War Of Men

Emilee

One night when their host was trying to impress them with his religious knowledge, the five spirits poem came up. Emilee froze. After all that had happened with Lavia, she'd forgotten all about the copy of the poem she found.

That evening, she knocked on the Chèr's door. She needed a distraction desperately and the potential sixth spirit was the perfect candidate.

The Chèr was sat scribbling away. Upon approaching him, she realised it was sheet music.

'You compose?' She couldn't help but be impressed.

'Well... I guess so.' He shrugged awkwardly, hiding it in a book. Unlike the others, he'd brought more stuff with him. He'd pointed out that tradition only dictated rules for the Eseterrians and he still had work to do.

'You should let Arcane perform one sometime,' Emilee suggested.

The Chèr looked a tad embarrassed. 'Yeah, uh... maybe I'll ask her.' He quickly recomposed himself. 'To what do I owe this pleasure?'

'I was wondering if you'd ever looked at the poem I put in your office. The five spirits, or rather six spirits one...'

He rubbed his right temple. 'I did. I must say, the whole book was... an experience to read.'

'Is there anything to it?'

'I don't know. It's no secret that even when based off reality, religion is largely the creation of the people. A lot of rules, customs and myths are not completely loyal to their origin. Many stories were plucked and trimmed until they had a nice moral or presented the spirits a certain way, even though in reality the spirits often act without reason.'

'How do you know that?'

He shrugged. 'You can piece together a lot when you understand psychology and politics. Not to mention, there are books of myths that were removed from our religious canon.'

It made sense, she supposed. The collection of religious literature in the library had been vast and had contained more than could possibly fit in the Libtoria and Libclara. It seemed ridiculous to assume all of it would just be retellings of the same few stories.

'So... You don't know.'

'It's easy to assume one young priest's imagination ran wild and he convinced himself a sixth spirit existed. But another alternative is that a sixth spirit does exist but was removed from the knowledge of the public. People don't exactly take well to destruction deities and perceive them as harbingers of doom.'

'True... Her verse wasn't exactly joyous... Still, if a spirit had once been worshipped, wouldn't there be more evidence?'

'Well, I'm hoping the pilgrimage will provide answers, but there is some evidence that would suggest the existence of a sixth spirit. Firstly, the original tale of the pilgrimage says that a cloud of colour arose from each pilgrim's blood. Commonly it's assumed that because the purple pilgrim died, none rose from her, but if she died she'd have the most blood of all. Secondly, the spirits are known as creators. Goece, for example, can create and manipulate matter and Toutelé can summon and manipulate the elements. Yet in our every day life, we see so many things destroyed. Why shouldn't a spirit carry that responsibility?'

Emilee thought for a moment, then asked, 'Do you think she could have something to do with the death of the Eseterrians?'

He looked surprised. 'I suppose so... I didn't know you were trying to solve that mystery.'

'I wasn't but since a potential clue just landed in my hands... In... Lavia's hands...' The sadness returned when she remembered how they'd found it. Lavia must have picked the lock. Why hadn't Emilee questioned it more at the time?