Trust Exercises

Chapter 3

"And because we have so many, she's started boiling them down and making jam out of them."

"Spicy jam? Does that even work?"

"It works better than you'd think! Though for some of the acolytes it's an acquired taste..."

Percy awoke under the temple's too high-ceilings, finding himself on the floor corridor with his jacket folded up and under his head and some slimy damp towel stuffed into his collar. When he reached in to try to take it, he felt the punctures where that meathook had dug into him, and the twist from his shoulder and elbow made his vision gray for a moment, so he decided to just leave it there with a grunt.

"Oh! You're awake."

Looming over him, Pike watched him expectantly, the priestess sizing him up again.

"Is the ritual done?" he asked. They had said something about not being able to feel it, so perhaps he wouldn't remember it, either. "Can we go home now?"

"No," said the priestess.

"No?" He answered. His head throbbed as soon as he twisted his neck to get a better look at her. "Agh! What happened?"

"Well, you... you were about to do something stupid, so I tried casting a spell, and you just totally collapsed. So we were just waiting for you to come to and just started talking and it's been a while so we were talking about dinner and I probably need to take you to the infirmary if you were unconscious that long, because that's not a good sign," said Pike. "Do you like peppers?"

"What?" While she had been talking, he'd managed to raise himself onto his knees, neck stiff and muscles disagreeing. He pulled the towel out from his collar and let it plop to the floor, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You know, the spicy vegetable? Apparently they're growing really spicy ones in the garden."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I was just – okay, you're right, never mind." She started digging in her armored skirt for her waterskin, and loosened the cap as Percy managed to sit up and hunched over the hard floor. She offered it and he just stared. "Um, take it?"

"What is it?"

"It's just water."

He stared at the gnome-sized waterskin and kept massaging his neck.

"Are you seriously doing this?"

"What spell did you try to cast on me?" he asked.

"Percy --"

"What spell, Pike. You talk about trust and it goes both fucking ways, you know."

Pike chewed her lip and looked toward the priestess, but from her expression, the priestess wasn't giving any help.

"Hold person -- I thought it'd at least buy me enough time to disarm you," she said carefully.

"I appreciate your honesty," said Percy, taking the waterskin. "Though, if you remember, I left my weapons at the gate like they asked, so you really didn't have to --"

While he had been speaking, Pike had hooked her finger into the outside of his boot and slowly pulled out a long blade. By the time she retrieved it, she held it before her not as a threat but as evidence. "Did you really think at my height I would not notice this?"

Percy uncapped the waterskin and began taking a drink.

"Okay, now give me the other one," she said.

"What 'other one'? What are you talking about?"

"I saw you grab the one Vax put into the Winter's Crest white elephant exchange this year. This isn't that one, and I know you have it on you. Now fork it over."

After a moment's hesitation, he undid the rest of the buttons on his waistcoat to reach the knife in its inner pocket, a small knife with a handle crudely whittled into the shape of a bird, something Vax had obviously produced at the last second before the exchange because he hadn't had anything else to give. Pike took it, and tucked both knives into her skirt and asked, "Now, you haven't built a multitool into your new hand with a penknife or anything like that, right?"

"Not yet," said Percy, "Though that is a good idea, isn't it."

"No, it's not a good idea," said Pike. "It's not a good idea to build weapons into your body if people around you know you have a death wish. It's not good for your health and it's not good for their sanity. Look, I know I wasn't there for all of it but people talk, okay? I know what happened. I know what happened, everyone knows what happened. Everyone worked very hard to keep you alive and even just hearing you talk like you do is just, it's not cute, it's not endearing, it's spitting in our faces. You know that, right?"

He searched for a retort to this, but nothing he could say was clever enough to fix that.

"Maybe I should go home," he said inside, recapping the waterskin and handing it back to her.

"You know, maybe that's not a bad idea. Take some time away from the whole fighting monsters thing, and you know, we did kind of leave a traumatized girl who's barely twenty in charge of an entire citystate after overthrowing the government there, which is a great opportunity for, well, remember what just happened in Emon? And maybe if you won't cut this shit out for us, you'd do it for her."

"Absolutely not. The Dawnfather's temple is the state religion there. Letting him go there would be throwing him to the wolves," said the priestess.

"I am the state," said Percy.

"And what a convenient way to take care of that! Remove pesky heirs by letting them die from their own demonic corruption? And who would they believe, your heretical friends or the temple leaders who had guided them and lived alongside them for the years since the Briarwoods took power?" she asked.

"The temple there took me as a sign to take back Whitestone. I rallied them, we fought along side them. They baptized me as an infant. Would they turn so easily?" he asked, not the priestess, but Pike.

"Why are you looking at me!" Pike cried. He wanted answers and the priestess wouldn't have them. He had defended Keeper Yennen with his life, she was the one who hadn't tired to murder him while even his own sister had. He may not have had trust in the faith of the Dawnfather but her loyalty to Whitestone itself, and even not as a noble but as a mere citizen he--

"Well, it would be helpful if you did say something," said the priestess. "Your friend is very stupid and I can't talk sense into him."

"I -- you -- augh!!" Pike threw down her water skin, its contents splashing on the floor, turned on her heels and stormed off deeper into the temple as fast as she could.