Fesper Bleck clutched his pendant, praying for guidance from Cravallus. She hadn’t responded to his prayers since the Calamities, but his aura-awakened powers gave him clairvoyance. It’s mostly a gesture of comfort.
In front of him, Ceress held up the administrative staff, casting light upon the path for them. They’ve been creeping through the maze of tunnels stealthily, hiding from great worms when necessary. At least they’ve gotten used to the long stretches of silence.
Behind him, Zoran guarded their backs, keeping a hand on his battle axe at all times. Occasionally, he’d use his cloaking powers to conceal them from monsters.
After about an hour, they entered the familiar ruins of Una City. Broken pottery and furniture litter the second-level ground. They walked through the mess, not bothering to loot through the scraps. Fesper stepped past chewed-apart armour, and its previous inhabitant is completely unseen. Monsters must have already scavenged through this area.
Every exhale left behind mist. He couldn’t wait for them to get the hell out of here.
Zoran gasped. It’s a quiet thing. But in the midst of silence, it echoed in Fesper’s ears.
He turned around and saw red.
***
After finally being able to do laundry, Elle is in a great mood. Although Arishelm’s influences leave a certain old-agey touch to Vinayre, it turns out everyone agrees that washing machines are far superior than doing it by hand. Even cleaning clothes with aura doesn’t give the same comfortable feeling. She ends the evening more refreshed than she’s been since arriving in Sinkpoint.
As she heads to bed, Elle notices that more rooms seem to have occupants. Like Tiami said, it appears that hunters aren’t going to stay away from the guild for long. She gets through the night without having nightmares.
In the morning, she doesn’t find Thermal or Serena in the lobby. Elle briefly considers knocking on Serena’s door but decides to let her rest after yesterday’s outing. Instead, she leaves a message for the group at the receptionist’s desk, letting them know that she’ll be back by noon.
When she makes it to the Alchemist’s Guild, the receptionist tells her to wait in the lobby until Mirielle is ready to see her. Elle looks at the various paintings of plants and minerals which are probably alchemy materials. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for her to be called into the guild master’s office.
Mirielle’s office doubles as a lab, fitting a desk and a workbench into the same room. Metal containers and flasks full of colourful liquid fill the shelves, likely storing experimental materials. It’s organised to the point where Elle wonders if the guild master spent the time before their appointment cleaning. There’s another door with a window on the opposite side which seems to lead into a larger lab.
Wearing a white lab coat like last time, Mirielle stands up from her desk to greet Elle with a smile. “Hello there, Elle. How are you doing? I wasn’t expecting you to drop by so soon. Please take a seat.” She gestures to a lounge chair in the corner next to her desk.
“I’m doing much better, thank you.” Elle appreciates the comfortable cushion and back support as she sits into the chair. “I wanted to talk to you about the missing hunters case.”
“The missing hunters?” Mirielle sits back down and swivels her chair to face her. “I’ve heard about them from Tiami, but it’s all second-hand information. You most likely know everything that I do.”
Elle tilts her head. “Maybe not. I was specifically wondering if you know anything about the Temple of Eurimas’ connection to Una City.”
Mirielle studies her for a long moment, pale blue eyes narrowing. She eventually sighs, “And what does the Temple have to do with the missing hunters besides spreading those rumours? I’m not sure why you’re asking me ---the guildmaster of the Alchemist’s Guild--- about their schemes.”
“For one, the Temple would never speak with us,” Elle replies dryly, remembering all her unpleasant encounters with clergy members. “Secondly, your guild needs their preservation scrolls the most, so you likely have a closer relationship with them. I understand you might be reluctant to do anything that would risk your connection there, but your knowledge could save our lives.” She’s laying it on a bit thick there at the end, but the Temple seems to be becoming alarmingly relevant in Vinayre.
Standing up from her desk, Mirielle goes to one of the cabinets. “Let me think on it it for a minute. Would you like some tea?”
