Emperor of the Source

Several minutes before the detonation reached the commercial bank, the senior commission elder who had spoken with Hestia and Adrian left the Guest Contract Pavilion and followed a restricted transit path deeper into Avaris's inner district.

Hestia and Adrian had already departed under the guidance of their escort, while the completed record of their year-long commission rested within the clan archive. The elder should have turned toward the repository to oversee the consolidation of their opening consignment, but a summons from the governing hall had been waiting before the contract was finalized.

The meeting inside the hall had already begun by the time he arrived. Five Solvaren elders occupied the curved side of a black-red conference table, every one of them wearing the pale-gold shoulder markings reserved for members of the clan's governing council.

At the center of the table sat a silver-skinned alien whom the commission elder recognized immediately as Imperial Commissioner Deyran. Dark-gold robes covered the commissioner's body, carrying the crest of the Keldovan Empire across the chest, while the controlled pressure emanating from him placed his cultivation at the High Rule Stage. The Clan Leader occupied the seat closest to Deyran, his own High Rule pressure held beneath the deep-red robes and pale-gold markings of his office.

The commission elder entered without interrupting the ongoing discussion. He offered the required courtesies first to Commissioner Deyran and then to the Clan Leader before taking the remaining seat along the curved table.

"Now that every required council member is present, I will state the distinction one final time before the official record begins," Commissioner Deyran said. The recording formation hovering beside him dimmed, preventing the explanation that followed from entering the permanent record. "Nothing within the declaration grants Hestia authority over the Solvaren Clan of Nerath. She will possess no right to command your members, alter your leadership, claim your gardens or furnaces, redirect your trade, or interfere with any internal judgment. Your present Clan Leader and this council remain the sole recognized governing authorities within Nerath."

The commission elder listened without surprise. The position matched the answer he had just given the two unusual customers inside the pavilion, although the next portion of Deyran's explanation exposed why the official language could not express that truth so plainly.

"However, for the limited purpose of the Ancestral Venture Covenant, the Keldovan registry must continue recognizing Hestia as the bearer of the Solvaren patriarchal office," Deyran continued. "The covenant was accepted through that office. The power she subsequently established in Andromeda can therefore be recognized as an external continuation created beneath the same patriarch, while the clan upon Nerath remains the protected ancestral body from which that continuation departed."

The Clan Leader folded his hands upon the table. "In private, Hestia possesses no standing here. In the official declaration, we acknowledge her as our patriarch."

"Yes," Deyran confirmed without attempting to soften the distinction.

"And in exchange," one of the medicine-garden elders said, "the Empire guarantees that we bear no responsibility for whatever answer Hestia gives to Ebon Meridian."

"Yes. The Keldovan Empire will continue protecting the Solvaren Clan so long as you cooperate with the procedures we have established," Deyran answered. "Whatever response Hestia gives, the Empire will record that the governing council upon Nerath upheld the covenant and did not participate in her decision."

The recording formation brightened once again as the projection in front of Deyran changed to display the official text. "The governing council of the Solvaren Clan upon Nerath recognizes and accepts Hestia as the continuing bearer of the Solvaren patriarchal office for every surviving obligation attached to the Ancestral Venture Covenant," Deyran read aloud. "The council further acknowledges the Crimson Vital Sect and the territories governed beneath it as the external successor estate established through her patriarchal authority."

The entire arrangement had been carefully constructed to preserve two truths that could never have survived together within an honest sentence. Hestia was considered entirely separate from the Solvaren Clan whenever acknowledging her authority might grant her any influence over Nerath, yet she became the clan's continuing patriarch whenever that ancient title allowed Ebon Meridian to bind her to an inherited obligation.

The elders seated within the chamber were not ignorant of what was happening, and neither was the Clan Leader. Every person around the table understood that Ebon Meridian was using their recognition to strengthen its claim against the woman whose authority they otherwise denied, but they agreed because the arrangement protected the stable life their clan had preserved beneath the Keldovan Empire and Ebon Meridian for generations. The council had already decided that maintaining that protection mattered more than correcting the contradiction.

The Clan Leader placed his mana signature into the declaration first. The pale-gold mark of the Solvaren council joined the dark-gold imperial runes, followed by the signatures of the medicine-garden elder, the furnace-allocation elder, and two others seated farther along the table. When the declaration reached the senior commission elder, he pressed his mana signature into the record without hesitation.

The declaration next moved to Elder Narev, the clan's overseer of internal formations. He did not raise his hand to sign, and after several seconds passed without any movement from him, Deyran asked, "Is there a defect within the wording?"

Narev's face remained calm beneath his swept-back grey hair. "You say the Empire will protect us and that we will not be involved in whatever happens between Ebon Meridian and Hestia. I want to hear what the Empire will do if Ebon Meridian uses us as leverage against her."

Deyran regarded him for a moment before answering. "Any directive lawfully issued through the covenant will be evaluated according to imperial procedure. The Solvaren Clan remains obligated to cooperate with recognized Keldovan and Ebon Meridian authorities, but you need not concern yourself with hypothetical dangers. The Empire will continue protecting your clan as it has throughout the generations."

