Through the halls of the church, Rennish slunk in corners and shadows, trying to impersonate a mouse as best as possible. He knew full well that the humans could not see him and there were absolutely no spirits walking around.
The chapel had been ground zero for a blast of immense energy and he would not have to worry about guard spirits or anything malicious, but he was also trying to hide from any other divine spirit who might be lurking around looking for survivors. His goal was to get to Ed and get out.
Finding him would have been harder if the guards weren't bored and talking. The guards wore a light turquoise colored robe cinched at the waist and helmet. They were leaning against the wall with their hands on the pommel of their swords and chatting. Burglars were not common in this part of the building.
"They got that guy in the Head Brothers office. I'm glad I'm not guarding that floor. Every priest, inquisitor, and muckety-muck are upstairs pacing around!" One guard said yawning.
"Yeah, that is way above my pay grade. I stand in the hall; I bow my head when they walk by and I go back to the barracks to eat!" The other said leaning against the wall kicking a lump out of the carpet.
They started discussing the flash of light and other things and Rennish hung around behind them listening for anything that might be useful. Nothing more came though, and he disappeared into a wall and through another room until he found a stairwell.
Rennish darted across hallways and through room walls. He lurked and tried to make himself invisible. Locked doors couldn't hold him normally because he was in his noncorporeal form, but he still needed to check for spirits. Interesting to him was that certain doors would hold him back. They were charged, whole rooms at times were blocked off like the divine was barred access. When had humans developed this ability?
He finally found a stairwell upstairs that didn't lead him to an empty hallway or storage area. It was well lit and had blue velvet carpet leading upstairs. All this blue theme followed around the whole building on this floor. Rennish was curious about what it signified because the divine generally preferred green or red. See-through was the choice of Ysennia as she preferred to toy with the other gods and try to stand out against Linist and her gifts.
In the middle of the hallway, a grouping of people gave Rennish the first clue where he was. Rennish had been trying to reach out to Ed this whole time but the whole building had a kind of background buzz of ambient power. It was like dust settling after a blast obscuring lights, sounds, and sensations.
The people were milling around, some were fighting over whether to hold the man in the room, another group in black robes with red stripes demanded him for testing and interrogation. Another group in a light cornflower blue set of clothes that looked like some kind of farming uniform demanded he is sent to the barracks to be held. The fight was intense as fingers were raised and so were voices. No spirits were present yet though.
Rennish walked up the hallway, using the confusion to hopefully mask his presence in case anyone was spiritually aware of his power. He tried to walk through the door, and it was barred to him also. This room was protected the same as the others. Rennish felt around the walls for a weakness. He screamed to Ed to see if he could hear him. The room was blocking him completely. The transmission of any divine energy was blocked. Ed could not hear him or sense him. In some ways, the room was a full cage against any kind of interference. And if Ed was in there the spell that was doing this was probably running at full blast. Not even the Lord himself could get in there most likely
Rennish decided to go back to the stairwell. He counted the rooms and his steps back to the stairwell and then headed upstairs. He guessed that the exit to the stairwells was pointing the same way and then counted off the 24 paces from the entry of the stairs to roughly where Ed's holding room was.
He could get into this room. There was not a door in the wall where Rennish stood and when he walked in he found a parlor that took up about 3 of the width of the door below. There were seating chairs, closets, and areas for food to be kept warm. It was obviously meant for opulent entertaining as every flat surface was covered in velvet. The theme of blue continued everywhere in shades of Royal, Light, Cornflower, and Sky blue.
Rennish tried to look through the floor and it was barred also. He wouldn't be able to drop through, but he hoped that the roof of the holding room wasn't guarded. He was not rewarded for his efforts with anything he liked. The roof of the other room was warded as well. Rennish started pacing and thinking. If he didn't get him out before the people below decided who got Ed's corpse he was going to be in serious trouble.
Rennish accidentally paced straight through a wall and into the adjacent room. It was a musty storeroom full of boxes marked finance or archival. The kind of boxes no one opens again because they are full of paperwork you keep for only the worst kind of tax inspection. He was about to leave the room when he felt the smallest hint of Ed's power. Coming from a corner of the room he could almost hear Ed's mind again. It had been lost to him and normally they were linked. He could hear Ed's every thought and feel his feelings. Their souls were tied together in one body.
Rennish moved through things and looked for anything out of the ordinary. And in the corner of the room, he found a small cabinet. The top looked old and well worn. But Ed was very much leaking from this position. As Rennish investigated more he found a trap door and a walkway that went down into the space that he assumed was next to the room Ed was held in. He could see that the top of the trap had boxes on it but he couldn't move them if he had wanted too.
He floated down and figured he would handle that when he had Ed safely in hand.
He ended up down and in a closet filled with more boxes and old relics and bones from previous saints and possibly sinners. It the kind of collection you find only in a church or a murder museum.
He could feel Ed on the other side of the door. He was definitely in the room with him now. He felt to make sure that the closet door wasn't also guarded against the divine like the walls and floors of the room were.
There was no warding here. It was an oversight or someone had added this after the room was built. Either way, it worked to his advantage. He peaked his head through the door to the closet and looked over at Ed who sat in a high back chair. The room was covered in religious regalia meant to impress visitors. Ed was nervously wringing his hands and looking around before he noticed the head jutting from the wall.
