All That Glitters

The Blessed and Holy City of Embrace, also known as Per'Shorn Jot, whose ancient name cast in a virtually dead tongue means 'To Embrace'. Population; 4 million. Head seat and spiritual center of the Rystianizm Branch And Blade Of The Enduring Faiths, known to non-practitioners as 'Risers' or 'Raisers'. Primary shrine and seat of worship known as the Nine Jewels, a temple overseen and guarded by three central and six surrounding towers to match the primary names of worship and their six most known aspects that blessed the world with their presence. Temple capable of seating 30,000 comfortably.

Current Arkhierei: Diana I, blessed speaker for the nine and mother of champions, healer of the sacred blood who the foulest hands could not spill without consequence or taint. Commands an army 500,000 strong who will ensure the safety of her, her chosen, and her flock. Speaks with the voice of God and his glory, and his mercy, and his love, and his wrath. She who saw demons and foul liars attempt to twist the words of the Nine to bring ruin to all who heard and believed them, who tore down the walls of Embrace and laid the towers low, and who raised them back not only in ever-greater glory, but made her people see their brothers in the other Enduring Faiths as such, and allowed once-closed hearts to build their own temples to their own words and worship of God....

And so on, and so on. Hyperbole was always important in religion. But actions spoke louder than words.

This was not the Nine Jewels, the central temple of Embrace, or even one of the larger temples that surrounded it. Embrace had nearly two hundred seats of worship for Rystianizm alone, let alone the other faiths that worshiped there, and to Diana, each was as important as the last. Some members of her higher Ecclesia would disagree with her, in that polite yet somehow non-understanding way; for the most part, she believed it was because they feared for her safety. They had feared for things before, and been proven wrong more than right. When the Twilight War had dissolved the feared tension of allowing the other Branch and Blades into their city, all speakers of their own words uniting to declare they would not die willingly or easy, they had been amazed to the point of stupefaction. It simply went to show that no one, no matter what, had a limit to what they could learn.

So she did not perform her service at the Nine Jewels, but at this small church, the seats only half full. Diana did not tell anyone where she would be performing her services, lest she provoke mobbing and riots, and her lone rule was that once she had entered, she preferred that no one leave lest the secret get out. They did not have to hear her preach, but until she had left, neither could they. So far, her request had not been tested; the church may have only been half full, but everyone there was hanging onto her every word.

But faith existed to be tested. If not one way, then another...

For instance, the construction of this church happening to provide good natural soundproofing, which kept her from realizing anything was wrong until her soldiers got thrown through the main door. The words from the Clasp, the main book of her Branch, grew quiet as everyone either turned around in confusion, froze in surprise, or both.

"You the one sticking shields on these assholes?"

The Magpies had some odd rules. One was that you couldn't take a 'special' name that described your powers unless you did something to earn it, and giving yourself one outside of your own head before you got official permission would get you anything from dirty looks to violence, depending on who found out. The four people who entered the church, as a result, were stuck with their birth names, though the speaker, one Horace Scott, suspected that would change soon.

"Because it REALLY! MAKES! THIS! A! CHORE!" Horace said, as he slammed the piece of limestone he'd pulled out of the street onto the soldier, something that should have crushed the soldier to pulp, but only made him groan and try and crawl towards the front of the church. "I hate doing my chores."

The screams were silenced as soon as they started, albeit not for any reason on behalf of the screamers. It was because of Doreen Shaw, whose lower-class command of sound allowed her to literally shut down the wavelengths human beings made their louder noises at. The last two,  Brett Wilkerson and Greg Holland, who respectively controlled chromium and rock salt, brought up the rear.

"My lady..." The soldier groaned, before Horace just dropped the stone onto him. Behind him lay the fallen, beaten forms of the forty soldiers the four lower-ranked Magpies had beaten to get into the church.

"You the Ark hearing?" Horace said.

"...I am Arkhierei." Diana said. Horace was not impressed. The stories he'd heard on his way here had all been about this woman's voice, but she sounded like any old woman to him. Her robes were a simple purple with a white sash and hood that covered her head, her black hair going to gray and crows' feet having long taken up residence on her face. She didn't even have any jewelry, a far cry from the yahoo they'd beaten the location out of, whose hands were so covered in rings he had trouble using them.

