“The Keeper isn’t going to be happy.”
Akna’s murmur earned a dismissive snort from Lex as the two of them strode back into the expansive cavern that housed the Shrine. “I don’t care,” he spat, making no effort to keep his voice low. “If the Keeper didn’t want me slaughtering his minions, then he should have done a better job keeping them in line. Ganas dared to disturb Solvei’s body, and he paid for that affront with his life. The same will happen to anyone else who accosts those under my protection.”
The bold declaration made Akna bite her lip, not sure whether to be impressed or unsettled by the absolute fearlessness – and recklessness – that the stallion was showing.
Slaying Ganas had almost certainly guaranteed that his entourage wouldn’t be harassed while they were within the Shrine. Although the Keeper had already ordered that the ponies weren’t to be meddled with, Akna had suspected – and Ganas had all but proven – that particular command didn’t have the Night Mare’s backing the way the edict against her worshipers killing each other in the Shrine did. Despite being new to the Night Mare’s religion, that didn’t surprise Akna; as a goddess of loyalty, it was difficult to imagine the Night Mare rebuking her own followers in favor of those who didn’t revere her. In that regard, Lex’s display of strength had been a good thing, having made it clear that if anything happened to his comrades while he was undergoing the Rite of Sublimation, there’d be a settling of accounts afterward.
And there was no doubt in Akna’s mind that message had been received. Despite how empty the cavern looked, the adlet was fully aware that not all of the buildings it held were unoccupied. No doubt their inhabitants been content to watch how Ganas’s actions played out, judging the newcomers accordingly. To that end, Lex had made it clear that he was not to be trifled with.
But in doing so, the unicorn had all but spit in the Keeper’s face. Not only had he flat-out announced that he didn’t think the Keeper was capable of keeping his subordinates under control, but slaying one of them was a tantamount to a declaration of war. In the Night Mare’s faith, one’s servants were an extension of their own power; by that token, killing Ganas weakened the Keeper, whom Lex would be relying upon to perform the Rite for him.
For Akna, who had undergone the Rite after making a show of supplication to the Keeper as part of her conversion to the Night Mare’s faith, that seemed counterproductive in the extreme.
If the Rite of Supplication failed, she knew, it wouldn’t be fatal. But it could still turn out very, very badly.
If Lex was concerned about that, however, he didn’t show it.
Instead, he strode up to where Valor was standing over Solvei, his features softening as he looked at the winter wolf’s body. Ignoring the earth mare, he knelt down and ran a hoof over Solvei’s fur, his expression once again registering grief. But this time he didn’t linger over her the way he had before, instead pausing for only a moment before composing himself, looking at Valor as he stood up. “Take her and go wait with the others. I’ll return shortly.”
Akna expected Valor to protest his decision, but to her mild surprise the mare simply nodded. “May Makwa watch over you.”
Akna didn’t know who that was, but Lex didn’t seem to appreciate the sentiment. “The last thing I want is another meddlesome deity to deal with. Now go.”
He didn’t wait for Valor to respond before he looked at Akna. “Do a better job watching over them than you did with Solvei.”
Akna’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’re not taking me with you?!”
Lex shook his head, his eyes already turning toward the claw-shaped cathedral. “I’ll deal with the Keeper on my own.”
“But-”
She didn’t get a chance to finish protesting as he held his left foreleg out toward her. From anyone else it would simply have been interpreted as a shushing gesture, but from Lex it took on a different context:
Obey, or be made to obey.
“I understand,” muttered Akna, fighting down a twinge of resentment as she turned and headed back toward the building with the two-headed wolf statue on its roof. A glance over her shoulder showed that Lex had changed into shadow-form, flying up toward the top of the cathedral. Unlike herself, he didn’t spare the slightest glance backward, confident that she was following his orders.
His certainty at her obedience brought a frown to Akna’s lips. One day ago she’d been full of grandiose plans to retrieve one of the Umbral Regalia, conquer the region, and unite her people and the utvalgte under the Night Mare’s faith. Now she was held in thrall to a pony, forced to put her agenda on hold in order to help him carry out his own. As the shaman of her tribe, and one who had used one of the Night Mare’s most sacred relics to slaughter her people’s ancient enemies, it was galling how easily a mere pony had brought her under his sway.
Although it could be worse, she reminded herself, glancing uneasily at where Ganas’s blood was still staining the ground.
It was fortunate that she’d cut her own deal with the Keeper before Lex had regained consciousness.
As he approached the top of stone claw that was the heart of the Shrine of the Starless Sky, Lex broke off his approach, hovering in place as he glanced at the viewing platform.
Or rather, at where the viewing platform should have been.
From the ground, the angle had prevented Lex from seeing anything more than the edge of the platform. It was only because of what Akna had told him that he knew it was carved so as to resemble an open palm behind the massive talons that marked the top of the cathedral. But looking at it now, it was impossible to miss that the space between those curled digits was pitch black, as though the giant claw was grasping a globe of utter darkness.
Of course, that shouldn’t have been possible. His darkvision granted sight without the use of visible light, which meant that he shouldn’t have been able to perceive darkness, at least within a close range. And yet, the area within the claw stubbornly refused to make itself perceptible to his incorporeal eyes.
