Cast out from the land that bore us,

Betrayed by the land that we find

The good men have gone before us

And only the dull left behind.

So stand by your glasses ready

The world is a web of lies

And here’s to the dead already

And hurray for the next man who dies.

* The Lafayette Crew

Mere stared at the swaying network of houses high in the sky, not so long ago he would have simply flown home, weaving through the shining gem-tubes until he half-absentmindedly found his, now he was left with no choice but to climb and shimmer, no wonder people resented Contemplatives.

Sparks flew off him as he sighed prompting an exaggerated reaction from the dwindling traffic in this residential area. Whispers of “”dull.” seemed to tease him from the shadows. Sighing again he began to tread wire.

The light was on in the living room, and he could see the apprehension on Siensa’s face when she opened the door. Mother had heard.

She was in fact waiting for him, arms akimbo. Now a princess without a kingdom, she still stubbornly clung to some decorum, she let the door close before letting loose on him.

“Ï knew you were a failure and a dunce, but did you really turn sadistic. What did you think you were doing? This household-” here she gestured at his sibling who sat awkwardly on pillows in the centre “has asked the bare minimum of you, and you’ve failed. You cheated on royalty, again, disappeared without telling anyone, again, got divorced and stripped, and now we’re getting kicked out, because you failed to do the bare minimum of sitting still and acting pretty. We were so close to everything, to getting our world back and getting revenge for our people and now there’s nothing to show for it but your face on the gossip plates.”

Mere shrugged, she was right but he resented her for it. Siensa took him by the shoulder, stopping him before he could reply and guiding him to a chair. He resented her too, she was always playing the good elder sister. Her wings were the same size as Mother’s even though she was only half the size, it was also as equally decorated, small and large gemstones glimmering dully.

“You’ll go and talk to the Emeralds, you’ll beg her to take you back and you’ll re-place this family.” Mother set her glass down and stormed off.

“At a certain point you have to actually decide what you want to be.”

“Don’t start your own please” Mere cautioned, he picked up the rejected glass and sipped from it before frowning and spitting it out. “Spirulina.” He poured himself something else.

“You will have to pick between being Prime Consort of a destroyed planet and Avatar of vengeance or a young wastrel doing whatever he wants.”

She gestured around “this house, your marriage, our people’s treatment, even that shot of pure gold you’re sipping; they all come from one choice. Stick with something and stop trying to play complicated.”

“I’ll deal with it.” Mere promised, he looked at his cousins as they sat and tried to pretend to be focused on their programme tensely. They were children from his Mother’s other husbands and he had never liked anyone of them much but he was Crown Prince and Prime Consort, it was his burden to bear, fate, if there was anything like that had given him the shoulders for it, the sheer luck of station, genes and birth position conspiring to lock him forever into this. There was one thing that he knew would change May’s mind. Well two things but they were one and the same. What did he have to lose anyway?

By the time he got to his room a vague outline glimmered in his mind’s eye. The pen felt fragile in his hands as he scribbled on his jotter;

Goal:

Wipe out d Alarmists, establish my people on a new planet.

Obstruction:

d council wants nonviolence and is disinclined to prosecute the priests, Won’t sign a relocation permit

Solution:

Complete unification and remove top cabal, while setting the Northerners as royalty by marrying May.

Sighing, he walked the length of the apartment, having the last room was more of a hassle now than a compliment. The brothels would still be open by now and he had enough pay. The late air was clear, Callipyge was barely an egg’s shadow for now, and all the late parties had probably wound down some time ago but the fluorescent strips lit the street up enough.

The matron was a no nonsense type, taking his money before asking “Element?”

“Fire.”

The prostitute was a young male, he wore a black strip around his mouth that could have been a religious statement or an attempt at anonymity, Mere sat with his back against his, he felt the probe and let the attention into his Inner World, let someone else see how he felt, let the singer externalize for him, turning him into a wordless hum that lulled him for a time into something like sleep.

“I’m tired.” he said to the therapist.

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“You are angry.”

“At the world, at myself, at the god.”

“The god?”

“The Dreamer, you would have thought he would dream up something pleasant.”

“What do you find unpleasant?”

“Everything” he sighed “Everything, my birth, my pair, my losses, my fears. Why did I have to be born reeking of power, why are there cultists, why did they destroy my world, why can’t I prove people wrong, turn my plane into something other than a blasted hellscape.”

“You are confused.” the prostitute was digging deeper, deepening the connection that let him see into the Inner Worlds.

