Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 293
Dead Boring
Midnight in Kallor.
The perpetual twilight of the day has given way to a sky bright with stars and a nearly full moon. On such short notice only a few clergy from out of town have arrived to witness history: Milanwy and Clariel from Tal Hae along with Amber and Previa; church leaders from Minok and Hae Kalkas; and of course Morningstar's proud parents, Domira and Rodvin. Still, there are enough local priestesses and political figures in attendance that the crowd numbers nearly two hundred in the large chapel.
Morningstar has spent hours studying the prayers and rituals involved in casting true resurrection. She expects that the ceremony will last from midnight until dawn; it is no quick thing to call a soul back from the afterlife. Bells ring the midnight hour and the murmurs of the congregation fade as Morningstar begins to cast, Aravis laid out upon the altar before her in a ceremonial black robe. Moonbeams stream in through the skylights and play over Morningstar's hands as she prays. The attendees settle in for a long night of spectacle.
Twenty minutes later, Aravis's eyes snap open.
Morningstar blinks, confused.
“Aravis?”
“Yes?” answers the mage groggily.
Pewter leaps up joyfully onto Aravis's chest and starts to purr, while the onlookers mutter uncertainly. Morningstar can hear at least one of the priestesses whisper maybe he wasn't dead!
Morningstar peers down at Aravis. “You, er, were really dead, right?”
“I'm pretty sure,” says Aravis.
“I'm only twenty minutes in,” says Morningstar, half to her friend and half to herself. The audience starts to grow loud again until Rhiavonne strides forward to join Morningstar behind the altar.
“We have witnessed a miracle within a miracle,” she says, voice raised in authority. But to Morningstar she whispers: “Perhaps a ceremonial conclusion might be in order, for the sake of the audience.”
Morningstar continues to chant and pray for another thirty minutes before finishing with her head bowed in silence. Many in the congregation come forward to put their hands on Aravis's head, who endures it with good grace. Previa studiously records every detail of the event. Any skeptics in the chapel are cowed by Rhiavonne's stern glare; but to most, there is no doubt that the power of Ell has flowed mightily thorough Morningstar Her servant. Her parents are over the moon with pride and joy.
Morningstar herself looks taken aback, almost embarrassed.
“Aravis is a person of great personal power,” she says to the curious throng. “It's likely that that was a factor in this quick resurrection.” There is much nodded agreement.
* *
Later, when the Company has carried the weary Aravis to a private room, the newly-revived wizard reveals the unexpected explanation for Morningstar's remarkable feat.
“I stayed where I was,” he says.
Dranko scratches his scarred jaw. “What do you mean?”
“Where I died.” says Aravis. “When you guys left, I was still there. In the basement. Death was boring!”
No one knows quite what to say.
“That means you were a ghost!” says Dranko after a moment. “Did you haunt anyone?”
“I was stuck where I was,” says Aravis. “There was no one to haunt!”
“We stuck around for a while after the fight,” says Dranko. “Did you haunt us?”
Aravis sighs. Kibi wonders aloud if Aravis's stationary afterlife was because of the Null Shadows. Dranko further muses that perhaps Aravis would have turned into a Null Shadow had he not been raised.
“I didn't feel any different,” says Aravis, skeptical. “Just bored, and non-physical. I guess it could have been the Null Shadows, but more likely it was because of my unusual nature.”
“What if they were trying to trap you there,” asks Morningstar. “And they were going to come back later for your soul? They were planning on bringing back Grey Wolf against his will, remember? Maybe they could have done the same thing to you.”
Those are all reasonable theories... and all of them are wrong. It will be some time before the Company figures out the truth.
* *
Aravis feels better after a full night's rest, and they reconvene the next morning to discuss their next step. Dranko's idea for capturing Praska is straightforward: disguise the Company as something like street urchins via illusion, wait for her to leave the temple on an errand, and jump her en masse. “I figure if we do it in public, she won't be able to summon her demonic minions without everybody seeing it.”
Talk turns to the confusing results of the recent commune. Aravis can't help but wonder aloud: “Do we think that the Black Circle is really trying to be so tricky, that instead of simply blocking divinations on her, they're feeding us false answers through a commune?"
“Yes, I think that,” says Dranko. “I think that Praska has had powerful magic placed on her that makes it impossible for divinations to work on her. Then she came and set this trap for us, with the expectation that we wouldn't figure out who it was.”
“How powerful do we think Praska is, anyway?” asks Aravis.
“Before?” says Dranko. “I didn't think she was powerful at all. Now? Very.”
