Melody of Mana

Theodore closed the door to his office, locking it tightly in place before turning back to his desk. This room had always been the office for the Bishop, the highest authority for his order in the central area of the Kingdom. The reason for that was unknown to most, but as he passed back behind his desk and pressed a certain place in the wall the doorway that opened before him made the reason clear.

He stepped in, it was nearly the appointed time. Down a narrow stairwell into a room slightly smaller than his own. It seemed plain as well, a single stone chair lay before a small table. A small magically powered lamp providing calm bright light. The real magic was hidden within the stone in a technique unknown to him. As he sat down it activated, connecting his eyes and ears to other such devices.

Overlaid over the normal view of the bare room was a much larger one, showing a number of priests and priestesses sitting around a large table. At it's head an old man sat in a plain off-white robe, his bearing fatherly. The others were still arriving, the bishops and leaders from the orders in the surrounding countries came one by one, until nearly three dozen sat waiting.

"Allow us to begin," the Elder intoned, bringing all eyes to him. "What is the current situation in the... former Ermathi Empire?"

There was a brief look between of the different heads of the Empire, until their representative finally spoke. "Surprisingly stable. Normally I would expect more problems but the Lord of Shadows has for his part done what he can to keep the peace. There have been a number of changes to the law, but no wholesale slaughter or destruction. At least not after what happened to the Emperor and some of the other leaders of the government."

"That is unusual, but good to hear. How has his relationship with our various orders been?"

"He has respected the various orders. Allowing civilians to seek shelter under the shield, and those of his army who have been found to have predated against both his orders and those of the Lover have been handed over to them." He took a deep breath. "I will say that the Vine has some issues with his actions at what is now being called Fool's Folly, but he's making a few concessions to apologize for such a disturbance."

Theodore did not pity those men given to the Lovers, they surely would suffer for such foolish viciousness. As for the Vine, they tended to be prickly about any large scale disturbance of nature, so their irritation was no surprise.

"Do we know how he did that by the way?" The Elder looked over toward the representative with a questioning look.

"It would seem he has a unit of water mages of unusual power. The head of it is alarmingly strong as I told you all in our previous meeting. I'm not sure if this is the maximum of their collective ability or not."

"Based on the Lord of Shadows' actions so far I worry some about that. How go our attempts at building relations and control measures?"

"I would say they go well, neither Lord Durin nor his generals seem to want overmuch. In comparison to most governments I worry little. We've done what we can to ingratiate them to us. There is the matter in the Kingdom of Bergond."

"The child is safe, if uncooperative. We are keeping an eye on her welfare from afar." Theodore frowned, it was not exactly the thing he would want to tell his companions.

"Forgive me, my absence from our last meeting must have caused me to miss this. What exactly is this about a child?" The bishop of the Vine from the northeastern part of Bergond turned to the others. That was not unusual, with limited communication over such distances and infrequency of these meetings such things sometimes got lost.

"One of Durin's generals and the aforementioned head of his water mage unit have been making some inquiries as to the location of the general's daughter. The issue is that if they find it, they may go to retrieve her, and start a war, and if any harm should come to her..." the Elder allowed his explanation to fade off.

"They could try to use it as casus belli? What is the general's ranking?" The bishop of Vine furrowed his brow as he considered.

"The Lord of Shadows' hierarchy is a bit unusual, but I feel we should treat him as something equivalent to a highly respected noble." the earlier representative explained. "He's at the least high in their rankings. Our reports also indicate that he was the one who killed the Emperor a few months back."

"Ah, I see."

"Do we have any other news of note?" The Elder looked to around the table getting a few nods here and there.

The meeting went on for hours after that. One of the Elven nations across the Eastern Sea was trying to increase relations, not unwelcome but highly unusual. Some strong monsters had been sighted in the far north, and more trained priests were being requested to aid in their destruction and the cleanup of the mess they'd made. The rebels throughout Bergond were being a right pain in the neck, disrupting large swaths of the country, though the government was trying to keep that quiet.

These meetings were like that though. The various Orders had a working, if sometimes a bit strained relationship, and communication between them was an absolute must to keep the peace. Theodore sighed as it finally ended, exhausted from the long conversations. It had nearly drained the artifacts of them all of the mana needed to maintain contact and would take weeks to refill. At least he only had to attend one of these once a season.