*Chapter 124 – A Holy War in the Making

Chapter 124 – A Holy War in the Making

The city was amazingly beautiful.  The streets were crowded with people as the sun shined merrily down to warm them, and the place was in pristine condition.  Unlike the dirt road outside the city, within the city walls the roads were made of cobblestone.  Trees and flowers were planted in public spaces to create small parks and gardens at various areas and some of them even hand ponds with fish and benches to sit at.  The architecture of the city was unique, and the guard mentioned to them as they stared that it was traditional elvish styling.  He was quick to inform them however that although much of the city was like this, there were other parts where dwarves and gnomes resided and the architecture differed - though most humans, high elves, and dark elves kept it this way.  Vendors selling good smelling foods passed them by and the very hungry group - who had only been eating berries, nuts, insects and roots over the course of the last couple days had their eyes drawn to the smoked meats and extravagant displays of pastries as they passed by.  Passing the crowds in the lively city, they saw many other posts where guards in green tunics displaying the bird in flight upon them stood by to chat with one another or pedestrians.  Occasional glances their way to look over their strange clothes were noted but for the most part everyone kept to themselves and accepted them as just another part of society.

“That building over there with the spires is the theater,” mentioned the guard as he pointed to an octagon-shaped three story building.  “Plays are held once a day there at midday.  The plays change every week or two though, so if you want to catch a certain play make sure you check the fliers to see when the next cycle begins.  Over there across the road is the arena where fighters can compete for money.  Tickets cost you differently depending on how well known the fighters are.  Sporting events other than fighting are held there too such as races, magical performances, archery contests and other things to provide entertainment.  Over there we have a brothel, an inn, the public baths, and further down we have a bakery and a butcher’s shop.  Those tall structures that run outside the city are aqueducts, we take water from nearby mountain lakes to supply the city with water - and we also have a river nearby the city that’s used more for transportation, fishing, and swimming purposes.  Near where this particular aqueduct exits the city is one of the poorhouses where the crown supplies basic food and shelter to the people of the city who can’t find work or are simply unable to do so because of physical disabilities.  The king has a bleeding heart, and many of the gnomes take advantage of it by not contributing and sitting around all day on the charity we provide.  See that corner over there?  If you turn left and go a bit further down you’ll find a fletcher, leather maker, seamstress, another brothel, and an upper class restaurant before you arrive at one of the markets.  We have four major markets here in Ianto.”

“Is Ianto the name of the city?” asked Vick.

“Yes.  Ianto is the name of this city, and this city is the capital of our kingdom Katya.” replied the guard with a wave of his hand as they approached the next wall that divided the outer city from the second layer.  “Earthborns.  I have a letter from Captain Nimmeth.”

The next set of guards at the second set of gates quickly took the letter and read it before handing it back.  “I heard you just had a son.  Is he doing well?  Healthy I hope?”

The soldier escorting them smiled brightly and nodded.  “Thanks for asking, yeah he’s doing very well.  In great health.  I’ll tell you all about it tonight at the pub!”

He led them through the next set of gates and into a much nicer part of the city - if that were even possible.  It was like walking through botanical gardens with magnificent mansions parked at intervals.  Butlers, maids, and nobles were seen walking along the streets.  Neatly kept fields that were apparently backyards were being tended to by gardeners at intervals.

“This is the upper class area of the city,” stated the armored soldier as they continued to follow in the bright daylight.  “Nobles live here for the most part, and some of the richer merchants.  The three schools of magic are also located in this area along with one of the more successful guilds setting up their guild hall here too.  There’s also the knight’s academy too.  It’s a lot smaller than the outer city which is probably about seven times the size of this part, but it’s obviously a lot more fancy.”  He pointed ahead and not far off into the distance at a massive citadel.  “That’s the citadel.  The royals live there on the upper floors while military and government officials work in the lower levels.”

