Chapter Thirty-seven: Full Attendance
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“…doubling the guard nor shifting registration to the Ascension Gatehouse will solve anything. All that does is create a bottleneck at the entrance”, Elder Sentrue argued. “I can already see the tents popping up.”
He shook his head as if he was shaking those images out of his mind. “NO! The only sensible solution is to create a two-phase registration process that…”
Dunstan, seated at the head of the table, only half-listened to the Great Elder’s passioned argument. Things had changed immensely over the last few meetings. Gone were the apathetic expressions and the empty seats. The council chamber was now host to spirited debate and genuine interest in the ongoing matters at the sect.
As Palace Master, Dunstan supposed he should be happy, but as he listened to Elders Sentrue and Borkha reiterate their points for the nth time, he almost wondered if it was worth it. They had been at it for thirty minutes at this point—thirty minutes on the issue of where registrations for would-be explorers of the mystic realm should be held, in the sect proper or in Cloudy Sky City.
He resisted the urge to groan. This was the price of success. Unfortunately, the urge to beat his chest and say it was a price he would gladly play was slowly but surely fading the longer he spent deliberating the minutia of these trivial matters. He was starting to see why some didn’t bother coming to these meetings. There was a war on the horizon, and here they were, debating which location was best for a queue.
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The Vast Heaven Palace inherited much of its political structure from its predecessors, the Four Cardinals Sect. Echoing their ancestors’ philosophy, they employed a bicameral legislature for decision making. A lower chamber known formally as the Earthly Convocation which consisted of elders of good standing and recognised ability within the sect and an eight member upper chamber, The Heavenly Council.
Technically, the Palace Master was person zero here; the greater council, as it was more commonly known, was there to advise him while the lower council was there to deliberate the sect’s matters. As such, the eight comprised the most important elders in the sect. Each member was an elder of great cultivation as well as the head of a major institution.
Currently, the eight seats are held by Elder Sentrue, who acts as the Chief Administrator, managing most of the sect’s internal affairs and bureaucracy. Elder Borkha who ruled Cloudy Sky City, the settlement at the foot of the sect and the nominal capital of their holdings. Elder Dorn, their diplomat, the one who tended to be sent as the sect’s emissary to other places. Elder Howatt who handled sect security. Elder Tevu, who handled missions, and, as Dunstan had recently discovered, espionage. Elder Westfall, great-grandfather to Westfall the Younger, who handled finances. Elder Harkness, who… did something supposedly, and finally, Elder Vugurre, the Marshall of the sect’s army, currently stationed in the contested territories to defend against the Nine Phantoms Sect.
Eight seats. Eight votes. Though the Palace Master had three for a total of eleven.
Supposedly, this system, while giving weight to the Palace Master’s decisions also allowed for him to be vetoed by an outright majority. That was likely how it worked in the before times when the founding clans held more power as well as hereditary seats. However, in more recent practice, the Palace Lord usually held supreme power due to numerous caveats and precedents in the laws as well as the general obedience afforded him as the most powerful cultivator in the sect.
Something Dunstan was not.
It rarely came to that, though. Most matters were usually settled in the lower chamber before they escalated to the Greater Council. By all rights, matters brought to the Upper Cabinet should need nothing more than the stamp of approval. The major exception was matters like this one, where an issue was considered so important to the sect or the secrets to be discussed were above the authority of the members of the lower cabinet that they were not read into it.
Dunstan tried to remind himself that he was not merely dealing with these fossils but also the factions they represented. The consolidation of power endemic among cultivators tended to lead to the formation of cliques and societies. Sects were, in a way, the ultimate representation of this, but even within them, smaller microcosms abounded.
Junior cultivators often banded around a more powerful figure to fight for resources, and unlike in the stories, senior cultivators needed to carry out their responsibilities to them. Those with a reputation for shorting their helpers would soon discover they no longer had any. People were rational in that regard. Why serve if you gain nothing in return? Stealing and killing might work in the demonic sects, but even there, there are laws in place. Who would do the work if everyone was waiting to steal the results of others? Would there even be anything to steal?
Dunstan constantly reminded himself that when Elder Sentrue spoke, he was not just making a personal complaint; he was arguing on behalf of all the clerks and record keepers who would ultimately be responsible for registering and handling all other affairs related to the adventurers queuing at their doors. Likewise, Elder Borkha, being the city lord of the capital, was more concerned about seeing that his seat didn’t just bear the costs of this new venture without receiving any of the benefits.
Beneath them were likely other elders and factions who would pursue different paths for the same goals. To be honest, it all did Dunstan’s head in. He was more than ready to admit that he was not suited to the grand game. He was barely keeping abreast with the macro issues. The politics were currently beyond him. The best he could do was rely on these guys to manage those under them, something made all the more complicated by the fact that he did not know which ones could be trusted.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
It did not help that besides these eight principal seats, there were other non-voting seats usually held as advisory posts for accomplished slash retired elders. Given the current staffing issues, very few elders have retired in a very, very long time. Still, those eligible had all made their way here for this meeting. Alshiram, the Sixth Preceptor, could be considered the most preeminent in their number. While an extreme example, his status was proof of the influence even retired elders could wield. That influence was tempered by the fact that he was also the only one to regularly turn up at meetings. Today, however, there were two others.
The oldest of them was Great Elder Vintner, an Aurous Lord who had somehow managed to live for a whopping six hundred years. That was three decades more than the recognised lifespan for someone his tier. Today was the first time Dunstan met him in person. Upon seeing his shrivelled form sail into the council chamber on a hovering doeskin pelt, the young Palace Lord immediately understood why. As unkind as it sounded, the first image that popped into his mind at the sight of Elder Vintner was a piece of jerky covered in lint. Were it not for his mana signature, Dunstan would have thought him a mummy.
