Much to the surprise of her companions, Corvina brought her horse to a stop several blocks away from the church and dismounted.
“What are you doing?” asked Agis. “The compass is still pointing towards the church, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Corvina. “But we don’t have time to explain ourselves to the clerics, and we have no idea how many of them might be on Eva’s side. We’re going to have to sneak in.”
Rain shrugged. “Fine by me,” they said, slipping off their horse.
“You know a lot of secret ways to get into the church, right?” Corvina asked Agis.
Agis looked back and forth from Corvina to Rain and back again. Then he sighed. “Agh, fine, but all the routes I know would take us over rooftops. I assume the assassin will be able to keep up, but can you climb over rooftops, Lady?”
“I wore trousers today,” said Corvina. “I’ll be fine.”
Truthfully Corvina did have a bit of trouble keeping up with the other two as they scrambled up to and across the roofs of Longren. The way Agis and Rain leapt and dashed made it seem like their bodies weighed nothing. Corvina was slow and clumsy in comparison.
But only in comparison. Corvina wasn’t unathletic, and although she wasn’t trained in this particular style of movement, she was a trained fighter. It took considerable effort, but she wasn’t left behind.
That is, until the final leap to get to the church itself.
The alleyway between the roof of the inn (where Corvina was standing) and the stone wall of the church (where she needed to be) was at least twenty feet across, if it was anything. Admittedly, the wall was much lower than the roof, which would probably make it easier to cover the distance, but still…
And yet, somehow, Agis and Rain had been able to clear the gap with ease and grace. It was practically inhuman.
But Corvina was very certain that she herself was human. With normal human limitations.
Well… to be fair, Agis actually was inhuman, being an elf. And Corvina wasn’t sure about Rain.
“Come on Corvina! You can do it!” Agis was attempting to whisper-scream at her from the other side of the yawning abyss.
“Is there no other way around?” asked Corvina, similarly attempting to be both loud and quiet at the same time. “Isn’t there a tree somewhere where I could climb across its branches to the other side, or something like that?”
Agis shook his head. “I’m afraid this is the only access point.”
Corvina had no choice then.
She backed up, and took a deep breath, and said a small prayer to the Goddess.
Coris, if you’re there, and if you’re real, don’t you dare let me fall.
She ran and she leapt.
As soon as she was in the air she could tell she wasn’t going to make it. Her trajectory was off. She was going to smack directly into the wall. She would be lucky if she got away with a few broken legs and a major concussion. And Anne would be lost to her forever…
Then, at the last moment, she felt her body grow suddenly lighter, and a breeze pushing her from behind buoyed her upwards, carrying her farther than she should have been able to go.
She landed lightly on the top of the wall, fully upright, feeling refreshed, as though her stamina had been restored.
Corvina briefly wondered if she had just been the recipient of a true miracle.
Then she saw Rain.
Their hand was outstretched and they looked exhausted.
“Thank you,” said Corvina.
Rain shrugged. “Just don’t make me have to do it again. I hate using magic like that.”
Agis, who hadn’t noticed anything going wrong, clapped Crovina on the back, “Good job!” he said. “Now where do we go from here? What does the compass say?”
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Corvina pulled the compass out of her pocket and looked at it.
The needle was going haywire, spinning in circles.
“The cleric is not as careful about magic as I am,” said Rain. They looked out over the church complex, glaring. “This whole place stinks of her magic. It’s as if her soul aura has expanded to include every corner of the complex. It will be impossible to trace her exact location using her magic.”
A heavy silence hung in the air as they all contemplated what to do.
“The abandoned wing!” said Agis, suddenly. “The other day I was looking for Anne and I saw Eva heading in that direction. I think she’s the only one who ever goes anywhere near there.”
“At least that’s somewhere to start,” said Corvina. She made a sweeping gesture towards Agis. “Lead the way, then.”
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Anne was laying on her side in the middle of the magic circle, still bound and gagged. Eva was chanting something in a language Anne didn’t recognize, and the magic circle was starting to glow faintly. That couldn’t be a good sign.
But Anne was still distracted by wondering how it was that she’d been able to hear a winky face emoji. By all accounts it didn’t make sense. But she had, in fact, heard a winky face emoji sent by the Goddess Coris. Somehow.
