Free Web NovelChapter 53: Saga 53: Behind Closed Doors
Their assigned quarters turned out to be considerably more luxurious than Kael expected, all carved stonework and silk hangings, the kind of accommodations reserved for visiting dignitaries rather than accidental trespassers. He’d barely set his pack down before a soft knock sounded at the door.
"Come in," he called, expecting an attendant with dinner arrangements or further Church protocol.
Instead, the Saintess herself slipped through the doorway, closing it firmly behind her before Kael could properly react. Gone was the cold, composed formality from the throne chamber—replaced instead by something wide-eyed and startlingly eager that made Kael take an instinctive step back.
"Okay," she said, voice pitched noticeably higher than before, "I need you to tell me everything. Every single detail. Is it true you fought a three-thousand-year-old ancient horror? Did it have tentacles? Please tell me it had tentacles, the reports were so frustratingly vague about the actual anatomy."
Kael stared at her, genuinely uncertain he was looking at the same person from twenty minutes ago. "I— what?"
"And the soul-eating cultist, Paul, was it? Did his transformation involve any body horror elements? I collect accounts of monstrous transformations, purely for scholarly purposes, obviously." She’d produced, from somewhere within her robes, an honestly alarming number of notebooks, flipping through pages dense with what looked like detailed illustrations.
Sylvia, who’d followed the exchange from the doorway with growing bewilderment, finally found her voice. "Your Holiness, are you—"
"Ari. Please, call me Ari when it’s just us. The whole ’Your Holiness’ routine is exhausting to maintain constantly, and frankly you two seem interesting enough that I’d rather not waste this opportunity being stiff and boring."
’This is not what I expected from the stuck-up Saintess routine,’ Kael thought, watching her flip excitedly through what appeared to be increasingly detailed sketches of monster anatomy.
[Confirmed: her public persona and private personality do not match whatsoever. This is either the most elaborate long con in religious history, or she’s just deeply, chaotically weird underneath all that ceremonial poise.]
’I’m leaning toward option two.’
"So," Ari continued, entirely oblivious to their stunned silence, "is it true Sylvia here can summon a thousand swords without incantation? That’s genuinely fascinating from a magical theory perspective. Do you think if I studied your mana signature I could figure out the mechanism? Purely academic interest, I promise."
"That’s—" Sylvia started, clearly struggling to reconcile the cold dais performance with whatever this was. "That’s certainly a question."
"Oh, don’t look so shocked. Everyone assumes Saintesses are perfectly serene, holy paragons of restraint. Nobody considers that maybe some of us just got extremely good at performing serenity because the alternative is being locked away for ’unbecoming behavior’ since childhood." Ari flopped, entirely undignified, onto a nearby cushioned chair, robes rustling in a way that suggested she’d done this exact maneuver a thousand times before in private. "You two are the first genuinely interesting people to visit in months. Please, indulge me. Tell me everything."
Kael glanced at Sylvia, who offered only a helpless shrug in response, equally unprepared for whatever this version of the Holy Saintess actually was.
"Alright," Kael said slowly, settling into a chair across from her. "Where do you want me to start?"
Ari’s entire face lit up with delight, and Kael had the distinct, sinking feeling that this detour to Songrel was about to become considerably stranger than anything they’d encountered back home.
"Start with the ogre king," she said immediately, leaning forward with genuine excitement. "The reports said the death toll among his subordinates was near total. Was there a particular moment that felt, I don’t know, cathartic? Satisfying? I’m always curious how it actually feels for the people involved, rather than just reading the dry mission summaries."
"It felt like a lot of screaming, honestly," Kael said, bemused. "Mine included."
"That’s exactly the kind of authentic detail the official reports never include." Ari scribbled furiously, entirely unbothered by his lack of enthusiasm for her research methods. "And Sylvia, when you manifest Array of Swords, does it hurt? Physically, I mean. That much mana channeled at once must place enormous strain on your body."
Sylvia blinked, apparently unused to anyone asking about the physical cost of her ability rather than simply admiring its destructive potential. "It does, actually. Nobody’s ever asked that before."
"People rarely consider the cost behind impressive displays of power," Ari said, something briefly serious flickering behind her enthusiasm. "I find that oversight rather unfortunate."
For a moment, the room fell quiet, the strange, chaotic energy of the conversation settling into something more genuine, more human, than either of them had expected to find behind the Saintess’s carefully maintained public mask.
"Can I ask you something personal?" Kael said eventually.
Ari looked up, curious. "Depends entirely on the question."
"Why keep the two personalities so separate? The cold Saintess act and, well, this." He gestured vaguely at her sprawled, undignified posture and the mountain of scribbled notebooks.
Ari’s expression sobered, some of the earlier delight fading into something more careful. "Because the Church needs a symbol, not a person. Symbols don’t get to be curious, or awkward, or excited about monster anatomy. Symbols perform serenity, and perform it flawlessly, or people start questioning whether the divine favor everyone assumes I carry is genuine at all."
"That sounds exhausting."
"It is. Constantly." She managed a small, wry smile. "Which is precisely why I intend to enjoy every second of not performing it while you two are here. Consider yourselves my temporary escape from the role."
"Happy to help," Kael said, meaning it more than he expected to.
Sylvia, who’d been quiet through most of the exchange, finally spoke up. "For what it’s worth, Your Holiness—Ari—I think there’s more strength in the version of you sitting on that floor surrounded by notebooks than in the one performing serenity on a dais. Most people never let anyone see the difference."
Ari blinked, clearly caught off guard by the sincerity. "That’s unexpectedly kind, coming from someone with a reputation as cold as mine."
"Reputations rarely tell the whole story," Sylvia said. "I’d know."
—
End of Chapter—
