“BREAKING NEWS!!”
“Acts of terrorism against the Inquisition: Public outrage led by the Hoita Elysium reaches The Emperor’s Conclave.
“By Vivian Fassihi and Nicolas Nepveu
September 19, 926 AE
“In an act of terrorism against the state and the church, the offices of the Inquisition order all across the continent and beyond were bombed on September 12 at the same time. The explosion in our city killed the 7 members of the order, one medic from the church who used his body to save the last, and another person who was in the building at the moment and is believed to be the perpetrator. Fortunately, no civilian members were present at the building at the moment.
“Although as confirmed by the church officials, the mutilated bodies of the members were recovered and their healing started 4 days ago. ‘Considering the extent of their injuries, with some left nothing but a cracked skull, we expect the healing to take at least a week with the constant assistance of our medics, but the time they take to recover from the trauma is unimaginable and can take anywhere from a day to a month’, one of the medics in charge of supervising the healing at Ozart city office said to our reporter.
“‘To dispel the general rumor, our medics are not divine healers, and nor are the members permanently dead. The body heals itself, but the healing process can get a little’, taking a short break as if finding the right word, he continued, ‘erratic when it’s so fast, and can cause lasting damage if not supervised properly. Usually, the inquisition members are taught enough in this field to supervise their healing, but we need to be there in such times’, said the same member, dispelling the rumors concerning the need for so many medics.
“The explosion meanwhile was caused by many shrapnel bombs strapped together and has caused a high area of effect damage. This not only shredded the members and the building, but also many of the people walking outside and the blocks across the street resulting in the Church St. being a scene of red.
“‘Gods help us - they are all dead!’ shouted a man, waling, with his dead wife in his arms
“It was a scene of pure macabre and carnage. The once rhythms of calm music were now replaced by the guttural wailings of the injured, the silence of the dead, and the cries of those who survived.
“A few days ago we had an interview with Inspector Moscet who led the investigation in our city and he detailed his findings. The most important thing they found was a cracked but surely purple token with a crow engraved on it. Yes as many of us might know and recognize it, it is indeed the ‘Dispatch Token’ from the mayor’s office.
“After this finding got public due to an internal leak, it led to an outrage further fuelled by the church who took it upon itself to lead the people to a march through the streets to the Mayor’s manor to demand answers.
“Although the mayor of our city has not shown himself yet and has barricaded himself in his manor, he has also denied any involvement in the bombing event and pleads innocence. Compared to our mayor, it has been verified from our sources that mayors of many such cities were found missing since the night before the bombing leaving the public without an outlet to vent their emotions.
“Although the presence of the church and the apparent presence of the mayor has soothed the public enough for it to not turn into a riot, we can never know when other forces will use this chance to light up the keg.
“With the church putting such great emphasis on this mass genocide, the Deputy Chief of Lenhardt state has taken it upon himself to lead the case. In his public statement, he commented, ‘It was a very unfortunate thing to happen. We greatly respect the church and have been in friendly collaboration with the church for a long time and always willing to provide help at a moment's notice. To think something like this happened so quickly that none of us were able to react timely has greatly disturbed me and everyone in the police force.’
“‘Our Commissioner has been in talks with the church for the last week and the church has decided to not only request another meeting of The Emperor’s Conclave after 15 years to discuss the importance of safety among the citizens but also how to punish the ones behind this atrocity. Our police force will support them till the end under the lead of the Commissioner.’
“With these two behemoths making their moves together, it is almost a guarantee for the meeting to be held. This meeting not only holds the utmost importance for the church which has faced the brunt of this terrorist attack recently but also the citizens who are afraid for their safety after this recent mass terrorist attack.
“ ‘Throughout the attacks, there has been a recurring pattern to a large extent that we noticed.’ confessed Inspector Moscet, ’As people might know, any office holds 9 members at any given moment, 8 lieutenants and 1 captain (as bestowed upon them by the Religious Act) in small cities; 15 lieutenants, 3 captains and 1 major in larger business capitals, political centers and places of religious value; whereas the Inquisition headquarters in every empire consists of a team of 49 lieutenants, 7 captains, 2 majors and 1 deputy chief.’
“‘ What we found was, in every office; but the headquarters; the building only held the lieutenants and all the captains except for one reported missing and presumably dead. In the case of our city and others like us, we only had the lieutenants; one medic and the perpetrator who either impersonated any relation to the mayor and held a ‘Dispatch token’ or were indeed the men of the mayor. ‘
“Police search for the missing mayor and the organization behind this attack is still underway and is believed to take a while. Meanwhile, we can only put our hopes to the conclave and hope that our wise emperor will make a judgment that appeases us scared citizens.
