I dived onto the floor where the bed had recently been and immediately removed it from my soul-space right on top of me. The bed started fading back into view and I felt myself being pressed uncomfortably against the floorboards by its weight.
Thinking fast I activated Hide, then opened up my skills menu and started trying to figure out how to add points to my Soulspace skill. Right now I could only store one item, but I didn’t want whoever was looking for this statuette to be able to find my scarab tokens either. I had no idea if they would take them, and I didn’t want to explain how I had them.
For the first time I glanced over at my minimap, sitting quietly in the bottom right corner of my vision. It had a half-dozen or so red dots on it, as well as a couple of green ones. The red dots were spreading out, but I saw two bunch up and climb the stairs together, headed right for my room.
Moments later, the door to my room banged open, and I saw booted feet enter the room. They paused for a moment then went over to the wardrobe and opened it, then began tossing clothing unceremoniously onto the floor as they searched it.
The bed was fully out of my soul-space now, and I tried moving the statuette into it only to get hit with another alert.
> System Message
>
> Soul-space storage failed
>
> You do not understand this object well enough to store it within your soul-space.
For a moment I panicked, then I remembered what I’d done earlier with the bed and activated Identify on the statuette. Ten long seconds passed in agony as I watched the man searching the wardrobe in vain. I could see that the door to Ryke and Lucus’ room across the hall was open as well and another man was searching it. Finally, Identify activated on the statue.
> Icon of Valera
>
> Holy Reliquary (Tier 3)
>
> Quality: Artifact
>
> This statuette of the goddess Valera is made of gold, but contains a hollow core made to contain and protect the ashes of one of her chosen saints. This statuette can be used as a focus for divine spells and those with the favor of the goddess can use it to commune with her once every 30 days.
>
> Note: This item has been enchanted with a Tier 3 tracking spell that will reveal its location to its caster so long as they are within 20 kilometers of each other.
I took all that in, particularly the bit about the tracking spell, and then I attempted once again to store the statuette in my soul-space. This time, to my great relief, it worked. The statuette turned insubstantial and began fading away. I wasn’t done though, I needed to get the tokens stored as well.
Meanwhile the man searching the wardrobe had given up on finding anything in there. He turned to the vanity and began ransacking it instead. I watched as a glass bottle of something was knocked onto the ground - thankfully it was thick and didn’t break, but it began rolling right towards my hiding spot under the bed and I became increasingly concerned it would draw the man’s attention.
Working fast, I immediately used Identify on one of the tokens, knowing better now than to try and store it without knowing its properties. Then while I waited, I turned my attention back to my skill menu. I had to get a second inventory slot right now. I located the Soulspace skill and forcefully willed it to add points. I was rewarded with a new prompt.
> Skill Advancement
>
> Soulspace (Tier 3)
>
> Source: Valerian
>
> Affinity: No
>
> Rank: 1 / 10
>
> PP: 0 / 6
>
> PP Available:
>
> Universal: 10
>
> Valerian: 20
>
> Goblin: 0 (XPath)
>
> Trailblazer: 20 (XPath)
>
> Thief: 7 (XPath)
For a moment I was confused as to what I was supposed to do, then it clicked. I had several different sorts of progression points, and Valera had said spending points outside your path cost twice as much. The system needed me to tell it what points I wanted to spend and how many. It was going to take six points to rank up, and I had more than enough Valerian points to do it, so I didn’t see any reason not to use them. I willed six points from my Valerian pool into the skill, and watched as the rank value increased to 2 / 10.
Success! Identify activated and I quickly read over the resulting information.
> Scarab Token
>
> Divine Currency (Tier 5)
>
> Quality: Divine
>
> These tokens are among the most valuable objects mortals can possess, as each represents a divine favor owed to the bearer by the ancient and inscrutable deity known only as The Adversary. While many consider him to be the enemy of all good people, his favor is extremely beneficial to those who earn it, no matter what their means were to do so. Cities have been razed and nations sent to war for but a single one of these tokens.
>
> As a bearer of a Scarab Token, you may activate it to visit the Infernal Exchange, a place where these tokens may be spent for both material and spiritual rewards, many of which are available nowhere else.