The trek continued further in as they passed many extravagant households before coming to a stop before the final and third innermost wall with a much larger and decorated gate than the prior ones.  It was the gate before the citadel, and here their escort handed the letter to the citadel guards to step back.  “This is the end of my tour, I hope you liked what you saw!  Ianto is a great city with lots of opportunity for growth, and Earthborn are always a welcome sight!  Be sure to think carefully before you make any commitments to any guilds or schools of magic though, they’ll all be vying for you and they’re all very different from one another!  Good luck!”

The elf man waved one final time before heading back towards his post on the outskirts of the city and the more heavily armored and decorated soldiers - knights - reread the letter before one of them was sent inside to fetch something.

“He’ll be right back, he’s going to go inform Lord Jitender that you’ve arrived.  He’ll be the one that gives you all a rundown on how things work here.  He’ll be pleased that we have another group of earthborn, your kind is usually quite sought after by various organizations for your magical capabilities.”  The soldier talking to them turned back to take another look through the gates.  “Other Earthborn have already been enrolled in our schools of magic and are performing spectacularly.  If any of you have an interest in military life, feel free to ask Lord Jitender about it.  Full ride scholarships are provided for those going into the military as opposed to just enrolling in one of the schools.”

“Thanks for the help and information,” replied Ford politely.  Looking back at his family though he sincerely doubted any of them would go the military route unless there were no better options available to them.  Magic school on the other hand seemed like an incredibly cool option and one that even he was interesting in partaking in.

It took another fifteen minutes before the nobleman known as Lord Jitender stepped through the gates to greet the five newly arrived earthborn.  He was a tall elf about the height of Ford and blonde like so many of the other high elves in the city, and he wore a plain brown robe unbefitting of someone working in such a unique and rich setting.  He held up the letter addressed to him by the captain at the entrance of the city.  “Are you five the Earthborn I was informed about?”

“We are!” replied Ford as the two men shook hands.  Ford’s usually intimidating features were set into a friendly grin, and it earned him a look of surprise from his wife Michelle.

The elf in turn shook each of their hands ending with Alex, the teenage girl the Bons had picked up from Earth, and beamed happily at them.  “It is good to have so many new Earthborn additions to our city!  In ages past your kind only arrived every couple decades, but now there seems to be an influx of which has never been seen before.  The last group to come told me of a war back on Earth and they traveled here because of it, does that sound correct?”

The five nodded and Alex looked like she was about to cry after thinking about her dead family once again.  The elf didn’t seem to notice and his upbeat mood never dropped.

“I see.  Well I am sorry if any of you experienced any losses but we are more than happy to accomodate you here with your new lives!  Have any of the guards or locals told you about what would happen when you got here?  Oh forget it I’ll just get right to it and tell you anyways.  If you wouldn’t mind please follow me as I talk, walking and talking makes things fly by that much faster!”  The lord motioned them to follow as he turned heel and led them into the citadel grounds.  More ponds and gardens were found inside with a series of very large trees decorating the lawns surrounding it.  A pair of dogs ran by playfully as they chased a smaller child barking as they went and the extraordinary building in front of them seemed itself an impossibly large and beautiful creation.  The family was silent as the lord continued to talk while leading them through the enormous double doors and into a massive hall lined with statues, paintings, chandeliers, and tapestries.  The walls were painted white and orbs of light illuminated their way.

“The orbs that the captain at the gate gave to you to hold are tools we use to assess the magical aptitude of our students when they first apply to the schools of magic - later, other more intricate means are used to assess magical ability, but this is an easy way to see a general idea of what each person is capable of.  Earthborn in particular have very high aptitudes and can usually learn magics much more easily than any other race, which is why we use the orbs to identify Earthborn from normal humans.  And if the others haven’t told you already - we have three schools of magic here in the capital along with numerous guilds that will most definitely be competing to get you to sign with them for membership.  But with that in mind,” Lord Jitender stopped and turned back to eye them curiously.  “Are you all interested in such joining the schools?  There is no requirement that you do join, but if you do I’ll have the paperwork written up for you now so that your applications are all brought up to speed.  Mages are sought after for various reasons depending on what they specialize in and it’s a great way to make a good living.”

