Neither of us slept at all that night, though the wine eventually stopped flowing as we came to an unspoken understanding that we should not be too inebriated when it came time to make good on our escape plans. We would need our wits about us in case we ran into any trouble, which I was willing to bet good money on the fact that we might. According to my own estimations they were already behind schedule on catching up to the girl, perhaps Aela had masked the girl well enough up until today to keep her location secret, but that had been completely undone by her unsealing. The move had been utterly foolish, a death sentence to everyone in the temple. That led me to believe that she had planned for this all along and she had strategically targeted the temple for destruction, though the reasoning behind it all made no sense. The Church and her beliefs had always seemed sacrosanct to her, perhaps I had been naive in thinking that she was not just using it as a cover or a stepping point up to something else. That would be very in line with the tendencies of the blood that flowed in her veins, even if she would spit in my face for insinuating the apple had not fallen very far from the tree.

During the conversations with the arch cleric, we had deviated from the troubles at hand at some point and gotten into more personal topics. Perhaps when faced with possible death the arch cleric was feeling the urge to reminisce and recall the days of her youth and the soak in the comfort of the bright points in her life. She bared her soul and the story of her life, detailing her beginnings as a poor child from the countryside to her decision to join the temple to avoid an unwanted marriage and the eventual giving up of any names to using only her given title in a show of complete submission and devotion to her goddess. She had uttered her name, Tara, in a hushed voice so faint that I could barely make out what she had said. There seemed to be some pain in her uttering the name again, like going back on her promise to never use it again pained her. I kept my lips tightly closed against saying that I found it silly that her show of devotion required her to give up any part of her identity. No use arguing against something done with and in the past, it was not like she was likely to change her mind and start using her name again anyway. The Church members seemed to have a silly tendency to stick to a decision made far in the past even if it no longer made any sense.

Much to my relief the arch cleric seemed singularly focused on telling me her life story and did not seem overly interested in my own, not that I would have been inclined to tell her much. I liked her well enough I supposed, but she was part of the enemy and I would not be entertaining the idea of looking past that. I did appreciate the amount of secrets she was willing to divulge about the dirty underbelly of Church politics, if only I had been able to find someone willing to sing like a canary long ago I could have actually done something with the information. No matter, it seemed Aela was going to bring the devastation I had always dreamed about to their door regardless. In a way I had never anticipated, I was actually a bit proud of her for taking down a temple in a way I could have only dreamed of. I would make sure I told her that when or if I next saw her, that would really make her upset. I was the last person she would want to be proud of her, her entire existence since practically birth had been to annoy and undermine me at every turn and eventually to see my head on a pike made possible by her own hands.

“I suppose it is around time,” the arch cleric said gloomily, standing up from her chair.

There were footsteps overhead as people were getting prepared for their pilgrimage. If only the poor souls understood what was truly happening then their excited chattering would be replaced with either somber urgency or panicked cries. I had considered if maybe it would be better to tell everyone in the temple some semblance of the truth and let them all run off into the surrounding fields in terror and scatter them so that the fae would not bother to waste time tracking them all, but in the end I came to what was likely the same conclusion as the arch cleric, they would probably try to stay and band together, at least the seemingly most devot of them would. It would be a foolish attempt and bound to fail, but those who felt a true devotion that transcended their desire to hold onto this mortal coil were better off being led away under false pretenses for their own good.

I rose to my feet as well and let out a long sigh. “I can never seem to stay in any one place for more than a little while these days. I spent entire decades rarely leaving my home for more than a few days at a time and now I don’t even have a place to lay my head and call home. Though I cannot say that I am unhappy at the idea of leaving here, but it would still be better than where we are going.”

“Perhaps you will find a home in the warm embrace of Harmony,” the arch cleric said with a wry grin. “You never know we might convert you yet. I personally believe that no soul is irredeemable.”

“I think at least a couple of people on your council would likely rather see me burned on a pyre in the middle of Harmony in some sort of cleansing ritual,” I replied. “Besides, I like the idea that I am irredeemable, that really sticks between the teeth of some of your fellow Church members.”

She shook her head like she did not understand my motivations, but she said no more about the matter, converting me wasn’t exactly high on her priority list. Though, her willingness to even try in the face of what the day may bring showed just how deep her devotions laid even if she was critical of the Church on the surface. I could tell that she was one of those who still thought there were redeemable qualities about the organization and their branches of religion despite the poor examples of morals and ethics their leadership often displayed. I supposed she was better than most, she at least acknowledged that there were very few good people at the very top, I could work with that.

