“It seems to be almost an inevitability of organized government that there are meetings where much is said and little decided. Even the people of Dominion are slowly…”
As before, Hope and her entourage were seated in the meeting room before Hexa and Dread and her entourage arrived. Hope was seated with her back to the door, and Hexa sucked in a breath as Dread passed tantalizingly close to Hope. It was more contact than she had dreamed of with the Great Teacher. They did not, however, touch, and Hexa let out a sigh. She’d had contact with Dread, and yet against all logic her heart didn’t consider her attraction to the both of them to be wandering interest.
Just as there was obvious chemistry between the two of them, there was a sameness that Hexa chalked up to their both being long-standing religious leaders. As people they were vastly different. Dread was hesitant, except in Hope’s presence, while Hope herself was an assertive and politically cunning woman at all times self-possessed. Dread’s entourage managed her, while Hope managed her entourage. Dread withstood terrible pain of some ill-defined nature, while Hope seemed detached from any kind of physicality whatsoever, likely because of all her vows of purity. Even her footfalls were soft, where Dread’s were slightly squishy and wet.
They were indisputably different people, and yet she was drawn to them both, and she could have neither. Love triangles seemed so romantic when she read them in penny dreadfuls, but she didn’t even have a love triangle. She had a love zero. A circle without a beginning, or an end. Not that she wanted an end any more than she had a beginning. At least she had her chronicles, although how she would top the story of finding the fabled seventh kingdom and learning it had long since lost its secrets she didn’t know. Maybe she’d finally go to Fief and travel the spheres. The sheer vastness of the land might make for a series, preoccupy her and introduce her to some eligible ladies.
Dread and Hope sat back in their chairs as the underlings began to talk. Sheafs of papers had been brought by both parties, but it seemed there had been a change in agenda. The first thing they discussed, after interminable introductions—alright, so Hope’s chief acolyte was called Dadactic of Longing—and ceremonial blather common to every government, was the matter of spirit magic. Hexa supposed that the fact their underlings were communicating outside the meetings was in its own right progress.
“Both the Dualists and the Exolineals condemn spirit magic as forbidden by the One God!” Didactic declared. “Surely it is not so important an element of your culture as to merit carrying it on and risking the corruption of impressionable souls!” If your soul is corrupted by the mere presence of something—oh, Hexa asked herself who she was kidding, she was tempted by the mere presence of two distinctive women—but still, you’re looking to be corrupted.
“I would think that the estimable Amonites could appreciate the preservation of the rights of women to reproduce without the meddlesome involvement of man, given their strong support of the matrilineal heritage system.” Everyone supports the matrilineal heritage system though, Hexa thought. After all, it’s the only way to make sure a bloodline remains true, and if that’s a priority for you like it is for some people, you have to trace it through the mother.
“Spirit midwives are exactly the kind of heresy we seek to preclude! If a woman learns of congress with a spirit, she will carry on her line without involvement of a man. Men are sensitive creatures, and with such a threat to their relevance they might well revolt against the entire system of religion that has failed to protect their interests!”
“That doesn’t sound like a heresy problem, it sounds like a problem with your menfolk.” Hexa was inclined to agree. But her role was stenographer and chronicler. She’d probably done enough editorializing simply by leaving off the announcements of office and government.
“What of the practice of binding elementals to bodies of psyllium and stone, enslaving them to the will of the creator?”
“They can do that? I guess Gargold has some lost secrets after all!” Hexa exclaimed in uncontained excitement.
“We cannot do that anymore. The golems who protect our monasteries are relics of a lost Age.” Hexa doubly regretted her outburst at hearing that. It couldn’t have made the Oozekennen feel very good about themselves. Dread seemed philosophical about the lost lore, but the Embodiments were decent sorts too.
“But the ones you retain, it’s just that, you retain them, rather than freeing the spirit within them!” It seemed to Hexa early in the meeting to be so contentious, but then they had begun with a point of serious contention.
“We have read your scriptures, there is no imprecation against using imbued items, there is only an assurance that those who work with spirit mages are condemned.”
