Solace of the Sun

By Greagory Mackay

"When faith is corrupted by the shadow of greed, the pure of heart must set it free."

In an alternate 1603, where different nations and empires rose to power, Retra lies upon the precipice of ruin. Natural disasters and civil strife have cast the theocratic nation into a dark age, leaving its people to suffer as their leaders s

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greagory Mackay
• Release date: Oct 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985754919

Book preview

Solace of the Sun

Author Foreword

The setting of this book takes place in a fictional country made up of fictional people. However, surrounding geometry is based on real locations, and while different nations, cultures, rulers, and empires have risen up in this alternate timeline, this is very much the Europe of yore. What follows are the decisive actions of a select few, who will not only dictate the fate of their small nation, but, in due time, dictate the fate of the entire continent as well.

SOLACE

OF THE

SUN

BOOK ONE OF

THE RETRIBUTION SERIES

GREAGORY MACKAY

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2022 by Greagory Mackay

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

First paperback/ebook edition 2022

Cover Design by David C. at colonfilm.com

Copy Edit by Lisa G. at enchantedinkpublishing.com

ISBN 979-8-9857549-0-2 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-9857549-1-9 (ebook)

Published by Greagory Mackay

For those who chose to believe

Chapter One

"When faith is corrupted by the shadow of greed, the pure of heart must set it free.

"The path is fraught with peril, for the wicked have twisted a world of charity into a dark land where heresy reigns supreme. The sinner preys on the complacencies of those who would surrender their faith to blind comfort, and twists spiritual belief into a maniacal creature of ego that brings forth the slow death of everything that was once good and true.

To defeat the ones who lurk in shadows, those who are pure of heart must open their minds and understand that those who claim to be closest to the Divine Sun are, in actuality, the furthest away from Its divine light.

Of all the holy scriptures Robin Rivera knew, this was the one she kept closest to her heart. It was more poignant with every passing day as Retra continued its slow descent into ruin, for it was a reminder on how men will stand by and do nothing while corruption rots their faith away from the inside. She kept it in mind every day when she reported for duty at the Grand Abbey, as it was the reminder she needed for who she was and why she was seeking ascension. If sin had found its way into the Divine Council, she would be the one to dispel it by working her way through the system and proving herself a better example, no matter what was in her way.

Or so she told herself.

As Robin stood in front of the door to Mother Harriet’s office, she hesitated.

It’s just a simple request, she reassured herself. There’s nothing wrong with asking. After all, it’s been seven months. Surely I deserve to know what’s going on. It’s as easy as walking in, addressing Mother Harriet with the proper etiquette, and asking her as politely as I can what’s going on.

She didn’t move.

Horrifying images of wildly exaggerated scenarios played out in her imagination. Perhaps Harriet would laugh at her or tell her to lower her expectations. Worse, the matriarch might dismiss Robin from the Clergy entirely for having the sheer audacity to ask questions.

Such imagined horrors provided further incentive for Robin to forget this entire business and go back to breaking her body on the stone tiles, brush in hand, to battle the dust and dirt as she had every day for the past two seasons.

No. I came here for a reason. I won’t be ignored anymore.

She knocked.

A voice came from inside. Enter.

Robin stepped inside the office cautiously, bowing her head and chest forward in a formal greeting toward the woman seated at the desk.

Mother Harriet’s keen eyes peered at Robin. The matriarch sat on a simple wooden chair, thin hands making quill and ink cry on a piece of parchment. She had placed her storm-colored hair in an elegant knot, proudly displaying her imposing features. A gray habit stretched to her moccasins, signifying her station as matriarch and covering a plump form. Lips as thin as a hair pressed down in disapproval before the woman set her quill down.

Sun’s Blessings upon you, Novice, Harriet said stiffly.

Wetting a throat as dry as a desert, Robin collected her hands behind her back in a formal pose. Sun’s Blessings, Mother. Can I have a word?

I hope it is quick, given you are currently derelict in your duties.

Undeterred by the matriarch’s suffocation of freedom, Robin stepped closer, struggling to find the words she had carefully crafted in her mind. Elegant phrases created over many sleepless nights were mixing around, producing an amalgamation of nonsense. Precious time ticked away, and she knew the more prolonged the silence, the shorter Harriet’s tolerance became.

I wished to discuss my current duty, Robin said, trusting her tongue not to tie itself into knots.

Is that so? Harriet gathered her hands together on the desk and straightened her posture. Go on.

It’s been nearly seven months since I first came to the Clergy, Robin said, and I have performed my tasks diligently without complaint. I always earn high marks in my studies. I’ve done everything in my power to qualify for the apprenticeship, but it hasn’t happened yet. I-I was wondering if there’s some reason I haven’t been granted one yet, Mother.

