The Archbishop's office was very nice as always, with its humble furnishings in sharp contrast to the grandiose acts of devotion portrayed in its stained glass window. It occurred to me as we followed our aunty inside that she had definitely known Saint Cletus personally, perhaps even seen the events depicted in the stained glass, where he stood against the army of the necromancer Korlath alone to let the early church escape from the battle of Grack’s Bridge.

I could probably recount my father's version of the story from memory.

Still, whatever somber and heroic deeds were depicted on the wall, I was far more distracted by the Prophetess' jubilant exclamation.

"Ethan!" She said happily, rushing up to tackle-hug a mildly surprised, but still standing archbishop, despite the wall of woman and armor that was now slamming into him and noticeably towering over him. "How are you doing? Has everything been going well here? How's your magic training?"

"I'm-" The Archbishop struggled against the crushing hug, and I felt a moment of kinship with the older man, though he still looked in his prime. "Doing fine your Holiness… The city is fine, magic is fine."

"That's good then!" She laughed resoundingly, letting the man go (and indeed breath) as she pulled back from her hug. "You know we're all relying on you here. Between the Velucans and that builder brat's shenanigans, Bryndon is really the only stable church in the south."

"I know, your Holiness, trust me I know." The Archbishop, that is, Ethan, smiled, before glancing down at the two of us. After a moment his eyes lit with recognition. "Oh, Brother Abbott, it's good to see you again. I hadn't thought you would pass this way again so soon… and you are?" His gaze moved to Augusta, who huffed, gripping my shoulder now. I still hadn't really settled on what to think about that state of affairs yet. Certainly, I didn't want to spend the next year with her clinging to me like a lamprey, even if I sympathized with her reasoning.

"I am Augusta, heir of my ancestors the Silver Prince." She bowed slightly, which made me blink in surprise. Maybe the chastisement earlier had really gotten to her.

"I'm adopting both of them," The Prophetess said proudly by way of explanation, crossing her arms over her breastplate. "They'll be accompanying me back to the Holy Territory to stay as my wards, just like you did a couple of hundred years ago. Though they're both a bit younger than you were then."

At that, the man's eyebrows raised as he turned back to glance at us both, then back to the prophetess. "Both?" He paused for a moment, then glanced back at us with something like pity. "I'll have to speak to you both later… her holiness has some discretions that can be quite… um… distracting, even if she's good at heart." He gave me specifically a long glance, meeting my eye. "You Especially."

"Me?" I blinked, though it was true the prophetess was kind of weird.

"Oh come on now Ethan it wasn't that bad, I know you enjoyed living with me!"

Ethan, that is, the Archbishop, quietly took the miter off of his head and placed it on the desk in front of him, before glancing back up at the prophetess.

"I learned a great deal from you your Holiness, but that does not mean that your consistent indiscretions made for pleasant living conditions."

"You're no fun." I could hear the pout in the ancient woman's voice. "Helmut enjoyed my care."

"Helmut is a pervert, a slob, and a layabout." The Archbishop said rolling his eyes. "That you managed to make an Archbishop out of him anyway is the greatest miracle you've performed in the last half millennia."

"Hmmph, this is why I never visit you."

Ethan just smiled there behind his desk earnestly. The laughter was clear in both their voices despite the harsh words.

"I'm glad to see you, your Holiness." The Archbishop said after another moment, relaxing. "You being here is a balm in times like these."

"Are things still getting worse for Bryndon then?" The Prophetess asked nonchalantly. "I can probably deal with something if it's on my way out."

"Well there have been increasing orc sightings in Kelmo, but that's not the main problem we're facing right now." Ethan shook his head. "The real danger is on the southern border. The Red Wood is becoming dangerous, even into Bryndon territory. The populations of the beast-folk are surging, and it's only a matter of time I think before they start raiding outside the bounds of the forest. Perhaps five to ten years at current rates before it's likely to provoke a war.

I cocked my head slightly, that seemed a bit long to be predicting things.

"That would throw off the development of Bryndon noticeably wouldn't it. Any war with Veluca wouldn't stay limited for long."

"Exactly." The Archbishop nodded calmly. "That's why we're going to be looking to try to negotiate a settlement with the other southern nations to slow down the beast-folk raids and protect the border regions."

The situation thus explained, the Prophetess and the Archbishop went into a long discussion about the current state of affairs on the border, between local noble houses, powerful interest groups, and the like there was a lot of really complicated factors at play that went kind of over my head. It was another side of my new foster-aunt I hadn’t seen yet. While she mostly seemed to act like a gigantic woman-child, she really did seem to know what she was doing where politics were concerned.

Once they came to an agreement about subsidizing local militias to disincentivize the raiding by making it more dangerous for the beastfolk, there was further discussion about how they could arrange more support for the region through the royal house of Bryndon, which had close relations with the church, and then on to the subject of general church maintenance, provisions for new churches to be constructed in some of the newer towns and villages that had sprung up, and general guidance of the people of Bryndon.

