She shook her head, shaking off the thoughts, and smiled at James. “Good. We’ll be waiting for you. Findley will save you lunch.”
“Hey!” Findley protested, to the laughs of the others.
“Sounds good.” James chuckled and nodded, pulling on his gloves, then grinned. “See ya later!”
He slipped out of the camp, and they all settled in to wait, confident that he’d do his part.
* * *
James slipped through the open gate without a problem, admiring the rear of a priestess as she cranked the handle to pull a bucket of water out of the well. He had to admit that this place was home to some of the most beautiful elves he’d had the pleasure to see, even if the ones so far were in garb more designed for farmers. Most of them thus far had been dawn elves, but the occasional dusk elf could be seen here and there as well.
He looked around, then sniffed, trying to locate the kitchens for the temple. Wincing, he moved away from the compost heap before trying again. They thought there were about seventy priestesses here, but they couldn’t be certain. Finally, though, he caught a hint of food, and started following it to a building near the main keep. Ironically enough, it was near the compost heap that he’d been avoiding.
The place did look more like a temple now that he was closer, at least. The walls were covered in engravings of various angels, and other scenes he was certain were important to their faith. He was more interested in getting past the lady opening the door to throw out a bucket of compost.
Slipping past her, he found himself in a large, busy kitchen. A half-dozen women were going about their own tasks in the kitchen, and he had to pause in an out of the way corner to decide how to go about adding his little addition to their meal. He was tempted to mix it into the flour, but seeing the large pots of soup simmering on an iron stove, he smiled to himself. None of them were covered at the moment, either.
He slipped forward past the woman chopping vegetables next to the stove, and carefully poured a generous amount of the powder into each of the four pots. He only barely avoided being bumped into as he darted out of her way, then headed for the baker as well. He couldn’t guarantee that everyone in the temple would eat the same thing, and he wanted to be sure to dose everyone.
* * *
“High Priestess? I’m here with your dinner.” The voice broke High Priestess Visna out of her meditation, and she took a moment before opening her eyes and looking up at her visitor.
“Thank you, Antessa,” Visna replied after a moment, giving the other priestess a smile. “My apologies. I’ve been having odd premonitions of late. I worry that our newest priestess hasn’t arrived yet. It is possible that she fell along the path to the temple, which would be quite unfortunate.”
The other priestess set the tray of food on Visna’s table and nodded, sighing and shaking her head. The fare was a simple bowl of soup, slice of bread, green salad, and a mug of tea, from the smell of it. Antessa shrugged and replied. “Well, we don’t get much news up here, so I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s possible she’s helping people, giving healing as is our creed. What was her name again?”
“Diana, I believe,” Visna told her, shrugging before slowly climbing to her feet, wincing. “Oof. Perhaps I was sitting for a little too long this time.”
“Sitting on a bare stone floor will do that to you, High Priestess. Even if it is almost summer.” Antessa grinned gently at her, pulling out the chair for Visna. “Would you like anything else?”
“No thank you, Antessa. Go get your own dinner, hmm?” Visna smiled in thanks as she sat down again, this time in a more comfortable chair, though. “I’ll be fine for now.”
“Of course. I’ll be back in an hour for your tray,” Antessa promised, leaving the room and closing the door softly.
Visna chuckled softly and started to eat at a leisurely pace. There wasn’t much to do this far up the mountains anyway. She didn’t have to hurry.
* * *
The temple had been dark for an hour when Serel nodded to the others and moved toward the structure silently. They all knew what to do.
The gate was barred, but an enchanted blade cut through the bar easily, dropping it to the ground with a loud clatter. It was more noise than she would prefer, but Serel wanted to hurry. Fortunately, there wasn’t an immediate response, and Serel waited as two of the other Enforcers checked for the two gatekeepers in the gatehouse. As they exited the gatehouse, nodding, she nodded in approval and gestured to the others to spread out. She personally checked the chapel, opening it and glancing around the interior. The beautiful building was lined with stained glass that depicted Medaea’s deeds, with a large marble altar in front of the pews as well as small shrines along the sides of the chapel. She quickly walked through, noticing a hidden door on the wall near the altar, which she quickly investigated. Inside, she found nothing but a small fitting room filled with robes and other tools of the faith, so she quickly retreated outside. There was an interior door that led into the main keep, but first they needed to clear the other buildings.
They went through the dormitory in a blur, and only one woman was awake when they came through. The elf was bleary-eyed from staying up late, reading some book or another. She’d looked up in surprise, and had only managed a yelp of shock before Findley knocked her out cold. All of the others were in deep, dreamless sleep, so they moved on to the keep.
This was where the higher ranking priestesses stayed, but Serel paused in the main library, studying an ornate panel. It wasn’t hard to see the signs of another secret passage, but this one seemed different. If her senses weren’t betraying her, it was heavily trapped. She debated, then set it aside for the moment. She could get the priestesses to tell her how to safely open the passage later.
