Some of the most powerful people in the secular world began to arrive at Heavenbound Hall.
It was both business and pleasure. They could attend the talk that I would be putting on, then hang around long enough to watch the Haze open and the stars fall down upon Heavenbound Hall and Detroit. A lot of famous people came to Detroit every year just to see the stars, and some of the parties were legendary.
There were Presidents and Premiers, Prime Ministers and Headmasters, Church Hierophants and even a Royal or two who had formally requested that they be allowed to attend... and unlike so many others, had been allowed to.
Notably, there were two Elves from Ælfheim, set up in lands that had once belonged to Sweden. It was now the greatest concentration of Elves in the world, and with them, the single greatest collection of magical power among mortals.
Naturally some of these people were acquaintances to one another, although the aloof Ælves, who didn’t venture out much on the world stage, were naturally drawing a lot of attention. That they were here at all surprised some, but given the feats that Lady Traveler had accomplished, perhaps it was unsurprising.
Certainly the Ælves felt their power was threatened, as their ability to make Faux Eight had now been exposed for how it was done, and rendered completely irrelevant. Indeed, in the face of the Double Helix method, they were going to rapidly fall behind the curve, and their methods seemed very short-sighted and foolish!
Instead of being able to hide and enjoy their magical superiority, they were going to have to re-engage with the other races, especially if they wanted to make the adjustments to make Ten. The elitist image of their elven kingdom was now regarded as just isolationist foolishness, and given their pride, there was no way they would not react to their status being turned upside down.
Queen Huellia and her eldest son had been the ones designated to come. She was a Mystic Theurge of Sylune, while her son was a warrior-mage known across the lands of Scandinavia for coming to the aid of people there.
Perhaps most oddly of all, every person who arrived had placed a goldweight ingot on their table where they were sitting. They had all been instructed to bring one, although no one knew the reason why.
Hall followers of Nuava and Tiirith were handling the gladhanding with flair, and even if nobody got a much-desired private meeting with Lady Traveler, they could not complain about their hosts, the meal, the live music, or the atmosphere.
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“Our apologies, everyone. Lady Traveler received an urgent request from China for a few moments of her time. She will be joining us momentarily as soon as she returns from there. It should only take a few minutes,” the smiling Esper Movan told everyone, and he didn’t even have to make it up.
He was definitely amused at the words and looks that were rapidly exchanged between the attendees, but he wasn’t exaggerating. He gestured off to the side for the musicians to take up an expectant tune, which would slowly build to a subtle and powerful theme for her arrival.
As she had said, it should only take a few minutes...
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I came back to Detroit from across the world. My magic was full up, Cultivators being useful for that purpose in the sense of being guilt-free, goodbye, doing a Good Deed and leveraging it for multiple purposes.
It really was going to suck when I wouldn’t have free recharges, but hopefully by then I’d have access to Perpetual Spell.
Esper Movan was a renowned Minstrel who had taken time off his re-Leveling to come back and act as the MC for this event. He was a social butterfly, an instinctive performer, and loved doing this sort of thing.
He also couldn’t hide his total awe of me. He could sense our relative Stats very clearly because of his Blessing, and my ramping Noble status was just overwhelming to someone as centered on personal Charisma as he was.
I appeared on the platform, set down Clavus, and my crossbelts and bandolier slid off to hang on my Staff as my clothes changed from eminently practical and comfortable boots, trousers, and blouse to a sparkle-cut leg-showing, figure-showing black shimmersilk dress with pumps. When you don’t need to walk anymore, high heels are just another accessory, not a risk of breaking your ankle... although I could dance on tightropes if I needed to, so that wasn’t a danger, either.
While I didn’t have whatever nymph-succubus-nereid stuff was going on with Sama, I did have killer legs and Moonlit hair, meaning I basically had my own moonlight spotlight effect following me around.
Also, the glimmering jewelry that popped up to accent my attire bore Life Diamonds, right now the single most desired gemstones on the whole planet. Each one represented a chance to come back from the dead, and I was still currently the only one who could make them.
I had twelve Ranks in Diplomacy, and twelve in Intimidate. I was a Faux Fourteen Caster whose Aura was plucking at magic with the subtle force of a 26, and as soon as I used Oratory, i.e., spoke, it jumped instantly to 34. My base Charisma was a 38, which basically meant I was the moon, and everyone looking at me was shadows.
I was also a High Queen in Noble Rank, and they knew just looking at me that they were not my peers.
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“Thank you, Esper.” The way his Aura spiked just from me saying his name made him nearly swoon. I would have to watch that. It was hard to avoid, but I very explicitly did not want the default state of those following me to be fanatics... although it would take only a miniscule amount of effort from me for that to happen at this point.
I could sense the people out there swallowing as my voice broke across them. Yes, that’s a Heartsong Perform Check with twelve Ranks behind it. That’s a +14 Charisma modifier, tacked onto a +12 Wisdom modifier.
I was speaking right to their souls, and none of them had any way to resist it without stopping their ears... or blinding themselves, since my gestures and just looking at my lips was going to seize them just the same.
“My apologies for disrupting your schedules, and thank you all for coming. I know that you are all busy people, and I am afraid I am going to be adding a great deal to your workload.
