Eldritch Exorcist

We both stood in front of the altar, looking at the statue of the creature.

"The altars in the forest, the ones that outline the barrier around your holy land, do they represent the messenger as well?" I asked.

"Yes, they should be connected to the messenger as well. He is quite close to Taipo, so the same altar serves both." She furrowed her eyebrows. "I think I know what you're getting at."

I looked at her with raised eyebrows, curious about her theory.

"So let's drop the reason why the messenger could receive the command to choose her as a priestess, as I still think you're wrong about it not being a deal. So it wasn't Taipo or the other god that looked at her through the altar the first time, it was the messenger." She then pointed at the statues. "And by the way, we call him Stjarnmosa."

I pronounced the name silently a couple of times. "Stjarnmosa. And yes, we agree so far."

"Okay, so the messenger received a command to bless her. He senses her approach the altar and opens the path into the holy land and leads them towards the hut. Then at night, they sleep next to the altar. This time, the altar is purely for Stjarnmosa. But here's where you lose me. The vision, judging by its contents, should be sent by the outsider god." She locked her eyes with mine. "So, for them to be able to use the altar of the messenger to send a vision, a pact between the gods had to have been made. But what you describe is basically a lower divine being going against its god's will, which is not likely. So my theory is that they made an agreement. She gets the vision. End of story."

"I'm with you until the vision. But you're missing an element. Did they teach you how to interpret symbols and sigils?" I changed the topic.

"Sure. Like star constellations, a couple of points create complicated, hard-to-see images."

I nodded. I then led her out of the church, as drawing symbols of other gods might not be taken too well in front of their altar.

I then drew the upside-down A with the T, Taipo's symbol. Next to it, the symbol which carved into Ophelia's chest. An eye with a four-pointed star instead of the pupil.

"The messenger is not powerful enough to have his own sigil, I take it?"

Astrid just shook her head, curious where I was taking it.

I turned to her. "How would you read those symbols?"

"Taipo's easy. It's two symbols compounded into one. One is the upside-down A, symbolizing an elk's skull, a symbol of death in the context of nature and wilderness." She then pointed at the T. "And this part is a symbol of a pine tree, a sign for forests and nature."

I nodded, agreeing with her. "I imagine you had that one taught to you from a young age. How about the symbol of the other deity?"

She tilted her head and looked at it for a second, frowning. "An eye with a cross pupil doesn't bring much to mind. So I assume it's a symbol for attributes I'm not familiar with, or it's a composite symbol like Taipo's. Strange eyes could be associated with some part of the mind attribute, or maybe a seer?"

She was good. This symbol wasn't as easy. I only recognized some parts of it because it related to attributes I used in spellcraft.

"It's composite," I gave her a hint.

She went back to looking at the symbols, separating them in her mind. "So a four-pointed star and an eye."

"Watch out for this pitfall." I smiled. "Many people make this mistake. When you separate symbols that also together create a complete picture, you can forget to see them as two completely separate parts. You moved the inner part, the star, out and see it as a star, but because together they created an eye, you still think about the encompassing sigil as an eye. But when you remove the star, it's not a normal eye."

Her eyebrows shot up. "It's just an outline. It's missing the iris… a blind eye! So, the attribute of death."

"Most likely. Or death, in the context of the mind." I nodded my head. "You want to try the star?"

"I got nothing. Looks like the compass rose a bit."

"Close. The star is for space." She looked surprised by my words. The attribute of space was rare. "Space is really hard to symbolize, as there isn't much that can be drawn that has anything to do with it. Stars are one of the related sigils, usually with four or eight points to symbolize directions, since they are also part of space. But it's a really far association."

"Okay, so the god governs some aspects of death, space, and mind. How does that have anything to do with it not being a deal?" She was still pressing on her theory.

I pointed my chin at the entrance, and we went back into the church and approached the statue of the messenger. From up close, I could see more details about it. It was not entirely like a wolf. It was like a cross between a wolf and an elk in stature, with moss covering its back. The head was just an elk skull. But there was one thing I was primarily interested in checking. It was the arms replacing the antlers. I noticed them in the smaller altar in the woods, but now, seeing the sculpture up close, I was almost sure of my theory.

