Chapter Twenty-Two - A Matter of Economics and Sacrifice

“There used to be a lot of religious organizations around back in my day. I always found them somewhat annoying, but for the most part tolerable.

See, I have nothing against organized religion. It’s the gods I have problems with.”

***

I adjusted the collar of my great-coat as I walked through the quiet streets of Dolsrus. There wasn’t much traffic, probably owing to the fact that there was a bit of a drizzle. It wasn’t much, as far as rainfall went.

As I reached the northern end of the city and started to walk along the road lounging the shore, I developed something of a hypothesis on why the rain was so pitiful. The lake here was quite vast, the far end obscured by the horizon. More bizarrely, it was entirely still, the water barely moving at all except to the pitter-patter of raindrops.

It was very much possible that the lake, being so still, was slightly warmer than average for a body of water of that size. Which in turn would make the evaporation from its surface all the more common.

I’d need to ask if such rainfall was common.

It was thanks to this sort of idle thinking that I reached the temple within what felt like mere minutes.

The Temple of the Silent Lake had a nice compound around it, a feature I was beginning to suspect was common with more powerful organizations in this time and age. There was one large pagoda-like building in its centre, with a polished brass symbol of a lake hanging off the front, and perhaps a dozen or so smaller buildings around that.

No gates or fences, though perhaps that made sense on account of the organization being religious as opposed to military.

The priests of the Silent Lake temple (I really had to inquire about the name of their little religion) were all men in simple habits dyed a deep blue. They walked on slippered feet and with slow, careful steps that barely made any noise.

There was an abundance of ferns and bushes around the temple which seemed to help muffle the noise of the city. They were really living up to their name, not that I minded. The quiet made for a nice spot to read in.

On reaching the doors of the main temple building I was greeted by a young man who bowed and extended a notepad and pen my way.

“Greetings,” I said.

He shook his head, smiled, and offered the notepad once more.

I caught on.

It seemed that talking was taboo here. Writing things down in order to communicate back and forth would be a pain, especially since I’d be using magic to transcribe everything into the local tongue, but I was a guest, I could abide by the kind of rule if only out of common courtesy.

“Greetings. My name is Harold. I’m here because I’m quite curious about the local god, and would like to see them for myself,” I wrote.

The young man, or priest I suppose, read the note and flipped over a few pages to one that had already been written on.

Greetings esteemed guest(s) to the Silent Temple of our lady of the serene Silent Lake.

We welcome you in the name of our lady, and hope that all is well with you.

Our temple prides itself on blessing and helping the Dolsrus community, and being a source of comfort and assistance to all. If you wish to obtain the blessings of our lady, you may do so with nothing more than a few small donations. The donation packages are outlined below:

Basic Donation: Any donation below the threshold for the Standard Donation limit. At this tier you are rewarded with the gratitude of the Silent Temple!

Standard Donation: Any donation in excess of 500 Imperial Scrip. We will mention you, in name, to the lady, that she may consider blessing you!

Premium Donation: Any donation in excess of 2000 Imperial Scrip. You may consult with one of the senior members of the temple, and will receive one blessing of your choice a month!

Premium Jade Donation: Any donation in excess of 5000 Imperial Scrip. The lady will bless you, your name, and your family that you may be prosperous in all the months to come!*

I lowered the page and eyed the smiling priest.

This was beginning to feel like something of a joke. I hadn’t seen such a mercenary system for blessings since I’d visited the temple of Gacha, the god of greedy merchants.

I flipped back to the blank page and carefully wrote a reply. “How much would it cost to be able to see the lady myself?”

The priest shook his head and wrote out his reply in a flowing script. “I’m afraid, esteemed guest, that such would not be possible.”

There was a small podium-like desk right next to the door, likely to help those who had never written in a notepad while standing up. I placed a brick of gold on that.

The priest smiled and bowed at me. I suspect that he misunderstood. So I set a second brick down. Then a third. Then a fourth.

The priest’s eyes were starting to go a little wide when I took the notepad back. “How much would it cost to be able to see the lady myself?” I wrote again.

The young man licked his lips and glanced over his shoulder. “Your generosity is incredible, dear guest, but--” He stopped mid-way through his sentence when I added two bars to the stack. “I will speak to my seniors. One moment, please.”

I was quite proud of myself as the young man ran off. Any organization this hungry for money would be easy to bribe, of course. And if I couldn’t bribe them directly, maybe I could pay for renovations to their temple or something like that.

I was soon greeted by a man in a far more elaborate robe who came by and bowed deeply at the waist. He had the same sort of obsequious smile as the young man who had greeted me, though there was a gleam of something nearly predatory in his eyes.