Another man had entered the room and had pulled up the mattress on Maraci’s side of the room. He was squeezing it now, apparently checking to see if anything might be hidden inside it. I frantically shoved the scarab tokens into my soulspace. After reading that description I wished I’d stored them first, as there was no telling what would happen if they found me with one, let alone three of them.
Just as I started the storage process, the original man who’d been searching my room lifted the entire bed off me, turning it on its side. I lay on the ground, tokens covered by my body, but he grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out from under the upraised bed. The pain of being dragged by my hair was excruciating, made worse no doubt by my still tender head and the scrape of the wooden floorboards against my arm and legs as I was unceremoniously yanked from my hiding spot. I cursed myself for not immediately locating the pain feedback settings when I’d had a chance.
I found myself being lifted off the ground by my hair. I let out a scream while doubling over, trying to keep the fading tokens out of view. My captor called out, “I found the thief!” and I heard booted feet climbing up the stairs. The next few moments were agonizing but I felt the tokens slip into my soul-space just as a new man entered the room.
He was human and dressed in something that resembled a shakespearean costume to my eyes. He wore a blue doublet, and matching pants, and through the tears welling in my eyes I could see a gold chain attached to his belt above his left pocket, presumably attached to something resting inside. He was bald, and his face was sallow and gaunt. He seemed to be trying to hide it with a full brown beard that wasn’t quite working out for him, but it did add a bit of color to his face, despite the gray streaks running through it and the fact that he didn’t seem to be quite capable of growing a full mustache.
The man looked down at me, and I was yanked upright. The guard held my head up to face him. I was not used to being this easy to manhandle, and it was galling to have this guy control me so easily. The new man looked down at me and squinted, “Yes that’s probably her. Did you find my property yet?” He looked idly around the room, as if he’d find it sitting in plain sight.
“Not yet sir, I just found her hiding under the bed.”
“I don’t care about the filthy goblin whore, just find my property. The justicars can take care of removing her hand later. I want to be gone from here as quickly as possible. I can feel this place giving me fleas.” He shuddered and stepped away from the pile of clothes on the floor.
I found myself being turned to face the man holding me. Thankfully he released my hair in order to do this, grabbing me by the shoulder instead and spinning me around. He was nearly twice as tall as me, and he got down on one knee to look me right in the face.
“Alright girl, the game’s up. Where is it? No use hiding it from us, it’s been spelled to tell us where it is, we know it’s here.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I growled at him. “All I’ve got on me is a shirt.”
He squeezed my shoulder painfully, and I saw my health bar flash as I took a single point of damage. Apparently I’d already taken some damage from his mistreatment of me earlier as I was now down to 70% health.
“Is it with your fella then? The one that helped you escape just before you dropped that wall on us? Where is he? Tell me girl!” He shook me with each question, as if he could shake the answers out of me.
I seriously considered trying to bite him, but I held onto my temper. Things hadn’t gotten violent yet as far as I could tell. There were still three green dots in the building in addition to all the red ones, and I didn’t want to start things that might get my host family hurt.
“I’m telling you, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have anything. Search all you want, but unless you’re looking for some girl's underthings you’re not going to find it in here.”
The guard practically threw me onto the pile of clothes in the center of the room, “Sit there, don’t move. If you run we’ll cut you down before you can make it out the door, and when we find the relic you’ll be losing a hand for sure. If you want any hope of mercy you’d best fess up before we find it.” Then he pulled a knife and cut my mattress open without even bothering to check if it felt like anything was concealed within.
On the other side of the room, the guard searching Maraci’s bed area let out an excited cry, then pulled a loose board out from the wall to reveal a small hollow space within. I watched with interest as he pulled out what looked like a book and some writing materials. He opened the book, and a bit of folded up parchment fell out, landing on the floor and unfolding itself for everyone to see.
On the parchment was an extremely detailed and colorfully rendered image of two scantily clad Devilkin, one male and one female, with the word “Sinsations!” written in a large, eye-catching font across the bottom. The art was so detailed and vibrant that it had to have been created with some sort of skill or magic. I immediately felt embarrassed for the girl and was glad she wasn’t here to see this. Whoever these people were it was obvious they were related to Maraci. The woman looked like an older version of her, and I was pretty sure the man was her father.
