Hi, and welcome to the next chapter! I hope the cliffhanger didn't give you too much stress :P
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Without further ado...
Sins of a Future World: Chapter 7
There was a sharp ringing in his ears that would not go away. Aside from that he felt very relaxed. He felt like he was surrounded by comfort. It was warm but not hot, and the bed he lay on was cool and soft. Opening his eyes he was greeted by whiteness all around him. Nearly everything in the room, which he did not recognize, was an immaculate white. His thoughts were lazy as he tried to figure out where he was and how he had gotten there.
"He is awake." Someone said, causing him to let his head flop to one side towards the source of the voice.
There was a young woman sitting to one side of the room, dressed all in white and it was she that had spoken. Another voice came through a speaker of some sort, this one male.
"Excellent, I will be there momentarily."
There was a sense of urgency that Jace could feel tugging on him as if he was forgetting something important, but he could not grab hold of it. The comfort of his surroundings and the sluggishness of his thoughts caused it to elude him.
"Where am I?" He asked the young woman. He was surprised to hear that his voice was ragged and his throat was parched.
"This is the infirmary of the Luminous Hand." She told him simply.
"What am I doing here?" He asked, trying to sit up.
"Please remain still Ambassador. The healer will be here shortly and can explain everything."
"Water?" He rasped out.
The woman smiled and brought him a cup which he eagerly drained. A door slid open on the far end of the room and a man entered. He was tall and thin and looked very old, yet he walked upright and unassisted.
"Ambassador Marron." The man greeted. "It is good that you are awake. I am Healer Devras. I have been attending to you for some time."
"How long?" Jace asked, trying to collect his hazy memory. "What happened?"
You have been unconscious for nearly three standard days." Devras said.
Three days... Jace blinked in confusion. "What happened?' He repeated. Parts of his memory were beginning to fall into place. He could remember something horrible causing him immense pain.
"There was an... Incident." Devras replied evasively. "But you are well on your way to recovery and should be fine within the next day or so."
At the word `incident' Jace suddenly remembered Ryn's tortured scream. The events of that night stormed his brain relentlessly causing him to sit bolt upright. As soon as he did, his head exploded in pain that was nearly blinding. Nothing compared to the pain of that terrible night, but it was enough to drive back down onto the bed.
"Try not to move too quickly Ambassador." Devras instructed. "You are still mending, and this type of healing only time can accomplish."
"Where's Ryn!?" Jace demanded. He searched for the now familiar wisps of thought and emotion in his head that signaled Ryn's presence but could find them nowhere. His thoughts turned dark and panicked.
The healer pursed his lips. "Archon Embara is... indisposed at the moment."
"But he's alive?" Jace felt relief run through him. "And alright?"
"He is alive." Devras said cryptically.
Jace's relief went cold. "He's hurt then? What happened, please?"
Devras took his time, carefully considering his response. "Our gifts make us vulnerable to certain... illnesses that your kind would not understand. It is nothing for you to be concerned over."
Jace suddenly remembered what Ryn had told him, about the minds of the followers of the Harmonious Light collapsing in on themselves.
"No..." He felt the blood drain from his face. "Not that. He's just a boy..."
Devras was obviously surprised that Jace seemed to know what he was talking about but his face told Jace that he was right. Jace felt like his heart was falling to pieces.
The voice of an AI came through a speaker. "Healer Devras. The presence of Ambassador Marron has been requested in the council chamber."
Devras frowned. "He is in no condition. He needs to rest."
"This is a request directly from the council and Kel-Amath."
Frowning again Devras waved a hand at the air. "This is most irregular. But if the council requires him..." He turned to Jace. "I will summon an escort for you. Do not needlessly strain yourself."
Jace could not imagine what the council wanted with him, let alone the representative of the amassed anima. Two women that seemed to be nurses came and helped Jace to his feet. The pain in his head returned but as long as he did not move too quickly it remained little more than a dull ache.
He found that he could walk unassisted, albeit slowly. He felt dizzy being on his feet and the two women stayed close over either shoulder. They led him from the infirmary through several corridors to an elevator. Before long, Jace found himself in the same large council chamber that they had used to meet with the Varros senate. The representatives of the Harmonious Light were already there.
"Welcome, Ambassador." The old woman at the near end of the table said. "Please, have a seat." She indicated the same chair that Jace had used before. The seat at the head of the table sat vacant, and Jace worried for Ryn again.
"Welcome, servants of the Light." The woman said solemnly once Jace was seated.
"Welcome, Light Mother." The group replied as one.
"In the absence of our Archon, I shall be conducting this meeting. Are there any who object?"
There was silence around the room.
"Kel-Amath, you have the floor." She gestured toward the spectral figure.
