Chapter: 8 A Fool's Negotiation

  After the meeting with the pope, I as Ascher had sent a part of my shadow to attach itself to everyone present in the room. This allowed me to gather secrets and stay a step ahead of everyone in the Temple of Crescent. Now all left is for the temple of radiance to py into my hands. I had already set the stage on the other side of the board.

  On the other hand, the Temple of Radiance discovered Francis at the inn, where he appeared to be impaled. In reality, he was merely feigning injury and had deliberately fallen into a deep sleep, a deception that went completely unnoticed by everyone. The pope was nervous as her version of events simply wouldn’t hold with the people. The survivors of the inn were few, and they had failed to capture the priestess of Crescent, who was taken by her temple. The pope knew her side would never win the public’s favor—even with all eyewitnesses could not change the fact that a priest’s testimony always outweighed them. With the only priest who had witnessed the brawl, now lying on his bed, his fate unknown, and the royal court’s summons looming, her temple risked losing both trust and political power to the temple of Crescent and the royals. Facing impending doom, she had two choices: either break the alliance with the Temple of Crescent and become a pawn for the royal family or broker peace talks with a temple she fundamentally distrusted. Deep down, she knew the pope of Crescent would never agree to peace talks as it was his nephew who had been sin by the Order of Sun, a wound too deep to heal. Restless and desperate, she worshipped her false god and prayed for half a day until a letter arrived from the Temple of Crescent. As she read it, a sigh of relief mixed with caution escaped her lips as she wondered if it was a sincere peace talk or a cunning trap id to doom her.

  The pope of Crescent had proposed a meeting at the Altar of Eclipse—a sacred space accessible only to the popes of Crescent and Radiance. This arrangement allowed the pope of Radiance to surround her temple with loyal knights. In a calcuted gesture of goodwill, she sent a letter stating that the meeting was possible if her conditions were met: it must occur at the depth of night, with only three knights present to keep prying eyes away. The shadow I had attached to her proved invaluable she was far easier to manipute than her counterpart.

  Once her demands were sent, the pope of Crescent accepted them. I was ecstatic. For a year, I had envisioned this carnage, it was meticulously pnned and was nearing its climax. Like a farmer boring for a bountiful harvest, I had to work diligently before reaping my reward. All that remained was to wait for the royal summons to trigger the next stage.

  At the Depth of Night, the popes had arrived with each of them accompanied by three knights and they had entered the Altar of Eclipse. The altar’s name was no accident; it was accessible to the devotes of their deluded religion only during an eclipse, that rare moment when the sun and moon meet. Publicly, the Temples of Radiance and Crescent had cimed a harmonious peace, yet in private they despised one another. Both sides knew that open conflict would leave them vulnerable to the royal family and external enemies, as their forces were nearly equal—never enough to decisively overpower the other.

  When they went inside the alter, the heavy door closed behind them, sealing their meeting from the eyes of others. To me, the meeting was an open book I could listen to every word spoken there.

  Within the closed altar, the pope of Crescent, Enlil, and the pope of Radiance, Ishtar, sat down for a while in silence. After a while, Enlil broke down the silence with a voice that trembled between fury and despair and said “Ishtar, we gain nothing by fighting. The truth is, that a Knight from the order of the Sun forced himself on a Crescent priestess. She was the maiden destined to wed my nephew. My nephew had witnessed it and ignited a brawl to recim her honor. In amidst the chaos, he killed that knight, and then your wretched knights killed him. The violence then spiraled out of control when the Knights of Moon saw him sin in a cowardly manner, and it ended only when we did intervene.”

  Ishtar’s response was cool yet sharp “Is that truly what happened, Enlil, or just the tale you wish to spin? I thought we were here for peace talks, not for decring war. ”

  Enlil was visibly angry. He had spoken the truth and was restraining his fury only to be shunned by Ishtar. In a high-pitched voice, he replied "Ishtar, be careful about what you say regarding the truth of my nephew’s death. He was to be my heir after my passing—he was a boy I raised, he was like a son to me. At this very moment, I feel the urge to kill every Knight of the Sun, yet I remain here for peace talks. Do not mistake my desire for peace as kindness. Although I despise the Order of the Sun, we must preserve our alliance. For that, I am willing to let my nephew’s death pass and move forward. Even now, I am suppressing my urge for war for the sake of the alliance our ancestors established. If you still believe this is merely a tale I have woven, then I shall break our alliance and join forces with the royal mutts. But I do not wish that, as the royal mutts have been waiting for this moment for ages. If you want us to humiliate the royal family, join me as we shall emerge unscathed and humiliate them."