I pointed at the hands. "Are they always depicted like that?"

She tilted forward a bit, looking closer at the sculpture. "Like what? They are arms."

"One, they are all reaching toward the sky. And two, look at the point where they all originate from."

We both took a closer look. Everything was beautifully sculpted, with vivid detail by someone inspired by the sacred being, no doubt. But the origin point of the arm-antlers was weird. It was like someone used software for 3D modeling and created that part of the sculpture by just dragging many same elements to the same place, not caring that the textures would penetrate each other, making it look like a mess.

"It's just a sculpture. From what I understand, the hands move on the creature, so this is just a depiction," she said, her voice laced with confusion.

"Yes, but everything is life-like and in great detail. But the origin of the hands doesn't make sense. It looks strange. The places where they meet are sharp, like they go in and out of each other rather than grow from the same point." I said, as I pointed my finger at the head part of the sculpture.

"Ok, let's say I see what you mean. So what does it have to do with anything?" she asked. "You mean that the sculptor made a mistake here?"

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"No, I think he did his best to depict something that is not possible to depict. I think, much like the moss is for nature, and the skull is for death, the hands are a sign of space attribute, it's just hard to depict. Don't you have firsthand accounts of the descent?" I asked.

"We do, but they just describe it in vague words. No one focuses on the hands when you have a part of your god in front of you." Astrid looked at me with eyebrows raised. "And aren't all sacred beings hard to describe?"

"Sure, that's true. That's why I will try to connect to the altar and sense the magic itself," I informed her.

"What?!" she screamed. "Are you out of your mind? You are not a priest, and even they would not try to glimpse divinity directly, not before the third circle. You will die!"

"Don't worry, I'll just take a peek, check if the attribute is present in it."

"The last priest who tried to take a peek, and he was already blessed by Taipo, lost his mind immediately after trying it."

"Well, that's the trick, you see. I'm one step ahead," I said in a conspiratorial whisper. "I already lost my mind."

"Very funny." She said flatly. "I was supposed to beat you up once I master my gift. How do I settle the score when you're dead?" She said, sounding genuinely bothered by it.

I'm not sure if it was flattering, but I'll take it. "Jokes aside, I was partially serious. Taking a peek at divinity is similar to staring into the abyss. It is incomprehensible to a mortal. It's the fear that shatters your mind first. So I should be relatively fine with just a glimpse."

She paused for a second, clearly hesitating about saying the next part. "You are aware that the chief's wife scammed you, right? Technically, just learning the attributes is not enough to be able to say which god it is. And it will be a long time before the girl learns to tap into that knowledge well enough to get the name. And after the ritual, both you and she, assuming she survives, will be thrown out of here. So why risk it?"

I smiled at her. "Are you worried about me?"

"You wish," She chuckled.

"And don't worry. I'm not all out of tricks yet. Knowledge granted like that doesn't settle into the subconscious immediately. It takes some time."

She looked at me with raised eyebrows but didn't know enough about the mysteries of the mind to be able to guess my next move. It was a nice part of dealing with people without wide specializations. Pulling tricks could go both ways.

She hesitated for a second but then relented. "Fine, but I want any books on gods from your family's collection after you die, since you didn't prove the theory."

"Sure, just tell Q'Shar that I agreed without much thinking. That'll sound like something I'd do." We both chuckled, and I turned towards the sculpture, preparing for what I was about to do.

Astrid moved back a bit, giving me space, as she sat down in the first row of the church benches.

I started to concentrate, connecting myself to magic.

Sensing your own mana was easy, as it was already attuned to you. But attuning yourself to outside mana was extremely hard. It was impossible to achieve resonance, as you would have to resonate with the world or a god itself. So you needed a way in, a part of the magic that you understood and could replicate.

To attune myself to the energy coming off the altar, I had three ways in if my guess was correct: nature, which was out of the question. Death, which was fine, but in the concept of nature, was not perfect. And, if I was correct, space.

