The silence of the streets of Atlantis was broken by the footsteps of a young man walking down an alleyway. He was making his way back from the location of his last delivery of the evening. His name was Irin and he was an apprentice baker, so it was his job to deliver the rolls and loaves to the inns and taverns in this part of the city. Unfortunately, his deliveries were taking longer than normal and it was starting to get dark.
He still had one more stop to make.
Hefting his satchel, he pushed open the door to the Mammoth’s Tusk and entered into the orange glow of the fire-lit main room.
As he made his way to the front bar, he caught snippets of conversations as he passed.
“-Think she’s just testing us. This is to see who is truly faithful and who is merely-”
“He’s gone crazy. Claims there ain’t one Goddess, but many. Says he had a vision from Tula-Ki the goddess of mammoths. Apparently she told him to go ‘live with the herd for a year, to learn their ways’”
“Aye well, that’s what happens when you take as many blows to the head as he has.”
“Apparently he leaves next week.”
Irin rolled his eyes and wove between two tables. Now that the Goddess had told them she wasn’t immortal or divine, people were grasping at anything they could find.
“-Found the note next to his body. Why would he do that? He was so young…”
Irin finally made it to the front of the room and asked the barmaid behind the counter if the tavern keeper was in.
“Sure.” The pretty young woman murmured, throwing him a dazzling smile. “I’ll go see if he’s about.”
As he waited, irin continued to eavesdrop on conversations that were going on around him. He idly listened in on two men discussing the former goddess Pryvani and expounding on what consequences the revelation of her mortality would have on the community at large.
“I just wonder what she’s like. If she ain’t a goddess, then what is she?”
“Ah well, I don’t really care as much about that. Although at least now I don’t have to feel guilty any time I happen to catch a look up her robe.”
“Feh. As if a lady like that would want to have anything to do with a man the size o’er finger!”
“A man can dream can’t he?”
Irin felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and found himself face-to-face with the grizzled owner of the Tusk.
“Ah Mr. Morten.” Irin smiled brightly. “Got your week’s order right here, sir.” Irin hefted the satchel on his shoulder onto the counter and unzipped it to reveal the loaves that the Tusk had ordered the previous day.
Morten nodded. “Looks to be in order.” The old man lowered one of his massive paws and dropped a small leather sack of coins into Irin’s hands.
Irin wouldn’t insult Morten by counting the money in front of him. If it turned out the man had shorted them, then the his master would… have words with him later.
“Much obliged, Mr. Morten. We’ll see you in a few days’ time then. “
Irin left the tavern and walked down the street back towards the baker’s shop where he worked. He’d only travelled a block or so when he realized he was in trouble.
Ahead of him, coming up the street was a group of about a dozen men.
“You want to pass, you gotta pay the toll.” The rough looking gentleman in the lead.
“Um…” Irin paused as if to consider. “No.”
And he took off running in the opposite direction.
There was about a five second pause while the gang of thugs processed this unexpected reaction, then the leader shook his head.
“Go get him you idiots!”
Soon the streets of Atlantis rang with the sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing of a young man running full tilt.
Of course, all Irin could hear was the pounding of his own pulse in his ears. His heart rate quickened and he felt like his chest would explode, but still he ran because he knew that if he were to stop, he’d be dead.
His mind flashed to Zhan, his missing and foolish friend. Zhan wouldn’t have run, Zhan would have fought them all. He would have done it with a stupid grin on his face. He probably would have had the pulp beaten out of him, but he would have been laughing the entire time.
Zhan was like that. Irin was not. This was why Zhan was in the Watch and Irin baked bread. One rarely got killed baking bread for a living.
Hopefully, this night would not prove to be the exception to that general rule.
“He went this way!”
“Get him! Quick!”
Irin ducked down a side street but it was no good, he heard the thudding steps of his pursuers still. Fear gripped him as he felt his heart thudding in his chest.
“Hey!” A voice called out. “In here!”
He looked to the side and saw a figure concealed by the shadows. Irin was cognizant of the fact he might be walking into bigger trouble than that which chased after him, but any port in a storm.
Without a second glance back he followed the figure into the rundown building.
Once inside he was able to see a little more by the light of a shuttered lantern that the mysterious figure held in his hand.
“My name is Garteh.” He whispered. “It looks like you did something to piss of the death cult.”
“I’m Irin.” The young man responded. “And yeah, I accidentally wandered into their territory. I thought the Watch said all the cultists we imprisoned?”
