Chapter 46: Bad Choices

  The conditioning armor lay on the Armory's pristine floor like a bear trap waiting for a victim. Neither Pylades nor Priest of Steel Marcus could read what I felt - I hid vulnerability well. Only the High Priestess eyed me with a hint of sympathy.

  My heart pounded in my ears as I lay down and swallowed audibly. Even through my clothes I could feel the cold clasps, and the sensation crawled under my skin like an old memory. When I closed my eyes, I saw something different instead of the familiar pink of my eyelids.

  A frosty glass. A chilly mist bouncing off it.

  My eyes shot open and I gasped, fighting off that phantom clench around my chest.

  The High Priestess looked at me with worry. "Everything alright, Leonard?"

  A slow, uncertain nod.

  Pylades helped me stand up. The conditioning armor pressed against the clasps along my body, making my movements feel strange. The wire-like construction behaved like a spring, resisting my movements before recoiling against them. It forced my deep muscles to react and counter; my tendons and cartilage took the strain.

  *This will be very effective training.*

  "Let's go," Pylades ordered. I followed at once, hoping Pylades wouldn't notice I still had my boots on, no matter how thin the soles were. We left the fresh armory's air and walked into the smell of my believers and the Temple's murmur - distant footsteps, whispers and my followers' prayers.

  When we moved out of the Temple, followed by the small praying crowd, we went through the lively market. The air was chilly, carrying fish, herbs, and dust. Pale, scrappy kids were running alongside busy stalls. Shy sun shone through grim clouds. A press of sweaty bodies parted before us like water before Moses. Some of them joined the procession behind us. My shadows stepped closer to me, nervous, but the towering Holy Knight in front of us was deterrent enough.

  "Bless us, Saint!" someone shouted across the crowd.

  "Althea, some fitting line from Pandora's teaching?" I whispered in my mother tongue. The High Priestess walking beside me glanced at me.

  "About what, my Leonard?"

  "Something simple, to appeal to the masses?"

  "Just say, 'May Pandora bless you with health and safety, I'll pray for you.'"

  "May Pandora bless you with health and safety, I'll pray for you," I raised my voice waving to the people around like a pope. Faces around me showed happiness, exaltation, reverence and hope.

  The last one needled me worse than the catalyst, already aggressively doing its work.

  *I'll give you hope, if that's what you want. The same kind of hope I received from Pandora.*

  Pylades kept stomping in his Sacred Armor, indifferent, while the High Priestess smiled hesitantly.

  When we passed the first gate in the inner Temple's walls the road changed to cobblestone. Large, round stones like small islands. The first step rolled my ankle - I had to compensate - the conditioning armor fought back, and the catalyst answered instantly, pinching the strained tissue.

  "Leonard, can we...," the High Priestess said, "can we talk?" Her posture was perfect, her robes clean and smooth — so unlike the shabby clothes of those around us.

  "Yes, High Priestess?" I asked politely, but kept looking around. The street was lined with buildings that didn't quite resemble any style I knew. Most were simple brick structures, plastered over in uneven, weathered coats. Yet beneath the crude finish lay a quiet sophistication — clean lines, deliberate geometry — the kind of knowledge that survives even when the means to apply it don't.

  "Leonard, could you tell me," a pause, then weaker, "what the Princess said?"

  *That everybody knew there was an Otherworlder before me, and all of you kept me in the dark.*

  Another uneven stone nearly took me down, my left knee taking the strain. The second gate in the outer Temple's walls marked the end of the road.

  "Leonard?" the High Priestess pressed on, eyes fixed on me.

  *What excuse will you give me? I didn't ask? It's common knowledge? To protect me? Spare me.*

  "I don't want to talk about this," I rasped, bathing in my own sweat. In response the High Priestess gave me water and remained silent.

  The Inquisitor by the gate checked our seals, his black robe concealing him from head to toe. Two Holy Knights flanked the wide wooden gate reinforced heavily with steel, which stood fully open. Its mechanism was simple in materials but clever in design. The gate slid sideways along the wall, climbing a slight incline, and was held in place by a lever wedged into a slot.

  Crossing the threshold revealed the trick of it: the gate ran on a recessed track, its half-meter-thick slab sinking nearly a meter into the ground. Small metal wheels lined its underside, and a compact gear-reduction assembly helped pull the heavy slab uphill when the gate was opened.

  *Clever. Pull the lever and gravity will close the gate.*

  My believers and followers remained within the Temple's walls - we moved out without them.

  *Will you faithfully wait for your Saint?*

  Outside the Temple the fields with crops stretched to the forest on the horizon. The odd scaffolding from a few days ago glowed over the fields ahead.

  "What's this?" I asked the High Priestess.

  She didn't reply right away. The cobblestone road kept challenging me. The stones here were separated by dirt. Not tightly cramped like within the Temple's walls, but troublesome nonetheless.

  "Pandora's light. Helps crops grow. The Temple" — she said the rest with regret — "lacks the Weather Magic the Royal Palace has."

