"What are our chances?" I asked captain Dunn.
"Not certain," He answered after taking a few seconds to think it over, "I'll have to tell the others what's coming our way and try to come up with how to deal with that. Our chances are much higher now that we know what we are facing though."
What he said brought up a previous fear I had and I couldn't help but ask:
"A-And how would they react to you giving them these pieces of information? Do you think that they would push for you to give your sources?"
"As I said before," Captain Dunn said slowly as he looked deeply into my eyes, "You don't have to worry about any of that, I will be dealing with the others on my own. And even if they try to pressure me into giving my sources up, I will just refuse, it's not like they can force me, and I have a good enough reason to keep you and your friend hidden; a spy's true identity needs to be kept a secret, the fewer people that know about it, the better. After all, just the day before we found that we had a kalla in our town, that would shut them up for sure."
His reassurance calmed me down, I really didn't want to deal with any of the town's leaders. I had no way to answer their questions, captain Dunn was, for some reason, giving me the freedom of keeping my secrets, something I doubted the others would do, especially with how things were.
"I appreciate that," I said as I stood to leave. Captain Dunn seemed tired and even though I know that he wouldn't be able to return to sleep now that he got that intel from me, I still didn't want to hold him any longer, "I will be leaving now, if I get hold of any new information I will make sure to tell you as soon as possible."
"Wait," He said, making me stop in my place as I threw him a confused glance, "I was going to get someone to tell you tomorrow, but since you are here right now, that's for the better."
My confusion only grew as I listened to what he was saying, but an idea soon sprung into my mind and my heart started beating fast. A sense of anticipation and excitement filled my heart and I could barely control my expression as I looked at Captain Dunn.
"-I see that you have already guessed what I'm going to say next," He smiled lightly, "tomorrow morning you and some of your peers will be getting your Inheritances."
I just stood there frozen as my emotions went out of control, I was a push away from shouting in happiness right then and there. It was as if a goal that I had put in front of me for a long long time finally was close to being achieved. I knew that those emotions weren't really coming from me exactly. Even though I was excited about this new power that I would come to be in control of, that wasn't to the point that I would freeze over the possibility of getting it. Instead, they were remains from Dorian, the thing he put all his hope in, the thing that he wished would open the door to an entirely other world for him.
"Tomorrow you and the others will finally go through the ceremony," Captain Dunn continued, as if to pull me from the weird state I was in by having me concentrate on related important things, "and I gotta say, due to the incoming army and war, you all have a chance others would kill for. Sir Longspear will be opening his personal vault for all of you, and you would be keeping the Inheritance you get with no strings attached. Well, except fighting for the town's protection, of course."
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I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing. For some reason the idea that Sir Longspear would give the Inheritances that he had gathered in the course of his life to anyone who would get chosen by them never crossed my mind. Nobles weren't usually like that, but I guess the fact that you might lose your town and everything you had to an encroaching army of demons could do that to someone.
Usually, nobles had a habit of collecting strong and useful Inheritances and keeping them for themselves and their children. Hoping that maybe one of their descendent would be able to use them at some point down the line. Of course, that was just what they hoped for as Inheritances are the ones who choose their wielders, so in more cases than not, nobles would just have those Inheritances collecting dust in their vaults, stopping anyone from getting them.
As was seen from what Sir William Longspear did, things aren't always like that, there were points in history when nobles and other strong families opened their vaults to everyone who wanted to try their luck with the Inheritances they had. That usually happened when those families were in danger of falling or their kingdoms were in some hard wars. In those cases you would be expected to fight for the House you got your Inheritances from, essentially joining them as a member somehow. Many people took the offer whenever that happened, after all an inheritance that a noble house found good enough to keep in their vaults wouldn't be that bad, and for some, being part of a noble house was a dream come true. For those, those deals would be like hitting two birds with one stone.
It could be seen then how generous Sir Longspear was being, opening his vault with no strings attached except fighting for the town, something everyone here was doing anyway. I can't say I wasn't excited at the possibility of getting chosen by some strong Inheritance, not to mention that even if I wouldn't get chosen, another one of us could, making the town strong than it was before, and therefore raising the chances that we would survive what's coming.
"As you can imagine," Continued captain Dunn, "After trying your luck with the Inheritances the town has and those that Sir Longspear would gift, if you don't get any of them you will be given an Ancestral Ore to link with, getting your own Inheritance, so don't worry about this too much."
That was to be expected, not everyone was going to succeed in being chosen by an Inheritance, so it was only natural that those of them would eventually have to use Ancestral Ore to get their own.
"I will keep that in mind."
"That's good, you can go home for now," He said, "have some sleep tonight and make sure to come to the castle early tomorrow morning, it's going to be an important day for you."
I nodded in acknowledgement, and not a small bit of anticipation, at captain Dunn before saluting him and leaving his office. Outside, I stood for a while as I tried to calm my still excited heart. I was finally getting an Inheritance, and I couldn't help but think about what it was going to be.
So with all those thoughts going through my mind, I turned around and made my way home. As I walked I looked around at the somehow busy streets and couldn't help but compare what I was seeing and how the town was, to how things had been yesterday, how the sleepy peaceful town turned into this. I soon reached home and after a bit of cleaning and changing up, I dropped into my bed, and as soon as I did I felt the whole day's exhaustion catch up to me, making it quite hard to even keep my eyes open. Not having a reason to fight the drowsiness, I let sleep claim me as my body sunk deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.
On Zagmuz's side, Kildor had been quite surprised at my condition at the beginning, but it didn't take much for him to agree, the fact that he needed me there to deal with the gate probably had a lot to do with that. After that, I did my best to try and get as much information and details about the coming fight as possible while Kildor went on about his plans and started ordering the captains around. Not long after that, we were done and I excused myself; by simply standing and leaving without acknowledging any of the people inside.
Once I left, I looked at all the demons around who were resting after a long and tiring journey. Some of them were still up and their eyes met mine, raising a sense of disgust from Zagmuz's memory who considered them nothing but low lives who didn't deserve to stand next to him.
Shaking my head at that feeling, I turned around and started moving to my tent.