“You have not made formal obeisance to Her, Judge Abraham, so no. You are considered the servants of the Emperors of the lands upon which you reside. If you had managed to stay true to Her teachings, the touch of Her magic would be upon you and recognized by the Great Beasts, but your path was corrupted and turned to the purpose of others, no doubt by those who Contracted to the Lords of Light.

“You are merely Humans following the same path of Light as other Humans, in the eyes of the Beast Emperors. They regard you as no different from any other Humans.”

They bridled with both shame and anger at my reply, muttering under their breath and looking at one another. The idea that the histories at the very heart of their people had been so turned and rewritten over the centuries was infuriating all of them. After all, those histories and the traditions incarnate in them were the very heart of their tribes, the cultural identity that had kept them intact and together over all the millennia! No single tribe of Humans had such a long and shared history as did the tribes of the Kabbal!

Judge Abraham just sighed and shook his head. “And you are not regarded the same.”

I inclined my head. “No, I am not,” I agreed calmly. “I think it is perhaps a sign that you should not question my leadership, and in turn, She is telling me to lead you and make use of you and your tribes.” I looked away, frowning slightly. “In fact, I am almost certain of it.”

“Make use of us?” Sage Jediah finally spoke up. He actually shared status with me as a fellow Sage, and didn’t have to be quite as respectful. “How would you ‘make use of us’?” he asked gruffly, all of them wanting to know the answer to that loaded statement.

“The Church of Light is built on lies perpetrated by the Lords of Nirvana, and must be brought down. The way to do that is to build a Church that is instead true to Heaven. Of the people assembled here, I believe I am the only one with no experience in running and administering a religion.”

The shock in their eyes as they stared at me was unfeigned. It is not every day the concept of destroying the most powerful Church in the world and starting a completely new religion to replace it was presented to people!

“Heaven?” repeated Sage Ruth, recovering from her shock first. “Does not the Church of Light serve Heaven?” she asked, shocked.

“The Church of Light serves Axiom. Please do not make such a blasphemous suggestion to me again, Elder,” I said with grim calm, and she actually flushed as my silver eyes brightened noticeably. “Heaven is where the Gods of Good call home. Nirvana is one of the many names given to the realms where the Gods of Law hail from. Limbo is often used as the name where the Gods of true Chaos hold court, while the Netherworlds of Gehenna, the Hells, the Abyss, the Pits, the Gloom, the Realms of the Damned, and suchlike are where the Gods of Evil put down their roots and build their power.

“The forces of Evil and Law have stumbled upon this world, and Realm Lords, minor gods of their Alignments, contest now over the fate of the world. Chaos is here, but has no champion and is unconcerned, only reveling in the conflict of the Elements.

“The Heaven of this world is cold, empty, and forlorn, the Faith of multitudes across the millennia filling it, but there are no gods in residence to hear and take note of them, and so their souls are taken by others after death, with none to gainsay them.

“Radiant Holy Auspicious Butterfly Emperor knows that I am a Servant of Heaven. I believe She wishes you to help me in setting up a new faith in service to Heaven, and bring the Gods of Good here to balance out Axiom and Evil upon this world.”

They were gaping at me in astonishment and some disbelief.

Judge Abraham was quick to seize on several points. “You pointed out that there are four Realm Lords among the Lords of Light in your speech about the judgement of the Council of Beast Emperors!...”

“Yes. The one you honor as Ihovah is one of them. They would be considered barely Lesser Gods in the hierarchy of the Alignments, possessed of the power to affect an entire mortal world on whim and thought, balanced out here only by others of equal ability. It may even be that they consider themselves the most powerful of beings in this universe, if they have run across no others beyond themselves, and do not realize that they are still very low on the ladder of power among the Divine.”

I was wrong-footing them with theological truths they hadn’t been exposed to, and their hesitation and disbelief was easy to see.

“You use the term ‘god’ very easily,” Sage Jediah ventured cautiously. “Are not Realm Lords merely those who have attained ultimate enlightenment in the Elements, and ascended to a higher station of existence thereby?”

“Ultimate enlightenment? A mere Lesser God?” I lifted an eyebrow in reproof at him. “Lesser Gods are like Commanders to the True Gods, who are like Rulers to the Greater Gods, who would be metaphorical Emperors. Do you believe any Commander Beasts or their Human Mage peers could claim anything approaching ultimate enlightenment?”

“Of course not,” Sage Ruth answered quickly for the embarrassed Sage Jediah. “This is... simply a very surprising situation. You are challenging the theology upon how we have long perceived the higher universe...”

“Said perception of which has been extremely filtered and used to lead you along by the nose, using the notes and observations of those with Contracts with the Lords of Nirvana, especially the Nine Prophets, if I am not mistaken, and judging from the Kabbalist texts I have perused... particularly those relating to a ‘Heavenly Hierarchy’.” I watched them all frown deeply again, especially at my scornful tone. None of them had Contracts, considering such things the equivalent of knuckling under to the Synod, and wanting no part of that despite the benefits to be gained. It was a major reason why the Synod outshone them in the power of the Light Element.

I sighed and pinched my nose at their expressions, and waved my hand to bring up their silver force Disk seats. “Please be seated and allow me to go over a few things.”

They looked at one another, considered that they were going to learn more uncomfortable truths or see me exposed as a madwoman, and quickly enough took up their seats again. It seemed they would still not be going home...

