The Sepulchre of the Breath was not cold, but its silence of pure nexium was crushing. Lyall and Elara were led into a vast circular chamber. The walls were covered with intricate designs carved into solid copper, designed not for strength, but for pneumatic harmony.
Lyall felt strange. The pain from his escape was gone, absorbed by the Sepulchre's pure air. But this silence was nearly as demanding as the discord. His gift, unaccustomed to such perfection, hummed, like an over-tuned instrument. He had to concentrate just to avoid disturbing the atmosphere.
In front of them, a semicircle of Veiled Ones of the Breath sat on stone risers. Their graphite and emerald robes blended into the dim light.
At the center sat the Doyenne, Mother Atara. Her steam veil was slightly denser, her posture one of moral authority. She exuded an aura of stability that calmed Lyall's nerves.
Next to her, however, sat Sister Veridia. Her face behind the veil was cold, her eyes sharp. Lyall noticed a discreet silver brooch on her collar. It was set around a small, almost transparent gray stone. The Pneumatic Gem. Lyall did not read the stone, but the pressure anomaly around it: it was concentrated nexium, not natural, but forced.
Mother Atara spoke: "Lyall of the Hearth, Elara Finch. You have disturbed the quietude of the Empire. We expect explanations that transcend politics."
Lyall placed the photographic plate containing the image of the Mother-Pump on a pedestal. He explained the Discord he had read in the Main Intake Rotor.
"Archduke Vane is not extracting nexium," Lyall concluded, his voice strained by the silence. "He is strangling it. It is a suffering for the Heart of the World."
Sister Veridia did not even look at the evidence. She stood, her Pneumatic Gem brooch glittering.
"A dark photograph proves nothing," Veridia stated, her voice resonating with cold conviction. "The smith offers us fear. Archduke Vane offers us the truth of efficiency!"
She pointed to her brooch. "Vane understands that the wasteful use of nexium by inefficient nations causes depletion. His work allows us to concentrate the flow into Pneumatic Gems, portable tools of power." She argued, quoting Vane: "Zone depletion is the consequence of waste, not extraction. The Gem is the solution, not the problem."
The Veiled Ones murmured among themselves. The political fracture line was obvious.
Mother Atara raised her hand, cutting off the debate. She turned to Lyall, ignoring the Gem.
"We speak of the soul of nexium, not its mechanics. Lyall of the Hearth, you are the only one capable of reading discord in the metal. Show us the sensation. Describe the suffering you read."
Lyall closed his eyes. The pressure of judgment was immense. He raised his gauntlet, holding it above the floor. He did not attempt force, but pure reading. He let his body recall the sensation from the Domain of Cinders.
Before the Council, he mimed it: the irregular pressure, the sound of a discordant instrument, the feeling that the metal was bleeding. He described the rotor that was begging to stop, the way Vane had turned the pulse into a constant compression.
Mother Atara nodded slowly. "He speaks the truth," she declared, her judgment sounding like a bell. "The suffering is palpable in his description. Vane's extraction corrupts the nexium."
But before Mother Atara could render a verdict on what action to take, Sister Veridia stood tall.
"The Order will not act!" Veridia protested. "Intervention is political madness!"
Mother Atara gave her a severe look, but it was too late. Veridia had lost the debate, but not the power.
One of the Veiled guards, sitting quietly in the risers, stood up. On his belt, a larger Pneumatic Gem than Veridia's glowed with a scarlet light. He did not draw a weapon; he channeled the Sepulchre's pure nexium through the Gem, turning it into a striking force.
Lyall felt the nexium pressure in the adjacent conduit spike brutally. It was not urban discord; it was a focused attack.
"Saboteur!" the guard roared. A jet of superheated steam (the "fire") erupted from his hand, aimed at Lyall's heart.
"Lyall!" Elara screamed.
Lyall reacted instinctively. He could not use force. He pointed his gauntlet at the scarlet Gem and used his reading to misalign it. He found the micro-fracture in the stone's metal.
The effect was immediate: the steam jet missed its target, and the guard fell, his Gem exploding in a sterile hiss. Sister Veridia and several other Veiled Ones sprang up, revealing the Power faction as traitors.
"Escape!" ordered Mother Atara, shocked. "Flee! The Order can no longer protect you!
Lyall, with Elara's help, rushed toward the Sepulchre exit. Other Veiled Ones, armed with Pneumatic Gems, began to levitate, flying over the floor to block their path. Lyall and Elara were now hunted by those who were supposed to judge them. The danger no longer came from Vane, but from the Order itself.