Chapter 56: Book 2 chapter 14

Amethyst could hardly contain herself as she squirmed in the back of their family’s carriage, her excited energy causing her to unconsciously bounce her legs as they drew closer to the city of Navratna. In no more than a few hours she would be home and she could not wait a moment longer as she pressed her face against the glass window of the carriage.

It had been half a year since they departed from their home, yet so much had changed. Amethyst couldn’t help but hope to return to her normal life now that she would finally be returning home.

If you keep pushing your face on it, it will break, you know? Hecatolite’s voice pulled her attention as she could feel her sister’s displeasure at touching the cold glass.

Amethyst, mimicking one of her sister’s habits, made an annoyed sound, “pff” her warm breath causing the window to fog. This glass is almost as strong as the queen’s window. I doubt I could break it. Besides, how can you not be excited? We are almost home!

Honestly, I spent more time in the castle than here, Hecatolite replied, willing her sister to please stop rubbing her cheek on the icy window. That’s really uncomfortable. 

You're just being a baby. Amethyst mocked as she sat back down ignoring everyone else in the carriage as Saffron quickly made room for the young woman, you really don’t like the cold, do you?

No. What’s to like about being cold?

Snow for one. The crisp cool air, or going ice sliding? 

All those things sound horrible. I’d rather stay in the castle. Hecatolite’s reply causing Amethyst to roll her eyes, everything during winter is horrible, it's cold and wet and cold. 

You know it's winter in the capital too, right?

Yea but the castle was heated, I mean sure it was an unhealthy number of fireplaces but it was so cozy!

Our house has a fireplace.

Yea but I exploded all the firewood.

That was six months ago Hecatolite, I am sure dad had bought more by now. So as long as you don’t blow up another shed, we will be fine.

Six months? Are you sure? It doesn’t feel like it was that long.

Well, when all you do is eat and sleep, I am sure it doesn’t. Amethyst sighed as she recalled the last six months.  

After repairing the window in the throne room, the two had been enlisted as helpers for their mother, meaning Amethyst was a helper to their mother while Hecatolite ran around the void doing whatever it was she did in the void… probably abusing Babylon as she had taken grievous offense to the skill using their soul space as a workshop to repair all the system terminals she had damaged while healing Saffron.

While Hecatolite played, Amethyst had learned a great deal about the internal workings of the empire, mainly the newly named “religious freedom act” that had moved through the court at blinding speeds. Quickly becoming one of the fastest approved policies in the history of the empire due to overwhelming support not only from the ruling class but surprisingly even many religions themselves. The act itself was formed in such a way that allowed almost all effective parts a net gain of some sort, the nobles got a new revenue for taxes, and smaller religions got a chance to form footholds within the nation. The most notable was surprisingly the “church of the blue moon”, the bunny goddess Jaci having more followers than even Irithyl realized within Crown, enough to rival the smallest of the former primary religions in terms of sheer number of people.

The actual intricacies of the act were lost on Amethyst, who after reading it several times was only able to understand the core concept of it, in simple terms under the act, religions would now be viewed as “spiritual guilds” and as such be subject to all the restrictions of any of the other guilds. They will be subject to previously waived taxes, as well as travel tariffs and any other “business” fees associated with running an organization within the empire.

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They will need to register their guild, send yearly reports to the capital and be subject to audits. Where they used to have a royal pardon from such things, they will now be held more accountable for any acts taken by their “guild members”. As well as each territory being able to decide if the “guilds” would be able to operate within their borders based on a “need of services” under the guild laws that were already in place to mitigate fraudulent activity. The simple concept of not needing a fisherman’s guild hall in a landlocked territory now applied to religions.

The only two religions that seemed to be opposed to it were the “church of Valor”, and the “church of magic” as they would lose their sanctions in Crown. Amazingly the other 4 of the “primary” religions, the “grove of knowledge”, “followers of the shield”, “order of the accord”, and the “church of Dagan” all were strongly for the new religious policy. 

The first two being Siofra and Soter’s religions it was no surprise that they were in support. Both respective churches gave reasons for being in support of the act, but given Siofra’s church had resigned their status as a sanctioned religion two days before the act was to be made public due to “divine guidance from their goddess”, Amethyst had a creeping suspicion it was because of the gods personal involvement with Hecatolite… who somehow had still not realized who the “overly attractive” elven woman and her brother were despite all the obvious signs.