“Isn’t there a fee that we have to pay?” replied Michelle curiously as the younger girl Alex stood beside her.  “We don’t have any money and were told we’d need to find jobs to pay our way through.”

“Ah yes!” stated the lord with a grin as he smoothed out his plain brown robes.  “They are correct, forgive me.  I get ahead of myself sometimes.  I am merely excited to add more Earthborn to our rosters.  So how it works is if you are deemed by the school to have high enough magical aptitude, you get a scholarship.  Adding capable mages to our society that then donate funds to the schools after graduation is actually a source of larger income than what the schools actually charge in tuition!  So giving out free educations to capable students if possible.  Scholarships are completely based upon how much magical aptitude you have and are determined through a more sophisticated type of measuring device than the orbs you held out at the city entrance.  You will be assigned a number based on your ability... the category you fall into will determine the amount of money the schools give you.  If you don’t get a full ride scholarship based on your magical aptitude as an Earthborn, you are able to either work a part time job to pay your way through the rest of it or you’re able to apply for a military scholarship.  The military is always interested in having mages added to their ranks, especially earthborn mages, and will pay your way through if you promise them a certain amount of years of service.  Something like one out of every ten or eleven people have the ability to use magic, so I’m sure you can see why they do this.  Follow me and I’ll explain more!”

Lord Jitender turned and continued through another hallway that led right and then opened a door that was apparently his office.  Books cluttered his desk and he had oak shelves full of them with two glowing orbs on all four corners of the room to illuminate the office with a pleasant yellow light.  He pulled out five chairs from the side wall, placed them in front of his desk and cleared off space from the desk before putting down a stack of papers and sitting down himself.  Trey’s family followed suit along with Alex as they quickly sat to look about their surroundings.

“Because you are all new here: the crown will provide funding for one month’s stay free of charge in an inn of your choice anywhere in the city.”  The elf scribbled furiously upon a piece of parchment before signing it and folding it.  He wrote four more of the same letter, signed them all, and then handed one to each of the earthborn.  “Just give this letter to whoever owns the inn and they’ll be able to collect payments through us.  Other earthborn residents have recommended the Poro Inn in the noble district of the city, the one you entered through just before coming here.  It’s next to one of the schools of magic and if you’re interviewing at any of them it’ll be an easy walk.  But the choice is yours to make.  Now - onto more pressing matters.  Even if you do end up getting full ride scholarships - either through the military or through sheer magical potential - you’ll need to get a job for the meantime.  The application process for the schools can take up to a week… and lucky for all of you, the new application cycle is just about to start.  This year’s incoming class is to begin selection by representatives of each school starting tomorrow, and there will even be two other groups of Earthborn applying as well.  Here, take these…”

The elf pulled out five small sacks of money from the desk.  “This is for any food or clothing you may need until you find a job.  But you need to find one soon, because it won’t last you too long.  There are varieties of jobs you’re able to choose from, even for someone who has no practical skills.  Obviously we as a country encourage you to enroll in the schools of magic and are putting emphasis there, but if you don’t want to do so - or simply need the extra money to pay your way through - here is a list of jobs the crown can supply a letter of recommendation for.  Please take a moment to look over the list of job openings in the market currently, we have a program that is set up by the government and tries to place homeless or the poor into job listings and these are what we have available.  This obviously isn’t all the job openings available as most of these are entry-level, but it’s the ones that people have put up on the market boards.  Though they are prone to change over time so if you want a new one you can always check the billboards found in the market centers.”

A paper displaying a list of current job openings was handed over to them and they each took awhile to examine the document:

--------------------------

Current Job Openings Available Listed Below.

Please see your local city official for further details on a specified job listing.

