Chapter 14: Chapter 11 – The Church of the Six

“So,” I start as we get back on the street after leaving the store and continue our leisurely stroll, “What’s next?”

Avilia points ahead, at the largest building in the village. It looks imposing for a village of this size and brings to mind those old cathedrals from history books. It’s really out of place here. I bet Karine’s family had something to do with its construction.

“That. It is the local church of the state religion. Faith of the Six, I think it is called?”

Faith of the Six? Sounds unwieldy. I think the names of historical religions usually were short and sweet, but this one’s kind of long.

I guess I’ll ask the obvious.

“I take it it’s because they have six gods?”

“Exactly so. They worship six deities. And you might notice that they use the hexagon in all their emblems.” She points at an emblem above the doors of the church. I see a hexagon with a smaller hexagon inside it, with half-circles connecting the points of the inner hexagon to the outer one. “Like that one right there.’”

Huh. Not only is the name something I can’t recognize at all, but their emblems don’t look like anything I remember ever seeing in books. More proof that this isn’t even some past version of home!

“They are more colloquially called the Hex-Faith,” she continues, “But they prefer the official name.”

A bit of a pun, I see. Doesn’t seem to be one in their language, so it has to be a coincidence. Or the brainchild of some outworlder, perhaps?

“Is it a good idea to go there, though? Wouldn’t going there be like telling their gods we’re here?”

She smiles. “No need to worry. They only seem to react to people already bound to them. That means, in essence, the other outworlders and the highest-ranking members of the religion. They are not omnipresent, omnipotent, nor omniscient. There is no proof they answer the prayers of regular people, either.”

That’s a relief.

“Ah,” Avilia says, turning towards me, placing her right index finger in front of her mouth and winking, ”Just do not say that to a religious person!”

I let out a small laugh and smile at her. “I’ll keep that in mind!”

And with that, we reach the church doors. This is a little bit exciting! I’ve never been inside the house of worship of a religious sect before. They do feature in books quite often, but truth to be told, seeing and reading about them are two different things!

At any rate, I’ve never believed in a higher power myself. That doesn’t change the fact that their buildings are interesting, though.

I pull the door open. Avilia goes in ahead of me and I follow her, closing the door behind me.

I didn’t expect an entry hall of this size, even with the exterior being as imposing as it was. There are six statues, three on both sides, leading to a large, ornate double door with repeating hexagonal patterns at the back which probably in turn leads to the church proper.

A bored looking priest hangs about a desk close to the inner door. A receptionist of sorts, maybe? He didn’t really acknowledge our entry with so much as a nod, I guess to him we look like any old traveling riffraff with our cloaks and all.

Anyway, the statues! The statues have plaques that I can’t read attached to their pedestals.

I really need to learn how to read, this is starting to get annoying.

As if noticing my annoyance, Avilia steps next to me as I keep staring at the statue to the right from the entrance, depicting a robed, youthful man wearing a robe with one hand raised, a sword in a scabbard hanging from his waist. His features are vague, as if to let the viewer decide what he looks like for themselves.

“That is the statue of Sophrun, the deity of knowledge and the art of warfare. He is the primary deity of academics, military leaders and the sort. Rather popular with the aristocracy, as you might expect. The common folk do not really revere him that much.”

She looks down, bows slightly at the statue, and prompts me to follow suit. Can’t get away without showing some sort of reverence with that priest in the room!

“I see. I guess they all have specific spheres?”

“Yes, they do,” she responds, “Would you be interested in a short summary of each?”

I nod. “By all means!”

Her eyes light up. Avilia does seem to love her trivia. I have absolutely no problems with it.

“Alright!”

She looks around a bit, and then looks at me.

“The statue to our left depicts Earode, the goddess of merchants, craftsmen and the like. Then we have Amantis, the so-called defender of Men and god of judgment.”

She walks to the other side of the hallway with the rest of the statues, and I, of course, follow her. We walk up to a statue depicting a woman in form fitting armor, wielding a sword and with a bow to her back.

“This statue here is a depiction of Aemiria, the goddess of combat and the hunt. Popular among adventurers, soldiers and the like.”

She does the same small ritual she did at the earlier statue, and I do the same.

