Zareth couldn’t stop himself from pacing back and forth as he thought over the implications of what Vidhatri had found.

This situation was much bigger and much worse than he had initially imagined. Not only were there many more hostiles than anticipated, but they were also associated with the actual Cult of the Unfettered One! Those crazy bastards were the reason that people on this continent tended to associate [Cultist] with a strange hatred of the System and were considered one of the most hated radical organizations in Eldamir.

They weren’t quite as reviled in the Qahtani Desert, as they were much less active in the region… or at least as far as anyone knew. What they were doing in some random hole in the ground far away from any major cities, Zareth could only guess at. However, the innocent people being tortured for some kind of unknown magical ritual made him sincerely doubt that the Cult of the Unfettered One was a bunch of misunderstood [Scholars].

If Vidhatri’s subterfuge was discovered then it was very likely that she, Zareth, and every other outsider would end up impaled in an isolated cavern next…

That was definitely something that he would like to avoid.

“There’s little chance that we can seize Jabal-Alma’s military with our available combatants,” Rizok said solemnly, having immediately begun to strategize as soon as he was informed what they were up against. “We’re simply too severely out-numbered and lack proper intelligence of our enemy’s capabilities. Our only advantage is that they’re unaware of our knowledge of their operations. We must leverage that if we are to survive.”

Zareth felt some of his panic ease at his friend’s calm analysis. It was very reassuring that he was traveling with a group of veteran soldiers who knew better than him how to handle themselves in dire situations.

That reminded him of an important little detail…

“Rizok, is there any chance at all that I can avoid telling Major Idris about this?” Zareth asked, his tone reluctant.

It was a remarkable show of how well Rizok had gotten to know him that he immediately understood what was concerning him.

“Keeping the true abilities of your Skills a secret is generally a good idea, but I think we’re far past that point already,” Rizok said bluntly, though he did offer Zareth an apologetic expression. “It’s unfortunate, but I don’t think we have many other options. For something so serious, it’s doubtful that Major Idris would accept anything less than a detailed and complete explanation.”

Zareth cursed under his breath. [Eye of Cerebon] was his rarest Skill by far and had much more utility when nobody knew how it worked. Given how thoroughly the Great Houses had infiltrated Tal’Qamar's military, sharing this kind of information with them was tantamount to revealing his capabilities to everyone in the city.

I’ll need to find a way to prevent that from happening… but that’s a problem for later, Zareth thought to himself as he made his decision.

“Fine. I suppose we have little choice in the matter,” Zareth instructed with a resigned tone. “But that should wait until we’ve gathered as much information as we can. It’d be a waste of time if we just went to him with only speculation.”

“That seems wise,” said Rizok, placing a comforting hand on Zareth’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. “Don’t worry. This isn’t my first time deep behind enemy lines. I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with a strategy to see us through this.”

Zareth offered his friend a grateful nod before turning his attention back to Vidhatri and her progress through the evil cultist infested ruins. Fortunately, it seemed like the enemy was fairly lax in security so far, which made sense given how unlikely it would be for anyone to bypass their prior defenses. So long as Vidhatri didn’t do something completely foolish, chances were good that she would remain undiscovered.

“See if you can learn anything more about that ritual they’re conducting,” Zareth telepathically instructed Vidhatri as he watched her delve deeper into the ruins. “I doubt it's time-sensitive given how long people have been going missing around this region, but we need to be certain of it. Also, keep a lookout for any particularly strange movements in the Etherveil.”

Zareth was almost certain by now that these cultists were responsible for the abnormal magical mirage. Since its members refuted the System and presumably didn’t have access to it, all of their abilities would therefore need to come from either the Etherveil or be sourced by the so-called ‘Unfettered One’ who they had named their group after.

He’d never heard of any deity going by that title, so the former was far more likely in Zareth’s opinion. That being the case, they would have access to a type of magic that most [Mages] would find bizarre and difficult to deal with, like the magical mirage. The fact that the people who went missing made for perfect sacrificial material was just another piece of the puzzle falling too well into place.

“Understood. You said that you saw something within the tome of Meldorath resembling their ritual, correct?” Vidahtri responded, her tone strangely casual despite the danger she was in. “I recommend that you also search for more details.”

That was a good point, and one that Zareth had forgotten in his panic. Unfortunately, it probably wasn’t something that he could research quickly, even considering the high speed at which [Eye of Cerebon] processed visual information.

He had no idea if the matter was time sensitive or there was anything that Vidhatri needed to do while she still had access to the ruins. Someone would eventually discover that the patrolling warrior Vidhatri had turned into a meatball had either disappeared or was missing a notable portion of his memories. That wouldn’t be enough to implicate Zareth or any of the soldiers, but security would definitely be amplified to a point that they would no longer be able to discreetly investigate their activities.

