Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Providing Proof

Adam was off balance when he landed back on his foot. The transition between Impetus and himself was getting easier, but it was still massively disorienting. As Impetus his mind seemed to expand, reaching out to infinite places, his body hummed with power, and everything around him was just that much sharper as if he could feel the room in motion. Returning to his more human self was like being blindfolded gagged and tied up, his vision snuffed out, his hearing lost, his entire body robbed of its ability to feel.

Luckily for him the feeling vanished quickly, and he became aware instead of the unpleasant stickiness of his shirt, which clung heavily to his ski. The air was still filled with boiling water vapor, hot and oppressive making it a little more than uncomfortable to simply breathe.

But his discomfort was nothing.

Not compared to the expressions of awe and fear he saw in the room around him.

Mitzen had fled to the corner of the room only now peering out from around a crystal mineral formation. Before him, the council of zealots cowered back huddling together like a group of frightened penguins. A few of them had to pull their hoods up from where they had fallen over their eyes, leaving them in a state of confused disarray. They looked much less impressive now despite the black water which boiled in the pool below them.

He could hear their muttering as he stood, leaning heavily against his crutches.

Inside their heads they were in even greater disarray.

His news was not good, and none of them wanted to believe what they were hearing.

He couldn't blame them.

Some of them straight refused to believe what they had seen, and were more than ready to show everyone. They stood, red robe brushing softly against formed crystal, "Lies! Lies against Shanshara." Adam or Impetus had made very sure not to question their religion when he was explaining everything about the makers and the void. Still he had been forced to mention the architect. A part of him had debated pretending the architect was shanshara, but that let too much like lying, so all he could do was heavily imply it.

Clearly that had not worked for some.

Another stood, one of the three zealots from earlier, the ones that were a little more inclined to agree with him for whatever reason, "A holy message. You would deny what you eyes have seen before you."

"We are being deceived."

The conversation broke down into an argument, and Adam leaned heavily on his single leg. It didn't matter what they decided, he had done his duty to them, weather they agreed with him or not was a moot point. Off to this side, Mitzen was in a state of confused indecision. He knew what he had seen and he didn't doubt it, but what he had heard was a departure from what he knew of shansara, and he wasn't willing to let that go just yet.

Not when he had dedicated his entire life to a religion.

Another part of him was doing his best to reconcile the two beliefs to see if they could fit together.

Adam didn't know, and wasn't sure he cared at the moment if those sort of mental gymnastics were possible.

He was just so tire .

Turning into Impetus really took it out of him. His body was not designed to hold all that power in one place much less channel it. Or perhaps the better explanation was that his body was perfectly capable of holding the energy, it just wasn't designed to use it , and the result was always an unpleasant mix of exhaustion, like he had just run a marathon (and he knew what that was like, he was the reason behind what they were calling "Burning man runs" or marathons that must e completed before the sun comes up, bonus points if you are wearing something stupid when you do it. Marathon exhaustion, muscle soreness like a heavyweight lifting novice after a competition, and a sort of mental fog that he attributed to the exhaustion but felt more like the place somewhere between being awake and being asleep.