Chapter 5: Truthsense

Garrick looked up at the loft and pointed at the ladder and then the floor, which Kai took to mean stay up there and don’t do anything dumb.

"Who is she?" Kai whispered.

[I do not know. What I can tell you is that she possesses a great deal of divine power, more than anyone you have encountered so far]

"Oh, great," Kai whispered.

"Open the door, blacksmith," the woman said from the other side. "I can see light coming through the gaps, and I would rather not have to break it down."

Garrick grabbed his glowing hammer and pulled the door open.

Kai peered over the edge of the loft and saw a woman nearly as tall as Garrick standing in the doorway. She wore white armor with gold accents, a white robe over her shoulders, and a sword at her waist, and her light blonde hair was cut at her jawline. A strip of white cloth was wrapped around her eyes like a blindfold.

She walked in uninvited and turned her head straight towards the hammer, as if the blindfold wasn’t even there.

"I am Sister Elowen Ashgrave, an Inquisitor of the Radiant Church," Elowen said. "Your hammer is blessed. Who blessed it?"

"It came that way when I found it," Garrick said.

Her sword began to glow from inside its sheath, casting a faint white light across the floor.

"That is a lie," Elowen said.

"How does she know that?" Kai whispered.

[Her sword reacted to his lie. I believe it is able to detect lies]

"Fuck," Kai whispered.

[Why is that a problem?]

"Because I lie for a living," Kai whispered.

"I am not here for you, blacksmith," Elowen said. "Your hammer was not blessed by any of the seven gods, and it was not blessed by Solenne, the Radiant Mother. I have never felt a blessing like this one before. Tell me who blessed that hammer, and I will leave you and your shop alone."

Garrick didn’t say a word, and Kai’s stomach clenched. Garrick had already lost the use of three fingers for his loyalty, and now he was willing to lose the rest for a man he had known for six hours.

Kai stood up too fast, cracked his head on the low roof, and cursed under his breath as he climbed down the ladder.

"No, Kai," Mira hissed from the loft.

"It’s okay," Kai whispered. "I can take care of this."

[You can take care of this?]

"No," Kai whispered.

Kai hopped off the last rung and faced the inquisitor, shirtless, in pants a couple of sizes too big, with straw in his hair. He put on his salesman smile anyway, the same one that had talked his bank out of four overdraft fees.

"Good evening, Sister," Kai said. "I believe there has been a misunderstanding. I’m a traveling priest from the east. We’re a very small church, so you probably wouldn’t have heard of us."

"Lie," Elowen said as her sword lit up inside its sheath.

"Okay. How about a traveling merchant?" Kai asked.

"Lie," Elowen said, and her sword lit up again without her even looking at it.

"A traveling... dentist?" Kai said.

Her sword glowed so brightly that the whole forge was washed in white light.

"That will be enough," Elowen said.

[You have a current success rate of zero]

"I’m aware," Kai mumbled.

Elowen tilted her blindfolded face towards him for a long moment, and Kai got the uncomfortable feeling she could see a lot more than his bare chest.

"You," Elowen said softly. "You are the source. You are burning."

"What?" Kai asked.

"When I was fifteen years old, I lost my sight," Elowen said. "The Radiant Mother granted me something in return. I can see divine light. Priests have a small light, like a candle, and our High Priestess has a light like a fireplace. But you... you are burning like a bonfire, and it is not coming from Solenne."

"Is that a good thing?" Kai asked.

"It is death," Elowen said.

She drew her sword, and the pale silver blade filled the entire forge with cold white light.

[Kai, you have to tell her the truth]

"Are you out of your mind?" Kai whispered.

Elowen’s head tilted, because as far as she could tell, he had just asked the air if it was out of its mind.

[Every time you lie, her sword grows brighter. I do not know what will happen when it reaches full brightness, but I do not think you want to find out]

Kai looked at her sword, then at Garrick holding up a blessed hammer against a church inquisitor, and then at Mira hanging over the edge of the loft.

He never told the truth, because it had never worked out for him, but then again, nothing else was working right now either.

"Fine," Kai said. "The truth. My name is Kai Mercer. This morning, I was on another planet climbing out of my apartment window to dodge my landlord, and then I was dragged here. I have a voice in my head that only I can hear. Her name is Syraphim. She was supposed to go to your Holy Champion, but she came to me instead. She tells me that I have one year to convince people I’m a god, or I’ll stop existing. So far, I’ve convinced a blacksmith, a snobby rich girl, and a fish lady."

