop it, please."

"No. I want you!" the boy said and undressed.

At that point the three Companions showed up and Tiger said, "Now that's
enough! Get dressed! We heard everything and we can testify that you
forced Severe by fraud to have sex with you, therefore you can't
blackmail him any more!"

Trusty didn't dress but said, "It is an unfair law. I like doing it, he
likes doing it. How can you impose on us such a law? Is not our land the
land of freedom and is it not called Very Right? What freedom and what
Justice is there for me?"

"You still are just a boy, how can you judge our forefathers' laws? How
can you say what is fair and what isn't?" Tiger sternly asked him.

"Our forefathers didn't have such laws, they were issued later. If there
were not such a law, would you, Severe, have denied my offer? Be
sincere, I beg you!" Trusty said.

"I like you very much, Trusty and I think that if the law didn't forbid
us, I would have told you yes, and willingly."

"And I have to wait three more years to be allowed to make love with him
when both of us desire it? This is not fair, Companions. If I am wrong,
show it to me!"

The three Companions didn't know what to answer, therefore they said
they would submit the query to the Rector and to the Captain, asking
them to decide. Meanwhile Trusty had to swear he would try it no more
with Severe. The boy swore. The three Companions submitted the query,
but the Rector said that a law could not be changed only for the benefit
of one person. Then the Captain summoned the Forum and, without telling
the names, told the heads of families the problem. The Forum decided to
add a clause to the law stating that if two people were decided to have
sex in the forbidden period, they had to petition the Rector and the
Captain, and if both of them, along with the head of the minor's family,
after hearing them gave their consent, they would be allowed to have sex
together.

So were summoned Sweets' head of family, then also Severe and Trusty.
Trusty declared that if the cost would have been to serve him the five
years of prison, he would have had sex again with Severe. Severe said
that Trusty was well developed and that he liked him very much, so, if
he was allowed, he would be glad to make love with the boy. Sweets' head
of family gave his assent and also the Captain. Therefore also the
Rector issued his consent and the two boys were allowed to continue
their relationship. Anyway, to punish Trusty for his behaviour, he had
to spend one month in prison every year until he became fifteen years
old. Trusty accepted happily and so the two boys could love each other
and all was quiet.

The clause added to the law is dated 20/8/4 Le LIV (1089).

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CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 3

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In my home page I've put some of my stories. If someone wants to read
them, the URL is http://www.geocities.com/~andrejkoymasky/ If you want
to send me feed-back, please e-mail at andrejkoymasky@geocities.com

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