Faster than what Aaradhya could reasonably accept, the first day of the conclave quickly rolled out in full swing right after the elders realized their place in the new cult structure. They decided to be subservient to the only child to have shown some divine mysticism via the movement of a corpse. And by proxy, the elders chose to listen to the high priest that was closest to their lord both spiritually and physically. Thus, the meeting ended within the hour.
In a secondary main mountain peak connected to the Glass villa via a stone bridge, there was a massive ballroom area carved into the mountain. It was on a lower level of the crystal peak, away from the meeting hall that the inner cults' elders used and Aaradhya's master bedroom. This ballroom resonated with music and conversation as the upper and middle management of the cult bumped elbows in a peacocking display of grandeur. These elders were already on the island and had no reason to miss the first day of the conclave. A massive wall of glass reflected beautiful pulsating light onto the dance floor. Unknown to the socializers and dancers of the cult's upper and middling echelons that had gathered for the first day of the conclave, the shifting glass wall, similar to a disco ball in radiance, divided them from the very focus of the party. The ballroom was split into two parts, one that contained the festivities, and another that held Aaradhya, his father, and the representative of the high priests faction, the second elder.
"Father, I'm interested in the founding of this cult. How did it come to be," Aaradhya observed the relatively normal looking members of his following and shared this notion through the tether that connected him to his father. His true thoughts were focused on the lack of details regarding the inner machinations and historical data that he should know about considering the two sources of divine information that he was granted. The first was a dead end as Death seemingly deemed it unnecessary for him to know the history of the cult when its whole purpose was to support him now. By that logic, the past didn't matter as long as they were willing to die for their belief in him now. The second source of information that could have shed some light on the cult was the watering cans that Big G used to disseminate worldly knowledge. He thought it was possible that such a similar cult did not exist in his old or any of the other worlds of the other three champions. If such a faith did exist in his or any of their worlds, he or the other champions did not know anything about it and that possibility left a sour taste in his mouth as he addressed his father.
Masih Sr felt his lord's discontent and waited until there were no vibrations in the connection that bound him to his son. Once Aaradhya calmed his thoughts, the high priest turned to the old man beside him and said, "Second elder, the lord would like to know our history from a mortal's perspective. You are more versed in the subject so do you mind."
"Not at all. Truthfully my lord, as far as the archivists of our faith are concerned, we have no trackable origin. Though it may have been lost, our faith has been around longer than any known doctrine. Many have guessed that our origin predates the most popular religions found in today's world. Many members are actually converts from other faiths so any origin we have decided upon has fallen into two main popular sects. The first is, there is only you who we accompany for the duration of our lives and only you who will guide us at the start of our journey into the world after death. The second belief is, you are already with us all our lives so as to become one with us in death. We have no life after death and rejoin you in sublimation so we must live our lives as you would, with poise and…", the third elder paused when Aaradhya raised a hand.
"I get it. Both sides believe in me to varying degrees," Aaradhya realized that he was being too vocal in his own mind as his father nodded to his thoughts. He concentrated hard to cut himself off from his father and thought to himself.
"One side is full of zealots and whole hearted believers like my father and this second elder while the first elder's group is full of the more practical and life minded followers of the faith. The sixth, seventh, eight, and eleventh elders represent followers of other faiths that have converted and are thus, mostly uninvolved in the power struggles of the two main sects. Hm, I have a pretty difficult choice to make concerning the positions of the elders," Aaradhya waved his hand and had the second speak once more, this time with a different question.
"Second elder, our lord is interested to know how you adjusted to his Descent so quickly? As a matter of fact, I am also curious to know how you protected yourself against the Lost back at the temple as well. Even I couldn't avoid the attacks as my gifts developed," Masih Sr turned his head to the side and showed a healed but nasty old scar that ran down his neck and back. The scarring was not a genuine physical wound as Aaradhya looked at it more closely. It appeared as though shadows or ink stuck to his fathers skin and darkened the areas artificially. It appeared just like the other bruises and scarring that the other elders showed during the meeting.
"Ah. This may be a surprise to you my lord but many of the artifacts you gifted our flock throughout history, have been handed down through the generations properly. Many don't believe in the tools you've blessed but my family, much like the high priest's line of succession in their keeping of the main temple, has been tasked with keeping your divine artifacts safe. In fact, the duty is to be passed onto my grandson after I pass. We both possess seals that have been passed down from one generation of keepers to the next," the old man pulled out an old stone pendant and gave it to Aaradhya with a bowed head and cowing eyes that dared not directly gaze upon the young god's visage.
