Although Tera's language had been inclusive, the truth of it was that Janyn soon found himself over his head, best able to contribute in the single task of fetching books for the magistrate or returning them when she was done. He was a literate man, but reading through archaic texts, often badly scrawled manuscripts rather than printed books, was a scholar's job and that he was not. In some cases, even the language was different, having changed over centuries or millennia to the point where it was difficult for him to even follow.
For her part, Tera showed an easy proficiency with the texts that spoke of extensive formal education and experience both. It wasn't just that she understood the material, but that she could efficiently search for what she wanted and knew how to extract the information from the books. As she worked, she covered several sheets of paper with notes in a flowing, almost scrawled handwriting. Details and cross-references revealed themselves, but the basic truth escaped her.
It was well after midnight, and Janyn's stomach was reminding him insistently that he hadn't had anything to eat, when Tera threw her pen down in frustration.
"Hints and half-truths!" she exclaimed. "I've been through enough of the theory that I could construct the ritual itself if I had a week, but there isn't that much time! I've already read six times over that the darkside is exactly what I thought it was--a patch of black magic that has become entwined with Dolan Brent's soul, given life and shape and form by his hatred--but so far no one seems interested in recording a process to disentangle that magic from his spirit."
"Once darkness has taken root in a man's soul, it takes more than a simple spell to remove it."
Janyn and Tera spun in surprise. There was no way that someone could have been hiding in the library; it was just too small for that, with no places of concealment. The door was bolted and didn't even have a way to be opened on the outside. Yet there he was, dressed all in black, with elaborate shoulder-guards from which a full-length cape fell. His hair was long and as jetty as his garb, and even his eyes were small, dark points. Small wonder Janyn's hand went to his sword hilt as he turned.
"H-Holy One!" Tera stammered, awestruck.
"Holy One?" Janyn repeated, then to the tall, dark man asked, "You're Zio?"
"Only faith in something greater can truly set a soul free," the dark figure continued, then to Janyn added, "I am, hunter."
He made an impressive appearance, Janyn had to admit. Zio was tall and handsome, if a bit on the slim side, and the fanciful armor added a suggestion of size to his body. So much black was a little unsettling, though, the color choice not what one would expect from a religious leader, a prophet. The sheer intensity of Zio's gaze was even more disturbing; it felt almost as if the man's scrutiny went right down to a person's soul.
"You do not have faith," he decided. "You have ideals, but you have seen them betrayed too often."
The crackle of flames as they licked at a woman's feet.
Chains clanking as they dragged in the sand.
The soft creak of rope, as a corpse twisted in the hot desert wind.
"You see the flaws, the corruption of the world, but you do not see the hope for the future. You do not trust that the unrighteous shall be purged, this vale of tears swept clean."
Too much truth can be extremely uncomfortable for anyone, and Janyn found himself suddenly angered.
"How did you get in here?" he challenged.
"Janyn!" Tera exclaimed, shocked.
"This is my house, hunter, not yours, and I may go where I like." Zio's voice grew quiet and still, and his next words were spoken with that complete lack of emotion that invariably means a raging passion held in check and channeled towards a goal. "You are my follower's guest, and it is not your place to dictate to me." The air seemed to quiver with the man's will, and Janyn sensed a force more tangible than that of personality alone.
Zio swept his left hand free of the cloak and reached up to the nearest shelf, hooking his finger over the top of a book.
"I believe this will contain what you seek, my faithful magistrate." He paused, as if consulting his memory or, Janyn thought crazily, as if the book itself was speaking to him. "You will find it in the thirty-fourth stanza. I suggest, though, that you avoid the remainder of the book; the writer was more misguided than most and his madness lingers in the pages in ways even I find unsettling."
He took down the book and extended it to Tera, who received the Testament of Xayn with trembling hands.
"Thank you, Holy One."
"You are welcome, though thanks are hardly necessary. Every just act you perform is a witness to our calling, a welcome message concerning the righteous path." He favored her with a gentle smile and added, "You should take better care of yourself, Theresa. You drive yourself too hard, without stopping to refresh yourself." He flicked an appraising gaze at Janyn, then stepped back. Zio made an odd gesture, and was gone, transported away by some art or magic.
The hunter was painfully aware of the cold stripe of sweat that pinned his garment to his spine.
"So...that was your Lord Zio," he said.
"I can't believe that he actually came to help us without being asked!" Tera marveled.
"The ritual is in there, then?" Janyn asked her, nodding at the Testament.
"Of course! He said so, didn't he?"
