Interlude: The Second Rebuilding
A school of fish scattered when they saw the strange, flailing fish approaching. Very strange looking, but pretty slow. A man had never come to the seabed in this place before.
It was cold, and dark, but he kept going. Twisting his head frantically in the fading light, he peered through the murky water. Where was it? They said that it plunged into the water around here during the Catastrophe. Perhaps the earth swallowed it up. A shame, the legends said it was beautiful...
A glint of silver caught his eye. There it was! He quickly marked his position, and swam upward. Hopefully his lungs would make it...
The swimmer burst through the surface, gasping for air as he bobbed on top of the water. Yelling at the top of his lungs, the man hailed the bireme at anchor in the distance.
"I found it!! Praise the One, I found it!"
Five minutes later, the wet, panting swimmer had a towel around his waist, and was telling his crewmates about the discovery.
"It really was as big as they say, as big as a man! The crown is all rusted, but the silver's still there. Other parts of it must be scattered about around there, but it really still exists!"
The sailors cheered, and they pulled up the anchor to report their discovery to the Architects. It wasn't a long sail, they were soon at the docks of the (still half-ruined) Great Harbor.
The sailors walked off the ship singing and laughing. A small delegation of blue-robed men stood to greet them. The oldest, a white haired man with a slight limp, came forward with a wide grin.
"By the looks on your faces, it seems that you finally found something."
The diver who made the discovery came forward.
"Yes, and even better than the sunken ship with the scepter of the High Elder last month.”
“Well, out with it.”
“We found…the head of the great Statue that once stood atop the Arch of the Exodus!”
“Praise be His name…this is fantastic! And the crown?”
“Rusted and corroding, but still there.”
“A miracle. I had thought that lost forever. This will be seen as a good omen back at the Assemblum.”
“Or even now,” said a booming voice behind them. They turned to see the massive figure of High Elder Valinas, who laughed as he walked towards the pier. Everyone bowed.
“Don’t stand on ceremony,” he said, “this is a great day! Look about you, at this very harbor.”
They looked, and the usual view of collapsed buildings and work crews digging met their eyes. Men were carrying some prized celia* trees from Khemri off a nearby barge.
“I see great destruction. But also great opportunity. Think of it, this harbor was once filled with brick merchant shops and wooden warehouses. Now we can rebuild it all in marble, and more! Veritas would have been surpassed by some nation eventually if we sat still. In destroying our city, the One sent us a message. Do you know what it was?”
They stared.
“Wake up! We were sleeping, and now we have the chance to make a new city. A city that will not be a marvel of what was past, but a wonder of the present. I have a great vision of Veritas, not different from the vision that the First Elder had. I see the Hall of the Assemblum rebuilt, greater than even the Dome of Light in Kallamas. I see great gardens, courtyards, libraries and amphitheaters. I see the Arch of the Exodus rebuilt, the One crowned and shining in His glory. I see happy citizens, going about their business free from poverty or disaster.”
At this point a hint of prophecy entered his words.
“And I see a massive tower, with a great light, casting out radiance towards the sea. Ships will flock to our great island, and then Veritas truly will be…the Light of the World.”
Awed and inspired by his words, the crowd of sailors and architects knelt. During those years of rebuilding their High Elder often amazed them with his ideas, his creativity, and his determination to make the new Veritas more than simply a rebuilt version of the old.
That was when they began to call him Valinas the Builder.
*Celia- The fruit of a celia tree is a cross between an orange and a pomegranate.