The Call

The Call

Aurelia, priestess of the Fraternity Religious Sisterhood, breathed out when one of the acolytes interrupted her morning prayer. That fasting prayer was a habit that he had acquired over the years. At first, she only did it to keep up appearances to the rest of the sisters, but after a while, she found some peace when she prayed before the rough wooden image that tried to recreate the holy hero of Basilea, the Hegemon Bolisean.

Aurelia had dedicated her entire life to the Organization. She had been ordained a novice of the Fraternity, renouncing a full life. Likewise, he had renounced his family, he had even renounced his country and all this with the sole purpose of rise in the hierarchy of the Fraternity and being able to contribute a position of power to the organization to which he owed true loyalty, The Collective.

And she finally succeeded. She was promoted to titular priestess, with the right to command a legion of the Greate Basilea, and The Collective, through one of its innumerable agents, sent her the signal she expected. A new destination, in pursuit of fulfilling "the agenda."

He was assigned to defend the border town of Zantaporte, at the eastern end of the kingdom of Basilea, near the Halpi Mountains. At first, Aurelia did not understand why she was being sent to a settlement so far from the Golden Horn power centers. She believed that The Collective would use her position to influence the decisions of the powerful military-religious order. But since he arrived at her new destination, she had not received any order, task or indication of any kind from the Organization.

At first, she was patient. She thought that The Collective had some special plans for her. But after three long and disappointing years, she assumed that the Council, or whoever was on it, had forgotten about her. Desolated by the feeling of abandonment and frustration, Aurelia fell into a deep apathy that confined her to her cell for long days, during which she did not even eat a bite, until she had the vision.
Bolisean himself appeared to her and entrusted her with the task of leading the crusade to reestablish the former glory of the Republic, killing his enemies and reconquering lost territories.

Her skin crawled at the memory of the glorious moment and she couldn't keep tears from rolling into her green eyes.

Shaken to the depths of her being by the divine apparition, Aurelia embraced the faith and emerged from her self-imposed confinement to carry out the mandate of Bolisean.

After that epiphany, she led multiple expeditions to purge the region of the blasphemous creatures that threatened it and eventually regained some land, moving the border a few leagues into the interior of the Halpi Mountains.

The acolyte's voice interrupted her thoughts once again and forced her back to the present. Aurelia sat up and rubbing her aching knees, she left the austere prayer chamber to see what the interruption was due to. But the words of censure she had prepared for the acolyte died before leaving her lips.

Behind the young novice, a man dressed in elegant robes and grim countenance was watching Aurelia openly, as if assessing whether the priestess was up to the job or not. And judging from the expression on his face, the test hadn't satisfied him.

Aurelia didn't need the man to introduce himself. She knew who it was. She had been waiting for his arrival for more than three years. She had been waiting more than three years to be given a chance to prove herself.

And at last, that moment had come.

A.L.S. Basaguren