Chapter 87: A Witness

Ryan fumbled with the heavy armor as he worked his large, stiff fingers. He was also not accustomed to putting on the protective gear either, so naturally, it took him a few minutes to get dressed. Professor Kal waited patiently, smoking his pipe, which looked strange being held by the priest dressed in his holy garb. Once he finally managed to get dressed, he turned to the Professor to listen to what he had to say.

Professor Kal put his black pipe away within his chest pocket before filling him in on need-to-know information. "Alright, you already know about the 'try not to die' part, so I'll cover the other things you need to keep in mind. The most important thing, as I'm sure you've already noticed, is that you have no access to the memories stored inside your puppet's brain. Once the brain is dead, that's it. The spell only reactivates the needed sections, such as your senses and motor control, there is no way to retrieve the memories without damaging the brain so much that all of it would become useless. Soooo, that means we'll be flying blind in there, so keep a low profile and don't draw any attention to yourself. We don't know who they associate with, or any of their secrets, so it's best to just not talk to anyone if we can avoid it."

"Alright." Ryan said.

"Next, being that we don't have any blood, we look like those sheets over there. So, it wouldn't hurt to put on some makeup to cover that up. The only other thing is that while you can eat and drink, your digestive tract is not functioning. So whatever you eat will leave the same way as it went in, so make sure to chew your food well."

Professor Kal, finished with his spiel, headed toward the basement door. "That should be about it. Now, it's almost dawn, so we'll go up there, gather 'our' things, and head off to the church, ok?"

"Professor!" Ryan shouted out, his voice full of fear. "Your body, something's wrong with it!"

Professor Kal swung his head to look at his body that was still sitting crossed legged on the floor. His black hair was quickly taking on a gray color as chunks of it fell out and drifted down onto the floor. His rosy skin was ashen white and appeared to be sagging, like it was in the process of melting off his bones. He sprinted across the room, taking a sheet that once covered the priest's corpse and used it to cover his own.

"Don't worry about it boy, it's fine." Professor Kal said in a less than convincing voice. "Let's go, hurry up. We don't want to dally."

"But Professor!" Ryan protested as his large body was being pushed to and out of the basement door. "Will that happen to my body!? Professor!"

…..

The Holy Church of the Dawn was a massive organization that spanned the three Kingdoms that made up the western continent, and it showed. They were always collecting tithes from the common folk and the nobles alike, stuffing their coffers with gold coins, allowing them to build grand cathedrals in 'honor' of the Goddess of the Dawn. The largest cathedral within Såravast was seated well within the noble district, standing imposingly amongst the other well built and grandiose structures.

The cathedrals footprint rivaled that of a small village, providing ample space for the few thousand priests and paladins that called the massive building home. Six towers, arranged in such a way as to represent a star, reached into the sky with solid gold suns tipping their spires. The low winter sun's rays reflected off of their golden counterparts, causing them to shine brightly against the gray backdrop of clouds. A colossal mural made of stained glass welcomed all of those that approached the main doors. It depicted Thesan standing tall, with a burning scepter in hand, above all of the other races who were down on their knees and praying to her.

Professor Kal stopped just short of the doors, staring up at the work of art. He gave a derisive snort before shaking his head.

"What's wrong Professor?" Ryan asked in a low but gruff voice that he was still struggling to get used to hearing.

"Who? Remember, I am Priest Unilith. Don't tell me your intelligence dropped in correlation with the increase in size." Priest Unilith chided the large boy behind him.

"Sorry… Priest Unilith."

Facing forward, Priest Unilith walked while he talked. "And it's nothing, just don't believe everything you hear while you're here, you must always keep an open mind."

Ryan didn't reply, just nodded his head as he followed the man in front of him across the threshold and into the immense building. The front 'room' was at least as large as the inn they had just come from. Their boots walked on magnificent, polished marble, so clean that Ryan could see his reflection when looking down. A giant sculpture of the Goddess occupied the center of the room, it was the most lifelike sculpture Ryan had ever seen. If it wasn't for the fact that it was carved from pure white stone, he would have thought a giantess was standing there, judging everyone that walked beneath her.

