Book 2 Chapter 2

Tirr stood up, knocking his chair over in excitement. “We’re leaving tonight?”

“We’ll be leaving in a couple of days,” Claire replied with a laugh. “I’m being named as ambassador, so my brother wants to arrange a proper escort, befitting of royalty and all that. Plus, even if both countries want peace, there is still a lot of hurt on both sides. I’m sure my father won’t be the last person who doesn’t want the war to end, and we don’t want to just rely on you since you’ll have enough on your hands there.”

“What do you mean?” Maria asked, a worried expression on her face.

“Well, the plan is to have Tirr recover the Shard they have there, right?” I’ve talked a bit about it before. But Lutel is heavily focused on their religion. Their whole country revolves around it.”

Tirr frowned, “What does the shard have to do with whatever fake religion they started?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain…” Claire said digging into a pocket and pulling out a folded-up piece of parchment. She spread it out on the table revealing a roughly drawn map of the continent. “Don’t tell my brother I have this.…”

“Is this map even accurate?” Tirr said looking it over. The shape of the continent, despite the roughly copied, crooked lines, seemed to stir familiar feelings, before fading away as usual.

“A map like this is really rare you know? The original is a national treasure. If my brother knew I copied it, I’d never hear the end of it…”

There was a cough from Iesa in the background at the flagrant disregard for the current king. She shook her head still getting used to her new leader’s way of doing things.

“This is Lutel,” Claire said pointing to a country just to the southeast of Rasor. “Pressed up here against the Yearning Sea. Apparently, it started as a little fishing village and grew until it controlled the entire northern coastline. That’s part of why Rasor and Lutel started fighting ages ago. Rasor wanted a port city to make trade with the South easier.”

“So, what does this have to do with their religion or their shard?” Tirr asked confused.

“From what my teacher told me as a kid. They spent so much time on the sea, that when things went wrong it was natural to blame it on something. Out of a bunch of superstitions rose the idea of the Water Spirit, which would guide and protect you if you paid it the proper respect, or punish you if you didn’t. So as their country grew, so did the people who believed in the Water Spirit.” Claire sat back thinking to her lessons as a child.

“Eventually, they grew enough to need some kind of organization. They started putting priests and priestesses in charge of spreading how to properly worship and pray while performing rituals for safe sailing and rain. Eventually, those priests gathered and formed the Water Conclave and used their influence to force the Royal family at the time to give up some of their power.

“Now the Water Conclave and the royal family of Lutel sit equally, with the royals handling management and military matters while the Conclave, led by their Holy Priestess, handles the spiritual and ethical concerns.”

“So…” Maria said, having understood what Claire was getting at.

“We haven’t fully confirmed it yet, but from what few skirmishes we’ve had against their Shard Users, they seem to be able to control water like ours did fire. The Water Conclave took it as a gift from the Water Spirit for their loyalty and has pushed the fervor over there to new heights ever since...”

“This whole thing is ridiculous there’s no such thing as a water spirit. It's obviously my Blessing, so why are they worshipping some stupid made up thing?”

“True, I used to think the same thing, but after listening to you I wonder if there isn’t more to it. The shard came from one of your apostles back in the day, right? From what you described your apostles might as well have been gods in their own right. What if the people of Lutel found something ages ago related to your apostle? It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine them as a water spirit and to start worshipping them.”

Her words left Tirr stunned for a moment. If they did find something from his Apostle, it meant there might be more clues in Lutel about the great disaster and that shadow that killed Bren.

“Even if it might be hard to convince them, we still have to try right?” Asked Maria, giving Tirr a small smile.

Tirr nodded, “Yeah…”

“Good! Claire said clapping her hands, “So who are you bringing with you? Obviously, with the three of us and little Garm, there isn’t much anyone can do to us.”

“Doron’s busy training some of the more combat-focused members of the Life branch.” Maria said thinking, “And Grandma doesn’t have any spare time after managing the temple here, and she needs Lina to help run things.”

“How about that Roger guy?” Claire said with a snicker and an evil smile, Thinking back to that night at the village. She had since seen him around the temple occasionally and took every chance she had to tease Maria.

“Dolgan said he’s been doing well in training, and his Blessing has almost reached Disciple.” Tirr added, oblivious to the dirty look Maria was giving Claire.

“Not Roger…” Maria answered smiling gently at Tirr.

“Why? Is he doing something too?” Tirr asked confused.

Maria hesitated, “I think its best if it’s just us. We don’t want to expose anyone else to more danger…”

Claire felt a chill run down her spine as Maria spoke. “Yeah, that’s a good idea…” How did she end up so scary? I’m leaving Iesa in charge of the Red Knights here, and I’m not really gonna bring anyone else besides whatever guards my brother provides.”

Tirr nodded, “Then it’s decided, hopefully, there might be some more clues as well as the Shard…”