Chapter 33 Kailin #2
"It's worse than we thought." Ravel reached for the pot that Morek had put on the table and refilled his cup.
"They're addicted to Sitorian drugs and completely brainwashed.
They parrot the same slogans that the Shedun spout about Elusitor offering his followers the kingdom of heaven in exchange for their complete submission and dutiful service.
Death is not something they fear. They welcome it. "
My stomach turned, and I also pushed my plate away. My appetite was gone.
I was well familiar with Sitorian doctrine.
Everyone in Elucia was. We learned in school about the strict rules the extremists followed.
The Shedun were a death cult built around the harshest interpretation of devotion to Elusitor, the dark half of our two-faced god, and the rest of his followers honored them for it.
Most Sitorians wouldn't go so far as to kill or die in Elusitor's service unless whipped into frenzy by their priests, but they held deep respect and admiration for those who did.
"How could Elucians fall into that trap?" I whispered.
"Slowly." Saphir's voice was gentle. "One small compromise at a time."
"But to worship Elusitor?" Shovia crossed her arms over her chest. "The god of death and deception? What could they possibly think that they would get out of it? That's masochistic and suicidal."
"It is." Saphir stroked Moki's fur. "But some people are still drawn to that.
The drugs produce a euphoric effect, and users believe they're connecting to something divine.
There is no coming back from that. Once they are addicted and brainwashed, they are ticking time bombs.
Even if they are found before they can kill and sacrifice themselves to Elusitor, there is no saving them.
The poison has taken root, and there is no way to cleanse it. They are gone."
"How did they even get the drugs into the Citadel?" Morek asked. "Everything that gets delivered here is scrutinized."
"They all worked in maintenance," Ravel said.
"The ingredients to manufacture the drugs are readily available to them, and all they need is the formula and the instructions for cooking it.
The stuff is poisonous in more ways than just rotting their brains and making them susceptible to brainwashing, but Elusitor's followers don't plan to live long. They court death."
Codric frowned. "All of them are maintenance workers?"
"The three we captured, the dead one, plus five more who were named during interrogation." Ravel's jaw tightened. "None of them are cadets or instructors, thank Elu. They're all support staff who failed to qualify for bonding."
Something cold settled in my chest as the implications dawned on me. Everyone working in the Citadel had been found gifted after the pilgrimage. They had come here full of hope and had been rejected.
Failed to qualify. Deemed unworthy to bond with a dragon.
"That sounds suspicious." Shovia leveled her eyes on Ravel's. "Everyone working in the Citadel was once a cadet. It doesn't make sense that only those who failed were converted."
She was right. The pattern was too neat, too convenient. If the Shedun had infiltrated the Citadel, why would they limit themselves to the maintenance staff? Why not target the riders themselves, or the instructors who trained them?
Unless the maintenance workers were meant to be caught to draw attention away from more valuable assets.
Saphir inclined his head. "Actually, it makes perfect sense.
After the disappointment of not making it to the Day of Volition, these disqualified cadets were easier to influence because they were vulnerable and likely bitter.
The cult offers them significance, purpose, belonging, and everything they lost when they failed to pass the necessary tests and evaluations.
Regrettably, not every gifted pilgrim is good enough to become a rider.
That's just the way it is, but some can't accept it. "
Shovia didn't argue, but I knew my best friend. I could see it in the set of her jaw and the way her fingers tightened around her cold caff mug that she didn't accept the explanation. She just didn't want to contradict the shaman.
I understood. Saphir was the spiritual leader of all Elucia. Questioning him felt like questioning the foundations of everything we believed in.
But someone had to do it.
"The prisoners might have given out the names of converts who were deemed disposable," I said. "They could have been protecting more valuable assets."
Ravel's dark eyes fixed on me. "Good thinking. Go on."
I leaned forward. "If I were running an infiltration operation, I wouldn't put all my assets in the same basket.
I would sacrifice the low-level expendable ones on suicide missions, the maintenance workers no one pays attention to, and then I would have the valuable ones who are well-positioned do the real damage. "
"Cadets," Alar said. "Or instructors."
"Or riders." The thought made me sick, but I forced myself to say it. "Someone with access to dragons. Someone who could sabotage missions or feed information to the enemy."
Another silence, heavier this time.
