“Disciples of Blasphemers’ Garden, hear me! We condemn the Mauser church. It continues to stand against all that is good and right in the world. Their arrogance knows no bounds—they lie to the people while they commit every atrocity, support every injustice, and accept every hypocrisy imaginable. We condemn their evil, and stand in defiance of their injustices and of the ignorance of the people!”
The crowd hung on her every word. The darkness magnified the crowd’s fear of the unknown. The people concentrated on what they could hear; it was as if they were being brainwashed.
“We cannot accept this. We must stand against the Mauserists—stand against their tyranny and injustice. We cannot hesitate in our mission of bringing true justice to this world, or all will be lost!”
Elfitine paused. “I see it,” she said after a moment. “A vision of what will be. The Mauserists will be punished, and our cries of truth will be heard by all those who have been led astray by Mauser’s lies. That day swiftly approaches—the day when our years of hiding and persecution will end. We shall return to the outside world despite the oppression of the church and the criminally permissive attitude of the kingdom of Linevan. We will be heralded as bringers of truth and light. So long as we remain united, we cannot fail!”
The islanders broke into wild cheering, screaming curses at the Mauserist church and wild devotion to the Scrapped Princess.
Suddenly, lights flared.
They shone on a stage in one corner of the room. There stood Elfitine, resplendent in a shimmering blue dress. Her face wore an otherworldly expression, and she seemed to glow in the lights.
The crowd’s cheering grew in volume and intensity. Some villagers began stamping their feet, and soon the entire room pulsated with a savage rhythm.
Shannon caught Pacifica’s gaze and gestured toward the door. Pacifica gripped his hand, and they weaved their way through the throng to the back of the room. They slipped outside and hungrily gulped the cool, clear air. Pacifica leaned her sweating forehead against the cool tunnel wall for a moment.
“Are you okay?” Shannon asked her.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “It was just hard to breathe in there, you know?”
He gently started to lead her down the tunnel. Shannon looked down at his sister, and then, slowly, he slid his fingers through her hair in a sign of affection.
“I’m very proud of you,” he said quietly.
Pacifica blinked. “What for?” she asked, clearly surprised at his unusual kindness.
“You were strong-willed enough not to give in to brainwashing.”
Pacifica stopped in her tracks. “Brainwashing?” she repeated. “Are you serious?”
He nudged her with his elbow to keep her walking. “It was pretty crude,” he explained, “but stuffing all those people in a hot, dark room was a sure sign. Making people uncomfortable and disoriented like that is a way to scare them and make them more likely to accept what they’re told.”
“Really?”
“I think they were burning some drug-incense, too. I was actually hoping to get out of there sooner.” Shannon sighed. Although he was far too wary and strong-willed to be brainwashed so obviously, the experience had still been exhausting.
“But you know, that girl’s taken on a hell of a role.”
“You mean Elfitine?” Pacifica whispered.
“I don’t think she’s the one who’s behind everything. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s just a figurehead and that masked Reynard guy is the one who’s really controlling things.”
Pacifica frowned. “It must be really hard on Elfitine.”
“I bet. But the real mystery is figuring out what Reynard Ganvas is after.”
Pacifica glanced at her brother, “Well, he wants to ‘condemn’ the Mauserists, right? He probably has some grudge against the Mauserist church—it’s not like they don’t make lots of enemies.”
Shannon scratched his neck. “I’m not sure. We talked to him about the Mauserist church before, but it really didn’t seem like he was holding a grudge.
Pacifica’s head tilted as she contemplated this. “Well, I guess he didn’t seem really bitter or angry or anything. Who knows? Maybe he just really hates injustice.”
“I don’t buy it. I have a bad feeling there’s some twisted agenda behind all this.”
“Shannon,” she commented dryly, “you always have a bad feeling. You always think everybody has an evil plan, and they’re all out to get you.”
“Oh, shut up.” Shannon’s gentle head pat turned into a swat.
“I’ll leave the rest to you,” Reynard whispered to one of Elfitine’s ladies-in-waiting. He slipped out of the assembly room and into the tunnel’s cold air.
For some reason, while he had been standing in the hot room and listening to Elfitine perform his handiwork, he’d been overcome by a discomfort so strong that he couldn’t stand to be in the room any longer.
“What is this?” Reynard whispered to himself as he walked through the empty tunnel. “The more we unite the people, the more uneasy I become.”
His stomach knotted, and he realized what emotion he’d been feeling.
Guilt.
He couldn’t imagine why he would feel guilty now. His lies about Elfitine being the Scrapped Princess were wrong and he knew it, but those lies were for the greater good—he had already wrestled with that moral decision long ago.
He lied to help the villagers, to give those people who had lost everything a goal and a purpose. To fight an enemy as huge as the Mauserist church, he had to unite them in a cause that would absorb all their hate and pain and anger. If he had to lie to save them from the all-encompassing darkness of their lives, then that was the lesser of two evils. He had no regrets on that score.
So why was guilt consuming him?
He couldn’t understand what was happening to him; it felt like his emotions and memories were out of sync. Was it just nerves, now that his goal was so close?
Reynard reached up and touched his mask. It was hard and cold under his fingertips.
He never took off the mask, except when he was alone. It was strange… now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember what his real face looked like under the mask. He knew there was a mirror in his room, so he must have looked at his face at times, but for some reason he couldn’t picture what it looked like.