Deacon walked Frankilo into the cantina. It seemed this was becoming a popular place for Deacon to have meetings. They both sat down at an empty table. Frankilo continued to clutch the book tightly to his chest. Deacon gestured for him to stay, then got up and retrieved two mugs of water. Returning to the table, he noticed the other current members of his party making their way over. Deacon tilted his head in a direction away from the table. It appeared only Amanda got the hint since she grabbed the other two and sat them at a nearby table. Deacon then returned to the table and put the mug down in front of Frankilo.
“I’m going to need you to start at the beginning.” Deacon said.
“Of course. About a month ago, I had a thought regarding one of the passages in the Book of Ryan. The verse is written this way. Beneath his mighty hand lay Order in its resplendence. Through Chaos, the truth will be revealed, and the ruby red stain of his hand lifted. It never meant anything before your arrival. Chimera’s church is long gone. You show up as his champion made me rethink the passage. It always stuck out in my mind as these elements don’t correspond to the chapters before or after it. See.” Frankilo said as he opened the bookmarked page using a short length of braided golden yellow rope. He pointed to the section he had committed to memory.
“It’s very interesting but I’m not sure that it has to do with me other than it says chaos.” Deacon said sipping his water. Frankilo finally sat back in his chair lifting the mug to his lips. He seemed to steel himself for the next part.
“This is an old text that I found with the scribe master before he died. I was supposed to take his place. As he was training me, he mentioned that all future copies of the book should omit this part. He said it was out of order and should not be there. I thought nothing of it at the time until I started making my copies. Do you know this is the only place in the text the word chaos appears? I brought it to my superiors, and they said to follow the old scribe masters orders. Why do they insist on changing the word of Ryan?” Frankilo asked.
“Well I’ve always said any organization is a target for corruption. I’d hoped it would be different in this world, but people are people wherever you go.” Deacon replied.
“This world? What do you mean?” Frankilo asked.
“Never mind that. Back to your book. So why did they throw you out?” Deacon asked.
“I brought it up again after meeting you this morning and they cast me out. I’ve never seen an excommunication happen so swiftly. It’s almost as if they gathered all the evidence they needed ahead of time. I don’t know what to do with myself.” Frankilo pondered aloud.
“It seems to me you were challenging the order they were trying to preserve.” Deacon said absentmindedly. Frankilo’s eyes were wide, and tears began to well in the corners. His head hit the table and he began sobbing.
“How could I have been so stupid?” he said.
“No don’t cry. I think I might have a path forward for you.” Deacon said as he received a notification.
New Message from your Patron- Do it!
“You do?” Frankilo said wiping away his tears.
“I need someone to shepherd a flock of new Chimerans. Some of the ex-slaves have started to worship him but we don’t have an official priest or anything. I have other things to do, and I can’t guide them.” Deacon proposed.
“I don’t know anything about Chimera. I would make a poor representative. Besides, what am I supposed to do, preach to them in the courtyard of this guild?” Frankilo asked.
“What if I were to tell you there is a large piece of property at the base of the plateau you could use to start the church. Of course I will be converting it into a horse track for races but where else would you put a church of Chimera? I will need someone to run the place and with your extensive background in organization, you’d be an ideal candidate. Don’t get me wrong it won’t be all fun and games. I will need someone to author the new book of Chimera.” Deacon said closing the jaws of his trap.
“I would get to write the first book of Chimera in hundreds of years?” Frankilo asked.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“The Ryans threw you out. What have you got to lose? I say roll the dice on this one.” Deacon said hoping he didn’t just push too hard.
“I’ll do it! But you will still look into this passage, right?” Frankilo asked.
“Sure thing. Now let’s shake on it.” Deacon said extending his right hand. Frankilo reached up and grabbed his wrist. There was a spark between the two men before Frankilo began to change. His hair grew longer, and his ear lobes became sharpened points. His shirt began to fill out as he became more muscular. Finally, new robes appeared on him. Finely embroidered with numeric symbols reaching down to the cuffs.
“It is a miracle of Chimera. He has accepted me as his first Bishop. I must go to the followers. There is much work to do.” Frankilo said as he abruptly turned and stomped toward the door.
