Chapter 35: Who did you say?
A polite older man, who despite his age still looked fairly handsome walked over to the City Hall information desk. He waited for the pretty young woman at the desk to look at him before he asked, "Excuse me miss, I am here to make an appointment to see the City Lord, Lady Connaissance."
She smiled and then took out a form and started writing, "Our lady is very busy, so I can't promise that she will see you today or even in the next few weeks. Can you tell me the reason for your visit?"
He smiled and nodded, "I am here on behalf of the Church of the Risen Son to apologize for our behavior and see if there is a path to a peaceful resolution."
She nodded writing that down, "And your name is?"
"My name is Albert Pujols, uh actually you can write that as Cardinal Albert Pujols. If there is room on the form, I am the Chief Cardinal for the Church of the Risen Son." He said as he watched her write.
She asked, "Will you be staying here in the city? If so, can I have the address there in case we need to send word when she can see you?"
He nodded and then said, "I am currently staying at the Windsor Kingdom Embassy. I didn't bring much money you see, so I had to impose on them to allow me to stay for free."
She smiled and then said, "Mr. Pujols you can wait over on the bench here, or if you'd like you are welcome to try our cafeteria on the tenth floor. I'll give you this badge so one of our runners will be able to find you." She handed him a visitor's pin with the number 10 on it.
Curious, he looked at the pin and then asked, "How many are in front of me right now?"
She looked at the list and said, "Today? Only one."
He smiled and then said, "I will take a seat right there on the bench then, thank you, young lady."
She nodded and then took the note and rolled it up and put it into a tube. She took the tube and put through a hole on the desk which was exactly the same size. the Tube shot down with a loud, 'SHOOMP!'. A few minutes later a loud buzzer sounded. One of the girls picked up a cone-shaped object and placed it against her ear with the largest part of the cone on her ear. She listened for a moment and then placed the cone at her lips and spoke. She walked over and toward the bench and said, "Mr. Pujols? Lady Connaissance will see you now. please, come with me."
"May I ask, what was that sound for when the tube was placed in the desk?" He asked as they walked up the staircase behind the desk.
She smiled and said, "The building has a system called the Pneumatic Tube system. We put messages into the tubes which shoot them down to our mailroom. The mailroom then selects the right office and forwards them through the dedicated tube."
He looked amazed, "And the other one, you seemed to be listening and speaking through a cone?"
She nodded, "That's very new here. It's a direct line to Lady Connaissance's office called the Far Speak. It's a little hard to hear through when it's noisy in the lobby, but they only use it to call someone up either security or a guest such as yourself."
She led him to the hallway with the Duhan Lifts and pushed a button, soon the lift doors opened and another young woman opened the gate and said, "Please step this way." She closed the gate and then the door as they entered and asked, "Which floor?"
The first woman smiled and said, "Ninth floor, please."
She turned the lever on the wall until it said nine and then the lift gave a little jolt and started to rise. Cardinal Pujols gasped, "This room is going up?"
The two women smiled and the Lift operator said, "We call it the Duhan Lift. It was designed by James Duhan, one of our city's celebrity inventors."
Cardinal Pujols felt that his jaw wouldn't close as the young woman then opened the doors, and then gate and said, "Ninth floor." She held her arm out indicating they could walk out.
Cardinal Pujols couldn't help looking around with a sense of awe as he was led to an office. She walked over to the desk and said, "Mr. Pujols to see Lady Connaissance."
Edmonds her Butler and assistant walked over with a smile, he took a knee and bowed his head, "Your Eminence, welcome to the City of Connaissance." He stood back up and said, "Right this way, Her Highness is expecting you."
Cardinal Pujols smiled and asked, "I was told she lost her Royal title, why then are you still addressing her that way?"
Edmonds smiled at him and said, "My family has served the Windsor family for generations, Your Eminence." He knocked on a door and said, "Cardinal Albert Pujols, Your Highness."
From behind the door, she said, "Send him in."
The Cardinal walked in not knowing what to expect. He found that she was still very young but diligently working on a stack of papers. Sitting on her couch was a breathtaking young woman reading a newspaper and standing up from a chair was a tall muscular man who smiled and extended his hand saying, "Your Eminence, welcome to Connaissance."
Emily looked up from her work and said, "Your Eminence, please have a seat. How can I help you?"
The Cardinal looked a little confused but took the handshake first and then sat down in a chair in front of Lady Connaissance. "You may not remember me, but we met many years ago. I came to your coming of age ceremony at the Windsor Palace."
She gave him a warm smile and nodded, "Yes, I do remember. You are still looking well, the years have been kind to you, Your Eminence. You said in the note I received that you were here for an apology and to see if we could come to a peaceful resolution? I am curious to know exactly what you mean?"
He looked rather uncomfortable as he tried to think of how best to start, "The Church has acted disgracefully. I don't just mean to you personally. I mean as far back as I have been a member. I know that you are already aware of this, but unfortunately, the Church has long become nothing more than just another Kingdom. I and many others who live in ignorance thinking that our Church is still the Church of Lord Léon Jean Reno's day have been blindly allowing ambitious men to use the power of the Church to do as they please."