"Great! You're the bigwig hotshot here! You probably know how to use the Steam better than these losers! Tell us everything!"

"...You wish for me to...train you in the healing arts?"

"Fuck no! I wanna know how to blow things up! Like your loser soldiers! Except, you know, not a bunch of losers!"

"...my people. Let them go, then." Diana said, indicating those she had come to speak to, who had begun to back away and look for the exits.

"...we don't need them, Horace." Brett said.

"Like hell! What we NEED is to be taken seriously! Or the second we don't have any leverage this old fart's going to..."

"You should not do that." Diana said.

"Huh?"

"Draw such judgments. You're angry. All of you are angry. Is this what you want?"

"What is this, truth or dare? I want you to know that if you don't start talking, this is going to be even more of your people!" Horace said, and shattered his limestone block before hurling the pebbles outward like a thousand bullets.

It was an eerie thing, watching people scream in mortal terror without making a sound.

The limestone bullets proved equally impotent, impacting on empty air and stopping. Horace frowned, and then growled when his repeated efforts to make the rocks go forward was completely blunted.

"OH FUCK THIS SHIELD SHIT! HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?!" Horace said, not noticing how Diana's hands were gripping the alter before her. "You know what, I changed my mind! Brett, go kill her!"

"What?!" Doreen said, her blonde hair flying around as she snapped her gaze towards Horace.

"What?!" Brett said in a near-echo. "Horace, Saguaro told us to get stuff, like magic things! Info! She didn't say go around killing people willy-nilly!"

"You don't get it, do you? Don't you see what this place IS?' Horace said. "It's a churchtown! A super mega church town! This is Chaktown with a different paint job! This is where all the assholes gather up and decide who should die and be tortured because they think God wants them to take all their money in between wanting them dead for being gay!"

"That is not true." Diana said.

"Like FUCK it's not! How many damn kids YOU raping, bitch?"

"...If those who claim to speak for God have done you harm, then I am sorry. Please...rage is a poison, you do not need to suffer in its grip here..."

"Suffer THIS! Brett, go stab a bitch."

"...I don't know, Horace..."

"Hey asshole, I'm TELLING you."

"You are NOT my superior!"

"Yeah, you can't give us orders, Horace." Doreen said.

"We aren't here to relieve YOUR grudges." Greg said.

"Hey, asswipes, you forgetting whose side we picked?"

"I felt Kou was being timid, that doesn't mean I'm now a mass murderer, Horace." Greg said.

"We're the MAGPIES, Holland. Morality is for OTHER PEOPLE. You think Saguaro is going to think you wanting to play nice is good? No, she'll kick you back to the Nest, and since you turned on Kou you'll get stuck with one of the other Seven. Probably Muerto."

"You are welcome here." Diana said.

"What?" Brett said.

"Oh don't fall for this! Brett go kill her before I have to just tear this whole place down and see what happens."

"Anger shackles you, it blinds...it is not something easily borne, and you all bow beneath its weight...if you feel trapped, you are welcome here, all are welcome...there is no suffering that cannot be endured and learned from togeth-"

Brett went for center of mass. He still couldn't look as he threw the blade of metal he formed, and he hoped it would be quiet and quick.

It wasn't. But not for the reason he expected. He felt the mental feedback as the blade struck flesh and impaled deep. The silence became even deeper. In the corner of his eyes, Brett could see the shock and outrage of the semi-trapped congregation, some actually bursting into tears.

"...If you wish it, there is no door here closed to you."

The voice was pained, but strong. Brett vaguely was aware of Horace's shocked face before he turned back to see the woman, her hand on the long thin blade of metal sticking out of her chest, her purple robes staining red as she began to slowly withdraw the blade.

"Rage is a part of you...but just...one part. Those who let it be their whole...cannot be whole. Whatever torments your soul...will not be found in anger, or hate...if that is all you know...then my door is open..."

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY FUCKING KIDDING?!" Horace said. "WE DON'T NEED YOUR DAMN RELIGION!"

"You are hurting. We...bring peace, to those who desire it...no matter what their reasons may be. We are all...loved...we merely have to decide by who...to see it ourselves."

"For the love of...Brett, get her damn heart this time!"

"I..."

