Chương 386: 10.6

The further north they went the colder it became. Not just the weather but the temperament of the people. The villages shunned their camp as they moved past. Some peddlers outright refused to serve them for fear of being driven from the cities for 'treachery'. Jewel was glad that Etele and his three other members of the 'order of Asherah's children' at least did not openly hold up the flag of Vladimer Tepes and the Vlach lands. The colors were similar enough they blended easily into Erhard's Halberdiers.

They even managed to move in a similarly effortless manner although their armor was rougher. A few eyes lingered on the helms with malice and recognition but it was barely more then they gave Jewel herself. And at least in that regard the journey north did not grow worse. The further they went away from the lands that had felt the touch of the 'Troubles' the more people simply saw a few irregular fits of armor among the rest of the Black and Yellow of Cantor Reborn.

But even as the familiar bite of frost finally found them in the northern hills of Dacia Jewel saw travelers on the road give more pause to the armored vampyres then they did to the Wyrm!

"Leo, We've traveled with them for fourteen days now. What is your read of our allies from the Vlach lands? I've already heard everything Erhard cares to say about them but Mathias's wizard is-" Her court priest and advisor in the divines. Huffed heavily.

"A singleminded horror blind to the hearts of men and spirit of gods? Yes, my countess I can imagine how he would suit poorly to judge your concerns." He was scowling but there was humor in his voice. The wind rose in a cutting southerly from the road ahead, carrying leaves and dirt. There was a heaviness to the air for both Jewel's selves, and the wind whispered its joyous promise of heavy rain clouds that evening.

"So what is your insight, my good priest?" It was interesting to watch how the man reacted to the same words spoken as the Countess Shining Wyrm instead of a diminutive scaly child. Jewel could sometimes catch him in just such a way he forgot to act with any of his still lingering fear of her.

"They are honestly not as I expected my Countess. Divinely touched it is certain, but nothing like what attacked us that night. Civil, capable of reason, and significantly more resistant to signs and forbiddances made in Asherah's name. They are aligned to us, but I deeply suspect that even if we faced them in battle the Symbols the red wizard-" Jewel cut through his words.

"Erhard is not the Red, he is Ironhand, the wizard Jaksa held the title of the Red and ultimately was the source of these horrors." Ah bother, she'd let her tone grow too strict, he smelled of fear again. But as much as she might find Erhard frustrating he was no Jaksa. The blood wizard, wherever he now was, had created a truly awful thing. Leo cleared his throat.

"My apologies. Still, Erhard's confidence was misplaced. The symbols of Asherah I suspect will not be as effective against these individuals. They are more assured, their vow to the mother goddess is less fragile. Her rebuke may stall them, redirect at best, but it will not be as reliable a trigger of their dissolution as it was to the others." Jewel considered that ominous idea.

"At least not in the hands of those unpracticed in divination. Now a proper priest or even better a priestess of Asherah holding aloft the symbol of her office? Against these vampires who consider themselves an order in her name? They would be utterly foolish to even attempt to meet the eyes of such a figure on the battlefield." That was odd, she turned her head from the road, twisting her neck around to properly meet his eyes, which sadly Leo immediately turned away from.

Ah well, the process of training her priest was slow.

"What's the difference? Is she not the same goddess? Why would the skill of the diviner make any difference?" Leo fixed his gaze on the sparsely clouded sky to the east.

"Has the countess read much on the nature of the divine?" Ah, it was still so difficult to explain the nature of Gem. She'd strived to let each of herselves be separate but moments like this made that all the more awkward.

"I've read what I can, Are you familiar with the Rochford collection?" He nodded at that.

"Somewhat, a few copies were sent that way... Ah but only the ones deemed safe for the reading of lords." Leo hummed, gaze sliding towards the darker clouds further north, it would be almost funny the way he was actively not meeting her eyes. After a moment longer trying to get him to meet her gaze Jewel gave up and turned north as well. Even without the wind singing of it Jewel would have been able to tell rain was coming, they would have to make camp soon. Her priest finally found his words.

Freed from whatever turmoil her gaze brought him. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Right, this is not precisely a mystery, but it is also not often said as such, easily misunderstood by the peasants and those who trust our advice. But in the temple? Well every diviner at the temple I spoke to says it like this." He slipped into that tone he did when reciting some one else's words, whether on page or lecture it seemed to matter little with Leo." The gods are blind." Jewel hummed and puzzled at that before nodding, watching the road ahead and its sparse signs of travelers.

