The First Temple of Virtue in Estroma wasn’t much larger than the temple in Lith, but the ancillary buildings were far more numerous and densely packed. The main temple was made of pure white stone with translucent yellow stone inlays.

Setting foot on the grounds, the air felt familiar yet slightly off to Seth. The area clearly had a Virtue essence alignment, but he thought there might be a bit of another essence, which Levi confirmed.

“The Mediator here takes part in the temple’s alignment periodically.” He clarified, “the Bond essence helps with marriages and such.”

Herbert snapped his fingers lightly while glancing through his pockets and, when they turned to him, gave a slight bow.

“Your worship, your worship,” he said to them each in turn with a polite smile. “I believe I have brought you to your final destination; I shall leave you to your business.”

As he turned to go, Levi asked, “What do I owe you for your help guiding us around the city?”

Herbert waved a hand and airily said, “Just keep this in mind next time I lose an arm!”

Once the man had strolled off, Seth mused, “I guess I would heal his arm for free, but it’s not like we’d charge him for healing anyway?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Levi said, shrugging slightly. “He’s probably rich enough that making a good impression on us is all he wanted. Let's go see about our bags and getting that appointment with the Orb.”

This turned out to be even easier than expected, Priest Andrea having already taken care of most of the arrangements. Adjoining rooms were prepared for them, and they only needed to provide some minor details to be Explicated the following day.

“One low, one basic, one unknown…” The acolyte at the temple desk muttered as he filled out a form, then looked up at Levi. “And what about you?”

“She made an appointment for me too?” Levi said, pleasantly surprised. “I suppose knowing my abilities more precisely would be nice. I have two regular abilities and my Virtue essence.”

“Two low, one basic…” The acolyte filled out a second form, then glanced back at the first. “Alright, assuming you want to be Explicated at the same time, you’ll have to be the last appointment of the day.”

Levi looked at Seth then nodded, “That would be preferable. Thank you.”

“Will two in a row take longer?” Seth asked.

“No, it’s about strain.” The acolyte said after a moment of scribbling. “At least two basic level abilities being Explicated in quick succession will strain the Orb enough that it should be left overnight.”

“Oh, interesting.” Seth said ponderously.

“We’ll learn more tomorrow.” Levi said, putting a hand on Seth’s shoulder and looking back to the acolyte. “When will the last appointment be? If possible, we will try to find passage back to Lith right after.”

“Well, it will only be in the early evening, but you shouldn’t leave just yet.” The acolyte shuffled through some papers, then continued. “The Bishop asked to speak with you the day after tomorrow. In the morning—you can easily get going afterwards.”

“So, we’re staying two nights then.” Levi said, glancing at some of the paper on the desk. “Do you know why he wants to meet us?”

“Ah, sorry,” the acolyte glanced at Seth, “he just wants to meet with you, Priest Levi. And I’m not sure why. We haven’t seen anyone from your…town…in some time. Perhaps that’s why? Anyway, a novice acolyte will show you to your rooms.”

Levi and Seth nodded, then followed his gesture to a diminutive boy in acolyte robes standing near the door they’d come in. The kid, who Seth thought to be maybe ten or eleven, smiled at them and beckoned them to follow.

As they left through the side door of the main temple, Levi asked the kid, “how long have you been an acolyte? Or is one of your parents a priest?”

The boy looked at him for a moment, then kept walking.

“What building are we going to?” Levi tried again. “Does it have a name? I remember that some buildings here are named after Priests.”

The boy indicated a squat building they were now approaching and said nothing.

They entered the building, which didn’t appear to have a name, and went up to the second floor. Across from the stairwell, adjacent doors with ‘Levi-Lith’ and ‘Seth-Lith’ scrawled on replaceable plaques awaited them.

The acolyte boy walked directly into Seth’s room and indicated where their belongings had been placed in the middle of the modest space, pointed to a door that must lead to Levi’s room, and gestured at a piece of wood on the wall next to the door that explained the lodgings and schedule of temple services.

When the kid walked past them as if to go, Levi stopped him and asked, “what’s your name? You’ve been very helpful. I can tell the Bishop when I talk to him in a couple days.”

The boy raised one eyebrow in what looked like a practiced expression, then flipped the side of his robe’s collar out, revealing text.

“FTVE-NA-S?” Levi said, twisting his neck to read it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The boy straightened his collar and flipped out the other side which read, much more legibly, Jacob.

“Well, thank you Jacob.” Levi said, a bit at a loss.

Jacob nodded and left.

Levi just looked at the door to the stairwell for a minute as Seth began dividing their bags and moving his Dad’s belongings into the other room. Once he finished, they found the restroom and bathing room midway down the short hall and took the time to properly clean up. They put the dirty robes from the trip in baskets and took new priest’s robes from a closet that had every size. None had red trim, but Seth didn’t care as long as the robes weren’t wrinkled.

That done, they considered what to do in the evening.

“There are services every day except Sinday,” Levi observed, looking at the wood plaque. “We should go to the one in half an hour, then eat dinner somewhere.”

Seth sighed deeply. “I would rather just find somewhere to eat out in the city now. I’ve certainly got the Value for it.”

“So, you would prefer to go to a service tomorrow after we’re Explicated, then?” Levi asked pointedly.

