John stood on the stage.
Before him was a vast sea of faces. Technically there were torsos and legs too, but he didn’t get much of a view of either. They were densely packed. Either exactly as or even more densely than they had been for his opening speech. Tourists, renters, inhabitants of the Hudson Barrier, business partners, foreign dignitaries, gods, humans, dwarves, gnos, elves, demons, and whatever else were watching. They watched from the open space in front of the stage and from the plateaus erected along its outline. They watched from ho. They watched from the benches and green places by the monitors.
John stood on the stage.
Around him was the vast majority of his harem. Apart from Nightingale and Lydia, everyone was present. Right next to him was Rave, holding his arm. They were one of three parties on the stage, lined up in front of a thick curtain. The second, waiting to his right, was Magoi. The High Fateweaver had volunteered to represent the House of Exceptionals for the closing of the festival. Previously to his left was Emrik, who now stepped up to the podium.
“A year of Fusion… for , that has been quite the turbulent year,” the leader of the Lake Alliance began his speech. A complicated sentint rose from the crowd, made up by those that were stark supporters of Fusion and those that just so happened to be in the areas that it conquered. “I did have my reservations about this guild… and I want to stress that I am leaving them in the past now.
“I am Speaker of the Commons. I have been given this position as a sign of trust from your elected representatives. The powers invested in by this Federation, I aim to wield to the benefit of my people. My people are the people of the Lake Alliance and the people of the Lake Alliance are people of Fusion.
“What brought us into the fold? Intimidation. The outside threat of the Lorylim. Convenience. Strength. Necessity. I wondered what I should do if or when this threat was defeated. Could my people be free again? At what cost?”
‘What is happening?’ the Gar thought, listening to the speech with confusion plain on his face. ‘Announcing all of that publicly is the sa as surrendering any possibility it can ever happen.’
“Today, I am surrendering any possibility of that happening,” Emrik declared loudly. “The Lake Alliance has no need to seek freedom from the Federation, because there are no undue shackles on the people of the Lake Alliance. It is the trust that was invested in us that I now return in full. We were not taken advantage of, so we will take no advantage. I will serve in my position, for the republic.
“My personal reservations have been cleared by the deeds of those around . I’m honoured to stand here today. The ugliness of the past can not be undone, but let it be rembered as a brief hurdle to a prosperous life in unison. All together, to the future!”
Emrik stopped and the crowd applauded. He nodded sternly towards the people, waved, and then took a step backwards. A brief speech, but it was effective at swaying the core of Fusion further to his side. ‘Which just makes wonder if he’s honest or is making the best out of the hand he’s given,’ John wondered. It would not be the first ti Emrik kept his hand close to his chest.
There was only a short lull as Magoi Magus stepped up the podium, with cane, mask, and top hat. Once at the wooden stand, he leaned the cane against the side, took off the top hat, and undid the bindings of his raptor skull mask. Calmly, he put it down in front of the microphone.
“I have lived through a great many guilds,” Magoi began his speech in a solemn tone. It made John’s hairs stand on end, because he had never heard the jolly High Fateweaver speak that seriously. “I have seen the rise and fall of more than one mber of the Divided Gates and served countless smaller guilds that history will forget. Like many of you, I grew up in a violent world. I was fortunate to have been blessed with a coveted talent. I honed it, because it was death or exceptionalism.
“I want to speak to that. I want to remind you all of what only an old, scarred man can remind of. I want these words to be eternalized in every recording that is ever spread of today. No matter how safe you live, rember that this is not a safe world. That you are one domino falling away from deprivation. As the days roll by, as the years mount, as the generations pass, never once forget that safety is a luxury fought for. Even when you spend a hundred years without seeing a drop of blood, never once forget that the past has bled so you do not have to. That, when it cos to it, it may be upon you to bleed for the future.
