A group of five elder priests, dressed in white robes, proceed to the center of the Security Council chambers in a slow, steady, reverent pace. Shocked Ambassadors from all over the worlds could be heard muttering: “What the f…?”
Then they stopped. They positioned themselves at an imaginary circle, equidistant from each other. Each one of the priests produced two gold, ancient daggers, and slowly pointed them towards heaven, one dagger in each hand. The oldest of the priests started chanting in a forgotten language, which resembled Hebrew. The others would join a chorus at certain pauses.
The daggers were then pointed at the center of the circle; afterwards each of them pointed each of their daggers towards the two other priests farthest to them, forming a certain shape, which they knew it had a special, necessary meaning.
By now long lost to trance, they started chanting in unison:
Oh Great Goddess, Giver of Life and Empress of the World to Come! We implore Thee, grant us Thy council! Bring us back our recently dead and forever beloved King, Adrian the First, from the eternal peace of the blessed Elysian Fields for some short moments, so he may speak to us for one last time.
Moments that seemed endless passed; just when everybody was over uncomfortable enough, an explosion of light and sound came from within the shape. When everybody collected themselves from the floor, nobody fled. They could not quite believe their senses.
A likeness of the King was now visible floating over the circle, engulfed in bright violet flame, his eyes fulgurant with white light, his vestments and hair waving wildly at the fire winds. He became aware of his surroundings, and gave a hearty laugh. He spoke in a thunderous voice:
We are now beyond worldly worries, but not beyond love. We thank everybody for this posthumous honor. While we were eulogized in our homeland, and we were able to witness our children weeping & praising us before Goddess took us to the Blessed Fields, one thing we could have never imagined was to receive eulogies in this place, this World Assembly to which we dedicated so much of ourselves.
Quadrimmina. Unibot. Thank you. We do not think a better summing up of everything we always have stood for could have ever been written. Ever. Full circle, indeed.
Goddess made us aware of certain rumors circulating among the living regarding our death, from the plain dull to the fantastic. Do not believe them, not one. Nobody but the Goddess knows the secrets of our heart, and those secrets, we told nobody. And shall never tell.
We actually died a slow death. One that started long, long ago. That some events may have had proximity to our actual death, establishing an actual connection among them is nothing but an exercise in divination and truth-making.
We thoroughly instructed our children never to become entangled in international diplomacy again. We hope they will hear us. But knowing them… oh, children.
May the Goddess grant you love and happiness each and every day of your lives, all of you. And mercy when life ends and Goddess giveth you just reward for eternity.
Now we must depart, forever.
The fiery specter disappeared in another explosion of light and sound, much to the awe and annoyance of the witnesses.
“Royal Séances are always like that”, the oldest priest, seemingly accustomed to such events, limited himself to say, before escorting the other four priests outside.
The usual conspiracy theorists could be heard whispering: “That was the shabbiest holographic show ever!”
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:38 pm
-- drew a parallel between proposals and politicians' campaigns. The prop is like the fundamental stuff you say in TV grabs and bumper stickers to tell everyone where you stand; the first few posts in the thread are like the setpiece speeches and printed platforms where you explain the policies in detail, how they'll apply and what they mean.