Reaching the bridge of the Luminary, Daimon was once again met with the familiar scene of the vast holographic displays operated by the bridge crew. This was followed by the ambient sounds of systems that represented the most advanced shipbuilding the Imperium had yet produced.
As he approached the command section of the bridge, Cortana materialized on the command table. "Welcome back, Daimon. I've prepared a comprehensive summary of developments across all active theaters, organized by priority tier."
"Show me," Daimon said, settling into the command seat as the holographic displays changed to show the incoming data.
Cortana expanded the display outward, showing the star map of Imperial space. Newly acquired territories glowed in a different shade than the established Imperium, which was a visual reminder to Daimon of how much had changed in the span of a few years.
"Beginning with the Unknown Regions' stabilization effort," Cortana said. "Progenitor Vos reports that the droid fleet requisition has been processed through the Ministry of War. The request was sent to the Star Forge which has already started to produce the units. In the meantime, the Tempestaris Ascendants have contained the three identified insurgency centers through targeted operations."
"They allowed the insurgent cells to exhaust their own supply networks rather than committing Imperial forces to direct pursuit operations through terrain that favors the defenders. The priesthood remnants of the Theocratic Dominion are discovering that theological conviction doesn't solve their logistics problems."
Daimon liked the efficiency of the approach to the situation. Vos had always understood that the most elegant solution to a military problem was often the one that required the enemy to defeat themselves.
He went over the rest of the reports which reported on the situation in the Northern Imperial territories, and the now renamed Imperial Hutt space.
The Northern territories were returning to a sense of normalcy with the conclusion of the war. The Republic didn't push far into the region and even then, most of the worlds were protected by planetary shields.
The Imperial Hutt space had reclaimed what was lost to the Republic and then under the treaty, took control of all Republic controlled Hutt territory. Some within the Republic were angry since many lives were lost liberating that space, but they were overruled by the majority of Senators.
Daimon was also considering making the space an autonomous zone that was still subject to Imperial law and protection, just more independent under the leadership of his daughters Princess Luna and Vaelora. The reason was because of the distance between Imperial Hutt space and the Imperial core.
Plus, having them form a hybrid culture between the Imperial culture and all the other species could be a sight to see.
Once he finished looking at the last report, Daimon immediately went to his quarters and went to bed. He couldn't wait to get back to the palace and feel the warmth of Elara's arms every night he went to sleep. Nothing could beat that experience.
————
Former Theocratic Dominion world Oxia
Oxia was one of the first worlds to have a Imperial temple built and it was currently experiencing an influx of people coming to the temple to receive its services.
These services ranged from treating the most untreatable diseases to providing food and shelter for the displaced, to education programs that operated alongside the temple's spiritual functions.
The leader of the temple was High Priestess Orissa. As the High Priestess, she was the overall leader of the temple and directed its operations, which extended far beyond what most people assumed a religious institution would concern itself with.
Orissa had been assigned to Oxia specifically because of its history. A world that had spent generations under the Theocratic Dominion's religious structure was not a world that could be approached with simple administrative replacement.
The Dominion's priesthood had been woven into every aspect of daily life, governing birth records and marriage ceremonies and burial rites and agricultural calendars, and when that structure had been dismantled after the conquest, what remained was not a liberated population but a disoriented one confused by their newfound rulers.
People who had organized their entire understanding of the world around a particular set of beliefs did not simply adopt new ones because the political situation had changed. They looked for something to fill the space the old beliefs had occupied. The Imperial temple was there to replace the Dominion's theology with one that offered the people a new way forward.
She was reviewing the week's intake records in her private office when her assistant a young Mirialan woman named Teva, knocked and entered.
"High Priestess, the morning line has already extended past the outer courtyard. We've counted approximately four hundred individuals waiting, and it's not yet the second hour."
"Are they here for the morning service or temple medical assistants?" Orissa asked.
"Most are displaced families from the northern agricultural settlements. The soil there seems to be worsening by the month, so the workers have nowhere to go for food besides here. There are also people seeking medical treatment from our medical priests and priestess's. That one child who you spoke to before actually brought her mom here."
