by Joe Jackson
“Welcome to the grand temple of Lord Garra Ktarra, demonhunter,” the priest said. “I am Maurice Elutire, his high priest. How may we be of service to you?”
“Greetings, Master Elutire,” Kari said formally. “I am Karian Vanador, Sword…Hand of Zalkar, by his grace. My friend and I were hoping to speak to one of your lord’s priestesses; her name is Danilynn Stahlorr.”
“Is this about official business, or a personal matter?” the high priest asked.
“A little of both,” Kari answered honestly. She wasn’t sure why the priest would ask such a question, unless Danilynn was in some sort of trouble. She realized that Master Elutire had looked at Eli sideways a couple of times, and that left Kari to wonder if Eli’s presence was the reason he asked. It was possible he was afraid Eli might be seeking a relationship with Danilynn, or even simpler, a matter of the high priest being afraid Eli would take Danilynn away on another long set of adventures. Kari assumed the fact that the priest had not asked Eli’s name meant that he already knew it.
“Very well, I will inform Mistress Stahlorr of your arrival,” Master Elutire said. “Please, be seated, and she will be out to see you shortly.”
Kari and Eli took seats on some of the benches fronting the altar to wait. Kari regarded Eli to see if he was as curious to the priest’s words as she was, but the half-corlyps had a broad smile on his face. Kari couldn’t help but wonder why the priest had been so interested in Danilynn’s business. Her first assumption was always to believe that Eli’s race was the primary reason for others’ hesitation, but if that was the case, Eli either didn’t see it, or just didn’t care. During their trip from Barcon, Kari could tell that Eli had spent a lot of time thinking about Danilynn, and Kari was glad she’d been as frank with him as she had the night before they left.
“Mistress Stahlorr,” Eli whispered when they were alone again. “That’s promising.”
Kari chuckled. “What did you make of his attitude toward you? He didn’t even bother asking your name.”
Eli waved off the comment. “I’m sure he’s heard all about me from Danilynn,” he said. “Poor old guy’s probably worried I’m going to get Danilynn killed somewhere. She rose pretty high up in the ranks of the church when we were working together. They were probably just happy she survived the Apocalypse and came to work here in the grand temple, and now they’re afraid of losing her. Maybe she’s in line to become the next high priestess.”
“Well, that would be something,” Kari said. “You’d better get used to the idea of living here in the holy city if that’s the case.”
Eli shrugged. “I don’t really have any ties back in Lajere that I can’t cut easily. I can leave the brothel to Antoine and a couple of the other men that work for me; I can trust them to keep watch over the place the way I did. I’ll miss some of the girls, but it wouldn't be the first time I cut my roots and moved somewhere else.”
“Well, I’m sure Danilynn will more than take the place of those girls you’ll miss,” Kari said.
The half-corlyps snorted. “Kari, I never slept with any of the girls I kept watch over,” he said quietly. “Believe me, plenty of them were willing to, but…well…”
Kari realized she’d misspoken, and she reached up and gently clamped his snout shut. “Forget it,” she said. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I guess I figured working in a brothel carried certain benefits, and I wouldn’t think any less of you if you had taken advantage of them.”
“Well, I would,” he muttered, but they both went silent as a priestess emerged from one of the back rooms and approached.
As soon as Kari saw Danilynn, she remembered her. Danilynn looked different now, removed from the battlefield and dressed in the light robe of her temple instead of the blackened chain armor of a warrior-priest. She was a pretty girl, but not one who fell into vanity or took great pains to beautify herself. Danilynn had a natural beauty, much like Kari’s in-laws told her she had. Like all of the fures-rir, Danilynn had blue hair and eyes, though hers were of lighter shades than was typical. Her hair was long and straight, well tended but not in a way that suggested she spent a great deal of time on it. Her eyes were small, but round and intense, and their light blue glow was eerie in the darkness of the temple.
