The Church and The Chosen

The wide steps leading up to the palace like church were made of marble, with the front of the building being supported line and old temple, with massive marble columns. Attendees, women of worship, which Kayden took to be the church of eternity's equivalent to nuns, and priests in white and gold robes moved through the area. Many of the priests were older men, with wrinkly skin, greying hair or bald heads, and every priest wore a long thread necklace. On the end of the necklaces were solid gold hourglass figures, which spoke of the church's wealth.

At the top of the long series of steps leading to the church was a stone statue of a man wearing scholarly robes, with a pointed hat. The man's ever frozen face had strong, chiseled features, with long flowing hair, small expressionless lips, and a hawk nose. Whenever Kayden saw the statue, he was reminded of stereotypical wizards from the fiction of earth.

Evie led the way up the stairs, passing through massive gold rimmed doors of the church, which were left open for entry. The immediate interior of the church was a tall rich building, with gold inlaid into the walls, marble statues, and rows of pews. At the head of the worship room stood a massive hourglass, at least twelve feet in height and six in width, completely made of gold. The domed roof featured a circular set of windows, allowing light to glitter off the golden figure.

On the sides of the room two rows of massive columns stood, the white stone looking as if it had just been polished earlier that day. Standing in front of the columns were the guardsmen in similar armor to the ones that had allowed them entry. Each holding a polished pike and clad in bulky white armor with the church's symbol on their breastplate.

A few people sat at the pews; their heads bowed in worship. At the front of the room, kneeling before the railing that separated the hourglass from the rest of the church was a man in white robes. The man had long golden hair, which was neatly tied into a several not braid, with the end of the hair resting on the ground next to him.

As if sensing their entry into the church the man stood and turned to face them with a smile reminiscent of a proud father. The man's features were slightly feminine in nature, with a narrow jawline, a delicate nose and thin lips. He had two strange amber eyes, which seemed to glitter in the sunlight penetrating the church's windows.

The man's robes were similar to the other priest robes, but features far more gold, with gilded thread laced on its sleeves and torso areas.

Evie stood still as the man approached them, and then gave a low bow with her right arm pressed to her chest as he neared. Kayden and the rest of men followed her example, though perhaps going through the motion with less elegance.

"You've returned early, I'm pleased to see you safe young Evie", the man said in a flowery voice, he made no move to reproduce their gesture.

Kayden had heard the priests did not bow to anyone save their superiors in the church, as a sign of their faith. He didn't really mind the lack of the gesture, as he found the bowing strange and archaic. What he found even stranger was how the man addressed Evie as young, when he himself looked to be around the same age as their leader.

Evie nodded with a sad expression, "Father Seren, we lost two of our men to a pair of mountain jaguars, we managed to kill them in turn but not without taking our fair share of wounds", she explained.

The priest's eyes became sorrowful at the mention of the two dead men, and he let out a soft sigh that was barely audible.

"A shame, this world can be cruel to those who wish to thrive. May their souls return to the eternal cycle, and find peace among the eons", Seren said with a shake of his head.

Evie nodded solemnly, "we brought the two jaguars back with us, they were brought to the churches butcher", she said.

Seren nodded, "very good", he said his voice still tinged with sadness. "We will ensure that the money gained from the beasts is put towards feeding those in need."

"Thank you", Evie said with another bow.

"You all are improving significantly since your first hunt, soon I have no doubt you will be able to prevent the deaths of any hunters among your party", Seren said smoothly.

Evie gave the man a weak smile, which he returned with one of his own, the expression filled with reassurance.

"Will you all be joining me in prayer today?", the man asked to the group.

"I will not", Evie said, "I intend to visit the city and buy some food for the homeless", she explained.

"Very valiant of you young Evie", the priest said, with a hint of pride in his tone.

Evie turned to look at Kayden with a smile, "I could use some help with carrying the food, if you wouldn't mind", she said warmly.

"O-of course", Kayden said, happy to oblige.

As he agreed he felt his heart flutter in his chest. Perhaps it was because they were close in age with Kayden being a few months older, but he increasingly found himself enjoying her company.

"Well then, best you set off. Oh, and Evie if you wouldn't mind, paying me a visit when you get the chance", Seren said warmly.

"Of course, father", Evie said, then with another bow she set off, Kayden following suit.

Once they were outside the church and walking back down the set of wide steps, she gave a heavy sigh.

"I thought our luck had turned around after we didn't lose anyone yesterday", she said in a tired tone.

Kayden pursed bit his cheek before speaking, "its not your fault, no one could have seen those mountain jaguars in time, they blend in too well", he said.

"Yes, but it was me who chose the route we traveled", she pointed out.

