----Holy City of Solis, Radiance Cathedral------
Ari with Esti in trail stood beside Fluma as Arthur led them inside the largest building in the floating city. Called the Radiance Cathedral it was also known as the Gold Tower due to its location being the home of Arthur's master, the Gold Pillar Satrim.
On the bottom floor of the towering structure Arthur was currently leading the two girls and the lizard around a busy area where many had come to listen to Priests of the Golden Pillar give sermons.
On the walls surrounding the listening crowds, various tapestries were displayed depicting historical events of the Church as well as scenes from the Church's famous holy doctrine the Continuum. The most famous scenes were painted or sculpted onto the very structure of the cathedral itself giving a sense of permanence and grandeur the more standard artwork lacked.
As they entered the main room of the cathedral Ari recognized the large painted carving that took up most of the room's ceiling depicting Radiance creating everything from nothing.
The whole piece was split into three parts. The first part was the Radiance depicted as a lone white light alone, surrounded by nothing but darkness. The second was the Radiance in the midst of creating everything, it showed the Radiance creating their planet called Avalon and filling it with life. The final third scene was the Radiance raising nine faithful to become Pillars. Rewarding the faithful with life as permanent as her own.
It was a gorgeously well-made piece of art, one that even Ari, the furthest thing from an art connoisseur, felt enthralled by. Arthur continued to lead the two through the center of the room where, protected by walls of transparent light sat an alien-looking book whose smooth surface was only broken up by two raised circles on its cover touching one another on one side.
The book looked more like a metal box than any book Ari knew. If it didn't have the lemniscate, a feature prominently put on the cover of every circulated copy of the Church's Continuum, she wouldn't have recognized it as the most important piece of literature in the entire Church. Just looking at its smooth shell Ari didn't see any visible pages or how she would even begin to open it.
Arthur seeing her confusion and focus on the book leaned down to her. "This is the original Continuum given to the Church directly by the Radiance herself. All other Continuums you've seen are just copies made from that one."
Ari gazed enraptured that such a priceless artifact would be out in the open. Fluma didn't seem to understand anything just idly gazing at the walls as if bored out of her mind.
Arthur picked up on Fluma's attitude, he'd kept an eye on the strange girl ever since Ari introduced her to him. He'd met her family as well and found them extremely nervous but that was to be expected of most followers of the Church when they finally got to visit Solis for the first time. It was a shocking experience. Arthur knew as much since he had been similarly terrified when he'd first come here with Satrim so long ago.
Which was why it was so odd Fluma seemed to not care at all. Especially when the girl was supposedly a zealot who had come to join the clergy.
Arthur had initially assumed the girl was being pressured into the clergy by her family, but he'd been forced to retract that assumption when he heard she wanted to join the Hero's party. A dangerous task few who weren't committed to the faith would make. Unless, of course, they were an enemy of the Church seeking to undermine it from within by sabotaging the Hero's party.
At the moment Arthur couldn't really imagine the bored-looking Fluma who enjoyed talking to herself in third person was a spy. So for now Arthur was withholding judgment, deciding to simply focus more on being happy that Ari already found a friend so quickly after entering the city. The life of a Hero could be incredibly lonely and Arthur would like to see more than just Esti having Ari's back in the future. True friends were precious and not to be taken lightly.
After Ari finished taking in the atmosphere Arthur led the three out of the main room to a side stairwell. Or what would have been a stairwell in any normal building, but here in the Holy City was just two beams of light. One levitated people straight up and one brought them gently down. Stepping in the light with the two kids they rode the light stairs a dozen stories up before arriving at the healing floor of the Gold Tower.
Arthur walked with them past various rooms of sick or recovering residents before arriving at one that had a chalkboard with the name Prim.
Arthur knocked on the door leading to a muffled sound coming from the other side which sounded something similar to "come in."
Opening the door they were greeted by a girl who had the most lost-looking face they'd ever seen.
"Hello Prim," Arthur spoke to the girl, trying to use a friendly tone alongside the name she'd given them when she first woke up.
Hearing her name seemed to make the girl smile before she responded, "Hello Mr. Heartsweep."
"Ah Prim I told you to call me Arthur, in fact, I insist," Arthur scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "I don't really enjoy being reminded of my family name."
Prim tried to bow her head in apology, but the motion seemed to result in a wave of pain as she visibly grimaced. "Sorry, Mr. Arthur."
Arthur waved it off, "I've brought the two I told you about." Arthur smiled to the two girls and gestured for them to introduce themselves.
Ari attempted to speak first, but Fluma beat her to the punch.
