Zeus 25 - Praxis

29 - Judgement

TizzleT rejoined them after their dinner and led them to the small magical room that whisked them vertically up inside the mountain. It seems the Council of the Clan met near the very top of the peak. What drove leaders to want to look down on everyone around them? Zeus wondered to himself as they rode up.

The Council Chamber was huge and magnificent with views of the surface in every direction. SssuK flash constantly across the vast distances that were revealed. Far rivers wound through the land skirting peaks that probably held pools of other sheltering clans like the Risss-LunaL, and, in one direction, a vast body of water filled a sweeping bay.

HaziKan sat in the center of an arc of clan leaders, each with a diamond headpiece similar to his. Behind them stood half-a-dozen elderly clan members with scaly diamond-shaped scars on their foreheads where silvery translators were clearly once embedded.

Surrounding the empty oval in front of the arc of leaders was a double row of clan members, including TizzleT, each with a silver amulet at its throat. Clearly the whole clan was assembled, and two galleries of slaves and younglings were present as well.

"SaTaan has set the law. LalaT has shown the way. We are the Risss-LunaL, sworn to serve both. Zeus, an offworlder, has broken the law. Do any confirm it?"

TizzleT stood, "I confirm it."

"Do any deny it," HaziKan asked. After a moment of waiting, he continued, "The charge then stands. Banishment or death?" he asked the room.

A thunder of hisses and Clicks ensued, most coming from the galleries. TizzleT was still standing, and she raised both arms. Slowly the noise died down. "I speak for banishment," she said. "Offworldlers do not know the strength of SaTaan or his will. This is no excuse, but a reason to remove the offender from our world and banish him back to his own."

HaziKan looked from one end of the arc of leaders to the other, but Zeus could not detect any expressions of agreement or disagreement with what TizzleT had said. "The will of SaTaan is banishment to Gaia,' he proclaimed, but he was not through. "TizzleT of the Risss-LunaL has failed in her duty. Do any confirm it?"

Lakel stepped from one of the galleries still wearing the translation necklace. "I confirm it," he said.

"Banishment, death, or quest?" HaziKan asked.

The hisss-Click combination that went with the translation of 'quest' erupted all about him. Suddenly the other three younglings who had been on the trip to the surface were standing with Lakel. "We speak for a quest and make an optionchoice to join TizzleT."

"Then it shall be a quest," HaziKan concluded.

This apparently ended the meeting as everyone stood and filed from the room.

Zeus expelled a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. No judgement on Atlantis had ever been so quickly rendered, he thought.

Tizzlet led the Atlanteans to the rock chamber they'd arrived in, but on the way Eudora contrived to walk alongside her.

#

Eudora removed her peach-pit necklace and handed it to TizzleT. "I want to give you a gift for your quest," Eudora said.

"Is this a good-luck charm?" TizzleT asked.

"In a way," Eudora agreed. "Inside is a blue Homing Orb, an invitation from AvoDar to visit Gaia."

"What would I do on Gaia?"

"Fulfill the lifechoice you gave to Zeus, if you cannot help him from here on ssKar, perhaps you can do so on Gaia."