ZERVAKAN

by Rob Steiner

 

Chapter 15

Adellia Kiricia seethed as she strode through the long, marble corridors of the south Parliamentary Tower.  She tried to keep her pace even, her face serene, so as not to start gossip among the numerous aids and civil servants she passed.  Seeing the Pathist Minister, second in line of succession to the Speaker, angry and hurried made people nervous.  And nervous people gossiped.  She did not want people speculating on the whereabouts of the Speaker.  At least not yet.

Bloody Mercy, the man was a fool!  How could he believe that letter had been written by characters from a children’s fantasy?  How could he risk throwing the entire Compact into chaos if it became known that its Speaker was a supernaturalist madman?  And how could he have left without telling her, expecting her to clean up the mess he had made with his abrupt departure?  The man did not have the guts to tell her face to face, but left a letter for her in her office explaining his disappearance.  Adellia clenched her fists to keep from growling at an aid that almost ran into her as she rounded a corner.

The Compact was a Pathist nation that had abandoned all foolish notions of supernaturalism two centuries ago.  It was a nation built on logic, reason, and science, virtues that had made it prosperous and strong.  For a Speaker to abandon those ideals upon which the Compact was founded was more than foolish.  It was treason.

In a hallway that was not as busy as the main thoroughfares in the Towers, she found the entrance to a private corridor that was known only to Parliamentary leaders.  Adellia had once been leader of the Scarlet faction within Parliament, and had used this corridor for meetings with Members that she did not want known throughout the Towers.  Though the Compact was a republic, it ran on secret deals between Parliamentarians that enabled the government to function without paralyzing conflict.  While many deals got results, the compromises made would not look good to the voting bases of some of the deal makers.

Adellia produced a key from her coat, opened the nondescript door, and entered the corridor beyond.  The corridor smelled musty and was in shadow, with only the daylight from the open doorways guiding her way.  At the end, lamp light flickered from the open door there.  She heard voices, which stopped when her footsteps echoed in the empty hall.  Olmedo Tamar, Levakan’s senior Member and leader of Parliament’s Emerald faction, poked his bald head from the room and squinted at Adellia.

“It’s me, Olmedo,” she said, entering the zone of light just outside the door.

Olmedo relaxed, then retreated into the room.  Adellia rounded the corner to find three Members from the Scarlet faction sitting at a round table in the center of the room.  Light streamed from a small window set high into the wall, but was not enough to illuminate the whole room.  Two gas lamps sat on the table, bathing the room in an orange glow.

“Why the secrecy, Adellia?” Olmedo asked as he sat back down at the table.

Abbe Saccello, her black hair worn long around her shoulders, said, “I had to tell my staff I was ill.”

She was Orlenian, so quite short in stature, but she was young and pretty enough to draw the attention of many of the taller Members, single and married.

Saul Mata, a Gahallian and one of the oldest Members in Parliament, said, “I had to lie to my staff as well.  I don’t like lying to them, Adellia.  They’re smart enough to know I’m lying.”

Adellia sat down and looked at each one of them.  “Speaker Edoss has gone to the Beldamark to meet with Mystics.”

All three gave her silent, blank stares for a few moments, then Olmedo laughed.  “And here I thought it was something serious.”

“I am serious,” Adellia said, then folded her hands on the table.  “Our Speaker believes that the Mystics sent him a letter inviting him to the Beldamark to discuss the rings.”

Saul Mata asked, “What made him believe this letter came from the Mystics?  Could it be a Mazumdahri trick?”

“That’s what I tried telling him,” Adellia said wearily.  “There is no proof yet of a Mazumdahri trick, but this has their stink all over it.”

For two weeks, she tried discussing with him his thoughts regarding the infamous Mystic letter and its invitation to the Beldamark, but he would always change the subject without revealing his plans.  A few days before he left, he even refused to discuss the matter with her, and he never brought it up in Ministerial meetings.

When he disappeared three days ago, he left only a letter for her saying where he was going.  Even now most of it was burned into her memory.

I know you were doing what you thought was right when you tried to dissuade me from going to the Beldamark.  But you have to know that I believe what I am doing is right.  If these Mystics exist, then they are the only beings that can help us against any further attacks against our cities.

As if a freak tornado was an “attack!”

The secrecy of this mission is paramount.  You are one of my oldest friends, and it pained me to keep this from you.  But I know you would have wanted to go with me only to debunk the Mystics, not to open a dialogue with them.  

