Their little group near the back grew, bolstered by ones and twos as more people trickled in, until a veritable flood of people arrived and the room quickly became standing-room-only. Jigano glanced around, lips quirking wryly as he saw those who would normally have avoided each other gathering close, united by a common enemy, their faces set and stern as they kept their eyes on the young woman at the front of the room who had caused such drama within the Settlement in recent days. His eyes lit on Sascha who had found his way over, and he offered the young man an encouraging nod.
He was weighing whether or not to speak up, worried about his friends but worried that fear would keep too many people silent when a young man he vaguely recognized from the day of the Spire Demon's defeat stepped forward. He wasn't eloquent, perhaps, but he was impassioned, and his sincerity lent weight to the words he spoke, all the more powerful for being raw and simple. The bard nodded agreement - and saw that many of those gathered did so as well, a murmuring swell of support forEmmett 's points rising like a wave from the gathering.
Zariah's response was calm almost to the point of boredom, her attempts to refute Emmett's concerns coming across to the trained orator as lackluster and littered with little lies. The bard sighed, waiting until she was done before raising his voice without bothering to get in line; his well-trained vocals had cut across riots and battlefields in the past, and projecting to make himself heard over the quickly quieted murmurs of the crowded Temple was a simple matter.
"There was leadership," he drawled, "but we didn't care for it then, either, and they had the good grace to step down and let things settle rather than raise hackles across locals and foreigners alike." He arched a brow, nodding around to the guards at the edges of the room. "Though from what I've been hearing from those who have tried to express any disagreement with you, your ardent followers who 'asked' you to step up were mostly a bunch of bullies looking for an excuse to engage their worst impulses under the protection of a unified pack, and they picked the biggest bully they could find to be their frontwoman." He paused, giving Zariah a kindly smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "That, by the way, is what we call someone who tries to force others into doing what they want through threats, intimidation, and fear." He explained the concept courteously, as if Zariah surely must have just been unfamiliar with it until now. "Not a leader, but a bully. And a liar too, I'm afraid."
He shook his head sadly, looking over the gathering with a wry smile, picking out a few of the more recent arrivals. "More and more humans are arriving who have never known the barrier," he pointed out. "And never will, due to the sacrifice of 108, the Ascended who gave their life to bring the barrier down. In a generation that won't matter as much, perhaps, but it certainly does now. And I'm guessing this young lady," he nodded towards Zariah, "has never actually spoken with those people from outside the barrier - be they Fae or far travelers from beyond the Greatwood - or else she would know that they very much do differentiate between those born here and those who arrived from other worlds. Moreover," he added sternly, attention focusing back on Zariah, "we have every right to take pride in who we are - whether we identify as Naturals, or Numerians, or Northhaveners, or Helovians. And bridges were being built and those scars were healing - until once again an outsider has tried to force her ways on those who have lived here all their lives, without giving the greater population a say in the matter."
He tilted his head at the woman across the room, distance making her seem small. It was all in the perspective, in the end, wasn't it? "As many here remember, those who gathered at the Spire did so to protect it, not to attack it. And then, as now, you ignored the desires of a large part of our people. You say that you take what you want, Zariah, that for you, might makes right. So I ask you this: right now, today, if more people would rather someone else were on this throne that seems to be the only thing you know how to respect, would you step down gracefully? Or would you see a civil war come to these lands first?"
He was weighing whether or not to speak up, worried about his friends but worried that fear would keep too many people silent when a young man he vaguely recognized from the day of the Spire Demon's defeat stepped forward. He wasn't eloquent, perhaps, but he was impassioned, and his sincerity lent weight to the words he spoke, all the more powerful for being raw and simple. The bard nodded agreement - and saw that many of those gathered did so as well, a murmuring swell of support for
Zariah's response was calm almost to the point of boredom, her attempts to refute Emmett's concerns coming across to the trained orator as lackluster and littered with little lies. The bard sighed, waiting until she was done before raising his voice without bothering to get in line; his well-trained vocals had cut across riots and battlefields in the past, and projecting to make himself heard over the quickly quieted murmurs of the crowded Temple was a simple matter.
"There was leadership," he drawled, "but we didn't care for it then, either, and they had the good grace to step down and let things settle rather than raise hackles across locals and foreigners alike." He arched a brow, nodding around to the guards at the edges of the room. "Though from what I've been hearing from those who have tried to express any disagreement with you, your ardent followers who 'asked' you to step up were mostly a bunch of bullies looking for an excuse to engage their worst impulses under the protection of a unified pack, and they picked the biggest bully they could find to be their frontwoman." He paused, giving Zariah a kindly smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "That, by the way, is what we call someone who tries to force others into doing what they want through threats, intimidation, and fear." He explained the concept courteously, as if Zariah surely must have just been unfamiliar with it until now. "Not a leader, but a bully. And a liar too, I'm afraid."
He shook his head sadly, looking over the gathering with a wry smile, picking out a few of the more recent arrivals. "More and more humans are arriving who have never known the barrier," he pointed out. "And never will, due to the sacrifice of 108, the Ascended who gave their life to bring the barrier down. In a generation that won't matter as much, perhaps, but it certainly does now. And I'm guessing this young lady," he nodded towards Zariah, "has never actually spoken with those people from outside the barrier - be they Fae or far travelers from beyond the Greatwood - or else she would know that they very much do differentiate between those born here and those who arrived from other worlds. Moreover," he added sternly, attention focusing back on Zariah, "we have every right to take pride in who we are - whether we identify as Naturals, or Numerians, or Northhaveners, or Helovians. And bridges were being built and those scars were healing - until once again an outsider has tried to force her ways on those who have lived here all their lives, without giving the greater population a say in the matter."
He tilted his head at the woman across the room, distance making her seem small. It was all in the perspective, in the end, wasn't it? "As many here remember, those who gathered at the Spire did so to protect it, not to attack it. And then, as now, you ignored the desires of a large part of our people. You say that you take what you want, Zariah, that for you, might makes right. So I ask you this: right now, today, if more people would rather someone else were on this throne that seems to be the only thing you know how to respect, would you step down gracefully? Or would you see a civil war come to these lands first?"
