Wirrin hadn’t managed to get back to sleep when the door opened again. This time it was the quiet creaking of the hinges that caught Wirrin’s ear. No movement through the ground, as a woman wearing a crossed hammer pendant stepped through the door.

She closed the door behind her.

‘Wirrin, my name is Tassa,’ the Work mage said.

‘Have we been talking too loud?’ Yern grinned.

‘Yes,’ Tassa said.

‘Do you think you could take her, Wirrin?’ Yern kept on grinning.

‘Maybe,’ Wirrin said, not getting up. ‘Her friends outside? I don’t know.’

‘Perhaps we are overestimating you, Wirrin,’ Tassa said. ‘We expect that if you really wanted to leave, you would have done so when Rasak took you out of here.’

‘Without this small child who’s attached to me?’ Wirrin shook her head. ‘How poorly people think of me.’

‘I’m not that small,’ Yern glared. ‘I bet I’m at least as tall as this lady here.’

‘You’d have to get up to find out,’ Wirrin said.

Yern looked between Wirrin and Tassa for a moment. ‘Alright, I’m small. It’s worth being comfortable if you ask me.’

‘Everyone keeps saying you’re sensible,’ Wirrin said. ‘I’m starting to think they’re not too far off.’

‘Can’t be that sensible,’ Yern yawned. ‘I ended up here, didn’t I?’

Tassa had a lot more patience than Wirrin had expected of her. She waited until it was clear that Wirrin and Yern were done before she said anything more.

‘It did not escape our attention that some of the others did not want us to hear their conversation with you,’ Tassa said. ‘And, of course, it did not escape our attention that you claim that they are lying to us.’

Wirrin nodded along. ‘You know what I always figured,’ she said. ‘Never gave it any thought either. All five of you are basically the same thing, right? Pentumvirate. Just the Gods and their Church. I don’t think that was accidental.’

Tassa didn’t say anything, or react.

‘And none of you have names,’ Wirrin said. ‘All these mages get upset when I say your names. Without names, you’re all the one thing, surely? Nondescript.’

‘Aren’t they only descript?’ Yern mumbled. ‘Just descriptions, no names.’

Wirrin snorted.

‘What do you believe they are lying to us about, Wirrin,’ Tassa said, after another pause to make sure that Wirrin was done.

‘I’ll make you the same deal I made them,’ Wirrin said. ‘You’ll answer a question for me, and I’ll answer a question for you.’

‘We could just kill you,’ Tassa said. The bricks rattled in the walls.

‘You might be able to kill me,’ Wirrin corrected. ‘But then who are you going to talk to? Iltavaer? Raerna? Tontaer?’

‘You don’t believe Azavaer is lying to us,’ Tassa said.

Wirrin smiled. ‘I know that no representative of Azavaer was in that room. It’s not the same thing, is it?’

‘Ask us your question, Wirrin, and we will decide whether we will answer it.’

‘I have this suspicion,’ Wirrin said. ‘About why you don’t like having names. I think that if all of you had names, it would have been harder to forget the Fiends. You all bear that similarity, as you know. What I wonder, what my question is: do your mages know where your statues are? The originals, I mean.’

Tassa just stood there and gazed at Wirrin for quite a while. Wirrin couldn’t be certain of it, of course, since she couldn’t feel anything beyond her comfortable bed, but she doubted that there was a huddle of mages anywhere debating answering the question.

‘Very few,’ Tassa said, eventually. ‘I do not. There is one in this Church who does.’

‘That interests me,’ Wirrin said. ‘I already asked my question, of course. But I’ll tell you my suspicion, Tassa. I suspect that mages are mostly not allowed to see the original statues because they, too, bear notable resemblance. If there were images of them around, the Fiends would have been very difficult to forget indeed.’

Tassa didn’t say anything.

‘This is my final speculation to you, Tassa,’ Wirrin said. ‘All you mages seem to have scarification around your mouths, like this small child here. I speculate that this is because of the main resemblance all of the old statues share.’

