The Royal Deal

From that time on, Hemon had to resort to studying the leaves that fell from the tree.
On most trees, the leaves would fall all at once from the changing seasons or from a strong wind.
But the leaves of the World Tree only fell in small numbers, no matter the season or the weather.
Three one day, then five the next.
There had to be a pattern.

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He observed this activity for several days, and then, contrary to what had been happening, a large number of leaves turned red and fell all at the same time.
Counting the leaves he retrieved from the ground, he numbered them to be thirty-one.
Why so many all of a sudden? Harmon decided to return to his chamber to think over this mystery.

In the temple proper, the disciples were rushing back and forth in an unusual commotion.

“What’s going on?” Hemon asked a priest as he hurried by.

“Apparently there are a large number of corpses being brought in,” the priest replied.

“Corpses?”

“Yes.
There was an accident at a construction site in one of the districts of the new city.
Many workers were hurt and there are a number of casualties.”

The temple was where the dead were taken before being buried.
The priests of the temple prayed over the bodies, and left offerings that would allow god’s guides, which were what the spirits of the recently deceased were called, to ascend to heaven.

Hemon said a silent prayer for the wounded.
Even though he had only become a disciple by name so he could study the World Tree, his heart ached during time like this.
Maybe his time here at the temple had affected him more than he was willing to admit.

Entering his chamber, Hemon looked over the red leaves he had gathered. So strange…, he thought.
A flash of intuition went off in his head and made him gasp.
He stood quickly, leaving his chamber and rushing to the Shrine of Rest where the bodies would be gathered.

Fighting to catch his breath, he stopped a priest exiting the shrine.
“Has the Prayer of Rest started yet?” he asked.

“We’ll be starting shortly.
The last of the bodies has just arrived,” the priest informed him.

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“How many souls will become god’s guides today?” Hemon asked.

The priest looked at Hemon curiously, and answered, “Thirty one.”

Hemon’s eyes widened in shock.
“I knew it!!” he exclaimed.
He quickly thanked the priest and returned to his chamber.

“Could it be a coincidence? If it’s not…” Hemon spoke to the silence of the room as the hairs on the back of his arms quivered with curiosity.
“I’ll have to confirm this tomorrow, but I’m sure that I am right.”

***

“Celios!”

“Greetings to you, everlasting goddess!” Celios formally greeted Belice as she entered with a large smile on her face.

“That greeting doesn’t please me too much,” Belice informed him when hearing such a noble title.

“Is that so?” Celios laughed.
“But it’s not wrong.
What brings you here, Your Majesty?”

“I have a favour to ask of you.”

“Of me?” Celios’ curiosity was piqued.

“Yes,” Belice replied, a knowing smile on her face.

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“You did know that Sir Skad got married recently?” Belice asked the priest.

“Yes, of course.
It’s about time,” Celios answered.

“I was wondering if you could bless them with a prayer, Celios?”

Celios nodded.
It was standard for noble who became married to be blessed with a prayer for everlasting happiness.
It made sense, as the High Priest, for him to do the blessing on the highest ranked noble, not to mention the brother of the Empress.
A lower-level priest would just be considered an insult.

“As is proper, especially since Your Majesty, the Empress, is asking personally.”

Belice smiled.
“Thank you, High Priest.” Belice nodded to her assistant Karune, who took out an envelope and handed it to Celios.

“Since you are honouring us with a prayer for a blessing of everlasting happiness, I should return some gratitude to you,” Belice informed him.

“If you insist.” Celios took the envelope happily.
Since it was a donation from the Empress, the richest person in the empire, it should be an amount larger than the weekly donations combined.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty, I’ll pray with my dearest heart!” Celios said, though he was thinking how this donation could erase some of his debt.

Unaware of how her money would be used, Belice smiled and nodded.
She was naively pleased with how this transaction worked out.

***

Celios waited anxiously outside the temple, waving as the carriage that was carrying the Empress disappeared like a dot on the horizon.
As soon as she was out of sight, he turned and made his way quickly to his office.
He needed to know the amount of money he was currently holding in his hand.
He could relax for a while, knowing his debts had been handled.
In the hall before his office, he once again heard a familiar conversation.

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“Disciple, let it go.
How many weeks have you been ignoring your chores and staring blankly at the World Tree?” It was Cameron, once again admonishing the disciple Hemon.

“There’s no way! There’s no way, my research is wrong.” Hemon was off spouting his gibberish again.
It was almost the exact same conversation as the last time Celios had encountered these two, but this time Hemon seemed even more frustrated.

Celios would have asked Hemon to leave the temple long ago, but knew he had bought himself a position as a disciple with a donation of an immense amount of money.
This bought the man some leeway in his actions, but Celios’ curiosity was piqued as to what it might be this time.

“Did something happen again?” Celios asked the men.

“Celios!” Hemon jumped in surprise

“Greetings to Celios, the Guardian of the Goddess.” Cameron, once again being formal, bowed as he addressed Celios.

Taking the hint, Hemon bowed as well.
“It’s nothing,” he said, as if the simple answer would address the matter.

“If it’s nothing then why is your face so gloomy?” Celios asked.

Cameron interjected when he saw Hemon struggling to explain himself.
“It’s about the World Tree again, the same nonsense we heard before so you should not need to concern yourself with this matter.”

“My research is not nonsense, Cameron,” Hemon seemed particular hurt by the accusation.

“That’s enough.
Stop.” Cameron had heard enough.

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“So, you’re referring to the research on the number of god’s guardians compared to the number of fallen leaves?” Celios was pretty sure he remembered the whole situation from before.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Cameron is correct.
You’re still doing that nonsense?”

Cameron seemed even more embarrassed then Hemon at Celios’s question.
“My apologies, my Lord.”

“It’s not nonsense!” Hemon cried again.

“Hemon, that’s enough.
Do you know who you’re speaking to?” Cameron always had a hard time controlling his anger.

Celios waved his hand to calm Cameron down.
“If it’s not nonsense, then why are you so gloomy?” he asked.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.
The falling leaves that matched the god’s guardians stopped being correct about four weeks ago.”

“Is that so? But it was correct before that?” To Celios, it was obvious that this phenomenon was just a coincidence.

“Yes.”

Celios shook his head in frustration and gave a signal to Cameron to take care of this on his own.
Turning to leave, Hemon stepped in front of him.

“But it’s become correct again!” Hemon announced.
“Only once, but since that day it went off, it’s become correct again!”

Celios how this man could not see the pure coincidence before him.
Maybe if he appealed to this man’s sense of mysticism, Hemon would leave this matter behind.
“There are many miraculous things in the world that happen on a daily basis,” Celios told the man.
“This is probably a sign from the Goddess to tell you to stop trying to fulfill your personal desires and stop being lazy with your duties of maintaining the World Tree.”