Chapter 63: What’s Under the Stone

Kai did not sleep. He was so restless that by morning he had rubbed a groove into the carpet by walking back and forth next to his bed all night. Whenever he shut his eyes he saw the golden stone on the marble floor and saw the little piece of light shoot towards it.

When Celestine woke up he was sitting outside of her door and she wasn’t even surprised to see him there.

"Please come in Mr. Mercer." Celestine said, not opening her eyes. "You snore when you worry."

Kai walked in and sat down in the chair next to her bed. Princess Seris had been sitting in that chair the previous night. Her tea was cold on the small table next to her bed and she looked even thinner than the day before with the sunlight streaming through her window.

"I need to know what’s under the stone." Kai said.

Celestine was silent for a while. When she did respond she looked up at the ceiling.

"The night the Mother spoke to me I wrote everything down." Celestine said. "I was afraid that I would forget what she said or that I would go crazy and misremember. I wrote everything on one piece of paper and when I put her to sleep I couldn’t bring myself to burn it. A month later when the new floor was installed in the Hall of Seven Doors I put the paper in a lead box and placed the Sun Mark over it."

"You told me what she said." Kai said. "That she was dying and she would be sending her last light to someone who failed."

"I told you most of what she said." Celestine replied. "Not all of it."

Kai’s hair stood up on the back of his neck.

"What else did she say?" Kai asked.

Celestine looked at him, and her pale blue eyes were full of tears.

"Forty years ago I decided what everyone in this city would hear from the gods." Celestine said. "I made that decision for the Mother and the Moon and the Sea and the Harvest and I was wrong every time. I will not make that decision for you Mr. Mercer. I will not do it this time. Those words are no longer mine. They belong to her."

"That’s not fair." Kai said.

"No." Celestine said with a sad smile. "It isn’t. But it’s the fairest thing I’ve done in forty years."

Kai sat there for a long time after that. She refused to say anything more to him and eventually she fell back asleep with her hand on top of his.

[Kai]

"I know she won’t tell me." Kai whispered.

[I can ask my mother. But her voice is still very quiet and I don’t know if she will answer.]

"Ask." Kai whispered.

Syraphim was silent for a long time after that. Kai held his breath and listened with Divine Echo. He could hear the gods talking amongst themselves just like when he was at the edge of the well. Underneath them all he could hear the Mother. She wasn’t saying anything she was just humming softly like she was lulling a child to sleep.

[She will not tell me. She says that there are some things that must be heard by all at once or they will not be heard at all.]

"Your family is really annoying." Kai whispered.

[I know. I apologize. I guess that’s where I got it from.]

Sunny took Kai to the city prison after breakfast. It was a short gray building by the river, and the gates were still wide open. Nobody knew how to fix the locks without the help of the Radiant Church. So the King’s Soldiers just stood guard at each of the open doors. The prisoners who didn’t run when the chance presented itself were still sitting in their cells as if they thought they weren’t allowed to leave.

Liora was sitting on her cot in a cell at the end of the hall. She was wearing the same gray dress that she had left the Cathedral in. Her bandaged hand was in her lap and she looked up when she saw Sunny standing in the doorway. She gave him a strange look that Kai couldn’t quite decipher.

"Champion." Liora said softly.

"Liora." Sunny replied.

Kai noticed that he didn’t call her High Priestess and she didn’t correct him.

"I have a question." Kai said. "What is under the Sun Mark in the Hall of Seven Doors?"

Liora stared at him for a long time before shaking her head.

"My mother never told me." Liora said. "She gave me a robe and a chain and a Church, but she never told me why it had to be hidden." She looked down at her hands. "But you aren’t the first person to ask me that question Mr. Mercer."

Kai’s stomach dropped to his boots.

"Draven." Kai said.

"I visited Lord Draven in this prison. He was in a cell just down the hall from me." Liora said. "Not too long before the Conclave was called. He told me about Sister Kaia and wanted to speak with me in return. He asked about the Cathedral and the money that the Church had accumulated over the years. He also asked a lot of questions about my mother. Before I left he asked if my mother ever told me what she buried under the Sun Mark." She looked up at Kai. "I told him I didn’t know. He laughed and said it didn’t matter because you would find it for him."

Sunny’s grip on his sword tightened.

"He doesn’t know what’s under it either." Sunny said.

"No." Liora replied. "He knows that my mother buried something there. He knows that whatever she buried will harm someone when it is revealed. Draven is a gambler. He is gambling that it will harm the God of Failure more than it will harm him."

Kai thought about the note Draven left in his shoe and the rock in his pocket that was once a gold coin. Liora was right. Draven didn’t need to know what was under the stone. He just needed Kai to expose it in front of every church in Veyrath.

Liora called out to Sunny before they left the prison. He stopped in the doorway but didn’t turn around.

"I’m sorry." Liora said. "I’m sorry for that oath. I’m sorry for what I asked you to swear when you were six years old. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I just wanted you to know that I said it before the Conclave."

Sunny stood there silently for a moment. Then he walked out of the prison without saying a word. He didn’t speak until they were halfway back to Hale’s house.

"I’ll forgive her." Sunny said. "Just not today."

The rest of the day flew by. Princess Seris spent the whole afternoon drawing the layout of the Hall of Seven Doors from memory. She had all Seven Doors and every bench drawn out. She walked Kai through the map three times so he would know where he needed to be when the time came. Some of the smiths from Brannoch came to let them know that the Forge District was quiet. The widows from the soup line told them that the lower district was quiet as well. Garrick spent most of the night sharpening his hammer and Elowen sat by the window with her sword across her knees. She didn’t speak to anyone.

After dinner Mira found Kai sitting on the edge of the well with a piece of paper and a pen in his hands.

"What are you writing?" Mira asked.

"My confession." Kai said. "Everything I plan on telling them tomorrow. I thought it might be easier to write it down first."

Mira looked at the blank piece of paper.

"How’s it going?" Mira asked.

"I’ve lied my whole life and I don’t know how to start telling the truth." Kai replied.

Mira sat down next to him on the edge of the well and took the pen out of his hand. She wrote one sentence at the top of the page and handed it back to him.

My name is Kai Mercer and I used to be a liar.

Kai stared at the sentence for a long time. Then he laughed. It was that simple.

"Thanks." Kai said.

"You’re welcome." Mira said leaning her head on his shoulder. "Write the rest yourself."

Kai wrote until the candle burnt out. He wrote things he never told anyone. Even things he didn’t tell Syraphim. He wrote about the grandmothers and the landlords and the dentist. He wrote about the girl he bought with rocks and every other lie he ever told someone to make them happy. When he was finished he had four pages of writing and Mira was asleep on his shoulder. His hand hurt all the way up to his elbow.

[Kai]

"Yeah?" Kai whispered.

[That was the most honest thing I’ve ever seen you do. I’m proud of you.]

Kai folded up the papers and stuffed them in his vest. He sat there in the dark listening to the city wind down for the night. He could hear dogs barking by the dock and the Cathedral bells chiming the hour. On the hill to the east he could hear the Sisters of the Silver Moon singing from their tower just like every night since he asked them to.

Half way through a verse the singing stopped.

Kai sat up and waited for them to start singing again. Syraphim did too he could feel her listening in his mind. But the hill to the east remained silent. Kai’s hands got colder the longer they stayed silent.

Mira woke up and lifted her head off of his shoulder.

"Kai?" Mira asked.

"The sisters stopped singing." Kai said.

[Midnight. 341 days. The Conclave is today.]