PORT DISTRICT
Trajan Meng entered the dockside warehouse, a Luminari-loyalist harbormaster beside the doors giving him a curt nod as he did. Inside were walkways and sectioned storage areas, these bracketed by the wood and carved stone support pillars. Some sections were more stocked with crates and barrels and canvas sacks than others. Outside light trickled in at an angle through glassless windows.
He was pleased to see Khadija Han, Clarissa Mejeure, Dio Rico, and some twenty believers already present inside, good men and women all. There was no one else, all the dockworkers sent off on a generous break by the harbormaster.
They stood if they were sitting or straightened up if they were leaning and they all turned to face him. Their faces hardened, disciplined, ready. They knew the weight of what was being asked of them.
Trajan stopped before them. Took his time to make eye contact with each and every man and woman. "Today," he said, "we may be entrusted with the single most important task of our lives." A pause. "A task I cannot command you to embark upon. You alone must decide. None will judge you should you leave now, for there are many ways in which the cause may be served."
Silence. None of them moved. None of them left.
And Kha yelled, "For Mankind!"
Then, together, the whole lot of them yelled in unison, "
FOR MANKIND!"
Trajan nodded his head. A smile, rare to his countenance, as he said, "Then let us begin."
* * * * *
They all prepared as Trajan spoke and as he himself prepared. Arming themselves. Equipping themselves.
"For years, the College has conducted itself with reckless foolishness. With outright disregard for the safety and wellbeing of humanity. It has endangered not only this city but humanity has a whole, for it has maintained the abhorrent
temerity to arm the xeno elf, the xeno dwarf, yes, brothers and sisters, even the xeno orc with the destructive capabilities of the arcane. But today, if we are so blessed, will be the accounting and the reckoning of their myriad sins, we solemn few gathered here the judges by which justice shall be dispensed."
Jerkins. Made of leather and appearing little more than mundane armor. Yet they were enchanted to absorb an amount of low-level magic directed at the wearer. Not much, but such might prove the difference between life and death.
"Do not burden your hearts with remorse for your coming actions, for the College is rife with complacents, sympathizers, and traitors against Mankind. They who would murder their own kin out of their misguided love of the xeno. Know without doubt or question that our cause is righteous, for those who have gone astray in the College imperil the family that loves you: your brothers and sisters that fight alongside you, your sons and daughters who depend upon you, indeed the greater whole of Humanity. Today, you fight not for yourselves, but for them."
Kha passed out the enchanted crystals to all of them. Devices of orange, rounded on one end and sharpened on the other, with a muted light swirling within. None of the
Luminari would be taken alive if they could so help it, and if forced they would perish from
Arethil not with a whimper but with a final, thunderous service to Mankind.
"Our lives are may yet be mortal and fleeting but the cause will live on, our dream unbroken, and in this we are blessed to touch that which is eternal. Ring your hearts in the wreath of its glory, that which today
you will aid in bringing to being: the triumphant Human Spirit, which in the fullest of its blazes cannot be quelled and cannot be quenched!
You will stoke that fire.
You will be among the first to bask in its loving warmth! For if you are chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice today, believe, brothers and sisters,
believe with the entirety of your almighty human soul that while you may die in the shadows, you will live forever in the light once the dream you helped create is made manifest!"
Crossbows. Exploding bolts. Swords. Daggers. More enchanted devices from Kha. Each man and woman of the Luminari would be as equipped as possible to face the scourge of the traitorous mages infesting the College. They were mostly mundane men and women, set to face off against they who commanded the arcane. They would aid the unknown force attacking the College if the opportunity was prime, and, if fortune smiled upon them, they would ensure the College's downfall.
And last, Trajan and every member of the Luminari donned stolen and counterfeit College robes. Those of students, professors. A manner of camouflage as they would enter and get into positions best suited to the situation. The unknown force did not know that they'd an ally in the Luminari, so caution would be their necessary watchword.
All the faithful prepared now.
And Trajan stood before them and shouted, "Never given!"
And they in return: "Always earned!"
Trajan took up his warhammer, the Emblazoned Sun, and turned. Said, "Let us proceed."
In small and staggered groups they left the dockside warehouse and walked through the streets of
Elbion. They all made their way confidently, as if guided by providence, toward the College grounds.