After Prayers.
Mia had fallen quickly into sleep after her sadly unanswered prayers. Perhaps, she wondered, it was better that none of them, well, the black one, answered her. She found herself in her dream walking back through Jouet, back in the time before all this began. The houses were all standing, clean and neat and flowers growing about them, well tended. No one else was in town; it was quiet but not eerie, just empty. She walked into her house, waddling in her pregnant state, a basket of flowers in one arm.
Nicholas stood up from the chair at the table in their kitchen/dining/living room. "It's good to see you again, Mia. You look good."
She stopped at the threshold, mouth suddenly dry and heart beating rapidly. A twinge inside said that she had not forgotten him, while Henri's baby weighed heavily on her.
She was saved from saying anything by Henri moving out the chair for her to sit down. He smiled that smile she remembered so well, eyes glinting and one corner of his mouth turning up, and motioned for her to sit. "I've learned much since we last saw each other, too. He heard you, Mia. Your voice carries now, and few have tried to talk to him in a long time." She sat down and he moved the flower basket to the table. "No one has tried to call on his power in a long time. That's why those who do get so much power from him; he has a lot to give." She glanced at the flowers in the basket, now vibrant and glowing with color, brighter than when she had picked them outside.
He pulled another chair up to the table, sitting in it with arms on the table, leaning in to look at her intently. His dark eyes locked on to hers. "Those who call to him now start off warped, and all the power that they get warps them even more. But he could be used for good, if someone started off good and called to him." He leaned back from the chair. "I think you could do it." He pushed his chair back and stood up. "I'll be there too, waiting for you. I miss you, Mia."
He blew her a kiss and walked out the door. The flowers flowed into a mess of color and she didn't recall what happened next.
[I don't think the party is making Mia stand a watch, but you still like to cook, so you are up early for that.]
Mia & Paris.
Paris was on third watch. A rustle and subdued clatter near the campfire indicated that Cleric Mia had risen as usual to prepare breakfast. Paris' eyebrows rose slightly as she noted that it was only false dawn. The widow -- um, Mia -- didn't usually start quite this early. A suppressed yelp of pain. Paris' mouth twitched in sympathy. Yes, getting up earlier didn't make dealing with warm coals any easier.
By the third such yelp, though, Paris' brows were knit in concern. The cleric was not usually so clumsy. Something must have her rather distracted to have so marred her normal serene domesticity. Did pregnancy do that to people? Firm to her post until past dawn, Paris kept one ear cocked camp-wise. She could tell that the others on guard were glad of the mugs of warm tea: part of Mia's usual routine. The season hadn't yet leaped into summer warmth at the beginning of the day and the morning was chill.
Paris was last on Mia's rounds. The knight looked the older girl over carefully. Mia was not meeting her eyes, was staring at the ground, Paris' hands holding the mug, her own fidgeting hands. Paris waited, sipping her tea. It came out in a rush, an almost whispered rush. "Paris, could you come and talk to me while I finish making breakfast? I don't usually need to talk ... but I can't talk about this to Pyotr. He's too - too - cruel these days...."
Paris inserted gently, "A bit too intolerant?"
"Yes!" Mia responded gratefully looking at last into the knight's eyes. "Besides I know you. And -- and -- I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been for you. If you hadn't made me realize, in the discussion last night, that the gods were different -- separate -- from the churches."
Paris led the way back to the fire and brought an armload of wood closer, to where she could tend the coals while Mia worked and talked. "Because I'd finally realized that the white god and the black god were not really part of their churches, and because the book of the Rainbow Church still seems to have parts that belong to the white and black gods, I prayed last night. To Murphy. And to the black god. For guidance." Paris' eyebrows shot up and she stared at the other girl with some concern.
"I didn't get an answer," Mia continued, "but I did dream. I was in Jouet. Our Jouet, before the orcs came. Everything was fine, better, in fact, than when we'd lived there. But it wasn't that 'before time.' I was still pregnant." Mia smiled down for a moment at her belly. "I'd been gathering flowers. I went back to my house and -- and Nicholas was there." Paris' hand came up to her mouth in something akin to anticipated fear. "Henri was too," Mia hastened on. "Nicholas didn't say very much. Something about it being good to see me. I don't know why he was there. Just to scare me, I guess. Henri did most of the talking. But I don't know if it was Henri. The black god -- someone mentioned that he is the Prince of Lies..." She looked worriedly at Paris.
The cleric continued, "He said that I had been heard. I'm sure he meant by the black god. And that no one prayed much to the black god so that there was a lot of power stored up there. Someone who prayed could access all that power. The only ones who do now are already damaged, warped, and that much power warps them yet more." Paris nodded and something inside whispered 'black mages' and saw again the waves of black magic that had made the fight in the Raven's house so horrifying.
