This Ascent to Divinity is Lewder Than Expected

5.11 – Jacquelyn

With masquerade masks donned, Zoey and Delta passed through the two bouncers and were admitted entry into The Church of the Shattered Sphere—the official name for whatever organization they were getting mixed up in.

From the way Delta had described these people, Zoey had imagined raving lunatics posted up on street corners, ranting about nonsense. But seeing this so-called recruitment event, Zoey could tell that idea was wildly incorrect—at least at the higher, more coherent level. Then again, cults had to seem somewhat reasonable to get recruits in the first place. Zoey had just never thought much about it.

Inside, Zoey looked around with interest. The hall hosting the event featured a tall ceiling supported by lofty wood beams. Like most of Treyhull, the architecture was vaguely rustic, though only passingly. Long buffet tables served the dozens—possibly even hundreds—of people who had shown up. Recruitment must have been a success, at least insofar as drawing initial attention. Surely not everyone intended to join this ‘Church’, and were instead taking a look out of vague interest? Though Zoey still didn’t even know what joining meant or entailed. Did these people do anything more than rave about the world ending? What were their goals?

The decor and furnishings, though nice, weren’t rich. Most people walked around in their daily clothes, not dressed up for the event—pulled from the streets possibly in the same way Delta had been. Zoey got the vague impression of a gala, but the clientele weren’t of the typical pedigree. Lots of chatting, finger food, and an upcoming speech, but it was more of a casual event than a formal one.

“Sweet,” Delta said. “I’m starving. Let’s go fuck up that cheese table.”

Amused, Zoey let Delta drag her along by the hand.

She’d already had lunch, but she sampled a few of the items laid out on the tables, mostly with Delta’s insistence. Purple eyes scanned the various people across the hall, the foxgirl keeping track of her surroundings even while indulging in the free food. Zoey also looked around, though feeling more out of place than anything.

“So what’s the plan again?” Zoey asked.

“Find a victim. That’s always step one.”

“No, really.”

“Those people in the black masks have to be the official members, I’d figure. So we’re waiting on them.”

“Should we go talk?”

“Approach them? Ourselves? No way. It’ll seem desperate.”

“Desperate,” Zoey said. “We’re not out looking for a date, Delta. Making the first move won’t seem ‘desperate’.”

“Nah, it totally will. Wait for them to come to us. They’ll be more eager to impress, and so they might let something slip that they wouldn’t have otherwise. I wanna know what this ‘big reveal’ is before we actually get to it.” She poked Zoey on the shoulder. “And stop looking at them. You’ll give us away. Play cool and aloof. Channel your inner Rosalie.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Zoey said. Though she did as she was told. She guessed there was a certain logic to Delta’s reasoning, silly as it sounded.

“You’ve got a pretty girl for company, anyway. Focus on that.”

“I do?”

Delta huffed. “Keep talking like that, and you won’t get lucky on our date.”

Zoey somehow doubted that, seeing how the topic of a date had been brought up in the first place by Delta using the words ‘massive girlcock’, then introducing the idea.

“Speaking of, what’d’you have planned?” Zoey asked.

“Oh, you know. All sorts of illegal activities. Don’t worry about it.”

Illegal activities? “Coming from you, I can’t tell if that’s a joke.”

“Don’t be a square. Besides, you’re a third-advancement wayfarer now. You can get away with all sorts of stuff. Laws only half apply to us.”

“Really?”

“Well, to an extent, yeah. Kind of. Don’t think you understand our social position, even if we’re far from the strongest. Third advancement’s not too bad. Only one out of, I don’t know, fifty people make it here? Less? And that’s of wayfarers, not the general population. So we have a certain default influence, nobodies or not.” Delta hummed. “I guess your cluelessness makes sense, considering your whole backstory.”

“You believe me about that, now?” Zoey set aside all the other stuff to think about later. She hadn’t considered her growing ‘influence’ from the power she was earning day-by-day. And that it would only grow.

“I do,” Delta said. “It’s batshit insane, but I do. Think there’s been plenty of evidence. What’s that like, anyway?”

“What’s what like?”

“You know. Your previous home.”

So Delta did have some discretion—she didn’t go shouting out ‘your home world’.

“Uh,” Zoey said. “Definitely different. Hard to talk about, you know, here.” She didn’t know if someone was eavesdropping, but considering the possibility of enhanced hearing from even a middling wayfarer, she’d rather not go chatting casually about the topic without some guarantee of privacy.

“Yeah, fair,” Delta said. “Guess that’s date material, anyways.”

“Our date,” Zoey repeated. “Which will be packed with illegal activities?”

“Maybe.” She see-sawed a hand. “Again, I haven’t decided. I like to go with the flow. We’re staying flexible.”

“Uh-huh.”

A figure edged into their conversation, and both of them turned. A woman, face obscured by a feathered mask with a base of black metal, had arrived next to them. One of the members of the Church. She stood tall, shoulders pulled back, hands held primly behind her. A polite smile played at her lips and green eyes.

“Good afternoon,” the woman said. “I apologize for interrupting. Do you have a moment?”

“Sales pitch time?” Delta asked. “I suppose it’s only fair. Free food’s never actually free.”

The woman paused, taken off step. “Jacquelyn,” she offered after a moment.

“Zara,” Zoey replied. “And this is Dalia.”

Naturally, they were using false names. Probably it was safer to use ones that didn’t even resemble their originals, but this was easier to keep track of.

Delta grunted, focused on the buffet table. Playing ‘cool and aloof’, Zoey guessed. Personally, she thought the theatrics a little much, but Delta would know better than her.

“A pleasure,” Jacquelyn replied. “You know, it’s not often we find wayfarers interested in the Church.”

