Holy Opposites 61

	Suivi buried his head in his hands and silently wept.  The garden’s name was apt, for him.  He sat there, shaking with grief and suppressed fear, until he felt drained and exhausted.  When he finally looked up again, Luanea was sitting cross-legged a mere foot away.  She had a look of sad focus to her that made Suivi instantly nervous.  “Listen to me,” she said firmly.  “Can you do that?”

	“Yes…”

	“I will not tell you that you can’t have done wrong things in the past and won’t in the future.  That is not my place.  What I can tell you is that you are sitting in the presence of a literal god of forgiveness,” she said.  She pointed up at the shimmering blue curtain of light and clouds overhead, which served as the sky in this tiny sub-pocket of the House of the Triad in the greater Celestia.  “If ever you want to do more than just confess your sins and crimes, and actually earn absolution for them, this is the best of all possible places to do it.”  She leaned forward and tapped his chest over his heart.  “You’re suffering immense guilt, and I understand and respect that, but this is the best opportunity you will get in your entire life to act to fix that guilt.  Do you understand?”

	Suivi looked up at the sky in trepidation.  “Where do I start?”

	“From the first line,” she said.  “You will feel tempted to recall every wrong thing you’ve ever done.  Don’t bother.  No mortal can.”

	Suivi hmphed and looked back down at the cuddling planetouched.  “Not unless you’re some living saint type, like Axio.”

	Luanea glared at him.  “Do you really think that?”

	“What?”

	“Axio’s standards of personal conduct are so high that the day-to-day processes of existing in a mortal body count as infractions,” Luanea said exasperatedly.  “Every time he interrupts somebody, every time he can’t tell whether a scantily-dressed person likes being looked at but he does anyway, every time he doesn’t like somebody’s cooking, every time he answers one question too many… the man’s nights are filled with regret for doing things nobody else even thinks about twice.  And he STILL finds time to love his life and the people in it.”  She rapped Embersson on the chest again, harder.  “Stop making this about other people.  You think every person who’s confessed their sins had a meter against which to compare themselves?  Go tell Ilmater that you want a chance to make amends, and he’ll listen!  Don’t try to quantify or recall all your misdeeds.”

	Suivi looked down.  “What if I didn’t think they were misdeeds when I did them?”

	Luanea nodded.  “A much fairer question.  Trust that Ilmater will know you did them whether you remember specifically or not, and just endeavor to prove you want to make amends.  Believe me: your case is not unique.”

	“How reassuring,” Suivi said flatly.  Still, she had a point.  This was probably his best real chance.  Even if he just wanted to avoid turning into a lemure, Axio had shown him he had to do something.  He stood and slowly walked off towards the trees, lost in his thought.


	Axio and I walked slowly around the exterior of the garden, fingers entwined.  This was an intrinsically kind place.  I felt less out-of-place as I might have, which was greatly reassuring.  A pure devil is never typically comfortable in a place hallowed by the Martyr God, but I was.  Axio was in his element.  Despite knowing the horrors that awaited us in the Baneite stronghold when we went back, he had a little smile on his noble face.  Even most of Ilmater’s highest champions would never get to come to this place; clearly the Martyred God had some specific purpose in granting us this respite.  We would make good use of it.

	We had left our armor behind.  He was clad in the padded tunic and knee-length pants he wore under his armor, as was I.  Anybody could have seen the scars on my back between the sections of padding.  He shot them a glance occasionally, and finally mentioned it.  “You know… Cavria, if you like, we could get another disguise amulet,” he remarked.  “We could disguise your bat wings as bird wings, or something like that.”

	“That’s sweet, but I’ve come to terms with it,” I said.  “I’m okay.”  I wrapped my other arm around his and rested my head against his shoulder.  “Really, Axio.  I’m fine.”

	He rested his free hand on my head and held me close.  “I know.  Consider it dropped.”

	We stood there in a friendly embrace for a long time.  I could practically hear his heart healing.  The loneliness and terror that had defined the last few days were, he could now comprehend, transitory things.  I was here, and together, we would right the state of things.

