Bel stood in Technis’ temple, twitching with discomfort. She wanted to throw off her heavy cloak to cool down, but she also wanted to pull it tighter to hide from the people around her. Her skin itched with sweat and her nose prickled from the rancid smell of unwashed people pressed near her. She wanted to scream with frustration and run to the temple doors, but she mustered her willpower and instead glared silent death at the front of the room where the bloviating priest roamed like a fattened bird.
The sweaty man patrolled the dais in front of the worshippers, blathering on about Technis. His ridiculous blue robes made him look like a witless bird. Bel stared at him until she felt that her ears would bleed from his nonsense: empty words made to go down easier with a generous greasing of lies about the warmth and generosity of Techis.
This plan was bad. She didn’t want to be here.
Bel scowled in her brother’s direction. Some pretty, dark-haired girl had managed to squeeze in between them in initial press of people entering the church, and now they were separated by several bodies. It could have been her imagination, but she thought that her brother didn’t resist as much as he could have when the crowd moved him in the girl’s direction.
Somehow feeling her angry stare, James glanced in her direction and flashed her a quick thumbs up.
Bel’s fury was so great that she almost lunged for him, but through a supreme effort of will she held herself back. She focused on slowing her breathing as she waited for her heart to calm. She hated being around anything to do with Technis, but her brother possessed the incredible ability to ignore things he didn’t like.
She sighed. Maybe I’m being unfair to him, she conceded. Unlike her, James thrived whenever he was around other people. Whereas she wanted to run screaming through the doors, he was probably looking forward to having his first conversation in weeks that wasn’t with her or Beth.
Bel stared at the priest again, her emotions more in check this time.. The priest was, of course, continuing his droning sermon.
“Our faithful ancestors rejected the old gods and their false gifts. They embraced Technis’ teachings, cast out the doubtful, the villains who lied and claimed that our ancestors would suffer starvation and disease, torture and death,” the priest proclaimed. The man raised his arms like a bird sunning itself.
“Technis, light of our salvation, renewed their strength and bore them to this promised land. Through their faith and love of our lord, our ancestors earned their freedom and purpose. We, the children of the faithful, are ever protected by his great Barrier.”
Bel silently imagined throttling the priest while he continued squawking. She was happily enjoying a daydream where she slammed him repeatedly into the wall when she realized that he was wrapping up.
“And so that is why we ask that you remember to dedicate just a small amount of your daily essence to our savior. It is only through his tireless work that the terrors of Olympos are repelled by his great Barrier and the people of Satrap remain free.” He paused while a couple of men at the back of the room began passing out several small collection plates.
He gestured for the room to sit. To Bel, the arrogant press of his hands looked as though he was physically pushing them down. “You may be seated while several announcements from the governor’s office are read.”
Bel moved with the people around her, her soft snarl of anger masked by the creaking of wood and the groans from sore knees as everyone sat on the old wooden pews. Bel pulled her arms tight to avoid bumping into her neighbors as they fanned themselves for minor relief from the heat. The priest was, of course, being fanned by a young boy while he waited for a gangly teenager to finish reading out several announcements.
Bel took the opportunity to look at her brother again. His green eyes were glued to the attractive girl. Bel nearly snickered when he dramatically flicked his shoulder length red hair in an attempt to catch the woman’s attention.
Her neighbor bumped Bel with the collection plate, pulling her attention back to her own situation. She grabbed the metal metal disk and tapped her fingers against the marks in the center, as if she was allowing it to take some of her essence. Bel’s broken core had nothing to give though, so she just felt an unpleasant pulling sensation, like someone attempting to suck out the contents of her empty stomach through the vertical scar she had in place of a belly button.
She would rather have not touched the hateful collection plate at all, but that would be about as smart as throwing back her hood and whipping her snakes around while proclaiming her hatred for everyone’s favorite god. Bel knew that no one in Baytown would trust someone who didn’t give up their hard-earned essence to Technis.
