"It is difficult to describe how much I utterly loathe this city," Kir said finally, the two of them having been sitting on horseback a distance from the bounds of Sunhame for near a mark now. Anur sat up from where he'd draped himself over his saddle-bags, asking, "Does that mean we're actually going in now?"
"Maybe if we stand here long enough it will eventually vanish?" Kir asked doubtfully, staring at the ribbon and seal bedecked summons in his hand.
"You realize you're hoping for an entire city, filled with people and Solaris to just disappear, right?" Anur asked dryly. This was actually rather entertaining – with the years they'd had traipsing all across Karse, he'd never actually seen the capital city; just heard volumes about its many failings. He'd been treated to a repeat of the entire rant in the days it took them to travel here, longer than usual since they hadn't actually waited for the melt to happen entirely and had instead taken off a week after Midwinter. Kir apparently couldn't live with the anticipation any longer.
"Well at the least the temple could be to one side so we don't have to go through the entire blasted city to get to it," Kir retorted, exasperated, "How many times have we been glared at on the road already? And that's with small villages and travelers chapels, we enter that mess and we'll be mobbed! I don't like mobs, Anur! And I can't even set them on fire!"
"Woah, woah, calm down," Anur said worriedly, Aelius side-stepping so he could rest a hand on his friend's shoulder, "This is new."
Kir tensed, before sighing heavily, slumping slightly in his saddle, "Not really," he said ruefully, "Just… we were feared, before, Anur. Now that the reason for fearing us has been doused – they'll remember what we took, what we did. Fear turns to hate very, very easily."
"You've been thinking about this," he replied, sitting back in the saddle and crossing his arms, staring at the city thoughtfully.
"I've had to," Kir grimaced, "If I'm not mistaken, the reason for this summons is for me to bring the remainder of the Firestarting Order to heel. I don't doubt at least some of them are utterly terrified and responding violently to it. Terror isn't something people in their position would be used to."
"Fantastic," Anur muttered.
"Well," he finally said, "What if we just presented ourselves as Sunsguard, summoned to Sunhame for some incomprehensible reason? I ditch the sash, you leave the robes – I'll be the officer since you don't have any rank insignia, and that should get us through the worst of it."
Kir blinked, wondering for a moment why that hadn't occurred to him before nodding, "Agreed," he said, passing the summons off to Anur and dismounting so he could remove all indications of his ordination. He hesitated over his witch-horse Sun in Glory, before leaving it and instead adjusting his armored vest to cover it. Fixing his flame colored scarf from Anna, he folded up his robes and left the bundle loosely secured to the top of his packs, just in case.
"Now being the officer in charge is going to be strange," Anur mused, eyeing the summons in his hand and Kir smirked at him before the Herald finally shrugged and said, "Well, we've stalled long enough, let's get going."
Somehow, their plans never seemed to quite work out, Kir thought ruefully a mere half-mark later. They had reached the gates easily enough and had only needed to flash the seal of the Son of Sun to be sent along through the city. It wasn't until they got to the entrance to the Temple itself that they'd be asked to present their orders fully, so if they'd managed to make it there without their cover as regular Sunsguard being blown, it all would have gone according to Anur's simplistically brilliant plan.
But partway through the craftsman's ring, they heard a commotion and Kir heard the word 'Firestarter'. The word, and the tone, one of an angry eagerness, meant they had followed the sounds until they hit the backs of a small crowd, unable to truly hear or see what was going on in the middle, but that eager anger he'd heard was only amplified, meaning whatever was going on, he didn't particularly care for it.
"Excuse me," he asked a young woman, tapping her on the shoulder, "But could you tell us what is going on?"
"A Firestarter came through the quarter," she said, eyeing his Sunsguard uniform with an appreciative gleam in her eye.
Perhaps not wearing his robes hadn't been such a good idea?
"A Firestarter? Now?" Anur jumped in, careful to sound incredulous, "You would think they'd have the sense to stay away until the Son of Sun sorts them all out."
"Yes well, it seems some people have decided to sort this one out themselves," Kir said dryly, the young woman nodding and saying, "There have been grumbles for a few days now –"
Anything further she was going to say was interrupted by Anur's cry. He had jumped up into the saddle to try and get a better view, and it hadn't taken long for him to identify the Firestarter in question.
"It's Rodri!"
Kir's world tinged red. Throwing himself into Riva's saddle, the gelding surged forward with Aelius, people somehow parting before them, but not particularly gently.
