False Alarms

The entireity of the royal court was present in the courtyard. The courtyard was roughly a square space and was about a hectare* in area. The fact that they haven't left the building was still awesome no matter how you looked at it. The moon lay low and brilliantly lit the courtyard and eveeryone could clearly see each others faces without having a torch to illuminate them.

But in the eyes of those gathered there wasn't even a hint of this marvelous feat. They were all transfixed at the scene above and were vigorously discussing amidst theselves. They were all shocked at the mere thought of

"Now what have you all to say about this" said the princess Amara pointing to a particular spot in the clear night sky. At the spot the princess pointed to there was a cluster of stars that were beautiful to look at but amidst those stars was a black spot without stars. It looked particulary dark in the starry sky.

The starless void looked exactly like a circumpunt.

The circular band of starry patch interlocked between the voids now gave the viewers the senstion that there was a giant eye in the sky looking down on them. It wasn't such a difficult thing to spot. Eyes , even abstract notions of eyes are always the easiet things to spot*. Mankind has evolved that way.

But mankind was not yet ready for the terror of looking at an eye the size of the moon looking down at them. The fact that they knew that gods exist didn't ease their minds.

Such a thing had never happened ever before so no one had told them of such a thing. If anything gives people a sense of fear it is the fear of the unknown.

There wasn't a book about it. Heck! there wasn't even a bedtime story to tell of such a thing happening.

The emperor frowned.

The emperor too was out of his veiled throne and was in plain sight. He stood there silently among the vividly discussing people on the courtyard.

He looked crisply dressed in pure white and was decourated with an elabourate crown and fantastic ring-like ornaments* adorned his fingers. It was majestic and amazing to look at. Hypnotic almost such were their appearence.

His being belied his age and looked like he looked like he was just a thirty year old or so. His true age was actually around the same as Lagos Yafari*.

That was the power of his blessing, the blessing of Esah*.

"Of all the times for the royal astrologer to fall sick." spoke the frail old Lagos Yafari.

"Indeed!" spoke the emperor at last.

"A circle around a dot. Anywhere else it would be hard to spot but luckily that cluster of stars highlight that sign perfectly. I presume that eveyone in the royal court know what that symbol is called." the princess spoke confidently.

"Princess, That might be a heavenly body and it's ring for all I know. It doesn't necessarily have to be a symbol." The head priestess of Imobium spoke.

"Might I be given the honour of knowing the head priestess's name?" asked princess Amara.

"It's Arelid . I belong to the sept of Featherbreeze. I take care of the temple of Imobium. In our temple we call our deity as the Omnipotence. I am known by the epithet the lady of the omnipotence, Princess" The head priestess spoke haughtily.

"Well said Head Priestess! Finally someone who dares to speak to the Princess", all the people of the royal court cheered for the priestess in their hearts.

"Okay, so Arelid Featherbreeze of the omnipotence! First, You didn't answer my question. Second, That sign is on for show for half hour now. Let's wait for sometime more. It will soon be dawn. Then we can see it for what it is !" Princess spoke haughtily in return.

"The Head Priestess does not mean ill ,Sister. Tell us the reason why you brought us all out of the court" spoke Fangert.

Not a lot of people could speak like that to the Princess.

The Princess was not happy but she began speaking. "You all seem to be ignorant of a few things here. Fine! I'll edcuate you.

A circle around a dot.

That symbol is called as the circumpunct. One of the earliest symbols ever. Earliest symbol means it was used to represent the earliest thing. The earliest god, The Abyss....."

"Princess you know that we need to decide the deity by the end of this meeting right?" asked the impatient head priestess Arelid.

"You know what! I wanted this discussion to go in a civilized manner. Remember! You started this !" Princess Amara angrily shouted and began saying a mantra.

"No Princess!" The emperor urged but it was a second too late.

The head priestess was relatively new to the court she was urged not to speak against the youngest princess but she didn't know.

Amara was blessed by Azolos, the god of luck. She just has infinite luck. Not more than a handful of people have been blessed by that elusive god throughout history.

She can give or take luck away from any person. It was no wonder she was fawned over by the Emperor. She was also extremely well endowed no matter how you looked at her.

