Reborn: Knight's Code (4 page)

7-4

When they arrived back at the city, the knights headed for the inn while Ash headed toward the church district. Ever since the battle with the thieves, Ash had been bothered by the goddesses blessing. There were just too many questions that he didn’t have answers for.

As Ash entered the church he once again say the door guarded by a robed young man. Ash bowed lightly to the man and took out three gold coins and placed them in the small basket for donations. As soon as the gold coins fell from his hands the young priest eyes widened. “Young master how can we help you today?”

“I wish to talk with priestess Rina if she is available,” Ash said as he remembered the old priestess he had met on his last trip.

“This was young lord,” the young man said bowing to Ash again before leading him down the same path he walked last time. After walking through a set of large double doors, Ash noticed Rina sitting on an old rocking chair while reading to a number of small children. When the young priest started to interrupt Rina, Ash quickly moved his hand and signaled for him to hold back.

Ash sat on the ground behind the children while the priest just shrugged his shoulder and left to return to his post. Every so often Rina would look up from the book and act out the voices of the story. When she noticed Ash she just gave him a warm smile but continued reading.

After she finished the story, Rina sat the book down on a small wooden table while the children clamored for her to read another. “Later children, for now don’t you all have a few chores to do.”

The children let out a collective groan as they all started to move off each in a different direction. As the children started to leave, Ash got to his feet as Rina walked toward him. “Lord Ash, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Rina asked.

“Can we talk in private?” Ash asked as he looked around at many of the smaller children who were still milling about.

“Sure,” Rina said with a warm smile as she lifted up her arm.

Ash was momentarily confused by Rina’s action but quickly began to understand as he took her arm. Ash was taken to a small room near the back of the church that had a few old uncomfortable looking chairs. Ash first helped Rina sit down and noticed that she let out a slight grunt of pain as she lowered herself into the seat. “Now what has brought you to us today?” Rina asked as Ash took his own seat.

“I was tasked to go with a group of knights recently to subjugate a group of bandits,” Ash said hesitantly. As he words came out of his mouth Rina face took on an understanding mixed with an air of pity. “I was forced to kill a number of people who were…Marked. I was just wondering more about the goddess and her blessing.”

“I figured that you would be back,” Rina said, bending over and taking Ash’s hands in her own. “I never thought I would meet a reaper during my life.” Rina’s voice carried more than a hint of sadness.

“Why?”

“As I told you there are a number of blessings the goddess bestows. The more common ones make people slightly stronger. Every god and goddess are the same in the kinds of blessings they give. Each one has their warriors and each has their assassins as you would call them. The church keeps close tabs on the warriors and at any given time there are more than ten thousand of them, but the assassins are different.”

“Are you saying that I am an assassin for the goddess?” Ash asked slightly taken aback.

At his question, Rina let out a heavy sigh. “Assassin might be the wrong word for it, but it is the best I can think of to describe it. Some call them avengers, but the truth is that they are the hidden blade of the goddess. Unlike the warriors who often hold great prestige, the assassins are kept secret, even from the main church. When a reaper is chosen, we report it to the church heads, but all we tell them is that one has been chosen, everything else is kept hidden. From what I know, at any one time in all the kingdoms combined, there are never more than five reapers and I believe it is the same for the other churches as well.”

“But what are the reapers for?”

“That will take some time to explain, but from watching you earlier, it looks like you enjoy a good story,” Rina said with a slight laugh though it sounded forced. “You can place the blessings into five main categories. First you have the common blessings, this is the one that varies the most among the churches. For us, it is most commonly given to farmers. The second is the blessing that is given mostly to those who become priests and priestess’. The most common among them is the ability to heal. The third is the warrior blessings, and as I told you, it is given to those who the goddess has chosen to fight for her. The church itself does not keep a large fighting force, but instead our warriors are spread throughout the world. Some are adventurers while others might be knights. The fourth is rare and is given to those who have been chosen by the goddess to be her voice and that is the oracle blessing. The last and kept the most secret is that of the assassins or the hidden blade of the goddess.”

“But why have reapers if the goddess has its own warriors? I don’t understand why they need to have reapers.”

“The warriors are meant to fight against the open enemies of the church. The reapers on the other hand are like the hidden monster under the bed that parents tell their kids about. Every god and goddess has a few rules and as soon as they are broken, then the person is marked.”

“But why can’t the warriors kill them…Why the need for reapers?”

“Let us say that a king breaks the law of one of the gods. Like I said warriors of the gods and goddess are often open and their relation to the church are clearly defined. If one of them were to kill a king, then it would cause a war between the church and the kingdom. Not only kings, there are many people that the church can’t openly fight. That is where the reapers truly come into play. Reapers are the hidden enforcers of the gods.”

“What would someone have to do to get a reaper called on them?”

“Depends on the god, but for the goddess Altina breaking any of the five cardinal sins would earn you a mark,” As Rina spoke, she pulled a thin book from a shelf that contained a number of the same. “I think you should read this. It will tell you more about Altina. Since she has marked your soul, it might help if you knew a bit more about her.”

“What do you mean she marked my soul?” Ash asked in a slightly worried voice.

“When a person is blessed by a god, it leaves a mark on their soul. When you die, it will be the goddess that presides over you.”

