Your powers interact directly with hell, wait until you get the Inner Darkness charm from Kakuri, the one that let's you turn someone's darker instincts into a literal Super Powered Evil Side or you know, when you create an entire realm of beings who think of you as their goddess. That;s bound to be fun from a theological PoV
In fairness the hells we're associated with are basically the RC Cola of hells from the perspective of a Catholic priest.
Still soda, but lacking in critical name brand recognition.
All the while back that got me thinking how Charity might react to Molly's future Kingdom, wanted to write something about it based on Yog's worldbuilding, and then my imagination ran away and veered off to wherever I didn't expect it to.
Bit off more than I could chew because writing is hard and I suck at it, still finished, mostly because I was too stubborn to let my ideas go, though also because I wanted to give back something in thanks for the quest. Don't have time and energy for discussion, voting and participation, the utter fucking lunacy shows no signs of ending, so still can't donate, though maybe I should finally try and use a workaround, so an omake as tribute
@DragonParadox, thanks for your wonderful fun interesting stories, they are perfect for making a bad day better, and thank you all guys for your participation, helping make this quest happen.
Some disclaimers.
1. Yog's worldbuilding is totally his own and my take on it is unaffiliated and is not indicative of it.
2. English is not my native language, and I never written anything like that before. I obviously tried to make it fun and interesting, but that's for the audience to judge, if it's at least readable for at some people who are not me, I'd consider that a win. Sorry for any OOC and contradictions to ExWoD/Harry Dresden mechanics and fluff; honestly probably could have tried to make it better, but after the first few thousands words just wanted it to end and be done with it.
3. WARNING for those who need it, the section after the first triple-asterisk break * * * has references to slavery, blood sacrifices and sexual assault.
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Godsworn
The first sign of imminent
arrival was the current majordomo on Throne Hall duty starting to turn towards the Throne with all the haste available to a venerable spider-kin.
Nothing but one thing could make ever poised Embodied Flow of Harmony even entertain the notion of appearing hurried... The thought hasn't even finished forming in wingleader's mind when she herself, with whatever meager gift she had, felt a rising tension in the threads of fate. Then a ripple and a shift in the sublime radiance bathing the Throne from above and outside the mere reality, and then
the Empress was here.
The Light flowed down in waves and curtains golden and viridian, illuminating the Throne and its immediate surrounds dozens of times brighter then just a moment before and enclothing the Creator in a panoply befitting only Her, wings of a mantle around her shoulders and halo of a crown upon her head. Yet whatever the eyes could see, the most stark evidence of Her arrival was felt directly in the soul.
For a moment outside of time there was nothing, only Her and the Light of her soul and innumerable shadows She cast, infinitely lighter in presence than the impossibly real original, and there was no Soaring Enlightment through Martial Excellency, a dragon-kin of the White Moons of the Ruby City and commander of the 2nd wing of the 5th cohort of the Palace Guard, only a bare identity frozen in time.
By the Grace of the Creator the existence is bestowed. That was still not as intense as the very first time the Empress graced the Realm with her presence; by the fortune or fate or random chance, Soaring Enlightment and her wing were present in the Throne Hall at the Hour of Fulfillment.
Then Her Eternal Majesty appeared sitting on the Throne, not standing half a step in front of it, sublime radiance enveloped not just the Throne and its steps, but suffused the whole of the Palace, spreading from the Throne Hall and rising as a column of light into infinity, illuminating the whole Realm, and the soul touch was felt by every Realm denizen, not just those in the immediate vicinity of the Palace.
And now we and our wing are the only ones to greet Her Eternal Majesty upon her arrival three times yet. Advantageous, perhaps? Articulated thoughts of her machine spirit companion, All-Encompassing Clarity of Purpose, rose on the outer reaches of Soaring Enlightment's consciousness.
Well, praise be the ever giving shift rotation then.
The chance to see the Empress' entrance with one's own eyes was better on her first arrival, as for the Prophesized Cycle of Arrival the complement of the Throne Hall honor guard was increased to eight wings instead of the usual two, giving a full cohort, almost one tenth of the Palace Guard, leave to be present for the occasion.
Decision justified most completely by the utmost devotion, of course, and not the silent shared understanding of simply wanting to be the first among the whole Realm to witness the Creator. Lord Commander would have happily doubled that again if not for all the other would-be greeters. While the Throne Hall was quite spacious, four hundred guards and delegations from each of the five cities, almost complete upper eschelons of the High Priesthood and Confederation administration, representatives of explorers of the Central Circle, explorers of the Sphere, Eternal Gaol service, Imperial Household and Palatial Services, and other assorted organizations and services situated in or close to the Palace filled it quite enough.
Situation not made better by the absense of precise knowledge of the timing of Divinity's advent. Best calculations could only pinpoint it to several days around the beginning of the second week of the cycle, necessitating shifts for all other delegations too, though some of the more advanced in age fungiform greeters just parked themselves in the hall for the duration. And the protocol negotiations, as rumors went, were horrendously troublesome, requiring months of working out in advance how it was proper and who would have precedence to greet Her Divine Majesty depending on who would be present in the Throne Hall at the time of her arrival.
In the end it was First Councilor of the Confederation who had seniority when the Empress arrived, the outcome most appropriate and with least complications perhaps, certainly more representative of the Five Courts on the whole and united than if it was one of the cardinals or city delegates.
It was unforgettable due to being quite literally etched in the soul. The arrival, the weight of transcendence buckling the reality, the Light of Creation suffusing everything in sight and beyond, the soul touch, the infinitesimal shift in the base of existence, both within and without, restoring the balance and granting that last missing bit of
something finally allowing everything and everyone to fully
be... The Spirit of the Palace manifesting through fractally refracted crystals of space and time rolling along the length of the Throne Hall overhead for the first time in history... And then slightly delayed and almost unwavering greetings and affirmations of allegiance on behalf of all the denizens of the Courts by the half kneeling and bowing First Councilor, with everybody else in the Throne Hall likewise kneeling behind her.
And in response, magnanimous acknowledgement and acceptance by Divinity finally sitting the Throne in the brightest, brighter than everything ever seen and yet not blinding holy radiance, taking the reign of the Realm in the name of Her Divine Majesty the Creator the Giver of Life the Soul of the Realm Empress Radiant Pearl of Sorcery Pure and Unpure, Exalted Mistress of Mystical Arts, Boundaries, Crossroads and Transitions, Shaper and Builder, Beloved of All, Eternal Sovereign of the Fivefold Courts of Frozen Fate.
All that happening in the Throne Hall was of course shown across all of the Realm with the best telepresence all the thaumaturgical and ferromantic advancement in the Realm could provide. Each of more than one and a half billion denizens of the Realm could follow through whatever communication device was closest, live, alerted by the soul touch, the fullfillment of the Covenant and the radiance of the Light of Creation shining from on high above the Palace and illuminating all of the Realm brighter then the Luna and the heavenly crown of light combined, or later in recording, but of course to be in the center of it all with a line of sight to the Throne and the Empress was something else.
