BOOM
The glittering egg protecting Mufara and Zora sailed out of the Spire, trailing smoke and glowing with a dull white light.
Inside, the enforcer was panicking.
What the hells was that? The church of Obani came to spy on us? Why?
He cradled Zora in his arms, as she’d been knocked unconscious from slamming around the inside of the egg. The dull glow meant his diamond had absorbed the worst of the blast wave, and kept Zora’s squishy internals safe, but it also meant he couldn’t dematerialise it until he had expended the energy somewhere.
Through the diamond shell, he felt two more eighth Harmonic cores pop into existence. He couldn’t see which church they were from but that particular ability, that instant translocation, was the domain of Yrg. That meant at least two churches were here with what Mother Steel thought were bad intentions.
What was happening in Kampe?
One of the cores was instantly silenced, while the other blinked out of existence again.
And appeared on top of the flying egg.
Mufara’s eyes widened as the man, a monk of Yrg, grinned down at him through the transparent crystal, his monk’s habit flapping in the wind, before reaching back and unleashing a mighty punch on the shell below him.
Immediately, the egg’s dull glow grew to a blinding light, as a small but loud crack opened up beneath the man’s fist. The wind whistled through the fissure as the egg reached the peak of its ascent and started falling down toward the street.
He’s going to kill us.
The egg was too small for him to translocate directly into without overlapping with something solid, but he was plenty strong enough to just break in and pull them out. One punch had fully maxed out the diamond’s energy absorption capacity, and cracked it to boot. His eighth Harmonic core sang high and powerful, while Mufara’s own core sounded subdued under the spiritual pressure.
The man reared back for another punch, a pit in Mufara’s stomach opening up as a dread certainty came upon him. Acting with an almost animal instinct, he reached forward towards the crack, touching it a mere instant before the monk’s fist crashed into it.
BANG
With sharp retort, Mufara explosively released all the stored force at the monk’s point of contact.
A scream rang out as the shockwave mangled the man’s hand, before his voice was stolen away by the wind, which roared rather than whistled now. Mufara had unleashed the energy directly upwards.
Which meant he and Zora were now rocketing towards the ground.
Shit, shit, shit.
He dematerialised the protective shell, revealing them to the city as the chilly night air sliced through the thin material of his suit. Holding Zora in his arms, he tried frantically to think of some structure to create that would catch them or arrest their fall.
A harness? No, my diamond is too hard. A platform? No, I can’t raise it high enough and a few less metres won’t make a difference at this speed. Think, Mufara… A slide!
Just as the idea came to him, he felt the Mother’s core sing closer, and a tall slide of gleaming steel started constructing itself below them. As they hit the cold metal, he saw Mother Steel crash into the airborne monk above, wrapping her legs around him to lock him in place, then rain blow after devastating blow down on his falling body, crunching into his skull with her heavy steel gauntlets. Her wild, blood-spattered grin and the sheer unbridled joy on her face unnerved Mufara to the point he looked away.
Zora slowly roused, shifting in the enforcer’s arms comfortably, before her eyes burst open and she screamed, disoriented but clearly feeling their rapid descent. They picked up speed as the steep slide extended towards the ground, building itself even as they rushed down, the materialising edge only just managing to stay ahead of them. Mufara could feel the fight still raging above him, and he marvelled at the Mother’s ability to actively shape the steel for them while simultaneously beating a man to death.
Maybe having her train me wouldn’t be a waste of time.
He shook his head again. He had only just learned this lesson with Zora and already he was making the same mistake. Ignoring his instincts and deciding to trust someone against his better judgement had gotten him trapped in a meeting with Mother Steel, and wrapped up in whatever all this was.
He wanted nothing to do with any of it.
The slide looped them around three times before their speed slowed enough that hitting the ground wouldn’t kill Zora. Still, the slide ended too abruptly, forcing Mufara to crash through a wall to come to a complete stop, throwing Zora in the opposite direction at the last second.
