Tangled Web
I pray
that I never again experience a Night of Fire. The Inquisition's
flameguns burn not only wood and straw, they boil the blood and
singe the soul.
The town of Ravican, in the barony
of al-Bazan on Criticorum, was last night's target for Inquisitorial
fervor. The rumors had spread throughout the marketplace earlier
that day: a Symbiot had been seen by Yeoman Dar in his apple orchard,
creeping about in the trees. There is no telling just what his
initial description of the thing had been, for by the time word
spread in town, various descriptions were given, with the creature
growing larger and more malevolent as the shadows from the sun
grew longer.
We ignored the rumors at first, for
we are all well used to such superstitious panics among commoners.
This was meant to be our rest time, a month far from the bustle
and politics of the big cities. We deserved this time away from
responsibility. As our liege, Erian Li Halan, pondered out next
step in the quest, we relaxed and roamed the idyllic hills and
meandering streams of this pastoral region.
Our peace ended just after nightfall
when the Inquisition ship landed in the fields near the shire
reeve's home. Cloaked and hooded priests - mainly Avestites, but
some Orthodox priests among them - stamped from the ship and into
the town, immediately demanding that no one leave. They summoned
the local lord, a retired knight, and demanded that everyone in
the town subject themselves to Inquisitorial questioning. Unable
to deny them lest he be suspected himself, the old knight acquiesced
and gave them free reign to find the Symbiot they had heard was
hiding in Ravican.
The priestly team split up and marched
down the streets, lining up the citizenry, eyeing them for any
signs of inhuman behavior.
Erian, her bodyguard Cardanzo, and
I were in a small pub on the far side of town. A farmer ran in
to cry the news about the Inquisition, and the other drinkers
and diners immediately abandoned their meals to flee from the
town to their hovels in the surrounding hills. This was no sign
of guilt - no one willingly subjects himself to Inquisitorial
scrutiny. Even I, a priest myself, know that the accusing monks
are wrong more often than right.
We decided to slip away ourselves.
Our starship was in a field not too far from here. Julia, Sanjuk
and Onggangarak were there now. By the time we passed two streets,
the smell of smoke was already in the air. Somewhere a hapless
fool said the wrong thing or tried to run when he should have
halted, and flameguns had roared as a result. The sky was lit
with the flames, started in one building perhaps but now obviously
spread to more of them. The whole town would probably be cinders
by the morning. I almost hoped the rumors of Symbiots were true,
to at least justify the cost.
As we neared the pig sty near the small
path that would lead us to our ship, we heard voices approaching:
"I saw movement here, brothers!"
We leapt into the dark doorway of the
hovel and tried to still our breathing as a group of the robed
fanatics rushed past and down another street. Our quiet allowed
me to hear the sobbings in the room behind us.
I peered into the gloom and saw a man
slumped to the floor, his head in his hands, his body wracked
with sobs. I moved to him and bent down, my hand over his head.
"Don't fear; I am a priest, but not like those outside."
The poor fellow looked up at me, his
eyes pleading. "They killed my children, father. They burned
them. My poor, poor children." Tears streamed down his face.
I didn't know what to say. How do you console a man who has just
lost his beloved children to the flames of priests?
I moved my hand to his shoulder but
recoiled in sudden fear and disgust, unable to control my instinctual
reaction. From out of his shirtless torso grew four thin, segmented
spider legs. He didn't seem to notice at first until he heard
the intake of my breath. He looked at me and then at himself in
surprise. He then leaped to his feet with amazing speed and scuttled
up the wall to the rafters above, his new legs clinging to the
ceiling.
"By the Pancreator!" I heard
Erian yell. Cardanzo drew his blaster and aimed it at the rafters,
trying to discern the creature in the darkness.
The thing spoke: "Please, father,
I beg you. I mean no harm. I was a priest once, like you."
Cardanzo, seeing the creature, pointed
his gun and prepared to fire. I leapt forward, knocking down his
hand, yelling: "No! Wait!"
Both Erian and Cardanzo looked at me
like I was mad. I explained: "Let me hear him. I I don't
know why, but please. Let me hear him."