"Enough!" he roared, black-trimmed red settling around his shoulders even as Riva launched over the heads of the innermost ring of the mob. He jumped out of the saddle, lashing out with a burst of flame to keep them back and feeling a furious snarl erupt from his throat. Anur and Aelius settled in behind him, Anur quickly dismounting and heading to Rodri, who had pressed himself up against a building's brick wall while the angry city-folk circled in. No blows, no weapons, thank the One God, just a poisonous sort of anger coming out in words that could be just as hurtful.
"How dare you!" he shouted, eyes blazing with fury, "He is a child, an initiate! You, who judge us, who call us evil even as you supported us two short weeks ago, would hold a child responsible for the deaths of your loved ones?"
There was no response, people white-faced and terrified now that they had an adult, a true Firestarter to deal with. Kir scoffed, saying, "Oh yes, all of you, so brave in showing your displeasure, your anger, your hatred when there is no opposition, but the moment an adult stands before you, calls you to task, you cower like dogs!"
"If you are to condemn anyone for being a Firestarter, condemn me!" he declared, eyes roving through the crowd and picking out the occasional ashamed expression, the scattered bowed heads, and feeling a sharp satisfaction in their shame. "Condemn an adult, a Firestarter who actually burned those children we had called witches! Not a child who escaped that same fate by sheer luck and happenstance!"
Giving one last glare, he turned his back on them and met Rodri's still frightened gaze, feeling his expression soften to one of concern, saying quietly, "Are you all right, Rodri?"
"Father Kir," the young teen gasped, colliding against Kir's chest, shoulders shaking. "Easy, easy," Kir murmured, wrapping his arms around him in a loose embrace, mentally thanking the practice all the Bellamys had given him, "You're all right. You're officially a Firestarter Initiate then?"
"A moon ago, yeah," the boy mumbled, Anur stepping past them and standing between them and the uneasily shifting crowd, "Don't even think about it," he heard Anur snarl over a rasp of steel, "You'll have to get through me first."
"And us," a rough and achingly familiar voice said, startled yelps and mumbles coming from where three men and a woman came shoving their way through the crowd to stand next to Anur, the oldest of the men turning towards Rodri and Kir and giving a grim smile, continuing, "Sorry it took us so long to get here, Rodri. But it seems your brother Firestarter here has things well in hand."
Every one of them were dressed in heavy leathers and thin clothes, used to the heat of the forge even in winter, and every one of them had makeshift weapons of forge-tools in hand. Kir felt a surge of affection for this group and for this man in particular, "It is good to see you agan, Axeli. Thank you for looking after Rodri."
The grizzled old blacksmith, with a few more scars and a few more wrinkles than when Kir had last seen him but otherwise unchanged, gave a beaming smile at that, laughing and coming up to clap Kir on the shoulder, "Kir Dinesh as I live and breathe! It is you! I guessed so, seeing as I think you're the only Firestarter outside of Sunhame, but couldn't be sure, it's been what, twelve years and my eyesight is not the best anymore."
"More like nearly fourteen," Kir said wryly, having a brief moment of wondering where all the time had gone before he returned to the present. "Rodri, were you on the way to the forge?"
"Yes," Rodri said, finally pulling away a bit but Kir kept an arm draped over the boy's shoulders protectively. "Thank you for coming, Master Axeli."
"Somehow, I will convince you to call me by my given name alone before your ordination," the forgemaster grumbled, "Never managed with your mentor but by Vkandis I'll manage it with you! Now, I take it this protective fellow is the Enforcer you mentioned in your stories? Make a hole people show's over get a move on I have some work to be doing!" he bellowed over his shoulder, the slowly dispersing crowd moving much faster.
"Lieutenant-Enforcer Anur Bellamy," Anur introduced himself after sheathing his blades, "I watch his back and shoot the ones that run in the leg."
"That was only the Oathbreaker," Kir grumbled half-heartedly, nodding his head to the two members of Axeli's entourage he recognized – his daughter Breta, some years older than him and if he wasn't mistaken, the boy that had been courting her when he was ordained, Yakob or something similar.
"The Oathbreaker?" Rodri perked up, "That story was real? And it was you?"
"I don't know the story, but there was an Oathbreaker and we did declare him Nameless and kill him," Kir replied briskly, clicking his tongue against his teeth and calling, "Riva!"
The gelding walked over to him and nudged his shoulder, "Yes, yes, we're moving," he muttered, Axeli catching it and nodding, saying, "We'll walk with you to the Temple gates, could use the chance to catch up. Don't think it's a good idea for you to be in the forges right now, Rodri."
