The gods were apparently very benevolent, kind and nice enough to watch over humanity. Well, the pope missed out on the elves which prayed to the same gods and were created at the same time, but nobody seemed to mind that.
Instead, they were praying, singing songs together and even gave out bread and wine for us. I didn’t know what the last part was for, but at least the wine tasted alright even though everyone looked at me weirdly once I started drinking more than one sip. Sadly, I had to admit that Luna was really into this godly stuff, including most of the others in this cathedral. While I seriously didn’t care that the teenager in commoner clothing to our side prayed like crazy, I disliked that Luna did so.
The gods never did her any good. The goddess of life she was praying to didn’t even know she existed in the first place, so thanking her for being there was … odd?
At least it wasn’t that hard to follow the customs of religion which did allow me to keep my head down the whole time. Only as the visitors of the cathedral spoke up did I need to mumble along somewhat and otherwise I could just look to the ground in a praying pose while cursing Aska with all I got.
During this time I picked up quite the few interesting stories though. Did you know I was singlehandedly responsible for all the good that happened to humanity, but certainly not the bad? How I fought the first demons myself and as I was close to losing, I sacrificed myself for the greater good? Since then, I was apparently watching Solaris from above, just waiting to return and lead humanity to glory.
And everyone, including Luna, the pope and even the teenager apparently believed that. Well, I was literally in their heads so there wasn’t really anything I could do against these massive expectations. At least I got Luna off that trip that I was something holy. Sure, I wanted them to do my bidding since the very beginning, but I didn’t want them to see me as one of those I hated the most.
A full hour, I had to sit through this cruelty while feigning to be a devout follower myself. It was really taxing on my mind, especially because I couldn’t chat with Luna at all. She was following the speech the whole time and honestly, even I doubted it would be a good idea to fool around in this building.
Thankfully, it finally ended after I mumbled myself through another one of these songs and the first row started to stand up. The royal family, consisting of the king, his two wives and a lot of princes and princesses left the cathedral gracefully without even looking in our direction as they were beside us. I did expect that the king would feel his first wife just through his unimaginable love for me, but apparently I was mistaken … luckily.
The next to leave were the second row which consisted of two members of the four ducal family and other nobles which was followed upon by even more nobles of the third row and so on and so fourth. Luckily, it was customary for the preacher to stay behind longer, which allowed me to stay put except when I had to let the teenager out of the row. Luna wanted to stand up as well, but I gently pushed her down again.
She didn’t know what my real intention in coming with her was even though it should have been obvious that I wasn’t solely there to pray to the gods. It was Sunday and as the pope held church service that day, it would be the perfect time to meet him.
Fifteen minutes of sitting there silently with my gaze directed to my knees, the pope finally strode down the isle.
“Can I help you in anyway?” He asked probably because we were the only ones left inside.
“No thank you. It is just that I was never in this cathedral before and what can I say … you directly feel closer to the saint and the gods.” I said and finally looked up, only to look at the grey haired pope with a slight smile on my face. Sadly, he didn’t recognise me immediately but my voice apparently put him on the right track.
“It does feel that way, especially when I hear a voice that is so similar to that of the saint.” He said to which I really didn’t knew how to reply. It was true that the two hundred years I was supposed to be in coma weren’t fully over, but I seriously thought that at least the pope was informed about my appearance.
Interestingly enough, that wasn’t the case at all. A few seconds later, the pope began strolling towards the door again after nodding towards us as a farewell. I wasn’t willing to let him go.
“Have you ever been to the sanctuary, your holiness?” I asked which made him stop walking nearly instantly.
“Nobody is allowed to see the saint for selfish reasons.” He claimed while I heard rustling behind me. He apparently turned around to look at me, but I still kept gazing forwards towards the altar.
“Hmm … “ So nobody was allowed to see me at all, not even paintings of me which would explain how nobody really knew how I looked anymore. “Did you know that the saint is a vampire?” I asked and heard him stiffening up quite a bit.
“Did Luna tell you anything in this direction? She does have a vivid imagination.” I looked over towards Luna who shook her head in denial.
“Sure she did. But a mirror would have told me the same anyway.” I explained and stood up from the bench slowly.
“A mirror?” He asked with audible confusion in his voice.
“Yes? Don’t you know the fable with the mirror?” I asked, finally turned towards him and curtsied in the middle of the isle. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most saintly of all …” I cleared my throat a bit and continued to speak in a deeper voice. “It is you, Saint Lucy Worchester, eternal queen of the human lands. Holy vampire in disguise, living amongst the humans to do the bidding of the gods.”
As he still had a hint of disbelief in his eyes, I pulled my upper lip upwards so that he could see my sharp canine well enough. At last, he fell on his knee and looked towards the ground ashamed.
