12. Pronaos

Barricaded behind an entourage of deputies, under escort of a Templar detail, Consul etaSade sped passed the Reverend Cardinal Mother zetaPetriss Katrina and Templar Faithful Paul Sebastian.


Harrowed faces ushered etaSade away, into chambers sequestering other Parliamentary delegates. Physically, the former Guild Boss appeared unharmed. However, the rotund politician’s colorless expression betrayed mortal terror and confusion.

At the other end of the great hall, Parliamentary Templar surrounded an entangled knot of excited arms, legs and heads. Paul Sebastian extended his Discipliner and used the charged baton to threaten a path through.

At the center eta Privates—bodyguards to their officials at world government--tumbled against the crowd and Templar trying to manage the melee. The Privates trapped a teenaged boy beneath their numbers, boots and fists pummeling the hapless prey. Nadsar suffered bloodied on the unforgiving marble floor.

Unholstering his pulson, Paul Sebastian revved the sidearm over his head and fired. The discharge made a brilliant, under-charged and harmless flare. The polarizing shock of light arrested the brawling hostiles.

"Let him up," demanded xi Duang.

Weakly, Nadsar raised himself as best his could. Immediately, the eta Privates closed around him, blocking the boy from reach of Parliamentary Templar.

One eta Guild deputy reared up to the defense of his House compatriots. “Had this boy been a better shot he might have killed our Consul," he blustered at an ever-increasing volume, calculated to play at political indignation and sway the favor of those gathered. "This was an assault upon all Guilds and the House of the eta. He should be remanded into the custody of the eta."

"Brother," challenged the Reverend Cardinal Mother in no certain terms. “You have no diplomatic authority outside your embassage. This is clearly the jurisdiction of Faith. Step down or I’ll have you arrested and anyone else who interferes."

No sooner said, the Parliamentary Templar formed ranks aside Paul Sebastian with Discipliners extended. The crowd shrunk far back. Suddenly, the eta found themselves without a favoring audience, alone on stage and naked beneath the spotlight.

"Step aside," ordered xi Duang.

For a moment, the Privates remained defiant, but then their armor quickly gave way and they broke formation. Sebastian spied Nadsar shutter relief and then a sly exchange of looks among eta closest to the boy. In a breath’s exhalation, the pronaos rang with a distinct pwa-toosh. The air reeked suddenly of burnt flesh.

The Templar rushed forward as one eta Private threw away a taeson derringer and put up her hands. "I thought I saw something in his hand,” she feigned innocence. “Swear, he had another weapon."

All eyes locked unto the boy Nadsar.

A single tear escaped the horrified realization in his wetted blank gaze. A thumbnail-sized burn smouldered the center of Nadsar’s chest and grew and grew until it become as large as a fist.

“Sh’karee!” he cried with wisps of smoke threading phantoms through trembling lips. Then, his legs gave out and he crumpled.

The sound of his own body colliding with hard marble deafened and protracted in Nadsar’s ears. He stared up at the pronaos’ many-storied, ornately vaulted ceiling, unable to move or feel or breathe. He sensed people closing on top of him and he strained to look for his mother among the faces fighting for space in his line of vision. But, he did not find her.

Then, enormous black velvet-feathered wings brushed them back. A pair of pulsating grey spheres transfixed him and he stared into warmed welcoming pools more beautiful and transporting than anything he’d imagined.

Having appeared from nowhere, The Archangel lowered Himself beside the wounded teenaged assassin and bent close. For seemingly long pained minutes, He gazed into the young eta's eyes.

The few dozen gathered in the pronaos stood by silently, both awed and terrified, and bewildered as to what they were witnessing. Oracle psi Sadawa Rachel Angela and the Reverend Cardinal Mother prayed. Privately, Templar Paul Sebastian angered and minded the eta that brought this tragedy upon what should have been a great day for all Aideena.

Michael Constantine slipped beside xiDuang. The younger Faithful tauValez had followed after the Divinity when a mysterious new awareness drew the meta-terrestrial from their Altar Room sequesterium. He could not be more fascinated by the mystery unfolding in from him and moved by what he saw as majesty.

Then, the boy expired.

The Archangel stood like a shot.

His darkened incriminating glare sweep across the expectant and fearful eta and repelled those gathered around the scene. Only Paul Sebastian xiDuang did not shrink.

Fellow Templar Michael Constantine tauValez stepped forward. The Archangel grabbed him under either arm and pulled close the young Faithful. "You must come with me," he demanded of the stunned soldier-priest.

Constantine felt himself lift into the air. Sebastian reached for tauValez’s belt and stayed his ascent. The Archangel cut him a reproachful glare, filled with hidden urgency. But xiDuang did not back away. "Hold," the Templar said. "Keep an open channel, brother."

Michael Constantine nodded, understanding his partner was not about to abandon him to the Divinity. Suddenly, for the first time, the young Faithful felt a sinking terrible fear tingling at his core--that there was something menacing about the Celestial Collective exile after all. Sebastian released him and tauValez watched the other fall away.

The crowd let out a collective harrowed gasp as the dark entity and his captive Templar vanished through the ceiling as though specters. The rev of a pulson cut short the moment of awe.

Paul Sebastian leveled his sidearm at the eta. “Take them,” he barked to the Parliamentary Templar. Red and black uniforms drew their weapons and closed on the Privates.

Paul Sebastian menaced a smile. “By the authority of Faith, before thy Ancestors and Creation, I remand thee into custody,” he recited with relish. "Thou hast violated the laws of Holy Union. Thou hast the right to confession. Thou hast the right to judgment before a court of Faith and thy House..."