Cariel blinked, and then straightened. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be any cause for concern, but under their current circumstances, it was a fatal mistake.
"Wha..Who goes there?! Identify yourself!" The University Guard yelled while running in their direction.
"Idiot! What are you doing?!" Julia scread before grabbing the angel's unresisting arm and pulling her back through the tunnel. After winding through the irregular pathways for a few minutes, they broke through into the streets of the old city. A few minutes of running saw them once more hiding in the abandoned tea shop that had been serving as their base of operations for the ti being.
They'd nearly succeeded in infiltrating the University, but Cariel's little episode had thrown away the hours of prep work they'd sunk into bypassing the outer wall. The passage would most likely be guarded from this point onwards, now that the guards had located it's entrance.
"What's wrong with you?!" The cat beastman yelled, once they were finally able to relax. "Do you have any idea how much effort it took to get that tunnel made? How many people I had to bribe in order to get that Earth Mage to make it? Why in the hells would you give us away like that?!"
The angel looked at her blankly for a mont. "Well, I got a ssage from my goddess."
"That's no" Julia started to yell, and then frowned, finally begrudgingly asking. "How does that work? Did she just talk to you in your head, or sothing?"
Cariel didn't respond initially, instead wandering over to the window to look out at the walls of the University. "Normally, yes, but this was different. Jumbled sohow. I'm still trying to make sense of it."
"What did she say? I hope it was important enough to interrupt our infiltration attempt."
Without looking, the angel replied. "The part I understand is that I've been failing a lot. I've not only t the Hero once, but twice, and both tis I failed to recognize him."
"We pretty much knew that already. Haven't I basically been saying the sa thing?"
Cariel shook her head. "This is different. I could feel her anger, her frustration with . I ntioned that I'm sothing of a screw-up, right? Well, I've never heard her like this before. I think she's running out of patience with ."
Julia was about to say that the goddess was right to be angry, but held back her words at the last second. She took another look at the angel, and realized that she'd never seen her this depressed. Despite all of the difficulties they'd faced, Cariel had always maintained an upbeat attitude, never letting the situation get her down. Now, she looked ready to give up.
[Whatever happened between her and her goddess is definitely bothering her...Ugh, whatever. I can be mad at her later, I guess.]
"I'm sure she's just upset that it's taking so long. In your defense, you've been busy with other things. Securing transit to this city, surviving a shipwreck, getting rescued by raiders and then joining them, and finally fighting to protect Almir from undead hordes. Honestly, I'm impressed you even had the ti to look for the Hero, let along guide him."
Finally, Cariel looked back at her, a confused mix of emotions threatening to burst free at any mont. Tears were beginning to bead up at the corner of her eyes. "Really? Then you don't think I've failed?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that, precisely. More like you've been...delayed. Yeah, that's it. You've been delayed by unforeseen circumstances beyond your control. Completely reasonable. Why, anyone else in your position would have likely floundered in the face of those challenges. You not only persevered, but succeeded, and now you are standing on the threshold of completing your mission. The only thing we have left to do is get past a little wall, nothing to worry about. Quite frankly, it's downright admirable that you've gotten this far."
"Then...then, you think I can still complete my mission?"
The cat beastman gave her companion a confident grin. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you can report back to your goddess with news of success."
With tears pouring down her face, Cariel suddenly gripped her in a bone crushing embrace. "Thank you so much! I was really worried there for a second, but I'm so glad I have such a great friend watching my back."
"Urk...can't...breathe."
Finally letting Julia go, the angel wiped her eyes with the back of one hand, a broad grin on her face. "Alright! I'm all fired up now. Let's get to work on the next infiltration plan. I have a good feeling about that whole posing as fishern and landing on the shore near the lighthouse. I bet we could really sell it, after all of our ti with boats."
*Cough, cough* "We would need a boat for that...well, nevermind. I'm glad you're feeling better. I'll try to co up with sothing that will work. Worst case scenario, I suppose we can just try to leave a ssage for that guy...Speaking of which, was there anything else to your goddess's mind thing? Any kind of clue that might help?"
