-Well, they are assembling Inquisition teams to head out and investigate the heresy more closely. Some idiot young woman babbling stuff on the internet is one thing. A new religion picking up the details and running with them is something else.-

-That’s horrible. Imagine how they are going to feel with the rewritings of the Torah that are going to be coming out in a week or two, and their precious Eve gets put in the trashcan of history, and the entire appropriated history of the Prophets follows it,- Briggs /mused.

I winced. -Goddamn religious wars. The big problem is that while the Synod and Church of Light’s influence is at the lowest it has been in centuries, the fact remains that their real magical power hasn’t really been affected. As long as they can show that power has real effect, they’ll wield political power and have their own supporters.-

The last thing I wanted to get caught up in was a religious war for real, but the fact remained that that was exactly what I was doing, if you called the Realm Lords for the Netherworld and Nirvana your gods. I was fighting to stop them, their mortal servants, and their influence on the planet.

I was in the middle of a religious war, and there was no stopping it, it was going to happen!

-They’ll make the Coralost connection soon enough, and try to cut the heads off the snake,- Briggs /supplied calmly. -If this is about faith, they might not even give a shit about offing a woman who can speak with Beast Emperors. The Emperors aren’t going to act without a reason right now, and what is anyone else going to do about it?-

-So, you’re saying they might even move out to act personally, as opposed to hiding inside their bloody City of Light and daring us to go and attack them?- I /asked leadingly.

-They would have to absolutely seal the city and go on highest alert to save themselves if I want to get serious on them, but I probably can’t stop them if they just break up and run in all directions. Judging by some of the notes I’m seeing, they might make a stab at the Compound, and I’m pretty sure they’d love to slaughter Babe.-

-Not going after anyone but us three? Restrained of them,- I /observed.

-Well, none of the active members have espoused religious positions or support, although there are definitely political factions forming around the idea of better co-existence with the Great Beasts in the Traditions of our ancestors, imagine that,- Sama /snorted in amusement, and I had the grace to sigh guiltily. Yes, Druidic Traditions like that needed to return as well, and if the Gods of Good came in, it was practically a guarantee. The Worldmind waking up was almost always to the advantage of Good, who would at least give it the respect as the source of all the mortal souls that were the real goals of the Alignments.

-Don’t expect them to not move on our lieutenants, especially your KIA boys,- Briggs /stated firmly. -Skilled people are skilled people, and we’ve got a rather disproportionate number of fight-happy folk with us. Sure, not as many as the entire Church does, but for our size? We’ve got more, and they are good at their jobs.-

-And what do they care if the new spells go away?- Sama /added on. -We already know they are trying to off you through third parties. They don’t care at all about Typeless and Novice mages. They are the ones on top with the way the world is now. We’re shaking that up, so we have to go, and if the new spells and Typeless magic goes away with them, all the better.”

-I can’t tell you how much I’m liking these people more and more,- I /spat back at them, and they both /laughed grimly back at my utter not-truth. -Operationally, you need anything from me?-

-Nah. They are sending an Inquisitorial team to Gabon via private jet. Synod Seal should keep it safe over the Med, and they’ll just loop around the Sahara. I figured I’d invite myself aboard, kill the bunch of throat-slitters and church-burners there, and send it over the Sahara to vanish mysteriously.-

-Going to have to disguise that killer smile!- Briggs /chortled.

I reflected on how true that was. On the other hand, she could do so, so it wasn’t an issue. Sama smiling tended to make the blood run cold. She would probably be very happy to see her victims coming to her so unexpectedly...

-I think the Beasts are a little excited that they might send an Archangel to mess with them. They probably don’t realize the Beasts in Michigan are all friends and Babe is a Totem Beast, not really bound by the Decree of the Emperors. Nothing says the Stormcrown Eagles and Sunbreasted Robins and the Queen and Princess can’t help out a friend,- Briggs /smiled hard.

-Or that they can’t drop a Teleport Seal and a certain Source can’t be in the middle of the battle instantly, and woe to the dumb shits?- I /conjectured.

He /whistled back exactly one note. Not singing.

-I’ll pop back once a day and do the Communes to locate them as soon as Sama indicates they are departing. Who are we looking at?- I /asked her.

-Likely Joel. He has strong ties to the Inquisition department and loves burning heretics. Black Curia likes infiltrating Syndic Churches and turning them, and Joel loves going in and burning them to ash. If he happens to take out some innocent faithful, it doesn’t seem to have bothered him much.-

-He follows in a fine tradition of Ruby souls,- I /said piously. -I imagine he occasionally goes into distant places where the Church of Light is ignored and randomly torches the hapless peasants paying lip service to other powers, too...-

-You mean all those mishaps dealing with and waves of political influence against working with Totem Beasts and the like? Please, the Church of Light need not stoop so low as to soil itself with such pettiness!- Sama gasped in feigned shock and dismay for all of us.

