Chapter 20

Questions raced through Morgan's mind as she stood before the small girl in her bedroom. The girl who had somehow made it past all of the temple's security and had entered the library without her even noticing. Her mysterious adversary continued to smile evilly, and she started to pace back and forth across the back wall. Her eyes remained locked onto her, however, and it was those eyes that made Morgan nervous. They were the eyes of a predator, searching for any sign of weakness, and she had no doubt what would happen if she showed any.

"So," the girl said. "It seems we have an aspiring wizard on our hands. I have to admit, its a little annoying how frequently I keep running into people like you, but at least it makes things interesting."

More thorns erupted, not from the girl, but from the doorway. Morgan was ready for them. She raised her hand and called forth a stream of fire that enveloped the thorns and burned them to a crisp before they got within three feet of her. She lowered her hand, kept one eye on the black-robed girl, and said, "I know there's one of you still in the hall. You may as well show yourself."

The girl only chuckled to herself. "Quite observant I see. How did you know?"

"You just said 'we' and 'our,' which implied that you weren't alone. Besides, if I was the one going around attacking temples I wouldn't be doing it without some form of backup," Morgan replied.

The girl seemed to muse it over for a second before nodding to herself. "Observant and a quick thinker. Fair enough, I suppose," she said. "Flowey, don't be rude. Come meet our new friend."

Morgan turned one eye towards the door and saw vines creeping out from the hall. Soon enough, a golden flower appeared, riding the vines as if they were an extension of its body. The flower had a face, but it contained zero emotion. It stared at her, with a small grin similar to the girl's, but that grin felt like a mask. Despite that small smile, the strange creature looked thoroughly bored.

Morgan turned back to the girl, keeping one eye on the flower and said, "Who are you?"

"Well, my friend over there is called Flowey. Flowey the flower. Such an original name, I know, but imagination isn't one of his strengths," the girl replied.

The vines around the flower moved up and down, and Morgan realized it was shrugging. If it was bothered by its companion's comment, it showed no sign of it.

"Then again," she continued, "I was the one who gave him that name, so I guess I'm the one who lacks creativity." She shook her head, apparently amused with herself. "As for who I am…Well, that's really not important right now. What's important is that I have some questions I need answered. And you're going to answer them."

"And why would I do that?" Morgan replied.

Her grin faded. "Ah, you acolytes are always so defiant," the girl mused. "You're going to answer them because if you don't I will inflict pain upon you such as you've never imagined."

Without any warning, the girl flicked her hand and a dark orb went streaking across the room at her. Morgan barely managed to get a shield up before it reached her. The orb collided with her protection spell, and her eyes widened as she saw her shield start to break. Redoubling her efforts, she poured more energy into the spell and her shield glowed brightly for a moment before the dark orb dissipated against it. She staggered, and fell to one knee, panting.

"She's strong," Morgan thought. She had never had to use that much energy to block a spell before, and the girl had thrown it at her with a simple wave of her hand. She had no doubt that the girl could easily take her in a straight up duel by herself. She wouldn't need the aid of that mysterious flower creature to overpower her.

She didn't need to try and fight her one-on-one though. She had to stall for time, hoping that another acolyte would notice what was happening.

"Ok, and what happens if I answer your questions?" she asked.

The smile returned to the girl's face. "Assuming you can answer them, I might just let you live. You are the first person to put up a fight. Courage and skill like that should be rewarded, don't you think?"

The girl was mocking her and Morgan knew it. Still, her response revealed a few things. Morgan had studied the reports of the attacks on the other temples, and all of them had noted that the victims appeared to have been tortured. The strange girl wanted answers, and if Morgan was the first person to put up any kind of fight, it made sense that the other victims had been quickly subdued before being tortured for those answers. It was also clear that whatever this girl was searching for, she hadn't found it yet. Furthermore, if she was willing to interrogate her without overpowering and subjecting her to whatever she had done to her other victims, it meant that she didn't want to escalate things, for whatever reason. Morgan figured she hadn't counted on her target being proficient in magic, and that meant she had more leverage than she initially assumed. The girl clearly didn't want to cause a scene that might draw attention.

"Besides, if I play along, I might learn something about why she' s been attacking us," she thought. She stood and asked, "What do you want to know?"

The girl's eyes gleamed. "Finally, someone cooperative," she said. "You wouldn't happen to know where the Goddess of Life is do you?"

"What?"

Surprise let the question out of her mouth before she could stop it. The location of Goddess of Life? Why was she asking something so obvious? Was someone with magic this strong really so ignorant?

Morgan shook herself. "She's in the heavenly realm with all the other gods, of course. Everyone knows that."

The girl sighed. "The masses are still clueless it seems. A shame, but I didn't really expect you to know anyway."

Morgan was now completely confused. What was she clueless about? Was this girl implying that Lady Toriel wasn't in the heavens any longer? Even if she was right, why would the queen of the gods leave in the first place?

Before she had time to ponder those questions, the girl addressed her again. "Moving on, here's a better question: Do you know what happened to the Acolytes of Virtue?"

"The Acolytes of Virtue?" Morgan repeated. "They're just a myth. An old church legend."

"Cut the crap," the girl said flatly. Her face twisted, and for the first time she looked genuinely angry. "You and I both know that the story is true, librarian, whatever the common dregs are told."

