“Well, I don’t want any blood sacrifices or innocent souls, so there’s no danger of that.”
“What’s going on here?” Rami asked as she and Elyse approached after rifling through the enemy corpses. There was no love lost between Rami and Isu, and her beautiful features wrinkled with disgust when she saw Isu’s blood-soaked hands. Rami gestured at the heart resting on the cairn. “What are you doing with that?”
“She’s consecrating that cairn with the blood of my enemies,” I said quickly before another argument could develop, “and dedicating it to me. From now on, it’s going to be a shrine dedicated to the God of Death. The first of many.”
“I don’t think you’ll have any trouble gathering worshippers.” Rami stared at me with unabashed desire in her dark eyes. “Will there be priests, rituals, ceremonies, prayers?”
“Probably,” I answered. “But I’ll likely work it all out as I go.”
“This is the first step,” Isu said. “It begins with cairns. Then there are prayers. Then devotees and missionaries. Then temples and priests. Soon after, cathedrals and bishops. When all is done, there is power, and the undying, unquestioning devotion of millions of ignorant fools who believe everything they’re spoon-fed. Isn’t that right, Elyse?” She fired a catty glance at Elyse.
Elyse, to her credit, didn’t take the bait and simply rolled her eyes. “A grossly oversimplified version of religious history. Which leaves out more than it mentions. Regardless, Vance, there are more ways to grow stronger via the actions of your followers.”
“You were listening to Isu?” I asked.
“A little,” she said with a slight smile. “Prayers aren’t the only sacrifices of time a devotee can perform. They’re the smallest and most insignificant sacrifices they can make, actually.”
Isu growled. “I could have told him that.”
“Why didn’t you?” Rami asked as she put a hand to one of the many knives fastened to her ai’tendar outfit. “Why hold back anything from Vance?”
The former death goddess shrugged. “I don’t want his poor little head so overwhelmed with new ideas.”
“How considerate,” I said. “Elyse, continue.”
“A step up from prayers are acts of penance,” she said. “These can very in degrees of intensity, but honestly, I’m not sure how they’d work for you. I only know the Church of Light’s perspective. It might be something simple, like forgoing meat for a week, or perhaps staying awake all night praying at a vigil. Then, there are more serious acts of penance, like embarking on long pilgrimages to holy places. As you’ve no doubt heard, such things can take months, years even.”
“I am doing something similar,” Rami said. “My quest has been a kind of pilgrimage made in Xayon’s name. I only hope that it hasn’t all been in vain.”
“Relax, Rami,” I said. “We’ll find Xayon’s armor and her body, and I’ll resurrect her. I promise you that.”
“Even if you don’t manage it,” she said, blushing again, “I’d be pleased to continue with you where you should go. Xayon was. . . is not a jealous god. I could always worship you in whatever manner would suffice.” The way she purred made my pulse race, and I admired the way her black catsuit hugged her feminine figure so tightly, and how the outlines of her swollen nipples pressed through the fabric.
“Uh, perhaps a matter for another time?” Elyse interrupted. “There are other, more powerful acts of devotion.”
“Virgins,” I said with a smile. “Virgins given to gods.”
Elyse stammered out a response as her cheeks turned blood-red. “Consecrated virgins, yes. But. . . but also monks and nuns.”
I stifled a laugh at her embarrassment. “I can’t help but wondering what a death monk or a death nun would dedicate themselves to doing all day.”
“You forgot one other significant and permanent act of devotion,” Rami said. “The act of permanently altering one’s life by altering one’s body.”
I shivered. “Eunuchs.”
“They’re common enough in Yeng,” Rami said. “You don’t have them here?”
“I’d prefer other sacrifices,” I said. “Cutting off testicles isn’t exactly something I want to encourage.”
“You have no idea what kind of lengths certain people will go to when it comes to pleasing their chosen deity,” Isu muttered, a dark light gleaming in her eyes. “Nevertheless, this cairn will not consecrate itself.”
We gathered around the cairn, and Isu began by grabbing the crude figure of twigs and bark and callously flinging it into the bushes.
“Begone, foolish trinket,” she hissed. After this, she cut the heart open with her dagger and squeezed the blood out over the cairn. “With this blood of an enemy soldier, killed in battle, I consecrate this altar to Vance Chauzec, God of Death.” Her voice had taken on a dark tone, as though an entire undead host spoke along with her. “From now until the end of his reign, this cairn will be dedicated to his worship and his power.” She raised her hands to the heavens as she finished the pronouncement.
“Am I meant to feel something?” I whispered as I peered over to look at the blood-soaked cairn. “I admit, the way you spoke made my cock a little hard, but that’s about it.”
Isu growled at me. “It isn’t over yet. You must choose a sigil for yourself and make an image of it that you can place upon this cairn. After that, you must imbue the stones with your power so that whoever worships here can feel that this truly is a site of power.”
“Imbue the stones with my power?” I asked.
Isu rolled her eyes. “Just touch the damn stones,” she muttered. “As with most things you’ve accomplished thus far, instinct will guide you.”
“I have a sigil in mind,” I said with a smile.
I walked over to the dead soldier and raised a skeleton from his corpse. The magic was simple to perform now that I’d had a lot of practice. As soon as his skeleton exploded out of his body, I hacked its skull off. I whistled to Fang,
