Chapter 44: 42 – The Church of Balance

The next morning, I meet Shane in the lobby again. 

"Good morning, Queen Midnight."

"Good morning, Shane. For today after we visit the stables, would it be possible to visit a church here? I would like to know more about how the dwarves worship the God of Order and the Goddess of Chaos."

"Certainly. This may be a good chance for you to speak with Head Priestess Alienor before the trip."

Walking up to Talon, I see her resting on her furry cushion I took out yesterday for her. 

"Morning, Talon."

"Pii."

She doesn't even get up. She seems to be enjoying staying in the stall, which is good, but did I wake something up in her? Do I have a hikikomori hippogryph? When I brought a couple rabbits out, she just opened her beak. Are you fucking kidding me? Still, I placed a rabbit in her beak for her to eat. She then lays her head back down and closes her eyes. Shaking my head at my lazy companion, I put the remaining rabbits down, refilled her water, and we moved on.

Walking through the busy streets as people start their days, we finally arrive in front of a large building serving soup to a line out front. I don't know what I was expecting, but this looked just like a normal building running a soup kitchen out of it. There were about a hundred people around, give or take. 

Tables and chairs were set up in a large open area next to the building with a large 'Church of Balance' written above the door. There was also a symbol; A circle with a vertical line. Is that like their Cross or Star of David, here? Well, I'll find out more soon. Walking up I see the Head Priestess serving food and chatting with people. Before Shane or I could say anything, she notices us and her face almost fucking breaks from how large of a smile she got. I'm not sure how I feel about this being the priestess to come with us, but at least I doubt there'll be a dull moment.

"Queen Midnight!" She waves while rushing over. "Welcome to our humble church! What good timing! We just finished serving a morning meal. I'm so excited to see your town! What can I do for you today?"

"Good morning, Head Priestess Alienor." I say. "As I mentioned in the first meeting, we have no church yet, so I was interested in seeing how the dwarves worshiped the gods. Would someone be able to show me around your church and explain its workings to me so I know what to expect for our own?"

"I would love to! Please! Come this way and I'll explain everything I can to you."

Alienor grabs my armored hand and drags me away. I could easily resist, but this seems like something I should just go along with and probably get used to with her. Looking back, I see Shane just smile apologetically at me as a young priest serves him a bowl of soup.

Walking through the front doors of the church, I'm surprised a bit by what I see. Or more like what I don't see. There are no giant, expensive windows. No front dais with symbolic imagery behind a podium. No benches lined up in neat rows. Instead, there are tables and chairs placed in an area from the door with elderly dwarves sitting and chatting. 

A large open space that currently has more elderly dwarves watching or playing with young children. Shelves and chests of toys in the corner. Even an area with young dwarves drawing on the ground with sticks of crude chalk from limestone. The fuck? Is this church, soup kitchen, care home, or a daycare?

"Welcome to our local Church of Balance, Queen Midnight! Let me explain a bit about how the church works. Just like the God of Order and the God of Chaos balance each other, we try to bring balance to the lives of our people. When too much chaos enters their lives, we are a place that can offer them some peace and order. When their life becomes too dull and orderly, we can offer some liveliness and chaos to help spur their own growth.

"To accomplish those ideals, we offer many programs and services to the population. Some of these are simple. Each morning and evening we offer soup to anyone who wants it. It's free and open to everybody, regardless of their wealth or social position. We never know what is going on in someone's life, so if we can help anyone with just a bowl of soup and some new company, then we are happy to.

"We also organize community events and activities or competitions to spice up the lives of our people. Many coworkers will even create teams to participate in some of these. Our elderly are also very competitive when it comes to dwarfball, where in teams of two they hit a ball over a low net with paddles. The evenings we host dwarfball competitions are some of our liveliest and are great for meeting new people!

"Inside, we offer an orphanage for children who have lost their parents and bring their lives some structure and order. While at the same time we offer a place for the elderly or disabled to live should they not be able to care for themselves or have family able to assist. By being around the young children, we find it brings their life some much needed chaos and enriches their final years before they pass on and begin their cycle once again. 

