“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Appo thought.
He was here, really doing this. No going back now. The sight of Boah immediately filled him with fear, but coming face to face with his frightened expression pushed him back into confidence.
“What are…” Boah struggled to find the words. “How did you escape?” It was easy to see why the sight confused him: Appo had donned the Corps armor of Heikk. Seeing a healer in a uniform like that would have been quite the contrast. The excitement confused many in the crowd who had not encountered the healer beforehand, but those who did weeks prior were completely dumbfounded.
“I did not escape, as you know,” Appo said, his voice projecting loud enough to echo off the walls. “By your hand, I was tried, found guilty, and executed under Shadeon Law. It is by the grace of the Gods that I stand before you today.”
“Preposterous!” Boah shouted, smiling in utter disbelief. “Utterly preposterous! You speak blasphemy!”
“Blasphemy? Look at your conduit and see who is truly blasphemous.” Appo gestured next to Boah, who turned to find his son’s stunned face. Juddken had gone completely wide-eyed. He even blinked, as if trying to remove something from his eye.
Appo briefly scanned the other prisoners. He saw Eevi, who he was ecstatic to see alive. She was slack-jawed at the sight. Jere and Adok feigned surprise as well, but unconvincingly. Appo hoped he could command the crowd’s attention away from them. He then turned to the crowd, outstretching his arms like he recalled Boah doing. Indeed, the crowd showed a variety of emotions. Many of the confused began whispering amongst each other, with the words that they were looking at the infamous healer Boah had spoken about for what felt like an eternity.
“I have seen your struggles, people of Ash!” Appo began, speaking his memorized speech. “I have watched screamers spread, leaving death and destruction throughout the Eivettä! What I called a disease, you once called a curse, but they are one and the same!” Appo then pointed back at Boah and Juddken. “But I have also watched what these men have made you do. How they subjected you to flayings and sacrifices that have left just as many dead as the screamers ever did. I’ve seen brother turn against brother as the old ways have come back!”
“But the old ways have saved us!” shouted a voice from the crowd.
Appo expected pushback. In fact, he was relieved at how little there had been so far. “How so? By turning two hundred survivors into fifty?”
This opened the floodgates. Many within the crowd began spitting and cursing, throwing every bit of insult at the resurrected healer. They claimed everything from witchcraft to trickery, but there was an undercurrent of desperation.
“Oh,” Appo thought. “That’s what we expected.” Fortunately, Jere suggested an idea if they did.
Appo raised one glove in the air, removing his armor plating. Beneath it was his amputated arm, it’s bandage removed and his wound stained grey. It quieted the crowd to near silence.
“Jere, you wonderful bastard.”
“You have suffered,” Appo continued, now commanding the crowd’s attention. “And it has worsened. Not because of your prayers, but because of who commanded you to give them. The screamers took your people, yet in the last few days, you have lost your food and your your water. Have you not done what everything asked of you? Ask yourselves who has been telling you what has been right and proper.”
A deep, bellowing laugh echoed behind Appo. It was Boah, wiping away tears of laughter. “You fucking fool!” he nearly yelled. “Do you expect us to believe this trite? You’re an outsider! An imposter! You didn’t come back from the dead! You were the one who maimed our conduit! The one who spread lies and traded curses with the witch! You are guilty of everything they are, only more so!”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“I see it,” Appo thought. “We’re playing a game here. He just made his move.”
Appo chuckled with the slightest hint of nervousness. As Boah trudged towards him, Appo backed away, each circling the still water fountain. “You’re wrong, Boah. You think I’m here to spread falsities about Okkan-”
Boah cut him off, turning his attention back to the crowd. “The healer thinks you are all foolish! He calls you ‘people of Ash,’ for crying out loud! Nothing more than another false conduit, here to spread lies! He comes here, now claiming this is a curse after insisting it is no worse than your common cold! What will he conjure next? Are we going to let this outsider dictate our fates? He is likely the very reason our prayers have fallen on deaf ears!”
Appo feared the response. If Boah wished, he could simply overpower Appo with rhetoric and force. And if Appo interrupted, it would make him look far from the figure he was attempting to portray.
Instead, Appo waited. Some in the crowd cheered for Boah’s retort, but only the ones who had attacked Appo earlier. Many remained silent, their eyes darting back and forth between the two.
It was impossible to hide: the reaction stunned Boah.
“My turn,” Appo thought.
“You’re wrong,” Appo said, speaking to Boah. “I don’t claim that Okkan hasn’t heard you. I mean, how could he not? No, he’s heard it all. He’s heard every scalping and every flaying and every murder. But he has rejected your offers. The truth is simple: he does not care.”
“Lies!” Boah screamed. “Lies, all of it!” The rebuttal was unconvincing.
Appo turned back to the crowd, leaving Boah standing alone. He projected his voice even louder now. “Ashfolk, you must learn the truth! If the ‘Big Man’ truly wanted what was best for the ‘Little People,’ he would’ve told you about the tunnel.”
As the crowd murmured amongst themselves, Appo returned to Boah, his face frozen in anger. “But you didn’t, did you? You kept that information for yourself and your son, forcing the prisoners to dig. That was why you kept them alive. You even confided with Zaman Urash, a man whose crimes are severe enough for execution, in the hopes he would aid you in your escape.” Appo pointed to Jere and Adok, who knelt in front of him now. “You even shared this with these… ignoramuses!” Appo, as usual, could not help himself. Jere smiled at the remark. Even Eevi seemed to catch on.
“But-”
Appo interjected. “When, High Priest, did you intend to share all this with your people?”
Boah stood alone, seething at Appo. One by one, his guards looked to him. Many within the surrounding crowd did as well. The courtyard became silent, except for a single whisper deep within the crowd. “I knew it,” they said.
In the stunned silence of the courtyard, Appo turned away from Boah. “You all lived side by side with Ati worshipers until Boah told you to kill them! Life was harsh, but not like this. He’s lied to you all, and because of this, it has tainted your sacrifices! Okkan has rejected you, and further sacrifices will not bring back the water, or remove this curse!”
“Then what will?” someone in the crowd asked.
“Okay, here it goes.”
Appo held out his hands, closing his eyes in determination. “You must seek the favor of another God: one that approves not of this false Shadeon Law, but a true one. I beseech you all to consecrate yourselves to the Goddess Lowya, the ancient Shadeonite who lives in the ruins of Zabukama! It was with her blessing I passed through the Krazeek unscathed, and even spared me from the clutches of the dreaded Eivettän Death Worm! It must take all of us, for if we consecrate our souls to her, we can truly overcome this plague!”
It was it: this was his plea. Jere and Adok had worked with him throughout the night, trying to perfect the speech. Resurrected or not, he was an outsider. He needed to use words they knew well. It had to appeal to desertfolk and Ashfolk alike, for he needed as many to follow him as possible.
Appo opened his eyes. Some looked to him. Others looked to Boah. The crowd remained evenly split. Some would never change their minds, no matter what he said. Whether lies or truth, they would never waiver.
Appo finally looked to Jere and Adok, his composure evaporating. Both realized what was happening. They hoped it would not come to it, but they still had one chance. They all could free themselves the moment they wished, for Jere had broken all of their shackles. Appo had his gauntlet, but that was their only weapon. They would have to fight their way out, and hoped they had swayed enough to protect them from the others.
But none of that would be necessary. As they all stood amongst each other, the Manor Gates suddenly exploded in a massive ball of flame, the force of which knocked them all to their feet.