Loading
month chat rogue 2 3 2
'1300 km.'
It takes a moment for Jordi to realize that he made the exclamation, as eyes around the hall turn towards him. The first to understand the significance of what he said is High Inquisitor Irene, who stops to gaze at the map in the middle of the hall.
'1300 km from the lighthouse of Gran Faro.' Irene lets herself sink in her memories for a moment. 'Our national border, humanity's line of defense, has retreated by 1300 km.'
Jordi sighs, 'It could have been worse, if not for the support of the other countries.'
'At the same time, it also means that the entire might of Terra is gathered on the defensive lines of Iberia. There is no second line of defense. For all intents and purposes, this 1300 km of land belongs to the oceans now.'
Jordi continues to gaze across the hall, unsure where to go to. 'The line is far from secure. The Seaborn are not only invading through Iberia... Sargon, Ursus, Yan. The fires of war have spread across the land.'
'Yes. This is our mission. If any Victorian Viscount or Padishah of Sargon could be a Deep Cultist, then all is lost. This time, however, we killed the bishops leading those Sea Terrors, leaving none alive. Yet the Seaborn continue to invade the land. Something is guiding them.'
Jordi is stunned. 'But the Deep Viscount is dead, by the hands of the Leithanian lawkeepers! Could there be another...?'
'Or perhaps the collective has sensed a greater danger, and is thus trying to assimilate and consolidate the land ecosystem for the sake of its survival.'
Irene stops before a massive door. Jordi realizes that he has never been here before, despite having worked at the place for more than a decade.
'Therefore, we must succeed.' Irene turns around, her still-youthful face hardened by weariness. 'I have been restored to the station of High Inquisitor.'
'I can see that. You already were in all but name.'
'As High Inquisitor, there is something I must ask of you.'
Irene raises her lamp. Light fills the hall, and opens a gap in the door as it drives out the shadows.
A lantern. The great room might have been a prison, then a furnace, a workshop. Now, as various items lie covered in dust in the corners, there is a single lantern in the middle of the room.
'A Seaborn was once held here. Every Inquisitor came to learn the truth about the ocean before they were ordained.' Irene's voice is utterly calm. 'But there is no need for that anymore.'
'So the place has been repurposed into a... furnace?'
'Yes.'
'And the lamp?'
Irene approaches it, as though approaching a god that does not exist. She picks it up, and light fills Jordi's vision.
Not so much a flame as a sun.
'Carmen, Dario, Johann, Carlos... all the Inquisitorial lanterns that we could retrieve, reforged into one. We have thought long and hard about what to call it, but we have made no decision.' Irene ceases her casting, and the light returns to its tiny glass prison. 'The Inquisition has entrusted the task to you.'
'Me?!'
'Don't you know how to use a lantern?'
'I've been taught by Saint Carmen... but I'm no Inquisitor...'
'It does not matter. All that matters is you can light it, or seek the next one who can, if you cannot dispel your doubts.' Irene smiles. Jordi recalls with a start that the two of them are the same age. 'You have borne witness to the struggles of the Inquisition, watched over our triumphs from the lighthouse. You remember the brave martyrs, and the innocent victims. The lantern is not murder; it is hope.'
Irene pauses for an instant, then continues, 'You must remember it. Pass it on.'
'What about you?' Jordi's words left his mouth before he even realized it.
'We have a codename for the Seaborn that we must kill. Its name is...' Irene lets go, and heads towards the door in the flickering light and shadow.
'Gladiia.'