“That’s not an assumption that we can rely on,” said Rizok, interrupting Zareth while he relayed his conversation with Vidhatri and expressed his thoughts on the matter. “We know nothing about the Cult of the Unfettered One’s motivations, typical operational methods, or the extremes they may go to protect their secrets.”

“Do you really think there’s a chance that Jabal-Alma would take drastic action against us with such little evidence?” Zareth asked skeptically as he searched through his pack for the tome of Meldorath. “That seems like it would be a drastic escalation with potentially catastrophic consequences if High Command was to discover what they had done.”

“We have little reason to trust a group of fanatics to act on a purely rational basis,” Rizok said grimly. “I’ve spoken to enough [Strategists] and experienced enough battles to know that the worst case scenario is one that must be accounted for.”

Zareth’s mind was quickly flooded with images of what that worst case scenario may actually look like. Insane ogre cultists discovering their security compromised and, in a panic, dragging them all off to be sacrificed in some dark ritual. He knew that his thoughts were a tad bit paranoid, but Rizok was correct to point out that this series of events wasn’t unlikely enough to be discounted entirely.

Zareth forced these visions of doom away and quickly found the tome of Meldorath before beginning to flip through its pages, his third eye shifting back and forth at a rapid pace.

He and Vidhatri had been consistently working to decipher the tome of Meldorath in their freetime, though they had yet to make any major discoveries. The magical safeguards around the tome could only be bypassed with [Eye of Cerebon], which meant that Zareth needed to take time from his fairly busy schedule to sit down and analyze the text. Not only that, but the actual contents were in an unknown language that neither Zareth or Vidhatri had recognized.

It was only after they copied a small sample of the text and brought it to a [Historian] that they had discovered it to be an ancient dialect that could be traced back to the Pre-System shivarath nation of Rudhirapur. There was very little known about them these days, other than they had been in decline even before the System War and had a tendency for dark magic. This slim connection was all Zareth and Vidhatri needed to begin their research.

Unfortunately, Vidhatri was quite insistent that only servants of Cerebon be allowed to study the tome’s texts. This meant they had to feed small snippets of the tome’s contents to various [Scholars] and [Historians] to minimize the risk of anyone piecing together anything of importance, which made the progress slow and extremely inefficient.

“In hindsight, I probably should have already spent a Skill Point on [Whispers of Lost Tongues], so that I could decipher the tome myself,” Zareth explained to his friend as he searched for the relevant passage. “Cerebon still hasn’t contacted me since our first conversation or expressed any impatience. So, it didn’t seem like a top priority.”

He couldn’t find it in himself to regret his decisions too much, given that most of his Skills had proven their value.

“The naga may feel like it’s poor fortune not to spend their Skill Points as quickly as possible, but there are many who believe in the wisdom of saving strategic resources for when they are most needed,” said Rizok, shrugging in response. “You can acquire the Skill now if necessary, which is all that truly matters.”

It took several minutes for Zareth to find the portion of the tome that reminded him of the ritual Vidhatri had stumbled upon. Much like the rest of the tome, it was written from the perspective of an unknown figure and detailed their experiences in a past more ancient than any historical records Zareth knew about.

It was almost certain that these figures were related to Meldorath and that the dead Goddess of Flesh may have even contributed to the tome herself, but there was no way to be sure. Beyond the language gap, there was simply too much historical context missing to make any definitive claims.

“Well… I hope [Whispers of Lost Tongues] is as effective as its grandiose name suggests,” Zareth muttered as he read through the small patches of translated text. “This section can probably be dated to the System War and references a ‘evil-mage-knowledge-freedom-slave causing crystalline tumor to grow from the flesh of a young-virtuous-bound-student for harvesting.’ Not exactly the most coherent description, but I think there’s a decent chance of it being related to what we’re dealing with.”

Zareth wasn’t one to believe in coincidences, especially when there were so many subtle signs pointing him in a particular direction.

Rizok was silent as he considered the information for several moments before he responded. “How long do you think it will be before Jabal-Alma realizes that something has happened?”

Zareth briefly turned his attention to the ogre warriors within the caverns and was relieved to see that none of them had yet to check on their ally-turned-meatball. He hadn’t been paying particularly close attention to their patrol times, but he knew that it would be several hours at least before they realized that one of their own was missing.

“That gives a decent window of time before any heightened alertness kicks in,” said Rizok once Zareth finished relaying that information. “By then, Vidhatri will have already needed to have extracted what information she can and gotten herself to safety. It would also be best for us to have already briefed Major Idris so that we can prepare in the event of an aggressive response.”

