‘Get on with it, Pippa,’ Franklyn yelled from the inner table. Of course it was him. Marshal pinched his brow and sighed under his breath. Ever since Franklyn reached the senior rank a century ago he had become emboldened, but this is the first time that Marshal saw him publicly disrespect the commander. He wore a smug grin on his unshaven face, which was unworthy to be called a beard, coming in patchy, scarce tufts of black and red. How could someone fail to grow a beard in six hundred years? It was sloppy work.
Philippa’s face showed a flash of repugnance before she straightened up. The champion holy-knight of honor sat in her golden armor above everyone else in the room, even the champions of ash and cryptic beside her. ‘Saleos has returned,’ she said, letting the statement itself put Franklyn back in his place. He seemed to shrink under the seriousness of the meeting after his outburst. The rest of the holy order began to murmur with anxious faces, but some of the younger holy knights from the last few centuries looked lost. They would not even know how much of threat that name carries. Philippa continued, ‘Marivold, if you would.’
A scratching and crackling came from the blue seeing-stone in the center of the war room; the Wizard King’s deep voice spoke through it from his island throne. ‘Greetings, compatriots from across the sea.’ He sounded tired and weary, but perhaps that was just the orb warping his voice. ‘As the honorable Phillipa Al-Jazuli so eloquently informed you all; we have reason to believe the arch-demon Saleos has resumed meddling in the affairs of Purgatory.’ He paused as if waiting for questions or outbursts, but only received faint grumbles. ‘Our seers first detected the arch-demon’s noctra in the far wilderness of Iscariot. We had to take additional steps to verify, as the connection was… peculiar, but we can now say with confidence that Saleos has whispered into Purgatory for the first time in a thousand years; since the continent of Jacob was parted from Abraham. Coincidentally, the connection moved towards the rupture location and is now directly above Tao’s Ravine.’
Murmurs resurfaced and Marivold paused, but a single voice cut through the chatter.
‘Why do we care?’ Franklyn asked. His voice was quiet, but when every eye turned to him, he coughed, sat upright and raised it. ‘Why do we care? I mean yes, the demon who has been noticeably absent for the past millennia has suddenly returned, but I mean there are eleven other arch-demons who have been wreaking havoc this entire time. What damage could one more do? Why do not we just send a hit team to take out whoever is receiving these whispers? Calling the entire order here for this meeting seems overblown and a waste of time. All of this could have been written in a pigeon’s note.’
Marivold chuckled. ‘Not a bad suggestion for a dullard like yourself, but unfortunately ignoring this threat would not suffice. Saleos is no mere arch-demon. He is second only to the king of Hell and his ambitions are much higher than inciting a war or two. The other arch-demons are content being drip-fed lifespan by us, or collecting what they can from a conflict within their borders, but Saleos wants it all. Now, as for killing the connection - whomever is receiving the demon’s whispers by the ravine - I would say that is a fantastic idea and I will leave that for your order to plan. However, you must be aware that now he has returned, like the other arch-demons he may resume whispering in more than one’s ear – potentially as many as three at a time. We would expect them to come from Capernaum, where his plate is, but we still do not know how he made a connection in Iscariot, so far from the borders of Matthew. Perhaps his connections are unbound by plate, unlike the others.’
Marshall was waiting for Franklyn to make more of a fuss, but he settled into his chair with a prideful smile after having his assassination idea complimented by the Wizard King, as if it were not obvious they would eliminate a whisperer. Dullard.
Around the room, knights resumed their murmurs, the sound of a kettle building to boil. Pippa rang the brass gong and the room stilled. She stood up, ‘Now that you all understand why we are here it is time to discuss our plan of action.’ She surveyed the room, eyeing it for any more interruptions, but none spoke. ‘When each of us swore our oaths to join this order, the highest of them all was “I will prevent Purgatory from falling into the hands of Hell.” Today I regret to announce that we have failed.’ Grumbles crossed the crowd. ‘This failure has nothing to do with Saleos, while he may be a dangerous threat that we must address, our failure stretches back much further. Even from the re-instatement of the church, we have allowed the drip-feeding of lifespan into Hell. We have enabled the slaughtering of children, the inciting of wars. Today that ends. In order to address this new threat of Saleos, we must take extreme action. In taking extreme action, we shall cut two heads with one sword. The Church has grown corrupt with whispers and we let it fester, but today, the liberation of Purgatory will begin.’
