Capítulo 3: Her Holiness
A/N: The response to this story continues to blow my expectations out of the water! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter too, even though it's told from another POV~
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The Capital of the Holy Empire is a vast, sprawling city. There's more than one orphanage located within its walls, and there's definitely more than one chapel that dot its landscape. Many more. There are also several different landmarks within the city that are worth commenting on. However, two of these landmarks stand head in shoulders above the rest.
One is the Palace, of course. Home to the Royal Family, some might call the Palace the primary seat of power within the Holy Empire. However, you would be hard pressed to find someone foolish enough to say that there was more power concentrated in the Palace than there was to be found in the Cathedral of Most Holy Light.
Where the Palace dominates one side of the city, directly opposite of it on the other side sits the Cathedral, the Church's greatest architectural achievement, just as large and grandiose and glorious in its size and majesty as the Palace itself.
A sprawling complex, the Cathedral isn't just a building, but a representation of the Church of the Most Holy Light's power within both the Capital and the Holy Empire at large. It is at the Cathedral that decisions are made that effect hundreds if not thousands of lives every single day. It is at the Cathedral that her Holiness, the Pope of the Church, resides.
High up near the Cathedral's peak, Holy Pope Serafina sits behind her desk in an office with two large floor to ceiling windows behind and in front of her. The freckled, red headed woman is not the young spring chicken she once was any longer, but neither is she decrepit nor wizened just yet. In fact, one might say she IS in fact too young for her position… several of the higher ranking clergy had said exactly that, as it so happened.
Not to her face though. Never to her face. They knew better than that, of course. Nevertheless, their words reached Serafina's ears without fail all the same.
As the Head of the Church, the Holy Pope held great power within the Holy Empire. Especially given how… tumultuous things had been ever since the King's death. The only remaining members of the Royal Family were the Queen and Crown Princess. As a result of this, there were certain malcontents amongst the Nobility who had gotten more and more uppity as time went on.
However, where they might be willing to cross the Royal Family given their… condition, they were not so foolish as to try to cross HER. The Church was one of three of the Holy Empire's major pillars. The Royal Family and the Nobility being the other two. And as the Church's head, she held quite a lot of influence as a result. So long as the Royal Family had her support, the Nobility did not dare to act.
Yes, Serafina was well aware of the power she held in the palms of her hands. Not just politically either. She was… quite the capable wielder of the Holy Light. Always had been. So much so that when the old Holy Pope had passed, she had been a shoo-in for the role, despite her detractors.
She'd used the power at her fingertips for good, mostly. In almost every case, Serafina had made sure to be selfless and righteous in her dealings. There was but one spot where she had chosen to be selfish. There was but one instance where she had wielded her power not for the good of the Holy Empire and the Church, but to satisfy her own wants, to protect one individual from those who might do him harm.
… His name was Marcus. He was a half-orc orphan boy who Serafina had watched grow up from afar. That was not to say she had no prior connection to him. That would make things rather creepy, wouldn't it? No… the truth was, she'd known Marcus' father.
Caleb, his father, was a good man. A great man, even. He had been Serafina's childhood friend. They'd grown up together, been as close as brother and sister. Maybe something more, if Serafina had had her way. But no… it was never in the stars. They had found their paths diverging, as it was. For you see, Caleb had become the Destined Hero, and Serafina had become a Holy Priestess.
It should have been a match made under the Most Holy Light, but to Serafina's shock and dismay, Caleb had chosen to forego the usual party provided by the Church. He had told her he couldn't fight at his full strength if he was afraid that she would get hurt. Privately, she thought he'd never truly understood how much it hurt for him to abandon her like that.
Ultimately, it had cost him his life. But not in the way one might have expected. Caleb… Caleb had done the one thing a Destined Hero must not do. He had fallen in love with the Dark Lord.
The last Dark Lord had been an orcish woman named Gral-Ra. Whenever the Dark Lord was born a human and Awakened in one of the Church's many Chapels, things went so much easier. They were almost always inevitably captured, and the Destined Hero could be found at the Church's leisure to put an end to the threat.
However, one of the Church's better kept secrets, at least from the general population, was that Awakening one's Job… was not an inherently Holy thing. By limiting who knew how to perform an Awakening Ritual and forcing most to come to a Chapel when they came of age for their Awakening, the Church had successfully made Awakening and Jobs synonymous with the Holy Light.
But the truth was, the forces of darkness had their own methods, their own magics, and their own Awakenings. It was irritating and messy and so very, very frustrating… but it was what it was.