"Protection even against the authorities of the Ebon Meridian sect?" Narev asked.

"Yes," Deyran replied. The single word entered the official recording without qualification.

Narev finally raised his hand and extended his palm toward the declaration. "Understood." Mana gathered around his fingers, and everyone within the chamber naturally expected his signature to descend into the waiting record, but the energy he had compressed beneath that appearance had never been prepared for a seal. Narev moved before anyone else recognized his decision.

The Imperial Commissioner had entered the governing hall of a clan that had served the Keldovan Empire faithfully for generations. He had sat across from its governing elders without maintaining an active defense, possessing no reason to expect an assassination attempt from the very people whose protection he had just guaranteed. By the time Deyran recognized the killing intent and attempted to expand his divine domain, Narev had already crossed the distance separating them.

Crimson-gold radiance compressed around two of Narev's fingers, narrowing into a piercing spike carrying the dissolving property of the Solvaren Clan's divine concept. His hand crossed the width of the conference table before Deyran's forming domain could stabilize, and the concentrated divine spell drove straight through the Imperial Commissioner's chest.

The Clan Leader and every other Solvaren elder shot to their feet as their own divine domains began forming around them. Deyran remained standing for one impossible moment, staring down at Narev's arm buried within the light passing through his chest.

The compressed spell unfolded inside his body before any external defense could interfere, its dissolving properties spreading through the structures surrounding his Rule Core, attacking every layer attempting to stabilize the damage, and extinguishing his presence before his body finally collapsed onto the floor.

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"Narev!" The Clan Leader's shout shook the entire governing hall. "What have you done?"

Narev withdrew his hand from the fading crimson-gold light and looked across the governing council. "I forced all of you to make the choice you intended to hide behind an imperial declaration."

"What in the void are you saying?" the furnace-allocation elder demanded. Crimson-gold rings formed around both of his wrists as the governing hall's defensive formations sealed every exit. "You murdered an Imperial Commissioner. The surveillance formations will already have notified the Empire, and you have placed the entire Solvaren Clan in danger."

"Then let the Empire know that at least one Solvaren refused," Narev shouted back. "How much longer are all of you going to remain spineless? Have we fallen so low that we are willing to betray our own Ancestor simply because the Empire promises that doing so will preserve our comfort? Do any of you even remember her?"

The crimson-gold light surrounding him strengthened as his gaze passed from one council member to another. "Ancestor Hestia possessed no divine concept when she led this clan. None of the Solvaren had advanced beyond the Stellar Stage, yet every time danger came from the Empire, she was the one who stood at the front and fought for us. Thousands of our ancestors survived because Ancestor Hestia stood between them and powers none of us could resist."

Narev looked directly at the Clan Leader. "Now she has crossed the distance we were told no Solvaren could ever cross, established a sect in another galaxy, reached the Astral Stage without Ebon Meridian's permission, and become the ruler of Andromeda. Is that not what she tried to do for our clan from the beginning? Yet the moment she finally succeeds, you sign a declaration helping Ebon Meridian drag its chains across millions of years and wrap them around what she built."

"Do not build your entire argument upon assumptions, Narev," the Clan Leader replied. "We have not forgotten what she did for our ancestors, but more than a million years have passed. Hestia has not returned to Nerath. She has not contacted this governing council, offered protection to our population, or even asked what relationship the Solvaren Clan wants with her. Knowing that she now rules another galaxy does not place her armies above Nerath."

The pressure of the Clan Leader's domain grew heavier around the chamber. "Ebon Meridian is a Lesser Major Sect whose influence extends throughout Valtheris and into the surrounding regions. The survival of one Astral ruler does not prove that she can protect millions of descendants from a structure that already surrounds every part of their lives."

"I know that," Narev said, "but is this not the greatest opportunity we have received in generations? Have all of you forgotten what we have endured beneath the life you keep calling stable? Our people outside these chambers believe they are happy because most of them have never seen anything different, but we know the price hidden beneath that prosperity."

The Clan Leader's expression hardened. "No one here has forgotten your son, Narev."

"You remember Soren's name," Narev answered, "but you also placed your signature beneath the finding that declared his death lawful. He was assigned to one of Ebon Meridian war-refineries, even though the previous two groups of young alchemists sent there had already died. We appealed to the sect and the Empire, but they refused to release him. Soren eventually tried to escape Keldovan territory with twenty-three other alchemists. The imperial wardens captured and killed him, but he died without revealing the identities of those who had helped them."

Narev's gathered intent trembled for the first time. "I remained silent when you told me that challenging the report would place his wife, his children, and every household connected to him beneath the same investigation. I accepted his body, lowered my head, and allowed the Empire to call his death lawful because I possessed no power to protect those who remained. I understood why all of you made that decision then, but I will not continue making the same decision after the person who once protected this clan has reappeared with the strength to offer us another path."