Elle accepts and watches the guildmaster set a teapot up to brew. While they wait, Mirielle continues in a slightly wistful tone, “It’s getting less and less common for me to share tea with someone outside of my guild. Everybody is too busy focusing on their plans for the future, searching for ways to return to life as it was. But I think there’s value in savouring small moments of peace. Otherwise, how will you recognize it when the time for relaxation comes?”
She gets a sense that Mirielle wants her to respond. “I agree that it’s important to take breaks, but it’s not always easy to make time for it. Some things are too sensitive to be pushed aside.”
“Hmm…” Mirielle murmurs to herself. Her back faces Elle, preventing the younger woman from seeing her expression. “That is true; there are sometimes unavoidable difficulties to handle. However, is every problem yours to solve? Are you always the right person to deal with an issue?”
Her heart twists a bit in discomfort. When has she ever been the right person to deal with a problem? If she looks back at her memories, she’s always been unneeded until Equinox spoke to her. Elle tugs at her collar. “Maybe not every issue, but there’s definitely one that needs me. I can’t back out now.”
The kettle starts shrieking with steam, so Mirielle turns it off. “Even so, don’t you think you can do a better job if you take a break every now and then? Let your brain refresh itself before tackling the next problem.”
With a dry mouth, Elle replies, “When life gives me a break, maybe.”
Mirielle shakes her head. “Ach, do rift-divers share a hive-mind? Life doesn’t give anyone breaks. You must set aside time for yourself.” She pours hot water over the tea leaves in the teapot, allowing the leaves’ colour and flavour seep into the fluid.
Rift-divers… According to her memory, Mirielle is one of the forty aura-users who created the Ice Shield. “When you say rift-divers, do you know Van Nguyen?”
At this, Mirielle finally turns around to look at Elle in surprise. “Yes, in fact. That’s exactly who I was thinking of. Do you know him?”
“We come from the same place called Earth, but I don’t know him personally. I’ve been looking for him actually. Have you seen him?”
“Not for months, I’m afraid.” Mirielle pours the tea into cups. “You’ll be surprised by how many people have drifted apart after the Calamities. Sometimes, tragedies pull people together tighter. Sometimes, they don’t.” Walking back over to Elle, the guild master offers a cup with a sad smile.
She accepts it. “Not entirely surprised, but I am sorry to hear that.” Elle lifts the cup to her mouth, delaying the conversation as she ponders how to continue it. The tea tastes like beef stew.
“Hnngh?!” Elle barely manages to swallow the tea in her shock. Why is she always getting surprised by her food in Sinkpoint? Someone in the world has it out for her.
A smile twitches on Mirielle’s face as she sits back at her desk. “How’s the tea? It’s my favourite blend. Really refreshing.” She lets out what can only be described as a stereotypical villainess laugh.
Elle struggles to word it politely. “It was quite the surprise. I didn’t know you could get tea tasting like that.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“It was a custom blend that I got before the Calamities. Nowadays, it’s more nostalgic than just a gag gift. Plus, I honestly do like it.” Mirielle takes a large sip without flinching.
“Right…” Elle brings the conversation back to the original topic. “So what did you think of the Temple’s theft of those sacred scrolls?”
Mirielle’s smile disappears from her face instantly. Elle mentally kicks herself for saying the wrong thing as she so frequently does. After a tense moment, the guildmaster sighs, “You’re not the first to ask. Officially speaking, the Alchemist’s Guild stance is that the scrolls once belonged to a religious group which has since perished in the Calamities. Therefore, they can be treated as artefacts which can be preserved in the Archives.”
“How do you know the entire religious group perished?” Elle asks sceptically. “Plenty of people have been separated because of the Calamities. Also, I thought Nessaprine’s primary religion worshipped the System. Even if this particular denomination died, that doesn’t mean those scrolls have zero meaning to other people from Nessaprine.”
