CH 163: The Church

They shuffled the boys into the tavern as Jess rushed into the kitchen. Her daughters followed her in, helping her with their meal. The boys shuffled in, quickly settling at the tables scattered throughout the dining hall.

“Fuck, there are so many,” Sloane said. She was clutching her wife’s arm as she surveyed the group of boys. “These were the ones held by those traffickers?”

Jasmine nodded. “The ones Elizabeth assigned to us, yes.”

Sloane gulped. “That request was a year old… how many were lost over that time?”

“Honey,” Elizabeth whispered. She rubbed Sloane’s back, trying to soothe her. “It’s best for your health not to think about that,”

“You know why I can’t,” Sloane said softly.

Claire watched on, still somewhat shocked to see Sloane on her feet. She wasn’t used to their mayor being this gentle, either. It was strange.

“Jaz,” a familiar voice said as the door to the tavern opened. “You’re finally home.”

Jasmine and Claire turned to find Daphne, Jasmine’s younger sister. She was a shorter, more muscular version of Jasmine with the same grey eyes. She wiped the sweat off her brow and walked straight up to her sister.

“Surprised you made it out of your workshop,” Jasmine said with a warm smile.

“Lucky you,” Daphne grunted before pulling her into a hug. “I missed you.”

Jasmine hugged her sister back despite the sweat. “Me too, Daph.”

“You still owe me for that new knife,” Daphne said, breaking the sisterly embrace.

Jasmine sighed. She should have seen this coming. “Yeah, yeah… I’ll get you the money.”

“Good,” Daphne said firmly. She smirked at her sister, then glanced at Claire. “Nice seeing you, Claire.”

“Yeah, nice seeing you too,” Claire replied hesitantly.

Daphne exhaled slowly before turning to leave. Claire suppressed a laugh, feeling nostalgic for how Jasmine used to be. All business, no play. Then, as Daphne walked away, Claire couldn’t help noticing something else: she and Jasmine even had the same-

“No,” Jasmine said coldly, cutting Claire’s thought off. “Not Daphne.”

Claire blinked, not realizing her mouth was open. “Um… sorry”

Jasmine exhaled sharply. “I get it. The twins seem to have affected me…”

Claire gulped. She squirmed, thinking about what Jasmine was talking about. She shifted in her stance, hoping to hide her arousal. “I’ll try to avoid her…”

Claire turned away from Jasmine, hiding her blush. She locked eyes with Ricky, who was smiling mischievously at her. Seems that boy was far more perceptive than Claire realized.

Her mother was still beside him, though her attention was on the other boys. She had a worried expression on her face as she scanned the faces of each of the boys. Looking for someone. Her hand was gripping the boy’s hand tightly, not ready to let him go.

Claire felt for her mother. The boy was similar in age to Ryley and had some similarities to her brother. She had a hollow ache watching her mother look around. Her concentration was only broken by the door swinging open.

“Claire!” Jane cried out, and Claire was quickly hugged from behind. Her other mother held tightly to her, whispering on the verge of tears. “Thank the Gods you’re back.”

Claire struggled and turned to embrace her mom. She hugged Jane tightly, inhaling the familiar scent of the farm that clung to her clothes.  “Hi, Momma, it’s so nice to be back.”

“My gods,” Jane said in amazement. “Did you get stronger?”

“A bit,” Claire said with a warm smile.

Jane broke from the hug and studied her daughter’s face. “Look far more mature, too.”

“Been through a lot in the past couple of months,” Claire said, her smile dropping.

Jane gulped and took a moment to think. She glanced at Jasmine, who was watching the two. “At least you can still smile. I was worried it would change you more...”

Claire pulled her into another hug. “I did too.”

Jane pulled away, then looked around at all the boys. She had a similar worried face to Eve’s.  She gulped hard. “Did you rescue all of these boys?”

“We did,” Jasmine said, jumping into the conversation. “We were tasked with eliminating a band of human traffickers and found them being held captive.”

Jane nodded slowly. She was looking at Ricky. Claire’s heart hurt at seeing both of her mothers' pain. Neither was good at hiding their loss of Ryley.

