"You and Euron's grievances are none of the Church's concern. I don't want to hear about them either. The two of you are equally rotten, no different at all. Both of you disgust me," Sister Moller said sharply, her voice filled with deep revulsion.
"How can I be compared to that heretic who worships an evil god? I am a lamb of the Mother!" Cersei protested unhappily.
"The Mother would certainly be displeased by your faith. Every evil deed you commit in Her name is a stain upon Her," Sister Moller said.
"You are not the Mother. Don't make baseless assumptions. I have even encountered the Mother during fasting and prayer!" Cersei retorted.
"The Mother meeting you? Dream on. You must have been delirious from hunger and hallucinating," Sister Moller sneered.
"It's true. I even felt that I was about to comprehend the holy healing art. At the time, in my haze, I saw the Mother smiling at me, so gentle and kind. It reminded me of my own mother holding me and singing lullabies," Cersei said with a devout and earnest expression.
"Hahaha, and you think you can comprehend holy healing?" As if hearing the most amusing joke, Sister Moller burst into laughter.
Even she, a veteran nun who had devoutly worshipped the Mother since childhood into old age, had never seen Her nor become a priest.
Even if the Mother were blind, She would never grant divine power to a sinner guilty of incest, regicide, and kingslaying.
Especially one who had conspired to murder two successive High Septon.
The High Septon was the Mother's spokesperson in the mortal world.
Sister Moller was not wrong. As long as the Mother was not blind, She would never grant Cersei divine power.
But Cersei was not lying either. She had indeed seen the Mother, and her level of devotion was sufficient to comprehend holy healing.
For ordinary people, the maximum devotion was 250 points. Transcendents possessed higher-quality souls and had the potential to break this limit. However, there were few transcendents in Westeros, and even fewer who believed in the Seven. At present, aside from old Matthew, no one had surpassed 250 points.
When Mother Daenerys first granted the holy healing art to her followers, the requirement for clergy was as high as 200 devotion points.
At that time, only a dozen or so people across the Seven Kingdoms met the criteria.
Later, when Mother Daenerys obtained 1% of the Green Seer's Mark and became a priest herself, the requirement dropped to 150 devotion points. From then on, priests began to appear in large numbers, numbering in the hundreds.
Afterward, she obtained another 2%, bringing her total to 3% of the mark fragments. At that point, any follower with over 100 devotion points could become a priest.
Thus, the number of priests in the Seven Kingdoms surpassed a thousand.
Before the story began, when Robert was still alive, Cersei's devotion to the Seven was less than 0.1. But in recent years, her experiences had been extremely turbulent, especially the successive deaths of her two sons and witnessing the miracle of the Mother resurrecting the High Sparrow. Her faith in the Mother began to grow devout.
After being framed by Euron and imprisoned in the Queen's Tower, Cersei suddenly realized that she had no one to rely on except the Mother.
Jaime, whom she longed for most, had abandoned her. Her father was long dead. As for her uncle… every time she thought of Kevan, she became even more devout in repentance.
Of course, she repented but did not regret. Sometimes, during prayer, she would even complain to the Mother: it was all Kevan's fault for losing his former simplicity and becoming obsessed with power. If he had been willing to assist her, none of this would have happened.
Even "Robert Strong," custom-made for her by the maester Qyburn, had been seized and controlled by Euron through dark sorcery.
In this cold, dark, and empty stone chamber, only the Mother could offer her comfort and hope. Thus, Cersei became extremely devout.
There were two ways to increase devotion: either through deep understanding and recognition of doctrine, or through wholehearted faith in the deity.
Cersei belonged to the latter.
She knew the doctrines of the Seven and believed they were good and correct, but she simply refused to follow them.
Judging purely by doctrine, her devotion barely reached 1.0, the level of an ordinary believer.
However, pure blind faith and pure doctrinal recognition both had limits in raising devotion, roughly around 100 points, the level of a fanatic.
To advance from fanatic to supplicant (150 devotion points), a believer needed both faith in the deity and sincere recognition and adherence to the doctrines of the Seven.
Thus, when the requirement to become a priest was 150 devotion points, all priests had relatively sound character, and Mother Daenerys could directly grant them the Mother's Mark.
But when the requirement dropped to 100 devotion points, problems arose.
The Dragon Queen unexpectedly encountered Cersei.
At that moment, Mother Daenerys nearly suffered a collapse of faith: could such a person really become my priest? Wouldn't the Faith of the Seven fall apart?
If Daenerys allowed Cersei to become a priest, many true priests would likely abandon the faith.
They would not be willing to associate with her.
Cersei made Daenerys realize that there was a flaw in her priesthood system.
Though Cersei was an extreme case, she was certainly not the first fallen believer who both believed in the Seven and violated all their doctrines.
For example, in real-world Earth, those missionaries involved in colonial activities were fearless of sacrifice and willing to die for the Church and for God. Their faith in God was beyond doubt.
Yet their actions were akin to those of demons, completely contrary to God's teachings.
If Daenerys were God, she would redeem those missionaries, helping them escape damnation, but she would not allow them into heaven.
