Chapter 960: The New Hero

The light above the Sacrosanctum continued brightening, illuminating the white dome while the bells rang across Solania. Priests stopped in the courtyard with their attention fixed overhead, and pilgrims knelt beside the nearby shrines. Beyond the gates, even the merchants had abandoned their efforts to shout over one another.

Then someone repeated what Father Pedri had said.

"A new Hero?"

"Did he say the Hero returned?"

"No. A new one."

The distinction traveled quickly through the gathering crowd. People turned toward their companions, repeated the words, and looked back at Vask with expressions that were becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

There could only be one Hero. That was no Church tradition or rule invented to settle disputes between ambitious priests. The divine cycle permitted a single individual to carry the obligation of defeating the Demon King.

If the Sacrosanctum had welcomed someone new, something had happened to the man who previously held that place.

Perhaps the gods had withdrawn their blessing. Perhaps Hiro had somehow lost his appointment. Most of the people gathering near the gates appeared to prefer the simpler explanation, however. The former Hero had disappeared, and now his replacement stood beneath the Beckoning.

Vask listened as the speculation spread. Someone claimed the gods had personally descended to choose him. Another insisted the former Hero must have died somewhere beyond the Empire, though Vask doubted the man had possessed an opinion on the subject a minute earlier.

An elderly pilgrim began crying as he thanked the gods for remembering humanity. Vask watched him briefly, then looked toward the shining dome.

He had arrived with a prepared history, several witnesses, and a priest capable of making lies sound like scripture. Apparently, he could have saved himself some work and let the crowd handle the details.

The Holy Order was less willing to invent its own answers.

The great doors opened, and several priests hurried down the steps. Bishops and cardinals followed, some still adjusting their ceremonial robes as they walked. An elderly cardinal descended so quickly that two younger priests kept close behind him, watching his feet with understandable concern.

Vask recognized several faces. He’s been with Hiro here many times before he met almost all of them at one point in tie. Back then, he was just a Hero’s side kick, someone to glance at, to evaluate if they were fit to be next to the hero, then ignore.

Now they were competing to reach him first.

"Were you the one who awakened the Sacrosanctum?"

The first bishop had barely finished when another stepped beside him.

"Where are you from, young man? Were you summoned?"

"Have you received a revelation?"

"Which of the Four blessed you?"

"Did a god speak to you directly?"

Vask turned toward one speaker, only for someone else to interrupt before he could answer. The questions grew more insistent as the priests gathered around him, apparently convinced that asking loudly enough would settle the matter.

He looked toward Father Pedri.

The old priest offered a sympathetic expression that Vask found profoundly unhelpful. Clementine had spent years commanding these people. Once, a word from him would have stopped every conversation in the courtyard.

Father Pedri possessed no such authority. He was an obscure priest from a destroyed provincial church, and a cardinal demonstrated exactly how much that mattered by brushing past him to stand closer to Vask.

"Young man, we need to establish whether you have truly received the Hero’s blessing."

Vask looked at him without answering. The cardinal’s excitement began giving way to impatience.

"Did you hear me?"

Vask reached past him, caught Pedri’s sleeve, and drew the old priest forward.

"This is the man who brought me here."

Several members of the clergy finally looked at Pedri. One shifted aside to give him room, although the cardinal who had pushed past him seemed less pleased about having his question redirected.

"And you are?"

"Father Pedri, formerly of the Church of Romulus in Lotostra."

A priest farther back frowned in recognition.

"Was that not one of the churches destroyed in the recent attacks?"

"It was."

"My condolences, Father."

"Thank you."

Pedri bowed his head, allowing a moment of silence before the cardinal resumed.

"You accompanied this young man? Where did you find him?"

"In a ruined village."

The questions stopped competing with one another. Pedri waited until he had their attention, his hands resting loosely around the walking staff.

"After the destruction of my church, I traveled through the region. I came upon another settlement that had suffered a similar fate. Most of its inhabitants had been killed, their homes burned. There was very little left to save."

His gaze moved briefly toward Vask.

"Vask was dying when I found him."

Several priests exchanged looks. Pedri’s voice softened without becoming difficult to hear, and Vask found himself appreciating the care involved. The old man knew exactly how far grief should lower a voice before an audience began missing important details.

