The last setting circle had just faded in the north, and Ahri knew she had to act quickly if she wanted to sneak in before the Healing Ceremony began. Her fingers were bleeding from climbing the stone walls barehanded, but she didn't dare back down now.
The darkness worked as a double-edged sword. It allowed her to climb the most guarded structure of Lightbridge unnoticed, but increased her risk of falling. The sound of the bell ringing on the other side of the cathedral let her know she was running out of time. Soon, the crowd in the atrium would flood the nave and the Ceremony would begin. She had to reach the top before it did, or she'd miss her chance.
She took all the precautions this time, and it was paying off. The commotion was already forming inside, meaning the Bishop would soon leave the sacristy to address the crowd. Just a few more stones and she'd reach the small broken window on the far left and sneak in.
If she heard it correctly in the street market, today they'd heal the Viscount of Rainhorn from life-threatening wounds caused by a massive fall, and a large purple bruise on his left eye. Apparently, he was found on the ground right below the window of the young and married Duchess of Goldshire, but most of the common-folk seemed to have missed the joke. Ahri was chastised for laughing.
The window was finally within reach, and Ahri looked down to check the room before climbing down. The cathedral was full, but luckily the architects of that monstrosity had designed it in a way that all rooms behind the altar were concealed from the people on the nave.
As she climbed down the window into the sacristy, she noticed the doors to the crypts were open. Last time she didn't make it this far, but she knew that was a major indication that her suspicions were true. Whatever was really healing this people – and it obviously wasn't the grace of God – was kept down there.
Her heart was pumping in her chest like a woodpecker as her feet drove her down the crypt stairs. Her hands to the wall were the only guide she had as she descended into the darkness. The floor was slippery, and the eerie silence didn't help make the atmosphere any less scary. How could such a place exist inside a cathedral that was meant to be holy?
She almost scoffed at the irony of her own thoughts. Not even the Bishop's Throne was sacred in that godforsaken place. If people knew half the things she did about the Faith, they'd run back to their homes to pray on their personal altars. They would be closer to God than in that pompous building, with its rotten leaders.
Ahri shook her head to drive away the thoughts. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her instincts warned her something was off. Nothing seemed to move inside the room, but she could feel life in it. The crypts were not a place the common folk were allowed to go, but she expected to find sacred graves and relics down there. But from what she could see, it was… empty.
But that wasn't possible. Whatever was kept down there, it was an instrument of powerful healing. She knew the Bishop was using something to cure all those people, misleading them into thinking it was a miracle. She just wasn't looking close enough. A few more steps into the poorly lit room, and she saw it.
"What are you?" She came closer to what seemed like a reinforced holding cell and watched the terrified animal recoiling to the opposite wall as if she had burnt it with her mere presence. The cell was hidden from the entrance, and way too small for what looked like an odd animal the size of a fat cat.
The only source of light was a torch placed at the opposite wall of the cell, but when she took it down to see more, the creature let out a squeaking sound that made her immediately back off. However, the brief presence of light was enough for her to confirm what her brain was trying to deny. That was, unmistakably, a dragon.
A baby dragon, scared and hurt, trapped in the crypts of the ancient Cathedral of St. Hollots. Ahri felt her knees faltering, but sucked up her sorrow and tried to think it through. She had only heard about dragons in school, and even so they were spoken of as creatures of a distant past.
Her tutor was a fierce devote, a true woman of the Faith, so there was little Ahri could trust from her words. But if she remembered correctly, the giant creatures once ruled the skies, bringing death and destruction upon the land. That was until the knights of the Faith came to rescue the Kingdom from their evil domain. If they were to ask her, she'd prefer the evil domain of flying creatures over the manipulative control of men that twisted the concept of God.
She approached the cell and put her hands between the bars to see how close she could get to the little winged baby. She kneed on the dirty floor, but was still too far to reach it. Ahri looked around to see if she could find a key, but whoever handled that little creature was smart enough to keep it somewhere else.
"Come here, baby! I won't hurt you," she whispered in a soothing voice that she used with the dogs back home. Surprisingly, the dragon responded to her call and turned its head to assess her. Did it understand her? No, it was just a reaction to sound… but she carried on. "What are they doing to you?"
Hearing her voice again, the dragon took faulty steps towards her. She tried a few other sentences, calling for it and seeing its head move as if it knew something different was happening. When the baby was close enough to the bars, her breath got caught in her throat.
She was no stranger to anger, but this time it crawled into her soul like starved demon ready to take over. Large gashes broke the green scaled skin. Some so old they were but disturbances on the pattern, but others so new they could have been made that same day.
That same day… No. No, it couldn't be. They were cruel manipulators, but they couldn't be that nefarious. Could they? But they were. How could they not be, when evidence was right there, standing – or limping – in front of her?
"They did this to you?" She asked, more out of shock than doubt at this point. So it was even more of a surprise when the dragon undoubtedly nodded. "Holy heavens, you really do understand me!" Her voice was a bit louder this time, causing the young to look around. Ahri almost forgot she was not supposed to be there, but this action got her head back in the game.
"I need to get you out." But she didn't know how. She couldn't open the cell, and even if she did, there was no way she could sneak to the nave with a dragon in her arms. It was a baby, but it wasn't all that small.
At that moment, she heard a ruckus from upstairs, followed by energetic claps and cheers. The healing! They had probably just given the holy wine to the dying Viscount and.. Ahri almost threw up on the spot.
She had seen the ceremony enough times to know how it worked. Bishop Elrod began with the blessings, then the wounded or his family repented for their sins. Finally, the Bishop served the Chalice of Holy Wine to the moribund and he would magically heal on the spot.
Her head was dizzy, and Ahri blinked a few times to make sense of what she had figured out. She assumed they were putting a new sort of medicine in the wine, and hoped to steal some of it to study, but… it wasn't wine at all, was it?
Ahri looked back at the young dragon, and all the deep cuts that still shone red between the scales. She balled her hands in fists and angry tears rolled down her cheek. She wanted to burn the whole place to the ground, poison every single godless priest that knew about that disgusting ritual.
Her agony was cut short by the sudden commotion upstairs. The ceremony was over, and people began to clear the nave, eager to spread the word of another miracle. She had to leave now if she expected to blend in the mass of people leaving the Cathedral. Despite the dread crawling under her skin, Ahri had to be practical. She needed more time, but she had none.
"I will come back for you, I promise."
But before she could leave, a shadow blocked the little light that came from the top of the stairs. Ahri cursed her luck.