43: Shof'tiym
The body had been laying there by the roadside for quite some time.
Everyone agreed on that part. Everyone who used the road had seen it. It was unmistakeable. The rest… was subject to debate.
Nobody could say exactly how long it had been there, for example. Days, certainly. A week? That was less clear. It seemed to be a man, but nobody had yet claimed to have actually examined it closely enough to be sure.
For the same reason, nobody could be sure about the cause of death, either.
Waylaid and murdered, perhaps by thieves or vengeful kin. Fell from a horse and broke his neck. A refugee or beggar who starved to death or was consumed by disease. Or, simply old enough to have keeled over while walking like anyone else. Any of these were plausible. Men die to all of these, every minute of every day.
Unfortunately, some of those causes would require someone to take some sort of major action, and before that determination could be made there would have to be investigation. Even more unfortunately, the dead man (if man he was) had fallen in the open space between Acale and Zemor, on public land that belonged to everyone and no-one at the same time. Who would investigate, and take steps if necessary?
The body continued to lay on the road as, quietly, everyone hoped someone else would take charge of the problem.
Eventually, the people of both towns (as well as the people of the many independent farms dotting the countryside around them) began to simply come to their own conclusions about what had happened, and what should be done about it, without any actual investigation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of these theories didn't require anyone to do anything about.
There were those who thought he had probably been some sort of terrible criminal himself, and that he had been killed in rightful and righteous vengeance for his crimes by one of his former victims or their family. Some thought he might have been a false prophet or perhaps an assassin come to kill the king, and had been stricken dead by the power of the Gods. His death was ascribed to monsters, magical creatures, foreign insurgents, secret societies, and law enforcement. He was labeled a hero, a saint, a villain, a warlock, a fool. There was even a popular theory that he had been a despoiler of the land, a clear-cutter of trees and setter of fires and poisoner of wells and soil and wasteful hunter of animals, taking only a few bits that he most valued instead of the whole animal for use, and that the land itself had found a way to protect itself against him.
These and many other theories were debated hotly in the courts and the streets, over dining tables and tavern bars, as the days and weeks went by. There were those who changed their mind about "the road-body problem" every day and those whose mind would never be changed even in the face of evidence. There were rational debates and there were fistfights in the mud.
The only thing everyone could agree on was that it was a real dead body, and it had been there for quite some time. Everything else was a fight.
But, of course, as time went on, nature had its way. Flies and bugs, wild animals, wind and rain. The body became tangled and torn, less distinguishable from any other random clump of wilderness. It turned into compost and then, bit by bit, cloth and flesh and bone all dwindled and faded until nothing remained.
Soon, there was new agreement: that there had never been a body on the road. Every agreed that there had been *something* on the road, but not a body. An actual corpse in the open is something that would have had to been investigated and dealt with, so it couldn't have been that.
What it might have been instead, of course, was entirely open to debate.
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For consideration: Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9; selection of kings and recognition of false prophets; seeking justice; respect and care for nature; what to do when a corpse lies outside of city limits
Everyone agreed on that part. Everyone who used the road had seen it. It was unmistakeable. The rest… was subject to debate.
Nobody could say exactly how long it had been there, for example. Days, certainly. A week? That was less clear. It seemed to be a man, but nobody had yet claimed to have actually examined it closely enough to be sure.
For the same reason, nobody could be sure about the cause of death, either.
Waylaid and murdered, perhaps by thieves or vengeful kin. Fell from a horse and broke his neck. A refugee or beggar who starved to death or was consumed by disease. Or, simply old enough to have keeled over while walking like anyone else. Any of these were plausible. Men die to all of these, every minute of every day.
Unfortunately, some of those causes would require someone to take some sort of major action, and before that determination could be made there would have to be investigation. Even more unfortunately, the dead man (if man he was) had fallen in the open space between Acale and Zemor, on public land that belonged to everyone and no-one at the same time. Who would investigate, and take steps if necessary?
The body continued to lay on the road as, quietly, everyone hoped someone else would take charge of the problem.
Eventually, the people of both towns (as well as the people of the many independent farms dotting the countryside around them) began to simply come to their own conclusions about what had happened, and what should be done about it, without any actual investigation.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of these theories didn't require anyone to do anything about.
There were those who thought he had probably been some sort of terrible criminal himself, and that he had been killed in rightful and righteous vengeance for his crimes by one of his former victims or their family. Some thought he might have been a false prophet or perhaps an assassin come to kill the king, and had been stricken dead by the power of the Gods. His death was ascribed to monsters, magical creatures, foreign insurgents, secret societies, and law enforcement. He was labeled a hero, a saint, a villain, a warlock, a fool. There was even a popular theory that he had been a despoiler of the land, a clear-cutter of trees and setter of fires and poisoner of wells and soil and wasteful hunter of animals, taking only a few bits that he most valued instead of the whole animal for use, and that the land itself had found a way to protect itself against him.
These and many other theories were debated hotly in the courts and the streets, over dining tables and tavern bars, as the days and weeks went by. There were those who changed their mind about "the road-body problem" every day and those whose mind would never be changed even in the face of evidence. There were rational debates and there were fistfights in the mud.
The only thing everyone could agree on was that it was a real dead body, and it had been there for quite some time. Everything else was a fight.
But, of course, as time went on, nature had its way. Flies and bugs, wild animals, wind and rain. The body became tangled and torn, less distinguishable from any other random clump of wilderness. It turned into compost and then, bit by bit, cloth and flesh and bone all dwindled and faded until nothing remained.
Soon, there was new agreement: that there had never been a body on the road. Every agreed that there had been *something* on the road, but not a body. An actual corpse in the open is something that would have had to been investigated and dealt with, so it couldn't have been that.
What it might have been instead, of course, was entirely open to debate.
------
For consideration: Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9; selection of kings and recognition of false prophets; seeking justice; respect and care for nature; what to do when a corpse lies outside of city limits