Chapter 15: Sister Kai

Harl steered the boat into a cove two miles south of Ironwatch, where the trees hung so low that nobody on the river would ever spot them.

"We’ll stay here," Harl said. "If anyone asks, we’re fishing."

"What are we fishing for?" Kai asked.

"Anything stupid enough to take the bait," Harl said. "Like you."

They camped without a fire so the smoke wouldn’t give them away, and Kai sketched out the plan in the dirt with a twig.

"Tomorrow morning, Elowen walks up to the gate," Kai said. "She’s an inquisitor searching for something that doesn’t belong in those mines, and all of that is true."

"It is true," Elowen said.

"Garrick follows her as her blacksmith," Kai said. "Nobody questions a blacksmith walking into a mining town."

"The wanted posters say there’s a blacksmith traveling with the heretic," Garrick pointed out.

"Veyrath has thousands of blacksmiths," Kai said. "Only one of them has a hammer that glows, so wrap it up."

Garrick wrapped his hammer in a rag without another word.

"Dagna is her guide," Kai said. "Nobody in Ironwatch knows what you look like."

"What about Mira?" Dagna asked.

Everyone turned to Mira, who sat with her knees pulled up to her chest.

"They all know what I look like," Mira mumbled. "My father brought me here when I was young, and half of Draven’s men stood there and watched while they put me in chains."

"Then you keep your head down and your hood up," Kai said. "You’ll be her scribe, and scribes always keep their heads down."

"And what about you?" Mira asked.

"I’m on every wanted poster in Veyrath," Kai said. "So I’ll be somebody else."

[Lesser Glamour lasts for one hour. You can recast it, but you will need time alone to do it. It will break if you are struck]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[You will get struck]

"I know," Kai whispered.

That night, they all curled up together to sleep without a single complaint, while Garrick sat off in the dark turning the little wooden halo over in his hands.

[Your heart rate is lower than it was last time]

"I guess I’m getting used to it," Kai whispered.

[I do not think that is true. I think you feel safe]

Kai didn’t answer her, because he honestly didn’t know how.

The next morning, they made their way through the woods until Ironwatch came into view, and they all stopped at once, because it wasn’t a town at all, but an open wound carved into the side of a mountain.

A massive black wall with a watchtower every fifty feet wrapped around the base of the mountain, whose face had been dug into mining levels crawling with tiny figures, and a deep booming echoed from far inside. Beneath that booming was a sound so faint that Kai could barely hear it, a thin, high scream that could only belong to gutter maws.

"That’s where they are," Dagna whispered, and she started to tremble. "Under all of that."

"That’s where Tam is," Mira said, reaching out to take Dagna’s hand.

Elowen stared at the fortress for a long time without saying anything.

"I can see the pain," Elowen said softly. "There is so much of it in there that it looks like smoke."

Kai nodded slowly and took a deep breath.

"Alright," Kai said. "Time to put on my disguise."

He stepped behind a tree, closed his eyes, and pictured exactly who he wanted to look like, a scrawny clerk with ink-stained fingers and glasses perched on his nose, the kind of person you forget a second after you see him. But at the very last moment, he thought about Elowen in her white robes, and one stray thought slipped into his head.

"Lesser Glamour," Kai whispered.

The warmth rushed through him like it always did, but something felt wrong this time. His clothes fit strangely, something was tickling the back of his neck, and when he tried to take a step, he nearly lost his balance. When he looked down, he discovered that he had breasts.

He was wearing white robes, with a white veil draped over long black hair, and his hands had become small and slender. His legs were longer too, a lot longer.

[Kai, you are a female]

"I KNOW I’M A WOMAN!" Kai yelled, and his voice came out soft and feminine.

There was dead silence on the other side of the tree, and then Mira walked around it and stared at him without saying a single word.

Dagna came around next, looked him over once, and then looked him over a second time.

"Huh," Dagna said.

"Stop," Kai said.

"I didn’t say anything," Dagna said.

"You said ’huh,’" Kai said.

"It was a nice ’huh,’" Dagna said.

Garrick came around the tree, took one look at him, and walked right back the way he came.

"What is going on?" Elowen asked. "His light has not changed at all. Why is everyone acting so strangely?"

"He’s a nun," Mira stammered.

"A gorgeous nun," Dagna added.

"I’m a priestess," Kai said. "I think."