Blacksmith Apprentice x2

Alchemist Apprentice

Herbalist Apprentice

Artist

Laborer x37

Carpenter Apprentice

Stone Mason Apprentice

Baker Assistant x2

Cook

Barber

Bottler

Fletcher Apprentice

Butler or Maid x5

Shoemaker Apprentice

Engineer Apprentice

Cottar Peasant

Water Bearer x2

Gardener x7

Janitor x4

Jester

Man At Arms (Military) x509

Archer (Military) x1020

Attack Mage (Military) - Indefinite Amount Requested

Healer Mage (Military) x108

Messenger x8

Minstrel

Potter

Scribe x2

City Guard x2

Hunter & Tracker Apprentice

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“I’d definitely like to hit up that baker’s assistant position.” noted Andrew with a smirk.  He’d always wanted his own bakery for whatever reason and he loved the smell of fresh bread, but the statement earned him a stare of disbelief from Ford.

“I’ll take the engineering apprentice position.” muttered Vick thoughtfully.  “I’m actually not really an apprentice, I was hired on back on Earth as a full fledged engineer there.  But it’ll be nice to see what new math and applications they use here on this world.  And if I could have a look at the details for that minstrel position too that’d be great, I’m a pretty decent singer.  Enough to impress the ladies anyways!”

Ford facepalmed and received an assuring clap on the shoulder from Michelle.  Out of his three sons, Trey was the only one that’d really taken to the family business of mafia work.  Not that Ford expected them to continue that trend here, but still… the choices of baker and minstrel were questionable.

“You were an engineer back on earth?” repeated the elf with a vexed expression.  “Very interesting.  I’m sure the dwarves will have a couple questions for you about that.  And yes, one moment while I get the papers with their descriptions… anything the rest of you would like to take a look at?”

The elf lord rummaged around in his desk and stack of papers before handing two sheets to Vick and one sheet to Andrew.  “Well?”

Alex, Michelle, and Ford had been discussing something between the three of them before Michelle looked up to reply.  “Well, we were actually already offered a job by one of the women we met at the front gate.  She’s a gnome and runs a shop, she said that she’d give us work if we wanted it and that it’d probably help her business because of… well apparently they don’t get treated fairly because they’re gnomes and having humans help run it would be good for business.  The three of us think we’ll start there and come back to the boards if things aren’t working out.  Just in case though if you’d give me the information about the alchemist apprentice I may keep it as a backup.”

Lord Jitender frowned and nodded.  “Yes, unfortunately there is a lot of unnecessary racism towards them.  I don’t personally think the gnomes deserve all the hate they get here, but it is commonplace for people to treat them badly.  If you’d rather try to help the gnome out with her shop that’d be a very kind thing for you to do.”

The elf handed one last paper to Michelle and she took it before folding it up and stuffing it into her pocket.  “Well before I send you off to explore I’d like you each to take these letters as well, present them to the guards and they’ll get you in and out of the noble district as you’ll likely need passage for the school entry exams tomorrow - if that’s what you’re all going to do anyways.  It will also get you in and out of the citadel for the next month to see me for any further questions if you have them, but only the first floor.  The upper floors are restricted to any commoner - just a forewarning.”

