The aboveground portion of the Temple of Death was primarily taken up by the Healer’s Clinic, along with chapels to a few ancillary Saints of Death. The underground portion was entirely the Keeper’s Tombs. Both were built from unadorned white soapstone shot through with blue and gray. The pair passed through the quiet, crowded waiting room of the clinic and were soon led up to the third floor personally by a nurse.
“Hey!” Michah said enthusiastically, sitting up on her bed and scooting to the edge.
She hung her legs off the side, but didn’t try to get up, her right leg currently ending about mid-calf. Toby took a seat next to the window. Saul gave his sister an awkward leaning hug, which she used to pull him down to sit next to her, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.
“Don’t tell anyone,” she whispered, “but you might have actually had a point.”
“Uh huh,” he pulled out of her grip and sat on a stool, “what about?”
“That whole water manipulation thing. I could have made myself a temporary leg. Or at least had something to DO while sitting here all day.”
He looked from her to the several books and scrolls sitting on a table beside the bed, but didn’t say anything.
“Oh please, you know I don’t like sitting and reading as much as you do. The healers refuse to let an acting troupe in here to perform for me, and none of them want to do any horizontal sparring either.”
“Don’t be gross,” Saul said, “but if you really are reconsidering the versatility of your abilities, we could go over your water icon abilities again. Maybe there's one that could develop in a more general manipulative direction at—”
“Nope, not right now. I’ve had enough of books, my only proper company in hours is not allowed to start reciting thaumaturgy. What’s Toby doing here? Dad upping security?”
“Just for the kids and me. Cherith asked about getting a third for your duties, but he shot her down.”
“We were fine,” Michah rolled her eyes, “she’s the one that killed the damned thing. I was stuck sitting on the ground hitting the heads with my hammer whenever they came up. Why him and not a peon though?”
“Toby’s coming with me on my trip in a few days.”
“Oh, nice, good thinking. With him you’ve got mobile offense and healing. Your new servant got defense I assume?”
“Yeah, Dad changed like half my fragment choices to be more ‘practical.’”
“That makes sense, but I’m sorry you didn’t get to try anything new.”
“Thanks.”
They chatted for a few more minutes before leaving. With the glacial rate that even specialized death healing had when regrowing limbs, Michah wouldn’t be out until sometime tomorrow. On their way out of the temple, Saul stopped at an unassuming statue of a man in plain clothes on the first floor. He slid a mist mirror ring onto one of its pinkies and muttered a prayer of thanks to his father’s idol, the Assassin.
“Do you have a spare knife or dagger on you?” Toby asked once they were out of the temple.
“Shoot. No. I didn’t think about that when I was in my rooms.”
Saul stopped at a small stall near the entrance to the Bellatheon that sold daggers for just this purpose. He didn’t have the quarters for one of the simple daggers, so he paid a half for two nicer ones.
The pair then entered by far the largest ‘temple’ in Enchre. It was an elaborate arena complex made mostly of red granite. Unlike most temples that venerated one Angel through several of their Saints, the Bellatheon focused primarily on one Saint, the Fighter, and through them the whole Host of Arms.
Several large statues of the Fighter sat at intervals around the complex, serving as a sort of open air chapel. They first stopped at a statue of a man built like a broad-shouldered boulder, with a hammer in two hands and a giant sword strapped to his back. Saul joined the small crowd praying around it and stabbed one of his daggers into its ceramic base with dozens of similar blades, hammers, and blade-shaped holes. This time he prayed for his mother and sister.
Saul then followed Toby to a lithe statue of a woman with an elegant curved sword. Toby performed a longer prayer with practiced motions. For his offering, he made an elaborate reaching and pulling movement while turning his body to maximize his personal space. Wind rustled the clothes of everyone nearby as a curved green and silver blade similar to the statue’s appeared in his hand before he plunged it hilt-deep into the plinth.
“Do you want to see what’s on in the arena while we have lunch?” Saul asked as they walked away, “We can’t stay very long, but we have some time.”
Toby agreed, and they went to the uppermost exclusive viewing area. Spread out below them was a large field sunk into the ground with gritted wood rings and tracks. They were wooden to avoid giving an advantage to fighters with the earth icon. Pools of water and lit braziers were also scattered around. The lower seating was huge stone steps with more reasonable stairs carved into them around the oval arena.
The exclusive viewing platforms were linked, but Toby had no success getting any of the dozen or so upper nobles scattered around to join them.
“What is with people today,” he grumbled as he gave up, “Matt just grimaced at me for some reason.”
