WW Chapter 54: Begging Favor (Patreon)

Ezra cringed as his commanding officer, or, he supposed, his ex-commanding officer, called out into the chapel. Georg didn’t hesitate to step in after he shouted for Mabel’s attention, and he gestured for the other two to follow after him. Though he hadn’t shouted, the sound was definitely enough to bother whoever was inside, and Ezra mentally cursed the older man. Certainly, what he’d just done had lost Tilly the opportunity to study under the Acolyte.

Ezra had no time to continue to think about that, though, and stepped into the chapel behind Georg. The midday sun streamed in through the stained glass windows behind him, lighting the room in a variety of colors. On the opposite side of the room they stepped into, a series of four windows were carved into the wall, each a stained glass conglomeration of the four primary colors of the gods. What seemed to be an even mixture of red, white, black, and blue glass was shattered and scattered in each window. In front of the windows, an altar loomed over where the congregation would sit, though nobody stood behind it. In fact, the room they walked into was empty, to Ezra’s surprise. Shouldn’t the clergy be around here or something?

“Mabel!” Georg insisted. “Are you taking a nap?”

After calling out the second time, Georg walked slowly towards the front of the room, standing just a few meters away from the altar, but he went no further. Then, after about thirty seconds, Ezra could hear the mumblings of a voice off towards the left. He couldn’t hear it clearly, but he looked at Georg and gestured in that direction with a shrug.

“You hear something?” Georg verified.

When Ezra nodded in response, the lieutenant gave him a thumbs up and walked in that direction as he called out, “Mabel, is that you? Coming to check on you.”

As they got closer, the old woman’s response was audible.

“Stay out there. Give me a minute.”

Nobody argued with that. Instead, Georg turned around and settled into a comfortable, casual sitting position on one of the pews. Ezra and Tilly, however, stood there with a mixture of nervousness and general discomfort from their first time being in a church. Fortunately, after about three minutes, Ezra heard the old woman’s shuffling approach.

She leaned heavily on her cane as she walked out, somewhat hunched, but still standing proud, like the last time Ezra had seen her. The term “old but unbowed” occurred to him, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen a more perfect example of that. As Mabel walked in, she didn’t even look at the three people waiting for her, instead first stepping towards the altar, which she leaned against and then placed both of her palms down on top of. With a slow, stately movement, she bowed her head to press her forehead against the offering place. Then, she took her cane in her hand, turned, and hobbled her way to the nearest pew.

Ezra stepped forward, offering his hand to help her sit, and she took it, the skin on her hand papery, but her grip tight as she settled into a sitting position. She let out a little grunt as she adjusted her cane to be between her legs and rested her chin on it as she stared at Georg.

“I think you’ve asked enough of me for the week, haven’t you?” she said without exchanging any pleasantries. “I can’t imagine that there’s anything else you’ll need my expertise on with regards to healing magic. I’m a tough old biddy, but I do need to rest sometimes.”

“Nobody questions your age or your toughness,” Georg laughed. “You’re a pillar and example of dedication and strength.”

“Don’t flatter me, tell me why you’re here,” she said, raising her voice a little. “I know you hate coming here, there’s no need to pretend that you don’t. What do you want from me?”

“Well, it’s not from me,” Georg said, shrugging. “You two can talk to her. I got her out of her room. That’s my part done.”

The old woman turned her gaze to Ezra, and he felt the weight of her attention. Just like the first time he met her, there was obviously something more than just human about her. She had something behind her eyes that seemed to look into Ezra’s soul and weigh if his existence was worth any attention. After a few seconds, she spoke up again.

“Use your words.”

Ezra swallowed past the dryness in his throat and nodded.

“My friend here, her name is Matilda, she wants to study under a sorcerer. I told her I don’t know any, but maybe I could introduce her to you, as you’re the only cleric I’ve seen around here who can use magic. I know that’s not exactly the same, but I wondered if maybe you can help her? I have fifty large silver that I can us to pay—”

“I’m willing to pay my own way,” Tilly cut him off, stepping forward and bowing her head to the old woman. “I don’t need him to do anything for me. Whatever you would like me to do, I’ll do it.”

Ezra wanted to argue with her, but decided not to, instead backing off and allowing his friend to attempt to make her case. She didn’t say anything else, though, and remained bowing to the old woman. A few seconds passed, and Mabel continued looking at Matilda. Ezra’s stomach twisted, and he was confident that the old woman was trying to think of a way to let Tilly down.

“I’ll tell you this, young man,” Mabel finally broke the silence, initially ignoring Tilly. “You can’t buy a position among the clergy of the gods. A willingness to subject yourself to them, however, can work. I have no doubt that you would struggle to do that.”

Ezra wasn’t going to answer, but she stared at him, obviously wanting to hear what he had to say to that, so he shrugged. “I think you’re right. I don’t think that I love the gods the way that someone like you does.”

“Bah,” Mabel shook her head. “I didn’t say respect or love. I said subject yourself. You’re too proud. You could never.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to!” Ezra protested.

“You, however,” Mabel continued, not caring to pay him any mind, “are humble enough to give it a try.”

