The interrogation by the city watch that followed was rather painless, all things considered. No one had the slightest idea why the man attacked them. It was a completely unmotivated attack which none of the victims having ever met the attacker prior to this moment. The guards likely had some sort of truth detection as part of their skills as they readily accepted everything the four women said.
Things were made both easier and harder by the fact that the man was completely unconscious. Brivaria’s decay magic had lowered his current and maximum stamina which resulted in the rogue losing more stamina than he had available. It was extremely rare for a magical effect to force someone to lose stamina but, when it happened and someone went below zero, they took a long nap. Even some beings who couldn’t sleep could be forced into magical sleep or, as in this case, knocked unconscious.
With four witnesses all agreed on the events that transpired, the guards hauled the man off. Everyone present was given a warning that if they had lied to the guard that their punishment would be more severe. The adventurers were also warned once more that skill use in the city was forbidden. They were getting off easy, as the guards put it, since it was self-defense and there had been no damage or incidental harm during the fight. Once they were properly admonished, the guards set off leaving the four women and the dog to finally go about their business.
Brivaria was noticeably jumpy in the wake of the attack. She’d summoned a clean blouse from her inventory while storing the torn, blood-stained one. She also left her armor on. The rational part of her mind knew the odds of a second assassination attempt in the wake of the first was extremely unlikely but the instinctual side was in full paranoia mode. Trixie seemed to sense her discomfort and the dog stayed very close, whining until Brivaria leaned down to pet her. That made them both feel better.
Nyx and Kseniya were on hyper alert. Both had questions about how Brivaria survived but those would be asked later. For now their goal was to get Jasmine Veer out of the city and on the road to the meeting location. Ironically, Jasmine was the most calm person of the four. She’d watched Brivaria seemingly die, get back up without a scratch, and then defeat her own almost-killer. That wasn’t to say the woman was entirely at ease but simply that she didn’t feel as though she was in any great danger. If she had then she would have said something to the guard for all that went.
The trip out into the woods was roughly a day and a half of walking. Jasmine preferred to leave in the afternoon so she could camp closer to town on the first night and arrive on the second night. It was safer that way for a lone traveler. Normally this worked out pretty well but today she’d been late departing even before the group arrived. Had she left on time she’d have missed Brivaria’s team entirely. To make up time, the group paid for a carriage to the eastern checkpoint.
Brivaria briefly tried to argue that she should fly over to the inn since they’d need to inform and pay Candice to hold their rooms in the group’s absence. At that point Kseniya asked if the attack had knocked a screw loose, in polite terms of course. There was no way she was letting the angel go off on her own after being attacked twice in as many days. Before the two could start arguing, Nyx reminded Brivaria that their packs were at the inn meaning they needed to go anyway. Unlike the angel, the other two members of the party had to carry most of their gear the old-fashioned way. As a result, the carriage stopped at the Siren’s Alcove before heading to the eastern checkpoint.
So it was that the mid-afternoon guards at the eastern checkpoint watched a human, a catfolk, an angel, a lamia, and a dog emerge from a carriage. It was a very cramped ride even with Brivaria’s wings in their tiny form. Most carriages were fine holding several passengers or a single lamia. Both was asking a bit much.
The group wasn’t checking in with the city guard because they needed to but because it was good policy. No one knew a road better than the guys who spent all day talking to the people who’d just traveled it. If there were any dangers on the road or problems to be aware of then the guard would know. There was no word of any new monsters on the eastern road and none near town.
The guards did ask what they were about as, admittedly, they were an odd sight. Jasmine’s explanation that they were going fishing despite the fact that she was the only one carrying fishing gear got a few skeptical looks. At least, the men were less than convinced until Brivaria produced two fishing rods of her own from her inventory.
“I’m holding some of the fishing equipment,” the angel said to the guards.
The guards were suitably impressed by the demonstration of an inventory skill and placated by the gesture. The group was waved along. Once they were out of earshot of the guards, Nyx had to find out about the rods.
“Where did you get those?” the catfolk girl asked. Brivaria’s grin gave way to a more somber expression as she answered.
“Duncan and Rory stored their fishing gear before leaving Pemburne. The man he left them with read about the deaths in the paper. He paid me a visit before we left the town and asked if I wanted them. I don’t know anything about fishing but he said he was going to sell them if I didn’t want them. I’m not sure if the rods had any sentimental value to the brothers but it felt wrong to let them go like that. Like I was betraying their memory or something.” The angel shrugged. Nyx’s expression wavered as Brivaria spoke but the cat girl ultimately settled on a smile.
