Chapter 101

Olivia sat up in bed, drenched in sweat. She tossed the covers aside, and touched the light crystals.

Her bed was empty.

She threw open the bedcurtains; it was midmorning, according to the water clock on the mantle. She’d overslept. No one would fault her for it, as long as she made it to the docks to ship out with the fleet the Grand Cardinal had assembled. She had a few hours.

She dressed slowly, carefully. Several of her maids were dead, two were blind, and one simply had gone mad. The explosion of fire in the heart of the Grand Cathedral wasn't the simple ignition of a flame, as one might light a candle; no, it was an explosion of light and heat and divine fire that defied reasonable explanation.

Her movements were stiff, wooden, her bones and joints felt as if they were filled with grit. She was bruised and sore and there was a ringing in her ears that the healers told her would eventually go away on its own. Eventually.

"Remember the heart, the flame, and the blade, Olivia." She whispered to herself. "Because you are the heart." She couldn't understand why she said it, it just slipped out of her from time to time. It'd become something of a mantra for her after the explosion.

Olivia really needed to take a leave of absence. Everyone suggested it to her; some kindly, some less so. It made sense. She'd lost someone she'd loved more than anything else and now she was behaving erratically. She burst into tears at the slightest provocation. She repeated something she didn't understand, over and over and over to herself. She wandered halls being rebuilt, vacant-eyed and indifferent to the calls from other people.

She should take a vacation, a leave of absence. Go on retreat. Visit her family. The underlying message was clear: mourn your loss privately and please don't do it here. As if they understood anything. Katarina’s suicide just completely destroyed her. She couldn’t understand why the Witch Hunter would do such a thing. It was so wholly unlike her. She loved the woman, and was confident that Katarina had felt the same.

Olivia’s mind whirled with these thoughts as she stopped by the brazier. The flames boiled and churned and surged in the golden bowl, a mammoth pillar of flame that rose nearly halfway to the ribbed vaults of the ceiling. The heat pulsed like a heartbeat, a living flame.

Not for the first time, she eyed it carefully. It was likely easy enough to climb up on the dais if you were as athletic as Katarina, but how did she get up into the bowl? Olivia shook her head, trying to shake the memories of that night.

Katarina always made her feel warm, comfortable, and safe. An unconscious association to snuggling beneath pan-warmed comforters as a child. She loved making love with the taller woman, but a secret, deeply held; she simply loved listening to the muffled thump of her lover’s heartbeat.

Suddenly Katarina slipped from their shared bed, and a sleepy Olivia assumed she was headed to the facilities all the way up to the point that she heard the front door to the apartments shut with a click.

Olivia bolted upright. "Katarina?" She called, and grabbed for her robe. Her eyes widening at the sight of Katarina’s robe. Whatever she was doing, she was either naked, or-

She cut off that thought at the head. Katarina wouldn’t leave like a thief in the night. She swirled her robe about her, and left the apartments, momentarily hissing at the stone-cold tiles beneath her bare feet.

She dashed through the garden, spotting a dirty footprint on the marble tile opposite. She heard stuttering footsteps from the stairwell; she ran as quickly as she could, not trusting herself to call out to her lover.

She caught sight of Katarina walking unsteadily towards the central statuary and the great golden bowl within.

"Katarina!" Olivia called out, then. The tall woman, naked as the day she was born climbed up onto the redstone platform and faced the golden bowl.

"Katarina!" Olivia screamed, suddenly frightened for no discernable reason.

Katarina then looked to Olivia, her eyes wide and blank. She said something, mouth moving, and then somehow climbed into the bowl.

"You bitch!" Olivia cursed. Katarina sleepwalking was one thing, but how was Olivia expected to get the other woman out of the bowl and back into bed before the torchlighters began their work for the new day?

She was halfway to the bowl when it exploded into flame. Olivia let out a terrified scream as a pillar of fire roared up, nearly brushing the ribbed vaults.

The heat from that explosion of fire knocked Olivia off her feet and pushed her back down the hallway she'd come; it flash-boiled all the candles to steam, charred the banners, tapestries, and rugs to ash, turned the candelabras, stand-lamps, and every metal fixture into melted slag, and blew out every stained-glass window on the first floor of the Grand Cathedral. The blast of heat had scorched the life out of every growing thing on the grounds of the Grand Cathedral.

Nothing like it had ever happened before. Someone, somewhere, blew the clarion call to war, rousing the Garrison. Paladins, warpriests, clerics and priestesses swarmed through the Cathedral in waves, looking for the intruder that dared strike at the heart of the Empire, looking to secure the cardinals, Lady Cardinals, and Grand Cardinals against assassination, looking for the dead, the dying, the wounded.

On the lips of everyone was the question: Who did this? Who could do such a thing?

Olivia found herself having to explain to the Book of the Golden Lady that Katarina had somehow caused it. She'd been found in the hallway, dizzy, bleeding from the ears, insensate from shock. Her babbling was enough; they went over Katarina’s apartments with a fine-toothed comb, and there they found Saint Alicia’s ashes, the Reliquary of Andrianna, and Celestine’s Crux Rosarius, the Emerald Tablets, and Katarina’s comprehensive translations.

