His normally bright bronze eyes now dimmed with solemnity from behind the massive smartwood lectern, Jarec, Emperor of the Dominion, regarded his subjects. The entire population of Meridia had come out in unseasonably rainy weather to huddle and exchange apprehensive whispers.

He had been lip-reading their edgy speculations all morning, each hypothesis wilder and more dire than the last. They were about to board Mechari ships and migrate to Nexus. The Royal Houses were bankrupt. The world was ending. The Emperor was an imposter. There were no Eldan. The sight of his glorious figure, he reflected, would put the lie to them all.

“A matter concerning the designs of our glorious allies,” he intoned with a severity that his audience surely considered at unsettling variance with his famous amicability, “has come to light. A new mandate I am now privileged with the honor of delivering to you.”

Silence reigned throughout the square.

“The Eldan, the greatest race that has ever bestridden our universe,” Jarec’s deepening voice continued, “saw in Cassus an exceptionalism, a unique capability for magnificence. We alone could be entrusted with the responsibilities of supremacy. Rejoice, my friends. The day we have long awaited is at hand.”

A fresh salvo of murmurs arose from the assembly, this time ones of relief, mingled with excitement. Already he could feel the fresh infusion of hope seeping into the farthest reaches of the crowd. Considering the centuries of tradition about to be rewritten, Jarec found it invigorating. He hoped it would be enough, even as he congratulated himself for his pitch-perfect performance that had wrought it.

When the gods vanished and left you in charge of the galaxy, it was sink or swim.

Source: World Story