His skin looked bone dry. It was wrinkled and pockmarked like stained parchment. Wispy patches of hair clung to portions of his chin and scalp like dried moss. Dunstan could not understand why he bothered to keep them instead of going clean shaven. His lower lip was drawn in over his toothless gums such that when his jaws moved, what few upper teeth he did possess came perilously close to chewing on his chin.
The diminutive, corpse-thin Great Elder Vintner loomed in the background like the judging ancestor that he was. Frankly, Dunstan was a little weirded out by him. The cloud of old man stench he brought in with him made it even worse. It hung like the spectre of death over the gathering, and whenever Dunstan caught a glance of the man from the corner of his vision, he had to fight the urge to check if one of the dungeon’s undead had not gotten loose.
The other adviser was Great Elder Tignarbia, a comparatively younger woman —only four hundred or so– who was Elder Dorn’s aunt? Given the man’s relation to himself, Dunstan gave the smiling, one-armed old crone a slightly warmer greeting at the start of the meeting. It felt appropriate, although honestly, he would need the entire family’s genealogy in front of him if he were going to figure out their familial connection. Whatever. He was probably related to half the chamber in one way or the other.
“…rather since my suggestion for a secondary gate in the city cannot be met…” Elder Borkha glanced towards Dunstan to reconfirm. The young lord shook his head. That decision remained unchanged.
There had been some talk during the first meeting about setting up the dungeon’s entrance in Cloudy Sky City due to its size and location, but it was quickly squashed. None of the Elders, or even Dunstan for that matter, were willing to tolerate the security risks that would pose. Here in the sect, they could control nearly every conceivable factor. The city was too big, too populated, and too open to do the same there.
Elder Borkha knew this and was likely only bringing up the point so that his other demands seemed more reasonable. The most significant of which involved setting up displays in the city so more people could watch the action. Sadly, Dunstan, not knowing what he was getting at at the start of the meeting had confirmed that it was technically possible.
His argument was that setting up official venues for people to watch the exploration of the mystic realm would bring in much needed revenue to the city and to the sect respectively. Adding also that it would help to keep the scores of loose cultivators busy and out of trouble. On other hand, keeping all of them at the base of the mountain with nothing to do would only create chaos in the city.
Elder Sentrue’s argument was that that wasn’t necessary. He proposed a two tier system to force any who wished to explore the mystic realm to first register in one of the sect’s offices in the city, paying a small fee of course. This registration would them give them a spot in the queue so to speak, allotting them a time and date to report to the sect’s entrance for a second registration.
Only those who completed the first registration and showed up on time would be allowed to actually sign up to adventure in the mystic realm. These people could pay their dues and then be allowed into the sect in small batches to make use of the mystic realm and any other facilities or opportunities the sect provided.
This would keep numbers more manageable, allow for vetting of prospective parties before letting them into the sect and ensure that the arrivals did not put too much pressure on the facilities.
Elder Vugurre’s only concern was security and the necessary preparations to handle reprisals from the Phantoms or any other enemy sects that would wish to disrupt proceedings or seize the legacy artefact. Figures. The man missed the last couple of meetings where most of those concerns were discussed and now looked to make that everyone else’s problem.
Personally, Dunstan agreed with Elder Sentrue’s proposal, but he was forced to listen for half an hour as Elder Borkha attacked the minutia of the plan in an attempt to prop up his agenda. Eventually, it got too much for him. They had far better things to discuss.
“Enough!” he said, his voice raised to cut through the chatter.
“We have spent more than enough time on this matter. It is time to move on. If there are no more objections, then we will implement Elder Sentrue’s plan.”
Elder Borkha immediately moved to object, but Dunstan cut him off with a loud, “HOWEVER…”
“The Cloud City Lord makes a good point about the pressure the mystic realm will put on the city and its inhabitants, especially with regard to security. The sect will assign an increased number of disciples to help keep the peace and provide assistance for managing would-be explorers.”
The assembled elders watched him carefully. Dunstan made sure not to let the weight of their attention unnerve him.
“I propose a scheme to mark out businesses of good standing with the sect, largely inns, taverns, hostels or others of that nature. In exchange for a membership fee or higher tax, the adventurers would be directed to those businesses. Any revenue generated thusly can then be given to the city to handle any fallout generated by these cultivators or to manage other services.”
He turned to face Westfall the Elder. “Elder Westfall, can you put to together a proposal to that respect?”
The man gave him a crisp nod in agreement, and so he moved on to Elder Tevu. “Elder Tevu, your aid will be required with regard to the assignments. Suffice it to say that the reception to the unveiling was greater than expected. We need a very robust network of patrols in place not just for the purposes of lawkeeping but also for eyes on the ground to monitor the situation. Given recent developments, that might be more important than ever.”
“Your task is to work with Elders Howatt and Borkha to handle matters on that front!” he finished simply. “How soon can we expect actionable results?”
Elder Tevu shared a look with Elder Howatt. “I will have something ready by noon tomorrow.”
“Good!” Dunstan said with a satisfied nod.
“Is there anything else we need to address with the Mystic Realm or can we move on the matter of the rebellion on our hands?”
A low, hoarse voice was raised. “Just one Palace Lord.”
The belt leather of Elder Vintner’s lips continued to move, revealing that he was the source. “What is the state of the legacy artefact?”
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