Chapter 25: Preachers

With the day practically over, they vacated the office, and Kira returned early in the morning to start to work the next day, eager to get another chance to get out into the city. However, this hope was soon dashed because James had an important announcement to make. Apparently, the archbishop of this side of Krinestadt, the archbishop of the western territories, was his full title, was going to give a sermon in the cathedral contained within the palace compound. As a scribe, Kira was expected to help make a record of the sermon and exactly what was said at the event and he reluctantly followed after James, heading to the cathedral, whilst laden with all the equipment they might need.

The building's main entrance was throbbing with people, and Kira was directed towards a smaller entrance, hidden between two buttress supports, off to its left side. At least compared to other buildings in Ostermark, what was unusual about the cathedral was that its lighter coloured stone continued inside. This meant that, even in the small and winding servant corridors that ran through its thick walls, the interior was as bright as day. Heading up to a balcony that overlooked the pedestal where the archbishop would be speaking from, Kira tripped on one of the tall stone stairs and bashed his shin against the next one up. This accident helped to dampen his spirits further as he tried to ignore the pain emanating from his leg and busied himself settling into his seat.

The hall below had windows that, unlike in other places of worship, were not made from stained glass but instead were clear, allowing as much light in as possible, creating the sense that this was indeed a very divine place. On one of the front rows of pews, Kira thought he saw Aura sitting alongside Lady Meera waiting for the sermon to start, and the room went quiet when a small, brown door swung open on the side of the stage.

Out of it first came four bishops. They all wore white robes that reflected the light making looking at them almost blinding as though they, themselves, were actually angels sent down from the heavens. Around their necks hung thin chains supporting a golden star that hung loosely against their chests. It was the symbol of Tellor, the god worshipped throughout Krinestadt. The bishops took up positions so that two were standing on either side of the podium where the archbishop would speak from. By this time, the gathered crowd of lords and ladies had fallen into a deep silence to show respect to the church, and they watched intently as the archbishop made his entrance.

In Krinestadt, there were four archbishops and they were the rulers of the church, each claiming a divine right for their position handed to them directly by Tellor. Given that Krinestadt's church boasted both the blind following of the majority of the population and a large amount of property throughout the empire, it was in some respects as influential in the running of the country as the royal family and their system of nobility. Kira had even heard that the church had some manipulators that answered solely to it, so this archbishop was one of the men who led this great nation, and that was why he commanded the respect that the audience gave him now.

When he walked out, he did so in a slow but deliberate manner with all of the grace befitting his position whilst around his feet swirled the ends of his own white robe laced with golden fibres. On top of his head, balancing above his eyebrows that had been bleached white with age, was a tall hat that bore the symbol of Tellor on its front. And, sheltering below it, he had a pair of sharp, blue eyes that gazed out at the assembled crowd filled with wisdom and, above all else, authority.

Standing on the podium, hands clutching at either side of a golden statue of a falcon balanced on top of a golden spire with wings spread open to their fullest extent, he began to speak. Kira initially forgot to start writing and missed the first few sentences because the voice that sounded forth did not seem to belong to the archbishop as it was untainted by age and did not quiver with any sign of nervousness in front of so many expectant faces. The archbishop had to be one of the best public speakers that Kira had ever seen, not just because of what he was saying but also because of the way he made it flow and wash over an audience that absorbed his words with growing reverence.

He started his sermon slowly, "A few hundred years ago, the Marxan Empire came to an end, and Krinestadt and Arkadia came forth from its ashes. But where Krinestadt has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, Arkadia has fallen back into the dust from whence it came. Friends gathered here today, I ask you why this is? Why was this outcome inevitable?" and the archbishop paused, letting the crowd absorb his question but not giving them time to form their own answers before continuing and instilling his into them.

"Well, the reason for this was simply in the way that they were founded. Krinestadt, oh Krinestadt out glorious nation that we have loved, nurtured and worked for since birth was born under the teachings of Tellor, the one true God to whom we owe our existence. However, Arkadia," he said, shaking his head with regret, "Arkadia was founded under many of the teachings of the demon Jaeger who tricked the first queen into polluting her royal bloodline with his own. The mere fact that Arkadia was brought into being by such a demon is what made its ending inevitable."

Having said all of this, the archbishop paused again and looked at the ground at his feet, apparently grieving at this loss, "Had Arkadia not been created in such a way, then perhaps friendship, between our two nations, could have bloomed here in Anadora." All of the people who had come to hear him speak had been expecting a sermon on the deity Tellor, and so they listened with interest to see where the archbishop was going, captivated by his words. "Now that Arkadia is dead, with its poisoned royal bloodline gone, now is the time to make a new friend for Krinestadt. A new friend that will rise from the ashes of Arkadia, in the west, much like Krinestadt rose from the ashes of the Marxan Empire here in the east."

This got Kira's attention because it was clear that the church here in Krinestadt was planning to do something to fill the power vacuum left behind by Arkadia and he noticed that Lady Meera was shifting uncomfortably in her seat. It was no wonder that she was so concerned, he thought, the monarchy and the church were two delicately balanced powers within Krinestadt. This could become what gave the church an edge that the monarchy simply wouldn't be able to overcome. Not just this, but the archbishop had indirectly scolded her personally for maintaining the instability in the west - the instability in what he envisaged was to become Krinestadt's new friend.

The archbishop then spoke about how the former earl of Alsport had converted to following Tellor and would now assume control of many of the remaining Arkadian territories with the church's support. The rest of the sermon wasn't quite so interesting but, given that it had no effect on him now, this turn of events was quite amusing to Kira in the way that it made all of the assembled Lords and Ladies squirm in their seats, sensing a shift in the balance of power.

Lady Meera seemed the most perturbed by this announcement because of how much she was invested in the politics of the west. Kira's only feeling about the earl's rise to power was a slight disappointment remembering how he had endorsed slavery several months ago at his birthday and how this news meant that the earl was most likely linked to the murder of the Arkadian royal family.

With the sermon over, Kira and James compared their transcripts to ensure that they had captured every word before heading to their office. When they arrived back, the customary towers of scrolls waiting to be copied or sorted had vanished and, for the first time since he had arrived at the palace, Kira was actually able to see the tops of most of the tables that were normally swamped in the papers. As it turned out, the other scribes had already finished the work because they had been receiving an unusually small amount of new scrolls over the past couple of days, leaving them with nothing to do.

Rather than sit and do nothing, the group clustered around one of the recently unearthed tables that shone with a rich; brown sheen and played a couple of card games. Whilst doing this, Kira's mind was firmly on other things, such as his suspicions about the other manipulators that may, or may not, exist in Ostermark, and so he lost more than his fair share of the games.

Resigning himself to a lacklustre afternoon, he kept playing and occasionally glanced up longingly at the clouds visible through the office window. Seeing Kira's desire to go and look around Ostermark some more, James suggested to him, "You realize that as there isn't much work, you could go out now, perhaps just call it an errand, right? You'd probably just need to wrap up a bit. The days are getting colder now."