“Half of me wants to move, to kill everything that reminds me of the doom. Half of me wants to sleep and never wake up, to just rest and know somebody else will handle it, that I don’t have to think, to feel, to remember.”

And just like that she was there, May holding his hands as he fell deeper into sleep. “Come then and let me hold you, I’ll do all of the thinking, you’ll wish and not need to speak before it is, just give me your strength.”

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Just like that he fell forward, into a cold dark pool and it swallowed him whole, pressing on him with ecstasy as he gave in and felt his wings sprout again.

The painting of the Vitruvian man covered the wall immediately available to any entrant of the classroom. A properly muscled fellow, his hands diagonal, wings spread sideways while the four elements burned in his yawning mouth. A picturesque globe filled his belly, here and there you could see mountains and oceans. The Ideal Man, Contemplative and Elemental, his genitals were as always a travesty to see, a snake swallowing it’s non-snake like tongue, the vagina swallowing the penis, the ultimate sublimation.

The floor, centrestage was occupied by a more modest attack on the senses, a squat silver chair, capped with a metal helm that looked larger than any possible head.

“Students!” the loud voice that boomed from one of the recesses at the front of the class held unmistakable joy. “May I present to you; The Assistive Contemplative Array.” The squat man laid two broad palms on the helm and opened his wingspan in an inviting gesture. “Who wants to go first?”

There was silence, it took a few moments for the meaning of his words to truly sink in but when they did, some students let out a low hiss.

“Why?” someone asked

Pity filled Mere as he realised what the teacher was also now realising, this was the wrong group to premiere his project too. Still he watched with respect as he thrust onwards without fear.

“ACA will bridge the gap between contemplatives and the rest of our species. For centuries many students in this hall have sat in keen awareness of a different world of sensorium from which they are barred, conscious of the blessings of Internal Circumstances and Elements but incapable of experiencing it. It is a step further in the evolution of our species, like our bones, our marriages, our wings, our transformation from a planetbound species. You all should be proud and glad of it.”

“Contemplation is not for everyone, it shouldn’t be. There are better things to spend time and resources on.” Dayning cursed the thought out.

“Why not? We’re fighting this whole stupid war because of it.” Aweing who was short and quick as a dart shot.

The followup to the conversation made him grimace, it was about to devolve another one of this planet’s stupid Emerald-Ruby spats.

“The war has nothing to do with us. It’s a completely fanatical organisation preying on the weak, the senseless and the poor.” Dayning countered.

“It does, The Wakeners believe that Contemplatives drive the Dreamer deeper into sleep, like more active characters or even fragmented consciousness. You are right that they prey on the lower classes with the promise of social redistribution and revenge against the perceived excesses of Contemplatives. ” from the doorstep May smiled at the teacher. “Excuse me but Councillor Corundus wants my fiance.”

Mere stared at her, being two years ahead of their entire group she was rarely anywhere he was at school, which was a shame because he would have had perfect attendance to stare at that face.

My fiance. He thought with a blush and she glanced at him raising a brow; he considered embarrassingly that she had felt his emotions. He was acting like a child again.

Excusing himself, he trailed behind her, flying to the Third Circle before diving through a smaller internal stairwell that led to a secreted space.

It was a dead end. He raised his eyebrow at her.

“Councillor Corundus is adjourning the council for two hours. They want to question you.”

“Again.” Mere interrupted.

“They want to question you” she continued “and I need you to promise not to lose your temper.”

“Temper? Me?” Mere grimaced and May held his jaw softly, turning him to face her as she whispered “I think we’ll get them to move this time. Everyone in the Cabal is at peak strength, this is our best shot at Creation and this way we also get revenge; my mother has been swinging her weight around quite effectively.”

“Does she know” Mere swallowed, his throat dry heart pumping “that you’re going … to be gone.”

“It’s war, there are casualties.” she reclined on the opposite wall, barely an armslength away in the cramped room.

“You’re supposed to take over after her.”

“I’ll be her legacy. Look around you, this planet is one of the las Created and the fact that it was an Emerald cabal that formed it gives us so much veto power. It’s been so many years, shouldn’t we add a new set of names under Imara’s cabal?”

“We’re building a hell, darling. Not a colonizable planet.”

“We’ll be contributing to the public good. A penal colony is still a colony. Think of us as janitors, but with voluminous and silky hair of course.” she twisted two strands of their separate hairs together, black and blond-grey.