"Both the children and the elderly gain a lot from talking, playing, and interacting with each other. It's great for the children to hear stories from them, but also introduces them to the concept of death, and that it is something natural we must all face. That it may be sad and we'll miss them, but not something scary. By hearing their stories and remembering the time we spent with them, we can always have those to look back on. We're very proud of what our churches provide to their communities!"

 What the fuck? So the churches here act as a welfare system, community centers, orphanages, and care homes?

"Excuse me, but you seem a bit surprised, Queen Midnight," Alienor said.

"I am," I admitted. "I'm not sure what I was expecting, but a system as good as this wasn't necessarily it. Maybe I just associated churches with preaching about gods, or having services to tell people how to live? I don't know."

"That sounds like the human church and their false god." Her cheerful face went a bit neutral. "From our records, that seems in line with what their church does. But for us? What would preaching to people possibly accomplish? Does telling people to 'be a good person' put food in their stomach? What would the gods gain from everyone praising them all the time? We don't believe that the gods care one way or another if we praise them in large groups. Our actions in trying to balance our lives is the best way we can honor them. When people come to a church for our services, they know where they are and who to attribute the help we provide to. They don't need to be hit on the head and reminded of it all the time. 

"That's why besides a statue of the God of Order and the Goddess of Chaos by the entrance, there aren't things like alters or such. We don't have formal 'services' for people. We do offer private counseling sessions if someone is going through a chaotic part of their life, or if their life is too orderly and they need to find something to bring chaos and excitement to it. Many who have recently gone through a hard time or lost someone close will utilize this. They know they can always come to a church and ask for a priest who can talk with them and help them either come to terms with their situation, give them coping techniques, or guide them to find ways to better their current situation.

"I praise the gods because I am thankful for the life I am living, and attribute that life to them and their Church of Balance. I grew up in a church orphanage, so the church has always been my home. The concept of finding balance between order and chaos resonates with me, so I choose to serve them with my entire being. Besides, who are we to tell someone how to live their life? If a child is a beggar or steals a loaf of bread to survive, whose fault is it? To us, it's a failure of the community for not providing them a place to bring order to their lives or providing the necessities for them to search for more order."

"That… makes a lot of sense. I assume that places with a good working church have also seen lower crime rates and have happier citizens."

"Exactly! The Church of Balance is a vital part of our community, and I look forward to helping establish a church in your land! Thank you for the opportunity to better serve the gods, Queen Midnight!"

Honestly, I was never one for organized religion. I always found them hypocritical, self-serving, and more concerned with donations to build a new piece of iconography, statue, or giant symbol, than actually helping everyone. They always seemed to have an 'us vs them' mentality that I hated. If they didn't, it was a 'we are better so let us help you see that' type of condescending attitude. However, if this is how a church dedicated to Order and Chaos operates, I could actually get behind this. In fact, some of the programs they have were things I was actually wanting to implement in Midnight.

I originally just wanted to use the church as a way to further destroy the Empire, but I could really support this. To me, if an organization really wants to help all of their people, this is pretty close to what it would be like. The statues both resembled the gods as I remembered them, just as dwarves. As gods, it makes sense they could change their form. The only thing that seems odd is that the statue of Chaos has a noticeably larger bust than she did when I met her in person. 

*Shiver* Why the fuck did a chill just go up my spine? Chaos? Are you fucking peeping on my thoughts? You damn creeper, nobody gives a fuck about your tits. You're a goddess, you have bigger fucking things to worry about.

Not sure if the gods really were peeping or not, we continued with the tour of the Church of Balance.

"How are the programs funded?" I asked. "Is it from the government or private donations?"

"A little of both," Alienor explained. "The government provides enough for it to operate. But the meals, services, and other things would be at a minimum level. Donations are how we are able to provide quality to the people we serve. Many times with the meals, people that can afford it give a donation in a fair amount for what the meal is. This helps us to continue providing quality services."

