The dying Crystal Dragon Sailindelagrostō was laid in the eastern part of the square, two meters from the Tranquil Water. The Undead priests who had taken the assignment stood in a faint white mist, concentrating on their spells. Golden light shone from their bodies... the light of the Large Divine Art Array.
Arrays like this were rare in Toril. The concentration of energy here was far lower than in Telashir, and an array that required so many people to activate and involved a god was almost always meant for sacrifice. Followers of Evil Gods used them most often.
After seeing what was happening, Hill had begun to suspect that Telashir's Divine Art Arrays had been learned from the Dwarves... then improved by a few clever people.
After all, humanity's Supreme God was the God of Sovereignty and Nobility. He might have gone too far down his chosen path, but he would never accept an evil rite that sacrificed humans. If the Noble Church tried anything like that, Thunder would probably blast it to pieces.
And yet, the Noble Church's members were hardly good people... nor were they likely to devote themselves to ascetic practice for their god's favor. They must have wanted a shortcut.
What such sacrifices needed was energy. In Toril, humans—or rather, intelligent beings—were the cheapest source of it. Telashir was different: Elemental Crystals were still fairly plentiful there.
During the first tens of thousands of years after humans appeared, most of Telashir's finest minds had probably joined the Noble Church, apart from the few taken on as students by mages. Hill saw nothing strange about their developing a Divine Art Array better suited to Telashir.
Hill went to the window and sat in a floating armchair to watch what was happening outside.
The Undead had just taken