Emilia stormed off towards the fancy cathedral by the end of the gigantic gorge in the middle of the city. She was more than slightly ticked off by Gilbert’s whoremongering, as more often than not, he would disappear into a bordello when one was available; and if there weren’t any, his ability to woo local maidens was borderline magical. In fact, Emilia couldn’t remember the last time Gilbert had paid for a room in a regular inn outside of Valor. Officially, meaning by the word of the goddess of joy herself, the church of Sylvia encouraged casual relations between people, but it missed the point when done in exchange for money. The priestess herself thought that her friend’s behavior was inappropriate and may have not seen eye to eye with the deity on the matter anymore, though she tried to not let it show.

“He’s setting a bad example to Anna.” Emilia muttered and looked around for Anastacia and King in case they had ran off into that direction.

The cathedral she was heading to was much larger than the temple she and Anastacia destroyed in Crescent, and far, far older. Build from some kind of white stone that had a slight greenish tint to it, it was easily the most eye-catching building around. The entire face of the cathedral was decorated with detailed sculptures and gorgeous stained-glass windows. Its three spires towered far over any other building in the city and were a visible part of Merfall’s silhouette from far away. Emilia didn’t know which deity or deities it was devoted to, but Sylvia insisted that she should visit it. She also had her own reasons to be interested in it though; Emilia was still very inexperienced as a religious leader, despite being the high priestess of the cleansed church of Sylvia, and she still very much intended to open a small temple in Valor and run it herself, so seeing how other churches manage things would likely be helpful.

The steps leading to the main door were coated with what seemed like silver and had hundreds of thousands of symbols engraved to them, which continued all the way to the edge of the cliff. Emilia didn’t recognize any of them and couldn’t tell what language they were written in, but the way they were arranged in a way that made them seem like they were a part of a ritual or some other spell. The markings continued all the way to the door of the cathedral and under it to inside.

Emilia knocked on the large wooden door before pulling it open. As soon as the door moved, an immensely bright light escaped from the gap, blinding her. The entire interior of the cathedral was bright beyond description, and Emilia had to pull up her hood to shield her eyes while they got used to the light.

An older man, wearing an orange robe and a short purple cloak that only reached to his elbows, noticed the visitor and calmly walked over. “How may I help you, child?” He asked and closed the door behind Emilia.

“Well, you see, I’m a priestess of Sylvia myself, and I’m here just to see the cathedral and maybe ask some questions if you have the time to answer them.” She explained. As soon as the name Sylvia was mentioned, she could see the man’s face twist into that of absolute disgust.

“I think you may have taken a wrong turn by The Fall, people like you should just throw themselves in it and let Mer rid the world of you.” The man scoffed with all the warmth in his voice gone. “And here I believed that someone had all but wiped the stain that is Sylvia from the civilized world.”

“I did, what happened in Crescent was by Lady Sylvia’s will working through my hand. Do not mistake the failings of us mortals as her acts! The church of Sylvia had long since lost their way and I’m doing my best to undo the damage they caused to her name.” The priestess pleaded. “So would you please give her a chance?” She could hear the chatter increase among the other devotees inside.

After a long, judging stare, the man sighed. “Very well, but watch your mouth. I am the head priest of this house of light and I will not tolerate anything we’ve come to expect from your kind.” The man warned Emilia. “Now, what is it that you wish to know?”

Emilia had learned to expect some trouble whenever she mentioned Sylvia’s name, since the old church had very few friends and she had yet to spread the news of the new one terribly far. While the priest clearly wasn’t going to invite her further inside the cathedral, at least she hadn’t gotten thrown out. “Well, who do you serve?” She asked, figuring that she might as well start with the basics.

“No one.” The priest answered bluntly. “Alba, The Great Archer of Dawn, the deity this church was built to commemorate, is dead.”

Emilia’s jaw dropped. “Your god… is dead?”

“You’re woefully unknowledgeable about this city, aren’t you? Allow me to tell you the legend of Alba and Ciel.” The priest sighed and cleared his throat. “When the sun first rose over the horizon to bless us mortals, Alba fell from it. He wandered the lands for what came to be a day. On his travels, he found the creatures of earth quaint and chose to protect them from the darkness and things that dwelled in it. However, as the first evening came and the sun was about to fall below the horizon for the first time ever, a second being fell from it. The Grand Moth of Dusk, Ciel, who desired nothing more than to plunge the mortals into an eternal night. A fight between the two divines ensued as the sky darkened, and sadly, in the end Ciel crushed his foe and cast the darkest night ever seen over the earth.” He explained calmly.

Emilia frowned. “So that’s it, he’s just dead? But the sun still rises every day though?” She asked.

“What a rude child you are, who said I was done?” The priest snarled and continued his story. “With the dark shrouding everything in existence, mortals huddled around their fires and prayed for Alba to return. And surely, after what seemed like an eternity, a light shone from the horizon and the sun rose once again, and from its blaze, fell Alba. This time however, he was armed with a bow crafted from nothing less than the horizon itself and arrows of the brightest sunlight. Thus, a new fight between the two broke out and as the sun climbed higher, Alba’s arrows gained power while Ciel only grew weaker. With a final bolt of light, The Great Archer pierced Ciel’s wing and made a big enough hole for his enemy to fall. A new day began, and the mortals rejoiced, but as you probably guessed, when the sun started to set for the second time ever, The Grand Moth fell from it once more. The third fight turned sour for Alba as the sky darkened and his arrows lost their power. He was defeated once more, and Ciel covered the sky with his wings. But this time, something was different, riddled by the countless arrows, the moth’s wings had countless small holes in them, allowing light to shine through them. By far the biggest of the holes, the killing blow from their fight in the morning, was just big enough for the mortals to see something during the night and give them hope that a new dawn would come. And so, the cycle of day and night was born.”