His gaze snapped toward one of the elders across the table. "Have you forgotten your elder sister, who disappeared into compulsory frontier service while the Empire eventually returned nothing except an empty memorial token?"

The elder's expression tightened, but he gave no answer.

Narev turned toward another council member. "Have you forgotten your daughter, who earned an opportunity beyond Keldovan territory only for Ebon Meridian to reject her relocation because the alchemical inheritance inside her mind had been registered as a protected clan asset?"

His hand shifted toward the senior commission elder last. "Have you forgotten the three generations of branch gardens seized from your lineage to satisfy an emergency allocation that was never even counted against the levy imposed the following year?"

The commission elder's jaw tightened, but he met Narev's accusation without looking away. "We remember every one of those decisions. Remembering them does not return the strength we lacked when they were made."

"And now we finally possess an opportunity to obtain that strength," Narev continued. "If we called upon Ancestor Hestia, she would help us. Yet instead of even trying, you are preparing to betray her before she has spoken a single word."

"We are preserving the lives of this clan rather than gambling them upon the return of an ancient patriarch none of us have ever met," the Clan Leader replied, his divine domain pressing outward until the surrounding formations groaned beneath its weight. "You say our people accept this life because they have never known another, yet you never asked whether they wanted you to purchase a different future with their lives. You made that decision alone, killed an Imperial Commissioner beneath our protection, and now expect your anger to become the mandate of an entire clan."

Narev's crimson-gold radiance intensified around him. "Prosperity does not make a cage disappear."

"Nor does anger transform murder into liberation," the senior commission elder answered.

Silence held the chamber for several tense moments.

The Clan Leader's thoughts moved rapidly behind his guarded expression. Ancestor Caldris had not yet returned from Andromeda, which meant no Astral cultivator presently stood within Avaris. If imperial enforcers or Astral Stage elders belonging to Ebon Meridian arrived in response to Deyran's assassination and interpreted Narev's actions as the beginning of a clan rebellion, the Solvaren Clan could suffer consequences none of the elders gathered here possessed the strength to prevent.

When the Clan Leader finally spoke, his decision carried the weight of the entire council. "The Solvaren governing council condemns Elder Narev's independent attack. His actions do not represent the decision of this clan."

Every elder within the governing hall confirmed the decision with a movement of the head, leaving Narev alone within the center of their gathering domains.

The Clan Leader held Narev's gaze. "Seal your Rule Core and surrender. You will be held alive for imperial judgment, and this council will provide every record necessary to prove that no other clan member participated in your attack."

Narev looked from one elder to another, and uncertainty entered his expression for the first time since killing Deyran. He had never expected forgiveness after assassinating an Imperial Commissioner. Some part of him, however, had believed that once the choice became unavoidable, at least several elders would finally abandon the order they had spent generations protecting and stand beside him against the cage surrounding their clan.

They knew the same losses he knew and carried the same buried resentment, yet every old grief remained exactly where the council had buried it. They acknowledged the dead, the denied opportunities, the seized gardens, and the humiliations inflicted across generations, but each memory remained subordinate to the millions of lives currently depending upon the stability they had preserved.

"So that is your final answer," Narev said. "You will hand them my body, declare Ancestor Hestia as our patriarch whenever Ebon Meridian requires her obedience, and deny you have anything to do with her in private."

"Our final answer is that one elder does not own the future of this clan," the Clan Leader replied. "Not you. Not Hestia. Not even those of us standing here. Surrender before your grievance costs another life."

Narev's divine domain expanded further, and every Solvaren elder responded at once with the same inherited divine concept.

Seven domains surged into existence within the confined governing hall. Crimson-gold radiance consumed the chamber as the rules of refinement, transformation, and dissolution spread through each domain in identical structures shaped by opposing wills, and the pressure climbed until the reinforced walls could no longer endure what was happening inside them.

The resulting detonation tore through the upper chamber in a violent eruption of crimson-gold light. Sections of the governing hall burst outward as the blast rolled across Avaris in a deep concussion, rising above the inner districts before sending a tremor through the layered city formations and the mana-rich river beyond the boundary.

From the open terrace along the commercial bank, Hestia and Adrian turned toward the inner district at the same instant.

Above the layered boundary, seven figures had risen into view, their deep-red Solvaren robes visible within overlapping domains. Hestia recognized the senior commission elder among those surrounding a grey-haired man whose crimson-gold fire was cutting repeatedly through their attempts to restrain him.

They possessed the same divine concept, wore the same clan crest, and were fighting one another with enough force to shake the city that all of them claimed to protect.

Emergency lights began moving through the bridge formations as the paths into the inner district sealed. Hestia rose from the stone bench without looking away from the battle. She did not yet know what had divided the elders or whether the conflict concerned her, but the answer she had received inside the pavilion was no longer the only truth waiting behind that boundary. "We are going back."

Before the first imperial or sect enforcers could begin arriving on Nerath, Hestia and Adrian were already moving toward the sealed bridge.