The guard handed the book over to his friend, then continued searching while the other man flipped through the book a few pages before turning to the end and reading backwards for a bit. He eventually grunted and threw the book down on the bed. “Diary. No mention of the theft.” Then he turned and winked at me. “She’s jealous of you cause she has the hots for your fella though. Can’t blame her, I’d be jealous too if I were a bit younger and a bit more single. That boy has eyes on him you can feel from across a room.”
Maraci had a crush on Lucus? That made sense of her reaction earlier then. I looked over at the man in rich clothing only to find him looking directly at me with a much more intent look on his face than had been there earlier. His eyes on me made me shiver, they were dead eyes, devoid of anything resembling human feelings. Instinctively I activated Inspect, wanting to know what this guy’s deal was, but for the first time I was rebuffed.
Identify failed, target resisted your identification attempt.
The words had appeared in the bottom left of my vision, tiny but still somehow readable - not that I needed to read them, somehow I seemed to already know what they said the moment they appeared. They faded away after a moment and the man smirked at me but didn’t comment. He obviously had noticed what I’d done and didn’t care.
Considering how things were headed, and realizing that I might be subject to several forms of magical detection in the near future, I decided to invest some points into my Dual Nature skill. It seemed like a really good skill in general, able to raise all my attributes by 50% when maxed out, but right now I was more interested in not being caught as some sort of body snatcher, let alone found in possession of this guy’s stolen statuette.
I dropped all 14 remaining points from my Valerian species into the skill, then paid off the remaining 6 from my pool of Universal points, bringing my rank in Dual Nature up to 3 and raising my stats by 20% across the board. I could feel myself get stronger, and while it didn’t seem to make a huge difference on my character sheet I immediately felt better.
Almost as soon as I’d dropped the points into the skill the sallow man blinked, and tore his eyes away from me. That made me even more worried, but I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. “I don’t have all day gentlemen.” He told his lackeys.
One of the guards had been stomping around for a bit, and had gone down on one knee right beside me near the wardrobe. He moved some of the piled up clothes out of his way, then began tapping on boards until he heard whatever it was he was looking for. Using a dagger he pried at the floorboards in that area until one popped free and he pulled it up to reveal yet another hidden cache. This one was bigger than the other, and contained several cloth wrapped bundles. The other men all gathered around expectantly as the kneeling man pulled out a bag very similar to the one that had contained Valera’s statuette.
Working quickly, the guard untied the drawstring on the bag and pushed back the fabric to reveal… a bottle full of liquid. Confused, the guard pulled the cork out of it and the smell of alcohol immediately permeated the room. He shoved the cork back in and set the bottle aside, looking annoyed, but I noticed his partner was eyeing the bottle with interest. I suspected it was going to get “confiscated” before they left.
The next thing out of the compartment was long and thick, and I knew what it was before the guard had managed to unwrap it. I’d seen plenty of comically large dildos in my day. They made great gag gifts, even and perhaps especially for completely straight male friends, and I’d both given and received them in my youth. I was desperately hoping that this one was also a joke for the sake of my sanity. Either way, it definitely was funny to watch the guard realize he was holding an immaculately carved and polished wooden phallus that was bigger than his forearm.
I found myself speaking without even realizing I’d intended to say something. “Huh, I was wrong, turns out you guys aren’t the biggest dicks in this room. Though I guess it still remains to be seen just how big your.. I mean, how big of an asshole you are.” This quip did not earn me any new fans, but it made me feel better. Now that I’d secured the loot this was actually starting to amuse me.
Finally the guard pulled out a small bag that obviously contained coins. He opened this up and poured out a few gold and silver coins, followed by a larger amount of copper. He didn’t even bother to count the coins, simply sweeping them back into the bag and tucking it into his belt, not even bothering to hide what he was doing.
A few more moments of searching didn’t turn up anything else in the hidden compartment, and all three men now looked visibly frustrated. The guard who’d yanked my hair earlier nervously eyed his employer while his friend seemed to be looking around the room trying to determine if there was anywhere else that an object the size they were looking for might be found. Hesitantly, the first guard asked, “Sir, do you think you could use your tracking spell again, maybe see if it can get us any closer? Maybe they were able to sneak it out with that big fella before we got into the house?”
The sallow man sighed dramatically, “If I was going to do your job, guardsman, then why am I paying you? Oh very well, if it gets us out of here faster it will be worth the effort.” He then took the pocket watch out of his pocket on its golden chain, made a gesture over its face, then said “Locate Property” in a confident tone.
