Emoyen led the group to her sisterhood’s secret temple on the edge of the city’s center, far from the keep of the Elemental Order. She entered the front this time, and the troupe made a scene moving through the narrow shelves of the storefront. The antiques and valuables sold in the shop never drew many customers and were only there to retain their cover. Still, a few curious shoppers stared at the wounded party as they followed the female paladin to the back room.

Sera was expecting a crowded series of offices and storerooms but found instead open hallways and rooms filled with books. They moved past these to a stairway that led to the upper rooms, where they found quiet quarters to lay the wounded. Ethan and Celaina were still unconscious, and Gerhold, with the injuries he had sustained and the exhaustion of carrying his wife through the city, was ready to rest too. The sisterhood of the Angelican Saviors kept several physic supplies on hand, knowing they would eventually face opposition that might turn violent. Between Sera and Emoyen, they tended the wounded and left them sleeping upstairs.

The three remaining women moved to the central room of the main floor with a large, circular table where the sisters usually held their meetings. Sera and Natasha didn’t know what to expect and were just happy to catch their breath after the violent battle. Sera and Ethan kept their weapons, and Gerhold insisted that the dagger stay with Celaina until the woman woke up and they could discuss the future of the weapons. Emoyen had taken the spear from Yori, and she now placed it down in the center of the table.

The paladin was attuned to the magical energies of the divine and could feel the Elemental still safely locked away inside the weapon. She knew the heart Elemental was inside Ethan, and she suspected Sera had a more intimate relationship with her axe than she had yet admitted to, but Emoyen would let the young women explain that in time. Right now, she had other things to discuss.

“We need to talk.”

Natasha and Sera exchanged looks. They had confided in each other, but without Ethan awake to speak for himself, they weren’t sure how much they should tell this woman. The paladin had arrived on the scene at the end of the fight, and they weren’t sure how much she had seen. Sera hadn’t hidden her strength when she had carried Ethan to this building, and Natasha’s fire display had probably been visible from a great distance, but for now, they were willing to let this woman speculate.

“We’re listening,” Sera said.

Emoyen nodded and then looked at Natasha. “What are you doing on this side of the fight? Where do your loyalties lie?” One of her sisters was a former Tallashite supplicant, so she didn’t want to assume that she was in this for the Supplanter just because Natasha appeared to be part of that faith.

“I was a supplicant,” Natasha admitted, seeing no harm in this. “But I no longer believe the master has any claim on the Elementals. Though he thinks I am, I am not here to secure them for him.”

“Who do you believe they belong to?”

Natasha paused, not sure she knew the answer. “The savior,” she finally said.

“Who is the savior?”

The Tallashite looked back at the intense gaze of the paladin. Emoyen was a northerner, taller and more imposing than the other two women. She also had an air of confidence that made any truths Natasha thought she knew uncertain. “I thought I knew, but now I have only questions.”

Emoyen chose not to push anymore. “And you?” she turned to Sera.

“I am a priestess in the Temple of the Divine Savior. The Elementals are for him.”

“And who is he?”

Sera frowned. Wasn’t this woman a member of the Elemental Order? They might differ on some of the finer points of Elemental management, but not the identity of the Savior. “The Divine Savior,” she repeated, thinking in her mind that the name answered the question. However, the paladin’s penetrating stare made her feel for the first time in her life that it didn’t.

Emoyen didn’t push her either, understanding that, after the battle that morning, she might not be in the right frame of mind to defend her faith. “I believed as you do for a long time,” she began, moving away from the table to the expansive bookshelves along the wall. She carefully chose several leatherbound tomes and returned to the table. “I am the head sage in the Elemental Order, and I have read every book in this room and many more at least twice. Several three times. They are written in various ancient languages and have much to say about the savior, when they will come, and who they will be.”

Sera took notice of the pronouns she used but kept her mouth shut. Emoyen was right. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to have a theological debate. Though, soon, she wouldn’t have a choice.

“These books are not clear on everything,” the paladin said, gently placing them on the table and standing behind them. “But one theme they are consistent on is that the Savior will be female.”

Natasha took a sharp breath, and the two other women turned to look at her. “I know the Supplanter has read some of these texts,” Emoyen said, turning to the supplicant. “And that his religion explains this by saying that the women referred to are simply the Supplanter’s many wives who will fill the earth with his offspring. That is an egotistical and misogynistic interpretation that tries to cling to the masculine language that describes what the Savior will do: save man or mankind. But it is not an accurate interpretation.”

“I’ve already heard this,” Natasha said. She paused but then decided to give up a little information. “The prince has told me that many Tallashite scholars have come to this same conclusion. The Savior will be a woman, and she will restore mankind.”

