A small gasp passed between the old couple.
"The Creep," the old man said softly, his voice raspy. "It did not spare such a young girl as well. Such a pity."
The old woman sighed. " The guards... they’ve been very strict. There are strict orders that would cancel the licenses of inns that house people with the creep. "
Lila’s heart sank. "So, you can’t help us either?"
The old woman looked at Elara’s tear-streaked face, then at her husband. He gave a slow, almost imperceptible nod.
"We don’t have other guests," the old woman said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "And what the city guard doesn’t know... well, it won’t hurt them." She offered a small, conspiratorial smile.
"We can give you a room at the back. Quietest one. But you’ll have to keep her hidden, dearies. No wandering the halls. And use the back alley if you need to co and go. Can you do that?"
Relief washed over Riku, Lila, and Elara.
"Yes, ma’am," Riku said, his voice filled with gratitude. "We can. Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Don’t thank us yet, son," the old man said, his eyes kind. "Just be discreet."
------------------
The night at the inn passed uneventfully. Early the next morning, the trio set out.
Their destination: the outer district’s branch of the Church of Light.
However, as they approached the grand, white-stone edifice of the church, it beca imdiately apparent that they were not the only ones seeking aid.
A massive crowd had gathered before its imposing bronze doors, spilling out onto the wide plaza. Hundreds of people – humans, Dwarves, and even a few Gnos – were packed together with worried faces and anxious murmurs. Many bore the tell-tale crimson marks of the Creep, while others, clearly family mbers, supported their ailing loved ones.
Lila gasped as she took in the scene. "There are so many..."
Riku nodded grimly. "The blight is worse here than I thought." He spotted a weary-looking man leaning against a nearby fountain, trying to catch his breath. "Excuse , friend," Riku said, approaching him. "What’s happening here? Why are so many gathered?"
The man looked up. "The Church... they’re offering treatnt for the Crimson Creep. Or so they say. I have never known soone who got completely cured of it yet."
He gestured vaguely towards the crowd. "But as you can see, it’s not so simple to get there."
"What do you an?" Lila asked.
The man sighed. "There are queues. Three of them." He pointed towards the main entrance, where three distinct lines snaked towards separate, guarded archways.
"That one," he said, indicating the largest, most densely packed line, "is the ’Supplicant’s Path’. Free. But see that shimr?" He indicated a faint barrier of light pulsing at its head. "They only let one person through every five, maybe ten minutes. So of the people in that line have been there since before sunrise, and they’ve barely moved."
His gaze shifted to a slightly shorter, but still substantial queue. "That’s the ’Devotee’s Contribution’. Fifty gold pieces for entry. Moves a bit faster, but still a long wait. And fifty gold... it’s a fortune for most of us."
Finally, he gestured to a third, almost entirely empty lane leading to a grander, more ornate side entrance. "And that... that’s the ’Benefactor’s Passage’. Five hundred gold. Or, if you’re a noble with the right sigil, or a high-ranking rchant with connections... you walk right in." He snorted bitterly. "The Light shines brightest on those with the heaviest purses, it seems."
Riku exchanged a look with Lila and Elara, and sighed inwardly.
It was almost the sa as it was on Earth, wasn’t it?
All people were equal, but so people were more equal than others. What mattered was money or status
"What should we do, RIku?"
"Well, let’s get into the second queue for now. Though there is no rush. I would still like to see the thods the church is employing to deal with this creep."
They joined the ’Devotee’s Contribution’ queue. It was indeed crowded, filled with anxious faces and the occasional muffled cough. The air was thick with a mixture of hope and desperation.
Ti crawled by. The sun climbed higher, beating down on the waiting crowd. Children whimpered, and the sick leaned heavily on their companions.
After close to two hours, their turn finally ca. A stern-faced acolyte, his robes crisp and clean, took their fifty gold coins with an indifferent air and waved them through a smaller, less ornate doorway.
The interior of this section of the church was a large, echoing hall, sectioned off by heavy curtains. The sll of incense and dicinal herbs hung heavy in the air. What imdiately struck Riku was the scarcity of actual healers. In their section, only a handful of tired-looking priests and priestesses, their faces drawn with fatigue, moved between cots, offering brief examinations and small doses of what Riku assud was the Sunpetal Draught.
Lila, however, had noticed sothing else. Through a gap in a grand curtain leading to an adjacent, much larger hall, she caught a glimpse of the ’Benefactor’s Passage’ area. Her eyes widened.
"Riku, look," she whispered, nudging him.
He followed her gaze. The contrast was sickening. In that opulent hall, at least twenty healers, many of them senior clergy in finer robes, were present. Most, however, were not tending to patients – because there were hardly any. Instead, they were gathered in small groups, chatting idly, sipping from goblets, so even laughing softly, seemingly oblivious to the suffering just a curtain away.
anwhile, from another archway further down, Riku could see a glimpse of the ’Supplicant’s Path’ area.
There, the scene was one of controlled chaos. A seemingly endless line of afflicted individuals shuffled forward, and tending to them were just two figures – Dwarven healers, their faces grim with determination, their movents efficient but clearly overwheld as they did their best to offer what little aid they could to the ever-increasing number of people.
"This is..." Lila struggled for words, her face pale with anger. "It’s disgusting."
Riku’s jaw tightened, a cold fury simring within him. The blatant corruption, the callous disregard for suffering... it was a perversion of everything the church should have stood for.
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