Ekological Chimera
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Chapter 5 - Changing Times
🕑 Added 2024-09-18 19:15:19 +0000 UTCThe massive gate of the central hall stood open, the white wood it was made of marred only by the symbol of the church, a giant eye on blue background. The gate was guarded both by four silent knights and two identical larger-than-life statues. The statues depicted a robed woman without a face. Unlike the rest of the temple, these two statues were pitch black, with silver lines cascading down their stone robes.
Even though the statues had no faces, the skill of the sculptor was such that a spectator could feel their non-existent gazes regardless, making many who saw them uneasy.
The Custodian didn’t spare them a glance as she continued walking. For all the once-legendary sculptor's skill, the statues were still just a lie.
Even she would admit that the statues were masterfully done, yet Serana could not see them as anything but a pitiful attempt of a mortal’s mind to depict divinity. One clearly based on her at that.
To everyone else, they were the oldest known statues of Eternity, a fixture of the First Temple, created by a master sculptor whose name was long lost to time.
In many ways, they were a reminder of humanity’s inadequacy.
The guards put their hands over their hearts, saluting Serana as she passed the statues and entered the hall, Aisac and her second handmaiden walking behind her.
The great hall was big, easily seventy meters long. It was covered by a large dome, a sizeable portion of which was made of clear glass. The entire hall was crossed by two channels filled with flowing water, originating from the mountain’s spring and delivered to the temple by an aqueduct.
With noon fast approaching, the sun was directly overhead, its light passing through the glass portions of the dome and making much of the water shimmer, creating a surreal atmosphere.
A good deal of the temple staff was present, sitting spread out around the hall with their eyes closed, silent. They numbered around fifty in total, most of them dressed in grey servant robes. The black robes of priests and priestesses were rarer, even more so than the black and silver clothing of the off-duty Temple Knights.
None of the tranquil adults noticed her entrance, though a few of the children had. Upon glimpsing her, they quickly started once again feigning meditation. Some of them meditated so hard, that they started sweating.
While Serana continued walking to the crystal throne at the back of the hall, Aisac and her handmaiden joined the meditating people, the girl sitting just a bit closer to the Knight Commander than would be proper.
Serana paid them no mind.
Passing the crystal throne, she ran her hand over it but didn’t stop walking. She was rather fond of the fancy chair, as she had made it herself, but the Custodian had no desire to linger in the crowded hall.
The door behind the throne was opened by another pair of knights just before she reached it, revealing a smaller room with three more doors. The room was bare, with the exception of a few verdant plants, and had no windows.
Two of the doors led to more private entrances and the quarters of her personal servants. Those were ignored by the Custodian, who went straight to the third door, which revealed a spacious spiral stairwell.
Unlike the room, the white walls of the stairwell were decorated by paintings of stern-faced men and women, the past Knight Commanders. Or some of them, at least. Serana had only started painting them fairly recently, though that still amounted to a large number of portraits.
Serana ascended the spiral stairs, her gaze sometimes lingering in reminiscence.
She’d have to paint Aisac sometime soon. He was already getting old.
Serana did not slow or take breaks, swiftly reaching the top of the stairs, where a metal door barred her way, yet not for long. The Custodian retrieved a key from her robes and unlocked the door, walking through. The door locked with a click behind her.
The heavy door led to the first proper floor of her tower. The floor itself was, like the tower, square-shaped. The left side of the floor held four bedrooms, while the entirety of the right side was a drawing room. It was a spacious place with many windows, but the sparse decorations and the sterile white stone gave it a stagnant atmosphere. The door that led to the upper floors lay straight ahead of her, on the opposite side of the tower.
Serana walked straight to the second door. The floor was meant for guests and currently housed no one, leaving her with no reason to stay.
The door revealed an identical stairwell, though this time with no decorations adorning the walls. The Custodian once again climbed the steps and entered the tower’s next floor.
The second floor served as her personal residence and possessed a similar layout to the first. The left side of the floor once again held four rooms, however only one of them was a bedroom. The other three rooms served as a study, a workroom and a storage room.
The right side was occupied by a living room, decorated with paintings, plants and a silent clock. The most prominent of the paintings portrayed the unchanging blue giant Eigos orbited, Agnu. The other paintings were of animals or landscapes, bar one. The last painting was a worn and small portrait of a smiling young woman with black hair, nearly hidden by a couple of flowering plants.
Closing the door behind her, Serana checked the wall-mounted clock and saw that it was almost noon.
With little time to spare, she ascended the final set of stairs and opened the door leading to the highest floor of the tower.
Calling it a floor was something of a misnomer, for the entirety of it was open to the elements, with only four pillars in each of the corners supporting a roof. As the temple itself was built on a hill, the top floor of the tower granted an unparalleled view of its surroundings and most of the temple.