"How can someone give a donation?"

"At the front is a box they can drop a donation in. It can only be opened by the local head priest and the state assigned treasurer together. All donations are accounted for by both groups, and church expenses are also tracked and reported by both. Financials are reconciled each month to make sure the church is properly handling the money given by the government."

"I see. So both sides help to audit each other."

After getting a tour, on my way out I place a handful of large gold coins in their box. They showed me something good, and I hope that the church we build becomes similar to this. Alienor may seem a bit crazy, but she takes her duty very seriously and seems to do an excellent job. Being a bit eccentric isn't a terrible thing. It appears she can talk about the church and still breathe, so that's good. Hopefully I won't have to worry about her getting too excited and passing out too often.

For the next couple days, I spent them very similarly to the last. I felt a bit bad for Shane having to constantly walk around with me, as I'm sure he had his own work to do. Although, thinking about it, I'm visiting royalty. If they didn't at least provide me with a guide that's of some importance, it could easily be seen as a slight by some. Plus, he seems to be enjoying it.

The history buff really opened up when I mentioned the old diaries and the history books we have. Especially since his main focus in history was the Vampire War and the time around it. He seemed fascinated by the situation surrounding the war, what happened during it, and the repercussions after. This was how he was so knowledgeable about it when I was asking for rough population numbers.

In their history, joining the war is viewed as one of the worst mistakes they've made as a race. I talked with him about my theory of the vampires being too isolationist, and he agreed that it could have played a major part. For the dwarves, after the war was over and the humans began fighting them, they actually reformed their view of vampires from what the church spewed to what it was before the war. This more correct view of vampires is why nobody really freaked out about an evil, blood sucking monster being in town. 

I guess it's a little how the US reformed their image of the Native Americans from savages to thriving cultures that were destroyed. The dwarves seemed very open to admit that fighting the vampires was a mistake, and seem to try to learn from it.

But all good things must come to an end and the time for departure came. Checking out of my room at the Hyatt Dunmoor—I guess I still never got the inn's actual name—Shane takes me to the stables for the last time. After Talon is all saddled up, I walk her to the entrance gate where the caravan is doing their final preparations in the open field outside. Walking up, I see the leaders of the dwarves.

You are reading story Rise of the Vampire Queen at novel35.com

King Rancorock was the one to say hello. "Greetings, Dalia Midnight, Queen of the Vampires. I hope you enjoyed your stay in Dunmoor."

"Greetings, Aiden Rancorock, King of the Dwarves, members of the Elder Council," I said. "I did, very much. You have a wonderful city and I look forward to a long and prosperous future for both our people. Should you ever make the trip to Midnight, I would love to return your hospitality."

"There may come a time when I take you up on your offer. We never know what the future holds."

He reaches out and I take his hand and give it a hearty shake.

"Safe travels on your way, Queen Midnight, and I look forward to our future relationship."

"Take care, King Rancorock. May you and the members of the Elder Council remain in good health until we meet again."

With nods from the members, they and their guards withdraw back through the gate. My visit to the dwarves was almost nothing like what I expected. Instead of drunken, gruff, short Scottish blacksmiths, I was met with a bureaucratic government, welfare and community programs, and a semi-modern infrastructure. As I was thinking about this and watching the travelers finish preparing, the captain from the first day came up.

"Greetings, Queen Midnight. Let me formally introduce myself. I am Dorian Dridok. Captain of the Third Infantry Company. My men and I will be escorting everyone to Midnight, and once the work required of them is complete, we will escort them back to Dunmoor."

"Greetings, Captain Dridok. Thank you for your service. As I had mentioned, throughout the day, we will be riding in front of and around the caravan, preemptively eliminating any monsters too dumb to be frightened by Talon. When we get to Midnight, I will introduce you to Captain James Remmington who handles the security inside and around our walls. He can make sure your men are settled and show you the security of the town so that you can best do your job of guarding the dwarves."