Garteh shrugged and brushed his rust-red curls out of his eyes. “They’re like rats, the second you think you’ve got them all, a new disgusting nest appears.”
Off in the distance they heard the yells and howls of the thugs as they ran by. A moment later there was the sound of breaking glass as Irin’s pursuers found something else to vent their frustration on.
“Come on.” Garteh nodded his head towards the back of the room. “I know someplace you can lay low for a bit.”
He led Irin out the back door and down a side alley, past another cluster of buildings and down another blind alley. Irin had become so disoriented he wouldn’t have been able to find his way back with a map.
Eventually the pair found themselves in the burned out remains of an old tavern. Inside, what appeared to be a rather clandestine meeting was taking place. In front of a makeshift altar, and old man was pacing, addressing a group of gathered followers who were kneeled reverently in front of him.
“Who is that? And where are we?” Irin whispered as the two of them stood against the back wall.
“I’m not sure what his real name is, but everybody just calls him Brother Sulphur. After the riots, he began preaching a return to reverence for the True Goddess.”
“I thought she said she wasn’t actually a Goddess?” Irin’s brow creased in confusion.
Garteh shook his head. “No, not her. He says that she’s another false goddess, trying to lead us all astray. Brother Sulphur says the true goddess hasn’t been seen for about thirty years, and won’t return until her people let go of sin and decadence.”
“But what-“ Irin started to ask, but Garteh shushed him. Brother Sulphur’s sermon was about to begin.
“We are living in an age of decadence and sin!” He screamed, gesticulating wildly with every word he spoke.
“See?” Garteh whispered with a grin.
“False goddesses walk amongst us, brothers and sisters; demons cloaked in pleasant forms and speaking honeyed words looking to lead us astray from the path of righteousness!” His voice was a deep baritone that seemed to shake the rafters above them.
“But this is nothing new, my children, even though it might seem that way to the youngsters among you.” As he talked, figures dressed in black moved amongst the congregation who would occasionally lash out at one of the kneeling attendees with thick leather chords they carried in their hands, striking them across the back hard enough to cause angry red welts to appear.
“What… what are they doing?” Irin whispered fearfully, just what kind of place had he found himself in?
“Relax.” Garteh whispered back. “They’re undergoing voluntary purification. Brother Sulphur says that pain is the result of sin, and that those who don’t have sin will feel no pain. When those people feel nothing, they will know they are purified.”
Irin’s eyes narrowed, he was unsure if that made any sense or not.
“No,” The preacher continued, “This is the culmination of a slow decline that began when I was but a young lad. Most of you gathered here today were not born then. You do not remember the face of the true Goddess. The true goddess did not beg for friendship and grant petty wishes… she did not plead for peace. She did not ask for anything. She DEMANDED! She demanded loyalty and sacrifice! She punished the sinful and the guilty! She rained terror and the awesome might of justice down upon mankind!”
His tone was rising to a fevered pitch and his gestures became all the more animated. Despite himself, irin felt his heartbeat hammering as he got swept up in the preacher’s words.
“THAT is how a true goddess acts, my friends. This imposter that sits in her throne now, this harlot, this… Pryvani… is not the one we seek. She has claimed not to be a goddess, and this is the only truth that demon spawned whore has ever spoken!”
His final words rang against the rafters in the ensuing silence, broken only by the occasional crack of a leather chord against someone’s back.
“This is the hour, my brothers and sisters, to pay your debts. Now!” After a brief moment of silence he knelt in front of the altar and carefully lowered his garment until his back was exposed. Wordlessly, one of the black clad men moved behind brother Sulphur, and raised the leather chord above his head.
*.*.*.*.*
The candlelight around her cast odd shadows against the stone wall as Lysis, Captain of the Watch, stood in the center of the temple, looking at the charred face of the Goddess.
Well, Lysis was forced to admit to herself, a former goddess. And yet, it wasn’t Pryvani whom she was here to contemplate. It wasn’t Pryvani’s mark she had painted on her face. It was Zara’s.
“Can I tell you a secret?” She asked the statue wryly. “I haven’t a clue what to do about what’s going on in the city. Everywhere I look there’s confusion in despair, and I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep the peace.”
She turned to face the statue again. “It’s easy for you all, up on that mountain. You’re above it- literally. You don’t have to live down here in the filth of the city and see the crime, or the despair, or the dead bodies. “
She paced in front of the statue, her venting emotions giving her nervous energy. “It’s my responsibility to keep the peace in this place… yet how can I do that when everything has been turned topsy turvy? How can I maintain order when an entire city full of people has been thrown into chaos?”