“Conversely, I am also going to be lightening it to a considerable degree.”
The Holo, forty-feet-square as a Cantrip, went up behind me, and the Casters out there all swallowed.
“Before I begin, I will be warning you that what I am saying tonight is being recorded, and it will, in the end, be going out to the world entire. As a gesture of respect for your organizations, and the people you represent, you are being informed now. In one week, everything that I am saying here will be released to the entire world.
“Furthermore, all that I say and do here is under the aegis of Truth, Hope, and Valor.”
“Hkk!” Half the attendees promptly choked, their ears ringing with the power of the Words of Creation. They were not Good people, and those Words struck deep into hearts that did not embrace those Virtues. The leaders of the Alchemists and the Magi had blood streaming out their noses and ears.
“The first promise is that I am not lying, making things up, deluding you, or creating some scenario with an agenda to benefit myself. What I say here, I say for the world.
“I will not deny that I am acting on the knowledge preemptively, but that is because action needs to be taken in pursuit of doing this correctly, and taking the best and highest road.
“Furthermore, this action needs to not be motivated by fear. The worst of mortal actions stem from fear, while some of the greatest stem from courage. I am not going to sit still and dither because of what might be. I am taking steps, and I am taking steps now.”
I paused to let that truth sink into them all, my eyes sweeping across them, watching them shiver as they sensed my gaze upon them... and yes, despite their Wards, I could indeed see their souls, and the paths they’d chosen to take.
“The second promise is that this is going to happen. You can do nothing, and you will be swept aside as irrelevant. You can deny, and watch the world change around you. What you want to happen means nothing. It is going to happen. Ride the waves, or be buried by the flash flood; it is your choice, but you have no power to stop it from occurring.
“The third promise is that it is going to demand a lot from you. If you manage it well, the benefits on the far side are impressively worth it... although those benefits will not adhere to you, but to the world and its people as a whole.
“I realize this may not particularly motivate some of you, but that is what it is. I am going to begin now with the power of Allegiance.”
The word itself had power. It carried echoes of Duty, Faith, and Loyalty, all bound up in the mechanics of its operation. It rippled through Markspace with the Oaths Sworn by all those beneath me who’d given me that Loyalty, and behind the temple of Sylune here, a Banner rising a thousand feet in the sky that flared with jetsilver light.
“I am the Monarch of the Jet and Silver. I have received the Oaths of over one hundred thousand individuals who have pledged to me their Loyalty, and to whom I have Duty. I have received the fealty of a million others, to whom I will give leadership and protection in return for their service towards my goals.
“If you believe that this sounds very much like a monarchy, you both are, and are not, correct.
“I am a Monarch. I am not a True Queen, nor a King.”
The way I said all three words seemed to hang in the air. Queen and King swirled together as equals, while Monarch echoed on its own. None of them were mundane, and they were only partially involved with Noble Rank.
“The world is striving to see the sun. When the Haze is gone and the Shroud is banished, the skies will open, as will the eyes of many, many Powers and influences. Their gazes will turn upon us here, on this world, wondering where so many hundreds of millions of souls came from, where the souls of the departed trapped in the Shroud came from, and when they do... either you will be prepared, or you will not be.”
I let those ominous words hang there. They all knew the implications of taking action against the undead at last, of winning the fight. But there was a difference between imagining those implications and starting to hear about them with Truth resonating through everything.
“The first and most visible sources of influence will be the Divine. They will immediately reach into their Churches and straighten them out. Questions about doctrine, philosophy, and creed will be resolved, and there will be no internal conflict. There will be many Orders to a Church, but there will be only one Church, united under the Divine entity that they serve.
“This applies to ALL Churches, regardless of Alignment, and mortal wishes do NOT define this. If you wish to serve Aru, then you serve Aru, you do not choose your own interpretation of serving Aru. If He does not want you serving Him that way, then you are not. If you are... then He is your god, you are His servant, with all the implications that means for god and mortal.
“If you serve less caring Powers, this adjustment might well be... harsh.” People would later say that when watching this video that my eyes shook their souls. “Be prepared to submit, if you would call yourself the servant of a god. This is a relationship of POWER, of Faith, Loyalty, and Duty. You can submit, or you can walk away, as is mortal will, but you are always the servant, never the master.”
There were a great number of people who might have Divine powers now that would be unable to make that switch. They thought themselves the masters of great powers and forces, and would rudely find that no, they were just servants.
They would adjust, they would embrace Faith and Loyalty, or they would fall. To wield a god’s power was to follow the will of a god; no more, no less.
“Most of you will choose to eschew Divine service, and you will enter into mortal arrangements. As you have all certainly guessed, that is Allegiance.” I let the word whisper out and pass them, heavy with implications, of great Duty and Loyalty, of service and leadership.
“Magic allows mortals to organize amongst themselves on the basis of Oaths sworn on the heart and soul. There are two types of these organizations. Both of them, however, center on the leadership of one person, one soul.
“They are not representative democracies. Allegiances are led by one person, the Monarch. How they choose to rule defines their Allegiance. The people who choose to follow them vote with their feet, and their Loyalty. They do not punch a ticket and vote a ballot!”
I was sure all those democracies and career politicians dependent on such things wanted to hear that, too...