"That would be appreciated, thank you."

"Queen Midnight!" Following the shout was Alienor running up and waving with a younger dwarf trying to catch-up to her.

"Hello, Head Priestess Alienor."

"Hello! Let me introduce you to the priest that will be joining me. This is Junior Priest Colin. He recently graduated from the orphanage, but had helped manage some things while still there. He's young, but should be of great help when setting up your own church."

"Greetings, Queen Midnight. Thank you for this opportunity," he says with a bow.

"Greetings, Junior Priest Colin. I'm happy to have you," I said.

Another dwarf comes up to me. "Greetings, Queen Midnight. I am Lyle Stevel. I was assigned as foreman of the tunnel team for your project."

"Greetings, Foreman Stevel. I look forward to working with you."

With greetings done, I looked around some more and noticed Shane putting some bags in a wagon.

I walked up to him  "Shane, are you joining us as well?"

"That I am, Queen Midnight. I was assigned to head the observation team." His eyes sparkle for a moment. "After hearing about the library and that Midnight is the site of the final battle of the Vampire War, how could I possibly pass up the opportunity?"

A history buff to the end, it seems. Oh well, I hope he enjoys it. He has always remained professional, even while excitedly talking about that time period. Some of the books we have are pretty interesting. Maybe someday he'll move out of government work and become a full-time historian or history teacher. 

With everyone finally settled, we have thirty-five dwarves and eight wagons drawn by two horses each. Captain Dridok has ten armed men on horseback along with him and his own horse. The other ten rest in carts before they switch. It's interesting that they have an additional rope on their saddle to use to help them up onto their saddles. Overall, it's a nice little caravan of people. Dorian knows of a decent path south, so we'll take that for a week to start.

Traveling that first week was interesting. We went through two small farming villages of under one hundred dwarves. We didn't stay at them, which is understandable since there wouldn't be room. The buildings in those villages were mostly built from rocks cemented together with wooden roofs. Simple, but with the abundance of the building material around, it makes complete sense. It was explained that all of the mountain cities have these satellite villages in less rocky areas that grow their food. Even still, farming in the mountains isn't an easy task so they welcomed the foods I brought. 

While passing through, I stopped us for a couple hours as I purchased a bull and heifers along with a rooster and hens. I bought an extra wagon and horse for the chicken cages, and the dwarves were happy to help drive it for me with the cows tied behind. It slowed us a bit, but this would really help Midnight. If we can grow these numbers over a couple years, then we can begin to supplement our hunting with livestock. I messaged Elden to begin preparing a rope fence inside the wall for the cows, an area for the chickens, and to begin clearing land outside for another palisade area for an eventual ranch. He was happy to have a future stable source of meat. 

Apparently in human cities, people are so packed that they eat goblins, and only villages hunt animals for the majority of their meals. That just sounds gross and I'm glad that my people haven't had to resort to that. I guess it's like fast food or something on Earth. In cities, you can find McDonald's easily, but try to find venison or fresh rabbit and you'll pay an arm or a leg if you can even find it. Yet, in smaller towns in the countryside, more people hunt and it seems like almost every family has a freezer in the garage with a deer in it. If it ever does somehow come to us eating monsters, we at least have hundreds in bags.

Traveling slower like this wasn't so bad. I was able to talk to the dwarves and learn a bit more about the race as a whole. On the way, I contacted Ailine, Elden, and James about our expected arrival date, numbers to expect, etc. That way they could prepare accommodations for them. Everyone seemed excited that the trip here was a success, and that we would get visitors from another race. Elden assured me that all of the citizens will be informed of the dwarves' arrival and that nobody will try to antagonize them for their races once being at war.

I also asked the same of the dwarves on the trip. Even though there are humans in town, they try to greet them with an open mind. That these are humans essentially exiled by the Empire. They all seemed open to getting to know them, so that should hopefully go well.

