Chương 99: Chapter 98 - Fair Pay

The next day, Atzi went to the university. To make sure she could get where she needed to go, she first headed to Kurgi's office. Atzi grasped the knob to the office in her claw and twisted. She was surprised as she felt the short movement and familiar click of a locked door. So, she knocked. She heard a loud, familiar moan in response. Why aren't I using my position as prophet to sleep with women? I should do that, Atzi thought. She called out through the door, "You busy?" Kurgi's voice cried out.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"Alright, I'll wait." And then Atzi pressed her head to the door to hear more. She already recognized Kurgi's voice. But there was another voice she didn't know at all, though that wasn't unexpected. Especially given that it was a man's voice. Atzi immediately got bored of listening and moved away from the door, waiting at the wall opposite of the door. She sat there idly digging between her scales, until some minutes later, she heard the door open. When she looked up, she came face to skull with a robed skeleton.

"They're attacking!" Atzi shouted as she jumped to the side. Then she blinked once, and realized the skeleton had human hands. Wait, what? The figure moved hand to skull, and removed his mask. One made from real skull, apparently. Before Atzi stood a middle-aged man with greying hair and a sneer on his chubby face.

"What are you on about? Who are you?" Atzi laughed awkwardly.

"I thought you were a real skeleton. I'm the prophet of the Saintess here to see the head of the university." The man flourished his robes, as if he thought he was too important to speak with Atzi, and wordlessly marched down the stairs. Atzi shook her head, and then crept over to the open office door. She peeked in, seeing Kurgi laying on the floor.

"Uh, hi Kurgi."

"Oh, hey." Kurgi waved, otherwise unmoving.

"What's going on?"

"I wanna put in a request for gems. Can I get a real map?"

"You can check the desk."

"Sure." Atzi moved over and dug through a bit more than she needed, hoping for anything good. Sadly, she didn't find anything worthwhile other than the map itself.

"I'll go find him, then." She headed to the vault master's office. It was all the way in the basement, just beside the vaults themselves. She looked up at the imposing stone door and knocked.

"You may enter," came a halted voice. Atzi stepped in. The office wasn't small, but was still cramped, packed wall to wall with what appeared to be magical items. They glowed a variety of colors, adorning the walls, held in displays, and sitting on his desk. Atzi stared. If I could break in here. She recovered from her amazement before speaking, "Hi. You're the vault master, right?" The vault master himself was as she remembered him, with tiny red pupils and a glowering gaze.

"I am. You are?"

"Atzi. Prophet of the Saintess."

"Ah, the new prophet. What business do you have with me?"

"Gem requests, you handle 'em, yeah? And the gods and prophets are allowed to make requests?"

"Correct."

"How much for? What's the limit?" He looked at her.

"What types of gems do you need?"

"Ten of each." Might as well push it and see what I'm forced to scale back to.

"We would be able to cover ten water gems, ten earth gems, ten nature gems, ten astral pearls, and ten blood gems. We cannot cover fire, air, or death at this time."

"What happened to the air gems?"

"We do not have air gems, generally. They are our lowest supplied gem, and are often used for artifacts the second they are found."

"Oh, like stuff to breathe underwater?"

"Correct." Atzi nodded.

"Alright, then, no fire, death, or air. That's the request." The vault master quickly flipped out a piece of paper, wrote on it, and handed it over to Atzi. I gotta write out a form? Wonder what this is for. Atzi read it. It listed the gems she requested, along with a price total of- Fifty thousand gold. Five hundred pounds. For each set of ten gems. Twenty five hundred pounds of gold all together. Atzi stared.

"It costs money to take them out?"

"The university purchases gems directly from adventurers or the empire for a standard fee, and the empire agrees to pay a slightly higher fee in return to withdraw them." Atzi thought about the gems she'd given V. She'd been paid one gold to go put them in the guard house in the first place. Yet they were worth six hundred and fifty pounds of gold. When Atzi was done choking on her spit, she realized something.

"Wait, the temple must have money, why didn't I think about that? I need to go get the money. And maybe the Serpent? Do I really have to bring her to do this?"

"Or her prophet. Or her seal, stamped upon the form."

"He's pretty overworked." Atzi awkwardly laughed.

