Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

The Conclave

A curtain of white steam billowed up from a crack in the floor thick with the choking scent of sulfur. With every step Adam made the ground crackled gently. A part of him worried about the integrity of the floor, concerned that one wrong step could open up a fisher in the ground and send him plunging into a vat of boiling liquid.

Cooking to death was probably around number one on his, list of least ideal ways to die.

Another gout of steam burst up from the floor, hot and heavy with moisture, which condensed and beaded on his exposed skin. From where he sat, on Adam's shoulder, Lord Celex made a face his piggish nose scrunching up against the overpowering smell of brimstone. He was in his original form for a multitude of reasons, number one because it would have been awkward to carry a grown ass man around on his shoulder perched like a parrot, but primarily because Adam had no intention of going into this situation unarmed.

Lord Celex was his secret weapon.

His insurance policy.

He had already put himself at a distinct disadvantage, but it was the only way he could get this meeting. The Council of Zealots wasn't an easy group of people to seek audience with. He had a feeling he was only accepted BECAUSE he was an alien to them and otherwise he might have been completely ignored.

A third reason for bringing celex was because he was one of the only other people who could understand what everyone was saying, and Adam was eager to have someone with him, who was clever enough to understand the machinations of politicians. Adam had a habit of taking people at their word, which wasn't always ideal. During his life lord Celex had been a shrewd political leader and warlord, too clever for his own good, and those were attributes Adam would rather have on his own side.

All of that inside the body of a Maker, and these were none the wiser.

Adam didn't know why or how they had gotten here, but he knew they couldn't simply let these people go without a warning against the void, so he had asked Auditor Mitzen to grant them audience to whoever was in charge. From what the little creature had explained that was, The council of zealots. Personally Adam found the name to be rather.... On the nose if not slightly eerie, though he didn't mention that to his new little friend as he didn't think that would be entirely polite.

As it turned out, their arrangement was not entirely dissimilar to the Galactic Assembly, there were several planets and multiple moons that had joined together to form a sort of coalition that cooperated through the intergalactic economy to broker trade agreements, pass laws, and police intergalactic maritime space, but that is where the similarities ended. Where the GA was a sort of representative democracy, their new friends were ruled under some manner of religious theocracy. From what Adam had gathered from Mitzen all of the participating planets were subject to a religion which, didn't have an equivalent name in English so, Sharanism would have to work. Sharanism was a monotheistic religion that believed in the great light, or goddess Shinohara who was, in essence the embodiment of all light, light provided heat, provided warmth and made all life possible. There were different sects of the religion primarily arguing over weather shanshara had a physical form or not.

Some believed she was more of an incorporeal concept, while other saw her as a being of living flesh and bone, but either version of the belief meant you were part of what was called The Conclave of Shanshara. It was kind of like the distinction between Christianity and Catholicism in a way. Sharanism was the name for the overall belief system and The Conclave of Shanshara was the specific religious sect that currently had control over the theocracy by way of majority in something called the "Council of Zealots". The council of zealots was the primary theocracy head with thirteen members, an odd number so they would never be tied in a vote. They were the ones who passed the laws and interpreted religious texts.