“And now I hear you’ve been helping the defenders?” Sono asked as she passed a large, misshapen tub of water into Nege’s arms.
“Can’t you carry it?” Nege asked as Sono walked away from the water pump, a black-lacquered metal pipe attached to a gigantic cistern that showed no signs of depletion. The water sloshed around as Nege made slow progress following Sono back to Infinity’s Wisdom. The Red had to cradle his staff under his shoulder in order to keep both hands holding the heavy tub.
“You’re strong enough to kill a Teljuk sailor from the walls, I think you’re strong enough to carry water.” Sono’s small, thinly padded shoes made a clacking sound as she hurried along the brick-paved streets toward the dome.
“Yes, well…” Nege took a false step and nearly spilt the water, breathing a sigh of relief as he only got a few drops on his leg. “That wasn’t my fault. They shot at me.”
“They shot at you,” Sono said as she approached the wide doors leading to the dome, “from one hundred fifty meters away with a musket that has an accurate range of one hundred meters, and the ricochet from hitting your staff caused it to return another hundred and fifty meters back to the Teljuk ship, where it passed through the eye of the man who fired it.”
“You don’t know he fired it. There was a skirmish — that round could have come from anywhere.”
Sono stopped at the large doors and turned around, crossing her arms and glaring at Nege. The White’s stance was all the more imposing with the giant onyx ball, representing the vast universe Infinity made, angled above her over the wide, molded bronze doors to Infinity’s Wisdom. “Quite. It could have come from anywhere. But it went into the head of a Teljuk.”
“A complete accident,” Nege said with a shrug.
Sono raised a warning finger before turning around and opening the creaking doors, saying, “Mind your actions, Nege. One death may seem like nothing. But it caused the end of that naval skirmish.” Nege opened his mouth to protest but Sono silenced him with a raised hand. “Don’t deny it. You may have been intending that. Though normally the cessation of hostilities is a wise goal, in this case it would favor a corrupted empire, leading to greater bloodshed.”
Nege felt cold contemplation, a sense of duty from Sono as she made her way to the line of thirsty children waiting for care from the White and the many priests and their female aides. Sono also gave off a sense of subdued anxiety, an emotion only a Mother-dweller could detect.
Having been in Infinity’s Wisdom for a few days now, and being unimpressed with it in the first place, Sono lacked the sense of awe nearly everyone else inside couldn’t help but express. Even someone without Nege’s empathic senses could tell this. As Nege followed Sono through the wooden cots and blankets set on the colored marble floor, the Red couldn’t resist looking up at the immense black dome.
Like staring into the darkest reaches of space, full of emptiness and limitless substance in its blackened depths, the onyx and black marble dome seemed to stretch even past its impossibly tall height. Just a few seconds gazing into the pure stone above made most onlookers dizzy, a response not unintended by its faithful designers.
Mosaics of proud Truscan rulers played out below the black dome on the holy building’s walls. Eternine the Great stood out near the altar in gold and purple mosaic, holding the keys to the city he’d created. Jintunius, a great lawmaker, stood on the other side of the round walls holding a scroll in one hand and a solid black ball in the other, representing the dome he’d requisitioned to be built and the code of laws he’d established to ensure his creation’s survival. These decorated the walls along with a few other emperors, and one notable empress, including the partially scarred fresco and mosaic of Eternine the Second. This second Eternine had fought and destroyed a besieging army few thought he could withstand, the Babian Siege, and stood out with a sword in one hand, the other lifted in praise to the sky where a shaft of light displayed his humble worship toward Infinity. While there was little room on the floors of the massive dome, most of the citizens crowded near this pious face, beseeching Infinity’s miracles to save them once again.
“Though you may have stopped a minor engagement,” Sono continued as she directed Nege to place the tub of water at the edge of a table. Tired faces of wounded and those whose homes had been burnt with the raging bombardment lit up at the sight of more water. “It may lead to an elongation of this conflict.”
“I was only watching,” Nege argued.
“Were you only watching during that incident Murel told me about on the walls yesterday?”
“I had no choice. They would have hit me.”
“Your choice could have been to avoid that situation entirely. Murel was there to see to the wounded. I am here to aid the homeless and sick. You are our protection against the people you can’t seem to avoid defending.”
“Hey, I know exactly what I’m doing here.”
“Then why is it you insist on being at the front of every engagement in this siege?”
Nege shrugged, realizing he had no real answer for the White.
Sono shook her head, wiping her hands as she looked at the crowd of people waiting for their bread and water. “We’re going to need some more bread. I might have to shift to Sevens and collect some,” Sono said, wondering how best to accomplish this task without raising too much interest in her interference. After a short pause she reverted her attention to the Red. “I’m sending in a request to the Sept that they select a new Red.”
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“What?” Nege asked.
“Either that, or they demand your return without giving a replacement.”
“You can’t do that!”
“I can request whatever I want and so can you. The Sept knows what’s best for the planet Triumph, for Infinity’s creation. It’s their choice whether your interference warrants your removal.”
“I’m not interfering. Sono—” The White had already walked toward one of the priests. He was laying his freshly washed hands on the bread Sono had recently acquired and brought to the dome, blessing the food in the name of Infinity. Sono was trying to stop him. “Sono. I want the same thing you do.”