	He finally pulled back and regarded me at arm’s length.  “You’re far more comfortable without your amulet now,” he observed.

	Indeed, I had left it with our armor.  “I don’t like wearing it around people who know the truth,” I admitted.  “It makes me feel ugly.”

	He smiled.  “We both know you’re not.”

	“Yeah, but still.”

	“I see.”  He sat down with his back against the nearest tree and beckoned me to join him.  I snuggled happily into his lap and rested my back against his slab chest.

	Axio smiled distantly at the gesture.  It was so similar to what Dessa and Aresh had done, when he had seen them.  “What is it about my lap that encourages shorter people to simply clamber in?” he asked jokingly.

	I grinned cheekily and rearranged his arms to be more comfortable between my own, clasped at my waist.  “It’s inviting.  You’re so big, it looks like a chair.”

	“Hmm.”  I felt my partner nuzzle the nape of my neck, and I cocked an eyebrow at what would have been an invitingly sexy gesture anywhere else.  “Cavria?”

	“Yes?”

	He rested his chin on my shoulder.  I felt his feathery hair tickle my ear.  “Mind if I just rest for a while?”

	“Not at all,” I said.  He dislodged me from his lap and lay down flat on his back.  I lay beside him and closed my eyes, and we let time slip past.


	Kyria completed her trance and sat up with a yawn.  She scratched herself and looked around as she rose to her feet.  She seemed to be alone in her corner of the woods.  She snugged clothes back on and ambled out to the center of the garden.

	Doshellas was sitting with his back to the fountain, munching on a pear.  The others sat around him, sipping from the fountain or snacking as well.  Kyria wandered over to them and plopped down next to the ranger.  “Morning!” she said cheerfully.

	Doshellas nodded a greeting.  “Mphm.  Morning,” he said around a mouthful of fruit.  “Eat something, this is amazing.”

	“The water and food, when consumed together, produce the effect of a Hero’s Feast spell,” Axio explained from where he was sitting.  “Try it.  We’ll need the energy when we get back out there.”

	“And you were out for a while,” Cavria spoke up from beside her friend.  “You’ll need to ask for new spells.”

	“Good catch.”  Kyria scarfed down a proffered apple and drank some of the water.  It was just water, by the taste, but she felt a surge of health and warmth inside her like she had just had ten healing spells cast on her at once.  “Wow, that’s quite something,” she said.  “I wish we could take this stuff with us.”

	“Sadly not.”  Axio finished his food and walked over to one of the statues.  He knelt at its feet and closed eyes.  He was clearly praying for his daily spells.  Cavria and Luanea picked their own statues and began praying as well.

	Kyria eyed Suivi as he stood from his own meal.  The human looked older and more tired than he had when she had gone to rest, but at least he didn’t look like he was seeing ghosts everywhere.  He was fitting his armor back on, and the young wizard decided to let him be.

	Silence filled the garden, save for the sound of the fountain, as the six adventurers readied themselves for resumed battle.  Once the spellcasters were done replenishing their magic, each found their weapons.  The air turned dour as the peaceful distraction of the garden gave way once more to the certainty of imminent, life-or-death combat.

	When the six of them were done with their preparations, they grouped by the entrance they had used to find the place.  Before they departed, Axio knelt once more at the base of the fountain and kissed the water.  “Thank you, Lord of the Martyred,” he whispered reverently.  “May my service to your lieutenant never fail you.”

	The group reassembled at the exit.  Axio looked around the circle and saw resolution in their faces, even Suivi’s.  “Once this place fades from us,” he said, “we will be back in the exact spots we were in when the door appeared.  The enemy will still be pounding down the door.  I propose that we allow them to break through, and then attack them in close quarters.  We only go into the dungeon when the group that enters the hall is beaten.  Any other ideas?”

	“No, I think it will work,” Suivi said.

	“We’re with you, Axio,” Luanea said.

	The spellcasters began casting their enhancement spells.  Cavria hefted her glaive.  “Let’s go.”