Their breaths hissed out as I made plain what they had likely been subconsciously avoiding.

“They are entities of Law. If you are not for them, you are against them, and you are disposable,” I went on ruthlessly. “This is absolute and clear-cut, just as you are either Kabbal, or you are not Kabbal. There is no middle ground in this.

“Furthermore, let me make one thing absolutely clear! The information given you by the Butterfly Emperor is Truth.”

All of them screamed. Most of them were instantly weeping blood, or had it streaming from their ears and noses. A couple of the worst ones, who were secretly holding back any belief, spat blood and fell from their chairs, their self-delusions exploding in their minds and making plain what was True and what was not.

There was now blood on those new books. THEIR blood.

It didn’t matter that they were Archmages, or maybe it did. Whatever, the eyes that stared at me were filled with fear, longing, awe, and disbelief.

“Truth!” I said it again, and they convulsed again. Three more fell out of their chairs. They all gasped in shock and fear, as their instant disbelief that I could do that again was smashed apart once more.

“Would you like me to voice that again? It’s not hard. I can do it many times,” I told them calmly. “That is a Word of Creation! It is one of the distilled Virtues of Good! Before it, there are no lies, delusions, disbelief, illusions, or falsehoods. As you can see, you cannot even fool yourselves before it!

“Some of you did not believe the Butterfly Emperor, and were merely happy to learn the old secrets of Light. Some of you do not care about the relationship She had with your ancestors, as She is but a Beast, you are Human, and so you are intrinsically better than Her. You are special. Ihovah told you so when He puffed you up as the first People of the Light, did He not?”

The ones who’d fallen had a lot more fear on their faces than the others. They were also all Blues, three with shades of Red, the others Green.

“How’s it feel to know those are all lies?” I asked them calmly. “To know, plain as day, what is real, what is not, and choosing to go with the lies, because it’s more convenient, easier, and that’s how you were raised?

“That is the power of the Divine, Elders of the Kabbal! That is the power of the Alignments! You’ll be interested to know that a Word impresses even the True Emperors, and works just fine on them. However, they are Beasts, and live in a world of Truth, so it has little effect on them... but they can tell that it comes from a power far, far beyond that of mortals and gods.

“So, I think, can you.”

Even Judge Abraham was bleeding crimson tears, staring at me in disbelief, although he’d endured it with markedly less backlash than any of his peers. “You can stand there and say that Word, you Know that Word...” he managed to say, swallowing something scarlet as he did.

“I do. Knowing that Word makes it impossible for me to successfully lie. Everyone and anyone will know if I speak a falsehood, and that includes me if I lie to myself.

“You cannot learn such a Word without being a Servant of Heaven. No current ‘Archangel’ of the Church of Light could voice such a Word. None of you can do so. The basic qualification to speak one, to understand it, is that first you must be a Good person.”

And none of them really were, although he came close, only a little Blue to him because he lived in a world of neutral Laws biased towards his people. Still, he tried to make the best of those laws, and so was mostly White.

“What is Good and what is good are very different things. What is Evil and what is evil can also vary immensely from the perspective of mere mortals.

“What Good and Evil are does not change for mortals. Both are profound forces, like Law and Chaos, Fate and Luck, and we and our philosophies have no more effect on such things than screaming that the sky is calico will change its color.

“We have no say in what the Alignments mean, we have only Free Will in choosing where we stand relative to them!”

I finger-snapped up a Holo behind me with the Alignments and their Colors on a nine-point chart. “Before you all ask what the Colors are and represent, here they are. This is where you’ve all chosen to stand.” Little stars popped up with their names next to them on the chart, and their faces fell. “Don’t complain. Don’t protest. You’ve made your choices, your souls resound with the Colors of what you have chosen and what you believe. This is where you are.

“Ah, right, the middle ground. No, there is no ‘neutral’ force. That is where the undecided go, the philosophers who do not want to commit, and those who are preyed upon from all sides. It is not a moderate path; it is a path for victims, the willfully naïve, the foolish, and the uninformed.

“Most of Humanity rates in this area.” I circled a big area at the intersection of Law/Good/Neutrality. “Like you, none of them have firm beliefs. They drift back and forth depending on who they associate with, their circumstances in life, and their upbringings.” The circle basically included most of them, with the extremes of Judge Abraham and the reddish Elders obvious outside of it.

“I know that you don’t like being held responsible for your beliefs and deeds, and learning that there actually are consequences for the moral decisions you’ve made in your life is a horrifying new truth to many people. To others, it’s nice to receive validation on what they believe, and they just double down on it once they can track where they stand.”

“You are Gold,” murmured Sage Ruth, staring at the Holo. I hadn’t put my name on it, but my Aura was indeed Gold. “Does that... make you a fanatic of Good?” she had to ask me.

I inclined my head slightly, and made a thoughtful expression. “That is an interesting way to look at it, Elder. From a defined standpoint, I suppose it does. However, one of the key things when dealing with Good is tolerance, compassion, and empathy, none of which are part of the mindset of what are traditionally called fanatics, I’m sure you’ll agree?” She nodded slowly, staring at me. “It would be more precise to say that I am extremely resolute in my Faith; that I’ve spent a great deal of time in self-analysis, introspection, and internal arguments about my path forward and behind me, and I know very clearly where I want to make my stand, and I have an excellent idea of how to go about making the decisions to support that.

