Manon's Ascension

The Humble and Honorable

The Humble and Honorable

"Break it down," Manon ordered, moving away from the locked door.

She stood out of the reach of any potential shrapnel as Amorette stepped forward. She turned, smiled, then kicked backwards, bursting the door open.

Manon led the way into the room and was unsurprised at what she saw. Gold – both coins and jewels, a trunk full of silks, silver, a beautiful painting bigger than her in a gilded frame, and more and more, on and on it went. The room itself was small, only large enough for a singular person to stand in, but the wealth on the shelves before her made it worth more than the entire church.

She sighed, disappointed, and shook her head before leaving.

"Pack it all up. Bring it to the mansion. Search for records. See if you can find any account of who these things belonged to so we can return them."

"Yes, your majesty," came the chorus of replies as the soldiers got to work.

"Lots of shinnies," Amorette said, staring into the room where she stood at Manon's side. "You were right. How did you know?"

"Call it a lucky guess," she sighed again.

But was it really a guess when this was the third church with the exact same type of room?

The Sacellum was the center of religion in Gascony. It trained priests and sent them to serve the churches in the various cities throughout the country. In Vasconia, the Sacellum also served as a church, at least the front of it did. However, in Gascony, it was solely a building for priests to be trained and to live. Even to retire.

The churches were where the priests spoke to the people. Taught the Lord's lessons. They were simple stone buildings. They didn't even have pews like they did in Vasconia. There was a strong emphasis on humility, charity, and determination. After all, if you were dedicated to your faith, standing in front of the Lord should be easy.

But, for far too many of the churches in Isaie, when you pushed past the main chamber and got to the priest's private chambers, all that humility and dedication was stripped away and was replaced with luxury and gluttony.

She and Jacques had found a treasure room, filled with donations from worshipers, in the first church they searched and had split up to go through the rest of the churches in the city. There were fourteen in total. They had divided to conquer all of them.

Manon was on her fifth church, including the first one she had gone through with Jacques. Three of the five showed signs of corruption of the priest. Terrible numbers.

They were reclaiming the wealth. Taking it back to their mansion so they could begin trying to figure out where it came from so they could return it. Things like the painting would be easier to trace, but the stacks of gold coins would be harder to return. She doubted highly the priest who ran this church had been kind enough to keep track of each individual person's exact donation. So, for things they couldn't return, they were consolidating it all to give back to everyone.

"This is ridiculous," Manon said, stepping back into the main chamber. The soldiers were already walking past, carrying the gold, the chest of silks, that huge painting. Through the open door, Manon could see the people gathered in the street staring in shock as it was loaded onto a wagon.

The crowd had formed around each church she visited. They were coming to judge the evil foreign queen as she tore down their places of worship.

Each time, the replaceable faces of the predictable crowd always turned to shock when she would emerge with her soldiers, carrying enough wealth to fund all of them collectively for a year or more. It obviously was coming from the church and none of them could find a way to make this her fault or some failing of hers without sounding ridiculous.