Fallen, page 21
‘Sigh. A goddess’s work is never done.’
‘I don’t think you’re supposed to say “sigh,”’ Annamia grumbled under her breath.
‘What have you tried?’
‘Well, I’ve done a lot of praying. I got some really funny looks spending an hour in front of her big statue in the chapel. No one prays to her for that long. So, I tried in my room. I spent three hours meditating upon nature and my goddess and fertility and stuff last night.’
‘Meditating.’
Annamia frowned. ‘Yes, meditating.’
‘On fertility.’
‘Yes…’
‘Are you sure you weren’t just mast–’
‘I was not!’ Annamia’s cheeks went scarlet.
Mysara’s grin turned to its mischievous setting. ‘You were thinking about it though.’
‘I did wonder if that might help,’ the priestess mumbled.
‘Maybe it would,’ Mysara replied, turning serious at the flip of a switch. ‘You have to consider the kind of goddess you’re dealing with. She can always hear your prayers, but if you want her to actually notice them, you need to really tune yourself into her nature. And my sister is all about nature. Have you tried praying in a natural setting? Communing with nature, so to speak. Somewhere really natural would be best, I’d imagine, but a garden or farm might work. Maybe a garden more than a farm. There’s something at her temple, right?’
‘There is, but I’d be sitting there for ages with other people going past. I’m going to get a reputation as an oddball. Um, more of a reputation.’
‘Sigh. Fine, let’s go somewhere and try it. I’ll just go brief Alex.’
‘Huh?’
‘I’m going to take you somewhere natural and quiet, where you can pray your butt off without anyone but me seeing you. Alex needs to watch things here until we get back.’
‘Oh. Okay. Thank you. Um, you said she could always hear our prayers?’
‘Yup.’
‘Doesn’t that get–’
‘It’s bloody annoying, that’s what it is. We all learn to tune it out, mostly. It’s kind of background noise, which is why you need to do something to make her take notice, and it’s why we don’t hand out blessings like water.’ The goddess turned to the door of the classroom. ‘If we did, quite frankly, we’d have all gone entirely mad by now.’
Godspire Mountains.
The lake in the mountains was looking just as peaceful as it had the last time Mysara had seen it. It was serene. It was about as natural an environment as anywhere she could think of. Annamia had agreed, which was why she was sitting beside the water, legs crossed and eyes closed, praying with all her might to her goddess.
The priestess had been at it for almost an hour now, and there were beads of sweat on her forehead. It was quite a warm day, and she was in full sunlight, but Mysara got the feeling that her fatigue was from something other than plain effort. Mysara had never been one to hand out many blessings like this. She had better things to do with her time than answer the prayers of mortals. She had given them magic so they could perform their own miracles. Still, she recalled that doing this took its toll on the blessed. It was a real effort to get a deity to respond when you called for them.
Mysara sensed something coming before it came into sight. A bear, a big one too, was moving through the trees toward them. If it came to it, she could obliterate the beast before it did anything bad, but there was something about it which made her hold off, and she watched as it emerged from the trees and walked over toward Annamia, coming to a stop with its muzzle no more than a foot from the priestess’s face.
Annamia must have sensed something, because she opened her eyes. Her vision filled with a massive, brown, furry face and she let out a little squeak. There was a pause of about a second – though Annamia would later describe it as ten minutes – and then the bear opened its mouth and roared. Annamia’s hair flew back in the fetid wind from the beast’s bellow. Spittle flecked her face. And then, when she thought she was about to get her head bitten off, the bear closed its mouth, turned around, and ambled back into the trees. Annamia toppled backward onto her back and lay there, breathing hard and looking at the sky.
‘What was that?’ the priestess asked when Mysara walked over to look down at her.
‘I believe the technical term is “an omen.” Which is to say that something difficult to interpret and possibly perfectly natural happened. You’re supposed to figure out what it means.’