Eventually, with Augusta snoring as she leaned on the top of my head, the two finished talking about the political situation, and Ethan had food brought in so we could all have lunch together, mostly roast beef and turkey. “It’s not every day we get such important visitors,” He said, giving Augusta and me a wink as we gawked at the small feast he’d had prepared on such short notice. “I’d be a poor host if I failed to provide some hot food when the founder of our faith and her new brats came to my humble church.”

“Oh hush, you’re just a carnivore.” The Prophetess grumbled as she took off her helmet for the first time today. “I remember you used to eat my whole damn pantry every week when you were a teen. It’s still a marvel you didn’t get fat, it’s not a small pantry.”

“I was exercising a lot.” The Archbishop chuckled, scratching his cheek as the two went into a long discussion of his youth. Apparently, he’d been a holy knight before he became a priest, the opposite of the path I wanted to take… well if I ever got tall enough that swords didn’t dwarf me utterly.

“Are you all planning to stay and visit the city?” Ethan looked over at the two of us. “I understand you have a great fondness for animals, brother Abbott, and I’m the royal menagerie across the river is quite the popular attraction. The Queen Mother particularly has taken great pains in ensuring its quality.”

My eyes blinked and opened wide. “There’s a zoo?” I asked, a little excited, despite myself. There were all sorts of cool animals that my father had told me about encountering, but I had seen hardly any of them in person. The chance to visit a proper zoo of sorts was music to my ears.

The Prophetess looked down at me with her glowing eyes.

“Well… I guess we could visit. Is it open to the public or will we need an invitation?” she asked as she turned back towards our host.

The Archbishop stared at her with a deadpan expression. “You’re the Prophetess.”

“Oh, of course!” She laughed brightly. “I’m sure the royal family will be delighted by a visit. They’ve had children since I was last here yes? I’ll pronounce some blessings.”

“The current reigning king of Bryndon was born since you were last here, though I do believe the queen mother was a child at the time, and please, make sure the blessings are thought through first.” He turned to me and Augusta. “In the past, our blessed prophetess has invoked her magic to put blessings on a few people that have ended up being closer to curses, largely because she didn’t think her language through in advance, or put far too much power into it.” He paused, then turned to me. “Brother Abbott, have you performed a true blessing before? It’s generally something only taught to Bishops, due to the potential for misuse.”

I shook my head. “Nope, Dad told me about them, but he died before he could teach me how to do them.” I paused, thinking back to his lessons on the subject. “It’s an aspect of the Merciful Light, invoking certain words of power and then describing the blessing you would like to grant. It works by binding the concept you describe to the person’s magic since your own spell will fade as your willpower does or you move away from them, but their magic will be able to feed it slightly over time, allowing the effect to remain, even if it’s generally not that powerful.”

“Hmm, and it’s the effects on people’s magic that make it such a substantial thing, while a blessing can be removed, it generally takes at least as much power as was put into it originally, and even more care, to disentangle the concept from the person it’s placed on. It’s also not strictly limited to the merciful light, but merely falls under that type of magic when the church makes use of it.” Ethan frowned slightly. “Of course when our blessed prophetess put more energy into a blessing that was poorly worded, and nobody else on the continent even had the potential willpower to remove it-”

“What Ethan means to say is that there have been some issues in the past, but I’m sure it won’t happen again.” Our adoptive Aunt said though I could swear there was sweat on her brow above the golden glow pouring out of her eyes. “Besides um… I could teach both of you how to do it, so it’d be a learning opportunity.”

The Archbishop glanced at Augusta, then at me, then at the Prophetess. “Hmm, I think I’ll uh, just send someone to let the royal family know you’re coming,” he said as he took out a small silver bell, ringing it twice.

Within a moment, the tall, silver-haired knight that we had briefly met on our last visit was standing in the door.

“You Called sir. Ah, Your Holiness” He bowed deferentially to our aunt, who just smiled and waved.

“Yes, Archibald could you go inform the royal family that the Prophetess and her charges would like to come to visit the menagerie, as well as perhaps pronounce blessings if anyone is suitably interested. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of them after all.”

“Of course, I will inform Chamberlain Grey at once.” The knight said, and as quickly as he had arrived, he vanished, though I thought I saw a faint breeze move down the corridor.

“Whoa…” Augusta mumbled.

“Archibald is a good friend of mine and an amazingly skilled warrior.” Ethan smiled. “I’ve known him for many years now since he joined the church as a young knight. No talent for Light magic, but a truly prodigious skill with the sword that I simply could not let go to waste.”

“He seems like a good sort to keep around.” The Prophetess smiled. “I’m always happy to see you making friends Ethan, you were such a lonely young man.”

I swear I saw the Archbishop’s eyelid twitch.

“Alright,” He clapped his hands. “So, since we’ve all finished lunch, let me call up some desert, or would you like to go visit the menagerie now?”

____________________________________________________________________________________________