“I guess that the one who made the wraith wasn’t Agorn Krischa, and he only was tasked with the setup.” Velvet said.
“Yes, sloth mages are not specialized in the death domain.” Kartal answered, taking a pocket watch from his pocket and looking at the time. “Speaking of death, those two should be coming now.”
So the real culprit was one of the selector families.
“Which Paradigm has power over the death domain?” She asked, fully intending to obtain knowledge. She hadn’t forgotten the pile of reanimated bodies the escaped demon used.
“None. Envy and wrath do have some skills to influence a corpse’s grudges, but death spells don’t belong to the enchanters category. They belong to the sorcerer’s.”
Acquiring magic had two ways to be accomplished. One, opening a gate to the Primeval Sea, the common, available for anyone way, opening the Esca, and two, being blessed by a deity, which was harder.
Someone like the Queen of Arhontissa was in the second category, Velvet was, at least, ninety percent sure of that (if gods were the ones picking royalty, on their own continent, surely they would bless them).
“Can demons believe in gods?” Velvet asked Hyde. Necromancy was death’s domain, so, for a demon to use it…
“No.”
“Then how?”
“Ask Udulluay, not me. I didn’t consume that demon.”
Velvet tsked in a low voice, before hearing steps coming in their direction.
Two persons, the first one made her understand what Kartal meant by ‘Speaking of death’. He was pale, like a paper sheet, and so were his pupils. Black hair, which Velvet noticed was dyed, and black clothes, consisting of a long, high collar jacket, boots and tight pants, everything adorned with silver chains and crosses. Even his face had some silver ornaments, especially his ears.
A goth? She recognized the strange attire from magazines.
The other was a girl. Blonde, her hair tied up high, blue sharp eyes, dressed in a taiga hunter attire, characterized by being made with reindeer skin, possessing fluffy parts to conserve heat, as to help dealing with Mirel’s boreal forests, but lacking a shotgun. Velvet recognized her.
It was the girl she had beaten up with plants on the Arena, who kept shouting at her to stop hiding and ‘prove she had balls’.
Nope, actually I dooon’t remember her. At all. Wow, new people!
“Velvet, these are Visna Skogul and Drifa Kroschei. Skogul, Drifa, Velvet Consestella Dobastro.”
Skogul was the goth, Drifa was the taiga hunter.
“Velvet?” Drifa said, tilting her head. “Why do I find the name familiar?”
So she isn’t a knowledge mage, good. Not that Velvet knew that already, since she had never met that girl before!
“From the fabric.” Velvet clarified. “Hey, do you wanna see a wraith?”
Goths liked ghosts, probably. And hunters liked dead things. Probably.
“Oh shit, where?”
Having changed the conversation theme, Velvet gave them the container… ignoring Kartal’s inquisitor look.
Hey now, I’m trying to prevent animosities on the team! You should be thanking me for fixing my own problems!
Skogul grabbed first the container, just as Velvet had planned. He examined it, turning the container in his hand.
After arriving at conclusions, he spoke. “Hm. Male, thirty-two, malnourished, from Idirian origin. The wraith only has a few months. Probably a tricked tramp.”
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Velvet nodded in fake understanding.
“Where did you get it? Making artificial wraiths is prohibited by Mr Kartal here. Death penalty included.” Skogul asked.
“The friends waiting for us at the Arena left it at my house.”
“Oh, they got started already?” Forgetting why she ‘remembered’ Velvet, Drifa spoke, changing her weight from one foot to another.
“Can I buy it?” Skogul said that looking at Kartal, even when the wraith was Velvet’s possession. He was probably asking about his opinion, though.
“What is done is done.” Kartal said.
“400 auris.” Skogul offered Velvet.
“450”
“400 is a good price, the best you would be offered.”
“450, but you can use information about death magic, or something similar as part of the payment. Satisfy me, and get it for 400.”
