At her words, the deep-set wrinkles on Saint Cyril's face seemed to carve themselves even deeper:
"Confidence... is good. But we need more than just confidence, Elizabeth. We need 'results.'"
"You must understand. Chaos is spreading, authority is eroding, and the people's hearts are wavering. We are in desperate need of an irrefutable miracle—a symbol that can quell all doubts, command all attention, and grant the new order supreme legitimacy."
His cloudy eyes bored into Elizabeth. "Nothing would better display Oriane's favor, eclipse the fractured Northern Shepherd Chief District in the face of a true miracle, and return the Church Court's authority to its zenith—or even... beyond what it once was—than to have the Morning Star Bell, silent for hundreds of years, ring out thunderously for you, for the new era, at your own coronation ceremony for the Pope's Throne!"
