*****
Bas sat outside the chamber in the centre of the Temples. He was staring into the mid-distance and thinking about what he was going to say to the Grand Council (preparation had never really been his strongest suit), when his father came out and put a heavy hand on his shoulder.
‘We’re ready for you,’ said Alistair, Bas’ mid-height, grey-haired father, who looked almost lanky next to Bas, although his shoulders were really quite broad, ‘are you ready?’ His kind, perceptive eyes searched Bas’, trying to tease out his inner feelings, not that his son’s feelings usually needed much teasing; he was pretty up front about his emotions.
‘As I’ll ever be,’ Bas replied, giving his father a knowing look. As Bas and Alistair walked into the chamber, every pair of eyes turned to look at them, but Bas ignored every single one. He was always fascinated by the layout of this room. The Councillors from the three Temples sat along three of the walls at the edges of the hexagonal room, with the Descendant for each Temple sitting in the middle of their wall of Councillors. On the floor, in the middle of the room, was a circle that nobody was allowed to walk over, the area directly above whatever sacred thing lay below the Temple points. Opposite the middle wall of Councillors was a lectern, to which guests such as himself were summoned to give presentations and updates to the Grand Council.
Bas made his way purposefully to the lectern. The last thing he wanted to do was let them intimidate him, so he didn’t rush, he tried instead to move across the room as though this was where he was born to be. He wasn’t sure whether he succeeded or not, but was extremely glad to reach the safety of the lectern, where he could bring up the illustrations of his results and encourage everyone to focus on those, instead of him.
‘Good morning, Descendants, Councillors. It’s a great honour to be here today to present to you,’ Bas started, noticing that the chairs for both the Body Descendant and the Spirit Descendant were empty. Alexander and Peter were each sitting to the side of the chair, that in a few days, would be theirs, presumably, Bas thought, because Austin had insisted that they could not sit in the Descendants’ chairs until after their Crownings. He wants to make sure everyone knows he’s the only one with any real power, thought Bas, as though anyone had any question in their mind. ‘As you can see,’ Bas continued briskly, using an energy wave to bring up a projection of a graph in mid-air, ‘the world experienced a significant and instantaneous negative response to the news of Christiana’s death. The moment Austin’s speech concluded, the energy plummeted to unprecedented levels, and it continued to drop for three consecutive days. It finally slowed and levelled out last night to where it is currently, here,’ he said, pausing to let everyone take in the dramatic drop, pointing to a place on the graph that matched his words.
‘To put it bluntly, we have no idea the effect this drop in energy will have on our world. However, it is likely to have a profound impact on our agriculture, fish stocks, weather, and most importantly, on the mood of our people. This last point is the most important, as this is something over which we can exercise at least a modicum of control. Three days ago, before Austin gave his speech on the steps of the Temple of the Body, Christiana had been dead for several days already, however, there was no impact at all on the energy as a direct result of her death. As soon as Austin told the world that Christiana was no longer with us, there was an instant and dramatic decline. This obviously indicates that it is our perception of events and the state of the world, and not actual events and the real state of the world that have the most profound effect, indeed, any effect, on the energy. This means that if we can find a way to positively influence the general populous, if we could give them hope and make them feel like there may yet be a way to free the world from the Gods, then we could stand a chance of bringing the energy back up to more normal levels, to save our world from what, frankly, could be destruction. If we don’t do this, there’s a chance that the mood will get worse as a result of the negative effects, which will, in turn, drag the energy down further, in a vicious and destructive spiral.’
At this point, Austin, who looked like Bas had just casually sauntered over to his chair, slapped him in the face, taken a bow, and then strutted back to the lectern, took to the floor. He looked down at Marcus, who was sitting to his right, before theatrically addressing the Grand Council. ‘Councillors,’ he said, in the same buttery tone that he had used for the radio broadcast, and coming across as a great deal more pompous in real life than he had over the energy waves, ‘let me start by expressing my gratitude to Bas for coming and speaking to us today.’ He declined to address the other Descendants directly, self-righteous idiot, thought Bas. ‘I’m sure it is a daunting task for one so…young,’ he drawled, in a way so condescending that Bas had to fight quite hard the urge to punch him. Instead, he looked over to his father, who gave him a ‘we knew this would happen’ kind of look, before turning his head back towards Austin.
