Chapter Six
Questions
Robert had to admit that he really didn’t know how he was actually supposed to take the news of the air goddess disappearing. It really was stupid, because there was no definitive proof that she even existed, much less disappeared. There hadn’t been any reports of anyone seeing or visiting the gods in several generations, which lead Robert to believe that this was all just a hooky religion that people created to explain why certain things came about. The sea didn’t join with the earth and create fire and air; they were just forces that existed since the universe first came into being. And while he couldn’t explain how the universe was actually created, he was pretty damn sure it wasn’t created by two super human beings that lived forever and secretly ruled over them.
He certainly didn’t believe in the idea that fire and air created humans and elves. Sure, they were similar, but so were dwarves, fairies, and mermaids, and yet they were created by completely different people! Well, maybe not the fairies, who were created by the Angelus Dei, but the idea was the same. Humans and elves were the only races to pretty much be identical, save for a few defining traits. Humans were supposed to look exactly like the gods, which was why they didn’t really have anything special about them. Elves had their ears, of course, as well as their higher variety of skin tones and hair colors. Take Clover, for example – she was very dark skinned with green hair. No human he knew had green hair, and that dark a skin tone was usually reserved for the people living outside the Five Kingdoms. The darkest people within the Kingdoms were the Ta’norians, and they were more tanned than dark skin.
Even if the gods did exist, and there really wasn’t any evidence to suggest otherwise, there wasn’t a solid way to prove that she had outright disappeared. A bird dying wasn’t a clear sign. Birds die; it was sad, but it was a way of life. And Robert didn’t understand the whole ‘feeling her presence’ thing, although he had heard it plenty of times before form the Priests. He didn’t feel any supernatural presence, although he was told constantly that was because he wasn’t ‘chosen’ to become a priest, so it wasn’t something he actually needed to understand. Robert had felt rather insulted whenever he was told that, because it always seemed to him that anyone could walk off the streets and become a priest, no matter what their condition was when they arrived. You couldn’t tell him that these random people just felt the presence of the goddess, and didn’t just need a place to settle.
Still, there was the fact that there hasn’t been a recorded sighting of the Angelus Dei, or any of the other gods, in many, many years. Robert couldn’t recalled the last time it had happened, mostly because it was part of the nonsense religious history that he tended to ignore, but he knew it was long before his father’s time. It wasn’t like they could call her forth to find out if she was gone for sure, or to call any of the other gods to ask them if they knew anything.
A few people screw up and accidentally killed the Sacred Hummingbird, and by coming up with some ridiculous excuse so they wouldn’t get into trouble, they were going to create a panic. This was lovely, Robert thought, already seeing the effects in the village. And the rumor hadn’t really spread yet! People just seemed to know something bad was going on, and they just couldn’t put their finger on what it was. They were sheep, all of them, Robert had discovered, ready to believe anything that was told to them just so they don’t have to actually think for themselves.
Robert also knew that was terrible thinking for a king to have about his people, and it was technically dangerous ground he was treading. But he honestly didn’t believe why people held so much stock in a religion that really should be on its way out, considering there wasn’t anything recorded in recent history. People should start doubting the existence of the gods, like Robert had, and be looking for new ways to gain enlightenment.
Granted, Robert wasn’t going to force them to give up their gods. He was just going to make it no longer mandatory to worship the gods and attend the ceremonies associated with it. If someone doesn’t want to believe, then they weren’t going to be penalized for it. And the people are going to know their king didn’t support the religion, but he supported the people, so they could do whatever the hell they wanted, so long as it didn’t actually hurt anyone else.
Strangely, it wasn’t Robert’s lack of conviction to the problem that actually stopped them from going immediately to find out what was going on. After all, Caroline had a point – he might not care about the fact that some imaginary person had supposedly disappearance, but the people certainly did. He needed to find an explanation they could live with for all of this, so he could sooth the people’s fears and stop the riots on the castle and the Temples before they even started.
Unsurprisingly, it was actually Selene who stopped them. “What’s the rush?” she demanded as she struggled to keep up with the royal siblings and the prince’s bodyguard. “It’s just a rumor, Robert. You don’t need to find out if it’s true or not right away. I thought you didn’t believe in the Dei, anyway.”
