The Royal Sept

[Ser Richard]

The royal sept inside the Red Keep has crystal windows placed high in the walls. There are seven altars, one for each of the aspects of the Faith of the Seven. It is located in front of a long slate roofed Keep.

[Ser Richard]

Late at night, when most are resting after the tragedy at the Great Sept, Richard takes his place before the Warrior and stands a vigil there, the quiet of the place having some solace for him. He had killed a man in the great sept, in service of his vows, but still, a holy place. But maybe such a place wasn't holy. Belief resided there, built up with over a century of people looking up to it and the High Septon residing there. The opulence though, the obvious pride, the sheer greed that had existed below the veneer of piety. Such a place had never felt holy to him. It was not set apart for the gods, not a place for men to think of loftier things. It had appeared to be, but the under passages had laid that idea to rest. Human sin had infected the place, maybe even as it had been built.

Such a passage would not likely had been created after the construction, not easily. Holiness had been a paint you applied there, on again, intending to be permanent, but it had degraded over time until the rotten walls had been revealed shamelessly. Maybe Baelor had intended for such a place to be good, and to bring man closer to the gods. Maybe even that was a type of arrogance, to think it was possible. Richard thought that the gods were not found where men tried to bring them. That very act bespoke a belief in the ability to control that which was uncontrollable. It had been that abandoned sept, where nature had taken over, where the green of nature and stone of man met each other best. Through long years such a thing was created, far longer than any structure of man. Maybe that was where he belonged, not in this dirty city. But it was where he was now.

He did not know what the gods wanted, but he let his mind wander to such things.