Zareth’s heart dropped a little at that grim reminder.

He’d come to Jabal-Alma with the hopes of forging positive relations with his future subjects, but discovered a situation that wouldn’t end well regardless of what he did. Even if he made it out of here with his skin intact, the Cult of the Unfettered One had likely infiltrated this place so thoroughly that there was little chance of the population becoming favorable to him.

Convincing High Command not to put the entire settlement to the torch was going to be a challenge itself…

Zareth took a breath to compose himself and resolved to focus on what he could control, rather than worrying about the impending clusterfuck that was probably going to come from this situation.

[Whispers of Lost Tongues] has been acquired!

The next few hours were spent dividing his attention between monitoring Vidhatri’s perspective and attempting to glean any useful information from the tome of Meldorath. It didn’t take long for him to realize that the Skill was indeed extremely useful, bits and pieces of the ancient text started making sense in a way they hadn’t before.

It was always a bit of a surreal experience to have information randomly flow into his mind from some unseen external source, but Zareth ignored the sensation and focused on the task at hand.

Even if portions of the ancient language had suddenly become legible, the process wasn’t instantaneous, and there was still a significant amount of historical context that [Whispers of Lost Tongues] didn’t help him with.

It took him nearly an entire hour to decipher that ‘evil-mage-knowledge-freedom-slave’ was an enemy faction that the temple of Meldorath fought during the System war. Meanwhile young-virtuous-bound-student referred to members of a group of the temple’s young apprentices who had been captured by said enemy faction.

Reading the description of what was done to them was… less than pleasant.

Given that the temple of Meldorath fought alongside the Conclave in the System War, it was a bit disheartening to realize that neither side of the conflict seemed all that noble or just in their methods. He really wished that there was a clear good and bad side in the conflict, but that unfortunately didn’t seem to be the case.

According to the tome of Meldorath, the crystals being harvested from the flesh of the captured apprentices served a similar function as Sunstones, in that they were used to store magic. However, while Zareth had only ever heard of Sunstones being used by [Artificers] or [Enchanters] to power their creations, these crystals seemed especially potent at enhancing rituals and spells.

Not only that, but they could be produced in much greater numbers than Sunstones.

Given that these ogres belonged to a particular subgroup of their kind that subsided on magic, a grim picture was beginning to form. Sunstones were extraordinarily expensive, and this place didn’t seem to have any natural wellsprings of magic from which to draw upon. It was very easy to guess what Jabal-Alma gained from this endeavor considering how useful the crystals would be to them.

The only question that Zareth couldn’t find an answer to was what motivations the Cult of the Unfettered One had in this partnership.

“Zareth. I believe you should see this.”

Zareth was pulled from his thoughts by Vidhatri’s telepathic message, and he turned his attention back to her perspective. He was immediately greeted by a sight nearly as shocking as the ritual itself.

Vidhatri had managed to sneak her way deeper into the caverns and caught sight of a long line of cultists gathering these crystals into a large pile. Obviously, this wasn’t what had caught Vidhatri’s attention.

Rather, it was the four robed humans chanting around a mound of crystals and conducting a magical ritual that manipulated the Etherveil with a degree of precision that Zareth could only dream of replicating. The sight of the crystals disappearing in an explosion of displaced air and a flash of bright light as the ritual concluded was enough to leave Vidhatri and Zareth both speechless.

Zareth was no [Mage], but even he knew that teleportation was considered one of the most difficult and rare forms of magics to cast, especially on a scale that involved teleporting objects of significant size or mass. It was possible, but typically only for high-leveled spellcasters or through esoteric Skills with stringent requirements.

Veilspire Academy and all of the other magical institutions in Eldamir had long made it their goal to understand this specific type of magic, investing vast amounts of resources into discovering the means to become a [Spatial Mage] or something similar.

If they ever succeeded, then the implications to trade, military strategy, and all manner of logistical operations would be historic. That the Cult of the Unfettered One was capable of this kind of feat without even accessing the System was… deeply concerning to say the least.

It certainly made it clear to Zareth that he’d stumbled into something entirely out of his pay-grade.

“This is… far beyond what I expected,” Vidhatri said after regaining her composure, her tone uncharacteristically lacking its usual confidence. “I don’t know if even the [Mahajadugar] of Zumair could easily replicate such a feat. I can’t help but wonder if your superiors are aware that this group has such capabilities.”

“There’s no way to tell. This kind of information is so valuable that anyone with sense would want to monopolize for themselves,” Zareth responded immediately, his mind racing with the implications of what they’d discovered.

He would definitely need to look more closely into this. Almost every Adventurer’s Guild across Valandor had permanent bounties relating to the Cult of the Unfettered One, but he’d assumed that was simply a result of rich Eldamiri tossing around gold to deal with a dangerous and radical faction.

