“I will not keep you here any longer. The paladin was wise enough to return to Ilavania,” Captain Elken said after speaking with Kulan.
The captain had gone over the details with Leo several more times before the lieutenant returned.
Leo nodded,” Thank you. We still have a long journey ahead and it may be even longer now that it appears we will need to avoid the paladin and likely other Dhinir followers. I couldn’t help but notice you saying there was a prophet of Dhinir in Ilavania is that true?”
Captain Elken grimaced, “Yes it is. Sceleti has been under a lot of pressure from the empire and by proxy The Fifth Tower. How long have you been on the road?”
“Too long…” Dalen muttered before Leo replied. He hadn’t really meant to say it loud enough to hear but of course, the Bladesinger heard it and smiled pleasantly.
“Dalen is right, we have spent more time on the road than we are used to. Why do you ask?” Leo said with far more grace.
Captain Elken nodded,” It makes sense that you do not know then. The emperor has announced himself a follower of Dhinir.”
Dalen’s mouth fell open,” What?! Isn’t the emperor supposed to be neutral when it comes to The Seven Towers?”
Melisia spoke up,” Yes, that has been the tradition for centuries and also a large part of the election process is to ensure all candidates do not hold a blessing with a rarity higher than common,” she frowned,” How have the four kingdoms taken the news?”
Captain Elken frowned,” Not well. There has always been an imbalance of Dhinir followers in the empire’s armies and guard but since the announcement it has only grown worse. Sceleti is better off than some but even we are being flooded with Dhinir paladins daily,” he shook his head, “If you truly are the ones the followers are looking for then I suggest you avoid Ilavania if possible. With the prophet present the city guard is being overseen by imperial soldiers, all followers of Dhinir.”
“We can’t. We are looking for someone there,” Leo replied grimly.
“Oh, you have traveled so far for just one person? Who would that be? Perhaps I could save you some time,” the captain said, obviously intrigued.
Leo spared a glance at Melisia and Dalen before answering. Dalen nodded, he didn’t have a problem risking it and asking the elf. He had already refused to hand them over to Dhinir’s followers so Dalen doubted he was going to do anything to them now.
Melisia did as well but she looked less convinced.
Leo shrugged,” We are looking for Elandria the ex-prophet of Uton. We are in need of her knowledge on space mana.”
The captain’s face changed more than it had when he was threatening the paladin,” I see. Then I imagine the paladin’s warning about your allegiance with The Order of the Crimson Dawn is true then?”
The elf didn’t say it harshly but there was certainly a change of tone that Dalen wasn’t sure he was reading correctly.
Leo nodded non-committedly,” Or goals align for now but I assure you-”
“The order has few friends in Sceleti. We are aware of their recruitment methods…”
All three of them tensed as the Bladesinger paused as if suddenly remembering something. His eyes drifted to the middle distance for a moment before focusing on Dalen.
“Tell me Dalen Kreet, Alchemist of the Wrathful. Do you walk a forgotten path?”
Dalen wasn’t a fan of suddenly having the Bladesinger’s full attention. There was no aggression in the man’s voice but for some reason, he felt like what he said next mattered a whole lot more than he liked.
The question was, did he mean The Fractured Path? If so, how did he know about that? Dalen supposed it was possible people other than the order had come across the crossings to the Fractured Path but for some reason, Dalen didn’t get the feeling that was taking the man’s words too literally.
For one, he certainly wasn’t walking it now and hopefully never would again. Two, why did he mention Dalen’s class? The thought brought him back to his suspicions about Kal influencing his class as well. He was almost certain it had been affected somehow even though he didn’t have the mark yet.
What had Elder Jaliete said? “ No, it is something new. A new source of mana, a new source of power altogether. Could you not feel it?” Dalen could feel it. More and more every day. His anger was less severe now that they were moving towards his main goal but he could still feel it. Even on the road, he felt… Trapped. It was a strange sensation since he was probably more free than he had ever been in his life but it was nevertheless there.
“No. I follow something new,” Dalen didn’t know if that was what the man wanted to hear but deep in his heart he felt that it was the truth.
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The captain’s eyes widened a minuscule amount and his eyes burrowed into Dalen’s for slightly too long to be comfortable then he nodded to himself,” Then no reason to slow you down with any more questions. Elendria is not in Ilavania, she prefers to stay far away from the followers of Uton and Dhinir.”
Dalen was taken aback by the sudden departure,” Wait what? You're going to let us go?”
The captain smiled,” I happen to know Elendria quite well. She would be disappointed if I stopped you from meeting her.”
“If she is not Ilavania then where is she?” Leo asked.
“She has a small hideaway to the north of here. It is still a few days by road but you could shorten that time by cutting through the Choking Depths but it isn’t the safest route.”
“Do you have a spare map? Ours isn’t the best to be trudging around the jungle with,” Dalen said as he pulled out the scout-drawn map.
Kulan stepped forward,” You may have mine. I can replicate it with some time.”