The Staid was not any different from typical structures on Imran, circular with a plunging gallery and riddled with several tunnels and arches on multiple levels, it was the epitome of normal; except for the fact that it was carved out of what looked like ice, on one side. Adjacent, it glowed green like luminescent fungus and if one flew the whole circuit blood red and deep blue continued seamlessly, like it was a mountain formed from jewels and carved into shape by an exacting crafter. It was a symbol.

Mere flew through the lightning storm, it was an unnecessary display in his opinion, he frowned as he had to dodge rock after rock, power through the wind while getting drenched in the everpresent rain. So much symbolism; it characterised the ruling class of this planet. It had characterised his planet too he remembered ruefully. He folded his wings and plunged straight through the deluge, reaching through their link he pulled on May lending her strength to enlarge his wings, his own internal element, flame, filled the emeral piercings on his wing, raging but controlled as it seared the air around him. Pulling out in a beautifully described parabola, he showered the doorguards with water as he shook his water. They stared at him dully before parting the doors. Hastily drying himself with a flush of heat that left him feeling crinkly, Mere walked into the Circle.

The council all sat in their arranged circle, a false gathering of equals with the ministers and hands seated behind.

“Merelinth Aeropagus” a clear voice boomed out “You stand before the council of six and the Circle of Imran” her tone suddenly turned familial “We all know why we are here so don’t waste our time.”

The owner of the voice was a tawn wide-winged specimen, his excellent eyes could pick out every detail stitched out on her red robe, the history of her faction, one of the four oldest cross planetary families. He saw her enhanced eyes focus on him, four pupils trained like laser beams, sunburst red in a sea of black, and he bowed.

“Friends” he greeted “August committee, I’m honoured to stand beneath the shade of your wings again. I stand here as an Albatross and Crow, . I come before you as a vulture and an eagle..”

“Spare the speeches” Six-fingered sapphire was an annoyance Mere constantly regretted having to deal with, the only male on the council he was less an Arch in his own right and more a stooge of the rubian Arch. But he was an Arch.

“Honoured Arches, you have summoned me and I’m here.”

“Tell us how your world fell, Prince Merelinth.” Arch Corundus asked

“The Wakeners destroyed my world” Mere said and he felt anger well, May clamped it down, deafening it in the depths along with any tears, his voice barely held stable still “My mother and father had retired to an islet for their anniversary, we had no orbital defenses since the trea…. Regardless, we woke to alarms in the middle of the night, Twelve lances were dropped on our cities from the atmosphere, in the panic that reigned, there appeared to be a conspiracy among our staff and soldiers, throats were slit, defenses sabotaged, prisoners released. Most of the invading force was composed of my own people, they contested our lives, screaming fro death, death to all worlds, death to Thought. They bombed shelters and beaches, most of the tourists thought they were going to be taken prisoner and gave up meekly. The cultists blew them up. I saw mothers cast their sons on stones rejoicing, sure they would be reborn in some paradise. Then the real Wakeners came, unwinged and no mate to channel their elements through but they were a force of numbers, with random chaos and the will to die. My personal guard held the port closest to the capital, seeing off the few survivors who could make it off and defending incoming fire. Even with a fifty way link to my guard and the help of my Hands, we barely made it off. They cracked the core of AugurTwin, tearing the planet in two before the day was over. The Allied Planets must unite, we.. ”

“That will be all, thank you.” a hand sighed and stilled him.

“The loss of one vacation world is a weatherable one” Arch Corundus began, Mere felt May preemptively reach out and choke his emotions, he wasn’t going to be lunging for her throat anyways but he smiled to know that she was there watching.

The Arch continued “but, we stand at the brink of system-wide anarchy, revolts would be easier to deal with but a philosophy of patient self-destruction is a cancer we must burn out as soon as possible. The cult of the Alarmists have, oldfashionedly, challenged us to a standoff. They’re ready to pitch it all in one glorious battle silly thinking it may be and it worries us. We don’t know where they’re came from but they’re everywhere. I hereby bring a motion, presented by The Emerald Queen and Arch, Huntsend, holding a majority of four core worlds and six shores, that we convene for war at once. All in favour, please vote.”

The ministers and hands were the first to vote, some of them representatives of other factions too small and busy to come here to ImranDakkai-5 themselves. The majority voted for. After that the council of six voted, four voted to fight, including the four in charge, the Council of Imran. Merelinth smiled when he saw their hands go up, Emerald, Diamond, Ruby, and Sapphire.

They were going to fight.