The Day of Reckoning

Chapter 2--The Pillar of Spirituality (Part 4)

"I bring you the Truth," she continued, and that is that once you were in darkness, believing that the way of the Elitinati was right, but now you have been freed!"

She gestured up to the curling, where a young redhead, a small furry creature, and a tall lanky one slid down ropes to the floor.

"My friend here," the Elf continued, "Had been pumping your air with the necessary chemical to loosen the wyrts' hold on you—"

"Yeah, and I helped!" a younger voice cut in.

Teodoro turned to face this new speaker, who looked to be a boy with dark hair. He spoke like a boy, too.

"You probably didn't know about us, huh?" he bragged as the wyrts scurried between his feet. "That's right; we're not from around here, but we've come to help you. These Elanti or whatever are tricky, but nothing gets by me—er, us! The only way you can help us is by spreading the news that the Truth is here to set all of you free!"

Scander looked to Laurel for confirmation, but she shook her head.

"Pardon him, good sir," she said politely to Teodoro, "he is but new to the cause himself," she could not restrain a glare at the young hawker, "and does not yet know our methods."

She stepped to the podium.

"We cannot yet spread over the streets, but you can help us by gaining us entrance to the other Theoversities, that they might experience the same freedom you all feel now."

Teodoro fairly ran down the aisle of the sanctuary. "What are we waiting for? Let us go now!" >>>>>>>>>

That evening, the operatives sprawled across couches and chairs, completely exhausted from the day's events.

They had gone out, hidden among the crowds of "worshippers," and spread the "news" (really the analthraxine gas) to the other Theoversities. The Pastor-Prophet-Priests even went so far as to declare that people could worship how they pleased in their own homes, not having to come to church to get the "right teaching."

Meanwhile, Laurel had some words for Scander.

"You dolt!" she snapped at him, "what did you mean by bursting out like that? Do you have any sense of decency whatsoever? Didn't Carsius give you an order not to speak?"

Scander folded his arms and focused on stoking Sverana's feathers. "It's not my fault you have a certain way of doing things!" he muttered.

"We do, Scander," Carsius added, "and we expect all our operatives to follow orders when they are given."

The boy tucked his head to his chest as the flush of shame crept over his face.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Atis came and sat next to him.

"Don't take it too hard," he said, "they're a good lot; just not very patient at all. See," he continued as Scander picked up his head, "I'm like you; I'm new here, I don't quite know where I fit in yet, and a lot of these guys are mad at me." He cast a sidelong glance at the Kytarr sitting in the corner, "Especially that one. But one of the first lessons you have to learn with working as a team is that everyone has their orders and their place, and you shouldn't take your moments like that just because they feel good. It's not any one of us doing all the work, or even most of it; it's all of us working together."

"It's rather disappointing, really," Augustus remarked.

"What do you mean?" asked Carsius.

"When they supported the Elitinati 'religion,' they were great sticklers about it, and it really felt like we were liberating them the first time, when we brought them from 'The Council knows all' to 'The Council is human, and humans err.' With this, though, we essentially said, 'The Council, who gave you this theology'—if we can really call it that—'knows nothing at all,' and look at the results: they're not much happier, they're apathetic about religion, about believing anything."