"Oh," the teen said quietly, Kir tightening his arm briefly and Axeli hastened to elaborate, "Not because you're not welcome, lad, far from it. No one there is quite this stupid," he glared at the by now almost entirely vacated street, "But if you have troubles getting there – and you won't be calm enough for controlled flames my lad, not to the standards we need. Detail work, you know."
"Oh," Rodri repeated, tension in his shoulders easing and he smiled up at Axeli, "You're probably right," he agreed, "I just – wanted to get out of the Temple."
"I don't blame you," Kir informed him, "I planned the majority of my life around never setting foot in the Temple District again. I would be more than happy to escape at a later date to catch up with Axeli, perhaps in two days?"
"We'll be in the forges," Axeli agreed, "You'll all three come then?"
"I'm not leaving him in the Temple unsupervised," Kir said dryly, nodding towards Anur, who snorted and said, "Like I'd let you wander around Sunhame without someone watching your bac- woah. Impressive."
"The gates are rather impressive," Breta spoke up, pride in her voice, "It's too bad you're seeing the tradesman's gate – the Eastern Gate of the Sun! Now that is magnificent!"
"Here's where we leave you then," Axeli said, clapping Kir on the shoulder with well-concealed worry in his eyes, "Take care of yourself in there."
There had been very few Sons of Sun to take power without bloodshed, Kir knew. That was the most likely source of his friend's concern – that, and the knowledge that Kir had been sent from Sunhame in the first place to die the death of the politically inconvenient.
"Before we go any further, I would like to point out that fleeing the country is still on the table," Anur said cheerfully, serious expression belying his tone. Kir chuckled, shaking his head as the three blacksmiths departed after quiet farewells to Rodri, "We're not fleeing the country, Anur. Three years of work for this and run now? No, there is still too much to do."
"Though if I do get permanently assigned to Sunhame I might take you up on that," he corrected, Rodri and Anur both snorting before they continued forward, Kir finally removing his arm from Rodri's shoulders and the boy moving away from his side. Until he knew where he stood in this new regime, it would be best if they weren't linked any further than they would be by entering at the same time.
One step into the Temple District itself, a simple matter of flashing his summons scroll and even that was probably unnecessary, and he was very glad that Rodri was already well on his way to some entirely different destination. The tension in the air was a palpable, heavy thing – the only thing he could compare it to was the choking fear that rogue Empath had produced.
Anur hissed between his teeth, eyes sweeping the elaborate cobbled paths and carefully trimmed gardens leading this way and that to various gold-drenched and dramatically carved buildings meant at one point only to glorify their God. When Kir had ridden out of here, eager to shake the dust of Sunhame from his feet, there was seldom an hour where these paths were abandoned, even in the wee hours of the morning. Now though, it was barely a mark before noon and he could only see a handful of people moving about, and all of them had the hurried, head-down focus of the desperately afraid.
"This – isn't good," Anur murmured, Kir inclining his head slightly and replying lowly, "Let's settle the horses, stables aren't far."
The stables at least seemed normal and Kir could feel both of them relax at the usual bustle that came around animals. Whickers greeted them, a stablehand taking one glance at them before hurrying forward, bowing to Kir and saying, "Your Holiness, how may I serve?"
"If we could be directed to two available stalls, preferably close to one another, and a place to store our tack, we would be much obliged," Kir replied politely.
"How long will you be staying in the District?" the boy – more like a young man, he looked around fourteen – asked, straightening and seeming to relax at Kir's tone and relatively simple questions.
"Unknown," Kir grimaced, "At least five days."
"Right, follow me please, sirs," they were quickly led to two rather large stalls, freshly prepared and, even better, next to one another. "Are there any special notes for your horses, Your Holiness?"
"Both are battle trained," Kir exaggerated slightly, "But of good temperament. We will tend to them ourselves as frequently as possible, there were no true details in our summons, I'm afraid. If they're to be turned out, it would probably be best if they were taken together."
"Battle-trained, partnered, yes sir – any dietary concerns or medical issues that need observation?" the boy was making notes on the small slates hanging next to the stall doors – new from the last time he was here, but a very good idea.
"None," Kir assured him.
"Excellent, would you be settling them yourselves then?" At Kir's nod, he continued, "Then in a few minutes I'll return to show you where to place your tack. Your Holiness, Enforcer," with another quick bow, he was gone. The calm competence was reassuring, Kir found, and the stablehand's timing was excellent as no sooner had the two of them exited the stalls with their saddles balanced on their shoulders than he returned.
