Upping The Ante

14. Embers

By the System, it hurt. It had ever since he’d lost it in that moment, where the shining picture he painted of himself had been ripped away along with his limb. Even now, several days later, Beyn was at a loss to explain exactly what occurred at that time.

The fear that gripped his heart, when that monster burst into the middle of his sermon, he could recall it perfectly even now. When the beast remained so still, so accepting, that fear had been replaced with wonder. It was as if the holy System had been speaking directly to him, offering itself to him, asking that he accept the fruits of its blessed creations!

What joy! What reverence! In that moment, Beyn felt as if he’d touched the foot of God.

The surging emotions blazing in his heart as he brought the church sceptrum down on the head of the offering had been so powerful, he almost shook now just recalling it.

And he’d been so wrong.

His visions of a grand destiny, of being a prophet of the System, had been torn away as that terrifying monster darted forth so quickly, he couldn’t even see it, and brought those serrated jaws down on his arm, shearing it away with ease.

Since that moment, he’d barely spoken. The haunting zeal in his eyes had intimidated the townspeople to the point they couldn’t meet his glare. They had taken him to the apothecary for treatment and left him there, speaking softly as they passed by his door.

Though he needed no physical healing. The spell performed on him by the godless monster closed the wound. To do better would require a powerful specialist in the healing arts to regenerate his arm.

Even in his dazed state, laying in his bed, Beyn was able to pick up bits and pieces of information from the nervous conversations he overheard.

There was trouble at the capital, fighting in the streets. People had been fleeing the city until the gates were barred. The queen was dead. The queen was alive. It was a coup, an invasion, the Dungeon was rising for a second Cataclysm.

On the second day he heard the town council had called a meeting to discuss the crises.

The blood began to stir in Beyn’s veins. He couldn’t lie here forever. The System, his god, was awakening, he could feel it. He must be a part of the events to come, and he would be! Casting off his blankets, he stood and strode out of his room with purposeful steps.

As the wounded priest strode through town, the people subconsciously turned their eyes away, doffing their cap or offering a brief curtsy before moving out of his path. They could not bear to meet the righteous zeal ablaze in his eyes.

The priest marched to the mayor’s house, sweeping open the door with his good arm and entering with long strides.

Inside, a group of the town’s dignitaries huddled around the desk of a beleaguered fat man, the livery of the mayor hung over his silk robes.

The mayor’s eyes brightened when he saw Beyn enter.

“Ah! Look, gentlemen, our good priest in the faith has arisen from his convalescence so quickly! This is cause for celebration, we should delay this meeting until after we have properly toasted this happy occasion.”

Several people in the chamber erupted in cheers whilst others sighed, heads falling into hands. The owner of the market, Mrs Ruther, attempted to protest the suspension of discussion, but to no avail. The mayor had already called on his servants to fetch wine for his guests, ‘and be quick about it dammit!’

Contempt flickered in Beyn’s eyes, but he suppressed it. This idiot would do anything to get out of his responsibilities and drink. A few more years of soaking and his family wealth might just run dry, with the wine soon to follow.

“If it please, my lord Ebruis, the discussion should not be delayed, it is for the purpose of conversing with you and the council that I have arisen from my rest,” Beyn smoothly interjected.

The quivering intensity in his voice was unnerving enough that even Ebruis could not deny it.

“Oh… Oh, very well. Are you sure you would not rather rest, Father Beyn? You do not appear to have even had a chance to change your robes,” the mayor spluttered in a feeble attempt to put off his work.

“Do the robes of my faith, marked with the blood I have shed in the name of the System, offend you, Lord Mayor?”

The fat man paled in fright before raising his hands and shaking them in protest. “I dare not, Father. I intended no such thing!”

“Very well then. If I may.” At this, Beyn took a vacant chair and gestured toward Mrs Ruther. “I would be grateful to you, Mrs Ruther, if you would apprise me of what has occurred in the last two days. Have the monsters threatened us?”

Somewhat surprised at being called on, the elderly matron took a moment to gather her dignity before replying. “They haven’t, Father. We’ve not seen so much as a leg of those ants since they marched into the forest after you were… attacked.”

After saying this, she quickly met Beyn’s gaze before flicking her eyes away, as if scalded by the fire she saw there.

“More troubling than the monsters, as strange as that is to say, is the disturbance in the capital. We haven’t had a reliable message out of there all day. Fighting in the streets, the soldiers setting fire to the merchant district, blood on the steps of the castle. It sounds dreadful. The people are too scared to work, gazing at the smoke rising over the walls from dawn to dusk!”

With his good hand, Beyn gripped his chair so hard his knuckles cracked.

“This disturbance in the capital is more important, you say? More important than the agents of the Dungeon rising from beneath our very feet?” More than just passion, hatred now dripped from every word the priest spoke, causing those closest to draw away from him.

Mrs Ruther visibly worked to regain her voice. “There hasn’t been a single victim of those monsters in this town, but we hear of hundreds dead inside the city. Most of us have family in there, Father. I’m terribly sorry for your injury, we all are, but we’ve got more pressing issues than those ants!”

At this, Beyn rose and burst out loudly, “For the first time in a thousand years the Dungeon has reached up and delivered its servants to the very surface, and you are distracted by petty fighting in the city! Do you not see the grander destiny that has been laid out before us?”

A few people shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

Mayor Ebruis attempted to calm the agitated priest. “You did say something similar at the church two days ago, Father, and, well, that didn’t turn out… so well?”

Beyn turned his blazing righteous gaze on the mayor, and then at the others one by one, until all had turned from him and were silent.

“At first, I believed the great System had called on us, had blessed this town by delivering its greatest blessing, experience, to raise us up and forge us for a new purpose. I still believe that is the case. This,” he waved the bandaged stump of his arm in the faces of the council, “was my misjudgement. I foolishly believed the System had delivered its fruit to us and all we had to do was pluck it, but no, there are no gifts within the System, only rewards! Rewards that are rightly earned and so I was punished for my transgression!”

Ebruis waved his hands to try and relax the priest, but it was to no avail.

“We have to take up arms, can you not see that!” Beyn exhorted the council. “Those hideous beasts, led by that demon ant, shall return. Not only this, more will come, I assure you! Our trial is not yet complete. The people must be told. We must rise to this test!”

After these words, Beyn strode out, leaving the flabbergasted council behind. He marched to the town square where he began to preach with mesmerising power, stretching the limits of his oratory skill to bend the hearts of the people.

A crowd gathered, and that evening, when several monsters emerged from the hole in the church, he urged the people to arm themselves and led the crowd personally in a great charge up the hill and into the building wherein those creatures were defeated.

The people roared in triumph and celebrated their victory. Beyn was unmoved. He asked that a watch be put on the church and turned his gaze toward the forest.