Temple of Mayaht

Jack was currently sitting in a comfortable chair tossing up and down random fruits from a basket that had been placed in Reginald's room. While Reginald was pacing around the room nervously.

"How can you be so calm? What if they realize something wrong with the contract, or what if they send someone to keep tabs on you in the church, or what if they have already found out and are waiting to kill me, or what if.."

"Relax Reg. you're safe, unless they find a expert Aura user they won't have the faintest idea, and even if they did it would be very hard for them to discern it, they would have to scrutinize it for a lengthy period of time."

Hearing Jack's calm voice and reasoning Reginald calmed down enough to sit in a chair next to him.

Reginald had only heard of aura users within legends. While Celine had told Jack that there were 2 different magic users, in actuality 99% of all mages used Mana, whereas only martial artists who were long gone from the country of Grendor, let alone Frogemire, or monks that were in complete seclusion were heard of using Aura.

There was of course legends of grand mages who were able to use Aura but those were largely considered fairy tales for children to learn about the creation of Grendor.

The reason for this was because in order to use Aura one needed to first be on the brink of death. And after surviving the close encounter with death, they needed to absorb the Will of Fate and force them into their own core. Which requires someone to have affinity to fate in the first place.

Jack had many theories on why he could use Aura, his current one was that since he had actually died he had a cheat code in a sense. One because it checks off the near death category, and two because Jack was supposed to be dead and he wasn't that changed his fate exposing him to the Will of Fate making it easier to absorb.

Because of the very sparse amount of Aura users they were considered almost as an urban legend to the common people. But Mana users are always alerted that an Aura user was dangerous to them. Not out of sheer power but because of the unknown.

No one Aura user had the same Aura abilities, there might be some over lap here or there but each Aura user had their own unique style. Because of this they frequently had hidden trump cards. A Mana user was not necessarily weaker than an Aura user but because of their uniqueness and familiarity with their own power they would win conflicts 8/10 times.

Reginald hearing that it would require a Aura user to identify that the contract was not actually binding felt greatly relieved.

"Phew- Alright if you say so... Anyways now what do we do?"

"We wait, I'll act like your personal 'registered' and once we can put me in the church we do"

"Alright"

Seeing Reginald calm down significantly Jack relaxed and smiled looking up at the ceiling. "Almost there" He mumbled to himself.

Jack had not thought that it would take this long to infiltrate the church. He recalled embarrassedly about his first plan to wait for a rich person to get injured. He originally wanted to get into the church to find a safe place to stay and keep himself fed until he could think of other ways to change the face of Forgemire. But after discovering his Aura and Mana capabilities meeting Celine, Shark, Annalise, and Reginald it had taken him a little over 2 months to achieve just the first step in infiltrating the church.

Over those 2 months his reason for wanting to join the church had changed. Now the reason he wanted to join the church was to one have connections in the higher society. It gave him an excuse to approach Reginald, if he hadn't had a reason then he would of either had to force Reginald into submission and then become his 'registered' risking him wanting to expose Jack.

But this way Reginald was less intimidated by Jack, by giving him benefits from the deal too. The Second reason now for wanting to join the church was because it gave him a secure place for to establish a base of operations. People could give him information indiscriminately by just pretending that they're going to mass.

It was also safe because although there were some crazy people within Forgemire's upper society there was no one crazy enough to attack the temple of Mayaht. Not to mention that it gave Jack a safe environment to speak to the middle and lower class to gain allies.

And since Acolytes would get 4 days off a month if there was an emergency he had some leeway to help.

Upon finishing these thoughts Jack looked back at Reginald sitting quietly within his chair reading a red leather bound book.

"Thank you"

"Huh? Uhh... oh Yeah your welcome. Wait for what?"

Jack simply smiled and then shook his head placing his gaze elsewhere.

===============

4 days later Jack was sitting politely across from a middle aged man, the man in question was tall with short, neat cut, black hair that had started to go grey at the sides. He had a strong jaw and broad shoulders, just from a quick glance one could tell that this man was previously a paladin of Mayaht.

He was reading what seemed to be a letter before closing it and looking Jack up and down. The man then spoke out in a low tone staring Jack directly in huis eyes.

"When the light shine s through the mist, only then shall we be able to see were the darkness truly lay"

"Where the darkness lays can then be cleansed by faith. But without darkness there is no light Through the mist we can grow but also through the mist we can stay safe." Jack responded calmly maintaining eye contact with the man.

The man suddenly smiled before giving out a hardy laugh that boomed around the room.

"HAHAHAHA, well, well, well, I didn't expect for the Cast household to have found such a gem. The last time someone was able to quote The Rechar to become an acolyte was about 3 decades ago."

Th Rechar was a lesser known holy book for the temple of Mayaht. It covered the origin of healing power and what consequences may lay within the realm of healing. The quote brought into question was speaking about purging evil from humans.

Jack of course with his extra weeks of preparation for becoming an acolyte, had read the Rechar to be extra prepared. Ironically he had found it extremely fascinating and had read it over and even compared the teachings with Mana and Aura to see if he could improve.

The man finished laughing and said to Jack, "Since you have read the Rechar you probably want to learn how to using healing magic huh?"

Before Jack could respond the man continued. "I tell you what since you passed my little test with flying colors if you are able to keep up with the duties of an acolyte for 3 months I'll personally let you take the affinity test."

Jack was startled, in order to take the affinity test one usually had to become an acolyte for 5 years and then become a deacon. So this man telling Jack that he could take the affinity test was essentially some one walking up to a 12th grade student and saying that they could get a bachelors degree if they just took summer school.

Not knowing what to say Jack just blinked for a couple seconds before jumping up and shaking the man's hand vigorously.

"Thank you! Mr. uhh.."

The man slightly startled by the sudden burst from Jack simply chuckled. "You can just call me Cardinal Gregor."

"Well again thank you so much Cardinal Gregor!"

"Now then lets get you your robes and get started on the duties of an acolyte"

The rest of the day was spent by Gregor filling in Jack on all the duties of an acolyte. Acolytes in the temple of Mayaht were different from what people would think of from earth. While an acolyte back on earth would generally just assist with mass and clean the church acolytes within the temple of Mayaht were more complex.

While they did assist with mass and occasionally clean acolytes were more there to run the church while mass wasn't happening. With the exception of healing since only deacons or higher could learn.

Acolytes would answer peoples confessions and run the reception desk, amongst other things. But within the temple of Mayaht someone could hire help from a acolyte to bless things within their household, or to act as protection.

Many people would joke that acolytes were just glorified mercenaries. Which wasn't actually to far off. Because when acolytes did a hired job well they would be boosted within the church. If acolytes performed well for long enough they would be made into a paladin. And from there they would be set for life.

Paladins were highly respected in society as they had both physical prowess and magic healing as support making them a deadly force that could eradicate foes with ease. Back when wars plagued Grendor one of the main forces within the army were the paladins of Mayaht.

But Jack did not want to become a paladin, after all he wasn't actually pious and becoming a paladin would put far to many restrictions on him. Instead Jack simply wanted to befriend some of the higher ups in the church so he could get information.

At the end of Gregor's explanations the stopped at a long hall way with doors lining either side, "This is the dorms for the acolytes, yours is number 56" Gregor stated before tossing Jack the keys and turning around to leave.

Before he left Jack called out, "I look forward to working with you cardinal"

Gregor simply smiled and left.