  "What's the Weather Magic?"

  "It repels the clouds from the War, Saint Leonard."

  "Uhm, War for Survival? Or War of Gods? Can you tell me about the War of Gods?"

  Silence.

  There were a few Priests who examined the scaffolding. A few farmers were cleaning what looked like the hydration system. Tall corn narrowed our path on both sides.

  "High Priestess?"

  "I don't want to talk about this," she said with her head pointed forward.

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  "You promised you would tell me one day, remember? I asked before. I think it was in the market."

  "I don't want to talk about that," - she raised her voice a bit but I noticed anyway - "and not now."

  "Tsk. Fine. Althea?" The High Priestess kept walking calmly beside me, but suddenly became very interested in the fields on her right.

  "I'll always be here for you, my Leonard."

  "This is not what... Nevermind. Tell me about the War of Gods, but keep it simple. I'm already sore all over, the catalyst drills my body, and my head is gonna explode. I need a simple and easy answer."

  "Yes, my Leonard. I feel you. Well, Pandora fought against other gods for four days and won. Roughly ten billion people died in the process" — I missed a step and nearly went down — "and the previous civilization vanished in the process. Pandora sheltered-"

  "Stop," I said. "I changed my mind. I don't want to talk about this."

  "Of course, my Leonard."

  *Holy fucking fuck. They had... They all just died? Four days of war!? Ten billion!?*

  I kept walking on those hellish cobblestones. Pylades barked to correct my posture. I glanced at the High Priestess, wondering if she knew the same version of history that Althea knew.

  *No wonder she keeps quiet.*

  "High Priestess," I said, looking up ahead. The path followed a gentle arc, hiding behind the wall of corn. In the corner of my eye I saw the High Priestess, walking proudly. Her long robe almost brushed the stone. Her steps were measured and steady despite the tricky cobblestone surface.

  "Althea told me. It is painful, but I had to know." No reaction. "I need to know, even if it is hard. Better than ignorance."

  She didn't reply. A small nod, like a child caught in a lie. It looked like habit rather than genuine comprehension.

  *You don't get it, do you?*

  We continued our march a little longer. The corn fields changed into rows of potatoes and I could see the forest in the distance. At the tree line, two figures that looked like Holy Knights patrolled alongside a group of soldiers.

  "Pylades, do Holy Knights patrol the fields?"

  Every word from him in that armor landed like a warning — I left it alone. He didn't grace me with his attention, just replied coldly. "Protection against wildlife."

  I waited for more explanation, but it didn't come.

  "Turn around. We're going back," Pylades ordered.

  I turned around. The Temple's settlement wasn't that far. The tip of the Temple, like a castle, was visible against the clouded sky. The lack of natural light made colors plain and depressing.

  *Wildlife.*

  *What kind of wildlife makes Holy Knight protection necessary?*

  My cage — the conditioning armor — let out a metallic groan as I nearly stumbled again. I still had surprisingly lots of energy left in me. The itch deep in my bones and around my joints kept building, slowing me as I instinctively tried to guard against further damage. The armor and cobblestone prevented that.

  When we were back in the Temple's walls the ceremonial crowd of believers waited beside the gate.

  *Huh, so they indeed waited. Persistent, I can give you that.*

  I smiled at my believers with a small nod and they lit up like children.

  "We all should do our part in the effort for victory, ask yourselves - what is yours?"

  *Get to work, enough stalking for today.*

  "Find your answer. Tomorrow we'll pray again."

  *Not that I prayed.*

  The High Priestess looked at me with surprise, which was replaced by confusion, but she finally gave me a genuine smile with a respectful nod.

  *Training. Victory. Home. It's only that, Ev-High Priestess.*

  When we were back in the armory, Priest Marcus asked me to lie down so he could remove the conditioning armor. It was more like a controlled fall, but I managed somehow. Marcus freed me from my cage, which left me tingling — that pins-and-needles feeling where the clasps had been.

  *Oof. I did it.*

  Then Pylades and Marcus disappeared behind the armor storage's silver door to remove the Sacred Armor. All I could hear were the muffled thuds the armor's steps made, and a buzzing click - probably from resting the sword in the wall's recess.

  When they came out, I asked with a hopeful expression, "Can I swing the hammer a few times?"

  Pylades chuckled, "Get those puppy eyes away, ask the Overseer."

  "High Priestess?"

  Silence.

  I grunted.

  "Five swings each hand," she forced the words out. "Then we get back to schedule."

  My grip was weak and to my frustration, I couldn't put all my effort into the... training. Yet the hammer's handle felt right in my hands, like it belonged exactly there.

  The first swing ended with a loud clank when it hit the dummy. The painful tremor that ran up my arms and splashed all over my torso was carrying over something else. Pain had never felt like relief before — not once in my life.

  Readying myself for the next swing, I asked Althea casually.

  "Althea, tell me please, can you help with the traitor?"

