Shattered Moonstone

Next year, a week before the winter solstice.

“You can’t seriously be planning on doing that again!” Hecatolite yelled out loud as she sat in her new workshop, it had not taken two years to find her a suitable building. However, it did take a year to rebuild it after the first one “mysteriously vanished”. “Do I need to remind you what happened last time?” She growled lifting their right arm, the hand dangling limply at the end of their arm.

It had taken nearly all the “soul mass” of her arm to repair the damage to her face from being blasted with mana. Babylon estimates that if left as is, it will take several years for her to regain full use of her right hand that now just hung limp whenever she controlled the body. 

It will be fine this time, Amethyst replied, most of the gods sent people to apologize. And the guilds are asking the “All Faiths” guild to perform the ceremony again. 

“Well, tell someone else to do it.” Hecatolite rolled their eyes as she picked up her newest “enchantment”. “What was your plan again anyway? You're going through a lot of work for a bunch of gods who almost caused you to explode, you know?”

You know full well no one else can do it. Amethyst clicked her tongue, a feeling of embarrassment washed over Hecatolite as she waited for her sister to reply. It was supposed to be a prank. I was just going to put a statue of you up and tell people about you in hopes they would send you a prayer or two. it's gotten so out of hand though…

“How did it turn into all this then?” Hecatolite asked as she began carving new enchantment circles into the metal disk she held, “I mean I saw the statue, doesn't look half bad but no one is praying to it.”

well… I called Siofra and she told me how prayers worked. Basically there are three main ways gods get prayers. The first is “directed” prayers, when you say which divine you wish to get the prayer that dedicates the mana to that god. The second is “undirected”, this is when someone sends out a general prayer to the gods and the world splits the mana to any god that has a “relevant” domain. The second kind is normally a lot weaker than the first since the mana is split. The final type of prayer is a “claimed'' prayer as she called them. These are prayers that happen inside of a holy place such as a church or temple, the mana from these prayers will go to the god that area is dedicated to regardless of where the prayer itself goes'. That's why it's taboo to pray to a god in a church that is not their own. 

“Ok so you wanted me to get prayers of the third kind by including me in the All-Faiths?” Hecatolite inspected the disk she held in her good hand as she spoke before carefully placing it on the table and starting to etch onto it. “What about devils? they don't get a lot of prayers do they?” 

yea… Siofra didn’t know much about Devil’s and their offerings. She thinks that devils just get a tiny amount of mana whenever someone does something that falls under their domain. So the devil of wrath gets mana whenever someone does something wrathful, she thinks but she wasn't sure.   

“Is that why you sent them food? in hopes they would activate my gluttony domain?” Hecatolite was actually impressed by the thought Amethyst put into this “prank” if that was the case.

No not at all. The offering to the gods was apparently a very old tradition where followers used to send food to their god but no one does that any more. Siofra had suggested I do it since I am a space mage, I should be able to send offerings to the divine… I think she just wanted food, but given our family caused a lot of problems for a lot of the gods I wanted to say sorry. you know they are still trying to figure out who you are, apparently no one has ever heard of a deity before and it's causing a lot of confusion.

“Pff, they can lick my furry tail!” Hecatolite exclaimed, causing her hand to slip, her clawed finger scratching across her enchantment ruin. “damn it.” She hissed, throwing the plate to the side and pulling out a new one. “None of this explains why you want to do it again. you win, i got the mana, I puked, then I got a whole lot more mana and puked a ton more.”

Amethyst was quiet for a long time before Hecatolite heard a sniffle in her mind, I'm sorry. the image of Hecatolite’s soul laying next to her in the void flashed in their mind, its charred face causing Hecatolite to wince a little as her right arm throbbed.

“I already said it was fine, it was an accident so don't worry about it.” She sighed, her voice lowering to barely a whisper. “It's the job of elders to protect the young after all Sparkle.” After another moment she continued to “enchant” the disk. “So why do it again?”

Amethyst, though not having access to the lungs let out a sound like she took a deep breath. well the All-Faiths had become more popular than we thought it would… Like a lot. It's one of the highest grossing guilds in our territory. Mainly because a lot of gods sent followers to “find the All-Faiths”, with more and more people showing up every week. The queen is happy because it worked as she hoped, most of the minor religions have formed guilds now. Mom is happy because more people means more money for the city. The people are happy because they have somewhere safe where they can pray… everyone is happy.

