Chapter 31: The Fireplace

The guards burst out of every aisle at once, dozens of them in white and gold tabards with their spears in hand. The worshippers jumped out of their seats to get out of the way, and somewhere behind them, a baby began to cry.

Sunny stood in front of Kai with his sword held high, glowing with golden light, and the guards who got closest stopped in their tracks. Kai could tell just by looking at them that they didn’t want to do this, because they had spent their whole lives kneeling before the Holy Champion, and none of them wanted to be the first one to attack him.

"Do not make me do this," Sunny said quietly.

The guards looked at each other, and then up at the High Priestess.

"He has been corrupted," the High Priestess said. "The Mother demands it. Take them."

Two guards stepped forward, and Sunny knocked the spears right out of their hands. He didn’t hurt them, and he didn’t even look angry, but he simply moved so fast that Kai could barely see him, and then he was standing in front of Kai again as if nothing had happened.

"Okay, he’s good at that," Kai whispered.

[He has trained every day of his life. You have trained for zero days]

"I know," Kai whispered.

Garrick stepped up on Kai’s left with his hammer glowing gold, and Elowen took his right, her blindfolded face turned towards the guards. Mira stood behind Kai, clutching the contract to her chest. They were surrounded, and Kai did what he always did when he was surrounded, which was look for an exit.

There wasn’t one, because every door was blocked by guards, and the only other way out was the staircase leading up past the High Priestess, which was probably a bad idea.

[You are looking for an exit]

"Of course I’m looking for an exit," Kai whispered.

[There is not one. I already checked]

The guards closed in, and this time they all attacked at once. Sunny’s sword flashed and sent three of them stumbling back, Garrick knocked a spear out of a guard’s hands and sent it flying across the room, and Elowen ducked under a thrust she couldn’t see and knocked the guard behind it down with the flat of her blade. But there were too many of them, and every time they knocked one down, two more took his place.

Kai needed to do something, and all he had were spells that never hit what he wanted them to. He held up his hand and pointed at the biggest group of guards.

"Minor Smite," Kai said.

A blast of light shot out of his hand, flew right past every single guard, and slammed into the giant stone fireplace at the far end of the Cathedral.

[You missed]

"I know," Kai whispered.

The fireplace exploded, sending chunks of stone and the iron grate flying everywhere, and a huge cloud of soot and ash came rolling out of the chimney and across the room. The guards stumbled backwards, coughing and rubbing their eyes, one of the worshippers screamed, and the High Priestess covered her mouth with her sleeve.

Then something fell out of the fireplace, a single piece of paper, half burned, fluttering back and forth on the air still pouring out of the chimney, and everyone in the Cathedral watched it fall, and it landed right in front of the old man who had stood up earlier to get a better look at Mira.

The old man picked it up with shaking hands, brought it close to his face, then held it farther away, and his face went pale.

"It is a letter," the old man said, his voice trembling. "Half burned. It must have been caught on the ledge inside the chimney." He cleared his throat and held the paper up to the light. "It is signed Aldric Vallen."

The whole room fell so silent that Kai could hear the soot settling.

"And there is a hook under the V," the old man said, and Draven’s face went completely white.

[You missed the guards]

"Yes," Kai whispered.

[You hit the fireplace he told everyone about, and you knocked loose the only letter that did not burn]

"Yes," Kai whispered.

[I need a minute]

Mira walked over to the old man, and he handed her the letter. She held it with both hands and stared down at it, and Kai watched her expression change. She had the scorched letter in one hand and Draven’s contract in the other, and the hooks under the two V’s were identical.

"It’s his," Mira whispered. "Both of them are his."

"I knew your father," the old man said, looking at her with tears in his eyes. "My name is Edric Hale, and I am the Justiciar of Veyrath." He took a long, shaky breath. "I am the one who sentenced him to hang."

Mira didn’t say anything, and she just stared at him.

"I believed the letters," Hale said. "The Cathedral said they were true, and I believed them, and I have regretted it every day since." He turned to face the guards, and suddenly he didn’t look frail or old anymore, but like a judge. "Put your spears down. This Cathedral is now the scene of a crime, and I am the King’s justice. Anyone who raises a weapon against these people will answer to me."

The guards lowered their spears one by one, and a few of them looked more relieved than anything else, because nobody had wanted to stab the Holy Champion.

"High Priestess," Hale said, without even looking up the staircase. "You will stay where you are."

But the High Priestess was already gone, and Kai looked up just in time to see her white and gold robe slip through a small door behind the Book of Oaths, which was still lying open to Draven’s page, and Draven was gone too.

Kai looked around and spotted him slipping down the side aisle towards a door in the corner. He was moving quickly but calmly, like a man leaving a party a little early, and no one else had noticed him yet.

"He’s escaping!" Kai yelled.

Every head in the Cathedral turned, and Draven broke into a run.

Kai chased after him, and he was faster than Draven, but the floor was covered in soot from the fireplace, and he made it about four steps before his feet slipped out from under him and he went sliding across the floor on his back. He reached out to catch himself and, on pure instinct, pointed his hand at the fleeing lord.

"Minor Light!" Kai yelled.

The orb appeared, spun around once, and flew in the opposite direction of where Kai was pointing, hitting a statue of the Radiant Mother, bouncing off a pillar, and landing right on top of Lord Draven’s brand-new shoes. Both shoes lit up like two torches in the middle of the dark aisle, and everyone in the Cathedral could see exactly where he was.

Draven stopped running and looked down at his shoes with the face of a man who had already bought two new pairs this week.

"Not again," Draven said.

Sunny was already running, and he crossed the Cathedral in about three long strides, grabbed Draven by the back of his coat, and lifted him clean off the ground.

"Lord Castor Draven, you are under arrest," Sunny said.

"You can’t arrest me," Draven said, kicking his glowing feet in the air. "You’re a heretic now."

"Then I am a heretic who is arresting you," Sunny said.

Kai lay on his back in a pile of soot, staring up at the ceiling of the Cathedral.

[He is the second lord you have destroyed with his own shoes]

"It’s the same lord," Kai whispered.

[That is worse]

Then the dings started, so many of them that they stacked on top of each other in Kai’s mind.

[Faith gained. Mira Vallen: +12%. Status: Free.]

[Faith gained. Elowen Ashgrave: +6%. Status: Certain.]

[Faith gained. Garrick Holt: +5%. Status: Proud.]

[Faith gained. Follower: Holy Champion. Faith: 14%. Status: Believing.]

[Faith gained. Edric Hale: 3%. Status: Ashamed.]

Mira came over and knelt down next to Kai with soot all over her face and tears running down her cheeks, holding her father’s letter tight against her chest.

"You missed," Mira said.

"I always miss," Kai said.

"I know," Mira said, and she gave him a genuine smile, one he had never seen on her face before. "Thanks for missing."

Justiciar Hale came and stood over Kai and Mira, leaning on his cane and looking down at Kai with an expression Kai couldn’t read.

"You are the one they call a god," Hale said.

"Some people call me that," Kai said. "Most people call me other things."

"The King will want to know what happened here tonight," Hale said. "And I believe he will want to meet you as well." He looked at the destroyed fireplace, and then at Draven dangling from Sunny’s grip with his shoes still glowing. "The God of Failure."

[Kai. He just gave you a title]

"Is that a good thing?" Kai whispered.

[I am not sure yet]