‘I’m too tired to figure out what it means! I’m right on the edge of falling unconscious.’
‘Yeah, it takes it out of you. If I had to guess, I’d say the message was one of two things.’
‘Okay.’
‘One, beware of a coming conflict of terrible proportions. Bear-like proportions.’
‘That’s, um, not great, but I’d have been more worried if it had been a dragon. What’s option two?’
Mysara grinned. ‘“What in the name of me are you doing yelling in my ear when you don’t really have anything to ask? This is what it sounds like. Roar! See? You don’t like it either.”’
‘Oh.’
Mysara shrugged. ‘Could be either. Maybe you’ll think of something else it could be later. Sometimes, you can’t figure them out until you get another bit of information from somewhere. So, you should probably keep bellowing bears in mind for the next few days.’
‘Right. Um, could you help me up? I guess you want to get back and I’m not sure I can walk.’ Mysara rolled her eyes, but she held out a hand. ‘What would’ve been your next suggestion? If this hadn’t worked, what would be the next thing?’
‘Sex,’ Mysara said flatly. ‘I’d have suggested meditating during sex. And then meditating during sex outdoors. She is a fertility goddess.’
‘It took an hour to get that result.’
‘Yup.’
‘I’d have to meditate during sex for an hour?’
‘Probably. I’d suggest bringing several men and a lot of oil. Maybe save it for a special occasion.’
7th of Mournfal.
‘It appears that the dead zone is beginning to have health effects,’ Eminora announced as she walked into the chapel.
‘At the Temple of Orealis, yes,’ Mysara replied.
‘My information is that about half of those there are showing signs of sleep deprivation. More are feeling, well, unhealthy.’
‘Sounds about right. They’ll be more susceptible to disease. Generally less healthy. As time goes on, more of them will become fatigued. If they stay there for long enough, they’ll succumb to exhaustion and die. I’d hope they get the idea and leave before then. A couple of days in a normal environment will see them starting to recover.’
‘Who knew mana was so necessary to life?’ Annamia said.
‘They should know. Their god is the god of knowledge.’
‘Hm,’ Eminora said. ‘Would you mind if I passed the information on to them anyway?’
‘Be my guest. But they should have figured it out for themselves.’
‘Perhaps but let us not make assumptions. Now that the effects are starting to show, they are likely to react.’
The goddess gave a shrug. ‘I’m surprised they’ve been so quiet for the last five days. Orealis came, got beaten up, and they did nothing.’
‘It surprised me too,’ Alex said, ‘but I can’t imagine it’ll stay that way for long.’
8th of Mournfal.
Nothing continued to happen until the early hours of the next morning. Mysara was in the chapel, reading the Book of Magic, when something triggered the spell she used to keep an eye on things. Spending her entire night wandering the halls would have been tedious in the extreme, so she had worked up a spell to let her take breaks and do her duty while sitting still. She did get up to stretch her legs from time to time, but mostly she sat in the chapel and watched through her magic.
One aspect of the spell was to detect malice against those within the temple, and that was what triggered a few hours before sunrise. The spell provided more than a simple location: she got an impression of what was intended, and that suggested that this was not a false alarm. Her mind jumped out to where the warning had come from and, when she saw what was happening, she smiled.
~~~
It was a simple job. Go in and murder a few defenceless women. There were supposed to be a couple of adventurers in the temple, but they had been identified as bronze pins; nothing to worry over. Further, they had been keeping watch at one of the upper-storey windows when all this had started but there was no one there now. This suggested that the occupants of the temple, adventurers included, had become complacent. The magical barrier their goddess had set up had saved them so far. They assumed they were safe and could take it easy, but the barrier only stopped followers of the Twelve…
Ludrow was a follower of no god. He was not stupid enough to believe the gods did not exist, but he showed no fealty to any of them. Religious folk were gullible idiots. If you had any sense, you made your way in the world by strength and skill, beholden to no one but yourself. Ludrow’s means of achieving power and wealth – fame he could do without – was thievery and murder. He had an established identity as a silver-grade adventurer, but he mostly hired out privately for assassinations or organised and carried out high-value robberies. He was, when it came down to it, not a very nice man. He was also exactly the kind of man you wanted to sneak into a temple at night and kill as many of the clergy as he could find.