Nothing happened. The man shook his head, confused, then repeated the actions. More nothing happened. The man tapped his watch, obviously confused by what it was telling him.
“Sir…?” The guard started. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s telling me the object I’m seeking isn’t within 20 kilometers.” He replied, puzzled. “That can’t be right of course, it showed as right here not 5 minutes before we entered the house.”
I pounced on this immediately. “You mean to tell me you all barged in here, tore up my room, and yanked half my hair out because this guy can’t read a map or use his spell properly? This is outrageous, I demand an apology!” By the end of this little tirade I’d scrambled to my feet and was poking the first guard in the stomach with my finger to emphasize my points.
I realized I needed to rethink my approach to this situation when the guard casually backhanded me with his gauntlet, sending me sprawling on the clothing pile. My already sore head rang from the blow and my vision fuzzed for a moment.
Guardsman Wernst uses “Chastise” on you.
Guardsman Wernst “Chastise” hits you for 31% damage.
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You have been afflicted with Stun (Tier 1 Bane).
The stun condition faded quickly and I raised my arm to wipe a trickle of blood off my mouth. Now I really wanted to bite him. I wanted to bite him so much that I was shaking and grinding my teeth. The strength of the compulsion finally made me aware that what I was feeling was not natural. Or rather, it wasn’t natural for me. I’d never wanted to bite anyone in my life that I could recall, not even as a toddler. I was pretty sure I was experiencing some sort of feedback instinct from my body, which was equipped with a nasty set of teeth that could probably do some real damage. My body was telling me to bite this guy’s jugular out, and it was surprisingly hard to say no. Thankfully the stun effect actually gave me some time to get a hold of myself.
After a moment I sat back up and looked at them, radiating barely restrained fury. I didn’t say anything, and for a moment neither did they. The guard who’d struck me and pulled my hair wore a congenial expression, much as he had for this entire encounter. The other guard looked vaguely annoyed still, but seemed to have given up looking for hiding spots. Their employer was looking at me with a small, thin-lipped smile that somehow made me like him even less than I already did.
“Search her,” he said, looking directly at me. “Perhaps she has it on her somewhere.”
“Sir, she can’t possibly have it on her. It’s half her height.” The more subdued guard said.
“She may have a Traveler’s Pack or similar item. An extradimensional space would put the relic out of reach of my spell.”
I didn’t like anything about where this was going, but I froze up trying to decide what to do. Asshole guard suffered from no such indecision, reaching down and yanking my shirt off with one hand. The fabric caught on my arms and for a moment he lifted me into the air as I hung by the shirt sleeves, then I crashed to the floor amidst the other clothing.
If anyone had reached for me at that moment I’m pretty sure I’d have bitten their hand off. As it was though, asshole guard didn’t seem to care about me at all - he was examining the shirt he’d just torn off me, turning it inside out and looking for who knows what. The other guard had seemingly decided that maybe it was worth searching the ceiling for hiding places, and so only their boss was looking at me.
His gaze made me feel dirty, even though his expression didn’t change. He looked me up and down, almost methodically, and it occurred to me that I should probably be trying to cover myself up or something. I was too mad to do that. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d humiliated me. Instead I grinned my best “I’m going to rip your throat out” grin and let my pupils narrow to pinpricks as I looked up at him. I wished I had something, anything, I could do to wipe that small smile off his face.
“Nothing here sir.” Asshole guard said, holding out my shirt to his employer. “Looks like just an old shirt to me.”
The other man finally flicked his eyes away from me, “I don’t want that filthy thing. Get rid of it.” He said, taking a step away.
Asshole guard just tossed the shirt back in my general direction. I made no move to catch it, and let it rest on the pile of other clothes. I knew what these men wanted and it wasn’t to see me naked. They wanted to exercise power over me, to make me squirm. I’d seen men like this in the real world, and I’d tried very hard to understand them. Men who catcalled random women and girls, men who’d say inappropriate things to women much younger than them, weirdos that seemed to get a thrill from making a woman even mildly uncomfortable. None of it was about sex, it was all about pain, they were leeches that drew vitality from the suffering of others - all else was excuses and lies, perhaps even ones they told themselves so they didn’t have to confront what a shitty excuse for a human being they were.