Harriet betrayed nothing on her stern slate of a face as she listened. Robin stared in silence afterward, fearing Harriet could hear her heartbeat drumming wildly in anticipation.

After an eternity passed, Harriet expelled a stressed sigh. Very well, she said. I suppose you deserve the truth, given what you have said is correct. It’s been difficult to place you, Novice. You joined the Clergy among many others, and there are only so many clergymen available to train the influx of novices. In addition, your insistence on being assigned to a priest only complicates matters further. The priesthood is competitive and only awarded to the most dedicated of our students.

But there are novices who joined after me who were assigned to priests, and they weren’t nearly as—

Do not interrupt, Harriet said. Their journeys differ from yours, Miss Rivera. You should know better than to be envious of your peers.

I’m not envious, Robin said, pressing her claim. I just feel as though I’ve been looked over.

You are not the only one. There are plenty of others waiting in line.

"But they’ve only been waiting for two or three months! I’ve been waiting for seven!"

Harriet expelled an irritated breath through flared nostrils. It would be easier if you were to become a bishop or a cleric. There is always demand for those fields.

Robin had no desire to manage the country’s finances and did not have the stomach for practicing medicine. I want to be a priestess. Nothing else.

Harriet’s expression hardened. You won’t be anything if you continue to act like a spoiled child. I will not tolerate these entitled behaviors of yours any longer. It’s unbecoming of you and all the Divine Sun’s virtues. If that’s all you came in here to say, then you may leave.

Sharp fury rose to Robin’s tongue, threatening to unleash itself in haphazard fashion. But she knew expelling her indignation would be like the wind howling against the mountain, and nothing would change. There was also the risk that if she pushed any further, the situation would grow worse.

Fighting back the sting in her eyes, Robin turned to storm out of the office without a proper goodbye.

Feet slapped the ground indignantly, echoing down the halls of the Abbey. Rejection was a bitter taste that she refused to swallow.

How much longer am I going to wait? This is ridiculous! One girl became an apprentice to a priest after two months, and she didn’t even do well at her studies. It’s hard not to be envious when I am more than qualified to begin my apprenticeship. Something else is at play here, but what?

Looking down at her hands, Robin bit back the anger flowing through her veins as the silent certainty of the next passing thought threatened to overwhelm her. She wished to doubt the growing suspicion, for if it was true, there was little she could do about it. To be condemned for something so simple seemed to defy all rational thought, and yet it was the only reasonable conclusion she could draw from the predicament she found herself in.

☀

Robin expelled the story to her father over dinner that night as they dined on broth and teenage angst. Despite having left her childhood home for the Clergy, she still visited him every week to converse and ruminate. It was a ritual she had grown to depend on, as her father was the only one in Retra she could be completely honest with and not suffer any judgment for her complaints.

Tomás Rivera hung on to his daughter’s every word, as he always had over the years, showing clear attentiveness in his appropriate silence. When her lungs struggled for air and red overtook her features, his weathered hand patted her own.

Feeling better? he asked, his Navarran accent clear and prominent.

A little, she mumbled. Robin’s frustrations melted away like butter on a hot day as his thumb stroked her knuckles.

Good. Now, do you wish for my advice?

There was nothing but genuine affection and care in her father’s warm brown eyes. His black hair, tousled in a neat mess that hung around his lined face, gave him a deceptively youthful appearance, and it matched the scraggly salt-and-pepper beard framed around a kind mouth. Nobody could ever claim Tomás Rivera did not look the part of a friend, and if they did, he could easily change their minds with his charms. It was what made him a good merchant, even if his craft was only selling rugs.

Please, Robin asked, placing immense value on anything her father had to offer.

Very well. He cleared his throat before scratching his chin with a finger and thumb. Now, to be fair to this Mother Harriet, the problem could be that you are simply another face in the crowd. You joined many other girls after the summer, and it could be the Clergy is struggling to find a place for everyone.

She perked a brow at him. But?

But I fear something else is at play here, something that is beyond your control. My colleagues and I have been discussing recent things in Retra’s politics, and we’ve noticed something concerning.

What’s that?

There’s no gentle way to put this, her father said softly, but I fear we may have to leave the country.

Of all the things Robin had expected her father to say, this was not one of them. Wh-what? Why?

We are the newest cause for the Rebellion.

Robin’s bewilderment grew tenfold. ‘We,’ as in . . . ?

We, us, you and I, and everyone else who can claim origins from the City-States. If your skin is darker than a piece of parchment, you are now being blamed for this country’s problems.

I don’t understand, Robin said. "How is it my fault? I’m just a novice!"

