The thought of what Sistina was implying wasn’t simply astonishing. It was unheard of. Even dungeons changed shape slowly, and only a few rooms at a time. In her time here, Ruby had also come to realize that Sistina only had made the one golem that anyone knew of. So, the idea that Sistina was seriously considering constructing an entire fortress for Phynis, complete with a golem army? That was pure insanity.
“Would you oppose Kelvanis with this… fortress and army?” Lirisel asked, regaining her voice first.
“Not my choice. Phynis’ choice. Believe she would,” Sistina said, pausing a moment, then adding, hopefully, “Could add temple?”
“I think that would be nice,” Ruby replied, still dazed. It took her a moment, but finally she asked. “The question is how I can help? I’m not sure how I could work on a spell that large. I don’t even know where to begin.”
“I’m willing as well,” Lirisel quickly added. “I don’t know about the others, but I could ask.”
Sistina smiled warmly at their response, then pulled out one of the strange crimson jewels that grew on her tree. She explained in her strange manner of speaking, “Hold. Pour spare mana into. I gather. All I need.”
“Really? I thought it’d be more difficult than that,” Lirisel replied, bemused as she took the gem. “Though this would be easy to lose, if we pass it between us.”
“Spell difficult. Mana simple.” Sistina smiled, then looked up at the tree as she added, “Many jewels. One each.”
“Would it be a problem if we set them into jewelry? That would make it easier to keep track of.” Ruby asked, looking at the jewel in bemusement. At least it would match her hair and eyes. There had to be something good that came of her changes.
“Is fine. Don’t damage,” Sistina warned, pulling out a second jewel for Ruby and handing it to her.
“Right. I think a bracelet or something is in order,” Lirisel murmured, thinking.
At the suggestion, Sistina’s eyes brightened and she smiled. “Can make! Have foundry. Easy.”
Laughing, Ruby smiled at Sistina as she teased. “You have a strange idea of easy, Sistina. You can make golems and jewelry, as well as rearrange your dungeon, but you have trouble talking.”
Scowling, Sistina muttered, to their giggles, “Words hard.”
“So, you’re saying that the blessing of a goddess just makes some types of spells easier?” Phynis asked, surprised by the concept.
“Correct. Each deity has their area of concern, and often you can substitute a prayer for some of the more complicated portions of a spell that directly relates to their role. It’s faster and easier, but limited in that each deity is quite different,” Diamond replied, smiling at her as they walked slowly through Sistina’s gardens. “It’s both complex and simple in its own way.”
“But don’t you have to be an acolyte to get the blessing of a god or goddess?” Phynis asked a moment later, considering the idea. She wasn’t certain which deity she’d prefer, honestly, but the idea intrigued her.
“No. That’s a common misconception, primarily perpetuated by the fact that almost anyone with enough faith to garner the blessing of a deity tends to want to join the deity’s church.” Diamond paused, then shrugged as she added, “Perhaps not much of a difference, but it is one.”
“Hmm. Interesting. I must admit that I never thought of churches in quite the same way as you do. It’s just… so different than how I imagined it would be,” Phynis told the priestess, studying the serene, polite woman. “You and Amethyst are so very similar in some ways, but so different in others.”
“Each church is different. In our case, the temple was so isolated we quickly learned to find common ground. Those who couldn’t get along with others were sent back to the central church and replaced. Our fellow faith soon helped us draw closer together as sisters in faith, but we are still each individuals.” Diamond paused, bowing her head slightly as she sighed and added, “I feel I must add that our… experience with Kelvanis only furthered that sense of kinship. But yes, we are each quite different.”
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Phynis replied, considering the other woman. She liked Diamond well enough, but she wasn’t certain she liked her, in the way she liked Sistina. It was confusing. Finally, she sighed and spoke up. “This isn’t working, Diamond.”
“What?” The priestess blinked in confusion.
“You and me. You’re too reserved, too polite and distant. How can I get to know you when you’re unfailingly formal?” Phynis demanded, poking the priestess firmly in the side. “I don’t know how, but show me some emotion! What do you care about?”