"Hmm, not that I can rember...wait, I think there might have been sothing else, sothing about going different ways?"
"What, like we shouldn't try the usual routes or sothing?" Julia asked.
"Hmm...that sounds about right. I think she was trying to warn about sothing."
"Well, can you ssage her back and ask her to clarify? This could be important."
Cariel frowned for a few seconds and then shook her head. "I think she's busy. That or one of the other angels is screening my prayers."
"...Is that a thing?"
"Of course. You don't think a god has ti to listen to everyone's problems, do you? Unless you are particularly important, your prayers mostly just go to one of the angel clerks. From there, they usually get sent to the one of two places...what were they called again?"
"So sort of processing location, maybe?"
"No...Ah! I rember. Disposal is the big one. Almost every prayer ends up there. Only a few get sent on to...what was it...uh...stoppage? No...Oh! Storage. Then, in a few years or so, one of the more senior angels might get around to looking at them."
Julia looked at her companion, aghast. "It can't really be that bad. I an, isn't there so kind of category for particularly sincere prayers or sothing?"
"Not that I know of...but I could have forgotten about it. They were always coming up with new rules in heaven, so it was hard to keep track of them all..." The angel replied in a carefree tone. "Anyway, what were we doing?"
"Figuring out how we should go about finishing your mission."
"Hmm, what mission?"
Julia sighed deeply, allowing every ounce of the sheer frustration she'd been feeling over the last few days to drain out of her, before finally grabbing Cariel's shoulder. "I want you to listen to very carefully. You are supposed to et the Hero, and beco his guide in the mortal world so that he might save the world when he is needed most. This is a mission given you to by Aminatrea, who is the goddess of the Sun in case you've forgotten."
"...Right" The angel responded with a blank look.
"All we need to do is to talk to him a bit, explain your intentions, and then convince him to take you along with him. With the possible exception of that last bit, this shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. Do you think you can rember that?"
She took a mont to return Cariel's blank stare, before sighing again. "Well, just stick with and I'll do the talking."
"Aweso! Thanks, Julia."
She managed to fend off another rib-crushing hug. "Now we need to focus on how we're going to et him in the first place. Considering that last bit of your divine ssage, I'm guessing we need to think outside of the box. Do sothing really out of the ordinary."
"Hmm..." Cariel frowned in thought. "Can I just blow a hole in the wall?"
"...Let's save that for a last resort."
"Then I don't know. Even if we ask, I doubt they'd be willing to let us in."
Julia tapped her lip as a sudden thought ca to her. "That's not exactly the case, now that I think about it."
"Huh?"
"Ugh..don't let it bother you. Just don't wander away from , and I'll take care of everything."
---------------------------------------------------
Far away in a divine realm, the sun goddess sneezed again. This ti there was no flour involved, and in fact nothing that should have caused it. However, because she was still busy with her baking exploits, she ignored it.
Which was sothing she would co to regret in the following days.
---------------------------------------------------
Mike watched the council of religious leaders gather in the Pontifex's office, waiting until there was a small crowd fighting for space in the chamber before sneaking in himself. He made sure to keep his stealth skill active and remained on the outskirts of the group, but otherwise trusted his disguise to keep him from being noticed.
Thankfully, the clergy mbers were a little distracted by the worrying nature of their gathering. Judging based on the whispers he could overhear, they were clueless to the reason for it, but were concerned that sothing serious had happened.
He began scanning the mbers of the crowd with Appraise, and quickly determined that these were mostly high level functionaries of the church. They almost universally had the Priest or Priestess class, with so even having the high variations. However, there was one other person who shared the Pontifex's Hierophant class, and her status was interesting.
-----------------------
Grace
Age: 92
Race: Human
Class: Hierophant
Title: Living Saint
-----------------------
[I feel like that title is implying that other types of Saints are usually dead. Does that an my title is an unusual one?]