-Busybodies from the Red side of things.- I could only sigh. Ambitious, driven souls with agendas. Hey, I couldn’t say I wasn’t one of them, I was just coming in from the Gold side of Build-Them-Up, while they were coming in from the side of Blue/Red Dominate-Them-All.

They were already on top, so they had no incentive whatsoever to compromise and work out something mutually agreeable. They were the King of the Hill, so the idea was to kick down and crush anything that would threaten their position, preferably with overwhelming force and publicity so that they could never rise again, and to discourage anyone else trying such things in the future.

Preparing the world for the coming of the Lords of Light!

The Church of Heaven telling the common people that not only could they fight, but helping them get strong enough to do so without relying on the whimsical choices of distant powers, was definitely not on the Synod’s list of things they wanted to happen. By those things faith and loyalty were destroyed and redirected, obedience evaporated, rebellion was fomented, and the existing social and political order was up in arms.

We had destroyed the Church’s influence in Central and Southern America, even Mexico to a great degree. Preaching about the goodness of the Church and bringing nothing to the table to help the common people in a time of crisis gave everybody and their mother a clear indication of just how unimportant they were to the Church and the Synod. The only places the Churches endured was in provincial and national capitals, and there only if the local Church leaders were personally powerful and making efforts to help the defense.

As often as not, those leaders were just sitting back and watching others do the fighting, occasionally slumming in the littoral invasions to their host cities with great fanfare as the common people died. They cried out for faith, believe in the Church, give and donate, for the Church is Mighty! And they did not give back in return, unless you were quite rich and powerful and worth giving to...

Those areas with Coralost Communities were certainly not worth giving to, but that had been true long before this problem started, and local parish priests were definitely not strong enough to make a real difference.

There were a lot of faithful Syndics around. Tens of millions, at the least. For many, sure, it was only lip service, but there were plenty of honestly Devoted who believed the skewed message at the lower levels of peace and harmony between people under the Church, uniting them against the Beasts.

It was a lot of people to fight, a lot of fingers pointing blaming anyone who was not them for the state the world was in.

The Black Curia showing off its power by sabotaging defenses and causing the destruction of towns, villages, and even cities certainly didn’t help matters, although they tended to concentrate their efforts where they could gain the most infamy and showcase their might, as opposed to just random communities here and there.

Which didn’t mean they didn’t try some of our holdings here and there, but we had a really good information network, and the best set of Lived-Line Teleporting Teams that feeding Aquatics to the land could buy.

Or, you know, Briggs and Sama showed up.

----------

Sergio Vespucci had served the Synod and the Church long and well.

The compact, athletic man affected the air of a functionary of the Church, a smiling and friendly paper-pusher and expert on doctrinal affairs. Among the Black Curia, he was called ‘The Pale Hand’, for he had an extraordinary ability to sniff out their infiltrators, to crush rising religious movements at the source, to energetically make martyrs out of the misled faithful, and bury them and their beliefs where they would not be found again.

Death had a fine helper in Sergio Vespucci and his team of Inquisitors.

While an ascetic, as was all of his team, Sergio could not help but approve of the choice of the stewardess for their trip. From the flowing golden hair and heaven’s-blue eyes to the artful curve of the calves below her skirt and effortless movement on heeled shoes, she was a balm to the eye. She moved like a trained professional, despite having no aura of magic that he could sense. Most of the personal female retainers of the Inquisition were taken from certain orders of nuns highly trained in their own fields, observant and discreet in what they did.

She displayed no sign of attachment or excitement, merely ticking their names off the list, seeing to it that their gear was stowed and accessible, and inviting them on board. She introduced the pilots, familiar men that Sergio had met before, made certain that all of them were situated comfortably, offered snacks or drinks as they preferred, and then took up her seat to the rear of the plane as the jet taxied out to its position. Soon, they were airborne.

The slightest use of Air Magic from the pilots rapidly eased any pressure differentials, even if the Mages and Archmages of his team were not capable of doing the same. Probably for the woman’s benefit, Sergio mused, as he settled back for the flight.

He knew they would be taking a circuitous route, as flying across the Sahara at any height was a death sentence. The few Emperors in the Mediterranean seldom dared bother with any flights at a high enough altitude, nor were there many flying Rulers or the like who might prove problematic out there.

If there were, the Seal of the Synod on the plane was warning enough what might happen to them if they chose to attack. The smaller planes were usually the most dangerous, not the least, their passengers the most capable of defending themselves!

The route around the Sahara would be long. They would stop to refuel at the tip of Spain for the last leg of the trip, before continuing their arcing path to Gabon and the events happening there.

Sergio brought out his files, as did the others on his team, and began to read through them again.