“I’ll probably be in the temple library after that,” Seth said truthfully. “I’ll want to learn more about our specific abilities.”

“Then we need to go to a service today.” Levi said simply.

“But do we?” Seth asked, spreading his arms slightly and avoiding his dad’s eyes.

“Seth. You’re a priest.” Levi said with a tone flatter than the walnut floor.

“A joint priest,” Seth said, raising a finger. “Who will specialize in healing unusual diseases. Not preaching. And who has read historical versions of two Virtuous Lives, and some of the third.”

Levi’s look was as flat as his tone, and Seth could only sigh.

Shortly thereafter, Seth reflected while tuning out a homily that drew primarily from the Former Modern Second Virtuous Life. Both he and Levi were more than familiar with all the material that a given service was likely to reference, so their presence now was more about showing gratitude to the temple and respectfully observing its traditions.

Both father and son actually felt similarly about the content of sermons and homilies being largely irrelevant to them, which Head Priest Joe had disputed more than once. Understanding the meaning of Virtue and its role wasn’t a simple matter of familiarity with texts, yes, but neither was the personal interpretation of every priest they happened across truly crucial.

Seth refocused as everyone rose to sing with the choir. Levi had already put small strips of paper in the hymnal to mark the songs, easily flipping to the correct one and holding it a bit to his left so that Seth could follow along. Seth tried to force his voice deeper, but it started to strain his throat when this hymn turned out to repeat itself four times with only one line changing each time. By the end, the word peace had started to lose its meaning; he'd said it that many times.

As the service was wrapping up, the preacher walked down the aisle during the benediction. The man swirled Virtue essence through the sanctuary, then Levi and two other priests in the pews did the same a moment later. Seth wasn’t sure what exactly they were doing, and slumped down in his seat a bit hoping they wouldn’t notice his robe.

Levi waited for the rest of the two dozen or so people in the congregation to leave before leading Seth out to the narthex to speak with the priest who had been preaching.

“Thank you for joining us this fine evening!” The thick man said pleasantly as they approached. “I’m John. Where might you two be from?”

“I’m Levi, and this is my son, Seth.” Levi replied, clasping John’s proffered arm. “We’re from a town some distance up river.”

“Lovely!” John said, and gestured broadly. “What brings you here? Showing a new priest around?”

“Among other things, yes.” Levi said politely. “Do you know of any good restaurants near the temple? We haven’t eaten yet.”

“Well, are you sick of fish yet?” John asked, then continued when Levi shook his head. “Then there’s a delightful fish bistro not far from the south side of the grounds!”

“We’ll head there then, thank you.” Levi said with a nod.

“Quick question,” Seth said before they turned away. “What did you both do with Virtue essence during the benediction? I could tell that it used the temple’s Virtue alignment, but not exactly how.”

“Ah, you’re from a rather small town, then!” John said, putting a hand on Seth’s shoulder. “Well, not a problem. What we were doing was extending the alignment into the bodies of the congregation! They’ll feel the benefits of being at church for a day or two even after they leave.”

“You’ve seen that before, Seth.” Levi added. “But before you’re heightened to a priest it’s very difficult to notice. I’ve mentioned it in passing, but since you won’t be a preacher, it wasn’t a technique that was critical for you to learn.”

“If you have some time late tomorrow morning, I could teach you.” John offered. “As long as you know how to perform a basic alignment, it isn’t difficult to learn. You do need at least two priests and a few people that can’t use Virtue, but that won’t be hard to arrange here.”

“Thank you, that would be great,” Seth said with a smile.

“We don’t have anything planned until late afternoon, so that works.” Levi said. “I appreciate it.”

“Of course, of course!” John said, waving them off. “Have a good evening, and enjoy the fish!”

____________________________________________

Bishop Nicholas rubbed the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t actually have a headache—he hadn’t had one since he became a priest almost ninety years ago—but it still helped him think. He was seriously debating whether he’d made the right choice about the boy in Lith.

The Bishop of Ava had suggested none too subtly that Levi’s son shouldn’t be made a priest when the family had taken the post in Lith over a decade ago, but hadn’t given a reason. Nicholas assumed it was some personal disagreement, but hadn’t cared to look into it at the time and just agreed. Then, a season or so ago, the Head Priest in Lith had passed along a request for a Judge to be sent to help an acolyte.

This was an unusual request that Nicholas would have dismissed out of hand normally, but he had recently received unusual instructions about looking for any acolytes in his diocese who showed an interest in another church. In their personal communication, the Bishop of Ava had claimed that the order came from very high in the church.

As a result, Nicholas had asked for more information about the request and learned that the idea came from the son, a young acolyte who was now perfectly prepared to become a priest. Technically the young man hadn’t actually suggested using the Sin Church himself, but Nicholas had decided to report him anyway and leave that detail out.

He had put the matter out of mind after that, after all the Judge who was sent decided that the boy fit the bill anyway. But then, two days ago, Nicholas had received instructions from a Cardinal on Psyla to “make regular reports about the activities of the Candidate.” He now suspected that the Joint Priest position was more significant even than he had assumed, and that his slight lie could cause significant problems if exposed.

So, Nicholas arranged a meeting with the boy’s father, wished mightily that he had just stuck to his colleague's request, and tried unsuccessfully to get tipsy. Sadly, he hadn’t been able to do that in ninety years either.