[zapdragon555]

[human form]

Well, the church was… imposing, Faramin supposed. Large. Not imposing; he wasn't intimidated by the immense stone building before him in the least. But it was certainly… very… very large. Faramin swallowed slightly, his throat shifting, and he glanced behind him, peeking out from under his hood at the long shadows stretching from the faint, pale light of the set sun. He shifted, touching his fingertips to the place where his heart was, and he sighed through his nose, a loose smile spreading over his face. A piece of Master was with him. Everything would be fine, everything would go smoothly. All he was to do was steal a few artifacts. Surely such a task was not so difficult that he was about to displease Tinneen.

With silent movement Faramin slinked into the shadow of the church wall and melted into the shadows, moving silently along the wall, and he slipped under the door. Faramin resurfaced once inside, shadowy smoke dripping off of him like liquid, and he peered around with sharp blue eyes, his face in shadows from his hood. Yes… surely this task would be easy, if he trusted in Master's judgement. Surely…

[8]

[Feint]

Human Form

There were two things happening that day that made the little thief's decision a poorly-timed one.

One, Akuyaku had called for a gathering an hour prior and was not yet done, increasing the number of guards stationed about the massive house of worship.

Two, since the followers of the Altean-born cult worshiped light, Akuyaku demanded that the light beaming throughout her church be artificially intensified to the point of pain during any form of gathering, and this was precisely what was happening now.

Fortunately, the many guards couldn't see either, but how much of a blessing that was remained to be said.

Sealed within the innermost room, Akuyaku brushed dust away from her flowing sleeves. This meeting was going very well. She lifted a gold-leaf book from a special compartment in the ground, placed it on the podium before her, then carefully turned six pages. The action, however simple, seemed to have meaning, as the room of followers around her tensed in response.

[zapdragon555]

Faramin located a door in the small dark room he was in, which he assumed to be some sort of backdoor mudroom, but frowned to see that an intense light was pouring in from under the door. He shivered, his skin crawling. Why so much light? Surely there wasn't any sort of service going on… Faramin shifted uncomfortably, realizing Master's powers would be of much less use here, if the light was so strong, but…

Steeling himself, Faramin shifted the hood on his head so that his face was better in shadows, and he opened the door as silently as he could, nearly blinded by the light. He hissed involuntarily, then shut his mouth quickly, and his eyes as well. He listened carefully; the room he was currently in was silent as death, but somewhere further into the church he could hear the faintest shifting movement coming from some inner room. So that power still worked; he sent a prayer of thanks to Master for that, and his heart warmed slightly with happiness. But this was no time to boast, for he still could not see, and he felt the light stinging his exposed hands with a dull pain as he stood still in the room. He wouldn't be able to find any sort of artifacts with all that light. So first, he would have to find some way to make things a little dimmer.

[If there are guards in the room, I assume they aren't moving, so he can't hear them until they move haha.]

[9]

[Feint]

(repost)
(wow this was a long one lol. hopefully that's enough noise to go by... I figured armored guards stamping would be pretty darn loud, but they're not exactly going off 24/7)

What Faramin couldn't see was that the internal layout of the building was roughly circular, and that he was, in fact, shut inside a secret passage covered by a painting of... what the cult apparently thought of Zu'hai. Certainly such a benevolent figure couldn't possibly love corpses so much.

In any case, there were no guards posted outside the door he was behind, nor were there any nearby. The building was laid out like a sun, with two main halls circling the innermost room, which had only one door, facing south. The entrance to the first hall was offset from the second, neither facing the same direction as the innermost door, forcing anyone who walked through to essentially walk in a circle - Akuyaku wanted her followers to feel with their fatigue that their sun was truly their god, but she was very careful about it. On both halls, there was an entire side that no visitor was allowed to go anywhere near, and it was in these rooms that Faramin's relics were resting - as well as an unpleasant surprise.

But, I digress. Where the clock would chime the hour, there was a door, and on each door there were two guards, who occasionally took the time to march in place to restore their blood flow. Beside the two guards on either side were two sets of spare armor, empty, and not encased in glass. From above, the inside of the church resembled a sun with its rays due to the multitude of doors - and there were many secret passages, not that they were eager to be found.

