Strength and Honor by Tom Foster

Author:Tom Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Foster
Published: 2023-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine: United, Divided

Never before had Junis stopped to look at this particular piece of ornamentation within the temple, thinking that it was just another obscure piece that had been brought in to make the temple look nice. Even now he couldn’t see the relevance of it, though from the reverent way that several initiates and even a few priests knelt in front of it he surmised that it did have at least some meaning. In all honesty however Junis only saw a jumble of rocks, each stone smoothed down and stacked upon the next in such a fashion as to make one think that to remove one stone would be to cause the entire thing to fall. He’d already found out this wasn’t so however, though the sheer dynamics of how such a thing was possible astounded him.

Water flowed from a natural spring below the constructed wonder, the pressure with which it shot through the stones enough to normally dislodge such a loose structure. As he continued to watch however all that happened was that the water rose upward through the loosely fit stones, creeping between the rocks to descend back to the floor. The resulting cascade struck the marble base upon which it was built, the resulting splash extending out only a few feet. The designs and symbols etched into the marble around the structure were all overlaid in either gold or silver, the precious metals having been imported from all over Mydest at a heavy cost.

The structure was roughly triangular, its apex remaining open for water to spill up and over, keeping the stones continually wet. Sitting upon a marble bench that was situated between the massive front doors and the fountain Junis couldn’t help but feel confused. He’d never formally met an elf before, which meant he was already at a disadvantage.

In fact he’d never seen one, aside from the one time he’d told Tobias about, since ratting out those who’d helped him in Poortown to the city watch, a group known as the Silver Tigers. The chief guard in Axiom, the Silver Tigers were a curious mixture of folk from all disciplines, offering their membership to any man or woman who could prove themselves worthy both in body and heart. The day he’d decided to turn over his fellow thieves to the Tigers had been the worst and best day of his life all at once. In one regard it had gained him the notice of those who would eventually further his standing among the more decent and powerful folk of the city, while on the other hand , he’d gained the enmity of the common folk, since far too many had known of the wily halfling before his heinous act.

For years he’d kept the guilt of what he’d done carefully put away by telling himself that they might have done the same thing had they been given the chance. Of course this was not true, though the only one that knew this was him.

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