"Alright, alright, I'll try and get one of them." Suddenly, Atzi realized something.

"Does this mean Malus could just take out gems any time she wanted?"

"Yes." If I was declared the Saintess' prophet without the Saintess losing power, I'd have unlimited power to do this. Atzi barely suppressed a grin.

"Okay, be back later."

"Ensure to close the door properly on your way out."

"Sure, sure." Atzi left, closing the door. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. As she was walking away, she heard the door open back up. She turned around, seeing the vault master at the door. He glared at her, mouthed 'properly', then slammed the door shut. The sound was so loud, Atzi's teeth shook. - When Atzi arrived at the temple, a familiar priestess greeted her. The one who had hit on Marco. She had her usual grin.

"Greetings, Saintess prophet. Here to speak with the Serpent again?"

"Yeah. I guess I keep showing up to do that, huh? I got told by the university I need her permission for something."

"You know, she looks forward to your visits."

"She does?"

"We keep overhearing her say how she wishes she could sleep with you."

"Maybe if I knew a way to escape afterwards." The priestess giggled. She led Atzi to a large bath. In it, the Serpent's bodies floated in the water as they were scrubbed all over by priests and priestesses of the Saintess. I wonder how they feel about me. Probably not the highest opinion.

"Hi. When you took in the Saintess' priests and stuff, did that include the gold the temple had?"

"Oh, yeah!" One of the Serpents splashed down in the water, before coming back up near Atzi, resting her arms on the floor.

"There was a good amount of it."

"I figured. Malus was in charge of the whole empire, must have been rolling in it."

"Well, not as much as you might think. At least from that temple. Most of the money was in the main temple for the godscouncil."

"Maybe 'cause of how many gems she bought off the university?" Atzi guessed.

"Speaking of that, apparently I need your permission to buy gems off them. And gold, since I don't have any."

"How much gold?"

"They want fifty thousand for ten gems, times five." All three of the Serpent's bodies started laughing so hard, one of them knocked a tending priest into the water. A splash washed against Atzi's leg. Atzi smiled nervously.

"Yeah, they really wanted a lot. They gave me a form and everything."

"Good luck with that!" the Serpent waved her off, still laughing. Crap.

"Maybe I could ask for less? How much did the temple have?" The Serpents stopped laughing. The one closest to her smiled at her.

"Atzi, darling."

"It's a no, isn't it."

"You shouldn't beg for money. It's unbecoming."

"I didn't think they'd ask me for any! I thought prophets and gods could just take stuff out when they needed it. And why'd they ask for so much, anyway? I'm getting ripped off!"

"It's because most of the gems are going to prepare for the civil war. So the price has gone up." Atzi made a noise of understanding. Then she thought a little. In doing so, she had a genius idea that was definitely not going to backfire.

"What if we just replaced them with other gems? There's other sources in the city."

"What other gems?"

"Well there's a bunch in the Branek bank." The Serpent's tail perked up.

"There is?"

"That's what I heard, at least. I never managed to break into the vault." The Serpent grinned.

"Thanks for letting me know! I guess you can have some gold." Atzi smiled. Yes.

"Cool." The Serpent motioned over to a priestess. She bent down. The Serpent's hand went into her robes, and pulled out two gold coins. She tossed them to Atzi's clawed feet.

"Don't spend it all in one place." Well, alright then. That was a failure. Atzi bent down and picked them up.

"If I do manage to get a bunch of gold, you'll sign off on me taking gems from the vaults though, right?"

"Sure, sure." The Serpent waved a claw. Atzi marched off, unsuccessful. She's too greedy! That's my gold! Atzi tried to think about who else she could ask for gold or gems. As she thought, she came up with another plan. One that was even more surely unable to fail. I'm going to the Star. - When Atzi had spoken with the prophet of the Star before, it had been after the Star was in charge. So it had taken place in the central temple. She hadn't been in the Star's temple, before. It was surprisingly simple.

Wooden pews, like she was used to with the Water's temple. But whereas the Water's temple had a statue fountain, the Star's had only a slightly raised stage. The only thing Atzi was surprised to see was the number of doors lining the walls. There was one every few feet. A priestess with an innocent smile sat up upon the stage. She stood upon seeing Atzi, and bowed slightly.

