>>5300648>>5300626>>5300504>>5300421>>5300323>>5300321>>5300279>>5300273>>5300251“You don’t seem very upset,” you note, a little perplexed by this response. “And isn’t this a heretical line of thought, for a Little Sister of the Serpent priesthood?”
The Novice rankles a little.
“You sound like Father, the Chaplain,” she says. “Think about it: is it not the height of foolishness to pledge fealty, loyalty, and unthinking faith to gods of self-reliance and opportunism? Gods who would, as we now KNOW, so readily abandon or forsake US?”
“You would rather you rather our Gods coddle us, like the weakling False Gods above?” you ask.
“No, I’d rather they be REALISTIC, as we should be, and treat this relationship as the symbiotic transactional cohabitation-of-the-soul which it truly is. We offer tribute to them, we do their will in life, and they give us boons to help us shape the world to their will, and a resting-place for our souls. If they fall behind on their obligations, what do WE owe to THEM?”
“And you don’t think disloyal talk like this will endanger your soul?”
The Novice fixes you with a withering look, making it clear that this is no new line of inquiry to her. You begin to understand more clearly how she lost her youthful allies.
“If I affect a great change in this world—advance the cause of Darkness, innovate in alchemy to the benefit of our race and our Gods… And those Gods deny me my reward because I didn’t sufficiently kowtow to them along the way… Why should I EVER desire to spend eternity with such beings?”
You and the Novice slow in your walk, and you glance back at yoru retinue. Theyr’e far-enough back that you hope—but not PRAY—they cannot hear.
“I… Agree,” you admit.
The Novice seems taken-aback to hear this.
“The Dark Gods are great and terrible,” you hasten to amend your statement. “I respect them immensely… Their power, their age and wisdom, their purpose… But we clearly need to make our own success. To beg for alms is insufficient, and of the Gods are divided, WE must be united.”
“…You are perhaps not the Meatheaded One for which I took you,” the Novice grudgingly admits, beginning to walk once more.
