by Joe Jackson
They descended back to the main floor to find that Erik, Typhonix, and Lord Allerius had arrived. Kari’s two brothers-in-law welcomed her home with hugs, and Kari introduced them to Shefter and the syrinthian priestess. Not surprisingly, Erik and Ty both seemed suspicious, but they kept their feelings and any accompanying words to themselves, and were adequately cordial to Se’sasha. Lord Allerius welcomed Kari home only slightly less warmly than her siblings, but his greeting of the syrinthian priestess was much more professional.
“I understand quite a price was paid for the young lady’s freedom,” Allerius remarked to Kari, keeping his eyes on the syrinthian priestess. “Let’s hope it all proves to have been worth the risk and the cost.”
“It will be,” Kari assured him in a quiet, confident voice. “Albrecht, we’re going to need to convene the Council and have a meeting with the heads of the Order. This goes a lot deeper than Se’sasha sharing secrets with us; there’s other implications to this plan that came up while we were on Mehr’Durillia that we need to discuss.”
“Should I go do that now?” he asked. “I understand you just got home, and I can smell something wonderful cooking.”
Kari laughed. “Why don’t you stay for supper, and we can head over to the campus when we’ve all had something to eat?”
Lord Allerius was agreeable to that, and joined the large gathering of family and friends around Kyrie’s dining table. Kari didn’t let on to her subcommander that she was pregnant just yet, and also tried to stay away from discussing business at all while they ate. Eli, Serenjols, and Damansha remained the only ones who didn’t come join them for the impromptu dinner. Kari asked for updates on everyone, and was happy to hear that not much had happened while she was gone; everyone was in good health and spirits. Instead, she got to spend a little time introducing Shefter and talking about when they had first met. Despite the fact that they all knew Kari had been resurrected, it still seemed to strike everyone as surreal when Kari and Shefter spoke of meeting almost two hundred years before.
When dinner was done, Kari headed for the Order’s campus along with most of her family and friends. The syrinthian priestess didn’t seem nervous at all, which Kari took as a good sign. She wondered if the same would hold true for the syrinthian prisoners still being held on the campus, and whether that would change when they saw Se’sasha.
Chapter XIX – Sanctuary
The Council’s chamber was abuzz with the quiet chatter of many people. Along with Kari, Se’sasha, Danilynn, Aeligos, Lord Allerius, and the Council, the chamber was also full of many of the Order’s departmental heads and other staff, right down to drill sergeants. Even the Council was chatting among themselves with the syrinthian priestess standing before them, and Kari stood beside Se’sasha, waiting for the meeting to come to order. It took her a couple of minutes to realize the others might actually be waiting for her to call it to order.
Kari glanced at Aeligos, who was seated near the gallery, casually flipping through one of Jason Bosimar’s journals while he waited for things to get underway. Kari had decided now was the time to tell the Council just what Danilynn and her friends had accomplished, and how that scenario had led to Se’sasha standing before them all. She continued to wait, though: she wanted Eli to further corroborate everything Aeligos and Danilynn said to the Council, and she wanted Liria there to translate things for Se’sasha. She had dispatched hunters to go retrieve the two; Eli was spending time with Serenjols at the forge, if Kari’s suspicions were correct.
Kari wondered if Erik was upset that his brothers were allowed into the Council’s meeting chamber when he wasn’t. Aeligos wasn’t even a member of the Order, and Ty was of much lower rank than Erik. The Council appreciated Aeligos’ help, though, and Ty got in by virtue of being a drill instructor and therefore, technically, an officer. Kari had tried to get Erik to focus on what was important, and asked him to gather up and summarize the findings of the Order with respect to more syrinthians hiding among hunters on assignment in the field.
Liria arrived under guard, and then Eli arrived with his hunter escort, and the half-corlyps wasted no time rushing to Danilynn to welcome her home. He extended the courtesy to Kari, but then he turned his attention to the syrinthian priestess. He took in Se’sasha for what seemed an eternity, and the priestess stood firm and poised under his scrutiny. Eli extended his hand and introduced himself, and though she didn’t understand him, Se’sasha offered her hand delicately.