And the guards couldn't see! For the time being, the odds were not in their favor. When Akuyaku concluded her gathering, however, the lights would dim, the guards would resume their rounds, and the high cultist would retreat to her relic rooms to tend to what she stored in there.

Luckily, she had no intention of finishing up what she was doing anytime soon. Without moving any other muscle, the priestess pointed a long, golden nail, so long it resembled a rib, at the top line of the left page. She carefully traced it, marking a line across whatever was written there. Gold dust shimmered in her nail's wake, residue from the leaf coating the pages. A murmur cascaded across the room, fearfully leaping from the throats of her many followers. A cloaked figure, formerly kneeling in front of the priestess at the center of the room, fell to the floor in a deep bow. Tears dripped from their face as they whispered, but it was too soft to be heard...

[zapdragon555]

[Ahh I'm so sorry I didn't reply to this sooner; my muse kinda farted and also I wanted to draw a sort of map that I could go by, since I'm not so good with written directions haha. With that done, here I go!]

Faramin squinted hard against the light, but from his position in his hood, he could barely see anything without his eyes burning. He bit back a hiss, knowing he should make no noise, if there happened to be guards around. He stepped lightly into the room, keeping to the walls, and he held out a hand to touch the wall as he guided himself. Surprisingly, he found it curved... a curved hallway? Well, he supposed that was interesting. The building did look a little bit... for lack of a better word, round, when he saw the outside, but--

Faramin nearly gasped out loud as there was a sound of metal clenching, and he froze, dropping to a crouch as he curled up in a ball. He listened. The sound continued at a steady pace, and then stopped. Marching? Was that marching? So there were guards. He listened for a longer time, and frowned to find that the sound did not continue. Were the guards not moving around? That... seemed silly. Or maybe... they were guarding something. These were the thoughts that flickered through the blue-eyed man's mind, and a slow grin wound over his face. Guarding something. Something very much worth taking, likely. Faramin took solace in the fact that no one could see, or at least he hoped no one could see, and he crept forward, towards the sound of the marching in hopes that he could either sneak past the guards or fight. Though he figured the latter could be risky, if Faramin couldn't see.

[9]

[Feint]

[Nah it's okay, I figured the length of it was probably a little intimidating, and it is xD I tried shortening it but my issue was that I needed a building layout AND I needed to get aku in there or I wouldn't get cred for the post :T SO COMPLICATED]

The guard nearest Faramin was, put bluntly, very tired. He had stood on his feet for roughly six hours, and was beginning to feel pain where there had been soreness. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck, underneath his thick layers of golden plate, thick cotton, and chainmail.

Still, he marched every sixty seconds as ordered, and would guard his post until dismissed. He did not dare cross the high priestess, lest he offend their shared god. She was chosen, after all, not like him. He had simply filled a needed position - and there were plenty of other people who could handle that.

It was a privilege to stand and march until your legs collapsed, according to the fiend that held her kneeling subjects in a quivering terror, judged without a trial. It was a privilege that could easily be taken away, just like the privilege of living without fear, of having a family, of keeping that family, and of course, like living at all. All must be clean, lest Zu'hai come and destroy.

[zapdragon555]

After awhile Faramin began to take solace in the steady, though halting noise of the guards shuffling around. It got louder as he crept closer, and soon it was so loud he was almost certain the guard could be right in front of him, if not for the blinding light everywhere. There was still that uncertainty. Master Tinneen would know exactly what to do in this situation, but in truth, Faramin felt the creeping of doubt and anxiety trickle into his heart. What if he failed? What if he was killed in that place? Surely Tinneen would not retrieve his body. He would rot, in there, or be tortured, or... or...!

Finally, unable to take it any longer, Faramin tiptoed forward, trying to make sure the guard's noise was on his left side at all times, until his hands found what he was certain was a door. He fumbled around for the handle, praying the guards wouldn't see him as he tried to silently find the opening.