So yes, the last Dark Lord had been an orcish woman. The Church hadn't been able to nip her in the bud early on, and by the time Caleb was discovered as the Destined Hero, she'd already begun gathering an army. Dark Generals had been identified, things had been building to a boiling point, and the Church was on full military footing for the first time in over a century.
The strange thing though… was that the Dark Lord Gral-Ra hadn't actually DONE anything. She'd marshalled her forces, yes… but she hadn't actually attacked any of the Holy Empire's holdings.
To this day, Serafina wonders if that was what prompted Caleb to go out alone. The Church had come on as strong as it ever did no doubt, telling him that it was his chosen duty to destroy the Dark Lord and save the realm. If he had heard that but seen a lack of hostility on Gral-Ra's part… well. He always was too softhearted for his own good. Unfortunately, she would never truly know what he was thinking. All she could say for certain was that he and the Dark Lord had clearly talked rather than fought.
More than talking even. They'd had a fucking child together, after all! That… that was where Serafina came in. She'd been so distraught over Caleb leaving her behind that she'd followed him. It was something he always told her. It was better to beg for forgiveness then ask for permission. And so Serafina had chased him down, skulked after him one night… and against all odds, remained undetected as he and the Dark Lord had a clandestine, intimate rendezvous.
That Gral-Ra was pregnant with Caleb's child came up during said rendezvous, and that was where Serafina had fled. Completely beside herself, loyal to the Church above all else, she hadn't known what to do. She loved Caleb… but she owed her fealty to the Church of the Most Holy Light and the Holy Empire. The Dark Lord was their eternal enemy! She was supposed to be Caleb's eternal enemy as well!
Serafina had made a mistake. One she didn't realize was even a mistake at the time, but a mistake all the same. One that haunted her to this day, all these years later. Even becoming Holy Pope, even using her power selfishly as she had… it could not wash away the stain of what she'd done. The betrayal.
She'd spoken to someone she thought she could trust. Who it was didn't matter now. They were long dead. But she'd told them what she'd seen. She'd figured the Church would have ways of making Caleb see sense, of helping him understand that the Dark Lord HAD to die, that he couldn't continue on like this.
And… for quite a few years afterwards, she had thought they'd done exactly that. When news reached her that Caleb and Gral-Ra were both dead, killed at each other's hands, Serafina had believed it. She had been foolish and naïve enough to take that giant steaming pile of shit they were stuffing down her throat and actually swallow it.
For years, Serafina had suffered quietly in silence, distraught over Caleb's death. But she'd held on to the belief that he'd come back to the Light at the end. That he'd killed Gral-Ra and saved the Empire, as was his sworn duty as the Destined Hero.
It was only when she'd ascended to the Papal Throne after her predecessor's death that Serafina had learned the truth. It was only when she'd finally sat at the very top that she'd had her eyes opened to the true nature of the institution she'd served all her life.
The old Pope had had Caleb and Gral-Ra assassinated. There had been no attempt to talk Caleb around. There had been no effort to make the Destined Hero see reason and turn back from his dark path. What he'd already done, fathering a child on the Dark Lord, conspiring behind the Church's back with her… it was determined enough to see him put to death by one of the Church's Hit Squads.
Serafina hadn't even known the Church had those until she became Pope. She could safely say after over a decade in her position that they were very effective at what they did. She wasn't sure if Caleb and Gral-Ra were even given a chance to put up a fight. Probably not, because if they'd let the Dark Lord and Destined Hero get going, if they'd given them any sort of forewarning… they probably wouldn't have secured the kills.
From a logical, entirely rational point of view, Serafina could understand why her predecessor had done what he did. It was too much power concentrated in the hands of two people. To have the Destined Hero subverted and corrupted by the Dark Lord wasn't just a catastrophe, no, it was full-blown calamity.
But Serafina was not a purely logical or rational person. If she'd had the power, she would have brought back that old fuck who wore the hat before her from the dead, just so she could kill him a dozen more times.
Her old silver lining, that Caleb had returned to the fold right before his death, was gone after that. But it was replaced by another silver lining swiftly enough.
Caleb and Gral-Ra's child had been born by the time the Hit Squad came for them. More than that, he'd been… 'procured' rather than sentenced to death alongside his parents. It had shocked Serafina when she'd first learned this. But as she'd discovered, the old Pope had had his reasons for sparing Marcus and sticking the half-orc babe in an orphanage.