“Till then we can only sit and ask ourselves this, how safe are we? What happened to Captain Vedel and others like him? Will we ever see them again? What is the plan of this mysterious organization? And how far are they willing to go after this round of bombing? And again… how safe are we in the current situation?
“The conclave is scheduled to be held in 10 days.
“The Daily Chronicle”
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“It should be about time, isn’t it?” asked a figure sitting on a cushy chair, draped in a white robe with golden rims at his collar, and a tiara on his head with 29 spikes poking outwards at an angle of 90d to the sky. He had the looks of a middle-aged man in his prime with a lightly shaved beard and a face with no marks. He wasn’t particularly handsome, but he carried an oldness around him. An aura of exhaustion and authority within him.
It was 22nd September and it was time for the first batch of officers to wake up.
“Yes sire, it has been 7 days since the healing started and the ones who can shrug off their traumas should wake up today. Though I would suggest not having many expectations sire.” A figure stood beside the man, similarly draped in a white robe without the golden rims and tiara, and spoke while handing over a thin file.
“Sire these are our members who are most accustomed to dying and have faced such situations the most in their long lives. If anyone, then they are the most highly likely candidates to wake up first.” The assistant explained while the man sitting on the cushy chair leafed through the file.
One of the skills a person gains through their long lives in such a position is extracting important information through huge files in the shortest time.
“Give them a day of rest to recuperate and provide them with vitamins D, B12 and proteins, iron pills, and others depending on their situation. As for any younger officers, or anyone with this being their first death, if are able to wake up today shall be given extra attention, and if they continue to be efficient at their work, then increase their position in the promotion list.” The man commented after going through the file.
“It shall be done, sire.”
After dealing with that, the man went back to dealing with other official problems that required his attention and the assistant stood by his side throughout the day helping him in the work. Every once in a while, someone would bring news about the various officers who woke up throughout the day.
Even being the pope can’t save you from paperwork.
By the end of the day, there were a total of 52 officers who managed to wake up.
“A pity. The number… it speaks of ill luck. Tomorrow morning give me an account of anyone else who wakes up. That’s it for me today.” Saying that, the pope stood up slowly and with hands clasped behind his back moved towards the door and walked to his living room.
It was a large room with a four-poster king-sized bed with golden bars at one end of the room away from the mirrors. It was a security necessity and he hated it. But under his insistence, he rebuilt the other side of the room to have floor-to-ceiling windows with a tea table and few chairs in front.
All though it was under the pretense of him meeting others in his room, he simply moved the chair by the window and sat there looking at the moon for a while then moved the chair back to its position and went to sleep.
Beside his bed were two side tables. Both tables held a lamp and the one on the right also had a head mannequin, whereas the left table had a small statue of a snake eating his tail with spikes all over its body. There were a total of 31 spikes on its body.
The same statue was mounted on his wall where he’d light a candle and pray every morning for a few minutes.
After getting in and being alone again in his room with only the table lamps lighting the room, his shoulders slumped a little and he gave out a weary sigh. He was really tired.
Placing his tiara on the specially modeled mannequin, he changed out of his robes and wore much comfortable warm but loose clothes.
After doing that, he went by the coffee table, picked a chair, and moved it by the window like every day he did.
Staring at the moon, he’d forget the worries of his day and truly relax for once. Today was a full moon and it was one of his favorite days. The moon was so bright, so full of blemishes, so …. beautiful. Of course, he didn’t believe in Kuu, the ones they praise as the personification of the moon. No. He preferred the moon as it is now. A dot in the sky he can praise to his heart’s content.
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The moon has always held a special attraction towards all blessed by Aurinko. It was weird,… contradictory. It was as if it contained a trace of ‘His’ powers. It was but just a rumor among the others, cause no one has verified it and can probably never. But for the pope….. he knew some things no one else did.
There was a reason, why the church emphasized on safety of the Inquisition despite knowing nothing could kill them. It’s not just because of the inefficient healing process.
Looking at the moon, suddenly the pope had an urge to read. To read his favorite record. Ah how intriguing it felt to read it. The first time he read it, he had almost cried.
Standing up, he went to his grand bookshelf and picked a thick file. It contained extremely classified information about the church and the order across the centuries the Hoita Elysium has been established. Granted some records from the early centuries have gone missing and it wasn’t till 200 years ago with the invention of current printing press technology that the costs of pages decreased to an all-time low, hence motivated the current generation of active recording.
Nonetheless, this record that he was interested in, despite being over 6 centuries old, had a very special significance. The maintenance of this record has been one of the few responsibilities of the pope.
As he sat down on his chair with the thick file in his hands, he started flipping to the record he wanted and found it fairly quickly at this point and read under the brightness of the moon.