They teleport back to Hae Charagan, this timing choosing the Happy Harpoon on purpose. Shouts of “drinks on the new guys again!” start ringing seconds after the crowd has registered their arrival, and as they leave the Company hears some rumors about just who they are. “Mad mages from Kivia,” says one man. “The Archmagi in disguise,” insists another. Kibi smirks as he hears one grizzled dockhand tell another, “You know who the leader is? It's that pile of rocks that follows the dwarf around...”
Before heading to the Church of Delioch to kidnap Praska, Morningstar casts circle dance to verify their quarry's location. She gets the direction of due east, which does not point to the church. They try it again from a quarter-mile to the south, and get the exact same bearing. Aravis figures this means that Praska is thousands of miles to the east, which happens to be the direction of Kivia.
Even so, the church is the next logical place make inquiries. Dranko dons his seldom-used priestly robes and they walk through the city. At the gates to the temple compound two door-wardens bow respectfully.
“Good afternoon!” one says to the group.
“Greetings,” answers Dranko. “Do you know if Sister Praska is currently on the grounds?”
“I'm sure she's not,” answers the guard cheerily.
“Oh? Why's that?”
“She's off in.. what's it called?”
“Kivia,” says the second guard.
“What's she doing there?” asks Dranko, forcing himself to maintain a casual facade.
“I heard she was going on a spiritual journey,” says the first guard. “She was curious to know if there were any worshipers of Delioch over there. I gather that there was some magical artifact discovered in Kivia that indicated that there were. I also think she was interested in learning about the Kivian God of Healing.”
“Do you know who I could talk to about this trip of hers?” asks Dranko. “We've come a long way to talk to her, and I guess my timing was horrible.”
“She was friends with an older priestess named Marigold, I know that,” says the second guard.
“Great,” says Dranko. “And how long ago did she leave?”
“Weeks, I think,” says the first guard. He glances at his compatriot, who shrugs.
Weeks. Okay then. Dranko is immediately mistrustful of this Marigold.
“Flicker, do me a favor,” he says. “While we talk to Tomnic, go search Praska's room. See if she left anything incriminating. Just don't set off any hideous traps.”
“Or get caught,” adds Ernie.
“The thing is,” says Dranko, “going off to explore Kivia is exactly the kind of thing Praska – the Praska I know – would actually do. So maybe she's fine, and the Black Circle is setting her up. I need to talk with Tomnic.”
Tomnic the Follower is the highest authority of the Deliochan church extant on Charagan, and Dranko is at first told by an under-priest that the wait to talk with him is three hours, unless it's particularly urgent.
“Tell him it's Dranko, here to speak on the same subject as last time.”
“When he learns it's Dranko,” Grey Wolf mutters, “the wait'll become six hours.”
But Tomnic is no fool, and the Company is granted an immediate audience. Dranko bows respectfully upon entering the office of the High Priest of Delioch, a man of about 50 years with silver hair and ruddy skin. Tomnic is immaculately dressed.
After Dranko makes a round of introductions, Tomnic leans forward. “I take it this is about Califax then?”
“Indirectly,” says Dranko. "It's more about Mokad. Or his disciple.”
“His disciple?”
“Either it's Praska, or someone using Praska as bait, and making us think she's our enemy.”
“Do you think she's in danger?” asks Tomnic, concerned.
“I think she IS the danger.”
They tell Tomnic the whole story, including the results of Morningstar's recent commune. When they are finished, worry is showing clearly on Tomnic's face.
“You know,” he says gravely, “that we took Califax's warning very seriously. I spoke myself with an agent of Delioch and posed piercing questions about Praska. I learned that she was untainted.”
“Your Grace,” says Dranko, “do you understand fully what the Black Circle can do? Have we told you how they changed history?”
“No, but I have the story secondhand. And if it's true that the Black Circle can foil the miracle of commune, then it puts all of our previous divinations into some doubt.”
“You see why I interrupted your studies today,” says Dranko. “I'm sorry.”
“You interrupted a meeting with a bureaucrat. No apologizes necessary.”
“You understand that we have no proof,” says Morningstar. “Just that I heard her mental voice through a thought capture."
“Could that mental voice have been imitated?” asks Tomnic.
“Yes,” Morningstar admits. “In which case someone is setting a trap, and they want us to go after Praska. She is in Kivia right now, where the Black Circle is stronger than it is here.”
“Praska told me she was very excited to visit Kivia, now that it was possible,” says Tomnic with a sigh. “She knew that you had been there.”