“Gods, she looks just like Se’ceria,” Eli commented to Danilynn, who smiled. Se’sasha bowed her head graciously with a faint smile.
Kari called the meeting to order, but felt strange doing so. The Council reacted to her words as though she really was in charge. She was the head of the Order now, but the Council was still technically in charge of her, so to give them orders and have them heed her words was odd. Kari introduced Danilynn and Eli to the Council, and then introduced Se’sasha to the entire gathering. Everyone was polite and cordial with the syrinthian priestess, but Kari could sense the undertones of anxiety: they wanted to find out what Se’sasha knew and could tell them, but at the same time, they didn’t trust her.
Kari took the center of the floor and spoke up. “First things first: the Order is granting sanctuary to Se’sasha, and I’m going to be putting the other syrinthian prisoners we’re holding under her authority,” she said, and she glanced sidelong at Se’sasha. “They’re to remain under arrest here on the campus, but I’m giving Se’sasha the right to speak with them and spend time among them, to see if she can sway their loyalties. Since she’s supposed to be a priestess of their people, they may defer to her now that she’s here and they’re all cut off from Sekassus.”
“Agreed,” Master Bennet said formally, but he didn’t interrupt beyond that.
Liria was staring at Kari curiously, but Kari ignored her for the time being, and gestured toward Aeligos. “I brought my brother-in-law here to give everyone – our officers included – a summary of everything that happened with the syrinthian invasion during Jason Bosimar’s tenure,” she continued, and the mumbling and excited whispers that followed made her pause for a few seconds. When she had everyone’s attention again, she continued, “I think we’re going to find that this young woman standing here before us is either the biggest coincidence in the history of the Order, or it’s some work of the gods coming to fru…fruition.”
“A syrinthian invasion?” Master Perez echoed, and he turned his stern gaze to Se’sasha. “What does this young lady know of this?”
“Would you please ask her for us?” Kari asked Liria, and the syrinthian girl seemed surprised to be asked to do anything.
Liria hesitated only briefly before speaking in the rapid, sibilant language of the snake-folk, and Se’sasha shook her head and responded. Liria turned back to Kari and translated, “The priestess says she knows only that her mother came here to Citaria when she was but a little girl, and that she never returned. She was put into Sekassus’ dungeon not long after, and was held there until you bartered her release.”
Liria seemed to actually take stock of what she’d just said, and turned back to Se’sasha and asked her something else. Se’sasha nodded, and Liria dropped to her knees at Se’sasha’s feet. They spoke back and forth briefly in their language, and then Liria stood up and addressed Kari. “I had…I had no idea this was Se’sasha Solaristis!” she gasped. “You…you went and rescued our high priestess from King Sekassus? Why?”
Kari held her hand up, deflecting the question. “I know she can’t tell us much just yet, that’s why I brought Danilynn, Eli, and Aeligos along,” she said to the Council. “Se’sasha is a victim of all this; it was her mother who asked that Danilynn and her friends go to Mehr’Durillia and rescue her. But we’re getting ahead of the story here, so I’m going to turn the floor over to Aeligos so he can fill everyone in.”
The Council nodded and acknowledged Aeligos’ right to speak, so Kari’s brother-in-law stood and approached
the center of the floor where she was. He smiled at Kari and then waved the journal around for emphasis when he turned to the Council. “I’ve gone through Jason’s records for the better part of two months now,” he said. “The first thing I have to tell you is that there is a vast difference between the way most of his journals are written, and the way this one detailing the syrinthian incident was written. Jason was a well-educated man and he was very, very thorough in his record-keeping…except when he was writing this particular journal.”
“After Eli, Danilynn, and their friends brought Se’ceria to Gnarr to meet with Jason, he apparently spoke with her at length in private,” Aeligos said, glancing to Danilynn and Eli for confirmation. They nodded, so he continued, “Something happened in that private meeting that made Jason let Se’ceria go, to return to her people and continue with the plan to bring Sekassus to Citaria.” There was more muttering and whispering among the gallery, but Aeligos ignored it as best he could. “Initially, when I talked to Kari about it, I’d come to the conclusion that she must have told Jason who her real deity was, and that he knew of that deity and therefore chose to trust her. The more I’ve thought about that, though, I don’t think Jason knew who the Great Mother was, or that worshipping her made Se’ceria trustworthy. But then something else I read made more sense.”