"You sure we need to leave?" Anur asked, only half-joking, as they headed out of the stables, saddle-bags still slung over their shoulders. "I'm sure we could just sleep in Aelius' stall, he wouldn't step on us."
"I highly doubt she summoned us to Sunhame so that we could lurk in the stables the entire time," Kir replied dryly, exchanging nods with a young acolyte passing them, "Though the idea is tempting. Hopefully the atmosphere will be a bit less stifling where we're going."
"And that is?"
"Son of Sun's residence."
As Kir had half-anticipated, the closer they drew to what was now Solaris' residence, the less oppressive the very air seemed – indeed, there was an air of muted excitement about the place. People of various ranks walked about briskly, missions clear in their minds as they went about fulfilling their new Son of Sun's will – he had been afraid of this.
They were able to make it into the residency itself before they were stopped, and even that was easily brushed aside with a wave of the scroll, the primary seal being the one personal to the Son of Sun. He would need to point out the weakness of that – what if he had simply saved an old one as he had his Seal of Sunhame document? True, anyone trying to sneak in to assassinate Solaris would have more than guards and a formidable mage in her own right to deal with, but it was still a threat.
Anur seemed to catch it too, if the grumbling under his breath about lacksadaisical security precautions and stupidly incautious rulers was any indication.
Kir exhaled slowly, slipping into mage-sight as they neared the rooms actually assigned to the Son of Sun – there was an entire palace that was technically hers now, but the rooms that were actually used were a bare half of the entire complex. He had no doubt a fair number of the more frivolous rooms and treasuries would be emptied and repurposed for a more practical or at least theological motive.
That was one thing the Son of Sun seal did have going for it – each Son of Sun had their personal magical signature embedded in the seal itself. How that worked when there was a Son of Sun that wasn't a mage as well, Kir had no idea, he'd never been able to find an explanation in his rather half-hearted searches for that information. It wasn't a particularly safe avenue of research, after all. One might worry he was getting ideas above his station.
But from an immediate practicality perspective, it meant that he could simply follow the thread trailing out from Solaris' seal. Now that he was close, it was much easier to figure out a passable route taking him in the proper direction rather than hitting dead end after dead end.
Blinking a few times to clear his vision, he blinked a few more times to ensure he wasn't hallucinating or still half-immersed in the aetheral planes. But no, the door her thread had led to really was that hideously gaudy. Were those gem-encrusted peacock feather motifs?
"My eyes," Anur groaned, covering his eyes with his hand, "They burn!"
"I… am appalled," Kir said, tilting his head and squinting, "I think those are cherubs up near the top."
"You're still looking?" Anur asked incredulously.
Kir rolled his eyes and grabbed Anur's arm, guiding the still self-blindfolded Herald to the doors and rapping on a rare flat area sharply before shoving the door open – it was heavy, but still swung smoothly. Good structural craftsmanship at least, even if whoever had approved the design for the decoration had to have been drinking.
"Where are your bodyguards?" Kir demanded, spotting Solaris at her desk and not another soul. He had been surprised by the lack of presence at her doors, but had supposed they were inside to ensure no one had come through the window or to serve as some sort of surprise force, but there wasn't a trace of anyone, concealed under glamours or not.
The woman jumped slightly, twisting in her chair and blinking for a moment before smiling brilliantly, "Kir! And you must be Enforcer Anur Bellamy – are you all right?"
"Is it as bad in here as that door was?" Anur asked, peeking through his fingers and sighing in relief, lowering his hand at last, "Not so bad, thank goodness. Your Eminence," he bowed deeply before starting to kneel, Kir quickly following his example only to stop when Solaris leapt to her feet, crying, "Don't you dare! Either of you!"
Sweeping forward, she grabbed Kir's hands in her own and said, "You will not kneel to me, unless I am manifesting the Voice, I suppose. I am still your sister, brother, if you will have me."
"Always," Kir promised, catching the trace of worry in her tone. He wouldn't doubt that she had already found those that used to speak familiarly with her were more distant, more cautious, now she had truly Ascended. Even those who had understood she'd been destined for greater things, that there was something Other about her, would still have been startled, especially if the stories of her Ascent were even close to accurate.
Dramatic would be an understatement, from what they'd heard.
"And as for you, Lieutenant-Enforcer," she smiled, "I don't know that you kneeling would set good precedent for future relations between our countries."
"A valid point," Anur chuckled, "Though we'll have to come up with a different explanation than that, I presume? If the atmosphere outside is any indication, it will be some time before the Valdemar matter can even be considered."
