Prayers are to men as dolls are to children.
It won't be wrong to say Jaryun believed in such a theory. He was a grown man. He had no need for dolls. So he didn't care about the First Flame and only wanted to reach higher and higher using it as a ladder.
Zane revealed that to Horum and curious to know about the priest's thoughts, Xavier wasted not one second and blurted:
"What kind of priest are you if you didn't even know that the man distributing the offerings was an atheist himself?"
TUN!
A steel can filled with water fell from a carriage driver's hand.
Merchants and vendors were forced to look at the counter again.
The customers also stopped and the rich stared at the scene with wrinkled noses.
The gutterborns in the line flinched as it was a first when someone questioned a Priest.
Zane would have asked the same but he would have chosen softer words unlike Xavier who straight out accused Horum of incompetency.
Does he have no fear? How would I convince people he is not with me if they riot?
Xavier would be spared one way or the other but Zane would face the most problems if people associated him with such a crude man.
Horum stopped handing offerings for a second after Xavier's question and Zane slowly shifted little by little away from the Commoner.
But his worries were unfounded as Horum simply chuckled.
Zane stopped shifting.
Xavier frowned.
Horum didn't turn around and handed the offerings to the next person in line.
Not only to that blind woman, Horum was giving double the offerings to everyone in the line.
Compensation for waiting too long?
Zane was not able to understand Horum.
Was he bad or was he less bad? He calls Zane and people like him as filth and then bends rules for the same filth and gives them enough food to last for two days. He acts cold, shows and uses his authority and then laughs instead of infuriating over such a question.
Zane recalled all the actions Horum did ever since he met him and tried to form a coherent chain to reach a conclusion about the Priest.
But soon, his head began to hurt and he stopped thinking.
I just want to know about my coin.
Zane almost died today and he would not waste his risk. He would get something in return.
But that had to wait as Horum answered:
"When we first hired Jaryun, me and two more Flamekeepers interviewed him. He was under the oath of Bright Dochotomy, the holy book of First Flame. It is impossible to lie under the oath."
The next gutterborn came forward.
"So we asked everything we needed to know. Jaryun was a real devotee of our Flame. But if this boy is right about Jaryun, then it must have happened five years ago."
The Priest inhaled.
"During the Full Merge."
Xavier's ears perked up.
"What happened in Full Merge?"
"... What is Full Merge?"
Xavier jerked his head at Zane, surprised.
Should I know about it?
Horum sighed.
"You must remember the time when everyone is strictly prohibited to stay in their homes once every five years? Prohibited to answer questions coming from outside, prohibited to speak, prohibited to look?"
"Yes?" Zane said.
"It's because of the Full Merge."
Full Merge. Is it related to my system? I have to know about it.
"Please tell me more about it, father." Zane asked with all the respect he could muster.
But Horum shook his head.
"Now's not the time for that. You will know more about it in the Citadel."
The priest looked at the setting sun and added:
"After all, it will happen again."
Zane quivered his brows.
He knows I'll be in the Citadel?
Zane was just thinking when Xavier acted on it.
"How do you know he will go to the Citadel?" He asked right away.
Horum laughed.
"Today was the ceremony, child. He and you too must be coming back from the citadel when the bell rang and came inside the church. Most of all, he had the relic from Emberlord Coin. Priest Coin is responsible for overlooking the ceremony every time it happens. I just added one and one."
Zane nodded to himself.
Horum was a priest he would know about things. Especially about the Citadel.
But if the topic of coin had emerged, Zane would use it to know his answer.
"What ca—"
"What happened to Jaryun five years ago?"
Xavier was faster.
Zane closed his fists back and forth.
He wasn't learning about Full Merge, He wasn't learning about the coin.
I should have just gone home.
The line was almost finished and Horum wasted no time.
"I'll keep it brief. Jaryun must have encountered corruption from the creatures during the Full Merge and overtime it grew. He wasn't strong enough to resist it or control it and slowly, he gave in to that. He gave in to his desires. So much so, he dared to harm me.
I should have examined him earlier and we would still have him alive. But I wasn't in the position to help him either way. He was left unchecked and the corruption managed to hide its presence inside him and we witnessed what happened today when he didn't get his desired outcome."
Horum shook his head as he handed the offerings.
Jaryun's story reached its closure and Zane had no way to believe if it was true or not. He was hearing some words and terms for the first time.
But Xavier…
"If Jaryun was a true devotee of the First Flame, then why wasn't he helped by him? The Flame should have removed the corruption and saved his believer. Does he not care about his worshipers in reality?"
Zane's lips twitch.
Does he have two three extra lives and no brain? Who even is he?
Silence ensued in the market again and for the first time, Horum moved his head and looked at Xavier.
No smile.
No chuckles.
Just a stare.
"Naiive kid," Horum said. "The First Flame is working the hardest during the Full Merge. The likes of you, us and even me, have no idea how much he suffers. Jaryun had taken the job to fight and maybe it was the First Flame that had kept Jaryun alive for these years. Maybe he was destined to die right there and then. The First Flame knew Jaryun would abandon him. Yet, he gave him breath for as long as he could until Jaryun himself chose death."
Horum fully turned around his body and stood right in front of Xavier.
"Jaryun had become an atheist, yes. But do you think he fell from the First Flame's grace after that? You don't know, ignorant child…"
Horum's robe fluttered as the air around Xavier and Zane tensed, shrinking to the point of causing suffocation.
"The First Flame is conscience."
Horum's eyes appeared like two dancing flames and like a giant's feet falling on the center of the city, he declared:
"He is even the atheism of the atheist."