87, The bishop's tail

“It all started when I became Bishop. I had long been worried about the fact the attendance in the churches was declining, rumours of people turning to the forbidden gods kept circulating. I was full of hope and will to work. When I became bishop, I started working on getting people back to the church, but no matter what I did, it didn’t give the effect I wanted. People were turning away from God and it was my responsibility to guide them back on the true path,” the bishop started to tell them. “I sought inspiration from the old books from the church’s beginning. My hope was they could tell me how the church brought the people to them in the beginning. I didn’t find that,” he continued and then fell into silence, as if he was thinking back. 

“Instead, you found the book about how to detect the magical ability,” Ayya helped him. He glared at her, as if all was her fault. 

“I did. I knew enough of the old language to understand most of the text and the translation helped me with the rest. All priests in a higher position know that magic and miracles are the same, but we have managed to keep it a secret for generations. We have another way of telling who possesses the gift now. But when I read of the poison, when I saw the cure was the hand of God, it felt like the answer to all my prayers. If I made some people sick, and made it look like the sickness was God’s punishment, the people would come back to the church. Then they would see the holy people, the priests, wasn’t affected. And even better, they could cure the sick by giving them God’s blessing. It was as if God himself had guided me to the book.”

“Please don’t involve God in this. I doubt he had a hand in what you have done,” Father Lobi told the bishop in a dark voice. The bishop sighed. 

“You may be right. I made the poison, and I gave it to some homeless people. They fell ill, just like the book described and died. I made more and for a month’s time, I would roam the city and pour it into wells of the people I thought would affect the city the least if we lost,” he said. Ayya clenched her fists. How could a man of God so easily divide people into useful and useless? She saw Tenac’s hands also turn into fists. She reached out a hand and took his fist in her hand. He relaxed it and intertwined their fingers. 

“It worked. Soon, a plague was spreading in the city. I asked the priests to lean heavily in their sermons that this was God’s punishment, and the only salvation was the church. When a couple of weeks passed and the fear had spread, the people were once again going to the churches. I tried to heal the first person. I summoned the miracle as always when healing. And nothing happened. The man didn’t recover, he didn’t even get temporary better. I went back to the book and read it again. But I had done all it told me to do. I couldn’t understand. I tried over and over again. Nothing worked. Then the people stopped being sick, all by themselves. I tried to spin it as if it was God’s reward for so many returning to the church. But it didn’t work.”

“So you did it again?” the king asked. 

“I did more research. I just needed some time to figure out what went wrong. But then the people started to go back to not going to church, and I got desperate again and convinced myself that if I just could get some subjects to test on, I could solve it. So I did it all again, adding a couple of more wells so no one would make the connection. But then your father had to go and ask for help from the aari,” he told them. When e used the word ‘aari’ it sounded like he had a foul taste in his mouth. 

“It scared him the people would revolt if something wasn’t done,” the head of the council said. 

“Yes, he told me. But I couldn’t allow the Lady to help. What if she figured out a way to cure the sick before I did? It would have the opposite effect of the one I wanted. Fortunately, your father was easy to convince that the Lady did more harm than good and he sent her away. I could continue the work in peace.”

“But you didn’t find a solution, and still you continued. Why?” Ayya asked before she could stop herself. 

“Because it couldn’t just stop by itself, haven’t you been listening? It needed to be because of a miracle of God. I just needed a little more time. I would have found a cure. The book says there is one. I just need to figure out what the hand of God is,” the bishop said, as if he would be allowed to walk out of the cell to continue his work. 

“The cure was never the problem. You didn’t use magic to make the poison. If you would have, it would have been easy to cure the sick,” Ayya told him. She was getting angry and Tenac squeezed her hand. “You couldn’t read Old Urundi to understand the text well enough. You didn’t know magic well enough to understand why you needed it. You should never have attempted working with magic in the first place. You should stick to your basic street magician tricks,” she continued. 

“Watch what you are saying,” the bishop roared. “I am head of the church. God will give me the power to smite your wickedness down.” As the bishop spoke, two fire balls formed in his hands. Ayya laughed and used her own magic to take the air away from the area around his hands and the fireballs fizzed and went out. 

“You have no chance against one that is trained in magic. So don’t waste your energy,” she told him. Tenac had just watched. He had a smirk on his face. 

“Do you know how many people you have killed?” the king asked, ignoring the little show he had just seen. The bishop shrugged. 

“I made sure to target areas for the most part that didn’t hold any people of importance,” he said. 

“But they are human lives. They are sacred,” Father Lubi objected. 

“God will understand that sacrifices had to be made.”

“And they call us savage,” Tenac said to Ayya. “At least our gods don’t need human sacrifices.” Ayya just shook her head. 

“The assassination attempt on the banquet was it planned by you?” Zerden asked. The bishop snorted.

“Our dear king isn’t as easy to control as his father. I knew of individuals whit the skill to be of use. I promised them redemption from their sins if they could kill the king, or the Lady’s deputy. Either way, it would stop the negotiations. If they failed, I hoped the attempt would scare the aari or at least I could use it to drag out the negotiations to the point where one or both parties would give up,” the bishop confessed. “You are all far too stubborn for your own best.” Ayya took it as a compliment. 

“Does anyone else have questions for the bishop?” the king asked.

“Where did you manufacture the poison?” Ayya asked.

“In a room in the catacombs of the church. No one ever goes down there. I could work in peace.” Ayya nodded, but stayed quiet. No one else spoke.

“It seems to be all. Please take Ludwig back to his cell. Make sure he is in reasonable condition. His crimes were against the people. The people deserve to see him face justice,” the king said. Ayya stood up. She was still holding Tenac’s hand. The group walked out of the dungeon, and Ayya didn’t relax until she could feel the shift in the air and see the sunlight shine in through the windows as they got above ground. “Thank you all for witnessing the interrogation. My lady, I will not ask anything more from you or your bodyguard. But the rest of you, I will ask you to testify in front of the people of what you have heard today. Now, let us all continue with our day and I hope yours will improve,” the king said. They all nodded and went their separate ways. 

“I think I need a bath to get the stench out of my hair and skin. I think the dress is a lost cause. It needs to be burned,” Ayya said as they entered the common room. 

“The two of you do stink,” Firlea agreed and scrunched her nose. “I’ll ask for two baths to be drawn,” she added. 

“Thank you,” Ayya said. “I will just write a quick note to Tariana while we wait. Hinat, do you think you can send it for me?”

“No problem. I need to thank Terway for the rose,” Hinat said. Ayya smiled and walked off to write a short letter telling Tariana that the king accepted her offer of help. She handed it to Hinat before she took a bath. After getting clean and helping Firlea to burn both hers and Tenac’s clothes, she sat down and waited for dinner. There wasn’t much left for them to do. It was time to start planning the journey home, she thought. This time, they didn’t need to leave in a hurry. She needed to make a list of what she needed to do before they left. 

“Ayya, would you mind having dinner with me tonight? I have something I would like to talk to you about,” Tenac said. She looked at him in surprise. 

“Of course not. Dinner sounds wonderful,” she told him.