“I’m not good at it but I can teach you if you want to try sometime.” As Nyx spoke her tail started to lift and the angel smiled then nodded.
“I’d like that. Trixie is fond of fish,” her gaze swept to the dog as she spoke. Trixie wuffed in agreement or at the mention of her name, one of the two.
Since they were behind schedule, according to Jasmine, Brivaria used Current Control to speed their steps. She could affect three people for free but more cost mana. That said, the mana cost for five people wasn’t that high. This was doubly true if they were moving just a little faster. If nothing else, having the wind perpetually at their backs made the journey much more pleasant.
While they walked, they spoke with Jasmine. Her mood had shifted gradually over the course of the afternoon from worried to resigned to optimistic. The adventuring team told her about their adventures in Pemburne and what brought them to Barton, giving her the full explanation sans Brivaria’s origin. Things made a lot more sense when they weren’t trying to condense a lot of information in a small amount of words on her doorstep.
They reached the rest stop Jasmine used ahead of schedule despite the late start. To their surprise, she suggested they keep going. It wasn’t every day she had three pseudo-bodyguards for the trip. Plus she reasoned that if they made good time before the sun went down and Brivaria used her ability on the following day then they’d make it to the cultist lair in the afternoon. Her usage of the phrase “cultist lair” was a little off-putting but it was more joking than serious.
The three adventurers were very curious as to the true nature of the cult but Jasmine promised they’d get an explanation tomorrow. The leader of the cult was named Charles Wodan and the woman was certain he could do a better job explaining the situation than she could and that he might even be able to help them. Both Brivaria and Kseniya thought that last part was a little dubious but they’d come this far so they may as well see it through.
After dinner, they decided on an eight hour rest. Kseniya would take the first watch, Nyx the second, and Brivaria would handle the rest of the night alone. Despite the likelihood of encountering monsters going up as they grew farther from the city, Brivaria hadn’t seen any. She looked for them while scouting for a campsite from the air but found none. It was exactly as the guards had said. The angel imagined it was significantly harder for monsters to thrive in an area with lots of caravans, thus caravan guards coming through as well as a decently-sized adventurers guild nearby.
The night was looking to be a relatively calm affair after the events of the day. Nyx and Jasmine went to sleep and Brivaria led Trixie to their tent. The golden sunchaser couldn’t sleep or didn’t want to. She wanted pets and snuggles. The dog had been constantly underfoot since the attack and Brivaria didn’t blame her. It was all very scary. The angel had learned over the past month that Trixie was capable of being a very brave dog but also a big scaredy-cat. That was okay. She didn’t mind holding Trixie until the dog’s eyes started to close and sleep came.
“Your cute, cute doggy was very afraid for you today,” Kseniya said as the angel emerged from the tent to join her at the fire. It was a small campfire since they couldn’t build a proper fire pit and they weren’t using one of the many stops on the road per Jasmine’s directions.
“I was afraid for me too. Pretty sure the person from last night was only around level 30 or so but that rogue was at least 50. I’m not sure about the wolves,” the angel answered.
“You may need to disguise your wings or at least wear a cloak over them when they’re small. It’s a shame the rogue wasn’t awake to be questioned about why he attacked you but the only thing that makes sense is that you’re being mistaken for the mercenary leader. It seems she has many enemies.” Brivaria agreed with Kseniya’s assessment.
“Or change your appearance altogether,” another voice said, entering the conversation. Brivaria’s head instantly looked to the side. The demon was there, sitting across from the campfire. The angel looked from Kseniya to the demon and back again. The lamia raised an eyebrow and followed Brivaria’s eyes.
“Mm? Do you see or hear something?” the snake woman asked. The visage of the demon was illuminated by the fire light and she smiled.
“The demon came out,” the angel replied.
“Here? Now? Is it speaking to you?” Kseniya’s fingers ran through a spell Brivaria didn’t recognize but nothing happened. “Most peculiar. There is nothing of note here. As expected but…” The snake woman shifted uneasily. “What is it saying?”
“It,” the demon said with annoyance, “is saying the ignorant snake doesn’t understand the half of what Flesh Sculpting can do. The only reason you wear the form you do now is by choice. If you wished to walk back into that human city with a new face and body then you could.”
“I have more than one shapeshifting skill. The demon thinks I should use them to make myself look different,” the angel explained.