"What can this humble temple do for you, prophet of the Saintess?"

"Is the prophet of the Star here? I wanna talk to her about something."

"The prophet has returned home."

"Eh? She's back in Mediolanum? Ah, crap." -"Atzi!" Jem shouted as Atzi entered the Water's temple. She rushed over and hugged her.

"Eh?" Atzi's thoughts of asking for money halted.

"I heard you were the new prophet of the Saintess! How did that happen?!" Jem let go of the hug, looking at her. Atzi scratched her scales.

"I was walking down the street and in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's all. I got chosen by pure dumb luck. She needed a prophet and I was the nearest person." Jem smiled.

"Perhaps this is a challenge from the Water."

"Maybe. I wanted to ask her something, actually. Or the prophet of the Water, I guess."

"The Water and her prophet have returned to Pomaria, given the cancellation of the council."

"They did?" Atzi slumped, groaning.

"Right, the Godscouncil never even happened. I was out of the city when all that went down, so I didn't realise everyone had just left. So it's just the Serpent and the Ancestor who stuck around?"

"And you!" Jem's expression became troubled. She looked Atzi in the eyes.

"Is the Saintess okay?" Then quieter.

"The Water told me the Saintess died, but if you're her prophet, then what exactly happened?"

"I dunno how much is well-known, but she's alive again. Malus brought her back, but she's pretty weak and doesn't remember anything. I didn't even know she was the Saintess until, well, at first I thought I was just hearing voices."

"That must have been difficult."

"Oh yeah. It was. It's been pretty tricky," Atzi said.

"A demon almost killed me on the way to Mediolanum. I managed to trick her and escape." Jem gasped.

"How did you do that?"

"I had to play dead for half a day." Atzi laughed awkwardly.

"Incredible. Truly, if you were not already prophet of the Saintess, you should be made a priestess of the Water for the difficulties you've faced."

"Thanks." I could if the Water was around, but I'll hold off on that.

"By the way, the Saintess wants gems, but actually getting them for her is, well, turns out the university wants a ton of gold for them."

"That must be quite the difficulty. Do you have a plan?"

"I was going to ask the Water for a loan," Atzi said, grimacing.

"I could write a letter for you?"

"You would?" Atzi's eyes widened.

"That'd- I mean, it depends what she says, but that might work. Thanks!" Jem smiled.

"Of course. How much did you need to borrow?" Atzi coughed.

"The university wanted two hundred and fifty thousand gold." Jem stared at her. Atzi quickly added, "Less would work too, though."

"How much less would still be helpful?"

"Increments of five hundred pounds, the more the better."

"I'll put five hundred pounds. And even that, I'm not sure if- I'm sorry. It's just a lot of money."

"No, I know. I couldn't believe it either." Atzi shrugged.

"The Saintess' temple is, well, you know what happened with it. I don't even have priests."

"What happened to the priests?"

"The Serpent's keeping them as servants."

"She's what?!" Jem's expression shifted from disbelief to anger.

"Oh, I thought this was just well-known. Yeah."

"That sounds incredibly debasing." Her voice had an edge to it. Atzi said, "She's said she'll return them when the empire's stable again and I'm the prophet of the Saintess publically." Then she added, "I don't wanna piss her off. She'll probably just eat me." Jem thumped her tail.

"Atzi, I think she's bullying you."

"She's a goddess, she can bully who she likes. I'm just a prophet, and not even a good one! I don't have any powers, I get by because she listens to my requests and lets me have stuff sometimes. I got her to start distributing food."

"That's great, Atzi," Jem said, looking away as she did. After a moment, she added, "I'll send the letter. Just don't let her walk all over you."

"I'll try. I really don't want to get eaten, though."

"I'm sure the Water understands your position and would gladly come to your aid should the Serpent attempt such a thing." Atzi shook her head.

"Probably, but if she's in Pomaria that's pretty far away to come help if that happens."

"Is there anything else I could do to help?"

"That's a ton already. Thanks, Jem."

"Of course. You may be the prophet of the Saintess, but you will always be a child of the Water, to me." Not the best at that, but hells, I am the most suffering being alive, so maybe I am.