Robert turned to her. “I have a duty to my people to get answers as soon as I possibly can,” he informed her. “I may not believe in the nonsense, but my subjects do, and I owe it to them to find out what’s going on. The sooner I can do that, the sooner I can sooth them with the answers they want to hear. It may just be a rumor, but you out of everyone should know how quickly rumors spread in Acerbus. I have a feeling it’ll be village wide by nightfall.”
“You give the people far too much credit,” Caroline said, shaking her head, looking a little amused despite the situation. After all, he was really doing this for her. “Most people wouldn’t want to believe it, so they won’t spread it as fast. I mean, this isn’t the court we’re talking about, where no one can keep a secret to save their lives. I’d give it to the end of the week, to be honest.”
“Fine,” Robert muttered. “It’ll be around town by the end of the week. Still, I want to know if my father knows anything about this. He’ll want to know the Dei has disappeared, at least, so he can stop the rioting.” Robert secretly hoped that he was the first one to be hearing about this, because he would love to see the looks on the priests’ faces when the king already knows the disastrous news they were going to tell them. Robert was witness to several occasions when the priests ‘deemed’ something was going to happen, because one of them took too much of some narcotic or something and hallucinated some terrible event happening. None of it ever had, but the king was required to take every prophecy seriously, just on the off chance that it did come to pass. It was always better to be prepared for an even that wouldn’t happen then to be caught off guard.
“Robert,” Selene complained. “This is something that just happened recently! You’ll still have plenty of time to figure out what’s really going on and come up with answers for the peasants.” Selene, like himself, claimed that she didn’t believe in the gods, and that she only attending the ceremonies because it was expected of her as a princess. Robert knew the truth, however; she was just going that to get on his good side. She was about as manipulated as the rest of the population, and she just wanted to make it seem like she and Robert had that connection.
“It’s dangerous to just leave it be,” Clover said sternly. Robert was always surprised that even the Warrior Elves took the legends seriously, although they didn’t worship in the same manner that the humans did. “It’s better to get to the bottom of this now, and to find a solution, before the world starts to become imbalanced. It’s be harder to drebalance it at that point.”
Robert nodded solemnly. “Exactly what she said. You don’t want to world to fall out of balance, do you, Selene?”
She stomped her foot, which Robert always found ridiculous. Caroline used to throw tantrums the same manner, but she had since grown out of the practice. Selene was three years her senior, and yet she tended to act a lot more immature at times. “Gods damn it,” she muttered. “I hardly ever get to spend any time with you outside the castle, Robert! I don’t want this time to be ruined by some damn gossip.”
Robert and the other two girls looked at her blankly. “So…you don’t want me to find out what’s going on, and if my father happens to know about it, because you want me to be paying more attention to you?” he asked flatly. “I don’t know, Caroline. I’m not sure I could live with myself if I marry someone that only really thinks about herself.”
Caroline nodded in agreement. Clover looked like she was trying extremely hard to keep her serious expression considering how grave she thought the situation was, but it was very obvious that she wanted to burst out laughing at the expression that Selene was giving Robert. After all, Selene wanted him to choose to marry her, not to be forced to do so, so naturally she’d just anything in her power to make him actually fall in love with her. That was never really going to happen, of course – she wasn’t his type – but he found he could manipulate her just as much she did him if he mentioned anything about marrying her, or the lack thereof with her behavior.
“Well, I mean…you went through so much effort to come out here. Why allow it to be ruined by rumors, Robert. It just seems silly to me, you know?”
Caroline glanced at her brother. “I believe we’ve been out here long enough. I have no problem going back.”
“She’s the one who wanted to come out here,” Clover pointed out while Selene seethed at her. Robert was sure that she was feeling a little betrayed. “Besides, the longer the Highnesses stay out here, the more likely their father is going to review the village, and the more likely they’ll actually get caught. The last time was just luck. Who knows how long that’ll stay? You don’t want to get your future fiancé in trouble, do you?”
Selene continued to seethe. “Fine, fine,” she muttered under her breath, and Robert felt a little victorious. Even if the reason for leaving was rather absurd. At least it was going to get him away from Selene and her bizarre belief that he already belonged to her.