"I'm Fluma! Ari and Fluma helped save you. You are welcome." Fluma brought her right hand to her chest and brought her chin up as if emphasizing her own importance. Arthur realized Fluma mimicked that particular pose from the priests giving their sermons on the first floor. It turned out she had been paying attention to something at least.
Ari half defeated at already being introduced spoke next, "Yep as Fluma said I'm Ari and this is Esti." As she gestured to her lizard companion who was already coiling up around her feet to nap. "Glad to see you're awake we were all scared for you when we saw that suspicious guy who calls himself Glendale carrying you about like some luggage. Are you feeling any better?"
Prim smiled at the girl's words. "You don't have to worry about Glendale. I don't remember much while going in and out of consciousness, but I do remember glimpses of him trying his best to heal me on more than one occasion. I feel better, but to be honest I don't remember much to compare it to." The young girl let out a self-deprecating laugh.
"You still don't remember anything from before your injury?" Ari asked concerned.
"Nope, I just remember my name. Or at least I think it's my name. I just know being called Prim is really important to me for some reason. Glendale said he found me in Numina suffering from fatal manaburn, but for some reason, I don't think I'm from Numina."
"Maybe you're a refugee from the Hervalle War?" Ari asked, "You could even be from the Vernicus Kingdom."
Arthur spoke up cutting into their conversation, "I doubt Prim's from the Vernicus Kingdom they've had barely any refugees due to their Paladins of Justice keeping the order so high despite the war." He turned to face Prim, "It's likely that if you are a refugee you came from one of the other nations the Hervalle Empire fought and defeated in the war. Did any of those names I gave you in our last session ring any bells?"
Prim gave a sad shake of her head, "No, nothing. All I remember is my name and...and liking nocturnal animals I think? I vaguely remember having a badger, or mouse as a pet. Or was it an Owl?" Prim's eyes fell out of focus as she tried chasing down her lost memories.
Ari spoke up to bring the distracted girl back to the present, "Well for now you don't have to worry about all that. Just focus on getting better. " Ari glanced to Arthur who nodded back to her before she continued, "Arthur already promised me you'd be allowed to stay in Solis as long as you want to recover your strength."
Fluma, as she often did cut in without much thought, "Yay! That means you get to watch Fluma win the tournament!" Fluma smiled with all the bravado her childish face could muster.
Prim didn't miss the doubtful looks Prim and Arthur shot Fluma's way at her boast. She let out a couple light chuckles in response before the motion gesture became too painful for her to continue. It seemed even with the expert healing she received she was still badly hurt. Ignoring the concerned looks she got from her sign of weakness Prim showed her desire to leave the hospital room as soon as she could by catapulting off Fluma's prompt.
"A tournament?" Prim asked intrigued. "What type of tournament allows young children like you into it?"
Fluma blustered immediately, "Fl-Fluma's not a young child! Fluma's fourteenish." She glanced at herself in a mirror on the wall as if confirming her appearance was still what she'd changed it to so she better matched the current visible age of her creator.
Arthur picked up where the now distracted Fluma left off, answering Prim's question, "The tournament is to confirm the Hero and their party." Arthur continued on ignoring Ari's reddening face at the mention of what was effectively a tournament revolving around her "Anyone eighteen or under is allowed to join for the chance of finishing in the top four and becoming eligible to join the Hero's party. Also, the winner of the entire tournament can even challenge the current prospective Hero Ari for her spot as the Hero."
Prim's eyes widened as they locked onto the embarrassed Ari, "You're the Hero! No way!"
"Just the prospective Hero candidate for now," Ari matched the injured girl's eyes trying to ignore her own discomfort with the idea of what that really meant now that she was in the Holy City surrounded by people chomping at the bit just to get a glimpse at a "Hero."
Fluma taking her eyes off herself in the mirror rejoined the conversation, "Yep! Ari's just a candidate." Fluma puffed out her chest, "Fluma will be the real Hero."
This time Prim ignored the slightly aggravated looks Fluma's arrogance was now attracting, "Wow that sounds so exciting! I wish I could join too. When does the tournament start?"
Arthur spoke up with the answer, "In just over a week. but do you really think that's wise Prim? Such an event could just make your injuries worse?"
Prim's eyes sparkled, "It's okay, Satrim said I'd be back to optimum shape in half a week, well except for my memory that is."
Arthur took a second to appreciate the fact she called his boss just by his first name after refusing to address Arthur casually. Still the information she said surprised him. Arthur hadn't expected Satrim to take so much interest in the girl. Even one healing session had been a request Arthur expected to get reprimanded for, the fact Satrim was investing more of his time into a random girl didn't seem like something the cunning Gold Pillar would do unless there was something monumental he could gain from it.