I didn’t take my eyes off of the sallow man, I wanted to break his control of this situation, but I wasn’t sure how. Every fiber of my being was screaming at me to tear his throat out with my bare teeth, but I couldn’t do that. The guards would kill me if I made a move for him. I’d have to use words.
“That all this was about? if you’ve got some weird goblin fetish you wanted to indulge there are places that will sell you that you know. You didn’t have to go through all this trouble. I’m not one to kink shame but you have to keep that stuff between consenting adults. That said, I do feel kinda bad for you now, I suppose I could give you a pity blowjob to take the sting off a bit.” Then I very carefully licked my lips, letting my too-long tongue run over each and every one of my serrated teeth. “Or if you’re not into that I wouldn’t mind shoving that wooden cock so far up your ass that shit comes out your nose.”
New Achievement! “Speak Truth to Power”
New skill unlocked: “Enrage”
Congratulations, you have received enough XP to become a Level 11 Goblin!
As I talked I got to watch as the sallow man’s face somehow got even more bloodless, though I couldn’t read if it was out of anger or embarrassment. There was a weird muffled clang behind me, and I glanced over to see that serious guard had blocked asshole guard from backhanding me again. “That’s enough Wernst.” He said, holding the other man back. “She's a goblin, you keep hitting her like that and you’ll kill her.”
This didn’t seem to bother Wernst much, but he relaxed his posture and looked at his boss. “I can kill her if you want but it’ll be extra. Doesn’t seem like she’s gonna run. Death warrant is nearly ten-thousand gold right now. The prison hasn't filled back up yet since the last dungeon event.”
The sallow faced man took his time responding, some amount of color returning to his cheeks as he stewed on this. I took the time to calmly sort through the clothing on the floor picking out some replacement clothes - I was done with that stupid shirt. I pulled on the first thing I found that fit me, a pair of socks, and put them on. I resisted the urge to dress quickly, not wanting to let them know they’d made me uncomfortable.
I was aware that I was getting off easier here than any real woman in my shoes would be able to. The game system wasn’t going to let me get raped, I was very sure of that. If there was any chance of that, the developers of the game would be sued into bankruptcy so fast it’d make my head spin clean off. Likewise the worst they could do was kill me, and while that might suck for my plans with this character if this game had permadeath, I could still roll up another character if need be, and could even get the same species and class now that I knew what to ask for. I’d just be missing out on my Scarab Tokens and achievements, but there was a chance those might be account bound.
Together, this let me exercise a nearly suicidal degree of sass. It was very cathartic, but not something I’d suggest a real woman try against this kind of cretin, at least not without backup. By the time I’d located some wrappings that looked similar to the ones I’d been wearing when I first arrived at this house, the sallow man had calmed down enough to speak.
“Take her to jail. I’ll pay for the warrant. A week in the dungeon may convince her to tell me where my property is, or we may find the boy in that time. Either will suffice I think.”
I started wrapping the cloth around my chest, hoping I could figure out how this was supposed to work before it became obvious I didn’t know. I was betting they didn’t know either though, so I just had to get close enough and I could redo it later. I made it work with a bit of effort, continuing to taunt him as I did. “Ohhhh, you’re looking for a boy, that makes so much more sense now. I know these aren’t much to look at but I’m surprised you’d mistake me for a boy. I’m pretty sure Ryke is downstairs, he’s a goblin and a boy, and he’s not above getting a little dirty if the money’s right, if you know what I mean.”
As I spoke the sallow man walked out of the room, back as stiff as if someone had actually rammed a half-meter long wooden dildo up his ass. I couldn’t help but snicker at this as I started rooting around in the pile for underwear.
Asshole guard decided to grab me by the shoulder at that point, “Alright, come on, you’re coming with us. You pissed him off enough that he’s willing to pay two-hundred gold to keep you in prison for a week.”
I looked up at him over my shoulder and let a bit of the rage I was holding back leak into my voice. “You’re going to count it as a personal favor I didn’t just take two of your fingers off with my teeth, and then you’re going to let me finish getting dressed. I’ll come with you when I’m done. Also, if you ever touch me again I swear to all the gods that I’ll tear your throat out and swallow it before they can take me down.”