Unfortunately, since Selene did live in the castle, she followed them as they headed back, complaining the entire time about the route they took. Selene wasn’t the sort of princess who was used to wandering around wooded areas, and naturally, hated getting leaves and small branches in her hair. She made them stop before the entered the castle proper to detwig her, which Robert didn’t really mind. It’d be a little suspicious if she walked around the castle like that, plus she looked a little ridiculous.
The first task, naturally, was for Robert and Caroline to change back into their normal attire. Again, Caroline took far longer than he did with the task, even with Selene volunteering to help her get back into style. The worst Robert had to deal with was almost forgetting to let loose his hair. His mother didn’t mind him having slightly longish hair, but she tended to get mad at him for pulling it back, for some reason. She told him it wasn’t very princely, whatever that meant.
Since Caroline was still getting dressed, Robert figured he might as well take advantage of the situation, and seek and audience with his father. “I don’t know why you’re trying to rush it,” Clover remarked as she followed him, as her duty dictated. There were plenty of guards throughout the castle that could easily protect Robert as he roamed the halls, but Clover thought them to be worthless. “It’ll probably day your father a while before he decides your important enough to see.”
“That’s why I’m asking now,” Robert told her. “The sooner I make it known that I do want to talk with him, the sooner it’ll be that he’ll find the time to do it. If Caroline’s right and the rumor takes a week to spread, I’d rather him know before that happens. Or at least find out if he knows or not.”
“He probably does. He likes to disappoint you like that.”
Robert wasn’t too sure about that, actually. This was the first he was hearing about it, and it seemed like it was fairly new knowledge traveling around the village. It could be something so recent that the priests hadn’t had time to get the information to his father. He really hoped that was the case.
The best way to get his father to see him, he learned at a very early age, was actually to see his mother first. Robert liked to call his father a puppet king, although that was very far from the truth, because he felt like he listened to his Council more than he did his own son. But there was one person who could make him listen no matter what he wanted to do, and that was his wife. If she wanted something to happen, then it was going to happen without argument. Such was the power of the queen, although the only people who knew about this, and how to manipulate it, was his own family.
The best way to get to the queen was to figure out her schedule. She was usually in her study this time of day, working out the dinner arrangements with the cooks and servants. This was a bit production, because dinner changed from day to day, depending who was visiting, and who the royal family invited for dinner. Unlike his father, his mother would stop everything if she knew he wanted to talk to her. Such was the case when he walked in that day, with her pausing mid-sentence about how the Duke of Covinton was lactose intolerant, and that it’d be a very good idea to avoid giving him dairy products.
“Oh, Robert,” she said, turning to him and dismissing the servants to stand by the door to wait until she was ready for them. “I thought you’d be in your lessons still.”
He realized he folly quickly. “Er, yes,” he said nervously. “We, um, go through the lesson quickly today, and he didn’t see the point of keeping me there.”
“The lesson took twenty minutes?”
He nodded as seriously as he could with Clover trying to cover a laugh. “Naturally. I already read about it. I knew more about what he was talking about than he did.” This happened often, actually, and while his instructor was usually an ass and made him sit there and listen to the lecture, sometimes he was actually able to convince the old man to let him leave, especially when he exhibited a greater knowledge on the subject than he did.
“Ah,” she said knowingly, glancing as Clover and probably interrupting her laugh as something to do with the fact that Robert was smarter than his instructor. “Is there something you wanted to talk with me about, then?”
“Well, no,” he admitted. “I wanted to talk to Father about something, and I was sort of hoping that you could convince him to allow me an audience with him.”
She knew that her children played her off her husband in order to talk to him, so she nodded understandingly. “Well, I don’t believe he’s seeing anyone else at the moment, but I suppose we better go see.”
Robert was a little surprised, because the last time his father wasn’t seeing anyone had been a very long time ago, and he would assume he would want to reveal in his free time. But he followed his mother, who walked with purpose to his father’s study. The man wasn’t there, surprisingly, although there was quite a number of places he could have gotten to, to be honest.