---

“I will begin this discussion by revealing to you the Color of your souls.”

They blinked as The Light glowed above my head. It was not Light that they knew. It was The Light of Heaven, a Light they had no knowledge of whatsoever, and these masters of Light Magic sucked in their breaths just to see it, and then felt it wafting across their souls... and Lighting them up.

They looked at themselves, and the predominantly Blue hues upon them, definite shades of Green among many of them, with Judge Abraham notably biased to White, and Sage Ruth to Yellow-Green.

I let them take it all in, and then stare at the Gold Aura I was giving off. It unsettled most of them to look upon, as if they were being measured and being found wanting.

Which, given my (currently restrained) Auras of Valor and Menace, was sort of exactly what was happening!

“I am not sitting in judgement of you. I am sitting in judgement of those and that which has shaped you into what you are.” I looked over all of them calmly, and these people, the least of them thrice my seeming age, shifted uneasily. “The religion you follow, the traditions you espouse, and the philosophies you adhere to have been manipulated for literally thousands of years by beings to whom years pass with a wave of a hand, and human generations are but a short nap.

“Blue is the color of Law. Law is the Alignment of the Lords of Light and the being you call Ihovah. They have delivered to you a code of conduct, traditions to follow, rituals to observe, and many, many rules and laws to obey that cover virtually every facet of your society and people.

“That is how Law works. It puts down orders and disciplines and rules for every facet of life, until obeying the Law is all, and questioning the morals or ethics or any damn reason at all behind those Laws is anathema.

“This is the situation most of you find yourselves in now. You are no doubt very proud of your discipline and adherence to the rules and traditions of your ancestors. This is now warring with the fact that the Butterfly Emperor who began the very Tradition that formed the Kabbalists delivered exactly none of such rules and codes to you!

“They were imposed upon you by the later Prophets who were Contracted instead of grew their own power, and your histories redrawn to show that it has always been that way for you, and if it was good enough for your ancestors, it is good enough for you!”

They grimaced despite themselves. They were Kabbalists... their Traditions were everything!

“But, something held on. None of you are Sapphire, which would mean fanatics, unbending and unbendable. No doubt you have met many of your opposites in the Synod who have frankly alarmed you with their violent convictions, and no doubt you know many of your own people with blind devotion to the faith of your people, who simply believe and do not care about the reasons behind that belief.

“Such is the desire of Law. They wish all to believe, none to question, merely to follow their superiors and obey.”

They stared at me, thinking over my words as I gave them the time to do so.

“But what has held you back is the Green. Despite yourselves, you are Human, and your religion and faith are, in the end and the beginning, centered upon your tribes. Kabbalism is not a religion of the world, of any soul welcome to join. It is the religion of the twelve tribes of the Kabbal, that which defines them, and it is passed on by blood and marriage. One does not simply profess faith and join the tribes of the Kabbal.

“From the view of the Lords of Light, this is a very unacceptable limiting factor, yet it is so hard-coded into your religion that they were unable to alter it enough without endangering their hold on you.

“Thus came the Last Prophet, the Messiah and Son of Light. The Church of Light followed and came into being, which could accept any and all souls to the faith. Naturally enough, the core of the early Church was the early Kabbalists who did not question the Last Prophet, and followed him to create the behemoth that looms over the world now.

“But, now you know.” I looked over them all. “The Church of Light took your early tales, your Torah, and made it their own history... for it IS their history, the one they want to see defined, rewritten to their benefit and espousing their laws.

“And now you know that history is a lie. The twelve tribes of the Kabbal are descended from Adayam and Lillithi, not Evai. The later Prophets were gifted Scrolls by the Lords of Light, and subtly and continually altered the doctrine and traditions of your people.

“Your adherence to the traditions of your people is not a Sin, nor a betrayal. Your ancestors did indeed follow the paths you tread now. But THEIR ancestors... did not. They followed different ones, and were progressively, subtly, and grandly led astray by the Prophets who came after the First.

“In light of that, let us return to present day reality.” I fixed them all with hard stares. “Whatever you chose to call Him or Them, you are no longer the favored of the Lords of Light. The growth of the Church of Light should make that plain, and your people’s reluctance to take a Scroll from them is further distancing you. Ihovah strings you along enough to keep you away from the Netherworld, and when the time comes, you’ll have no choice but to fold in with the Church.”

They all grimaced. Talking about their patron god like this was near blasphemy, but I just didn’t have any reverence for the twat.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you are now playing in the Big, Big Arena. We are talking Faith, we are talking The Alignments, and we are talking True Deities, not the hopped-up Realm Lords who think they are hot crap because they are orders of magnitude stronger than us mere humans.

“You have a deadly choice ahead of you, and it deals with the truth you’ve been hearing over the past week.” I made a pulling gesture, and books popped out of my pocket, leather-bound and finely made, falling down into each of their hands. “This is a copy of all the information that Radiant Holy Auspicious Butterfly Emperor related to you. It has been broken up and arranged by dates and times.

“This information is now in direct conflict with the Torah as was modified by the Lords of Light, and the Bible they distribute around the world. Their information is a lie, yours is the truth... but if they kill you all and bury that information, it is the lies that will endure.

“Whether you like it or not, you are now in conflict with the Church, and that means you are no longer serving Ihovah, you are in opposition to Him!”