Would you like to Scry for follower locations? Cost = 5 Conviction

Callan stared at the words. After a drawn-out minute or two, he focused on accepting.

Error: Insufficient conviction to utilize this consecration. Please increase temple’s conviction level to continue.

From somewhere nearby came a deep growling noise. With a start, Callan realized belatedly it had emitted from his own throat.

Take a breath, mortal. Xeph’s voice was like wind through a keyhole. Was he trying to be soothing? Probably still thought Callan had lost it after his mad dash through the tunnels. Now, are you certain you wish to resort to this?

“Three people are missing, Xeph. Three children.”

I am not disagreeing with the choice, simply asking. Once you utilize our remaining supply of memory shards, they are gone forever.

Callan glanced at the box sitting on the altar. It still had eight of the reddish crystals inside. Combined with the two Conviction he had already generated, that left ten at his disposal. Giving up half of that now meant one less priest, but if it helped them get to the bottom of this mess...

Before he started to second-guess his decision, he pushed back the lid, scooped up three of the stones, then swallowed them down in a single go.

Swiping away the message that appeared, he laid his hands on the altar again.

You have increased temple Conviction by 5

Total Conviction = 6/???

Would you like to Scry for follower locations? Cost = 5 Conviction

This time when he accepted, the message winked away and was replaced by a map of the temple. The words Waiting hovered slightly above it.

While that processed, Callan turned back to the waiting lud.

“Tell me again what happened.”

All the lud began talking over each other at once. Soon most of the voices faded, and the story began to come together again.

The first child, a boy of eight named Grish, had failed to return from bringing supplies back from one of the storerooms. When his father had gone looking for him, he had found the boy’s stuffed toy lying in the hallway, but no sign of Grish himself.

According to the parents, the boy could hardly be separated from his favorite toy for even a few minutes. There was no chance he would have missed dropping it.

The other missing child, a girl of nearly ten named Arousa, had been playing with three other children here in the main temple. They’d been taking turns hiding behind various benches, but when Arousa’s turn to hide had come, the other children had never found her.

It was then that panic had set in among the villagers.

Callan nodded as the story finished, then waved the lud to silence. “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. First, nobody goes anywhere alone from this moment on. Whether walking the halls or using the bathroom, always have another person with you.

“Second, let’s set up the tents around the teleportation circle outside and have all the children stay there until we get to the bottom of this. Maybe a few elders stay up with them to make sure nobody wanders off. If there’s any trouble they can always jump in the circle and come back down here.”

“What about the missing children?” A woman in the back asked. Her face was streaked with tears, but Callan didn’t think it was one of the mothers of the missing kids. A worried aunt, maybe? “How are you going to find them?”

“I’ve already taken steps towards doing so. Still, Xeph and I won’t rest until they’re found. You have my promise on that.”

Callan turned back to the display. As he did, a notice appeared in his vision.

Scry of temple interior complete. Beginning external search.

The map began to transition over to all of Urslang, but Callan hurriedly swiped it back to the tunnels. He leaned in close. Beside him, he could sense Argas and Paeral holding their breath.

“Xeph? Thoughts?”

Hmm. Callan could sense the god shifting to the front of his mind, felt his eyes focusing more intently. Together, they studied the map.

The temple showed a cluster of white lights, all within the main chamber. The tunnels and other rooms remained dark.

There does not appear to be anyone within the temple except this room, Xeph said, confirming Callan’s suspicions. Wherever these children are, they are not within the bounds of our walls.

“So they are outside, then?” Callan swiped back to the map of Urslang.

Perhaps.

The map of the continent now showed a circle around the temple, similar to the one Callan saw when he used his Shape Stone ability. As he watched, it grew slightly wider, but the pace was so slow it would likely be days before it covered the entire continent. Weeks, maybe.

Reaching out, Callan pinched his fingers, then spread them wide to zoom the map in on their location.

The rough edges of the map changed, taking on new definitions and colors. Suddenly the blob of landscape down at the southwestern tip of Urslang looked quite different. Gaps appeared in the landscape separating chunks of land, which Callan at first took to be rivers, but quickly realized must be the various canyons that separated the plateaus.

The circle had also widened, and now he could see that it had spread all the way to the edge of their current plateau.

“Is that Tokash?” Argas asked over his shoulder.

“It’s what?”

“The Tokash Plateau. Our village was Tok—” he gestured to where the ruins of the lud village showed at the far end. “—So the plateau itself is called Tokash.”

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Callan frowned. “I spent literal weeks in your village. How am I only just now learning its name?”

