Celeste was barely standing, but somehow Jasper looked worse than her. She didn't say anything, she could see that he was going through something and she hugged him deeply. She squeezed as hard as she could, holding him tight and not letting go. She hoped it helped, at least a little. She didn't ask what was wrong, she just waited for him to say something. He returned the hug a little while later and then took a breath.
"I found my target." Jasper finally said. "Though, he took Jasmine. Erik and I are going to hunt him down. We would love for you to join us." Jasper explained, having calmed down to the point where he didn't look visibly shaken. Celeste moved over to The Scribe hugging him as well. He looked surprised, but he didn't resist. They had both been shaken by what happened.
"If you are okay with the fact that I am probably the number one target among all drows, then I am fine with helping you out." She said, and Jasper nodded.
"That would be nice," He mumbled as he gave a soft sigh.
They didn't sleep that night, instead packing up the various things they needed for the pursuit. Celeste packed a lot of raw materials, while the others simply grabbed what would be comfortable to walk with. While they were packing, Jasper spoke about what he had learned.
"Apparently this guy we are looking for is called Raffael Moordet. No, I don't know why he is consistently using two names, I think there might be a problem with the name generation. From Longknife's memories, I know that this guy came out of nowhere and has been ruling the underworld with an iron fist. He didn't know much though, just that the guy is working out of Salezstadt, the capital of the empire." Jasper explained. "Nobody really knows how he got his magic, but he controls the shadows and can tell when people are lying. Based on that, I am assuming that he has gotten access to the Night Domain and the Deception Domain in some way, though how he did that I am not sure. He is apparently able to slink into the shadows, jumping from them as he wishes."
Celeste seemed to freeze up a little as she listened to her husband. "I was hoping that we could catch up to him using my Journeying Domain, but based on what I am hearing this guy has access to teleportation."
Jasper seemed a little confused. "Well, yeah... Is that bad?" He asked and Celeste nodded.
"I have been thinking of things that I would consider an anathema to my followers." She said, and Jasper was about to butt in with the fact that they didn't really have any followers, however, Celeste didn't let him interrupt. "So, I have decided that resurrection is against my divine laws and Teleportation is basically just the Journeying version of resurrection." She stated without making much sense.
Jasper knew his wife well enough to know that questioning her logic would be a bad idea, however, making her expand upon her logic would probably have it make sense. "Okay, please fill me in on this one," Jasper said.
"Well, resurrection is used to prevent death. It is used in a way where you cheat death, even if it is simply another aspect of Death, in reality, it gives Death less meaning because you take away the permanence and importance when it should have had an impact." She explained, and Jasper could see where she was going with this, however instead of interrupting he let her continue. "The same with teleportation. It is used to prevent a journey. You are essentially cheating the Journey domain by simply stepping from one place to the other, and while it is definitely a way to make your life easier, the same can be said for resurrection." She concluded.
Jasper could try and find flaws in her arguments, but that would accomplish nothing, and he decided to simply nod. "Fine, no resurrection and no teleportation."
They set out after about half an hour. Jasper used his new Luck Domain to 'borrow' some horses. Thanks to Celeste's Journeying Domain the horses wouldn't get tired and they wouldn't need to eat or drink, allowing them to travel at a speed that for most would be considered blinding. The two-week trek was done in only two days, however, while they didn't get tired or hungry, they did become sore. Jasper had to continuesly use Endurance miracles to ensure that they didn't ride themselves into pieces and get hurt from the journey.
That didn't mean that they weren't sore beyond what both of the gods had considered possible. While the game didn't allow pain it was absolutely uncomfortable.
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Even though the journey had been rough, they had reached their destination at the dawn of the third day. Both Celeste and Jasper had gotten another 10 points of Worship, though Jasper hadn't had the chance to visit any of the other gods due to the constant travel. They had both been surprised by the large amount of Worship, but apparently, this was due to moving to a new location.