Putting these thoughts in the back of his mind Arthur let out a friendly smile before excusing himself to go look into the matter further and leaving Prim to talk to Fluma and Ari. Hopefully, their conversation might help jog a few of the girl's memories.
Leaving the hospital floor behind Arthur stepped back into the light stairs and rode them all the way to the top floor. There a massive ornate door stood taller than three full grown men and six times as wide. The door showed a single light in the process of creating existence from nothing. The ball of light showed no features and had no discernable trait other than being bright while its creations were similarly undetailed. The animals shown had no faces and were lying on the ground limp as if incapable of movement under their own power. This image always made Arthur sad even if he didn't fully understand the artist's take on the creation scene from Continuum.
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To the side of the elaborate door sat a much simpler table and chair where a woman wearing spectacles was sitting comfortably sprawling her long legs over the desk. The woman looked like a typical church secretary except of course for the shining golden tattoos that peaked out from under her clothing, visible on her arms, legs, neck, even Arthur wasn't brave enough to ask how far those tattoos extended beneath her robes. As for the woman herself, she didn't even bother taking her feet off her desk as she looked up from what she was knitting with a bored look.
"Oh, it's you? Go on in Heartthrob." Her tone conveyed even more boredom as she mocked Arthur by making a play on words with his last name.
"Thanks Jenny." Arthur responded with his usual friendly attitude doing his best to let the subtle jab slide off him as he channeled some light mana into the door triggering it to open on its own. It was an artifact, one which seemed like such a waste to Arthur. So many resources were poured into making it just so it could open itself. Yet this door was just one of the many examples Arthur knew of which showed just how over the top the Church could be with its wealth.
The doors opened to reveal a long hallway lined end to end with historical momentos and artifacts. The hallway itself split off into three doors. The door on the left of the hall was decorated with the visages of the first nine pillars. Of the original nine, only Satrim still remained, the rest having met their end in one way or another over the many, many years since.
That particular room was for meetings between all the Pillars. Although technically all Pillars had equal positions, in reality, Satrim often ended up with the ultimate say. As should be expected, thought Arthur, feeling some pride in master and the power he wielded.
The artwork of the Red, Green, and Brown Pillars was currently illuminated showing the three respective Pillars were currently inside the room. The room was originally meant to be for pivotal meetings regarding crucial decisions, but many Pillars used it as a place to escape the duties that awaited them in their own towers instead delegating their responsibilities to their Aides before hiding away in a place their charges weren't able to follow. Arthur suspected the Pillars of Conflict, Growth, and Stability were in there for the latter reason.
Taking special notice of the Green and Brown Pillars, two Pillars usually at odds with one another, being in the same room of their own volition Arthur moved on to the second door.
The next door was on the right just opposite the Pillars' meeting room. This door was lacquered with a scene from Continuum involving the Radiance sacrificing a piece of themselves to make the Pillars. Arthur knew it was his master's favorite part of Continuum reflected in Satrim insisting his own door be adorned with the scene, but Satrim had never clarified exactly why he enjoyed the scene so much. The man seemed to find it funny for some reason Arthur had yet to figure out and it was one of the few topics Satrim refused to elaborate with Arthur on.
Arthur walked up to this door while glancing down at the end of the hallway where the largest door yet sat. The door was decorated with an extremely simple black and white piece of art depicting Radiance as a simple glowing light much like the first door only this time surrounded by nothing but darkness.
Arthur felt a shiver run down his spine looking at the erie art and was thankful he didn't have to go through that door today as moved his hand to knock on the door that belonged to his master.
Before his knuckles could even land on the door swung open, it, just like all the doors in this hallway, was an artifact with that convenient and ridiculously expensive ability to self-open.
Inside sat a single man behind a plain but well-made desk stacked with papers. He was shorter than the average man of the current era and his head was bare of any hair except for a weak combover which did little to conceal his impending baldness. His chair was about twice as wide as a normal one, but not for stylistic purposes. The man's body had a noticeable paunch, something his short stature did little to help mask, making him have a similar shape to that of an avacado.
But the man's lacking appearance fell away from anyone's thoughts when reaching his eyes. They were a blue so piercing, so transparent in their intensity that they dug into the very souls of any who looked into them. The rest of his body didn't match what most imagined when they heard his name, but his eyes left no room for doubting who he was.
A man belonging to a different era. A warrior who survived the chaos of the last age which ended so many. A priest who helped found and grow the world's largest religion. A mage of the 9th rank and one of the most powerful people in the entire world: the Golden Pillar Satrim.
