Chapter 39 Codric
CODRIC
"To understand your enemies, you must first learn what beliefs drive them. Not to sympathize, but to predict. Don't make the fatal mistake of projecting your values onto them."
—Director Hakell Madrad, Elucian Intelligence Corps
The apartment smelled of the spiced stew Morek had thrown together from leftovers, and my stomach growled in anticipation. Flight training had been brutal today, and I was thankful for it, but it burned through my energy reserves, and now I was famished.
Never mind that Commander Tallen had put me through evasive maneuvers until I was sure my internal organs had rearranged themselves. They were all humming along nicely now, ready to dig into Morek's stew.
The guy was a catch, good-looking and a good cook, and it was a shame he didn't have a girl of his own. Once the Day of Volition was behind us, I should help him. He could benefit from some coaching in the art of courtship.
Then again, perhaps I should wait until this crazy thing with the converts blew over. Although that could take a while.
"Come and get it." Morek put the pot on the table. "Self-service, people. Grab your plates."
I pushed to my feet and offered Shovia a hand up. "Let's go before Alar and Kailin finish everything."
She chuckled. "I doubt that. No one can eat like you." She glanced at my stomach and shook her head. "I have no idea how you stay this skinny."
"I'm not." I grinned and patted my belly. "It's all muscle under this shirt, and muscle needs to be fed."
Her eyes blazed in that special way that was a prelude to fun, and for a moment, I forgot all about food. "Do you want me to show you?"
"Oh, I've seen your abs." She put her hand on my chest. "But I can check them out again after we eat."
Morek cleared his throat. "Can you two save it for later? We are trying to eat."
I smiled, took Shovia's hand, and led her to the table.
When we were all seated with the fragrant stew on our plates, Kailin fussed with her napkin, folding and unfolding it.
"I spoke with Commander Ravel during flight training.
He told me that there was a briefing this morning for all the commanders.
General Zorian told them that there were forty-seven arrests across six provinces, and they think it's just the tip of the iceberg.
The network is much bigger than anyone could have imagined. "
Shovia paused with the fork midway to her mouth. "All that just from the camps?"
"Connected to them, yes. Either recruited at the camps or recruited by someone who had been there." Kailin's fingers traced the fading bruises on her throat. "General Bardaky has suspended all civilian summer training camps. Permanently."
Shovia gasped, and I exchanged a glance with Alar, whose expression mirrored my own confusion.
"I don't understand why that's such a big deal," I said. "We don't have anything like that in Eluria. If someone wants to learn combat skills, they enroll in a military academy. Basic training or advanced, depending on their goals."
Kailin shook her head. "It's different here. In Elucia, training isn't optional. Everyone needs to know how to defend themselves and their community. The summer camps prepare teenagers to assist in the civilian guard if needed."
In Eluria, military service was a choice, an honored one, but for most optional. Alar and I had been expected to attend the Vedona academy, but we could have declined. Well, maybe I could, but Alar not so much. As the king's son, he had to attend.
"Everyone over twelve trains," Kailin said. "Unless they have a disability that prevents it. We're a small nation surrounded by enemies who want us extinct. We can't afford to have untrained civilians."
"So, now all that training moves to military installations." Shovia got up and walked into the kitchen. "It's going to be hard on the remote villages."
"They'll adapt," Kailin said. "It's better than having Sitorian agents corrupting our children right under our noses."
Morek grunted. "Might actually be an improvement. Professional instructors instead of whoever volunteers for the summer. Remember Robdart? He was a disaster."
Shovia returned with a tray, carrying five glasses filled with water. "He should never have been put in charge of training kids. I almost shot myself in the foot the first time I held a rifle with live ammunition."
I couldn't imagine twelve-year-olds handling rifles, but life was harsh in Elucia.
"The Sitorians will find another way to convert your people," I said. "Close one door, and they'll find a window."
Shovia handed me one of the glasses. "You're such an optimist, Codric."