“Get away, away, now,” Sono said to the black-robed priest, shooing him.
“I must bless the meal,” the priest insisted.
“Bless your own meal. I brought this food and it’s just as good without you touching it.” The priest, his respect for a Prophet wielding Infinity’s power overwhelming this affront to his priestly honor, bit his lip and walked away to bless a different table. “What was it you were saying, Nege?”
“I want what you want,” the Red replied, laughing a bit at the silliness of his situation, and the utter seriousness of it. “I’m not trying to defend the city, honest. I’m just trying to help people, like you are.”
“I am not convinced.”
Nege held his staff out to Sono for inspection. “You see this staff? It’s wood. It’s imbued with Red power but it’s stayed wood for this whole battle, and no one can deny that.”
“And what does that mean? Your presence at the front lines is more than tactical differences, Nege.”
“I’m not here to fight a battle. I’m here to understand one,” Nege said, stamping the bottom of his staff into the marble floor, its echoing clack like the resonating force of his statement, an effect he hoped Sono would find impressive. He sensed no such emotion from the White after the echo drifted away.
“Understand a battle?” Sono asked. “You’ve seen many.”
“Not like this.”
“Is that why your Sept chair sent you along? I thought the Blesser just wanted to have all three colors here on both sides.”
“An empire may fall.”
“May?”
“Two thousand years of history. To the Truscans, it’s like the Prophets themselves were about to fall. How do we understand that? How do we even begin to contemplate what these people are going through when not just their lives but the sacrifices of their ancestors are about to be swept aside, their book of history closed forever?” Nege said in a hurried single breath, nearly gasping as he sought to get some emotional response from the White. All he felt from Sono was pity.
“Look up there,” Sono said as a shuddering echo bounced off the very wall the White had pointed toward. The Teljuks had resumed firing into the city, hoping their cannons would bring down the walls while their long-range guns would burn the hopes of its defenders. “That mosaic of Eternine the First. Do you know who he was?”
Nege felt a rush of fear from the people as they gathered near their priest, hoping Infinity would come soon.
“Of course I know who he is — the city’s named after him. Though this mosaic is a much better image of him than that giant column outside. The column’s more forceful. This seems…” Nege said, and searched for a word, “almost saintly. I guess that’s because he’s the reason the empire’s lasted this long.”
“An interesting point, and one that gives weight to mine,” Sono said. Dust rained down on the people huddling in the black-lined dome as the bombardment quaked the very foundations of the city. “Eternine the Great…” Sono’s mockery of that title was plain even on her usually serene face. “Believed in the will of Infinity more than anyone. And he used it to kill thousands. Some called it a crusade. A better term would be conquest, genocide, pillaging, anything but a term that would condone what he did. Even during Eternine’s reign the Truscan Empire showed signs of weakening. Only at the sacrifice of his conquered did that dying empire last.
“Then came Jintunius, a supposed reformer, who recommitted the nation to its mission of conquest. He used forced labor, pillaged money, and captured lands to enable him to build the dome we stand in, all to honor Infinity, whose will it supposedly was to have It’s people killed for It’s name.” Sono pointed to the mosaic with disgust, then turned toward Eternine the Second.
“And him,” Sono said. “Eternine the Second was so-named because its people knew they would face hardship. They hoped to reincarnate the spirit of Eternine the Great. This empire should have fallen then. Trusc was in the hands of barbarians. Nearly all of Gloria had fallen apart. The fledgling lands on the Tolian Bridge and this city were all that remained of the bloodthirsty Truscan Empire. But Eternine the Second convinced his opponents to launch a useless attack on an unbreakable section of the walls. Tactical savvy, and the attackers’ over-confidence, was what saved this already doomed empire, not the will of Infinity, as the ignorant masses claimed.”
The dome shuddered once again, and Nege gripped his staff, grimacing with anguish at each impact on the city. He could feel its hopelessness. “You think I want to continue that tradition or something? I don’t care either way about the empire,” Nege insisted.
“Do you? You do know why the current emperor has his name? They hope the name will once again bring a miracle. His presence is a trump card in their minds, the only reason they have yet to fully abandon hope, fully abandon a useless belief that Infinity will interfere on their behalf. Your actions on the walls, your presence, and your continued reluctance to avoid improving the moral of Eternon’s defenders may be just as powerful as having another Eternine defending this corrupt and arrogant empire.”
“Prophets helped the Truscan Empire in the past.”
“Centuries ago, when it was the only beacon of civilization on the continent. Now that has past, and it stands as only a weight to the advancement of Triumph. It must fall.”
The dome shook, knocking over a heavy table full of bread on top of the children huddled underneath it. As the sacraments and holy items fell toward the innocent, a priest leapt to their aide, catching the brunt of the impact in his side. Still, a few were hit by its collapse. Sono used her telekinetic powers to raise the table off the people even as the dome shook even more, saving them with a kind face of concern.
“That’s why I’m here, Sono,” Nege said, and walked away.
“What do you mean? Nege?” Sono asked.
Nege ran, hoping to avoid further discussion with the White, hoping Eternine the Third was willing to meet with him.
Sono let him leave. She could keep an eye on him from a distance. Her work was here, among the innocent, among those she would have to console once their world fell apart.