“I’ve never actually seen the Keeper,” Akna had told him before they’d left the other adlets. “He’s always cloaked in darkness so deep that even when I’m in winter wolf form, I can’t see him. I can tell from his voice that he’s a he, but that’s all.”
At the time Lex had been skeptical of the claim, despite knowing that Akna couldn’t lie to him while under the influence of divine authority. By her own admission, she was only able to use darkvision as a result of the alternate form she’d gained from the Rite, so perhaps she’d simply been duped on account of having tried to look at the Keeper without having properly acclimated to being able to see in a different spectrum. But just like the shaman had described, there was an area that his darkvision couldn’t penetrate right in front of him now.
It had been an educated guess which had made Lex ascend to the top of the cathedral, suspecting that the ruler of this place had been drawn to observe what had happened with Ganas.
It seemed that he’d been correct.
For a moment Lex regarded the black sphere warily, certain that the Keeper – who had to have some way of registering the presence of others despite the globe of darkness – was looking back at him. More information would have been ideal, but observing the supernatural blackness via the magical spectrum wasn’t an option, since he couldn’t utilize his circlet while in shadow-form, nor was trying to augment his darkvision in an effort to pierce the gloom available to him; after how much he’d pushed himself in his fight with Sissel and her siblings, straining himself further would likely result in serious damage. But that didn’t mean that he was out of options...
“Cowering in the shadows is unbecoming for one who would rule territory in the Night Mare’s name,” Lex announced abruptly, staring at the center of the featureless globe. “Reveal yourself, Keeper!”
From inside the murkiness, a dry voice emanated. “You blaspheme this holy sanctuary by illuminating your eyes, and then complain that you cannot see through the darkness? Perhaps if your faith was greater, your powers of perception would not be blunted by my presence.”
Lex narrowed his eyes, but not because of the rejoinder. While the Keeper’s voice was indeed male, it was incredibly raspy, as though its owner had crawled across a desert for weeks without a single sip of water. But what was far more unusual was the total lack of other sounds accompanying the voice.
Having enhanced his hearing – the only sense besides sight that he normally made use of while incorporeal – Lex knew he should have been able to hear any other noises the Keeper made. But although he could place the voice as having come from roughly twenty feet directly ahead, at the center of the globe, the Keeper was otherwise completely silent. There was no breathing coming from him, nor a heartbeat, nor the rustle of clothing.
It was almost as though the Keeper were himself incorporeal.
With how much the Shrine seemed to be suggestive of his own nature, Lex found that to be a disturbing possibility. But he knew better than to broadcast that, instead filling his voice with derision as he replied. “My faith is sufficient for the Night Mare to personally grant me a portion of her power. And it’s in recognition of her acknowledgment that I demand you perform the Rite of Sublimation for me.”
A hollow laugh emanated from the darkness then, and curiously it was accompanied by a soft clicking sound, as though two rocks were being lightly tapped together. “Indeed, so Akna has told me. And your little demonstration with Ganas” – the laughter ended abruptly then – “was also quite dramatic. But while I am obligated to perform the Rite for any of the faithful who make a pilgrimage to this holy place, I would see the mark of Our Dark Lady’s power closer, if you have no objection.”
Idly noting the confirmation that the Keeper could indeed see through the gloom surrounding him, Lex floated forward. His enhanced hearing having already confirmed that the viewing platform was indeed solid – he could hear his own voice and the Keeper’s bouncing off of it – he entered the black globe, turning corporeal as he did. Immediately, everything went dark, but Lex paid it no mind, instead holding up his left foreleg. “Then look upon it, and know that I am the Night Mare’s champion.”
It took a moment before the raspy voice spoke up again, strained with excitement. “To bear the Dark Tyrant’s power within your own body...such a miracle is the aspiration of all of her faithful!”
“Then allow me to share it with you.” With a thought, Lex projected divine authority toward the source of the voice. “Remove this darkness and let me see you.”
The invisible bands of power projected outward from his hoof, carrying with them the Night Mare’s divine will...and found nothing to latch onto.
A moment later the laughter, and its odd clicking, came again, harsher than before. “So it is as Akna said. I had thought that perhaps you were simply putting on an elaborate ruse, using ordinary wire and an unspoken, ungestured spell to force her and Ganas to obey you. But I have served the Mistress of Dark Dreams long enough to recognize her power, and that was indeed it!”
Despite his having apparently convinced the Keeper of his status in the eyes of their goddess, Lex’s sense of accomplishment was utterly drowned beneath a renewed sense of wariness, silently lowering his hoof.
His divine authority had failed to compel the Keeper’s obedience, which meant that either the unseen master of the Shrine was engaging in an elaborate ruse of his own – possibly speaking from a remote location, similar to what Sissel had done – or, more likely, he wasn’t the sort of eldritch beast that the Night Mare had given him power over.
Despite Lex’s certainty that he’d be able to compel the obedience of all who dwelt in the Shrine, it seemed that there was at least one being whom he’d need to find another way to control.
“Now that I know you are who you were said to be,” continued the Keeper, “allow me to formally welcome you to the Shrine of the Starless Sky, Lex Legis.”
Lex didn’t react to the use of his name, knowing that Akna had doubtlessly been the one to reveal it; it was what the Keeper said next that caught his attention.
“Bearer of the Charismata.”