The Piety Of Fire

"The Flame Of Piety, has burned for thousands of years by the hands of our very ancestors.", the old sage put his hand on the young man's shoulder.

"One day soon you will replace me, to do the Lord's work as one of his chosen.", the old man spoke with reverence, extolling his duties he rose his shaky chest in the air proud.

"Thats all for today, my child. Now, run along and forget about this place for the remainder of the day. Go. Go and play, have fun for God sake!", he let out a hearty laugh, pushing his progeny towards a more appealing en devour.

Within the holy sanctum he blessed candles while he lit them.

He draped brilliant white leather robes over his body.

He fastened a breast plate of brilliant gem stones to his bony torso.

Covering his arms and legs with precious stone encrusted "holy armor".

Then fastened, "The Face Of The Lord", over his head.

He blessed himself with a censor radiating smoke.

Standing before the lectern, he spoke an incantation into an ornate scepter he held in his right hand. With the left he ran his fingers along the elaborate symbols covering the scroll. Reading the spell aloud. The incantation reverberated off the vaulted ceilings echoing back his exuberance.

Sigil lit up around an arch that rose high into the air.

The arch was the entrance to a megalithic metal silo.

A small window opened up before the sage, peering through the view port he examined the sacred fire. The violent raging torrent of brilliant greens and violets sputtered and shifted colors mixing with flashes of red.

"Oh, No! Heavens no. This...", waving a finger in the air, "...Must be fixed.", rushing to the sanctum he shuffled through a wooden box of scrolls until he came across what he was searching for.

Removing the bright green ribbon from the hide roll. Quickly he unfurled the scroll, examining the text. He darted across the room as fast as his frail frame would allow. He spread the scroll on the lectern that faced a huge blast chamber.

He spoke another incantation into the scepter, opening a giant blast door.

Scorching heat filled the room accompanied by a deafening roar.

He studied the scroll for a moment, holding it close to the mask on his face.

Carefully the old man entered the chamber, nodding his respects while reciting a prayer.

He inspected various gauges, turned valves and cleared debris from the chamber.

Making his way out of the chamber he spoke the blast door closed, walked to the work bench and grabbed various herbs and potions, pouring them into a stone bowl. Using a pestle, he ground the constituents into a fine powder.

The concoction was then poured into a receptacle attached to the blast chamber.

Rushing back to the small view port he waited for the results.

The flame stabilized back into its green-violet uniformity.

The cumbersome regalia burdened his gestures of excitement while the old man bobbed around in ecstatic dance.

"We are chosen at birth to spend every waking hour honoring the Lord within these chambers. We are ordained with the blood that runs through our veins, which comes with the sacrifice of isolation from the outside world. Only the chosen are aloud in these inner chambers of the temple. Only the chosen of the chosen into the central chamber to be witness to true piety.", the sage stroll with his pupil along the outer walls of the inner chamber, sliding his finger tips along the ruinous stone.

"I am proud at how far you've come, my boy. Truly this is the honor of a life time.", he sighed deeply, eyes welling up with tears.

Pushing the emotions back the sage put an arm around his student, "Come, we must prepare for your initiation."

High above the land in a stone tower, stood the Director, gazing through a mosaic-crystalline windows. Looking down at the other countless additional towers littering the mountainous horizon for as far as the eye could see.

His attention is triggered by a flash of light paired with a musical warning tone, emanating from a magnificent wooden control panel.

Pressing a turquoise jewel on his ear a face appeared on a pane of glass suspended from the ceiling in front of him. The man on the glass is dawning a white leather robe and wearing "holy armor".

"Director.", the head on the screen confirms.

"We have a discrepancy in Sector 4, Chamber 3.", the director announced with his chin in the air.

"Sir, I will check it out and get right back to you."

"Put a rush on it, Son.", said the Director.

The figure on the glass places an elaborate helmet on his head and nods his acknowledgement.

The Director paces back and forth in front of the control panel.

He read from the large glass in front of him, pressed a few glowing buttons on the control panel. A three-dimensional representation of the large stone city appears floating above a round table at the center of the room. The Director walks around the table examining glowing warning messages. The messages indicated discrepancies in the reactors across the city.

The technology responded to his input triggering musical tones as he dialed in commands.

The face from before appears back on the screen.

"Sir, bad news.", the man looked towards the ground.

"Get to it.", the Director said in a cold firm tone.

"The Guardian is down... indefinitely, Sir. He seemed to have passed in his sleep.", the man on the screen shuffled around anxiously.

"God rest his soul. We will hold services tomorrow for the deceased. Disposed of the body and clean up the mess. After that bring the successor for preparation to take over duties. We have to move as quickly as possible. Central City is down and the Empress has her public address in a few hours. I'm already getting calls about power outages in multiple sectors.", the Director paces while staring at his shoes.

The Director looks to the screen again and states, "The current Gardians are reaching retirement age, we will face more discrepancies around the city due to turn over from the current generation aging out. The following weeks may be hectic, but if we can get through it... Celebration will be in order... Hard to believe we've reached iteration 30 of the Guardian program."