We were neither the first nor the last to filter towards the closed temple, cloaked in the shadows of the night. We knew it was the right place when we saw a person waiting outside, approving others to enter the venue.
“They’re using a temple… do you think they’re believers of the doctrine?” Vera questioned.
“I guess we’ll have to find out,” Alain replied, glancing about the area. Vera frowned at the non-answer, but I didn’t see why she thought we would know without entering first. It was a bit presumptuous of her.
We approached the man outside the door, Javier flashing our note. He scanned our paper and nodded us in to the waiting throng of supplicants. Inside were pews filled with people bowed in supplication, and at the very end of the room, a woman standing behind a pedestal, lit up by a pillar of light. We found an empty pew, sliding into one of the last rows, Vera frowning more and more with each second we were present. This was a great transgression against the usage of the temple if one was to judge by her expression.
There was a low level chattering across the room, hundreds of people whispering amongst each other, a cacophony of rumors and gossip. It was impossible to make out anything meaningful out of the conversations. Only spare words were parsable, sparse moments highlighted through their shared speech. But what they were chattering towards was clear, as silence swept through the room, the woman at the podium motioning for us to hear her speak.
“Thank you all for joining us. It does my heart good to know that so many people are here in support of those with prey beast souls. Many of you were already present for our protest. Others came after seeing our cause. For those who have been with us since the beginning, thank you. For those who are joining us now, thank you.”
She paused and bowed deeply, a large swathe of the room started to bow over with their hands clasped together, seemingly anticipating what was to come next. “Now let us pray. God above, who created man, beasts, the earth and the sky, the forest and the trees, the rain that drips from the heavens, we thank you for our continued existence. We understand that we are currently living in sin, under a false doctrine—” Alain quickly cupped a hand over Vera’s mouth, muffling her shriek of outrage “—but we continue to strive towards the world your word requires. A world where those with prey beast souls stand above, guiding us all to a more holy world. We understand the power of those with predator beast souls. Some of you in the room have those. There is nothing wrong with having one, and your restraint is a virtue, not a curse. Those with power are meant to serve those with less, an acknowledgment of the divine hierarchy. To be lowly is to be wise.”
“To be lowly is to be wise,” the room echoed.
“It may be a long path towards the proper model of living. In the meantime, let us continue to push towards equality. Let us emphasize those beast souls that provide for others in non-violent ways. We need to be the guiding light for those uncertain of how to proceed. We need to champion the cause so that it doesn’t fall, trodden upon by callous others. We need to act for those cannot act, for those we lost along the way on the path towards the proper way of things. We are the wise. We are the lowly. To be lowly is to be wise.”
“To be lowly is to be wise,” the room echoed.
“There is a lot that needs to be changed. For far too long have we suffered. For far too long has society valued those with the most dangerous beast souls. For far too long have we ignored the downtrodden. We were out there on the streets, protesting, but our demands may still not be enough. We need restitution for the harm that was done to us as a sign of good faith. We need reparations for the roadblocks placed in our way, societal fetters preventing our goals in life. We need order to be restored so that we can take our proper place in the world and not be limited by the prejudice of others. We are lowly in our cause. We know that we are the ones that have ignored. But that makes us all the wiser. To be lowly is to be wise.”
“To be lowly is to be wise,” the room echoed.
“For all that we’ve tried in peace, it may still not be enough. We can show them the correct path, but they may ignore it if it isn’t forced upon them. Those rioters were our brethren. They understood the cause. They wished to cause positive change, to set the world order to what it’s meant to be. Prepare to take up arms. Prepare to fight for what’s right. Prepare to rebel against the unjust society that puts those with predator beast souls above all others. We will fight for what is the true doctrine, not the one that was perverted to establish the current social order. We will fight for the right to do as we please to the same extent as though with predator souls. We will fight to restore the world to the way it was meant to be. We are currently the lowly. And that makes us wise. To be lowly is to be wise.”
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“To be lowly is to be wise,” the room echoed.
“Thank you all for coming to join us. Our next steps are clear. Just as we have reached out to you tonight, we will reach out again for any further measures. But for now, we must depart. We cannot linger in this establishment any further. There are too many prying eyes, too many that wish to destroy our mission and prevent all progress, too many that are opposed to the world being in its proper state. We will see you all soon enough. Thank you for being with us.” She stepped down from the podium, exiting into the back of the temple, the other attendees of the event already filtering out.
We followed along with the rest of the crowd, spilling out onto the streets, the populace spreading out and filtering away until the area was devoid of the congregation that was present minutes before. Given it wasn’t prudent to be lingering around the temple, for what that could imply, we took off into the night, starting our way back towards the barracks.
