“Their leaders are generally the most well-respected member of the group, albeit not the most well-liked, a key distinction when it comes to what is arguably democratic leadership…”
“I wanted to ask you about Dread.” Ah. Well. Hopes—hah—dashed.
“Ask away. But know that I am little more knowledgeable than you.”
“You secured for me an audience with the Great Ken, something I have been unable to do in my tenure as Great Teacher.” Clearly, there was a scarcity of adjectives for declaring something to be without peer. “I am in your debt. There is greater hope for my people in this instance than there has been in… dare I say an Age?” How old was Hope claiming to be? “Though it was an interesting admission of Dread, however much it strangled her Speaker, that they have lost their ways and built new ones in their place. That she would be so frank… well, I was prepared to drive a hard bargain, and instead I bargained for equity.”
“What does it matter what you’ve secured with Dread, when there are so many sets of ten?”
“There are many Teachers as well. And far too many acolytes. But Dread holds a position of primacy among them, as I do among the Teachers. Not everyone will go along with her or me, but a great many will, and that’s all it will take to revise the taxation system. That is why I threw out the proverbial bone of the waste from the press process of making mushroom dyes. I had faith that she was dealing in good faith—unlike her Speaker, with whom I’ve had more than one meeting.”
“You’ve met with the Speaker before?!”
“I have. I find her distasteful. She is prideful, and protective of her privilege of being the flapper for the Oozekennen.”
I found that to be the case as well. Interesting that the leader of the other main religious sect would get the same treatment. Their “leaders” are selfless, but the leaders of the leaders are allowed their full sense of self? It seems to me to be a flawed system.
“Truth be told, she has attempted to come between myself and Dread twice now, despite the Great Ken’s insistence upon seeing me. I wonder if perhaps their system is flawed.”
“Their system is without a doubt flawed, as evinced by the time I have spent trying to get a meeting such as this set up. And she was resistant, ostensibly upon Dread’s behalf, to a second meeting with actual facts and figures at hand. Their system would make more sense if it were all who immersed in the waters of nothingness, but their excuse is that only the most spiritually purified can endure even the merest touch of the waters.” Hexa recalled, against the background of Hope’s intoxicating presence, that she had had an out-of-self experience from Dread’s merest touch after her immersion in the primordial ooze. Perhaps it was not purely an excuse, but a factual reality that one must abandon a sense of self to have the presence of mind necessary to ever leave the waters.
“But then, my own attendants are the bane of my spiritual life. I do swear, if I had one devout Amonite for every ten would-be acolytes, I could bring the day of the Savior an entire day sooner!” That was an interesting statement from a religious leader, whose place was presumably upheld by her acolytes. It was also interesting that a single day was considered significant in bringing what would be to the Amonites a Second Coming. Actually…
“Where I come from, we adhere to the idea of Eight Comings of the Christ Savior. What do you have to say to that, as an Amonite leader?”
“Eight? Why eight?” So they’ve been down here long enough to have lost any sense of astronomy.
“One for each of the eight planets, Teacher.” Hexa felt uncomfortable with her own topic and so defaulted to formal address.
“One God, but don’t address me so, it makes me feel the weight of my supplicants. But I suppose that makes sense. Our most ancient texts speak of a diaspora which must be repeated bearing the message of the Christ. We will be the saviors of the lost and misled peoples of all the Orth. The universe, I suppose. Though the Dualists would debate whether there is an eternal aspect of the self which survives. They simply adhere to the idea that one must live a life right by the God Alone to not be cursed all through life. As though we are not cursed enough to live in this lightless tomb for untold Ages.” So the Amonites would return to the surface. Interesting. Unlikely, given their aversion to dragons, but interesting.
For lack of a better topic, Hexa asked, “So do you think the other Teachers will appreciate your efforts on their behalf?”
Hope barked a laugh. “Hardly! The ones who don’t think I stole their disciples will assert that the disciples they stole from me are insidious plants sent to destroy their practice!” This seemed an odd thing for an ostensible Great Teacher to assert, and Hexa said so. “Ah, it’s all in the spirit of arguing for the One God.”
“Ah. This I was introduced to. The concept that if one bears no animosity towards the person they are arguing with, no matter how bitter the hatred of the idea, it is a cordial relationship. There are even relationships founded in the idea.”
Hope nodded appreciatively. “You have studied our culture well. I cannot personally entertain the idea of a relationship with someone whose views of Scripture I found repugnant, but it is common enough amongst my people.” At least she was going to have an accurate chronicle, even if it would be devoid of a romantic aspect. “Passion is passion, and so long as there is the ability to cohabitate, and it produces devout followers of the One God, who am I to complain?”
“Would you object to a relationship of a less adversarial nature?” Hexa asked, impulsively flirtatious.
Her question was met with silence. A long, drawn out silence Hexa increasingly begged the One God to not be the end of her audience with the Great Teacher. Eventually, Hope replied, “I have taken vows, but they do not preclude marriage. They do, however, preclude a relationship with one who is ritually impure, which includes those of other faiths. And for all that you travel and quarter with us, I take it you are not of the Amonite persuasion?”
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Hexa bowed her head. “I am not, Hope. You are still alright with me calling you Hope?”
“For the mere fact of the audience you gained for me, I would grant you the familiarity of calling me Hope. It will be a great boon for my people if we can disseminate a tax structure wherein my people do not shoulder the burden of two temples.” That’s quite a bit of gratitude, for such a lofty personage as the Great Teacher. Hexa was abruptly aware that Hope’s acolytes had not left the room, nor her attendant, and that they were sitting at the end of a table with people clustered around them present to hear every impropriety Hexa suggested with their Great Teacher. Yet they stood, silent and still as statues, not even whispering amongst their number.
