//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Celestia's choice // Story: The Watcher // by GnollReader //------------------------------// "It is time." Harrigan motioned her to follow him, "Answer only when spoken to, and be careful of your words... all hearings of the councils are broadcasted, and the situation in the slums is already difficult." Celestia quietly followed the zealot through a long corridor lined with guards, not one of them sparing them even a glance as they passed. "Will he be there?" Celestia asked as she followed him. "I am not certain whether he will actually attend the hearing, he never had a taste for politics. These days though, I wouldn't be surprised. Rest assured though, even if you can not see him, he will be watching." they reached a huge set of doors with motionless guards standing on either side. In front of the door, a small man in a long robe was waiting for them. "Is this the representative of world six-three-two-four?" he asked with an unmoving voice. "She is." Harrigan replied. "Good. Her hearing is scheduled next." he turned to Celestia, "This elevator will bring you to the hearing platform. The councils will start your hearing once you take your place." Without a visible signal given, the doors slowly moved open, revealing a large elevator inside. "I am going to take my seat among the others..." Harrigan bowed before her, "I wish you good luck." "Thank you." she returned the bow. Celestia took a deep breath, collected her thoughts and stepped into the elevator. The doors closed silently, and she shot upwards. As the lights flashed every time she passed another level she felt her heart beat faster than it had beaten in thousands of years. She thought of her sister, of her student, of their home... and how her next words would decide its fate. All of those thoughts were pushed aside though, when she reached the hearing hall. The building had already been impressive from the outside, a huge and black obelisk towering above the other skyscrapers like a monument, only dwarfed by the spire of the purveyors' tower. The inside however, was breathtaking. A seemingly endless chamber reached up above her so far she could barely make out the top, and on the walls there were countless illuminated seats circling the chamber like thousands of rings, all of them taken but the highest circle. Even in her fascination, she realized that these seats would most likely belong to the purveyors. And at the very bottom of the cavernous hall, on a platform in the center and visible to all sides waited a small podium. The doors slid open silently, and she stepped forward. As Celestia approached the podium with quiet steps she could hear the members of the councils talk with hushed voices, the ghost at her side processing them into nothing but whispers as well. Here and there she saw surprised faces and fascinated eyes follow her every step, but most of them seemed impassive to her appearance. --- On the highest level of the hearing hall, hidden by the void and watching Celestia's every step the purveyor waited for his time to come. He would hide his presence for as long as required, less it would inform the dissidents of Malaik's failure. As he watched her walk towards the podium he felt a small tug on the surrounding layers of the void, a signal only he could hear. The purveyors had arrived at the edge of the void, and they were waiting for his command to step forth and take control. His mind trailed the borders of the void, searching for the slightest disturbance, evaluating every nuance of the underlying dimensions. For a moment he saw nothing, but then he found what he had been searching for. The dissidents were waiting on the border as well, and just like the purveyors, they were watching. Now... he would wait for the dissidents to make their last move, and for Celestia to make hers. --- "You are, representative of world six-three-two-four?" a zealot with a white beard asked her, his voice amplified and carried throughout the chamber by unseen technology. "I am." Celestia replied. "Please state your name and title." "I am princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria." The zealot nodded as one of the notaries wrote down her words with a few types on a screen of light. "Princess Celestia, are you aware that your presence here is highly against protocol and that a hearing of a race from outside the void has not taken place before?" "I am." "Then tell us, why have you come here today?" Celestia took a deep breath, "I wish to ask for your help." A murmur went through the countless rows, but the hall went quiet again as the zealot continued to talk. "You are referring to the cycle?" "I am." "According to our information, it could still take decades before your world is faced with its cataclysm..." "Or days judging by the riots in the streets outside..." she interrupted him, "I am fully aware of what may happen should the situation here become drastic." The old zealot frowned, "There are many worlds for us to choose from, and we will take the one with the lowest yield if necessary... but that aside, do you realize what you ask us to do?" "I ask for our world to be saved." "And you ask for us to give it up in the process. Preparations and efforts thousands of years old would be laid to naught. Putting aside the fact that we would squander countless resources by sparing your world in spite of our needs, what help would you expect us to offer?" "Whatever it takes to save us." she replied with sadness. The old zealot scratched his chin, "There is... a way. We have long ago learned how to travel across the worlds, and even though we are no longer able to use this knowledge, it may be used to transfer a limited amount of individuals to another world should the time come." His brow furrowed further, "But the energy required for such an act is simply unthinkable... It would require thousands of sacrificed lives to transfer even one individual. Do you understand what I am telling you?" Celestia collected all of her mental strength, "I am..." "Then you understand that a compensation for the lost energy would have to be given?" "I do." The old zealot observed her intently, "And how many would you be willing to sacrifice to save even a few?" Celestia returned his gaze, and with a steady voice born from determination she said, "Not one of them." For a moment, there was silence. Then, a roar of outrage erupted from the council members around them. Everywhere, Celestia saw twisted faces shouting at her in disbelief and anger while the old zealot simply observed her in silent shock. On the highest floor of the audience hall, the purveyor raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Silence!" the zealot's voice thundered through the audience hall, amplified to a point were it hurt the ears, "Silence, I say!" the fierceness of his voice surprised even Celestia. Slowly, the commotion started to die down, and the council members returned to their seats with unpleasant faces. When they had somewhat calmed down again, the old zealot gave her a stern gaze. "You would expect us to spend a world's worth of energy out of pity and without compensation?" "I did not say that, but I am unwilling to sacrifice any of my subjects to save others. I wish for all living beings of my world to be saved when the time comes." His expression turned into a distrustful one, "Then what else would you give us as compensation? What could you possibly have to offer that outweighs the life force of an entire world? What else would you give in return for our help?" All of the council members watched her in silence, waiting for her next words with anxiety. Celestia closed her eyes, her thoughts returning to her home, her sister, and all of her friends she had lost to time already. When she opened her eyes again, she spoke with a clear voice, and the ghost at her side translated them into their language. "I would give you a sun." A single moment later, the council exploded into commotion. Shouts and screams alike thundered in all directions as the members of the council tried to make themselves heard, but the commotion turned into a full panic when shadowy figures clad in black or golden armor descended into the audience hall like a thundering wave of clashing metal. On the highest level of the audience hall, the purveyor watched the chaos below. In a single moment, everything had fallen from his grip of control... the purveyors, the dissidents, the council... the order he had worked so hard to uphold... everything had fallen into chaos. Even from here, he could feel it spread over the endless city like a fire. And down below, standing in the middle of the chaos like a confused filly as both guards and hunters stormed into the hall, he saw her. With just a few words she had put his plans to ruin. A silent curse escaped his lips as he stepped over the edge of the platform, and in a shroud of roaring shadows he plunged towards the podium beneath him and onto Celestia.