“Is that a thing you can do?” Kseniya asked curiously. The lamia had witnessed Brivaria shrink her wings, enlarge them, and change her eyes in the past month. She knew the angel had some very exotic skills but was fuzzy on the exact details.
To answer Kseniya’s question, Brivaria closed her eyes and focused on her skills. Lesser Shapeshifting and Flesh Sculpting worked together as the winged girl focused on what she wanted and willed them to make it so. Kseniya watched as Brivaria’s hair turned the same shade of midnight black as her own. Changing hair color was one thing but what came next truly surprised her. Brivaria’s face began shifting and moving in a manner that was disconcerting even to the sorceress. Kseniya’s tail shifted uneasily as the transformation took place.
When Brivaria opened her eyes, Kseniya saw a perfect copy of her own face. Hair, eyes, lips, nose, everything was identical at a glance. Kseniya stared at her own slitted, orange eyes with astonishment. It was like looking into a mirror. When the angel spoke, her jaw really dropped.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“I don’t think it suits me, you know? Perhaps I need the tail,” the angel said but her voice was not her own—it was Kseniya’s.
“By the gods, that’s amazing; mildly horrifying but amazing,” the serpent girl whispered with a mixture of emotions evident on her face. “I’ve never seen you change more than your wings or eyes but you can do this much?”
“Sort of,” the angel admitted. Her voice shifted back to her own. She wanted to make an impressive demonstration, not be creepy. “I’ve practiced changing hair and eye color before along with my wings but you’ve seen those. The rest is much harder. The demon revealed something last night that I hadn’t realized. My skill works better the more time I spend with someone and having you right in front of me makes envisioning the final result a lot easier.”
“How is the mana cost? I recall you saying that changing sizes was expensive at one point,” the lamia asked. Brivaria made a so-so gesture.
“The more of the process I direct myself, the cheaper the transformation. The more help from the System I need, the more expensive it is. There’s a certain baseline amount of help the System has to give no matter what. There are a lot of other factors I don’t fully understand and various scalings at play as well,” Brivaria finished. She looked to the demon but either what she said was correct or the demon simply felt no desire to correct her.
“That is very versatile. Have you tried to gain a tail?” the lamia asked.
“Not like yours, no. I don’t have a good sense for what is costly and what isn’t yet but I’m fairly certain that would be. Even if you were to let me touch and study your tail, changing from legs to a full tail would likely be expensive. If I run out of mana midway through the process then I’m stuck that way until I have mana to fix things.” Even as Brivaria spoke, she realized she did have the ability to revert cheaply. Alternative Form gave her the ability to transform back to her natural state or two additional forms in a mana-efficient way. As she was thinking about that, the angel noticed the demon was smiling.
“You’re finally thinking. Good. Most demons are not weak because the System decided they would be that way but because they squander their potential. Mortals even more so. They have the luxury of sitting for days or weeks in perfect safety to consider their best option and still make terrible decisions.” The demon scoffed and shook her head, a strangely normal gesture for the odd creature.
“Is the demon talking to you?” Kseniya asked, curiously watching Brivaria stare into empty air as though listening.
“Yeah, she thinks everyone is squandering their potential by making poor skill and class decisions.” The angel waited for Kseniya to reply because lamia looked thoughtful.
“If someone is telling you that something is bad then it means they believe they know what is good and what they want you to be. I have indeed squandered my own potential to be a world class chef by not having ever taken a cooking class. I have passed up many opportunities to be where I am, as I am. You should consider where you want to be versus where someone else wants you to be before taking any advice,” the lamia with an amused smile. She even looked toward where the demon “was” as though to challenge the other entity to debate her further.
“Death is failure but survival alone is not success,” the demon said evenly.
“Good advice, thank you both,” Brivaria said diplomatically before either could continue the discussion. She also shifted her features back to her natural state which was greatly assisted by the Alternative Form skill. It was a really good skill, the angel had to admit.
“So what is this demon’s name? It’s customary to know who you’re talking to. Very rude to not give a proper introduction, you know?” Kseniya said, still grinning. The lamia was clearly enjoying herself.
“Akashic will do,” the demoness said after a moment’s thought. “My kind begin with one name and gain more as we ascend to greater heights of power. No demon will ever tell one of your kind their complete name and will probably lie if you ask.”
“Akashic it is then,” Brivaria repeated for Kseniya’s benefit. Before the angel could ask more, the demoness vanished. “Guess she’s tired of talking to us.”
“Gone?” the lamia asked and the angel nodded. “That’s progress, I suppose.”