“This, of course, is the same decision you all have to make, going forward.” I looked over them all again.

“Your Faith in Ihovah is already cracked and broken, I can see it as plain as day. That’s perfectly fine, as you gained nothing from Him for it, regardless. What He had to give you He gave to your ancestors, and anything new is going to the Syndics.” They could not help but grit their teeth at the knowledge they were now castaways, taken for granted by a false god!

“So, the question now is... are you going to abandon religion and belief in a higher power completely? Because there ARE benefits. There ARE rewards for taking this path. If you actually want to be a truly righteous person, and not merely a self-righteous person, there IS a way forward!

“More to the point, do you want your people to have that option? You are the First People of the Light because Radiant Holy Auspicious Butterfly Emperor chose your ancestors Adayam and Lillitha to be Her first students: no more, no less. The idea that it was a Divine Mandate and blessing was something given to you by Ihovah manipulating the Prophets, and it has kept your people united for thousands of years... but it has no basis in fact or magic or anything else!

“It was words, powerful words that appealed to ego and identity, but just words, in the end.” I smiled slightly as I saw their expressions. “Shall I say it again?”

They raised bloodied hands quickly to stop me. “Please, no,” Judge Abraham sighed for all of them. “My soul can be shaken only so many times...”

“Right now, Elders, there are two forces contesting for the lives and souls of everything that lives on this planet. The Great Beasts are aware of it. YOU... need to be aware of it.

“Law and Evil will not accept a compromise. Souls going to the other party are useless to them, and they will slaughter them without care or thought, to ensure that the next generation, and all that come thereafter, are theirs, and theirs alone.

“They are trying very, very hard to make this an Us or Them fight, to remove any Free Will, any choice from the equation. Your tribes are already assumed to stand with the Light, and so the Light is ignoring you, and the Dark is looking elsewhere for recruits.

“You have a chance to bring Heaven here.” I tapped Noble on the ground. “YOU... have a chance to bring actual benevolent gods and deities HERE. To bring a GOOD way, and not just a ‘correct’ way. To bring in powers who do not just prey on you and consider you a herd to be fattened and harvested as needed, but actual benevolent rulers, stewards, patrons, and mentors who want to see you and your children grow into something great and good, not merely fuel for grim ambitions of uncaring masters.”

“Can there even be a benevolent god?” the Reddest of the elders, Helijah, half-spat, and I turned my eyes on him. His hands flashed up in fear as my eyes flared, plastering himself back in his Disk-chair.

“You are a fool if you think benevolence means weakness,” I ground out, the air humming as the Sublime Chord built and my Aura of Menace swelled on the man. “Good is the Alignment that first chooses a course other than war, that looks to find common ground that benefits all. But when it comes time to fight... that is when Good has exhausted all the options, and all that remains is to fight.

“And when Good has to fight, it does so with everything.

“If you think that just because you can condemn an innocent man to death to protect your own ambitions, or slaughtering a village of non-believers is perfectly acceptable behavior, or pronouncing a death sentence on activists who only want to be treated fairly is something that makes you strong... then you are a Damned fool who is going Down, and I will be perfectly happy to send you there.”

I ripped my glare over the rest of them, and they twitched despite themselves. “Yes, I hold myself to a more... restricted code of behavior than do you. But if you think that YOU define how I can react and respond, that your view of what it means to be ‘good’ defines what I can do... you are also bloody fools!

“Good does not need to be nice. Good is very, very often not gentle. Good does not have to extend mercy, nor does it have to offer redemption, or forgive and forget! It does not need to be stupidly honest, soft-hearted, sweet, loving, kind, tender, adorable, cute, happy, carefree, or whimsical!

“Yet unlike the other Alignments, Good can be all of those things without compromising what it is. Because the other Alignments are not so constrained, that means that Good... has to be Damn Good at what it does!

“And when Good has something to defend, and the Hope of everything rests on you, and Valor rises to take on that challenge... oh, how many foes of Good have realized far too late what it means to face down a Good soul who is not afraid to fight.”

Those Words were not the cutting sword that Truth could be. Their faces went slack as their souls were opened, despite themselves and the harsh and often cruel world we lived in. They saw that there were better ways to do things, there always had been, and it only took Good people working together to make it all possible, facing the future without fear and holding to their resolve in the face of all that wanted to beat them down!

“Those are the Words I know. They are why I fight. I am not prey to the fears that have dogged you all your lives,” I went on. “If the task is too large, then I will grow larger, or I will recruit people to help me with the task. If it takes time, so be it. And if there are people that will do their best to stop me, slow me down, leech at my efforts, crush me under their own greed and ambition and influence, then I will fight back... and I needn’t fight back under the rules they are trying to impose on me...” I trailed off meaningfully.

Wind blew past us, and despite it being quite warm out, the Elders in their dark robes shivered as they looked at my eyes, Silver Sign glowing with the Wrath of Heaven.