“Speed and wind,” Saul commented, eyes on the field.
“What?” Toby looked in the same direction.
There were bouts of various sorts starting, ongoing, and ending across the area, most of the participants being the clergy of the Fighter, gladiators. One of the participants in the full contact fight Saul was looking at was actually a member of a noble house who practically flickered around his opponent. This was fairly popular both for nobles and the crowd, providing training and a more varied spectacle.
“It’s an advantage here,” Saul explained, “wind. There’s a near constant breeze during the day. Even with the earth, water, and fire around, it’s the best choice. Speed tends to capitalize on that advantage.”
“I can feel the wind, but I never thought about it,” Toby said, “I have a movement ability that takes advantage of it myself.”
“The wind also tends to have upward currents that enhance the three-dimensional mobility of some circumstantial abilities. They mitigate most of the other strengths and weaknesses that come from the environment, at least for the most popular fighter combinations.”
“Good thing I have the wind icon, I guess. If you noticed that, why not take Fighter like your sisters but go the wind route?”
“I don’t want to be limited to fighting. That guy looks like a specialist, I’m seeing maybe four distinct speed enhancements. What do you think?”
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Toby tried to focus on the variations in the noble fighter’s movement speed that didn’t come just from footwork.
“He’s definitely got both of the speed enhancements that I have,” he confirmed, “he’s speeding up as he moves with the wind and when dodging.”
“When he gets into the way of his opponent too. I think there’s another conditional boost, but I can’t pin it down.”
“Is it a boost?” Toby squinted, “I think he’s slowing down for short periods?”
“Like when he exhales?”
“Maybe? Is that an ability you’ve heard of?”
“Oh yes!” Saul said excitedly, “Breath of Celerity, a passive speed enhancement that improves while inhaling or holding your breath, there are actually some similar…”
Saul didn’t stop analyzing the abilities of the participants the entire time they were eating lunch. Toby was engaged by most of it; it was a different way to enjoy the fighting.
When they left, they stopped at the Temple of Knowledge for prayer. Saul also placed another request for information in the library. Returning to the Ficial Estate, they split up to dress for training. Saul put on his death amulet as well. Bart was waiting for him outside the Lazarus Building, and they met Toby in the small arena in the training complex.
“I realize now that taking the arena wasn’t needed,” Saul told the two, “we’ll just be talking over details and making sure everyone’s on the same page. Anyway, the three of us will be taking a trip mostly overland into Elven territory in a few days, likely no more than three or four. Round trip it will probably take at least two months. I’ll be putting together a list of what we’ll have, so if there’s anything in particular you think we’ll need, let me know.
“For the next few mornings, the three of us will train together. Bart will also spend most, if not the whole, rest of the day after that training as well. His abilities are new, and he doesn’t have previous ability preparation training to build from. For right now, we’re going to go over each of your abilities and how they can be used together, do the same with cantrips, then go pray at the Temple of Water.”
“Thank you, my lord!” Bart said with a bow, “but why the cantrips?”
“While cantrips take too much time and focus to use when fighting,” Toby replied, “they help you get used to using your abilities. Practicing with them can also help you use your actual abilities for longer.”
“I’m hoping there’s one or two you can learn,” Saul added, “to develop good habits. Cantrips are also the only power I have, so I want to make sure you know what I can contribute, even if it isn’t much. On the back half of the trip, I’ll be working with an entire new set of proper abilities, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Ok then, Bart, describe your icons and abilities to me,” Toby said, turning to him, “I want to know how you think of them, and how you see yourself fighting.”
“Well, I have death, simple, and sturgeon, the fish, my lord,” Bart explained, then paused, “I don’t know how I think about them yet—Lord Saul told me to figure out ‘complex visualizations’—but I mostly just feel them inside me right now. If I pay attention, it's like my throat is dry, with a slimy fish somewhere stuck in it.
“I have two death abilities, one is the Undying one everyone has apparently, the other one makes me move a bit faster, and a lot faster if I’m trying to get in the way of a sword or something. I have two fish ones too, one makes me tough like a fish. It makes my skin feel a little tight, but I’m mostly used to it now. The other one I have to use, like pulling on a fishing line, and when I do everyone moves slower, like being at the bottom of a pond but you can’t swim up. I also have a tasting thing from my idol that lets me taste everything around me. It mostly makes me feel like my mouth is dry, but it’s my whole body.”
“You really have no offense at all, then,” Toby observed, “you should still practice with small blades to take advantage of that speed somewhat. Also something larger with a sharp point. I can help you practice positioning yourself with that burst of speed, your best bet will be getting a faster, stronger opponent to impale themselves.”
