The light Clare had created had likely gone out when she left the carriage, and the darkness inside it now was oppressive. The previous events replayed in my mind endlessly. Almost every aspect of it gave my mind another rabbit hole to spin down, but I couldn't help but wonder how much my lack of knowledge of the world held back my understanding of what I had seen. To illuminate such a large area with what seemed to be only an unleashing of the power within her was an impressive feat, even from my standing of knowing next to nothing about magic. It reminded me of Erin vaporizing a town, but she did that with power amplifiers. The other thing that set them apart was that the great pillar of fire conjured by Erin produced no heat, but Clare's aura provided a gentle warmth. There was something unnerving about it, oddly, in spite of how nourishing it felt.
I didn't know the intricacies of the white flames of the Church, however their lack of heat was consistently stated as one of their hallmarks; with the existence of flames of all colors, a white flame in and of itself wasn't particularly special, however its almost complete lack of destructive effects on anything but the beasts, down to even a lack of a potentially harmful heat, was the thing that set it apart from the other flames. The fact that Clare was able to overcome that fact spoke more than I knew, although knowing vaguely what I didn't know was at least something.
After a few minutes in silence, Clare re-made the light in the carriage, once more inviting conversation, and seeing that they weren't eager to speak, I took the initiative.
"So… that seemed like overkill, but I liked it."
Lemon chuckled.
"That wasn't overkill; they're still alive."
"Lemon."
"Sorry, but am I wrong?"
Clare sighed.
"I think those that take advantage of others, to begin with, are despicable, and those that take advantage of those who have nothing even more so, but that doesn't mean they deserve to die. It's rare for people to change their fundamental nature, but they can change the way they interact with others, and even though it is disingenuous to their true character, the outcome is still positive for the world, so I give people a chance, even if they are despicable."
"And if they don't change?"
"Someone less merciful than myself typically gets to them at that point, but if they show not only an unwillingness to change, but a lack of ability to change, then I am not so merciful as to not be willing to sacrifice one for the many."
"Seems at odds with the position of a healer in the Church."
"No. Quite the opposite, actually. Remember that the main goal of the Church is to maintain order and stability in the world; through order comes peace and a semblance of being content. To that end, the Church is willing to reduce destabilizing elements by many different means, death being one."
"The others?"
"Recruitment."
Before she could respond, Lemon chimed. It seemed to be entirely reflexive, and he seemed surprised to hear himself speak. He cleared his throat, gathered his thoughts, and explained further.
"The most threatening thing to the stability borne of the Church isn't physical threats, on account of the Pope being, by all accounts, truly godlike in power, but ideological threats; in other words, anything that could make people question the power and ability of the Church. The Pope can defend people against any threat, and I'd wager before they even knew about it, but he can't change their minds, so keeping their faith becomes vital, and people straying away from the Church becomes the main concern. I got off topic. The point I was going to make is that people gaining influence outside of the Church can intentionally or unintentionally make people question the true strength of the Church. One of the best methods to not only retain their image, but also to regain what of it they lost, is to rope in those influential people into their command."
"Makes sense. I assume, since you brought it up, that that's what happened with you?"
"More or less, but we all have our reasons for being here."
"I see…. So, Adjudicators and Bishops serve as projections of the Church's power?"
"That's one way to think of them, yes, although they do have their practical purposes. In a sense, we also serve that role. As for the other major player in that role, I think Clare can speak more to it than I can."
She looked at him, her thoughts unclear.
"You know just about as much about it as I do."
Lemon said nothing, looking at her with expectant eyes and a smirk. She sighed lightly in resignation.
"He's talking about the Heroes."
"Oh yeah, right. They pick Heroes from people who are already powerful and influential in an area, right? I imagine that does a good job in extending the influence of the Church, even if indirectly."
"Yes. With the Golden Knights and, of course, the Pope himself, the Church doesn't lack strong people, but their influence and the trust they've earned from people is irreplaceable."
"What happens if the person the Church wants doesn't agree to serve?"
Clare simply sighed, while Lemon smirked.
"My position limits what I can say, and my knowledge on the subject only extends so far. All I can say is that there hasn't been anyone the Church as deemed worthy of being a Hero who has declined their offer."
"Meanwhile, my position doesn't limit shit. I can speculate as much as I want. You want to hear my theories?"
"Are theories all they are?"
"Depends who you ask."
"Sure then. Why not."
Clare turned her head away from us.
"Put on the record that I was in the other carriage for this."
"Will do. Now, on to conspiracies. To preface this, everything I'm about to say is based on only a handful of examples. There are three things that have to happen in order for someone to be known as a potential Hero. One is that the Church sees them as Hero potential, second is that someone else knows the Church sees them as Hero potential, and third is that that person tells other people about it. The truth is that the majority of Heroes do agree when asked, which leaves a small amount of potential-potential Heroes. For the few who say no, however, well, this is where things get interesting. You see, one of two things happen. They either die, or they gradually fade from the spotlight until they're forgotten, relegated to a bright spot in the history of a city."
"How would they die? Aren't Heroes only below the Pope in strength?"
"There is a stark difference between a Hero and a potential Hero. We, as in the public, don't know what happens once someone becomes a Hero, but they all experience an explosive increase in strength in the time between accepting the position and being officially announced. Before that, they're just exceptionally strong, but not invincible. If they tried to go against anything higher than a medium strength wave on their own, they'd die; if a group of strong or crafty individuals ganged up on them, they'd die. Oddly, potential Heroes that die only ever seem to die valiantly fighting off a strong wave at a time where they lack the typical support provided by the Church, or the enemies they made over the years decide to group up to deal with them."
"You're saying the Church has something to do with it?"
"The evidence seems to point to that."
"How, though? The Church can't make a strong wave happen, and a group of random people with significantly higher than average strength would make people start asking questions, so they'd have to be not just known about, but also known enemies of the person. The Church can't manufacture that overnight."
"Right you are. However, your thought process is too linear, and you underestimate not only the power of the Church, but also its patience. The Church may not be able to create a wave, but they can control who gets stationed at forts and cities, as well as what forces are in the nearby area. As I said earlier, the Church can't change people's thoughts directly, but they can absolutely pull strings here and there, or hypothetically make things lean just a bit further one way or another, make someone's luck inexplicably worse with circumstantial evidence pointing towards a specific person. I imagine it's only really limited by your creativity."
"I suppose. Do you have a reason for bringing this up?"
"No, not particularly. Mostly just making conversation. I don't actually remember how we got on this."
"I don't think there's a 'we'."
"Shut up."
"You were talking about how what Clare did earlier wasn't overkill."
"Right, that."
He looked at Clare who somehow sensed his expectant gaze and sighed.
"It's fair to know who you're working with if you're expected to entrust your life to them."
"Alright then."
He adjusted his posture and tried to adopt a serious expression, but a smirk still crept through.
"This is best told as a story, I think, and I'll start at the beginning."