Escape through the backdoor

After a while, a security guard from the crafter’s guild walks up to me. He too is interested in finding a way of getting me out of here. The crowd in front of the guild makes it difficult for customers to come and go. It is Ari who speaks up and asks, “Backdoor?”

“That’s possible.” The guard says. “We’ve got an exit for carts laden with crafting materials to come and go. Also, a back door for the lower skilled laborers. You can exit from one of those. Just make sure that once you’re out, enough people see you that word goes around and they leave our front gate.”

I nod to the guard and he takes me and my friends inside the crafting guild.

As we walk through the large building, I get my first view of what a factory is like. There are so many work benches, each of them occupied with humans doing some leatherworking or carving wood. They don’t just make armor, but also boots, belts and backpacks. A little further are the ovens. Dozens of them, each of them operated by a smith, and each oven has a pipe disappearing into the ceiling. I guess those become all those pipes on the roof that I saw when I stood outside. In the deepest level of the guild, I finally see the fancy ovens where the most skilled crafters, mostly dwarves, perform their metallurgy and metal crafting. This is also the hottest place in the whole guild. Eventually, we come to where the woodcrafters are. A combination of dwarves, humans and elves, all of them working on bows, arrows, spear shafts, from many different kinds of wood. Finally, we come to the other end and exit the crafter’s guild through the backdoor.

The streets over here are much calmer. There’s barely anyone present. Just a few individuals here or there and one carriage that is parked on the side of the road.

The guard reminds us that now we have to draw the crowd away from the front entrance. Our solution is for us to split up. Sophie and Ari go one side of the crafter’s guild, Amelia and I go the other way. Both of our groups let ourselves be seen and when people start coming to us, we get out of there.

It is fairly easy for Amelia and I to get the attention. As soon as a few notice us, they shout it out to the others and a bunch of them head in our direction. This is when we start running. Now, I was under the impression that it would be easy to outrun a mob like that. But clearly, they know enough back alleys to quickly catch up with us. Aw crap. I don’t want to be caught by them. They will rip me to pieces. I also don’t want to use my skills on them, if I do then the public pressure will **** me to leave.

Suddenly, I notice a carriage driving next to me and Amelia. It matches our speed, then the door swings open while it is still driving. A woman stands in the doorframe and says, “Darx, get in. I’ll help you escape this mob.”

I motion for Amelia to get in first. After she is in, I follow. As soon as I am inside. The woman closes the door, then yells at her driver to go as fast as he can. I take a moment to look outside and see the carriage noticeably speeding up. Wow. Thank the goddess this woman came by in her carriage and was willing to help.

Now that we are safe, I actually take a good look at the person who waved us and only now do I notice her choice of clothing. She is not just any woman, but a nun. A Sister to the church of Imris. Dressed in a black habit, similar to Sister Helena. Except she has clear blue eyes and long white hair.

“You are quite fortunate I came by when I did.” The Sister says. “A large mob like that can be quite difficult to deal with, even for an A rank like you.”

I cock my head and look at her with confusion. “How do you know I’m an A …” Then it hits me and I sigh deeply. “Ufh, you mean I’m so famous now that even the Church has taken notice of me?”

“My apologies, mister Darx. I did not mean to upset you.” The Sister says. “Tough I find it hard for anyone to be blamed about your recent development. A rank upgrade is incredibly rare. Not everyone receives the gift of being an adventurer from Imris, and even more rare are those who receive an extra gift from Imris in the form of a rank upgrade. It is only natural that people would spread the news when they see it happening.”

I place both my hands on my face and sigh again. “I just HAD to upgrade in the middle of the final match.” Amelia is quick to comfort me, but the Sister starts laughing a little.

“I’m sorry, mister Darx.” She says. “If I had been blessed by Imris like you have been, I would be ecstatic. Yet, here I see you groan. It is quite the disconnection for me. But I do agree that a mob following me everywhere would be the worst. My name is Charlotte, by the way.”

Charlotte then offers me her hand to shake it. I make sure to be polite and give her a handshake.

“Darx. But you already knew that.”

When I shake her hand, Charlotte gives me a warm smile and even blushes a little.

“Yes, well. It seems that we are clear from the mob. It should be safe enough for us to take our leave and leave you to your business. Our apologies for disturbing you.” Amelia then says.

“On the contrary.” The Sister replies. “I am grateful that I could be of service to one so favored by the goddess. As a matter of fact, I would love to invite you into the cathedral. I am positive the Priest would love to meet you, mister Darx.”

The Priest? That’s the highest ranked religious individual in the whole kingdom! I look at Amelia and she looks at me. She appears just as surprised as I am.

“It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Amelia says.

She is correct. The Priest is normally only seen by the nobility, the clergy or when he gives a special ceremony. Normal people like Amelia and me normally never get to speak to someone like him. We accept Charlotte’s invitation and stay in her carriage as it drives us to the Cathedral. In the meantime, Charlotte asks me about my past and where I grew up. I tell her a few things and she was quite surprised that Amelia is my childhood best friend. But long before we can tell her everything, the carriage stops.

“Ah, we have arrived.” Charlotte says. She then steps out and motions for us to follow.