"I would gladly introduce you to him if you so desire any mortal attachments. I know it's presumptuous of me o'lord but I pray that you may find it in your heart to at least look upon him at your leisure. He is absolutely smitten with the stories of your grace and power as told by our ancestors so he would love to meet you in person," the third elder smiled but his eyes reassembled the first elders in their fox-like intellect.
"Is he playing matchmaker or forging connections? Ah, even at my old age I can't tell the difference. Bah, it is unlikely he would jump to any conclusions about whether his immortal lord would be interested in human attachments. That's not to say that I won't look for friends or a lover. But I am thinking of looking for someone my own age… Father, let him know that if the boy is not burdensome, I would be willing to meet and care for him as my own if he were to ever pass on before his time… Now, this pendant certainly feels odd… ", Aaradhya fiddled around with the piece of jewelry for a moment as he closed, reopened, then closed the line of communication that he had with his father to retain his privacy.
"I feel something from it but... ", like sand, the pendant crumbled in his little hands just a little bit and much like when his mother died, something poured into his soul and carved an image into the mystical area that he assumed was his spiritual realm. He looked inward and found himself looking at projections.
"That looks like Stonehenge, but much larger. A Hammer is striking an anvil. A snowstorm rolls in but it's not touching the smith? Did a lost soul turn the emergent fog into a physical object? Into this pendant to be specific," Aaradhya's mind flashed and a moment later the pendant completely fell apart. A small orb of light visibly twinkled on the tip of his finger and promptly floated toward and sank into his chest. The sphere was stripped into its component lights and separated into different frequencies that the second elder and high priest could visibly see thanks to their lord's influence. The warmer colors that came off the sphere trailed off into the emergent fog and got swept away by a surging tide of the verdant mists that became visible thanks to Aaradhya's influence while the warmer colors dripped into the abyss within himself. Both men felt their jaws drop as the miraculous light just suddenly appeared and entered their lord's body. A moment of stunned silence passed which happened to be enough time for the high priest to collect himself.
"Our lord thanks you and your family for your service. Later, he would love to see some of the other relics your branch has kept safe," the second elder nearly jumped with joy as the high priest addressed him on behalf of their lord.
"Father, thank you for being my voice. I do appreciate it… As for this object. The idea is quant but I now have one more thing to worry about and that's not including the pressure cooker right in front of us... ", Aaradhya held the bridge of his nose, sighed, then stared through the one way mirror and into the ballroom with an intense gaze. He scanned the crowd and landed on a man with a needle point thin mustache who sat beside the first elder. He was not interested in the man's connections as what he found intriguing was the man's chest or rather, what was inside of the man's body.
"Soul sense activates and changes whenever it damn well pleases, it would seem," Colors and lights that Aaradhya couldn't normally see without soul sense burned into his retina and mind as he glanced at the first elder Beckham and his guest. The man possessed a golden soul just like everyone else that was not spiritually active with the only difference being that the colors of his soul flickered solidly, with purpose, with substance. Like most people, a green corona with small sparks of azure surrounded his chest and seemingly clashed in an endless dance. Most of the older people in the ballroom possessed similar clashing rings but only a handful of people showed a similar spiritual strength and pulse.
"The only spiritually attuned people that I have seen are the servants and some of the guards that always follow me. A normal person has a golden soul body while someone who is active, is blue like the energy. This island is surrounded by the world's presence so people living here would have to naturally put up defenses faster and develop faster, at least that is the case for the past few months. That was the case for what happened when I entered my Rest back at the main temple according to what I have seen. By that logic, everyone living on this island should have a solid blue ring around their hearts even if the green burns it away or if lost souls interact with them... ", Aaradhya focused on the first elders guest. The blue ring around his chest seemed engorged as the illumination increased and spread at a visibly dangerous rate.
"Even further than that… ", Aaradhya scanned everyone once again and noticed something different even amongst the people that had different viscosities of blue rings around their heart flames.