As Danilynn approached, Kari got a better look at her in the dim light. Danilynn was a little taller than Eli, but still shorter than Kari, and even through the robe, Kari could see that Danilynn was an athletic woman. Her breasts were small, but that was typical among fures-rir women until they gave birth to their first child. Her face was all at once warm and intense, her snout was short and smooth, and she lacked the overbite typical among the lower class in fures-rir society. Danilynn looked like a product of fine breeding among the upper class or even nobility of the fures-rir, which left Kari to wonder why the woman had left her homeland so many years ago and never returned. Danilynn had fine teeth, and they showed prominently when she saw Eli and her mouth split into a wide smile.
“Eli!” she said happily, and the half-corlyps rose and greeted his friend with a hug.
Kari rose to her feet, but didn’t say or do anything to interrupt the reunion. It was even clearer now that her impression of Eli’s relationship with Danilynn had been correct, and Kari couldn’t help but wonder why the two had stayed apart so long. Eli was good at hiding his emotions most of the time, but this was not one of those times. By the way he held Danilynn tight in his embrace well beyond the typical length of a greeting hug, it seemed to Kari that he might be wondering the same thing. And though Kari didn’t know Danilynn very well on a personal level, the priestess didn’t protest the length of Eli’s embrace.
“Gods, it’s good to see you again, girl,” Eli said when they split apart at last. He gestured toward Kari. “I’m not sure if you’ve met…”
“Colonel Vanador,” Danilynn said, turning to Kari. She gave a crisp military salute, and Kari returned it with the typical demonhunter salute.
“Just call me Kari,” she returned. “I’m not lieutenant colonel of anything anymore.”
“No, now she’s a Hand of Zalkar,” Eli interjected.
Danilynn fixed Kari with wide eyes. “Hand of Zalkar?” she repeated. “My word, it won’t be long before you’re the Avatar of your Order.” What was curious to Kari was that she lacked any trace of the accent common to fures-rir. Danilynn spoke with nearly the same accent as Eli.
Kari pointed a finger in Eli’s face before he could utter a word. “Don’t say it,” she told him, but the half-corlyps’ laughter made Kari chuckle as well.
“So, have you come for the reason I’m hoping?” Danilynn asked Eli.
Kari leaned toward Eli and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, but he kept his mouth closed. It seemed to Kari as though he’d lost his nerve. Before she started to give him another nudge, though, Kari noticed the look on Danilynn’s face, and realized she wasn’t asking about a date. Kari wondered what Danilynn could be talking about, and then she remembered Eli’s tale about Ciceria asking them to go to the underworld and rescue her daughter. Eli had told Kari he had no intention of ever setting foot in the underworld, but unless Kari was mistaken, it seemed Danilynn wanted to. Suddenly, Eli avoiding Danilynn despite his feelings for her made a bit more sense.
“I brought Kari here to see you so you could tell her about our work with Jason Bosimar,” Eli answered at last. “I’ve told her the basics of everything we did, but you always knew more about Ciceria and her priesthood and whatnot. I think there’s a lot more you can tell her than I did.”
Danilynn was disappointed and it showed. She looked away for a moment, but soon she turned her glowing blue eyes back to Kari. “Aye, I can do that for you,” she said, the fures-rir accent coming through for just a moment. “Come in the back to the fireplace room; we can talk privately there.”
Danilynn led them into a back hallway that was better lit than the temple’s main chamber. Her footsteps were silent as she led her guests down the corridor, the sof
t swish of her robe inaudible over the sound of her companions' armor. After they passed a couple of doors, Danilynn opened one to her left, and ushered Eli and Kari in. The room was cozy, with a couple of rockers and deep-cushioned chairs in front of a fireplace. There was already a warm fire going, and the room was full of its aroma, and well-lit by the dancing flames. It seemed to be a casual meeting place for the priests, or else simply a place to wind down as the day grew old. Danilynn gestured toward the chairs, and Eli sat in one of the rockers while Kari sat in one of the cushioned chairs.
The priestess closed the door to the room, and she took the rocker on the far left so she could face both of her guests. “Eli, are our secrets still safe?” she asked.