As he lay there in the pile of rubble, covered in dust, the odd brick falling down atop him, he felt the monk’s core silence permanently, as alarm bells finally started ringing across the Inner city. Now, Mother Steel approached, her oppressive harmonies getting lower as she dampened her core’s vibrations.
The Mother stood over Mufara, her core finally stilling, and she scoffed, crossing her arms.
“What has Sapphire been teaching you? Your body is not tough enough for a manoeuvre like that. Had I not intervened, your innards would have decorated the cobbles, you and your girlfriend. You need me.”
He sat up, frowning, as Zora puked in the background.
“Father Sapphire. And no, Mother, this ‘negotiation’ is not continuing until you tell me what in the hells just happened!”
Mother Steel shrugged.
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“We were attacked. I thought that would be self-evident.”
“Don’t play coy, you know what I mean. Why were we attacked?”
She squatted in front of him, looking him in the eye.
“Like I said, I have unfinished business in Ott.”
“Those were monks. I want no part of whatever monastic feud you’re mired in.”
She grinned.
“You’re already a part of it, boy. Yes, I can see it, this is all a part of His plan. We will leave together.”
Mufara stood up, dusting himself off while Zora continued retching a few steps away.
“No, I won’t let you drag me into your petty Citizen squabbles while claiming it as Kiine’s plan, Mother. My loyalties are to Kiine, Greatfather Gold, Grandfather Bronze, Father Sapphire, and the royal family, in that order. You rank higher than me but I do not owe you obedience.”
Her mouth twisted in frustration as she stood straight, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Headstrong to the point of imbecility. Fine. I will tell you the full story.”
Why did she not do this from the beginning? I don’t trust her, or her words.
She looked off into the distance, a commotion rising as people rushed outside, responding to the alarm bells. She had already dematerialised her massive slide, but the smoking wreckage of the Spire drew crowds regardless.
“I was the most talented nun at my convent. This is no boast, merely a fact. Kiine has always looked favourably upon me. I had my share of rivals and enemies, as any rising star does, but nothing to the point of open conflict. The Mother Superior I had trained under had succumbed to old age and I was the most obvious choice to step into her shoes. That would have been my path even now, had I not been blessed with a vision.”
She had a faraway look in her eyes as she recounted her tale, as though she were reminiscing.
“Since the Godswar, the gods have all been dormant, sleeping until one of their children reaches Divine Harmony, the 13th Harmonic, Paramatma, whatever you want to call it. Every church has been pushing their acolytes, trying to ensure that their god is the first to awaken. The church of Kiine is no different. In the interior, hidden deep within the monasteries and convents, there are entire halls full of fatewatchers, avatars whose divine gifts touch upon the strands of fate and who can gain premonitions of the future from following them. These watchers work tirelessly, day and night, scrying for Citizens with the potential to reach further, scrying for opportunities for the nuns to strengthen themselves, scrying for the plans of the other churches, all with an eye on fate, following the whorls and knots down to what we hope is Kiine’s awakening and nudging events toward that path.”
She glanced down at her bloodstained habit, her nose scrunching in distaste. It was well known that she hated getting her habit dirty.
“I believed in the mission. I even had a plan for when I became the Mother Superior, for how I would succeed where my predecessors had all failed. Then Kiine touched my mind. I was given, just for an instant, divine sight. I could see the flows of fate, the entire sprawling tapestry laid bare before me. It was… beautiful. But Kiine showed me that all was not well. We know that omens are not guarantees, and prophecies can be subverted with great effort, but we have pushed it much too far. The constant meddling in the natural order of things has built up a backlash over time, and the correction was going to happen soon if we did not change course. A correction that, if the sense of urgency I felt was right, could mean the end of the church itself.”
Mufara cut in here.
“That sounds like something you should have gone to Greatfather Gold with.”
Mother Steel shrugged.
“The Greats in the capital are too busy scheming and plotting against one another. It would have been weeks before he would have seen me. I went to the other convent Elders with this information, but they did not believe it was a real vision. I was told it was simply the mountain vapours leaking into my bedchamber. It has happened before, so I understood their scepticism, but a nun as experienced as I could never mistake the Will of her god for anything else when it manifests. So I disagreed with them. Vehemently. Publicly.”