She ran a hand through her dark hair in frustration. “Zara… you were supposed to be, I don’t know… a second chance at faith for me. You were supposed to be a symbol I could believe in… and yet…”
Lysis sighed. She wasn’t sure what to do about that misplaced faith now. The marking had long since been washed away; she knew Zara was no more a goddess than Lysis herself. Well, she knew it intellectually, anyway. But…
“It’s a strange night to be visiting the temple, Lysis.” Lysis started suddenly and turned around. There, as if formed by smoke and light, was Zara herself.
She was human sized and her image flickered slightly in the dim firelight.
“Is this one of those ‘holograms’ that the High Priest was telling me about?” Lysis asked archly.
“Actually, yes.” Zara said simply, a warm smile on her face. “Pryvani said she heard you in here talking to yourself about me, so she came and got me.”
“I wasn’t talking to myself!” Lysis protested. “I was merely thinking out loud.”
“Of course.” Zara chuckled. “This place is rather good for that sort of thing, even if it is a bit draftier than it used to be…”
Lysis shrugged. “It can be rebuilt.”
Zara shook her head. “I’m not sure it should be. But, enough about that, that is a discussion for a different time. What brings you to this place to… think out loud about me?”
Lysis hesitated for a moment before speaking. “Can I be honest with you?”
“Of course.”
“I want so badly to be mad at you, you know that?” Lysis sat on the dais of the statue. “I want to scream about how you lied and how horrible you are the way Zhan has… but I can’t do that. Because unlike Pryvani, you never proclaimed yourself a goddess. You never asked to be worshipped.”
Zara shrugged. “If it helps, I wouldn’t blame you for still being mad at me. In fact you can scream at me right now. I’ll give you two minutes free.” Zara joked, but Lysis just shook her head.
“That won’t be necessary.”
A silence fell between them as both struggled to find something to say.
“Can I ask you something?” Zara asked suddenly, “And if I do will you answer honestly?”
“I… will try.”
“Why me?” Zara sat down on the stone floor of the temple, enjoying the novelty of having to look up at Lysis. “Why did you choose to worship me?”
There was another bit of silence as Lysis seemed to consider the question. “I… I don’t really know. Before Trell entered the city I never questioned that there was one goddess. None of us did, of course, why would we? And then Trell attacked. None of us knew what to make of it, but mostly we called her a demon. It made sense to us. And then… you and Taron appeared.”
She slipped off the dais and began to pace in front of it as she talked. “We couldn’t as easily fold you into the ‘demon’ category as we could her because, well, you weren’t being evil. So that only really left one other option.”
“Gods.” Zara breathed.
“Exactly. And… I don’t know it’s… There was just something that drew me to you. You looked like me, and you came to help us. Where Trell was destruction, you were peace.”
She drew the curved sword at her hip and looked at it in the reflected candlelight. “Not like me. In you I saw something I could have been if I hadn’t chosen to go into the Watch. Beautiful, loving, graceful…”
“Graceful?” Zara snorted. “Remind me to have Sophia tell you about the time I fell down the stairs by sneezing.”
Lysis let a small smile onto her face. “Well, admittedly I grafted traits onto you that I wanted to see in myself.”
“Yeah well, I can assure you I have my flaws. Again, just ask Sophia.” Zara giggled, and then looked at the other women appraisingly. “For the record, I admire quite a bit about you as well.” She suddenly stood and walked over to Lysis, who was surprised to find she was actually a little taller than the projected image of the Titaness.
“Look, I don’t entirely know what’s going to happen here in the near future. Everything seems to be up in the air.” Zara sighed. “But, I hope that you and I can have the opportunity to get to know each other… as friends?”
Lysis blinked, and then nodded. “I… I’d like that.”
“Great!” Without warning Zara had bounded forward and tried to throw her arms around the Captain, but she apparently had forgotten she was just a projection and her image passed right through the human woman.
“Oops.” Zara blinked. “Well, that didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.”
The Titaness shrugged. “Oh well. I suppose I should let you get back to your night, Captain.”
“Will we talk again?” Lysis asked, with just a tinge of hopefulness in her voice.
“If you’d like.”
“I would.”
“Good.” Zara’s face split into a bright smile, “I’d like that too.” And then her holographic form vanished, leaving Lysis alone in the temple with a charred statue and a ring of candlelight.