Chapter 118: Chapter 118

The Anymphea didn’t mind that the duel was interrupted. Apparently, Ascelkos had seen enough and considered it a fine duel. He even thanked me for it and said that the Anymphea were open to talking about my plan regarding the rest of them finding some place to stay in Ring Four. Kyris agreed as well.

Honestly, kind of weird. I hadn’t expected people who looked like mythological nymphs to be the kind of people who would be convinced by a showing of force, though I suppose this was far from the same kind of brawl as tended to occur at the Adventurer’s Guild.

Not that we got the opportunity to discuss it just then. At that moment, Captain Revayne was taking up all my time.

“What is the meaning of this, Cultist Ross Moreland?” she asked.

“Hmm, would you like my middle name too?” I asked back. “It would add to the effect of calling me out.”

She grumbled under her breath. “Please take this seriously. I found these Scarthralls, who are supposed to be under your care, wandering around on Ring Four and spying on others.”

I shot Lujean and Vandre a soft glare. “What’s the first rule of spying, you two?” Newest update provıded by novèlfire.net

“Not getting caught,” they said in unison.

Revayne’s lips quirked up for just a second before she scowled again. “That isn’t the point. Had I not intervened in time, who knew what would have happened after Lord Kalnislaw found them.”

“Lord Kalnislaw?” I stared at my apparently wayward duo again. Lujean was still looking away while Vandre scratched the back of his head partly apologetically and partly in confusion. Those two had a lot to tell.

“Nothing would have happened,” Lujean said.

“Really?” Revayne glared at him. “I came in hearing you explain to him how you’d been spying around the neighbourhood. You’re lucky his reaction was contained until I got there. He could have Ensorcelled you to do much worse.”

“Ensorcelled…” I said, now with growing alarm.

“We weren’t Ensorcelled!” Vandre protested hotly.

“That’s what someone who was Ensorcelled so easily would say,” Revayne said. She pursed her lips. “You need to remember you’re Scarthralls. Other Scarseekers naturally pose significant danger to your autonomy. Old ones like Lord Kalnislaw possess a high-ranked Aspect of Ensorcellment, strong enough that you won’t even notice your mind being tampered with.”

“That can’t be real,” Vandre said. He was stepping back, looking genuinely agitated now. “I’d have felt it.”

“Then explain why you were so easily telling him all about your spying activities?”

“I—I was…” Vandre subsided with a loud curse.

Lujean looked morose, like he had already accepted it.

I, on the other hand, refused to do so. “Where’s Lord Kalnislaw now?”

Revayne frowned. “I suggest against doing anything foolish. What he did isn’t illegal, no matter how much you find it reprehensible, Ross.”

I didn’t want to accept that. Not so easily. Someone tampering with the heads of my fellow cultists wasn’t a conscionable act. Sure, Lord Kalnislaw had apparently not done anything criminal or even questionable after manipulating the Scarthralls. But the very act of gaining control of their minds, to some extent, was disgusting.

“I won’t do anything,” I said. My words were stiff and rigid. “But only if you do something for me, Captain Revayne. Please pass on a message to Lord Kalnislaw to not mess with the Scarthralls—with any Scarthrall—ever again. Not unless he wants his son to never come out of the undercity.”

That shocked all three of them. We had kindly been given some privacy, so it wasn’t like I was telling sensitive information to just about anybody who could listen. Especially since the construction workers had departed after Ascelkos had promised the fight was over—the foreman had congratulated me before leaving like I had won a big prize or something.

“I will not be saying such things to Lord Kalnislaw,” Revayne said. “And I highly recommend you don’t either. Don’t let anger ruin the work you’ve done, Ross.”

“I will remind him that the Scarthralls are citizens of Zairgon, and that obvious use of Ensorcellment will only lend credence to the idea that any mistake or crime or anything negative associated with the Scarthralls comes as a result of Scarseeker influence.”

I closed my eyes for a moment or two and took a deep breath. Revayne was right, in essence. If I hadn’t let my rage at being summoned here against my will blind me, then I shouldn’t let my anger at the Scarthralls’ violation affect my judgment. My actions needed to be more rational than emotional, at least when it came to dealing with people like the Kalnislaws.

It was just incredibly hard to push away the strange feeling of near-powerlessness. I was once again reminded of the last moments of Elder Escinca, of the battle where I had been forced to tear open Tural’s chest. Why did the memories keep resurfacing so annoyingly?

“Thank you,” I said to Revayne after I took a bit to calm down.

When I looked at the Scarthralls meaningfully, they both coughed into their hands.

“Thanks muchly, Captain Revayne,” Lujean said.

Vandre nodded. His words robotic. “Yes, thanks a lot again. For everything.”

Revayne nodded tightly. I wasn’t exactly in a mood to continue chatting, much as I did want to since it had been a while. Plus, Revayne herself said she was rather busy at the moment. So, we parted for now, though we promised we’d catch up soonish.

