"Good morning, Your Holiness." Maria greeted the High priest as he entered the temple. It was an early morning, three days before the coronation. Everyone was constantly working, making necessary arraignments in every corner of the Imperial palace. All the rooms were prepared for guests, dust cleaned, beds made, furniture covers put away. The whole west wing of the palace, the one with most free rooms, smelled like clean laundry, the curtains were open so the sunlight shined on freshly polished floors. It was all Diana's doing, and it was not only the west wing that had this treatment, it was almost every corner of the Imperial palace that could be seen by an outsider. Diana made sure to predict every single place that could fall into that category, her and Abigail were currently greeting guests, actually, keeping them busy until Her Majesty could come and welcome them properly. It was weird for someone of her status to do that, most aristocratic ladies, wives of lords and barons, don't do such a thing with their guests.
All doors and windows of the temple were open, like the palace. It was also getting prepared for the upcoming ceremony. It was mostly about moving benches around to make space for all the people that are meant to come. It was supposed to be a small circle of most important names for the empire but the Emperor changed his mind and invited more people that the temple could accommodate, and also refused to have the ceremony in the throne room.
Maria was there to coordinate the space according to the new standards it needed to meet. She was the only person Empress trusted to do so. The decoration of the temple is also placed upon her, also by Her Majesty.
"Lady Maria, good morning to you too." Said the priest and stood beside her to look at what was happening to his temple. He didn't seem really upset by anything, even though this was his temple. The priest looked like usual, dressed in his white attire with a rosary in his hands, only his beard got significantly shorter or longer over time. "I see you are not here to read to children this time."
"I will do that later, but now I am on duty."
"Rearranging the temple for the coronation? I suppose Katherine put you in charge of that."
"Yes Your Holiness. She ordered me to make sure everything is done correctly." Maria started walking towards the altar, she stopped right before the glorious fresco representing all five gods, she took a deep breath and looked around her. "I hope this will be enough space to crown the prince."
The priest followed her. "Space is not the issue, the part for God can be done no matter the amount of space available." He started counting beads of the rosary, looking at the same thing as Maria. "The messenger is important."
Maria stayed silent for some time, she looked at the altar underneath the fresco, golden sculpture of angels at heavenly gates needed to be polished. The darkness of gold could only be seen now that is not shining under the morning sunlight coming in through the windows that almost never opened. In the middle, right underneath the gate, like a lake there was a golden bowl with holy water in it. The priest refilled it every day, it is believed that the water in it evaporates with every sinner that is cured. Some days it stays full, some days it is empty, regardless, the priest changes it every day. Even if it is a sacred story that should be believed, Maria thought that the children of the temple often had to do with the disappearance of the water. They were drinking it, unlike regular water this one is sweet, she knows this because she saw children do it several times when they thought nobody was watching them. It was their own little, harmless mischief.
"How is little Katherine doing?" The priest asked her.
"She is well, the bruises are gone and she is keeping herself busy like a bee." Maria gripped her own rosary a little harder. "She is dealing with it, in her own way."
The priest looked at her for a moment with a look full of surprise, he opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind.
Maria, surprised by this, added: "The Emperor torments, he hasn't calmed down yet. It must be hard for her to endure that."
"Do not worry about her too much, she is strong, stronger than any of us, everything will come to its place. Is the little prince ready to be crowned?"
"He is excited, perhaps ready is a better choice of words. No matter how grown he seems, he is still a child."
It was like the realisation had finally hit Iyan that he was staying in the palace instead of going back to the academy when the first of his mentors arrived. Since then it was like he took a break, for the last week he has stopped spending all his time training and is instead spending it by bothering his mother, constantly asking her if he can help in any way. It was fine at first, Her Majesty would find some minor tasks for him to do around the palace but she quickly ran out, which resulted in prince's boredom to rise drastically, even the patience of Her Majesty has its limits, she found a solution by sending him to learn the Litany of saints with the temple choir and not to come back until the teacher, who was Sister Yelena, confirmed he learned it, and Sister Yelena, was a really strict teacher who did not play about her teachings. Especially when her student is the prince, and the request for her classes came from the Empress herself.
Luckily, for his mother, and all the people working with her, especially all the scriveners that helped her complete all the invitations in time to be sent to all the guests. All the windows in Her Majesty's office had to stay open for several nights in order to air out the smell of wax that was used for the imperial stamps. Perhaps you could still hear the scraping of feathers on paper and the sound of the imperial stamp being pressed into wax.
"Child or not I believe he is ready for the duty placed upon him. He has his mothers wight, many parts of her I see in him, let's just hope he doesn't swing towards the other half of him." The priest sat down on one of the remaining benches next to the altar and invited Maria to join him. "He is the right choice for this role."
Maria sat beside him, looking at him carefully like she was swimming in waters she is not supposed to be in. But the priest looked straight ahead, at the fresco. "How can you be certain Father? He is still so young, both of them are, for all we can know maybe Neftali was the right choice."
The priest laughed quietly. "Neftali is a smart girl, cunning, like mother, but nothing like her brother. She is everything Katherine is, only more expressed, not controlled, not restrained, Neftali picked those pieces of her mothers behaviour and made them her own, but to a good eye, still recognizable." He took a deep breath. "Iyan on the other hand, is every part of his mother that she chooses not to pursue. Her natural instinct of leadership, devotion, strength, it may not look like it but that woman could fight a bear if she sets her mind onto it. But most importantly, the anger."