At the back gate of the garden there was a mass of women and girls, probably at least two hundred, most of them in prim, white tunic dresses accompanied by floral embroidered belts around their waists. The others not in the same tunic dresses were mostly younger girls and were instead dressed in various other styles of white and off-white dresses, the oldest of which looked to be Gloria who was pacing near the front of the group, keeping an eye on the back door out of the temple. When her eyes fell on me, she got a look of relief and scurried forward to meet up with me. Her face showed worry, perhaps I had gotten through to her enough already that once the magic of the arch cleric's words was removed from the air she had got to thinking and realized that something strange was going on. The young girl bowed in reverence to the arch cleric and then fell in line behind me. Why did it seem like I always ended up the collector of lost little girls?

“It is time,” the arch cleric bellowed over the elated murmuring of the assembled women. “Today we complete a pilgrimage to be a part of a secret and mysterious sacred ritual. I expect our goddess will be pleased with our show of steadfast devotion and reward us greatly. We will reach the spot for our devotion before the sun reaches its zenith and once it does, we will gather and complete the ritual in its warmth and healing rays.”

Soft sighs escaped many of the girls' lips, their eyes closed and hands held together in front of them either in prayer or in gleeful anticipation of being a part of the ritual. It was really straining on me not to let a chuckle escape my lips at the silliness of the whole scene, though they were all so absorbed in beginning their trek that few would likely have noticed.

“Miss Mari,” Gloria said softly, tugging on the back of my dress, “are we going to be okay?”

I turned and raised my eyebrow at her. “Do you think we are in trouble?”

She looked around at everyone gathered, then back to me and gave a single nod of her head. “Something is wrong, I do not know why I feel like that has to be true, but I do. I do not think this was planned for today, the arch cleric is almost acting like she just wants an excuse to be away from this place.”

“And you are sure this is not just another, normal part of the ritual for your new saint of the spring?”

“I am pretty sure I have not seen her since the anointing yesterday…” her words trailed off and she looked around again, searching through all the faces. “In fact she is still not here even though the arch cleric commanded that every single person was to go on this pilgrimage.”

“Do you notice anyone else is missing?” I queried. It was always better to have people logic through things on their own, the outcome made it less likely for them to feel like you manipulated them or forced them into some sort of conclusion. When they came into an idea on their own with only gentle prompting they had no one to blame their perspective shift on other than themselves.

“I do not see Miss Aela,” she said with discomfort rising on her features. “That does not seem right. Why would they both be gone?”

“Now we begin our trek!” the arch cleric announced and the group of girls began to move forward, following her as she set off towards the rolling hills in the far distance.

I placed my hand on the poor young girl’s shoulder to keep her near me as we walked and perhaps give a small amount of comfort. Though the advice I was considering giving was going to destroy any sort of comfort she might be feeling.

“I do not understand,” the girl continued as she kept her wide and frightened eyes on me. “Saint Alice was supposed to stay with the temple and be a part of our rituals and perform miracles. Why would she leave with Aela with no one saying anything, we should have at least seen her off with well wishes if she was going to be traveling anywhere. What if… oh no… has Aela taken her somewhere to do something with her?”

It was a good guess and the girl knew far too well that when Aela disappeared with someone typically that person came back broken and injured.

“I do not think that Aela will harm the girl,” I reassured, “she is far too valuable for her to break like she does the rest of you.”

“I would hope not, the goddess should protect her saint.” She frowned after the words left her mouth like there was something that did not sit right about them. “That still does not answer why we are all leaving at once. This has never happened before, I heard the older woman talking about it last night. They did not seem to think it was strange, but I do. Why are we all leaving?”

“You are starting to repeat yourself, focus yourself and try to think through the reason why we might need to leave all at once.” I gripped her shoulder a little tighter to give herself something to ground herself too. “You are smarter than many here, you have already figured out there is a reason for the alarm even if you have not worked out exactly what that reason is yet.”

Her eyebrows furrowed and for a few minutes we walked in silence.

“Someone bad is coming, is that it?” she finally asked.

I nodded and she sucked in a deep breath and I could feel her shiver in fear under my hand.

“Bad enough that even the arch cleric could not protect us on her most holy of lands?”

“You are beginning to see,” I commented.

“I do not like that I can see now,” she said in a quivering voice. “I might rather be blind to the danger and live in ignorant bliss like the rest of them.”

