The Goddess Cries Blood

Witch! 

Abomination!

Cursed child!

Plague!

Demoness!

Disgrace!

They hurled endless insults at her and condemned her in every way possible. In the eyes of many, being burned alive was the only befitting punishment for one so wicked!

The Pope claimed that with her death, the people of Elysium would finally be safe from her demonic prowess. The future would be filled with nothing but peace and prosperity!

Perhaps, that would have been the correct assessment. If she was indeed a witch. 

But Lady Felicia Viviane Del Montague was a Saintess. She was the Goddess's favorite one and destined to do more for the empire than her predecessors. So when she was executed in the central church, sanctioned by both the Pope and the once blessed Cromwells, all hell broke loose.

Quite literally.

This was blasphemy of the highest order!

The punishment came immediately. And it came in the form of a death curse which Felicia had unleashed upon the spectators as she was devoured by the flames. What Alexander said was true, as he had heard it from the Goddess herself. All Saintesses are blessed with power. In most cases, this power is utilized to heal the sick and purge demonic spirits.

But in the rare case that a Saintess's heart is tainted with hatred, it will taint her magic as well.

If she is targeted and killed, her state of mind will dictate the nature of her magical expulsion. If she accepts her demise as that of fate and simply yearns for peace, then all will be well. Her holy magic will be released into the air and all those in her vicinity will be blessed by her passing. However, if she curses at the one who killed her and swears vengeance, her power will lash out at the perpetrator. It may be one, it may be many. Regardless, she will bestow death and misfortune to all those who harmed her.

This was the case with Saintess Felicia. And her curse struck down her brother Alexander first. No one expected it. A week had passed since the execution and life had resumed for everyone in the kingdom. 

The witch's corpse had been thrown out and devoured by dogs. The Pope had secretly confiscated some of her bones and kept them in his hidden chamber for future use. Even charred, the Saintess's bones possessed magic. He wasn't going to miss out on the opportunity.

The gossip had died down and everyone was glad that the woman who had brought so much misfortune upon both the Saintess and the Del Montague family was no more. Nobles and commoners alike were now eagerly anticipating the wedding between the Crown Prince and Saintess Helena.

Unfortunately, strange things began to happen.

The first, was the statue of Goddess Kartata. The holy relic which had proudly stood in the central Cathedral for over a 1000 years began to shed tears. Ordinarily, this would have been a happy occasion as such an occurrence had not taken place for nearly 400 years. But something was wrong. The Goddess shed red tears. That was unheard of. It had always been clear in the past.

What could this possibly mean?

Was this not a sign of another holy being or Saintess being born? Was this an omen? All the priests were baffled. Even the Pope was confused. He instructed that no word of this incident spread until he received a vision from the Goddess informing him on what she was trying to convey.

The clergymen agreed. Most left the prayer hall unbothered as they trusted the Pope to sort this out for them, but others were weighed down by a heavy sense of doom. They could not sleep and felt that the Goddess may have sent them a warning.

It was a well documented fact throughout the history of various religions and prophecies that when the sky rained red, or the rivers and lakes turned red, a punishment from a deity was fast approaching.

The people had betrayed their Lord.

Was the statue imbibed with holy magic any different? Was this not a clear sign that the people of Elysium had done something wrong and the Goddess was angry with them? For what other reason would the tears be red?

One of the priests, who was especially disconcerted, was the leader of the third faction. He was the one most at odds with the Pope's choices, although he hid his lack of loyalty quite well. Father Demetri had long since sensed the false nature of the the young Pope Matthew, who appeared more supercilious than an ardent servant of the Goddess. There was a lack of humility in him that had Demetri believing the man wished to be king more so than a Pope. 

Pope Matthew is greedy, not ambitious. He even created a throne for himself in the ceremonial chamber. That is unheard of. All the previous Popes would just stand and speak as the rest of the clergymen kneeled and bowed, but this young Pope has himself elevated on a seated platform and hands down orders as if he's emperor.

Why don't any of the other brothers see anything wrong with it? Why only myself and my faction? There is definitely something sinister about Matthew. Even the way he was selected to be Pope is bizarre. It happened so fast. He had only been serving as a priest for a few years when the previous Pope suddenly took an unusual liking to him and announced that he would be his successor.

I remember Duchess Moniqua supported him so ardently. She spoke so favorably of Matthew and convinced the late Pope Tyrell to accept him as his disciple.

Most of us had been serving the church for decades and yet, this newly arrived young stranger who always kept to himself and whom we barely knew anything about made progress so quickly. He was essentially granted the highest honor overnight. He charmed his way through everyone. For a moment, even I was deceived. He is very dangerous. Anyone who can speak so persuasively is not to be trusted. Matthew is the kind of man who can talk you into believing just about anything. Doing just about anything.

Even after the prayer hall had been cleared, Father Demetri remained and continued to look at the statue of the Goddess. His arms were crossed, an expression of dread on his face. The red tears were still flowing. It was a gentle stream, but the fact that they were still flowing troubled him.

Normally, it would be a flood of clear tears. It would pour down so heavily and loudly that everyone would hear and come running. Then it would be over within minutes.

Goddess Kartara has been crying blood for nearly half an hour at this point. Does Matthew know? Is he lying about waiting for a vision? Did he already receive enlightenment on what this means and is simply choosing to stay silent? No, I don't think so. He looked genuinely shocked when he saw this as well.

"Father Demetri, the Pope wishes to see you."