"Hey! Looking for an escape?" Rennish called out enthusiastically.
"Rennish. How'd you get in here? I think they are debating on forcing me to be a priest or murdering me as a heretic." Ed said jumping out of the chair.
"Wait how'd you get in here? Didn't the candle wipe out everything in the church?"
Rennish pushed through the closet and stepped into the room. "Yeah, you exorcised the whole town. Ysennia is trying to rush you out of town before the spirits who survived find you and revolt. You committed a taboo in the church. They would notify spirits before an exorcism. You essentially fired first. A war may be coming for your head."
Rennish shoved through drawers and closets looking for any surprises. Ed watched as he peaked his head behind every corner as if he was searching for things. Ed's bag was sitting on the desk across from him but he hadn't reached out for it.
"What about the guards outside?" Ed walked over to the door pointing at it.
"We will deal with that. I have a plan. First I have to apologize. I failed you and you ended up like this. I need to explain a few things to you when we get out of town. First and foremost I need to explain this to you. While your powers are above average you are a catalyst. Think of your powers like oil on a fire."
Rennish stood behind the desk and leaned over. "If I play a magical instrument I cast the spell at the strength it was enchanted. You would play that same instrument and it would work 20 or 30 times stronger than designed."
"Oh hell!" Ed exclaimed. "So when he cast the enchantment to send holy spirits I amplified the spell and then when I lit the candle I amplified it again?"
"Exactly. And it works for any spell. Any spell from one of the other 14 will resonate with you further so you probably amplified that spell candle by 100 times when you lit it just based on circumstances. What would have easily tickled a few spirits to the afterlife in a graveyard ended up blowing ghosts out of Existence all the way to the gate." Rennish stood up and frowned. "I was supposed to warn you of this but I thought you'd have figured it out by now. I had no idea you were so content to just accept the small gifts and not question what had happened. I failed in that regard and now Ysennia wants my balls if I had any."
Ed walked around the room and scratched his head with both hands. "But the miracles? What do they want me here for? Why didn't you tell me earlier."
"I will tell you everything I know once we get you out of town and headed south." Rennish said trying to usher him towards the closet. "Okay now open that door and climb over the stuff. You will find a stairwell behind it all." Rennish shoved Ed's bag in his hands and pushed him towards the closet as fast as he could.
Ed threw his bag over his shoulder and climbed over the boxes and pushed through clothes until he got to the back of the closet. He did find a series of bookshelves that looked a bit like a set of stairs so he climbed straight up. The door at the top had something heavy on it and he pushed and shoved.
"Hold on, let me get past you and then give me permission to become corporeal when I get through the door." Rennish said shoving past him.
When he worked his way through the trap door he got his permission to become physical again and he shoved the boxes aside and around the room and released the lock from the door. Ed's head peaked up into the room like a gopher from a hole. He looked around the dark and tried to get his surroundings.
"It's a storeroom. Perfect for escape don't you think?" Rennish said walking over to the door. He pulled his bag off his belt and held it out to Ed.
"Take this. Now, this is a bag of instruments. Hold the bag and think of the biggest distraction you can think of and then say 'I need an instrument of distraction!'" Rennish said waving it at him.
Rennish watched him grab it and then put his ear to the door listening for guards. "Now the thing to remember is that magic and divine power is fickle. The reason we have chants for it is to give it limits. You need to give clear instructions especially when it comes to you using items created by others. This is a divine bag made by Ysennia herself. Her soul is equivalent to yours, handwritten by god she is extremely gifted with creation and destruction magic. If you amplify hers too much you will have unintended effects so limit it as much as possible!"
Ed swallowed, held the bag away from his body as far as his arms would allow, and whispered, "I need an instrument of distraction that will chase the guards from the chapel." And the bag shook just a bit in his hands before settling down. Something was definitely inside... Ed brought it in close for a look.
Rennish peaked over his shoulder. Ed opened the bag and pulled out a lute. A simple dirty well-worn lute with strings holding it together.
"Oh shit Ed!" Rennish said backing away. "I said LIMIT it..."
"I DID! I told it to make it strong enough to chase the guards from the chapel!" Ed looked panicked.
"That's the rat man's flute! It's a dark instrument that summons rats of all types. You promise only the guards right? Did you tell it how long to last?" He started thinking of the worst-case scenario.
"Oh, oh no. I just gave it the rule to chase the guards away." Ed said suddenly scared of his creation.
"Great," Rennish sighed. "When you play it think very carefully about limiting the number of rats involved and think about them disappearing. When you put that back in the bag the magic should dissipate when the instrument is reabsorbed into the bag, hopefully, we will be okay."
Ed was afraid of the consequences now. What kind of monster was he that THIS was what he created. He held the lute to his lips and concentrated on being slightly better than average at summoning just 100 types of rats that would stay as long he was in the building.
When he played softly he felt the power coming out of it. If you were divine you would have seen the magic seeping into the walls. The scratching and skittering of nails on rocks filled the building. Ed had told it 100 types. Thinking that would limit it. What he did was summoned rats of all species and several types of wererats and ratfolk.