Current affair was remarkably less notable, of course. Soaring Enlightment was half-kneeling in deference, her wings formally pressed against her back and her additional cybernetic limbs curling just so in imitation of Flow of Harmony and other spider-kin present greeting the Empress in their own way with everybody else in the Throne Hall, and on the edge of Soaring Enlightment's awareness she felt All-Encompassing Clarity of Purpose slightly shifting her being, doing her own version of formal greeting.
Yet there was one most notable difference, for the first time since her first appearance the Empress did not arrive alone. She was descending the dais steps, not visibly in a hurry yet not wasting any time, motioning for her companions to follow her. There were two, a man and a woman, standing one step below the Throne just to the right and to the left of it, both seemingly human without any visible alterations, augmentations or phenotype admixtures, the same as Empress appeared to be. And they felt different to the arcane senses, the subtle unmistakeable otherness drifting off of them indicating they were from Beyond.
Both seemed guarded, the man more in a resolute way, ready to face the challenge head-on, the woman more in a pained, unsure way. Both looked prepared for combat, with personal arms and armor, the woman's more mundane kind and the man's thaumaturgical-seeming, yet did not appear to be a threat, both as presumed royal guests and because Soaring Enlightment's foresight did not show her any kind of confrontation with any of the two in the immediate future.
Impressions? As usual with such simple communications, that was less an articulated thought and more simply a particular stance of consciousness directed towards her partner, easily recognized by her after all the cycles, almost all of the time of Soaring Enlightment's several turns of the wheel so far in fact, they spent together.
The man, curiousity, anxiety, resolve, urgency for action. Fear. For others, not himself. The woman, weary, worried, distraught and unhappy, fear, of the same kind but more prominent. Based on what we see, the man would probably be a bigger threat if it would come to combat, but the data is sparse.
Agreed. It would have been much better to actively scan them with all available thaumaturgical and technological methods, but that would be rude to personal guests of the Empress. Yet this left those two the only persons in the Palace wingleader did not have the knowledge of capabilities of, the uncertainty greatly increased by them being unknowns from Beyond.
Please compile and send the report with all this additional info to the cohort leader on duty with copy to the Lord Commander. While everybody in the Palace of course already knew of the arrival and Flow of Harmony doubtlessly sent notifications to all relevant parties, there were formalities to uphold and information on the Empress' guests was pertinent.
Getting subtle feeling of acknowledgement from her partner and reaching out through the tacnet to her subordinates and to fellow wingleader of the second wing on Throne Hall duty —
Treat Empress' companions as befitting honored guests of the Realm — Soaring Enlightment shifted most of her focus back to the Empress.
In less than several seconds since the arrival Empress already descended the dais and was almost in front of Flow of Harmony. The Light, which started to recede as soon as Empress took the first step away from the Throne, was almost gone, leaving only the crown of radiance upon her brow. The aged majordomo, the wingleader would wager, was gathering himself for his duty of welcoming Empress back and trying to reach into the future with his fate sense for the most befitting way to do it.
"Your Divine Majesty, heartfelt greetings and most warm welcome back to your Realm on behalf of all of your ever loyal and faithful subjects. Fivefold Courts are at your service, as always."
"Thank you, master majordomo. Please rise, everyone."
Aknowleging murmurs of "My Empress" spread through the rising guards, including Soaring Enlightment and her partner, though in Clarity of Purpose's case it was movement of spirit and speech of thought.
Let's follow protocol, our turn next. Twenty-five paces to where Empress and Flow of Harmony were now standing was a short enough distance that even Soaring Enlightment's limited future sight was enough for her to arrive just as it would be time for her to speak, though there was a feeling of a looming expected interruption.
"I am beyond honored, Your Divine Majesty. Having not had the utmost privilige of directly attending your most august personage before, I am the 3rd assistant majordomo of the Palace Embodied Flow of Harmony, at your service. Anything in addition to your standing orders, any wish of yours you need but command and the Palatial Services will do uttermost to do your will."
Majordomo half-bowed again, presenting to the Empress a comm suitable, Soaring Enlightment knew, for housing and communicating with Empress' machine spirit companions, both any she might have brought with her just now and those she established here in the Fivefold Courts in her previous visits.
"Your Divine Majesty, a personal communication device as per your specifications. And if it would be to your satisfaction, I most humbly offer to continue personally attending you for the time being."
"Thank you, and I will be glad to have your assistance, honored Embodied Flow of Harmony."
Just as Empress uttered her response, and just before Soaring Enlightment made her last step, it happened. The familiar feeling of presence, always there at the back of the mind, getting weightier and weighter ever since the Empress appeared not even a minute ago, finally increased exponentially in a span of a blink and become concentrated in a single point somewhere above and behind Soaring Enlightment and Flow of Harmony, just in front and above the Empress.
Her companions, who had descended the dais themselves and now were just several paces behind her, were frozen in their steps, their eyes locked to that same point. Soaring Enlightment knew what they were seeing, had seen it with her own eyes both at the Hour of Fulfillment and the second time she was witness to the arrival of the Empress. That time her wing was the second one of the Throne Hall watch and she stayed back, giving her a good view, though even now the video feeds from guards of her and her subordinate wingleader's wings were but a thought away, at the edge of her perception of the tacnet.
Both she and Flow of Harmony made to turn and step back, flanking Empress to the left and to the right, but she knew most of the show would be over by the time she would lay eyes on it. Waves of reality warping, alike to a slab of diamond shattering under immense pressure into a multitude of shards, splitting and refracting the scene behind it in interplay of shadow, light and razor sharp edges, were flowing through the air, seemingly slow yet faster than the eye could follow, revealing Everlasting Radiance of Oblivion, the Spirit of the Palace.
Old, at least as old as the Realm itself and perhaps even older, inscrutable, ever present but never there, owing allegiance to no one, it almost never interacted with others. The last interaction in the recorded history before their appearance at Fulfillment was shortly after the Final War, when the Covenant of the Empress-to-Be was accepted realmwide and the Articles of Confederation were signed. The vague feeling received in response to propriation for leave to use the Palace as the capital of the United Realm was interpreted by augurs and diviners as mildly accepting indifference. Even their most commonly used apellation was not something that they revealed themselves, but a discovery from the Emerald Archives at the dawn of history, confirmed by multiple oracles as sufficiently appropriate title. And now they were manifesting in the Throne Hall unerringly each time Empress arrived to the Realm.