Perhaps… there may have been other factors contributing to the degree of concern and resources allocated to a group that seemed, until now, to be nothing more than a fringe threat.

Regardless, Zareth’s instincts told him that the power-brokers in Tal’Qamar might not be fully aware of this. Whether or not the Great Houses knew was a bit of a toss-up, but High Command would have probably at least designated the cult as a target of interest if they did.

“Get out of there, Vidhatri. I don’t feel comfortable with you being so isolated anymore,” Zareth instructed, fearful that the enemy may have other unknown capabilities that would reveal her intrusion. “I know we still haven’t found the source of the mirage, but it’d be better for you to retreat as soon as possible.”

Vidhatri must have reached a similar conclusion, because she immediately began to retreat and make her way out of the cavern. “Understood. I will restore my captive and ensure he is rendered unconscious once I return to the point at which I disabled him.”

Zareth was now very glad that Vidhatri had chosen to turn the ogre into an oversized meatball rather than kill them outright. Chieftain Murog would have likely reacted far worse to a missing patrol than one who would have appeared to have simply fallen asleep on duty.

When Zareth turned his attention back to Rizok and relayed everything that he had learned, his friend tensed and widened his eyes at just how much they may have underestimated their enemy.

“I think it's time that we brief Major Idris,” Rizok said grimly before making his way to the door.

Zareth put away the tome of Meldorath and prepared himself for the meeting that would determine how they would deal with being surrounded by a bunch of murderous lunatics with unknown abilities and no easy way to escape.

It took Rizok a bit longer to return than expected, most likely because he was attempting to avoid undue attention, but eventually returned with Major Idris in tow. The veteran soldier wore a grave expression so he must have at least picked up on Rizok’s tension.

Major Idris’ expression only grew more solemn the longer Zareth spent explaining the situation. He remained silent for most of it, only asking questions for the purposes of clarification or to probe deeper into how the information was gathered. Something indecipherable flashed through his eyes once Zareth told him about [Eye of Cerebon], but it was quickly masked by a professional demeanor.

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Once everything was finally laid out, Major Idris was silent for several moments before he punched the wall by him so hard that his fist was buried several inches into the stone.

“Damn these fucking treacherous vermin!” Major Idris said through gritted teeth, likely only preventing himself from yelling due to the need for secrecy. “I’ll have them dismembered from their bodies one by one and throw them in the desert sands to be scavenged by vultures!”

Zareth waited patiently for Major Idris to calm down, not at all surprised at his reaction. The soldier’s body shook with rage and his eyes burned with a fervor to carry out his threats, but that fury eventually gave way to something more… mournful.

“I should have trusted my own instincts, instead of believing these savages and sending my people into those gods forsaken tunnels,” Major Idris said with a downcast expression, before taking a deep breath and turning back to them with unshakable resolve. “Well… this is a fucked up situation if I’ve ever seen one. I hope you’ve got some sort of plan or trick beneath your kaftan to get us out of here.”

“Not as such, Major,” said Rizok, standing to attention and showing professional focus as the conversation moved on to tactical planning. “I estimate that we would either need at least a Company to subdue Jabal-Alma. We could also be extracted with assistance from several Third-Grade or a single Fourth-Grade strike team. For some reason, however, I get the feeling that you’re about to tell me why that isn’t going to happen.”

Zareth was only moderately familiar with Tal’Qamar’s military structure, but he was fairly certain that a Company was about 150 soldiers, which was a lot considering that the Southern Legion was already having problems holding back Anket. A ‘Third-Grade’ strike team was a group of twelve specially trained soldiers with an average level of 30, while a Fourth-Grade would have an average level of 40 and so on following that pattern.

“I didn’t know that you were a [Seer], Master Sergeant,” Major Idris said wryly with a humorless expression. “To be honest, there’s a chance that High Command might decide it's worth sending a Fourth-Grade to pull us out of here despite the risk that places on the Southern Legion. After all, General Nasrith personally sent out a directive that protecting members of the Hierophant's Council is considered to be a high priority. He even named Apostle Zareth and Priestess Farida specifically.”

That was definitely news to Zareth and was more than a little surprising. He’d already seen signs that he’d caught General Nasrith’s attention after his cult assisted in the battle near Fal’Ashar, but to actually be picked out specifically for protection was both useful and vaguely concerning.

“However… what you told me about the enemy’s ability to teleport objects and potentially even people, changes everything,” Major Idris continued, a thin frown etched onto his face. “High Command will highly value capturing as many of the enemy forces alive as possible for interrogation. That would be very difficult to accomplish with a conventional strike team given the enemy’s ability to instantly escape. Not to mention the possibility that they’d go on the offensive and teleport in reinforcements that we’re not equipped to handle.”

