Chapter 9. Now: Maris

Maris travels from the sunlit Citadel halls into the cold catacombs, recalling how the rebellion truly began with Vitrasian’s death and Luca Matius dragged below, screaming. Once a monthly rite, she now bleeds the Priestess weekly, recognizing Ophelius is less protected than imprisoned and complicit in her own decline.

Inside the cell divided by iron bars, Maris performs the purifications and prepares the altar. Ophelius, emaciated and near death, quickly perceives Maris has taken her tribunal oath and condemns it, saying Maris’s fate has changed again. She pointedly asks whether Luca knows and urges Maris to go to him.

Maris refuses, citing fresh hangings on the bridge and the danger of any contact. She lights incense and resumes prayer, but Ophelius insists “it’s time,” claiming the gods are at work and that Luca will need Maris for what comes next. Maris draws Ophelius’s godsblood, watching the flow slow as the Priestess’s strength fails.

When Ophelius’s hand edges toward the knife, Maris recognizes the repeated plea for assisted death. She pointedly denies it, binding the wound and returning the blade to her box, aware that Ophelius’s death would end Isara’s magic and doom the city. Ophelius returns Maris’s modest offering, warning that wrath is coming and demanding Maris choose which side of the river she will stand on.

Shaken, Maris leaves with her faith conflicted but intact. She rejects Ophelius’s nihilism, refuses a dangerous meeting with Luca, and preserves the Priestess’s life—maintaining the dwindling magic even as ominous prophecy suggests a decisive, fiery reckoning ahead.