Interlude - Faith
Faith is a funny thing. There was not a person in the empire who didn’t put their faith in someone or something. The blind devout in the divine, the fanciful nobles in their traditions, the gullible soldiers in their captains, and the dirty street rats in the hope that someday they didn’t have to crawl and beg for their meals.
The thing they all had in common was that they didn’t know jack shit if there was any truth backing up their faith, even if they thought they did.
Gaven supposed the street rats were the worst of the lot. Unlike the others, they were the only ones that could never afford to be wrong in their hopes, yet who almost always were.
He’d once been a young idiot like that. A fool who thought that, as long as he persevered, there was a bright future ahead of him. That even if he did a few dishonest things here and there, he could always turn things around later on. That an old heirloom left by his welcher pop somehow held the key to his dreams.
‘Course, he’d been brighter than most others. He realized the futility in all that pretty early on, save for a brief stint with the Vanguards when he got it in his head that there was such a thing as honest work.
Having faith in things was almost never worth it. It was a blind wager, and you never knew the house’s actual hand. Either you were lucky enough to live in blissful ignorance about whoever was screwing you over, or you faced the consequences and hoped you came out with your limbs intact. When you were in Gaven’s line of work, faith was a currency better kept to oneself.
And yet here he was, sneaking into what was supposedly one of the most protected places in the empire for a payday that—while tempting—certainly wasn’t worth the risk. All because a strange noblewoman had brought up memories of his naive youth with a couple sentences, promising him something he had no clue the real value of.
His fingers touched the locket inside his jacket as he sneaked up to the corner of the corridor he was in. He didn’t have many memories of his father left, but the man’s words about the heirloom had always stayed.
‘It’s been ours for generations, son, and it’ll bring us riches like you’ll never imagine. Power that those dirty nobles can never look down on, and strength even those damn Imperial Swords would envy. Mark my word, son. One day, we’ll be at the top of the world.’
His dad had been a raving lunatic and a serial liar, so there was no reason to put any trust in those words. In fact, Gaven had been sure he’d put all that bullshit behind him years ago. And then the Baroness had proved him wrong.
And that woman knew things. His current situation was proof of that.
He pulled at the piece of cloth hiding his face and peeked around the corner into the open courtyard beyond. It was empty, save for a few statues and flower beds spread around, as well as a fountain at the center. He didn’t know what this section in particular was called, but that didn’t matter. He was inside the Sanctuary of Ittar, and it had been frighteningly easy to get in.