Ailine also gave me a report on Sara's raid of a camp. Apparently, this was a much more stereotypical bandit group. It looked like they just traveled around the monster lands, and when bored, headed east to attack some people. They numbered a couple dozen, and Sara wiped them out in minutes. We got a dozen more horses and some wagons for the trouble.

There weren't any men, but there were five women. None were emaciated like the ones from before, but all were kidnapped travelers who had their husbands or fathers killed. Surprisingly, two of them asked Sara to be turned into vampires and to join their group. Since Sara isn't a progenitor, Ailine will turn them when they get to Midnight. Personally, I think the fact they also want to join Sara shows how good of a job she did training her people.

A couple days before they were to arrive in town, Navi found a large group to the northwest. From what she could see, it was a group of at least over one hundred, occupying an old castle with a mine nearby. From what she saw, there are more captured men than women and they are mining into a mountain nearby the castle. As soon as Sara drops the women off, she'll head out to erase this group. Because of the larger numbers, Navi will also help to make sure none survive. 

Hearing reports of how far apart these camps are, I really get a feel for just how large the vampire/monster lands are. I still don't really know which is the correct way to refer to it anymore and people just use both terms interchangeably. There's so much space between everything, that it's no wonder people can make camps out here and never be found. You could travel for hundreds of miles in a direction and see nothing but monsters. 

After the first week passed, we started getting to more uncharted land for the dwarves. Up to this point, travel has been pretty easy. There wasn't a paved road between the villages, but there was an obvious path to follow. Now, it'll be much rougher. There were a lot of hills and grassland, but a few dense sections of forest we would have to go through or around. We were going to reach one such forest tomorrow.

Captain Dridok came up to me during a break and asked, "What do you think, Queen Midnight? Go around?"

"No, Captain Dridok. Talon and I are both talented in earth and air magic. Tonight, we will ride out and begin clearing a path through it. I can pack away the trees in my bag. We won't be able to remove stumps right now, but if we cut the trees low enough it should still be traversable for the wagons. Once deeper in, the older trees should spread out more and the amount needed to cut will be lower."

"If you both can do that, it would certainly help travel," he said. "The cleared area would also be helpful should a permanent road be planned."

"Then I'll leave everything here to you and begin making a path," I said while standing up.

"Be safe, Queen Midnight."

Off Talon and I went. By now, with all the fucking trees I've had to cut down over the years, I feel like I should just become a logger or something. Fuck, am I an adventurer, queen, construction worker, or logger? I don't even know some days. Tree after tree, we cut down as we cleared a way forward. There was no doubt that the caravan would catch up to us. We just wanted to get as much distance as we could before then. Overall, this should still be faster than going around.

Eventually, day came and after another hour or so, we called it good enough for now and curled up there in the forest. Sleeping in my armor with Talon as a pillow, it might've been reckless but I didn't feel frightened of any monsters that may come around. They should all be weak enough that an over-leveled hippogryph should scare them off. Additionally, my armor could take a hit if something bigger came around. A bit careless, but I want to save my magic for logging and get home sooner.

Hours later, we woke up to the noise of wagons, animals, and men approaching. It was afternoon and the dwarves caught up to us. For the next two weeks, whenever we found a forest, Talon and I would go ahead, clear a path, and sleep until they caught up. They would set camp and we would clear more until they left early the next morning. It was like a weird game of leapfrog.

By the time I could see the walls of Midnight in the distance, I felt like I had an entire forest in my big-bag. Finally, after almost a month, I was home. With a feeling of comfort coming over me as the caravan approached, I saw an armored Ailine, a tiny shadow cloaked figure waving as hard as she could, and multiple fluttering colored wings, all in the distance at the gate.

I'm finally home.

You can find story with these keywords: Rise of the Vampire Queen, Read Rise of the Vampire Queen, Rise of the Vampire Queen novel, Rise of the Vampire Queen book, Rise of the Vampire Queen story, Rise of the Vampire Queen full, Rise of the Vampire Queen Latest Chapter