Chapter 254: Omake#23

"You've been doing that alot." Hastra says, breaking the rather long string of silences we've been experiencing. "Are you alright?"

My chest falls with a sigh as I ponder the question and snort, "Am I alright? No, I am but I don't think so."

Behind me she persists, "What do you mean?"

The Mansion is far from the walls that surround it, smack in the middle with all the auxiliary buildings. So it shouldn't be possible to glance a peek at anything beyond the walls from the Mansion, but the burning silhouette of the bonfire, the long wooden pikes and the stench of feces wafting through makes it hard to ignore.

Biting my lip I tear my eyes away from the shadow of protest, "Because if this plan doesn't go right, if they are unfazed then…then I'm to face the very people I'm here to rule and protect. I'm meant to chop all their heads off and preserve their bodies for Asher's magic. Barring that I'm meant to concede to their demands, tear down all Asher and his agents who are here building their heretical religion."

Hastra raises an eyebrow at me as I shudder with a laugh, "What's so funny about any of that?"

"It's just that, I realized I may have the Gods to contend with too. I mean look out the window, Frozia is well above this city, it's hers and I'm working with Asher to divert potential followers his way, into something that isn't even a real religion. He is no God. But he may as well be because I've got little options left, either I face him for tearing down his faux temples or I aid him in insulting a Goddess and abusing the people of this city."

Walking over she wraps her arms around me and sways, leaning from side to side, "That's a rough place to be in, what do you want to do?"

Forfeiting myself to the comforting motions of her sway, I breathe a sigh, "Want…I don't know, I want elves to prosper and be safe but I don't like the idea that it comes at the expense of others, even humans and their beliefs."

She combs through my hair as she speaks in soft whispers, "That means you go against Asher and he's the one most guaranteed to kill us. But Kaylin, are you sure you're not being hypocritical? This is essentially what you signed up for, Asher is literally carving out the promised Kingdom out of an existing one. You are here at the expense of a human, Serue, do you want to give this up too? After fighting so hard for it."

I shrug, rolling my eyes, "Yeah but he was evil wasn't he?"

"Not anymore than we are if you look closely."

At this I pull away and her eyes widen behind her glass lenses, "A-am I wrong?" She stutters.

Mouth hung open I breath another tired sigh and shake my head, "No, I guess humans and elves are more alike than I thought, thank you for showing me that."

A smile and a peck on my cheek are an extra reward, "If the plan works, then letting Asher do as he pleases won't be different from anything we've done up until this point, and what follows afterwards won't be any different either."

"Right, right."

The door swings open and marching in with a grin are the Diviner and his acolytes from Asher's pseudo religion. The Diviner dons extravagant silk robes adorned and embroidered with jeweled bones, an expensive piece of cloth I undoubtedly paid for. Trailing behind him are the acolytes, minions and mirror images of the his will, and of Asher's.

All five are covered head to toe in a purple hooded robe, looking like the stereotypical Mage. It's a mute, dead look the purple, but I assume that's what they were going for, the silence of the dead…the purple nearing a shade of black but also quite not there, Undeath.

"Good news?" Hastra questions as the door slams shut behind them.

He offers a crooked smile and gestures to the acolyte beside him. The man, a young human man likely a few years younger than Hastra steps forward and bows, hands stuffed in sleeve, "Lord Mayor, we've done as you've ordered-"

"As I've ordered?" I exclaim, cutting him off and snapping a glare onto the Diviner in question, "And what exactly have I ordered?"

He grumbles under his breath a bit but spits it out, "The poisoning of Households and land."

"And what in Vuius' name does that mean?"

The acolyte presses forward, "It means that in but a short few days the homes of their sponsors will be overrun with a curse of maggots, vermin, and death. Their livestock will die, their children will fall sick, their crops will blight and their homes will spawn critters of the earth."

Grinning the Diviner pats his bowed shoulders and he falls back in line. "Hahaha, yes, all that's left now, Lord Mayor, is your speech, your devout show of faith with the acolytes and I at your side."

Hastra and I share a look, she nods and I gulp, "Right…then is everything set?"

Hastra nods again, "Yes, it is. The stand has been set since we spoke to Asher. All that's left is for a crowd to gather and listen." Then softly she asks, "Are you ready?"

Ready? Yes. But am I ready? Ready to go all in on this. As blood stains my tongue I realize I'd taken the task at hand for granted. Maybe I should've let Aren be the Mayor like Asher wanted, Aren wouldn't have any of these doubts, no. 

A hand grazes mine and I look down to find Hastra, her beauty askew with worry and concern for me. 

"Yes, I'm ready. Let's get this done."

"Just what I want to hear!" The Diviner claps in cheer.

"Are you sure?"

"What else is there to be sure about?" He doubles back at Hastra, eyes darting between us, "The plan is already in motion and there really isn't any taking it back. We have to take credit for it, be the ones who sent it and I'd rather not stand up there alone."

Narrowing my eyes at him I drill, "And why wouldn't you like to hog the spotlight? You'd get the same effect wouldn't you? More faithful converting and worshiping a fake God."

"Shhh! Damn it! You dare blaspheme…He will rise, doubt it and be left behind. And I can't stand up there all by my lonesome because I already represent the faith. Your presence, even Hastra's would be a huge boon to the faith, the people would look up at you prophesying death and decay and when they hear it unfold as they surely will, they will be more inclined to join becaus-"

"Because I'm an Elf and she's human and none of us wear the robes."

"Exactly." He snaps his fingers, still excited about it all.

Hastra chuckles, "And that'd give the robes in question more validity, power…faith."

His grin melts into a quiet smirk as he urges, "It's good news all around. Good news for Asher means good news for us, for the city, for the Kingdom we're building. Now…are we doing this?"

All eyes fall on me, the decision as ever, is mine to make.

"Yes. We are."

Without a moment's wait we're on the move. Hastra gathers her things and the Diviner yells at the men outside to get the carriage ready to leave. Walking down the large halls Hastra barks commands into one of the rings on her finger, communicating orders to round up the aristocrats left, the land owners, the nobles and wealthy of the city. They are the next ears that need to hear this declaration of faith.

My carriage is escorted on each side by troops, called in by Hastra no doubt. She rides with me but her attention is all on her agents, our agents. We worked on setting a lot of those spies, a few of them have personal connections with me but I'd concede Hastra is the spymaster out of the two of us.

The Diviner follows behind in his own carriage, two of them as one houses his acolytes. All expensed by the treasury, as everything else on his being. Ever since I informed him of Asher's decision to full sponsor the religion route he seems to have gotten fatter.

'No, this is a distraction.' I inform myself, looking out behind the curtains, we're taking the south exit to where I'll be making the speech because the others are boxed in with strong smelling protestors.

I scoff at the thought as it dawns that as much as the Diviner has settled into the role of a rich clergyman, I've also settled into my role as a Leader, as someone…above certain things.

Not too long ago these strong smelling protestors were all around me as I went about helping Mother run her Underground settlement and now…

Well now I'm going out to tell a lie and quell anger with fear.