“Those… heathens,” Vera spat, finally getting a chance to speak her mind. “They pervert the doctrine for their ignoble cause. I did not care that they wished for a better life, but to pull faith into it and invert it to serve their cause? That’s an abomination.”
“Well, thank you for holding off until the event had concluded, Vera,” Javier said. “That was interesting.”
“Are the rest of you not incensed by their heresy?” she cried, arms raised in outrage.
“I can’t say that I know the doctrine well enough to understand what’s wrong,” I said, trying to avoid meeting her gaze. “Is it possible that they’re correct?”
“The doctrine also serves as the record keepers. They cannot be wrong. That’s… that’s unthinkable, Perry,” she said, cheeks flushed.
Alain pulled Vera in, patting her gently on the back. “You’re not wrong to feel that way, Vera. The rest of us are just a bit more fixated on what it means for the city.”
She seemed mollified, nodding her head, lips pursed. Whatever thoughts still lingered she suppressed them, brows furrowed in concentration.
“So that seems like definitive proof that they were in arms with the rioters,” I said, speaking as soon as my thoughts condensed.
“Not necessarily. I don’t believe they outright stated that they would use violence in their fighting. They were vague enough that even if the were under investigation by us, they wouldn’t be able to be definitively tied back to the rioters. In fact, they even spoke of praising those who used non-violent methods. While it would still make sense if there were sympathizers or overlap between the two groups, what they presented has split them off,” Alain said. He seemed to have his thoughts together far before my own.
“There’s a lot to be concerned about, but I think they’ve gone too far. Why do they need stealthy missions? Why do they need rioters? Change is accessible if one puts their heart into it.” I felt Alain’s eyes boring a hole through me.
“That’s some lovely optimism, Perry, but not everyone is as skilled as you and able to crawl out of the societal restrictions in place. If normal means were sufficient, I’m sure they would have availed of those. You resort to secret meetings and violence when the world is unchanging through the means set in place. When everything fails, you need to choose a path that is failure resistant, one that goes outside of the conventions of the law.” He didn’t seem all too pleased with my conjectures. It almost felt as though he was implying I didn’t think about the matter sufficiently enough, which could very well be true. I hadn’t been immersed in city culture for too long.
I sighed, clasping at Alain. “I’m sorry if I offended you. Didn’t mean to be rude. Just was working through my thoughts.”
“Don’t you worry, Perry, I know you didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. I just need to illustrate for you the problems. My frustration is rooted in the issue itself. If society has gotten to the point where these actions are needed, something somewhere has gone wrong, and I can only hope it’s been worked on in a timely manner before there’s no more time left to fix it.” He looked exhausted. I didn’t think it had been that long of a day, but Alain was gaunt, all energy gone from his body. If I was asked at this very time to evaluate who looked worse off between Mia and Alain, I wouldn’t be faulted in thinking that Alain was the one that had gotten injured by the spike feeder, let alone being surprised at his ambulatory state.
“Enough of these semantics and arguments, team. It’s going nowhere. I understand your concerns, and there’s quite a lot to think about, but now’s not the time. I’ll meet up with my boss,” Javier said. “The rest of you go to bed. We’ll meet in the morning. I don’t think we’ll make any further progress tonight. I don’t think there’s anything further to do. We certainly won’t get any further leads tonight.” We nodded, lost in thought in our return to the barracks. The walk back seemed shorter than our walk out had been, the anxiety and timing of arriving on time for the brief meeting no longer present. I tried to get a feel for the city but my mind was elsewhere, fixated on thoughts that Alain had spoke into existence.
Vera didn’t seem to be doing much better, holding tight her seething rage. Even if we had fixated on other materials, she still carried her venom for the doctrine being perverted. I just hoped she could let it go for the night. I didn’t think holding onto her rage would do her any good, and that a good night’s sleep would recontextualize the night into a more amenable circumstance. I couldn’t be the one to bring her down though. We weren’t that close yet.
We arrived back at the barracks, separating from Javier to arrive at our final destinations for the night.
“Did you find anything good?” Mia asked, putting down her book.
“Good… is relative,” Alain said, wincing. I imagined he didn’t want to get into a semantic debate with Mia, but that was all but inevitable when the two spoke.
“It was heresy, plain and simple,” Vera interjected, pouting.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened as the others prepare for bed,” Mia stated, putting her book off to the side. I mouthed my words of thanks and prepared for slumber, mind slipping away from the activity present within the room.