The order of the accord was also no surprise, given they are followers of Veritas, the goddess of honesty and oaths. Being the second religion to agree to the act they quickly formed their spiritual guild which quickly formed a partnership contract with the merchant’s guild who agreed to pay their fees.

The most surprising was the church of Dagan. Dagan being the god of the sea and sailors. The church had agreed to the terms but refused to form its own guild entirely instead becoming a branch of the fishermen’s guild which allowed them to forgo the guild registration fee much to the chagrin of the order of the accord who had missed that single line in the act.

Amethyst looked at Saffron who sat beside her in her human form, who proudly wore a pin on her sleeve notating her as a member of the X47 spiritual guild. She even had a card much like an adventure ID that could act as a form of identification while traveling.

Hecatolite had been adamantly opposed to the concept of a religion formed around herself. But was eventually forced to give in when the queen had taken it upon herself to appoint the budding religion as a guild, stating that it was the perfect religion to showcase the benefits of the act given it currently only had two actual members. She even went as far as to pay for the guild registration herself leaving Hecatolite no choice but to officiate the spiritual guild. She refused to sign her name however, instead using her title of “X47 the mad devour” in hopes it would keep people from joining the new spiritual guild. She managed to sign “X47” before the pen broke in her hand. Not realizing, or caring, that this named the new guild “X47”.

She then promptly made Saffron guild leader, and Joshua head of “anything annoying” and ran away into the void for 3 days to sulk.

Why the queen had done this was originally a mystery to Amethyst, that was until their mother told Hecatolite if she didn’t get her skills under control quickly, she would be accountable for the drastically increasing pregnancy rate in the capital.

You know if you keep staring at her she’s going to dislocate our shoulders again. Hecatolite said as the memory of being pushed into the bed played in Amethyst's mind.

“I’m not staring!” Amethyst yelled, several very alien sensations hitting her at once. She felt… warmth that spread through her, starting in her abdomen, and quickly working its way to her face as embarrassment as she quickly averted her gaze. Her shoulders ached; her tailbone tingled… stop. She begged internally as her sister relived the apparently blissful moment of Saffron “marking” their body.

Saffron for her part had been ashamed by her actions, clearly not aware of just how much Hecatolite had enjoyed it. She had begged for forgiveness for the rough treatment she had given her mistress and swore to never loose herself like that again. Now treating their shared body as if it was sacred, she restrained herself from anything more than a light kiss every week. 

Hecatolite was… disappointed by Saffron declaration but had not protested given she feared her own lack of ability to control herself again. Amethyst had told her sister that she did not mind given that the body belonged to both of them, yet Hecatolite had been very adamant about not taking Amethyst's “first time”.  

Hecatolite had told her sister that, “you may not understand it now, but there is something special about your first time. Who you do it with, how you do it… it’s all very important, one of those defining moments. Something that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. You will understand once you do it yourself, just trust me on this.” Making the unspoken agreement that Hecatolite would wait until Amethyst “understood” what she had meant was made, regardless of Amethyst's own thoughts on the matter.

Hecatolite laughed at the feelings of embarrassment and arousal as she continued to tease her sister.

“Keep it up and I… I’ll find a way to get you a million followers. You’ll get those prayers all the time.” She hissed as she balled her fists in protest, not realizing the silence in the carriage as the other four watched her grit her teeth.

And how will you do that? Hecatolite asked, clearly enjoying herself as the memory flashed through her mind again. Who would follow a deity called “the mad devour”? If you manage to even get me a thousand prayers, I’ll… I will… I don’t know… do something… I got to go. With that Hecatolite vanished from her sister’s mind as she retreated into the void, leaving a very embarrassed Amethyst sitting there now noticing the eerie silence in the cart.

Hecatolite at the time did not realize the validity of the threat, something she would come to regret a lot sooner than she thought possible as a clearly flustered Amethyst pulled a draft of the religious freedom act from storage. After nearly 30 minutes she looked up to her mother and asked a simple question. “What are we going to do with the old church of Valor?”

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