Extreme Passions

"Extreme Passions" is the third of four episodes in the Foundations mini-series and is an episode of the third season of Stationery Voyagers overall. It details the Minshan Easter story, and ties in the significance of the events with the Imperial War of Markerterion.

Synopsis
Minshus is arrested, crucified, and his lifeless body falls into the Lakeith Pit. The lid appears suddenly and seals the pit shut. The opening to the pit then sinks deep underground and vanishes. Thestor, Minshus protector when Minshus was a small child, is kidnapped by Jaldinian leaders and beaten savagely until his unstable Mikloche powers transform him into a monster. The angels Levío, Gabón, Filforth, and Maurice team up to rescue Thestor and indict the surviving conspirators against him publicly. They exploit the pride of those conspirators to get them to confess the crime, without actually launching an allegation against them. Thestor is healed of his condition and restored to his homeworld, where he becomes an apostle.

Plot
As the Christmas celebrations are wearing down on Mantith, Abberwadd decides to take a look into the history of Whixtitout. He knows that the Voyagers still have Melanie and that Nonpriel is dead, but decides to get a report on what the Verinthian Resistance is doing. A non-Mikloche-enabled Whiteout has been captured, and is found reading a copy of the Whixtitian Minshan Writings in his prison cell. Abberwadd inquires as to which section he is reading, and the prisoner reveals that he is going over the events of Minshus' ressurection as recorded by Thestor.

The two begin discussing Thestor together, and a flashback begins. Thestor is shown to be keeping close tabs on Minshus, whom he has been assigned to watch. The events of the passion begin to unfold, and Thestor tries to keep a low profile and ensure that no Drismabons interfere. However, his time spent on Mantith after being brought there by supernatural means has weakened the effects of the Drisalian curse on him. He still has his Mikloche powers, but is no longer a Whiteout. In his continued human form, his Mikloche powers begin to grow unstable; and he begins to break through security shells more quickly.

He has passed his time by trying to take up a trade as an evening watchman. However, his unwillingness to say anything bad about Minshus has resulted in the Jaldinian guards not trusting him. Minshus throws a tantrum in a marketplace set up inside a temple, and a criminal tries to exploit the situation to murder a small child. However, the troublemaker is interrupted by Thestor.

Gabón shows up in an alleyway to assure Thestor that it will soon be time for Thestor to return to his homeworld to begin a new legacy, but that things will grow ugly for him soon on Mantith. Angry Jaldinian leaders form a mob to pursue the unstable Whixtitian, but he initally fights them off. His escape is short-lived when his Mikloche power grows unstable and he falls unconscious amidst his pain. The events of the passion of Minshus begin to unfold. A temporarily powerless Thestor awakes to find himself a prisoner of certain Jaldinian leaders. They demand that he renounce Minshus publicly, but he assures them that he was sent by the angel Gabón to support Minshus. He then warns them that they will need Minshus' help to defeat both the Vile Chameleon and the Drismabons. Thestor's captors grow outraged at this suggestion, and they begin beating Thestor savagely.

As Minshus is led to his crucifixion hovering over the Lakeith Pit, Thestor's captors return. They begin beating him until the violation of his Mikloche security shells causes him to transform into a microwave-beam-emitting monster, and the angels have to battle him personally to stop him from uncontrollably nuking downtown Jernusalen. He turns his captors into nuclear waste, and begins a rampage through the city. His mutation is aggravated further by streams of radiation following from the sealing of the Lakeith Pit with Minshus' body inside it, and the subsequent earthquake.

The angels eventualy call the surviving members of the kidnapping conpiracy, including the high priest, out and demand they account to the public for capturing Thestor. When they refuse to cooperate, the angels beat the men savagely and then warn them: "We only let you live, because your current prestige is the only prestige you shall ever know." A defiant high priest shouts at the crowd that Maurice, Filforth, and Levío are demonic frauds. Ignoring him, the angels open up a temporal Chasm Tube and transport Thestor safely back to Whixtitout. Terrified civilians gaze in awe, and recognize that the Lakeith Pit as sealed itself shut for the first time since it was opened by Dabor and Meelia. A Romalan soldier responds: "That pit NEVER shuts! Only the son of a god could make it change its mind!"

Thestor then awakes on Whixtitout having been de-powered back to a Shell 7. His fellow Whiteout kind begin nursing his injuries, and he notices himself reverting back to a Whiteout. Gabón appears to him one last time, giving him a vision of Minshus' resurrection and informing Thestor that he is to become the apostle to the world of Whixtitout.

Meanwhile, Abberwadd and his prisoner in the "present day" begin to reflect on the significance of the discovery.