There was a thudding on the stairs as Maraci came running up it and into view, just in time to see the guard yank his hand away from me. Her eyes bugged out at the scene, and she spluttered, trying to catch her breath and form a coherent thought.
The guard, to my shock, seemed genuinely abashed. He lowered his voice and said, “No need for that Tavi, I’m sorry I hurt ya, I was trying to keep you alive. That type of man lives for cruelty. I was sure we were gonna find that thing you stole and that’d have been it for you, maybe all of you, unless we could make him happy. I know him, and he wasn’t going to be happy without pain. Jira, I even lied to him about the price of a death warrant, it’s half that at least right now. I thought you were trying to die with that mouth of yours.”
I glanced at the other guard and he nodded, remaining stoic and continuing to examine the room’s ceiling. “I don’t know how you hid it, but best pray your friend gets rid of it soon. If either of you are caught with it you’ll be lucky if you keep your heads, let alone your hands.”
Maraci, still breathless, finally managed to interject. “Why are you naked?!” She squeaked, at twice her normal pitch.
I looked at her and put on my best confused expression. “What do you mean, I’m not naked.” At that moment, by divine or infernal providence, my poorly wrapped top came undone and fell to the floor. I looked down at it for a moment, then brightened, pointing at my feet. “See, I have socks on!”
***
“Why am I naked?” The woman asked Tristan. “And why am I in jail?”
She was sitting on a bunk in her cell, wrapped in his burnt and torn cloak. She was looking around with interest but no apparent alarm. Tristan had been waiting here for several hours after dragging her unconscious body out of the wreckage of the cathedral and depositing her here. She had woken moments before, and Tristan had silently observed her, waiting for her to speak.
The woman wasn’t human, though she could have passed as such from a distance. Tristan had gotten used to odd looks for his prematurely graying hair, but this woman’s hair was a vibrant shade of blue. Her skin was a dark brown and she had markings similar to tattoo’s swirling over every exposed inch. Except unlike tattoos the markings glowed faintly with a shifting inner light. Her eyes glowed with that same light, giving her the appearance of being lit from within.
Tristan had found the woman in roughly the spot where he’d seen the bishop go down, in the middle of a circle completely free of debris but clearly ravaged by fire. After ensuring that she wouldn’t wake up for a while, Tristan had wrapped her in his cloak and carried her to this jail cell where he had stood watch until this very moment. Now maybe he could finally get some answers.
“You are here because you were found in the wreckage of the Hall of Justice after an attack by an unknown force. You are naked because you weren’t wearing any clothes when I found you. You’ll find some simple garments in the basket to your left, which you may equip if you wish.” Tristan told her.
He watched with interest as the woman pulled out the prison clothes she’d been provided, and manually dressed herself rather than simply equipping the items. She managed to do so with a shocking degree of modesty despite doing things the hard way, and Tristan wondered how and why she had acquired such a skill. She didn’t even ask him to look away, not that he would have - he didn’t plan to let her out of his sight until he had answers.
Once she was dressed the woman stood up and walked to the far wall, looking out the small barred window to the city below. After a moment she turned back to face him. “Is that smoke where your Hall of Justice was?”
Tristan nodded. While the attack had apparently hit multiple places in the city, the cathedral had been the scene of the most destruction, in part because of the troll but mostly because of the fires that had been started when the roof collapsed. “What can you tell me about how you came to be in the cathedral this afternoon?” He asked her.
“Huh? Oh, I guess it was my spawn point? I don’t know, I don’t actually remember being there.” She told him. “Wait, you think I had something to do with this attack?”
“You were found near the last known location of the bishop, after I personally witnessed him struck down by some unknown magic. Despite being in the middle of a collapsed and burning building you have no wounds, and you bear markings which I do not recognize. Currently you are the top suspect in my investigation, and I believe you may have personally killed the bishop.” Tristan rattled off his accusations perfunctorily. She did have the right to know after all.
“Oh wow, that’s wild.” She said, still not seeming concerned. “Well, do I get to prove my innocence or something?”
“Are you saying you would submit to a truth-speaking?” Tristan asked, surprised. People that asked to prove their innocence to an Arbiter only ever meant one thing, and none were foolish enough to submit themselves to it unless they were in fact innocent. It was a tool of last resort, and one which could only be used on a willing subject, both by law and by requirement of the skill involved. It was such a dangerous skill that laws governing its use had been created to help ensure it wouldn’t be abused. That this woman would so casually request it was unheard of.