Ash took the book then bowed to Rina and she gave him a warm smile and led him out. When they reached the outer door to the church, Rina held onto Ash’s arm, forcing him to turn and look at her. “The burden the goddess has placed on you is far greater than should be placed on anyone, but it is a needed evil. If you ever find yourself in trouble due to your mission, then you can find any church of Altina and they will hide you. Other than that, if you ever need to talk, I will be more than welcome to sit with you and listen.”

“Thank you,” Ash said honestly.

Ash first thought about heading to Emelia’s, but instead decided to return to his own house first. It had been more than a few days and he knew that Yuki and the others tended to overly worry. While Ash walked toward his home, he didn’t pay much attention to his surroundings instead he started to read through the thin book that Rina had given him.

In his previous world, Ash had went to church a number of times and had even read a little of the bible, but he never believed that there truly was a god. Now it was less about faith and more about proof. After everything that had happened, it was impossible for him to deny the existence that there was something more powerful out there in the world.

The book started much the way he expected but Ash still found it interesting.

In the beginning, a great god banished the chaos of the emptiness and replaced it with order. Chaos is the foundation of everything, but only though order can life flourish. To keep the fragile balance of the universe, thirty-two gods were born. Each god was given dominion over one aspect of chaos so that life could flourish.

The goddess Altina was one of the three greater gods. Harien was given dominion over creation, Jarol was given dominion over destruction while Altina was given dominion over the cycle of life and more commonly became known as the goddess of the harvest. From birth to death all things were in the domain of Altina.

The book continued to talk about many of the other gods and the first days of the world. It was slightly interesting but mostly irrelevant to Ash and seemed to be the standard. Altina seemed to be rather laid back and didn’t really seem to care much about what people did while they lived. There were many small rules, but five large ones stood out amongst the others and were called the five cardinal sins.

All life is scared from a lowest blade of grass to dragons, yet all life must end. Altina wishes all creatures in her domain to live long lives, but understands there can be no life without death. She governs all things living under the sky and these are her five holiest of commandments.

1.)
All death must serve a purpose. To kill a living being without meaning is the truest sin.

2.)
No wantonly wasting of the earth’s bounty.

3.)
No one shall purposely cause the fields to go barren.

4.)
No life should be given to those that have already left the embrace of the earth.

5.)
The life of an innocent soul shall never be taken by the hand of the wicked.

The five laws were a little odd, but the more Ash read the more he understood the hidden meaning behind the words. The first law seemed the most ambiguous as Altina left a lot of room as to what it meant to kill without meaning. In the end the only sure fire way to break the law was to kill someone or something for no other reason than it was breathing.

The second law was a lot easier to break, but it also had a lot of leeway. Thankfully there were a lot of small proverbs that helped Ash understand what was meant. Just not eating the food on your plate wouldn’t cause the wrath of a god, but let say you had a silo full of grain and could not sell it yet refused to let the poor eat and instead let it rot then you would gain the goddess ire.

Law number three had to do with what people in his last world called the scorched earth tactic. It didn’t just mean the fields either, but also humans and animals. It was ok to kill, but if you were to purposely cause a woman to no longer be able to bare children then you would break one of the sacred laws.

The forth law was the most cut and dry of all the others. If anyone practiced necromancy then they would easily earn themselves a reaper’s mark.

The fifth law was also fairly straightforward. While it said innocent it mostly referred to children but it also covered those that had certain mental problems. Killing a child under the age of ten would almost always gain someone the reaper’s mark but there were a number of ways to get around it as well.

After reading about the five sins, Ash could agree that any one of them would be worth someone’s death. Some of them did seem a little weird like refusing food to someone, but if a person could watch a person starve while he had a large amount of food that was rotting away then they were anything but a good person.

Just as he finished thumbing through the book, Ash found that he was near a large book store and decided to stop by. After asking a few questions, Ash was able to find the religious books of what were considered the other two major gods.

Quickly flipping through the pages Ash found the gods major rules and found that most of them were different than the ones of Altina. Harien the god of creation had no problems with necromancy, yet he did have the same law about salting the land. Oddly, he also had a law about destroying art. Jarol the god of destruction on the other hand detested necromancy as his first two laws banned it as an unforgivable sin. Oddly though he also had a small law against destroying the ability for people to give birth. The law said, “No one shall destroy what has yet to be created.” Ash looked through the book but only found one passage that said without life there cannot be death. Looking back at the law, Ash started to understand why to god of destruction might forbid it.

Seeing his house as he looked up from the book, Ash smiled and placed the books in his inventory planning to put them in his study later. After learning that reapers were so overpowered, the last thing he wanted to do was get another god’s assassins to target him so he wanted to make sure he did his best to stay clear of their major laws.

“Master,” Yuki said, running from the courtyard and jumping with her arms wrapped around Ash’s neck.

Shortly after Yuki appeared, the other slaves walked out into the yard to welcome him home. Allice didn’t jump on him, but she did bow deeply with her eyes shining brightly upon seeing him.

“Let us go inside,” Ash said as he pried Yuki off.

Shortly after he got back Allice, handed Ash a large envelope with the Hawkwing’s crest on it. Ash quickly opened it and read through the letter.

Lord Ash Hawkwing, as soon as you get home please present yourself before the duchess.

The letter was short and left Ash feeling slightly worried. He didn’t know what happened that would make Emelia send such a letter, but he hoped that it didn’t have to do anything with the rumors of war. He was just getting used to his new life and didn’t want to lose it so quickly.