Emoyen seemed surprised by this. “You have spoken to Prince Dantell? What is his involvement in this?”

Natasha paused, thinking she might have overshared, but realized it was her old master’s voice in her head. He had told her to keep the prince’s involvement a secret. That only made sense if sharing it hurt his ambitious plans. Any hesitancy she had suddenly dissolved. “He is frequently found in our temple and meets privately with the Supplanter. I do not know what they talk about, but he also has doubts that the current Supplanter is destined to be the savior.”

Emoyen was better educated on the political tension between the kingdom to the south and the northland, and her mind played with several possible motives the prince might have. “And he told you the savior would be a woman?” the paladin asked.

Natasha knew that the prince wanted her to become the savior and his queen. She would freely tell of the prince’s plans but felt this item might paint her as a threat to whatever belief system Emoyen held.

“What difference does it make,” Sera interrupted, feeling no choice but to be pulled into the conversation. “It doesn’t change that the Savior will be divine. It won’t be one of us. It can’t be. ‘Only wise hope, the Savior Divine.’”

Emoyen nodded at the oft-quoted line from the divine verses. “And yet you call your faith the Temple of the Divine Savior?”

Sera shrugged, not seeing the contradiction.

“Does the term ‘Savior’ describe what the Divine will do, or does the word ‘Divine’ describe what kind of Savior it will be?”

Again, Sera looked confused. “It makes no difference. Savior Divine; Divine Savior. They are the same thing.”

“Not in the ancient language,” Emoyen said, picking up a particular tome in front of her. She thought about turning to a specific passage but didn’t think either woman had the stamina to listen to her read a lengthy excerpt. “Describing something as divine simply means it is associated with the divine, not that it originated from above.” Emoyen shook her head and put the book down. “But we are getting into the weeds, and this is not what I want to talk about. Do you think the Elementals are only designed for a Divine being, or can humans wield them effectively?”

Sera hesitated, feeling her secret was probably too obvious for this wise woman to miss. “The Elementals are perfect representations of what humans were before the fall. Of course, we will all be restored to that state, and our elements will be one with the Elementals, but to achieve that union requires Divine intervention.”

“Why are we wasting our time with this discussion,” Natasha blurted out. “We must figure out how to hide these Elementals from the Supplanter. Quarton escaped and will bring an army next time we see him. Theology can wait until the weapons are safe.”

Emoyen shook her head. “No, theology is the answer. The Savior is female and plural. We have been expecting this convergence for several years, and finally, the Elementals are all in one place.”

“Who are ‘we?’” Sera asked.

“The Sisterhood of the Angelican Saviors,” Emoyen replied. “This is our humble temple. We have been waiting for this moment for years.”

Sera was dumbfounded. “This is just a perverse version of the Supplanter religion. You only wish to flip the script, and you will create a legion of men to follow you. You obviously don’t understand biology if you think a small group of women will repopulate the earth.”

Emoyen tried to smile at the excited priestess. “Not repopulate. Nowhere in the verses does it say that. The Supplanter made that up for his own benefit. ‘Renewing all life’ doesn’t imply replacing all life with new offspring. The phrase ‘Angelic in form’ should read ‘Angelican Form,’ meaning in the form of many angels. The previous verse says ‘no man’ can achieve this and that the only hope is in the wise, which, in all of these texts, means a woman. Women produce life. Your interpretations of the verses have been wrong. The verses themselves are wrong. This is the way it will be. We don’t need to hide the Elementals anymore. We need to fulfill the prophecy, and then we won’t have to worry about the Supplanter or any army he might bring.”

Sera didn’t have an immediate response, so Natasha chimed in. “What if you are wrong?” She knew her own belief was that Ethan was to have some role in all this. She trusted her own emotions. She knew they did not lead her astray, and the fact that she was to give her life to Ethan was not something to be debated. Also, Ethan already had an Elemental inside of him. If they were to remove that from him, it would mean his life, and then where would that leave her?

The paladin seemed to read her mind. “You are a heart disciple, correct?” Natasha nodded. “You trust your heart. In the same way, I trust my mind. I don’t just read books; I dwell on knowledge. What is it to ‘Know’ something? How do we know anything? We are caught between four very different world views, and from your perspective, I have created a fifth. How can anything be true? But I know what I have read in these books, and while I may not believe that a Divine being will descend from the clouds to restore humanity, I believe in the Divine, which has guided my knowledge and thought. This is true.”

“What if an Elemental is already in another human?” Sera asked.