That touched off a series of heated debates and arguments that were volcanic, caustic, and frustratingly circular. Katarina had retrieved relics of Saints. That, in turn, should have been enough to be elevated to Sainthood herself. So why didn't she return them to the Church? Ah, but she was a Saint, who could dare have the right to question her? A Saint's motives could be as inscrutable as the Goddess herself, after all, were they not the embodiment of the will of the Goddess Herself? So why did she keep them hidden away? Around and around and around. Questions without answers.

Olivia wanted to know, too. Why couldn't Katarina trust her with her secrets?

The Grand Cardinal declared Katarina a Living Saint posthumously, which was a bitter joke in and of itself, and sealed discussion of the matter until a Congregation of Doctrine and Faith could be assembled- at which point the evidence would once again be examined, reviewed, cross-referenced, and they'd determine Katarina's eligibility into Sainthood- which was frustratingly pointless, since she'd already been proclaimed a Living Saint. Around and around and around.

How would the explosion be explained to the cardinals, priestesses, clerics, paladins, inquisitors, and the very people of Darnell? Katarina had ascended to the Goddess. Her rooms were declared sanctified, hallowed, and consecrated, and then sealed against entry.

For some reason beyond explanation, that frustrated Oliva most of all. Katarina hadn't done very much to personalize them, but those were her rooms. Olivia had shared them with her; but now her room and all its contents were locked and guarded. Olivia was never considered to be the adventurous type, but she’d been discovered trying to climb across the space between her balcony and the balcony that’d belonged to Her Radiance Katarina’s. That had earned her a private penance and a week of house arrest. Under guard.

Olivia had demanded an appointment with the Grand Cardinal, and after letting Olivia stew in her own juices for the week, had finally agreed to see Olivia.

"Let me-" Olivia began, but the Grand Cardinal immediately held up her hand.

"Refused."

Olivia’s face screwed up in anger. "But I haven’t even-" She started, but the Grand Cardinal cut her off again, riding over Olivia’s complaint.

"I already know what you want, Olivia. You want access to Her Radiances’ apartments. Refused, I said."

Olivia’s jaw clenched stubbornly, and it was obvious that Olivia wasn’t going to let this go.

"Listen to me, Olivia." She stated, and a hot flash of anger burned through the Grand Cardinal, enough so that she slapped her hand down on her desk. "Listen, I said!" She shouted, and then cut off.

Such emotional outbursts were unbecoming to someone of her station, but if Olivia were allowed her insanity because of the insanity of the situation, then perhaps the Grand Cardinal could be forgiven an outburst of anger.

"Her Radiance found artifacts from three Saints. Three of them! Finding one alone would be grounds enough to be declared a Living Saint herself, but she found three." Her chest hurt, and a dull ache was spreading down her left arm. The Grand Cardinal had been warned about that feeling. Too much stress and overwork. She busied herself with sifting some powdered herbs that had been prescribed by her personal physician into a goblet. The brew was noxious and vile with water, but downing it with wine dulled the taste to at least somewhat palatable. She swirled the tonic in her cup, and then downed it in three quick, huge swallows, grimacing at the bitter taste and the crunch of herbs across her tongue. Yuck.

"She brought us so much more than that. The Golden Lady’s own Emerald Tablets; written by the finger of the Goddess herself. She... She even translated them for us; from the Divine Language to contemporary Anglish.'' The pain was beginning to abate, the numbness in her arm fated, and she could move her fingers again, which she did by drumming them on the desk. She couldn’t feel her fingertips, but the fact that her fingers were moving was enough for her, for now.

"Speaking the Divine- even reading the Divine is practically a death sentence for the uninitiated. Even hearing it spoken carries consequences. We have records of those who have tried to speak it; those who have heard it spoken, and always, always there is a price to pay. Struck dumb. Deaf. Petrification. The man who wrote the treatise on the Divine Language, the Codicium Aeternum himself paid the price- his bones were transmuted to emeralds. He died a horrible, screaming death."

The Grand Cardinal paused. "And yet, Her Radiance was able to translate it all." She let out a long breath. "This changes everything we knew. Everything. Her Radiances’ rooms are sealed, Olivia. She consecrated them with her actions. No one is allowed in, not even to clean. They have to be preserved. Must be. I know you loved her, but-"

Olivia sighed herself. "Haven’t you ever been in love?" She complained, and the Grand Cardinal shook her head. "Nope, not once." She replied simply.

"...That’s hard to believe." Olivia offered, and the Grand Cardinal sighed. "I thought- okay, maybe once." She admitted reluctantly. "Though looking back, I don’t know if it was even love. I was an acolyte and he was a pastor. I looked up to him. Admired him. I thought things were going well between us, and..." She waved her arm in the air dismissively. "He was suddenly overwhelmed with piety and a sense of responsibility. So..." She trailed off. "No. Not even once."

"Even I have-" Olivia began, and the Grand Cardinal flapped her hand at that. "Everyone knows about that, Olivia. Your dalliances with acolytes, priestesses and even servants." She looked up at Olivia, then. "But could you honestly say that any of them were done out of love?" She asked curiously, and Olivia shook her head. "Not until Katarina." She replied, and the Grand Cardinal’s face grew stern.