“Pope Caesar Feliz, the II
“2nd March, 253 AE
“Subject: Dead Inquisitor
“Status of the subject: Permanently dead
“Confidentiality status: Class E confidential. It is of the highest level of confidentiality. It shouldn’t be reported outside, talked about to others, or leaked in any way.
“Security clearance: The Pope.
“Description: A highly active Inquisitor at the rank of Major, awarded The Faith Award, The Elysium Medal, and many others for his indisputable achievements at the battlefront and in his duties across a span of 253 years. As a result, he died many times.
“On the day of 12 February, 253 AE, while on another mission against the Devil Preachers, he was shot in the head and suffered another death. Initially, no one suspected an anomaly. After cleaning up the scene, when his teammates came back to check on him, they found him still lying dead as he was before with no sign of the wound closing.
“Feeling something wrong, they decided to bring him back to the church. But before they could touch him, his corpse ‘reanimated’. With white pupils, stiff limbs, and blood flowing out of his forehead, he began writing on the ground with his blood.
“It was a single sentence, ‘Praise the moon!’
“After that his corpse went limp again and he was officially reported dead.
“Appendix 1: He was known to be among the first to be blessed during the Coming of Aurinko.
“Appendix 2: His total number of deaths though unknown, is reported to be above 200.
“Appendix 3: The official records declare him and his teammates missing.”
Hahhhh
Reading the record still brought a deep sigh out of him. He had read it so many times, and yet the impact has always been the same. Is it the mortality of the human soul that can’t stand the myriad deaths faced by it? Or did it in a way provoke Aurinko? Is his way of reminding us, that we should never take what’s given to us for granted, lest we regret the day it’s taken?
Since he bought them out, he planned to read a few more interesting ones to pass the time, but he didn’t notice one thing while he was immersed in his read. The room…. was getting unusually bright.
When he finally noticed it, he was a bit startled and immediately looked outside. More precisely at the sky, and what he saw was…. the Sun.
The sun was rising again, and it was rising fast. The moon meanwhile didn’t disappear in the presence of Aurinko. No! It too was getting bright. The sky was reaching noon once again and this time it had 2 suns to grace it.
Pope could see the bustle in the streets. People were out of their houses looking at the sky and murmuring among themselves with panic and fear in their eyes. But slowly the fear and murmuring receded and what replaced it was a uniform chant.
“YLISTA AURINKOA!”
“SPARE US!”
“PROTECT US!”
“YLISTA AURINKOA!”
One by one everyone knelt and prostrated themselves in front of the god they believed. The god who was perhaps angry at them, or perhaps came to visit his cherished ones. No one knew. But aren’t gods like this? Never to be understood and whimsical in nature. Just like a child.
And what’s worse than having one child? Two children.
By the time it was ‘noon’ again, the streets were a choir of chants and drumming of heads against the road as it painted the roads with a red Aurinko liked.
The only person who understood, or pretended to understand what this entails was the Pope. For he too was kneeling at this moment, but his mind was in unprecedented chaos as he tried to control his overflowing emotion and failed. For he has heard about this incident. Heard about the implications.
The last time when it happened, the first batch of humans received their blessings!
And it was the only time it happened after that.
But it not only comes with blessings, no! A double sun always comes with two benefits, it’s in its nature.
It also brings knowledge!
The last time it bought the knowledge of the divine and the mundane. Last time people first learned of ‘His’ name, ‘His’ nature, and the nature of his blessings, but they also learned about themselves. The current level of medical knowledge is not what humans gathered on their own. No! The ability to finely change the human body and heal it with minute detail is just unimaginable and wouldn’t have been possible without the blessings.
‘What will it bring this time?’ The pope asked himself. Just the possibilities covered his body in goosebumps as he continued to kneel and softly join the chant below.
It was only after 5 minutes that the glow receded, and it didn’t dip like a sun would. No! It just popped out of existence! Like a bubble that pops out of existence leaving a shower of soap. The sun just popped out showering everyone with a resplendent glow of light, before everything went dark again and people stood up looking around in confusion before giving their last prayers and leaving for their homes with a smile plastered on a bleeding face. This deserves a meeting of the common.
The pope was still on the ground, though earlier if it was because of devotion and anticipation, now it held a mix of confusion and a small sense of …. betrayal?
Realizing his emotions, he frantically punished himself by striking his head against the floor while shouting apologies at the statue of Elysium.
Only when he heard knocks on his door, did he stop with one last profuse sorry and quickly went to get ready. The night was long and a meeting of the not-so-common is in order. They have to understand, why? Why did they not gain anything? Why did the phenomenon take place otherwise? Why?