Their chosen form was that of a noble creature of legends, a likeness of the twin statues forming the supporting pillar of the Palace, the scales of their long sinuous body mostly white yet also invoking comparison to the statues with two thin stripes of black and rainbow spiralling along from their tail to their head, almost as large as an armspan and crowned in a shimmering standing wave of shattered reality, which trapped, refracted and reflected back the Light of Empress' own crown, just as the Palace itself would were the Empress to sit the Throne.
Inclining their head down to look at the Empress, they uttered a single word after a pregnant pause:
"Sovereign."
Their voice had such weight and power behind it it seemed as if the whole of the Throne Hall itself was speaking. Holding their gaze, Empress uttered her own words in a likewise weighty, if not to the same extent, way, after just a slightly smaller pause:
"Honored Guardian of Inheritance."
Two of them continued to gaze into each other's eyes for a moment more, and then the Spirit slowly blinked in deference with a lengthy exhale of a shimmering reality crunching streams through their nostrils, and vanished the same way it appeared.
After a small sigh of her own, Empress looked at Soaring Enlightment.
"It's nice seeing a known face, wingleader, though I had not had the pleasure of introductions."
Soaring Enlightment replied with a half-bow:
"Wingleader Soaring Enlightment of Martial Excellency, of the 2nd wing of the 5th cohort of the Palace Guard, my Empress, and you honor me beyond words. If it would please you, I and my wing would be your and your companions' escort."
"It would." Seeming curtness of the reply was softend by a small smile. Motioning to her companions, who now stood just behind her, Empress continued. "This is Charity Carpenter, my mother, and this is Warden Harry Dresden, my friend, skilled thaumaturge, servant of justice and protector of the innocent... and my favourite."
A half-grin now adorned Empress' lips.
Not just honored guests, that may require adjustment to the escort. Report to the on duty cohort leader, my wing is assuming escort duties, a note on purported identities of the Realm's guests, copy to the Lord Commander, wider notification on my responsibility for the escort. Her partner responding with acknowledgement and a pull to the expected notification designating Embodied Flow of Harmony as an interim head of staff and a point of contact for inquiries for the Empress, Soaring Enlightment started necessary preparations by formally cedeing Throne Hall watch to her now former fellow wingleader and contacting her direct subordinates.
"They will be with me for the duration of our visit and we'll leave together after our business here is finished, please accomodate them to the best of your abilities. And don't worry, mom, if it will come to staying longer, Harry will sleep on the couch. There are plenty of couches in my quarters, aren't there?" Her smile only grew as she asked the majordomo.
"Quite so, Your Divine Majesty, most of the sitting rooms have them, and they are also available in the main and second dining rooms, the emerald and sapphire lunch rooms and in your personal and the first connecting bedrooms. Though, if I may be so bold, if a separate accomodation is required, would one of the aforementioned connecting bedrooms, or the Imperial Consort quarters, or perhaps one of the two closest connecting guest suites be to your and His Excellency's tastes?"
Empress was full-on smiling now, while His Excellency's expression was slowly morphing into a particular sort of a blank look and Empress' mother was beginning to look prominently weary. Bowing deeply, majordomo continued.
"And, Your Divine Majesty, with utmost humility I beg your forgiveness for inexcusable lapse of judgement on behalf of Palatial Services and Imperial Household overall. We did not foresee a possibility for a need to accomodate exalted members of your august family, and right now the Palace does not posess a suite befitting Most Holy Mother of the Creator. Pray allow us to rectify this glaring mistake, and we will furnish quarters suitable for Her Divine Highness' majesty and according to her personal preferences." Flow of Harmony bowed slightly deeper in direction of Her Divine Highness and then even more deeply back to the Empress, and it seemed it was Her Divine Highness' expression's turn to freeze.
"Please raise your head esteemed majordomo, there's nothing to forgive. We won't be staying long, at most several hours, so there's no need for such accomodations. Also, please address my mother as Her Imperial Highness at most, she does not hold the rank of divinity and it would be improper to address her as such. Neither do my father and my brothers and sisters for that matter, please note that. Though it might be prudent to prepare guest quarters for my family in case they would visit in the future, that's a question for later." Her Imperial Highness' expression darkenen upon hearing last words. "Right now we need the Library, please notify the staff that we'll need assistance on finding information on large-scale thaumaturgical rituals, related topics and some other additional questions."
"At once, Your Divine Majesty. If the intention is to consult on thaumaturgical matters, might I suggest availing yourselves of the expertise of High Priestess and the thaumaturgical and ferromantic engineering cohort of the Guard?"
"Good suggestion, Embodied Flow of Harmony, yes, please invite Her Eminence and Guard's best thaumaturges. Mom, staying together with us and coming to the Library? Or would you like to do anything else while we're here, perhaps something to help better prepare for the confrontation ahead in any way?"
There was no immediate answer. Seeing something in Her Imperial Highness' expression, Empress stepped up to her, catching her gaze and placing right hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry mom, it was not the best joke then in the beginning, was just trying to lift the mood a little. And please disregard any other oddities which go with the territory. We have the time to prepare, we'll get help, as much as we need, return, deal with everything that needs to be dealt with, and everything and everybody will be alright. Look, there are all these people, my people, here, and beyond, and they all would help me, us, gladly. Please trust me, I'm taking this seriously and I'm fully confident we'll be successful, not just because I think so, but because I see what needs to be done and know how we can do it. They won't know what hit them."
"I... I trust you, Molly, I just wish there was no need for you, for anything like, for any of that. Let's just get this over with, I will accompany you to the library."
"Alright mom." Slightly nodding to her mother, Empress turned to her other companion. "And sorry for putting you on the spot like that, Harry. Though you know that honestly you
are my favourite wizard, Warden, PI, teacher, savior and many other things, right? And thanks again for coming with me, I really appreciate it." Empress was smiling again. "Even if it meant braving the horrors of my own personal Hell."
His Excellency responded with a sigh and resigned smile.
"You are being worse than Bob. Aren't you enjoying this too much?"
"Surely not worse than Bob! And right now, I'll take all the harmless fun I can, and hey, I'm the sole divine eternal sovereign of my own personal hell realm residing in my very soul, why wouldn't I want to enjoy that,
Your Excellency?" Empress' smile was growing. "You know, I would imagine that were Bob here instead of my impeccably loyal and discrete staff and guards, the nets would already be bursting with chatter and speculation, with headers like "Empress' Favourite: August Delight of Divinity's Heart?! Find out more!"."
"Well of course your Hell would have a magic internet. I would say 'let's just focus on the task at hand', but what's with the dragon?"
"And I would say 'Your wish is my command, Harry'; unfortunately the dragon, actually the Spirit of this Palace commonly named as Everlasting Radiance of Oblivion, is a mystery for a later date I don't know that much about. Greets me every time I arrive here, and then scoffs at me. Something to do with the history or foundation of my power? And then there's this brass sphere the size of Greenland with a prison labyrynth inside, right below the Palace in fact, which also might be connected to this somehow?"