"Her Radiance." She reminded the Lady Cardinal, who nodded.

The Grand Cardinal took a breath, held it, and let it out slowly. "Nobody doubts your love of her, for her. None of us could claim to love her even a fraction of the way you have." She offered sympathetically, "But I cannot allow anyone into her rooms. Not even you." She pinched the bridge of her nose as the drugs she’d taken flooded her mind with thick, pillowy clouds that made concentration difficult.

"Forgive me if you can, hate me if you must; but it simply will not happen." She stated firmly. "We’re done here."

As Olivia turned to leave, The Grand Cardinal called out to her.

"Wait!" She shouted, and then coughed as her voice cracked. She was not used to yelling, and she was ill-suited for it. "Wait." she repeated in a normal voice. "I have a job for you. A mission."

Olivia turned back to the Grand Cardinal, baffled. "What? A mission?" She asked, as if tasting the unfamiliar word. The Grand Cardinal nodded and turned back to her desk. "Give me but a moment, I have to write out the details." She began, and drew pen and parchment to her. "I'm going to send you to that spiteful woman, and hopefully this time she'll listen to me. It'll have to be done properly, because that insufferable bitch-" She cut herself off. "That was unfair of me." She muttered.

"You're making less and less sense, Your Grace." Olivia offered, and the other woman sneered. "Call in my captain, and then seat yourself. We're going to have to strike while the iron is hot."

The captain of the Grand Cardinal's personal troops strode into the Grand Cardinal's office with the surety and confidence of a born warrior. He moves like she did, Olivia mused.

"Tell me, do you know the current state of Begierde?" The Grand Cardinal asked, and the man stroked his moustaches with his fingers as he considered the question. "It depends." He offered, and the Grand Cardinal waved away his answer indifferently. "I need a show of force. I need to know how many warships we can fit into the docks in that city."

The man blinked twice in shock. "Warships!" He exclaimed softly. He rubbed the palm of his hand on the pommel of his sword as he thought. "I believe seventeen, Your Grace. Seventeen docks there could accomodate a ship of the line. I want you to understand that it's possible they could have added more; I haven't seen an assessment of the city in two years." He finally admitted.

"And can seventeen ships of the line carry enough troops to occupy the city?" The Grand Cardinal asked, and the Captain twitched, shock painting his face.

"Have you received anything that indicates we need to-" He began, and the Grand Cardinal waved his question away as irrelevant. "We're not taking Begierde." She explained. "This is sending a message. The current head of the Merchant council is Bianka lon Pavlenko. I mean to dispatch enough ships to overwhelm the docks, loaded with enough troops to overwhelm the Noble Quarter, and occupy her estates."

Olivia straightened at this. "You-" She began, but the Grand Cardinal shook her head.

"Theatrics." She responded to the unasked question. "To prove a point, and send a message. You're not to take any lives, captain, I want that made explicitly clear to everyone that attends this mission. You're going to deploy, march through the Noble Quarters, you're going to beat down her gates, and if necessary, you're going to hold her down and force her to listen to what we have to say." She explained. "Lady Cardinal Olivia, you're going to do these things," she stated, handing Olivia the parchment she'd written on, "after which point you'll all march back to your ships and return to your normal duties."

"All of this... for a message?" the Captain began hesitantly. The Grand Cardinal nodded. "About twenty years ago, I had to- I was required to do something very unpleasant to that woman. I've hated myself for it, but it was necessary. Since then, she's only grown colder, bitter, and spiteful to the Empire. If civil war were to erupt on this continent, it would start with her- she has authority from the Duchy of Nauders all the way through Tannit, Begierde, and Einsamkeit. When Her Radiance liberated Ardeal from Scourge of Sarkomand, she sent that woman more than twenty thousand refugees- refugees that would be more than happy to take up arms against an Empire that left them to their fate." She explained. "So you're going to show her that despite her power and authority, we can still reach her. You're going to occupy the docks. March into the city. Into the Noble District. Beat down her gates. Olivia will speak with her, and offer her the concessions I've outlined in that document, and then you will leave. No lives taken, no lives lost."

The captain gave a twisted half-smile at that. "That certainly will send an irrevocable message, Your Grace."

"Fantastic. Dispatch immediately." The Grand Cardinal replied, and the captain grit his teeth and shook his head. "Not that easy, Your Grace. I'll need at least a week to arrange things. More realistically, two."

The Grand Cardinal sighed. "Fine. ...You get so used to things being at your fingertips, you sometimes forget the simple things, like logistics. But you understand your mission. Let's get this done."

That had been the plan. That was the plan. In less than an hour, Olivia would take a carriage to the docks and board one of the ships, at which point she would travel to Begierde and threaten Katarina's mother with pomp and ceremony, and heap honors on her head.

But there was so much more, now. As much as things hadn't changed, things had changed in the two weeks leading up to this moment. Celeste was dead, Norn had fallen completely silent, and Olivia was certain she was quite mad.