Page 118 of He Who Sleeps

“Devotion,” the priestsaid as he walked into the foyer of the temple to greet them, bowing his head and one knee.

“Hi,” she said and smiled. “You can just call me Petra.”

“Lady Petra,” the priest corrected. “And sons.” He nodded to the rest. “I see you were successful.”

“We were,” Rix said. “And clearly came back to bedlam. Now, before we go any further, answer me, did you know about those women?”

“No, Kendrix. None of us were aware of what was going on.”

“In your own compound.”

“No, in the compound that was deemed unsafe for anyone to use after the earthquake almost forty years ago.”

“You didn’t think to consider?”

“Why, sir? We couldn’t see the buildings at the lower vantage just under us. We deeply regret...”

“How did He not know?”

“That we do not know. Our vision of the feminine has long been murky...though he chose to keep much of what was going on away from us. We believe that he didn’t trust us, and he shouldn’t have. So much happened under our watch, so much we couldn’t stop. We have much to atone for,” he said solemnly.

“You can start by answering questions,” Emerson said.

"Let's take a seat." Finn gestured to one of the big conference tables the priests sometimes used for teaching. "This is going to take a while and I know Emerson is going to have questions about a retraining program for everyone in The Order when we've handled the immediate problems."

They all settled in and the priest turned to Finn. "Please, on behalf of the Priesthood, allow me to offer our deepest apologies for letting it get this far. I fear we have been too long caught in a bubble of our own making; lost in the study instead of the teachings. We tried to make it right, with you and the Lady Petra, but it was not enough."

"What's done is done." Finn shrugged. "All we can do now is focus on how to get ourselves out of this mess and what to do going forward. Tell us what you know about how the female half of The Order works. I know you said that the visions have been cloudy, but surely you know the history? The things that were deliberately kept from us?"

The priest sighed. “Brother Kildare would be best to explain,” he said and pulled out his phone. A moment later another priest walked in, older, one of the Relics. “Sons, Lady, this is Brother Kildare, the oldest of our order.”

She nodded to him and he bowed to her. “Devotion,” he said with reverence, and then slapped the other priest upside the head with a deceptively frail hand. “I told you this was going to happen. Now you listen to me.” He looked to the others. “Sons, an honor to meet you all, finally. I taught your fathers,” he looked to Emerson. “Especially yours. Did you know he was to become an Adept before he was called to serve?”

“What? I didn’t even know we could...”

“Of course not, why would you know of the opportunities they didn’t want you to know about?” He huffed and sat in the large chair. “Ooh, much more comfortable than the one I have. Eustace...”

“Of course,” the other priest said and started tapping on his phone. It was clear there was both reverence and deference to the older priest by the other. “You shall have one in your chambers after this.”

“Too right. Now...what are we talking about? And let’s be focused about it, or I tend not to be.” He looked them all over.

"We know nothing about the women's side of The Order," Finn said bluntly. "That needs to be rectified. How did the two halves used to function together? What is the God's preference? What trainings do we need to integrate into the packages Emerson will be rolling out when all this is settled?"

"And what do you know of their compounds?" Carter added.

“A lot of questions there, boys,” Kildare cackled and shook his head. “This religion functions like any other, two sides, the feminine and the masculine, both sides having their place. Before the insurrection, something I could not change being one man, and one of the Lore Keepers, mind you, both sides worked in concert. Devotions were through the feminine, through both toil and pleasure, as you have seemed to bring back.” He looked to Petra.” And with your blood, no wonder he is pleased.”

“So, you’re saying our order works like priests and nuns?”

“In a fashion. More like we, the priests, learned and kept the rites, while the women, the matrons and the priestesses, prepared the feminine for his love.” He smiled. “He Who Sleeps is a lover before he is a destroyer, something those assholes never understood. Oh yes, the power from destruction was vast, but the power from the feminine was bigger, more malleable, and more loved.”

“Why would they have us only kill then?”

“Why else, dear boy? Control. They could control what he got, and keep that which was purer for themselves. Each of them had wives, and they used them as devotions, though they didn’t have Order wives, not all of them.”

“Son of a bitch,” Rix said. “They all but killed off the feminine to keep themselves in the power?”

“Killed? No, more like scattered them. The compounds, thirteen of them around the world...well now, there’s six,” he sighed and then slapped Eustace again, annoyed, “were created to nurture the feminine, to teach them that being a devotion was a life of love, privilege and reverence. That their men, their masculine, would protect them, and each would become a conduit to Him and they would prosper.”

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