It seemed that Didactic had no immediate reply to that, for she cleared her throat irritably and shuffled through her papers. Ultimately, she replied with, “You still practice spirit magic. And from what you’re saying, the biggest uses of it are either dangerous or lost to your mediums.”
“I don’t agree that spirit midwifery is dangerous. We practiced it for plenty of time without any issues before Amonites even came to Gargold.”
“And who can attest to that? Records from so far back are in more archaic Draconic than even our scholars can speak, and… yes, Great Ken?”
“Spirit midwifery has been a practice of the Oozekennen since before the Amonites came to Gargold. I… can attest to that.”
“You expect me to believe you are more than two hundred years old?”
Hope spoke up. “My own tenure as Teacher has been almost that long, Didactic. You know this.” The acolyte colored and nodded in acceptance. “Perhaps we should move on to a less divisive topic? Both of us have gathered figures, if you would care to begin, Speaker?” Hexa thought it a shrewd move to afford the opposite side the place of honor, but also the weaker strategic position because Didactic would have first crack at retorting should she disagree with figures or conclusions.
Hexa dutifully copied down figures on the material value in work-hours of the lands given over to dye production, as well as the resale value of the pressed remains of the crop. Then she dutifully copied down the counterpoints that the resale value was decreased because they sold it to Amonite farmers as food for their sheep, rather than food for people, and they had driven a hard bargain there. The same mushrooms, prepared for food, sold for some greater sum… things got heated once more. When she couldn’t stand it anymore, Hexa stood up and cleared her throat, leaning forward on the table.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“What say we let the actual leaders discuss this matter, theirs being the cooler heads and actual decision makers?”
This proposition netted her nasty looks from both Glurch and Didactic, but neither seemed to want to be the first to speak over their religious head. She wasn’t terribly thrilled with herself, in all fairness; she’d just encouraged her two respective crushes to interact more and strengthen whatever chemistry so obviously existed between them.
As the two of them worked to reconcile the numbers presented, referencing their acolytes only as needed, Hexa continued taking notes but observed their interactions. There was undoubtedly interest. Dread referred directly to Hope a considerable number of times, while Hope seemed to relax the starch in her collar while interacting with Dread. But there was no overt flirtation, no signs of the same intoxication Hexa felt while interacting with either of them. She might, she thought, have been overselling the intoxication in the face of Dread’s second-hand contact with the primordial ooze. They seemed familiar with one another despite having, by Hope’s own admission, not having met more than the twice Hexa herself had facilitated. Which still struck Hope as an incredible act of bureaucracy, that in what had evidently been more than two hundred years they had been unable to meet face to face—but of course, they hadn’t been leaders that entire time, and the establishment of organization and protection of those who did rise to power would be a prime concern of one group feeling invaded and another fleeing what was evidently systemic oppression by powerful dragons.
Speaking of which, what were Hope and Dread, that they had lived for more than half again as many years as any human was allotted? They couldn’t possibly be human, but Dread at least had a physicality that precluded her being any kind of spirit. She didn’t know the same to be true of Hope, but she was the “Great Teacher” of the Amonites, who were opposed to tarrying with spirits. Not to mention, Hope would have surely had to open a door at some point in her life, unless she was an axiom of portals. The notion made Hexa giggle, drawing the attention of both sides of the table. She coughed, cleared her throat, and gestured for the discussion to go on. She also blushed furiously, but there was nothing to be done about that.
So Hope was a portal axiom, and Dread… what was Dread? Could she be some kind of humanoid abomination? It was said that abominations could not be made with humans by the One God’s will, but perhaps that common knowledge was incorrect. Then, too, the Oozekennen didn’t seem to have any practice of sorcery. Their profession of a non-theistic faith sabotaged their own sorcerous potential. Despite the fact the Endless was clearly a divine figure, without faith in the Will of such a figure there was no capacity for sorcery. That might explain their attachment to spirit magic, it would be the only way to emulate the kinds of effects that sorcery was commonly used for. A simple axiom of tame flame would allow for starting cooking fires, boiling water, and cauterizing wounds. She wondered whether she was meant to be an impartial observer—but no, she’d already commented, she could do it again.