Nobody said anything, and for the first time since she had walked in, Elowen’s sword wasn’t glowing at all.

Her mouth hung open slightly, and the tip of her sword dipped an inch lower.

"That is the truth," Elowen said, almost to herself. "How can that be the truth?"

"I wonder that every five minutes," Kai said.

"The Holy Champion," Elowen said slowly. "You are telling me that the Radiant Mother’s gift went to you."

"It wasn’t really a gift," Kai said. "Syraphim says it’s an ascension system. It must have been a mistake."

"A mistake," Elowen repeated. "The Mother does not make mistakes."

"Well, she made one this morning," Kai said.

Elowen clenched her jaw and raised her sword.

"Blasphemy," Elowen said.

"It’s not blasphemy if it’s true!" Kai said.

Elowen lunged faster than anything Kai had ever seen, but Garrick threw himself in front of Kai and blocked her blade with his hammer, and a burst of gold and white light filled the forge.

Kai stumbled backwards, tripped over Mira’s bucket, and grabbed the first thing he could find, which turned out to be Elowen.

They hit the floor together with a loud clang of metal and skin, and Kai landed right on top of her with his face pressed against her breastplate.

"Ow," Kai mumbled into her breastplate.

[You just face-planted into her breastplate. Are you scared, horny, or humiliated?]

"Concussed," Kai grunted.

[That was not an option]

Elowen’s sword had flown out of her hand and slid across the floor until it bumped into Garrick’s hammer, and the moment the two weapons touched, a blinding wave of gold and white light flooded the forge. Kai squeezed his eyes shut, and beneath him, Elowen went completely still.

When the light died down, Kai lifted his head and saw that her blindfold had slipped down during the fall, and her eyes were a pale, light gray. They were open, and they were looking right at him, not near him or past him, but directly at him.

"I can see you," Elowen whispered.

"What?" Kai asked.

"I can see you," Elowen said. "Not your light. You. You have straw in your hair and dirt on your nose, and your eyes are brown."

"They’re hazel," Kai said.

"They are brown," Elowen said.

[She is right. Your eyes are brown]

"Didn’t ask," Kai grumbled.

Elowen slowly touched her fingers to his cheek, and then her eyes went blank and her hand dropped. She blinked and turned her face away.

"It is gone," Elowen said softly. "I could only see you for a few seconds. But I saw you. I have not seen a person’s face in eleven years."

Nobody moved, with Kai still on top of Elowen, Mira frozen on the ladder, and Garrick standing over them with his hammer raised.

A ding echoed in Kai’s head, and golden letters appeared in front of him that only he could see.

[Faith gained. Elowen Ashgrave: 1%. Status: Hostile.]

"One percent and hostile," Kai said. "Great."

"Get off of me," Elowen said.

"Right. Yeah. Sorry," Kai said, rolling off of her and rubbing his face.

Elowen stood, fixed her blindfold, and picked up her sword, and Kai was certain she was about to kill him with it, but instead she slid it back into its sheath.

"I must report any unlawful blessings to the High Priestess," Elowen said. "I will do so at dawn."

"What are you going to tell her?" Kai asked.

Elowen considered this for a moment.

"The truth," Elowen said. "It is the only thing I can tell her. That a blessing exists, and that I found its source. If you are still in this city when she hears of it, I will not be the only one coming after you."

"So you’re letting us go?" Mira asked from the ladder.

"I am giving you until dawn," Elowen said. "I need time to think about what I have seen, and I cannot do that if you are in a prison cell."

She turned and walked to the door, and then she paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"Kai Mercer," Elowen said.

"Yeah?" Kai asked.

"If you lied to me about any of that, I will find you and burn you myself," Elowen said.

"And if I didn’t lie?" Kai asked.

Elowen didn’t answer, and she walked out of the forge and vanished into the night.

Garrick closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a long, shaky breath.

"We need to get out of this city before dawn," Garrick said.

"The city gates are closed," Mira said.

"Then we find another way out," Kai said.

[Kai]

"What?" Kai whispered.

[You told the truth, and she did not kill you. I think that is a first too]