They didn't move, and the thing bent
down further into the dim light coming from the doorway. "I
was an Illuminatus grade monk on Stigmata. I fought Symbiots,
and believed them to be evil and demonic. But then I was changed,
converted by a stray spore they had spread months before. They
came for me and taught me who they really were. They aren't like
we think. They are a good people, living closer with nature than
you can know."
As he spoke, he slowly came down from
his perch, crawling down the wall and looking at me earnestly.
"I remembered more of my human memories than most converts.
I still know the litanies and exegeses drilled into me at the
Naos. I still revere the Pancreator and Zebulon, but I see that
their message is broader than even Pallamedes knew. The Holy Flame
is not restricted to humans. All beings share its spark. Each
world has this fire, which empowers all living things."
He stood up straight on two human legs
when he reached the floor, moving closer, his arms gesturing as
he made his case. "Because I still knew human ways, I was
sent back to the Known Worlds to learn about the new Emperor and
his plans against the Symbiots. I changed my form to look like
anyone I wanted to, and spent time in the main capitals of many
worlds, pretending to be many people I was not. But I tired of
it, and longed for the peace and tranquillity of my old home,
the town where I had grown up.
"I returned to Ravican and started
a family. My wife, who knew of my secret, loved me the more for
it. She died last year of the Vantokos Sickness. But our children
lived. They are human, like you. I cannot and would not convert
them even if they asked. I love my Symbiot brothers, but prefer
my human family. Do you understand?"
I stared at him, not knowing how to
respond. He spoke so passionately, his tale came from the heart.
His grief over his lost children seemed so genuine.
"I I'm so sorry," I stammered.
"We do not need to be enemies.
We share the same dangers. The light of the suns fade for us all.
There is a saying among the Phazûl: Weaving webs around
the sun."
"What?" I said, surprised.
"It means to support the Lifeweb,
to renew the light."
He paused for a moment, as if trying
to figure out how to say something difficult, something hard to
translate from one tongue to another, when a sword thrust out
from his chest. He stared down at it in shock, and Erian, standing
behind him, withdrew her rapier and quickly slashed it across
the air. His head rolled forward and thumped to the floor. His
body's spider legs twitched momentarily before the body collapsed.
I stared in shock.
Cardanzo stepped forward and emptied
his blaster into the body, turning the carcass into an ashy husk.
Summoned by the blaster fire, Inquisition troops bolted down the
street and through the door. As soon as they saw the scene and
the sizzling body on the floor, remnants of its spider legs still
apparent, they nodded quietly.
Erian wiped her blade on a nearby sack,
and the Inquisition leader stepped over to her. "Well done,
my lady. May I know your name?"
"Erian Li Halan," she replied
coldly, as if speaking to her social inferior. "And this
is my entourage. Cardanzo, my bodyguard, and Alustro, my confessor."
Her attitude worked well, for the Inquisitor,
cowed somewhat by a noble and her brave deed, bowed slightly.
"I thank you for catching the Symbiot menace and sending
it to Gehenne. We will clean up the remains."
Erian, without any delay, walked out
the doorway. Cardanzo followed, but I was still too stunned to
realize that this was our cue to exit. I stood looking down at
the body, my thoughts in turmoil.
One of the priests placed his hand
on my shoulder. "It's evil is done with. It cannot harm you
now."
I must have looked at him like he was
mad; he completely misunderstood the cause of my confusion. But
the startled look on his face brought me back to my senses. I
bowed my head. "Yes. Yes, you are right. I was unprepared."
He nodded with sympathy and I walked
through the door. Erian and Cardanzo had not waited for me, but
walked slowly so that I could catch him. As soon as I came to
them, they increased their pace, and Cardanzo whispered, "Hurry
before they think to search us for taint."
As we moved through the woods past
the sty and toward our ship, my consternation was clear. Erian
looked at me with worry. "It's all right, my priest. You
see the best in men, and not their lies."
"But the web. The web in the sun.
It was in my vision. What does this mean?"
"I cannot say. Are not lies seen
as a tangled web? Perhaps your vision warned you against his deception."
I nodded, but I knew that was not the
answer. There was a deeper meaning here, and I feel our prejudice
and fear silenced the answer before I could ask the question.