“Who are you?” Lorre asked. “What is this place? Why did the Longing bring me here?”
“Ah, of course! The Longing.” If a smile could be weaponized, this man had mastered the art. “Forgive me, but I wasn't sure if you felt it. Those called here aren't usually as chatty as you. I would enjoy a conversation for a change. You didn't, by chance, find something on your journey? Something that softens the Longing enough for you to keep your wits?”
Out of reflex, Lorre's hand clutched her pocket. She did discover something on her trip here, but she wasn't about to describe it to this man who made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. “Please, answer my questions first.”
“All right. We'll come back to whatever's in your pocket then. So, you wish to know who I am? I'm the guardian of this place. We call it the vault. I come when I'm needed. But most days, I serve as a high priest in my own temple far from here.”
“Of what god?” asked Lorre, afraid of the answer.
“It should be apparent, yes?” The man smiled again and gestured to his robe. “Evil, naturally. You think Good would have the backbone to do what's necessary? So, the job is left to me: High Priest Sar Kooris.”
Lorre’s heart skipped a beat. “But why? What do you do here?”
The man in black kicked a bone. “You don't really want the answer to that. Not yet. We're not done talking. Don't you want to know the real purpose of this place? And what brought you here?”
Lorre nodded.
Kooris grinned and took a dramatic step to the side, revealing the end of the hallway dominated by a carving of two dual-headed arrows crossing each other. The Longing flared up, focusing Lorre's attention on the carving. It was at once both the most meaningful and mystifying sight of her life.
“Do you know this symbol? That is Chaos! We keep it locked away here in the vault, safe. Well, the gods do. I just greet those that Chaos calls to free it.”
“Chaos is real? And it's here?” Lorre was stunned. No priest would ever admit Chaos existed, but this one seemed to enjoy discussing it.
“Not Chaos, exactly. Chaos' Gift rather. Each temple holds a Gift from its god. That's what your Longing is attracted to. Chaos' Gift, right behind that wall, is what has been calling you.
“It's not like a Gift of Order, though. It could be that this single Gift is as powerful as all of Order's combined. Who knows what it would do if it were free? Maybe it starts a new religion for everyone? Can you imagine hordes of faithless called to what could possibly be the most powerful religion ever, since Chaos isn’t fragmented into aspects like Order? Can you imagine the unwashed faithless running things? Anarchy! Everything we've built would be at risk.
“Or maybe it just destroys everything. Chaos isn't bound by the same rules that confine Order. Chaos' Gift could kill us all. Or turn us into flowers. Who knows? It's Chaos!”
“You're worried I'll free it somehow?” asked Lorre. “I could just walk away, forget I ever saw any of this.”
“You?” Kooris chuckled. “No, I don't worry about you. Only one man can enter the vault, and I will stop him before he ever gets this close.” He rubbed his chin. “But you could walk away, couldn't you? Back to your life? The Longing wouldn't stop you. Now we find out why.”
Kooris took a step forward. Lorre matched it with an involuntary backwards step. “You have something in your cloak,” he said. “Something magical? Something that suppresses the Longing, yes? Show me.”
Lorre took two big steps backward into a shower of rain. She stumbled into an alcove and found herself against the statue of War. She wiped her forehead and blew the water from her lips. Trapped, she reluctantly removed a pouch from her cloak and poured three cubes into her hand. “They're dice. Just dice. A child's toy.” As much as she feared the high priest of Evil, merely exposing the dice made her palm tremble. Lorre knew about the magic artifacts that most religions gave their priests, and these dice weren't like any of them. She needed them to control the Longing, but they scared her.
Kooris stopped outside the column of water. “Dice? Those blank wooden cubes?”
Blank? The cubes were covered by pictures. Why could Kooris not see the carvings?
“Hand them over,” Kooris commanded. “You're done with them.”
Was she? She was certain that Kooris would kill her, and what could be worse than that? But to use the dice? By accident, she rolled them once, then resolved never to do so again. They were dangerous and unpredictable, and they had already caused so much damage. Lorre closed the dice in a clenched fist.
Kooris wagged his finger, as if a small child had disobeyed him. His smile left his eyes untouched. “You stand in freezing cold rain. You refuse a high priest. It's futile. It's even pathetic.
“I know you. I've seen hundreds like you. No one ever gets inside the vault, and the Longing drives them mad trying. Once I take the cubes, you'll go mad, too. Instead, I will save you, like I save all of you.”
Lorre shivered in the rain, pushing back as far as she could against War's shield.
The man reached under the neck of his robe and brought forth a small mirror attached to a chain around his neck. “Have you seen the eyes of someone deep in the Longing? Someone called to Chaos? I have. Many times. And I see the spark of madness in your eyes, too. How long could you resist it? How many times would you throw yourself at the vault until your bones break? Look for yourself. There's nothing in a world of Order for you. Look!”
Her fist grasped the dice so tightly that it shook with the effort. As she struggled, her gaze touched on the small mirror that Kooris held. She saw her pretty face drawn with lines of fear. She saw her long, sopping black hair poking out from under the cloak's hood. She saw her terrified stare and her eyes locked with her own. Everything else fell away but that stare. The rain beat in the background, but she barely felt it. Even Kooris became unimportant. The mirror's silver frame defined her world.
Her reflected face relaxed. The fear, the life drained from her eyes. Her jaw dropped open. Lorre did not understand. She returned to her senses in a rush. She struggled. She tried to speak, but every word sounded like a faint echo inside her head, and the reflection of her face moved not a bit. She saw in the corner of her eye that there was nothing outside the limits of the mirror's frame, only darkness. Lorre was not looking at her reflection anymore. She was the reflection. Whatever was left outside of the mirror was not Lorre. It was the body that Lorre left behind.
Lorre fixed her eyes on the mirror. She feared that if she looked away, she would lose that last, tenuous link to reality.
The woman's body convulsed, as Kooris knew it would. No one could live long without their spirit, and hers was tucked away in Kooris' favorite relic. Her hand unclenched and the cubes fell. No matter. Kooris would collect them from the ground.
The cubes spun in the air like three tiny tops. The torrent of rain increased and became unbroken streams of water. Every stream hit the ground like an explosion. They rebounded from the impact and went flying in crazy angles, defying gravity and never diminishing. A glistening web of water soon perforated the air.
The high priest of Evil was awestruck. He could not remember the last time he was frightened. Kooris had gathered as much information in Evil's archives on Chaos as he could find. He could not fail to recognize Chaos at work, even though he never witnessed it before. This power was something he could not control. This was something that could destroy him.