410 The Ruiners Temple (1/2)
”What have you decided?” the priestess asked. Though she spoke in a polite voice, the look in her eyes strongly suggested that she wished Arran would hurry up and leave already.
”I have decided to postpone my choice,” Arran said, answering the priestess' frustrated stare with an overly friendly smile. ”Decisions like these require careful thought, wouldn't you agree?”
The priestess remained silent for a moment, and finally grimaced in a poor imitation of a smile. ”Of course,” she spoke between clenched teeth. ”Then I take it you will return soon?”
”I will,” Arran replied. ”A day or two should be enough to properly weigh my options. So you will see us again before long.”
Kaleesh kept a calm expression as they made their way back out of the Hall of Blessings, but the moment they exited the massive building, he turned to Arran with a dumbfounded look in his eyes.
”Any particular reason you decided to antagonize the church? Or did the Archon somehow take your wits during your meeting? To speak the gods' names is dangerous anywhere in the Imperium. And to do it here, at the center of the church's power…” He shook his head in disbelief. ”How did you know those names, anyway?”
Arran cast a glance at their surroundings, and when he was certain there was no one near enough to hear him, he replied, ”I believe those are the gods whose bloodlines I possess.”
Kaleesh's eyes went wide with shock. ”Those are your bloodlines? And you spoke their names in the Hall of Blessings?! Once word of this gets to that Archon—” He cut off mid-sentence, a frown appearing on his face. ”You already told him?”
”I didn't tell him,” Arran said. ”But I might as well have, for all the difference it made. It took me longer to realize than it should have, but I'm confident that Archons can see bloodlines.”
”See bloodlines?” Kaleesh stroked his chin, his brows furrowed in thought. ”It's well-known that priests can recognize those who carry the Darian bloodline, but you're saying Archons can see all bloodlines? How do you know this?”
”The priests' ability has to be a bloodline,” Arran replied. ”The way they can recognize those who carry Darian blood — it must come from a bloodline. And if that's the case, it should be far stronger in Archons than in common priests.”
Kaleesh nodded, his eyes briefly roaming the Sanctum's grounds around them. In the distance, many people could be seen wandering the paths between the temples — soldiers, commoners, and more than a few priests among them. The captain's gaze lingered on a small group of priests for a moment, an uneasy frown forming on his brow.
”It makes sense,” he finally said, ”but how do you know it's true?”
Kaleesh gave him a skeptical look. ”That's what convinced you? An Archon having a chat with you?”
Arran shook his head. ”It was the same with Roshan. He had no good reason to invite me personally. Any random priest could have told me the same, and he made no real demands of me, either. Instead, he merely kept me around long enough to get a good look at me.”
”If priests can recognize a single bloodline, then Archons might see more than that,” Kaleesh said, though his voice still held some doubt. ”But if the church already knows what this bloodline of yours is, why would they not just take it?”
”Why indeed.” Arran rubbed his chin in thought, then continued, ”I don't think they can. All that talk of toil and labor — I think it's more than just piety. I think bloodlines somehow have to be mastered before they can be shared.”
Kaleesh shrugged uneasily. ”Perhaps you're right. But even if you are, why antagonize the church?”
”Two reasons,” Arran replied. ”First, I needed to know how interested the Archon really is.” He cast a glance at the Hall of Blessings. ”I think we have an answer to that. And second, I had to know which bloodline he's after.” He paused as he cast a long look at the temples that littered the Sanctum's ample grounds. ”Do you think the Sanctum has a temple for the Ruiner?”
”If I didn't know any better, I'd almost believe you're developing a taste for intrigue,” Kaleesh said flatly. ”But yes, there should be a temple for the Ruiner somewhere around here. The church would not risk offending even the least of the gods.”
”Then I suggest we go find it,” Arran said. ”Before I take any new bloodlines, I'd like to see what secrets this one might hold.”
Finding the Ruiner's temple proved a simple matter. The first priest they approached was happy to give them directions — even if the man seemed surprised that they wished to visit the Ruiner's temple — and barely a quarter-hour later, they found themselves standing in front of one of the many temples the Sanctum held.
Like all the temples in the Sanctum, it was built from white marble, with elaborate carvings covering its outer walls. Yet where most of the temples were large and busy with people, this one was modest in size, and it stood in a secluded corner of the Sanctum with barely anyone around.