Mirielle nods, avoiding eye contact. “Like I said, it’s the guild’s official stance. Privately, I agree with you, but sacrifices needed to be made. The guild relies on the Temple’s preservation spells to stop monster bodies from evaporating. Without them, we can’t make those nutrition mixes which are keeping people alive.”
Elle gives up on being tactful. Persuasion seems to be more of Serena and Thermal’s forte than hers. “So you’ll keep doing everything that the Temple wants forever? I haven’t been in Vinayre for long, but I don’t really want to stay in a city where the leadership has no integrity.”
She sucks in a deep breath. “The Arcanist’s Guild and the botany department are working on creating preservation spells and viable foods respectively. With any luck, we’ll soon be relying less and less on the Temple.”
“And the Temple knows they’re losing relevance. So that’s why they’re hyping up the leaders from Danglawan.” Elle frowns, tightening her grip on the teacup. “But why risk buying loot from Una City? If they’ve already gotten in trouble once for the scrolls, I don’t understand why they’d push the city council any further.”
Mirielle slumps in her seat slightly. “The Temple of Eurimas prides themselves on their Archives and historical collections, because they see it as the best way to worship the goddess of time. While I do think historical records and analysis are important, I fear it has become a source of obsession for the high priestess and her supporters. A way to cope with the loss of their home perhaps.”
Elle looks away from the guildmaster, feeling conflicted. “Does that really help? Clinging to your old power when the world has turned upside down? I feel like it’s more important to work with the new people around you. Nobody’s going to want to listen to you if you look down on them.”
She shrugs, sipping at her tea. “And yet, Sal Seraquinn has devoted followers. She doesn’t hide the fact that she thinks people were born to serve her, but her faction loyally acts in her stead. A perfect mixture of beauty and smarts to reach her position, helped by her privileged lifestyle before the Calamities. She was a duchess and now she seeks to rule a nation. You’ll find others with similar ambitions if you continue to travel around here.”
“Seraquinn… That’s one of the leaders from Danglawan yesterday. What do you think of their ideas?”
Mirielle makes a face. “I’d be interested if they weren’t the ones spearheading it.”
Elle tilts her head. “Does the city council agree?”
The guild master sets her teacup down on her desk. “It is not my place to speak on my colleagues’ behalf. You’ll hear our official statement soon enough. Moreover, I think it’d be best if we discussed the main reason why you’re here.”
Leaning back in her seat, Elle nods for Mirielle to continue.
After taking a moment to collect herself, the elf begins to speak, “The Temple of Eurimas has always pushed for excavations of Una City. To you, it might seem distasteful to scavenge through the belongings of the recently dead, but we were desperate. We had supply issues amidst the chaos of the Calamities, so the city council allowed people to use the remnants of Una City to rebuild Vinayre.”
Elle asks, “Was the Temple ever part of the council?”
“No, the people from Esterra adamantly refused to let any religious institutions to be involved in governing. I preferred it this way, to be honest.” Mirielle takes another sip of her tea. “High priestess Biront was furious, but she couldn’t do anything about it. Perhaps the excavations were partially a means for the Temple clergy to exercise their power and gain more leverage amongst the public.”
She raises her eyebrows. “I’m surprised that Una City hasn’t been picked clean of everything given how you describe things.”
Mirielle chuckles darkly, “If everything went smoothly, perhaps it might have been. We gave all the bodies we found proper funerals, but we repurposed everything we could. In hindsight, I’m surprised that the scrolls were the breaking point, considering our unashamed actions.”
“Desperate people do desperate things. It’s better than letting things go to waste,” Elle reasons. However, a part of her does recoil at looting through people’s corpses.
The guild master shrugs. “That’s certainly how we thought about it at the time. Of course, we weren’t the only ones scavenging through the ruins. Monsters searched for food in the dead, and they also found additional sources in the scavenger teams. It’s how the at least three people per team rule came about since people would randomly vanish. We saw fewer disappearances after Tiami implemented that rule.”
Elle frowns. “Do you know why monsters appear so deep underground? I thought they’d be closer to the surface since they eat people.”