Morgan's eyes narrowed. This girl, whoever she was, obviously knew far more than she should. Only another acolyte should know that the old legend was true. Was this girl a former acolyte? She looked awfully young, but sometimes acolytes were trained from birth. A former temple life might also explain how she could use magic, although that didn't explain how someone as young as she appeared to be possessed so much power. Not to mention the idea of someone that young being entrusted with the truth about the Acolytes of Virtue. That information was kept to the upper ranks of the clergy; and the librarians who safeguarded the secrets of the temples. The truth behind that legend was one of the church's most closely guarded secrets, and for good reason.

"Fine," she said. "They were the first acolytes, the original messengers of the gods. Tradition says they were created directly by Lady Toriel herself. There were seven in total, each carrying a title of one of the gods' virtues. They also had the bodies of children, having lived in the golden age of immortality before mankind's sin brought death into the world. Legend has it that they could speak directly to the gods and could perceive their true forms. Some stories even say they were the first wizards, capable of magical feats far beyond normal humans. As for what happened to them, shortly after death appeared in the world they all mysteriously vanished."

"You've done your homework," the girl said. "Which means you know that they truly did exist, and that most of the stories about them are true."

"Well, yes. But they died ages ago, there's no way they could still-

"I said cut the crap!" the girl yelled.

As she shouted, her shadow seemed to expand and fan out from her body. The entire back wall was suddenly covered in darkness, and the light of the bedside candle seemed to dim in response. The flower creature's thorny vines bristled and twisted, and they rose to loom ominously, poised to strike.

"You know the stories are true," the girl hissed. "You know they existed. And you also know that they're still alive."

Morgan was about to deny lying to her, but she froze at that last statement. Whoever this girl was, she knew everything. So instead she simply nodded.

The shadows receded slightly, and the girl smiled again, managing to look more malicious than she had a few seconds earlier.

"Lie to me again, and I'll flay the skin from your living body. And that will be the gentlest thing that happens to you."

Morgan nodded again, a bit more compulsively this time. She already knew that her life hung by a thread, but the girl's threat planted a seed of pure terror in her heart. Any death she suffered at her hands would not be a painless one.

Far more terrifying, however, was the extent of the girl's knowledge. Knowing that the Acolytes of Virtue were real was bad enough, knowing that they were alive was even worse. Morgan had a sinking suspicion about where this conversation was going, and what the girl was truly after. If she was right, she wasn't going to be able to give her what she wanted. And that meant things were going to get…unpleasant.

"So, librarian," the girl continued. "I want to know where they are. In fact, I'll settle for just Bravery's location. Last time I checked, this was his home temple, so if he's hiding anywhere, its probably in this region. Tell me want I want to know, and I'll spare your life. Defy me though…"

She left that last sentence unspoken, but the gleam in her eyes said it for her. Morgan shivered as she realized that part of the girl wanted Morgan to defy her. Wanted her to give her an excuse to perform whatever atrocities she had in mind. Morgan swallowed. Unless she could think of way out of this, the girl was going to get her wish.

The truth was that no one knew where the Acolytes of Virtue had gone. They never revealed themselves in person, only communicating with the temples through extremely clandestine methods, with one notable exception. Several years after death appeared and their subsequent disappearance, the group had shown up in secret at the grand temple solely for the purpose of establishing their identities to the temple leadership. They had been the original leaders of the church, and they had ordered that the temples keep their existence a secret, which is why the temple propagated their story as legend and nothing more. Since then, they had gone into hiding and the mystery of why they'd disappeared in the first place had never been answered. The handful of messages that had reached the temples over the years had contained no answers either, only guidance on how the temple's doctrine and policy should be formed. No one in the temple's hierarchy, not even those at the top, had any idea where the Acolytes were. The fact that they were alive at all was a source of constant debate between those that knew the truth. Some argued that their divine origins made them exempt from death, while others thought they were using their powerful magic to preserve and lengthen their lives. Either way, this girl was seeking them out, and Morgan couldn't tell her how to find them.

Which meant she was about to die.

She focused, drawing forth as much of her magic as she could muster. She couldn't win a fight against this girl, but that didn't mean she couldn't make her work for it. Turning to face her, she said, "Sorry, but I don't know where they are. No one does, not even the temple leaders. Looks like you've been causing all of this trouble for nothing."

The girl didn't respond, she merely tilted her head to one side. After a few seconds which seemed like an eternity, she replied, "You're telling the truth aren't you?"

"Of course I am," Morgan said. "The Acolytes haven't told anyone where they're hiding, least of all me."

Again, there was a moment of silence. Then the girl began to float, levitating in the air about two feet off the floor.

"You know, I thought I'd be more disappointed right now," she said. "Even now, I find it hard to believe that none of you worthless maggots knows where they've been hiding, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense." She smiled. "It seemed so strange that your fellow acolytes kept choosing pain and death over giving me what I wanted."

Morgan felt herself shiver again. This girl was depraved in every sense of the word. The lives of other humans clearly meant nothing to her.

"However," she continued, "I have to say that I disagree with your notion that this has all been for nothing."

She raised her hands and darkness began to accumulate around them.

"You acolytes live such boring little lives. Spending your days safe in the temple with your every need satisfied. Every detail of your lives all nice and organized. So much order. So much balance. Tell me, where's the fun in that?"

Morgan raised her hands, gathering her own magic into her palms, and said nothing. The girl laughed and darkness in her hands formed two orbs, each far larger than the one she had attacked with earlier. Shadows rose up and filled the girl's eyes, turning them completely black.

"Allow me to give you a taste of chaos!" she yelled, and the darkness shot forward like an unstoppable tidal wave.