It had been determined by her predecessor and his advisors that young Marcus would be either the next Destined Hero or the next Dark Lord thanks to his bloodlines. There was no in-between for someone as special as him. Either way, he HAD to be watched and observed until they could know for certain. And so he'd been stuffed in an orphanage with a discrete eye kept on him all this time.
Serafina had taken over the charge when she'd ascended to her current position. That was where the bouts of selfishness came in. Over the years, many in the upper ranks of the clergy had tried to argue that Marcus should be killed. Archbishops, Cardinals, and more had all come to her at different times with suggestions on how to nip the threat he might have represented in the bud from the start.
After all, if he was going to be the next Dark Lord, then shouldn't they kill him early? What if he managed to escape even with all the precautions, and went on to rally his mother's people behind him? What if he proved to be even worse than his mother, in the end? By removing him from play, they increased the chances of the next Dark Lord being human, someone they could capture, someone that the orcs and other monstrous races would not be so eager or quick to rally behind.
They even had an argument against letting him live in case he became the next Destined Hero. Shouldn't the Job of Destined Hero go to a proper human? Would the people be willing to rally behind a half-orc as their Destined Hero? No one could ever know his true parentage after all, not even him. He would forever be assumed a product of rape, of the monstrous actions of an orc male against a human woman. Surely it would be better for all involved if he was done away with quietly, so that the next Destined Hero was more likely to be of good breeding stock and decent pedigree.
Serafina didn't have to put up with all of them, but enough of them had sway and pull within the Church that she was forced to listen to some. And reject them in their entirety, of course. They could talk and talk and talk, but so long as Serafina was the Holy Pope, Marcus was safe. So long as she was at the top of the food chain, she refused to let anything happen to him.
And for all that her detractors may have wanted to see her fall, they couldn't hope to topple her. Her position was unassailable. Her power absolute. She WAS the Pope of the Church of the Most Holy Light, and she would remain say for many, many years yet.
In truth, there were very good reasons that all of their pleas to have Marcus killed were denied. Not everyone knew the true nature of the Dark Lord and the Destined Hero. There were things only a handful of people in this entire world were aware of when it came to those two Jobs, and when she'd become Pope, she'd become one of those people.
The fact of the matter was… Marcus could not die. Not until he Awakened. Not until they knew his Job and could act accordingly. So yes, one might argue that what Serafina had done in protecting Marcus all these years WAS for the sake of the Church and the Empire. Certainly, her supporters all were happy to say so.
But deep down, Serafina knew the truth. She had never allowed Marcus to be put to death because he was the last fragment of her friend that she had left to her. He was the last piece of Caleb in all of existence, and she still felt terrible, painfully deep guilt over his death.
Marcus was her second chance. He was her personal redemption. If… if all turned out as it should.
"Your Holiness."
Tensing up, Serafina stares directly forward out the wide floor to ceiling window across from her, looking at the beautiful blue skies overhead. Behind her a Shadow kneels next to her chair, head bowed.
"… Yes? What is it?"
There is a pause. And then…
"The boy has received his Job."
Serafina tenses up, but rather than continuing, a silence falls. She grits her teeth, resisting the urge to round upon the Shadow beside her. She can't keep the note of irritation out of her tone however, nor does she bother keeping her voice down. Its just them up here after all. No one is going to hear her.
"And?!"
There's another drawn out moment of silence that lasts just long enough Serafina thinks she might give in to her urge to scream. But finally…
"He is the Destined Hero, your Holiness. Confirmed by three different Identification Signs so far."
Serafina sags in her chair, all of the tension and anger forgotten in a moment. A massive wave of relief spreads over the Holy Pope as she looks out the window, her eyes filling with unshed tears. It's a lovely, lovely day for some good news, isn't it? Finally, a burst of laughter explodes from her lips… followed by another.
The red head laughs and laughs, a melodic sound of pure and honest joy as she laughs herself hoarse in happiness and relief.
Thank the Most Holy Light. Everything was going to be okay.
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A/N: Sure Serafina, everything will be juuust fine.
So now you guys know some things that Marcus doesn't just yet. The main question of what it means that Marcus thinks he's the Dark Lord but is showing up as the Destined Hero has yet to be answered in full, but I'm sure this gives lots of folks more ideas and solidifies some ideas people already had.
What do you guys think of Serafina? Love her, hate her? She's the Childhood Friend Archetype all grown up, wallowing in her guilt and buckling under the weight of her choices. She's also a hot and busty freckled red head, so she has that going for her.
Also this novel remains six updates ahead on my P atreon at all times, so if you want to read ahead right now, consider hopping over there!
Thanks for reading!
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