  The High Priestess raised her hand in a "stop" gesture. She lifted my sleeve and rolled it up above the elbow. The dark-grey replaced the gold in her eyes after a suppressed hiss from her.

  "But are you ready to enter the spirit world, my Leonard?" Althea asked.

  Evadne nodded slowly to me. I looked away, but heard the rustle of her robe when she walked away gracefully.

  "Why?"

  "Because, my Leonard, my power is... unavailable without your will. That time it was a coincidence I sensed the intruder, the spirit tried to impersonate the High Priestess to relay a message."

  *You keep saying that, but what do you mean by that exactly? Besides... Wait. Hold on.*

  I rested the hammer on the floor, panting.

  "Impersonate Evadne?" The name slipped. Mother tongue or not, the name sounded the same. The High Priestess looked at me with confusion. Uncertain. But I kept looking at the dummy, like my gaze itself could crush it. "How did you know?" I asked in my mother tongue.

  "I watch her and her spirit closely, my Leonard."

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I slammed the hammer on the dummy, it wiggled and jingled from the impact.

  "Why?"

  "Because," Althea hesitated, "I keep watch. I protect you against other spirits' possession."

  The hammer fell behind me, ready to strike.

  "But why her specifically, Althea?"

  "She's very close to you. That means she could hurt you. But I will protect you from her if it comes to that. It looked like her spirit sent a message to a recipient she had never contacted before. Suspicious, if you ask me. And her spirit didn't wait for a reply. When it was clear the spirit didn't know the message had been sent, I tried to trace the path. But the source was not set, the message changed its recipient many times over and-"

  "Skip it, Althea. You're jealous of Ev-High Priestess."

  "No, I'm merely-" - Slam - *That's enough.*

  "I asked about the intruder, Althea. You sensed an intruder, thought it was the barber. That matters. Why should I enter the spirit world because of that?"

  "With your will and my powers, we could look for the traitor in the spirit world."

  I poured all my strength into the swing. Slam. I swapped my hands, now the left was the leading one.

  Slam.

  *Traitor. After the Crucible, this is the highest threat now.*

  Slam.

  *It probably all started with the traitor - the attack on the Temple and Royal Palace. My obse-focus on getting stronger, it all connects back to that fucking rat.*

  Slam.

  *But the spirit world? The void with the net of glaring eyes?*

  My shoulders shivered as if I had stepped out of a frozen lake. It had nothing to do with exhaustion from swinging the hammer.

  *Is this normal? Does Evadne enter the spirit world too? If I ask out of the blue, what will she do? Will she tell Pythia? What then? I'm helpless during the Crucible, trapped here at their mercy. I should aim for an innocent question, just in case.*

  "High Priestess, were you in the spirit world before?"

  She looked at me like I was a newly discovered species. Pylades examined the dummy like it was the only thing that mattered and he hadn't heard anything. Idas leaned against the wall on the far end near the entrance to the gym - relaxed but vigilant.

  "What? Of course not, it's the domain of the gods and spirits. Mortals can't enter, Leonard."

  "Huh, really? I thought so... even the Saint, High Priestess?"

  "Who told you this, Leonard?"

  "Uhm, Idas." I said quietly so that Idas leaning against the wall couldn't hear.

  "He told you about the First Men?" the High Priestess asked.

  "Yes," I said confidently.

  "The stories about them interacting with the spirits directly in the spirit world are the stuff of legends. Even if they could do it, we're not them. Nobody living can do that."

  I was grateful for her answer, but the petty part of me couldn't hold back the jab.

  "Thank you, High Priestess, some things may seem obvious to you, but it's all new for me. Sometimes I may not even know what to ask about. I appreciate... your honesty."

  She nodded, but her lips pursed and she began to study the contents of her pouch with great focus.

  *My last swing, how unfortunate.*

  The hammer rose and fell like an unstoppable fate on the dummy. The tremor crawled up from my arms and spread through my body. The catalyst engaged viciously, chipping along the way.

  *Uh, so satisfying.*

  "Alright, Leonard, now the real deal." Pylades pointed at the yoke and the small ramp with the stairs a few meters away.

  The yoke came down on my shoulders, putting me off balance instantly. Water sloshed inside the barrels. The weight pressed relentlessly against my bones, guiding the catalyst. Each step on the stairs added a bit more pain that didn't fade away completely, accumulating.

  I jumped off the ramp. Thud.

  "I...I'm not sure if I'm ready, Althea." I said in my mother tongue.

  "You're not, my Leonard. But that's alright. I'll guide you, don't worry."

  A few painful steps and I hit the gym floor again — the catalyst exploded in my heels.

  *It's not like she's disobeyed me even once. She took action, yes. But... can she disobey me even if it's against 'protect'? Loopholes, loopholes.*

  "You're my guide in the spirit world? That's why everyone calls you a guide?"

  "That too, my Leonard. But I can guide you toward... power in the real world too."

  "Still, Althea, the spirit world is creepy."

  "Trust me, my Leonard. I'll take care of you in the spirit world."