He was not alone. He had suggested a team of three, and he had recruited the other two members of his party. They were stealthy, skilled, and they had no morals to speak of. One of them had actually killed his own mother during a dispute over who should have the last slice of bread.
Silently but quite swiftly, the three of them made their way up the stairs having picked the lock on the door from the rear yard into the building. It had taken Ludrow less than twenty seconds to get the lock open. Lousy security was one of his pet peeves; the priestesses deserved to die. At the top of the stairs, Ludrow considered how best to proceed. They had a basic layout of the building in their heads, but the locations of the targets were unknown. If they came across the adventurers before the clergy, it was possible that someone would get a warning off and complicate things. If they found the dormitory, it would be best they were all together and ready to strike at multiple targets at once. Hm…
Having come to the conclusion that it was better to do something than nothing, Ludrow turned to brief his companions. They were not there. What was there was a woman with blue hair and a smile on her face. This was one of the bronze adventurers, the mage, and she was just standing there, smiling at him. It was disconcerting that she was there and his men were not, but that did not matter right now. She needed to be dealt with, and Ludrow’s right arm was moving before his conscious mind caught up with his trained reactions. The dagger he was holding, its blade coated with a syrupy poison guaranteed to kill most people in less than two minutes, plunged forward and came to a sudden stop before it even reached her shirt.
‘Huh?’ Ludrow said.
‘Huh indeed,’ Mysara replied as she reached out to clamp a hand over his mouth.
~~~
‘Did you have to kill them?’ Eminora looked down at the three bodies with a frown on her face.
‘They don’t really look dead,’ Lemaria observed. ‘They look kind of peaceful.’
‘They’re dead,’ Mysara said. ‘Very dead. And, no, I did not have to kill them. On the other hand, I really wanted to kill them, so I did.’
‘Hm,’ the elgrin said. ‘Well, you are correct that they are members of the guild. However, not every guild member sticks to guild-sanctioned work.’
‘Probably the majority,’ Alex said. ‘I mean, I doubt there are many who only do jobs from the guild.’
‘Likely true. We are also aware that jobs are posted through the guild which are not entirely as they seem. We crack the coding every so often and stamp down on illegitimate jobs, but those posting them can easily change the codes they use.’
‘Illegitimate?’ Mysara asked.
‘Mostly assassinations and theft,’ Alex supplied.
‘Precisely,’ Eminora confirmed. ‘We will entertain certain varieties of theft-based jobs, but only where an object is being retrieved having been stolen or otherwise illegally obtained. Obviously, we also entertain execution jobs where the target has been legitimately declared an outlaw. We do not hire out murderers.’
‘Sounds like there’s a lot of wiggle room,’ Mysara said, ‘but I suppose you have to work with what you have. Do you know them?’
‘Hm. No. Under the circumstances, however, I can identify them and look into whether they are currently operating under guild contract. We have a reputation to keep.’
‘It would be appreciated. We’ll keep the bodies here until you’ve had a chance to look into them.’
‘And then?’
‘They’ll be delivered to the proper authorities.’
‘And who would that be?’ Ridoch asked. ‘I find it very interesting that these three managed to get past a cordon of knights.’
Mysara grinned. ‘I thought it was interesting too. They came over the back wall into the yard. They are either possessed of heroic levels of stealth skills, or someone looked the other way.’
~~~
Knight Commander Gortal had just arrived at the Temple of Mysara to hear the afternoon report when the front door opened and Mysara emerged, dragging a body. She was followed by Alex and then Ridoch, who were also dragging bodies. Gortal had already been there that morning and heard that the temple had been quiet. Clearly, it had not been as quiet as had been reported.