"NOW! YOU THINK SHE'LL TAKE YOU AND MAKE YOU ALL SHINY HAPPY? THESE PLACES EXIST FOR ONE REASON ONLY! THE EXACT REASON WE DO! EXCEPT WE DON'T MAKE UP STORIES!"

"I..."

"YOU WANNA BE FED TO THE FUNERAL KING?!"

Brett's face paled, and he recalled his blade and threw it again. This time, he hit the heart. He knew. He felt it.

...Her face barely changed. There was pain there, and sorrow. Yet...she did not mirror the hostility directed at her.

Instead...she reached up and began to draw the blade back out. Brett somehow went even whiter. Her heart was still beating, around the impalement. Brett knew enough about anatomy that even if that worked, it must have been agony...

"They suffered for our sins. As their voice, if I must suffer, then mine pales..." Diana said, as she again worked the blade free. It dropped to the ground.

It was around then that Brett realized that Horace hadn't stopped slamming his pebbles against the shields erected against them. And he hadn't gotten anywhere, even now.

"...guh...wuh..." Horace said, before he finally regained his fire. "YOU SUCK, BRETT! Doreen, pop her head!"

"And if that doesn't work?" Greg said.

"Then we'll break things until it does! Doreen!"

"No." Doreen said.

"What?!!"

"No! This is wrong, Horace! We...she's right, why are you so mad?"

"MAD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. I'M JUST THE ONLY ONE OF YOU HERE WITH STONES." Horace growled. For a moment he debated re-directing his limestone bullets, but ultimately decided he didn't want to risk some trick. Instead, he stalked over to the fallen soldier he'd bashed into the floor and relieved him of his sword.

"Horace, come on! Stop! We can just go...!" Brett said.

"The doors remain open."

"YOU LET THE WRONG ONE IN, BITCH." Horace said, as he drew close and raised the sword. "GO TO HELL!"

The blade came down.

The blade bit deep.

The blood flew.

Then it landed on Horace, and it all went wrong. Suddenly he felt like every single part of him was having red-hot needles jammed into it, and even as he recoiled and screamed, the sword flying from flaming fingers, he had a sudden second, and worse, revelation. He was not on fire. His skin, his combat clothes, didn't have a mark on them. Save the blood.

The pain vanished as quickly as it came...and his energy went with it, Horace Scott suddenly feeling like he'd run the whole way to this city at a sprint. Within a second, he couldn't stand. Within another, he couldn't move.

"...Hell is not just a final fate." Diana said. Once again, she hadn't taken one step back, even as the blood soaked her.

Then Horace was gone, carried away by the dark.

----

The dark he came back out of. No one was more surprised than Horace.

He was back outside the city...and there was about three thousand or so VERY angry troops glaring at him. He was also soaked in water.

"I cannot have you put my people at risk."

Her. That damn woman, a simple white cloak over her robes, primary to hide the damage...and there were his three 'fellows', looking dully at him.

"You do not have to be alone. For no one behaves this way if they're alone." Diana said. "Is solitude your will?"

"...you ASSHOLES! You know what the Magpies do to traitors!"

"We're not defecting. We resign." Doreen said.

"Hostile work environment." Brett said.

"Screw you. SCREW ALL OF YOU. These shits will screw you, and SCREW you, and then we'll come back, and we'll skin you fucks alive, and I'll stick YOUR HEAD ON A POLE TO WATCH!" Horace said, pointing at Diana.

"I will pray for you."

"Save your breath." Horace said, getting up and stalking off. He expected every step for the next ten miles to be the one that triggered the ambush. It was hard to say if he was more surprised or angered that it never came.

"Some need more time. Some..." Diana said, having turned away. "We can shelter you for a time, but it would be best if you could discover a means of employment so you can have freedom. You will, however, have permanent sanctuary from those who would wish to prosecute you. The door is not open for revenge or hatred. Any who wishes to bring it to our gate will find our shields firm and our blades terrible and swift."

"...Our guys...they're strong, miss...and we found some stuff..."

"They shall reap what they sow." Diana said, heading in through the gates of Embrace, passing the statues dedicated to her son and daughter and their allies who had crushed the vile evils of Schwarz Spinne. "May some break off their shackles and turn to the light and the way, or a better path for them. Thanks be to God."

"Amen." Said the legions surrounding the three ex-Magpies.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing was there wasn't a single angry eye when they did not echo it.