Arc 4:..And in Deep Trouble

I bowed before the Grand Cardinal Lexicas II, and tapped my chest above the heart. This act of prayer was said to symbolize Saint Geraldine tapping his chest every so and often, checking his beating heart, and begging for forgiveness from the Goddess as it is said that as long as you are alive, you still have not finished your task given by the Goddess.

Similarly, I was praying for forgiveness as forces of Dark had intruded into the Holy City itself without us noticing, especially since I was the Head of Guards. The very Inquisitor group that should stand guard every day and night, watching every shadow and crack. And yet, we had failed in our holy task.

“This is indeed...very troubling,” Lexicas II said as he inspected the coin. His delicate and frail hands moved about the coin, absorbing every detail of the piece of metal. Though old, Lexicas II was still wise, logical, and very devoted.

The coin which he held was an ancient coin of significant history. Only the highest of the high knows of the darkest secrets of Aon. The stories told that Saint Geraldine was awarded a city by the Goddess. The truth is darker. Aon used to be the most unholy place on the continent which hosted the darkest of the evil forces - from Elder Liches to Demon Lords. Saint Geraldine ravaged the city with his army massacring everything.

He was not awarded any city. He simply took over the city and stubbornly stood his ground. He and his army wiped out any records that showed that Aon was unholy. He then cleansed the city from the ground up with water blessed by the Goddess herself. Or so he claimed.

It would be nicer if the truth was as simple as that. But, this would not be a dark secret if it ended with just that. Aon, though as wretched and foul as the place may be, was essential to the continent. It acted as a cage for every dark force, attracting all the monsters and locking them in.

Aon provided a miasma of death which lured the unholy. But there was a beacon of unknown origins marked with strange symbols that kept the undead within the city. Although the undead roamed throughout the continent, the strongest undead that could be considered a threat were locked inside Aon.

But, in our stupidity, we had accidentally released the leash that kept the undead stuck inside Aon. The city was never purified fully - Geraldine destroyed the beacon thinking it was the source of power of the unholy. Oh, how wrong he was.

By attacking Aon and forcefully cleansing it, the dark forces, no longer compelled by Aon, roamed throughout the continent freely. This was realized by Geraldine's successors as they faced a great burden.

“The forces of the Demon Gods are angry and are trying to retaliate, but hold your grounds for it is the wishes of the Goddess!”

Propaganda was our strongest tool, and our most essential. Should the truth be leaked, that it was the Path of Light that unleashed the forces of the undying throughout the continent be revealed, all will be doomed for this covenant.

People must never find the truth that Aon was ever an unholy city. It would not take an idiot to realize that the fall of the unholy city of Aon coincided with the sudden and sharp increase in undead incursions throughout the continent.

We sought only mercy and forgiveness for our foolishness from our Goddess. From Aon, we sent crusaders all over the land to cleanse heathens and the inanimate, hoping that this would at least wipe some wrongs away.

But what would it mean if the forces of Dark had started to make their move against the city of Aon itself and succeeded?

“The answer is simple. The continent is doomed,” Lexicas II nonchalantly answered.

In place of the beacon, the so-called Great Holy City of Aon now acted as a cage instead. The walls and prayers kept the power of death from leaking outside of Aon. For the past hundred years, we’ve been investigating the true source of power but we could never find it. We’ve been attempting to make another beacon but with no success, each Grand Cardinal became more pessimistic as the generations go by.

“And now with this…” Lexicas II muttered. Should the forces of Dark knock down the walls of Aon, massacre its priests, its prayers turned into cries of plea and mercy, and its temples ravaged, there would be nothing stopping the miasma from encompassing the continent, or even the world.

“Geraldine, you fool,” Lexicas II cursed, “An excellent conman, a poor excuse of a human being. You’re perhaps the reason why the Goddess never answers our prayers!”

Ridiculous - the only word it could be described as. The founder of the religion was a heretic himself!

“However, the truth is still far…” Lexicas II sighed. He rubbed his chin as he walked around the room.

“Far, your Holiness?” I inquired.

“The problem was that there were no records of Aon’s existence at all. But this coin...it carries the same marks as the beacon of Aon,” He replied. He tossed the coins towards me. With a catch, I examined the coin’s head.

“I don’t understand. I only know of the symbols on the coin, but what else is there?” I asked.

“Look at the dates, they’re the same numerals that we use,” Lexicas II simply told me and I understood.

The date on the coins dates as far as a thousand years ago. The alphabets on the markings on the coin were familiar, but alien at the same time. I tried to decipher the meaning hard.

“Ancient Commons. A language spoken by the entire continent at one point, but eventually every culture had its bastardized version of it. Some say that the language was spoken by a mighty empire which held the continent in its grasp.” Lexicas II explained, “Even our language is derived from it. Look here, this part means ‘people’ in Ancient Commons, but in our tongue, it is now ‘individual groups’.”

“I seem to be off-topic, now...My age must be catching up with me,” Lexicas II laughed.

“No, it isn’t, your Holiness. It is very interesting to learn of our past. But what does the language on the coin have to do with our city?” I questioned.

The fact that a coin that dated a thousand or so years ago appeared in the holiest city could mean many things:

Someone raided a nearby ruin and took these coins then used the coins to pay the entrance.

Forces of the Dark sent these coins directly, as a way to threaten us of an upcoming invasion.

Someone who had these coins the entire time since ancient times is in the city.

These are only a few of the many conclusions that Lexicas II thought of. Firstly, if a gravedigger found these coins from an ancient ruin, it means the real source of miasma was not too far off. By interrogating the gravedigger, Aon would finally hunt the source and cleanse it.

Secondly, the possibility of this point was very high, was what Lexicas II commented. The forces of evil were amassing a great army and a campaign against Aon will come soon. The fate of the continent would lay in the balance.

Lastly, this was a point that Lexicas II thought to be impossible. But in theory, if someone were to live a thousand years, they would have held onto the coin this entire time. Why use these coins if they had lived a thousand years? Are they mocking us? Trying to indirectly pick on our curiosity? It’s as if they wanted to tell us that they had come here to negotiate something - By negotiating, that means, blackmail us.

“These three are the points I would like to prioritize first," Lexicas II told me.

“Do you wish to send out the Inquisitors?” I asked.

“That will be unnecessary,” A man behind me announced. Unlike the Grand Cardinal’s and my bright colors decorating our gear, the man wore a black armored coat with a thick dyed leather hood. I noticed that the cloth he was draped in was made from a very tough type of silk.

More people with similar akin to the first men appeared from the shadows. “We, the Inquisitors, have answered your summons, oh Holy One.” They knelt to Lexicas II.

“Track down the sources of these coins. Find what you can tell, and if you could, bring the former owners of these wretched things to me,” Lexicas II commanded the Inquisitors.