A Priestess for the Blind God (Legends of Rahasia Book 1)

Chapter Nine

"Why do you pray here, at the altar of a blind traitor?" I'm interrupted from my moment of peace by none other than the priest. He's finished his honey cake, and now he's staring at me with those owlish eyes of his, crouched in a similar praying position beside me.

"I am an outcast here, or haven't you noticed that I'm the only independent woman in this camp who's not in a harem?" I think back to Ryu's brave words with Elio, when he accepted the title of bastard. "There's no use pretending to be a leader like the Elder or abnormally beautiful like the Beloved."

He glances closer at my features. "Ngayoh's wife was said to be so beautiful that even the Blind God could see her shining." He looks at me, the strong forehead of my father, the strangely dark eyes of my mother, eyes so dark that they gleam like blood. "Mm, no, you don't look like her at all. Yes, I'm afraid you really do look more like your father though. Even have the same lion's mane of hair. I don't see your mother in you much at all save for those blood-moon eyes of yours."

"Thank you?" He just called me ugly. He really is mad, but at least he's honest. I like honesty. I turn to him, observing the priest that's starving in service to the wrong god. "Why do you worship a blind traitor?"

He laughs. "I grew up poor on the streets. The higher, fancier temples," he waves dismissively at Beloved and Elder, "they do not accept those that don't come from noble families, those that aren't strong, beautiful, or richer than sin." He points to the empty altar, the unassuming nature of it all, empty of gold. "The poor, the blind, and the lame find solace here. At least we can starve with a roof over our heads."

I look at the bare altar, "so this is the home for the outcasts."

He looks at me, the invectives scrawled over my things. "You are a woman warrior, born between a Diviner healer who brought life and a mortal man who reveled in the dead on a battlefield."

We turn to the Diviner mirror as one.

"Now I am a Diviner woman who revels in the dead." I heft the mirror with contempt, "and I can do nothing with it. The dead do not listen to me."

The mad priest passes a hand over his bald head. "Perhaps you are," he smirks at me, letting his fingers hover over the mirror's surface. I blink. For a second there, I imagined the reflective surface shimmered with some violet light. It must have been a nervous fancy. "You are more than you seem, Ode."

We pray together for a while. When I open my eyes, the mad priest has vanished.

I put my Diviner weapon back into my belt, and spy a single silver piece on the road directly outside the area. I take it and throw it amongst the others littering the steps of Aziz the Beloved, faking like I prayed at the "regular" altar instead of the strange one.

Ryu gets to his knees, grinning at my offering. "Silver? I thought I was the poorer one between us."

I stick my tongue out at him. "We can't all have a prince casting lovey-dovey eyes at us, Ryu."

We take our desecrated bedrolls in our hands and make our way to the prince's tent.

"Ready to dine with Elio the Chosen?" Ryu asks me.

I shrug. "Better than dining with mad old men at temples."

***

Hello my Champions!

What do you guys think about the madman priest? 

I wonder...

-Sophia