“Or more than one?” Emoyen added, a smile letting the young woman know that she suspected Ethan wasn’t the only one. “Jennifer, our life disciple, has assured us that there is a way to transfer the Elementals without taking a life. It takes a life – or the power of life – to move the Elementals around, but that is only because we do not know how to wield the power of life without taking it. Once Jennifer has the Elemental inside her, she can wield that power with far more efficacy than any person can now.”

“And if an Elemental is already inside a woman,” Sera dared to ask, “is it still necessary to remove it?”

“Let’s stop being coy,” Emoyen said. “You have the body Elemental inside you. Do you feel prepared to be a savior of all humankind? Have you studied how the body works and how to affect physical changes in others?”

“Yes,” Sera replied boldly. “I am trained as a physic and have healed several people already.”

“Can you change your hair color?”

All heads turned at the sound of this new voice as another woman entered the room. Sera’s planned reply stuck in her throat at the sight of this unknown visitor. Even Natasha, who was used to being the center of attention because of her physical beauty, was in awe of this woman.

Persephone accepted the stares with a smile on her face. “Can you change your height, figure, or anything about your appearance in any way?”

This woman was a goddess. While Sera’s father was a northerner, this woman was a full-blooded islander. Therefore, her skin was darker, and her hair was closer to white than blonde. But as the young woman looked, Persephone’s hair shifted in the lantern light of the room to silver, and it glittered as if diamonds flowed down its considerable length. Her body was tall and strong. Not like Brittany, who carried herself like a lumberjack, but like an athlete, always moving on the balls of her feet. And she had the body of a sculptor’s dream. She looked as strong as Sera felt, with the curves Natasha had, only stretched over a frame several inches taller.

As Sera stared at this woman, her impressive height seemed to grow even taller, her arms and legs swelling to match until she looked as big as Ethan, only still exquisitely feminine. Sera saw a slight strain on the woman’s face as she held a pose, flexing her bare arms in her form-fitting gown that hung just past her knees, a slit up to her rib cage on one side. She released the pose, and her body resumed its earlier size and proportions. Sera knew it wasn’t just an illusion, as the gown now fit her more appropriately, with the bottom hem at the floor and the slit only climbing high on her thigh. It wasn’t as tight anymore, though it still left little to the imagination.

“This is Persephone,” Emoyen said, rising to hug her sister with a welcoming kiss on each cheek. “I sent for my other sisters when we arrived. Diedre, our heart disciple, and Jennifer will be here shortly.”

Sera lost all composure and slumped limply in her chair. Her whole world was crashing down around her. Emoyen seemed so sure about herself, and Sera couldn’t argue against her. Sera had read what was required in her priestess training, but she was sure she hadn’t read a fraction of the texts this paladin had. And how could she be wrong if she had as much control of her own mind as Persephone did of her body?

Sera looked again at the islander who had just entered. Compared to her, Sera had no right to the Elemental she carried. She thought she was so powerful and worthy, yet here was a woman who didn’t have access to the Elemental yet had cultivated so much physical power that she could reshape herself. Sera remembered when she had tried that standing before the mirror in the Supplanter’s temple. She had failed utterly, and that had been with the Elemental. If Persephone had that power inside her, what else could she do? Sera knew the answer. She could make every living human she came in contact with perfect. She could end disease, cure infirmities, and maybe even prevent aging. All Sera could do was jump far and punch hard.

The young woman looked over at Natasha. Sera couldn’t deny her jealousy when she saw how this woman looked at Ethan, even more so when Ethan looked back. Sera knew she was pretty, but these women were gorgeous. They were Angelic. As the women around her continued discussing what would occur over the next few hours, Sera just slumped her head on the table and cried.

Quarton entered the Supplanter Temple with a slight limp. His pride hurt more than his leg, and he wasn’t worried about needing to use it later that day if more combat was in his future. Still, as he made his way up the steps toward the central worship chamber, he thought showing a slight injury might give him access to the illegal elixirs he knew the temple priest kept on hand. The master of this temple was a man named Vaynter. Like most high priests in the religion, he had entertained visions of becoming the Supplanter, but when Taylon rose to power, Vaynter and all the other would-be-Supplanters lost that ambition and became content to run their own temples. It wasn’t much of a loss.

The Supplanter religion focused on a single man rising to godhood and then maintaining a large harem of fertile women. Women were drawn to the faith for a chance to play a part in the world’s salvation, and so their children would be the next generation of perfected humans. To earn a promotion to the Supplanter’s temple, they needed to prove themselves able in the bedroom with a submissive attitude. In this temple, Vaynter was the recipient of a lot of attention. He ran his own brothel with a few other select men as priests to see to the women.

To be promoted to a male priest within the temple and gain access to the “beneficial” arrangement, you needed to prove yourself willing and able to give yourself entirely to the service of the Supplanter. For obvious reasons, there was no shortage of men willing to do anything for a chance at the priesthood.