Tassa was perfectly still for several seconds. ‘What do you suspect the others of lying about, Wirrin?’

‘I’m told that before the War, before the Church, there was a feeling that everyone stood between you and your march toward civilisation,’ Wirrin said. ‘I think I would have been less trusting, in your place, that you all shared the same goal.’

Tassa nodded. Her brows furrowed just slightly, the most expression she’d had since she arrived. ‘Vonaer wishes you to know it expected that to be your answer,’ she said, hesitantly. ‘The Church has lasted five hundred years. It is, indeed, a minor thing.’

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Wirrin smiled. ‘You can just tell Azavaer the same thing, save one of its mages the trip.’

Tassa’s face had gone back to its blank neutrality. ‘Thank you for your time, Wirrin.’ She turned and opened the door.

‘A much less interesting question, if you don’t mind, Tassa,’ Wirrin said. ‘Do you eat a lot, like me?’

Tassa closed the door behind her.

‘I think she doesn’t,’ Yern murmured. ‘She was too skinny.’

‘You know what else I always assumed but have never tried to check?’ Wirrin said. ‘I always assumed that each of the Gods have the same number of mages. Maybe the balance is a little off, now, since I killed a few. But it must be close enough.’

‘So if any of them tried to oppose the other four, it would be a lost cause,’ Yern said. ‘If Vonaer tried to oppose the other four, it would be a lost cause.’

‘Even if every single one of them is lying to the others about something, they would all have to be even thicker than I expect to have no balances within the Church.’

‘Iltavaer was never known for its intellect,’ Mkaer rumbled.

‘Nor I,’ Ulvaer cackled.

They were quiet for a few moments.

‘What now?’ Yern yawned.

Wirrin shrugged. ‘I doubt I can get out of here, with all these strong mages of Vonaer guarding me,’ she smiled.

‘Strong and skinny,’ Yern murmured. ‘Not at all the way it should be.’

The next meal that slid through the door was much bigger than the first two had been. No one visited, that day, but the meal after that was even bigger.

‘Tassa probably thinks she’s making fun of me,’ Wirrin said.

‘You have to eat a lot,’ Yern said, pointing a fork at Wirrin. ‘Because of the Tesholgtok. They don’t.’

‘I also got stabbed through the lungs.’ Wirrin pointed a fork back at Yern.

Yern pointed her knife. ‘Your breathing sounds fine now.’

Wirrin pointed her knife. ‘Why don’t they have to eat as much?’

Yern pointed her left foot. ‘You ate almost half a person before you passed out.’

Wirrin pointed her left foot. ‘You don’t have to say that so loud.’

Yern pointed her right foot. ‘Yasalok Tesholg and Holgetok Tesholg were the most popular before the War, right? Ocean and Sickness.’

‘By a wide margin,’ Naertral burbled.

‘By a wide margin,’ Wirrin repeated, unpointing her knife and fork to keep eating.

Yern unpointed herself as well, in preparation. ‘So the Thausholg must have done something, or discovered something,’ Yern said, pointing her fork again. ‘Like back when the people discovered that you can make water safe by boiling it.’

‘Which is why it wasn’t as useful as I would have liked,’ Wirrin said. ‘Whatever they discovered worked, obviously. But it convinced them of the need to get rid of everyone else.’

‘But there’s still five of them,’ Yern said, pointing her knife again.

‘Is that the problem?’ Wirrin pointed her right foot.

‘So they hope that you with the Tesholgtok will help in some way? If they’re only lying to Takavt Tesholg, why not include Ishok Tesholg? Unless it’s both?’ Yern pointed both feet again, then unpointed and got back to eating.

‘Or…’

Yern cut Wirrin off. ‘Or they think they can narrow it down again,’ Yern proclaimed, pointing her whole body at Wirrin. ‘They don’t need all the Thausholg anymore. If they needed five for the Gods’ War, maybe they only need three to deal with Tegalk Tesholg.’

‘Oh, she’s very sensible,’ Mkaer rumbled.