“Your holiness, I am deeply touched by your awakening. Thank you for gracing this old man with your presence, thank you for all of your sacrifices. I cannot even imagine what you had to live through for our sake and I am deeply ashamed of myself and on behalf of the whole church that we couldn’t stand by your side.” They better should do what I wanted them to. Otherwise all of my actions would be kind of pointless, wouldn’t they?
“Please, do rise. There is no need to lower yourself. You worked hard for the church, are a devout follower of the god of light, and always worked for the sake of the gods and my sake as well.” I extended my hand to him which he carefully took. Using a bit of my help, he stood up once more and looked into my green eyes deeply.
“The gods have woken me up again during these troubling times not because they want me to step in right away. I have slept two hundred years and during these times much has changed. My leadership may do more harm than good at this time so I intend to observe from the side-lines at least for a little while.” I explained and looked down to the ground while curving the corners of my mouth downwards.
“You don’t … you don’t intend to solve the problems we have with the demons?” He looked almost shocked that what he preached wasn’t true. Well, he could go on preaching that anyway, mostly because I feared we would have to fight against the demons in the north at some point regardless of what I did.
“Long in the past, I was called a demon myself, rightfully so. My race was with high probability born from the mana sickness just like the other demons are. Thankfully, my predecessors retained their intelligence, even though most succumbed to blood lust over the course of their life. But I didn’t. I have lived long enough to know how good human blood tastes, but not once in my life did I lose control of myself. Do you know why that is the case?” I asked while tilting my head slightly.
“Because you are the saint. A person who transcendence the mortal body.” Woah, he truly had quite the favourable view of me, despite me being a vampire.
“That may be correct but it is not the reason as for why I haven’t tasted human blood in hundreds of years. Deep down, I am a peaceful person. I believe that we are all better off when we start to accept each other instead of trying to hurt our opponent. And with the demons, it is exactly the same. Sure there are some that behave like animals and we do have to protect ourselves from them. But there are also those like me. Intelligent beings who can very well be reasoned with. I envision a future where we can all live together peacefully.” I told him and looked up towards a mural where I sat alongside elves and humans on a long table peacefully.
“And if that isn’t possible? If the demons breach through the barriers we made?” Well … that would suck.
“Then … I will do what has to be done. Until then I will remain passive and hope that both the demons and the humans and elves start to build bridges instead of destroying them.” I explained which may have hurt him a little bit. The saviour he envisioned the whole time didn’t want to slaughter all of these demons after all.
“Is that the will of the gods?” He asked while looking down. He knew he was selfish to demand something from me, but he still needed to for the sake of his church and for humanity itself. I was sure though that he would never disregard anything out of my mouth because my words could very well be the words of the gods themselves.
“Partly. The gods want to keep the status quo and as such, they want me to remain completely passive as an observer. Or rather … they want me to enjoy life.” I explained and looked towards Luna who smiled brightly.
“The ways of the gods are unfathomable.” The pope said while grabbing his chin.
“They sure are … there two other things that needs to be done though. Once, my awakening needs to be kept secret at all costs. You may seal the sanctuary completely so that Luna doesn’t have to go there anymore. Additionally, there are forces within the church that try to weaken us. Especially the followers of the god of death threaten to harm the integrity of the church which we have to avoid at all cost. We need to stay united.” Take that Aska! That’s for trying to cheat during our last game of blackjack!
“What do you propose?” He asked which did make me scratch my cheek. For various reasons, I really didn’t want any of Aska´s followers around but asking for their death was probably too much.
“Please, do block them from any important positions and monitor their actions very carefully.” I proposed swiftly.
“As you wish.” Yeah, that was my wish. And I absolutely adored he would fulfil it without even questioning my motives.
“Thank you. I think that was it for today. We don’t want the others to get suspicious, do we?” I asked and looked towards the still open door.
“Certainly not.” He said and bowed deeply.
“Perfect. If you need anything from me, feel free to write a letter to Miss White and ask her to relay it to Lucy. That should be okay … right?” I asked and looked at Luna who nodded reluctantly. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was way better than to give him Tom´s address. “Oh … one last thing. Can I count on your help in the future as well?”
“The church will follow your every command.” That was … exactly what I wanted to hear. His words stroked my manipulative side just fine. I disliked hearing
‘Level u- Leve- Level up. You acquired the ski- Lev- Level u- You ac-‘
but I certainly could get behind all the influence it gave me. Happily, I curtsied towards the pope one last time, took Luna´s hand and waved towards the pope as we distanced ourselves from him.
“Was that saintly enough?” I whispered into Luna´s ear as we strolled down the stairs.
“There is no other person on this world who would be better fitted to be the saint.” She whispered back and smiled happily after I nudged her side a bit.