“As for the two others, the one directly to our right depicts Xathus, the god of agriculture and plentiful harvest, while the last one depicts Parthene, the goddess of love and marriage.”

Most of the names feel vaguely Greek or Roman in origin, which I’m pretty sure aren’t used here. I wonder if they are corruptions of earlier names, names crafted by outworlders, or what? Maybe it’s just all coincidental and I’m overanalyzing things.

She turns to me.

“And this concludes my summary! They all have deeper meanings to their spheres, but that is rather unimportant. But to function in human society, you need to know the basics, or you will run into endless trouble. Based on my research, at any rate.”

“They’re that religious?”

“Yes, in this country many of them are. And it is easiest to just assume that they all are.”

“You two.”

Irritation rises as our own little world is broken into by a third voice. In all likelihood, the voice of the bored priest who has now decided to bother us for whatever reason.

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Now that he’s closer to us and I can see him more clearly, I’d estimate he’s around our age. Unlike us, he looks like it, too.

Avilia quickly turns to face him. Better her than me, she at least knows how things work. In theory. It’s pretty obvious this is the first time she’s putting her knowledge to practice, but she’s doing well.

With a slight bow which I once again mimic, she says, “Yes, Father?”

A self-satisfied smile spreads on the priest’s face. Seems like we did the right thing.

“I’ve never seen you two here before. From where do you hail?”

“Oh, we are travelers,” Avilia replies, “We are not really from anywhere.”

The priest looks rather displeased by her awkward dodge. “That doesn’t answer my question.” An exasperated sigh. “But I can’t force you to tell. What brings you to our humble place of reverence today?

“We just wished to pay our respects to the gods, that is all.”

“Is that so?”

He takes a good look at us, fixing his gaze especially on our hair.

An awkward silence.

“You two are elves, aren’t you?”

… We are what now? Elves, as in the ones from fantasy novels?!

Avilia glances at me with an apologetic look in her eyes. I take it she has an idea why this is happening.

“Your peculiar yet natural looking hair colors, your strange aura,” the priest continues, “You have many elven traits, as is written in the books.”

“Is this going to be a problem?”

“No, no.” He shakes his head. “The church isn’t human supremacist; we accept all kinds, even if the country doesn’t agree. I was just wondering why elves would be showing any reverence to gods of Men. I was under the impression your kind were staunch unbelievers.”

“Unbelievers or no,” Avilia says, “It would be rude to just ignore the church, considering its importance.”

“Well said!”, he says with a smile, “I wish everyone had your manners.”

“Is there anything else or are we free to go?”

“Oh, you’re free to go, of course. I am just curious. You don’t run into actual elves every day.”

“Then, if you would excuse us, Father.”

Another slight bow. The priest bows in kind, and we’re off. He didn’t seem very happy about our sudden exit, but he did nothing to try to stop us.

Lucky us.

I feel myself relax a bit as we walk to the doors and leave the church. Avilia, again, takes my hand.

The priest felt just a tad bit too interested in our affairs. That could get dangerous. I might find religions interesting, but that doesn’t mean I want to get entangled with them!

“What was that all about? We’re elves now?”

Avilia sighs. “It is a long story. I… I will explain everything later.”

“Okay. I think we should backtrack to the clothing store now. I really need to buy some clothes, even if I can’t stop standing out with my hair and all.”

She nods. “It will be a nice change in pace after all that. I am sorry, I did not expect things to turn this way.”

“Don’t worry about it. At least the gods didn’t show up and take us away or something!”

She giggles. Mission accomplished!

“I do not know how I could have handled that!”

“Jokes aside,” I say with a more serious tone, “Guess the easiest way for us to fix this problem would be to dye our hair, right?”

“That is true. We could buy some dye or use magic. But, as the priest said, humans have not been known to be too bothered by ‘elves’. It might lead to greater problems down the line if they later found out that we are ‘elves’ rather than from the beginning.”

Avilia pauses for a second.

“Although, this country has become more intolerant of people seen as non-human as of late. That changes things.”

“Okay, let’s talk about it later,” I say, “I couldn’t use magic for it yet anyway.”

Yes, magic all the way. It goes without saying I’d rather not put some weird medieval dyeing solution all over my hair!

And with that, we reach the door to the clothing store.

Time to get new clothes!

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