‘Why do they need three?’ Wirrin asked, smiling and arching her eyebrows.

‘The first time, they needed Takavt Tesholg for Povek Tesholg…’ Yern frowned to herself. ‘And I bet they needed Ishok Tesholg for Yasalok Tesholg.’

‘Why all three for just Ulvaer?’ Wirrin asked.

Yern frowned some more, putting her fork down as she puzzled it out. ‘Firstly, I bet there’s a lot of mages by now, so they need numbers. Folgak Tesholg because Tegalk can kill plants easily. Shavt because of fighting. I’m not sure about Hogoll Tesholg.’

‘Tegalk could dry a person out just as easily as a plant,’ Wirrin said. ‘Except for Iltavaer’s mages.’

Yern nodded a bunch. ‘There. They need three.’

‘How could they get rid of the other two?’ Naertral burbled. ‘Even before Wirrin talked to them, Vonaer and Azavaer wouldn’t sacrifice their mages uselessly.’

‘It doesn’t have to be useless,’ Wirrin said. ‘There must be ways for them to sabotage each other. If they decide it’s worth doing.’

‘Wouldn’t that be too obvious?’ Yern said.

‘It would now,’ Mkaer rumbled. ‘If it’s already in Vonaer’s mind.’

Wirrin shrugged. ‘Now that they’re thinking about it, it probably would be obvious,’ she said. ‘But if they weren’t looking out for it, I expect that just the idea that it might happen would be too upsetting to consider.’

Yern nodded. ‘Takavt Tesholg could keep it to itself, so Ishok Tesholg might still be surprised,’ she suggested, eyeing the door.

‘Doesn’t seem like that would be much use,’ Wirrin said. ‘Vonaer couldn’t beat the rest of the Church by itself, even following on my heels.’ She grinned.

The door opened and a different one of Vonaer’s mages stuck his hooded head through. ‘What did the others want to know from you?’ he demanded, doing a poor job of concealing his anger.

Wirrin frowned at him. If Vonaer thought the Church existed to bring civilisation, it wouldn’t be able to answer her main question. And she doubted Vonaer would agree to answer her other question.

‘I’ll make you the same deal as Tassa,’ Wirrin said. ‘Are you going to talk to Azavaer?’

The man frowned. ‘We haven’t decided.’

Wirrin shrugged. ‘A boring answer. The others wanted to know how I became a mage of multiple Outsiders.’

The man stared. ‘Why?’

Wirrin shrugged again. Yern shrugged in support.

‘I assume it’s related to their actual aim in the Gods’ War,’ Wirrin said. ‘They wouldn’t tell me, of course.’

The door slammed shut.

‘Is it weird that I’m enjoying being in gaol more than I was enjoying the hetavatok?’ Yern asked.

Wirrin nodded. ‘Yes.’

Yern snorted. ‘You couldn’t wait to leave. I’m sure you’re enjoying gaol.’

‘Who said I’m not weird?’

Yern nodded. Then pointed her fork. ‘What are you going to do tomorrow when they realise that you don’t know anything and kill you?’

Wirrin picked up her fork and pointed it back. ‘Hope your prison break goes well.’

Yern pouted.

‘I can’t tell you, can I?’ Wirrin said. ‘They can hear us.’

Wirrin did not have a plan. This was a completely novel situation for her. Sure she’d been in gaol before, but only ever overnight. Sure, an increasing number of people had been trying to kill her recently, but out in the open, and in small enough numbers to be manageable.

She didn’t know for sure that she was to be executed, but Yern was probably right that she was. She had no idea how to deal with Vonaer’s mages, or Iltavaer’s. She had no idea how to deal with a huge Church building full of people.

Wirrin had an idea. ‘Can Vonaer’s mages feel through the ground like I can?’

‘It is more difficult for them,’ Mkaer rumbled. ‘They feel best through their buildings.’

Wirrin went ‘hmm’.

Naertral burbled: ‘I’ve always liked worms.’