The council chamber held more spectators than usual the following morning, word having spread that Lord Hasting intended to present something theological in nature, curiosity apparently overriding the usual noble disinterest in matters requiring genuine intellectual engagement rather than simple political maneuvering.
Miraya opened the session, her formal Temple robes lending appropriate gravity to what she clearly intended as significant institutional statement rather than casual policy discussion.
"For generations," she began, addressing the assembled council, "Temple doctrine has maintained careful silence regarding the specific mechanism through which divine selection sometimes intervenes in imperial succession. That silence, I've come to believe, has served caution more than genuine truth—a choice my predecessor made from understandable fear, but one I believe this empire has grown sufficiently mature to move beyond."