The half-corlyps glanced at Kari. “She knows about Tor, but she’s agreed to keep his secret,” he said, and Danilynn pursed her lips.
Kari was surprised that Eli would bring that up right away after what he'd told her on the trip, but she decided to take advantage of it. “I only want to know one thing about him: does he work with his mother, or have any real contact with her?” she asked.
“No,” Danilynn said with a shake of her head. “Tor didn’t even find out that Emma was his mother until we had lost contact with her. For a while he thought she had just abandoned him, but I think when she realized the DarkWind military was going to take him in, she allowed them to protect him. Had they threatened him harm, I can’t even imagine what she might have done to protect him. It’s complicated, but I think Tor has come to terms with who and what he is. We’re just not so sure everyone else would understand – including your Order.”
Kari nodded. “I was wondering if anyone else in the Order knew; did Bosimar know?”
“Only the five of us knew: Eli, Jori-an, Rhiannon, Tor, and myself,” Danilynn said. “We kept it from the Order – even Jason – because we were afraid they might put Tor in prison, or use him as a bargaining chip to find and get rid of Emma.”
“One of Jason’s journals talked a bit about Emma, and how Jason was trying to figure out what she was up to,” Kari said. “You never told him about your interactions with her?”
Danilynn and Eli exchanged a glance before the priestess answered. “We told Jason just about everything we knew and had seen of her. He didn’t trust her; he said that what we had seen and told him about was only a part of the entire story. He was constantly getting reports from his hunters that mentioned her, and she seemed to be manipulating events all over the continent, so he never trusted her. He always figured she was up to something big, but we could never get a clear indication of what. The fact that her son worked directly with us never helped in that regard. It was confusing, and oftentimes frustrating.”
“I know the feeling. She seems helpful at times, but that doesn’t mean she’s doing it to be helpful,” Kari said, and Danilynn nodded her agreement. “So, Eli told me you’d know more about Ciceria and the syrinthian priesthood?”
Danilynn nodded again. “Yes. At one point, when I used some of the Night Runner’s divine power to spy on the syrinthian temple, Se’ceria established a telepathic link with me. From that point on, we ‘talked’ rather frequently.”
“Se’ceria?” Kari interrupted; the pronunciation was different the way Danilynn said it.
“Se’ceria Sasha Solaristis,” Danilynn elaborated. “Syrinthian females have three names: the first is actually a derivative of their mother’s name; the second is their equivalent of our first name; and the third is their familial name. Se’ceria means ‘daughter of Ceria.’ They denote the lineages of the females for the sake of the priesthood.”
“So her daughter’s name would be Se’sasha?”
“Well, not exactly. Her daughter’s title would be Se’sasha, though that would be how they refer to her in casual conversation, as though it is her name. Her daughter’s actual name is Aesiasi. When I saw Eli, I had hoped he changed his mind about going to find Se’sasha in the underworld,” Danilynn said. “If not, I was wondering: might you be willing to do so?”
Kari scratched at her snout absently. “I’m not sure the Order would want me wandering around in the underworld, even with my latest promotion. Or rather, especially with my latest promotion.”
Danilynn waved off the answer. “I’m not looking to go down there and fight our way through to find Se’sasha. I understand enough about the underworld to know that those who go there to fight or cause trouble find a quick demise. However, we have sources of information, so we may be able to find out where Se’sasha is hiding or being hidden, and we can hopefully slip in and out without notice. That would depend on whether she’s being held prisoner, or if she’s in hiding from Sekassus, and if she is, exactly where.”
Kari leaned to the side in her chair and stared at Danilynn silently. The priestess’ gaze kept flicking back and forth between the demonhunter and the half-corlyps, and Kari assumed Danilynn was waiting for Eli to volunteer. The half-corlyps continued to hold his tongue, and Kari thought about what Master Surallis had told him after offering him a position among the Order. As Kari thought more about it, she realized Eli might be afraid to go to the underworld, but that his attitude might change if Kari agreed to go first. Since Kari was now the head of the Order, she reasoned she could theoretically do what she wanted to, but the opinion of the Council, and the delicate balance between the heavens and the underworld, would weigh heavily on her decision.