After searching the castle for his usual spots, the duo eventually found him sitting in his throne room, almost like he was waiting for the next person to seek his attention. He sort of gave his wife a wry look. “What is it, Annika?” he asked, not quite annoyed, but not quite excited to see her, either.
“Thomas, your son wants a word with you,” she informed him.
He looked less excited at that prospect, but he surprised Robert by straightening and gesturing in front of him. “Well, boy, what do you need to discuss?”
His father was actually a rather short man, standing about a head and a half shorter than his son, but he made up for his lack of height with his bulk. He was easily twice as wide as Robert was, with wide shoulders and a barrel chest. The beard on his chin was streaked with white, as was his hair, making him look far older than he actually was. Despite his reputation, he actually had something of a kind face, which Robert liked to think reflected in his own. He just could never tell since, for as long as he could remember, his father’s face had been half hidden in a beard, so he couldn’t tell if he even looked anything like his father.
The kings of his line had always been short but wide, and here Robert was, tall and skinny. No wonder the people thought he was going to make a terrible king; he looked completely the opposite of any king before him.
But that wasn’t his concern at the moment, although he was reminded every time he actually saw his father. He remembered the first time he realized that he was taller than his father, and how much of a shock that was. But then again, sons were always supposed to be taller than their fathers, so he didn’t think much about it at the time. But then he kept growing…and growing…until he reached his final height, towering over everyone else in the castle, and possibly even Lumentis itself. He had been dismayed, since his father seemed unimpressed. He didn’t want a tall son, but a muscular one, which Robert was decidedly not.
Despite the fact that Robert was still such a huge disappointment to his father, he still took the time to make Robert feel like he was at least wanted. His father looked at him expectedly, as though expecting to have to pretend to be interested in what he said. When he was younger, there was never that pretending – his father was fascinated by him. As he got older, he got less cute and apparently more annoying, but this was important. He wasn’t going to less personal feelings of inadequacy get to him.
He kneeled in front of his father, as was customary even for the prince. “Father,” he said. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of the rumors circulating around Acerbus, but it seems the peasants believe that the Angelus Dei has disappeared.”
“Circulating around Acerbus? Robert, have you been in the village recently?” his mother demanded.
“Er,” Robert said, forgetting that she was there somehow.
“Ease up, Annika. The boy is a man now, and if he wants to sneak out into Acerbus and pretend he’s a peasant, that’s his purgative,” his father pointed out, causing Robert’s heart to drop. So he did know about his children’s ventures into the village. And didn’t seem to care. “It’ll make him a better king, besides. I can’t count the number of times I snuck out, and I’m willing to bet my father did the same. But more importantly, the Angelus Dei.”
His father knew about his feelings on the religion, since that was who Robert would go to first with his doubts about it. It was through his father that he got the idea that it was okay not to believe so long as the peasants didn’t realize this. The king honestly didn’t care that his son was a nonbeliever. Robert looked at him excitedly.
“I’m afraid, young prince, that the king has already been informed on the matter,” one of the Angelus Dei priests said, stepping out the shadows and giving Robert a greasy grin.
Robert hated the Royal priests that his father took council with. His father couldn’t see that he was being manipulated by them, no matter how many times Robert pointed it out. Most of their suggestions didn’t really benefit the people, but rather their own personal goals. And yet, because they were religious figures who supposedly had a connection with the Angelus Dei, the king trusted them more than his own son.
Robert suspected that there characters were once thieves who sought the protection of the Temple, and learned to manipulate the religion to steal instead. One of the first things he was going to do as king was the strip them of their title of Royal Priests, which he suspected they knew about. He wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were the reason his father was so disappointed in him.
“Naturally,” the other one said just as greasily, stepping from behind the other. They were so creepy that Robert wasn’t sure how no one else picked up on the fact. “The king is kept most informed on the matters of the Angelus Dei. We came to him first went we picked up on the signs of her disappearance. We’re just surprised that you were able to learn about this as well. Surely a nonbeliever would be the last to know. Or care.”
“Of course I care,” Robert snapped back. “Unlike you people, I care about the well being of the Lumetians. If this is going to be a problem for them, then I want to know what’s going to be done about this.”
“Nothing,” his father said sternly.
