The Second Player

To Show Faith

A girl in black armor materializes to the south of the village, taking a step from the dark portal. Too far to clearly see the village, but it looked as if all was peaceful. Her wings illuminate the surroundings in a holy light.

With a twitch of her wings, her body rises into the air. Her golden eyes look into the night, looking towards her new beginning.

• • • • •

Six men enter a dark room, glancing at one another before getting to work.

They clean every crevice of the room from top to bottom. The room in itself is quite small, yet the sheer amount of effort and precision of each man caused the cleaning to take multiple hours, all without break.

The room was remarkably clean to begin with, as such it was not something done for the sake of being in a clean room, but done as a ritual.

At last, they carefully cleaned every detail of the six statues which lay on a pedestal, at the back wall.

Covered in sweat and minuscule amounts of dust, the men cast a spell upon themselves, ridding them of any dirt.

This spell could have just as easily been cast on the room as a whole, but this ritual was to be done for the sake of their Gods, the six great Gods of old.

Once the men completed their task, they each took up a chair upon a round table and sat.

Each of the six wore robes, the telling of a high priest, but each contained a different color. The color of each would represent the holy sect they belonged to.

These were the six most powerful men of the Slane Theocracy, the high priests of the six scriptures.

The Cardinal of Fire, leader of the Sunlight Scripture.
The Cardinal of Water, leader of the Clearwater Scripture.
the Cardinal of Wind, leader of the Windflower Scripture.
The Cardinal of Earth, leader of the Highearth Scripture.
The Cardinal of Light, leader of the Holocaust Scripture.
The Cardinal of Darkness, leader of the Black Scripture.

These men had come to deliberate upon a single piece of information received from one of the members on this table, the Cardinal of fire.

"As you have all guessed by now, I've requested this meeting in order to discuss something one of my men had told me. It is possible that there is a Goddess amongst the humans."

The other five members remain unchanged in their facial features, they had already heard this news once before when the invitation to gather had been given. And so these men had already gone through their "disbelief" phase.

"I would like to discuss how we should act based on the information we have at our disposal."

The man with red robes finished his opening greetings, leaving the table open for any member to disclose their beliefs.

To his right, the man in green, the cardinal of wind, spoke up.

"What proof do we have that this is truly a Goddess? It may be someone who plays at our beliefs. And what ever happened to the Kingdom's chief warrior, along with your Sunlight Scripture?"

The man in red prepared to answer these questions beforehand, no one would believe a Goddess came to earth once again without proof of such an occurrence.

"First off, pertaining to the Chief warrior, he had successfully been eliminated, with very few casualties, along with many members of the village. Our initial plan to use Carne Village had been out of the option, so we made use of Felt Village. And with no outside assistance, the Chief warrior and his men fell in battle. Secondly, we questioned a few villagers of Carne, and their description matches those of a divine figure, including angelic wings and the tremendous power held by a divine. It seems quite likely."

All the other members held smiles on their faces, for two great things had happened to their country.

One: the kingdom had lost their most powerful warrior, allowing the Baharuth Empire to easily conquer them when it comes time for war. This would allow the human race to greatly increase their power against the non-humans, fighting together as one instead of against one another.

Two: it was highly likely that there was a true Goddess somewhere among this continent. These men who have given all for the sake of their religion, to meet a Goddess would be the highest of honors. In fact, it would be the honor of any man or woman in the theocracy.

The man with the most renown for his strength, as well as his faith, the Cardinal of Darkness, began to speak. A glimmering smile upon his face.

"We must find where her holiness is, and incite her into our country. I would love to meet her!! Wait..... I... I mean... it would be best to ally ourselves with her as soon as possible."

He began to blush when his tongue slipped, providing the others with his selfish thoughts. Though none of the others could critique him, for they all shared the same desire, to meet and assist this Goddess. These men wanted to show their faith directly.

It was not greed or power which drove them. The High priests of the six faiths don't receive money. This was put in place in order to prevent one from becoming a key member purely for the sake of greed.

These men are driven by nothing more than faith, the faith to the divine and the faith to their country.

The opportunity to meet a true being from the divine realm could be as little as once in all of history. And these men had the chance to do just that.

All the men at the table were in agreement. Whether for selfish reasons or not, they wished to meet this divine creature no matter what they would have to offer in exchange.

"Then we are in agreement. For the sake of the divine!"

The other members, in unison, followed in the Cardinal of light's declaration.

"For the sake of the divines!"

The men stood up from the tables and left to their respective temples, each making their preparations for the future of their country.