In the entire room there were no desks or reception area, there weren't even any chairs or sofas to sit down on. To the sides and back of the cavernous room, tens of doorways led to different sections of the cathedral. There were so many that Ryan was sure that he would never be able to find his way around. He hoped to be able to find a map, but highly doubted he would be lucky enough to come across one.

In either corner of the room, spiral staircases wide enough to walk five people across led up to the second floor before going up higher, all the way to the fifth floor. On each floor were more doorways, reminiscent of a beehive. Dozens of priests and nobles buzzed about on each floor, carrying out their tasks, some stopping to talk to one another.

He leaned in close to Priest Unilith's ear, talking quietly as to not be overheard. "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

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Professor Kal was walking slowly with both his hands clasped behind his straight back, his pace never slowed as he walked in a certain direction. "Not a clue."

Ryan really wasn't very surprised by the answer. He just followed closely behind the Professor, keeping an eye on everything going on around them. They had just made it to the base of the fifty-foot-tall rendition of the Goddess of the Dawn when a young-looking priest hurriedly approached them.

"Priest Unilith! Priest Unilith! I am so blessed that I caught you so quickly." The young-looking priest said, an overjoyed expression on his face.

"Oh dear." His expression changed to worry after looking at the two men in front of him. "Are you alright? You both look dreadful, are you ill? Should I call Brother Terrilyn?"

"Oh, no, thank you." Priest Unilith said dismissively. "We have just been burning the candle at both ends you could say, doing priestly things. You know how it is sometimes."

The young priest looked at them with a strange look on his face for a moment before moving onto whatever it was he was there for originally. "It does grow hectic from time to time, I will have to agree. That's part of the reason I am looking for you, it's about the investigation you have been assigned."

"Really?" Priest Unilith asked, his eyebrows raising in deep interest. "And here I was about to turn in my report."

"Then it is fate that I was able to run into you before you had, I don't know the details of the information, only that it is of great importance. The Goddess really does work in mysterious ways." The young priest said, clasping his hands together and bowing his head.

"Well." Priest Unilith started. "Lead the way!"

"Of course, follow me." The young priest said before taking off at brisk walk, leading them to a doorway in the middle of the back wall.

Behind the door was a long, straight hallway. Magical flames burned, hanging from the stone walls, providing white light for the windowless corridor. The relaxing scent of incense drifted between the walls, but no matter how hard they looked they could not identify where it was coming from. They walked for several minutes, passing other priests every so often, nodding to them in greeting as they did so. Finally, they came upon a set of doors made from exquisite cherry. Rapping lightly upon the door, the young priest announced their arrival before entering.

Following the young priest inside the room, they were astonished to find a large, tactically decorated office waiting for them. The floors were made from lacquered hard wood, cut and placed in such a way as to created diamond patterns throughout the room. Tall bookshelves lined one wall, filled with unknown knowledge. On another wall were beautiful paintings depicting expansive foreign landscapes that Ryan were unfamiliar with.

A roaring fireplace, almost as big as Ryan's room back at the inn, burned happily as they strode across the room. The most amazing aspect of the entire room were the huge bay windows that overlooked the city-scape of Såravast. Snow covered rooftops, with smoking chimneys poking out from them, took up most of the view, but the Royal palace was the centerpiece of the display.

A large desk sat squarely in the center of the windows, taking full advantage of the beauty of the city. Covering the desk were mountains of papers and sitting behind those mountains was a regal looking man, dressed in robes much more decorated than either of the priests that had just entered.

"Brother Yolinka, you return to me so quickly? And it seems you have brought Brother Unilith and Paladin Hargrove with you, the Goddess must be smiling upon you today."

Priest Yolinka bowed his head toward the man. "It is as you say, I happened upon them on my way out. It was surely divine providence."

"Then you are excused, thank you for carrying out the task I had given you so quickly." The man said, before gesturing for Professor Kal and Ryan to sit in some chairs in front of his desk.

Once Priest Yolinka had left, the high ranking man spoke. "Well, I was not expecting you until tomorrow at the earliest, but this is for the best. I know that you have only just begun your investigation into the matter of the man named Kalcifer and his alleged necromancy, but an important development has occurred that we have determined to be of upmost importance to the investigation."

Professor Kal leaned forward in the masterfully crafted chair he was seated in. "Please, do tell."

"A witness has come forward." The man said.. "They say that they had witnessed the evil deeds of the man in question, first hand."

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