The elf handed them each a last set of letters and coughed briefly before continuing.  “Let’s go over our rules and customs here in the city before you leave to go exploring or do whatever it is you want to do.  First and foremost the basic laws here:  No murdering, stealing, raping, assaults, bribery of the guards, or selling of illicit drugs is to be permitted.  Certain drugs are permitted but only with a permit and they are heavily taxed.  If you have a question about what is or is not allowed, ask a nearby guard and turn it in if you find something suspicious - you will not be penalized for having it even if it’s illegal if you simply ask or turn it in.  There is no curfew on the city under normal circumstances so you may usually stay out as late as you want to - just keep in mind that guards will be patrolling the streets at any given time and drunken behavior should be kept to a minimum.  Though there is no curfew, there is a noise restriction past the midnight hour - and minor prison sentences will be administered for those making loud noises past then as everyone needs their sleep.  If you attend brothels, every sex worker there is under full protection of the law and is not to be abused in any way, shape, or form.  The same can be said of nobility with their servants - so if any of you were to take up a butler or maid position somewhere they’d be expected to treat you as a person.  Abusing their servants is punishable under the rule of law as well.  Public bathing is available in numerous places throughout the city and is upkept by the crown.  There is to be no littering in the public baths, nor are you allowed to relieve yourself there - under punishment of heavy fines or minor jail sentences.  Taxes are taken from house to house once a month by tax collectors, but you aren’t expected to pay if you don’t actually own any property there.  So if you’re renting from a landlord, you don’t pay tax.  Every property owner in the city pays 6% of their total income, regardless of what their income is, and tax evasion is met with very heavy sentences.  Freedom of religion is a key aspect to life here, but under no circumstances are religions that encourage harm or violence upon others allowed in the city - or the country.  Any religion that tries to supercede the power of the crown is also immediately outlawed and followers that continue to preach it after rule of law has commenced will be subject to jail time or even execution.  Finally let it be known that the crown has full authority and is above any law it has created, but be aware that our king is a very just and kind man.  He is loved by the people of this country and you’ll find out for yourselves in time that he is a ruler you can be proud of.  People in the courts have regularly questioned his rulings openly and he often listens to them or even changes his laws if he deems them right and himself wrong, so speaking against his rulings constructively is done by many of the nobles as long as they make sure they do it in a way that doesn’t challenge his authority.  The same can be said of peasants or commoners - you may dislike the king or his policies openly, though that is seldom done to be quite frank, and no punishment will become of you as long as you are not encouraging treason.  Are there any questions?”

For a medieval society, it seemed rather progressive.

Ford shook his head, folding his large arms over his chest, and the others glanced at once another with grins along their faces.  “Just one.  Where would you recommend we get our first meal here?  We’ve eaten nothing but disgusting bugs and berries for the past couple of days.”

“We’re starving!” exclaimed Alex from underneath the long locks of brown hair that covered half her face as her stomach rumbled, causing everyone to laugh.

The elf hummed and tapped his finger on his wooden desk with a smirk.  “I’d say that since it’s your first time in the city - Try the food stands in the commoner’s district.  They have a lot of good things for sale there and I myself regularly visit the pastry vendors!  I doubt they’d rip you off but ask the city guards what a fair price would be before spending absurd amounts of money on the stuff.  And don’t forget on your way out to ask one of the citadel guards for an escort to the Poro Inn if you don’t have any other idea on where to stay.  Again it’s right next to one of the magic schools and from there the inn workers will be able to guide you to where the two other magic schools are as well.  I highly recommend at least figuring out where the three of them are located.  Be sure to get up early tomorrow if you want to attend the first day of selections, all three schools will be participating in selecting their first year classes and it’ll start from sun up to sun down for a week.  I’ll actually be walking about the schools at random too to see what type of outlook we have!  It’s always exciting to watch.  I hope to see you all there!”

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Maltetious’ mind was flooded with emotions with pounded against the her internal thoughts like a storm as the last light of the day set across the sand-dune horizon.  The blonde, beautiful, crazed numen hadn’t had such a bad set of omens for decades over.  So many things had happened at once that she didn’t know how to cope with it at all and she couldn’t think of how to handle the unfolding situations before her.  Just the day prior, Michael’s communication amulet had gone dark - it had been destroyed.  How this had happened she wasn’t sure, and she had grown furious until fear crept over her as Michael’s name dropped off the list of her subjects from her status page.  His soulbinding had been undone.

She had not talked about this with anyone yet.  Had he somehow betrayed her?  Had he been killed in those stupid arena games he had been competing in?  Skrying anywhere near Zekul left her in a haze of black as something stopped her visions.  Having her visions blocked gave her pause and concern was etched into her features.  The field blocking her skrying had the magical signatures of none other than Aktovan herself.  Maltetious sincerely doubted that the vampiric numen would kill Michael if she somehow found him - and she had specifically sent Michael there because of that fact.  He had no previous knowledge of it in his current form, but he and Aktovan had actually been lovers for a very short time while she and Maltetious were in the process of perfecting the three artificial Nephilim.  Maltetious also knew that Aktovan’s spellweaving was nowhere near capable enough to undo her own handcrafted soulbinding as Maltetious was unbelievably skilled in creation magics, so what in the hells had just happened?  There was only one conclusion she came to - and it scared her.