The hunter wondered what it would be like to have that kind of wide-eyed faith, that pure certainty that at least one person's word could be implicitly trusted without the need to analyze or second-guess. In a way, he envied her.
"It's a good thing that the Holy One is not so petty as the common herd," she added, her voice turning stern. "I'm not sure but that I would have turned and walked out after being insulted the way you did to him."
"I was surprised. I didn't expect to meet anyone in a locked room that cannot be opened from the outside. Come to think of it, how did he do that? The teleportation techniques, Hinas and Ryuka, aren't precise enough to step into particular rooms."
"You are correct; they are not." Tera clearly spoke from expert knowledge, which really should have been no surprise since she had already proven she knew Ryuka. "His power is not that of techniques; he is the Holy One, and carries within himself the blessings of divinity."
Before, Janyn had dismissed Tera's claims about Zio as being religious puffery, exaggerations of the truth so that he could neatly categorize Tera's own abilities. Now that he had met the man face-to-face, though, he wasn't so sure. It wasn't just the appearing-and-disappearing trick, impressive as it was; Zio carried with him a presence, almost an aura of something more than human, a force beyond what could be seen or touched or sensed by an ordinary person.
To be completely honest, he had to admit that he, a hunter whose day-to-day living was made tracking and exterminating hideous monsters whose sole purpose seemed to be inflicting violent death, was frightened by Zio. Even the darkside hadn't been half as unsettling as the prophet of Kadary. But was he really frightened of the man himself? Or was it what he represented, a greater mystery than he could fathom? Janyn couldn't pin his feelings down, and that bothered him.
Then again, everything about this job had bothered him in one way or another.
"It's here!" Tera cried excitedly. When Janyn hadn't responded to her last statement, she'd simply gone back to her research, flipping through the Testament of Xayn to find the section Zio had indicated.
"The exorcism?"
"Yes; this is a ritual spell designed to purge dark magic from a living host." She frowned disapprovingly and said, "The author of this book apparently gave his followers to darkness and considered it a punishment to strip them of the powers of black magic."
"Zio was obviously right about the writer being mad," Janyn agreed. "Can you trust the instructions?"
Tera nodded.
"I believe so. Parts, at least, match up with the fragments I've been collecting all night, and the whole stands together on a theoretical basis."
Janyn shook his head, surprised.
"I'm impressed, Tera. I know a lot of hunters who are primarily tech-users, and even they don't have any practical understanding of old-time ritual magic."
"Well, it was my field," she explained. "The correlation between techniques, magic, and skill was my principal study before I joined Zio's church."
"Field of study? You were at Motavia Academy in Piata, you mean?"
"Yes."
A scholar who'd turned to religion. It was an interesting decision to make with one's life, and he wished he knew her well enough to feel comfortable asking--though to be fair, he doubted Tera would be offended. She'd just answer or not as she saw fit.
"I guess that makes you the expert, then," he said, sticking to business.
"There are a few items we'll need as reagents and materials for the ritual--candles, certain powders and inks. We should be able to obtain all of them here in Kadary once the markets open."
"Good. That means I can actually get some sleep." Janyn yawned loudly. "This evening is really starting to catch up with me, especially as it's well after midnight. I don't suppose you know of any inns that are still open this late--especially ones that are still serving food?"
She looked at him in surprise.
"Food? Janyn, why would anyone want to eat at this hour?"
"Speaking for myself, it's because I've been too busy fighting men and spirits, talking to the village guard, teleporting across miles of desert, and rooting around in an excessively creepy occult library to have dinner, and therefore haven't eaten anything in over twelve hours," he summed up dryly. "It works up an appetite, too."
"Oh! I...I didn't even think about that."
"No, you were just so focused on your goal that you didn't stop to think about the side issues." Janyn had a pretty good idea why Tera was so cadaverously thin. She probably ate on her own about once every other day, if she didn't have something more important to do.
She blushed lightly, which looked particularly strange with the crescent-moon tattoo bisecting the pink flesh.
"I'm sorry."
Janyn shrugged.
"Dedication is a good thing; just remember to take care of yourself. Even Zio just reminded you to take some time for rest and food." Janyn had to give the so-called Holy One that; he was observant enough to know Tera's ways and cared enough to tell her that she needed to look after herself.
"I'd...forgotten that, once I'd started looking up the ritual. Just let me copy it down so we can leave the Testament of Xayn here, and then we can both see about finding a meal and sleep. If need be, you can be my guest, since it was my fault you've been denied both."