“I, ah, do not know, Avatar.” The priest gave a helpless shrug. “We have always just referred to our village as ‘the village’, we only use its name when speaking with foreigners. Perhaps it simply never came up?”

“That’s a lame-ass excuse if I ever heard one.”

If your posterior is coming up lame, perhaps you are sleeping wrong, Xeph quipped. Callan sighed and pinched his nose between his fingers.

“Focus, Xeph, focus.” He noticed that the circle had expanded to encompass the edges of the nearest plateau. Two dots of light appeared on it.

“Hey, there we go, more followers. Any chance you think it’s them?”

Argas frowned and shook his head. “That’s a journey of at least a day. Maybe Ziln could have gotten that far by now, but not the other two.”

“Okay, so it’s probably just Kivi on her way back, then.” The thought lightened Callan’s heart a bit. It would be good to have the high priestess’s advice again. Unfortunately, it looked as if she wouldn’t be here until tomorrow at the earliest.

There were no other lights on the Urslang map, so Callan grudgingly swiped it back to the temple’s interior. Lights were beginning to filter into the nearby rooms, likely the villagers gathering supplies and preparing to move their children topside.

What would Kivi think when she saw the temporary encampment? Callan grinned as he imagined her expression. At least it was her and not Shamain.

“Avatar, with your permission I’d like to join in the efforts to find the missing children,” Argas said. Callan waved him away, then said, “Be sure to take Paeral with you. Nobody goes anywhere alone, even priests.”

“What about yourself?” Paeral asked. Besides the priests, they were alone in the great hall now.

Callan grinned and tapped at his skull. “I’m never alone anymore. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Hmm, I suppose that’s true. In that case, I hope to return with good news.”

“You and me both.” He watched the lud priests depart, then turned back to studying the map.

Hmm, Xeph said contemplatively. At least we shall finally be able to locate my other followers. So using our remaining stones was not a complete waste of resources.

“Yeah, really not the time for that, bud. I’m trying to concentrate here.”

What are you looking for? the god asked.

“I don’t know. Anything that might give a clue.” Callan scrubbed at the back of his neck in frustration. “Is there anything you can remember about this place? Anything that might pose a threat, or some secret chamber not on the map?”

Unfortunately, much remains as compressed as before. There are no threats I am aware of, but then I was unaware that a nest of velak had infested my vault and eaten my precious treasures. Xeph went silent, though Callan could sense him thinking. If it is an official part of the temple, it will show on the map. That said, you will notice that none of the velak tunnels show around the vault. If someone or something else managed to tunnel into here over the centuries, it wouldn’t be visible.

“But if there was another tunnel around, wouldn’t we have stumbled on it by now? Other than the vault, there aren’t exactly any locked doors here.”

Unless whatever entered the temple sealed its tunnel after itself.

Callan shook his head. He had several counterarguments, but they died on his tongue as another light blinked to life momentarily on the map, flickered, then disappeared again.

“Holy shit! Did you see that?”

How does one consecrate—

“Not right now, Xeph!” Callan stared at the place the light had been. He wasn’t certain, but he thought it was the same room he had chased the shadowy figure into before losing their trail.

The light flickered again, so fast he would have missed it if he hadn’t been staring right at it. Unlike the others, it was an angry red.

“There it is!” Callan spun and dashed from the room. He nearly crashed into a trio of lud coming the other direction, armed laden with blankets, but managed to spin around them and continue his charge without losing any speed.

Wait, mortal! Xeph bellowed as Callan pelted down one hallway, then another, trying to remember the way he had gone earlier. He was pretty sure it was a right, then a left, then another left...

Mortal! Mortal! Callan! STOP!

“Wha... What is it, Xeph?” Callan stopped in front of the door to the room, his breath coming in ragged breaths. Three good lungful’s of air later he was back to normal.

Guess that’s a thirty in Fortitude for you.

We should be cautious, Xeph warned. That light... it was different from the others. I do not think it signifies one of our followers.

“Yeah, kind of already figured that out from the angry red color. Still, doesn’t that make it all the more reason we should come investigate?”

I’m not saying you’re wrong, only... perhaps you should not investigate alone.

“But I have you, remember? I’m never alone.”

My companionship is of little consolation if you happen to be bludgeoned to death.

“I’ll do my best not to let that happen.” He pushed open the door to the room.

Just like the first time, there was nothing to see other than the ancient broken machinery. A few tracks showed in the dust on the floor, but Callan suspected those were all from his own feet. He frowned and scanned the room, looking for anything out of order.

Nothing. “It’s just like before.”

