Dawn Sunshine Standard Award, Rannick aka The Rannick Medal for Bringing the Dawn's light
Award granted to Bearer of the Dawn Standard, Rannick, also known as the Dawn's Light Bringer Award for Rannick, it's only been granted twice, once posthumously, to Emperor of Sardé Jud Armillar Sardé, de Vilar a.k.a. Phoenician, and to Marhamat Dandelion, LGOF-06 Electrum for Life and Patriarch of Megamisama First Lifeguards, Star-Emerald Knight of Great Kagome. Valour-keeper of Kagomei, Standard bearer of the Dawn, Defender of the Rising Sun, Sottoloro of Utta-Utta, Knight of Elbow River, making it the rarest/most difficult award to obtain, by objective measures, simply by dearth of comparatives. Featuring an orange ribbon with gold brocade borders, this is considered 'gaudy' outside of Rannick. That only one person ever had occasion to wear it, and that it was prompty outshone by ribbons covered of actual beryl amidst jet on a black backing, only academics even bother mentioning this.
"I'm sorry, what's that?" "What's what, young sapling?" "That orange ribbon..." "Err, I happen to be granted the honour to bear the ribbon of the Rannick Dawn Sunshine's Standard." "An honour unparallelled." "Yeah, yeah, get on with it." "You... Wait, those are five dawn-coloured ribbons on your chest?" "Get on with it. I don't have all day!" "What, but wait... How did you?" "I saved an entire Asiranian Council of Development's rulers from a bomb. Like I said, get on with it." "How come you ... only have five? I thought there'd be six major nations in Asirania..." "Unlike the other five, while Kagomei, my home nation, respects the sun, we outfit honour in black and emerald." Of which there was a bar of on his chest, mixed crushed jet and beryls on a black background, enough for three... no four medals! "Only one person has ever earned such an honour, Marhamat Dandelion, you are known to us, let even the Sun call your name." "Well, youngling, like I said, get on with it. I get enough of the namby pamby folderol at home." His daughter, in full dress uniform with slightly less medals hid her smile, even as she ushered their principal in. "Attention, by the Treaty of Rannick, she comes, by its rules she abides, she is Meihomei, empress of Kagomei." "We greet you, Empress of Kagomei." No one who knew kagomine but had not Kagomine allegiance would dare brave the breach of sovereignty that came with repeating Meihomei, as a title. "I've come, let the principals know I'm here." "Good, you've arrived, you know Hyacinth Xue, my latest wife, and Xiang Xhi, my daughter?" "Aumhavar." Amalthea's order of greetings would cause conniptions, but she couldn't help herself. Saluting anyone before her was Anathema to Amalthea, who'd been raised to her own Aumhavar title a few years prior. "Hunarch, Lady Hyacinth. Yes, I've met Excelsior Xiang before." Xhi's office in Dunkehl had seen her visit weekly to prepare for this visit, despite all the slights being traded. "Xhi, you have something to add?" "Aumhavar." She bowed as only one did to a chief of state one was familiar to, all matter-of-fact. "We await our hosts." Patience had never come easily to Xiang, and her step mother only exarcerbated her feelings, for all that her mother had forgiven her father long ago. "I come, I bear gifts in welcome, come, signatories of the Accord of Rannick City. Let us celebrate our peace and prosperity." "Gifts are not needed, we are here to perfect our union." Amalthea knew her role here, she was the bad cop, here to call others to account. "Yet, our union is to bring us all prosperity and peace, with the elements' blessings." Zwei Hanuman countered, his daughter biting her lip not to speak. His other daughter, not yet of legal Moniqan age, and rebellious to a fault at this time, had been banished to her room. He was to be the 'good cop', bringing up the advantages to the treaty and the current situation. "Gifts you shall have, nonetheless, especially since we of Rannick feel especially blessed with this treaty." That was true and no mistake, Rannick's GDP had almost doubled since the treaty adoption. Although, in absolute numbers, Moniq had gained dozens of billions to Kagomine's billions to Rannick's billion, it would have seemed churlish to rehash the distribution. All three rulers had spent months on every single item, treaty negotiations extending over 15 months. "You haven't introduced your whole entourage, Empress of Kagomé, are you trying to trap us?" "Why? No, of course not, what could I be trapping you with." "Meritants of Honour are to be saluted first, by your laws and custom, isn't that correct?" "Why, yes, yes, indeed." "Bearers of the Dawn Standard of Rannick, have a similar, if even more exacting, depending on perspective, requirement here. Marhamat Dandelion, Bringer of the Dawn, I salute you, let it not be said I forgot who saved my life, those