"Anger? I find it hard to believe Father, never have I seen Her Majesty angry, with everything else I agree, but anger?" Maria's voice got quieter, she suddenly felt like everyone was listening to their conversation. But there was no one around them, the windows were open and wind howled through the temple, their voices didn't echo.
"Oh yes, anger. True anger, the one that never goes away."
"Like Hames was, in the Book of Morfis?"
The High Priest looked at her. "What you read in Holy Books, Lady Maria, can never truly do justice to extremes people, like Hames, can go to. How well they hide it and how well they know it."
"But it is not evil."
"No it is not evil, nobody can truly hide evil, but rage can be hidden very very well. Now it is not rage that is powered by evil, nor is the rage itself evil. Rage is a frustration, injustice that was done to that person. Also to other people, but pureness of rage is strictly tied to the individual. True rage is a feeling that can only be directed towards one person. "
"Are you saying Her Majesty has suffered this kind of injustice?"
The priest put on a soft smile. "I have seen her grow up, and yet I do not know how to answer that question that I regularly ask myself. And I know a lot, I believe I do."
Maria is one of few people that actively talks to two of them, the High priest and Her Majesty, about the past they share, how the priest raised her, their life traveling to the Arthenian empire. Not many others remember this story, they are much more focused on the part of it where Empress translated the Holy books given to them by a priest in an old temple, that has kept them all his life, continuing the generational tradition.
"Is it dangerous?" Maria asked, she was getting more and more curious.
"The rage or Katherine?"
"Both."
The priest took a deep breath, sulked his shoulders a bit. "To us, it is not."
He looked at the fresco again, but it was like his eyes kept getting lost somewhere further.
"Us?"
"People," the priest thought for a moment, then added. "The ones that wish her good and the ones that wish her harm. She isn't a volcano waiting to erupt."
"I see."
Both of them kept quiet for a moment.
"Have you read the Book of Cato, Lady Maria?"
"No, I have not Father. I have only heard that it exists."
"Really? Well in the Book of Cato everything is explained, it is a base for understanding the start of the story, and its end." He pointed at the fresco. "It is a dictionary for their language."
"Book of Cato is a way to understand the will of Gods is what you are saying?"
"Gods?" The priest stood up and smiled at her. "Those people are saints Lady Maria, it is written behind the altar, not many notice it." He began counting the beads on his rosary again. "I could borrow you my copy of Book of Cato if you would like."
"I could not ask such a thing from you Father."
"It is no problem, I haven't touched it in years, perhaps I only read it once. I am surprised Katherine hadn't given it to you with other books."
"Her Majesty never told me why it is missing from the collection."
"Oh, well you are missing out. It is a great book. There are even stories of angels in them. I will do my best to find it. Goodbye Lady Maria."
"Goodbye Father." The High priest was already exiting the temple when she said that. Maria took a good look at her rosary, the silver cross on its end, then up at the fresco. Two men came to move the bench her and the Priest were sitting on just a moment ago.
"Take it outside please." She said to them. They both nodded and took the bench out of the temple. Maria waited for a few seconds for them to get out of her sight, and she out of theirs, then carefully approached the golden altar.
She looked at the holy water in the bowl, on the inside there was a text in holy language that she couldn't read, due to the wind, the water wasn't still like usual, no reflection appeared on its surface.
Maria turned around once again, to check if she was alone. There was no way of moving the altar, it was bolted into ground, and space behind it and the wall was dark and narrow, not wide enough for her to get in between them and not enough light to see if there is truly a writing explaining the fresco above.
She tried peeking in the darkness, without success in finding an angle or a smallest ray of light, but it was like she could see traces of letters on the wall. Like Gods themselves told her not to poke around, the sun hid behind the clouds and the wind got stronger.
There was something like a grunt behind her. Maria, startled, turned around and saw Diana fighting with her hair that wind kept blowing in her face.
"Diana?" Maria approached her, calming herself down. 'Do you need something from me?"
"Oh my, this stupid wind." She managed to get her hair out the way. "I need your help with flower arrangements. Her Ladyship asked me if we could make jasmine consists for guests."
"Will we manage to make them in time?"
"They need to be made in the morning of the coronation in order to remain fresh, I thought the children could help us."
"Of course. I will make the arrangements."
Diana looked her up and down. "Are you alright? This wind could get you sick."
Maria touched her cheek, it was warm, she smiled like an apology. "Don't worry I'll take care of myself."
"Alright, you better do it. I will tell Abigail to make you some tea tonight."
"I don't want to bother her, you two are busy enough-"
"Abigail, bless her soul," She looked up for a moment. "Is very dear to me but not very helpful. You would do me a favour by spending some time with her tonight, please Maria."
"She can be a lot sometimes." Maria took Diana's hand and left the temple with her. "I will find something for her to do. Picking jasmine flowers for the consists will probably keep her busy for long enough."
"Thank you Maria."
As they exited, the clouds revealed the sun again shining brighter than before, the wind stopped and now you would see clearly, the writing in big bold letters underneath the fresco.
Troop of saints.