Chapter 1
22nd Day, Middle Fire Month, 1 CE
“There! There he is, sister!”
A cry of warning sounded beside Redios Custodio. She frowned at the man frantically shaking her by the vambrace.
“Who?”
“Him!” The man pointed, “The Smiling Demon!”
Redios’ gaze followed the man’s stabbing finger to the rooftops on the other side of the street. Her eyes t Liam’s, who smiled and waved. The patrol nearby raised their halberds warily in response.
That cheeky little…
“I don’t see any Demons,” Redios said.
“Th-that’s just what everyone calls him! He’s the Assassin killing people all over the Holy Kingdom!”
Powerful Fiends were said to have the natural ability to cast teleportation-type magic, but she was reasonably certain that it wasn’t the case with Liam.
“That’s a serious claim you’re making,” Redios said. “Do you have any proof?”
“No, but–”
“Citizens are innocent until proven guilty, armsman,” Redios said. “According to House Restelo, that man’s one of their thief-takers.”
“But, but, you don’t understand…”
“What I understand is that all the people pointing fingers at him for the last two weeks are lucky he hasn’t pressed defamation charges. Lord Ovar is free to bring their accusations to court, but he had better not be wasting anyone’s ti.”
The man imdiately clamd up. The royalists had already failed to make their accusations stick to Liam once. Failing to do so again would further undermine their already shaky position in the capital.
As no one else had anything to say, Redios resud her patrol, silently shaking her head.
“I’m starting to think that ‘Smiling Demon’ is doing a better job than us at keeping the peace,” she muttered. “Assassin my ass. You’d think he’s from Ijaniya with half of the city terrified of him.”
Her partner, a fellow senior Paladin nad Ortiz, chuckled at her griping.
“Everyone’s jumping at shadows like fresh conscripts on the wall,” he said. “Facts hold no sway when people are like that. At least the peace is being maintained. I was half afraid that a war would break out between House Restelo and everyone else right here in Hoburns.”
The fact that Ortiz could even think that was worrying in itself. So much had changed from the way things were before Jaldabaoth’s invasion.
In the past, a patrol in Hoburns involved putting on her best smile, chatting amicably with the citizens, and stopping to play with the children that always sward around her. Now, people only ca to her to express their fears, everyone kept to themselves as they went about their daily business, and parents hid their children at ho because it was too dangerous for them to go outside. It was hard to smile in the face of all that.
She wondered where it had all gone wrong. Of course, it had started with Jaldabaoth, but what happened after that was much murkier. Carla and Liam had offered explanations from their perspectives and placed bla on the Royal Court and its policies, but she had a sense that sothing else was going on.
Things were flying apart so rapidly that she couldn’t help but believe it was planned. It had taken Calca years to bring even the slightest bit of aningful progress to the Holy Kingdom. Now, it felt like the country was being forcefully warped by a hidden hand.
“Custodio.”
Ortiz’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. The other Paladin was standing across the street where he had been stopped by several n in labourer’s outfits. Redios walked over to join them.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“We saw sothing in that alley, sister!” One of the labourers said.
“What did you see?”
“I don’t know. Sothing. Restelo must be up to no good!”
Redios peered into the shadows of the alley, then looked at Ortiz.
“Did you see anything?”
“Nope.”
She sighed and strolled between the buildings. The surroundings were clean, if damp. Most of the odds and ends one would expect had been cleared away, which was actually quite nice.
“See anything?” Ramirez called from the street.
“Not really…”
Redios turned into a back alley, seeing more of the sa. A shadow descended upon her after two dozen steps.
“You have so business here, miss?”
“Demons, apparently,” Redios replied. “Don’t tell you did that on purpose.”
“Did what?” Liam put on an innocent look.
She narrowed her eyes at the young man. Cheeky didn't even begin to describe him.
“Wait,” Redios leaned closer, “Is that a woman’s perfu?”
“Uh…no?” Liam stepped away.
Redios held his gaze for several monts, then shrugged.
“Well, that’s none of my business. Just make sure you treat her right.”
Liam sighed, putting on a long-suffering look. So there was soone.
“House Restelo is expanding its influence again,” he said. “Have you heard anything about it?”
