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Orso would send the summons when he was ready, so Eldren busied himself looking at the clockwork heart he had found. The heart was exquisitely crafted, resembling an anatomical heart fashioned from gears and other small parts. It also looked like it opened, judging by a small seam that ran the entire length of it. Getting it to release its secrets wasn’t as hard as he expected. As he turned it over in his hands, he thumbed something, and the gears started spinning. There was a bright flash of light as it opened. He watched in wonder as it revealed a crystal with a caterpillar inside it. Eldren reached in and marveled at the object. It looked like a Hellgem, but it was no kind of Hellgem he had ever seen. He wondered if it was special. Hellgems weren’t all that rare, but they harbored the energy of dead malignant spirits. Temple had sent him and Phae out with them once or twice before, for a boost of power. But this one was different. The energy was subtle but powerful and holding the ’gem eased some of the strain of the life he’d had.
With a deep breath, Eldren dropped the necklace around his neck and down his shirt. He felt peaceful, more peaceful than he’d felt in a long time. The feeling of serenity was new and strange, but welcome.
A knock sounded as he was marveling at the ‘stones’s weightlessness on his chest. Getting up, he answered the door to see an acolyte standing there. “Priest Orso wants to see you. He says it’s urgent.”
“Did he say why I’m needed?” Eldren asked.
“No, sir, he just said he needed to see you now.”
Eldren had no idea what to expect. He followed the acolyte back to the new office Orso had taken over. It was a closet compared to the old one, but it was at least somewhere to meet in relative private.
Eldren was about to shut the door when a familiar face came up to it. He turned to look at Orso as Merethyl walked in and shut the door.
“I asked her to come here,” Orso said, sitting behind his desk.
Eldren sat down next to Merethyl, curiosity burning inside him. “Sounds important if you’re being so careful,” he said.
“We need to turn the tide of battle. I don’t think I need to tell you that.”
“Do you have a plan?” Eldren asked.
Merethyl sat forward. “You were the one who summoned me to Temple. The one who sent this.” Merethyl produced a letter from a pocket and put it on the desk. Eldren sat forward to look at the note she had put down. He furrowed his brow.
Orso picked up the piece of paper and read it. Satisfied, he handed it back. “I’m glad you made it.” He turned toward Eldren then. “Eldren, what I’m about to tell you, you can’t tell anyone.” He fixed Eldren with a steely glare. “Merethyl knows the locations of the Godstones.”
Eldren shook his head. “Those are just a fairy tale.” Merethyl didn’t look at him, Orso averted his eyes. “The Gods are dead, anyway. It’s only a rumor they started out human because they died.”
Orso worked his jaw. “The Gods were once human, and the Godstones granted them their Godhood. The elves have been keeping tabs on certain artifacts because that’s been Aurelius’s goal all along. He wants the Death ’stones more than any of the others, though intel says he’s looking for them all.”
“The elves would have brought them to you sooner, except our nation has been torn by opposing opinions. They have been debating whether we should help at all. And with elves living so much longer than humans, our sense of urgency tends to be skewed.” Merethyl looked down at her hands. “It’s a mark of shame it took so long to reach a decision, though. Two centuries of this is a stain we can’t fix.”
“Why do we need them? Are they strong enough to turn things around?”
“It was a gift bestowed to humans and their companions,” Merethyl said. “The best Gods are the ones that can understand mortal struggles, after all. While most people have an Indeus to pray to, the Indeus, as a personal God, can only do so much, and only if you have the knowledge to make them work. An individual deity can only do so much as well, so the Godstones were born. The only thing at this point that will stop Aurelius is to bring the Gods back. And in order to do that, we need the Godstones.”
Orso cleared his throat. “Now that the elves have agreed to help us, we can both prevent Aurelius from getting them, and distribute them to the people they should go to.”
Eldren thought about that. “How do we know who it goes to?”
Merethyl gave a tiny smile, tinged with visible sadness in her eyes. “The ’stones judge who is worthy by what they’re capable of and what they’ve accomplished.”
Eldren exhaled, feeling as if someone had sucker-punched him. “I can see why that would be bad if he got one. But how do we know who they go to?”
“Because one of the ’stones chose me,” she said. She went on as silence filled the room. “I haven’t met the qualifications to fully wake it up yet, but I’m the one it’s meant for. My father died in the siege that destroyed the first machine, and I retrieved the ’stones while I was escaping. It’s tied me to the other ’stones, and so the elves tasked me with rounding up the rest.”
“That’s why they sent you.” Orso’s face darkened. “And this is important because the High Council chose Demeter to bear the ’stones of the Empress.”