“Excuse me, but aren’t there practical elements to spirit magic for the Okey?” She tried to soften the partiality of her question with the casual address for the Oozekennen. The entire table looked over at her, and she kept her voice flat and toneless. “They don’t practice sorcery. Amonites have to make sacrifices to do it, but the Okey don’t even have that. And an axiom of tame flame would be of immense utility to the common person, or even to a doctor. That doesn’t resolve the conflict, but it gives a concrete example of what the Okey are being asked to give up, their golems aside.” She went on to elaborate the uses she had come up with for such a spirit off the top of her head. Didactic was shaking her head even as Hope was nodding, if not in agreement then at least in acknowledgement.
As Hexa trailed off, Hope replied, “You make a valid point. Perhaps to relieve some of the tax-burden on my people, they could supply the services you describe through offerings of doves and sheep to enable their own sorcery. It would not be as convenient, but then the inconvenience to my people of the tax burden is the matter at hand. Thank you, Hexa.” She turned to Dread and said, “Do you have anything to add, or shall we return to the matter of farming?”
As they got back to business, Hexa let her thoughts go back to Dread. She was practically skeletal, could she be some kind of free-willed golem, bound into a dead body? The people of Mind—not the people of Mind, but of the nation the Fireplains had conquered and then returned the land of—knew the secret of inviting spirits into material shells, giving them the ability to influence the material world. If her spirit were bound to her body by magic, it might explain why she was able to immerse herself in waters which seemed to sap the very consciousness out of the self. What preserved her body? But no, nothing was preserving her body, it was actively melting, albeit slowly. Perhaps the primordial ooze was having a preserving effect and that was actually part of why Dread spent so much time in it. But that supposed more guile than Dread seemed to possess. Certainly more than Hexa was prepared to ascribe to the kind and well-meaning leader of the Oozekennen.
Then, too, there was the curiosity of Dread’s “incompleteness.” A bound spirit would, if anything, feel encumbered by its physicality. Which brought her back to having no idea what Dread was any more than Hope. Less than Hope, who might well be an axiom of portals. It would be ridiculous, but if Hexa had learned one thing in her travels, particularly through the Sevens, it was that ridiculousness had prevailed through the Age of Loss to the present Age of Stone in plentiful amounts.
As Hexa pondered, she continued taking notes almost verbatim. It was another skill acquired of her mother’s rigorous geometer’s training; she had been given to lectures on subjects both mathematical and mind-numbing, and taking notes satisfied her need to teach while providing Hexa with a quick reference as to the subject matter to be referenced later. At the present time, they were discussing increased prices for sheep fodder in exchange for wool given in place of the labor tax.
After the meeting, Didactic of Longing approached Hexa, and she anticipated another requested meeting by Hope. Instead, she was berated for prevailing upon their busy and much-tried religious leader to undertake such a discussion without adequate cause. Glurch approached as well, but stopped short when she heard the censure emerging from Didactic’s mouth. Didactic noticed Glurch, and asked if she wanted her lap dog for something. Glurch replied evenly that Hexa was not her lap dog in any sense of the word and that she was there to make sure a repeat of this meeting did not occur. The two made eye contact and laughed, blushing slightly.
See, to Hexa that was flirtation. The laughter, the blushing, the moment of contact well after they’ve established their respective credentials as debaters and religious scholars. There had been none of that between Dread and Hope.
“I see neither of us approve of the interloper,” Didactic said.
“She is a pain, without a doubt,” Glurch replied. Hexa thought to herself that she was right there. She also thought the two should kiss already and maybe take a centering breath of love already and get off her case.
“In my defense, I arranged the meeting at Hope’s behest,” Hexa protested.
“After lurking, waiting around for Dread and imposing upon her,” Glurch retorted.
Speaking of Dread, she too was coming up behind Glurch. She gently nudged her Speaker aside, and asked Hexa if they might speak once more. There was fire in the eyes of both acolytes; vindication in Didactic’s and fury in Glurch’s.
