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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3660363" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 216ANOTHER REUNIONIt was somber and quiet in the still of the morning, with the dawn still a promise on the horizon to the east.  Across the city of Camar, guards changed shifts, and tired squads of the Guard returned to their barracks after another exhausting night of patrols.  Some bore minor wounds; even now, two nights after the Night of the Dead, the occasional skeleton was still being found in dark corners.  Each squad carried a loud horn that could be sounded in general alarm.  On the night before, two such alarms had been sounded, as clusters of undead were discovered, flushed out, and destroyed.This morning, all was quiet.  In the private chapel in the rear of the Great Cathedral the stillness was almost sepulchral.  This early, there was only one occupant in the chamber, kneeling in prayer at the railing in front of the altar.  The room was dim, but candles set in slender sconces of silver around the altar pushed back the darkness.  Gaius Annochus looked haggard.  Once hale and intimidating in his sheer physical presence, he now looked his age and more.  There were dark bags under his eyes, and his hands trembled as he held them folded before him in supplication.  His mouth moved silently as he uttered prayers. “Does He respond?”Gaius shot to his feet at the sudden interruption.  Squinting into the shadows, his face twisted with fury as he recognized the solitary intruder that walked down the central aisle of the sanctum. “Varo!  You dare!” “Let us dispense with the usual greetings, Gaius.”“You mock this holy sanctuary with your presence!  How did you pass the wards?”“With difficulty,” Varo said.  “But it seems that I am not the only one ill at ease here.”Gaius’s mouth drew into a feral snarl.  “I should have destroyed you when I had the chance...”Varo’s smile was mocking.  “Perhaps you will again surround yourself with a holy aura.  Or ward yourselves against spells, or the evil that I no doubt reek with.  No?  I can wait, if you require additional time.”Gaius seethed, but did not respond.  He did not reach for the holy symbol in silver at his throat.  “What do you want, deceiver?” he finally hissed. Varo’s stare sharpened until it was like a dagger.  “You have failed Camar, Gaius.  And you have failed the church you claim to serve.”Gaius laughed.  “I will not listen to one such as... as you casting accusations at me, in my own sanctum!”“Your sanctum?  I thought that the cathedral belonged to the people of Camar.”“You will not twist my words against me.  My entire life has been one of service, a concept that I would not expect a fallen priest to grasp.”“Who are you trying to convince, Gaius?”  Varo waved a hand.  “A few years ago, I would have believed you.  By the gods, even a month ago, when I last visited you, you were in a position to choose to do much good.  Camar was at a turning point, when events might have evolved in a very different direction than they did.”“I stand behind every decision I made,” Gaius said.  “Indeed.  Let us catalogue some of the disasters that have befallen Camar since—” Gaius interrupted him.  “I suppose you blame me for the assault of the Shadow upon Camar?  That is gall, even from you, Varo.”Varo shook his head.  “I do not blame you for the evils of the followers of the Demon, Gaius.  But your continued inaction in the face of an increasingly blatant evil has grown to the point where it cannot be allowed to continue.”Gaius’s eyes narrowed.  “If you think you can threaten me in this place, you are gravely mistaken, Varo.”Varo continued as though he had not heard.  “I could perhaps forgive your inaction during the corrupt rule of the Duke; the church of the Father cannot always afford to be political, although I would have hoped that you would have been able to penetrate the disguise that the devil wore.  My own brethren, who are far less trusting that the clergy of the Father, were slow in recognizing the threat.  But the darkness that has risen in Rappan Athuk was there to see, even before the most recent events, and I hold you responsible, to a degree, for allowing it to fester as it did.”Gaius glowered at him. “But even that, I could understand, if you had responded with the full power of the church once the true evil of the cult of Orcus became evident.  When the undead legions mustered against Camar, it should have been obvious to a child that we were facing nothing less than the destruction of our world itself.”“Your words are thick with twists, priest of Dagos, but they insult the memories of those who gave their lives to fight this evil.  Valus.  Braegan.  Meaghan.  Serah—”With the last name, Varo cut him off.  “Ah, yes, the champions of the faith.  Valus was sent to keep an eye on me, but I will admit that he fought bravely against the foe.  But the others...”  Varo’s eyes narrowed.  “I will forever hold you responsible for sending out those men and women without the resources they needed to survive.  They exist; I know what is in the temple vaults, Gaius.”“Now you will tell me how to expend the treasures of the church?  Truly, you are mad, Varo.”“For that matter, I wondered why you did not recall to Camar those with the spiritual power to withstand the powers of the Enemy.  If anything, you seemed to be sending away those with the most potential.  I know there is precedent; you exiled several very promising young priests when you first came into your station, all those years ago.  I am no stranger to the machinations of power, but it still mystified me how you could be so blind to what was happening.  If just a handful of those clerics had been in Camar on that dark night just passed...  I wonder, how many lives could have been spared.”“You will pay for your words, Varo.”“But then, it occurred to me... perhaps your actions were based on a simple motivation.  It makes sense, it all makes sense... if there is something that you are trying to hide, something that you could not allow your brothers in the faith to discern...”“I will kill you!”Varo waved a hand.  “Go ahead.  Smite me with a holy word.  Summon an angel to your side.  Your power in the Light is known to all, Patriarch.  I await divine retribution.”Something in Gaius’s bearing changed; a tenuous line of control snapped.  Gaius darted back with surprising speed to the altar.  He reached into the wooden nook overhanging the stone slab, and drew out the heavy bronze bowl concealed within.  “Gaius...” Varo cautioned, coming forward. The Patriarch laughed, and opened a packet of powder from a pocket in his sleeve into the bowl.  With his other hand, he took a candle from above the altar, and touched it to the powder, setting it alight with a bright, eager flame. “Gaius, no!” But the leader of the most prominent religion in Camar ignored him, chanting words of power that Varo himself had given him.  The flames strengthened and grew, and as Gaius completed the incantation, exploded into a pillar of flame some thirty feet high.  Arms sprouted from the pillar of fire, and as the flames flared against the high buttressed ceiling above, two glowing points of light formed within its mass. “Destroy him!” Gaius shrieked. The eyes of the huge fire elemental fixed upon Varo.</blockquote>

Verification