As if to prove her point, a twittering laugh escaped a small girl near us, the glee evident in her voice that she thought today was just a lovely day out having a stroll through the fields.

“It is for your benefit that you see, for they will be nothing but fodder for those that march behind us,” I explained, keeping my voice low just in case anyone nearby had bored themselves of their own excited conversations. “When you feel the unnatural cold sneak up the back of your neck, they will hesitate and look for the source, floundering like confused birds caught in an unexpected cold front while on migration. Your ability to see will let you know to run as far and as fast as you can. It does not matter where or what direction as long as it is away from the advancing cold. Even if you end up alone and hungry, lost in the wilderness, it is a much better outcome than what these blind birds will end up experiencing.”

Her eyes were saucers and her lips parted, breath heavy with the onset of panic. I gripped her shoulder firmly again and shook my head with a serious expression.

“Panic will only cloud your judgment. Keep a clear head so that you may be observant. Fear will render you blind once more. Instead keep your eyes open and your wits about you, just be ready to run and not look back. No one is a friend here enough for you to throw your life away trying to save them, you will not save them and the decision to hesitate will only kill you both.”

The girl luckily seemed to digest and heed my words, for she said no more and instead picked up the pace and tried to steer herself to the front of the group near the arch cleric. She had the right idea, being near the front and along the edge would allow her to bolt away from everyone if the need arose and if there was any trouble she would not be able to immediately run from, it made sense to stick to the person you saw as the most powerful. My ego took a small hit as I realized that meant she considered the arch cleric more powerful than myself, but I supposed that could not be helped, the arch cleric had been carefully crafting her image and commanding unquestioning devotion to all of these girls since she had come to power ages ago.

Much to my surprise, our walk was uneventful. By the two hour mark there were some noticeable grumbles by some of the older ladies who were not used to being outside and using so much energy hiking and it did not help that many of them were having to carry small girls who simply were too tired to continue on their own. Still, the arch cleric refused to slow the pace and in fact had refused to look back at all, instead keeping her sights trained on some point in the distance like she was carefully directing where we were going and was afraid that she might end up losing her bearings. I had not a single clue how to actually get into the city of Harmony so I could not be sure where we were going or what we were looking for. I knew there was a secret gate somewhere and that it was an underground city, so I assumed that we would end up needing to find some sort of cliff side or mountains, but that was just an educated guess. Access to the city was closely guarded, so much so that I had never been able to get my claws into someone who had actually been there, at least not under their own power. I had been in brief contact with someone before who had been there but they had been blindfolded and deafened for the journey and I suspect drugged by the sheer lack of any useful information she had about the journey or the city itself.

It was not until a low thrumming rose in my chest that I realized why no one knew where the city was or how to access it. It was the same magical chord that hummed around the transportation stone between the outside world and the castle Yser. Of course, the city itself was not exactly in this realm, that is why it was so secret and hidden away. The arch cleric was going to attempt to move all the girls across to the city via the stone, but that seemed like madness, there were so many women and many of them probably would not be talented enough to inspire the stone to work for them. I could perhaps take a handful of them at a time along with whatever she could bring across, but how we could get all of them in a reasonable amount of time I just could not see. Those that we would need to bring over would be knocked unconscious by the magical travel and would need tending to, slowing down everyone. Someone rendered unconscious by magical travel could be so shocked that they stopped breathing or worse, they needed to be tended to and helped to slowly come around and gain back their strength. That seemed like a huge task knowing that the fae could appear at any time.

“We have arrived, dear sisters in spring!” The arch cleric cried as she approached the stone.

It was a large stone, more of a boulder really, much better than the one that marked the boundary for the Yser lands. The surrounding area was tucked between two of the rolling hills we had been trekking across. The only signs of civilization were a few worn trails where perhaps shepherds had walked their flocks through often. Everything about the stone itself was unremarkable except for the powerful magical aura it gave off. Several women around me shifted uncomfortably and clutched their torsos or chests in discomfort, they were likely the ones who had latent magical talents strong enough to sense the magic in the area. Lucky for them, they would be able to pass easily and not get left behind.

“Now is the time for our ritual! First I will show you the wonderful feat that true devotion to our goddess affords you. Stay back, watch and marvel at the generous gifts of our lady Amara!”

The arch cleric waited for all eyes to settle on her, then made a great show out of bowing her head in prayer, then reaching out and gently touching the stone next to her. She faded out of existence with a pop of magical potential. Loud gasps and cheerful cries escaped from the temple populace and several of the smaller girls even began to jump up and down in glee. I supposed that to them they had just witnessed some kind of miracle. A minute passed, then two, then three… and I began to worry that maybe the arch cleric had taken the opportunity to run and save herself, but after another few minutes she faded back into view, a serious expression on her face.