"I'm a realist. For years, they've been operating under your noses and probably couldn't believe how lucky they were. I bet they had contingency plans."
"Don't worry." Shovia's jaw set in a familiar stubborn line. "We'll close those windows too. We will find every single one until there's nowhere left for them to hide."
I admired her certainty, even if I didn't share it. The Sitorians were patient, and the Elucians had grown too confident, allowing gaps in their defense systems.
"What I don't understand," Alar said, "is how they convince anyone. Elusitor worship is fundamentally incompatible with everything Elucians believe in."
I leaned forward, my mind latching onto the puzzle. This was the part that fascinated me—not the horror of betrayal, but the mechanics of it. How did they take a child raised on the Precepts of Truth and the sanctity of life and twist them into a death-obsessed servant of the Deceiver?
Shovia finished chewing and put her fork down. "Elu teaches Truth and balance, harmony between the light and dark aspects of existence. Elusitor is just pure darkness. It's all about death, destruction, and domination."
"There must be something that appeals to the converts," I said. "The converters present something other than death and destruction to potential followers. No one joins a cult thinking they're joining a cult."
Kailin tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
I gathered my thoughts, trying to articulate the pattern forming in my mind.
"The Sitorians promise certainty, purpose, and belonging to the confused and the lonely.
The rejects of society who carry pain and resentment.
Every community has those. Those people are drawn to the promise of a guaranteed place in the kingdom of heaven in exchange for nothing more than faithful service.
There is no ambiguity, no guesswork. They don't need to be good at what they do or even try very hard.
They only need to obey without question to belong to the exclusive club. "
"Of murderers and rapists," Shovia said flatly. "Maybe that's the draw. You get to commit the worst atrocities in the name of Elusitor, but instead of being labeled evil and sentenced to suffer for eternity in the deepest of the seven hells, you are called a saint and ascend to heaven."
"That's possible," I admitted. "But I'm willing to bet that's not how it starts. You don't approach a twelve-year-old and say 'Hey, want to worship the god of death and help destroy everything you love?' You start with something small. Something that feels good."
"It could be the drugs," Kailin said. "One of the captured converts told Ravel that they call the drug that opens their telepathic channel the sacrament.
He started using it when he was twelve, and it made him feel connected to the divine.
That's an easy way to do it. Give them drugs, get them to soar on wings of euphoria, get them addicted, and after they can't live without it, tell them the price they have to pay for the privilege. "
She was on to something.
"Exactly," I said. "You give a vulnerable child an experience that feels transcendent.
You tell them it's a gift from a higher power.
You make them feel special, chosen. By the time they realize what they've actually joined, they're addicted, physically and psychologically.
The drug creates the cage, and the ideology becomes the only thing that makes sense inside that cage. "
Alar's expression was troubled. "That's diabolical."
"It's sophisticated psychological manipulation.
" I pushed my empty plate away. "Whoever designed this program understood human nature.
They exploited weaknesses—the need to belong, the desire for meaning, the vulnerability of adolescence.
It's not about stupidity. It's about being targeted at exactly the right moment with exactly the right approach. "
"They're still traitors." Shovia's voice was hard. "I don't care how they were manipulated. They chose to serve enemies who want to wipe us out. They chose to attack Kailin. They should be executed."
I didn't argue. She wasn't wrong about the outcome, just perhaps too dismissive of the process. Understanding how something worked wasn't the same as excusing it.
"Theology interests me," I said, redirecting the conversation. "I'm not a devout follower of Elurion, but it's fascinating how the three aspects of what was once a single deity evolved so differently."
"They didn't evolve," Kailin said. "They split. According to scripture, anyway."
"Right, but the faiths that developed around them took different paths. Elucians worship Elu, the original, unified Two-Faced God, the balance between light and dark, whose precepts value truth as the highest virtue. Sitorians worship Elusitor, the dark aspect. Death, deception, domination."