Never expect rationality from blind hatred, Robin; you will find none. Now that they no longer have any rebels to blame outside of Addington—wherever he is—the Retanians must point toward another group. He snorted. Anyone besides themselves, of course.

How can they possibly blame us, though? I don’t remember anyone from Navarra fighting in the Rebellion.

Tomás shrugged. I believe it is because they think when we settled in the Frontier some years ago, the people’s protests became louder. They claim we incited their anger and drove them to open heresy. He made a conciliatory gesture with his hands. I imagine the claim is not entirely baseless. We have always found the customs strange and the religion odd. It is likely my countrymen voiced these observations. Hardly enough to start a civil war, though, I would think.

Then why are they doing it if it makes little sense?

Fear-mongering. It is how you control people. Nothing whips up people’s anxieties more than pointing toward someone slightly different from them and shouting, ‘It’s them; they are the problem!’ It’s the same story always told throughout history.

But why would we have to leave Retra?

Because in history, when things like this start happening, it only gets worse. Tomorrow they could exclude us from stores, then the next day they are spitting on us, and on the next day they are kicking us to the ground.

Robin was all too familiar with the bias against her for having a darker skin color than what was normal in Retra, having endured the curious comments from other children growing up and the unspoken judgment hidden so poorly in people’s eyes as she entered preadolescence. Yet nobody had ever expressed an intent to be violent with her. At least, not yet.

You mentioned this had something to do with what’s happening to me at the Abbey, though? Robin asked, circling back to the original topic.

Indeed. It’s likely the prejudice is touching you. You’ve said other novices got apprenticeships, yet you haven’t, despite your high marks. I do not wish to rush to a judgment, but it looks to me like they are holding you back for some unknown reason. It could simply be because they think you are Navarran.

It was the conclusion Robin had been trying to deny herself. If the barrier to her getting into the priesthood was the color of her skin, then she couldn’t do anything to change that. No matter how hard she worked or proved how faithful she was, they would always overlook her for the novices who were true Retanians. The forgotten child, neglected for superficial reasons, forever trying to prove she’s deserving of all the opportunities in the world and always getting rejected for something she couldn’t control.

Do you really think so? Robin asked, afraid of his certainty. There was nothing she detested more than a problem she couldn’t solve through her own means.

It’s likely, but as I said before, it very well could be they are genuinely looking for a place for you, and it’s been exceptionally difficult for them. But I would not hold my breath if I were you. Not while it has been seven months with no end in sight.

Robin shook her head. I can’t just give up. I joined the Clergy for a reason. I want to change things! People need me, and I can’t help them unless I become a priestess. That’s where all the power is!

You’ve always taken the weight of the world on your shoulders, he said, but it’s time to face reality. If hatred against us is rising, then I doubt they will let you ascend to the Council. Retra may not like a foreigner inside their ranks.

But I’m not a foreigner. I was born here, and so was mother! Her entire family was!

It’s a shame you look so much like your father, then, Tomás said with a sad smile.

Robin knew that was an exaggeration. While she had inherited his skin, eyes, and black hair, her mother sculpted the rest of her features. Often, when she gazed at the drawn portrait of her parents framed in the hallway, Robin saw Liliane Rivera as a mirror of herself. The puffy cheeks, elegant brow line, wide eyes, sharp jaw, and pronounced chin were all hers. The only true difference was the shape of their noses and their physiognomies; one seemed amused by the world, while the other was disappointed in it.

I guess so, Robin murmured lowly, stirring her broth in unspoken resentment.

Tomás frowned at her. Listen to me, little bird. Never be ashamed of who you are. If there is nothing about yourself that you can change, and people hate you for it, then the problem is with them. You may look Navarran, but you hold your mother’s spirit. If these motherless bastards cannot see that, then they are blind.

Robin blinked at her father’s casual usage of a curse in front of her, but his tongue had only loosened as she aged. There was less of a need to shelter her from casual unpleasantries, especially as more vicious ones were peeking around the corner. I don’t know what I’m going to do if my skin is the problem, she said, trying to ward away the wave of helplessness that followed her statement.

That is why we should leave. We would not have these problems in Navarra.

Robin studied him for a quiet moment. There was something unspoken lingering beneath the surface. "Do you want to leave Retra?"

Tomás looked uncomfortable before sighing harshly. I’ve wanted to for a long time, he said. Ever since your mother passed away, this country has held nothing for me. I did not wish to uproot your life, but now that you are growing up, I cannot resist the call.

Would you leave, even if I stayed here?

He looked away from her, folding his arms over his chest while biting his cheek. Even if he hadn’t spoken it aloud, it was an answer all the same.