“I’m… I’m gonna sit with Eve,” She said hesitantly, her eyes locked on the young boy beside Eve. “I’m glad you’re back, Claire. We both missed you so much.”

Claire watched her momma walk away, towards her wife. She could feel her chest tighten at seeing the two interact with the young boy.

“Elizabeth is coming back,” Jasmine said softly. She hugged Claire from the back, gently kissing her shoulder. “She’ll want to talk.”

“I-I figured.” Claire stammered. “Toni's appearance was too convenient, and that building…”

“Right,” Jasmine sighed. “I’ll see if I can talk to him. I wasn’t affected last time.”

She pulled away from Claire as Elizabeth walked over with her wife. Sloane was taking pained steps, holding tightly to her arm. Jasmine extended her arm to the older woman, who graciously took it.

“Come on, let’s find you a seat,” Jasmine said with a warm smile.

The mayor helped transition support to the assassin. She took a moment to watch Jasmine support her wife to a table with some of the boys. She only turned to face Claire when Jasmine was easing her into the chair.

“Walk with me.”

Claire nodded, and the two headed for the door. They walked in silence away from the tavern. They were halfway to the church before the mayor spoke up. The older woman turned towards Claire and exhaled deeply.

“Did you know about this?” She asked, gesturing towards the building behind her.

“No,” Claire shook her head in confusion. She looked at the building, taking in its design. One carving caught her eye.

“The Carpenters woke up one morning, maybe a week after you left, and just… started building.” Elizabeth continued. “Mothers and daughters worked endlessly for two months to complete it. It was completed the day before that man showed up. Yet none of them knew why.”

“It looks like her.” Claire blinked at the carving. Its detail was sparse, but it was undeniably her Goddess. The weightless hair, the outstretched arms that appeared to her in her dreams.

“Her who?” Elizabeth pressed.

“M-my Goddess.” Claire stammered. She was too shocked at the level of detail the carving had. The ethereal figure clad in a dress, her hands, eyes, and mouth being the only notable details. “She’s…”

“Unknown.” Elizabeth finished her sentence. “Yes, Jasmine told me. But why did she have them build this?”

“I-I don’t know,” Claire got out. She pulled her eyes from the depiction of her Goddess to the rest of the building. It was adorned with angels etched into the red wood. There were stairs leading up to the grand entrance and a ramp beside them. The carving of her Goddess just above the double doors.

“Claire, look at me,” Elizabeth said sternly. She took a deep breath, the stress evident in her expression. “Why is there a lamia depicted inside?”

Claire blinked rapidly, tilting her head. “What are you talking about?”

Elizabeth grabbed her hand and marched her into the building. The doors swung open, echoing throughout the interior. It looked like a place of worship with pews facing a central altar, with a marble statue of Her at the center. The same level of detail as the carving outside.

That wasn’t what Elizabeth wanted to show her, though. It was behind the altar, a mural. A painted depiction of her, Claire. The shield she recovered from the Troll’s lair on her left arm, a detail they couldn’t have known.

Beside her were her lovers. All of them, including Ursa to the far right. Someone the Carpenters should not have known about. Then, to Lily’s side on the far left corner was Toni.

Claire’s mouth was wide open as she looked at the mural.

“This mural was finished several days before that man appeared. Why is he there, and how did they know of your new Ravian companion?” Elizabeth said. She was studying Claire’s shocked expression.

“What the actual fuck?”

She tried to process her surroundings. The mural had details it shouldn’t have. The Goddess’s statue had just as many details as She had in Claire’s dreams. With her other features shrouded. Claire muttered to herself, “Did She do this?”

“That’s not all, Claire,” Elizabeth said. She turned Claire to another depiction, one that nearly made Claire faint. ”If the knights see this, they’ll think we’re heretics.”

The mayor’s words were muffled as Claire took it all in. It was a painting of Samira. But that wasn’t all. Surrounding the half-snake woman were three animals. A dog beside her, a raven on her shoulder, and she was leading a horse.