Touch of Fate

Chapter 295: Divine Presence

Alaine could only watch in horror as the paladin raised his sword to deliver the killing blow. He was familiar, someone she'd seen in passing on several occasions. They'd even exchanged greetings on a few occasions, and she vaguely remembered that he had a somewhat lopsided grin and a fondness for birdwatching. Now, however, his face was stony and cold, with no trace of hesitation or mercy.

Again, she tried to call upon her source of power, the sacred connection with her goddess that powered her magic, but it was to no avail. Even the powerful amulet she was currently clutching failed to respond to her desperate pleas. The light in its depths had vanished, leaving her with nothing but a cold gem to defend herself with.

She'd only ever heard of Powdered Silence on a few occasions, and then only in passing. It was supposedly a material developed during the Second Age, and the method of its creation was now lost. As a base substance, it didn't have any real use, but once powdered it could be turned into a gaseous cloud that temporarily disrupted the conduit by which Divine Mages accessed their abilities. Thankfully, it was incredibly rare. To her knowledge, there were only a few recorded instances of it ever being used in the sealed records of the order. That the Anathema managed to get their hands on enough to fill this room indicated that she'd seriously underestimated both their resources and their ambitions.

She had a brief moment to consider where she might have gone wrong. How she might have prevented this situation. Had she planned things differently, maybe spent a little more time investigating the matter prior to calling the meeting or consulted her mentor before taking action, it might have been possible to resolve this quietly. Instead, she'd acted rashly, too emotionally charged by the thought of the Anathema taking root inside HER order. Now she was paying the price for that mistake.

[It looks like I will go down in history as the Pontifex that failed, allowing a radical and dangerous sect to seize control. Although, knowing Liande, she will likely paint a different picture.]

As history is so often written by the victors, Alaine could only assume that her old rival would make her out to be the villain of this story. After all, she would need to have sufficient justification for her actions, and the current Pontifex would serve as an excellent scapegoat. Leveraging her perceived failure or corruption and fabricating a believable scenariod, Liande could very well succeed in placing herself in power as part of an emergency measure.

Of course, none of that really mattered to her in the face of approaching death. Rather, she found herself worrying more about the stray cat she'd been feeding for the last few years. It had taken her months to get the pugnacious tabby to accept food from her, and she was concerned that he would starve once she was gone.

Any further fears were driven from her head as the window to her office exploded inwards in a shower of glass shards. A deafening roar filled the room as powerful currents of wind raged through the opening. She squeezed her eyes shut, fully convinced that death, briefly averted by the sudden change, was now about to resume its grim approach.

However, the noise slowly abated, eventually leaving the chamber in an eerie calm, with only the quiet echoes of tinkling glass to break the silence.

Alaine opened her eyes, and the first thing that caught her attention was a grey feather, floating in a beam of streaming sunlight that was pouring in through the shattered remnants of her window. It was drifting on unseen air currents, and gracefully descended to the floor to join a small collection of its fellows.

The second thing that caught her attention was the figure standing in front of the window. The afternoon sun was casting his face in shadow, but it was clear from the number of feathers wreathing him, that he was their source.

For a moment, she was overcome with a sense of awe mixed with a bit of apprehension. A part of her was convinced she was in the presence of something greater than herself, perhaps even something divine, and she wondered if her goddess might have answered her prayers after all.

However, that feeling faded a bit when she realized that she recognized the person.

"So" The Dragonknight's follower started, still wearing his stolen acolyte's robes. "I was checking in to see if you were ready to receive my captives, and I took the liberty of stepping in. I hope you don't mind the interruption."

He gestured towards the far wall, where a mass of traitorous paladins was being held against it with interlocking bars of solid stone. Alaine could tell that they were pinned just tightly enough to prevent them from moving, but not enough to crush them in the process.

"That's quite alright," Grace answered him while standing herself, leaning heavily on her cane as she did so. "Your assistance was more than welcome. I take it you represent the Hero of Almir?"

The young man offered a simple shrug, "I can speak for him, yes."

"Then it seems we owe you and your master a great debt of gratitude." The old woman shot Alaine a glance, subtly indicating that she should be speaking here. With a start, the current Pontifex realized that her teacher had been covering for her.

Standing, she did her best to project authority and confidence while speaking. "Of course, the Church of Aminatrea will ensure that your timely efforts are rewarded. You have my guarantee of that." She turned to one of the recovering priests and ordered him to locate a sufficient number of loyal paladins to secure the prisoners.

"I would assume nothing else." The visitor shot back, a slight smile on his face. "Considering what you were willing to offer for a single team of inquisitors, I am curious to see what you believe is fair compensation for this bunch. At this point, I'm not sure if a token gesture would be sufficient."

Alaine felt her heart sink a little. It seemed that she would have to work hard to come up with an adequate reward. The man had effectively saved their lives and spared their order a bloody coup, even if it didn't take much effort on his part. As a result, she would need to make sure that his pay matched his contribution.