The gods were apparently very benevolent, kind and nice enough to watch over humanity. Well, the pope missed out on the elves which prayed to the same gods and were created at the same time, but nobody seemed to mind that.
Instead, they were praying, singing songs together and even gave out bread and wine for us. I didn’t know what the last part was for, but at least the wine tasted alright even though everyone looked at me weirdly once I started drinking more than one sip. Sadly, I had to admit that Luna was really into this godly stuff, including most of the others in this cathedral. While I seriously didn’t care that the teenager in commoner clothing to our side prayed like crazy, I disliked that Luna did so.
The gods never did her any good. The goddess of life she was praying to didn’t even know she existed in the first place, so thanking her for being there was … odd?
At least it wasn’t that hard to follow the customs of religion which did allow me to keep my head down the whole time. Only as the visitors of the cathedral spoke up did I need to mumble along somewhat and otherwise I could just look to the ground in a praying pose while cursing Aska with all I got.
During this time I picked up quite the few interesting stories though. Did you know I was singlehandedly responsible for all the good that happened to humanity, but certainly not the bad? How I fought the first demons myself and as I was close to losing, I sacrificed myself for the greater good? Since then, I was apparently watching Solaris from above, just waiting to return and lead humanity to glory.
And everyone, including Luna, the pope and even the teenager apparently believed that. Well, I was literally in their heads so there wasn’t really anything I could do against these massive expectations. At least I got Luna off that trip that I was something holy. Sure, I wanted them to do my bidding since the very beginning, but I didn’t want them to see me as one of those I hated the most.
A full hour, I had to sit through this cruelty while feigning to be a devout follower myself. It was really taxing on my mind, especially because I couldn’t chat with Luna at all. She was following the speech the whole time and honestly, even I doubted it would be a good idea to fool around in this building.
Thankfully, it finally ended after I mumbled myself through another one of these songs and the first row started to stand up. The royal family, consisting of the king, his two wives and a lot of princes and princesses left the cathedral gracefully without even looking in our direction as they were beside us. I did expect that the king would feel his first wife just through his unimaginable love for me, but apparently I was mistaken … luckily.
The next to leave were the second row which consisted of two members of the four ducal family and other nobles which was followed upon by even more nobles of the third row and so on and so fourth. Luckily, it was customary for the preacher to stay behind longer, which allowed me to stay put except when I had to let the teenager out of the row. Luna wanted to stand up as well, but I gently pushed her down again.
She didn’t know what my real intention in coming with her was even though it should have been obvious that I wasn’t solely there to pray to the gods. It was Sunday and as the pope held church service that day, it would be the perfect time to meet him.
Fifteen minutes of sitting there silently with my gaze directed to my knees, the pope finally strode down the isle.
“Can I help you in anyway?” He asked probably because we were the only ones left inside.
“No thank you. It is just that I was never in this cathedral before and what can I say … you directly feel closer to the saint and the gods.” I said and finally looked up, only to look at the grey haired pope with a slight smile on my face. Sadly, he didn’t recognise me immediately but my voice apparently put him on the right track.
“It does feel that way, especially when I hear a voice that is so similar to that of the saint.” He said to which I really didn’t knew how to reply. It was true that the two hundred years I was supposed to be in coma weren’t fully over, but I seriously thought that at least the pope was informed about my appearance.
Interestingly enough, that wasn’t the case at all. A few seconds later, the pope began strolling towards the door again after nodding towards us as a farewell. I wasn’t willing to let him go.
“Have you ever been to the sanctuary, your holiness?” I asked which made him stop walking nearly instantly.
“Nobody is allowed to see the saint for selfish reasons.” He claimed while I heard rustling behind me. He apparently turned around to look at me, but I still kept gazing forwards towards the altar.
“Hmm … “ So nobody was allowed to see me at all, not even paintings of me which would explain how nobody really knew how I looked anymore. “Did you know that the saint is a vampire?” I asked and heard him stiffening up quite a bit.
“Did Luna tell you anything in this direction? She does have a vivid imagination.” I looked over towards Luna who shook her head in denial.
“Sure she did. But a mirror would have told me the same anyway.” I explained and stood up from the bench slowly.
“A mirror?” He asked with audible confusion in his voice.
“Yes? Don’t you know the fable with the mirror?” I asked, finally turned towards him and curtsied in the middle of the isle. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most saintly of all …” I cleared my throat a bit and continued to speak in a deeper voice. “It is you, Saint Lucy Worchester, eternal queen of the human lands. Holy vampire in disguise, living amongst the humans to do the bidding of the gods.”
As he still had a hint of disbelief in his eyes, I pulled my upper lip upwards so that he could see my sharp canine well enough. At last, he fell on his knee and looked towards the ground ashamed.