Aktovan had likely intervened directly.

And just minutes prior she and her four companions, including the newest addition to their group - the shadow fiend Ikt - had witnessed along with the rest of Nagochus the utter annihilation of Vorganoth and his army by her newfound ally Trey.  His power was immense and it was climbing at exponential rates despite being so low leveled.  He had easily defeated Vorganoth’s wielder to the gasps, screams, and applause of her and her companions.  The demon Ikt had been the loudest in his cries of Triumph as he prostrated himself before the vision of his idolized heir and he worshiped the vision as if Trey could see him doing it.

“[Ancient Demon]  THE HEIR!  ALL SHALL BOW BEFORE THE HEIR!  THE HEIR OF THE VOID HAS BEEN CHOSEN TO BRING SALVATION UNTO US!  BEHOLD HIS GLORY!”  The demon exclaimed praises continually.  It made Maltetious wonder if other demons around Nagochus were acting this way too.  She knew that certain breeds were native to the void, and these void-spawn demons were highly likely to idolize Trey just as Ikt did for having the void essence choose him.  But what about the oblivion-spawn and hell-spawn demons?  Would they react that way too?  She doubted it, but then again... maybe.  And even out of the voidspawn they’d likely have quite a number that didn’t like the idea of having another rival to contend with - especially if that rival was originally human.  Many of them would certainly view it as sacrilege.  It was also a testament to many of the demon clans watching - and she was sure many were - that a new demon lord was on the rise.  With figures like the pureblood succubus, ifrit and the devil on his side already, with such powerful breeds already calling him master, she was sure others would follow in their wake.  An example of that was prostrating itself wailing praises upon the ground directly in front of her.  But this would certainly anger and worry many of the rivals that sought dominance over the demon territories, and these likely hostile demon lords were all just notified exactly of where he was.  Needless to say the angels would also have a say in it if news reached them - though they for the most part disregarded the trivial happenings of the thirteen mortal realms as they focused their energy and time in the never-ending wars against the hells.  So there was thankfully a chance that the angels wouldn’t hear of this for quite a long time.

Trey had then taken the greatsword’s core for himself after splitting Vorganoth in two - something that their little group would find quite handy later down the road if they could somehow make sure the newly forged weapon they created would bind to one of them.  She had originally been concerned about his cousin - this Carol figure - being the mouthpiece of Agnude.  Would she turn him against Taen?  Against Maltetious?

Taen might have even told Trey where she was by this point.  If Trey was to turn on her, Agnude would know exactly where to go to find and kill the recently weakened numen after she’d abandoned her own realm for the mortal ones.  Apparently Itunu and Aiko knew Carol as well… so the coincidences kept on rising.  But Maltetious’ fears were laid to rest as she continued to watch Trey and Carol interact through the world-wide vision:

“He sends his peons to do the dirty work for him.  Where was your oh so powerful god when you were all getting killed?  When you were getting raped?  When the undead hordes came over the walls?”  Trey spat in disgust as his small horde of minions stood awkwardly by, continually being drenched by rainwater as the storm overhead clapped to life with thunder over the decimated city.  “That cute little bolt of lightning Agnude sent did jack shit.  IF he had wanted to he could have come down from the heavens and fought, but he didn’t.  HE didn’t care enough to put his life on the line.  Instead, it was me.”

There was a long pause as Silvara, the silver-haired warrior elf that had beened dubbed Carol’s best friend, tensed up awkwardly.  She was trying to battle her anger back as her deity that she had been brought up to love was shit on by this man in front of her for the world to watch.

“You do know Agnude is a mass murderer right?” stated the summoner as he stared down Carol and Silvara in an unbelievably tense conversation.  “You know what I was told?  He literally ate and destroyed MILLIONS of souls Carol!  Maltetoius has every right to be angry!”