[I suppose we can offer a few relics from the vaults. They are valuable, at least, even if they can only be used by individuals who meet the right criteria.]

By that point, the priest she'd sent had returned with a handful of paladins in tow, including one of the captains, Melian. Thankfully, she was well known for her stubborn adherence to duty, and was among the few members of the order that Alaine trusted implicitly, even if she wasn't particularly well liked.

The dour female knight and her subordinates quickly moved to secure their traitorous comrades, binding them in chains once the Dragonknight's follower had released them from their current restraints. Liande, for her part, meekly accepted the arrest. After all, there was little she could do while still suffering under the effects of the Powered Silence. Nevertheless, something about her sudden reticence bothered Alaine, but she couldn't quite pin down what it was. Ultimately, she dismissed her concerns.

Once all of the traitors had been chained, Melian led the procession out of the chamber and in the direction of the dungeon, where the prisoners would wait until judgement was passed on them. The other church leaders were quick to follow, soon leaving Alaine alone with her former teacher and the mysterious man.

"Alright, if there is nothing else, then I'll see about bringing my band of prisoners. I'll drop them off by the front door, if you don't mind having someone meet me there" The Dragonknight's servant commented while walking back towards the window.

Then, without waiting for their response, he stepped out and began floating down to the ground.

Grace took up a position at her elbow once they were alone. "I am beginning to see why you were so flustered prior to the meeting. There is something unsettling about him."

Alaine bent down and picked up one of the feathers that littered the floor of her office, examining it carefully. "According to the eyewitness accounts, there was supposedly a winged being that fought Kultanis alongside the Dragonknight. One that was capable of wielding weapons made of light."

"Paladins capable of calling down a divine spirit could do something similar." Grace offered with a frown, clearly not convinced by her own words.

"That is a possibility, but what if the angel we've been looking for was a little bit closer than we thought?"

Her old mentor grimly stared down at the feathers. "Let's hope, for all of our sakes, that isn't the case."

-------------------------------------------

Mike had to brush off a handful of bird feathers that had affixed themselves to his disguise. His plan of pretending to arrive just in time to intervene in the coup had backfired slightly when a small flock of doves had gotten caught in his initial spell.

A quick application of Healing Magic kept them from suffering from anything more than a few missing feathers, but it had nevertheless proved enough of a distraction that he'd very nearly stepped on one of the fallen priests as he took his place near the window.

Despite that, it had proven fairly simple to restrain the armored warriors. Thankfully, they didn't appear to have any particularly strong individuals among them, and a few free casts were all that was required to completely immobilize them.

Doing his best to avoid attracting any more attention to himself, he left the cathedral compound and headed into a nearby alley to meet up with Selene. He was greeted by the slightly unusual sight of four blankly staring men standing around a single barrel, which rocked every now and then, as if the person inside of it was trying to get out. Every single one of them was sopping wet.

[I feel like there is a story here, but I'm not sure I want to hear it.]

"Has he been giving you any trouble?" He asked.

Selene sighed. "Like you wouldn't believe. It took nearly ten minutes to get here from the port simply because he tried to escape about four times. Thankfully, I was able to play it off as a particularly active barrel full of fresh fish. That kept most of the passersby from interfering, but I'm pretty sure at least two dock workers called the guards on us. The sooner we get this done the better."

"Right. Give me a second to get them restrained and then release your effect. The last thing we need is for them to see us using mind control on members of their clergy, traitorous though they might be."

"Would that matter? The one in the barrel witnessed it."

"Yeah, but he's not exactly trustworthy. Rather than a certainty, it would be an instance of his word against ours. If they end up looking into it, we would have a reasonable amount of deniability."

"Whatever you say." She replied with a shrug.

He used an application of Earth Magic to wrap the four men in cubes of hardened dirt. Thanks to his proficiency in the skill, he was able to direct them to float over in the direction of the cathedral's entrance. He made sure to also create a small disk of stone to levitate the inquisitor containing barrel over as well.

"I'll take care of the rest. You go ahead and get back to prepping for the journey. I'll make sure to have your ride ready by this evening."

She shot him a dirty look. "UghAre you sure I can't take some other route there? I'm not exactly thrilled about being your guinea pig for your new means of travel."

"As I've said before, if we want to have any idea what we're walking into, prior to getting there in the first place, you'll need time to insinuate yourself into the local populace. That means you need to get there as quickly as possible." He countered, not really wanting to get into this argument again.

Frowning, she crossed her arms and glanced away for a few seconds. "Look, I understand the reasonit's justI'm not exactly thrilled by the method."

Mike stared at her for a moment, before the realization struck. "Don't tell meare you afraid of heights?"

She continued to look away and didn't answer, but he thought he saw the hint of a blush on her cheeks.

Laughing, he started walking towards the cathedral while commenting over his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to summon you something that flies steadily."

Selene didn't reply, but he could feel her staring daggers at his back.

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