It was oddly anti-climactic, though, as none of the other priestesses had been awake along the way, all of them curled up in their beds and unknowing of the fate which descended upon them.
Finally they came to the top of the tower, though, where a single set of quarters lay before them. The door was locked as well, but Serel calmly pulled out a set of lockpicks and unlocked the simple device in short order. She paused at the sight of the room, mildly impressed at how simply furnished it was.
Most of the powerful clergy she’d seen tended to have overly elaborate rooms, priceless artifacts, and all the luxuries they could manage to fit into their chambers. This had none of those, though. It was simple, with a small bookcase of holy texts, a table, a few rugs, and a bed. And in the bed, sleeping deeply, was a final dawn elf. She was beautiful enough, with crimson hair and pale skin. But as soon as she stepped forward, Serel paused, looking at the ring sitting on the sideboard.
The elaborate ring was that of the Archpriestess. Which should not have been here, to her knowledge. The Archpriestess was in the high temple of Medaea in Yisara, not here in the mountains. At least, that was what all the information on the church of Medaea told her.
Well, whatever the case, she would find out soon enough. She grabbed the woman, planning to enslave her first. Keeping all but one of the priestesses off the grounds of the temple for a full day would be a bit difficult, but it was less difficult than taking the place to begin with. It wasn’t a bad start to her plans, but the hard part was still ahead of them.
Chapter 14
White-hot pain woke Visna and she screamed, trying to roll out of bed as she opened her eyes in confusion. More accurately, she tried and failed at everything but opening her eyes.
Her mouth was filled by something that tasted of leather, and she couldn’t see. She could hear voices chanting something, but her ears were plugged, like they were filled with earwax. The air was cool against her skin, and she couldn’t move. Her back was pressing against something soft, but hard leather bound her wrists and ankles. But the all-encompassing pain was coming from just below her navel.
She writhed, but the large patch of white-hot heat didn’t ease or move away from her body at her efforts. She reached out to
Medaea in a panic, but something was terribly, horribly wrong. The connection was tenuous like she’d never felt it before, like something was interfering with her connection to her goddess.
That was when she felt the magic begin to spread in the midst of the scorching heat. It was like ink-black threads of pure darkness seeping through her veins, twisting through her as they searched for something. It made her hiss in pain as they spread darkness through her body, anchoring themselves as they moved. One of them finally found the entrance into the core of her magic at the base of her spine, and a spike of white-hot pain nearly made her pass out again.
The threads found their way inside, one after another, connecting to the core of her power, wrapping around her mind and tying her down tightly. She hissed as her connection to her goddess was strangled by those threads, growing tenuous to the point that it almost broke. And then it slowly spread outward, her skin tingling as the dark energy radiated through her, across every inch of her skin in an agonizingly slow wave. Something buried itself deep inside her, and gradually, the heat from her groin faded from that white-hot sensation.
Collapsing backward with a whimper into the gag, Visna wondered what had happened to her. She felt cold metal against her groin now, and after a moment, it was pulled away. Muffled voices could be heard, no longer chanting, and she realized in horror that her magic felt like it was sealed away. It was dormant somehow, out of reach of her mental command. She struggled as hands untied her, and then a robe was thrust roughly over her head before whomever it was chained her hands and legs together and dragged her off.
She was chained to a wooden post of some kind, and she waited anxiously for a little while, wondering what was going on. But with her hearing almost entirely negated and unable to see or speak, she couldn’t do much. After a few minutes, she felt a strange, fuzzy sensation creeping over her, and she fell asleep in spite of herself.
* * *
One of the only problems with branding the new slaves while they were under the effect of Dreamless Dark was that the pain woke them without fail, Serel reflected as the latest priestess woke, thrashing against her restraints while the five Enforcers chanted. Serel pressed the branding iron firmly against the woman’s lower body herself. Having to shave all of them was annoying as well, but at least the process of branding them dealt with that issue permanently.
The process also took a fair amount of mana to manage, but they were getting through the priestesses at a fair pace. The groundskeeper who’d been left on the grounds, tied up and guarded by an Enforcer, would be the last one to be branded on the morrow. Fortunately, though, she’d made certain to have the highest ranking priestesses separated. All of them had been dealt with first, and once branded, they were utterly harmless. So long as no one made the mistake of letting them back on holy ground within a day, that was. Or if anyone had holy water, she supposed, but all of that should be back in the temple.
She watched the gold lines play over their current subject’s skin and smiled as she saw that she was almost done. This had been a long night.
* * *
Visna woke with a start as she felt someone grab her head, and then something was pulling at the wax in her right ear. She winced as the wax came free with a pop, and all of a sudden, it was too loud for her as she winced and felt air flowing freely through her ear again. The process repeated with her left ear, and she was left alone briefly, though she heard the sounds of footsteps in front of her.
Finally, a female voice spoke, her intonation harsh. “You are now a slave of Kelvanis. You are forbidden from trying to betray us, and those of your faith who you do not know are already slaves must be misled into believing nothing out of the ordinary has happened to you. You are required to answer my questions fully and honestly, and not attempt to escape.”