“You will experience great prosperity. I threw my lot in with John Newman because I trust him to do what is good. He has exceeded my wildest expectations, partly by ingenuity, partly because the whims of fate ard him with opportunities. Inevitably, you will grow soft. Softness is not bad. To have the opportunity to grow soft ans that trust is more readily given to your peers. That you can walk down a street without fearing what is around the corner. That you can investigate a Barrier without considering your escape plan.
“But be mindful. The difficult tis will co. There will be a tragedy in your life. You will be lucky if it’s just one. When it arrives, make sure that the softness you have is not all you are. Plant trees in tilled soil. A country grows great when n plant trees in whose shade they may never sit. A country decays when young n cut down trees in whose shade they sat. Be mindful. For the future.”
Magoi gathered his items and took a big step backwards. With his top hat back in place, but his mask under his arm, he walked away. He did not look in John’s direction. The Gar glanced over to Lee. Holding one arm with the hand of the other, she shifted her weight left to right, while following her father.
John stood on the stage.
He glanced over to Rave, who took half a step forward. “I still think this might not be the best idea,” he whispered.
“Too late for delays now, tiger,” his girlfriend grinned and took another confident stride forward. Behind her, John remained where he was on the stage. It was several tres further back than he was used to. Rave, in her beautiful, Fusion-thed dress, walked up to the podium. The crowd was mumbling for a bit, but fell silent when Rave began her speech, “Hello.” She waved.
The Gar was not sure if he was cringing because of her tone or because he was just nervous. It was the latter, proven by how quickly it settled after she continued. Her tone was controlled and slow, as appropriate for a speech as one could demand of a First Lady.
“To clear up the confusion: none of you misread the program. John was supposed to hold this speech. I decided to ddle with that just a tad. Who even am I? So of you may ask yourself that question and I would not bla you. My na is Jane Holly, although most people call Rave. I am, in all ways that matter, First Lady of Fusion. That is to say that I’m the first girl that John got his surprisingly soft hands on.”
John looked at his hands out of reflex, a fact that must have been televised, as there was laughter among the crowd. ‘I think that’s a complint?’ he thought and poked at his palm. There was a definitive lack of calluses. These were not the hands of a steelworker, that much was for certain.
“I mostly keep my head out of political affairs. I fill my day with philanthropic work. You might have used a rail I helped get underway or whatever. I have my fingers here and there, though I wouldn’t claim credit for any of it. I’m just a girl with a will and the influence to get things moving.
“I took this speech from John on a whim. I was never the planning type anyway. I hope you’ll excuse if I ramble a bit. See, I was never the intellectual type. I was never the studious type either. What I understand about politics, public relations, the economy, all of that, it’s fairly little. I just want to love my loves and do sothing useful with my day, so I can complain about annoying hotel receptionists when I get ho.”
That got another wave of laughter out of the crowd. In terms of a political speech, John would say this was pretty diocre so far, but the crowd was engaged and happy to listen to her. The air had more of a stand-up cody than a solemn festival. Whether that was good or bad for the occasion depended on the individual. John trusted his girlfriend to do what she thought best.
“When John and I first t, neither of us were anything special. Okay, he was a latebloor and I was still drop-dead gorgeous, but, ya know, nothing super special. We started out in a rundown arcade with two friends, one of which died because he bit off more than he could chew, and the other quit the Abyss forever. It was here, in Arica. I think many of you will have similar versions of that tale in your lives.
“There was violence… a whole lot of it. Personally, I revel in that. I love the danger, I love the thrill of stepping into sothing dangerous… but I also learned that I was privileged in that I had little to lose. My dad was a reasonably sized fish in a small pond. No reason to worry about him. Little reason to worry about either. Maybe I had a chip on my shoulder, maybe I’m just a tad screwy by nature. Don’t really know.
“Fact is…” Rave’s tone drifted into sothing more serious, and she held her head lowered, looking at her hands as she spoke, “…fact is that I never really cared about anything besides the next exciting thing. I just drifted around, thinking I could be content all my life just doing what I did the next day. That’s almost two years ago now. Two years. A lot can change in two years. You can fall in love, you can sacrifice yourself, you can co back, you can find friends in strange places, you can reconnect or you can lose connection, you can move, you can live on a ship because you don’t have a house, you can despair, you can hope, you can rise from nothing. You,” Rave raised her head and stared out into the crowd, “you can all rise from nothing.”
