Shattered Moonstone

Taaffeite sat at her desk rubbing her temples as she looked at the stacks of papers piled on top of her once clean workspace. “And what exactly have you two been doing all this time?” She asked, glaring to the two men who stood in the corner of the room, both looking awkwardly around as they avoided looking at her.

“Well…” Alastair nudged Hans with his elbow. “We did a lot of things right?”

“Yes,” Hans coughed, “the crime rate in the city is at an all time low… and we successfully raided the former church of Valor…” he immediately began searching one of the stacks of paper while muttering, “I am sure the report is… somewhere.”

Taaffeite took a deep breath as the unstable pile swayed slightly, only exhaling after it settled thankfully still on top of her desk.  “I left very clear instructions. Do either of you remember them?” She asked, the two flinching at her words.

“Don’t burn down the city,” Alastair said proudly.

“Don’t let Alastair out of the city while you are gone.” Hans added.

She tapped her finger on the only clear spot in her desk, “and?”

Both men grimaced, “call you on Babylon if anything comes up?” Alastair said tentatively.

“This is clearly my fault.” She sighed as she summoned a Babylon terminal, with a wave of her hand both the men received a notification, “just… work on that until I can sort out exactly how much damage you two managed to cause.” Both men nodded as they both called their own terminals, the stark difference in Hans “voice of the world” skill instantly apparent as the light blue terminal appeared silently with text scrolling across it. “I trust you can do this?”

“You… want to build a museum?” Hans asked as he scrolled through his terminal. 

“It’s a little more specific than that, but yes.” She ran her hand through her hair, pulling it back. “It’s a newly formed spiritual guild known as the “All Faiths”, she wants to use the old Valor church as a guild hall, I assume you two managed to seize their assets at least?”

“Definitely!” Alastair scrambled to grab a report from the top of the stack and hand it to her, “all the items we took from the church as well as any assets they had in the city.”

She smiled as she looked over the report. Given the impressive number of candelabras and other small oddities, her command to take anything that wasn’t nailed down, was at least understood. “And you even filled out the inventory properly too.” She smirked holding the paper out to him, “so if it is done, and filled out properly. Why is it on my desk?” The sweet smile on her face caused a shiver to run up Han’s spine as Alastair took the paper, clearly unfazed.

“Because I thought you would like to see it yourself, my love.” He returned her clearly fake smile with a large one of his own.

She scratched her nose, his innocent smile causing all her annoyance to fade as she looked away. “Okay.” She replied, “Just use the funds from that to renovate it.”

“If it’s for a guild, shouldn’t the guild fund it themselves?” Hans asked looking back at the plan that was sent to him, “I mean it should be a simple renovation, but it will still be quite a bit with labor and… 46 statues! Where are we going to find an artisan for all this?”

“Normally yes, however there is a problem with who formed the guild.” Taaffeite crossed her arms as she leaned back, her husband’s childish nature snuffing out her previous anger. “Amethyst wants to create a place where people can go and learn of all the different divine beings in the world. As she put it, some of the religions in the world won’t be able to form a guild and we “shouldn’t punish the people” because of the organizations. So, a place where smaller faiths can still openly worship as long as they don’t cause problems for the public.”

“Doesn’t that go completely against all the work to create the spiritual guild policy?”

“Well, it definitely exploited the “freedom of worship” part of it.” She was equal parts annoyed yet proud, “under the act any “church” that wants to operate in our borders will need to form a guild, however we do not limit followers of any faith. So, by creating a public place of worship and branding it an “educational building” not affiliated with any single religion, she would have been able to circumvent the entire freedom of religion act.”

“Would have been?” Alastair asked, finally reading the plan himself.

“You think I was going to let my own daughter completely dismantle a royal decree!” She glared at him, “once I noticed the loophole I rectified it, thankfully before anyone else had attempted to exploit it. Amethyst is now the sole leader of the only “spiritual educational” guild in the nation. The queen has approved it given our family's apparent close ties with the gods, that and with the new religious policy in the land Irithyl believes it would be beneficial to have an institute where people can go and learn of the options now available to them in terms of spiritual guidance as well as act as place for religious congregations to see the potential benefits of forming a guild.”

“Why would they if they can just go to the “All faiths” guild hall?” 

“Because the guild hall is not a church. The queen plans to use it as a guild hub of sorts, she even plans to send someone herself to oversee it as any new faith that enters our borders will have the option to register a new guild there. The “All Faiths” guild has been approved to display the likeness of any divine as well as inform people of what domains each of them rules over, but it is barred from holding any sermons or religious events for any religion that has not formed a guild.” She pulled a paper from her desk and glanced at it, “this way though our territory can decide we don’t have a need for a church, as long as they formed a guild, they can still hold mass if they wish by utilizing the All faiths hall.”

Hans nodded, it made sense to him. “So, though we will no longer allow a church of Valor in our territory, the people of the city don’t feel as if we are attacking them personally.”

“Well thankfully that particular church has remained steadfast in their refusal to abide by the new policies.” Taaffeite smirked as she discarded the paper after it was saved to Babylon, “so we will likely not need to worry about that any time soon. But yes, it is a way to appease the people.”

“Also inform them of what religions they will be able to find if they travel deeper into the nation.” Hans continued to read the plans, “this is surprisingly well thought out… did Amethyst really think this up on her own?”

Alastair puffed his chest out, “well she is our daughter!” He declared proudly. “But I have to ask… are we as a territory against organized religion? Or are we for it? we are kind of sending mixed signals, burn the church of Valor down, form the All faiths…”

“I really hope you did not actually burn the church down.” Taaffeite sighed realizing that was a very real possibility. 

Just then a Babylon terminal appeared in the center of the room, “Message from Hecatolite. I’m ok.”

“What?” As if triggered by the question a dull booming sound shook the walls of the house. “Also, for the love of all that is holy in this world, find Hecatolite a workshop that is not in my house.” Taaffeite grit her teeth as all the papers cascaded off her desk.