“...and although my colleague, Mrs. Leyn, seems to think that young children should be exposed to this kind of indecent behaviour, some of us still want civilisation! Some of us still want good honest values! Some of us, ladies and gentlemen, are prepared to fight this every step of the way!”

There was a mixture of jeers and applause as the speaker gathered his papers and returned to his seat. Torin scratched a few notes on his pad, then stood to go look for Representative Delarin. He envied the elf; while he was stuck in here listening to personal attacks, Delarin was discussing policy and tactics with the few other independent radicals who had seats in the National Assembly.

Then again, Delarin had once been an aide himself. All here in the assembly hall had been. It was impossible to win a seat as a representative otherwise. The constituents didn't trust anyone who hadn't already gained some experience within the system.

Before he could get very far, Torin was brought up short by a thudding from the podium. He turned; the sound indicated that one of the other elves was about to speak. Hopefully it would be more than ranting and raving this time. Torin had only been an aide for a ten-day, but he was already sick of the representatives' constant bickering.

He glanced at the podium and knew his hopes were in vain. Mrs. Ellua Leyn was not a bad representative, but she became an entirely different person when challenged.

Torin looked wistfully at the door behind him. Maybe he could slip out and pretend that he had left the hall before she took the floor.

But no. He should stay and take notes. There was always the chance Representative Leyn would say something worthwhile.

He regained his seat, steeling himself for another harangue.

“Well,” Leyn began. “Let me just start off by saying that the accusations—“

Before she could get any further, a thunderclap sent her papers flying. Torin stared as dark clouds coalesced from nothing in the centre of the chamber. They swirled and parted to reveal a tall lithe form wrapped in flowing robes. Elerea, the elven goddess, stepped from the clouds and stood in the air above the dais. From his seat in the back of the hall, Torin could see her clearly.

“Elves of Lemorra,” she said. Her voice rang out like a clarion in the silence. “I have come today to warn you of a great disaster.”

At the announcement, all the representatives started talking at once. It was as if every elf in the hall was trying to drown out everybody else, so that Elerea would listen to what he or she had to say. The Goddess held up a hand and the hall went silent. Torin found himself wishing, even through his awe, that someone with that power was present at all the Assembly's sessions. It would save a lot of time.

“A great disaster for Lemorra,” Elerea continued, “and if you are not careful, a great disaster for all Elf-kind.”

One of the representatives found his voice again and stood, bowing respectfully. Torin could not remember his name, but thought he was from one of the coastal cities.

“Great Elerea, what—”

“Fire will rain from the skies, destroying all that it touches.” She said. “Forests, plains, cities, none will be spared. The entire continent will be covered in a blanket of fire.”

The figure of the Goddess wavered, as though she were a reflection in a pool of water. Her voice, though, remained clear.

“You do not have much time. Mt. Tena will explode before the next parliamentary elections. If you are unprepared, you will be destroyed.”

“But how—“ The representative tried again.

Elerea talked over him as if he wasn't even there.

“Everything on the continent will be destroyed. You may be able to figure out some way to save yourselves and stay where you are; I cannot think of any. Your only option,” she concluded, “is to leave Lemorra.”

At this, the hall became a madhouse. From where Torin sat, he could not tell what any of the groups of elves which clustered together were saying. The Goddess spoke on, unconcerned.

“I cannot stay longer,” she said. “I should not even be here at all.” With that, another thunderclap erupted and the air above the assembly hall was empty. Torin looked around the room. The rest of the representatives were arguing amongst themselves, as if unaware that they were no longer in the presence of The Divine.

Torin half-stood, but then sat back down with a thump as he realized what he had just witnessed.

He scratched down what had happened on his pad of paper and then rushed off to find Delarin.

---

Torin didn't have to go far to spot Delarin; the representative was one of several hurrying towards the assembly hall proper as Torin came out through the double doors. He stepped to the side and waved his pad at Delarin, then sat in the chair that the older elf waved him to.

Delarin stopped at the doorway into the hall, where he talked quietly to Representative Cleo—one of the other independent radicals. As he waited, Torin went over recent events.

The Goddess had said that Mt. Tena would explode. But that was absurd. The mountain had stood unchanged since before the city of Lyr had even been planned. Lemorran history extended back 2300 years, and there was no mention in it of Mt. Tena even giving off smoke.

Still, he couldn't escape the fact that Elerea—The Goddess herself!—had announced it. At least one statue of Elerea stood in every town in Lemorra, but Torin had always suspected that the tales of her interventions in Lemorran history were myths; convenient excuses not to dig too deep into the less-than-savory actions of the country's important historical figures. Apparently he had been wrong.

And she had appeared before most of the assembled representatives, no less. There was no record of Elerea appearing in such a fashion since over four hundred years ago. Even then, she had appeared before only a small gathering in the home of Troilus Cressida, an important representative whose assassination ten days later had triggered a long and bloody civil war.

The period before the civil war had been marked by increasing religious apathy. After Elerea's appearance—and especially after Troilus' assassination—that trend had reversed. Lemorrans became regular temple-goers and were sure to make their yearly tithes. Although Elerea had surely not caused Troilus to be assassinated, the phrase “to catch the eye of the Goddess” became commonplace, meaning that to be spotted by someone powerful lead only to destruction.

Currently, though, the trend was more like what it had been before the war. Very few really believed in the Goddess. Her appearance today before the country's government and her announcement of a coming disaster in such stark terms was sure to change this.

Torin glanced towards the door. He caught Delarin's eye, and the representative clapped Cleo in the shoulder and walked over, seating himself opposite.

“I heard the news,” he said.

Torin, who had expected to be the messenger himself, was taken aback.

“Oh,” was all he could muster in response.

He passed the note-pad over.

“Elerea's tit, you took notes!?”

Delarin's tone was half-way between disbelief and gratitude.

“I—”, Torin began, but was cut off before he could explain that he had only jotted down what happened after it was all over.

“If you can keep that cool a head in a situation like this,” Delarin joked, “you'll be more important than I am in a matter of months.”

As the older elf read what Torin had written, the humour disappeared from his face.

“I see,” he said. “This is serious.” He sat back in the chair, eyes playing over the pad, then looked at Torin.

“How did the representatives react?”

“They, uh. I,” Torin trailed off. He could feel the blood rushing to his face. He hadn't even thought to look. Delarin's jokes aside, he knew he had a long way to go before he could even come close to the older representative.

Delarin waved his hand dismissively. “No matter, no matter. We'd best get in there and see for ourselves.”