"I wouldn't know," Solaris grimaced, releasing Kir's hands and leading them to seats by the hearth, the three settling around the not-quite-so-gaudy mantle and Kir quickly setting the waiting logs alight to ward off the faint bite in the air. It also simply served as a comfort, to have flames nearby.
"I haven't been able to leave my residency more than twice in the last weeks," she sighed heavily, "Karchanek and Ulrich have been indispensable, but trying to get the most immediate of the reforms through has been a mess, not to mention the fact there were quite a few who didn't see the Ascencion Miracle and are causing further difficulties. Until those matters are at least somewhat resolved, the head of my guard has decided it would be best if I remained here and started issuing decrees without excessive risk and really with the amount of paperwork I've had to disperse these past weeks even without that I wouldn't have been able to leave more frequently."
"Yet Anur and I weren't stopped more than once and all I had to do was flash your personal seal – there is no difference between yours and Lastern's except for a mage, which the servant who asked me most certainly was not. Any assassin would have to get through more than just your non-existant guardsmen, but the matter remains."
"They're not at the door?" Solaris blinked, surprised, "I had thought – oh, blast." She pinched the bridge of her nose, "All those years building support and still there are so many troubles."
"You're still alive," Anur pointed out pragmatically, "I think a lot of those years went into that fact alone."
"Outside of the area just around your residency, the fear is thick enough you can almost taste it," Kir said bluntly. "It's barely before noon and there is hardly a soul wandering the gardens."
"Noon?" Solaris blinked, glancing over her shoulder at the water-clock before jumping to her feet in alarm, "Noon! I was planning to conduct the noon service today! Blast it Karchanek must be covering for me – "
"Well it's too late now," Anur said dryly, "Calm down, Your Eminence. Sit back down and relax. You've clearly been working yourself too hard if you've been losing hours like that."
"First, I insist you call me Solaris," she said sternly, "Second, of course I've been working hard! I have to! This has been years in the making, I can't just rest on my laurels now, the work has barely begun! And now I've gone and forgotten an obligation to conduct a service honestly – "
"Work that won't get done at all if you make yourself sick," Kir interrupted, raising an eyebrow, "And besides that, who exactly knew you were planning to conduct the noon service today? Was it some sort of scheduled thing?"
"Well – no, I simply want to conduct one service a day," Solaris finally sat down again, "I've done morning services the past few days so I thought I'd switch things up a bit. Karchanek knew, my guards knew… and whoever they told."
"But it's all rumor outside those few, rumor that can easily be brushed off as a mistake," Kir shook his head, "You spent these past years dealing with political machinations and you're so easily flustered? It's simple, you can even make the Sun Descending service tonight so your pattern of one service a day isn't broken. As for those you told – apologize for losing track of time while you meditated on the problem of those who didn't witness the Ascending Miracle."
"But I have – oh for goodness sake, I can't believe I didn't think of that," Solaris pinched the bridge of her nose, "I really must be tired or something if that didn't even occur to me. Well – while we're on that matter, I don't suppose you have any suggestions?"
"What about Hansa?" Anur asked, Kir nodding at him and saying, "A good suggestion."
Solaris looked between the two of them dubiously, "Who exactly is Hansa? Historically he is a Son of Sun from near a millennia ago – "
"A Firecat," Kir returned her surprised look, "The Firecat that delivered my summons and spoke to the 62nd, as a matter of fact. He spoke of seeing us in Sunhame, so I had assumed he was here with you."
"No, I have never met a Firecat, much less a specific one," Solaris shook her head, "One hasn't been necessary as of yet."
"With what you've been saying about doubters? You may want to reconsider that," Anur pointed out, "Can't hurt to meditate on the problem and ask. In the meantime, we'll… find some food."
"Excellent idea," Kir agreed, rising to his feet, "We have travel rations in our packs if you're truly desperate, but why suffer through those rations if you don't have to? I think I still remember how to reach the kitchens."
"Think they'll have spice-cake?" Anur asked as they headed out the door.
Kir sighed.
A/N: Hey! Back again I see. Little concerned about this chapter - wondering if the thing with Rodri is believable? Small crowd, lots of anger - tried to set it up with the beginning and it was words and such so not as extreme as physically attacking him but still... worried. Let me know! Oh, and a recent consult has led me to decide that there was 1.5 years between Solaris' Ascent and Talia's ordination at Midsummer, just as a heads up. Thanks for reading!
