Descent to the Sunken Cathedral: New Paladin Order Book 3 by Cromwell Charles & Cromwell Kenneth

Author:Cromwell, Charles & Cromwell, Kenneth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

The Forge

The ancient skyline of Lacapolis once held within it one of the most magnificent monuments ever created in devotion to Aten, the resplendent Celestial Cathedral. The cathedral’s polished white walls and glass roof had gleamed like starlight into the eyes of desperate pilgrims who traveled from the farthest reaches of Medias to reach its welcoming doors. The crystal roof that crowned the structure had sparkled in the sun, and the light it reflected reached across to the opposite shore of Mountainside Lake as a beacon of Aten’s grace. Now, as Janus looked over his shoulder at the decaying, broken structure, he saw none of its splendor and promise, only its great misfortune and tragic last moments.

After escaping with the Justicar, Janus’s aching, burning legs carried him from the cathedral grounds to the burnt-out hulk of the Antium fortress nearby. Dark was the sky, but he did not need its shadow to keep himself hidden. Terminus’s foresight in choosing his path now shaded his steps even if the Dark God was as hidden from him here as Aten was to Tryam and Brother Kayen.

Though his connection to the Dark Prophet had been severed since they had entered Lacapolis, Janus still felt guided by Bafomeht’s spectral hand. The journey to the Celestial Cathedral had taken all his strength and tested his fortitude, but nothing would compare to the challenge of confronting Avum and freeing the Tear from her grasp. He did wonder, more clearly now, what giving the Tear of Aten to Bafomeht would do to the balance he sought between the forces of light and those of darkness. Do my actions lead to peace or to tyranny?

The calamitous events of Arkos and the decisions he had made as the abbot of the Abbey of Saint Paxia was also becoming clearer now that he was isolated from the powers in the heavens. What he began to understand from this new insight was monumental and threatened to tear his mind apart, but he could not afford to let these discoveries interfere with the task he had to perform here in Lacapolis.

Along the journey to find the Tear of Aten, Janus had unexpectedly developed a closeness to both Tryam and Brother Kayen, a closeness that had eluded him when the three were together in Arkos. But again, Janus could not let these emotions distract him from his current noble objective.

Drawing upon his conversations with Bafomeht, his own observations and interactions with Father Bendix, and his understanding of the nature of the spirit realms, Janus drew his own conclusion on the true nature of the lake goddess. Avum was not a Daemon, else Terminus would have sought to enlist her in His cause. Nor was she an Aemon, the Daemon’s balancing force, for an Aemon would not defy a man such as Father Bendix. Nor was Avum even a Paegon goddess, a being whose energies were tied to the creation of Medias and linked to its water, its soil, its flora, its fauna, and its sky.

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