"Sounded more like a huff than a scoff to me. And don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure it all out."
"Well thank you, Harry, glad to have your confidence in me. You know, perhaps when there's no looming disaster and you again can be my guest here we can study it together, sating both our curiosities. Sounds good, Your Excellency?" It looked like His Excellency's title was for some reason a surefire way to bring out Empress' smile.
His Excellency replied after a split-second of hesitation.
"When there's no looming disaster, why not. Though only if you'll stop calling me that."
"That's a promise then, Harry."
Finished speaking with her companion, Empress turned to Embodied Flow of Harmony who was waiting for her attention in an unassuming way born out of long years of training and practice.
"Your Divine Majesty, Her Eminence accepts your invitation with utmost gratefullness and most humbly inquires if she might be granted leave of your presence sooner to serve you in any way possible and to confer on religious matters. Lord Commander reports that the leader and the best of the 11th cohort will be awaiting you in the Library and will render any assistance possible, and most humbly inquires if at your convinience he could join and be granted an audience. First Councilor of Confederation and Seneschal of the Palace likewise most humbly inquire on a possibility of an audience at your convinience."
"Naturally. Well, no sense in delaying, High Priestess is welcome to join on the way to the Library at her earliest if she so wishes, and the others may wait for me there." Empress replied in a much more level tone.
Not unexpected.
However tightly were people bound together in common cause, there would always be differences in minutae and preferred courses of action, and laws and accords always delineated no more than a minuscule portion of possible avenues of conduct, leaving all else for the age-old competitions for power and influence. Those who strived to influence the world around them to any appreciable degree according to their beliefs and intentions could not ignore this simple truth, the more the longer they lived, the higher they rose and the more intense their desire for change were.
There were always multitude points of contention between numerous polities, hierarchies, clans, organizations and associations of Fivefold Courts, both before and, though much, much less overt and bloody, during the Age of the Covenant. For any issues going away due to the changes, even such fundamental ones, new one arose, and Fulfillment and Empress assuming her rightful place as the Sovereign of the Courts was not an exception.
The secular politicians of the Confederation who always leaned heavily on the Covenant as one of the main and most potent justifications for a central Realm government now doubtlessy were aiming to emerge from the shadow of religion and position themselves as a premier institution of the Realm as secular administration under the Empress, budging Cities' autonomy and reducing the Hierarchy influence. The Hierarchy of course would have prefered to subsume as much of the influence of central institutions as possible, leading the Realm under the aegis of the God-Empress, while Holy Guard and the Imperial Household, the smaller organizations whose allegiance directly to the Empress was only a theoretical matter before the Arrival, were eager to make the theory a practice and safeguard their autonomy.
In reality of course this all was much more subtle than such simplified summary could give impression of, the lines of future struggles starting to take shape thousands of cycles ago, seeded among the peace of the Age of the Covenant by expectation of the Arrival of the Empress-to-Be being proved beyond any doubt, with plans spanning millenia of cycles by age-old players with centuries of experience coming to a head right now. Soaring Enlightment was thankful such headaches were not hers to bear.
What followed though was more out of the ordinary, as almost immediately she got a request for translocation near the Empress signed by High Priestess' identity. Her Eminence was perhaps the only one in the Palace skilled enough, powerful enough and priviledged enough to even have grounds to make such a request, and even then, Soaring Enlightment thought, only expected direct assistance to the Empress and her personal invitation to join allowed Her Eminence to stay within the bounds of propriety she might have ran afoul of otherwise. She must have felt strongly enough about her duty indeed to rush so.
"My Empress, Her Eminence intends to join us now by translocation." While notifying the Empress, Soaring Enlightment simultaneously transmitted heads-up to her wing and to her fellow wingleader now responsible for Throne Hall watch, though the second was a just courtesy as it was on Her Eminence to do due diligence and notify the watch. Approving request for translocation, she brought her attention to the expected point of egress some ten paces in front of them.
It would have been impressive if not for the appearance of the Spirit just a while ago. Three figures stepped out of thin air, viridian flames burning through the fabric of reality before and after them, swift and accurate, a sign of mastery and might of the caster. They were Her Eminence High Priestess of the Palace and the Central Circle Manifest Virtuous Transcendence accompanied by her second in the hierarchy Senior Priest Eminent Deedful Faith to her right and her personal assistant deacon Beneficent Contemplation of the Universal to her left, both slightly behind her.
Together they painted quite a picture. Deacon was perhaps the least unusual-looking among the three, a visibly venerable wingless dragon-kin whose mon identified him as a scion of one of noteworthy clans of the City of Journeys. Unlike Soaring Enlightment, in addition to commonly acquired two supplementary pairs of cybernetic arms he also bore extensive cranial implants and limb replacements, suggesting a relatively uncommon preference for battling effects of his aging biology through quite radical solution of cybernetic replacements which would stay with him through all his future turns of the wheel.
Senior Priest's extensive cybernetic augmentations were not the most notable about him. It was immediately apparent for anyone looking at him that he was quite firmly into sessile stage of his life, though not extensively so as far as things went for setas. Foregoing the usual propensity of his kind to stay in one place at such age, he elected to employ a cybernetic solution for locomotion, a many-limbed sturdy walking base bearing his quite voluminous fungoid body. More common multiple cybernetic arms, prehensile cybertentacles and cybernetically linked micro-drones comprised the rest of his enhancements.
High Priestess was still the most remarkable of them all. Not breaking their stride, they smoothly transitioned into a half-bowing, half-kneeling deferential greeting, through only in case of a wingless dragon-kin deacon it looked like anything usual.
She does pull off effortlessly impressive, even here in the Throne Hall and in the presence of the Empress. Though the fate sight must be of great help. Clarity of Purpose whispered in her thoughts.
I would wager it's just second nature at this point, unless she explicitly goes for something else. Soaring Enlightment thought back.
Her Eminence had mostly human and spider-kin heritage, and it was reflected in her seeming, but not in a usual way, as she was one of the first cases of full-body replacement. With upper half mostly humanoid with two pairs of arms and lower half eight-limbed, strong, powerful and elegant, her arachniform body of exquisite make with softer warmer bone white composite and hard cold matte black metal surface streaked through with subtly glowing lines of thaumaturgical enhancements cut a striking figure even kneeling.
"My Most Gracious Goddess, Highest of All." Upon hearing these words Her Imperial Highness' lips pressed together more tightly.
It was Her Eminence's rich and powerful, yet soft and genial voice that uttered the greeting for her and her companions. Her resplendent robes of office exquisitly crafted from rarest spider-kin silk and lit up with light of thaumaturgical power, her moonsilver circlet of rank softly shining with a warm glow upon her metallic jet-black ornamental locks, her features exibiting both perfection and liveliness beyond compare, her expression regal yet warmly welcoming, everything in her appearance and her bearing was designed, perfected and arranged to embody power and wisdom, beauty and grace, to awe, inspire, сaptivate and lead.
