An Angel Called Eternity

To Bet on Losing Dogs - Cardinal Spyridon I: Deicide

Cardinal Spyridon I: Deicide

The Fifteenth Day of the Seventh Moon, 873 AD.
Aegos, Aegan Hills, Western Dathan.

Well, this was not what he'd wanted to happen.

Sin had warned him that there had been an attempt on his life before arriving to Aegos, and despite genuinely believing him all of that had become so distant in Spyridon's mind when they reached the city. It wasn't like anyone would be brazen enough to call down the wrath of both Cardinal Sin and Archcardinal Adikos when they were in the same city, would they?

Evidently that assessment had been wrong. He'd needed to re-evaluate a great many things in the wake of this attempted killing, though luckily it seemed he was above suspicion. It was a selfish thing to admit, but his first thoughts upon seeing his friend hit the floor was that the blame would be his to shoulder, but that had never happened. He'd explained the situation to Adikos after seeing Sin to the internal hospitaller ward, praying to the First Saint that the old man wouldn't see him as a suspect in what had been an attempted murder of his 'star pupil'.

As it turns out Adikos had been more worried about the blow to the perceived unity of the theocracy than he had been with the actual attempted murder. In fact Spyridon was fairly certain that, even if he had been the one who tried to kill Sin, Adikos would have helped him cover it up. The old man had been fuming at the botched killing, yes, but he wasn't worried about it. That was the key difference. If he were worried then he'd need to do something about it, but the Archcardinal never acted on the impulses of anger. He'd not raised himself to the head of Aegan politics and gathered the support necessary to dissolve the republic without a level head and a calculating mind. Someone would be punished for what had been done yesterday, but that didn't mean it would be the people who actually deserved it.

"A message from Cardinal Admeta, your Holiness. She wishes you to meet with her."

Spyridon's immediate thought was to dismiss the invitation out of hand; she'd just attempted to kill Sin and maybe himself as well, after all. However Sin had been right in some of his words recently, specifically when he said they needed to take risks and walk into traps. If this was a trap, which it probably wasn't but it didn't hurt to be paranoid, then he'd need to make sure it snapped shut on thin air.

"Inform her I will arrive shortly. Thank you, child."

The servant bowed deeply before walking swiftly away. Right, how was he going to do this? What would Sin do? Sin snorted. Sin would probably walk in there without a care in the world even if there were two-score men with blades beyond the door; his friend wasn't exactly the best model for rational thought. He was hardly a model for any kind of thought, to be honest. Not in a way that Spyridon would ever be able to understand, anyway.

He changed into a more casual set of robes and began the short walk to the quarters of Cardinal Admeta. He'd always liked Admeta when they were kids, but the two of them had engaged in what might charitably be called an argument after the civil war. He couldn't even remember what it had been over, probably a mix of things. Yes, that was right. It had been a great many things that they disagreed upon, and it had all exploded out of them both over the course of that night. They'd argued about the course the theocracy was set to take, over the public execution of dissidents, over a hundred issues both minor and major, and then of course there was their disagreement over him. Over Cardinal Sin.

When Sin had stormed the walls of Thermanthus, thus returning the city to the hands of the theocrats, the paved roads had been slick and red with the blood of the faithless and the faithful both. Sin himself had been wounded, but with the capture of the city the civil war was over. Admeta had wanted Sin to be held up as a model soldier of the theocracy, placed in direct control of all the armed forces in the new state. Spyridon had wanted his friend to return to quiet contemplation and healing. They'd shouted at each other and pointed fingers, blaming each other for all their ills over the unconscious body of their closest friend besides each other. Neither of them got their way in the end, Spyridon supposed. Adikos had decreed he was to reign over Athio, and so it was done. Knowing what he did now Spyridon wished he'd supported Admeta's plan to have Sin take control of all the soldiers in the theocracy; this nightmare would have been strangled in its cradle if Sin had held that much power so early into its existence.