They had dismounted at a crossroads, though they still had a view of the capital and it was far beyond anything that Jasper had expected. The centre of the human empire was a beast of a city, though calling it a city didn't do it justice. Thick spires and massive cranes could easily be spotted all around the city, giving a feeling of a modern metropolis rather than any kind of fantasy city. The buildings felt too large, and Jasper groaned a little to himself. The buildings were definitely too large. They were bugged. He would have to fix that. The houses were stacked upon each other, seemingly with little regard for structural integrity.
The metropolis itself was surrounded by massive stone walls, the blocks visible even from this distance. The massive city was located on the edge of a massive lake, however, a manmade river had been made at the far end of the lake, and if Celeste's map was worth anything, this ended up in the ocean. Five massive cranes were looming from the edge of the city and out over the lake. Jasper could see how the heavy cranes were stretching far further out over the lake than what they should realistically be able to, while still being able to haul goods. He wasn't an engineer, but just looking at them they felt wrong.
They decided to walk the last stretch to the capital, purely because none of them could actually bring themselves to mount the horses again. Jasper assured both of his travel companions that the horses would be able to find their way home, and being the god of knowledge he should know. The walk wasn't bad, though thanks to Celeste's powers, it was a little weird seeing Erik, the old man, walking as fast as he did. While he wasn't suffering the effects of old age, there was still some dissonance watching him.
When they finally reached the gates to the city it was clear that this place was far beyond what Marcusburg was. Instead of a single gate, two gates were placed in the wall, one for people entering the capital, and one for leaving the capital. There were about sixteen guards around each of the two gates, and for a moment Jasper couldn't help but wonder if the gates were a bug, though this led him down the thoughts that the number of gate guards might be subject to integer overflow as the assigned number of guards might be stored in some eight-bit value.
Celeste pulled him out of his thoughts when she leaned in and whispered. "That is some impressive armour they are wearing." And Jasper actually looked at the guards. They were all wearing scalemail, which provided a lot of protection with a blue and white tabard underneath. Jasper knew that it was Kelllwan's colours, which made sense as the Empire had embraced the god as their patron. They were all wearing helmets that obscured their face, along with shields and swords. Jasper assumed that the lack of bows was due to the towers scattered along the wall, which would take care of anyone at range.
The entry gate had a small tent next to it. Inside various clerks were sitting and noting the people entire the city and the reason for their visit. A couple of people simply showed a small wooden badge and were hurried along, which Jasper knew meant that they were citizens. With their divine charisma, it was hardly any problem convincing the administrators that the trio was here on business, which Jasper was quick to remind them was technically true.
Stepping inside they found themselves walking in shadow. Even though the sun should be high in the sky the streetlights were on, as the supernaturally high buildings blotted out the sun, unless they were at an intersection or walking east to west. The buildings had to be incredibly impractical, with little to no aid in getting from top to bottom, it was probably hard to get into one of the upper floors. Jasper groaned. He would need to find a way to level this city, starting from scratch would probably be the best way of doing things. Celeste had noticed the same aspect, though thanks to her Tinkering Domain she was able to get a lot more information from the world around them.
"I think this is due to Mithril. While it is easy to forge and extremely light, it becomes harder than steel once it sets, allowing for these buildings. The city must have been built on a massive Mithril deposit." She said looking over the constructions around her. "If we think of this as a bug, we need to address that as well." Celeste took in the world around her as she spoke.
The Scribe guided them further into the city, he had been here before, and while the gods discussed how the world was wrong and things apparently met their Divine standards, he was only really interested in getting Jasmine back. While wandering the world for the last one hundred years, he had seen things that most would have preferred not to experience. He knew the capital's underbelly better than he would like to admit. As such, there was no hesitation in his steps as he walked. He could start to feel the tiredness in his legs, each step making him ache just a little, though it was nothing compared to his old heart.
It didn't take them long before they reached the orphanage where Erik had found Jasmine in. Well, it would be more accurate to say that it was the orphanage that he had chased her to after she had stolen his money. The orphanage was a front for one of the gangs in Salezstadt, though Erik really had no idea which one of them. All he knew, was that if they wanted answers they could probably find them in there.