Robert was more than a little surprised. “Nothing?” he demanded. “What do you mean, nothing? The Angelus Dei disappears, and you’re going to do something about it? Do we even know why she disappeared?”
“Of course we do,” the first priest sneered. “She disappeared because the prince of Lumentis is a nonbeliever.”
Even the king gave them a dry look. “I may not be a spiritual leader, but I can pretty much guarantee that wouldn’t be the case. To her, Robert here is just another human. She has no many that she could afford to lose one or two. From what I gather, there’s no real underlying cause for her disappearance. It’s just…happened.”
“And you really don’t want to know why she disappeared?” Robert demanded to know. “That seems counterintuitive.”
“A goddess disappeared. We’re but mere mortals. What, pray tell, do you think mortals could do against anything that would cause a goddess to disappear? There’s nothing to be done, boy. We just have to have faith that the rest of the gods are going to sort this all out in due time, and the connection with her priests will appear once more.”
“I don’t think it’ll be all that simple,” Robert sighed. “This is a godly matter; since when are godly matters ever that cut and dry.”
“How would you know what happens with godly matters?” the second priest asked, staring him down awkwardly.
“I still attend the sermons, and I still read the texts. Just because I don’t believe in your gods doesn’t mean that I can’t study them. And nowhere in your ancient text talks about a conflict that just…ends. The gods are eternal. They draw out conflicts to entertain themselves.”
“What would you have me do, Robert; search for her? That’d be impossible. The best course of action at the moment is inaction.”
“I’m not asking you to act, Father. I’m merely asking if you’re doing anything to find out why she’s missing. A goddess doesn’t just up and disappear like that, not without reason. Then maybe there could be something that we as humans could do.”
“The king as spoken,” the priests said together. “It would be wise not to question his judgment.”
“Sire,” Clover said, coming from behind Robert to bow before the king. “If I may so bold as to say, but inaction could prove to be the undoing of the world as we know it. A balance is kept between the four gods, and the balance has now been tipped. I believe your son is correct; something must be done to find her, or else the world will be destroyed.”
“You dare address the king, elf?” the first priest demanded.
“I knew the prince was insolent, but allowing his bodyguard to speak to the king…?”
The king looked rather annoyed. “Enough. I’m not so high and mighty that I’ll refuse to be addressed by certain people. She is my son’s guard; her value is greater than most. However, humans do not believe the same superstitions the elves do, remember that. The other gods will take on her influence in her absence. Such was an agreement they came to when they were first creating the races.”
Robert couldn’t remember anything like that in the texts that he read on the subject. Elves were a little more into the idea of balance and keeping the gods appeased, even the warrior Elves, but otherwise, the belief systems were exactly the same. So, in fact, the humans did believe the same superstitions that the elves did.
He had a feeling the priests were just manipulating his father into inaction just because they wanted to blame her disappearance on him. He had to agree with his father ; sure, he was a prince, but to the Angelus Dei, if she did exist, he’d just be one human out of many worshiping her, and he doubted she would care that he didn’t. But if his father sought the truth, then he’d have proof that none of this was Robert’s fault, and the priests couldn’t call him a heathen anymore for causing this disaster.
While his father listened to his mother above all others, his listened to his priests second most. Robert wasn’t sure what they did to make his father believe just about every word out of their mouths, but he doubted it was anything good. They were part of the reason he didn’t believe in the religion anymore – the Angelus Dei was also supposed to represent everything that was light and good in the world, and here was two of her highest priests, using their power to manipulate the king to basically do their bidding. There was something dark and sinister about that, and if she did exist, she wouldn’t allow for it.
Robert glanced at Clover, who was glaring at the king and the priests. “You’re right, Father, naturally,” he said, bowing further and causing Clover’s glare to shift over to him. “I’d forgotten about that fact. I just wasn’t sure if you’d heard the news just yet, since this morning was the first time I was hearing about it. I’m glad this was something you had already been aware of. I apologize for taking up your time.”
He was basically dismissing himself, but his father stopped him. “Robert, this is a delicate matter. The decision has been made already. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Of course, Father,” he said, although he was looking at the priests as he said it. “After all, it’s not like I have the skills to actually go off and find her on my own.”