Which meant that the Goddess was real. But what did she mean by saying she wasn’t all powerful? She had to wait for the ‘right time’ to intervene? What the fuck was with that? If she was really a goddess she should be intervening in way more things way more often. This whole world was a fucking mess. Why wasn’t the Goddess doing anything about it?
The magic circle was fully glowing now, and the tesla-ball looking thing was glowing, too. Eva’s hair was starting to float out from the sides of her head, and Anne could feel a sense of electricity in the air.
And then Anne could see the spirit of the original Saintess, lurking just behind Eva. Whether she had been drawn close by the power of the ritual or whether she had simply chosen to manifest here, Anne couldn’t tell. Her face was twisted with fury and sorrow.
Eva raised her knife and a bolt of lightning briefly shot between the blade and the tesla ball.
The Saintess wrapped her spectral fingers around Eva’s neck.
Anne closed her eyes and said another quick prayer.
Any fucking time now, Coris! If you wait much longer it’s going to be too god-damn late!
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The whole abandoned wing was a maze of derelict rooms stuffed full of musty old books and rotting furniture of all varieties. Some of the rooms led to other rooms without ever connecting to a hallway. Some of the rooms had staircases leading up or down or even sideways. Some of the hallways and staircases didn’t go anywhere at all. They just stopped abruptly in dead-ends.
“Goddess’ tits!” said Corvina, punching a wall. This was the tenth room they’d checked. They had no way of knowing where specifically in the area Eva and Anne might be, and it was getting harder and harder to see much of anything in the growing dusk. “We’re never going to find them this way! Are you sure Eva never said anything to you which might indicate where exactly her secret lair is?”
“No, never!” said Agis. He looked like he was about to cry. “Or maybe she did and I just forgot about it… if only I was smarter, maybe I could have helped more. I don’t want my sister to die because I’m too stupid to figure out where she is.”
“It’s not a matter of intelligence,” said Rain. They had their ear up against a wall and they were tapping on it gently. “I don’t know who built this place originally, but it was clearly designed to confound. There are secret passageways in some of these walls.”
“What?! How are we supposed to systematically check the whole area if we can’t even be certain we’re not missing secret rooms?” said Corvina.
Rain shrugged.
Ultimately, they decided to split up to cover more ground. It was the smartest thing to do.
But without the others nearby, the dark thoughts that Corvina had been keeping at bay with a flurry of activity began to encroach further and further into her consciousness.
As Corvina dug her way through a pile of abandoned chairs to try to get to a door on the other side, she imagined Anne tortured, surrounded by laughing clerics taking amusement from her pain.
The door was only a closet.
As Corvina followed a staircase that led to a hallway that led to a staircase that led to a hallway, she imagined Eva alone with Anne, having her way with her in more ways than one…
The final staircase led back to where she’d started.
And when Corvina ran up against yet another dead end, she imagined Anne dead already… the spark gone from her lively eyes, her easy smile absent from her lips, the color drained from her rosy cheeks.
The weight of despair was so heavy, Corvina could barely stand.
But Corvina couldn’t let herself give in to the sorrow and the hopelessness. She had to keep going. She had to keep fighting. She had to keep searching. She couldn’t give up. Not yet. Not when Anne might still be alive out there, needing her help.
“Nothing in there!” shouted Agis, running out of a particularly dark room right in front of Corvina, and immediately running off further down the hallway without waiting for a response.
Corvina was about to press on when… something made her pause. She couldn’t be certain what it was. The dark room seemed to be drawing her towards it.
Through the darkness, Corvina could see a faint glow around one of the stone bricks in the far wall. Without thought or intent, almost as if she wasn’t operating under her own power at all, Corvina walked towards the glowing stone. When she was close enough, she reached out towards it.
“What are you doing?” Agis poked his head through the door behind her. “I told you I already checked this room! There’s nothing in here!”
Corvina pushed on the glowing stone and she heard a small click.
The stone stopped glowing, and a portion of the wall next to it swung open like a door, revealing a set of steps leading down into further darkness.
Before Corvina could even react to what happened, she felt Rain dash past her like a shot fired into the dark, almost gliding down the stairs and out of sight.
“Come on,” Corvina said to Agis, drawing her sword and following after Rain as quickly as she could.