“I’m not exactly in a position to ‘hear anything’,” Redios told him. “Montagnés is the Grandmaster, not .”
“According to Sir Jorge, it’ll be the rest of Fire Street, right up to the Fire Gate.”
“That ans House Restelo will control a quarter of Hoburns. Can they handle it?”
“They shipped in another two companies for security,” Liam said, “plus additional artisans for the camp to et the increased demand for goods. I’m more worried about royalist pressure. Last night, I caught six guys sneaking around.”
“Did you send them to us?”
“I couldn’t just let them do their thing. Sir Jina booked them for trespassing.”
Trespassing wouldn’t land them in the Holy Order office, but it still ant they were entering people’s shops and hos in the middle of the night.
“Do you have any idea what they were up to?” Redios asked.
“No,” Liam replied. “They all know the drill already. I guess when people get caught all the ti, they figure out how to not get in trouble after being caught.”
The way he said it, it sounded like people were turning being a sneak into a profession. She hoped that didn’t an they would have an outbreak of Rogues at so point. Paladins weren’t so great at detecting them.
“I’ll see what Montagnés has to say about it. Nothing’s changed on our end, as far as I know.”
Liam nodded and scaled the alley wall with startling speed. Redios returned to the street, where Ortiz and the group of labourers were waiting with expectant looks.
“What?” Redios frowned.
“Did you see anything, sister?” A labourer asked.
“I saw a lot of things.”
“Such as…”
“Nothing that shouldn’t have been there,” Redios told him. “Let’s move, Ortiz.”
Her partner fell into step beside her and they continued their patrol around the western districts.
“These people are more jumpy than fresh conscripts on the wall,” Redios muttered.
“It’s quite a sight to see,” Ramirez replied, “but it’s understandable.”
“Understandable? What about any of this is understandable? The sa ti last year, this street was filled with life! Now it’s…it’s like walking through a city in Re-Estize. Actually, it’s worse.”
“Hmm…I suppose that’s a pretty good way to put it,” Ramirez said. “I saw a lot of the sa thing while we were running around back then.”
Thirty minutes later, they arrived at Rimun Gate. A Knight by the na of Jina rose to greet them as they entered the captain’s office.
“Sister Custodio. Brother Ortiz. Good to see you this evening.”
“Sir Jina,” Redios nodded. “Anything out of the ordinary to report?”
“Nothing that’s out of the ordinary by today’s standards. Let guess: the other houses claim we have a colony of Imps in the sewers roasting people over hot coals.”
“Do you?”
Sir Jina snorted, picking up a folder from the desk.
“You are more than welco to take a look for yourself, Sister Custodio,” he held the folder out between them. “For our part, here’s the summary for the day.”
Redios took the proffered docunts and flipped through them. There were a total of eighteen incidents, but only half of them had happened at night.
“What do you make of these altercations during the day?” Redios asked, “They seem to be getting worse.”
“The claims are growing wilder by the day,” Sir Jina said, “but that’s about the extent of it. I’m thankful that the Holy Order had the foresight to dispatch patrols around the periter of our jurisdiction.”
“So you believe that the situation would have been worse if not for our presence?”
“It pains to say so, but yes. The other houses are acting like crabs in a bucket: I’ve no idea how low they’ll stoop to undermine our success.”
“I see,” Redios said. “Well, we haven’t noted anything aside from the usual claims about Demons and such. Have a pleasant evening, Sir Jina.”
They continued along their patrol route, skirting the northern edge of House Restelo’s jurisdiction. After listening to another dozen bouts of fearful hysterics – Liam was present at half of them – they returned to the Holy Order office on the palace grounds.
“Good work out there,” Gustav looked up from the front desk.
“Why is the Grandmaster working the front desk?” Redios said.
“I think you’re the only one who doesn’t work the front desk,” Gustav replied.
“I could take over for you, Captain.”
The Grandmaster fell silent. He was the one who wouldn’t let her, though she couldn’t figure out why. She could look just as good – well, better – and be just as pleasant as any rchant Guild receptionist.
“Anything new in the court, Captain?” Ortiz asked.
“House Restelo is being awarded a new jurisdiction,” Gustav said. “I suspect that our patrols will end up dealing with more of the sa.”