“Is that like a lie detector or something?” She asked. “Sure I’d do that.”
“Lie detector… No, not quite.” Tristan told her. “By law I am required to inform you that submitting to a truth-speaking is not required, and that by submitting you will be compelled to answer my questions fully and truthfully, without reservation. If you choose not to submit, you will not be subject to any further penalties under the law, but if you do then as an Arbiter I am empowered to judge you innocent or guilty on the spot, with all the consequences thereof.”
She shrugged. “Sure, go for it.”
Tristan was becoming increasingly unnerved at the cavalier attitude this woman was displaying. Still, she had agreed. He was tempted to call for a witness, but he couldn’t afford to give her time to change her mind or slip away from him somehow. He would submit to a truth-speaking himself later if necessary.
This prison was the most magically potent building in all of Altria, and nearly all of Etrona. Its very stones and mortar had been enchanted even as they were laid. Every stone was individually enchanted, and they had been set in patterns that those with knowledge of such things could identify as runic wards against the use of skills and spells. Within these walls a god would struggle to wield their power, and no mortal could hope to so much as activate a single skill. However, Tristan knew some passive skills could defeat the protections laid on the building, as could a devotee of Limitless, since the god would not allow his favored followers to be bound against their will.
Tristan possessed an amulet which excluded him from the building’s restrictions, as did each of the prison guards. These were issued by the warden, and never left the building. They were irreplaceable as they had been created at the same time as the building itself and were fundamentally tied to its magic. Yet Tristan knew that despite their importance, safeguarding the amulets was at best third priority for any guard stationed here. No, the guards were understandably more concerned with their own lives, but even more so with keeping what lay below the prison from getting out.
Still, Tristan had received no report of an amulet going missing, so unless this woman was blessed by Limitless she should not be able to escape the confines of the prison. Nonetheless, he remained on guard as he unlocked her cell and stepped inside. “Please sit on the bed, the process may leave you weakened.” He told her, one hand on his sword.
The woman calmly sat down and looked up at him. “So what do I have to do?”
“I am going to place my hand on your head. When I do you will receive a divine message, read it carefully then say ‘I agree’ to begin. I will then ask you questions, which you will be compelled to answer. When I am satisfied I will remove my hand and the effect will end.” Tristan followed up his explanation with action, placing the palm of his hand against her forehead and activating the Arbiter skill “Compelled Testament”.
Tristan watched as the woman’s eyes moved over text only she could see. He knew what she was reading of course, every Arbiter had to submit themselves to this so they would understand what they were subjecting others to when they used it. Compelled Testament, more commonly referred to as a truth-speaking, was one of very few skills which could remove the agency of another being. The divine system did not grant such powers lightly, and all known ones had significant drawbacks to their use.
Despite this Testament was easily the most commonly available skill of this type, with every Arbiter having access to it. It had been abused in the past by overzealous Arbiters forcing prisoners to submit under pain of torture or death. This in turn had led to the laws governing its use. Even with all the warnings it was impossible to understand how disturbing the process was, which is why all Arbiters were required to subject themselves to it. Few people who volunteered for a truth-speaking ever did so a second time, innocent or not.
“I agree.” said the woman, and Tristan felt the skill take hold. Under his hand her body stiffened, and she would have jerked away had the magic of the skill not held her in the palm of his hand by force. Electricity seemed to run through the woman, and a strange humming noise escaped her lips. Tristan wasted no time, not wishing for this to last any longer than necessary.
“What is your name, and where do you hail from?” He asked her.
The woman bucked against his hand as the magic pried through her thoughts, finding the answer and forcing it through her lips. “I… I… I am Corona… No, deeper… I… I was. I was Valen Armeias… Bishop of Altria… I can’t… go deeper. Deeper. So much deeper… I am… I was… Professor… Seaira Monroe… I am… is… is there… more…?” At this point the woman began making a high pitched keening sound that hurt Tristan’s very soul. He had never seen a reaction like this to such a simple question.
He cut her off, trying to redirect the magic. “Where do you hail from, Corona?”
