A Taste of Mercy (A Recipe for Disaster Novel 2)

Discarded morality

Even with the drug still merrily churning in my blood, I felt cold and shaky. More tears spilled even though the Phoenix Tears kept me from truly feeling the emotions propelling them and Aerona found me curled up on my bed, eyes nearly swollen shut from the torrent of them. “Oh hey… another object lesson Callahan?” she sounded sympathetic as she crawled onto the bed, curling up to face me. “The Phoenix Tears aren’t stopping yours now anymore are they?” she brushed a few of the droplets off my face, her touch not as repulsive as Brenin’s. “Come with me, I know where I can take you that’ll help cheer you up.” She pulled me from the bed and I followed along like an ambulatory marionette.

The cold that had hit me after Brenin left only grew as I moved around, not so much chasing away the bemusement of the drug, but somehow merging with it so that I felt completely unreal; filled with static instead of life. Aerona seemed oblivious to my odd state as she led me out of the Castle proper and to a building that managed to warm my spirit out of its despair. A Goddess Temple, one of Her great houses. Worship can happen anywhere but there is only one major great Temple in each Realm for the Goddess in Five Aspects. Huge structures that act as both Fortress and University, forbidden to only the Priests and Acolytes, this one taller than Le Notre Dame du Paris, and sprawled out twice as wide. Inevitably it was pentagonal, one wing each being dedicated to an individual Aspect with the center a combined space for worship. Most rumors claim that there are riches beyond imagining within the halls of each great Temple, probably spurred on by the heavily decorated exterior, matching the Aspect the interior section dedicated to. I currently faced the wall paying homage to the Reaper, the Aspect I gave devotions to. On one corner there was a woman whose face was unseen, clothed only in her long hair as she danced. The opposite corner had an identically nude woman but she held an old soul in one hand and a new one in the other, this time her body clothed only in splattered blood.  In between these two images were depictions of all the things this Aspect claimed; shape changers danced with corpses, were seduced by Karon, and given new life. So many concepts were mixed and combined and yet this was only one of her Aspects. And despite my resolve to avoid all thought of the future, I knew that someday I’d have to bring Cassie here so she could give dedication to her Aspect, the Mother. It just felt right to consider the two of us being inside there, as if it would close a circle that had been left open.

“The Priests of the Temple reached out to us, somehow knowing you were and who you are. You are invited to enter at any time you chose.” Aerona’s voice helped me shake off the strange thoughts I was having.

“I’ll have to thank them for that. Though something tells me it’ll be later, on my own time.” I replied with a casual shrug.

“Yes. As beautiful as the Temple is, I wanted to bring you to the Hall of the Gods.” Aerona led me onwards.

The Hall of the Gods were much more plentiful than Temples were and covered not just the Goddess in her Five Aspects, but also housed altars to other major Gods. Inside could be found the Roman next to the Norse, the Hindu sharing space with the Granite Diety, and a Higher Power lurking in the shadows. Although many people simply prayed to the Goddess, sometimes one found themselves needing to pray to a very specific God, with a very specific purpose and offering a sacrifice that would gain them favour. Norse gods loved offerings of glory, sometimes violence and war, sometimes epic tales of heroism. Greek gods were more lured in by baubles of worth and rarities, spun sunlight or silvered opal were both accepted. In this Hall of the Gods there were many more Demon Deities than I could recognize, and we walked past worshippers that were as varied as their gods were.

“These are the gods my people pray to when we cannot pray to the Goddess.” Aerona explained, and I suspected she needed to talk about this more than I needed to hear it. “There are nine Lesser Blessed that are specific to the Granite Realm; Gluthien is our god of prosperity and often called Lady Luck. Jovive is the god of emotions, impulse and instinct. Tantrevin is the god of fertility, the great consort to the Matriarch Aspect of the Goddess. Warwick is our god of violence, she is passion and insanity and blood lust; my personal goddess under the Goddess in Five Aspects. Sociphim is the god of the home,  of belonging. Enfini is our god of death, the bridge between death and new life. Lastly there is Imagus, the god of imagination and logic.” She fell silent as we finally walked out of the Hall and back towards the Castle.