“Everyone else is happy, I got it. But I still don't get why you have to do it again?” Hecatolite clicked her tongue, "I know space mages are in short supply but I am positive we can get another one."

I just want everyone to be happy. Amethyst replied curtly, is that so wrong? She let the question linger for a moment before remembering that Hecatolite had said that “everyone” is not her problem. I'm the Saintes of the All-Faiths, and the guild leader, it is my responsibility. that and lots of people are asking for me to do the “offering” again. Apparently a lot of gods are sending out premonitions for certain foods, the amount of “donations” we are getting along with the requests are… I cant just ignore the people who are putting their faith in me and giving me their hard earned money... so I figure if the gods know not to try and overload me again I can make the gods happy….

“Like I care, those dumb gods are the reason for this!” She said holding the small disk up inspecting the shaky carving in it, “this damn thing is never going to work!” She yelled, throwing the “make food hot” plate across the room. “You know how hard it is to make enchantments with one hand! I should demand the gods send me a hand for this!”

You have been voted “spiritual guild” of the year. Amethyst commented off handedly.

“What the hell is that?”

Well, I came up with the idea that all the spiritual guilds get to vote on which divine they felt was most influential this year.

“that’s dumb, they will all just vote for themselves.” 

You know the queen said the same thing. Hecatolite could feel her sister’s disappointment, but they didn’t… well four of them didn’t. You are the only divine to get five votes! 

Hecatolite sighed, feeling sorry for hurting her sister’s feelings. “And what do I get for that? Wait, who voted for me!?”

Well… Amethyst hesitated, Hecatolite had been… unhappy with Siofra and Soter since finding out the two's status. Siofra, and Soter.

“pff, the perverted brother voted for me?” Hecatolite clicked her tongue, she had forgiven Siofra given the goddess’… apology. The apology in question had nearly broken poor Amethyst as the thought of a goddess bowing her head to anyone was unquestionable, that and the mental image Hecatolite had “accidentally” shared with her followers had caused even the goddess to blush. Amethyst was unconvinced that it had been an accident as once the call had ended, Hecatolite sighed, “never know if you don’t ask... she didn’t seem opposed to the idea.” They were forbidden to speak to the gods without a chaperone for a majority of the year.

Stop calling him that, he is still a god you know. Amethyst huffed, but yes, Soter’s guild voted for you. along with Jaci, Vala…. And Ashmit.

“Ashpit? Who’s that?”

Ashmit, Amethyst corrected with a shiver in her voice. He is the Devil of pride. Under the new religious acts any faith can make a guild even the devils. We thought it was someone trying to play a joke by making a guild for the devils but…

“So a bunch of actual cults showed up?”

Only two. Devil of pride Ashmit, as well as the devil of Sloth...

“Let me guess, there are 7 devils in total?” Hecatolite chuckled to herself as she cut her sister off.

There are 3 not including you. The laughing devil Ashmit, The sleeping devil Restra, and finally the burning devil Karath. 

“I thought you said armpit was the devil of pride?”

Ashmit, and that’s his domain not his title. Do you even pay attention to…. Forget it. We thought that the guild of Ashmit and Restra were joke guilds meant to cause unrest, but an actual Oni showed up in the guild yesterday… he brought cookies… it was unnerving. Amethyst neglected to tell her sister of the note attached to the note that simply said, “you should have seen the look on his face.” Which was the exact same thing Siofra had said…

“Wait, those cookies we ate yesterday were from a cult?” Hecatolite thought back remembering the strangely good treat she had, “Ashmit may be onto something. Wonder if the punch is ok too?”

Of course, you remember his name now. Amethyst sighed, ignoring the joke that she did not understand. So, with those 4 votes plus the one from the “X47” guild you have five votes. As the Guild of year, you get an extra offering…

“I want a griffon!” Hecatolite yelled slamming her hands on the table, their limp hand cracking loudly. “Oops… did I break it again?” Given Amethyst cries of pain she had her answer as she ran to find a healer.