"He was badly injured. I treated him as best I could, although at first I feared it would not be enough. As he recovered, I began noticing things I could not readily explain."

"What things?"

"His affinity with Holy energy. The manner of his recovery. How the light responded to his presence."

Pedri looked toward the dome, giving the others a reason to do the same.

"I believed him blessed, but I did not wish to mistake my own hopes for divine guidance. I prayed, considered what I had seen, and eventually received a revelation that convinced me to bring him before the Holy Order."

The cardinal studied Vask again.

"You believed he was the Hero?"

"I believed he might be. I came here seeking the judgment of those better qualified to make that determination."

Pedri extended one hand toward the light.

"I believe the Sacrosanctum has answered us."

For a moment, nobody offered another question. The ancient building had existed long before any of them, and its blessing was not something a provincial priest could awaken with a moving account of his travels.

One of the older cardinals stepped forward.

"Father Pedri, you have done the Holy Order a great service."

"I only followed the guidance of the Light."

Vask kept his expression still. Clementine had managed to tell the story without once asking for recognition, while ensuring that nobody present could reasonably deny him any.

A priest who survived the destruction of his church, followed a revelation, saved a dying boy, and delivered the Hero to Solania would find considerably more doors open to him. Particularly if the Hero continued insisting that he remain nearby.

The clergy returned their attention to Vask almost immediately.

"Your name is Vask?"

"How old are you?"

"Do you remember anything from before your awakening?"

"Have you received a divine mission?"

Vask began walking before the questions could trap them in the courtyard for the rest of the day. The priests followed, arranging themselves around him with enough determination that he suspected they would continue interviewing him even if he started running.

He answered the simple questions. He was from Ikos and had lived in Lotostra. No, he had not been summoned from another world.

Yes, he carried a divine obligation.

That admission produced enough excitement to slow the entire group. Several bishops asked him to explain it at once, while another tried to quiet them so he could ask the same thing more formally.

"I would rather discuss that with whoever currently leads the Holy Order."

The request stopped them briefly. Then the discussion changed to arranging an audience, which Vask considered an improvement. At least they were now arguing about something that would take him where he wanted to go.

Pedri kept pace beside him as they reached the inner courtyard. Another figure emerged from the Sacrosanctum ahead, walking with none of the urgency that had brought everyone else outside.

He looked young, with dark skin, half-closed eyes, and an easy smile. His hands hung relaxed at his sides as though the bells and pillar of Holy light had interrupted nothing more important than a pleasant morning.

Several priests moved out of his way.

Vask stopped when he recognized Mot.

The Council of Betrayers had good reasons to approach that particular man carefully. Mot belonged to none of the clergies serving the Four Gods, yet lived among them with the permission of the gods themselves. His own allegiance lay with an Outer God, a being beyond the familiar divinities worshipped throughout the Empire.

Nobody had offered Vask a satisfactory explanation for that arrangement. Mot seldom explained himself, and even Clementine had failed to properly understand him.

He ignored ceremonies others considered essential, took little apparent interest in the political concerns occupying the clergy, and sometimes disappeared for weeks. At other times, he appeared wherever something unusual was about to happen.

His actions often benefited the Holy Order. That did not mean they benefited whoever happened to be running it.

Pedri’s pace slowed beside Vask, confirming that the old man had recognized him too.

Mot approached with the same relaxed smile and looked at Pedri first. Their eyes met for a moment. Clementine maintained his expression, but the care with which he held himself was enough to make Vask more attentive.

Then Mot looked at him.

His eyes opened slightly wider. There was no flare of magic, no obvious inspection, and nothing Vask could identify as hostility. Mot simply studied his face while the surrounding priests waited.

Vask resisted the urge to adjust his stance.

The graft had changed his body, face, and name. The interface recognized him as the Hero, the divine obligation remained bound to him, and the Sacrosanctum itself was announcing his arrival.

None of that explained what Mot was seeing.

"It’s good seeing new faces in the Sacrosanctum."

Mot’s attention passed briefly over Pedri again before returning to Vask. His smile widened.

"Very good indeed."

He stepped aside and continued walking.