‘Knight Commander,’ Mysara called out, ‘these men were killed attempting to commit murder last night. I’m sure you’ll want to take custody of the bodies and investigate.’
Gortal’s jaw clenched. ‘And what evidence do you have that they were attempting–’
‘Their daggers are all coated with an alchemical poison. It causes rapid paralysis followed by unconsciousness as your breathing stops, and then death. And they tried to kill me on sight after I found them outside the sleeping quarters.’
‘We only have your word for–’
‘And they somehow managed to get over the back wall of the temple, past your guards.’
Someone sounded shocked. Mysara was pretty sure who, though he covered his gasp quickly and, when Gortal looked that way none of the knights appeared out of place. Clearly someone had not known about last night’s plan. Mysara shifted her grip and tossed the body of the late, unlamented Ludrow out through the barrier.
‘Next time,’ the goddess said, ‘send competent assassins.’
‘The Knights of Harmak do not engage assassins for any purpose!’ Gortal responded. There was enough genuine outrage in his voice and posture to suggest that he was telling the truth, or at least what he thought of as the truth.
‘No,’ Ridoch said, ‘but it appears they’re willing to look the other way when someone else does.’ He tossed the corpse he was dragging after Ludrow’s.
‘I know you,’ Gortal said. ‘You were a squire. Why are you helping these criminals?’
‘I am working. I have a job escorting the Adventurers’ Guild observer to these proceedings. This is just me lending a hand to take out the trash. You’re right, I was a squire for almost twelve years. The knight I served would never have allowed something like this. Makes me wonder whether I got lucky and found a good master, or things have changed in the past fourteen years.’
‘The integrity of the Knights of Harmak–’ Gortal began.
‘Is currently in question,’ Mysara said. ‘Well, not by me. It’s clear to me that you have no integrity. Perhaps you’ll actually investigate, find the instigators, bring them to justice, and restore my faith. But I’m not holding my breath.’
9th of Mournfal.
‘The job was posted seven days ago,’ Eminora said, ‘and accepted by a man named Ludrow three days ago. Ludrow was one of the trio you executed, Mysara.’
‘Do you know who posted it?’ Mysara asked.
‘Of course. There is no way we could not know. A merchant named Gilnar Astermak. He has a solid reputation and belongs to a good family, but this would not be the first time we have seen someone used to post a dubious job for someone else.’
‘I doubt he’d tell us who asked him to post it,’ Alex said.
‘And it would be against guild policy to press the matter.’
‘Don’t need to,’ Mysara said. ‘I just need to see him.’
The elgrin guild rep raised an eyebrow. ‘See? Just see? I would be unwilling to condone any more strenuous forms of investigation.’
‘Just see. You people have no idea what can be achieved with the right use of connection magic.’
~~~
Gilnar Astermak, respectable purveyor of fine fabrics, had been asked to post the job by a cotton trader of his acquaintance who had been leaving the city too quickly to see the job done.
That trader was, however, still in the city, despite his urgent need to leave, and so Mysara had laid eyes on him, cast a spell, and determined that he had been paid to get the job posted by a man named Barotrik.
Barotrik was also known as Crosseye due to him having one eye which operated entirely independently of the other, and he was a purveyor of sorts himself. The things he purveyed generally belonged to someone else. Barotrik was a fence. He was not, however, the originator of the assassination request.
Nor was the next link in the chain, an apparently legitimate merchant named Ulmer Navaraol. Ulmer, however, had been the one to actually arrange the hit. He was a source of much useful information.
‘In some ways,’ Eminora said, ‘he is also a fence, but he specialises in sourcing the stolen goods he traffics in, and in trading in the rarest and most expensive items. At least, the guild is quite sure that is his business. We have never seen sufficient evidence of his crimes to put them before either civil authorities or the Knights of Harmak.’