“Is there truth to any of the rumours being thrown around?”
“Not that we know of,” Gustav replied. “At least I haven’t personally seen any Scale Demons pub crawling in the west quarter. Your results may vary depending on how drunk you get.”
“What about the problems with the citizens?” Redios asked, “They may have been distracted by the tension between the houses recently, but they’re suffering all the sa.”
A whole pile of issues had reared their heads all at once. In the midst of the increasing difficulty of getting by in the city, the Holy King’s conscription order was still in force. Thousands of people had left or were attempting to leave the city, trying to find seasonal work in the countryside. asures to carry out the Holy King’s conscription turned Hoburns into a veritable prison as each house worked to prevent escapees while they tried to fill their quotas. That sa order was also straining regional supply lines since they had to provision a whole new army.
“The Temples have petitioned the Royal Court for succour,” Gustav said, “but things are dubious. The northern grain harvest is close, so the south believes that additional resources are unnecessary. They’ve already pivoted to a lighter approach when it cos to supporting the north, primarily consisting of manpower for security, administrative support, and skilled labour for industries gutted during the war. The numbers presented to the court indicate that the northern Holy Kingdom will be able to weather the winter in good condition and now they’re expecting the north to begin remunerating them for their assistance.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Redios said. “All those damn Nobles have to do is stick their heads outside the Pri Estates to realise that their expectations are unrealistic. No one’s paying anyone anything when they can barely afford to eat.”
“His Divine Grace doesn’t see it that way, nor does anyone in the Royal Court. They’re already discussing repaynt schedules.”
“I guess they’re really trying to see if they can make a stone bleed,” Ortiz said. “That’s going to directly affect our duties.”
“It does seem that way,” Gustav said, “but, then again, we’re not the experts when it cos to managing the recovery. Things may not be as grim as we think.”
The lukewarm response was one entirely expected out of Gustav. So considered it ‘reasonable behaviour’ and those who loved to worm around with words and bureaucracy favoured dealing with Gustav over any other mber of the Holy Order. Those sa traits also made him a piss poor Paladin as Paladins drew their strength from conviction.
“But what if they are?” Redios asked, “Trust is what binds our people together. Trust in their fellow citizens; trust in their leaders. Trust in the Temples and the Holy Order. I can barely see any of that trust anymore…and I know exactly what I’d do if I discover that my trust has been betrayed.”
“The Holy Order serves the Crown, Custodio,” Gustav said.
“The Holy Order serves the Holy Kingdom!” Redios told him, “We swore an oath to protect the Holy Kingdom and its people, and the Holy Kingdom is not only the Crown. Queen Calca was the greatest sovereign in the history of our country because she placed the justice of the Holy Kingdom above her personal desires. That is why we were proud to serve her and cherish her ideals. Can you say the sa of her brother?”
Redios stord out of the office. Gustav’s silence in the wake of her words told her everything that she needed to know.
She crossed the palace grounds, making her way to its southern wing where the Great Cathedral stood resplendent in the evening light. That she had co at all was a testant to her desperation, as the Temples of the Four were now dominated by a priesthood that heavily favoured the south – mostly because nearly all of the Northern Patriarchate led by Kelart was dead. Still, Gustav said they had petitioned the Royal Court for succour, which suggested that they were looking out for the people.
Redios ascended the wide stairway to the towering double doors of the cathedral, which stood open as if to welco one and all. She ignored the stares and hushed gossip of the Acolytes cleaning the interior, striding straight toward an unfamiliar senior Priest tending to a group of supplicants. They were mbers of one of the Noble families living in the Pri Estates, two of whom had co down with so disease.
After curing them of their ills, the Priest sent the family away with the blessings of the gods. The family’s serene looks evaporated the mont they turned around and found Redios standing behind them.
“Sister Custodio,” the Priest said as the family scurried around her. “What a rare occasion.”
“Is the Vicar in?”
“May I know what your business with Father Salazar is?”
“No.”
The Priest blinked at her curt response. Several seconds passed before he turned to walk away. Then, he stopped when Redios fell into step behind him.
“Sister Custodio…”
“Let’s not waste any ti.”