It was a hard choice to make. Their interpretation of death was a bit foreign to me, but death was easier. Space, on the other hand, was not that complicated when it comes to meaning and interpretation, but extremely hard to comprehend and replicate.

After a bit of hesitation, I chose space. I was not risking it with Taipo's way of seeing death. I concentrated as hard as I could. If I extended my will and the attunement was wrong, I would get a backlash, and not a pleasant one, considering this was a central altar.

I brought myself closer to magic. Felt it. Heard its song. With my will, I gave my mana a sense of mystery, made it non-existent yet ever-present, made it meaningless but all-encompassing.

It was really hard to get right. I was working my willpower to its limits.

All other thoughts were gone from me as I manipulated magic before trying to sense the altar. I could feel beads of sweat rolling down my forehead as I finally opened my eyes.

And I saw her briefly, the ghost in the mana. Personification of my magic. The last time I saw her was in Brazil, while I was trying to create hellfire. She sat in the back row of the church, watching me, smiling and silent.

I ignored the sight and extended myself towards the altar.

For a second, I thought I had messed up. The sensations coming off of it were foreign, but then it hit.

Partial resonance.

It was barely there, but it was present.

Right after, I felt the pressure.

Divinity.

It was an incomprehensible energy, not happy about being glimpsed by mortal eyes. I sensed pressure on my soul, trying to rouse a part of me that was thankfully hollow. I had a second before the pressure threatened my soul.

I concentrated on the aspect of space.

There were stars and black holes.

The pressure stopped my breathing.

Mysteries of the universe, incomprehensible.

I gritted my teeth as the pressure turned to pain.

The sensation of incomprehensible vastness engulfed me.

I shattered the connection as I felt the divinity try to bore a hole through my soul.

I landed on my back with quite the force as I instinctively jumped away from the altar, taking big gulps of air. I could still feel vertigo, my mana in disarray. My head was pounding, but not all was bad news, since so was my heart.

I closed my eyes briefly to stop the world from spinning as I digested what I just saw and felt.

Astrid got up without much haste and approached me, locking eyes. "So no books for me, I take it?"

I smiled at her quip and took a couple of breaths before rising to my feet and massaging my behind. "Nope." I groaned. "But I was right. The connection to space is faint, but it's there. But most of all, it doesn't have the sensation of nature."

"So, you think that the space is tied to the foreign god? All that to confirm a theory?"

"All that to confirm an important theory. And more than tied, I think your messenger is a child between the two gods." I dropped a revelation on her.

"What?!" she exclaimed, surprised. "Impossible. We don't have any other gods we worship, let alone someone who helped create the Stjarnmosa."

I dusted myself off. "But think about it. You're the only ones who can still receive sacred beings from your god with such frequency. With no mana around, descending through the veil is extremely hard to pull off without some strong space magic. But your messenger can do that with a couple of second-circle clerics and his altars."

"But we would have some information. Since when do gods help create, or give birth, as it is in your version, to sacred beings this powerful and don't even show up in the religion?" Astrid looked at me as if I were out of my mind.

"Trying to understand gods is how you lose your mind. I'm not sure about the reason, but it fits. The creature must have some relation to space magic. If the relation is through the new deity, then it all comes together. The god can command its own child, and I know what I sensed."

She was standing there, going over my theory in her head. She clearly didn't like it, but there weren't any holes in it, aside from the fact that the god wasn't mentioned in their texts. But then again, they weren't completely immune to the Inquisition's influence, and I didn't know how much of their own belief system was lost over the years.

"Fine," she finally sighed. "Let's assume you are right."

Before we could continue our talk, we heard a loud horn.

Astrid turned towards the doors. "It looks like it is time to prepare. I have to go, " she said, her voice surprisingly low.

It was the first time I saw some nervousness on her face. Before, she was occupied with talking and arguing with me, so the fact that she would meet a sacred being of her chosen deity did not sink in. But the horn seemed to have brought that reality crashing down on her.

She froze for a second before taking a large breath. "You can stay and investigate more if you want."

"No, I got all that I wanted. So what now?"

"We will be preparing for the ritual. Both the chosen and the sacrifices." She started walking towards the doors. "I guess we should go and see who your new little friend picked."