Zareth couldn’t help but scowl, not liking that the safety of him and those that he was responsible for was being weighed against perceived benefits, but the strategic interests involved were indeed significant.

“Then what would you suggest, Major Idris?” Zareth asked curtly, not willing to suggest that there weren’t any solutions to their problems. “I’ve heard a lot about what can’t be done, but I’m a little bit more interested in preventing all of us from being impaled on makeshift pedestals and spending the rest of our lives being farmed for crystals.”

His words were met with a tense silence, as everyone in the room began to understand the gravity of their circumstances and that no easy solution presented a way out of it. Eventually, a hesitant expression settled on Major Idris’ face and he glanced toward Zareth.

“You stated that you have a method of communicating with Tal’Qamar, correct? It’s… by no means certain, but there’s a chance that your political influence could be leveraged to have High Command send a Critical Asset to Jabal-Alma.”

…Critical Asset?

Zareth glanced questioningly toward Rizok and saw that his friend looked incredibly taken aback. After a moment, Rizok realized that Zareth had no idea what Major Idris was talking about and took it upon himself to explain.

“A Critical Asset is a military term to describe individuals or artifacts powerful enough that their deployment is enough to reshape a battlefield,” Rizok explained, a subtle hint of awe in his voice. “When referring to people, they would be the equivalent of a Legendary Adventurer like Vaelora the Sunblade. Tal’Qamar doesn’t have any Critical Assets capable of defeating a Calamity grade threat like Idraxan the Mad, but dealing with Jabal-Alma would be trivial for any one of them.”

Zareth had never heard the term “Critical Asset” before, but to be mentioned in the same breath as Legendary Adventurers or Idraxan the Mad already said enough.

“If High Command has access to such powerful resources, then why wasn’t this option considered before?” Zareth asked curiously, glancing between the two soldiers. “This seems like the sort of thing that I would have already heard about.”

“Critical Assets are generally too important to be used against anything but the enemy’s strongest resources in turn,” Major Idris explained as Rizok nodded in agreement. “For example, High Command has one such Critical Asset deployed near Fal’Ashar to protect against potential divine retribution as they siege the city. Redeploying it elsewhere would be a catastrophic blow to the war effort.”

That made sense to Zareth. Fal’Ashar had a strong Conclave presence and many places of worship, which would make it a perfect staging ground for a ritual similar to the one that his cult had performed a few months ago.

Without some means of protecting against that kind of retribution, sieging the city would be exceedingly difficult.

“As for why you’ve never heard about them, information regarding Critical Assets is generally tightly controlled,” Major Idris continued. “There’s only so much that I’m permitted to share with you, and even that is only due to your status.”

Once Major Idris finished his explanation, Zareth took several moments to consider his proposal. If these Critical Assets were indeed as powerful as described, then one of them would be the perfect solution for his current problems.

However… there was probably a good reason why Major Idris had been so reluctant to make the proposal in the first place.

“What exactly do you expect I’ll have to trade in exchange for High Command to deploy something so valuable?” Zareth asked with a sense of deep foreboding.

Major Idris and Rizok were both silent, but it was clear from both of their expressions that the answer wasn’t one that he would like. Finally, Major Idris confirmed his suspicions.

“I’m no expert in politics, Apostle Zareth. But even with the potential benefits of capturing members from the Cult of the Unfettered One, redeploying a Critical Asset is no small matter.”

Zareth… really didn’t want to put either he or his cult into debt with General Nasrith if he could help it, but he wasn’t sure that he had any better option.

Escaping was impossible, as Skaara was still incapacitated due to her poison, and there was little reason to trust that Jabal-Alma would truly heal her as they claimed.

It would be trivially easy for her treatment to simply ‘fail’ given how potent the poison seemed to be, leaving them no real way to navigate the magical mirage.

He could potentially attempt to dig further into Jabal-Alma’s society and hope he discovered some way of dealing with the Cult of the Unfettered One in a more subtle and clever way, but that was simply too risky. The only thing protecting them right now was secrecy, which was a position that could fall apart at any moment with catastrophic consequences.

A part of Zareth was tempted to take that route anyway in hopes that Jabal-Alma could be preserved as much as possible for inclusion in his future domain, but that was a secondary priority.

The safety of too many people depended on Zareth for him to take that kind of gamble.

All he could hope for now was to negotiate the best possible deal with General Nasrith and salvage as many benefits as he could from this train wreck.

Although, there may be a way for me to come out ahead if I play my cards right, Zareth thought as he continued to analyze the situation. It’d take a bit of luck and some help from the Tessik, but I am uniquely positioned to gain from this…

Slowly, a plan began to form in Zareth’s mind before he finally made a decision.