___________________________________________

"Azolos Mantra"

The warriors life on a wheel that's stuck

The pot of gold under a rug

The fates swings to the whim

Azolos thy cup of fortune's Brim.

___________________________________________

Amara didn't say those words. That's how a god's blessing worked.

If it was little things that needn't require much of an effort but for difficult tasks invoking a god will be accompanied by a Mantra which indicates the God's assertion of dominion.

Someone near Arelid sneezed and she turned to see who the indecent fellow was. Suddenly her ankle slipped and she swayed as if she was about to fall but then she was a member of the Featherbreeze sept*. They were fierce warriors.

She majestically balanced herself but a sound of cloth tearing was heard.

Two bands of cloth came loose from her dress which was nothing but bands of white cloth wounded over another.*

Fangert bellowed.

"This is the limit Amara! Just because you were blessed by Azolos doesn't give you the right to do as you wish with the people's lives."

"She wasn't the only person whose luck ran out"

As soon as Amara said that Fangert was alarmed. He looked around his clothes were alright. He paid attention to his body then his abdomen felt a little queasy.

Dun! Dun! Dun!

"Burp!"

Fangert burped.

"Bless you!" Amara cheekily laughed.

"Sorry for the false alarm. You aren't the person who I took it from"

A wild commotion arose from the crowd. They were lividly discussing who the target might be silently for they didn't want to part with their luck so abruptly.

The emperor was nervous. Amara was a little too playful. The second target could be a little too troublesome.

"Who is it my little fawn?" the emperor asked Amara.

"Who are you asking about Father?" Amara asked innocently.

"That other person whose luck washed away ,Of course!" Fangert spoke for the emperor.

"Hmph!" the emperor acknowledged.

"Oh! That!" Amara said slyly.

"The target wasn't two it was four" Amara announced proudly.

"Four! " the emperor exclaimed and shifted uneasily.

"Don't panic unnecessarily. The other three aren't even human." Amara replied in a laidback way.

Everyone there breathed a sigh of relief.

"they are the trinity gods" Amara said in an equally cool laidback way.

"What!" a lot of people from the crowd exclaimed.

The luck of people can be taken away but the gods! Atrocious ! Blasphemous! will you say it to her!, everyone asked each other but no one dared to say it out loud.

"Why ?" asked the emperor confused because he couldn't fathom what she held against the trinity.

"They have been in the luck for far too long. Now it's time for the Abyss. Look at the sky people"

Then she pointed her hand to the sign one more time but the sign was no where to be found.

"Looks like the luck doesn't really bring you back to life" Fangert said bitterly. He had been aggrieved by her. He was toyed with like a little child and that too with multiple witnesses.

I will not forget what happened today! Fangert sweared under his breath and walked away.

The crowd departed slowly returned to the inside of the humungous court from which they came from.

The emperor and the princess were the only ones left on the courtyard.

"Sorry my little fawn. Not everything goes in the way we want it to. Such is life. The Abyss is not only a fallen god but a dead one.

His death gave birth to the entireity of the pantheon and We respect him for it but we don't pray him to do us anything. That is because we know that he can't do anything for us anymore.

The sooner you face the fact that he is absent and no more ,the better it will help you in life". The emperor spoke solemly and left.

"The better it will help you in life!" Amara said in a mocking tone mimicking her father and turned away.

"How unlike her brothers and how similar to that traitorous unfilial offspring of mine " The emperor thought as he left.

"Oh how much I miss brother Harridan !" Amara thought as she turned away from the court and left for the library.

Glossary :

hectare - approximately 2.5 acres. quite a large area if you ask me.

eyes are the easiest thing to spot - it is a natural adaptation that enables humans to be successful hunters. Try it yourself .

ring-like ornament - they aren't actually made of metals per se but are more like a manifestation of the blessing of the king. I felt it would be a little out of place in this chapter but felt like I had to include it anyhow so I did a little annotation. Sorry!

Lagos Yafari - the emperor's friend also a supporter of the sect of Biophora

Esah - which is not actually a single god but a reference to all three of the trinity which means he was blessed not by a single god but Three.

Sept - Sort of like a family or a House of the Family. Almost like a clan.