Diamond seemed honestly stumped for a moment, and didn’t really react to the poke, save with a slight squirm, while she spoke hesitantly. “Ahh… I really, really want Medaea to suddenly wake up and reduce Kelvanath to ashes?”
“Better… I can agree with the sentiment.” Phynis narrowed her eyes, smiling slightly. “But you need to do better than that.”
“I… I may have once stolen into a temple of Vandor as a young acolyte,” Diamond ventured, looking to the side a bit nervously. “And I just, umm… may have dressed his statue in a full court gown?”
“You… you dressed up the god of valor’s statue in a gown?” Phynis gasped, stopping in her tracks and staring at the other woman. “And you didn’t get caught?”
“Maybe?” Diamond answered, blushing crimson. “I wasn’t always so… formal.”
“Hmm… well, maybe there’s some hope for you after all,” Phynis replied with a slow smile, and as she did so, Diamond blushed more deeply.
Chapter 30
Making the dozens of silver bracelets for the priestesses had been simple, and the mana expenditure was almost nothing, at least compared to the expenditure of creating almost anything else. None of the priestesses had objected to giving Sistina a bit of their mana each day, though some gave more than others.
The dryad found it rather amusing that they’d thought that her mana eclipsed their own by so much. Oh, she did have the ability to store far more mana than any elf could, but her ability to absorb mana was much lower than one might expect. With all the elves giving her a little mana, her power had begun rising at nearly five times the previous rate. Even better, Sistina could sense that a ley line node was drifting toward the mountain. In a few weeks, it might just barely be within reach and allow her to link to it.
However, having the additional mana buoyed her spirits. It even gave her the mana to be confident in exploring the old temples she’d found the last time she was examining her domain.
The halls leading to them were smoother than the one she’d initially traveled to the temple of Vanir, but even so, Sistina kept an eagle eye on the floor. She didn’t want to hurt herself at this point. If she managed to do so, Phynis would never let her hear the end of it.
So she carefully made her way toward the long-abandoned temple ahead of her, resisting the urge to hum as she went. While she thought the tunnel was properly reinforced, there was no telling how an ill-timed vibration might change things.
“Do you have any idea what Sistina is up to?” Sina asked Lily as they worked their way down the row of beans. While string beans weren’t Sina’s favorite, she’d grown surprisingly fond of most of the vegetables that grew in the garden.
“Hmm? Why do you ask?” Lily glanced up from her basket, blinking through the trellis at Sina.
“It’s just that she’s being more mysterious than normal. That and Ilmas has been encouraging me to just stick to helping out in here, rather than helping him with the adventurers,” Sina replied, then gestured off to her left at where they could see a half-dozen priestesses helping with the other sections of the garden. “But now that we have the priestesses helping with the gardening, I don’t see much point to just keeping me back here.”
“Umm… you may have a point. I hadn’t really thought about it.” Lily paused, considering a moment, then shrugged. “She did say something about exp
loring some old buildings. Not in so many words, of course, but it was pretty well implied. I don’t think she’d have any issues with you going up to help Ilmas. He’s been a little grumpy about some of the adventurers, but I suspect that’s because at least one of them is a soldier he knew.”
“Oh? Did he say anything more?” Sina asked, suddenly intrigued. And her eyes narrowed as she thought back on just how much Ilmas had avoided talking to her about it. It was suspicious.
“Not really. He wasn’t happy with how the one device exploded, but the man was apologetic, so he forgave him,” Lily added, shrugging. Then she paused and smiled. “I just had a fun thought.”
“Oh?” Sina asked, distracted by Lily’s change of mood.
“It’s the start of fall outside, right? So winter will hit hard pretty soon. We have all these vegetables, but relatively little meat. Venison gets a little old after eating it so much,” Lily explained, gesturing at the gardens. “Why don’t we open a little shop to sell fruit and vegetables to people outside, and buy meat or other supplies that it isn’t worth bothering Sistina about?”