“I’m sorry, Lady Mabel,” Tilly began.

“I’m no lady,” the Acolyte shushed her.

“I apologize, Mabel,” Tilly tried again, “but I think I would prefer to go down the path of a sorcerer, if that’s possible.”

“Kids are getting more and more arrogant, aren’t they?” Mabel said, looking at Georg.

The lieutenant didn’t argue with that, and Mabel turned her attention back to Tilly.

“Georg still brought you here, even when you asked to be brought to me for instruction on sorcery. There’s a reason for that, just like there’s a reason why I’m only an Acolyte, but am respected above many Priests. It just so happens that I am one of the few people in the world who has been so foolish as to attempt to pursue multiple paths at the same time. Even more foolishly, I did not attempt to pursue the path of sorcery and knighthood or the priesthood and knighthood.

“I am Mabel si’Baltisse, and while I am an Acolyte of the Queen only capable of touching the first threshold of my lady’s power, I am also a sorcerer of the Second Circle. So, I could potentially teach you the ways of the sorcerers, if you are well suited to it.”

Ezra’s doubt died away at her declarations, her apparent power, and possible willingness to share it. Even so, he could hear the “but” coming, and he didn’t doubt that there would be conditions or a strict denial coming.

“I’ll do anything,” Tilly said, looking up at Mabel’s face for the first time. Ezra saw the desperation in the face of his friend, her eyes shining with determination as she begged for the opportunity to learn.

Mabel stared at her, evaluating, doing something, and an uncomfortable silence settled over the room for nearly a full minute. Finally, with neither of the women in the room saying anything and the generally uninvolved men following suit, the old woman seemed to break first.

“I’m getting old. Be that as it may, I like you. Let’s see what we can do for you. You two, get out of here.”

With that, Mabel creaked to her feet and walked closer to Georg. There, she put one hand on the back of the pew while her other grabbed her cane in the middle, and then thumped him solidly on the head. It was obvious to anybody watching what she was doing before it happened, and Georg bowed his head and accepted the gentle strike with a soft smile.

“Even if I can’t help her,” Mabel said, “I want you around here. I don’t care what’s going on between you and your brother. I need to see you more. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Georg bowed his head again, just before he reached up and grabbed her hand and planted a soft kiss on her knuckles.

“Good. Now, this will take at least two hours. Ezra, your presence will disturb the girl. You go and do whatever it is that criminal soldiers like you do and come back in two hours. I will make sure that, at some point today after those two hours, she is safely delivered to you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ezra answered.

“Good. Farewell!”

And just like that, the old woman kicked the two soldiers out and closed the chapel door behind them.

They stood there in silence for a few seconds before Ezra looked at Georg and said, “I think I may have just chained my friend to a rampaging bull.”

“I don’t think you understand how correct what you just said is,” Georg laughed, throwing his arm around the younger man’s shoulder and starting to walk towards headquarters. “At least we’ve done everything we can for her. From here on, it’s everything to do with your friend.”

Ezra nodded, turning his head to look at Jormun as he asked out loud, “Why is it that Mabel seems so convinced that being a sorcerer and a cleric at the same time is harming her ability to progress?”

While Georg gave an answer that seemed to boil down to, “Who knows,” Jormun’s answer was, as Ezra expected, much better.

The three paths to strength have three different journeys to growth. Sainthood has to do with understanding and expanding an inner world, but the Path to Sainthood is developing your own inner world. Understanding who you are, how you interact with the world, and with each additional step, you are solidifying yourself.

You’ll have to forgive me when I explain the other two. I have no experience, and, to my understanding, each path has been much better explored on this world than it was in mine.

That said, the path of the Priesthood, as I understand it, is not a path of understanding yourself, but instead of understanding the god who you follow. The gods have, of course, ascended past the limits of a mortal, and instead of drawing on the strength of your own inner world, along the Path of the Priesthood, one draws on the strength of the divine being they seek to understand and embody.

Finally, the Path of Sorcery is understanding the world around you. Understanding the natural laws, and how to exert control over them to adjust those laws to suit your will. The spells that the divine grants are from the god, while the spells a sorcerer gains are from their own understanding and ability to change the world.

Thus, at its most fundamental, Sainthood is the development of the inner world, Priesthood is development of your integration to the divine world, and Sorcery is integration of the self into the natural world. As you progress along one of these paths, you yourself are more changed to suit the path you follow. It is nearly impossible to maintain what is effectively two different senses of self, one for one path of power and the other for a different one. I would guess that the old woman’s statement that following the Path of the Priesthood and of Sorcery at the same time was especially damaging is that establishing yourself as a saint and then also understanding a different world is less difficult than losing yourself within the world of the divine and the world of the secular.

Ezra felt his eyes glaze over at everything that Jormun said, and in the end, he simply nodded while trying to internalize what he could. He wasn’t sure what exactly any of that had meant, but at least he could continue to think about it on the upcoming journeys and days ahead.

For now, he would return to headquarters and tell those stories that his friends had requested. He had a few hours; might as well spend them with people he liked in an attempt to give a real apology.