In order for the queen to get news from the village below and for her to deliver her commands, several messengers had been trained. Once a month, a messenger would climb to the top of the mountain, deliver the news, get the commands, then climb back to the village. They had to memorize the messages. The Queen insisted that they must not be written; the messengers must carry her messages in their hearts. The trip up the mountain took a week, and the trip down also took a week.
Tobias, one of the messengers, made his regularly scheduled trip to the top of the mountain. He gave Queen Cecelia the news, but when it came time for her to deliver her commands, he was in for a surprise.
"I want you to tell the elders of the village that I wish to marry," Queen Cecelia said. "I want them to find an appropriate man to be my husband. They should find a man who is wise, knowledgable about many things, and concerned about my people."
Tobias bowed before the queen and started down the mountain. In the week that it took him to get to the village, he wondered if the kind of man the queen wanted for her husband really existed.
When Tobias got back to the village, the elders were waiting for him, or more exactly, waiting for Queen Cecelia's commands.
"What did she say?" Elder Emrys asked.
Tobias took a deep breath and carefully repeated, word for word, as he had been trained, what Queen Cecelia commanded, "The message of the Queen Cecilia, which I carry in my heart is this, 'I want you to tell the elders of the village that I wish to marry. I want them to find an appropriate man to be my husband. They should find a man who is wise, knowledgable about many things, and concerned about my people.'" When he had finished this speech, Tobias bowed to the elders and left their assembly.