Chapter Forty-Two - Part One
The Heretic
Nate the Follower
I fiddled angrily with the gaudy pendant I was now supposed to wear at all times. It wasn't at all to my taste. I'd never been a jewellery person. Every time I glanced at the copper face of that damn necklace, all I could see were the greedy, beady eyes of the lizard-tinged god as he and his fellow gods absorbed Lessa's essence. Or whatever it was they had done to her.
Priests and other holy people were handing out the trinkets and icons like they were sweets. The blazing sun of Kalama shone from a thousand new places throughout the capital. Fingers dripped with rings in the shape of stars, flames, waves and leaves. The new Hestic ambassador had been interfering enough to give me my new pendant, just to make sure that I had a likeness of my newly beloved patron god.
Symbolism had reached new heights in the world of fashion. Seamstresses worked their fingers to the bone to make sure that clothes were telling the correct story of devotion to the gods. Necklines inched upwards to become more modest and the flashy bright colours were soon littered with even more religious emblems.
The gods had been seen. They couldn't be doubted one moment longer, no one would want to deny them. The higher priests of the various orders were either strutting around with renewed senses of confidence or were shrinking back, terrified, from anyone who might want to come seeking the answers to difficult questions.
As word of the vision of Lessa's fate spread, the empire had become a hive of faithful activity. They scrambled to create a new seat on the council for the head Kalamene priest, now unwittingly relevant in the modern age.
The roadside altars gleamed as they hadn't done in so many years. Thick piles of dust had been swept away and you could almost hear the shrines groaning under the weight of offerings from all the new eager pilgrims.
Part one of Privileged can be found here.
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