Elowen was quiet for a moment.

"Why?" Elowen asked.

"I was thinking about you when I cast the spell," Kai said.

Elowen’s face turned bright red beneath her blindfold.

[You were thinking about her. I will remember that]

"Can you change back?" Mira asked.

"Not for an hour," Kai said. "If I drop it now, I’ll have to wait to recast it, and we’re right outside the gate."

Mira stared at him for a moment, and then she yanked her hood down over her face, but not before Kai saw that her cheeks had gone bright red.

[Faith gained. Mira Vallen: +1%. Status: Confused.]

"How?" Kai asked. "How did that get me faith?"

"I don’t know!" Mira yelled from under her hood. "Just stop asking!"

[This is confusing to me as well. I will make a note of it]

They approached the gate with Elowen in front, gleaming in her white armor, and Kai wobbling behind her on his much longer legs, followed by Dagna, Mira with her head down, and Garrick with no expression at all.

Six guards stood in front of the huge iron-bound gate, and their leader had a scar across his face and a captain’s badge on his cloak.

"Halt," the captain said. "What is your business here?"

Elowen stepped right up to him.

"I am Sister Elowen Ashgrave of the Radiant Church," Elowen said. "I am here to find something that does not belong in your mine."

Her sword stayed dark, and the captain shifted uneasily, because nobody wanted an inquisitor snooping around their mine.

"Of course, Sister," the captain said. "Of course. And who are these people with you?"

"They are my companions," Elowen said.

The captain looked them over one by one, from Dagna to Mira to Garrick, and then his eyes landed on Kai and never left.

"And who might this be?" the captain asked, in a much friendlier voice.

Kai’s mind went completely blank, because while he had lied to cops, loan sharks, and dentists, nobody had ever looked at him like that while he was doing it.

"Sister... Kai... a," Kai said in his new feminine voice. "Sister Kaia."

"Sister Kaia," the captain repeated. "Welcome to Ironwatch, Sister."

[He likes you. His heart rate has increased]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[I assume this is how Mira and Dagna feel when men stare at them. How does it feel?]

"Awful," Kai whispered.

[Noted]

The captain stepped aside, and the gate swung open.

Up close, Ironwatch was even worse, with streets coated in coal dust and workers in chains hauling baskets of stone out of a massive pit in the middle of the fortress.

A short man in gold robes came hurrying up to them, with a ham-like face and a golden sun hanging from a chain around his neck.

"Sister Inquisitor!" the man said. "I am Father Oswin, and I tend the chapel here. We weren’t told you were coming."

"No," Elowen said. "You were not."

Her sword stayed dark, and Kai’s blood ran cold. Elowen had warned them about Father Oswin and his holy power, and if he asked Kai even a single question, the glamour would break and leave them all stranded in the middle of the fortress.

Father Oswin turned and looked at Kai, and Kai held his breath, but the priest’s eyes slid right past him like he wasn’t even there.

"Sisters belong in the kitchen," Father Oswin said. "The cook will show you where to go. Sister Inquisitor, please follow me."

He led Elowen away, and she glanced back at Kai once before she disappeared around a corner.

Kai stood there in his robes with his mouth open.

"Did he just send me to the kitchen?" Kai asked.

"Congratulations on being a woman," Mira said from under her hood.

"He didn’t ask me a single question," Kai said.

"Nobody ever asks the kitchen woman questions," Dagna said. "Which means she gets to hear everything."

Kai turned to look at her, and she had the biggest grin on her face.

"The kitchen feeds everyone," Dagna said. "The guards, the officers, the captain. They all have to eat."

Kai slowly started to smile as the plan came together in his head.

[Your disguise failed. You were supposed to be an unremarkable clerk. Instead, you are a woman the captain is in love with and the priest ignores]

"But I’ll be exactly where I need to be," Kai whispered.

[Yes. I am no longer impressed by anything]

A thin servant led Kai to the kitchen, where someone handed him an apron, which felt fitting, and sent him off to the officers’ mess hall.

Draven’s officers were eating at a long table, and the captain who had let them in sat at the head of it. He looked up when Kai walked in and smiled at him.

"Sister Kaia," the captain called out. "Please, pour me some wine."

[Your glamour will run out in 21 minutes]

Kai picked up the wine jug and gave the captain the prettiest smile he could manage.

"Yes, Captain," Kai said.