“I haven’t ever really thought about something like that, but I suppose it could be good,” Sina replied after a moment, a bit amused by the sheer mundanity of Lily’s idea. “Would you want to run it?”
“Heavens no!” Lily’s response was instant as she shuddered, picking a few more beans. “No, no, I’m a gardener. The people outside scare me. In here it’s peaceful and safe.”
“You are so strange, Lily,” Sina told the other elf, giggling softly as she shook her head. “You live in a dungeon, yet you’re scared of the people outside. I know Kelvanis is bad, but even so…”
“I like it here. Sistina saved me, and I’m never leaving,” Lily retorted stubbornly.
“Never is a very long time, Lily. But I take your meaning.” Sina finally eased off of the other woman. “But as for your store idea… well, as long as Sistina doesn’t object, I’d be willing to run it. I might need some help taking enough to actually make a difference with the space we’ve got, but it sounds like it’s a good idea. Maybe we can even get some halfway decent wine or the like.”
“Ooh… that sounds good. I only ever got wine during festivals back home.” Lily smiled broadly. “Let’s ask her when she gets back!”
“Definitely,” Sina replied, smiling as she went back to picking beans.
Sistina left the temple behind, barely glancing back at it. The wilderness-themed lodge was dedicated to Krainos, god of the hunt and darkness. She supposed that his faith wouldn’t be too out of line for her, with how dark the tunnels were and that she had animals that hunted adventurers, but Sistina just found his faith… crude. It offended her sensibilities somehow, so while she respected the temple, she saw no reason to linger for long. Worse, the tomes within had somehow been largely destroyed, leaving her disgruntled.
The other temple was only a short walk away. Both had ended up near the same depth, so she had made certain that the same tunnel hooked from this temple to the other. The temple in question was dark and crumbling, but something about it drew Sistina’s attention. Almost like a siren song that she couldn’t ignore.
Stepping into the dark cavern, Sistina frowned slightly, raising her hands and whispering the words of a spell. An orb of green light formed over her hand and she gently tossed it upward to illuminate the chamber.
The ground throughout the chamber was littered with shattered, fallen rubble from the ceiling. The cavern walls and ceiling had once been smooth and reinforced with magic, but no hints of remaining mana could be felt from them. At the center of the cavern was a crumbling structure, a circular building that had once possessed an open center, but with nearly a quarter of the structure crushed by a partial collapse of the cavern. The very sight of it sent the faintest sense of vertigo through Sistina, and her frown grew as she stepped forward.
Memories were shifting in the back of her mind, just out of reach as she tried to grasp them. It was maddening, and so she stepped toward the front doorway of the temple. It was closed, but the ancient bronze door slowly opened with a deep, creaking sound. And it was then, as she saw the statue of a nondescript man with a golden orb hanging from the ceiling over his head that her eyes went wide, and a lance of intense sorrow almost overwhelmed Sistina.
The faint memories began to congeal and spin themselves into fragments that she could actually remember. Images danced through her mind, recalled scenes of rituals underneath a brilliant golden moon a dozen times the size it would be normally. The vivid scene was so real, as if she had been there, participating in a grand spell whose entire purpose had been to prove that such magic was even possible, the threads of breathtaking light dancing across the night sky. Other memories also flickered through her mind, of spells, angels, mortal mages, and a man who seemed cast of golden light.
The memories seared through her, and her voice was quiet as she spoke with the faintest sense of loss. “No…”
She took a step deeper into the room, looking down at the inscription on the statue’s base. Carved into it was a simple inscription. ‘Balvess, Our Magister of the Golden Moon.’ And slowly, Sistina realized something, her memories flickering and twisting, even now only barely around the edge of her consciousness. Her trembling voice was soft as she looked at the elaborate diagrams etched into the crumbling walls. “I… served? Once?”