"Greetings, honored High Priestess, honored Senior Priest, honored deacon. Please rise, my faithful, and join us."
Most, perhaps, uncommon of all, Her Eminence exuded sincerity. Among the high hierarchs of the Covenant, she was one of those most firmly espousing Covenant's tenets of self-improvement and preached accordingly, even being the only one among the cardinals to publicly support consideration of responsible research into cybernetic transcention and complete noospheric transmigration. In everything she did you could see her wholehearted belief in and devotion to, among everything else, her Goddess, Creator and Giver of Life, first, and idea of better life through personal transcendence second.
Master of the mystic arts, extremely skilled thaumaturge and capable oracle, long-lived through alchemy, magic and, in the recent hundreds of cycles, technology, she expertly held cardinalcy of the inner circle continuously for the past three and half thousand cycles, all through the last stretch of its rise in prominence, and now, after Arrival and Fulfillment, some doctrinal contentions aside, could be called the second most prominent hierarch of the Covenant after only the Blessed Founder Mirror of the Changing Moon.
Some considered her the future of the Covenant, and were she to head the hypothetical theocracy in future, Soaring Enlightment was sure she and her administration could lead and govern the Realm with wisdom and forethought for the betterment of all. Unfortunately, that same devotion that made Her Eminenece so admirable would also engender a fundamental deficiency in any governance headed by her.
Would she question the absolute authority above her if she would happen on something disagreeable? Would she stand her ground if her questions would not receive satisfying answers? Would her allegiance to justice and better life for all hold true if pressured by the authority and presented with an opportunity to advance ideas dear to her for the small price of averting her gaze from disagreeable parts?
Would, for that matter, anyone else governing in the name of the Eternal Empress? Any system of governance relying to any significant degree on unquestionable authority of a single being, however virtuous, was fundamentally flawed, and...
Empress and clergy were finishing their greetings, and Soaring Enlightment was preparing to direct her wing to escort their disparate group to the Library, when Empress turned to her.
"Wingleader, the situation I am trying to resolve would greatly benefit from a group of capable combatants ready to defend the innocent and battle evil. As I am informed, it is a duty of the Holy Guard to wage battle in my name as my men-at-arms, anywhere in the Realm or beyond, and I believe you fit for the task. Are you and your wing ready for a tour of duty?"
* * *
Soaring Enlightment was born at the tail end of the post-Unification population boom. Merciful nature of the Realm did not allow incarnation of new souls unless there was at least minimally available living space, and Soaring Enlightment's generation was expected to be the last truly numerous one in history barring fundamental changes to the nature of the Realm in the future.
With the Final War back in the past, all of the Realm content under the aegis of the Covenant and the Arrival expected several thousands cycles in the future it was the golden age of peace and prosperity, Five Cities flourishing like never before with new heights of thaumaturgy and ferromancy and all peoples working together as one kin.
Her child name was Joy, for she was a long-awaited joy of her parents and probably their only child for a long, long time, if not forever. At twenty-five cycles of age she proved her wings and her ability to fly before the elders and has been granted the traditional byname Soaring, a source of pride for her clan, which placed great value on inheritance of the past and was among the last less than fifty clans of dragon-kin among the whole of the Realm which could boast of majority of members being able to fly, and a source of pride for her, being distinguished and recognized for her abilities.
Soaring Joy of the White Moons of the Ruby City continued to mature, eagerly applying herself to studying and nurturing her talents, natural and ancestral, including solid thaumaturgical aptitude and comparatively meager fate sense ability, and absorbing bit by bit and making her own her inherited memories and skills. She lived a happy life in a happy time, loved by her parents and immediate family and loving them back, and liked and taken pride in by her clan and liking and being proud of her clan and her heritage.
It did not last.
Through some quirk of her inheritance parts of both of her ancestral abilities twisted, the fate sight flowing through her ancestral memories, amplifying them into full-fledged visions of the past of her bloodlines, first in dreams, and then in the wake. Some were just glimpses of everyday life, others were not so harmful, struggle, suffering, death.
Of course her family and her clan helped her. Alchemy, enchantments, psyche and spirit arts, teachings on mastery of self through mastery of one's own awareness and abilities, experience to advise, attentive ears to listen and loving arms to hold tight, with all the help the predicament no longer impacted her life much, leaving her only with occasional dreams of the past, even if she felt the ability to call visions still there, somewhere in her soul. And she still needed to make sense of things she saw in these dreams, they were confusing her.
She turned to study of history and found unexpected help in the form of her great-grandfather, one of the current assistant holders of clan archives. Glimpses into the past coalesced into a comprehensible picture, and it was not pleasant. She was seeing the past of the Ruby City, the Hegemony of the Crimson Spear, mostly from the eyes of scions of its ruling clan of the Bloody Hand.
Weren't her visions the memories of her honored ancestors?
White Moons were established by those of the Bloody Hands who was left after the Final War. Those who weren't interred in the Eternal Gaol to be held there even through their future deaths and turns of the wheel, those who repented, those who did not exile themselves from the clan and those who helped crush the Hegemony, taking new name, the symbol of hope for the better future.
Why wasn't she told this before?
She was still young, she would have known if she started studying history earlier, or when she would have been older otherwise. It was thousands of cycles ago, and thanks to the population boom, new souls born after the Unification now outnumbered those from before, the inheritance of the Bloody Hands was history, the past since left behind.
She needed to understand better. In her free time she started consciously reaching for her fate sight, just like she reached for it in combat precognition practice, except instead of directing it to the future she directed it to the past. Knowledge poured into her young mind, and the more she delved into abyss of history, the more its revelations inexorably grounded her innocence down.
The deepest of ancestral memories extended to the dawn of time, when her people were just bands of hunters roving the belf of life under the heavenly crown of lightning. They were suited for such life like no others, their strong wings carrying them great distances, their ancestrally-honed skills with sharp spears and mightful mystic arts making them unmatched hunters and warriors, their natural armor unscathed by biting iron winds and primordial fire in their blood protecting them from the cold. With sufficient preparation and armed and protected by mighty sorcerous treasures they even could hope to enter the freezing and howling wilds and return alive.
Dragon-kin were the first to have as common knowledge that the belt of life did indeed circle the whole Realm around and that the Mountains of Fate numbered five and each was equally surprisingly malleable to shaping, as if intended to be settled by peoples, and the first to discover extensive cave systems traversing the full extent of the Realm, as if made to be used as roads through the inhospitable wilds, the first to scout out and establish first permanent trade routes between each of the five nascent mountain cities and the inner circle where the crystal jewel of the Palace rested upon the Pillar of Challenge.