“I understand you made a promise to Se’ceria,” Kari said, “but I really can’t help but wonder: what do we stand to gain by rescuing her daughter? Se’ceria’s plot was at least the second invasion attempt by the syrinthians; how do we know bringing Se’sasha here wouldn’t help start a third?” Danilynn didn’t answer immediately, and she chewed on her lip silently as she thought about what to say. Kari prodded her further, asking, “Why don’t you tell me a bit about syrinthian priests; Eli mentioned they’re rather rebellious against Sekassus?”
“Se’ceria was sickened by the things she had to do for Sekassus,” Danilynn said. “She was forced to sacrifice her own people to power the portal they had built for him. There was only so much she could tell me when we ‘spoke’ telepathically, but from time to time, I caught glimpses of her…dreams, I guess you could say. The syrinthians didn’t always serve Sekassus. They used to serve a god – a true god: one who was benevolent, and who they bent knee to willingly, out of love and respect. They are slaves to Sekassus. They’re little more than sacrifices, battle fodder, and sources of entertainment as he tears their society apart piece by piece. Eli has told you that the syrinthians aren’t demons?”
“Yes,” Kari answered. “I wasn’t sure if that made them better or worse, given their race’s history.”
“If what Se’ceria told me is true, the syrinthians have lived in the underworld since before the demons conquered it,” Danilynn said. “She gave me no indication of how long ago that happened, but she tried to impress on me the fact that the syrinthians are little more than Sekassus’ patsies and playthings. He sends them here to die on the off chance that they succeed in punching a hole through the dimensional barriers that he can slip through. But he cares nothing for them; if they die, it is simply more enjoyment for him as he sees the misery and sadness their loss instills in the rest of the population.”
“Why don’t they just abandon his service once they get here?” Kari asked.
“Their families would pay the ultimate price for that betrayal,” Danilynn answered with a shake of her head. She fixed her wayward strands of hair and continued, “That’s why Se’sasha wasn’t allowed to accompany her mother during the invasion: Sekassus keeps their kin close to him, so they can be slain in case of betrayal.”
“But by that logic, wouldn’t Se’sasha already be dead?”
“No. Se’sasha was daughter of the high priestess. Sekassus wouldn’t kill her because it would break the lineage of the high priestesses. If he holds her prisoner, and has decided to kill Se’sasha, she would be allowed to live long enough t
o be mated and produce a female heir. After that, he would likely execute her. By my best guess, Se’sasha should be nearly or slightly older than eighteen years by now, so time is growing short. If we intend to honor our promise to Se’ceria, then we must move soon,” Danilynn said, sparing Eli another glance.
Kari crossed one leg over the other and bobbed her foot in the air. “So that brings us back to my original question: what do you think Se’sasha’s intentions will be if we rescue her and bring her back here? Will she still be enslaved to Sekassus because he holds her family hostage? Or would she maybe help us work against him?”
“It will depend on how much like her mother she turns out to be, but if Sekassus has been holding her prisoner with the intention of breeding and then murdering her…,” Danilynn said.
“Did Se’ceria ever tell you what god she worshipped?” Kari pressed.
“No, other than to call her the ‘Great Mother,’” Danilynn answered. “There is a nearly endless number of deities on many worlds referred to that way, but I have never found the one whose holy symbol matches the one Se’ceria was wearing when she died. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”
“And you two are quite sure that neither ‘Great Mother’ nor that symbol she wore refers to King Koursturaux?”
“Positive,” Eli said.
Danilynn nodded her agreement. “King Koursturaux is very powerful, but she isn’t a deity, and couldn’t have provided Se’ceria with the power to open that portal. At least, not as far as we know; we don’t believe any of the demon kings possess that sort of power except for the two Koryon ‘deities’ who are also kings: Augrus Tiveron and Sheila Darkstorm.”