Taking a breath, Sistina slowly entered the central courtyard, hoping to stir more memories. And her hope was a success, as she suddenly recalled once stepping into such a place, but with the night sky over her head and walls that towered five floors above her head, not only a single floor with a cavern above it. And it was then that she spoke, ever so softly, a single tear running down her cheek. “My name… was Marin.”
Desa looked up from her sword drill and opened her mouth for a moment, then shut it, staring at Sistina. A moment later she asked, “Sistina, what is that?”
Sistina looked up from where she’d staggered into the room, looking tired and winded. She’d just set down what looked like an incredibly detailed, life-sized statue of an elven woman. The statue was in a sitting position, seemingly carved of dark gray stone, and must have been wearing clothing, though what was left was little more than torn rags. The statue was wearing jewelry and had a strange gold engraving across the collarbone, seemingly framing an empty socket of some type, and also silver hair that moved as Sistina moved it.
“Golem,” Sistina replied simply, then frowned. “Heavy.”
“I… somewhat guessed the heavy part. Why did you carry it up here? And why did you make it to look like that?” Desa asked, stepping forward to study the figure. Its ‘eyes’ were closed, but the figure seemed startlingly lifelike and nothing like Sistina herself.
“Didn’t make. Found in temple,” Sistina corrected. Reaching down, she touched the socket, explaining, “Lacks animus.”
“What? What kind of golem is this, then?” Desa asked, blinking at it. Everything she could see looked anatomically correct, if somewhat statuesque and idealized. “Why would it need an animus?”
“Special golem. Made to hold soul,” the dryad told her, looking at the statue sadly. “Deity died. Lost faith. Destroyed own soulgem.”
“Deity… wait, you’re saying this golem was designed to hold a soul. Was it a… a prison? Or one of the god’s worshipers?” Desa asked, paling and stepping back. A moment later, she realized that Sistina had said that it had lost faith, which meant it probably wasn’t a prison or something of the sort.
“Priestess? Likely. Uncertain.” Sistina shrugged, hesitating a moment, then shrugged again. “Complex.”
“I’d believe it,” Desa replied, looking at the golem in fascination as her fear faded slowly. “What are you going to do with it?”
Sistina smiled at that, shaking her head. “Secret.”
Then the dryad took a deep breath and hefted the statue again. Stepping back, Desa saw Sistina’s feet had sunk slightly into the dirt.
It must have been really heavy. But the dryad headed for her tree, that thin smile on her face as she staggered along the way.
Chapter 31
The field on the border of Yisara and Kelvanis was bright from the sunlight, but the cool wind causing the flags to flap over her head chilled Diane almost to the bone. On the other side of the field, just over a mile distant, was a full division of Kelvanis’ army.
The front lines were made up of orcs, but unlike most, they were wearing the heavy plate of Kelvanis’ Iron Legion, a sight which was chilling as they jostled one another. Behind them were several slave legions of elves and humans, followed by the regular soldiers and archers. Diane couldn’t see the mages that Kelvanis used, but she was certain they were in the enemy force. Cavalry flanked the force, and it was quite obvious to her that the massive force had been prepared in case she’d come intending to try to rescue the hostages.
In all honesty, if they hadn’t come in such immense force, Diane would have changed tactics and attempted it. Her own army was at her back, and while it was smaller, she was confident that her mages could even the odds even against this army. Unfortunately, they would merely be evenly matched at best, so she had little choice but to go through with her previous resolution.
Diane let her eyes fall to the large tent in the center of the field between the two armies. It was simple, with a pair of guards in front of it, as well as a dozen more a good hundred paces back. Taking another deep breath, she looked at the Fatebinder she’d brought and asked, “Ready to finish this, Gavin?”
“No, Your Majesty. But I will see it through regardless,” Gavin answered with an unhappy look on his face. The human was a rarity in Yisara, but he was considered one of the most powerful disciples of Fate in the nation, and had married happily into a merchant’s family. “Are you certain?”
“I am. Let us get this over with,” Diane replied, her eyes shining like flint, and she headed for the tent, a dozen guards following as well.
Spells of Old (Ancient Dreams Book 2) Page 21