Holy Opposites 45

	“Bodies,” Axio said.  “That’s what’s left of a person’s corpse after their soul has been ripped out using the Harvest spell the Baneites have modified for their ritual.”  He walked up beside Suivi and pointed at the floor.  “They fed some to the golem, you know.  It was animated by a daemon, so it ate their souls and used them for fiendish fuel.”  Axio fixed Embersson with his sapphire eyes.  “Those children are lost forever.  They are being digested, slowly but inexorably, by the daemons of the Blood Rift.  You see, the daemons don’t want demons, devils, or evil gods to win their eternal wars.  They want the wars to go on forever, so there will always be a call for planar mercenaries like them.  But the others?  Oh, no.  No, no.”  Axio crouched down on the floor beside one spot where a thin patina of black powder had built up.  “You see, the daemons need rest.  They can’t consume souls constantly.  It’s tiring.  So the Baneites who spun off this satellite branch of the larger cult, they used the old methods too.  They drove these magic pins into their bodies, and cast Harvest on them with a relic.  It takes a while, the children feel everything.”

	Suivi felt sick to his stomach.  One of the Watch was audibly holding back vomit.  “So, the branch here uses their rituals to collect the souls of the children, and they toss them across the planes.  They use the terror and pain of those innocent souls to force gaps in the planar membranes and open passage to the Astral Sea, where Bane awaits.”  Axio slowly dragged his fingers through the dust, smearing it on the blue and silver paint.  “This is what’s left, Suivi Embersson.  Hundreds of children in this temple alone.  At least eighty more in the farmhouse by Rassalantar.  Who knows how many more in the main temple?  Thousands?  It’s not impossible.  If they have portals or gates which can cross space, they could be funneling in abducted children from all across the planet.”  Axio rose and grabbed the spy’s collar.  “And YOU made it possible,” he hissed, and his absolute, total rage finally bubbled over.  Suivi recoiled in actual fear.  “YOU!  You told them when to lay low, how to avoid us.”

	“No, n-no, I didn’t!” Embersson protested, but the words rang hollow in his ears.

	“YOU worked for these scum!  You saw a place where children were being taken to die, and you asked for a JOB!”  Axio threw him against the stone wall and he collapsed, landing face-first in the dust.  “YOU!  You threw your lot in with these deplorable sinners!  And when you die, I will ask you one more time, what will become of you?”

	Axio loomed over the spy as Suivi scrambled to his knees, desperately wiping the dead children off his face.  “I will tell you,” Axio snarled, with a voice like boiling acid.  “There is a long walk of the dead, a procession.  It winds through the Fugue Plane, up to the gates of Kelemvor’s halls.  It winds through corridors and hallways.  All around you stand the mourning fateless.  They are the False, and they professed to faith they do not uphold.”  Axio crouched again and grabbed Suivi’s shoulders.  The spy stared up at him in the first moment of horror he had felt in his life.  “When the souls walk, they are tempted.  Bateezu and other devils, they whisper to the dead, and say ‘come along, it will hurt less.’  They tempt men like you, evil men, who know that only suffering awaits them.  And if you ignore the devils, who promise only the second worst of punishments, then you reach Kelemvor, and he calls out to the gods and other Powers.  They come for their faithful, and they take their souls away to face eternity.”  Axio’s gloves tightened on Suivi’s collar until the fabric frayed.  “And when none come, Kelemvor takes men like you,” he said darkly, his gemstone eyes brimming with hate, “and he drives them headlong into the Wall of the Faithless, where they rot and twist and weep for all of TIME!”

	He bellowed the last word and rose to his feet.  His cloak kicked up the dust of the dead children, and Suivi realized both men’s hands were shaking.  “And so now you know, Suivi Embersson,” Axio ground out.  “And so now I ask once more and for the last time.  What will happen to you when you die?”


	Suivi’s head was spinning.  He had known most of that already, he was no fool.  He had convinced himself over the years that no such fate awaited him.  He had told himself that there was no place in the Wall of the Faithless for Suivi Embersson.

	Now…

	“What d-do you want from me?” Embersson managed.  He rammed his hands into his eyes, trying to work the dust out.  “I don’t know what you want!”

	Axio’s lip twisted.  “I want you to confess.  Come with me to the Temple once more, and confess.  When you do, and not one second before, will I accept your offer, and allow you to work with the Watch to find the other portal sites.”