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

Tamir felt a surge of anxiety rise up in him as he approached the former palace while carrying a tiny flesh golem hidden within a leather bag. It seemed like it was only yesterday when Tamir was scrounging the streets of the Sunrise Slums for food, and now he was about to attend a meeting with people more important than even the highest leveled [Gang Lord] in the city.

How did I ever end up in this position?

That was the question that Tamir had been pondering over ever since the boss had left him in charge of things after leaving Tal’Qamar.

Tamir had once asked Zareth why he had chosen someone like him to be his second in command instead of someone older and experienced. The boss gave him a bunch of different reasons that sort of made sense, like there not being many adults who would willingly switch their Class to [Cultist] and wanting someone from the slums who wasn’t tied to any other groups.

Tamir knew that the gangs liked to pick up young folk so they could choose their Classes and weren’t loyal to anyone, so it made sense to him that the boss would do something similar.

It wasn’t that Tamir wasn’t grateful, he just… really wished that someone else was the one dealing with the utter nonsense that he had to put up with!

Oh, it wasn’t so bad at first. His biggest headache was dealing with complaints that Onara was being a bit too zealous about trying to recruit people to the cult. Sure, he’d had to apologize to a few people on behalf of a woman old enough to be his grandma, but Onara was reasonable enough to change her behavior after a quick chat.

Tamir wished the same could be said for his fellow [Cultists].

Whoever came up with the idea of giving a bunch of teenagers the ability to manipulate flesh was completely out of their mind. The first time Tamir received a complaint from the [Guards] that some low level [Thief] had their nipples elongated into tentacles after they tried to pickpocket the wrong person, he’d gone straight to the boss’ flesh golem and told him what happened.

It was difficult to tell while communicating through a flesh golem, but Tamir was pretty confident that the reason it took Zareth so long to respond was because he was too busy laughing his head off. The boss didn’t care all that much about these kinds of things so long as they weren’t directly causing problems for him or the cult. Zareth even said something about it being a ‘creative use of their Skills’ and not wanting to ‘discourage the kids from having fun in a way that helps them level’.

Not to mention how busy the spire was in general.

Now that the Cult of Cerebon had effectively cured the vast majority of birth defects in Tal’Qamar, they’d started selling aesthetic modifications. He’d always known that this kind of service would be popular, but not so popular that the cult had been forced to up the price several times to reduce the demand. Sure, this service looked like it was going to overshadow their luxury pet selling business and make the cult very rich, but their [Cultists] were going to sleep everyday with Skill Exhaustion!

Ridiculous!

Although… even as Tamir made his way through the streets of Tal’Qamar while grumbling to himself about his responsibilities, he couldn’t help but notice that there were a lot more people who were… enjoyable to look at lately.

So that was nice.

Regardless, Tamir had been hoping every day that the boss would inform him that he was coming back to Tal’Qamar, so that he could hand back the reins. Instead, Zareth had contacted him through the flesh golem and informed him that he was stuck in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a bunch of actually evil cultists.

It honestly sounded just like the boss to get himself involved with something like that.

However, this somehow meant that Zareth needed Tamir to discreetly bring his flesh golem to some kind of important meeting with important military folks. The boss didn’t want to risk giving his enemies any more information than necessary, so he couldn’t just fly the flesh golem there, and it’d be pretty troublesome to communicate entirely through the thing’s shoddy writing.

It turned out that creepy flying eyeballs with tiny hands didn’t make for the best [Scribes]. Who would have thought?

Also, Zareth apparently could only see through the thing and not hear anything for some strange reason, which meant Tamir would need to transcribe the conversation for the boss. It was a good thing that he paid attention during those literacy lessons that the boss arranged for him, huh?

Tamir had thus been filled in on the general gist of what was going on and what would be expected of him to negotiate on the Cult of Cerebon’s behalf. Naturally, Zareth would be there to guide him through the flesh golem and ensure that he didn’t say anything stupid or stepped out of line.

But still! Would it kill the boss to let him have a break? He didn’t sign up for this!

There wasn’t much that Tamir could do about it though, aside from silently grumble as he arrived at the palace and was examined by military security. Tamir didn’t see the point given that the meeting had been arranged ahead of time, which meant that the security decided to conveniently ignore his extremely conspicuous leather bag, but whatever.

Before long, Tamir was shuffled through a bunch of scary looking military officers and eventually led into a conservatively furnished meeting room. He’d recently picked up [Magic Detection] as it was one of the Skills that the boss suggested he get at some point, so Tamir was able to sense that this was one of the most heavily warded rooms in the building.