- - - - - * - - - - -
‘Where am I ?’ I looked around dazedly. It was so dark and quiet. I imagine this is what it feels like to be floating under the ocean. Deep deep under the ocean. Apart from the fact that I wasn’t choking.
It felt….. good. It felt so calming. It was cold, but yet not uncomfortably so. Just the right amount of cold you’d want when you go to sleep. I didn’t wanna leave it. I’m sure Morgan and everyone can look for captain without me….
But like every good dream comes to an end, this too will. For after an unknown amount of time, I saw a disturbance in the darkness. Something was moving towards me.
It smelled of gold and red. I don’t know how that worked… but I was sure it was gold and red colored.
As I continued looking at it, something within me stirred and the whole place shook. My eyes were abnormally focused, and so was my mind as I felt it churn at an unimaginable level. Hundreds of thoughts, thousands, millions of thoughts passed by me in a second. My nose dripped of blood, my ears were silent and my eyes red from the blood inflow, but I couldn’t look away. The coin, the item flowing towards me, was just so near. I could touch it if I extended my hand.
No! I must touch it!
CRACK! SHATTER!
- - - - - * - - - - -
‘Han? Where am - ugh!’ My eyes shot open and tried to make heads and tails of the situation around me, but before I could think any further, a severe headache assaulted me and I woke up shouting, clutching my head, and running with a nosebleed.
“Quick come! Patient 047 is awake. He seems to have a headache, so bring an ice pack” I heard someone shouting and wanted nothing more than to break his nose for shouting so madly before the thought got swept under the tsunami of pain.
“Sir! Sir! Can you hear me? Concentrate on my voice and try to answer.” A voice told me and it took my everything to focus on his words
“It’s okay sir, you’re no longer in pain, you’re completely fine. You’re completely fine, try to relax. Take deep breaths, deep breaths.” The voice continued and with what I could gather, I tried to follow through.
He continued to talk like that for another 5 minutes and I continued to simplemindedly follow his words. It was working. I can feel my headache receding slowly. Sometime along the process, I felt a cold sensation on my head and decided to ignore it as it felt much better.
After 5 minutes of heaving in exhaustion, I felt calm again. The monstrous pain only a tiny prickle at this point. Looking at the medic who helped me, and probably healed me after that explosion, I said “Thanks a lot for saving my life and now this”
“It was my duty sir. If you are feeling better now, you can wait in the restroom while getting a change of clothes and something to eat if you are hungry. Unfortunately, we can’t let you go as of yet without a quick check-up from the psychiatrist to confirm you don’t have any lapses in your memory and won’t have any visions of the explosion. We’d request your full cooperation sir.” The medic talked of a few protocols while leading me toward the restroom.
“Sure it’s no problem” Although I wouldn’t want anything more than to lie on my bed for a few days, I know nothing good will come from arguing at this point since it looks like a mandatory protocol. “Though can you tell me today’s date?”
“It’s the 24th of September sir. You’ve been asleep for 2 days after the healing was completed. Quite a remarkable strength of will if I must. None of your team members are awake yet.”
Listening to his words reminded me that I should check up on them after I’m done here.
Walking for the restroom quietly, I continued scratching my left palm. There was an un - itchable itch there and I couldn’t get my mind off it.
‘Prolly a mosquito while I was sleeping’
Getting in the restroom, I found some fruits in a fruit bowl on the table along with a packet, few couches around the table, and a few closets by the wall on the other side.
Deciding, changing into something better than hospital garments to be my priority, I opened the closet and pulled out clothes that looked my size. The closets were just full of shirts and pants of various sizes and colors, depending on the preference of the wearer.
I decided to go with a white shirt and sky-blue pants. Not so surprisingly….. they didn’t provide underwear. ‘Guess this is it then.’
As for shoes, we had the original hospital slippers.
It was really just a causality and they expect us to change anyway after rushing home from here. I decide to do the same, just after a quick check-up on everyone.
Finally dressed, I sat on one of the couches nearest to the bowl and went through the packet first. It was a packet full of all kinds of medicine, including vitamins, proteins, and iron.
Popping a few in my mouth according to the prescription along with it, I let my body do the rest and started eating some fruits. Honestly, I prefer some fruits sliced and served to be eaten with a fork, but oh well, let’s just get it done with for today. They did give us a fork and spoon.
Like why? Am I supposed to stick an apple into it and then eat it? Or scoop grapes with a spoon?
Well clearly both are ridiculous sounding and hence I used the fork in the most worthy way I can think of. To scratch an itch.
Well to be clear, the itch on my palm. It’s getting a little worrying at this point… but nothing to stress over.
Satisfied with my meal and having postponed the session as much as I could, I went outside and walked towards the psychiatrist's office. Getting there, I sighed internally in defeat and knocked “May I come in?”
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