[b][u][center]The Church of the Divine Family, Homestead, Lumenor,[/b][/u][/center]

The night's moon reflected her faint light upon the capital of Lumenor, basking the sleeping city in the faintest of Valo's rays.The Faith of the Light's central church, the Church of the Divine Family, reflected the moon's light off of her stained glass windows to gently illuminate the dark shadows that hid in the crevices of the massive church. It was the second largest building in all of Homestead, matched only the Hall of Elders itself, but five or six times as splendidly decorated and many hundreds of times more frequently visited. The dimly glowing crowds of the streets of Homestead led a constant trail of light in and out of the Church's ornate wooden doors, the engravings of Valo and his wife Kaikki on either door beckoning the solemn citizens of the Lumen nation inside. Their engravings were indented with golden leaf and silver lining, but the rich entryway offered only the faintest clue of the glories that could be found inside. Those who entered the Church of the Divine Family found themselves welcomed by two grand pillars on either side of the Church's interior, the marble monoliths carved into the effigies of the Divine Marriage; strong and forboding Valo on the right, and Kaikki's slender form and tender smile on the left. Hung between the two massive statues was a tapestry depicting the birth of the Divine Daughters; rays of sunlight on top and the articles of existence, rivers, forests, plains and mountains, below. Between the sun and the earth were the five daughters, floating in divinity, their bodies covered by flowing white robes that sapped wisps of cosmic energies from their parents above and below. Beneath the painting were the pews of the Church, two equally endless rows of stone seating, upholstered in golden coloured fabric on one side and silver coloured on the other. The pews were occupied by massive crowds of Lumen, the populace of Homestead being an ever faithful lot with a strong dedication to the Faith of the Light. Attending to the church, caring for her decorations and patrons were the Priests of the Light, Lumen dressed in fine white fabric that echoed the dressings of the Divine Daughters depicted in the entranceway's painting. They were a solemn and quiet lot, but together with their masters they wielded more power in Lumenor than any merchant or general. Though this influence often grew numb with disuse, the Faith found reason every so often to exercise their power for the betterment of Lumenor. Sometimes for the benefit of themselves as well.

"Word back from Kotka, finally!" spoke a priest in a back-room of the Church, his tone uncharacteristically spiteful, and his eyes trained on a second priest, who sat at a plain wooden table, wearing out both his hand and the ink in his quill as he wrote, recited and transcribed.

"Good news, I would hope?" replied the studious priest, his attention not truly faded from his work, but his voice seemingly sincere.

"Indeed. It would seem that Daughters Tuli and Laki have seen fit to bless our purpose. The Lumenistic Order's grand staff have accepted the proposal, unbeknownst to the Kuunin".

The priest dropped his quill and smiled widely, looking upwards and making a short prayer. "Bless the Daughters. And bless you too, Priest Uisset, for delivering this news".

Uisset joined in the priest's gladness, straightening his robe, preening himself as though he were in some way responsible for what was to come from the Order's acceptance. "The blessings be unto you, Father Huono!" he relented. "You were the one responsible for drafting the proposal, after all. Erm, speaking of which though, have you gotten acceptance from the Arkisto yet?" Uisset spoke the penultimate word, Arkisto, with a due amount of restraint. The Arkisto was the central authority of the Faith of the Light, responsible for every major decision made and every important policy adopted. Their numbers were drawn from the ranks of the Fathers of the Faith of the Light, of which there was one for each and every Church throughout Lumenor. Huono, as the Father of the largest Church, had more pull in the Arkisto than most. What the Lumenistic Order had just accepted would require more than just Huono's approval to sway the Arkisto, though. Father Huono knew this—the soldier in plain clothes that walked into the room and closed the door once Uisset had finished talking, didn't. For him, the reasoning behind his being ordered to stab Uisset to death would always be a mystery, and so would be Huono's lack of reaction. With Uisset's screams muffled by the soldier's hands, and his blood cleaned up effectively by his brilliant white robes, all that Huono had to be concerned about now was finishing his address to the Arkisto. He'd always felt that Church officials were in need of a little more personal security...