Chapter 36: Act of Healing
What are you doing?, Valens asked himself perhaps the tenth time as he watched the pair of Priests holding their hands over a man who was bleeding from a gaping hole around his stomach. They seemed to be in utter focus as golden light spilled from their fingers, washing the wound with what appeared to be condensed lifemana.
There was an odd semblance between the two young women. Long, brown hair stuffed under a thin cloth that covered most of their heads, barely leaving a strand or two in the open. They wore loose, white robes that had but a single patch around its back. Another symbol, just like the double-headed serpent of the Duality Guild, but this one instead depicted a single eye, completely black, stabbed through the middle by a golden sword that spattered crimson blood across the half-closed eyelid.
“Is that supposed to be a religious symbol?” was Valens’s first question as he and Celme silently watched the Priests' work while waiting for Marcus to get the other, more immediate cases in a row for Valens to handle. “Rather ominous, don’t you think?”
“They are from the Church of the Golden Sun,” Celme stared down at the wounded man who was lying senseless over the stretcher. “That sword there is their signature.”
“What about the eye?”
“It belongs to the Eyeless,” Celme shrugged. “Supposed to be a Herald of the Shadow back in the Second Age. They say it used to rule a good part of the Broken Lands, but not much is known about the earlier ages as the Churches don’t go around spreading their intricate secrets for all the world to hear.”
“Eyeless, eh?” Valens tipped his head, curious. “Isn’t the Broken Lands the common enemy? Why would you keep things from each other?”
“That… is not how things work here,” Celme said tiredly. “Where did you say that you’re from again? Some faraway place, I remember, but I can’t recall if you’ve mentioned a name.”
“I didn’t,” Valens said with an innocent smile. “As I can’t remember where it was, but I’m positive it was a far… far away place. Quite the distance from here, I’m sure.”
“See?” Celme shook her head. “That’s why they keep the information sealed. Because everybody has secrets.”
Yeah, that’s fair, I guess.
“So then.” Valens decided to change the topic. “From what you’ve said I get that this religious order, the Church of the Golden Sun, is supposed to have quite the history, is that so?”