A Dangerous Destiny: The Pure One Book I

Chapter Sixty-Four

Ok, warning to all, this chapter is long. There may be some excess and would be interested to hear if any spot in particular drags for you or feels to wordy/redundant. A lot ultimately happens in this scene...Luckily,  this chapter is also pretty tense though so hopefully it won't feel long;-) Manna's announcement to the Assembly. Let's see what the Council has to say about her choice of Nita.

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Manna

As she walked into the meeting house Manna could not help but be reminded of Fiona and how she had looked fifteen years ago when she had first announced her pregnancy to the Council. Manna remembered the shame and fear written on her face. Fear that among her own people she would find no sympathy, no allies. Now in the same position, Manna could imagine exactly how she must have felt.

The Council stood around her, at least the twenty who had been able to make the assembly on such short notice. So too did two representatives of the Initiate who had aided in Fiona's funeral. Manna knew only one of the women personally, though not particularly well. Dara Wright was her name, an initiate of the first rank, not much younger than herself. She knew that in recent years Dara had established herself well in Sithrah among the most elite of their order, but it had been so long since Manna had joined to the home of the Initiate. Perhaps that had been a mistake. It was a shame that most of her true friends within the Initiate were either dead, or too old to make the journey to Gregorn. 

As for Mina Krin, Fiona's intended successor, the girl was not present. Having not yet received her official ordination, Mina did not have a place among the General Assembly. Manna was glad for it. She had enough to worry about without having to watch her unwitting victim's reaction to the news that her future position had been a lie.

Simar Temdin, the High Priestess, was notably absent. Delayed in her journey, Manna had been told she was meant to arrive within the next few days. That was unfortunate. Fiona had long believed that Simar's support would be the key in gaining the Initiate's acceptance and Manna was inclined to agree. Moreover, Priestess Temdin was a strong woman who might have stood against the Council without fear and it would have been comforting one such potential ally in the room, especially since she expressly forbid Caleb to help her in any way.

 But there was no clear rational Manna might have raised to delay the proceedings to await Simar's presence. The Council wished to move forward in naming Fiona's successor and believed Manna's announcement today to be a mere formality. What excuse might she have given? In any case, the truth would have to be revealed eventually. There seemed little point in postponing the inevitable and there was no guarantee the High Priestess might be any more sympathetic than any other in attendance.

Manna ascended the steps to her seat on the raised stage as if she were a condemned man mounting the scaffold. Standing before these men and women she could feel their respect. The attention they gave her. The legacy she had worked her whole life to achieve. In mere minutes, it would be destroyed. She knew it as well as she knew anything with certainty. The power of the Nita was previsionary. It was dependent on her ability to please the Council and had been so ever since Astar's demise. That was the truth Fiona had never been able to accept and Manna had never blamed her for resistance to do so. It was a hard reality for any strong woman to face. 

Manna herself worked for many years to come to terms with the limitations of her power among the Senmin. And yet, in the end, she had rejected it as well, just as stubbornly. Hoping against all hope that faith in the Initiate, in her place among the Senmin, that these things would be enough to save the girl if not herself. But what if they were not?