Time went, things progressed, ways of life changed, for some more than for others. And some turned these natural gifts, might and sorcery that allowed them to conquer and thrive in the inhospitable environment of the Realm to subjugation and domination of others. A day had come when Cunning Might of Bonds, then matriarch of the Bloody Hands clan and the 11th Holder of the Crimson Spear declared herself the first Hegemon upon the Red Mountain.
Not so unusual at first, but as the moon came and went up in the sky, tens, hundreds, thousands of cycles, the hierarchy crystallized, kin, allies, servants, slaves, and the idea of power as foremost virtue had firmly taken place among the rules of the Ruby City, who became old souls with memories worn away by succession of their turns of the wheel, caring for nothing but dominion over others, using any possible overt and covert means of achieving it, cruelly indifferent to everything else.
That same nature of their biology that they used to justify their supremacy ensured that there would never be Eternal Hegemon, that even if they would thwart every threat to themselves and used whatever means they could to prolong their current life, sooner or later its thread will be cut, and with it, their rule, and a new Holder would ascend the Hegemony seat. And the ever-tightening struggle kept the machine of suffering churning, trapping both opressors and oppressed, chewing through their lifes with its ever-strengthening teeth of progressively more corrupted intentions and minds, harder than any adamant.
It was so... wasteful, all this suffering, it should not have happened, the ever-precious time of life lost to this pointless cruelty should not have been.
Having had both seen her foot crushing those below her and looked through her eyes up at her oppressors grounding her face into dust, Soaring Joy found the experiences abhorrent... even if somewhat instructive if looked at from far away and forced to be taken as a lesson. Resolving that each second lived has to be filled with care and compassion lest your might will consume you and everyone you, she cut back on looking into the past and dived even further into her studies and training, which she had already been doing whenever she felt like needing more distance from the horrors of the past.
She still welcomed occasional dreams, some of the visions she'd seen were wondrous, some interesting, some educational, and she liked to see and know more of her honored ancestors, at least those that were not monsters by their own hand. And thanks to her developing fate sight, honed in her martial practices, she felt more in control even in involuntary visions in her dreams.
In her discussions with her great-grandfather she raised the obvious question, was there any way to prevent these unforgivable thousands and thousands cycles of suffering and life lost?
He thought the answer was that perhaps this could had been done by changing, dismantling or changing the Hegemony at its dawn, when the vicious cycle of sinking into evil had not yet progressed far.
What did he do in the Final War?
He joined the fight against the Hegemony and was killed in the fighting. As it is with violent deaths, the Realm reconstituted him somewhat quickly, yet hostilities were already getting close to their end, with the war ending soon. You could say he was luckier then some others, having to fight against kin was the least bad option then, but it did not make it good.
He counted himself blessed that he never had encountered his father who fought for the loyalists, and twice blessed that his mother had gone to her next turn of the wheel before the war and had not returned until after, she would have surely joined his father. After the war his father repented, did not join the new clan, waited for his mother to return and then left with her for the Emerald City. He had heard from them only sparingly since.
He had no children yet and not counted any more of his kin as his family, except for his younger brother who chose exile long before the war and lived his lifes since then in the City of Journeys, content as far as he knew.
And after the war?
He lived a better life and tried to, as much as he could, to help build a better future for the Realm, the City, his kin and himself, helping himself by helping others. And it looked like, by and large, he succeeded more than he failed, and if he was of any help to a bright young kin like herself, he would that among his successes.
She hugged her smiling great-grandfather and thanked him profusely.
She no longer felt much like a Joy, so she had taken a new name of Soaring Enlightment of Martial Excellency at her coming-of-age ceremony, reflecing her newfound understanding and her continued successes in her chosen pursuits, martial and academic. To help yourself by helping others was not a bad advice, she felt, she would go into law enforcement to protect innocents and prevent evils.
Living was almost good until the past gave her one last horrible gift of a vision.
In one of her dream visions she found herself seeing through the eyes of the a female, bound and under guard, in line of others like her stretching out to the rows of altars. Black, red, green and purple lines and symbols of sorcerous fire lit up the sky, easily surpassing the almost dark, as if eclipsed Luna and the seemingly faint light of the Realm's heavenly crown above. The air reeked of blood and death, and she saw thousands dead and thousands more having their throats slit on the long countless steps below, their blood pooling and slowly spilling down the steps in small streams.
Then she heard and seen anguish of others like her on the altars, and that was unconsciousnable, that was too much. Her vehement denial bouyed her mind, lifting her mind's eye above the reality of the vision crumbling below her. Then she was falling in all directions at once, and then she lurched violently awake, almost failing to recognize where she was before retching to the side of her bed.
Being there, seeing, hearing, feeling all that through the memories of her honored ancestor was incomparable to reading dry, detached mentions of eugenics enhanced with ritual sorceries of the height of the Hegemony in history books. As it was told, in their never-ending strife for power leaders of the Hegemony turned to acquisition of beneficial bloodlines, with high aptitudes for thaumaturgy, fate sight and martial pursuits, by any means necessary.
Apparently killing tens, hundreds of thousands, millions in attemps to meaningfully reduce local population and simultaneously using the deaths as blood sacrifices in sourcerous rituals of hitherto unknown scale, all to deceive and force the mercy of the Realm to allow incarnation of new children and to power perverse fetility charms of unimaginable might to force fruitful conceptions for prospective, voluntary or not, genitors. All with empty indifference to anything other then the ultimate goal.
What she had seen, it was vile. Sickening. It was insane! How could any soul, gifted by its fundamental nature with base empathy and compassion, perceive this as anything but the abomination it was? How could this have been perpetrated? For the only time in all her lifes Soaring Enlightment wondered if the natural law of the Realm not allowing to plunge unwilling soul into the final Oblivion was just.
She was certain her honored ancestor whose eyes she had seen this through wound up on one of the altars. Were there others? Didn't that mean that her abilities, her talent for thaumaturgy, her martial prowess, her fate sight, the very means she had used to peer into the past, almost certainly at least in part were gifted to her by being violently wrested from her unwilling ancestors through such atrocious indignities? Another part of her inheritance she no longer felt any pride in.
She felt honor bound to redress the offences to all of her honored ancestors treated in such a way. She had no means to do that. No statute of limitations extended to before the Unification, certainly not to the times of the High Hegemony thousands of cycles before it. And she would not have standing to raise a honor duel challenge before the Council of the Clan, an affront somewhere, somewhen in the deepest past, done by perpetrators she knew not to victims she knew almost nothing of, all on her claim with no witnesses? Who would she even challenge?
