Chapter 20 – In which allies have tea and cookies and won’t hesitate to use it
The central city of Purplus was named Amthe.
This enormous city, built from white marble and adorned with various types of amaranths, was a center of many religions and cults.
Any god that had a temple in Amthe was recognized as a proper god.
But not all gods were powerful enough or popular enough to have fully fledged out temple.
In those cases, their believers often funded small shrines at the outskirts of Amthe.
And if there were almost no believers and a god was almost forgotten, then their place of worship could be found in the Amthe’s Brook District.
The Brook District, or ‘Graveyard District’ as it was nicknamed by foreigners (by ignorant ones. There was a district dedicated entirely to gods of death and they didn’t like being mixed up with the Brook District), was a small district at the outskirts of the Amthe.
It mainly contained libraries for books that were considered ‘irrelevant’ to the present beliefs and the Temple of Forgotten and Dead Gods.
The Temple of Forgotten and Dead Gods was, as its name indicated, a temple for gods which were widely forgotten and considered ‘dead’.
Of course, ‘death’ in the case of gods was a rather ambiguous term.
It was sometimes hard to tell where one god ends and where another begins.
If there were two gods of storms worshiped in two different places, which had frequent religious exchanges, which led them to have similar traditions, are we really dealing with two different gods or are we dealing with the same god, but under different names?
If one religion absorbed the other, then is the god of absorbed religion dead or did they just transform into something else?
If you change the name of a god, did you kill the previous god or just renamed a god?
The Temple of Forgotten and Dead Gods didn’t bother with any of those questions.
Their only concern was that if there is a possibility of a god to be truly forgotten and to die, then at least here they would be still worshiped.
And right now, it was also the destination of Amara’s night walk.
“I have never actually been here.”
Phlox mumbled as she looked up at the heavy arches adorned with colorful paper lanterns.
Thankfully, she at least knew how to get here, because otherwise Amara would have to wander for hours.
Without a word, Amara entered the temple.
Somewhere wind bells rang, as if announcing his visit.
Maybe they really did, because a moment later a person appeared in front of them.
With their left eye covered by a white cloth, their right eye was a bit foggy and they had a gentle smile on their lips.
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“Your Excellency, we were expecting you.”
Amara wasn’t particularly surprised, but asked:
“Did you see it for yourself or did someone tell you?”
“We heard some whispers. Please come in, isn’t a night cold? We prepared some tea for all of you.”
The person hurried them to venture deeper into the temple.
As they led them through corridors, decorated with many nameless plates and art works which seemed to picture something, but details were blurry, the person spoke:
“Please, call this humble one Perlliar. Ah, sorry for the mess, the whispers came when my partner and I were partying, so we didn’t have time to clean anything yet.”
There were some pieces of paper and stone scattered in the corridor.
Amara also noticed some fruit stains on the walls.
“It’s okay.”
He said, though he really wished to ask how exactly they were partying.
Soon, they arrived in a small and cozy room.
There was a small floor furnace in the center and pillows scattered around to sit.
There was also a second person here.
They had their right eye covered with black cloth, and it seemed their left eye was lazy.
“Welcome everyone! Please call this humble one Cotteo. Today it’s Madam Cotteo by the way. Oh, Your Excellency, do you like your tea with sugar or honey?”
“Salt.”
“Ah! Excellent taste!”
Cotteo, who was holding a tray of cookies with one hand, took out a big salt cellar from one of the cupboards with the other.
She quickly arranged it before Amara.
Then turned to his other three companions.
“What are you waiting for? Sit down where you’re comfortable.”
“Sit down and relax.”
Amara also joined when he saw Phlox, Alexandrit and Geod hesitate.
The three sat down, though the two attendants still looked a bit stiff.
Perlliar handed all of them a cup of warm mushroom tea, which was considered very good when recovering from injuries or suffering from insomnia.
After taking a few sips of salted tea, Amara spoke:
“Do you know why I’m here?”
“You wish to turn Purplus upside down, right?”
Cotteo smiled cheerfully as if she didn’t see the shocked expressions on Alexandrit and Geod’s faces.
“That’s correct. Can I ask for your help with that?”
“But of course! Whatever Your Excellency wishes. Ah, Your Excellency, please try those cookies. I made this batch this morning and I think they came out particularly well.”
Amara took one cookie and tried it.
It was a butter cookie with rosemary.
It was indeed very good.
“It’s delicious. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome! And you here, you guys eat too. You need to eat a loooot!”
Cotteo pushed another tray of cookies towards Alexandrit and Geod.
She then proceeded to find cinnamon rolls with some hellish amount of cinnamon and gave it to Phlox.
Perlliar, who observed their partner with one foggy eye, said to Amara:
“Do you need us to do something in particular?”
“How good is your information network?”
Perlliar just smiled gently and said:
“It will be as good as Your Excellency needs it to be.”
Amara didn’t ask further.
“I wish for you to monitor the disappearance cases among the prisoners, debt holders and unnamed servants.”
“In other words, among the slaves.”
Amara didn’t like that word, but nodded.
“Yes. I also want you to monitor if the… ‘owners’ of those people who disappeared, received any extravagant gifts or substantial favors from someone. And who that someone is.”
“I see. Anything else?”
“Borders. Please look who is transporting big batches of goods between borders. Be it with Flavun and Rubrun or with our neighboring countries.”
“Those big batches… Are they human-sized batches?”
“Yes. Isn’t that a lot?”
Perlliar’s smile grew even more gentle.
“Please don’t worry Your Excellency. Something like this is already within our usual ‘hobbies’. Is there anything else you need?”
Amara thought for a moment.
He wasn’t sure if he would need to take action in this case, but… It was best to ask.
“Could you… hide someone? Someone with criminal charges against them?”
Perlliar didn’t answer straight away, they took a sip of their tea as if taking a moment to think.
“Yes.” They finally answered. “It's the priest's duty to guide everyone towards a better life, even if the person who they help is considered a sinner in their standards. So even if that person committed horrible crimes… We’ll help them.”
“We got it, Your Excellency!”
Cotteo, who was pushing bowls of soup into Alexandrit and Geod’s hands, also chimed in.
“I understand. I hope I won’t have to bother you with that, but in either case, thank you.”
Amara sighed and then, under persistent persuasions from Perlliar and Cotteo, he enjoyed tea and cookies a little longer.