Once Bel felt that she’d faked it for long enough, she passed the plate on to the next person.
After what felt like days, the priest finally stood for some closing statements. Bel joined the congregation in standing once again, an echo of the previous creaking and grunting resounding from the temple walls.
“Just as Technis shelters all humankind within his great Barrier, he shelters each of us within his great heart. You have only to look to the horizon to see his work.”
Bel ached to run from the room as the priest dragged things out. He held up his hands, crossing them to make a ‘T’ symbol for Technis. “Go in peace and productivity.” Finished, he turned away from the dais.
Bel turned and almost knocked someone aside in her haste to grab her brother and flee.
From the corner of her eye she saw a young boy hand the priest a slip of paper. A moment later the priest loudly thumped his book for attention. Bel froze in fear as she stared at him, but the priest’s demeanor didn’t show anything out of the ordinary.
“Ah, it seems that we will be having a visitor from the Central Temple so the Scales of Purpose will be closed today. Please come back tomorrow if you wish to have your cores or abilities evaluated.”
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The priest looked at the small piece of paper again. “Additionally, our visitor has asked that any skilled hunters in attendance join us at the front of the temple. We will be going to the west field to help the militia with some exercises. We appreciate the disruption this can cause to your routine and will compensate you for your time.”
Bel cursed under her breath. It seemed like the inquisitor – who else could be the surprise visitor – would be waiting out in front. She and her brother would have to delay going outside or risk running straight into the jaws of death.
She glanced over at James and couldn’t suppress a grunt of irritation. He wasn’t paying attention at all, instead deep in conversation with some of the other regular people. Bel adjusted her hood and forced herself into the press of bodies, hoping to get close enough to grab him before he made it through the doors.
She flinched when someone’s hand almost brushed her own, and quickly recoiled with revulsion. She hated the thought of her scarred, uneven flesh rubbing up against a stranger.
She squeezed her hands up against her chest as she forced herself forward to catch up to James, finally grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt and pulling him away from the press of bodies leaving the temple.
“Stars above James, focus!” she hissed. “Weren’t you listening to that announcement? The inquisitor is probably right out front.”
Bel released her grip as James wistfully watched the girl slip away. His face flushed slightly as he finally came to his senses and saw the worry on her face. “Sorry Bel. We just haven’t been in a town in forever, and… sorry.”
Bel’s anger cooled as she saw her brother’s face crumble. She tugged his arm, leading him to a corner of the room.
“Come over here. We’ll pray until everyone clears out.” She led him over to a nook with several shelves lined with figures of the Technis’ approved deities. They weren’t actually going to pray to any of them, obviously, but it wouldn’t look suspicious if the two of them lingered there for a while. It wasn’t Bel’s first time posing like this; there were several times when Beth had left them at a roadside shrine while she took care of unsavory tasks.
Bel wasn’t really familiar with any gods other than Beth’s patron, Durak. He was the god of grudges and retribution, which matched well with what Bel knew of her sister’s goals. Durak wasn’t in the nook of course; Bel would only find the Technis-approved gods and goddesses inside of his temples.
Her eyes scanned over the figures crafted from clay or wood – and rarely metal in the case of the wealth god Plenty – until her eyes caught on Lempo. Looking at this particular goddess always gave Bel a strange feeling, as if the goddess was watching her in return.
She’d asked Beth about the flaxen-haired figure, but all that Beth could tell her was that she was a relative newcomer, a goddess of healing and harvest who had gained entry to the approved deity list when her followers had cured some kind of plague.
Bel looked at the wooden figure, which was sitting quietly on a back shelf hidden behind several other, more popular deities. Whereas other deities were portrayed consistently, Bel had learned that each figure of Lempo was always different: different poses or ages, some with long hair, some short, some in a robe and, occasionally, some had travel clothes or armor. Bel never had trouble finding the goddess’ likeness though. Her gaze was always drawn to the goddess like a rock to the ground, like a inviolable fact of nature.
