Chapter 130: Chapter 130

"It’s not her fault," said Morgan. "She was captured and imprisoned. She did not willingly interfere."

"You would know something about that, wouldn’t you," said the horned giant. "As the former holder of Maloneer."

I kept silent though my mind was frantically trying to piece things together.

Maloneer was the seat on the Board that dealt with Earth, I knew that much, and right now Choco was in that position, but as she’d said, she’d been stuck on Earth for a long time being used as a battery. All that I’d gleaned earlier, but it turned out that Morgan had also been a holder of Maloneer... and one who was in disrepute from the looks of it, likely because he’d interfered. Likely... because he’d created Arthur Penn.

"This Board was originally erected to monitor and administer the Earth, also known as Blue World 33290-C," said Choco, taking a step forward to address the Board.

"We know why this Board was erected. We were all there," said the horned giant.

Choco bowed respectfully toward them. "Yes, and I have called this meeting to point out an error in how this was done and demand it be rectified."

A hush filled the starry sky as all the toads and rats and other small critters and the larger beings on the twelves thrones also got their jaws wagging. I’d assumed that Choco had called this emergency meeting to get me out of harm’s way earlier but perhaps that wasn’t the case.

"We call ourselves impartial administrators," Choco went on. "But are we really being impartial? Are we not showing a bias against the Earth and other budding worlds by keeping from them the facts of the situation, the reality they are in?"

"Insolence! A code of minimal interference has been followed since the very founding of the Pashtara’nok! The pioneer Maloneer themself was a vocal supporter of it! As the current master of that dominion, how can you say such a thing?!"

"It is because I am now the holder of Maloneer’s Dominion that I say such things," Choco shot back. "Someone needs to tell the Earthlings what’s going on. They need to be saved from Arthur Penn and his evil machinations!"

"They say you’re the power source to that ’evil machination’. Are you sure you aren’t preaching for intervention merely for your own salvation?"

Choco stomped her foot. "How dare you make such an accusation!"

"And after the Ordinance is destroyed, what then?" asked Morgan.

"Morgan, I thought we discussed this," said Choco, turning to him. Again, I suddenly felt like I was in the middle of a family squabble.

"After you’re extracted from the array, the Ordinance will stop functioning and then what? You’ll beg on behalf of Earth for the Board to protect it?"

"Morgan..." I ventured, hoping to reduce the tension. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew that Choco wasn’t arguing for her own sake but because she truly cared.

"The Earth is in the Directory, Misha," said Morgan. "If you all don’t at least have the Ordinance, you won’t stand a chance against any Entropy forces."

Now it was my chance to turn to Morgan in surprise.

"How?" I asked. "But I thought you only get on it if you’ve reached some kind of technological threshold or something?"

"The Camelot Ordinance," was his reply.

Then it all made sense. "You mean... that world dampening thing, that’s made us cross the threshold? But it works by stagnating the meta-flow. Shouldn’t it have reduced our power? Wait... You mean, even though it’s suppressing the majority of people, on average, it’s raised the Earth’s power?"

"Exactly," said Morgan, darkly. "Concentrated power, even if in the hands of a few, is still concentrated power. The thresholds don’t care how many beings have access, only to what level of destruction it’s capable of."

The reality, and the danger of the situation crept up my spine like a spider made of ice.

If we got help dealing with the current threat of Arthur Penn, then we’d still have to somehow grapple with a potential attack from outer space. And without The Unity how could we even hope to protect ourselves?

We were damned if we did and damned if we didn’t, unless...

"What is this... Camelot Ordinance I hear of?" asked the blue bird.

"I have had reports of this abomination," said the giant.

"It’s actually-," began Morgan, then, after spotting the cold looks from the ones sitting on the big thrones, he nudged me.

"Oh, uh, basically it’s this worldwide system that’s being used to suppress magic by stagnating the flow of everything. It’s being run by Choco, but-"

Shocked eyes turned to Choco. "Is this true?"

"It is," replied Choco. "However, my role is not voluntary and I am still able to project my spirit, as you can see."

"Choco is being forced to help stagnate the flow," I explained. "Originally, we, that is, my team and I, we were going to remove Choco from the system to bring it down, but actually now I think we shouldn’t."

Morgan and Choco both looked sharply at me. "What?"

"I’m not saying it should be left as it is," I said. "Instead, we can leverage the system. What I’ve gotten from this discussion is that the Earth is in a dangerous spot. We might have attracted the attention of other, uh, world and beings, but we aren’t strong enough to deal with them - we don’t even know they exist, even. So maybe we rewrite some of the fundamental code in the Camelot Ordinance to instead of suppressing magic, it can help proliferate it all within Earth’s current means. Increase the flow, instead of stagnate it."

"I am not sure..." intoned the horned giant.

"I think it’s a good idea," cut in Morgan. "And actually, the world-wide nature of the Ordinance can be utilised as a scaffold to create a veil around the earth to hide it and give it more time to develop. It wouldn’t be too difficult to make that tweak and Misha here is gifted at spell crafting."

A murmur of discussion spread across the space and I glanced at Choco to see if I could gauge how well, or how poorly, things were going, but their faces were impassive.

"One is not sure..." began the giant.

"I like it," interrupted the giant bird and Elder Casimi nodded as well.

"The idea has the legs of a crattle," they said. No idea what that meant, but it seemed to be positive praise. "One must state that I was shocked when the young one raised parallels between Board interference and the keeping of pets, but one has now come around to see his point. It is important for Earth to develop itself.

A few more voices called out, some against the idea, but most in support.

The horned giant knocked a cloven hand upon their throne to gain the attention of all. "I do not oppose this idea, however, we must think of the practicalities." They turned their focus to me. "How will this change be implemented? To change the rules of a world is to become a god. Is that what you plan to become?"

Dark whispers broke out again and furtive glances towards me. I didn’t know what these folk thought of the pursuit of ultimate power, but my guess was it was similar to my own thoughts on the matter.

"No," I said simply but forcefully. "I don’t want to become a god. I only want to be an instrument to serve the world."

"I won’t be the one making all the decisions," I said, interrupting the being who was far more powerful than I could imagine. Thinking back, I’m not sure where I got the guts from to do that. "It will be a collaborative effort involving the whole Earth. First we have to take control of the Camelot Ordinance," I looked to Choco who gave me a nod, "and for that we’ll need to deal with its creator, Arthur Penn first, but once we can control it, we can erect the veil to protect us, then we’ll start educating everyone on what’s going on. Then after everyone understands, then we can discuss how to move forward."

Discussion murmured through the space. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel⁂fire.net

"And the points raised on the matter of ’will’...?" spoke a large, elegant turtle who hadn’t spoken earlier. They sat on the other side of the circle, sipping tea.

They seemed to be especially powerful, so I gave them a little bow. "Everyone gets scared sometimes, and its difficult, but we’re able to get through it. Earthlings are good at adapting and surviving. We’re stubborn like that."

"There will have to be an amendment to the Contract of the Spheres. And it is difficult to gain consensus in even a small band of beings," said the turtle. "It will be far more difficult for species scattered all over a planet."

"I think what Misha means-" began Morgan.

"Things of worth are rarely attained without effort, often significant effort," said a new, yet familiar voice.