“Who told her there was a God of Healing there?” asks Dranko.
“We endeavored to learn everything we could of the pantheon of Kivian Gods, since the boundary came down,” says Tomnic, pointing to one of the books on his desk. “Heros is a Goddess of healing and mercy – the closest thing to Delioch they have.”
“But not as Good,” says Dranko with a smirk.
“It's not my place to say,” says Tomnic, though his face betrays agreement.
“Do you know that their God of Death, Drosh, is leaving? He believes that the Adversary is coming back.”
That requires another lengthy bit of exposition, as they tell Tomnic about how the Black Circle in Het Branoi was trying to set up a beacon to call the Adversary. Tomnic listens intently.
“But they failed, in the end,” the High Priest says, when the Company has finished their tale.
“But Drosh is still leaving,” says Aravis. “Because he's scared.”
“Forgive me,” says Tomnic. “I don't doubt your word... but do you have corroborating evidence?”
“Er... other than the fact that we talked with a powerful servant of his?” says Dranko. “Uh. No.”
“I only ask, because a powerful servant of the God of Death might well have been lying to you.”
“If he was, he was a better liar than I was, and I'm a pretty good liar,” says Dranko.
Dranko goes on to warn Tomnic that the Null Shadow Cauldron is still is in the city, and that Tomnic may himself be a target. He requests of Tomnic that the high priest cast commune himself to determine the Cauldron's whereabouts.
“I will do that much for you,” says Tomnic, “though I also have some questions of my own, particularly regarding Califax. Say an extra prayer for him, Dranko.”
“I'm sure his heart is true,” says Dranko.
“His heart is not in question,” says Tomnic. “His affliction is more dire."
He pauses and looks thoughtful, as if looking for a tactful way to convey something horrible, but there's no other way to say it.
"He has no soul," says Tomnic simply. "He complained of that from the start, and I thought he was mad and raving. After all, such a thing is not possible while the body still lives. But his complaints, as far as we can tell, are true. He has no soul in him. I thought perhaps you had an answer, when I heard you were here for an audience. When Aravis was killed, did anything happen to his soul?”
“He still has a soul,” says Dranko. "Though... and this is going to hard to explain, your Grace, but technically Aravis is a God. Of cats. He's worshiped by cats. He's...”
“Dranko? Stop. Please.”
Tomnic is giving him an incredulous look.
“Can you cast detect lies, your Grace?”
“I could. But instead I'm going to ask you flat out. Because I know that while you're a person of great power, and great wisdom, and great fame, as are all of your friends, I would not put it past you personally to play some kind of colossal prank upon me. I would hope that given then grave nature of...”
“Your Grace, I'm not lying!” exclaims Dranko.
“Aravis, are you a God of Cats?” asks Tomnic.
“I was told during a commune of my own that he was... in a small way,” says Morningstar.
“I can't say whether I am or not, your Grace,” says Aravis. “Cats think that I am.”
“And are you responsible for the unexplained hue and cry of every feline citizen of this city?” asks Tomnic.
“I believe that coincided with my death,” says Aravis.
Tomnic bows his head. “Then, Aravis, I should be honored to be in your presence.”
“The honor is mine, your Grace,” says Aravis humbly.
“And when you died, your soul stayed put,” muses Tomnic. “Perhaps Abernia was not prepared for a God to die upon its surface.”
“Do you mind if we talked with Marigold?” asks Dranko, getting back on track.
“Not at all,” says Tomnic. "Though that reminds me: she asked me about ten days ago for a sending scroll. She wanted to know how Praska was doing on her journey. Marigold did not afterward report that Praska was up to no good, or anything like that. You know that Praska is willful, impetuous, prone to getting into trouble. Marigold has been here as a priestess for over 30 years, and took it upon herself to be a kind of protector to the girl. She misses Praska terribly. It's understandable that she was worried about Praska being so far away, in a strange land.”
Over the mind-link, Dranko thinks to Flicker: where are you?
I'm in Praska's room the halfling answers.
Find anything?
There's nothing to find, thinks Flicker.
Check Marigold's room.
Got it.
“Your Grace,” says Dranko out loud, “we think that Marigold might be a danger, in league with Praska.”
“Before today, I would have though you mad for suggesting that,” says Tomnic. “I still don't think it's likely. Marigold is as nice a lady as you could ever hope to meet.”
“Yeah, and I'm a jackass, but I'm on the side of Good,” says Dranko with a grin. “You never can tell.”
...to be continued...