“Everything alright?” Ascelkos asked afterwards.

I glanced at my companions. “Small bit of trouble but nothing too serious.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to explain everything to the Anymphea just then, so I moved the conversation along. It was a little hard, but talking about meaningful stuff helped me forget about Kalnislaw. “Now that we agree my plan has some merit, when do you want to talk more about it?”

“I’m a little busy over the next few days,” he said. “But maybe after that? We can talk at the Mage Guild.”

He glanced at Kyris as he spoke. I wondered what their relationship was. Well, I knew she was his mother, obviously. But I was more curious as to their roles in leadership of their tribe. She seemed to basically give him free reign while remaining by his side for guidance and advice when needed. A good mom.

“Interpreter Moreland,” she said. “I’m afraid we don’t have the right situation to host you properly.”

“Oh please, don’t mention it,” I said. “It was nice meeting you all again.”

Kyris smiled. “Regardless, I would like to invite you to our Bloomwagons and avail yourself of what humble offerings we possess there.”

I smiled. “I’d like to see them some time too.”

When we finally headed back down towards Ring Four, we didn’t speak for a while. Both Scarthralls had conflicted, troubled looks, though neither were as angry as I was expecting them to be. Instead, they looked scared.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “If we’re careful, this won’t ever be an issue.” My face hardened. “I’ll make sure of it.”

They took some solace from that.

Lujean tried to change the subject. “We heard a few interesting things, Cultist Ross. You know, about the Earth Cult and what they’re up to.”

I perked up at that. “Wait, so they did come to Ring Two today?”

“Yes, they did. Vandre saw them first and then we both followed.”

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The other Scarthrall nodded, and they launched into a story of what they had been up to.

We had discussed beforehand that the Earth Cult would most likely be somewhere around the Drihawk estate. As such, the Scarthralls had headed in that direction, while maintaining as outwardly unsuspicious a look as they could.

There was no telling if the Earth Cult would have come today, but fate had smiled on them.

But of course, finding the Earth Cult was just the start. They had to get close enough to listen in on everything.

That was trickier, but Lujean managed to find the right balance between staying inconspicuously far enough behind their quarry while also being close enough to pick up what was being said. It was tough work, but they managed to pick up snippets here and there.

“They were talking about transferring funds,” Vandre said as we made our way through the Preserve. “And preparing more of their weapons, armour, gear, that sort of thing.”

That sounded normal enough. The real intel of interest was revealed at their destination, when they reached House Drihawk.

“You went inside the manor?” I asked.

“We couldn’t go too far in,” Vandre said. “I was worried about triggering any Wards or other alarms, so we stayed within the outer grounds honestly.”

“That said,” Lujean added. “I did distract the guards enough for Vandre to slip in and get some information.”

I held back my concern for a moment. “What else did you learn?”

“Nothing too specific,” Vandre said. His brows were once again furrowed, his red eyes glimmering a little. “I heard them talking about an invasion. It’s supposed to be the Blight Swarm, I think, but I can’t help but think it means something more sinister.”

An invasion… He was right, my first thought was the Blight Swarm. But at the same time, what if it was a code word for something else?

“One other thing we heard,” Lujean said. “Was that they would wait until their neighbours had finished acting, or something along those lines.”

Vandre, who was the one who had heard it, confirmed it was pretty much what Lujean had paraphrased.

That gave me a bad feeling, but I held back on my postulations.

Mostly, I couldn’t believe the Scarthralls were able to find out as much as they had. They had infiltrated Drihawk grounds too, which honestly was rather irresponsible of both them and me. Did that have something to do with them getting caught by Lord Kalnislaw?

“I don’t want you guys to get caught up any further in this mess,” I said.

“But Cultist!” Lujean protested. “If those Earth Cult bastards—”

“If they’re planning something, then we’ll need to find out more and act accordingly, yes. But we’ll do so responsibly and carefully. Do you understand?”

They both nodded after a bit.

“Don’t get me wrong,” I said. “I’m grateful for what you’ve found out. But still. Revayne was right. You were lucky with Kalnislaw and you were also lucky that you weren’t caught at the Drihawk estate. Things could have gone a lot worse. Something I should have realized too, so you’re not the only ones at fault here. But you get what I’m saying, right?”

Lujean nodded. “We do. Well, I do. Vandre however…”

“I do too. It’s just…” Vandre sighed. “Well, I don’t know. It feels… awful to realize what happened with this Kalnislaw…”

I grit my teeth. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. I… can hardly imagine what that’s like. But like I said, all we need to do is be careful and be wary. And I should have warned you about it too. I hadn’t realized he could pose a problem like that, especially after everything that’s happened.”

But I was starting to suspect that Kalnislaw hadn’t even seen that as a problem. Like what he had done was nothing concerning at all. That’s how little people from Ring Four meant to nobles here.

Vandre didn’t look convinced, even after Lujean echoed the same sentiment. Not surprising. The trauma of getting his mind hijacked without him even being able to tell wouldn’t be resolved so easily.