Redemption was her responsibility to believers, while entry into heaven was a reward.
Rewards were a means of encouragement, and no deity would encourage followers to act against doctrine.
Therefore, Mother Daenerys decided to grant Cersei redemption but would not bestow upon her the divine arts that represented the glory of the clergy.
When Cersei said she had seen the Mother, that the Mother smiled at her, and that she seemed to have obtained divine power, none of it was an illusion.
Mother Daenerys not only comforted her weary and fragile soul but also left a "Mark of Redemption" in her consciousness.
The Mark of Redemption had three functions. First, because Cersei possessed royal blood and was considered high-risk, the mark would alert Drogon upon her death, ensuring her soul would not fall into the hands of evil gods. Second, each time she prayed to the Mother, she would receive a low-level healing spell to treat the injuries inflicted by Euron's abuse. Finally, when her devotion reached 150 points, the Mark of Redemption would transform into the Mother's Mark.
If Cersei could reach 150 devotion points, it would mean she had truly repented. At that point, making her a priest would not tarnish the Church but instead serve as a model of redemption.
Because their conversation did not go well, Cersei did not speak with Sister Moller for long. The nun ignored her, and Cersei, shivering from the cold, curled back into her straw bed to endure the suffering. She had originally planned to wait for news from the Great Sept, but she was too exhausted and soon drifted into a hazy sleep.
Early the next morning, the sound of the door opening woke her like an alarm.
Opening her eyes and lifting the blanket, she saw four elderly nuns with graying hair but strong builds enter the room. One cleaned the floor, another scrubbed the chamber pot, and another hammered a hole into the stone wall separating the balcony from the bedroom, creating a window. The room filled with the sounds of busy work.
Cersei poked her head out and squinted. "What are you doing, breaking the wall?"
"We're making you a window. The long night is endless, but at least you'll be able to see the seven radiant towers of the Great Sept," Sister Arantine replied.
Thinking of seeing the outside view soon, Cersei felt a bit happier. She then looked at the nun cleaning the room and asked, "What day is it? Why are you all so diligent today? You usually refuse even to sweep."
"Cleaning your own dwelling is something any normal person should do, especially during ascetic practice. It is already improper that you do not labor, yet you won't even clean the chamber pot. You are far too lazy," Sister Moller scolded while scraping dried filth off the wooden floor.
"I eat nothing but hard bread and drink cold water every day, and that eunuch Euron torments me from time to time. My whole body aches and I have no strength. How can I work? You should stop him from hurting me," Cersei complained hoarsely.
"Every day in King's Landing, hundreds starve or freeze to death. You are fortunate to have bread at all. Even the High Septon only has one more bowl of vegetable and egg soup than you," Sister Moller said coldly.
Meanwhile, Sister Arantine, hammering the wall, added, "You and Euron are husband and wife. Even the Seven do not forbid a husband from sharing a bed with his wife."
"I want vegetable and egg soup too," Cersei swallowed and muttered. "Euron's manhood is burned and useless. So he uses other means on me and whips me.
Tell the High Septon that I want to annul my marriage to Euron. The Mother is merciful. I am in too much pain now."
Cersei said this casually and did not expect these cold-hearted, vicious nuns to help her. She had been saying such things ever since discovering Euron's true nature, thousands upon thousands of times.
And every time, they mocked her with words like "you brought this upon yourself" or "Euron is your punishment."
But this time, the four elderly nuns stopped what they were doing and exchanged glances. After a moment, Sister Moller hesitated and said, "The Mother is merciful. Perhaps we should help her this once? At least inform Saint Matthew."
The other three nuns nodded in agreement.
Then Sister Moller left, while the others continued their work.
"What's going on? You all seem different today. Saint Matthew… is that High Septon Matthew? Why is he called Saint Matthew?" Cersei sat up, surprised.
"The long night is full of danger, but thanks to the Seven, all living beings are saved. On the day Saint Sparrow ascended to heaven, another saint has been born!
Saint Matthew inherits the will of Saint Moses and Saint Sparrow and will lead the people of King's Landing south to Storm's End," Sister Arantine said excitedly, leaning on her hammer.
"Saint Matthew is also called 'Angel Matthew.' He has comprehended the true meaning of compassion, transcended mortality, and become a true saint," Sister Mesent added.
Between the three of them, they quickly recounted the grand events at the Great Sept the previous night.
"By the Seven, Saint Matthew actually shed his mortal body and transformed into a holy, winged angel?" Cersei cried in shock.
"Everyone saw it. It was a true holy soul," a nun said reverently.
Cersei fell silent for a moment, then said hesitantly, "The Mother is indeed merciful, but feeding her flesh to an eagle… isn't that a bit foolish?
Wouldn't it be better to just strike the demon eagle dead? How can demons be redeemed?
And that white dove clearly took advantage of the Mother as well. A female demon marrying a king and then going to heaven as a saint… that's quite a profit."
"That's exactly why we shouldn't help you and should let you continue to fall," Sister Mesent said coldly.
"I'm different," Cersei shook her head.
"Yes, you are different. What you've done is far more terrifying than what demons do."
(End of Chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09