Callan found himself bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation as more and more yeth filled the square. His whole body crackled with barely contained energy.
“I can’t believe we’ve had the answer under our nose this entire time,” he muttered to nobody in particular. “It’s like we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
What tunnel is this? the nobody in particular asked.
“Never mind, it’s a figure of speech. You know what those are, don’t you?” Before Xeph could respond, Callan continued, “Don’t answer that.”
Hmmph. I see your mood has rapidly improved from earlier.
“Of course it has. More importantly, why aren’t you excited? Finally remembering something that’s actually useful for once—”
My memories are compressed, human! You know that! And plenty of the information I have relayed to you has been useful!
“—But now we’re probably only a solid negotiation or two away from getting the heck out of this place. If I were you, I’d be metaphorically jumping for joy. The only reason I’m not actually doing it right now is so I don’t scare any of the cultists off.”
Fine, that is an acceptable reason to be in a joyous mood, Xeph conceded.
“Thank you.”
...Assuming it works, the god added casually, almost as an afterthought.
Callan blinked. “Wait, what?”
“Alright, that should be everyone,” Belinda said, emerging from the crowd. She cast a glance behind her, eyes narrowed, then turned back to Callan. “Had to threaten and cajole about half of them to show up, but I managed it. Whatever this is about, Avatar, it had better be important. I don’t think I’ll be able to get everyone to assemble this quick again without a good reason.”
“You’re certain it’s everyone?” he asked.
“Certain as a rising tide. Every man, woman, and child is gathered here in the square. Except for old Ulfa, of course, but she couldn’t get out of bed if she wanted to right now. So, you ready to tell us what this is all about?”
“Yeah, just... just a second.” Callan turned away, ignoring the mayor’s squawk of indignation. “So heyyyyyyyy, Xeph? You remember earlier when you were certain this would work? What happened?”
Arrogant human! I never promised this would work, in fact, I said that it should merely be in the realm of possibility. It is not as if I have prior experience ever attempting something like this.
“You mean you haven’t unlocked the memories yet?”
I mean that it would have been unusual for the priests of a god to hide themselves in the past, so there would have been little reason to root them out. Still, the theory is sound. I give it two out of three odds of success.
Callan resisted the urge to slap his face. Sixty-six percent odds really weren’t what he wanted to be hearing right now.
“Avatar?” Kivi reached out a hand and laid it on his own. Behind her, Paeral and the mayor waited, each wearing different expressions—Paeral distraught but hopeful, the mayor exuding optimism but wearing a look of desperation about her.
This has to work, Callan thought. Not just for him, but for everyone.
No. It would work. Damn Xeph and his odds. He wouldn’t let all of their efforts, their suffering, count for nothing.
“Everyone!” he said, raising his voice. “The god Xeph has an important task he needs assistance with. I’m going to choose several of you at random, after which the rest can return to your homes.”
A few villagers piped up with questions, but Callan ignored them. He closed his eyes.
Fake it until you make it, right? Keeping his hands low, he activated Wurmchain.
Alert: 3.1% Apotheosis used.
Total Apotheosis is at 3.1%
Breathe. Just let the power flow. You aren’t trying to control it right now. So. Just. Breathe.
Still, it was hard not to tense up. Nothing appeared in front of him, which made Callan just worse with anxiety. It took several breaths before he could finally relax, finally let his shoulders drop and his muscles go loose.
And then, only then, did lights bloom around him.
He saw Kivi and Paeral out of the corner of his not-vision, white specks of familiar power. And also in the crowd, a tumbling mass of gray that had to be Lisson, standing with his parents. No one else in the village seemed to possess the natural conduits Xeph had spoken of, which tracked with the whole ‘only half a percent’ part.
But it didn’t matter. Callan only had eyes for the five spots of red filling his vision.
It was just like Paeral. Only the colors were different. Keeping his eyes closed, Callan turned to the first set of floating crimson orbs and pointed. “You, step forward.”
He repeated the process again, and again, until all five had been identified. Only then did he open his eyes.
All except one of the yeth were unfamiliar to him, a mousy-faced yeth who looked to be in his early thirties. Callan couldn’t place where he’d seen him before until Belinda let out a snort.
“Pyle? You sure know how to pick them.” She made a dismissive gesture as the yeth man shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the next. “Whatever help you’re hoping to get from this lot, Avatar, might I suggest you choose another? Pyle can’t be relied on at the best of times.”
Right. Callan recalled seeing the man speak up when Torveld had first led the charge to hold an election. Otherwise, he’d only ever noticed him hovering at the edge of the crowd, a distant voice and little more.
It was the same with the other four. Two of them were young girls—a pair of sisters if Callan had to guess—only a year or two older than him. Another was a farmer he’d seen from a distance, and the last was an older man of about fifty.
Callan returned his attention to Belinda. Forcing his expression into a tight-lipped smile, he whispered out the side of his mouth. “Maybe we shouldn’t be insulting your citizens right now, Mayor? Just a friendly suggestion.”
I mean, okay, the guy was working for the enemy, but given the powder keg that was the village, there was no reason to make a bad situation worse.
Indeed, quite a few of the remaining townspeople were starting to grumble. Callan raised both his hands and his voice. “I trust in the strength and capabilities of everyone living in Aos. Now, the rest of you can go back to your usual business. Thanks for your time.”
“That was it?” Someone shouted. “I banked a freshly kindled fire to be here!”
“Yeah, and I gave up working my furthest field!” Another yelled.
“That field is nothing but rocks and roots, and you know it, Gast,” the mayor retorted. There was more grumbling. Callan resisted the urge to sigh.