“And how would you know that?” snapped Carol angrily.  “If you would just SPEAK with him you would understand that all he does is for the greater good!  He wants to create a paradise for Nagochus Trey!  You have no idea how much good he’s done for the people of this planet, and his afterlife is bliss!  He showed me the lives of his followers there and they are HAPPY!”

Trey sneered back in contempt.  “Did he ever tell you about his Earthborn experiments?  I’m guessing he didn’t perform them on you because you’re sitting here arguing about him with me.  When’d you get here?  To Nagochus?  Did you have the immortality trait when you first got here?”

Carol’s brows furrowed as she crossed her arms.

“As I thought,” replied Trey distastefully.  “Agnude was ordering his priests to conduct experiments on Earthborn back then to see how our immortality worked and why we had obtained it for that brief amount of time.  When I first arrived I landed smack dab in Oblivion.  I acquired Talsh’Noc’Un and the Void Essence there.  But shortly after arriving on Nagochus, I was captured along with some other Earthborn and found out that the king had been killing, torturing and experimenting on Earthborn under the orders of the high priest of Agnude.  One of my guildmates was killed so many times over and brought back to torture for so long that she regularly has nightmares and wakes up screaming every other night.  PTSD to the extreme.  Why don’t you ask your precious little bitch ass numen about that one.  He’d probably have experimented on you too if you’d arrived just a little sooner before the trait somehow went away.  And you know what?  She’s not the only guildmate and friend that went through hell because of him.  A family who had been kind to us was slaughtered for hiding us from his wanna-be inquisition.  They were amazingly nice and kind people, Carol.  They were my friends.  These Agnude fanatics had literally nailed pieces of my body to the floor and drugged me while they tried to see how they could strip my greatsword from me - but would not kill me so that I couldn’t respawn.  It was horrible.  And now after busting out of that prison we have a price on our heads so god damn high that I could feed the people of an entire town for YEARS off MY bounty alone.  Fuck your newfound religion, fuck your diety, and fuck your silver haired friend over there for giving me all those stupid-ass glares.  Agnude is responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to me since getting to this garbage dump of a planet.”

The king of Yosemar and his high priest were acting under orders from Agnude for their experiments?  Through Taen, Maltetious had known that they were on Trey’s hit list to kill for the things they had done - but Trey had never spoken about Agnude’s involvement.  The last statement Trey had said through the vision was laced with so much venom and so much hate that even Maltetious was taken aback.  She had been told that there had been another reason as to why Trey had decided to help her in her quest to kill her nemesis and had even seemed somewhat eager to accept.  Apparently this was the piece of the puzzle she had been missing.

The vision was beginning to die out and fade away as the last vestige of Vorgnoath’s power died with it, but it wouldn’t be for another couple hours until it completely disappeared.  During that time the five companions made their way through the rolling hills of the Rhonei Desert far into the northeast - long since having abandoned their caravan - as they made for the tombs of the ancient Soquel kings.  Thoughts of how to handle the situation with Michael still haunted the fallen numen as they trekked onwards, and by the end of the night she still didn’t know what to do about the situation.

But her prayer to the dark goddess Alkir had been answered sevenfold.  Aligning herself with a force even mightier than herself, such as Alkir, was the only reasonable way out of her predicament.  So now, under Alkir’s guidance and at Maltetious’ request, Trey had been redirected with his friends towards Zekul in order to obtain the item of power Maltetious needed… and to save Michael from a fate likely worse than death.

Even with the distraction of Carol being thrown into the mix, that summoner and Maltetoius’ own necromancer would soon be nearing the unholy vampiric city of Zekul… and she needed to think fast about how they should approach the situation with no amulet to contact Michael with - nor a surefire guarantee that he was even on their side anymore.  If he was even alive.

Yes… her worry was escalating. There were too many players involved. Three numen and their many thousands of followers, the dark goddess Alkir, and many potential enemies on the horizon now that Eleknar’s Heir had finally showed himself to the world. Who would come for him? Would Maltetious be able to use him to her benefit before he was snuffed out by greater powers?

No doubt, if things weren’t resolved soon… this was a holy war in the making.