He’s bloody right she would have gone to debunk these ‘Mystics.’  And afterwards she would have dragged Edoss back to Calaman by his ear, bloody Speaker or not.

This mission is too important for us to start our talks with the Mystics on a distrusting tone.  Besides, I need you in Calaman.  You are second in line of succession, and if something happens to me, the Compact will need a strong leader for the coming trials.

Ah, Dylan, she thought, the trials will be for you, my old friend.

“The newspapers in Orlen are abuzz with the Speaker’s visit there,” Abbe said, smiling in wonder.  “Remarkable disinformation campaign for so secret a mission.  I wonder how many editors Edoss had to bribe?”

Olmedo put his head in his hands.  “Bloody Mercy, if this gets out…”

“It will be chaos,” Saul said, his face grim.  “The public has remained calm in the face of these rings and the storm because the government has given them plausible explanations.  Albeit without hard evidence to back them up.”

Adellia glared at Saul.  “Just because we do not yet have scientific proof of what the rings are doesn’t mean—”

“I know, Adellia, it doesn’t mean these rings are supernatural,” Saul said.  “But the people believe what the government and the Pathist hierarchy tell them.  If the people should find out that the Speaker of the Recindian Compact thinks Mystics exist, then they will begin to doubt everything about Pathism and the Compact.  Our society will crumble, and the Mazumdahri will laugh as we tear ourselves apart.”

Abbe shook her head.  “I have a little more faith in the people than you, Saul.  They will not run riot in the streets if they find out the Speaker has ‘gone to see the Mystics.’”

“Do you want to take that chance?” Saul asked.  “We may have a cease fire with the Mazumdahri at the moment, but we’re still at war.  If they smell any sort of weakness, they will start shooting again.”

He turned to Adellia.  “I know Edoss is your friend—Mercy, he’s a member of my faction—but he has gone too far.  He cannot remain Speaker.”

Adellia knew what Saul was implying.  Her choice was loyalty to a friend or loyalty to the Compact.

And she had made the choice when she called this meeting.

“If I invoke the Purity clause,” she said slowly, “are there enough votes in Parliament to overturn it?  If there are, I will not even consider it.  The last thing the Compact needs is a constitutional crisis while most of the Mazumdahri army still sits on our border.”

Saul leaned forward.  “There will be opposition from Edoss’s more loyal supporters, but it will be nothing compared to the outrage from all factions of Parliament once they learn of Edoss’s mad pilgrimage to the Beldamark.  Parliament will back your succession.”

Adellia looked at Abbe.  “And what of Orlen?  Will their delegation back me if I depose one of their own, the first Orlenian to hold the Speakership?”

“Most Orlenians are orthodox Pathists,” Abbe said.  “At least the ones who vote.  If the Speaker is a supernaturalist, they will not care if he is Orlenian.  They will want him deposed.  You can count on the support of the Orlenian delegation.”

Adellia looked to Olmedo.  She knew she didn’t have to ask whether or not the Emeralds would support her succession.  They had fought hard to keep Edoss out of the Speakership because of his push for a conciliatory peace treaty with the Mazumdahri.  But the Emeralds were staunchly Pathist, and they would overlook Adellia’s own calls for peace with Mazumdahr as long as she upheld Pathist values in the government.

Olmedo smiled, and said, “Levakan and the Emeralds stand with you…Speaker Kiricia.”

 

Adellia Kiricia immediately called a special a session of Parliament and told the Members about Edoss’s belief in the Mystics, and how he had left for the Beldamark several days earlier on a mad quest to meet with those fraudulent beings of legend.  Ministers who were present in the meeting where Edoss received the so-called Mystic letter testified to him collapsing on the balcony, and could verify he had not been the same afterwards.  At best, the Speaker had succumbed to an illness of the mind due to the pressure of the war and his recent election.  At worst, he actually believed in the supernaturalist theories for the rings and the Calaman storm.  Either way, he had to be removed from office.

That night, newspapers throughout the Compact were wiretyped the news that Speaker Edoss had been found guilty under the Compact constitution’s Purity clause for attempting to turn the Compact into a supernaturalist nation.  He was removed from office by his Pathist Minister, Adellia Kiricia.

The next day, in her acceptance speech before Parliament, Adellia Kiricia pledged to keep the Compact free from the slavery of supernaturalism and deism.