Whatever that red dot on the map was, there is every possibility it moved elsewhere before we arrived.

Callan shook his head. “Nuh uh. There are basically no other doors along here for the last two corridors. No way anybody got out in time.”

He stepped into the room and started searching through the wreckage. A few pieces of machinery broke off in his hand when he tugged on them, but none of them appeared to have been moved or otherwise disturbed.

“I don’t get it. You saw the map, there has to be something here. Even if they’re not here any longer, somehow they appeared in the first place.”

A hole in the ceiling? Callan glanced up, but there was nothing. The rough stone overhead showed a few small cracks, but none anywhere close to the one on the far wall.

Wait.

He moved towards the crack in the wall and ran his finger along it. He couldn’t remember exactly, but he was fairly certain that it was bigger than the last time.

“Xeph, is there anything behind here?”

No, I don’t think... Oh. Hmm. Interesting.

“What?”

Earlier, this room was completely surrounded by stone, but now... there’s a small pocket of space just beyond here. I can’t quite see far enough to know where it leads.

“No worries, that’s good enough for me.” Callan activated Shape Stone, then moved his power to the wall. Gripping the air tightly, he shoved the wall to either side.

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

Alert: 3% Apotheosis used.

Total Apotheosis is at 12%

It had taken four separate applications of his orison, but eventually he got a hole big enough to crawl through. A dark tunnel was visible just on the other side.

“Gotcha.”

Now I feel as though we should gather allies even more, Xeph said as Callan got down on his hands and knees. We’ve found the invader’s entrance. Let’s return with a small army of priests and angry parents to reclaim these children.

“I’m not going far, Xeph. Just a peek to see what we’re dealing with. Then we go get the others. Okay?”

Fine. Just watch your head, especially—Ooh. There.

Callan grimaced and rubbed at the sore spot on the top of his skull. “Thanks.”

Just making sure my precious human carriage doesn’t suffer undue damage.

“Yeah, I hope you remember that next time you sic a golem on me.”

That was ONE time, mortal!

Callan chuckled, then cut off as he remembered where they were. Quietly as he could, he began to sneak forward, his legs making soft ‘shnk, shnk’ noises as they rubbed along the tunnel floor.

The path did not grow any thinner, but neither did it widen out. It was a tight fit, but Callan managed to push through. Still, the light from behind them continued to fade until they were in darkness entirely.

Just when Callan was beginning to think the tunnel would never end, that he’d have to simply back up the entire way, he spotted a dim light ahead. The sight reinvigorated him, and he crawled faster towards it.

Soon he was close enough that he began to suspect he knew its source. Still he crawled on, until he stopped right in front of it, which also happened to be the tunnel’s end.

There, near the base of the floor, was another of the lamps that lit Xeph’s temple.

Only this one glowed with a faint blue light.

“Why is that—?” he began, but never finished. One moment, there was solid ground beneath his feet, and the next, there wasn’t.

He tumbled into open air for a heart-stopping moment, slammed into solid stone, was airborne again, landed, bounced, slid. The world spun around him at increasingly alarming speeds. Xeph yelled in his ears, but it was all lost amid the cacophony and chaos.

Then with painful finality, his tumble ended. Callan lay in a wincing heap, his back pressed against whatever had brought him to a halt. It felt solid, and metal, and cold.

With questing fingers, he reached out and felt around him. His search ended quick enough as they encountered more cold metal. They closed around it.

Bars. They were bars. Smooth in some places, etched in others.

He sat up, and nearly cried out as he discovered just how low the ceiling was here. Blinking in the darkness, he tried to make out details.

Slowly, shapes began to form around him. He thought at first it was his eyes adjusting, but soon realized it was because the light around him was increasing. A bobbing flame appeared in the distance.

It was the same pale blue color as the one from before. Slowly, it made its way towards him. The light came to a stop right on the other side of the bars to his cage.

His cage. Callan looked around, and saw he was surrounded on all sides. Even the floor had a set of cross-hatched metal keeping him from the stone beneath.

So distracted was he by the revelation of his imprisonment, that it took Callan a moment to notice the figure carrying the light on the other side. Black eyes stared back at him from a miniscule face. Callan had thought the lud were short, but they had nothing on the strange figure watching him.

Hmm. I have some good news for you, Xeph said, startling Callan out of his wonderment.

“What’s that?”

I appear to have decompressed another memory.

“Does it have anything to do with the tiny man who’s currently watching us?” Callan said, not taking his eyes off the stranger. They didn’t respond to his one-sided conversation, just continued watching in turn.

That is no man. It’s a dveorg.