"And we worship Elurion," Alar finished. "The light aspect of compassion, salvation, creation, and let's not forget truth. We are just a little more flexible with it than the followers of Elu."
Kailin smiled at that. "I wonder what flexible means exactly. Do you get to lie once in a while? Once a day?"
"We get to twist the truth a little," I said. "When it's for the greater good."
Shovia snorted. "And who defines the greater good? It's a slippery slope. Not that I'm a truth purist, but I'm just saying."
"I love how direct you are." I leaned over to kiss her cheek.
"Three faiths from one god." Alar rubbed his jaw. "The core difference isn't necessarily about light versus dark. It's about the relationship between deity and worshipper."
Shovia frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Elu asks for truth and provides guidance. The mortal follows the principles and is expected to exercise judgment."
"Elurion asks for love and provides mercy," I picked up the thread. "The worshipper trusts in his divine benevolence and offers devotion."
"Elusitor demands submission," Kailin said. "Not truth, not love, but blind obedience. The worshippers surrender their will, their judgment, and even their life in exchange for a promise of a glorious afterlife that no one can attest to."
"It's as simple as that." I leaned forward again. "To the faithful, it doesn't feel like oppression. It feels like liberation. No more doubt, no more difficult choices, no more responsibility for outcomes. You just obey, and the god rewards."
"That's cowardice wrapped in stupidity," Shovia said.
"That's human nature." I took her hand. "Most people don't want to make hard decisions.
They want someone else to tell them what to do and guarantee that everything will work out.
Elusitor worship offers exactly that—surrender your will, receive eternal reward.
If you don't surrender completely, you get severely punished by the priests or executed for what we would regard as minor infractions and told that you will end up in the deepest of the seven hells.
It's a trap very few can escape, if any. "
For a long moment, silence stretched across the room. Outside the windows, the aurora danced across the dark sky.
Alar was the first to break the silence. "I've been thinking about the dragons with suspicious patterns of rider deaths. Many of those deaths occurred long years before the summer camp conversions began."
"You think the Sitorians had earlier converts?" I asked.
"Maybe. Or maybe the camp system wasn't their first attempt.
Maybe they tried other methods that didn't work as well.
" Alar wrapped his arm around Kailin's shoulders.
"What if those riders were early converts?
What if they were killed to keep the secret when their dragons started to suspect something? "
It was an interesting theory.
"That would require other converts in maintenance positions," I said. "Someone to sabotage the saddles, create the conditions for 'accidents.' Which is exactly what we've found in the current situation."
"The pattern repeats," Alar agreed. "Recruits placed in support positions, waiting for orders, creating opportunities for disaster."
Kailin shook her head. "If riders were being converted, their bonded dragons would have known, and if they killed the riders, they would have told Nyxath, who would have told Saphir."
She was right. The theory had a fatal flaw.
"Unless the Sitorians found a way to convert the dragons too," I said, mostly to see the reaction.
The laughter started with Morek, a deep belly laugh that shook his entire frame. Shovia joined in, her harsh snort of amusement cutting through the tension. Even Kailin smiled, and Alar's lips twitched.
"Convert dragons to Elusitor worship?" Shovia managed between laughs. "The religion that wants all dragons dead?"
"Okay, okay." I held up my hands in surrender. "I admit it's absurd."
"Dragons aren't as stupid as people," Morek said, still chuckling. "They're not going to follow a faith that promises their extinction as a core tenet."
"Dragons don't use drugs," Kailin pointed out. "All of Elusitor worship is based on drug use."
I frowned as another absurd idea tickled my mind. "If we can find a way to counteract the drug, we might end the worship of Elusitor. Perhaps that's how we are supposed to save Aurorys."
Alar regarded me with a smile. "Really? That's your idea? And how do you propose we do that? Put something in their water supply that is an antidote to the drug?"
I shrugged. "I came up with the idea. I leave the implementation to those smarter than me."