That grabbed Delta’s attention. She turned a curious look Jacquelyn’s way. “What makes you think we’re wayfarers?”

Zoey was also curious. Had she been eavesdropping? They hadn’t been that loud, and hadn’t noticed Jacquelyn hovering nearby.

“Dear, it’s rather obvious,” Jacquelyn said with a smile. “You’ve been keeping tabs on the entire hall since you stepped foot inside. And not as a matter of paranoia, I can tell. Mere awareness.” She shrugged. “More than that, it’s the way you move and hold yourself. Wayfarers always stand out.”

“The way I move?” Delta asked, an eyebrow quirking. “Been watching us that closely, have you?”

“How couldn’t I?” Jacquelyn countered unabashedly. She turned the smile Zoey’s way. “My eyes were drawn the moment you two entered.”

At the blatant flirting, Delta paused. She turned and gave Zoey a significant look, at the same stepping closer and leaning into her side. Zoey wrapped an arm around her waist by a matter of instinct. Jacquelyn didn’t seem surprised by the action.

Delta communicated silently with her for a moment. She smirked at the reply she found in Zoey’s eyes—an obvious ‘yes’. She turned back to Jacquelyn.

“If you’re hitting on us,” Delta said, “we’re interested. But aren’t you supposed to be recruiting, not trying to get into our pants?”

This time, Delta’s frankness didn’t put the woman off-step. Jacquelyn could apparently adjust quickly to disarming personalities. “Can’t I do both?”

“I suppose you can.” Delta plucked another toothpick-skewered piece of cheese off the buffet table. “But sales pitch first?” she offered. “I’ll admit we’re kind of skeptical, but we had the day free, and—who was it?—Robert seemed pretty convinced. There’s proof at the end of this, he said.”

“Indeed. There’ll be little doubt in your mind by the time you leave.”

“That sounds nearly ominous.”

Jacquelyn laughed. “There’s proof,” she assured Delta. “This isn’t a waste of your time, I can promise you that.”

“It wouldn’t have been a waste in the first place,” Delta said. “I mean, we met you, didn’t we? But, really, you’ve got my curiosity. Can I ask what it is? The proof?”

“That’d be spoiling the surprise, dear.”

“Oh, it’s not like we won’t know an hour from now. So please? I’m dying here.”

“I really shouldn’t.”

“As a favor?”

Jacquelyn didn’t actually seem all that torn on divulging the ‘big secret’. She gave another moment’s feigned indecision, then took a step forward and leaned conspiratorially in toward Delta and Zoey. “It’s an artifact.”

“An artifact?”

“Of the wayfaring sort, yes. The kind I’m sure you two are familiar with … but not of this sort.”

“What’s it do?”

“It’s not about what it does.”

“Oh?”

“It’s about what it doesn’t do. Or, rather, what’s wrong with it.”

“Oh,” Delta said, sounding for the first time—at least to Zoey, who knew her well—actually surprised. She shared a look with Zoey, whose eyes had also widened.

The implication was clear. Maybe Jacquelyn had been too vague for nearly anyone else to understand what she was saying, but Delta and Zoey put it together in an instant.

They had, after all, also found a broken item just the day prior.

So these people were linked to the corrupted shards. Or someone in their organization had at least been to one before, and brought back a damaged piece of loot.

Delta played her surprise off as the politely interested sort. “Something’s wrong with it?” she said. “But what’s that mean, exactly?”

Jacquelyn leaned back away, giving a knowing smile. “I won’t spoil everything. But you’ll see. The Church of the Shattered Sphere isn’t founded on nonsense, I assure you. Our sins are catching up to us. The Fractures are decaying, and we will be found in judgment of our misuse of gods-granted power.”

Oh. And there was the cult-ish bent. Zoey had been distracted by the woman’s good looks and friendly demeanor and had somehow forgotten that she was, ultimately, talking to a cultist. A cultist with a stunning figure who was interested in flirting and possibly hooking up with her and Delta, but still a cultist.

Delta also took a second to orient to the swerve in tone. She played it off well. It was a good thing she was the one taking charge of this conversation; Zoey wasn’t a terrible actor, but she wasn’t an amazing one, either.

“Judgment?” Delta asked. “And misuse of power? What do you mean?”

Jacquelyn was more than eager to reply, as if she’d been waiting for the opportunity. She leaned forward, a gleam appearing in her eyes. Again, Zoey was taken aback by the torrent of zealotry that shortly poured from her mouth. It had only barely been held back.

“Well, it’s clear, isn’t it?” Jacquelyn said. “The gods grant us strength to survive in a harsh world, but we abuse it. With strength meant to defend, instead we war and destroy. It’s why our world was Fractured in the first place, and why it continues to break. Our sins. The sins of those granted divine strength, turned to selfish purposes.” She smiled apologetically. “I of course don’t speak of you two in particular. There are just and moral wayfarers, and I would even say more of them than not. No, I speak specifically of the monsters. The d’Celestins and the Harrowgates. Those who abuse power given to us for survival to instead carve out kingdoms and empires. The demons in human flesh.”

Delta shifted. She didn’t seem to know how to respond, adept at improvisation or not. She shared a hesitant look with Zoey.

Jacquelyn seemed to realize she was pushing too hard and too fast with her Church’s doctrine. She reined herself in. The smile she plastered on seemed fake, some of her earlier enthusiasm and charm waning. Zoey wasn’t sure whether the woman was disappointed at Delta’s response or at letting herself get carried away. The latter, Zoey suspected. Or both.

“But all that will be discussed shortly,” Jacquelyn said pleasantly. “For now, lighter topics? Can I say, your outfit is just lovely?”

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