Turning the notepad around, I presented him the page I’d written on while alone. “Greetings. My name is Harold, and I would dearly like to greet you Lady in person. If you would do me the honour of allowing this, then I would be more than willing to pay a very handsome amount for the privilege. Unfortunately, for reasons that I shall not get into, I can only pay your esteemed temple in untraceable gold bars. You may verify the validity of these at your convenience, of course.”

The priest nodded along, then put on a saddened expression.

I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes as I pulled out a pair of gold bars, then another. The podium creaked under the accumulated wealth and the priest’s smile returned. He gestured to the young greeter to take the gold, something the young man had some difficulty with, and then for me to follow him.

He wrote as we walked into the temple proper. “We give offerings to our lady every evening, as the sun nears setting. It is a rare and great honour to have someone outside of the temple view this.”

I nodded in lieu of writing down my thanks.

The main temple wasn’t anything too impressive. It was a clean building, with some decorations here and there, and padded floors that made our steps nearly perfectly quiet, but there wasn’t anything too special about it.

I was brought to a waiting room and handed a set of instructions that I would need to follow while attending the daily ceremony.

For the most part, the instructions could be summed as ‘remain quiet.’ That wasn’t terribly difficult for me to do. I didn’t even need to breathe, and I didn’t have a beating heart. I was quieter than most already.

It actually took some time before the priest returned. He had a long habit atop his robes now, and a wrapping over the lower part of his face. He gestured for me to follow and I did so.

We joined a procession of four more priests, all dressed similarly, though I could guess at their rank based on the amount of decoration embroidered into their clothes.

They were leading a goat along a tether, one that had its mouth shut by a length of ribbon, and whose hooves were wrapped in cloth. It didn’t stop it from being the noisiest creature in the room, but it was something.

The priests moved about with the ease of long routine, then finally set out, one of them leading me after them.

We exited out the back of the temple into a foggy evening, the ground wet and the skies still grey, but the rain had stopped while I was within the temple. We marched over to the shore, to a spot were a bridge was just barely visible under the water. The priests in the lead both carried lamps that illuminated the bridge below. Handy, what with the sun dipping towards the horizon.

Across the bridge was a large pagoda, seemingly floating just over the water.

I held back a sigh as I followed the priests. My oxfords were going to need to be dried out once everything was done. Likewise for the hem of my pants.

On reaching the pagoda, one of the priests pulled a large key from a necklace and slotted it into the side of the building’s front door, then he slid it aside to allow us access.

Those with lamps went in first, and soon they were sharing their flames to other lamps, lighting up the interior of the building.

I had expected a normal temple, perhaps something as simple as the main building on the shore, but the interior of this one was nearly hollow. A glance up revealed the many ceilings above, with a little light coming in from their windows.

The centre of the room was a hole leading into the lake below, with an area all around it separated by rails.

One section jutted out and down into the water. That is where the priests brought the goat.

I was led to the side where I could watch the proceedings without interfering.

With an expert tug, one of the young men tipped the goat onto its side with a splash, then his companion brought out a sharp knife and opened the creature’s throat.

The water soon filled with a hazy red as the goat thrashed and kicked, its protests growing feeble and slow.

I was beginning to wonder if the entire thing was a farce when I sensed an inkling of divine magic starting to run through the water, water that was starting to spin, but without any noise to it.

The lake swelled up in its middle, and from that swelling rose, with the slow grace of someone coming awake, a vast serpentine form.

It was a woman, one whose nude (and rather anatomically incorrect) upper body was covered in fine scales rather than skin, and whose head had the flattened, somewhat off-putting features of a lamia. Though, unlike the lamia I knew, this one radiated divine magic, and glowed with a faint inner light.

The air still around it, all sound ceasing.

The creature’s lower body, a long, winding serpent, wasn’t entirely visible. Most of it was swallowed by the deep waters.

It opened a pair of slitted eyes, and looked hungrily at the goat below.

I watched, quiet as the others, as the kami ate its fill.

“Speak,” it whispered once the last of the goat was gone down its gullet.

One of the priests stepped forwards and bowed before whispering so quietly that even I had difficulty hearing him. “My Lady,” he began before delivering a report that was actually quite dull. It ended when he gestured my way. “And we have a great and esteemed guest who made a wondrous sacrifice to you, my lady.”

“Greetings,” I said at a perfectly normal volume.

“You dare speak without turn!” the serpent woman said.

“I suppose I do. Though I did wait for him to introduce me, at least in part.” I let my disguise fall away. “Hello. I’m Harold.”

“Oh, shit,” the goddess said.

***