He was making a jab at the fact that he didn’t have any combat skills, something the priests harped on as well. Naturally, he was being prevented from learning how to fight by the Angelus Dei, who was preventing him from gaining to knowledge needed as punishment for not believing in her. Everything terrible in his life is a result of the Angelus Dei wanting to punish him for being a nonbeliever, according to the priests.
He was fully dismissed at this point, because apparently the priests were actually there to perform a cleansing ceremony. How that was going to work without the blessing of the goddess, he wasn’t sure, although he was sure the priests would just say they were given the blessing from the goddess before she disappeared. His father wouldn’t think to ask, but Robert would wonder why she would give them the power without explanation, and why they would just take it without questioning her. If that were the case, then he’d be lead to believe that they did know what happened to her, and just weren’t speaking about it. Not when they had a readymade excuse that further destroy Robert’s reputation amongst his people.
Clover was clearly annoyed at Robert, spinning on him as soon as they were outside the throne room. “You actually believe that the other Dei would take up the balance the Angelus Die would leave behind?” she demanded to know.
Robert gave her a dry look. “I don’t believe anything, Clover. But I do know that I never read anything about an agreement like that. The gods are too selfish to actually take up another’s realm of influence for a while. The priests probably fed Father that line to prevent him from being worried about what happened. You know what they’re after.”
She nodded slowly. “They want to discredit you,” she realized. “They want the people to believe that this is your fault. That’s so evil.”
“I know. They also don’t want Father to search for the truth because they know he’ll find information to prove otherwise. There’s really no point in arguing against it when the priests are involved. They have Father so tightly wound up that it’s impossible to get him to see reason, sadly. I hate to say it, but we’ve just got to hope that some other king will hear about this and decide to take action. Because the king of Lumentis is going to do nothing.”
“But what will he say if his people start questioning this?” Clover asked, cocking her head slightly. “He doesn’t believe that you’re the cause, and there’ll be too many people who know the text that’ll know he’s lying about the Dei’s supposed agreement.”
“I’m not too worried about that. If Father wishes to ally himself with manipulative priests on the matter and not his own son, then that’s his own problem to deal with. I offered my solution,, my help, and if he doesn’t want to take it, then that’s on him.”
“Robert!” he heard his sister scolded him from down the hall, clearly being able to hear the conversation perfectly. “Don’t tell me you already went to see Father without bringing me!”
“I honestly was just asking Mama for an audience with Father, and he apparently was able to see me right then. I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity waiting for you to make yourself presentable. Besides, it didn’t really do much good. The priests got to him first.”
“Father listens to me more than he does you,” she insisted.
“Not when the priests are involved. He’s already made up his mind, Caroline. He’s decided he’s not going to do anything, because the priests claim that’s the best course of action.”
“Why would they do that? How could they do that?”
“They’ve fed him some line about the gods taking over the others’ power if one was to disappear,” Clover said dryly. “Which is complete bull crap.”
“And they’re doing it so they can tell the people that I’m the cause of the disappearance. Because I’m a nonbeliever prince.”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything? So you’re a nonbeliever who’s the prince? You’re not hurting anyone, you’re not forcing them to drop the religion. You’re letting them believe what they want to believe.”
“The priests know they can’t manipulate me like they can Father, which is why they’re so adamant about me not being the heir. They think they can do better with you because you’re a female, or some such nonsense.”
She snorted. “Well, I’d certainly show them a thing or two. But seriously, he’s not going to do anything?”
“It’ll be the kings own folly when the world is torn apart because of the imbalance. Maybe then he’ll see reason in what Robert was trying to do. But by then, it’ll be too late. Always trust an elf when it comes to religious matters. I thought everyone knew that.”
“The priests don’t know that, because they think they’re the end all be all to religious knowledge,” Robert sighed. “Come on, Caroline; I suppose we have to make a contingency plan for when Father’s plan backfires on him. For all we know, this might be my opportunity to show Lumentis that I am the king they need on the throne, not someone like Father.”
Caroline nodded solemnly, and followed Robert to the library. He had no idea what the hell they could find in there, but he always felt like he could find all the answers whenever he was in the room.
Angelus Dei Chapter Six |