Straw Plan

[The saintess has finally gone insane. She has claimed Lux to be malevolent, shouting proclamations that no one can understand.

We have confined her to the room preceding the stairs to the catacombs, though I believe her days are numbered.

An investigation led by the sages and the high priests concluded that the saintess felt threatened after the divination regarding the arrival of a new saintess had been declared.

The degradation of the saintess had become immediate around one year ago from this date, when she awoke screaming from her chambers, saying that Lux had never cared for any of us and that we live in a cycle of destruction.

Though we had believed at first that she had switched to give people a speech of condemnation, she began to spout more outlandish claims as the figurehead of Lux's Church, one especially damning statement that implied the existence of other worlds.

Luckily, the saintess was trapped and knocked unconscious before she could speak any more blasphemy, but ever since that day, she could no longer be brought out in public.

We have not been able to receive any divinations since her corruption, and the rest of the high priests have been worrying about what to do.

In addition, Lux's Orb has grown dimmer and dimmer since the saintess stabbed it with a crux, and we fear that his power is dwindling as a result. We must, at all costs, restore his light.]

The letter was dated back to just over a week ago. Even at first glance, there were several insights Callisto gleaned from the letter.

The first was that her dark patron was not lying about some sort of restart that was enacted upon the world. For what reason, Callisto didn't know.

But it did mention something about Lux's desire to control the world the way he wanted. Second, the saintess seemed to gain insight into the many cycles she had lived.

In addition, there was mention that no divinations from Lux had arrived ever since the decline of the saintess. Either Lux required a saintess to send messages to the world, or he had been weakened since her supposed corruption.

Lastly, there was no news of the saintess officially stepping down in public, not to mention the fact that if a new saintess were to be inundated, there was a strict formality regarding the shifting of the scepter from old to new.

From what she could gather, the only news regarding changes in the church was that the saintess would no longer be making public appearances. Seems like religious institutions were shady no matter what world it was.

------

Callisto was back at the Azel Mansion, signing away at papers tiredly as the head butler peered over her shoulder approvingly. Since when was she supposed to do the work?

Not to mention that the city was up in arms with a festival to celebrate the return of their beloved Crown Prince from some sort of military expedition he had been on, prior to showing up at the Azel estate for no reason.

There's something truly off-putting about a bunch of peasants who scrape by life tripping over themselves to set up banners and music for some rich dude.

"What are you thinking about, milady?" Callisto jumped. She forgot the butler was even there. He noticed the lady staring out into the balcony window, where the commonfolk buzzing around the larger area were barely bigger than ants.

"Would you like to go out, Lady Callisto?"

"Yes, please." She stretched her unused limbs, finally getting out of her chair after what felt like hours of parsing through papers and analyzing the letter she found at the library.

She had sketched out a rough plan from the intel she had gathered, but the fatal flaw was that her only saving grace was a woman who was most likely dead.

There was surely a reason that the deposed saintess had attacked Lux's Orb outside of anger towards a god.

But every string she grabbed at felt like it would lead to a dead end, and she desperately needed a break from the mental work she had been grueling over.

------

The gardens were in full bloom, as if ready for the new life coming in spring. Lilies, orchids, roses, morning glories, and every other flower she could think of lined the extensive garden, and every breath of wind carried with it the scent of flowers.

Callisto covered her face with her handkerchief, the smell of flowers accompanying something much worse. Something that made her dislike spring and flowers.

"A...A-Achoo!" Callisto sniffled, dabbing her nose with the handkerchief. Flowers were all fun and games until pollen allergies started to act up. Not the nice refreshing walk she was expecting.

From afar, Callisto could hear the sound of horns blaring and crowds cheering, as if a momentous event was happening.

She looked over at the knights, thinking. She could lose them in the crowd easily, and then have some fun by herself. It wasn't like she needed them, anyways.

"I want to go into town. Could you go arrange the carriage?"

As expected, the work ethic of the Azel Knights couldn't be beaten. In just a few minutes, Callisto was among the crowd, not at all blending in purely from the wealth that exuded from the clothing she wore, the gap in wealth being found even based on the fabric of her clothes.

Sensing someone wealthy, the people around her parted, so as not to avoid the wrath of the bourgeoisie. Unfortunately, it was the exact opposite of what she needed to get away from the guards.

'Resorting to Plan B.'

Hey, you two, look over there." Like the obedient servants they were, the knights followed their lady's orders, not noticing Callisto's malicious intent as she clocked them both over the head.

Once they were out of commission, Callisto went on her way, the armillary sphere underneath the folds of her skirt feeling warm, as if sensing her intentions to upgrade it.

The blacksmith had sent it over sometime before her debut, but Callisto didn't have the time to work on it until now. A blacksmith-approved blueprint of a magic lance she had been working on was folded into an extra handkerchief, invisible to the naked eye.

The blacksmithy was easy to find, as it was found usually on the outskirts of town, the sound of clashing metal and flames leading the seeking person towards its establishment.

The first thing she saw was several shirtless men slaving over their anvils in front of a sweltering inferno. A sight to behold, truly.

She averted her eyes, not wanting to look at them for too long. That's infidelity!

"How can I help you, little miss?" An older man who had just finished forging dipped his hands in a bucket of water, cleaning his hands with a towel before addressing Callisto.

She pulled up her skirt, retrieving her astrolabe, not noticing the shocked faces of the blacksmith apprentices, dropping their hammers with loud metallic bangs and hurried to cough as they watched a noble lady reach into her dress.

"I want you to work on this for me." She slipped the blueprint out of her handkerchief alongside the spherical astrolabe and handed it to what she assumed to be the master blacksmith of the forge.

The astrolabe's elliptical rings orbited around a glowing red center, sparks of electricity occasionally striking some of the inner metal rings.

It took a lot of effort by the first blacksmith to get it contained, and with help of the famous forge of the capital, she could finally get her weapon.

"Interesting." His eyes glazed over the prototype sketch approvingly, eyes furrowed as he looked through the parameters of the weapon.

"You're gonna need a lotta rare materials for somethin' like this. 'Specially that tip. Gonna need a dragon fang if you want it all to stick."

Dragon fang? Nox might have something like that...

-----

After a quick consultation, Callisto slinked back to where she left the knights, who had risen from their unconscious state and were furiously looking for her.

She was escorted back to the mansion quickly after, her so-called guards still blind to who actually knocked them out, but worried about losing their jobs, and wanted to get their employer out of the danger that they couldn't protect her from.

They didn't know that said danger was the lady they were escorting.