Regi's Goddess, chapter 17 (Patreon)

Dante stoked Peaches’ quill, helping her settle. It hurt to throw so many quills at once, and Peaches was still restless. He wished they could go back to the ship so he and Peaches could hide in their room. They could let Regi in since he looked even more bedraggled than Peaches, but Dante really wanted to shut out the rest of the world. Unfortunately, a crowd of exalteds had gathered in the garden—clustering around Dante and Alb’s swollen body. Someone really should carry it off.

“We had no choice,” Regi said firmly. He had all four thumbs tucked into his waistband and the fur along his shoulders was standing on end. That probably indicated that he was about ready to throw himself into battle, so Dante didn’t mention that it made him look fuzzy and cute.

“There is always a choice,” Dwill a’Itzpach snapped, his fur just as fuzzy, although he was too brutish to ever look cute. His arms and shoulders were covered with tiny scars that made the hair go in random directions, so that didn’t improve his appearance.

“You are young enough to believe that foolishness,” Sibja countered. Dante knew she had always supported them, but then Alb had always presented herself as a supporter, and that was making Dante more jaded than normal.

“Outsiders shouldn’t even be in the temple,” Leevshi said. Like Dwill, he was young. Dante was starting to recognize the more rounded features of the younger Kowri. Of course, that meant that Regi was on the younger side himself, although he had a much squarer jaw that either Leevshi or Dwill. Dante hoped it was a good sign that it was only the younger exalteds that spoke against them after hearing Regi’s story of the fight with Siger and Alb’s followers. Although it turned out they were Siger’s followers and Alb had manipulated their beliefs because as a follower of Oba, she had collected their stories about their monotheism.

Siger talked. A lot. Apparently when faced with real followers of Gavd, he folded like a cheap paper fan.

Bekdi a’Gavd stepped forward, his huge frame dominating everyone’s attention. “The punishment for an outsider violating the temple grounds is clear. The outsider must be executed.” The gathering fell silent, not even a rustling foot or stray animal cry breaking the silence.

After several heartbeats’ time, Regi threw himself in front of Dante, and Peaches fluffed her quills so fast that Dante damn near carried out that sentence by impaling his hand on her quills.

Nawr a’Ectipic stepped to Bekdi’s side. He kept one hand on his walker, and he rested the other on Bekdi’s forearm. “We must seek the will of the gods. Our rules are secondary to the will of the gods and only exist if they serve to further the gods’ agenda.”

“And the gods have made their will clear.” A new exalted stepped forward. She was taller than any of the other females and had a stronger color contrast; however, she had the sharper chin and chest of a female.

“The gods have decreed that outsiders will not step foot in a temple.” Bekdi narrowed his eyes.

“They have decreed that all outsiders we met before Dante a’Texas must remain outside. However, you are a follower of justice. In interpretations of laws, you should seek guidance of Onidba.”

Onidba. Dante had been studying his Kowri gods, and he knew that name. The god of logic had one follower in town, Gimi a’Onidba. Regi had said that the other two ladies didn’t want Gimi to speak for them because her love of logic and counterarguments sometimes confused the issue more than clarifying it, but it looked like Gimi planned to get involved now. She turned and considered the crowd.

“True or false—disaster is the first blessing of the gods?” she asked. The gathered crowd remained silent for several seconds before Regi answered.

“True.”

Gimi nodded. “True or false—Regi a’Divashi and Dante a’Texas requested a ride from a Gavd monotheist?”

Regi looked at Dante. More than anything, Dante wanted to stay out of this discussion, but he cleared his throat and said, “True.”

Gimi smiled at him, a tightening of the face Dante had come to recognize. “True or false, both of you rode and were thrown off a horse named after Divashi?”

“True,” Regi said.

Gimi considered the gathered crowd. “That is disastrous. Combined with an intermittent failure in the communication network, I maintain there is enough disaster gathered in one place to conclude the gods have intervened.”

“That is conjecture,” Bekdi said. He was shaping up to be their largest opposition, and the head honcho of this whole thing—Nawr—remained silent.

Gimi pursed her lips. “Conjecture supported by god-particles on the communication equipment. That is less conjecture and more logical conclusion. And since I am the exalted of Onidba, determining the logic of the situation is my purview. If I need someone to seek out the thief who continues to sneak into Vroen’s orchards to strip his trees of fruit, I will seek your advice.” Her words cut Bekdi sharply enough that he hissed and drew back a step. A whole lot of people then focused their gaze anywhere other than Gimi and Bekdi.

Nawr cleared his throat and leaned heavily against his walker. “We must not take any action that cannot be reversed.”

Some of the knots in Dante’s stomach loosened as he realized he was not about to be summarily executed.

“What is the oldest and most respected way of determining if an individual is either god-touched or exalted?” Gimi asked.

“No,” Nawr said firmly. “We will not have this discussion now.”

Gimi raised her arms and moved in a circle to encompass everyone gathered in the garden clearing. “We have enough exalteds from all three temples here to make decisions. Logic demands that we seek truth, no matter how uncomfortable, but Nawr, you seek to protect us from an uncomfortable truth. While that is fitting for one who follows the Lady Ectipic, I am of the Lord Onidba and I will not turn my head from truth.”