“Deal, but… I don’t know if the Prince of Idir will be okay with me proselytizing…” Skogul looked at Syon, who had been silently listening all this time.
Velvet supposed Kartal refused to intervene or give his opinion since he wouldn’t be in the Arena, so they needed to come to an understanding on their own. Their teamwork tomorrow depended on that.
“I would be against it if we were in Idir, but the Mergifari has its own jurisdiction, and the freedom of religion is one of them. As long as I maintain the status of Mergifari’s guest, I will follow its rules.” Syon answered fast, clearly knowing beforehand how to answer those types of questions. “Alas, you can simply tell her outside the Riverside Villa, without needing to consider my stance.”
“I’ll… take that as a yes.” Skogul cleared his throat, turning satisfied to Velvet. “I am a believer of the Finality Triumvirate. Composed by the three Mother Goddesses of Horror.”
Even when only four gods inhabited the land currently, that didn’t mean there were only four. Materialized and actually ruling? Yes, only four. But above them were the conceptual gods, who ruled over concepts like time, death, space…
Maybe there were more types of gods, but Velvet only was sure of those two categories.
“The goddess of Death Haashi, the goddess of Darkness, and the goddess of Despair.”
“Sounds nice. Very welcoming.” Velvet said with sarcasm.
“Do you have a better name?”
“Goddess of the last stop, goddess of the lightless, and goddess of… the lost.”
“You can perfume a corpse all you want, but that won’t stop it from rotting.”
“On Idir we mummify the dead.” Syon interrupted. “So they don’t rot.”
“We put them on boats and set them on fire on the sea.” Velvet said. “So they don’t rot.”
“We bury the dead on frozen soil in Mirel.” Drifa said. “So they don’t rot.”
“Can I continue? The Death is-”
“Why are you only naming one?” She asked, when it was clear he wasn’t naming the others.
“I am a blessed of Death, as you can see; I don’t know the other names.”
Looking at him up and down, Velvet commented. “Well, you look pale and sick, but I thought it was a fashion choice.”
Skogul laughed. “Sick, eh? Not dead? Because I am dead, miss.”
“Only the dead can be blessed by Death.”
Flinching at that, Velvet nodded slowly. “Isn’t it difficult to proselytize with that tiny little detail?”
“Not if you do it at a hospital.” When Kartal squinted at that, Skogul raised his arms in a surrendering motion. “That’s how I was convinced, I didn’t do it!”
“Aren’t you Mirelian? Who even does that on his territory?” Mirel had the Inquisition active, after all.
“Oh, the Inquisition showed up. Burned the guy at the stake, and made sure no one in the hospital could remember him.”
“Except you.”
“Yeah, about that… I’m sure there’s plenty of wanted posters of me around the continent…” He scratched his head. “Oh, I can give you the ritual for the Mother Goddess of Darkness. That would make the wraith cost 400, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
As a prayer for a Goddess of Horror, just speaking it could cause disasters, so Skogul wrote it on different pieces of paper that Velvet gave to him, alternating the lines so as to not write it continuously. Done that, he paid the remaining 400 auris, and Velvet gave him the wraith.
Skogul brought the container to his mouth, before pulling the wraith out and swallowing it. Velvet only saw a faint mist going down his throat, noticing he also had metal pieces on the tongue.
Guess being dead kinda kills your pain tolerance…
Kartal clapped once, calling for their attention. “Now that presentations are over, I want to test your teamwork. Follow me.”
He went to a clear, vast zone, free of statues and birds (even Velvet’s friendly parrot left). Then, he turned around.
“Alright, we start in ten seconds. Get in position.”
“Who are we fighting?” Drifa asked.
Velvet saw Kartal’s mouth curl in a mocking smile for less than a second, before it disappeared, forever gone.
“Well, who is standing in front of you four?” Was Kartal’s answer.
Rolling his sleeves up, and making sure they wouldn't curl down, Kartal spoke again. “Five.”