Gather the Sects

The room returned to visibility as Elder Muirgel released her hold on Darkness Swallows All Things. The shouting, arguing and posturing of the other Elders paused for a moment, several of them readying their own techniques. In the momentary quiet Elder Cafar stepped forward. “Elders! Councilors! We are the leaders of our Sects, the wisest among us, and the strongest that guard our people from the Green! We cannot fight each other in this moment of crisis!”

Her palm harder than the stone, the table rang as Elder Triona stood “No one argues its a crisis you durak! One of the Spires fell! Without the Spires we all would have been lost to the perversion of nature that overran the world, and now our sanctuary is at risk! If the Spire of Peaches can fall, what is to say any of us are safe? What brought it down? What if the Green has found a way to reach beyond the safe zone??”

Standing in turn, Marta in the Wind spoke softly, knowing that every ear she sought would hear her, “We have grown complacent, contesting against each other, relying on the airships for easy paths between the mountains. No longer can we waste our strength on such things, we must join hands, and all of our students need to be challenged to grow.”

With a gesture, Cafar brought the attention of the Council back “We are the only life outside the Green. We are the last bastion of civilization. We must find why the Spire of Peaches fell, and most importantly, find a way to ensure that we survive, even if other Spires should meet the same fate. We don’t know enough. We will use Elder Marta’s words, while the council guards the remaining Spires, we will send our collective Sect members both to learn what can be learned, and to grow stronger. Our best, our brightest, our most inspired will be gathered under the aegis of the Council. We must give them what tools, what resources, what knowledge we can and hope that it is enough.”