A few hours ago, in the Kevellond Embassy in the Union of Worlds
__________________William Ronald posted:
At the Embassy of the Kevellond League
Before the God Emperor arrives, Ambassador Guillaum Dolanor mutters, "They are scanning us!! It breaks all diplomatic protocols. It's an act of war!"
Hazen shakes his head, a look of disappointment. "I expected this. The God Emperor is consistent."
Hazen listens to the God Emperor.
"No threats to you are meant here. Sadly, I cannot tell you that the Alliance of Dread has been vanquished and that our soldiers should celebrate."
"Behind your words and your actions, I have seen a man with a deep love of country and his people. I also sensed a man who suffered a deep loss, perhaps helping him to empathize with his people."
"I can not heal every wound, but I believed your pain needed to be addressed. I am not your enemy, and I hope that you do not see me as one. Despite the scan of the embassy," Hazen smiles politely and with his right hand beckons.
An Angel, beautiful beyond mortal comprehension, holds a child in his arms. It is an infant girl wrapped in clothes finer than silk, shinier than gold or mithral. She is deeply asleep, a contented smile on her beautiful young face.
"This is not a simulacrum or an illusion. It is her whom you loved and wished to give so much to in her life. She has no memory of her passing."
"Many assisted in finding her and restoring her to the world of the living? A Power mightier and purer than words can described aided. This Eternal Power loves your daughter and yourself for who you are and whom you both might yet become. Your daughter is returned. She has not been altered in any way from the last time you saw her alive and well. Love her. Her only thoughts as she dreams now are of the father who loves her. A gentle touch from you will awaken her."
The Angel hands Hazen the child. Hazen holds the young girl gently, and delicately presents her to the God Emperor of the Union.
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"A cruel joke, Hazen. My child is dead, it's beyond any power to return her to me." The deadly cold of his voice makes the child toss fearfully in her sleep.
"There are powers greater than your own, God Emperor," Hazen replies serenely "Few things are truly impossible and this is not one of them. Take the child in your arms and you will know the truth."
"This is an age of lies and illusions, nothing is certain, nothing ever can be." The God Emperor stops for a moment, suddenly uncertain, and then continues. "You're trying to manipulate me, your motives are obvious. You've created this deception, to place me in your dept, to convert me, to control me?! There is no need for these lies, our goals for the near future are the same, we have a common enemy that must be dealt with. This, this sham, will not divert me from that. In time, maybe even this can be forgotten. I do not wage war for personal insults."
"We do not lie. We do not manipulate. We are the truth." The Angel speaks in glorious pity. "We cannot conceal the truth from you. Take the child in your arms and you will know."
The God Emperor extends a thread of golden light from his aura to rest on her forhead. The child stirrs as the God Emperor reads trough her memories, his face a mask of cold detatchment. "My compliments on your skill, this is extremely well crafted."
"Touch her."
"Very Well then. Let this farce end." a subtle twist of gravity carries the child gently to his extended arms and a pair of green eyes open to look into his. The God Emperor looks stunned and then falls to his knees, his golden aura flaring and casting harch shadows on the walls. He trembles, struggling visibly with some powerful emotion and when he looks up towards Hazen his face is twisted with rage, grief, joy and humiliation. Hazen, with the emotional suseptability of the Angels barely manage to avoid backing away from the sheer intensity of those emotions. "..." Unable to speak, he merely looks at Hazen and then the child, linking his mind to hers with magic, filling his consiousness with her thoughts. "Thank you" ,a single crystal tear falls to the child's forehead and breaks in a hundred pearls of gold and electric blue. The child laughs in delight at the pretty colours. "Thank you. This, there is nothing I can do to repay this. Nothing."
The God Emperor rise to his feet, serene once again. "A wise investment, Hazen, my good will is worth quite a lot. Now, I must go to secure the inheritance of my daughter." He teleports out, back to the City of Gold on Mechanus and calls off the order to the legions.
"There is nothing that you will not posess, no power that will be beyond you. Your name will resound beyond the borders of infinity, Naganika, my daughter."