“Your holiness, I am deeply touched by your awakening. Thank you for gracing this old man with your presence, thank you for all of your sacrifices. I cannot even imagine what you had to live through for our sake and I am deeply ashamed of myself and on behalf of the whole church that we couldn’t stand by your side.” They better should do what I wanted them to. Otherwise all of my actions would be kind of pointless, wouldn’t they?
“Please, do rise. There is no need to lower yourself. You worked hard for the church, are a devout follower of the god of light, and always worked for the sake of the gods and my sake as well.” I extended my hand to him which he carefully took. Using a bit of my help, he stood up once more and looked into my green eyes deeply.
“The gods have woken me up again during these troubling times not because they want me to step in right away. I have slept two hundred years and during these times much has changed. My leadership may do more harm than good at this time so I intend to observe from the side-lines at least for a little while.” I explained and looked down to the ground while curving the corners of my mouth downwards.
“You don’t … you don’t intend to solve the problems we have with the demons?” He looked almost shocked that what he preached wasn’t true. Well, he could go on preaching that anyway, mostly because I feared we would have to fight against the demons in the north at some point regardless of what I did.
“Long in the past, I was called a demon myself, rightfully so. My race was with high probability born from the mana sickness just like the other demons are. Thankfully, my predecessors retained their intelligence, even though most succumbed to blood lust over the course of their life. But I didn’t. I have lived long enough to know how good human blood tastes, but not once in my life did I lose control of myself. Do you know why that is the case?” I asked while tilting my head slightly.
“Because you are the saint. A person who transcendence the mortal body.” Woah, he truly had quite the favourable view of me, despite me being a vampire.
“That may be correct but it is not the reason as for why I haven’t tasted human blood in hundreds of years. Deep down, I am a peaceful person. I believe that we are all better off when we start to accept each other instead of trying to hurt our opponent. And with the demons, it is exactly the same. Sure there are some that behave like animals and we do have to protect ourselves from them. But there are also those like me. Intelligent beings who can very well be reasoned with. I envision a future where we can all live together peacefully.” I told him and looked up towards a mural where I sat alongside elves and humans on a long table peacefully.
“And if that isn’t possible? If the demons breach through the barriers we made?” Well … that would suck.
“Then … I will do what has to be done. Until then I will remain passive and hope that both the demons and the humans and elves start to build bridges instead of destroying them.” I explained which may have hurt him a little bit. The saviour he envisioned the whole time didn’t want to slaughter all of these demons after all.
“Is that the will of the gods?” He asked while looking down. He knew he was selfish to demand something from me, but he still needed to for the sake of his church and for humanity itself. I was sure though that he would never disregard anything out of my mouth because my words could very well be the words of the gods themselves.
“Partly. The gods want to keep the status quo and as such, they want me to remain completely passive as an observer. Or rather … they want me to enjoy life.” I explained and looked towards Luna who smiled brightly.
“The ways of the gods are unfathomable.” The pope said while grabbing his chin.
“They sure are … there two other things that needs to be done though. Once, my awakening needs to be kept secret at all costs. You may seal the sanctuary completely so that Luna doesn’t have to go there anymore. Additionally, there are forces within the church that try to weaken us. Especially the followers of the god of death threaten to harm the integrity of the church which we have to avoid at all cost. We need to stay united.” Take that Aska! That’s for trying to cheat during our last game of blackjack!
“What do you propose?” He asked which did make me scratch my cheek. For various reasons, I really didn’t want any of Aska´s followers around but asking for their death was probably too much.
“Please, do block them from any important positions and monitor their actions very carefully.” I proposed swiftly.
“As you wish.” Yeah, that was my wish. And I absolutely adored he would fulfil it without even questioning my motives.
“Thank you. I think that was it for today. We don’t want the others to get suspicious, do we?” I asked and looked towards the still open door.
“Certainly not.” He said and bowed deeply.
“Perfect. If you need anything from me, feel free to write a letter to Miss White and ask her to relay it to Lucy. That should be okay … right?” I asked and looked at Luna who nodded reluctantly. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was way better than to give him Tom´s address. “Oh … one last thing. Can I count on your help in the future as well?”
“The church will follow your every command.” That was … exactly what I wanted to hear. His words stroked my manipulative side just fine. I disliked hearing
‘Level u- Leve- Level up. You acquired the ski- Lev- Level u- You ac-‘
but I certainly could get behind all the influence it gave me. Happily, I curtsied towards the pope one last time, took Luna´s hand and waved towards the pope as we distanced ourselves from him.
“Was that saintly enough?” I whispered into Luna´s ear as we strolled down the stairs.
“There is no other person on this world who would be better fitted to be the saint.” She whispered back and smiled happily after I nudged her side a bit.