Saphir and Ravel exchanged a look I couldn't interpret.
"The five who were named have been apprehended," Ravel said finally. "We will interrogate them separately from the original three. If there are more names to be had, we'll get them."
"And in the meantime?" Morek asked. "We just wait here and hope no one else tries to kill Kailin?"
"You stay in these quarters," Ravel said. "All five of you. The location is restricted, so only essential personnel know you're here. Guards that I trust personally will be posted around the clock."
"What about training?" Codric asked. "The Day of Volition is in a week."
"Self-study and individual training sessions will be arranged. You are basically ready. You just need to maintain what you've learned so you won't fall behind." Ravel stood, and Saphir rose with him. "Besides, I will be testing you myself, with Shaman Saphir supervising."
Had he meant what I thought he had? Were they going to pass us no matter how we did on the final exams?
It felt like cheating, but on the other hand, what choice did we have?
The five of us were part of the prophesied seven. We had to become riders.
"Get some rest and then hit the books," Ravel said as he opened the door for Saphir. "You are not to leave these quarters today."
"What about tomorrow?" Morek asked.
Ravel smiled. "Tomorrow is another day. We'll play it by ear."
Then they were gone, the door clicking shut behind them.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Codric was the first to break the silence. "Well. That was reassuring."
"Was it?" Morek ran a hand through his cropped hair. "Because I'm not feeling particularly reassured."
"The sarcasm was implied."
"I don't understand," I said. "How does an Elucian, someone raised to worship Elu, to value truth above all else, end up serving Elusitor? The deceiver. The destroyer. Everything we're taught to abhor."
"Fear," Alar said. "Fear and desperation and the need to believe in something."
"But we believe in something. We believe in Elu, in the Precepts of Truth, in—"
"In a god who abandoned us." Shovia's voice was flat. "Maybe some people get tired of believing in a god who has forsaken us. To some, it might seem as if the followers of Elusitor are the winning team."
She was right. After two extinction wars and centuries of Shedun attacks and entire villages wiped off the map, people were exhausted. The faithful kept fighting because what else was there? But faith could only sustain people for so long before they started looking for alternatives.
"The Sitorians offer certainty," Codric said.
"That's their appeal, isn't it? No more doubt, no more questioning.
Just submit to Elusitor, and everything makes sense.
The gates of heaven are guaranteed to open for you, and all the suffering you endured in this world will be repaid in the next.
It's an easy promise to make since no one comes back to tell the living if they got what they bargained for. "
"Submit and die," Morek murmured. "Their religion is a death cult. The kingdom of heaven they are promised is literally just death. How can they believe in that?"
"Living is hard." Shovia's fingers traced the rim of her caff cup. "Dying is easy. You just stop fighting."
"Shovia—"
"I'm not saying I agree with them." She looked up. "I'm saying that I understand the warped appeal."
I thought about the attackers. The one who'd wrapped his hands around my throat, who'd been seconds away from snapping my neck.
Had he been afraid? Had some part of him known he was doing something monstrous, and for a second considered that he was dooming himself to eternity in the seven hells?
Or had the drugs and the brainwashing burned away everything except obedience?
"Once they are in, there's no way out," I said. "Elusitor's followers execute apostates. No one dares to leave even if they realize that they are trapped in a demonic cult."
"Keeping the flock in line through fear." Alar's jaw tightened. "That's how their religion spread until it engaged that entire portion of the Daian supercontinent."
As the conversation drifted into speculation about who might be converted, how deep the infiltration might go, and whether the attack on me was an isolated incident or part of a larger plan, I listened with half an ear, my thoughts circling back to the same questions.
Why me? What made the Hero of Elucia worth sending assassins after?
The obvious answer was my prophetic abilities. I could warn of Shedun attacks before they happened. Removing me would be a strategic victory for the enemy.
But what if there was another answer?
What if they knew about the prophecy somehow?
If they did, they would want to make sure that the prophecy never came true.
"Kailin?"
I blinked.
Alar covered my hand with his on the table. "You drifted off. Where did you go?"
"I was thinking about what Nyxath said, about having enemies, and about power attracting those who fear it."
"And?"
"And I think this is just the beginning." I squeezed his hand. "They're going to keep coming until we find out who's behind this. The head of the snake."