[Original] "Allegiance"

[ap0cryphal]

Title: Allegiance
Original 
Rating: G
Notes:  New gods, new masters, new sacrifices.

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That winter, winds blew dark and heavy, and every secret augury foretold war and terror, conflagration and catastrophe. The peace purchased a decade past – thousands of bodies sent up as kindling – began to seem terribly fragile.

The minister of state convened a secret council from across borders – old enemies, weary allies - and shared her fears.

“There is a pattern here, a hidden hand, and I cannot see it,” she said. “No nation gains.”

“No nation,” the minister of trade agreed, signalling her collaborators to commence purging the council. “But engines of industry owe allegiance to no nation, save mammon.”

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