“In going through Jason’s other journals, the ones that followed the syrinthian incident, I kept coming across this saying that he’d never used before, either in the syrinthian journal or any of the ones from before then,” Aeligos said. “It states: we must sell the future to pay for the sins of the past. Now, I’ll admit I have no solid proof of this, but I think that’s what Se’ceria told him when they met in private. Kari says that Se’sasha standing here before us right now is either the biggest coincidence in the history of the Order, or…it’s exactly the end result Se’ceria planned toward when this entire incident began.”
Kari put her hand on Se’sasha’s shoulder. The girl reacted every time she heard her mother’s name, and she was trying to hold firm despite the fact that Liria had no time to translate what was being said. Kari returned her attention to Aeligos; she was quite impressed with his conclusions. He just seemed to be able to read what was hidden between and beyond the words in Jason’s journals. If he was correct, and Jason had trusted Se’ceria based on those words, then there was only one logical conclusion to be reached from all that.
“Prophecy?” Master Bennet asked before Kari could.
Aeligos half-nodded, half-shrugged. “We have to keep in mind, we’re now dealing with completely alien deities, or even pantheons,” he said, obviously thinking of the pendant Kari had returned to Se’sasha. “Even more so than the Koryon deities who joined our own pantheon just before the Fifth Demon War, we now have to consider that the god or gods of the syrinthians and the demons may have prophecies of their own that go back thousands of years, before our race was even born upon this world.”
Kari coughed delicately to interrupt, and Aeligos and the others turned their attention upon her. “Um, not to sidetrack this discussion, but let’s stop referring to Mehr’Durillia as the underworld, and its people as demons. Just trust me on this for now; I’ll explain more later.”
Silence fell in the Council chamber, and Kari felt the trepidation and confusion of her fellow hunters and Zalkar’s priests as their world was turned upside down again. To find that the serilis-rir weren’t demons had come as enough of a shock to Kari and her Order. To now find that the people of Mehr’Durillia weren’t demons set the wheel spinning out of control yet again. On the one hand, it meant that Kari’s hope of finding insurgents in the future to help fight against the demon kings might be that much easier, but it also meant that steps would have to be taken to gauge the intentions of beshathans and other “demons” who showed up on Citaria, much like they’d done with the serilis-rir.
Kari gestured for Se’sasha’s pendant, and the priestess took it off and handed it to her. Kari ran her thumb across it lightly, trying to put the pieces in place. She thought of what she’d heard, what she’d seen in her dreams, and how the events of her life since being resurrected had played out. She was Salvation’s Dawn, the lynchpin in some grand scheme of Gori Sensullu’s, and the involvement of demons, Mehr’Durillians, and alien gods all played into it somehow. The fact that Sakkrass had adopted her as his daughter now held infinitely more significance, and Kari’s breath nearly caught in her throat as the enormity of it all hit her.
“All right, we’ll take your word on that for now,” Aeligos said, apparently voicing the feelings of most of the gathering. “We were talking about the possibility of some prophecy of Mehr’Durillia being in play here; I think we should focus on that. We need to follow the road and not start jumping all over the place, or nobody’s going to figure this out.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Kari said.
Se’sasha spoke, and Liria translated, “My lady says she wishes she was of more help.”
Aeligos laid a hand on the syrinthian priestess’ shoulder. “Lady, your very presence is already a lot of help in putting everything in perspective,” he said, then turned back to Kari and then the Council. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, but keep in mind that Se’ceria sacrificed herself over a dozen years ago, so this has all been a long time in coming. There’s no rush to figure this out in a day.”