years ago." "Err." Marhamat was seldom really at a loss for words, he tended to bully a subordinate and that was that, but his daughter, who had her own Merit of Honour, and head of the detail, was hardly proper bullying material, let alone in this place, where her own awards had the locals a little humble. "And bearers of the dawn standard of Moniq are entitled to all honours I can give, I remember you, lightbringer, I owe you life and honour, forevermore." The intensity of Hunarch's Zwei gaze was a little unsettling, the chair of the Gubba-12 organization routinely looked down division-sized armies as 'distractions', and trillions in a budget was his routine, for he ran one of the two largest economies in Arnd, depending on who you asked, and the second largest nation by population, with an iron fist. "Err, please, I don't intend to lead anyone into breaking any laws or customs, but I'm distinctly uncomfortable with the levels of honours that have accrued since I disarmed that bomb..." "Get used to it, Zim-Meritant-Zim." Amalthea only used his formal title when she needed to wheedle him, or on the rare occasion to remind him that humility came with the medals. He'd saved her life three times, and her mother's besides, she didn't think humility was warranted that often, mind. And saving diplomat's lives had led to treaties with nations that she'd been at war with, or at least, in trade wars with, to sign treaties like this one, or the next, the one she hoped to sign in two years, in Lai Dang, which is why her second-in-command, well, nearly co-ruler, her cousin, adopted sister, best friend, and number 2, was not here, she couldn't be spared from the efforts that could lead into adding fifteen nations to a treaty that had added 30% to the economy already, over a few years. Some of her advisors were saying doubling the size of the Kagomine economy wasn't off the table... And a seat in the Gubba-12, as the twelfth or thirteenth largest nation in Arnd, up from sixteenth... She was already the fourth most popular ruler of her nation in her nation's history, and second wasn't quite off the books... Marhamat's head swung. "As ordered, highest-of-highs." He was using Rannick-flavoured Tsou, for his hosts' benefits, and Tsou, just like Kagomine, was an offshoot of Moniqan, and so fully intelligible to their Moniqan 'friends'. "Dawn strikes early in Kagomei." Zwei said, clearly a pun from his tone. "Dawn strikes last in Rannick, for there are no second chances when the light of dawn finds you." "Kagomei finds that the dawn breaks up the night, deeds done in the secret of one's own heart reveal one's character, in the light of dawn, all is revealed." She added, in Rannicki, the Tsou dialect locally spoken. Damn, now I have to update her file again, thought Rammamyr Dei Tora, I didn't think she'd bothered, with Mikhala to speak Rannicki for her... "In night, deeds unseen, in light deeds unknown." Who was this student of Rannicky poetry? She'd not have picked him out of a line up, he was nondescript, lithe, but that ancient traditional dress was hardly common... "Let it be known to the worthies who do not yet know my name, that I am Linnaeus Van Pelt Ryder Kannagael, Baron of Welf." "Scion of Ferrare, we welcome you, you have traveled far." His Rannicki host was showing off, Linnaeus knew, no one without his file would have picked him for a Brescian, so pale and pasty-faced he was. "I am honoured, but please, let me be known by my deeds, not by birth." That was a considerable downgrade, everyone knew. Even Shibue of the detail was shocked by how many protocolary ranks that dropped from him, a dozen was more than people earned in a lifetime of trying, and he shed them like water drops off a duck's back. "Honoured CI-06 Assistant Auxiliary Vice-Undersecretary for service, we welcome you, and wish we'd known of your interest in Rannicki poetry, we'd have shared some manuscript ones we keep for the true fans..." "Thank you, but I am hardly knowledgeable, altough this particular piece caught my eye, written as it was, about the medals." He looked around, trying not to make eye contact with the elderly ruler of Rannick, whose boytoys seldom outlived her fancy, although no misdeed could yet be proven. He managed to make eye contact with the young daughter of the detail's ceremonial chief. Wait, those rank tabs, she's the actual detail chief... That young? She was younger than he was! And he was this low on the totem pole partly because of his age, no preferential treatment like his cousin Amarat. That wasn't fair, Amarat hated any whiff of preferential treatment, but it was a lot harder to refuse if you were an actual blood relation, if you were 'almost adopted, but your almost mom got cold feet', you didn't get quite as much of it... How good must she be, to be a flag officer, that young?
Item type
Award
Comments