”I guess he's not the most popular of the gods,” Kaleesh observed.
Arran raised an eyebrow. ”You grew up in the Imperium. Shouldn't you know already?”
”The Imperium has hundreds of gods,” Kaleesh replied with a shrug. ”And nobody's ever accused me of being pious. As far as I'm concerned, you've seen one temple, you've seen them all.”
Arran cast a glance at the temple before them. ”For once, I hope you're wrong.”
When they entered the temple a moment later, Arran saw that it was all but empty. The only person inside was a lone priest, who was carefully cleaning one of the elaborate murals that covered the walls. Absorbed in the task, he barely appeared to have noticed the newcomers at all.
Yet if the priest paid them little mind, Arran did not have any attention to spare for the man, either. Instead, his focus was entirely on the murals and what they depicted.
Covering the walls were several large paintings, showing various scenes of battle. The scenes were all different, but the main character in each was the same — a giant dragon, slaughtering Blightspawn by the thousands. And while the artwork was masterfully done, it was obvious that the artists had never seen a dragon with their own eyes.
But if the details of the dragon weren't quite accurate, the artists clearly hadn't worked entirely from mere myth and legend, either. At the very least, they'd been instructed by someone who had actually seen dragons.
”The Ruiner is a dragon?” Kaleesh shot Arran a sideways glance, both surprise and a hint of envy in his eyes.
”Indeed he is.” The one who had spoken was the priest, who had silently appeared beside them as they were studying the murals. He was a man just past his middle years, with several streaks of gray in his otherwise dark hair. And as he stood next to them, he gazed at the murals with a reverent expression.
”And not just any dragon, mind you,” the priest continued. ”The Ruiner is the god of dragons, the ancestor of all dragons that ever roamed this world.” He paused briefly, then added in a softer tone, ”And despite what you may have heard, the Ruiner is no less than any of the gods.”
Arran raised an eyebrow. ”What is it you think we heard?”
”The usual lies,” the priest replied morosely. ”That the Ruiner is a mindless monster, possessing only viciousness rather than true power. That he is weak, robbing only the strength of others.”
”Weak?” Arran looked at the man in astonishment. ”The Ruiner is weak?” The very idea of it was preposterous. He had witnessed the strength of Crassus, and if the Ruiner was even half as strong, then nobody in his right mind would call him weak.
”Of course not!” the priest snapped, apparently mistaking Arran's confusion for doubt. ”If he was weak, do you think he could have—” He caught himself mid-sentence, and angrily shook his head. ”He isn't weak. Not even the Titan could match his strength.”
”That's not what the other priests told us,” Arran lied. ”They said his strength pales compared to the Titan's.”
The man's eyes went wide with outrage, as if he'd just been personally insulted. ”They did, did they?” Face twisted in a grim smile, he continued, ”The Titan stronger than the Ruiner? Ridiculous! When the two fought, it wasn't the Ruiner who was eaten!”
”Eaten?” Kaleesh looked at the priest in wonder. ”You mean to say the Ruiner ate the Titan?”
”That's right,” the man replied, a satisfied grin now replacing his earlier anger. ”I bet the others didn't tell you about that, did they? About the fate of their precious Titan.”
Arran gave the man a questioning look. Not because the Ruiner supposedly ate the Titan — if he was a dragon, such a thing only made sense — but because he couldn't understand why the church would consider him weak.
”If the Ruiner is so strong, why do the other priests not respect him?” he asked, eager to goad the priest into revealing more. ”How could they dare offend so powerful a god?”
”The Ruiner never shared his bloodline with the church,” the priest replied. ”See that?” He pointed at one of the murals, where a small figure could be seen fighting beside the giant dragon. ”Supposedly, that's the first Imperator. Rumor has it that the Ruiner favored him over the church.”
”Did he share his bloodline with the Imperator, then?”
Arran asked the question in a casual tone, but although his expression remained calm, his thoughts were racing. Because if his suspicions were correct, then his position in the Imperium was even more precarious than he had realized.
If, as he suspected, the Ruiner's bloodline was something the Imperial Knights had and the church wanted, then he had unwittingly stumbled into a conflict between two of the Imperium's most powerful forces. And for all the attention Kadun's death had brought them, he could not help but feel that this matter was a far more dangerous one.