Emily looked at him showing nothing on her face, "I have to tell you, I don't believe in any god or in the things you teach about Léon Jean Reno. I only listen to reason."
He looked curious and then asked, "Weren't you taught by our teachers?"
Emily nodded and responded, "The stories of Léon Jean Reno are clearly fictional. Men don't return to life seven days after being put to death. Men can't walk on the water and take rides in the stomachs of Giant Gilderfish. Men aren't able to lift more than seventy times their body weight in order to stop a rampaging elephant."
Cardinal Pujols smiled and said, "We have faith that the fantastic could be possible with his blessing." He pointed up.
Emily smirked and said, "I won't try to argue with you, it would be pointless. I just wanted you to understand that fact about me before you said any more."
Cardinal Pujols nodded and then said, "I have spent time in your city, talking to its people and witnessing the marvels you have created. You are loved here by the people, if I knew nothing else about you, I would know that you truly care about leading."
Emily looked at him and then stated, "I have no intention to bring a war to your Church, or to any Kingdom related to your Church. My desire is to see real progress made here in the City of Connaissance and to keep these people safe. For that reason, I have created weapons of war that will be used solely in our defense and the defense of our allies, including but not limited to the Windsor Kingdom, the Holy Chadtom Empire, and the Kingdom of Fursia. If you are interested in maintaining a peaceful relationship with the City of Connaissance, simply do not attack us."
Cardinal Pujols nodded and said, "That's what I expected you would say after meeting the people here." He leaned forward in his chair and asked, "Tell me, what will happen in the future after you are gone?"
Emily looked at him and said, "The people of that time will need to use reason to guide them, just as I do."
"And if they don't? Won't you be sentencing the future generations to a terrifying future where ambitious men use your creations to cover the Hanston in blood, death, and suffering?"
Emily shook her head and answered, "Can you force people to always choose the right path? Of course not. All we can do is set the examples and teach the hows and whys of the choices we made. We don't have the power of foresight to guide us, no matter what your spiritual or philosophic belief. The Church has stopped the pursuit of knowledge for thousands of years, and yet the curious will always seek answers even still. I am not going to stop moving to the future because someone who hasn't been born might choose a path for extinction. Your Church is proof of that Your Eminence. You have been trying to guide, coerce, beguile and use force to make people choose the right path and yet even the members of your own Church use the backing of your Church to choose the wrong path."
He looked at her with a complicated expression, "May I open a Church here in the City?"
Emily nodded and said, "I will allow it on the condition that you don't beg for handouts on the streets or make donations of money a part of your Church. I will also expect that you obey all laws, regulations, and governance here within the city."
He nodded and asked, "If I charge admission? The Church would need a way to pay for space after all."
Emily nodded and said, "We allow the theater to do the same, so that is acceptable."
He thought for a moment, "You are saying that the Church is no different from a play?"
"Tales of fictional things done by people who may or may not have been real. So yes, the Church is no different from a play. The difference you personally feel is due to the level of importance you place on the fiction in question." She answered calmly.
He chuckled and nodded, "Can we open a school in the city?"
She shook her head, "No, I am afraid not. We have standards for our school system that the Church's school can't meet."
He nodded and then smiled, "I would argue that point, but I can tell from a simple walk through the City that you are very serious."
Emily then said, "Now, let's talk about my personal matters created by the Church. First of all, the Church pushed my uncle into killing my Mother and Father. This is a grievance I am curious how you intend to resolve. Second, your Inquisition attempted to murder me by sending an entire Brigade to kill me on my trip to Connaissance to be permanently exiled here, which was also arranged by the Church in order to usurp my rightful position of Queen of the Windsor Kingdom."
Captain Alexander spoke up, "Me and my men as well."
Emily glared at Jon and then continued, "Third the Inquisition attempted to murder me a second time in the Holy Chadtom Empire city of Diamondtown. Fourth, members of the Inquisition kidnapped me and assaulted me leaving me with a permanent disability shortly after attempting to murder me south of the Holy Chadtom Empire city of Diamondtown."
Cardinal Pujols looked pale, he nodded and then added, "It goes back much further than you know, unfortunately. Cardinal Windsor wanted to be the King of the Windsor Kingdom as well as the Cardinal of the Church which is not allowed. We aren't sure why, but he seems to have been behind the murder of his own son and daughter in law as well in order to allow his grandson to become King as an infant." he sighed, "If it is your wish, I will force your uncle to step down and allow you to become the Queen of the Windsor Kingdom, although if you truly wished for that, I suppose you would have already conquered the Kingdom."
She nodded and smiled sadly. He continued, "I understand that your late father had quite a large sum of money in our banks. We would hope that you don't pull it all out at once, but I would like to make sure that you have access to it. Also, I believe after looking around your city here that there are probably some resources in our territories that we could offer you via trade for manufactured goods. We'd also be willing to open our markets for your products once more, I know that such trade is currently suspended."
Emily smiled and held out her hand, "Thank you, Your Eminence, I will have our business leader meet with you to draw up the contract."
He looked surprised, "Then you will forgive us?"
Emily shook her head, "How could I? How could anyone? However, I can assure you, that this matter is now dropped. I will never speak of it again."
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