The temple was a massive building made entirely out of white stone, forming a vaguely trapezoidal shape. It was divided into a center along with two wings. The building possessed a tall wall, making the entire building resemble a fort. The main entrance led to the very center, where the great hall sat. The tower itself sat on the opposite side of the entrance, forming the northernmost point of the temple.
The entire complex sat in a mountainous region, surrounded by forests, with a large lake to the north. Down to the south stood a large walled city, home to the families of many of the temple servants, with the exception of the knights. The Temple Knights were all orphans, taken in from all across Eigos.
A good deal further than either the city or the lake stood seven forts, containing much of the church’s military force, circling and protecting the First Temple of Eternity.
Before sitting down, Serana did a cursory check of the temple’s surroundings with her eyes. Combined with such a vantage point, there was little she could not see.
It took her a few minutes, but afterwards, she could be reasonably sure that all the forts along with the city below were fine. It seemed that no armies were sneaking around.
Such a thing was extremely unlikely, of course. The network of the many Temples of Eternity established across Eigos and the vigilance of the Temple Knights made it near impossible for anyone to raise an army without her notice, not to mention to move it all the way to the First Temple.
Yet eternity had a way of making even the most improbable of things into certainties. Serana had been burned one too many times not to be cautious.
Satisfied with her check, Serana sat down on the white stone in the middle of the floor, where she was at least a little protected from the wind.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she closed her eyes and tried to commune with Eternity.
Soon her eyelids were not enough to contain the silver glow, creating an eerie scene.
Minutes passed until the Custodian ceased her futile attempts. Serana would have known had Eternity awoken, but even so, she could not stop herself from trying from time to time.
Her closed eyes soon returned to normal, as Serana switched to simple meditation.
She sat there for a while, the sunlight caressing her face and the wind ruffling her white hair.
Serana was brought out of her reverie by a strange sound, only barely audible over the wind.
Her eyes flashed silver as she cast her senses around the tower, immediately spotting the intruder hiding behind one of the pillars.
The Custodian stood up, facing the intruder’s hiding place. Before she could say anything, the intruder revealed himself.
He was a young looking, black haired man, dressed in the gray garb of the temple servants, though Serana did not recognize him. Of course, that did not mean much.
In his right hand he held a blocky metallic construct, while his other hand was clutching something the Custodian could not see. His expression was one of shock, likely because he had not expected the Custodian to notice him.
Shock was quickly replaced by determination, as the man raised his right hand.
Flames erupted from the strange weapon, as Serana uncaringly looked on with glowing eyes.
The projectiles disintegrated before ever getting near her.
The assassin kept shooting until the weapon failed him, clicking emptily instead of firing again.
The man’s determination was quickly replaced by fear, his other hand whitening around whatever it held.
The Custodian’s cold gaze evaluated the panicking man before she spoke, “If you tell me who sent you, I shall grant you a quick death.”
Hearing her voice, the man couldn’t help but take a step backwards, placing himself right next to the edge.
He shifted his eyes slightly before speaking in a shaky voice, “It w- was the Kirslev family, they forced me to do it!”
“Do you truly think you can lie to me?” The Custodian responded, making the man’s face go white.
“I dislike bothering Eternity for such trivialities,” Her cold eyes bored into him. “Should you force me to, I will ask for the names of your loved ones as well.”
Upon hearing her words, resignation quickly appeared plain on his face.
Two things happened then.
In response, the man threw the object he had been hiding in his hand straight at her, revealing a metallic sphere.
And at the same time, he jumped off the tower.
Unfortunately for him, such tricks were worthless in front of the Custodian’s silver gaze.
Both the man and the sphere froze in the air, the man already over the open air and the sphere a few meters or so from her.
The Custodian shook her head disapprovingly at the assassin's foolishness.
Then the sphere exploded, disintegrating one of the stone pillars.
The Custodian unconsciously shielded herself, but it did little against the explosion's momentum. She was thrown backwards, her spine soon impacting against another pillar with a crack, saving her from the drop.
The Custodian stood up with a wince, hatred filling her eyes.
Then the roof fell. The three remaining pillars were not enough to support the heavy stone construction.
Many of the heavy stone pieces crashed and broke on the now veritably shining Custodian, others fell down from the tower or dented the already heavily damaged floor.
Of the man there was no trace.
Soon the dust settled, revealing the Custodian, standing tall.
She channeled Eternity’s power through her, scouring the temple and its surroundings for any more assailants, but found no one. No one living, that is. The assassin lay splattered below the tower.
Soon bells started tolling and Serana felt the tide of knights rushing up the tower, Knight Commander Aisac in the lead.
She dusted herself off and went to meet the knights. It wouldn’t do for them to try and breakdown her door.
As she descended, the silver light in her eyes was gradually replaced by malevolence.
Someone would pay for this.
