By the time Lord Crow arrived at the Blood Eagle Corridor, it was already evening. He was still wearing the priest's robes of the Avalon Church, and he carried a scroll of scripture and proverbs from the God of Nature. Judging by appearances alone, this foreigner, so gentle and ever smiling, was unquestionably a devout follower of Nature.
The truth, however, was that this man—who presided over weekly gatherings of the faithful at the Avalon chapel in Scarlet Keep and explained the scriptures to their considerable acclaim—was a thoroughgoing atheist!
Murphy couldn't understand why Avalon still allowed Crow to parade around in their chapel. Even harder to understand was that Lady Natalie, the head of the Avalon Church, had formally commissioned Crow to revise their doctrines and scriptures, so they could completely sever their doctrinal and ritual ties with the Old Church.
Having an atheist handle something so important to the faith, and securing the unanimous approval of the Avalon Church from top to bottom, left Murphy unable to do anything but marvel at Lord Crow's exceptional professional talent.
In fact, he wondered if the man had some kind of "word magic" skill that let him quietly brainwash the Avalon Church's leadership. Otherwise, there was no explaining how an atheist had not only avoided being tied to a stake and burned, but was thriving within someone else's faith.
At Lord Murphy's strange look, Crow knocked and came in, returning a gentle smile utterly devoid of menace. He then sat down and waited for the evening's discussion to begin.
Murphy wasn't going to be fooled by Crow's harmless expression. The contract Crow had drawn up when he and Mannis were selecting their Astral Guardians had left a deep impression on him.
The man was no innocent!
Across from Murphy and Crow,