“I was thinking about going to a church to get myself examined but now I’m not certain,” the angel confided when the silence grew uncomfortable.
“Oh? What are you thinking now?”
“That there will be a problem if they do find something and I choose not to have them do anything about it.” Brivaria really had intended to go today but there had not been a good time. The longer she put it off, the more second thoughts she had.
“Then don’t go,” the snake woman said with a shrug.
“Just like that?” the winged girl asked with surprise.
“Yes, just like that. Take time, figure things out. If you do go, then meet the people you might be asking to help you and see if you think you can trust them. The only problem to solve right now is avoiding the people trying to kill you or kill this Zenith woman. Working on a disguise sounds like a good idea, you know? Besides, if you were to keep the dark hair then we’d all match and how cute would that be?” Brivaria laughed and shook her head in amusement.
“I’ll work on something tonight and we’ll see how good I can make it by the time we get back to the city, assuming nothing else goes awry on this trip.” The angel was hedging her bets. Her luck was either incredibly bad or incredibly good, depending on how one looked at it. On the one hand, she was getting attacked daily. On the other hand, she was still alive. That definitely counted for something.
The rest of the watch with Kseniya was filled with idle chatter. Nyx’s turn came and the catfolk girl was in the mood to talk about fishing. After everything that had happened, she just wanted to get her mind off it all. Brivaria enjoyed it. She knew next-to-nothing about a lot of subjects. There were so many things that intervention training had left out. The longer the angel spent on the planet, the more hollow and incomplete her education felt. She knew it didn’t make sense to train angels on mundane subjects and tasks since they were only going to the planet to do battle. It felt like a shame to know so little about the world she’d fought for so many times.
The night passed swiftly. Brivaria spent the majority of it working on her shapeshifting abilities. Eye color and hair color were now fairly trivial. She could switch between the spaded demon tail and a cat tail. The latter was courtesy of how much she ended up watching Nyx’s tail as it was an obvious tell for whatever the catfolk girl was feeling in the moment. The angel made brief attempts toward cat ears and demon eyes but they were too difficult for her without more practice. She suspected she’d need Akashic’s help with the eyes and the demoness hadn’t returned after the conversation with Kseniya.
Everyone woke up before dawn, ate a small breakfast, and set out. Brivaria’s light magic made hiking in the woods before dawn feasible. As long as the group knew which way they were going, they could keep going. Once the sun rose, the angel took to the sky and was able to get a better sense of where they were. With Jasmine’s help, they moved through the woods eventually finding a trail they could take to their destination.
Several hours later, Brivaria was… underwhelmed. She’d raided cult lairs with adventurers. She’d fought through grand temples and underground bunkers against robed men and women. She’d seen the atrocities committed by the mad fanatics. Their destination was not especially ominous at a glance. There were a handful of wood cabins that were just far enough inland so as not to be spotted from the river alongside a small pier with a fishing boat.
They were met by three men and two women who were all more curious than angry at the trio of adventurers. Two men had knives on their belts but these were small, multipurpose knives rather than full-sized combat daggers like the rogue from the previous day wielded. Everyone else was wholly unarmed.
“Hey Jasmine, I see you brought some friends. What have I told you about letting the group know if you’re inviting new people?” The man in the lead was tall, blond haired, broad shouldered, and easily the most handsome man Brivaria had seen to date. He was unnaturally good-looking and his smile was blinding in its friendly intensity. “Ah well, welcome to our little home away from home. My name is Charles Wodan.”
“Good to meet you Mr. Wodan. Jasmine has told us a little bit about your group and we were wondering if we could talk. It’s about Terrance Grand,” Brivaria said, briefly fumbling for words before just coming right out with what they wanted.
“Adventurers, eh?” He looked to Jasmine and she nodded at an unspoken question. Charles shrugged. “Let’s head on over to my cabin and chat then.” He then turned to address the others. “Alright, today’s fun will be delayed. Go make your own fun until we’re through.”
No one seemed too bothered by that announcement. There were a few knowing smiles as the others wandered off. The adventurers, Charles, and Jasmine moved their discussion to one of the cabins. Once inside, everyone made themselves comfortable while Trixie padded around curiously sniffing everything in range of her nose. The dog hadn’t been put off by anything that happened and, once inside, she went up to Mr. Wodan to fulfill her quota of scritches. He kindly obliged.
“This is not what we were expecting,” Kseniya began. Charles laughed and shot a glance at Jasmine.
“Were you expecting an altar with a sacrificial goat?” the man asked.