‘Now, it would be easy for us all to jump to conclusions at a difficult time like this, when we are all still grieving the loss of one as great as Christiana. However, we simply cannot try to keep alive the hope of freeing the world from the Gods,’ he said, pausing for dramatic effect, ‘when that hope is now gone.’ He said each word in staccato to emphasise his message, and as the words left his mouth a cold silence rippled across the chamber, every person holding their breath. ‘We have seen energy dips before,’ he continued, seemingly oblivious to the effect he had just had, ‘and it has always bounced back when people have come to terms with the events that caused it. In a few days we have the Chase. This is a high-spirited event that is known to boost the energy, and after that, we have a double Crowning and ball. These, I am sure, will lift the energy, and I am confident there will be no…,’ Austin looked pointedly at Bas, ‘…destruction for us to worry about.’ The way Austin lingered over the word destruction made it sound like a challenge, something along the lines of ‘prove me wrong if you dare’. There was nobody in the room who had the power to challenge Austin. Even if Peter and Alexander had been crowned already, it was unlikely they would want to take on Austin this publically so early on in their Descendancies, so everyone remained silent, stunned at what they had just heard. Bas nodded towards Austin, his time clearly up, and retreated towards the door. One of the Councillors’ aides opened it for him, and he walked out into the sunshine, weather which didn’t exactly reflect his mood.
Well, that went just as expected, Bas thought to himself as he waited for his father. The energy update had been the last topic of the day, so they would walk home together.
Alistair came out of the chamber with a collection of other Councillors, and he said his goodbyes as they reached where Bas was standing. They walked a short distance in silence before Bas could contain his emotions no longer. ‘Well that was a complete waste of time, and to top it all off, Austin made me look like a total idiot.’
‘You can believe that if you want Bas, but you know as well as I do that most people in that room knew you were talking sense.’ Alistair’s soft, reasonable, yet authoritative voice had its usual calming effect. ‘Austin knew you were talking sense too. The question is, why is he so set against trying to drum up a little positive energy,’ said Alistair, musing as they walked. ‘Anyway, we will continue to monitor the energy and provide reports to the Grand Council. If crops start to fail, as they inevitably will, he will have to do something, unless he wants to deal with an uprising.’
‘That would be a sight I wouldn’t mind seeing,’ Bas smirked, ‘apart from the bit where there are food shortages. Not sure that would suit me.’
‘Who knows, maybe the new Descendants will see sense,’ said Alistair, but both he and Bas doubted it. It wasn’t that they wouldn’t agree with Bas, rather that they wouldn’t want to disagree with Austin. Alistair smiled, ‘but before anything else, the Councillors need to organise a Chase,’ he chuckled, ‘it was news to everyone in that room that the Chase
will take place before the funeral. You should have seen James’ face! I don’t think he’ll be getting much sleep over the next few days. They’ll start with an announcement early tomorrow I should think, so make sure you’re watching the energy. Anyway, enough of all that, shall we pop in on Anita and Cordelia on the way past?’ Alistair monitored his son’s reaction closely as he mentioned Anita’s name.
‘Yep, sure, why not,’ Bas responded flatly. Alistair didn’t know, but could guess what was wrong. He didn’t probe directly.
‘Do you think the Chase and ball will have any meaningful effect on the energy?’ Alistair asked instead, pretending that it was an unconnected, casual comment.
‘You think I can’t see right through you?’ Bas replied, resentfully. ‘You’re so obvious it’s painful. No, I’m not going to the ball with Anita. She isn’t going to the ball. Says it’s not her thing. And no, I don’t want to go with some desperate, vacuous Councillor’s daughter, which is what you are about to suggest, thank you very much.’
‘You’ve got to take somebody, and Missy is very nice. Not vacuous at all.’
‘Firstly, what kind of a bloody name is Missy, and secondly that you focused on the fact that she isn’t vacuous means that she is desperate, which means that she probably looks like the back end of a bus.’
‘Very well. Have it your way,’ Alistair said, trying to hide his exasperation as they reached Anita’s house, ‘but you’ve got to take somebody.’
‘Oh sod off would you,’ said Bas, angrily, but Alistair smiled inwardly, knowing there was no real fire behind his words.