Mufara gave a bitter smile.
“And the fragile pride of a spoiled Citizen cannot take public insolence. So you were banished here.”
She scowled, cuffing him about the head.
“Watch your tongue, boy. Those are Elders of the church you speak of. But yes. They told me I needed ‘country air’ to recover my wits, and conspired to pack me off to the frontier. However, this plan backfired, as it only proved my superior connection to Kiine’s Will.”
Mufara raised an eyebrow.
“And how did it do that?”
She grinned.
“I was granted another vision.”
Mufara reeled back like he was struck.
Two visions? Either she’s an audacious liar or she really is closer to Kiine than probably anyone apart from the Greatfather.
“No way.”
Her grin grew.
“Yes way. This was a less optimistic vision, a few years after I was sent off here. According to His Will, the time for rectifying our situation has passed. It is too late to stop the coming storm. But there is a path for the church of Kiine to make its way through the chaos with the least damage of all the churches.”
Mufara was rapt.
“How?”
“You.”
“Bullshit.”
The Mother barked out a laugh.
“Fair enough. There are a few linchpins scattered around Tarte, but I do not deceive you when I say that you are one of them. Whatever is coming, you will be one of the focuses.”
Mufara rubbed his chin.
“And you were sent to the place where this ‘linchpin’ would emerge.”
“Exactly. This was all His plan. He knew the Elders would be deafened to His voice and still put me where I needed to be.”
Mufara wasn’t satisfied.
“So Kiine sent the church of Obani and Yrg to kill you as well?”
She curled her lip.
“No, that was likely the Elders. When I received my second vision, I reached out to them, foolishly thinking they would put their pride aside for our god. Instead, they decided this was one of the predictions they could change, and leaked it to the other churches. They don’t know you’re the nexus I’ve been looking for, but they do know you’re here somewhere and that I will make contact. I’ve been attacked four times over the past three months.”
“But why?”
“I don’t think any of the other churches know just how disastrous the coming times will be, but their own fatewatchers know that something is brewing. Every church jostles and pushes for the most favourable fate, and the fact that I was granted not one, but two visions means the church of Kiine is about to be bestowed with either incredibly good or horrifically bad fate. None of them want to take the chance that Kiine gains premiership over His siblings, and the Elders don’t want to take the chance that it could be our ruin. All are a bunch of overcautious fools.”
Mufara considered her words.
And all this revolves around me, huh. Or at least, some of it. Nope, not buying it.
“Assuming everything you just told me is true, i-”
“Of course it’s true.”
He frowned at the interruption.
“Assuming it is true, from what you’ve told me, being by your side is the least safe place for me. I’ve only been with you an hour and already I’ve almost died twice. Not to mention I know for a fact you’re not telling me everything.”
“You don’t need to know everything, boy. There are church secrets involved.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I’m sure there are. Look, you’ve spun an interesting tale and have given me a lot to think about, but nothing you’ve said has convinced me I’ll be better off going with you to the capital. Quite the opposite, in fact. Whatever internal conflicts have you getting attacked multiple times a month by eighth Harmonic battlemonks, I want nothing to do with. I have my own business in the capital, business that would not be helped by assassins popping out of the woodwork every few days. That’s final.”
She scowled, thunderclouds gathering at her brow.
“I tire of your refusals. This is an imperative from our god.”
“If it was as critical and important as you say, why has Kiine not spoken to me directly? As a ‘nexus of fate’ I would think I should be the first to know what Kiine requests of me. The fact that He has said nothing, means He has no issue with my decisions thus far. Including this one.”
A wicked smile grew on the Mother’s face.
“Or He knows that despite your protestations, you will agree.”
Mufara rolled his eyes.
What is she going to try now?
“And why would I do that?”
She stepped in close to him, bringing her face down to whisper softly, dangerously in his ear.
“Because I’m done bargaining. If you leave me here, I will kill Father Sapphire.”