“Frankly, yes,” the lamia replied.
“You know, we did try that once. It was really messy and we enjoyed it about as much as the goat. Never did it again. Lesson learned and all that.” Nyx blinked at his words.
“Wait, so this is a cult?” the catfolk girl asked. They were all a bit mystified by the welcome. Trixie’s tail wagged as she was pet and Brivaria mentally gave the man some points for being good with dogs.
“Yes. Well, it began as one. Technically, I suppose. We haven’t really thought of ourselves as a cult in a long time,” he looked around at blank expressions and held his free hand up. “Why don’t I explain from the beginning?”
“So about five or so years ago, a bunch of us were bored and honestly things weren’t great. We wanted a change and I stumbled across a book on demons and one thing led to another. Suddenly we were coming out to the woods, wearing robes, chanting prayers, and the whole thing.”
“So this is a demon cult,” Brivaria said, drawing a frown as she interrupted the story.
“I’m getting there,” he said with a scolding tone. “So this began as a cult of Venery, the demon queen of lust and beauty. We’d come out to the woods once a month or so, pray to the demon, and then spend the next few days getting drunk and having sex. Worked out wonderfully. We all got boons for cleaner skin, more attractive bodies, and other things.” He coughed politely at the last one. Brivaria had no idea what those other things were but Kseniya and Nyx apparently did as they blushed.
“But that got old after a while and one of the guys had an idea. We all took the cultist class which gave us the ability to pray for boons and so on but it didn’t require us to pray to Venery. What if we prayed to something else? Roger joked about praying to a fish god he made up named the 20 Pounder Flounder. It was a dumb idea but we were drunk and a lot of things are a better idea while drunk than sober so we did it.”
“You prayed to a fake fish god?” Kseniya interrupted since it was apparently her turn to do that. Mr. Wodan grinned at her.
“We did! Our fake fish god also heard our prayers as we got the best fishing haul we’d ever gotten the next day. So we went from a cult to a demon queen to a cult dedicated to a fish god.”
“That you made up,” Kseniya once again clarified.
“Hush girl. I’m not done.” Wodan shushed the lamia. “So then Irina was out fishing with us one day and we ran out of beer while out on the river. She joked about praying to the beer god for more beer.”
“You didn’t,” Nyx said, having fully understood the need for turn-taking at this point.
“We did. We prayed to Inebria, Lady of Liquor. Zed came up with the name. Anyway, the day after we did that all of our mugs magically had twice as much beer and we had the best buzz in the history of our trips with no hangover. It was incredible.” He looked around the room with a smile before going on.
“So we’re technically a cult according to the System but we don’t do any normal cult things anymore. You can’t really get frisky or go fishing in the robes so we got rid of them years ago. Once we stopped calling ourselves a cult then our get-togethers no longer needed to be kept secret. Now we come out here, say our prayers to the gods of sex, fishing, and beer then spend the rest of the time having fun.”
“And Terrance Grand is a member of your group?” Brivaria asked though she struggled on what word to use to describe them. It was hard to reconcile a cult that no longer considered itself a cult.
“He is. A regular too. His work as a pest exterminator lets him negotiate his own schedule so he made it to every outing up until last month. He didn’t let any of us know he’d be missing our monthly trip which was strange. We went over to his place when we got back but he wasn’t home. He often takes jobs that send him out of a city for a day or two so that wasn’t odd but after a week we got worried. I personally reported it to the city guard and haven’t heard of any news since. You folks are the only ones to mention him since he disappeared.” Wodan’s smile gradually disappeared the longer he talked about the missing man. It was becoming clear to all three adventurers that either he was a fantastic liar or they were on the wrong trail.
Brivaria sat back, frowning. There were many ways a man could go missing. She knew of monsters that ate Arslans and Celians. She’d faced some of them in battle. Certain forms of undead were particularly good at feeding on the living and covering their tracks. Cordelia Westlake had also suspected that a cult was doing this which could still be correct—all that was required was for there to be two cults. Considering this one wasn’t truly operating inside the city then that left plenty of room for another to move in.
“Okay, so I’m guessing you don’t have any ideas to follow up on for where he could have gone?” Brivaria asked at last. Charles shook his head.
“I’m afraid not. Terrance was a good guy. Did his job, made friends, and didn’t step on toes. Not a lot of folks with an axe to grind against the guy keeping the bugs out of their business or home.”
Brivaria felt Charles was being genuine. It was time to go back to the drawing board.