Gods and magic

"Wait!"

Darean called out to stop the worker, who had picked up a wooden ladle with a fanatical look on his face and was about to take a gulp.

His expression showed no urgency. He simply looked at Euse, who had turned his gaze toward him, and asked seriously:

"Holy water? Isn't that normally used for baptism and driving out evil spirits? How come I've never heard of a version you can pour straight into drinking water?"

After briefly considering what the word "version" meant, Euse roughly understood what the young lord who had suddenly interrupted him was trying to say.

So the middle-aged cleric put on a kindly expression and said slowly:

"I understand your concern, Lord Darean, but rest assured, this holy water is harmless. Your people will not die in endless abdominal agony after drinking it."

"If you are still concerned, I shall try it myself first."

With that, without minding that many people might have used the ladle, he scooped up a ladleful and drank it.

After waiting a while under everyone's gaze, Euse chuckled:

"See, Lord Darean? I am unharmed."

He handed the little bottle from inside his robes to Darean and explained quietly:

"A few days ago, the most devout monks in the Starry Sept suddenly heard a divine revelation during their prayers. Supposedly, only the High Septons had occasionally heard such revelations before."

"After that, certain things in the sept began to change."

"Take the bottle of holy water in your hand, for example. You presumably had some idea that its effects were not particularly noticeable before. Now, however, the Faith's tests have shown that just a little can significantly dispel fatigue."

"It is only because you are away from Oldtown. Otherwise, you would already have heard this news."

The middle-aged cleric shrugged and added:

"After all, the Faith keeps almost nothing secret from House Hightower. The master of the Hightower has always been our friend."

That was not entirely true, as the two sides had betrayed each other quite a few times throughout history.

But after dragons had burned the Faith's armed forces to nothing, the Faith had no bargaining chips left. For the past two hundred years and more, it had indeed been a good friend to House Hightower.

They provided the money. Nothing shameful about that!

Darean had no way of confirming the truth of Euse's words.

But undeniably, the fellow had no need to lie to him.

The ravens were in his own hands now. If he really wanted to investigate, wouldn't a raven simply have to flap its wings and deliver a letter to Baelor for him to learn everything?

So the cleric's words were almost certainly credible.

But that made things interesting.

Because there had to be something behind such an anomaly.

How could the Faith, which had remained unchanged all this time, suddenly make "holy water" containing a faint trace of magic?

And what was going on with Euse's claim that those supposedly devout monks had all heard a revelation from the Seven?

The uninformed common folk thought the Ascetic Monks had finally earned the gods' favor through their perseverance, making this a happy affair.

Darean, however, knew full well how scarce magic was in this world, and naturally saw more clearly than they did.

Perhaps even the Faith itself had yet to figure out what had happened.

The holy water Euse had brought was clearly a new product.

As Darean saw it, some people within the Faith were taking advantage of this sudden gift to secure their hold on the faithful's hearts.

After all, they kept making believers pay to support these fat, overfed fellows without ever giving them a "miracle."

Nobody was a fool. Whether they truly believed in their hearts was another matter.

"Huh? I really do feel much better!"

Once Darean stopped intervening, the first fellow bold enough to take a sip soon wore a delighted, surprised expression on his mud- and dust-covered face.

Standing there, the fellow swung his previously aching arms a few times, as though it really had worked.

Through his magic vision, Darean saw the magic that rushed down the man's throat quickly spread throughout his body.

However, it seemed to have been diluted by both the water itself and the human body, leaving it almost invisible.

Darean knew that magic at this level could not last long at all. The effect was probably temporary and would dissipate after a while.

But that was interesting enough.

Stepping back and leaving things here to the other monks and septas, Darean pulled a somewhat bewildered Euse aside to a felled log.

Not understanding what this lord wanted, Euse thought he was still worried and wanted to warn him, so he spoke first:

"My lord, rest assured, we will not..."

Raising a hand to indicate that the middle-aged cleric need not continue, Darean asked:

"Euse, I have a question for you. Think carefully before you answer."

"Do you remember exactly when the devout monks heard the revelation and the holy water gained such pronounced effects?"

"Take your time, and don't be nervous. I need an exact answer."

Euse breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had wondered what the matter was.

Furrowing his brows, Euse carefully searched his memory, then counted out the time on his fingers and gave a definite answer.

Then, to his surprise, he saw a momentary look of stunned distraction appear on Ser Darean's face.

"What is it, my lord? What... are you thinking about?"

Snapping back to his senses, Darean forced a smile:

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Go about your business. I will fully support the Faith's activities in my lands."

Looking somewhat puzzled at the young noble, who plainly had not told him the truth, Euse shrugged and said:

"Very well. You are the master of this land. What you say goes. I shall trouble you no further, then. May the Seven bless you."

With that, the middle-aged cleric turned and left.

Darean naturally had no time to humor him any further.

Because at that very moment, he had suddenly realized that, by his reckoning, the unusual events at the Starry Sept in Oldtown had occurred precisely when he had completed the Third Section of the Book of Strange Script.

He distinctly remembered a tide of magic spreading uncontrollably in every direction back then.

At the time, he had thought that such a small amount of magic would probably fade away before traveling very far.

He had never imagined its reach would be so great.

More importantly, this was not something that simply ended after one brief rush.

At least in the region stretching from Oldtown to here, the magic had not immediately dispersed. Instead, some people had begun calling upon it without knowing.

Connecting this with the supposed revelation mentioned earlier, Darean formed a conjecture.

Perhaps the Seven truly existed.

Compared with the other gods, who all showed at least some response, this god with seven aspects in one was probably far more dependent on magic.

It was like having no medium between the positive and negative terminals of a power supply: there was no way to establish a connection.

And now, the localized magic brought by the magical tide had made that interrupted signal intermittently audible.

Tilting his head back to look at the sky, Darean pondered.

Then... R'hllor, Great Other, Old Gods, what about you?