‘Ma’am,’ a holy-ash knight said as he stood from his chair. Marshal recognized him as the youngest knight in the order. He was around two-hundred years old and physically around seventy with snow-white hair and spectacles that rested on a crooked nose. Marshal never understood how anyone fought inside a seventy-year-old corpse, but allegedly, he made it work. Marshal believed his name was Bryce. ‘Excuse me for interrupting, but I just could not quite believe my ears. We do know that translation of complex thoughts are not always perfect in the afterlife.’ He laughed, but it was clearly forced. ‘I thought I heard you suggesting a… a coup of the Church. A coup of the very organization we work to uphold.’
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Pippa turned to the champion of ash by her side, a dark skinned man with a pointed chin. Reginald met her eyes and nodded. ‘You heard correct.’
‘We work for the cardinals, for the church,’ Bryce protested.
‘We do,’ Reginald agreed, ‘but the church has already fallen. The cardinals are shells of what they once were. It is time a new order was installed, one that is directly controlled by the holy-knights. Too many of the arch-bishops have been infected with whispers and it is time that this tumor was carved out.’
‘We are funded by the Church. Are you insane? To turn against them would be suicide even for us.’
‘They pay their tax, but they also give far too much to the demons. Why should we feed those who wish to destroy us?’ Reginald asked. His voice was stern and his gaze was more accusatory than curious.
‘Why?’ Bryce’s eyes were now darting around; looking for an escape, but no one offered him support. When he realized he was alone, he stood up, swiping his hand through the air and puffing his chest out before him. ‘Well of course we have to send some lifespan to Hell. If we do not feed the arch-demon’s they will grow desperate. They could awaken an Odium, or heaven-forbid they could unite! If the demons joined forces, they could surely find a way to break the barrier between hell and Purgatory. We need to feed them, little amounts so that they do not become desperate, to maintain the balance of power and the power struggles between them. This is the way it has always worked and it should stay that way.’ He sat down with a thud.
Reginald shook his head. ‘There is a price to pay for salvation, but at what point does the coast outweigh the cause? The decision has been made and it is final. If the demons awaken an Odium we will slay it as the holy-knights of old did. We cannot worry about the demons uniting as now with Saleos’s return, their union is inevitable. We must take away their power. We must take control of Purgatory and seize all twelve apostle-plates.’
‘Do not act like this comes from a noble place. This is a grab for power.’ Bryce pointed a finger at Philippa. ‘You opportunist. The first semblance of a threat comes along and you seek to overthrow the cardinals and steal their wealth.’
‘I assure you it is no such thing, this is a last resort. It has been long discussed and agreed by the heads of each order as we present here; including the arcane. The seizure of power will be temporary until the threat has passed.’
‘I can’t believe what I am hearing. Reginald you support this?’
‘I do,’ Reginald said. ‘I assure you this is not what you believe it to be and I implore you to stay, but if you truly do not trust our decision, then you are free to leave.’
Bryce’s jaw dropped, but he quickly gained composure and turned his back on the champions, ‘We are leaving,’ he said to his squire. A teenage girl with dark hair wound into short curls. She didn’t move.
‘Sir,’ she said, her voice quiet but firm, ‘I think we should stay.’
A vein popped under Bryce’s snowy hair, ‘You dare turn on me me after all I have done for you?’ He reached for his blade, as if to strike her down right there, but the pressure of thirty holy knights glaring at him made him think twice. ‘I cannot believe this, never show your face in front of me again. You are no squire of mine.’ Bryce adjusted the spectacles on his nose and stomped to the door, his clacking footfalls the only sound in the room. He knocked twice on the door, tapping his feet impatiently as he waited, then stepped through before the door has completely opened. He disappeared through the barrier and the doors slammed behind him.
Fool. Marshal shook his head. No matter how you feel, no matter what they say, leaving now is a death sentence. Marshal looked to the inner table and spotted that one of the senior holy-ash-knights was missing from his seat. Ezekiel was gone and his snake would be on the loose. Bryce was strong, but he would not stand a chance. Ezekiel would be the contingency, killing anyone who left this room, ensuring there would be no early warning, no resistance. A snake would not ask questions.
Only then did Marshal notice that Elizabeth was not standing behind him.