By all appearances, she was an unassuming, wizened, old woman who was still in fairly good health despite her advanced age. Thanks to a slightly crooked back, she was forced to rest the majority of her weight on a simple cane. Nevertheless, she carried herself with a confidence that could only have co from a lifeti of power and influence.
The other mbers of the group seed to be paying her a rather extre amount of deference. In fact, they almost appeared afraid of the woman.
[Maybe she's so kind of specialist leader or advisor. I'm guessing that anyone referred to as a Saint is probably fairly influential...well, at least in cases besides mine.]
Finally, after more than thirty people of varying races, but almost uniformly in the later stages of life, enter the room, Alaine told her receptionist to close the door and keep all other visitors out until they were done.
"It has co to my attention that the Anathema have once more taken root in the heart of our organization." The Pontifex announced.
An astonished silence filled the room. Eventually, one man, looking to be close to his seventies spoke up. "How could such a thing have co to pass? They were supposed to have been destroyed during the Purge."
"I do not know, Xavier. Truth be told, I only found out a few minutes ago that they even still existed. However, I have received information that suggests at least one of the senior priests has not only beco an inquisitor, but achieved the title as well."
A sun elven woman with a tattoo of a sunburst on the center of her forehead spoke up, "That's quite troubling. Out of curiosity, Your Holiness, how did you find out about this?"
The Pontifex gave the woman a hard stare before answering, "A representative of the Hero of Almir paid a visit just a little while ago. Apparently, the Anathema have decided to label the Dragonknight as an Apostate, and sent a kill team to deliver judgent."
"Good Goddess! Are they insane?!" The old man nad Xavier exclaid while clutching his chest. His face had paled so much that Mike was mildly concerned that he was having a heart attack. Of course, being in a room with this many Divine Mages, he was likely not in any danger of dying.
"Why they thought it was a good idea to assault a Tier 4 mage with their numbers and skills, I do not know. This does, however, create two problems for us." The Pontifex continued.
The older Hierophant, who'd said nothing up to this point, chose this mont to finally speak up, silencing everyone else with the firmness of her voice. "What have they demanded as recompense?"
Alaine replied respectfully, as if to soone of a higher rank. "Astute observation as always, Master. The Dragonknight's representative asked only for a token monetary gesture to cover both the trouble of the attack itself, and the effort of returning the mbers of the kill team to us. Considering the prize he's been awarded by the kingdom already, I had intended picking a few items from the treasury for that purpose."
[Token monetary gesture. I guess I really should have asked for more]
"Then he is not yet an enemy of the church. Good." The old woman stared off into the distance for a few seconds before continuing. "I suspect that ans you are focusing on the inquisitors at this juncture. What progress have you made in identifying the senior mbers responsible for sending the kill team?"
"That leads to the second problem. Once the Dragonknight delivers the prisoners-" The Pontifex started.
"There's no ti for interrogation. Besides, I doubt anything short of complete Soul-Shriving will succeed in freeing any information from soone with the Divine Scourge title, and we definitely can't sit around until the sumr solstice. No, this requires more extre asures."
"I have already taken the liberty of securing the two mbers of the high clergy that were most likely to be involved in a resurgence of the Anathema. If we dig into their past actions, I suspect..."
Grace clicked her tongue, causing the younger woman to trail off. "Not an unexpected leap in logic, but I'm afraid it won't do you much good. When I was dealing with them during my ti as Pontifex, they proved quite adept at creating scapegoats among their colleagues. Oftentis, the most obvious suspects were the ones with the least connection to the enemy."
"Then who is responsible for this?" Xavier asked, having listened to the exchange with increasing hopelessness.
The old Hierophant smiled. "Based on my experience, the culprits have more than likely infiltrated the highest level of our order."
The current Pontifex grimaced, "Then you are saying"
Before she could finish, Grace slamd the tip of her cane in the ground, creating a shockwave of force that swept over the room. The energy passed harmlessly through the group before concentrating on the doors and windows, creating shimring barriers of light.
"I have sealed the exits." She announced, a hint of fatigue in her voice. "Now, let us find the traitors among us."
[Hmm...this might be problematic.]
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