“Our theory is that they like places with high concentrations of energy. Mana, aura --- it doesn’t really matter.” Mirielle’s expression turns somber. “That’s the worrying part; what is deep underground and somehow more attractive than a city’s worth of food? The Temple wanted that power for ‘defensive reasons’ as they put it. I’m not sure how much I trust the city council with that level of power, and I’m on it! Once the scrolls were stolen, we placed the ban on entering the ruins, but it was done too late for the survivors of Una City. As you’ve heard, most of them left Vinayre entirely.”
She nods, thinking of the people she’s met at Fort Kernstone. “Well, better late than never. With those leaders from Danglawan here, I wouldn’t want them to somehow get access to it either. That being said, people might have found other ways into the ruins which the council doesn’t know about.”
Mirielle brushes back a strand of her golden hair. “Yes, it’s concerning but not surprising. I’m sure you’ve seen how vast the underground tunnels can be. During the Calamities, entire cities ended up underground.”
Elle remembers that Edellan claimed to have arrived at Sinkpoint in a large cave. Given the complexities of the tunnels, she finds it easy to believe. “What if the Temple is sponsoring groups to keep scavenging or at least pay high prices for artefacts from Una City? That would encourage people to delve deeper into the ruins since the surface has already been searched. If teams are going super deep, I’m not surprised people are disappearing. It’s so easy to get lost, not to mention all the monsters down there.”
Mirielle fiddles with her hair. “Hmm, the guards did check the ruins during the initial search. However, they might have missed any secret entrances or tunnels. I agree it’s a viable lead if you can somehow track down these areas. The Temple is a dead end for this investigation.”
Elle protests, “Won’t they at least have an idea where these tunnels might be?”
“Even if they do, I doubt they’ll tell you. They won’t admit to illicit activities. As unfair as it might be, you haven’t found concrete evidence of their crimes.”
She sighs and tugs at her collar. Although Mirielle is correct, it’s still frustrating to see the Temple get away with everything. “So what would you recommend we do next? How would we find that evidence?”
The guild master shakes her head. “I’m just an alchemist, dear. And don’t forget, your mission is only to find the missing hunters. Don’t overcomplicate things for yourself, even if you find the Temple’s actions disagreeable. Those things can come later, if that’s something you want to pursue.”
Cooled down by the reminder, Elle slumps a little. “Yeah, okay. That’s fair. Thanks for answering my questions.”
“Not a problem, I hope that it helped somewhat.” Mirielle rises from her seat and moves to take the teacup from Elle. “If you have any other questions or trades to make later on, please feel free to stop by the guild again.”
Passing off her empty teacup, Elle tilts her head. “Trades to make? Like information or something physical?”
“Could be either. We love getting new materials to experiment with since we’re still in the process of rebuilding our supply chain.”
Elle thinks for a moment, recalling everything in her inventory. “...Actually, I might have something.” She pulls out the white flowers that she picked from the mountain upon her arrival in Sinkpoint. “Do you know what this is?”
Mirielle’s blue eyes go wide. “That’s coralindus! Where did you get that?”
“Trade secret.” Then Elle flushes, reconsidering her words. “Unless it’s an important medicinal herb, then never mind. I don’t want to keep people from getting their medicine.”
The guild master laughs, “Oh, you’re a sweet young lady. It can be used for a range of purposes, including medicine. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. It’ll fetch a nice price on the market.”
“Then I found them on the mountain peaks west of Fort Kernstone,” Elle said decisively. “Would you like to buy them.”
“Of course.” Mirielle smiles. “How about 600 lymm for the bunch?”
That’s more money than a health potion costs, not that a potion will do her any good. “I’ll take that offer.”
The guild master shakes her head fondly. “Didn’t even try to bargain… Tell you what, I really needed this, so I’ll owe you a favour as well.”
“Oh, that’s generous of you. Thank you!” Elle tentatively returns a smile, hoping the information gained from the meeting will help her team.