"Thank you, Light Mother." The hologram inclined its head. "We have grave news to lay before this council." Its voice came from all directions. "Several hours ago, we detected phase space disturbances with contours that suggest an approaching fleet. It seems to be quite large. It will likely arrive in three days' time"
Jace sucked in a breath. Could the Coalition be sending reinforcements?
"Kel-Amath, how is it that we are so uncertain of this?" One of the other representatives spoke up. "Do the anima not keep watch over such things so that we are not taken by surprise?"
"The pain of our beloved Archon has divided us. The anima are disjointed. This lack of unity leaves us weak and vulnerable. We are devoting our attentions toward necessary functions of the fleet and its defenses."
"How long before the anima are ready for battle?" The old woman asked.
"We are unable to calculate this, Light Mother. We are prepared for small scale combat, but not to deal with a second enemy fleet. Without the presence of an Archon, our calculations suggest only a slim chance for victory."
Jace sat absorbing all of this, not sure exactly what to make of it. If the Coalition had reinforcements coming, then maybe Varros would remain independent after all. He thought about Ryn though. If the Light was defeated he did not know what would happen to him.
Kel-Amath continued. "Furthermore, this timing is suspicious to us. Phase distance from the nearest Coalition planet is approximately six days. This means that this fleet departed hours after our Archon was incapacitated."
"What are you suggesting, Kel-Amath?" The Light Mother interjected.
"It seems likely to us that Ambassador Marron has passed word on to our enemies of our weakened state." Kel-Amath said flatly.
Jace's eyes widened as all heads at the table turned to look at him. He looked around, stunned. Suddenly feeling very vulnerable.
"That is a very serious allegation." One of the others at the table spoke up. "Archon Embara clearly trusted Ambassador Marron."
"I've been in the infirmary for the past three days." Jace finally found his voice. "Even if I'd wanted to pass along information I wouldn't know how and wouldn't have had the chance."
"So you say." Another council member replied soberly. "Kel-Amath is right, the timing is... coincidental."
"Please. Be at peace fellow servants of the Light." The Light Mother drew everyone's attention. "I do not think it likely that Ambassador Marron shared sensitive information. He and the Archon have become close in this short time." The way she looked at Jace when she said this made Jace wonder just how much she knew. "Nevertheless, the Ambassador will be kept under close watch until the leak can be discovered. If one exists at all." No one seemed to have outright objections to this, so she continued. "The question is, what are we to do now? We will soon have enemies on either side and without the strength of our Archon we may well fail in our mission."
"I've had a thought." One of the council members that had been silent up to this point said. He was an older man but like so many of the Harmonious Light, his age was nearly impossible to determine.
"Yes, Leader Gallos. Your wisdom would be appreciated." The Light Mother answered.
"The Coalition forces do not yet know that we are aware of their plans. Their phase space sensors are primitive, and so they will not expect us to detect this new force for another two days. In this we have an opportunity that I think we must not squander. We must attack head on the force that is before us. Thus ensuring that we only need deal with one foe at a time."
Jace could not believe what he was hearing. "You can't! You called for a cease fire!"
"And would you not say that the Coalition has violated the terms of that cease fire when they summoned a second fighting force?" Gallos asked him.
"We are in agreement with Leader Gallos." Kel-Amath said. "The anima can likely be rallied enough to engage what remains of the Varros fleet without unmeasured risk."
Several others around the table vocalized agreement as well. Jace shook his head. "There has to be another way!" He insisted. "Thousands will die!"
"We did not choose this path." Gallos countered. "Just as we did not choose to be exiled. We simply do as we must to survive."
Jace smacked a hand down on the table. "Don't you see what you're doing?" He demanded. "You use the same excuse over and over to justify hundreds and thousands of deaths. How are you any better than the people that exiled you?"
"Caution, Ambassador." The Light Mother said sternly. "You are our guest here and there is much that you do not know."
"I know why you're here. Why you're really here. I know about the artifacts you're looking for, and why you need them. I know that is what's happening to Ryn. Is there more?"
Stunned silence reigned in the council chamber.
Jace continued. "You say that you're doing it all for the sake of your people, but you know what I think? I think that somewhere deep down you're still holding a grudge. It was wrong to exile you. But everyone that was involved with that is long dead. Their great grandchildren are long dead. And look. You won. Not only did you survive but you thrived and created a civilization even more advanced than the one that banished you.
"Sure, my people aren't innocent in this. We're prone to overreactions, and mired down by layers of corrupt bureaucracy. But we're people, the same as you. Most of us have never born any ill will against any of you. If you break this cease fire though, it will ruin any chance of peace between the Harmonious Light and the Coalition forces."
"Mind your tone, Ambassador." Gallos chided. "You know nothing of the will of the Light."