Amelia and I were thought some things about Imris and our religion, but we are in no way religious people. Few people in the villages are, as there are not many chapels. But when we step out of the carriage and see the Cathedral in front of us, we were in awe. This building is so tall. With tall archers for windows and sharp spires all across the roof. The sheer number of statues and decorations alone make the Cathedral a piece of art. Mages gifted in earth magic must have worked for years to craft all of this.

Charlotte leads us inside, where we immediately enter a big hall, with lots of seats. I am positive this is the worship area. It is here that we see several more Brothers and Sisters of the Church. Disciples and nuns both and all start whispering as they see me. The hall is filled with more sculptures, wall paintings, and colored windows which depict people and events. I am certain all of them showing religiously important figures and events. Maybe if I knew more about the faith, I could guess what they even depicted.

Charlotte contacts a few of them and says a few words. My guess it is to inform the Priest of our arrival. Would he really come here and meet us like this?

As we are waiting for the Priest to show up, Amelia’s eye falls upon a red statue at the back of the altar. It depicts a human woman who for some reason has featherlike wings and this strange statue is twice the size of a normal human.

“That is a statue of the goddess Imris and it is made entirely of rubies. Her favored gem.” Charlotte explains.

“The Church really found a piece of ruby that huge?” Amelia asks.

“Heavens no.” Charlotte smiles. “The Church has spent a lot of time, sending its adventurers out to find all the rubies it could, or spent money buying them. Then A rank mages that could employ crystal magic merged all the rubies together and molded it into the shape of Imris. When some of the clergy still discover a ruby on their adventures, they bring it here to add it to the statue. Eventually, we hope to have a ruby statue in the shape of the goddess just as tall as Zrephia once had.”

I never even knew Zrephia had a giant ruby statue of the goddess.

“It is kinda hard to see from here. Can we have a closer look?” I ask.

Charlotte smiles at me and says, “But of course, mister Darx.”

Amelia and I are permitted to be right in front of the ruby statue. Close enough that we could touch it if we wanted. But there is no way I could touch this statue. Imagine the nuns and priests around us take offense to that. I am amazed at the craftsmanship of the crystal mages. The statue looks incredibly smooth. It is hard to see from a distance, because the statue is all red. But they made certain to craft clothes onto the statue. Even her wings are detailed with hundreds of individual feathers. The detail is truly remarkable. So, this is what the goddess of the humans looks like.

After we are done admiring the statue, I ask Charlotte if she could explain some of the scenes on the stained glass windows. Charlotte tells us that one of them depicts the 5 goddesses as they formed our planet while the one next it depicts them creating life on it. Then on the other side of the building there is one window depicting a Great Demon invading our world and corrupting people by turning them into demons. The window next to that one shows all 5 goddesses working together to slay him and save the world.

Just as Charlotte was about to start explaining about the next window, a disciple carrying a bucket of dirty water walks past us, stumbles, and spill it all over Amelia. He apologizes, of course. But now Amelia’s clothes are all dirty and cling to her body. It certainly doesn’t help that her shirt is white.

Amelia quickly covers her chest with her arms and her face goes red from embarrassment. Fortunately, Charlotte quickly assigns one of her fellow nuns, one who knows water magic, to Amelia and suggest for both of them to go to the women’s bathroom and have Amelia cleaned up. As soon as Amelia has left though, Charlotte gets a report that the Priest is ready to see me. I ask her if we can wait for Amelia, but Charlotte tells me the Priest is usually very busy. Besides, Amelia can always join us later.

I follow Charlotte through the halls and as we walk, she asks me what I know about the Church.

“Well, I heard it is similar to an adventurer’s guild, in a way. Or at least the Church accepts adventurers like any other guild. The Church does require all its members to be faithful to Imris, wear the robes of the clergy and pray to Imris at least once per day.”

“We also have to guide the people away from sin, for sin makes the demon stronger. We need to spread the faith and proselytize whenever possible. Make certain that people don’t lose their faith in Imris. For as people pray to her, so the goddess gains power to keep the demon at bay.”

“Let me guess. It is bad to steal, to lie and to lust?” I ask.

Charlotte giggles again.

“I’m sorry, but that is a rather basic way of thinking of it. It is sinful to be greedy, because greed motivates people to lie and steal. It is a sin the be envious, for that motivates people to deceive and harm each other just for the sake of causing harm. And there is sin in pride, for pride makes you feel you are the most important person in the world and rules and laws apply to everyone, but not for you. But lust in and of itself is not a sin. Or at least not if you lust for a person you are married to. Lusting for your significant other motivates procreation and strengthens humanity’s place in this world. As a matter of fact, my own parents came to the Church as a single man and woman. After they swore their vows, they fell in love with each other, got married and then lusted for each other until they had me.” Charlotte explains.

Interesting. So, Healslut is not unique in that way. Nuns are apparently permitted to have sex, or even be as slutty as they want, and it is all sanctioned by the Church.

This is where we stop in front of a large gate. Charlotte turns to me and asks. “So, Darx. Have you ever thought of being married to a nun?”

A weird question for her to ask, but I start imagining Kiara in a habit I must say, it actually looks rather good on her.

“Eh, can’t say that I have. But I guess it might be interesting to have a girlfriend who is dressed like a nun.” I tell Charlotte.

Charlotte then smiles and blushes quite a bit. She silently opens the door and tells me the Priest is waiting for me inside.