The next day, I spent time training again. I didn’t ask how much Lujean and Vandre told the other Scarthralls about their misadventures, but they all seemed pretty focused on their sparring and on raising their Attributes. Apparently, several of them were nearly halfway to Silver now, which was pretty good considering it hadn’t been that long since they had started working with me.

While I was glad to get the physical exercise in, what I really focused on was exploring Liturgize. Favoile’s advice had been to figure out a process that others would willingly want to emulate, and I had ideas for that, based on the commonalities we shared.

Growth. That was it. That was what it came down to for a good chunk of the members at the Cult of the Sun. If I could find a way to facilitate that, then they would all want to take it up.

Which meant I had to invent something like a Ritual of Growth.

There were a few notes about what defined Rituals in amongst the exchanges between Kostis and Elder Escinca. While that wasn’t the same as directions on how to create them, the definitions that made them up were still helpful.

For instance, the first part that I had already considered with Favoile was the need for Rituals to be something established, something that was accepted and followed.

Another part of the definition was the need for ritualistic and sacred processes. I couldn’t just eat and drink, finish my job, and take care of my chores before calling that whole thing the Ritual of My Daily Life. That wasn’t going to fly. No, whatever process I came up with needed a direct relation to my faith.

I went over the Rituals I had performed thus far. The Ritual of Remembrance had been a celebration of Escinca’s life for us, but also an entreaty for his soul to be blessed in the Beyond.

In a similar vein, the Ritual of Precaution was merely asking for guidance and safety while still living. The Ritual of Purification obviously had religious context, where I was purifying myself as a faithful follower, washing away my sins and all that. Then there was that Ritual we had observed at the cult meeting. Again, obvious relation to the Banished Gods.

So all I needed to do was prove that the steady rise of our power wasn’t just a selfish growth that benefited us individually. Rather, it was something that would enrich the cult, and in turn, improve the faith we harboured towards the Banished Gods. In our specific case, towards Arl the sun god.

Even now, after a few months as a cultist, I still sometimes didn’t feel like one. It wasn’t that I struggled with imposter syndrome or had a hard time believing in myself.

Rather, it was more that I had trouble putting faith in any sort of god, even when I had ample reason to believe in their existence.

It was probably the bias of my own experiences speaking, because back on Earth, anything related to prayer and faith always felt like giving up too much of my own will. Like things were supposed to happen according to some grand plan, so what was even the point of me doing anything? Divine-mandated fate didn’t leave room for personal agency.

That made me take some time to think about it. It made me look at some of the scriptures Escinca had lovingly stored around the temple, made me fly up to the temple’s broken roof and just stare at the small red sun we had on Ephemeroth.

I realized that maybe I didn’t have to think of faith the way I thought I needed to do so.

What had made me invested in the cult wasn’t the fact that it was ostensibly a religious institution. Instead, it was the fact that it was a place built to assist and improve its surrounding community that gave it greater depth. That made it feel like it had true meaning and purpose. I was pretty sure that was what made so many people want to join up.

The community. That’s what it was all about.

I was a part of that community now, and it required me to interact with it. It needed me to give a certain bit of my time and energy, and in return, the community was there for me when I needed it. Such as when the other Scarthralls had stood up for me against the doubters among them. Or how people like Aqrea were willing to help me with my job.

And it could be the same for the gods. For prayer. For faith. It didn’t have to be me giving up my agency or free will or whatever.

Instead, it was just me offering up a bit of my time and my devotion in return for some help here and there.

So that was what I did. Before training, I took a minute or two to just think about everything I wanted to accomplish and why that was important, not just for me but for my friends and for the cult and maybe even for the Banished Gods, in a distant way. Then I worked on improving my Attributes.

I was frank when I introduced it to the Scarthralls, telling them it was about gaining a new Affix for Ritual. They saw no problem with it at all.

I didn’t get the Affix that day, not even when Aurier and Sreketh joined in, even though we all followed the process pretty strictly and it felt like we were following a real Ritual. Every time I performed it, I was left basking in a weirdly incongruent sensation that filled me with both stolidity and energy.

But after a night where I spent training my flagging Vitality—I belatedly realized I could just rise high in the air before throwing myself down—it worked the next morning.

Ritual Established: Ritual of Growth. You have performed 1 [Moderate] Ritual of Growth. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Rank gain hastened by 2x for Iron-ranked Attributes, Aspects, and Paths, by 1.5x for Silver-ranked Attributes, Aspects, and Paths, and by 1.25x for Gold-ranked Attributes, Aspects, and Paths for 1 hour and 15 minutes. ]

You have acquired a new Affix for your Ritual Aspect.

Your Vitality Attribute has risen by one Rank.

Your Ritual Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Your Path of the Archon Apostle has risen by one Rank.

Path of the Archon Apostle: Silver VI ]

I grinned. Ritual was now full up on Affixes till I hit Silver with it. Which wasn’t going to take long at this rate.