“Now then, this is a test of your faith.”

There was a strange hardness to her voice, a venom that seemed misplaced. She was doing what she wanted, she was saving the members of her beloved temple. It seemed strange that there was something about being able to do that that was upsetting her.

“You will each individually approach the stone, utter a devout prayer to our goddess, and if you are chosen as worthy you will pass through the stone. On the other side a guide awaits to welcome you to your new, wonderful life.”

Ah, it made sense now. She was not able to take all the girls and this was the solution. I wondered what had transpired on the other side of the stone, but I did not have time to ask because she was quick to motion to the nearest girl and have her attempt to pass through. The girl looked to be no older than seven or eight, but she happily ran up to the stone, bent her head in sincere prayer, then looked up to the arch cleric for permission before placing her hand on the stone. The girl faded from view and the arch cleric gave a nod.

“She has been deemed worthy, come, line up and let us all test.”

Another girl, this time in her teen years stepped forward to be next. She confidently strode up to the stone, bent her head in a prayer that lasted half a minute, then placed her hand on the stone and waited. After a few seconds it became apparent that she was not strong enough to make the journey and would be left behind.

“I do not understand,” she said to the arch cleric with tears in her eyes, “I believe so much and am so devout. This does not make sense.”

“I am sorry my child, there is nothing I can do, the goddess decides and who are we to question what decisions she has reached? She knows much more than we could ever hope to in her infinite wisdom.”

The arch cleric’s face was sullen, but stoic. I could tell she was itching to reach for her flask and try to take the edge off of what she was feeling.

“But what will I do?” the girl whispered as treats fell heavily from her eyes. She was utterly terrified.

“You will leave to find a new life, there is a town a few miles to the east. Find them and seek refuge, start again. You have already done so once when you came to the temple, you will make a new life again and be stronger for it.”

“I am rejected by my goddess,” the girl said with sorrow heavy in her voice. Defeated, she walked off to the side, away from the rest of the girls who had lined up, pressed her face into her hands, and began to weep.

One by one the girls were “judged” and there was a growing pile of women and girls who clung to each other on the outskirts, looking on through tear-stained eyes with envy at the girls who made it through. Against my better judgment, I was waiting to go last, partially out of curiosity of how this was going to play one with all the girls left behind. I was glad to see that when Gloria approached, she was able to pass through. I had not taken the time to evaluate the girl so I had not been certain if she had latent abilities or not, though I had suspected she did.

After perhaps half an hour, there was no one left to pass through but myself and the group of rejected women and girls had grown to perhaps a few dozen. They were going to overwhelm the town they were being pointed towards, but it could not be helped. They could not return to the temple for their own safety and even my cold dead heart wanted to grab a few of them by the hand and take them through myself before the arch cleric could stop me. They looked so utterly miserable and heart broken, in their minds they had just been given the cold shoulder by a goddess they had given their entire existence to. This had to be a stinging wound that made me feel inferior to those who had managed to pass the so-called test.

The arch cleric looked like she had aged several years since the start of sorting everyone. The bags under her eyes were heavy and gray and her hair seemed to have acquired a few more bright white streaks. She cast a knowing glance to me and gave a small shake of her head to signify that whatever the reasoning was it was out of her hands.

“I am sorry my sisters,” she said heavily, addressing the group of rejects, “there is nothing I or anyone else can do for you. This is just the way of things and this is your burden to bear and be better for it. Go towards the town, tell them where you come from and tell them the temple is not off limits to anyone and everyone, even to you.”

“We cannot even go back?!” one of the older women cried, tears streaming down her face.

Sobs and wails arose fresh in the group and many huddled together for comfort.

“No, you are not allowed, no one is welcome there any longer, it is the decree of our goddess. Those that have passed through are the chosen and we will build anew. You are the cast offs, the left behinds, the ones that teach a lesson in humility and that sometimes, even despite the best of intentions, life is sometimes very unfair.”

As if she could not stand another moment looking at their anguished faces, the arch cleric slapped her hand to the stone and faded away. Her disappearance punctuated the finality of the decision and the cast offs wailed and screamed their pain, inspiring me to follow closely behind. I had been so focused on getting away from the sorrow that I had not stopped to consider that I had just sent myself straight into the heart of the Church and I was very much not on the welcome list.