A long sigh rose as the Priest’s shoulders slumped. He led her out of the cathedral and to the centre of the temple grounds where, to Redios’ great annoyance, he stopped in front of the Patriarch’s office.
“Father Salazar,” the Priest knocked on the door lightly, “Sister Custodio is here to see you.”
Half a minute passed before the Priest knocked again. This ti, audible movent could be detected through the door.
“Father–”
The door opened. A blushing Acolyte whose buxom figure could clearly be discerned under her plain robes slipped into the corridor and quickly walked away. Redios’ mood grew foul and the senior Priest gave her a furtive look as they continued to wait at the entrance to the office.
A man cleared his throat from within the room.
“Enter.”
Redios threw open the door, her sharp gaze scanning over the contents of the office. The windows were open and a warm breeze sent loose papers fluttering about. She had been to the Patriarch’s office countless tis, yet it felt alien to her now. Perhaps it couldn’t be helped since the entire temple complex had been ransacked during its occupation by Jaldabaoth’s Demihuman armies.
Divided into three sections, the Patriarch’s office was supposed to be just that – an office. New furniture had been installed to replace what had been ruined, but it looked like one of the archives had been converted into a bedchamber. Another young female Acolyte didn’t quite hide herself in ti within it. In front of her, a rather plain-looking middle-aged man looked at her nervously from behind his desk.
“Leave us,” Redios told the Priest.
The Vicar flinched at the sound of the closing door. His reaction only drew a crease between Redios’ eyebrows. Even the High Priest of the Temples of the Four in the Holy Kingdom answered to the judgent of the Holy Order, and his behaviour only made it seem like he was being subjected to an inquisition.
“Did His Divine Grace send you?” Vicar Salazar asked.
“No,” Redios answered.
“Then why–”
“The people are suffering. The Temples submitted a petition today. What was the result?”
Relief ebbed off of the Vicar in tangible waves. He straightened in his seat and folded his hands atop the desk.
“Arrangents are still being deliberated over.”
“And what’s this I hear about ‘repaynt’?”
“It should be as it sounds,” the Vicar said. “The south poured a trendous amount of resources into the north’s recovery, but they must build up their winter stores just as the north does.”
“The south still has an autumn harvest to look forward to,” Redios said. “Why are they so insistent on having the north use its sole harvest to repay them?”
“They claim it will all balance out,” Salazar seed to shrug. “The Temples have heard the concerns of the people, however – that’s precisely why we’ve submitted that petition. Within the next few days, I expect a more than adequate arrangent will be made to relieve the worst of what the citizens must endure.”
Redios wondered how much of the Vicar’s response was the southern Nobles speaking through him. Kelart always said that the Southern Patriarchate and the southern aristocracy were so politically and economically intertwined that they may as well be a single establishnt, and the south had even gotten its hooks into mbers of the Northern Patriarchate. Her sister had spent most of her career as High Priest of the Temples of the Four carefully untangling the ss. The Demon Emperor’s invasion had put a stop to that and the ‘recovery efforts’ after the war had likely all but reversed any progress that Kelart had made.
“I highly doubt that the citizens will care about any reassuring ‘arrangents’ while they’re starving to death,” Redios said. “And they won’t be happy at all about their harvest being taken away.”
“Surely, you exaggerate, Sister Custodio,” the Vicar’s lip twitched. “More inford individuals than you and I have exhaustively explored the Holy Kingdom’s options and our current course is undoubtedly the best one. Barely four months have passed since the end of the war and we’ll be seeing a complete return to normal life by spring.”
She couldn’t see how that could be. Absolutely nothing in Hoburns pointed to anything remotely like a return to normal life.
“Sister Custodio,” Salazar smiled, “perhaps you’ve allowed what’s going on in front of you to cloud your perception. Broadly speaking, the Holy Kingdom is doing remarkably well. Nearly every statistic collected from across the north shows this to be the case. The cities lie at the end of the supply chain, but, rest assured, the sumr harvest will co in well before your concerns are given form.”
Not a single word was spared for the spiritual well-being of the people. It was as if the Vicar fully expected them to simply wait for whatever figures he was presented to manifest themselves and then society would miraculously return to its forr state. It was exactly the way that the southern aristocracy thought: that people were broadly uneducated, ignorant, and prone to forgetting any bad history if distracted for long enough.