"You couldn't have known the cats would be there. It's not your fault", Kayden said with a sigh. "Sometimes I think this entire world, or worlds I guess, are set up to see us fail. I mean the only way to get stronger is to kill monsters, most of which are both stronger and faster than we are", he said, a bit of frustration bleeding into his words. "Before this, most of the men, me included had never even been hunting before. Now we have to do it if we ever want to go home."

Evie nodded, "it seems cruel, doesn't it?", she asked.

"Yeah", Kayden said honestly.

They reached the marketplace and quickly went into a general store, the inside smelled of flour and baked bread. Neither of them had a lot of money to spend, so they settled for buying as much bread as they could.

The church used a majority of the money gathered from the hunts to feed the chosen of the city, but sometimes would provide the hunters with a small amount of the coins depending on the success of the hunt.

As they moved through the city once more, with five loaves of bread stored in Kayden's shadow, and each of them holding two loaves each, the city began to change around them.

Kayden's father had told him that there was no city that didn't have a slum, and as he looked at the changing scenery around him, he couldn't help but agree. The outside of Bernam was a mostly nice city, with fountains, well maintained buildings, playing children, and a multitude of vendors and shops. Yet as one approached the center of the city the streets grew less crowded and dirty, while the buildings looked more unkempt and stained with dirt.

By the time they reached the slum of the city, which lay in its dead center the happiness of Bernam was almost unrecognizable.

Groups of people sat in alleyways or walked aimlessly along the stone streets. There were very few children, but those they did see made no move to play. Piles of filth could be found littering the stone street, from where people either discarded their trash or relieved themselves. The smell of the place worsened dramatically as well, with a mixed smell of excrement and unwashed body polluting the air.

Where majority of the city dressed in medieval style clothes from tunics, jackets, and jerkins, often paired with wool trousers. The people of this part of the city were dressed in far more modern clothes, from old t-shirts, shorts, jeans, among other earth style clothing. Only majority of the clothes were unwashed, and stained with dirt, and possessed an overpowering smell of sweat and other bodily odors.

This was where the church had placed the chosen, as there was little room for them inside the city. The conditions hadn't been bad when the people first arrived, as people were more than happy to deal with them or feed them pleasantly. Though after a couple of the chosen had been caught breaking the law, with one man even breaking into a house the attitude of the city folk quickly changed. Now the natives of the city often avoided the chosen, only rarely choosing to speak with hunting members.

'Most of these people would have starved to death if not for the church distributing food', Kayden thought.

Even though some of the funds for said food came from the hunting party, it was clear that said money was not enough to feed so many people. And while Kayden partially hated the church for placing all these people on the streets, when they had a place as Rossel church that could easily house the natives of earth. He also had to begrudgingly accept that without them, far more of the chosen would have long been dead.

They approached the center of the slum, where an old dried out fountain sat in the bullseye of a town square area.

Upon reaching the center, Kayden noticed a group of kids from earth approaching them quickly. Seeing them made his heartache, if he as an adult was struggling to live in this world, he couldn't imagine being a child.

Most of the kids were far thinner than they had been upon entering the infinite planes. While the church provided the people with food, it was often just a single meal per day. Atop of that, the church only provided a set amount of food which was then divided amongst the chosen. Essentially, save for the hunters among the chosen who received their meals directly from the church, the chosen did not get enough food to sustain them.

Kayden couldn't help but wonder how much longer it would take before the chosen began to demand the church provide them with more food, or worse started stealing. It was not above the chosen's notice that the average native did not have access to the system, and subsequently couldn't use magic. What would happen if more of the chosen awakened their affinities, and gained the ability to use magic?

With these dark thoughts in mind, Kayden plastered a kind smile on his face as he began handing out the small bread loafs among the children. One child, a girl with a faded pink shirt seemed too timid to take the bread, until Evie stepped forwards to offer it to her.

The girl hesitated, before taking a step forward and taking the bread with a soft "thank you."

Kayden watched her go with sad eyes, before reaching down into his shadow and pulling out more bread to hand to the children.

'I hate this place', he thought after all the bread was handed out, his eyes turned to the massive chapel in the distance.

As if sensing his anger Evie placed a hand on his shoulder, he turned to her to see his own anger reflected in her own ocean blue eyes.

"These people don't deserve this", she said, with more emotion in her voice than he'd ever heard.

"No, they don't", he agreed softly.

"That's why we need to get stronger, to help these people. So, we can take these people away from here, get them to better living conditions", she said, her voice determined.

"If there's time for that", Kayden murmured, as he noticed a thin man staring at them from an alley, his eyes filled with unbridled rage.