Visna’s eyes went wide as the most horrible possibility she could imagine came true. Terror shot through her body as she realized that the incredible pain the night before must have been her being branded by the speaker. She tried to resist the commands as they washed through her, but they were orders without form or substance yet. Unless she actively pitted herself against it in a specific instance, she couldn’t tell whether she could beat it or not. A faint part of her mind doubted it, with the way her magic had been utterly subjugated.
Hands slowly removed the blindfold, and Visna saw the human Enforcer for the first time. The black-haired woman was surprisingly normal looking, aside from the tattoo on her cheek, but her eyes were hard and her expression severe. Then she added, removing the gag, “I am High Enforcer Serel. You will treat me with respect and without any outbursts.”
“W-what do you want?” Visna asked, her voice breaking from the way she’d been gagged all night, her muscles sore as well.
“What’s your position in the Church of Medaea? Why do you have the ring of the Archpriestess?” Serel asked, and Visna’s eyes went wide. She resisted the sudden, overwhelming impulse to answer.
“I…” Visna’s willpower held out for a few seconds, and then she spoke, angry with herself and the woman in front of her, but unable to stop herself from speaking. “I’m the Archpriestess. The one in the capital is… is in charge of the public ceremonies… and dealing with the bureaucracy of the church.”
“I see. Interesting.” Serel looked her over for a moment, then smiled thinly. “You are forbidden from trying to pass on your mantle of authority. Now then, I want you to tell me all about the priestesses and any others that might live in your temple here, save for the one who has slept for over a thousand years. We’ll discuss her later.”
Visna’s eyes went wide at the evidence that someone knew about the hidden shrine beneath the temple, and that her goddess was down there. She was terrified, but she couldn’t help herself as she began to speak despite the aches and pains of her body.
* * *
For whatever reason, Serel untied Visna and the other priestesses, then let them talk among themselves after giving all of them orders not to try to harm one another or enter the temple. And Visna found that the faith of many of her sisters had been shaken by the attack, which she couldn’t honestly blame them for. But one of the priesthood was left inside the temple, which made her think that these raiders knew far more about the temple’s safeguards than they should. It wasn’t certain that Medaea would wake if all of them left the grounds, but it might have caused the goddess to stir.
On the other hand, the leering of the soldiers that accompanied Serel and her Enforcers was extremely uncomfortable for all of them. At least Serel kept them well away from her priestesses, which was the only saving grace of their situation so far.
But they were all kept outside until the next morning, when they were allowed back inside and ordered to go about their normal tasks. The exception was Visna, who had the painful experience of watching the last priestess get carried out of the temple complex, tears streaming down her face in confusion. She couldn’t do anything for the gagged woman, and she knew that Annette would soon be branded as well.
Once she was finished arranging the branding, Serel turned to Visna and asked bluntly, “What traps or safeguards are there within the temple?”
“The grounds are warded to detect those of powerful evil intent,” Visna spoke bitterly, thinking about how that hadn’t helped. “There are wards to prevent scrying as well. An angel will be summoned to the defense of the chapel should it be desecrated. And the entrance into the sub-basement shrine is trapped with numerous traps in layers, that go off if the Archpriestess doesn’t open the doors with her ring in hand.”
“I see. Go get your ring and meet me at the entrance to this sub-basement shrine. Do not enter or attempt to do anything untoward to the entrance.” Serel smiled thinly. “I need to get changed.”
Visna reluctantly began the climb to her room. Fortunately, the Enforcer hadn’t said she couldn’t change herself. Visna felt desperately in need of a bath, but she doubted that even a bath would help wash away how dirty she felt. Ev
entually she reached her room, and oddly, found her ring exactly where she’d left it.
She didn’t take it up immediately, and instead stripped off the robe so she could finally examine the brand herself. She looked down at it, and found her fingers trembling as she gently touched a flowing, elaborate pattern of gold, with what looked like a spot for a vertical eye to fit at its heart. It was startlingly pretty for such an evil sigil. It wasn’t burnt into her skin, and it wasn’t actually a brand. It was somehow like it was part of her skin, and she could feel, ever so faintly, an immensely complicated, resilient structure to it. A structure which she had no idea how to damage.
Growling to herself, she found that she couldn’t actually swear and make a scene about what had happened, even now that she was in private. It was obvious that Serel’s previous orders were taking precedence, she realized, and finally she sighed and went to work getting dressed while she internally fumed. She put on one of her nicer robes and undergarments, then took her ring and headed downstairs toward the library when she wasn’t able to delay any longer.
Serel wasn’t waiting for her yet, to Visna’s surprise. One of the other priestesses was tending the library with an unhappy expression on her face, but there was nothing she could do about that either. So she waited as patiently as she could. It was about another ten minutes before Serel stepped into the room, and for a moment, it was all Visna could do to keep from gawking at her.
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