A Dance of Two Worlds

Elisium Rising

Chapter Twenty-Three

Elisium Rising

Children always have to bear the brunt of their father's mistakes

Aden.

The Fifth Loop, Year 491, 15th February (5L/491/2/15)

"Honorable members of the Council, I have called this meeting to seek your advice on a very important matter."

King Julian addressed the Council of Aden from his magnificent throne made of solid gold, decorated with rubies, pearls, and diamonds, and designed to resemble a dancing peacock. Solomon the Conqueror had hired the most skilled artists of Aden to design this throne. Great kings of this era had sat on it and ruled this world. Julian felt a sense of power just by sitting on it. This throne had a charm of its own and Julian was not going to give it up for someone else.

Julian had called an urgent meeting and ordered all his ministers to attend it. At the start of the meeting, he asked Commander Michael to read the message sent by HighCommander Christopher from Tenebra. As per Julian's instructions, Michael had read the message in such a way that it sounded like a desperate cry for help.

"Your Highness, many members of the council and a majority of Adeners want that base to be closed." Paul Andrews, the great-grandson of Andrews the explorer was the first to stand up, as expected. He was a vocal critic of Julian's administration and if not for his immense following amongst the masses, Julian would have thrown him into the eye of Tenebra decades ago. "I assume if we call back all our troops in the next Crossing we won't have to deal with any of this."

"Ah! I wish your great-grandfather hadn't jumped into that whirlpool and I would have been spared making such hard decisions." Many ministers burst out laughing.

Paul held his pose and gave a peculiar smile. "Yes Your Highness, I too sometimes wish that if my great-grandfather hadn't leaped then some unworthy people wouldn't have been sitting on a powerful throne and making decisions way beyond their abysmal levels of intellect." The laughter was even louder this time. Julian glared at his ministers and they quickly shut up.

"If I were you I would mind my tongue to keep my head on my shoulders."

"If I were you I would have chopped off that head years ago, but we both know you can't."

Julian knew Paul would match him jibe for the jibe, so there was no use going down that alley. "I think we should stick to the topic. Shutting down that base will give our enemies easy access to the whirlpool and unrestricted entry into our world. What happens if they decide to attack?"

Paul gave the same solution that Daniel had given to Samuel a century ago. "We build a base at Aden's entry point and guard it with all our forces. We allow no one to cross those boundaries."

Michael, the great-grandson of William and Henry, had some other ideas."That is the same mistake the Tenebrians made and we know what happened after that. Do we want to take the same risk?"

Paul wasn't going to give up. "They don't have the weapons and the numbers like we had back then. If we fortify our defenses here they don't stand a chance against us." This meeting was going pretty much along the same lines as Samuel's meeting with his council seven cycles ago. But Julian had learned from Samuel's mistakes and he had a few aces hidden up his sleeve.

Julian raised his voice a few notches, a tactic he regularly used to intimidate his ministers. "You don't listen properly, do you Paul? They assassinated our spy with a Star-Rock weapon. They have weapons that even we don't have. As for their numbers, Samuel raised a huge army to conquer them in less than a decade, don't you think they can prepare a bigger army when they have been planning to fight off their oppressors for more than a century?"