Page 23 of Unlikely Omega

“You know I want what is best for you. I like you.”

“Why?” I mutter, catching the slip too late, but I’ve been wondering about it for a while. Since I arrived, she has been kind to me, the only kind person around.

“Why? Because…” She sighs, rearranges herself on her seat in the circular sitting room of the convent, her robes rustling, the wood creaking. “I don’t know. I suppose you remind me of myself a little.”

A bark of a laugh escapes me. “Really? I’m a blind, ostracized priest, a newcomer in a Temple where nobody is on my side and I keep making bad choices, from the look of things.”

“I’m on your side, priest.” I can hear her smiling. “And I wasn’t always a high priestess. I think… I think everyone with a spark of goodness in them needs someone to tell them not to give up, to look out for them. That’s what I am trying to do, hoping it will save my soul.”

I bow from the shoulders, my heart pounding. “Thank you, Most Reverend.”

High Priestess Arleth is old. I don’t need to see her to know that. I can hear it in her voice, in the way she moves, in the calmness of experience in her words. I try to imagine her young and harassed like I feel most of the time and I find it hard.

But who am I to question her niceness?

Except…

“If you keep protecting acolyte Ariadne,” Arleth goes on after a long pause, “you will draw the attention of the Council and the Temple, and that isn’t something anyone would want. I hope you understand what I am trying to say. Times are changing, Ata. You must have noticed. Spirits are running high, there is unrest. The Empire never recovered from the war and the emperor keeps pushing to annex more territories, expending gold we don’t have. It’s taking its toll on the economy and the people want a scapegoat. It’s the easiest thing to fall back on the same scapegoat they used centuries ago.”

“The Fae,” I whisper.

“Fae blood, yes. In everyone’s mind, those with Fae blood are evil trolls that suck your life energy and your gold right out of you, then screw your family and flatten your city.”

“Quite the powers,” I say drily.

“Oh, yes. It has the added benefit of giving you an out for every wrong choice you’ve made in your life, every crime you’ve committed and every wicked thing you’ve done, because Fae magic made you do it.”

Speaking of wrong choices…

“I hear you, Most Reverend,” I say, “and I thank you for looking out for me. But I can’t simply abandon acolyte Ariadne.”

“Why in the seven hells not?” She shifts on her seat, the springs pinging. “You barely know her. You need to look out for yourself. I won’t always be able to help you.”

“I know. But maybe… maybe Ariadne reminds me of myself, too.”

The High Priestess is quiet after that for a long while. Her long robes rustle as she heaves herself to her feet and I step back respectfully, bowing again.

“I have warned you,” she finally says. “That’s all I can do. If you want to survive in the Temple, and in this world, you need to learn to protect yourself. Don’t do that nonsense self-sacrificing crap and get yourself exiled or killed. That won’t help you.”

But if I can help someone else, I think, if I can help Ariadne survive this world… won’t that be worth it?

Arleth is kind and her advice is wise. Spending less time with acolyte Ariadne is the most sensible course of action.

So I busy myself with studying the scriptures—asking another acolyte to read to me—and practicing a complex ritual for the new moon that I don’t feel I have mastered enough.

Plenty of work to keep me occupied. I don’t really need an assistant—I wouldn’t dream of heaping more work on acolyte Ariadne, and the strange craving for her presence has to be controlled. It’s turning into an obsession, a need, and a priest doesn’t need anyone but the gods.

Which is why I need to stop the fuck worrying that someone is harassing or beating her up while I’m not there to keep her safe.

For all the gods’ sakes, she’s lived here all her life, apparently. She doesn’t need me to come on my white horse and save her. Besides, she told me I’m making things worse.

Talk about a hit to a man’s pride.

But I’m not a man. I’m a priest.

And I’ve always believed I was meant to be one. Call it fate. Call it life. There was never any other path for me, especially after I lost my sight and my parents came under suspicion of aiding the Fae-blooded.

It was the only way to save us all.

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