"He is right." Jace heard a familiar voice from the other side of the room and his heart leapt as he saw Ryn standing in the doorway, but immediately fell again as he took in the state of him. He looked weathered and broken, with his shoulders slumped. His two guardians stood on either side of him, each with a hand on a shoulder. His once beautiful and intriguing eyes were dull and bloodshot and weighed down with dark circles. They carried a haunted look that Jace had never seen in someone so young before. His radiant white-blonde hair was disheveled and looked more white than blonde.
"Archon Embara." The Light Mother stood and the rest of the room followed. "Forgive us, we did not expect you to be joining us."
"I will not so easily abandon my duty to the Light, and to this fleet." His voice cracked halfway through.
"Would you like for us to retrace what has been discussed?"
"That will not be necessary. I have been listening." He crossed the room to the chair at the head of the table and sat heavily. Jace had been fighting tears from the moment he saw Ryn's condition, but when Ryn fixed him with a mournful sad gaze as he sat, Jace had to look away, with an almost unbearable tightness in his throat.
"Ambassador Marron is right." Ryn said again.
"On what count, Archon?" Leader Gallos asked.
"All of them." Ryn replied evenly. "We have no right to the lives of these people. We will find a way to accomplish our mission without breaking the cease fire."
"Archon Embara," Gallos began, "If we could simply..."
The Light Mother cut him off. "Your judgement is sound in this, Archon?"
"It is, Light Mother." Ryn said. "For too long we have thought ourselves above reproach because of our dedication to the Light. As I have become familiar with these people, I have seen that they are not the enemy that we have been taught to believe. They are creations of the Light, and they deserve to be treated as such."
"Just how `familiar' have you become?" Came an icy voice from the other end of the table. It was a woman, older but not as old as the Light Mother, and she eyed Ryn coolly.
"Be very careful what you say next, Leader Mariath." The Light Mother warned.
"The time for secrets has passed, Light Mother." Mariath replied. "Archon Embara, it may surprise you to know that your... dalliance with Archon Felan was well documented within this council."
Ryn's heavy eyes widened noticeable and murmuring broke out along the table.
"We suspended our disgust for such perversion because both you and Archon Felan were adept and shrewd, and when Archon Felan was killed we assumed that would be the end of it. But seeing the way Ambassador Marron looks upon you, and given how strongly your fit affected him, it is clear to me that this defiance of the Light has not left you but rather grown stronger since the death of Archon Felan."
"Leader Mariath, compose yourself!" The Light Mother said angrily but Mariath did not listen.
"You lay with Archon Felan, and we chose to look the other way. But now your perversion has corrupted you wholly, and you have lain with an outsider as well. It has distorted your judgement, Archon Embara! You are no longer fit to serve as the tool of the Light! I call for a vote of deposition."
The Light Mother sighed heavily and put a hand to her face. "Very well... we require two others to second the call for this vote. What say you?"
Leader Gallos raised his hand, and a few seconds later another man closer to the head of the table raised his as well.
"The vote has been called." The Light Mother said solemnly. "Archon Embara, is there anything you wish to say before we cast our votes."
Ryn looked utterly defeated. Jace could see it in his eyes and his body language. Even without their connection he knew Ryn well enough to almost hear his thoughts. He had no strength left; no will to carry on.
Jace stood and addressed Leader Mariath directly. Staring her down, unflinching. "Is caring for others a sin in the eyes of the Light? Does the Light condemn sharing your home, your food, your drink with a stranger and asking for nothing in return? Do the servants of the Light hate their Archons so much that they would demand they sacrifice their own happiness for the sake of tradition? Ryn has given everything to you and to the Light; his childhood, his innocence, his heart. At every turn he has held nothing back. What does he have to show for it? What have you done to earn his service? If any one of you can claim to have followed your Light's teachings perfectly then let them speak up now. If not, I suggest you decide who you'd rather side with; the Archon who has given you every part of himself, or some angry old fools that fear a difference they don't understand."
Mariath glared at him furiously, but Jace could have sworn he saw a faint approving smile on the face of the Light Mother. "Well spoken, Ambassador. I shall take the first vote. I stand with Archon Embara."
"I stand with the deposition." Leader Mariath said.
"I stand with the deposition." Gallos said after.
They continued around the table each casting a vote either for Ryn or for the deposition, until they were each tied at five votes.
"Kel-Amath. The deciding vote falls to you." The Light Mother said, gesturing toward the hologram.
There was a suspenseful silence as the representative of the anima weighed the decision. Then finally. "We stand with Archon Embara."
"It is decided. The deposition fails." The Light Mother said.
Jace broke into a wide grin and Ryn gave a soft smile of thanks.
"This still leaves us with the question of how to address the approaching fleet." The Light Mother continued.
Jace cleared his throat. "Actually, if I may. I think I have a plan."