Auric Gods by Nick Kyme

Author:Nick Kyme
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2018-09-28T09:52:31+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

City of Vorganthian, Kobor, within Terra’s light

He turned off the hololith, plunging the room into a penumbral twilight. Shrouded by shadows, he shut his eyes and asked for the strength to continue.

Ylax Orn sighed, weary. His bones ached, his skin felt as thin as parchment.

‘Have you ever served a cause?’ he asked. ‘I have. I still do. It was not always so. I used to be envious of the other priests of my order, the ones who had found purpose. For the longest time I looked for my own. I gave up my vestments and became a missionary, hoping I would find my path that way. Spread the creed, I thought – bring the faithless back to His light. I thought this was my purpose, my cause.’

Orn gave a sad shake of the head.

‘I searched, across worlds, across the void. I travelled on freighters and with rogue traders. I even fought at the side of the Astra Militarum. But I remained unfulfilled. I cannot describe to you how utterly demoralising that is, to seek and seek, and to not know why.

‘I actually don’t know how old I am. After the first century I stopped counting. It didn’t seem meaningful to weigh the significance of my life in years. Then I found illumination and everything I knew and understood, everything I believed was possible… It all changed.’

‘Why are you telling me this?’ rasped a frightened voice from behind him.

‘Because I want you to understand why this matters.’

Orn leaned forwards and there was a sharp but diminutive flare of light. A candle flame flickered into life, easing back the darkness. Its light fell across the spines of books, and scrolls bound with leather twine.

‘History, ancestry, origins,’ he said. ‘These volumes, every scrap of parchment in this library was compiled over many years. Some are extremely old.’ Orn stepped around the pedestal where he had lit the candle and gently traced his fingers down the spine of one of the books.

‘What does any of this have to do with me?’

‘It’s blood,’ answered Orn. ‘His blood. I needed a means of reaching Him. That is my cause, my purpose. It has been difficult, I won’t lie.’ He looked up as if an answer would present itself in the grimy vaults above, but all he saw was dirty glass and shadows. ‘I have done regrettable things. I had begun to doubt.’

‘Please… let me go,’ rasped the voice.

‘I wandered, alone and in search of death,’ said Orn, as if he hadn’t heard. ‘I left behind a battlefield of the dead as the very night seemed to split open and a ragged wound tore across the black. As the burning rain began, I sought refuge in an old, abandoned chapel. I intended to die there but His will demanded a different fate for me. I found the Cage. It was just lying there, as if waiting to be discovered. And though back then I had no idea of what it actually was, I knew it was significant.

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