“So he’s fine then? Well, at least until the evening.” Emilia asked, thinking the story was over.

“Would you quit interrupting me, you impatient punk! Do you see many gods fighting out there every morning and evening? There’s obviously more to it.” The priest exclaimed annoyedly and collected himself to continue. “So, that cycle continued for eons, no one knows how long exactly though. Things were in balance, mortals thrived during the day and the critters of the dark during the night, there was a place for everyone. Until one day, when Alba was watching over his flock, he could see a massive shadow in the sky. It wasn’t the time for Ciel to arrive yet, so something was bound to be wrong. The shadow was darker than anything the god had seen before, even darker than Ciel during their first fight, its wings spanned from horizon to horizon and cast the completely dark, primordial night over the land again. The dark creature stopped to mock the god and declared himself to be Mer, before attacking Alba without provocation. The archer’s arrows merely glanced off the creature’s rock hard-skin as the two clashed and Alba could do no more than protect the mortals while the completely one-sided fight carried on. When the sun reached the horizon in the evening and the sky turned red, Ciel fell from the sun as always. Alba thought that this was surely the end for him and the mortals, as the two would cast the world in eternal darkness as Mer suggested when the moth found them. However, Ciel was a god and no lesser in his understanding than Alba, he understood how things were supposed to be and joined the fight – on the same side as his age-old foe! Together they fought Mer to a standstill, whenever one’s power waned, the other took point. For a year the fight continued, sending the cycle of day and night into a complete chaos, until one day Ciel allowed Alba on his back and together they flew closer to the sun, gathering power for Alba’s arrows. With a final arrow, the archer channeled light at Mer while Ciel held the beast in place. The bolt pierced Mer’s skin and it fell into the ground, creating the ravine now known as The Fall. This however, was not enough to kill the dark creature, as Mer continued to taunt the gods from the chasm. Exhausted by the long fight, Alba saw no other way out than to use the rest of his powers to seal Mer into the earth with a dense layer of morning mist. The god of dawn, with the tip of one of his arrows, scribed the runes you see in the ground here and fell dead next to Ciel, who cried over the loss of his nemesis. Being engraved with sunlight, the runes would only work when basked in sunlight and would quickly release Mer if Ciel covered the sky like he was supposed to. Understanding this, Ciel remained grounded while he supervised the building of this cathedral and made a promise to the mortals, that under this roof it would always be the brightest day, even when he released the night over the rest of the world. Lamenting over the loss of Alba, Ciel still willingly flies into the sun every morning when it’s time for him to go.” He finished the story and pointed towards the ceiling.

Emilia looked up and could see that the cathedral appeared to have no roof, despite it being clearly visible from the outside. “That’s… wow…” She struggled to speak.

“Finally you’re quiet.” The pries chuckled.

“So… Mer is still just down there, waiting?” Emilia asked and kneeled to run her fingers over the runes on the floor.

The priest shrugged. “Presumably, that’s why it doesn’t matter that Alba is no more, we must thank him for his sacrifice and keep this cathedral in a good shape.”

They proceeded to have a long talk about how the church was actually run. Apparently, the devotees would hold public prayers and gather funds during them for the upkeep. They rarely came up short as no one fancied risking the church falling into disrepair on the off-chance Mer was still alive. Funding was definitely going to be the biggest hurdle for Emilia’s temple though, assuming it ever got approved by the guild, as adventurers weren’t exactly the religious kind and would probably have a hard time being overly generous with their donations. Of course, she could always do quests to make up for the missing gold, but that would mean time away from the temple and less people visiting because of that. It was definitely something she needed to put some thought into.

The priest noticed Emilia’s pondering look. “You seem to have things to figure out. Make sure to stay on the right path, so perhaps we’ll start hearing good things about Sylvia for a change and maybe we’ll be able to assist each other when you’ve settled somewhere – and are no longer a child.” He said with a faint smile. “Is there something else you wish to know?”

“Umm… No, you’ve taught me plenty.” Emilia said and shook her head, but just as she was about to leave, she remembered something. “What about the other god, Ciel, does he have a church in the city?”

“Ciel isn’t the type to gather a following, the creatures of the night are his by default, so he doesn’t meddle in Alba’s business. However, there is a person you could ask more about that from. She owns a business here and fancies herself as a devotee of Ciel. Just follow the left side of The Fall and turn left at the end. The road there will take you to an establishment called ‘The Den’ eventually.” The priest smirked and opened the door for Emilia, ushering her out.

Emilia followed the instructions while still keeping an eye out for Anastacia and King. She couldn’t help but to wonder whether Sylvia had guided her to the cathedral so that she could learn about Mer, since she seemed oddly insistent about it. While thinking, she failed to notice the steadily decreasing amount of clothing on people she passed, until it was far too late. Surrounded by the courtesans and people looking to be their patrons, the pure white robes of a priestess stuck out from the crowd like a sore thumb.

“Oh for fuck’s sake… Don’t tell me it’s a-“ She muttered and glanced at the signs above the doors of the local businesses, and just as she feared, ‘The Den’ was carved with big letters on one of them. “Yup.”

She pulled her hood up and stared at the ground, trying to ignore the men and women who had taken her as the target for their sales because of her uniform. The uniform would likely betray her later as well, when the people she passed told their friends that they saw a priestess enter a brothel. She quickly opened the door and rushed inside to get away from the street. With her gaze still firmly locked to the floor, she walked up to the counter, looked up and found Anastacia and Gilbert staring at her, trying their hardest to hold in laughter.

“This isn’t what it looks like.” Emilia sighed and leaned on the counter.