"Haha Heartthrob that's a good one." Said legend was currently laughing hysterically as he let his evocation of Satrim's Gaze dissipate, "Do you get it Arthur? It's because you don't get any women and your name is Heartsweep! Hahahaaha!" One of the most feared men continued laughing while slapping his own belly reminiscent of an uncle making fun of their nephew at a family reunion.
Arthur did his best to prevent his face from reddening, a talent he had perfected over the first few painful years of being poked fun at by a master who always seemed to be watching everyone's most embarrassing moments. There was a reason Satrim had invented such a powerful spell and it was a reason only those who lived far longer than most truly understood: extreme boredom.
"Master." Arthur greeted Satrim with a stoic face.
"You're no fun anymore lad! You should have seen your face the first few times I quoted your own pickup lines back at you after you'd flopped with them at a bar the night before!" Satrim glanced longfully upwards as if remembering a cherished memory. After a second Satrim looked back at his Aide and saw his stoic face didn't show any signs of changing.
"Oh fine, what is it you came all the way up here for? It can't be to do your job as my Aide since you've been ignoring that duty for the last few months chasing this silly Hero recruit."
Arthur couldn't help it and sent back a rebuttal in mild frustration, "You told me to go find a proper hero!"
Satrim brought his hand to his chin as if the pose would help him to better validate the claim, "Ah I guess I did, well it's not really important anyways. What did you come up for Arthur?" Satrim's playful attitude dropped in the blink of an eye.
Arthur felt cold sweat spreading across his back under his master's serious gaze. He never knew which one was worse to deal with Satrim's playful side or his serious one. Playful Satrim was always so frustrating to talk to, having to jump through hoop after hoop just to get something simple done, but serious Satrim...serious Satrim made Arthur remember Satrim had singlehandedly turned an entire country to ash.
Gulping slightly Arthur asked his question. "The girl I brought to you a few days ago said she'll be fully recovered physically within the week thanks to your continued help. Is there something interesting about her that makes you so willing to invest time in healing her that I missed?"
Satrim's piercing blue eyes focused on Arthur wasting no time in answering his Aides question. "Her mana circuits have been artificially widened, although the damage makes it hard to tell, it's similar to what we discovered in bodies belonging to members of Tyrant and their offshoots."
Arthur let out an angry gasp, "You think she was subjected to those torturers? How horrible for such a young girl."
Satrim responded with a mirthless laugh, "Ha! You think you have the right to condone their actions? Look around you boy, our oh so Holy Church has done far worse."
Arthur remained silent not rising to the obvious bait.
"As I was saying, there are only a few possible groups she could have come from with Hervalle's Iron Guard, that Senator's Constituency, and the ever-curious Nox being the three most likely. Of the three only the Constituency is currently aligned with the Church's interests since they recently agreed to go to war against Hervalle."
"They did?" Arthur couldn't help, but be surprised at the update. The three main break-offs from Tyrant were all believed to be pro-Hervalle last time he checked.
Satrim gave an annoyed glance at being interrupted again. "Yes, a lot happened since you left on your hero-hunting trip. Do try to keep up now." Satrim shifted and a ray of light flickered from his mind onto a piece of paper on his desk. The paper instantly became filled with illuminated letters before the light dimmed leaving behind a completed intelligence report Satrim proceeded to hand to Arthur.
Seeing his Aide read over the paper with widening eyes Satrim continued his explanation, "That is a report made by Eldris forwarded to me by Mallory after I inquired into any activity with the post-Tyrant powers. As you can see in the report, the Constituency and Nox have a hostile relationship, one which even required Eldris to get involved personally to prevent one of their teams from eliminating our Constituency contact. "
Arthur looked up from the report, "They fought during a meeting between the Constituency and Eldris in Warport Arkanis? The same Numinian Warport Glendale reported finding Prim half a step away from death in?"
"You figure it out yet?" Satrim asked his voice plain.
Arthur collected his thoughts for a moment before responding, "You think Prim was a survivor from that attack. You're using her injury as an excuse to more closely inspect her mana circuits to see if we can use the information to better the Church's own mana enhancement techniques."
"And?" Satrim didn't seem to be satisfied with just that much of an explanation.
"And you are wondering if Prim actually has memory loss and whether she'll flip on her old organization Nox. An organization we have very little information on besides what we've heard second-hand from our new allies in the Constituency." Arthur finished.
Satrim clapped his hands together just over his extended stomach. "Good! Only to correct you I'm certain Prim has lost some memory, her mana exhaustion did seem to damage a fair bit of her brain. The question is whether or not that memory is recoverable with time. My current plan is for Prim to join the Hero's party through the tournament so we can watch her more closely while also increasing her loyalty to the Church."