Dalen’s eyes widened when he saw the penmanship on display. The map was bordered by flowing artistic winds that swirled around symbols of Earae and to Dalen’s surprise Dhoerin’s symbol was present as well. The actual map itself had dozens of small villages and settlements marked along with Ilavania and the Sceleti capital, Serpent’s Rest.
Map of the Kingdom of Sceleti [Uncommon]
Dalen wasn’t surprised to see that the map had a rarity above common. The art alone elevated it above any other map he had seen but the general precision of the map was also impressive. It even had general travel times marked on it.
“Are you sure? This is a damned good map,” Dalen said. He almost felt bad for taking it.
“Of course. Like I said, I can just make a new one,” Kulan chuckled as he jabbed a finger onto the map,” Farstep’s residence is already marked here.”
Dalen looked at the spot he pointed to and frowned when he read its label. All it said was “Ruins”.
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After that last stressful discussion and the acquisition of a bloody good map Dalen and the others left the Sceleti patrol behind. It had been stressful but honestly went better than Dalen had expected it would.
Getting spotted by the Dhinir paladin probably wasn’t for the best but at least they knew their suspicions were correct. Dhinir wanted them badly, exactly why he wanted them they didn’t know but with how everything else has been turning out it had to be about Kal.
But why Kal? Surely the gods knew about the demons and the infiltrator? Why wasn’t Dhinir trying to purge the demons instead of the order and now the three of them? It didn’t make any sense to Dalen at all. Was it being concealed for some reason?
The order’s crimes deserved punishment. Indoctrinating children was already bad in Dalen’s books but stealing them from families was what truly deserved punishment. But whatever Dhinir’s followers meant by cleansing wasn’t punishment. Why did they deserve to be slaughtered?
Dalen remembered part of the speech that the prophet from Hurius’s camp had spouted when they had first joined them. Something about the order conducting rituals to weaken the firmament. Or something like that. Dalen hadn’t seen Elder Jaliete’s group do anything like that but he wasn’t even really sure what the firmament was besides some kind of metaphysical thing that mages sometimes spoke about.
“Melisia. What do you know about the firmament?”
She seemed a little surprised by the question since they had been running north in silence for a few hours by this point,” Among The Seven Towers it is believed to be a layer of reality that both surrounds us and invades everything in our world and beyond. Each of The Towers has their own more specific beliefs,” she slowed her jog slightly to regain her breath, “ Most are baseless, Dhinir’s tower believes it to be a kind of living mana that conjures demons if provoked by summoners or occultists.”
Well, Dalen didn’t believe that one at least. The fact that Kal had fallen through to wherever the demons were from disproved that theory soundly but it did explain the Dhinir followers' hatred towards The Order regardless of their god’s urgings.
“Well, that can’t be true right? The demons weren’t simply conjured out of nothing. They definitely came from somewhere,” Dalen said. Repeating his thoughts aloud.
Melisia nodded,” Right, but until recently it was actually one of the best theories on the subject. Summoners are rare but they have successfully summoned demons before but those they did were always far weaker than those we saw on the Fractured Path and Hurius’s camp. I have read some studies on the topic, apparently in the rare cases of a demon summoning if a space mage was present seeing exactly how the demon arrived was difficult. The only thing visibly happening was a slight warping of the air.”
“Then what does the order believe? Jaliete has already told us of that strange void world where Kal is. What about that other place? The place where Kal was first taken, what is that?”
Melisia shrugged as she ran,” Jaliete has not told me everything either, but I suspect it is a different plane of existence. Similar to the Fractured Path. Perhaps the firmament simply holds them apart but I really don’t know. I’m not a space mage Dalen and neither is Jaliete or any of her cell.”
It made sense on the surface but for some reason, it felt inherently wrong to Dalen. The feeling of confinement grew just thinking about it. He couldn’t look inwards at his core while on the move but he knew it was trying to tell him something. How he had no idea but the trapped feeling had only come to him after he had read the marks description.
Mark of Wrath
Your core has been marked by Kalum Lesta the Slayer of Fate and Exemplar of Defiance. May you overcome your limits and sunder that which binds.
Dalen tried to put the thoughts aside while they traveled and concentrated on getting to this space mage.
Three more days passed as they camped beneath vine-covered trees and beside beast-filled rivers. Dalen hadn’t managed to level up anymore during that time, his bombs weren’t ideal when a piece of shrapnel could hit Melisia or Leo in the close quarters of the densest jungle they had been in so far.
Besides his bombs were too loud to be just chucking around willy-nilly especially if they wanted to make sure any paladins or other Dhinir followers didn’t find them.
As the sun fell and darkness began to seep across the jungle they finally found the place they had been searching for.
A large black obelisk broke through the canopy of the jungle and caught the remaining light of the sun forming strange pearlescent patterns on its surface. Behind it lay the remains of dozens of large black structures now shattered and grown over with the life of the jungle.
Dalen couldn’t help but frown at the black obelisk and its similarities to the one he had seen at the crossing,” This better not have a gods damned wall of light…”