“I am honored—” don’t gag “—Great Teacher. Your acolytes will not be offended to hear that their spiritual leader considers them a hindrance to the Next Coming of the Savior?”
Hope waved a hand. “They have heard me in my cups, cursing that I do not have an avid following of mushroom pressers. They will not take offense at my elaboration of those feelings to an outsider. Yet should I die, it is necessary that my ideas be carried on in the next of my followers, even though it is practically Commentary to the teachings of the great Amonite Teachers that they will be neither so great nor so inspired in the eyes of the One God.” Boy was that. A theological mouthful. Hexa left space in her notes to explore the implications of Hope’s declaration at a later time.
If each prophet to follow the one before is necessarily lesser, does that mean that the Last Prophet is the least? Is the Savior a prophet, and if so does that mean that the Last Prophet is the Savior is the least of all the prophets ever to come? What is the implication thereof? Will society be so perfected by the Word of the Amonites that the final Prophet need only be an anemic witness of the One God, or does it mean that the Messiah will not be a Prophet, only necessarily a prophet? What is the distinction between the two? Or does that mean that only the prophets following in the footsteps of great Teachers are lesser, and that the Last Prophet will be not only the last but the most radical prophet, the one who will teach things unheard of in the time of the Amonites, and will bring the Kingdom of God down to all who reach for it?
“It is not just for the Amonites that I pursue this course of action, of course,” Hope said, and Hexa was grateful she had not attempted to transcribe her thoughts in the moment. “I would hope to revitalize and invigorate the people of the Oozekennen. They foist off the body of their artistic work to the Amonites, and leave for themselves the rude workings of stone craft and maintenance. Their art has suffered for it. I have spoken to the painters conscripted by the Oozekennen, and they speak with long suffering of the uninspired drawings from which they are instructed to work. They draw greater inspiration—and critical acclaim—from the faded and worn murals over which they paint their new workings.” That was interesting. Hexa had not been considering whether she was witnessing a civilization in decline, because the judgment thereof would be inherently imperialist. But to have it posed by an insider of the civilization and agree… once again she left space to ruminate at a later time.
If the Oozekennen—these were notes, she would call them Okey—were in decline, what was the cause? The loss of their ability to commune directly with the primordial ooze, the foundation of Creation, and arguably the One God Himself. Herself, according to Dualists. What a trivial point to argue over, when it was clearly the case that the One God was male as a reflection of the primacy given to male pronouns and no other reason than that flattering of male ego, unable to be certain of the lineage of their progeny. Men were, after all, fragile creatures. But no. Hexadecimal chided herself. She should not dismiss the male gender out of hand in a culture woman-led and matrilineal. It was, after all, the male obsession with purity of blood that had produced the matrilineal bloodline which was traced by Amonite and Okey society, as well as the rest of the Sevens above. To exert such influence while in a diminished position of social status clearly indicated a willingness to fight for one’s ideals and ideas, regardless of the odds of success. It was, indeed, in Godswood that Hexa had found no particular lineage system and no preoccupation with bloodlines, and it was there that she found women held a collaborative system of governance, as opposed to the arguably male system of competitive diplomacy demonstrated by the Okey. It should not have taken a cohabitating leader of bodies a literal Age—to take Hope at her word—to gain an audience with the preeminent leader of the only other major religious group in the region, however isolated and insular that region was.
“You think that the people of the Oozekennen would benefit from producing their own murals? Surely they do some of their own artistic work?”
Hope pinched the bridge of her nose. “They do. It is generally a copy of what came before. They are in decline. They have been since the time of my arrival and primacy. While Dread spoke it baldly, I wonder if they ever possessed the ability to speak to the primordial ooze, to commune with Creation, or if that was bluster used to assert their primacy upon the unexpected arrival of the Amonites.” That… was not an entirely unfair question to ask. Dread was something inhuman and had led for a long—
“How old are you, Hope of Peace?”
“Your resorting to formal addresses as I ban others is cute.” She thinks I’m cute! “And a sure sign of nervousness. But to answer your question… I am uncertain. I have climbed the ranks of the Amonite hierarchy over the course of decades, and I have reigned semi-supreme for… not an Age, but some while. They have not been here long enough for me to reign for an Age. I do not recall whether I followed them down here or lay down here, waiting for a suitable agent for my will.”
“You are refreshingly straightforward for a religious leader. No offense.”
“You are an outsider, and you have demonstrated an impartiality uncommon amongst either the Okey or the Amonite groups.”
“Is it okay to be voicing these opinions in front of your acolytes?”
“They are devoted, and they are devoted to critical thought. I would suspect I have posed the question of seniority and its authority to… you there! Have I asked you whether you respect me for my venerability or for my actual theological opinions?”
The acolyte she pointed to snapped to an attention stance and replied crisply, “Ma’am, you asked me that less than six months ago! I answered that I had been brought up on tales of your status as a pious Teacher and sought you out and was not disappointed!”
Hope splayed her fingers and spread her arms. “See what I mean? I have acolytes aplenty.” It was a somewhat egotistical display of authority, but any religious leader who wasn’t regularly basking in the “waters of nothingness” would clearly have much to be proud of in this, the Cavern of Dread, in Gargold, where so much was at religious stake.
Hope’s next inquiry was entirely unexpected, for all that Hexa felt she should have known better than to give up entirely on Hope’s attentions. “Tell me more about your chronicles. They sound fascinating, if they’re true. I should so love to visit the surface once more, and see the sky, the Heavens themselves as God Alone designed them to be.”
Hexa was caught wrong-footed, entirely unprepared to toot her own horn. She recovered with what she hoped was good form and a minimum of squeaking as she replied, “M-my chronicles? Well, uhm… the last place I visited was Repose; for the second time in fact, and I hope this won’t make the wrong impression but I was investigating the crypts which permeate the land there…”
