The aftermath of the 'Miracle of the Two Suns' was a silent, psychological earthquake that shook Veridia to its core. The Cathedral of the Resplendent Light, once the city's spiritual heart, became a house of doubt and whispers. Father Theron, stripped of his divine authority and public credibility, went into seclusion, his spirit shattered, leaving his church leaderless and in disarray. The golden dust that coated the plaza before The Pit became a site of morbid pilgrimage, a tangible reminder of the day their old faith had been dissolved by a new, terrifying truth.
The greatest impact was the exodus. The river of humanity that had turned towards the Sanctuary after the miracle became a flood. Hundreds, then thousands of Veridia's downtrodden—the poor, the sick, the hopeless artisans and laborers from the lower districts—abandoned their lives in the city. They brought their families and their meager belongings, creating a sprawling, chaotic refugee camp at the gates of the Sanctuary. They were drawn by the promise of order and the raw, undeniable power of the Slum God.
This unprecedented growth, however, created a new and desperate crisis. The Sanctuary, already strained, was not equipped to handle such a massive influx. Food supplies dwindled rapidly. Clean water became scarce. The makeshift shelters were overwhelmed. The carefully established order within the Sanctuary's original borders began to fray at the edges as desperation mounted.
Mira, as Warden, was thrown into the heart of the crisis. She worked tirelessly, her new divine energy allowing her to go days without rest, but it was an impossible task. She organized rationing, oversaw the digging of new wells, and used her aura of command to quell disputes before they could erupt into riots. Her new follower, Shiv, proved his worth, using his knowledge of The Pit's hidden cisterns and forgotten storage areas to secure desperately needed resources. But it was not enough. They were trying to hold back a tsunami with a bucket.
"Slum God," she reported to Ravi, her face etched with weariness for the first time since her Blessing. "We are drowning. Your victory has brought us to the brink of collapse. The people's faith is strong, but faith cannot fill an empty stomach. If we cannot provide for them, their hope will turn to despair, and the Sanctuary will consume itself."
Ravi listened, his expression impassive. He stood on the roof of the slaughterhouse, looking down at the sprawling sea of humanity. He could feel their hope, their fear, their hunger. He had shattered their old reality, and now they were looking to him to build a new one.
"You are correct, Warden," he said, his voice calm. "Order cannot be built on a foundation of starvation. A god who cannot provide for his followers is no different from the false priests who offered them empty words."
This was the next stage of his plan. He had established his power through fear and judgment. Now, he would solidify his rule through provision. But he would not conjure food from thin air. His miracles always served a purpose, a lesson.
He turned his gaze to the west, towards the vast, fertile farmlands that supplied Veridia, lands owned and controlled by a handful of corrupt noble houses and merchant guilds. The same houses and guilds that had conspired with Duke Valerius and Baron von Hess. The same houses and guilds whose names were on Seraphina's list.
"The city starves its own people," Ravi mused, a cold, dangerous light entering his eyes. "Its bounty is hoarded by the corrupt, sold at exorbitant prices while the children of The Pit eat scraps. This imbalance is another sin. A sin that must be… corrected."
He summoned Seraphina Vayne.
She arrived looking more like a queen than a disgraced noble, her confidence and bearing amplified by her god's recent triumph. But she too saw the burgeoning crisis at the Sanctuary's borders and knew it was a threat to their entire enterprise.
"My Lady," Ravi began, dispensing with pleasantries. "Your knowledge extends to the city's commerce, does it not? The granaries. The storehouses. The trade routes."
"It does, Slum God," Seraphina confirmed, her jade eyes sharp and analytical. "I know who controls the flow of food into the city. The Granary Guild, led by a council of three merchant lords – Lord Cassian, Lord Petyr, and Lady Isolde. They are notorious for price-fixing and creating artificial scarcities to drive up their profits. They are some of the wealthiest, and most reviled, figures in the city."
"These three… their names are on your list," Ravi stated, less a question than a confirmation.
"Prominently," Seraphina replied with a cold smile. "Their greed has been the cause of more than one famine in the lower districts. They are directly responsible for the suffering of thousands."
"Excellent," Ravi said, the single word hanging in the air with chilling finality. He turned to face her fully. "I have a new task for you, my Hand. A task that requires your unique skills of manipulation and infiltration."
He began to outline his plan, not a plan of brute force and divine storms, but one of subtle, psychological warfare, designed to turn the city's own systems against itself.
"You will not be my dagger this time, Seraphina," he explained. "You will be my poison. You will spread whispers in the Onyx District. Rumors that the Slum God's next judgment will be a 'Famine of Gold', that he will turn all the hoarded grain in the city to useless, glittering dust, just as he did the Sun God's icon."
Seraphina's eyes widened, a slow, predatory smile spreading across her face as she grasped the sheer, wicked genius of the plan.
"You will create panic among the elite," Ravi continued. "At the same time, you will use your agents to approach the lower-ranking merchants, the carriage drivers, the warehouse foremen. You will offer them gold – real gold, which I will provide – to sell their goods now. You will tell them it is better to have gold in hand from a mysterious buyer than a silo full of useless dust tomorrow."
His plan was twofold. The threat of divine destruction would panic the top of the food chain, while the lure of immediate profit would corrupt the bottom. He would use their own greed against them, creating a frantic sell-off, crashing the price of grain and flooding the market.
"And once the panic is at its height, and the Guild's control is shattered?" Seraphina asked, her voice alight with eager anticipation.
"Once the price has collapsed," Ravi said, turning his gaze back to the starving masses, "My Warden will march." He looked at Mira. "You will take your Guard, and the gold I provide, and you will go to the city markets. You will not steal. You will not threaten. You will buy every last grain of wheat, every loaf of bread, every sack of potatoes, at a price so low the merchants will be desperate to sell. You will empty the city's markets and bring the bounty back to our people."
Mira's eyes widened, understanding dawning. This was not just about feeding their people. It was about demonstrating a new kind of power. The power to manipulate markets, to break guilds, to provide for his followers by turning the weapons of the elite against them.
"This will be a declaration, Slum God," Seraphina said, her voice filled with awe. "An economic war. You will prove you can destroy them with more than just divine power."
"I will prove that their systems are fragile, their wealth is illusory, and their control is a myth," Ravi corrected. "Their power is built on the belief that a bag of grain is worth more than a man's life. I will teach them that a man's faith in his god is worth more than all the grain in their city."
He materialized a heavy sack of gold coins at Seraphina's feet. The gold was pure, shimmering with a faint divine light. "This is your ammunition, my Hand. Start the rumors. Sow the fear. The Famine of Gold is coming."
He then looked at Mira, and a similar sack appeared before her. "This is your provision, my Warden. Prepare your Guard. When my Hand gives the signal, you will march, and you will bring back a harvest for our people."
The two women, the dagger and the fist, the High Priestess and the Holy Warden, looked at each other over the sacks of gold. Their rivalry was still present, but it was now dwarfed by the sheer scale and audacity of their God's new plan. They were no longer just instruments of vengeance or order. They were now generals in a divine economic war, about to bring the mighty merchant guilds of Veridia to their knees without a single drop of blood being shed. The age of miracles was moving into a new, and far more insidious, phase.