Arthur showed some confusion, "But the bare minimum to make it in the top four at the Hero's Tourney is a Mage of the Fourth. Prim looks to be around fourteen years old."
Satrim spoke directly, "You know yourself how little age matters with talent and the right circumstances. Your precious Hero Candidate Aurora is likely only a year or two older than Prim."
Arthur stopped himself from voicing the obvious point that Ari was such a rare case he'd literally had to sail to another continent to recruit her after coming up short finding a suitable candidate in the entire Central Continent. The odds of this random girl, no matter her relation with Tyrant and their methods, being comparable to Aurora were unlikely, to say the least.
Seeing Arthur staying silent Satrim spilled the beans, "Although I can't get a completely accurate read on Prim due to her mana levels being low as a result of excessive mana burn, I can at least tell she's been at the 5th Rank before."
"At the 5th!" Arthur spoke up shocked.
"At least at the 5th," Satrim clarified satisfied at his Aide's look of shock, "I suspect she may be rather important to Nox, if that is where she came from. Few organizations let such a promising Mage go without a fight."
Arthur realized what Satrim was saying, "You're using her as bait?" He said with a look of betrayal.
"A prodigy of a secretive organization falls right into my lap and you're surprised when I take advantage of it." Satrim defended himself. "Besides it's even more curious who brought her to us."
Arthur spoke up remembering the man in question's name, "Oh that professor from Hervalle? Glendale was his name right?"
"Yes, a Hervalle professor who just happened to be recruiting in Numina at the same time Nox was performing a raid and stumbled across the fatally hurt prodigy in time to save her. Then after doing so brought her immediately to our Church, which is openly hostile to his home country, in order to save her." Satrim summarized Glendale's story.
"You think he's a member of Nox?' Arthur asked pointing out the obvious.
"I have no idea." Satrim shrugged changing his attitude back to playful. "All I know is he is either the luckiest recruiting professor ever or the most obvious spy I've ever seen."
Arthur frowned at the insinuation, "I'm sure you already have him under surveillance. Do you need me to do anything?"
Satrim laughed as he began casting Satrim's Gaze once more. "Just keep enjoying raising your Hero, hopefully, she ends up working out and helps to hedge our bets on this "new era" gobbledygook. As for the rest." Satrim's eyes glinted with mirth, "leave it to me."
------------------Holy City of Solis, Ghajavelon Inn--------------------
Glendale sat down in the common room eating food with his companions by proxy. Which meant he was stuck with the odd family of that weird Fluma girl while Prim recovered. That means he was stuck eating with the silent and perpetually hooded Diana, the sickeningly cheerful Rose, and the always grumpy Davi. To be fair Glendale was definitely starting to think he understood where Davi's sour attitude came from. If he was stuck with such a group Glendale was sure he'd turn out the same way.
On top of everything Glendale was nervous about being in the Holy City after being identified as a professor of Hervalle Academy. It was never a good idea to taunt a sleeping tiger and that's exactly what Glendale felt like he was doing eating and sleeping in the Ghajavelon Inn smack dab in the middle of the floating city. He'd heard the inn got its name from the first Green Pillar not that Glendale paid too much into the Church's history or doctrine. He, like most Hervalle citizens, viewed his country as the only thing he needed to believe in.
With that thought, Glendale felt a premonition like he was being watched. Glendale tried to shake off the feeling only to find it attracted the glum Davi's attention who looked at the paranoid expression on Glendale's face and passed along advice to a fellow "normal" as he patted the startled Glendale on the shoulder.
"Just ignore those feelings Glendale. If you don't they just get worse until you can't sleep at all and that's not good for anyone. Imagine if I still got spooked over every scrying spell that fell on me or mulled over every dangerous situation for days. Ha! I would never be able to get another wink in this damn city with Fluma stuck on trying to be the goddamn Hero!" Davi rested his face in his hands as he became visibly overwhelmed from acknowledging his current predicament aloud.
Glendale cast a pitying glance at the man. Poor guy was stuck with a spoiled niece and a family of weirdos, must be tough. Still, Glendale felt as though his situation was far more stressful than Davi's simple family issues.
Still Glendale wasn't going to say he wasn't ready for the challenge. He was a professor of Hervalle Academy and a proud Mage of the Fourth, he wouldn't lean on excuses to get him through this. With the knowledge and power, he'd been carefully cultivating his whole life nothing would be able to stop him!
With those courageous thoughts in mind, Glendale went back up to his room, ignored that creepy feeling of being watched as Davi had suggested, and took an afternoon nap. After all even legends couldn't work without proper rest.