It was already thinning out as those on the road came to the same conclusion she had regarding the rain. By Gem's feeling, bundled up in the wagon with the eggs it was quite chilly.

"Yes, that would explain a great many things. But then why does everyone think they are not?" Leo was looking at her, staring, she could see it from her vantage at the edge of her sharing of herself with Gem and the two slumbering eggs. Apparently she'd managed to make a shortcut in the conversation he didn't expect. It was not the first time. Although it happened more often with Gem.

"W-what? What do you mean that explains things? What does it explain?!" Jewel only slightly turned her head, already seeing him prepare to turn away. So she stopped, gazing north-east at the hills of Dacia, which lands were those? Not Wallachia, or rather the Vlach Lands. They had long since passed the northern border of Tepes' county. Some other people she had never even learned the name of?

"The gods often cannot see me, Leo, and their miracles do not touch me. Was that not obvious? It is the reason that the High Priestess Bitta must be worn by Nerthus for me to converse with them." Jewel could not quite see Leo's face. Gem only saw the back of his head from her bundled up position in the wagon. But she could just catch the glimpse of his mouth opening and closing. Perhaps his brows were raising up? He certainly smelled like he was having a revelation. A hushed whisper under his breath muttering."

I thought she was just vain..." Well no that certainly would not do. She turned to look again straight north to the building clouds. It would cut into their pace, but they would likely have to break for camp only a few hours past noon if she did not want all of her entourage to be marching in sodden mud.

"I assure you, Leo, if conventional means worked for me to contact the divine I would do so. Bitta and others have made no secret of how taxing it is to be filled by the presence of a god." She took a heavy breath.

"Now, you were explaining, the gods are Blind, but that contradicts all the texts which state all their knowing of the nature of any man who draws their attention." Leo shook himself, mustering that deep calm he seemed to reach for whenever Jewel or circumstance got the better of him. His voice going flat, soft, flowing.

"The gods are blind to visions of mortal sight, sound and touch, but they know the heart, memory, and the present awareness of anyone who calls on them. That which they themselves cannot see, or hear, or smell they know through their diviners." He shrugged.

"Or that is how we often speak of it in temples, it's not perfect. Otherwise you could not ask a god for visions of distant places, or far off events. Or even of prophecy or fate." He gestured to the sky.

"But they certainly don't seem to be exactly aware of what a storm cloud actually looks like. If I called a storm god and was quite skilled in dealing with them I might know for how many hours it will drop rain, of whence its wind will blow, and how harsh the cold it brings. But the sight of it?" Leo waved vaguely.

"Zeus himself, when you are able to really get a proper answer from him? It starts to show that he might struggle to even make a child's scrawl of a cloud." Jewel considered the clouds. The wind was turning, not just here on the earth, but up there in the sky. The storm was going to shift and instead of amiably drift westerly, it seemed in the process of making a sweeping, churning shift towards them.

"And this makes a difference between a master priest and a novice?" Leo nodded, but she was pretty sure he wasn't even seeing the road anymore. The horse beneath him kept him on the road more than the man's attention.

"A master diviner, a high priestess of Asherah will be able to show her the Vampyres clearer than I would. Or any of Erhard's armored soldiers. And if she stood opposed to them, her vision would color the divine's judgement." Jewel stopped her march, easing into it slowly, letting the other riders and the wagons have time to settle their motion to a stop. They were not going to have time to go any further, not the way those clouds roiled.

Leo didn't even seem to notice his Hackney had stopped with Jewel, so enthralled with telling her of the nature of the heavens' blindness.

"At that point it would be a test of whose sight of the matter of their vows holds truer for Asherah and her knowing of them. But if there is even a crack of doubt in the vampire's confidence in the rightness of their actions? I'd expect the high priestess to send them back to their goddess in shame." Jewel let that thought mull in the back of her mind while she called out clear and sharp.

"We make camp here! Hurry to it! We have little more than an hour before we are caught in a deluge!" Leo jolted at her words and their volume, then dipped his head in respect before he joined the hurrying actions of her Courtiers. Jewel turned her gaze up to the blue of the sky, So the gods were blind?