Trying to think of ways to sway Salazar was likely pointless, so Redios left the Vicar to continue whatever he was doing. After exiting the palace grounds, she went straight back ho. Carla greeted her with a curtsey in the foyer.
“Welco back, Miss Custodio.”
“Uh-huh.”
The Maid accompanied her back to her solar, where she helped put Redios’ things away before tackling her armour.
“It seems like you’ve had a long day, Miss Custodio.”
“It feels like every day is a ‘long day’ these days,” Redios said as she unstrapped a bracer. “You know what? You’re from the south. How close are the Temples to the nobility there?”
“That would depend on where you are,” Carla replied. “I believe I understand what you’re asking, though. The Southern Patriarchate works much more closely with the aristocratic establishnt than the north does.”
“Isn’t that a bad thing?”
“Not necessarily. A certain degree of cooperation between the Temples and the establishnt is conducive to a harmonious realm. When it cos to ‘bad things’, I think the Northern Patriarchate is more at risk of being influenced by the nobility.”
Redios held her arms out as Carla unfastened her breastplate.
“One would think that being in the south results in being exposed to stronger southern influences.”
“The reason is fairly obvious,” Carla said. “The Temples own one-third of all land in the Holy Kingdom. While this inevitably results in political and economic involvent, they’re also not financially reliant on the citizens and the aristocracy as they are in Re-Estize and Baharuth. If they must make a moral stand, they can do so without fear of being cut off from their sources of funding.”
“I still don’t get how that makes the Northern Patriarchate more vulnerable…”
“Because not only have they lost the majority of their mbers, but the precariae have also been given over to southern Nobles to manage. They lack the organisational strength that they once had and are also now in the sa position as the Temples in Re-Estize and Baharuth. Given what the royalists have resorted to thus far, coercing the Temples is not outside of the realm of possibility.”
Great.
They needed another Liam. One for the Temples.
“How can we counter that?” Redios asked.
“I’m afraid it’s the sa counter as always, Miss Custodio. Just as the cities need the Royal Army back, the Temples need their lands back. Unfortunately, they are in no condition to reassu the managent of their lands. That cannot happen until a new generation of Temple staff has been trained. The Crown needs both the Royal Army and the Temples to stand on its own, so Caspond will remain reliant on the royalists until that happens.”
And how many years will that take?
Their situation was akin to what a General might face in a war, where one could only helplessly watch while divisions that took years to train were destroyed and the enemy ruthlessly exploited the resulting openings. She was beginning to understand why Caspond was little more than a figurehead. Even if he wanted to do sothing, he lacked the power to do it.
No, that’s not right. Calca started out in a crappy situation too, but she managed to pull everything off.
Caspond was simply not suited to be the Holy King. He couldn’t rally the Nobles behind him, nor could he win the love of the people. His cold, distant, deanour had left him with no one to trust and the lot that supported him only seed to want to exploit the Crown for their own ends.
Redios stepped into her bath, reaching out for a half-used bar of Kalinsha Soap. There had to be sothing they could do.
“Do you think the conservatives will just sit there watching everything fall apart?” She asked.
“I think they’ll do everything that they can to oppose what’s going on,” Carla answered as she worked Redios’ hair into a lather. “The problem is that things are deteriorating too quickly. The war officially ended a month after spring and we’re only now just halfway through sumr. Duke Debonei rallying the conservatives into a cohesive new political movent in a month is already a spectacular feat in itself.”
“But they’re waiting for Prince Felipe to arrive with this year’s trade fleet before acting,” Redios said. “Who knows how strong the royalists will be by then?”
“I doubt the conservatives will be doing nothing while they wait,” Carla said. “They’ll at least be positioning themselves for a potential civil conflict shortly after the Prince arrives. That in itself requires a monuntal effort, both in the north and the south. But I suppose you’re right about not being able to expect anything radical.”
Radical, huh.
Redios blew a pile of bubbles out of her palm, watching them fly out the nearby window to be caught by the evening breeze. With each passing day, she grew more convinced that sothing radical would be required to uphold the Holy Kingdom’s justice.
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