Victors' Return

"You will hear what I have to say. All of you."

Manlia Suren Issander spoke with exactness. The Curia went silent with held breath, reminding Manlia of a pause in the music of an orchestra. And Black Sun did stop. Not out of obedience, surely, as much as shock. For the High Palatine was Radiance's Chosen Voice, and the Seraphs were merely the extensions of Radiance's will - tools. By Tradition, by Law, Manlia Suren Issander spoke the desires of Radiance. And for a Seraph to disagree with the High Palatine was for a Seraph to defy the Father. Unspoken, the Curia considered Seraph and High Palatine as equals, and one never contradicted or commanded the other.

He could see it in their eyes, read it in their barely suppressed outrage. He could smell it on their perfumed breath amidst a collective exhale. Manlia Suren Issander had challenged the Seraphs, and he had done so speaking with the Voice of a God who slept.

"I was there at Marialla. I weathered blasphemies so loud, so clear, that they rent the earth and tore limb from man, uttered from gullets of steel! I saw as the cream of this realm, the Archonic Knights, were cut down by peasants and fools, simply because they wielded forbidden fire. Mere children could have brought low our very finest, if they had but wielded those weapons I did witness."

"We know of the dangers of these gunpowder-sticks, Your Grace." foamed one dignitary from House Nusidio who yet remained.

Manlia turned on him, flakes of mud flying from ruined finery and fluttering to the marble floor as he did so.
"You know nothing. I have seen Archonic Knights weep. I have felt the earth cry out in agony without the faintest trick of magic. And even now you bicker and squabble as in days of old. I rose to this office to restore this land, and by the God-Kings, I shall. And so let us begin with some hard truths, sons and daughters. Children. For all the Republic's propaganda, it was as much the choice of the Great Houses that gunpowder be outlawed seventy long years ago as it was the choice of the Seraphs. You all saw the challenge to your authority within these weapons. And you see this challenge still. So I tell you now, meet this challenge! Stand by your judgements, if you will!"

"What do you ask of us, High Palatine?" Alexis Kata's voice lifted through the chamber.

"I would have you all stand with me, and fight. Meet them in the field, yes, and hold the city if we must. But we must do it united. Undivided. I have said this unceasingly since before the suicide of High Palatine Victrufa. And make no mistake, you all drove him to that act."

"For what purpose? Think of the risk! The Arbiter's death!" howled a familiar from some unseen confine.

"To awaken Radiance!" Manlia Suren Issander spread his bandaged arms wide. The familiars began to shriek anew. Black Sun pawed her cushions, emotions unreadable. Dawn Lantern raised a glassy limb, another vague expression, no doubt harbouring great meaning. "I tell you now, that those Great Houses which have forsaken us have done so because they believe they can outlive Radiance's death. They believe we will draw his power into his lieutenants at the final hour, and that the Lanterns and Suns shall endure, to wage petty conflict unto the ending of time. No, I tell you now, we will not bleed Radiance. We will stand by him and die together, the entire nation with him, if we must. And in doing so, we shall awaken him. For Radiance is Varantium."

Horrified mumblings broke out amongst the Curia, for many had counted on a defeat meaning nothing save for the birth of a more ambitious world. None had seriously considered that they truly would die with Radiance. The Arbiter's death had been unforeseen - unplanned. Surely they could-

"Still. If a Seraph were to die on the field..." Dawn Lantern mused.

"And that is why the Seraphs and their families must distribute their own power, even if Radiance will not. If a Seraph falls, his family must endure. Summit has already agreed to my wishes. It is Radiance who is the heart of this land, the heart of its people. The Seraphs have always been, and always will be, his hands. And the hands must answer the Will."

Like a wave, they seemed to rise against him - until a single word descended from above. For a brief moment, Radiance stirred. And though most would eventually agree upon what was said, scholars would ever bicker. But he did speak. And the word that he spoke was

"Suren."