Religious Nuts

"This place is huge. It doesn't look this big from the outside." Blaze said with awe in her voice as she looked around at the massive building she had just entered.

"Yes, that is because the building has an ever so slight slope downward. If you look around, you will realize that five more steps will bring you below the ground level outside." The woman walked past Blaze and down an aisle flanked by rows of benches all facing the opposite end of the room from Blaze, where a statue of a woman with her face hidden by a cloak stood upon a funeral pyre. In front of the woman was an altar on which sat various precious stones carved into specific shapes. From her angle, Blaze could see each of the shapes clearly, though she did not know the meaning behind them. The one that caught her eye the most was a heart carved of tourmaline the size of her little fist.

Curious, Blaze followed the woman to the bottom of the room to stand in front of the altar. "Do you know the purpose of this structure?"

Blaze shook her head.

"It is a temple. One that celebrates the god we call Sacrifice."

"Why do you call her Sacrifice? And what is your name?" Blaze asked, assuming the statue in front of her was the deity in question.

"Because that is all she requires of us. That we sacrifice that which we hold most dear. If we do so, we will be blessed beyond measure in the next life. I do not have a name. I gave it up because it was too important to me. I am simply a nun."

"But what about this life?" Blaze scooted forward on her wolf to peer at the gemstones, though something told her that it would be a bad idea to touch them. At least with the woman watching.

"This life will end before long. It is the next life that matters. The next life will last forever. Now tell me, Blaze, what is it that you hold most dear?"

Blaze didn't quite understand the question, and said so, causing the nun to rephrase. "Who or what is the most important thing in your life? Do you have a goal or someone you hold above everything else?"

Blaze considered the question. The first thing to pop into her mind was her brother and her father and then her uncles. But she didn't know which one to choose, so she instead thought about what goal might be the most important to her.

She giggled. "That's a silly question." She knew exactly what goal was most important to her. "I've gotta destroy the world." After a moment of silence, she amended her previous statement. "But not the plants."

The nun stared at her with a horrified expression. "Just like in my vision… you must be… yes. Yes, that is what I must do." She turned abruptly with a motion for Blaze to follow, and walked quickly toward a door in the side of the room.

Blaze followed obediently, but not before shoving the heart into her pocket.

***

"Why the hell is your stash so far away? How did you even manage to hide it all the way over there?" That's why the voice sounded so familiar! It belonged to the woman who looked like Jaqueline.

'Jacqueline…' Shiv grimaced at the pang in his heart at the thought of the girl he loved, back on earth living her life without him.

"It doesn't matter. We have the location of the stones. If we send a few High Priests after them, we will know in a matter of a day or two whether or not the stones are actually there. We will put him to sleep and keep him alive until the information has been confirmed." It was the man's voice again. Shiv now recognized him as the man with the mustache who Not Jacqueline kept looking at for direction. "And then we will execute him like he deserves in front of the entire convent."

***

"Why were those kids digging a hole outside?" Blaze asked once she had caught up with the nun in the new room, which was filled with books of all shapes and sizes set on shelves and on desks scattered haphazardly around the room.

"The more pertinent question is 'how' were they digging the hole. Not why." The nun went to a desk and lifted a quill that she dipped into ink and began scratching on a piece of paper. "Nonetheless, I shall answer both. They were digging a grave to put my late sister nun in. As to the how- it was a blessing of Sacrifice."

Blaze didn't know what was so special about being able to dig a hole, but had an even more important question pushing that one to the side. "You're going to put your sister in a hole just because she's late?"

The woman stopped scratching the paper to regard Blaze with an unhappy look, as if searching for something. Eventually, she sighed and returned to her task with a muttered, "poor children, not getting a proper education." Out loud, she said, "She died. That is why a grave is being dug." She finished whatever she was doing and blew gently on the parchment before rolling it up. "Tell me, do you know why it was the children who were digging the grave?"

Blaze carelessly rode her flaming mount into the room, accidentally setting a book lying on the floor on fire. It was immediately doused by water shot from the nun's outstretched hand. "You're a water mage! I haven't met too many water mages." The little girl said, forgetting that she had been asked a question in her excitement.

"Where are you from, girl? Water mages are the most common out of all the elements on the planet." The nameless woman motioned for Blaze to follow her yet again, and walked to a spiral staircase set in the corner of the room, and began to ascend it. "As for the children outside… what they value most is fun, and play. So we nuns must help them learn to please Sacrifice at a young age. Instead of play, we have them work, so as to ensure from a very young age that their second life will be joyous."

Blaze frowned at the steps, realizing her wolf was too large to fit on the very thin steps, and with a mental order, shrank it. She then ascended the steps after the woman. "What were you doing with the parchment and ink?"

"I was writing a letter to the High Priests of the Conclave to inform them that the Representative of Sacrifice has been found."

The reached a new room in which rested several small cots with tiny blankets and no pillows or cushions of any sort of comfort in the room. "This is where the children stay. But you will be staying in my room, so you have no need for concern. Come along." The nun continued up the next flight of stairs while Blaze stayed still, staring at the beds.

"Why does she think I'm going to be staying here?" She whispered, then shrugged and nudged her wolf into climbing the steps.

They ended in a room with a single bed and a desk, with a cage hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room filled with the common wasscorpins that father seemed to hate so much. There were four of them, and they were buzzing around, filling the room with their horrid sounds.

"Why are those in here?" Blaze had to yell to be heard over the angry creatures.

"I hold silence too dearly. So I sacrificed it for the most infernal noise I could find, after the noise that children make." The nun responded and did something Blaze did not expect: She opened the cage and pulled one of the wasscorpins out. Blaze noted how the woman coated her hand in solidified water, first, and was very quick and efficient in her movements, making sure to avoid the stingers as much as possible.

The nun took the struggling, furious creature to the window and tied the scroll she had rolled up to its leg before tossing it out the window and slamming the shutters shut. They could hear buzzing outside the window for several long seconds before it seemed to go away.

The nun turned to look at Blaze, and motioned for her to take a seat on the single chair in the room. Blaze glanced at the chair, but ultimately stuck with her wolf and looked back at the woman. When the nun realized her order wouldn't be heeded, she sighed and shook her head. "Do you know why I brought you here?" Blaze shook her head. "I brought you here because there is a prophecy. A prophecy about a woman who rides a flaming creature of war. Do you want to hear the prophecy?"

Blaze wasn't entirely sure what a prophecy was, but was curious, and so nodded.

The woman closed her eyes, as if recalling something, and spoke with feeling.