"A blue-ish ring means that the person is spiritual in some manner. So far, only those with a broken blue ring that dyes their bodies with the color of their soul are able to utilize spiritual gifts or are the only ones that have shown the ability to sense or touch the spiritual world. The only issue is that those with an incomplete circle suffer from the erosion of the Verdant fog," Aaradhya recalled what he saw amongst the people in attendance. Based purely on what he observed, some of the followers and outer elders seem to be aware of the fleeting nature of spiritual energy and worked out some sort of method to mitigate their losses be it through some artifact on their person or some other method that he was, as of yet, unaware of.
Masih sr noticed his son's expression and narrowed gaze and decided to also observe the changes within the ballroom. The second elder also cast his gaze across the room seeing as how the young deity and the high priest seemed to be on alert. The old man that was capable of touching the verdant mist and seeing what he was doing, spotted something and made it be known to the high priest. He dared not presume to see something that their lord did not see, being as how the young lord had already cast his gaze over the entire room multiple times.
"My son. Is that what you are looking for," Masih Sr didn't see anything due to his gift of senses being an audio dominant ability but trusting the elders vision, he pointed toward a corner of the room.
"Huh. I was not expecting that. Thank the second for spotting that," Aaradhya turned his head and nodded out of basic courtesy toward the old man that looked up to him with puppy dog eyes. The target of Aaradhya's new piercing stare had an almost red aura hidden in the corner of the room behind the servants that were showing their spiritually gifted bodies. A fragmented yellow orange ring spiraled and expanded all across this creature's body as if it were infested with parasites. Its heart flame was missing and what replaced it was a dark hole over where its heart should have been.
"That looks a lot like the lost soul that I saw earlier. It looks much worse for wear though so is it a different lost soul," Aaradhya raised an eyebrow for a moment and found that his soul sense entered a reverted state. Everything he saw turned back to sheets of pure soul energy and spiritual mists as he lost concentration on the guest and spared his attention to look at the lost spirit.
"Ah. So that's how it works," he noticed that the lost soul actually got healthier with each breath as it seemed to naturally attract sparks of blue that came directly off of the people in the ballroom. If he had to guess, his Eternal Rest had the same ejection of spiritual energy and that sustained the lost soul. Now that he was awake, the beast had to supplement its diet as it did its best to stay beside the people with golden bodies and unstable blue rings around their heart flames. That or it remained beside the people that showed some type of spiritual gift as it touched and scooped some of the light into its own body. Those very same spiritually inclined people either felt a chill or a sudden cough overtake them as they felt weak and drained of energy.
"This is a good find. I have broadened my understanding of how the spiritual world functions," Aaradhya calmly accepted when his soul sense flickered off due to overuse or some weakness of spirit. He could no longer see the Verdant Mists, the lost soul, or the spiritual states of the people that he could see through the one way mirror. Instead, he filled his dreary moment with conversation, addressing his father.
"May I say, you weaved quite the tale earlier today. If I didn't know the truth I would have believed I was a descended Deity," Aaradhya patted his father's arm and nodded without a frown. Masih Sr smiled at his son's praise and couldn't help looking away in embarrassment.
"Ah, it's okay if you are embarrassed by me, father. How about this? What can you tell me about the first elders guest? He seems to be undergoing rapid changes to his soul. I believe it is because of the dense spiritual atmosphere that I might have drawn to this island, but I can't be sure," the father and son turned their gazes as the second elder followed along with an implicit understanding that the two were in communication despite the silence.
"Well, as far as I know, the first elders guest is the son of the previous first elder and is the true heir to the seat…", Masih sr gave as much information as he had available about the man that was neither overbearing nor servile toward the first elder Beckham.
The man with the needle point mustache stripped and sweat like a hog in a sauna as an almost unnatural heat burned him from the inside. Even with his tie and a few buttons of his collared shirt undone, it was simply impossible to bear. After a few moments of intense and unbearable heat, he vocalized his discontent and asked the first elder for assistance. The first elders' cronies passed ice packs and cold water to the guest, some even hand fanned the mustachioed man but nothing worked. This heat came from his soul. Aaradhya didn't know when it started but the moment his soul sense started to work again because of his sharpened mind and restored spiritual reserves, he noticed that this guest had a much larger pulsating turquoise ring that gushed out with even more azure sparks. A swath of yellow periodically burst out of the ring and splashed into the mist of green that surrounded the man.