Eldren opened and shut his mouth a few times. “Based on what?”
“The prophecy machine.” Orso seemed to age before Eldren’s eyes. “That’s why Temple let you stay. They felt Demeter was the best choice to bear that particular ’stones, even though I disagreed.”
Eldren’s jaw dropped. “Didn’t the machine choose her?”
“I wanted it to be Phaedra. I pushed for it, in fact. But she wasn’t interested. She threw the tests to get what she wanted,” Orso lamented. “I had hoped to change the minds of the priests, but I was a much younger man back then, and they didn’t want to hear it.”
Eldren paused. “Why Phaedra? Why not Demeter?”
“Because the prophecy was made to order,” Merethyl said. “Humans used to have prophets, oracles, but Aurelius killed off enough that the practice died and the ones that have been born since do not know what they carry in their veins. That’s why humans went to machines. But machines are fallible and can only do so much. It can predict an outcome, but humans need to figure out who will fill the role. Unlike the Seers of old.”
Eldren’s chest squeezed tight. “Well, they’re both dead now, so it seems like a moot point.” The words stung, and Orso flinched.
“Intelligence saw them carrying both Demeter and Phaedra away. They might be alive as his thralls.” Orso looked down at his hands as he spoke.
The room tilted to one side. “No. No, it can’t be.” Eldren put his arms on his knees, struggling to breathe.
“Council wants it to go to Demeter still, if that’s the case, but I’m overruling that. I’ll take the blame for it. But if we can get the Empress ’stones to Phaedra, we might save not just her, but maybe the rest of the world.” Orso’s tone was a weight on Eldren’s shoulders. “I don’t know who else I can trust this to.”
Eldren looked up at Orso, who met him gaze for gaze. “If there is even a chance I can save Phae, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“I wouldn’t ask if it was impossible.”
“I’ll do it.” Eldren pushed thoughts of fleeing away. “Humanity’s last stand it is.”
“Good. Merethyl will help you. I commissioned a ’ship to escort you around. Captain is a woman named Simone. You can trust her as you trust me.”
“We’ll start on it right away.” Eldren stood up and Merethyl followed suit, walking out of the office behind him.
“Before we go, I have something to show you,” Merethyl said. “Follow me. She led him down into the heart of Harbor Temple, through winding tunnels underneath, the only light coming from the lanterns they took from the entrance. She was so silent Eldren wasn’t sure if he would have known she was there if not for the lantern she carried.
Deep, deeper into Terra they descended, until she stopped, almost causing Eldren to run into her. Merethyl looked at him and went down a tunnel he didn’t see. She led him into a cavern that had light filtering through the top of it. He blinked and looked around, gasping at the sight before him. Four clockwork angels sat kneeling in a circle under the light filtering down. He took a step forward. Light glinted off of brass and crystal, sturdy wings rising up above and almost to the stone ceiling. He caught his breath as he stared up at the four angels, mesmerized.
“They’re mechanical. The goddess herself helped design them. Restoring them might take a bit of effort, though.”
“How do you use them?” Eldren asked when he regained his breath.
“They’ll awaken with the right Command Word,” Merethyl said.
Of course, it used Command Words. Those were a Temple specialty, though few could actually wield them. It took tapping directly into the Celestial Fane to make them work, but each one was powerful in ways that Eldren could only dream about. The only times in his life he had come close to Phae naturally was when Temple had assigned him a Hellgem.
“How do they work?” Eldren asked, touching one bronze thigh; the waist was above his head, even kneeling like it was.
“By automation. The Empress Goddess herself made them, but they’re hidden away. Once activated, they won’t rest until Aurelius is dead. We just need someone who can use the proper Command Word.”
Eldren looked up in awe at the sight of the angels for a moment. His shoulders sagged as he considered how many people could wield Command Words. The only people to come to mind were Phae and Abraham. It wasn’t common for people to use them as you couldn’t use an Indeus. You needed to tap into the Celestial Fane directly, and as a source of magic, most people couldn’t handle it. “Even if we find someone who can use Command Words, we don’t know if they’ll work.”
“You’re right. But Phaedra can use them, right?” At Eldren’s surprised glance, she smiled a small smile. “Abraham filled me in. He can as well, if need be.”
Eldren held his breath. Two centuries of this nightmare, of the death he and countless others grew up and survived in. He couldn’t imagine anything different.
Merethyl tapped him on the shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts, and led him out of the cavern and back up to Temple, silent the whole way. Right before they reached the doorway that would lead into Temple proper, he stopped to look behind him. All Eldren could think of was the fear that it would be for naught.
