"Forgive my bluntness, but we can't keep this from the Pope for long. Elfrida herself seized power through a coup; she knows better than anyone how to prevent others from repeating the same trick."
"So what do you propose? The arrow is already on the bowstring. There is no room for regret. The moment you entered this conference room and began speaking with us, you became another name on the Pope's purge list."
On Holy Terra, in an underground safe house far from the Ecclesiarchy's institutions, a secret meeting was underway.
After entering the confidential underground safe house, the attendees stripped off their disguising robes and revealed their true faces.
Without exception, they were all senior figures in Terra's Ecclesiarchy. Most had been promoted and elevated anew after Elfrida ascended to the position of Pope.
Yet now, none retained their former arrogance. Each wore a worried expression, like eggplants struck by frost.
They had shed their lavish, expensive robes and changed into the cheapest burlap garments, removing the ritual items that displayed their identities and status.
Even as they waited for the remaining attendees to arrive, many refused to waste the brief interval. They still clutched copies of the Emperor's Holy Scriptures, worn ragged from constant reading, and murmured prayers to themselves.
As though doing so could separate them from the indulgent, mutually attacking, extravagant, and corrupt people they had once been.
Every one of them was a genuine political operator. They had swiftly seized high office after Elfrida took power because they excelled at reading the intentions of those above them. But whenever the winds shifted, they were equally skilled at changing sides.
Such bureaucrats were widespread throughout the Empire's other administrative departments, and after the current Pope rose to power, they had also begun to multiply rapidly within