“Wait, wait I need to give you access to The Teller. Come with me.” Deacon said running up after him. Deacon introduced Frankilo to The Teller and explained what he wanted to happen. The Teller agreed to the bargain granting him property management rights. Deacon then handed his new deed to the teller for safe keeping. If everything went well, Deacon would have a fully functioning racetrack slash church in a few weeks.
Deacon and the newly minted Priest separated. On his way back to the cantina he found Amanda, Ralph, and Tantus waiting for him just outside. Without missing a step he gestured to them to follow him upstairs. While going up the stairs he checked his notifications.
Holy Quest Update- I’m not my brother’s keeper- Frankilo has given you a clue to what happened to Ryan. You will need to decipher its meaning. Good luck dumb dumb.
Holy Quest Update- Grow the flock- Create two hundred followers for Chimera, create two priests of Chimera to lead them. Fifty out of two hundred followers reached. One of two Priests. Rewards; New class ability- Dead Man’s Parade.
The notifications did not faze him, but he needed to move on. Time to get the team up to speed on Alfred and get some rest. Deacon shoved his new party into his tiny, rented room and closed the door. He could see the child like excitement on Tantus’s face as he placed the cube on the table. The room expanded out into the suite he had before only this time Alfred was already there. Amanda lunged forward stabbing Alfred directly in the heart. Alfred hit the ground and began bleeding as Deacon and the others pulled her off of him. After a heated exchange, Deacon explained the situation. Alfred then introduced himself and stood up, wiping dirt from his pants, and neatly folding a white towel over his left arm. He appeared unharmed. As if nothing ever happened.
“Next time, warn me!” Amanda yelled.
“I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course you would have reacted that way. We just had an assassination attempt a couple hours ago. Gotta put some more points into Intellect.” Deacon said.
“Fine, you have your own personal mini dungeon. Now that the shock is wearing off, what do you intend to do with it?” Ralph asked.
“I thought it would make traveling a little easier. Alfred can turn my tent into our own personal castle. Much better than sleeping on the ground if you ask me.” Deacon said gesturing over to Alfred.
“And what if an enemy decides to wander in? What then?” Amanda asked.
“What would we do in the same situation without him?” Deacon countered. That seemed to shut her up.
“What I believe Ms. Siegfried means is, what security benefits does Alfred offer?” Tantus asked very politically. Deacon wondered why Tantus was white knighting her before answering.
“Alfred, can you turn on the hallway view screen please?” Deacon asked.
“Certainly, Sir.” Alfred responded before the screen on the wall flickered to life. Outside in the hall people were passing by the door. One person stopped in front of the door preparing to knock but thought better of it, stepped away, and came back before deciding to leave again.
“Who was that?” Tantus asked.
“Looked like one of the new recruits. Odd that he’d be up here. You want me to go check it out?” Ralph asked.
“Yea, that’d be great.” Deacon said.
“Well I do like that. But that is only one direction. Threats can come from anywhere.” Amanda said.
“With the proper upgrades and a little help from Tantus, I think we can manage those issues.” Alfred said.
“That’s right. One of the things I wanted to mention is we need to take a trip find Philo’s workshop. We will need a few things from there to unlock Alfred’s full potential. But for now we need to keep him a secret. I can’t imagine what it would be like for us if this got out.” Deacon said.
“You want to keep this a secret so the first thing you did was tell three other people? You’re right about adding points to intellect.” Amanda said.
“So it appears the recruit has the room under yours and is complaining about some green goo that is dripping from his ceiling. Know anything about that?” Ralph asked as he re-entered the room.
“Nope.” Deacon said quickly.
Two more rooms were created in the castle with Amanda’s being further down the hallway within the castle boundaries. Deacons room was lifted to the second floor with a staircase leading down to a common room with three doorways leading to the other rooms. Alfred made it clear that in the event of cube collapse they would all be transported to the common room for the change over and not crushed. Any items they leave in their rooms would be retrievable at anytime by touching the cube and asking Alfred.
The night passed by uneventfully. All the adventurers that agreed gathered in the courtyard in the morning. There was much more room this morning since several camp areas were cleared out last night as a sizeable group of ex-slaves left with Frankilo for the old Taurant property to begin the church in earnest. Deacon and his party led the gathered exterminators out of the city in the direction of Corpungie nest.