The words hung in the air for a couple of seconds. Nothing was said, nothing was even mumbled. When Rave continued, she did so deliberately.
“I won’t stand here and pretend I wasn’t blessed. I won’t stand here and pretend I didn’t face intense hardships either. My ho situation always was… complicated. I grew up with little to no friends. I barely know my sister these days, I always fight with my mother when I see her… but maybe I can fix that. Maybe, in a year’s ti, that’ll all be fine. Maybe they will reach out to . Maybe I will reach out to them. I grew cat ears last year, who knows what’s possible?”
The crowd burst out laughing, the tone shift was too absurd not to. Rave giggled herself, which just raised the general amusent further. For almost a minute straight, there was laughter going back and forth, until the feline Lightbearer cleared her throat.
“Serious stuff, people, serious stuff.” She giggled one last ti. “Fusion is not what I imagined would happen to . Nobody reasonable ever looked at the nerd that just stumbled into their life and went, ‘Yeah, imma be at the head of so kind of continent-spanning superpower in two years’ ti.’ What I thought, what I still think, is ‘this works’. Step by step, we got here. This wasn’t what we sat out to do. We just scaled up with the challenges that were presented to us. I think all of you can do the sa. I think we haven’t even seen the peak of this mountain yet.”
Rave took a deep breath. It was audible even through the speakers. The tattoo-like Lorylim scars that covered the entirety of her left arm turned from black to a shifting of the entire light spectrum. The glow spread out around her, surrounding her like a localized rainbow. Radiant, she glowed, and all the floodlights shut off. It seed Rave had made so arrangents with the staff at least.
“HEY, WORLD!” The feline Lightbearer raised her arm with such force the multi-coloured skirt of her dress fluttered. “FUSION WILL KEEP ON GOING! WE’LL BE A BEACON IN THIS WORLD. THIS WILL BE THE PLACE WHERE EVERYONE CAN HOPE TO CHASE THEIR DREAMS. THESE PEOPLE ARE FREE TO PURSUE THEIR OWN HAPPINESS! TOGETHER, WE ARE THE ONES TO IGNITE THE DARKENED SKIES!”
The aura of light exploded outwards in a swiftly dispersing aurora of blinding illumination. In the few seconds that it took everyone to get used to the near complete darkness of this cloud-covered night, the speaking podium was removed, and the curtain parted behind the Gar.
The orchestra that had played the song over the speakers was revealed to the entirety of the watchers. One floodlight after the other switched back on, illuminating level for level of musicians. The structure was akin to a pyramid. At the highest level of which was a swirling, impenetrable darkness.
John stepped forward, to make the sole announcent he had to for this night. “Soon, the festival will co to an end. I want to repeat what was said before: live as appropriate for your tis, be careful to leave the world better than you found it, and always believe in yourself. Personally, I can only add one more thing to these festivities…” John took a deliberate break, he did love the suspense. “Fusion has found a second Patron God!” Just those words created an excited murmuring in the crowd. “I thank you all, for the trust, for the hope, and for the support. Let us all sail together to the future. Let us all fly under the wings of the goddess of the night, Lady Nightingale!”
The darkness opened like a flower made of purple fog, dispersing only once it had fully blood. Graceful, eyes closed, the harpy took a deep breath and then raised her voice in a single, consistent note. It was the exact sa one that had played over the speakers. One by one, the instrunts joined.
John tapped the button on the Weather Tower settings, and the clouds parted. Moon and starlight cascaded through, with no light in the entire Guild Hall, save for monitors, to rival them. The note stopped when the clouds were all gone and Nightingale transitioned into the first of the many songs she had written. All of them, the public heard for the first ti.
“To the future,” John mumbled to himself, as he vacated the stage.
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