It seemed like the military was taking the risk of eavesdroppers much more seriously than the risk Tamir would try and sneak in a knife.

The soldiers who escorted Tamir to the room left shortly afterward, allowing him to finally free the flesh golem from the bag. The creepy flying eye shot out from the bag immediately and began fluttering about in a way that almost seemed indignant.

It was a bit… cute, in an extremely weird sort of way. The boss eventually seemed to notice that the golem had been freed and ordered it to fly down toward a set of quills and parchment that had been laid on the table for the meeting. Tamir watched its awkward movements for a few moments before taking a seat and waiting for said meeting to begin.

When the door finally opened and an armored naga lady slithered into the room, Tamir stood and greeted them in the polite sort of way that the boss had taught him, only to be completely ignored. Instead, he watched in confusion as the naga lady quickly scanned the room with her eyes before placing a strangely shaped metal device that set off his [Magic Perception] in the middle of the table before wordlessly slithering back out of the room.

How rude.

Before Tamir could complain to the boss via flesh golem about how useless his etiquette lessons had been, the metal thing suddenly started glowing and the shimmering image of a much scarier naga appeared above it!

Tamir had never seen General Nasrith in person before now, but any native of Tal’Qamar would recognize him from his bright crimson scales so similar in color to the cloaks worn by the military. Even the imposing aura and sharp gaze that seemed to pierce through him would have been enough for Tamir to know that he was in front of someone who wasn’t to be messed with.

Tamir hadn’t been this intimidated since he stumbled into Zareth’s laboratory for the first time.

“Cultist Tamir, I presume?” General Nasrith said as he seemed to study for a short moment before glancing toward the flying eyeball next to him with slight distaste. “And Apostle Zareth, attending this meeting via a… priorly approved Skill-based proxy.”

Tamir bowed as calmly as he could to the terrifying ruler of his city who could probably kill him with a flick of his tail and spoke his rehearsed greeting. “Yes, General Nasrith. I am here to speak for the Cult of Cerebon with permission from our leader, Apostle Zareth, regarding a request for emergency military intervention in the recently conquered settlement of Jabal-Alma.”

There was no way for him to write that down word for word while the conversation was going on, so he just scribbled down the gist of what was said for the flesh golem reading over his shoulder.

General Nasrith was silent for far longer than Tamir was comfortable with, staring at him with slit eyes, before he finally seemed to nod at him in approval.

“Respectful and to the point. You’ll do well if you continue in this manner,” General Nasrith said before turning his attention to the matter at hand. “The situation along the northern front is incredibly active and I may be called away at any moment, so I will be brief. Apostle Zareth has already shared details of the situation in Jabal-Alma with my subordinates who prepared a briefing for me this morning. Am I right to understand that the Cult of the Unfettered One truly has access to practical teleportation and that you’re requesting a Critical Asset be redeployed to address this threat?”

Tamir looked toward flesh golem for support only to see it looking right back at him expectantly, causing him to realize that there wasn’t anything that he actually needed help with.

“Y-Yes, General Nasrith. That’s correct,” Tamir responded, turning back to the scary naga. “We understand that redeploying a Critical Asset is a big deal, bu—”

“A ‘big deal’ is putting it lightly,” General Nasrith interrupted, his tone sharp. “Regulations dictate that such an action is to be done after a meeting of Tal’Qamar’s highest-ranking officers and subsequent approval by two-thirds of its members. The duration required for this process would exceed the operational safety margin of your current situation according to my [Strategists], so you’re effectively requesting that I sign off on an emergency directive to override standard protocol. I am… loathe to do so under normal circumstances, and even more so to issue as significant as the redeployment of a Critical Asset.”

This time, Tamir didn’t even try to hide his panic as he turned to the flesh golem by his side and almost collapsed in relief when he saw it scribbling away on a parchment with a quill. Tamir watched impatiently as the boss wrote down a response with his eyeball’s tiny little hands and immediately took the parchment once he finished.

“Uh, Apostle Zareth says that High Command stands to benefit a lot from the Cult of the Unfettered One,” Tamir said as he slowly read the barely legible text. “Capturing their members would allow you to learn a lot about a significant potential threat, and there’s a chance that you could discover their means of teleportation.”

“If replicating their magic was so simple, then Veilspire Academy would have no doubt already accomplished it,” General Nasrith said with a dismissive scoff. “And while their presence in the Qahtani Desert is… concerning, it is something that I feel comfortable addressing after the war is over.”

Shortly after the boss’ flesh golem started scrawling another response, Tamir suddenly realized that General Nasrith hadn’t outright declined Zareth’s request. Once he started reading another reason for why High Command would benefit from sending a Critical Asset to Jabal-Alma, he started to suspect that Zareth and General Nasrith were just… haggling.