Mia saw the understanding in Paris' eyes. "He said that someone with a good heart could pray -- and _use_ that power to unbind the black god." Paris closed her eyes and turned her face away. Could she? Could she allow Rhori? Mia's next words snapped her back around however. "He said he thought that I could do it."
"The worst of it," Mia went on earnestly, "is that that is exactly what I wanted to hear. To know that we could save Nature. But if he is the Prince of Lies...."
"If he is the Prince of Lies," Paris answered, "he is so because we have made him so in our common belief. But -- remember what I said about vilifying your enemy? If the Church had already gotten rid of one enemy -- the Rainbow Church -- it needs must have another. What it had at hand was its -- brother -- Nature. And so it -- declared war. Slowly. It vilified its brother."
"How is this possible?" Mia shook her head.
"Slowly," the knight replied. "To the first generation you say, 'Nature is hard and thoughtless. See what happened to the crops in drought? to the party lost in the winter mountains?' To the second generation you say, 'Nature is dangerous. See how the wild animals hunt us and our domestic animals, destroying our work. See how the sea and storm overwhelm us. Nature kills us.' To the third generation you say, 'Nature is chaotic. See how it must be tamed, driven back, destroyed so that Man can progress, else it overwhelm us all.' By that time, no one remembers what Nature was really like and how Man was supposed to relate to Nature."
Mia: "And this was deliberate!?!"
Paris: "Perhaps. Perhaps not. If Anton was awake, we both know that he'd be saying..." she imitated the bard's gestures and manner, 'We know who's done it! The Heirophant!'" Both young women smiled at the imitation.
Mia: "How could it, though? There have been many Heirophants."
Paris: "Maybe. Maybe not. There have been many High Priests. There may not have been a Heirophant since the Mirror broke, and the Heirophant's mantle now was taken up by the current High Priest in much the same way as..."
Mia, breaking in: "As Genelle took up the High Priestess' place!"
Paris nodded. "But there is the possibility that there were instructions written down and passed from High Priest to High Priest. They may have been clear and cruel instructions. Or they may have been so subject to misinterpretation that all this -- twisting -- came about by misunderstanding and accident. But the fact that it continued from there -- from forgetting what Man's relation to Nature really is -- indicates that a plan may have been being followed. The next step goes from 'Nature is chaotic' to 'Nature's chaos is dangerous', 'Chaos is evil', 'Evil is the Devil.'" The knight took a deep breath. "As I tried to say last night, it is a situation similar to the political situation we are now in. If the king had not died as he did. If Martin had not been what he was. Then, in time, Louis would have inherited the throne naturally at his father's death. And William would have been his brother's right hand man on the diplomatic front. There would never have been need or occasion for Louis and Katherine to call William traitor or whore-monger. But, because we are at war, they have to drag William down into the mud and all of us with him if they can." More slowly and thoughtfully, "And -- by the manner of William's death, we have done the same; we've come to vilify Louis and Katherine, we've come to see them as orcs. And, by extrapolation, all who support them. It is brother vilifying brother. The Church has to call the black god the 'Prince of Lies' and similar names. But -- as I am not a whore, he may not be what he is called."
Mia, tentatively: "If the black god is not the Prince of Lies...."
Paris, quietly: "If."
Mia, continuing: "... then it would be possible to follow these instructions. I could try to pray to him, to use his power."
Paris, biting her lip: "Mia -- you may not be the best one for this. Rhori...."
Mia: "I had thought of Rhori too. But -- clerics have the easiest time speaking to the gods."
Paris: "It might not hurt to prepare you both for the possibility."
Mia: "If he's not the Prince of Lies, then I feel so much better. It had been a very upsetting dream, Paris. And I don't know whose voice it was. It always sounds like Henri. He said he'd learned more too. Maybe it really was Henri talking. I need to pray to Binah and tell him I miss Henri too. Then if Henri gets the message, I'll know it was Henri."
Paris cautioned, "We must still be careful. It is still possible that common belief has made him, in truth, Prince of Lies. But that would mean that the Nature of Rhori's Order does not really exist anymore. And that just does not seem possible." She smiled. "In time you will be able to ask Henri if he had the same dream you did. Then you will know if he was there."
Mia: "It seemed like Nature must have been there, though. The flowers in my basket seemed so much more alive in the house than when I'd gathered them. In his presence." She looked worried again. "I just wish I knew why Nicholas was there. Just to upset me?"
Paris gave a half-smile. "There are some tales, Mia, in which the Devil is given other titles. 'Old Scratch'. And 'Old Nick'. "
Mia's mouth opened in a silent 'O'.
"Mia's Dream" copyright 2000 P.Shea, S. Fuller & S.Knowles. The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.