Chapter 259 – Alternate Paths

Mirian was examining the effect different glyphs had on air currents and considering how that translated into mathematics when Zhuan reentered the chamber.

“You’re a fool. They’re all busy maneuvering. You must know that the most important conversations within a governing body aren’t the official meetings, but what’s done in the backrooms and pleasant conversations, right?”

Mirian snorted. “My first lesson in government was that none of it worked like it was supposed to. Why does anyone bother pretending to be a republic, then?”

“Because it smoothly distributes power among the elite, leading to a larger power base. That power base has the resources to keep the rest of the population in line. Ideology is their first line of defense, but they can hire enough guns and wands to get the job done if that fails.”

“It’s not even stable. There’s Corrmier’s coup in Palendurio. I assume you watched that? I stopped paying attention last cycle as it got messy. Liuan was having trouble restraining her Akanans.” Liuan had apparently disabled the two airship dreadnoughts, but that hadn’t stopped invasion forces from landing in Cairnmouth and Palendurio. However, since the fighting had all been away from the Labyrinth entrances, Mirian hadn’t bothered to get involved.

“The elite will often have contests within their ranks. There’s a social pressure for there to be fewer elites, because then each one of them has more power. However, if there’s too much consolidation, the elite power base weakens and the power has to be distributed again. You read the chapter about that? No?” Zhuan sighed. “Either way, that’s only one of the dynamics present in Corrmier’s coup. This war is about converting an imperial entity into a colony.”

“But why would Corrmier help with that? He’s part of Baracuel.”

“No he’s not. He’s Decian Corrmier. He is part of the Corrmier family first. He’s friends with industrialists and landowners second, who are Akanan, Baracueli, Persaman, and even Zhighuan. You must think of the elites as a group, not as part of a country. If Baracuel collapses, the rich people here have the wealth and resources to move, or to simply dominate under new leadership. Even Gabriel would agree that the Lord Saiyal only cares about how many palaces he has in Persama, not about Persama itself. He props up the myths and history of Persama because it serves him. Sylvester Aurum does the same in Akana. Corrmier uses his patriotism for Baracuel as a rhetorical cudgel. The elites will fight among each other, but they’ll also work together.”

Zhuan paused. “I’m surprised you don’t like this material. Zoom far enough out and social movements can be turned into equations and tables just like the tides and seasons. It would make them understandable.”

Mirian shook her head. “Is that all we are then? Forces of nature that believe themselves sentient, but are no more so than sand moving down a river? Is not a single grain of sand different? Can none of us resist the pull of our base instincts, our greed—the lust for power?”

“There will always be those who lust for power. The question is what the rest of us do about it.”

“Then a new power comes in. The Zhighuan Empire was replaced by the Triarchy. The Triarchy, by Baracuel. And if the world doesn’t end, Baracuel will be replaced by Akana. Has there ever been another way?”

Zhuan was silent. “Maybe. The pre-Cataclysm records are sparse. I must believe there is.”

“I appreciate the honesty, at least.” How many impossible things? she wondered.

With a sigh, she levitated out of her chair and cast detect life. Once she could see people moving through the walls, she could get a sense of what was going on. Ibrahim was meditating on a rock, while Jherica talked to him—or perhaps at him. They might make more progress talking to the rock. Gabriel was talking to Xecatl, whose straight posture told Mirian that she wasn’t pleased with whatever was being said.

There was one person Mirian did need to talk to. It was just the conversation she was least looking forward to.

“Aright,” she said, and levitated over to Liuan Var.

“You!” the man she’d thrown out of the meeting earlier said as she approached.

Mirian hadn’t learned his name and didn’t intend to. She cast zone of silence around him. “Prophet Liuan, I know we have you scheduled to report on your attempts to pursue this ‘Scebur,’ but I wanted to see if you need assistance with the matter.”

The man finally seemed to realize no one could hear him talk, and stopped, though his face had gone red.

Liuan glanced his way, then shook her head. “Always straight to the point with you. Fine, I’ll give you the summary now. They’re impossible to pin down. They keep acting through proxies, convincing powerful mages to do their bidding through that cult of theirs. I started scouring the continent for mysterious holes that appeared on the 1st of Solem, but they must have gotten wind of what I was doing, because all of a sudden my agents started seeing them everywhere. Obviously, if one appears in one cycle, but not another, it’s an obvious forgery, but… there’s too many things to keep track of. And then things change again.”

“Hmm,” Mirian said. She hadn’t actually answered the question.

“No,” Liuan said with a sigh. “Jherica and I have enough difficulties coordinating things so that I don’t confuse their changes as Scebur’s. I can get a firm enough control on the RID and, as you can see, the Senate is amenable. After all, they live on Enteria too.”

Mirian guessed that most of the people with her were politicians, then. She still had several priests and RID agents, but she was clearly expanding her control over Akana, step by step. Faster than Jherica. Should I be worried about the imbalance, or let them each specialize? Jherica was crucial in helping Xecatl’s research efforts. Take them away to contest Akana instead, and they’d be undermining the primary goal of getting spirit constructs to supplement the device. “I noticed attacks on the coast last cycle.”

Liuan clenched her jaw. “It’s never gone on that long before. How was I supposed to know some of my fixes wouldn’t hold?”

“Just a comment.”

Liuan cast her own zone of silence so that it encompassed the two of them. “I can try something more permanent to restrain Akana next cycle, but it’s high-risk, which is why I haven’t done it. I won’t bore you with the specifics,” she said, while glancing at her company.

Ah, best not rile up her temporary allies, Mirian thought. They do tend to get touchy when they realize how they’re being manipulated, or how there’s nothing they can do to stop one of us from changing our allegiance or reneging on bargains. “Why not experiment?” Liuan didn’t reply, so Mirian added, “Any insight on Scebur’s motivations?”

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“No. Or perhaps… one of my priests has a theory. That it has to do with the Relics of the Prophets.” Liuan, noticing that her allies were starting to whisper to each other, dismissed her zone of silence spell.

Mirian kept her face blank. Emotions had become so much easier to suppress over the years. “Oh?”

“Each of the Prophets had a Relic of great power the Ominian gifted them. Which I still don’t understand—where are our relics? Or must we earn them by moving closer to the divine path? Either way, each one was powerful, suffused with divine magic that gave them powers that our own artifice can’t replicate.”

They’re just cobbled together from pieces in the Labyrinth, Mirian thought. Her father had used an Elder artifact to make his ring. Eclipse was just made of the soul-imbued metals doused in relicarium. Still, Liuan was the one she most wanted to keep in the dark about the relics. “Yet, we already know one core tenet of the Luminates and Church was wrong; the Prophets didn’t receive visions of the future, but lived them. What else is recorded but false?”

Liuan ignored the blanched faces several of her attending priests made. “I’ve been investigating, because I think Scebur may be after the relics. The problem is that there’s been several… forgeries.” She glanced back at one of the priests, who reddened. “It turns out there is quite an industry in creating fake relics and selling them to churches that don’t know better than to even talk to a single arcanist about dating the artifact, never mind consulting the holy records. But last cycle, I had a rare opportunity to visit the Grand Sanctum in Palendurio.”