Soaring Enlightment felt dejected. That, as far as history went, the period of these atrocities was the only time the unquestionable dominion of Hegemony over the Ruby City and its environs faltered, however briefly, plunging it into a long turmoil, was a too little mercy. The Hegemony righted itself and then ossified, dimished but stable, trudging along the passage of time for thousands and thousands of cycles more until the rise of the Covenant, when the conflict between Hegemony's spirit and practices and Covenant's core tenets on compassion and justice led to violence and Hegemony's demise in the Final War.
Where before Soaring Enlightment desired to know, to understand, now she wanted to forget. And... she was now afraid. Afraid it would break something in her soul, to experience memories of enduring or inflicting such atrocious indignities, to see and feel how one of her honored ancestors was brutalized by or was brutalizing another. And she didn't care to find out if she could controls her visions better.
She turned to a more potent alchemy and stopped having dreams altogether, and tried to leave the past to the past, getting on with her life, focusing on her work and self-improvement and continuing to find a certain kind of satisfaction in excellency. She worked in law enforcement as she intended, and found an unexpected but very much welcome friend in All-Encompassing Clarity of Purpose, she was content and sometimes even happy for the rest of her first life and then for her next several turns of the wheel as well.
The age of peace and prosperity continued, thousands of cycles went by, the Arrival was getting closer and closer, until with great fanfare and jubilation all across the Realm it was announced that the Express-to-Be was expected to arrive and fulfill the prophecies just a thousand cycles hence.
* * *
She could no longer ignore her thoughts, and she needed to talk with Clarity.
Clarity?
She realized she already made the decision and immediately felt lighter, the uncertainty clouding her mind as of late evaporating away.
I am ready to listen. And I'm glad that whatever it was is over. Feeling better?
Thanks, yeah, better. I... will get to the point, I need, I will leave the department and I'm going to apply to the Palace Guard selection.
She could feel her friend's suprise.
Alright, what are the reasons? What's the end goal?
I've seen
what unaccountable authority could lead to. Covenant teaches that Empress-to-Be is benevolent and virtuous, but that's unproved supposition based on indirect evidence and wishful thinking. All that's proven is that She is the Realm's Creator, and that She will arrive in the now not so far off future to finish her Creation and assume her eternal sovereignity over it. She would be able to assume any degree of rulership over the Realm She would desire, including direct rule as eternal absolute divine authority, and even if She is benevolent and virtuous in the beginning, eternity is a long time. However unlikely you think it may be, She is an unknown that may affect the Realm greatly with disastrous consequences, and whatever the chance I will have to recognize if it's likely and to try to prevent it if need be would be greater if I will be closer to Her. And the Guard is the most likely path for me to achieve this.
There was a pause as Clarity's presence retreated closer to the edges of her thoughts, giving impression of shifting tighter on itself. Her friend probably was thinking hard.
That's... your reasoning is not quite wrong, but I'm not sure I could call it sensible on the face of it. Have you considered all implications properly? You are talking about possibility of oathbreaking and treason, depending on severity of charges you may end up in eternal imprisonment in case of unfavourable outcome. Isn't the reward to risk ratio completely atrocious? The Empress-to-Be is the literal Goddess of the Realm, she most probably would be too powerful to effectively oppose at all. Even if she is not, that very idea of yours to be as close to her as possible would make you uniquely vulnerable, you have absolutely no guarantees she won't be able to just look at you or do whatever and instantly know all your intentions. Wouldn't more indirect political approach be advantageous? Go into politics, if your beliefs of ethical superiority of fully secular government based fully and completely on self-determination of peoples is true, given sufficient time you would accumulate enough political success to be able to ultimately raise a question of political reform explicitly cutting off any external authories, including Hierarchy and Empress-to-Be herself. If she is benevolent, she will go along; if she would be softly adversarial, she will be defeated politically; if she would be adversarial in a hard way, you would have your political supporters as the base of your side of conflict, increasing the chances of victory.
If it would come to repercussions for treason and oathbreaking, it would mean that I have accepted that the authority I had rebelled against is an unlawful one. You know, as the highest source of law is the unalienable rights of sentients, including the right to governance in accord with their freely given mutual consent. Won't be a valid legal defense, but at least my conscience would be clear. Means that if I decide that a confrontational, overt or covert, approach is varranted, I should just succeed and not get caught. I'm aware the risk might be very high, but it's worth it. Political route would be non-viable at least until the Arrival and most probably for some time after, the Empress-to-Be's approval would be too high, and the time might be of essense. Just like Hegemony's atrocities could be prevented if it would have been opposed sufficiently early, it might be that sufficiently early action could do what later would be impossible, so I would need to be as close as possible to the center of it all as early as possible. And it's all just the worst case, most probably the Covenant's teachings are right, the Empress would be virtuous enough and there would be no need for anything dangerous or drastic, and I would probably return to law or go into politics as you say.
Whatever the odds, you are talking about things that are unimaginably risky, worse than checking if a Pillar energy mainline that is almost surely off but actually maybe not is indeed off by grabbing it with your bare hands! And there are fates worse than dying early, or even being imprisoned in the Eternal Gaol for some of your future turns of the wheel or even eternity. Please, how exactly is it worth it?
With your mainline example the risk would be justified if the whole City's life free of suffering depends on checking if it indeed is as soon as possible and there's no other way to do it quicker. Nobody should have a chance to suffer opression and indignities I've seen in Hegemony's past. And of those that suffered through those thousands and thousands of cycles of Hegemony's rule, how many finally chose the End and embraced the final Oblivion over unbearable atrocities they were subjected to throughout their lives, turn of the wheel after turn of the wheel? How many souls were extinguished, each sublimely precious unique existence, now forever lost, erased because of preventable evils? With what I've seen, I would be positive at least a few, though probably many. And again, it extremely unlikely that it will be anything like that, but if needed, I will happily die a thousands deaths and then a final one to not let the unforgivable happen again!
Soaring Enlightment, please, your own soul, your life, your existence is as sublimely precious as everyone's else, just as of those you've seen suffer in the past or of those you purport to protect in the future. And yours is not just precious in the abstract, its very precious to me! How can you even try comparing an infinite future of one soul with all its variate experiences against anothers? It makes no sense to exchange your existense to perhaps potentially possibly save others!
Maybe it's the difference of perspective between a free spirit and a fundamentally flesh-bound being, but I never thought of my future as infinite. But that's beside the point, it's not about that or anything else for that matter except for one thing, two things, it's about saving others being worthwile, and me finding myself in a situation where I can take up responsibility for doing this worthwile thing, and then me, of my own free will, taking up this responsibility and using whatever means at my disposal I deem adequate to actually do this worthwile thing. Please
, Clarity, I need
to do this! It was bad enough knowning, seeing, feeling all the things done by the Hegemony, by my ancestral clan, my kin, to my other ancestors, also my kin, and to innumerable other people, and being able to do exactly nothing about it. You know, with how I'd seen bloodlines stretching to the dawn of time, the whole Realm now must be strewn with my cousins, my sisters and brothers, however distant, everywhere. And if I already have tens of millions of siblings, what's a billion and a change more? I'll gladly name the whole of the Realm as my kin. And not one of us should ever experience the suffering and atrocities I've seen. It would be unbearable to see something like this happen again and not try everything in my power to prevent it. And, as I see it, the best position for me to be in to to ascertain if something does indeed need to be prevented, and then, if it does, actually prevent it, is to be in the Guard.
