[ACT 2 TEASER] JP: Great Mother Elirielle & Advocate Chavrainne - Holy Vessels of the Flame, Part 2
Carter Schimpff
((The Great Mother’s Personal Chamber - The Golden Spire))
The doors to the Chamber parted – Slow. Soundless. Inevitable.
Chavrainne’s robes fell around her in layered planes of dusk and gold thread, the fabric whispering like parchment kissed by tongues of flame.
Four arms folded in precise geometry: the upper pair forming the Vesture of Veneration across her breast, the lower pair in the Posture of Bearing, palms outward, showing she carried no weapon but her word and her duty.
She walked the center line of the Chamber floor, every footfall striking the stone with a hollow, reverent note.
Before the Great Mother, she stopped. Slowly, deliberately, Chavrainne lowered herself to one knee – not as a soldier bows to a sovereign, but as a supplicant bends before the altar of eternity. Her lower arms touched the floor, fingers splayed in the Gesture of Bounty, while her upper hands lifted skyward in the Invocation of First Breath – a posture older than the spires themselves.
When she spoke, her voice carried none of the trembling awe that lesser courtiers so often brought before the Matriarch. Her tones were steady, almost liturgical, as though she merely uncovered words that had always been waiting here, beneath the dust of centuries.
Chavrainne: Great Mother, Crown of Olessia, Keeper of the Unbroken Circle…
She rose fractionally – not fully – enough to meet Elirielle’s gaze, but never her eyes.
Chavrainne: …Your Advocate comes as voice and vessel, bound to Her Will as the sacred rites bind us all. I am yours to command, as is every word I carry, as is every silence I keep.
The final words rang like the closing of a sacred text.
Chavrainne straightened then, the four arms folding once more in ceremonial symmetry, awaiting a command in the stillness that followed.
Elirielle: You always did enjoy the ceremony, didn't you Chavrainne? Interestingly I enjoyed it more when I would watch my mother say the words. I never thought that I would one day be here …
Elirielle waved a hand and sighed.
Elirielle: I accept your devotion, my voice and vessel. May the sacred rites guide you in your duty. The Circle; the hearth and the structure are strong in you.
Her free arms raised above Chavrainne and made several intricate loops, she released the bonds of her restricted arms and her four limbs danced in the air above Chavrainne.
Elirielle: Now be seated. I have no time for anymore pomp and circumstance, Chavrainne. This is the darkest day since the great unity.
Elirielle led her advocate to a small seating area. Elirielle remained standing, she returned her restricted arms to their binds.
Chavrainne descended obediently – grace folded into precision – and settled upon the proffered, high-backed seat. The fabric gave beneath her like a memory softened by age.
It was not her custom to sit while the Matriarch stood. But then again, it was not her custom to refuse a direct command from Elirielle, either.
For one breath, she remained utterly still, a glyph made flesh.
Then she spoke – her voice the kind that might once have run through temples rather than sitting rooms.
Chavrainne: The day may darken as it pleases, Great Mother, for the Circle was forged in storms such as this. The rites endure because they were carved from nights far blacker than this one, and the hearth grows hotter when the winds rise against it. ::a composed pause:: We are not the first to feel the world crack beneath us… only the latest to hold it steady.
Elirielle: We must return the Yurum. I fear what :: paused :: Do you know what the records say … about the forgotten world? :: shakes her hand :: of course you do. You know everything. It frightens me what darkness must inhabit that mind of yours?
Elirielle’s eyes fell on Chavrainne for several moments. She wondered if Chavrainne accepted her blessings from the Yurum. Or had she refused and …
oO no it wasn't good to doubt your closest allies Oo
Chavrainne’s expression remained an unbroken mask of serenity – the kind of stillness that unnerved the uninitiated. But within, she registered the fracture in Elirielle’s voice. Fear. It was not a word the Great Mother spoke often. That she spoke it now – and to her – was not without meaning.
Then again, the bond between a Matriarch and her Advocate had always existed in the space between ritual and trust. It was not unprecedented.
She did not flinch. She did not blink. She simply bowed her head slightly, as if receiving the weight of an ancient truth.
Chavrainne: The records say the Forgotten World does not sleep, Great Mother. They say its silence is not the stillness of death, but the waiting of a closed eye. And when that eye opens–
Elirielle: Ridiculous superstition.
Chavrainne smiled. Not with teeth. Not with mirth. It was the smile of stone remembering its own birth in the cosmos, long ago – quiet, ancient, untroubled.
Chavrainne: Perhaps. And perhaps not. Many of the old records speak in riddles, yes – but even riddles trace a shape. There is ever an element of truth in metaphor, Great Mother. ::a breath, unhurried:: And truth, like flame, finds its way through any crack.
She lowered her upper arms into a posture of consideration. Her lower hands remained still, folded neatly – a scholar waiting to turn the next page.
Chavrainne: What are we to do about our wayward sacred vessels?
Elirielle: :: incredulity :: Retrieve them. Put an end to this foolishness. Luirétt does not know what they do. All of this … upheaval will end if the Yurum return and begin the blessings again?
She loathed the questioning in her own voice. It was feeble.
oO oh Luirétt what will you make me do? Oo
The Advocate bowed her head in assent, but her gaze remained sharp – cutting through both ritual and fear alike.
Chavrainne: Have we yet been able to track the trail they left behind?
Elirielle: Yes. We've been concerned with restoring order :: looks straight to Chavrainne:: They are with a Starfleet vessel. I believe they are assisting them with repairs.
Chavrainne folded her upper arms in measured thought.
Chavrainne: ::tilting her head slightly:: That they are aboard a Starfleet vessel may yet prove advantageous. The Federation places great value on sovereignty – a well-documented reverence for cultural autonomy, even when that autonomy might stand in opposition to their own moral frameworks.
Elirielle: I want the entire fleet available to jump. We have been watching them from afar but if Luirétt has brought political notions to Starfleet :: beat :: the matter may become more complicated than I'm prepared to deal with :: deadly serious :: For over a century we've avoided conflict with other species, even when the Klingons attacked we made them our friends. Our closest allies.
Elirielle placed a free hand on the coronet she wore briefly.
Elirielle: My birth mothers legacy. I'd much prefer to avoid conflict.
Chavrainne: I advise we maintain a neutral posture on arrival. Let our words reach first. Diplomacy will succeed, as it did with the Klingons, and we will avoid escalation. ::a subtle incline of her upper-left hand, the gesture of balance:: We will not need to raise our voices, Great Mother, for their own laws speak for us.
With a flick of Elirielle’s wrist a holographic display was activated: a decorative ornament transformed and morphed into a display. On display the Boraxian fleet movements, along a well defined trading map. They didn't have a region of space like the Klingons or the Federation but that didn't mean they didn't have a space they called home.
Elirielle: Chavrainne, order will be restored. The Yurum will be returned to the Boraxian people. We face an existential threat, one that we've never experienced before …
Her words trailed off as her eyes flicked to the rising smoke from her view point.
Elirielle: Nothing must stand in our way…
Chavrainne: ::measured, precise:: Then by your will, it shall be done, Great Mother. ::beat:: And may all who stand between the sacred and their return be granted the grace to stand aside – while they still have the choice to do so.
The Great Mother Elirielle
Boraxian Leader
Boraxian City Ship
As simmed by:
Lt Commander Ava Munro
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240004LL2
&
Advocate Chavrainne
As simmed by:
Ensign Roy Bancroft
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205RB1