There were appreciative nods all around, and Kari was glad to have brought Aeligos with her. He had such charisma and a calming influence even on large groups of people. As much as he may have disliked being in charge or the center of attention, Kari had only ever met one man who had held peoples’ attention and inspired them as well as, if not better, than Aeligos: Kris Jir’tana. Of course, Aeligos didn’t have the advantage of being the son of a deity, so even that worked more to his credit.
Se’sasha said, through Liria, “If you will but bring me to the place where my mother was laid to rest, I believe many of the answers to your questions will be there.” Kari pressed her for more details, and the syrinthian priestess elaborated, “If I can commune with my mother’s spirit, she may be able to tell me many of the details that have been lost.”
Kari glanced at the Council and saw the trepidation in their gazes. “We’ll discuss that in a few minutes,” Kari said, and she gestured for Liria to translate it for Se’sasha. The priestess nodded her agreement and went silent again.
Aeligos suggested they let Danilynn and Eli fill in the details of everything they’d done for Jason Bosimar during his tenure. They began with the innocuous mission to go speak with the Beast, and how it had led to finding Se’ceria imprisoned at the hands of dark elf marauders. They then filled in details about bringing Se’ceria back to Gnarr, but how Jason then released the woman and sent their group to investigate the plundering of Turik Jalar’s tomb. It was clear that with the story being put into chronological order and the proper context, even the Council started to see that something else was at work behind Jason’s actions and orders.
Eli went into detail about a battle that had taken place outside of DarkWind involving a number of syrinthian operatives. That battle brought Amastri into the picture, and drew a clear line between Amastri and Se’ceria, which made sense since Kari already knew that Koursturaux was behind the sabotage of Sekassus’ plan. There was brief mention of the Celestial Token, which drew the interest of virtually every warrior in the room, but Eli and Danilynn both brushed that aside as an inconsequential side plot.
Danilynn then took the center of the floor and painted a broad picture of Emma and the mallasti girl’s involvement. Even Se’sasha apparently knew who Emma was, her ears perking up as the mallasti’s name was mentioned. Danilynn spoke of how Emma had aided their group in small, indirect ways, and Eli brought up the fact that Emma had been involved in the foiling of other plans, as he was told by Kari. Thus, their tale now tied together Bosimar, Amastri, Emma, and Se’ceria – and it wasn’t even complete yet.
Danilynn took the time to de
scribe rescuing the czarikk from being sacrificed by the syrinthians, and how it had been Se’ceria who had facilitated doing so. She spoke quite honestly but favorably of Se’ceria, and it nearly brought Se’sasha to tears when it was all translated. Kari kept her hand on Se’sasha’s shoulder while Danilynn spoke of her mother, and the fures-rir priestess made it absolutely clear that their entire countermeasure would’ve failed if not for Se’ceria’s aid. In the end, she painted a picture of Se’ceria not just as a saboteur, but of someone who had laid down their life to protect others – even in the face of having summoned something as dangerous as King Koursturaux.
Kari thought on that for a few moments, but tried not to get lost in a daydream while the entire scenario was being so perfectly laid out. Koursturaux was a demon king, one of the most dangerous of them, one of the Ancient Ones that killed Be’shatha, and an enemy to every living thing not already under the Overking’s control. It didn’t make sense that the demon king didn’t try to conquer Citaria while she had the chance, unless she wasn’t powerful enough to do so: if the gods or their avatars were stronger than Koursturaux, then she had been wise to flee. Kari had to take that as a good sign until she got the absolute truth of the matter.
Eli spoke briefly of the battle to take the temple, and how without Se’ceria sabotaging the summoning ceremony, it would’ve been a disaster. Again there was that verbal evidence that the syrinthian woman had saved lives at the cost of her own, and every time such a nuance to the story came up, Kari could see people look at Se’sasha with a new level of respect.
Danilynn finished the story by speaking of the summoning of King Koursturaux, how Se’ceria had asked to be allowed to die to protect her daughter, and how the priestess had asked Danilynn and her friends to rescue Se’sasha from Mehr’Durillia. Danilynn concluded the story by saying that King Koursturaux had left without further incident, of her own accord, though for reasons unknown.
