Walking through the halls of the Temple again, Maria and Kyle had a very different feeling than how they felt just a few days earlier. They were taken by the priest to meet with the High Priestess, they went willingly as Kyle said, “we don’t want to make a bigger scene”. Right after Maria confirmed that the boy's condition was good enough and then used her Heal skill to heal the boy’s wound.
“Don’t touch anything and don’t take anything they give you. We don’t know how they are going to react to this” Kyle said.
“You think they are going to ‘take care’ of us right here ?” Maria said.
“Don’t know, that is why we have to prepare for absolutely everything” Kyle replied.
The priest stopped and told them to enter the meeting room of the High Priestess. The door of the room had an image of the Goddess of Healing made of gold on it. Entering the room, the High Priestess was already waiting for them. “How could the news get to her so fast ?” Maria and Kyle thought to themself.
“Please have a seat” The High Priestess said. “Let me introduce myself, I am The High Priestess of the Temple of the Healing Goddess. I assume that you know why you are here correct ?”. Kyle and Maria looked at each other for a second before Kyle spoke.
“Well first off, my name is Kyle and this is my friend Maria. And no we really don’t know why we are here, all we did was save a boy's life”.
“No actually all you ‘did’ was perform a miracle, bring a boy back from death. Tell me, what kind of magic did you use ?” the High Priestess. Kyle instantly caught up on what she was trying to do. Luckily Luna and Kyle had already done some research about the Temple, they were trying to figure out if they were using necromancy or dark magic of some kind.
“That was no miracle, I just did a minor surgery, the boy's lung was filled with his own body protein fluid.” Maria said.
“How could you have known that ?” the High Priestess asked.
“I’m a doctor, well sort of. I’ve studied medicine for years in my home country, that’s how I know ” Maria replied.
“Just a mere doctor, do you really expect me to believe that. No doctor can do what you did, there is no book in this world that talks about that. Doctors are only good for curing minor sickness and minor wounds”. the High Priestess said with a disrespecting tone.
“I know what you want to hear. That we were using dark magic or necromancy, aren’t you” Kyle replied. “Well too bad for you we got a lot of eye witnesses and I think they could all confirm that what we did was not even magic at all”.
“Don’t be offended, I'm just making sure, for my people’s sake.” she replied.
“If you truly care for them, then stop quarantining all of the sick and injured together, don’t you know that will cause the diseases to spread faster and make them certain death.” Maria said.
“Then what do you suppose we do ‘doctor’, can you cure all of them ?” she replied.
“Well it doesn’t help that you try to interrogate anyone who could help either.” Kyle said sarcastically. The High Priestess was clearly annoyed at what Kyle said.
“Help saving lives. That’s rich, coming from someone like you.” she looked at Kyle. “ I know who you are, Kyle. I could almost smell fresh blood coming from you. And here I am the High Priestess of the Temple of the Goddess of Healing, getting a lecture about saving life.”
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“Is this interrogation over ? Because we have something else better to do” Maria said.
“It’s over when I said it’s over. I know that you are not from around here so I’ll teach you a valuable lesson now. In this city we are the law and I am your queen, remember that.” the High Priestess said.
“Those are big words, don’t you worry about what might happen if those got to the ears of the King” Kyle replied.
“And who is going to believe you, a killer over me. And here I thought that you were at least somewhat clever. How disappointing.” the High Priestess answered.
“It’s over now,” Kyle said as he and Maria stood up and walked to the door.
“Who said that you could walk out of here, I haven't finished.” she said.
“Well unless you are physically going to stop us right now, we are going. Oh and let’s not waste time with empty threats. I know you are not going to do anything to us right now. People have seen us coming in here, your people, your followers are talking about us right now, how we performed a miracle. You can’t touch us, not right now, without risking ruining the Temple reputation in the process. And for what? Two strangers that you might never heard of or seen again, I don’t think so. You are much more clever than that, aren’t you ? Or am I wrong” Kyle replied. She was clearly furious, her eyes told the whole story, but she still acted calm and waved her hand.
“You may now leave,” she said.
“Liam was right from the start. This was more like a cult than a religion” Maria said as they were walking back to the Inn.
Kyle did not notice what Maria just said as he was too focused on catching a look at a mirror or any reflectable object to see what was behind them.
“We are being followed,” Kyle said. Maria instinctively got closer to Kyle
“From the Temple ? What should we do now?”.
“Just follow my lead,” Kyle said as he led Maria through a thick crowd of people on a busy street, faking turns left and right. The spy that the Temple sent for them in the end could not follow both of them and Kyle cut them off.
Back in the Inn, oh boy did they have a story to tell. “Like I said, this was clearly more of a cult than a religion.” Liam said.
“Their sciences and technologies suck, clearly it has been pushed back because of people like the High Priestess. If they can’t explain it by magic then it must be evil” Maria said.
“Wow, I never thought I'd hear those words in my life. I guess in this world it’s kind of opposite to ours. In this place, they could almost explain magic or at least understand that it is real and powerful. Just like science in our world, the people would rely on it to survive and thrive. But magic, unlike science, is given and not earned so the people here become less innovative as they believe those who have power would help them. And for those who have magic or power they clearly don’t want the other to become anything close to them as they already have everything they want.” Allan said.
“So basically you're saying that we are living in a giant cult, that the people there blindly believe their leader and do what they said. The only difference is that the cult leader is a total corrupted dick with actual magic” Luna said. Allan shrugged and nodded his head.
“People seem to believe that Maria is ‘the chosen one’ or something like that. we heard it when she saved the boy's life” Kyle said. “Maybe we could take advantage of that”.
“What do you mean ? How?” Maria said.
“I don’t know yet,” Kyle replied.
“Then what now ? I don’t feel comfortable running around the library anymore” Maria said.
“Don’t worry. We got what we need now. From now on, we will go in a group.” Kyle replied.
Later that night Luna and Kyle had another private conversation.
“So from what we have experienced today, do you think that there is a chance the Temple has been talking shit this whole time. All of those witch trials or exorcisms were just their ways to kill their enemies or keep the people in their place. “ Luna asked.
“There is a good chance. Maybe there were some actual demons and evil cases that the Temple handled, but some might just be something like or case, when they see something that they could not explain through their magic, it’s become the devil’s.” Kyle replied.
“Do you still remember the witch trial a couple of days from now ?” Luna said. Kyle replied with just a simple nod of his head. “Well it has been pushed forward, tomorrow shall be the day we will see an actual witch trial” she continued.