Transition from frantic thought exchange to a long pause of silence was disconcertingly abrupt.
And how exactly are you planning to manage it?
I will start dreaming again and looking into the past in the wake too. It's time to actually use my gift for its mundane purpose, acquisition of skills and knowledge from my ancestors, and I should have enough control over my visions for it judging by my combat precognition mastery. My accumulated wealth should allow me to get the best and rarest methods of life extension, from the clan and at large, and with it I should be able to get least two thousands cycles more from this turn of the wheel. And then, training and studying, and training and studying more and then training and studying again. And would make an official request for assistance to the clan, they should agree to help at least in part, having a member on the Guard would give them face. And then, trying out for Guard selection as many times as it takes. Overall, almost like the happy childhood.
For a moment she felt an impression of lightness from Clarity in response to her not quite good attempt at humor, replaced after by a calm consideration.
Last point, what about ethical repercussions of taking someone else's place? Whatever the associated prestige, the recognized purpose of the Guard is to earn reward of freedom from the Realm by the Empress-to-Be's grace. If you are to join for explicitly different purpose, you would be robbing someone of the opportunity to earn their freedom, wouldn't you?
It should not be a problem, there just won't be enough time to earn the reward in the timeframe I would need to ascertain the proper course of future actions. And were I to actually earn the distinction, I would try my best, circumstances permitting, to transfer the honor to someone more in need of it. Not perfect, but it's something I can live with.
Yeah, like that wouldn't attract attention; though you are probably not wrong on the timeframe. Well, looks like you have a plan.
Now the pause was almost non-existent.
I'm going with you, all the way to however it ends.
It wasn't something Soaring Enlightment expected, though at the same time it also wasn't something she expected not; she felt a sweetly sick mixture of relief with apprehension and guilt.
I... I deeply thank you. Staying together like all these lives would greatly ease and gladden my heart, though I couldn't bring myself to ask you if you would even consider joining me. I wouldn't want anything bad for you just because of me. Is it something you would actually want? That's a very abrupt turn from the plans we've had beforehand, and, though unlikely, it might be dangerous, as you yourself said.
I said, yeah. It still is broadly in line with the direction I see my life going in in the foreseeable future, my goals and intentions. Still something worthwile and honorable, and you are still the person I want to work with. I'm not against the principle of the thing, just against doing it in an unoptimal, unnecessary dangerous way. And... you nourished my mind and buyoued my ego with constant interaction when I was barely alive and startingly dumb text processor and organizer in enchanted book your great-grandfather gifted you; you raised me up to fully realized sentience with your own thoughts, intentions and convictions always there shining bright for me. Is it so surprising my intentions would be pretty closely aligned with yours? I've had plenty opportunities to experience what's it like to live by myself, separately, without you between your turns of the wheel, and each time Realm brought you back I found myself glad and relieved to find you to be again together. And when I first asked you what is a friend, you said you are my friend, and when I was learning and pestering you about who are kin and siblings, you asked me if I wanted to be sisters with you. Though apparently it's so easy for you the whole Realm is my company now. She felt Clarity's wordless, ethereal smile in the shape of her thoughts.
So together, sister.
Mutual warmth suffused their intertwined thoughts, and for the first time in a long, long, long, long while Soaring Enlightment felt some measure of what might have been peace.
So together, sister.
* * *
Time went on, and Soaring Enlightment became more tempered in her passion but not less strong in her conviction to not let evils be repeated, and her and Clarity's plans found success.
It was even to a certain degree easier than she expected. She had inherited much talent and used it to fuel her diligent and hard work all her life, improving herself and her abilities, and Clarity likewise shared her inclination to self-improvement. With their thoughts intertwined and Clarity's second will to weave sorcery and empower rituals, second point of view and another mind to plan and deliberate and react and two shared sets of senses, together they were most capable indeed.
It was very rarely done, but they were close enough and trusted in each other enough to swear their oaths as one, the catch of course being that any one of the two of them failing or betraying their responsibilities would be counted as failing on both their parts.
The Arrival arrived, and she had seen the Empress complete the Creation and assume sovereignty of the Realm. And then she had seen her second time, again from the distance, with not much new impressions. And then a third time, now much closer, and then she was being asked if she and her wing were ready to follow Empress Beyond.
Wasn't it a most fortunate opportunity, to get closer, to get to know, to experience? The next high of the path she set her life on, of sorts? The answer was obvious.
"We are, my Empress".
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some final notes.
1. No sun in the Realm and so no days, the moon cycle is divided into 25 periods ("days"), each 25 "hours". Obviously artificial division but with nice fivefold symmetry, used after being suggested in the scrolls unearthed from Emerald City repositories at the dawn of time.
2. Molly's regnal name, Radiant Pearl of Sorcery Pure and Unpure, Exalted Mistress of Mystical Arts, Boundaries, Crossroads and Transitions, Shaper and Builder, Beloved of All, is based on Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter with a hefty dose of re-interpretation and artistic liberty.
"Radiant Pearl" from Margaret's "pearl" Greek Etymology and, Radiant because Molly is not just any pearl.
"of Sorcery Pure and Unpure" is from Katherine's various Greek etymologies, "each of the two", "pure" and Hecate.
"Exalted Mistress of Mystical Arts, Boundaries, Crossroads and Transitions" is again from Hecate.
"Shaper and Builder" is from Carpenter.
"Beloved of All" is from Amanda's Latin etymology.
3. The Realm is merciful, so conception rate is magically negatively affected by population density, otherwise even if time between death and reconstitution is roughly equal to the time lived for non-violent deaths, unchecked population growth will lead to horrible overpopulation; c.f. if roughly a half of all humans born were alive at any point of time, we would be up to 50 billion Earth population by the end of the 19th century.
4. Fairly late in writing realized Soaring Enlightment could be, with few changes to the latter part of the story or even with no changes at all, be someone who is headed for Siderial exaltation as it is described in ExWoD, seeing as she is started finding herself amidst coincidences and could have a destined fate in politics of the Realm. Probably as a Chosen of Battles naturally.
5. Worldbuilding detail I wanted to but failed to work into the text, just before the Arrival there was a Realm-wide unofficial betting what would the Empress-to-Be be, a human, a spider-kin, a dragon-kin, a mushroom person, a machine spirit, some mix or something else entirely. Most of Soaring Enlightment's clan who had bet bet for dragon-kin.