Robin could not entirely blame her father for the way he felt. He had only come to Retra along with the other Navarran merchants to make their fortunes, and found true love in a woman destined to perish while producing a single child who was his anchor. Now that she was preparing to leave the nest, Tomás could spread his own wings and fly to wherever his heart desired.

It’s all right, she said, offering a small smile. I understand.

You have your mother’s heart as well. But I do not wish to leave you here, which is why you should come with me. The business with the Clergy, the Rebellion, and now this rising hatred? I do not think good things are waiting for us here. He hummed with gentle consideration. I think you would like Navarra. The air alone is freeing.

But what would I do there?

He shrugged. Anything you want. They have temples down there, too, if you wish to keep pursuing the faith.

"Celtic temples," Robin said, trying to remind her father of the sacrilege that would entail. Saint Retranar had left the Éireannach Empire for his different religious beliefs and founded his own country where his disciples could be free to practice their faith, so to forsake the Sun Above as the sole entity would condemn her to a life of heresy. To even set foot in a Celtic temple would be justification enough for the Sun to send her to the Abyss when she met It in the afterlife.

Her father rolled his eyes. I am sure they will have Sun temples there as well.

But I won’t be able to change anything down there. Retra needs me.

Robin, her father said, lowering his tone, this country’s future will not be solely determined by you.

But Natalia changed things by herself! The High Priestess of the Divine Council had long been Robin’s inspiration ever since the woman first came to power, for Natalia Sirliane was the voice of the people while the other councilors wasted their days hoarding wealth and power.

And the man who helped her do it is dead. You tell me, what has that woman done recently? Nothing, because the Council does not let her. You can’t change that.

Robin gave him an indignant look. He had supported her ambitions in ascending to the Clergy, but she always knew he wanted her to do something else. Now that the obstacles were building, her father was finding any reason he could to make her forget the venture. He considered it a failure and wanted to make her realize that, but she was unsure that this was the end. Maybe another month of work would finally prove her mettle?

And what happens when that month is over, and nothing changes?

He gently shook her shoulder. I know this news is not pleasant. I’m not saying we must leave now, but we will have no choice if this attitude grows worse. I would rather you be safe than continue to dig your heels in and be stubborn about this.

Robin narrowed her eyes at him. I’m not stubborn.

That is exactly what a stubborn person would say.

Robin’s defiance dissolved with a giggle. Well, you only have yourself to blame. You raised me that way.

Tomás rolled his eyes. "Luad’a mantrea, I think you’re right. Normally, I would be proud, but since you’re being a stubborn ass with me, I’m regretting it."

Robin fixated him with a scornful yet playful gaze, shaking her head in mock disapproval.

Tomás returned her look with a mischievous smirk before standing and kissing Robin’s brow as he mussed her hair. Think about it. Get some sleep; you look tired.

I could say the same of you.

Where do you think I’m going? he asked rhetorically, disappearing up the stairs of their home. Good night, little bird!

Robin found it difficult to restrain her smile as she cleaned their meal. It was only proper, as her father had generously cooked it. As she collected their dirtied plates and bowls, her eyes flitted to the third chair across the table. It had remained empty for six years now, save for the shadow of a ghost that yet lingered in the realm of imagination. A scab buried deep inside her heart threatened to peel open, and Robin busied herself with the self-assigned chore to avoid the inevitable hurt that would be elicited from going down that path. She could not think about the missing piece of the puzzle; to do so was a folly of her own making.

As night fully descended on her home, Robin found herself in the hallway full of artwork. She focused on the drawn portrait of her mother and father, studying it as she had done before many times over the years. Her father was wearing his infamous smirk with that kind look in his eyes, while her mother bore a smile that rivaled him in mischievousness. Robin believed her parents had been long-lost soulmates, conspiring to bring warmth and happiness to the world in their own ways. Once they’d had her, they were an unstoppable trio, full of joy and laughter. Life had been simple.

Robin’s hands tightened, wishing they were holding on to the one that wasn’t there anymore. A familiar fire sparked, one of longing and quiet rage. It hadn’t been fair, suffering the deprivation of love and safety borne from a mother’s charity, and she had howled her protests to the world in reckless shows of defiance. Questions upon questions, none of them answered. Her anger hid the despair looming in the depths of her psyche, and it drove her forward to succeed where others wished she would fail.

Now her father was in danger because of those who used any excuse they could to avoid blame for their own actions. She had already lost one parent to the tragedies of war, and she would not lose another to the injustices borne of prejudice. The sinners of Retra threatened to take away more of what she loved, but Robin Rivera dared to look them in the eye and tell them no. They wouldn’t take anything else of hers. Not without a fight.

Chapter Two

Zeal was hard to summon for a task that did not promise to change the world for the better, but the sheer force of will Robin possessed powered her through