Those who were in the know or could see his spiritual body, backed away and constantly looked around in fear as they waited for something to show up. Aaradhya couldn't hear what they spoke about but there was a clear divide in the room. There were those elders who lived where Aaradhya was born and moved to the island because of their belief, and those who did not and only showed up because they were already on the island when the conclave was called.
"Father, is this what happened to the followers whilst I was asleep," Aaradhya observed the situation but thought of something else.
"This is what it looks like when someone is spiritually activated. It's also when someone is, theoretically, the most vulnerable," He turned to the ghost that kept to a corner and found that it had wandered toward the guest without anyone else noticing it. Rather, it appeared that some people with the gift of sight noticed a lingering shadow passing through the crowd while those with mystical scarring felt the creature pass over their bodies. Neither party could see the monster as clearly as Aaradhya could at this moment. Masih Sr was one of the many that could not see the creature so he simply cleared his throat and spoke of matters pertaining to his son's question.
"Yes. But the situation was worse. The awakening this time is only occurring in one person and the lost soul you and the third elder spotted, seems to be relatively relaxed and controlled. The ones we encountered were nothing short of monsters, demons, and fiends," Masih Sr tried to hide his grimace but couldn't as he remembered when the spiritual world of their lord clashed with the mortal realm and claimed the lives of at least two dozen followers.
In the span of seconds, the turquoise ring of the guest engorged itself on the greyish, silver fog all around it and shed off of the man's body in a splintered mess. A bright green peel of spiritual energy naturally ejected from the man's soul flame. What came out in place of the blue-ish ring was a wiry band that dyed the tips of the man's golden soul. Exactly where the blue light released the most on his body, bruises or scars appeared. The man's stomach and back were instantly bruised as some scarring appeared around his ears, nose, and most notably, around his eyes like some sort of mask.
To the naked eye, one devoid of spirituality, tendrils of cool light exploded from the guest's heart and spread along his veins. Under the watchful gaze of everyone present, the verdant fog or spiritual energy of the environment poured into the mustached man as though he were a sinkhole being filled with the waters of an endless ocean. The blue ring and spider webbing running through the man's body flashed in a tug of war between blue and green before it all turned a minty blue color and once again disappeared from view. The ejection of the sapphire particles touched the lost soul who stood beside the mustachioed man. It attracted the gazes and fear of everyone nearby as its ragged and deformed appearance was revealed by the green particles that floated around and enveloped the guest. The lost soul waited for the rest of the turquoise threads to leave the man's body and like spaghetti, the lost soul ate the threads and walked away. A few of the yellow and orange wounds that littered its body turned green very briefly before flashing blue and vanishing. The pale red of its body grew slightly more vibrant as a spark of scarlet flashed in its empty chest.
Once the mustached man's awakening came to an end, the spirit faded away under their surprised and fearful looks as the light dimmed on his own body. The first elders guest laid on the floor, surrounded by people who expressed their worry. It was one of the first elders' minions that explained his situation. The man didn't seem to understand at first but his viewpoint changed once he blinked a few times and activated his own soul sense. The man locked eyes with Aaradhya through the glass.
"Oh? Is there something about me that's different," Aaradhya looked at his heart and noticed that he had also changed after the man awakened. He had a golden ring around his heart rather than a solid or broken blue one and a golden aura around his skin rather than a blue tint. He looked like an unawakened individual at a cursory glance but it was obvious with a deeper look that the blue was simply being covered. It was as if he were gilded in gold.
"Perhaps the gold is a protection against the Verdant Mists. My only question is why do I still have it after my awakening? Could there be some influence from my blessing," Aaradhya pursed his lips in thought as he examined the golden ring that surrounded his similarly dazzling heart flame. A tiny blue thread coiled around the ring and dotted off straight toward the lost soul off in the distance while a thick cord tied to his father. The emerald mists swirled around his body but unlike the rest of the people he observed, the mist did not burn his blue spiritual energy. He assumed that it was because of the golden haze that suffused his person.
"Ah, this is rather glaring. I look like a signal beacon. I should look into altering my spiritual appearance for my own convenience… Father, we should head in now that everyone is primed," Aaradhya didn't worry for too long. Instead, he used the fact that he was connected to two people to follow the lost soul as it vanished from the ballroom, apparently satiated by the consumption of the guests' spiritual energy.
"That is our que Second elder. I hope everything is in order," Masih Sr heard the command of his lordly son and immediately called over an assortment of servants.