Dance of the Gods

The Church of Time looked beautiful in the morning Sun. As always Father Martin woke up in his small room right within the cathedral.

When the first rays of sunshine came through his window, he was already getting his purple robe on and walking out the door for his morning prayer.

The temple was gigantic, way bigger than it was necessary. The Church of Time was special within all of the six orthodox churches. Unlike those, it had no central headquarters and leadership.

At least that's how it looked on the outside, but like everything else in this world, below the surface it was much more complicated. For example just like the other orthodox religions, it had a secret ascended force too... They were the Unbroken.

They recruited in a special way, by chance. If they happen to meet someone that came in contact with the supernatural, they ask if they would like to join their ranks.

After long years of working as a priest, they offered Father Martin an ascended position dozens of times, but he was just a humble priest. All he wanted from this life is help the lost find the right path.

He walked down the a long corridor that lead to the cathedral's main room.

The Church of Time also had another difference between the other churches. Its places of worship were rare. This faith didn't rely on mass prayers, if someone wanted to worship the Goddess of Secrets they just had to say prayer at home and 'She' will hear it.

Because of the small amount of churches and cathedrals the regular priests were rare as well. For example in Hammon's cathedral there was only Father Martin for a spiritual leader.

He took care of every chore, sometimes a few faithful people helped, but he was mostly alone.

Even people who come to pray were rare, in one day there are at most 10 people who come. But this could change when some religious ship's crew arrives.

The unusual style of worship also makes it easier to pray and feel connected with the deity you pray to, while on the road or out at sea. This helped with the spread of the Church of Time to the Islands and even to the Outlands... This is an achievement no other church has accomplished.

Father Martin always wanted to find out what those lands were like. He heard the stories of the desert where no food grows, but he didn't really care about that. What he was most curious about were the people, he wanted to understand how they survived in that wasteland.

These thoughts of course were just imagination for him, something to entertain himself with. He had no desire or reason to go on an adventure, he was content with his small and happy life.

After finishing his morning prayer he went and ate some bread with butter for breakfast. His salary was quite generous for the amount of work he had to do, but Father Martin was a simple man with simple tastes.

For breakfast he ate some bread with butter or if he craved some luxury he put some meat and cheese on it as well. When midday came he always ate from the same restaurant, it was run by a nice old lady and he gave a huge tip for the delivery. The dinner was pretty much the same as the breakfast, most of the times he straight up skipped it.

After finishing his meal, he just done what he did every day. He checked on every room and made sure everything was in place, looked at each bible placed in the rows of seats.

'Hmm... These ones are starting to break at the spine... I will have to get them fixed...'

He placed all the old ones in the library of the cathedral, here there were a lot of religious texts, nothing too special but they were definitely rare. Some of them were even older, than the Dracon Empire.

After making sure everything was in order his morning chores were over. This is one of the reasons he thought his salary was way too big for this job. Each month he got 10 gelt for doing basically nothing.

He didn't even have to clean anywhere! This cathedral stood for hundreds of years, but because of some magic, or something he didn't have the privilege to know about, the church cleaned and repaired itself.

In truth he was very thankful for this self upkeep. He didn't know how else could this building be kept in working condition for so long.

He walked outside to see about the garden. It was a mess just like always, but that's how it's supposed to be. The overgrown plants were a metaphor for the unstoppable passage of time.

After making sure nobody vandalized anything he went back inside and sat down in the library. On a small table was a book with a bookmark near its end. It wasn't one of the religious texts, just some simple fiction book.

When people saw him buy it they were very surprised. For some strange reason they think priests only read religious books in their free time. Father Martin loved the Church of Time with all his heart and read their bible dozens of times, but it was just not a fun read.

Which didn't make it bad or anything, in his opinion a bible doesn't need to be fun, it has a different purpose... It helped people in their worship and gives an idea of the religion's past.

There are even some people that become shocked when they heard that he went on a date with a woman. Which was also weird since non of the churches expect their priests to practice celibacy, the Church of Desire even states that their nuns are either have to be married or at least sexually active.

Father Martin never really been able to wrap his head around the Church of Desire, they seemed really strange compared to every other church.

The rest of his day went pretty much the same as his morning, sometimes a people or two came and asked for guidance. He gave them the best advice he could, then suggested them to make a prayer and leave it in the hands of the Goddess of Secrets.

Night was already approaching and he began to light candles in the main room. When he reached the front rows though he noticed something weird. At this time of day usually the cathedral was empty, he only lit the candles from habit... But this time there was still someone here.

In the front row staring at the Clock of Time was a woman, her state was really haggard. She had blood and dirt all over her torn dress and light brown hair. Her face was pale like a ghost's and her eyes were just bewitching, the colors were very unique and as they combined they made an amazing abstract painting.

Before she thought him to be a creep for staring at her, Father Martin approached the seat next to her and sat down. Unlike regular people he knew more and had seen actual ghosts. This woman wasn't one and if she came here that means she felt lost.

'She doesn't have much blood on her. She probably wasn't the one to get injured or killed... Judging by her dazed look, she wasn't the one who done the potential murder either... There is also the possibility of her seeing something that she shouldn't have...'

He just sat next to there in silence, from the side he kept checking her state. Father Martin knew about the temple grounds being special, they had a calming effect on everyone. After maybe an hour or so she was starting to come out of that hollow-like state.

When he was sure she could hear and respond to him, Father Martin used his kindest, most peaceful voice.

"Child, what do you wish to find? If I can help you with anything please just ask. You can stay here however long you like, but if you would like I can find some change of clothes and brew some tea..."

The woman's head slowly turned and tears began running down from those beautifully colored eyes. Father Martin was surprised for a few moments, but quickly reacted and made the girl cry on his shoulder.

He had no bad intention or ulterior motive, but after 50 years of working here he knew when something strange was going on and for someone to react like this out of the blue... Something terribly wrong happened to this girl.

Also technically he did have some secondary motivation other than helping the girl. He needed to find out what happened and alert the Unbroken chapter in Hammon for any supernatural danger's existence.

But for him to get a deeper understanding of the situation, he had to calm down the girl and make her explain what caused the distress.

He kept stroking her back and letting her cry, every now and then he whispered some comforting words. It took another hour or so for her to reach a state where she could speak.

But even then she seemed reluctant to talk. She just trembled and kept looking around the church, especially at the dark corners.

'I'm so foolish... Of course she won't talk in an environment like this, even I get creeped out here when it gets dark... She was already terrified and this only amplifies her fear...'

Very slowly he stood up, the girl's head snapped to him and in her eyes there was only fear. Her trembling increased, she must have thought that the only person that cared enough to comfort her was about to leave as well.

Father Martin had no intention to do that, instead he put a kind and warm smile on his face and reached out his right hand. With the same voice he used previously spoke again.

"I think we should go to a more comfortable room, this place is too big and dark for my liking. How about we go to the kitchen, it also has a connected restroom so you can clean yourself while I make some tea. How do you like the sound of that?"

Her face was still full of terror and her eyes kept jumping all over the place. It was scanning Father Martin's face too, trying to find out if he was lying or not no doubt.

After a minute or two she very slowly reached out her hand and placed it on his. He gently held it and helped the girl on her feet. Only now did he notice the amount of blood and dirt on her shoeless legs.

'She couldn't even put on a shoe after her ordeal... Or maybe she lost it while running for her life...'

Not letting any his thoughts reflect on his face, he slowly lead the girl into the kitchen. He had a lot of questions towards her that needed to be answered for the safety of everyone.