“With Toby around, injury is even less of a concern, just staying between me and the enemy to take their attacks is most of your role,” Saul added.
“True, but practicing with the accelerated state will be important there as well,” Toby said, “Now, as he mentioned, I have healing abilities. My icons are death, wind, and blade. I’m a generalist fighter split between fast swordsmanship and healing. I can eliminate disease, infection, cancer, and poison, numb pain, and rapidly heal injuries on contact. My healing abilities are all death-based, obviously, so it is strongly limited by what your own body can or can’t heal. No regrowing limbs, for example; that requires healing specialization.
“My wind and blade icons, on the other hand, both focus on mobility and stabbing. I have multiple speed enhancements, momentum redirection, weapon conjuration, blade attunement, and several flavors of the aforementioned stabbing. In a fight, I move constantly, so I’m not good at protecting anyone other than myself, but if you’re injured, I can get there in an instant.”
Saul made notes of all of this and added what specifics he already knew about Toby’s abilities. When the other two were done clarifying a few details, he moved to the next item.
“Alright, Bart, what cantrips do you know?”
“I can do Death, Death Bolt, Cleanse, and Heal, my lord,” Bart answered, “I’ve heard of a couple others, but I can’t use them.”
“Ok, that leaves two death cantrips you could work on, but pain is tricky. For now, you’ll be working on chill. What about you, Toby?”
“Death, Wind, Edge, Heal, Pain, Cut, Cleanse, Chill.”
“That’s everything I know off the top of my head for your icons,” Saul said, “but I have a dwarven book about cantrips that might have something. I’ll get back to you. Personally, I can use Mirror and Image. With my tattoo and death amulet, I have the five core death cantrips, death and mirror bolts, and On/Off.”
“I’ve heard about that tattoo,” Toby interjected, “what does it do exactly? I know there’s something about it letting you power artifacts.”
“It’s based on an Elven custom,” Saul explained, “they have an affinity for every icon, and they use tattoos similar to this one to further strengthen their connection to a specific icon. You’ve probably heard of the tattoos that people get sometimes that let them increase their death affinity? The human version is less flexible and you have to feed it death rings, but I came up with something that is sort of a mix of the two.”
“I thought it mimicked having a simple icon or something?”
“The simple icon isn’t a real icon, it just represents power with no specific form. The tattoo only works with generic power because the original idea for it basically failed. I wanted a tattoo I could put any ring into and then use cantrips of that type. It almost does that, but it’s extremely inefficient, to the point that maintaining a connection to simple power is the only practical use.”
“Excuse me, my lord,” Bart said, “but I thought it let you use death cantrips? You used Death Bolt a bunch during the interview.”
“He’s just been using his death amulet from when he was a kid,” Toby replied, “it lets children who don’t have the icon yet practice cantrips to a degree.”
“It also looks nice,” Saul said a bit defensively, “the black matches House colors.”
“That’s true,” Toby said, “they also feel sort of calming to wear. Like something inside you resonates with the power of death.”
“Toby, that’s the secondary effect of the amulet,” Saul chuckled, “to help keep kids focused. If you don’t specifically turn it on every day or so, it fades.”
“Seriously? I guess I never questioned it. Aaaaaanyway, are we heading to the temple now? Or do we have some time for actual training?”
“We’ve got time. Unless we need to get something in particular to pray at the Temple of Water?”
“Just quarters, my lord,” Bart answered, “the temple is very moist, so lighter clothes are more comfortable.”
For training, they went over the training weapons and found a long dagger that Bart liked the feeling of. It was blunted, unlike the weapons in the Lazarus Building’s training room, which had the weight and edge of a normal weapon but could be powered to prevent them from doing actual harm. Toby also took a training weapon despite being able to conjure his own weapon. One of the quirks of his weapon creation ability prevented him from making the edge any duller than a razor.
Saul took a short spear, but didn’t actually practice alongside the other two. Toby was helping Bart learn to put himself in positions that allowed his speed enhancement to trigger. Tomorrow or the next day, they’d have Bart practice trying to use it to defend someone, but for now Saul just practiced forms and footwork to the side. While most human fighters favored shorter weapons, the reach of the spear was important for him since he lacked the durability and recovery of the Undying ability.
After only an hour or so, they stopped to go change into fresh clothing, then headed to the temple district. The Temple of Water was toward the middle of the district, similar to the Temple of Knowledge. It was the only element that had its own temple in Enchre, due to the city’s proximity to the Ekbain River and the Saphah Ocean.