Shireling
A Servant of King and Country
St. Klarivov's Cathedral
Chapel of the Redeemed
Ferraria, Kefalonia Prime
"Forgotten man, of lowly birth
Holy scribe of untold worth
Going forth to spread the word
Of a god with no end to love
Praise the scribe who saved our souls!
Praise the god who saw us here
Angelic hosts above the mortal rift
We are saved, from death's cold grip!"
Heads bowed, low voices muttering unheard prayers as the choir sang its strain to the accompaniment of a large, organ-like wind instrument that sounded sort of like a lower pitched clarinet.
As the man in the long coat entered the chapel, nobody turned to look at him, not even the priest who stood on the forward platform beside the choir. He glanced habitually at the high-vaulted ceilings and large pillars of the chapel before sitting down in one of the thousand-year-old stone pews next to a man in a navy blue uniform with his head bowed. The music continued as the man in the long coat spoke.
"We've been tracking the Object." He grunted.
"The one I pointed out last week?"
"Yes," the man in the coat muttered, "Sasarov, the attack at Tharvalos was traced to it. There's definitely a connection there."
Captain Enklar Sasarov, coughing into the back of his hand, glanced over at the unknown government agent in the tan overcoat and scoffed. "I told those intelligence goons."
"Now is not the time for gloating." The agent said definitively. "Whatever that thing is, we believe it---"
The priest began to speak and cut the agent off. He bowed his own head alongside Sasarov as the priest delivered the Renouncements. It was a string of ritual pronouncements of abstention from sin.
"Do you renounce the evils of a godless universe?"
"I do renounce them." Said everyone in unison, including Sasarov and the agent.
"Do you renounce the ill treatment of your fleshly shells, which have been granted you by divine grace?"
"I do renounce them."
"Do you renounce the evils of violence and aggression?"
"I do renounce them."
"Do you renounce the demon of avarice?"
"I do renounce it."
The Renouncement fell back into a sermon, and they continued their conversation.
"We believe," said the agent, "the object posses an existential threat to the Kingdom. The Tellians are already amassing a fleet of warships."
"How large?"
"Large enough to ruin our navy, that's for sure."
"Will it do any good?"
The agent sighed. "We don't know. We don't know if a full-on frontal attack will work. We don't know anything, really."
"This is where I come in, right?"
"Precisely." The agent wiped a runny nose on his sleeve, then made a face and brushed it off. "Listen, we think it's in our best interest to let the Tellians attack the thing. At the very least, they'll lose enough vessels to make us the primary military power and that will be a very good thing."
"But?"
"But if they fail, if their whole fleet is destroyed, we must have a plan to combat the thing."
Sasarov cracked his knuckles. "I'm on it."