A bright smile appeared on Orissa'a face as she remembered the child who had come by herself to seek medical treatment for mother. Orissa had told the child to bring her mother to the temple and she would take care of her mother herself.
"Alright, let's get going then." said Orissa, standing up and walking to the door.
In the hallway, they had walked past several staff members of the temple and temple guards. The temple guards were elite Gen'Dai warriors who had served at least two centuries in the Imperial military and had retired to become a temple guard which was a very high honor.
They highly devoted themselves to the Divine Imperial Doctrine and dedicated their lives to understanding and serving as the protectors of those who followed the Imperium's religion, which emphasized Daimon as a the peak of what a mortal could attain through hard work, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to those under one's protection.
The guards stationed along the corridor acknowledged Orissa with a slight incline of the head as she passed, which was the temple's form of salute. She returned the gesture each time. It was a small thing, but the High Priestess who walked past her guards without acknowledging them was the kind of High Priestess who eventually stopped seeing the people waiting in the outer courtyard as well.
She had known priests like that in her years of service. They began with genuine conviction and ended up as administrators who had forgotten why the administration existed.
Soon enough, she had arrived in the courtyard and saw the little girl with her mother standing in line. The little girl saw the High Priestess and immediately smiled and waved. Her mother grabbed her by the arm as she was scared of what would happen as she had never been to the Imperial temple and was afraid that they might get kicked out.
"Stop yelling child!"
But it was already too late as the High Priestess had approached them. The little girl's mother immediately knelt on the ground followed by the people around them who noticed the unique clothes of the High Priestess which made them stand out.
The little girl ran towards the High Priestess, her mother trying to stop her, but she couldn't. "I brought my mom like you asked miss; can you heal her now?" asked the little girl.
Orissa chuckled and knelt down, placing her hand on the little girl's head. "What is your name little one?"
"My name is Unarra." she answered.
"Well, Unarra, I did say I would heal your mother, so bring her to me." Unarra nodded her head and ran to grab her mother.
She grabbed her mother by the arm and began pulling her towards the High Priestess despite her mother's confusion.
Once they reached Orissa, Unarra's mother knelt back down again and apologized. "Let me apologize for this child's rude behavior High Priestess. She is just young and curious and mean no harm."
Orissa chuckled, seeing that Unarra's mother must have heard some nasty rumors about the temple from those who feared the Imperium's presence on the world.
"Unarra caused no problem miss…."
"Renarra, my name is Renarra, High Priestess." she answered.
"Miss Renarra, young Unarra came to me alone, which tells me she loves her mother very much. A child who would walk to a temple she has never visited, speak to a stranger in robes, and trust that stranger to help her mother is not a rude child. She is a brave one." She was still kneeling, and Orissa gently gestured for her to stand.
"Please. You are not a beggar before a throne. You are a guest of this temple, and guests stand."
Renarra rose slowly, and Orissa could see immediately what Unarra had come about. The woman was thin in the way that spoke of prolonged illness rather than simple poverty, and her skin carried the particular paleness of someone whose body had been fighting something for a long time without adequate help. Her eyes were slightly hollow, and she moved with the careful deliberateness of a person who had learned to conserve energy because she never knew how much she had left.
"When did the sickness begin?" Orissa asked.
"Two years ago, High Priestess. After the harvest failed the first time. The village healer tried what she knew. It helped for a while. Then it stopped helping."
"And you did not come to the temple sooner because?"
Renarra was quiet for a moment. Around them, the line of waiting people had become somewhat still, those nearest watching carefully while simultaneously trying not to stare and finding it impossible not to.
"The priests of the Dominion used to say that the Imperial faith was a false one. That those who entered its temples would be corrupted. That the Emperor was a demon wearing the face of a god." She glanced down at Unarra, who was watching her mother with the focused expression of a child who understood more than what adults expected. "Old words are hard to unhear, High Priestess."
"They are," Orissa agreed. "And I will not tell you those words were nothing, because words spoken with conviction over many years leave marks on people even after the people who spoke them are gone. What I will tell you is that your daughter did not hear those words the same way you did. Or perhaps she heard them and decided that her mother's life was worth more than her fear of them."