His suspicions were confirmed over the next few minutes as Zareth had Tamir talk about all the important ways that he and his cult had helped Tal’Qamar and all the bad things that would happen if he died. General Nasrith went into detail about how much could go wrong if Conclave spies discovered that a Critical Asset was being moved and decided to exploit that vulnerability, emphasizing how big of a favor something like this would be.

It… sorta made Tamir feel like in the middle of the Spicebloom Bazaar listening to a [Merchant] argue with someone about how bruised their fruits were.

Tamir didn’t really know enough about politics to understand which side was making the better argument, but General Nasrith seemed to eventually decide that the haggling was no longer productive and put an end to it.

“Were you aware, Apostle Zareth, that Swarm Lord Kressha of Tal’Hadin is close to signing a formal trade agreement with House Khrysar?” General Nasrith asked, interrupting Tamir as he was reading a list from boss about all the cool augmentations he was planning to make for the military. “Their agreement would provide the beleaguered city with favorable prices on certain amenities, such as construction materials and high-level [Masons] to rebuild their walls, reagents to recast their damaged enchantments, and beasts of burden to replace those slain in the conquering of their city.”

Given that the flying eyeball next to him wasn’t writing a response, Tamir had the feeling that the boss was just as confused by the change in subject as he was.

“That, uh, sounds nice. It’s good to hear that the folks in Tal’Hadin are getting the support they need,” Tamir said hesitantly once it became clear that he wasn’t going to get any guidance.

“One would think. Yet, each of those amenities are in high demand by this city’s military and such a trade deal risks negatively affecting our war effort,” General Nasrith responded, his voice taking on a sharper edge. “I am the only Ruler of a significant nation on Valandor who lacks the legal authority to put a stop to such an agreement. Do you understand how… infuriating that is?”

Tamir traded a nervous glance with the boss’ flesh golem, who still seemed equally confused as he was.

“...Very?” Tamir guessed once the silence threatened to become awkward.

General Nasrith remained utterly still for several more long moments before finally responding with a carefully controlled tone. “Yes. Very.”

Tamir watched nervously as the General let out a deep breath and composed himself before continuing.

“It is for this reason that I am partial to granting your request for the redeployment of a Critical Asset, if you agree to do something for me in return,” said General Nasrith, staring directly at the flesh golem with his scary snake eyes. “Once this war is over, Tal’Qamar will necessarily need to revise significant portions of its laws and treaties to accommodate its transition from a city-state to a more expansive national entity and integrate its new territories. I have certain ideas for what these changes should entail.”

“And you want the Cult of Cerebon to support them,” Tamir said before cringing and chastising himself for impulsively blurting out the obvious conclusion.

Thankfully, the General didn’t seem to be offended.

“Not only that, but I would like for Apostle Zareth to advocate these proposals to a few select parties on my behalf once he returns to Tal’Qamar,” General Nasrith explained. “Specifically, the rest of the Hierophant Council sans the Circle of Ghisara. The majority of the Great Houses are nearly guaranteed to oppose my changes, so we will need many other factions to counter their influence. Apostle Zareth would be more trusted by these factions than myself or anyone else I could plausibly enlist as an ambassador.”

Although Tamir wasn’t as savvy as the boss when it came to politics, even he could see the potential risks in what the General was proposing.

According to Zareth, he was attacked by a group of dangerous [Assassins] after vaguely offending and threatening the interests of a single Great House in Tal’Hadin. Tamir hesitated to imagine what kind of absolute madness that would be unleashed upon him if he managed to antagonize the majority of them.

Reading between the lines, General Nasrith was an ally of House Vhelan, so they probably had a hand in whatever it was that they were planning post-war. Zareth had also said that they were a close ally of House Kavasa. But even if those two Great Houses weren’t trying to kill the boss, that still left three families of naga with more gold than Tamir could ever hope to fathom angling to bury him in the sands.

Tamir would rather run off into the desert and hope he got adopted by a lonely [Sand Hag] than face something like that!

However, he knew that the boss was a lot more willing to take risks than he was. Zareth also probably didn’t have that much of a choice, given the whole ‘surrounded by actually evil cultists’ thing that had brought them here in the first place.

Rough deal.

Sure enough, Tamir didn’t have to wait too long for the golem to start scribbling away again and hand him another piece of parchment.

“We would like for the exact details of this agreement to be written down by a [Scribe] and presented to us. We also need to know specifically what laws High Command wishes to revise, as some of them may affect the Cult of Cerebon as much as they affect the Great Houses.”

The smile that General Nasrith gave in response wasn’t one that filled Tamir with any degree of reassurance, and he sincerely doubted that the boss felt any different…