	Suivi swallowed and choked on the dust of the dead.  He coughed it up and drew a shaky breath.  “F-fine.  Fine.  I’ll do that.”

	Axio grabbed his abused collar and dragged him up.  “I didn’t even show you the evisceration room, where the Golem fed on the ligaments and souls of the children,” Axio said bitterly.  “Don’t disappoint me, or we finish this tour.”


Chapter Twenty-Seven:


	Luanea, priestess of Eilistraee, was kneeling in her unfinished temple, inside the curtained room.  She had clasped her hands in prayer.  The torchlight glinted off the simple metal circlet she had around her waist, and threw dancing yellow light on her bare skin.

	Eilistraee was delighted with her, she could tell.  She could practically hear the Dark Dancer’s songs in her mind.  She had risked her life in the Night Below and emerged victorious.  She had saved the lives of hundreds of children, she had renewed her bonds of trust with the Church of Ryaire (despite their concealing of a devil), and the money she had brought back had shaved two tendays off the construction time of the temple.

	She beamed as she felt the very faintest sense of a pair of warm hands caressing her cheeks and a kiss on her forehead.  “Thank you, my holy Lady,” she whispered.

	Luanea let the moment drag on before rising and slowly putting her clothing back on.  Almost the moment she was done, the flap budged.  “Sister?  Are you in there?” a very young voice asked.

	“Yes, brother, do come in,” she said.

	A drow boy, barely entering manhood, sidled in and bowed at once.  “Sister, there are two people here to see you,” he said.  “One is your friend Axio, the other is a strange man in dusty clothes.”

	The priestess frowned.  “I shall see them outside.”


	Luanea sat in the shade of a great stone pillar on the site of their temple’s construction and listened.  She sipped a cup of water and looked at the disheveled human as he sat in shamed silence.  The two had explained the events of the past day, leaving out nothing save the details of Embersson’s confession.

	Axio handed her a sizeable bag of treasure.  “This is for you, my dear friend,” he said solemnly.  “The money is to be split four ways, between yourself and Doshellas, myself, and Cavria.”

	Luanea took the bag and hefted it.  This was… a lot of treasure.  “I am humbled,” she said.  “Thank you, Axio, for your generosity.”  She peered at the spy, Embersson.  “And you, sir.  What has happened, I ask, in your own journey?”

	Axio raised a finger.  “That is between him and Ryaire,” Axio said quickly.  “Please do not ask.”

	Luanea looked the spy over.  He was sitting as if he had a raging stomachache.  Guilt?  Fear?  “Very well, Axio, I shall trust you,” she said.  “How is Cavria?”

	Axio’s sapphire eyes narrowed.  Had that been a subtle rebuke, aimed at him, stemming from the last time she had trusted him and been misled?  Was she not over having been uninformed of Cavria’s true nature?

	No, he decided, she was just being polite.  “The loss of her power sits heavily on her,” he said.  “But she is recovering with admirable speed.”

	Luanea shook her silver-maned head sadly.  “I see,” she said.  “So she did go through with it.”

	“Do you blame her?”

	“No.”

	Axio rose and straightened his tabard.  “Will you be staying here long, Luanea?  I would be eternally grateful if you come with us when we attack this Temple of Bane.”

	Luanea nodded.  “I shall ready myself.  When?”

	Axio glanced down at Suivi.  Suivi started when he realized she had been referring to his own aid.  “Oh!  Uh, perhaps a week of work,” Suivi said.  “Less, if you can convince the Watch to lend me a Blackstaff or something.”

	“You overestimate my ability to command the Blackstaffs of Waterdeep,” Axio said drily, “but I will see what I can do.”  He turned back to his priestess ally.  “Is Doshellas well?”

	“As good as new.  Is this his share of the treasure too?” Luanea asked.

	Axio held out another bag.  “No, this is his share.”

	Luanea gasped.  “Axio!  Such wealth… this is so generous!”

	“And he more than earned it.  Tell him to get himself proper armor this time,” Axio said with a chuckle.  “Cavria sure will.  I’m getting quite a few upgrades to my own equipment.”

	“You want him to help again?” Luanea asked.

	“If he is willing,” Axio replied.  “He saved our lives down there when we were fighting the illusion.”

	“I shall do my best to persuade him,” Luanea promised.  “Though this money will certainly do as much.”

	“Good.  I will return.”  Axio leaned in for a quick kiss.  “Farewell, dear Luanea.”