Vaynter had been alerted that there would be activity within the city today and was not surprised to see Quarton walk up the stairs to the large room. This worship chamber was very different from the Divine faiths, as it had none of the stained-glass windows or religious icons. There wasn’t a wooden pew to be found, and no altar stood at the front. Instead, a series of couches and day beds with numerous cushions surrounded a large marble-lined bath heated from below. Instead of songbooks scattered about the room, oils and perfumes were placed strategically on end tables and next to massage tables.

Unlike the Temple of the Divine Creator, worship services in the Supplanter temple were well-attended.

Quarton had too much paladin left in him to indulge in the more sensual aspects of his faith. Still, he had seen the writing on the wall and knew that his old Order would not keep the Elementals hidden for long, and with the size and devotion of his followers, the Supplanter would win in the end. Quarton was pragmatic to a fault.

“What news do you bring?” Vaynter asked. He didn’t see any of the weapons he was hoping for, and the large man was alone, so he already knew it wouldn’t be good news.

Quarton walked around the bath and moved to kneel on the few steps that led up to the raised platform where the master reclined on a couch. The priest’s robes looked more appropriate in a bedroom than a temple, and the man’s bare arms and legs led the enforcer to believe that the man had likely just been in his bedroom, probably not alone.

“Our enemies had help from a traitor within our ranks,” he stated. “Several of them were injured in the fight, and I was the only one to escape. They have all the weapons, but I believe they are still in the city. I recognized two of my Order coming at the end, and I believe they will bring the weapons to the keep of the Elemental Order.”

“Then we shall attack,” Vaynter replied. “We will not be denied this close to success. I can have forty fighting men here in a few hours. That should be enough to overthrow the paladins.”

Motion from behind the priest caught his attention, and Quarton saw a Tallashite woman hastily tying a similar robe about herself, stepping out from behind a curtained room. “Who from your Order did you see?”

Quarton did not know this woman and turned to his master for confirmation. “Answer the question?” he said.

“A man by the name of Terrance and a woman named Emoyen. They were with me when Jenkins and I left to investigate the locations of the Elementals.”

Jennifer smiled as she moved to sit next to the priest on the couch. “I don’t think they went to the keep. I think Emoyen would have taken them to our temple.” She said this as she idly played with the tie in the front of Vaynter’s robe.

“Are you sure, my darling?” he asked, reaching up to tuck a strand of wayward black hair behind her ear.

“Positive,” she said as she completely pulled the knot out but left the robe closed as she rolled away from him and stood.

Quarton grimaced at the flirtatious play at a time when he thought they should be serious. He turned his eyes from his master as the man retied his robe and looked instead at the woman standing before him.

“They have all four Elementals?” she asked.

Quarton nodded.

“Yes, then Emoyen would have taken them to the temple. She is probably explaining to them right now the remarkable history of the religion she invented. She really does love to go on about it.”

Quarton had no idea what she was talking about, but Vaynter did. After securing his robe, he also stood. “Will she convince them? Will they stay and wait for us to come and collect the weapons?”

“How many in their party, and how many were injured?” Jennifer asked the kneeling warrior.

“Two elderly paladins, both injured, a young man, Ethan, who was near death, and two younger women. One of the women is a Blessed Mother of the heart. She seems to have mastered the art of fire, while the other woman wields the Elemental axe and certainly has its strength inside her.”

“That will make things interesting,” Jennifer said. “I believe that Emoyen will do everything in her power to keep them there as long as possible. She has undoubtedly sent messengers out to collect the rest of us, and as soon as we show up, she will insist on beginning the ceremony.”

“The ceremony?” Quarton asked.

The female supplicant smiled again at the big man and spun away from him as if dancing to unheard music. “The ceremony to transform us,” she sang, stepping onto a couch and then leaping off. “Transform us into angelic beings of immense power, and together we will save humanity.”

Quarton looked away from the possessed woman to get clarification from his master. Vaynter only laughed at his playful lover. “Do not worry,” he assured his faithful warrior. “She is high on life and often gets excited like this. We should all be excited. The time of our ascension is close at hand. We will all be rewarded, you especially.” He walked forward and descended a few steps to put his hand on the big man’s shoulder. Quarton found it challenging to return the look without seeing inside the hastily tied robe.

“You should refresh yourself,” the priest continued. “We have women here who can see to your every need. I will collect a dozen of our best fighters for you to lead. More than that would cause a scene we don’t want. Jennifer will show you the way.”

They heard a splash and saw that the woman had jumped into the bath, still wearing her robe and singing a song about divine sisterhood. Quarton rolled his eyes, rose to his feet, and left the chamber.