“We are not denying truth,” a voice from the back called.

“Reui a’Rvion,” Regi whispered. While Dante appreciated the information, he didn’t recognize either name. The Kowri had too many gods to remember them all, and Reui hadn’t featured in any of the stories Regi had brought back to the ship about the debates over how to handle a ship of outsiders.

“You are,” Gimi said firmly. “Otherwise you would see that Dante a’Texas was first presented disaster and then opportunity. And if Kowri eyes insisted on being blind, the Lady Divashi then guided her own creatures to be Alb’s executioners.”

“Not every action of a sacred creature is the will of a god. They still eat and shit,” another called. Regi didn’t provide a name this time, so perhaps he didn’t recognize everyone here either. That made sense because there were a lot of people in the garden. The grass and bushes were getting trampled.

“And a freio provided cover and prevented Dante a’Texas from rushing into battle unarmed.”

Bekdi crossed his arms in a gesture so human that Dante could almost see his own father superimposed over the Kowri man. “By that measure, the gods do not love Regi a’Divashi because they allowed him to enter that same battle unarmed.”

Gimi sniffed. “Perhaps they have more need of Dante. Perhaps they have more faith in Regi’s training. I do not pretend to know the gods’ minds. I only know a freio protected Dante a’Texas until he had the opportunity to enter the temple. And the acceptance of temple animals within the temple proper is the ultimate test of who is exalted. Disaster, opportunity, and the acceptance of temple animals—the signs are clear.  If you add a respectable layer of fur and additional thumbs to Dante, we would all welcome him to the status of exalted.”

Bekdi stood straighter, and several Kowri physically backed away as though Dante had the plague.

“Maybe that’s taking a little far. I might limit it to saying your gods and I have mutual friends that we want to protect,” Dante said as he stroked Peaches. He now understood why people might want to prevent Gimi from speaking in their favor. She made people uncomfortable.

Gimi stepped up to Regi, so close that their chests almost touched. She looked over his shoulder and right at Dante. “If I asked you to walk up to the freio, would you have any reservations?” She nodded toward where the saber-tooth bear thing stood eating what looked like the hind quarter of a large animal. Dante hoped that was something one of the temple workers had given him and not another sacred animal. Sadly, it might have been the rear leg of the old pebafri that Regi had been forced to put down after he’d won his fight. While irrational, Dante was angrier about that animal’s death than he was the deaths of Siger’s pals. They deserved it, but the gods were assholes for not protecting that pebafri.

“Sacred animals are safe. I already stumbled and fell into him once, so I don’t have a problem with him.”

Gimi whirled on Bekdi. “Are you equally sanguine about approaching a freio?”

Bekdi hesitated long enough to make his real answer known, but he drew himself up to his full height. “Of course I am. I am an exalted.” He strode over toward the creature. He was six or seven feet away when the freio bit down on the thigh bone hard enough that it broke with a thunderous crack. Bekdi jumped, but to his credit, he continued walking to the beast, stopping a few inches from it. The freio gave him an unimpressed look at walked away, his dinner in his mouth.

“I would urinate on myself before doing that,” Gimi said. “Yet that freio protected Dante a’Texas because Lord Retav himself wished to make himself clear. Do any of you wish to contradict the Lord of retribution? Is there another reason for the freio to be here rather than the harvest-season temple where he is our most sacred and most dangerous animal?”

“You cannot possibly give an outsider the title of exalted.”

“I am an exalted of Onidba. The thing I cannot do is embrace illogic.” With that, she walked away.

Sibja sighed. “She is a difficult woman. Debates in the harvest-season temple do tend to end with her bludgeoning us with logic until we admit that she is right. However, she has a point. How many years has it been since a freio has attended the temple? The fact that he came to the wrong temple does suggest that the gods have made their point clear.”

Nawr winced. “I believe we should all separate and think about the issues Gimi a’Onidba has presented.” He turned and started slowly across the open field, his powered walker rolling smoothly across the uneven ground.

“Outsiders are not allowed in the temple,” Bekdi said. Dante imagined the man wanted to stomp his feet, but most of the other exalteds looked away, and a few even gave Dante careful smiles. Regi stepped back until he pressed his shoulder into Dante’s.

“I think you just earned a promotion.”

“I don’t want one,” Dante whispered back.

“I didn’t either.” Regi gave Dante a long look and then he started limping toward the front of the temple. Clumps of bloody fur decorated the right side of his face and he seemed to have hurt his left leg. Dante hurried after him, sliding an arm around Regi’s waist and taking some of his weight. For a second, Regi just studied him. But then Regi slung an arm over Dante’s shoulders. They made their way toward the front of the temple and Dante really hoped they had medical care on the way. Regi had taken a lot of blows. Dante really hoped the gods left them alone for a while. If either of them had any more of the gods’ first blessing, they were going to end up dead.

Hell, Dante was surprised they weren’t dead already.