“I… I’m from Cole Valley… San Francisco… California… the United States of America… Earth… Sol system… the Milky Way galaxy… the Virgo supercluster… the Laniakea Supercluster… the universe…? Is there… more? Is there…?”
The woman’s eyes had begun to look panicked again and Tristan quickly moved on despite not having any idea what she was talking about. “Did you have anything to do with the attack on the cathedral?”
“I… I was not… There was no attack… I was the attack? Oh god I killed me! It’s all right there!” She became even more visibly disturbed and tried to pull away from his hand, but the power of the skill would not release her until Tristan allowed it.
Gritting his teeth and cursing this blasted skill, Tristan once again redirected. “Who was responsible for this?”
This time the answer came immediately. “The gods! Thousands of them! All of them! Valera! She did this! She brought us here!”
Valera? All the gods? What was this? This was the most intelligible answer Tristan had gotten but it made no sense. These things couldn’t be true simultaneously could they? Why would any of the gods have attacked Altria, let alone the Hall of Justice? Only The Adversary ever did things like this, and while Tristan could believe he was involved, why was the woman claiming Valera had done it? This was one of the problems with Testament. From what Tristan understood it had access to the divine logs contained within every person, and could dredge up information from them a person wasn’t even consciously aware of, however it was still limited by the information that person had access to.
“Did you kill the Bishop?” He asked, hoping for clarification on something she’d said earlier.
“Yes I killed him! I am him! I killed myself and became me!” Words were coming faster now, but still made very little sense. Still, he’d seen what happened to his charge in the courtyard, and a terrible understanding overtook him. Three flashes of red light he’d seen. A troll, a devilkin, and this woman, three struck down and three others took their place. This woman had somehow been the Bishop, but was no longer. He’d suspected of course, but this was as close to proof as he could get.
“What is your purpose here?” He asked, glancing at his mana pool. Testament was a maintained skill, and so constantly drained his mana while it was in use. He wouldn’t have much more time for questions. Normally it was much simpler than this.
“I just wanted to play the game!” The woman cried. Then her face twisted in discomfort as a new voice emerged from her throat. It was a deeper voice, but still feminine, confident yet sad. Tristan had heard it once before. “Welcome Traveller.” the voice spoke through the woman called Corona. “I have called you here from beyond the stars. Not for any great purpose or dire threat, but because I felt your souls cry out for that which they have long been denied.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the woman coughed and Tristan’s white tunic was suddenly pink with speckled blood. He immediately withdrew his hand, ending the effect of the skill, and the woman collapsed in a heap, boneless. He caught her as she began to slide off the bed, then repositioned her. Then for the second time that day Tristan found a wall and slumped against it, allowing himself to slide down and sit on the floor.
“What did I just witness?” Tristan asked himself. That had been the strangest truth-speaking he’d ever even heard of. The only thing even close to it was an account he’d read of a truth-speaking involving someone under a gaes. In that case though, the truth-speaking had overpowered the gaes but killed the speaker. Perhaps that would have happened if he’d continued.
Tristan picked through what he’d learned. This woman called Corona… or perhaps Seaira Monroe. She had in some way been Bishop Valen, but he was dead now, and it seemed like she had killed him but it didn’t sound intentional. She’d said she wanted to play a game, but what game? Was this some contest of the gods? Was this woman a champion of a god in some divine game? The voice of Valera had spoken through the woman, and it had said she was here for no great purpose, but if that was the case why had at least three people died today?
Tristan was an Arbiter, one of the direct servants of Astraea. Valera was not an enemy of his goddess, in fact she was one of her oldest allies. Most people didn’t know or didn’t care about Valera’s sacrifice, but the servants of Astraea were all taught the story. When the gods had been divided and unwilling to sacrifice their own power to create the Divine System, Valera had offered to put nearly all of her own power into it so that the other gods could sacrifice only a small portion of their strength in the endeavor.
The system had been Astraea’s idea - a neutral and impartial force to administrate this world, and Valera’s nature was closely aligned with her idea, but neither of them had the raw power nor expertise with worldcrafting to do it on their own. Valera’s sacrifice had brought The Adversary on board with the project, and then the others had followed.
Tristan shook his head. There was a simple answer here, if the gods were involved then this was a problem for the gods. With a few mental commands he brought up a display only he could see, and began to compose a message to his goddess.