Renarra looked at Unarra, and something in her expression shifted in a way that Orissa recognized from years of being a High Priestess. It was the particular softening of a person who had been holding themselves together through sheer determination and had just been given permission to feel the weight of what they had been carrying.
"Come," Orissa said, "Teva, please ensure the morning line is directed to the secondary receiving hall. I will attend to Renarra personally in the healing ward."
Teva acknowledged the instruction and moved to redirect the waiting crowd. There was a brief murmur among the people nearest to them, not of complaint but of the realization that the institution they came to seek help from is capable of treating people as people rather than as a queue to be managed.
Orissa led Renarra and Unarra through the inner corridor of the temple, away from the courtyard and into the quieter section where the healing ward operated. The architecture here was different from the outer ceremonial spaces. Less stone, more light. The ceilings were lower and the rooms smaller, designed not for the impression of grandeur but for treating people.
Two medical priests were already working when they entered, attending to an elderly man who suffered some sort of respiratory condition. They acknowledged the High Priestess's arrival without breaking from their work. One of the priests had placed their hands on the man's chest and started to channel some force energy into his body. Slowly, the man's breathing became normal as his body was being healed with the force.
This was an ability granted directly from Daimon to all medical priests of the Department of Divine Imperial Doctrine.
Orissa directed Renarra to a cot near the window and gestured for her to sit. Unarra stationed herself immediately at her mother's side while smiling.
"I'm going to examine you directly," Orissa said to Renarra, placing her hands on her shoulders and closing her eyes.
The Force moved differently in a healing context than it did in any other. Most people who understood it primarily through the Jedi's framing thought of it in terms of action, things done to the world or taken from it. But the healing application that the Imperium used was more effective. You listened to the force that flowed through the person's body. You felt the living system in front of you and tried to understand where it had diverged from what it was meant to be.
Renarra's body told a complicated story. The initial illness had been a respiratory infection, probably bacterial in origin and probably treatable with the right compounds if caught early. It hadn't been caught early, and the village healer's remedies had addressed the symptoms without reaching the underlying cause. Over two years, what had begun as an infection had settled into something chronic, a persistent inflammation that her immune system had essentially learned to treat as normal, which meant it had also learned to stop fighting it.
It was the kind of condition that killed people slowly and without drama, one degree of vitality at a time, until they simply had less and less of themselves left to give.
"One moment, I will treat you now." said Orissa as she released a wave of force energy that travelled through Renarra's body. It started to get rid of the disease throughout the body and return her body to a normal state. Though the thin body remained, but she can now work to become healthier now that the disease which was holding her back was gone.
Her eyes opened wide.
"What did you…." She pressed her hand flat against her sternum, feeling her own chest rise and fall without issue. "I can feel it. I can feel the difference."
"The inflammation is gone," Orissa said, withdrawing her hands. "Your body will need time to remember what being healthy feels like. You will be tired for several days as it reorients itself. Eat more than you think you need. Sleep when Unarra is asleep rather than using those hours to work." She looked at Renarra directly. "I know that last instruction will be the hardest one to follow."
"Thank you. I will try my best to rest as you instructed. But may I ask how you did it? The theocratic priests could not do something like this."
Orissa smiled hearing Renarra's question. This was the type of question she always liked answering. "How I do it, is because of the Emperor." Orissa began to explain. "He has directly given each medical priest their healing abilities, which allow us to heal those who have uncurable diseases, or something too severe to be treated by normal means."
"The Emperor himself?" Renarra was shocked.
"Yes. That is why most call him a god despite him never claiming the title himself. Even this faith that he has so benevolently bestowed upon us, doesn't describe him as a god. Yet the evidence of what he has done speaks in ways that titles cannot contain." Orissa folded her hands together, choosing her next words with the care as she had given this particular explanation many times and understood that it landed differently depending on who was receiving it.
But Renarra received it well. Her previous understanding of what the Emperor was described as was fighting with her newfound revelation. It would take time for her to change her faith, but over time like all beings, she would come to understand on her own terms what the temple represented and what the Emperor meant to those who had chosen to follow him.