Heart of Dorkness

Terror Four - Temple

Terror Four - Temple

My magic is settling down, and with that, Im getting a better hang of my emotions. It always feels a bit like rubbing the gunk out of my eyes after a long rest.

Felix and I are walking down one of the busier roads in the North Quarter of Santafaria, Felix just a step ahead of me. Her head is down and her back is hunched a little, and theres a limp to her step, but shes still smiling.

Shes navigating the crowds better than I am.

I cant help but bump into people and I have to jog to keep up every so often. Felix just flows around the traffic, somehow avoiding everyone.

It would be mildly impressive even if she wasnt blind.

Im sorry, I say as I come up beside her. Were caught at an intersection, a group of people are ahead of us escorting a... cow?

I dont know why the cow needs guards, but there it is, being protected by four farmers with clubs.

Sorry? Felix asks. She looks in my direction, but not quite at me, lips quirked in a strange smile.

Ive been kind of mean, havent I? I barely asked if you were okay. I didnt even try to get help for you. Youre limping, I....

Felix giggles. Its okay, Miss, she says. Ive had worse.

That twists my tummy up. The worse thing is, Im pretty sure shes telling the truth. Being hurt like this isnt new to her. Im still sorry, I say.

She shrugs and then turns ahead. We can cross now.

We move on, and soon enough we reach a spot where the crowd is a bit thicker still. A market of sorts, with shops on either side of the street and stalls set up wherever theres enough room for them.

Merchants with classes that I quickly identify as Seller and Bargain Maker and all sorts of craftsmen are guarding their wares. Beyond them, a wall rises up. Taller than the exterior wall to the city, and looking a fair bit better maintained and guarded.

Felix reaches back, and it looks like shes about to grab my hand, but she hesitates. We might have a hard time crossing to Midtown, she says.

Midtown, thats the centre of the city, according to what I remember of my map. Not a very creatively named area, but Im not complaining. Why?

Its for rich people, she says. Miss will fit in just fine, Im sure, but they dont allow beggars.

Youre not a beggar, I say. Youre my guide.

There are a half dozen guards by the gate dividing the North Quarter from Midtown, all of them in the same ridged helmets as the guard I met outside, though these have much nicer uniforms. Big puff-sleeved tunics and thick padded gambesons.

The people moving to the gate are split into two lines, one for carts, with workers and folk in simple clothes, and another that looks like its reserved for merchants and more important people. That second line is a lot shorter.

Felix wants to go to the firstits obvious from the way she standsand maybe that line would draw less attention, but I do want to get things moving, so I grab her hand, swallow my disgust at how dirty it is, and move to the second line.

It doesnt take long that were standing before a guard and some sort of functionary. He looks at me, eyes lingering on my hood, then my clothes beneath. I guess looking rich has some advantages.

His lips curl a bit when he looks at Felix. Are you of a house? he asks.

I nod. House Malvada, I say.

And your... companion?

Shes my guide.

Young lady, you are aware of what can happen to a proper young woman who spends too much time with riffraff? he asks.

I really dont know, but his tone is just on the wrong side of condescending. Sighing, I reach into my cloak and root around in one of the little pockets sewn into it. I pull out a small coin and reach out to him with the coin pinched between thumb and forefinger. Can you tell me where the best inn in town is?

He eyes the coin for only a moment before it disappears into a pocket. The guard next to him is much more alert now.

Of course, my lady. He tugs his shirt on neater. If you continue down the road and past the bazaar, youll find yourself on Inn Street. Most of the establishments there are quite reputable, but I would suggest the Ocuous Inn. Its somewhat difficult to find, but it is the finest inn in Santafaria.

Thank you, I say before pushing past him.

I dont want to give him time to start plotting anything.

Midtown is different from the North Quarter. The homes are bigger, and for all that a few look like they could use a fresh coat of paint, theyre still in much better shape. There arent any beggars here, and the streets are mostly clean.

It still smells like poop, but not nearly as badly, and most of that is drowned out by the much nicer smell of seaweed and dead fish.

Are we going to the inn Miss Valeria? Felix asks.

I think we should go to the temples first, I say. Have you ever been there?

Felix nods. I have. Most of the temples are near the Roughs. The temple of the Three sometimes helps girls, and the priest of Besters disapprove of poverty, so sometimes theyll give people food and work. Theyre strange about it though.

I nod. That makes some sense. I suppose the Temple of the Goddess of Darkness isnt nearly as helpful to the poor and downtrodden, which is... actually kind of sad. I cant imagine Mom working in a soup kitchen or anything like that though.

Do you know how to get there from here? I ask.

Felix nods. She doesnt look my way, or turn her head to look around. Now that Im paying attention to it, its kind of weird. Still, shes smiling as strongly as ever. This way, Miss.

We turn off the main road, slipping between two shops and past an alley where carts are being unloaded, then it's down a long residential road. The homes here dont have much by way of yards. Theyre packed too tight for that, but theyre not ugly or anything. Most are two stories tall, some are a little wider than others. These arent homes built from the same mold over and over.

The roads in Midtown are tight, it would be hard for two carts to drive past each other, but they dont have much traffic here, so maybe thats not a concern.

Here we are, Felix says as we arrive on a wider street. The buildings across the street werent homes or businesses. This is Templetown.

The name fits.

It looks like every other building here is a big, ostentatious thing. Some look like churches, others are boxy and square. A few of the temples arent really what Id imagine as a temple, more like a small shrine set in a nicely manicured yard, the building next to it likely a home for the priests or whatever.

I probably should have paid more attention to the gods and all of their symbols, but magic is so much cooler than studying theology. There are twenty-four minor gods, and six major. That makes for a lot of temples, even if only a quarter of them bother with that kind of thing.

Mom says that only weak gods need temples, and that things like priests are just a tool to get things done with less effort. She has a few temples though, and she was very unimpressed when I asked her if they made her weaker.

Wheres the Dark Temple? I ask.

Felix shrugs. I think its at the end of the row. I never went there before.

Nodding, I start walking that way. There are some priests out and about, most of them in garb that I find a little strange. The priestesses of the Three are all women, of course, and they wear specific clothes based on their age and position, Thorntons church is easy to recognize because it has a bunch of fields around it, and his priests are more like farmers than anything else.

There are others that I dont recognize though.

None of that matters, not when I reach the end of the street and find Moms temple.

Or the remains of it.

Its supposed to be a small, simple building, covered in black stone, with little more than an altar and a home next to it for administrative things.

Now all thats left is a burned down husk, with charred wooden pillars standing where walls once were.

What happened? I ask. My fists tighten.

I think that maybe my first chore isnt going to be quite as easy as Mom made it out to be.

***