She couldn’t help but feel that the face was familiar. Bel knew it was stupid; it wasn’t like she had seen many faces in Technis’ dungeon, and she certainly hadn’t met a goddess, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. What made it disturbing was that the face was different on each statue, but she always had the same feeling.
Maybe I’m recalling something from a dream?
Bel stared into the face of the simple wooden figurine. The figure stared back. Bel blinked, and now it looked as though the figure’s gaze had turned to the side. Reflexively, Bel cast her eyes to where she thought the figure had turned. She saw nothing but a closed door in the back of the temple.
Bel began turning back to look at Lempo again, but stopped herself. A shiver went down her back, and Bel decided that she’d spent enough time at the altar.
“Hey,” she said, gathering courage from the sound of her voice, “what do you think is back there?”
“Huh?” James looked around confused for a moment, like he’d been napping and suddenly awakened.
Ah, he probably was napping, Bel thought. After living in the temple for so long we both got pretty good at sleeping in uncomfortable positions.
Bel nudged him with her elbow and gestured towards the door.
“Uh,” he said, rubbing a bit of stubble on his chin. “Do you think that military exercise that they were talking about means that it’s unguarded?”
“So you were listening to the announcement after all,” Bel sighed. “And here I thought that your brain had been sucked out of your eyeballs by that pretty girl.”
James ran his hand through his hair, his face flushing. “Look, I do dumb things some times. Speaking of which, do you want to see what’s back there?”
“I don’t know if–”
“Oh, come on. Fortune favors the bold, right?”
Bel scrunched her nose. “Does it? Doesn’t fortune favor the prepared?”
“Both, probably.” James rose to his feet and headed towards the door. “But it looks like the temple isn’t prepared and we’re here and bold, so let’s see what we can find.”
Bel hurried after him. She frowned as she considered his words. “No, that doesn’t make any sense.”
He shrugged. “Maybe there’s an exit back here. It’s better than just hanging around in the temple all day, right? If the inquisitor is right outside, who’s to say that he won’t come inside and find us?”
“Uh… that’s more convincing,” she conceded. “But let’s be careful. We don’t actually know what’s in this temple.”
“Probably shriveled heads and pickled organs.”
Bel elbowed her brother hard in the ribs. “Not funny James.” She had seen plenty of horrors in the bottom of the High Temple. She didn’t want to be reminded of them.
James rubbed his ribs and frowned, likely reliving a few of his own memories. “Sorry,” he whispered.
Bel looked around nervously as they approached the door, expecting a priest or guard to jump out from a shadowed corner at any moment. She restrained her brother with a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you should just slip out the front, James. They wouldn’t notice you, probably, since you’re just a human with weird hair. I’ll see if I can find an exit in the back and come back to camp while you finish Beth’s shopping.”
Her brother’s eyebrows knit together for a moment and then tossed his red hair dramatically. “Nah, sneaking isn’t my style.”
James gestured at the door. “Besides, two people means twice the loot, and without Beth here to keep destroying things maybe we can finally learn something about where you came from. They could have some books, you know? Or lizard-hide scrolls and clay tablets, whatever nonsense is popular here.”
He turned to her and grinned. “Maybe we can even find out something about the Old World and how I got here too.”
Bel cringed when his excited voice reverberated through the empty room. “Keep your voice down!”
“Sure,” he said in a loud whisper. “But since we’re already here, it would be a waste if we don’t seize the chance. I want to see what we can find without Beth hovering over our shoulders and snatching anything that looks interesting.”
Bel wanted to defend their sister, but James wasn’t wrong. Beth liked keeping secrets.
James reached for the door and pulled. Bel expected a noise, or for the door to be locked, but it swung open on silent hinges.
They peered inside to see a small, tidy room with a desk. Behind it was a long hallway that held even more doors.
Her brother swaggered through the opening like a seagull looking to nab someone’s lunch. “Well, we’d better get searching,” he said.