  Enlil had vented his frustrations, anger, and desire for vengeance to the only person who truly understood him. Ishtar and Enlil were two sides of the same coin—had they not been bound by their deluded beliefs, they might have been ideal partners due to their understanding of each other. The room fell silent as Ishtar contempted before speaking with a cold, determined gaze "Enlil, you and I both know that the brawl was over a trivial matter. Even if your nephew had survived that brawl, you knew he could never have been your successor, as he had tarnished the temple’s bance for a maiden’s favor. You and I both understand that if he were alive, you would have shunned him yourself. Do not confuse your love for the boy with the desire for vengeance. It was foolish for our knights to raise their swords over a mere brawl. We have failed to discipline those who are meant to obey our commands to raise it without our command. We both know you are nothing but an animal seeking justification to start a war. Even now I am surprised you can remain calm instead of striking me down. Do not misunderstand me, Enlil for my silence is not an invitation for threats. I still do wish to honor the alliance established by our ancestors. But we both know that we cannot proceed without a serious check on our power, let alone rein in the royal mutts."

  Though enraged by her comments, Enlil now was stripped of his raw emotions and had recognized with cold logic that she was speaking the truth. This realization further infuriated him, as he realized his failure to properly raise Linios. When he first heard of Linios’s death, he was in shock; he knew that no one in Skaptha would dare raise a sword against his nephew. And he had denied the truth until he was confronted with Linios lifeless corpse. Then his anger and the thirst for vengeance had overwhelmed him. In his fury, Enlil held a meeting, where he was torn between his desire for retribution and his lust for power. Even as he sent letters advocating peace, a wave of sorrow overtook him. At the altar meeting, upon seeing Ishtar, he attempted to bance his need for vengeance with his yearning for peace to maintain his power, but ultimately the desires he had suppressed exploded when he confronted Ishtar. After a while, when Ishtar responded, he came to realize his sorrows and had to accept the loss of Linios. With his realization, he recognized that he needed to stay clear-headed and had to strategize to maintain his power. He realized that his thirst for vengeance would not only scorch the Temple of Radiance but would also consume his power. With this understanding, he broke the silence and replied in a calm, steady voice "Ishtar, I know how to get us out of this mess created by the incompetent knights of our orders. But I need to know if you are committed to preserving our alliance. If peace is what you seek, then let me know; otherwise, let us conclude this pointless meeting."

  Ishtar was shocked to see Enlil regain his composure even after insulting him. Recognizing his sincerity to maintain the peace, she replied "Enlil, you and I know there are no winners if we fight. We would both lose if our temples went to war. First, we would have to sy one another; then, if any strength remained, we would face the royal mutts and then enemies beyond our fortress. In this war, there would be only losers and no one would survive the aftermath, especially since our armies would be weakened by the royal mutts. If you are truly committed to our alliance, I will do whatever it takes to preserve it."

  Enlil nodded in agreement. He then said, "Ishtar, I have a pn. You and I both recall st year’s joint inquisition to hunt the mad dog known as the Lord of Malevolence, the man who worships the god of madness and had doomed Thira. The royal family then canceled the inquisition, as they were unwilling to provoke a man responsible for Thira’s downfall."

  Annoyed by the reminder, Ishtar replied with disgust "Yes, how could I forget that incident? The royal mutts still relish their victory over us, as we lost face with our members by failing to act publicly. I remain sore over that incident, as the royal mutts remind us of it every time we visit the pace."

  Enlil grinned and proposed, "What if we cim that the mad lord sneaked into Sakpta during the Festival of Twilight, when the royal guards were on duty during that time and cursed our knights with madness, turning the inn into a bloody mess? We can exploit the excuse that the royal mutts use as proof of their victory over us by leveraging the bloody inn incident to expose their incompetence and exact our revenge for our humiliation. Moreover, we can demand them to fund the new inquisition, with this we can restore our member's trust by proving that the chaos was caused solely by the mad lord—someone the royal family had neglected and rejected the inquisition. If we execute this pn fwlessly, we can rein in the royal mutts, cim victory, and secure wealth from the royal family, who halted the original inquisition. Not to mention the annoying members from the royal court who could be harassed by us in the name of inquisition"

  For a moment, Ishtar fell silent in thought before grinning and replying, "Enlil, I never imagined a war-crazed man like you could devise something so devious. Let’s do this, let’s put a leash on those royal mutts." The two shared a maniacal ugh as they pnned further.

  Their scheme was simple. They would ensure that witnesses will recount only their version of events. They pnned to erase any evidence that did not serve their needs and, crucially, to share their pns only with the powerful figures in their temples. Once everything was in pce, they would leak rumors that the bloody inn incident had been orchestrated by the mad lord, thereby instilling fear among the people of Skaptha. By the time the royal family summoned them, they would control the narrative and have inflicted irreversible damage on them. Ishtar and Enlil had pnned every detail to amass greater power and prestige for their temples.

  The popes of the religion then departed from the Altar of Eclipse satisfied but still hungry for more power. All that remained was to wait for the summons from the royal family to be sent to the temples. I counted the days until my pns took effect. While my shadow, Hastings, worked behind the scenes, the next stages of my scheme were already being set in motion as those summons were getting to be dispatched.