Kivi took up the task of dispersing the crowd. “Please. I promise you all, the need for assistance is urgent. You have done a great service by answering our request to gather, and may now return to your business. The cult of Xeph-Zul-Karatl thanks you for showing what true hospitality means to a lesser creature such as myself.”
That seemed to curb most of the crowd’s frustration, and they began to drift away. One figure remained behind, however.
Torveld.
“Mayor, whatever it is that is happening, I would request to be included. As the current representative of—”
“I don’t care what new little faction you and your friends have thought up.” Belinda glowered at him as she spoke. “You aren’t the mayor, and thus have no right to be included in such business. Return to your home already. The avatar has his volunteers.”
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“If Torveld wishes to take my place, he may, Mayor,” Pyle said. “After all, I’m not much use to anyone, just like you said.”
Belinda glanced at Callan, who quickly shook his head. “You heard the avatar. Beat it, Torveld.”
The yeth man frowned. “I do not appreciate the disrespect, Mayor. I’m only trying to help.”
“Well help somewhere else. Now beat it.”
Once the man had departed, shooting dark looks behind him the entire time, Belinda turned to Callan. “So? What is all of this about?”
“And will this take long?” one of the girls asked. “I promised to help my mother with winnowing our adle harvest.”
“Let’s all move somewhere more private to discuss,” Callan said. He made a show of looking around. “Barnum and Moas have offered their basement for use. We’ll talk there.”
Immediately, Belinda was on high alert. “Their basement? You mean—”
Callan shot her a warning look, and the mayor snapped her mouth shut. She gave a curt nod.
As they walked in the direction of Barnum’s house, Kivi fell in alongside him. “I hope my speech was appropriate, Avatar. Given that I was not warned of your plans ahead of time.”
There was an accusing note in her voice, but Callan ignored it. The risk of being overheard had simply been too great. He was only getting one shot at this and had to make it count.
“I promise I’ll make it up to you,” he said instead. The lud gave a satisfactory nod and said nothing further.
Human, Xeph said, drawing Callan’s attention. Do not let your attention drift.
Right. He returned to watching the cultists. While none of them had given any indication they realized what was happening, he had his dispensation at the ready to shut them down at the first sign of trouble. Callan had learned that lesson well enough from his fight with Rictee.
However, nothing happened, and some ten minutes later they arrived at Barnum and Moas’s home without incident. The elder couple was just arriving home from the meeting themselves and looked up in surprise as the crowd shuffled towards their front door.
“Avatar?” Barnum asked.
“Just need to make use of your basement again. No need to worry about it.”
“Our basement? You mean these are more—oof!” the yeth cut off as Kivi elbowed him in the stomach. While she apologized for her ‘clumsiness’, Callan led the others inside.
“There you go, straight down the hall. First door on your right.” He followed after them, the mayor dogging his heels like an overexcited puppy.
Down below, he found the basement much as it had been before, though now sporting a dark stain on the dirt floor near the window. Had Rictee done that during an escape attempt? Or maybe Moas had simply dropped a jar of preserves.
“Alright, Avatar,” Pyle said, glancing about the basement with distaste. “Care to tell us all what this important task you have for us is?”
Callan had been considering this moment for a while now. Would it be better to simply expose them all for what they were, or try to keep up the illusion that this really was some secret task of Xeph’s? He was fairly certain no one in this room knew the identities of their fellow cultists—Veritas’s paranoia and layers of secrecy would have guaranteed that—but all it took was one wrong word from either him or the prisoners for it all to come crashing down.
But telling them immediately would put them on the defensive, and he really wanted to try and gather some information first. He decided to maintain the ruse for now.
“To start, Xeph wants you all to tell him a bit about yourselves. That way we can better assign—”
“Oh, get on with it, already!” The mayor turned and glowered at the assembled crowd. “We know who you are. The first one to confess receives clemency. The rest of you get exile. So—who is it going to be?”
Callan gaped at the yeth woman, while inside his head Xeph let out a rumbling chuckle. So much for the subtle approach.
“Mayor,” Kivi said. “While I understand and empathize with your attempts to begin amending this situation, the fact of the matter is that we cannot simply let any of these prisoner’s leave while Veritas remains. This is no longer a matter of chosen sides—one or more of them are responsible for burning your town.”
“Hmm. Fair enough. Alright, new offer—the first one to tell us where that bastard’s camp is gets clemency. After the avatar here throws them off the plateau.”
What happened to simply running Veritas off? Xeph grumbled.
“Mayor, perhaps we ought to—” Kivi began, when the cultist Pyle spoke over her.
“What’s all this nonsense about clemency and exile? I know Torveld challenged your position, but resorting to random threats seems a little much.”
“Oh, knock off the act, you great buffoon. We know who you are and who you’ve sworn to serve.”
Pyle started to speak again, but it was the older yeth in the back who beat him to it. “They know.”
“Know what?” Pyle turned at looked at the man in confusion. His eyes went wide. “Wait, you mean—you’re one, too, Yolt?”
The older yeth, Yolt, nodded. Pyle turned around, his face stormy.
“In that case, guess there ain’t no more reason to play around.” He dropped his hands and started manipulating the air in front of him. “Been looking forward to this moment a real long time!”
Callan tensed, already bringing up the submenu for Wane. Only to pause when nothing happened. Pyle continued manipulating the air, his face growing red with concentration, no power activated.
“It won’t work here, idiot,” Yolt said, stifling a yawn. He leaned against the wall, his shoulders slumped. “Not without Veritas. Idiot.”
“But, but...”
Meanwhile, across from them the two yeth girls had grabbed each other’s hands and were babbling excitedly.
“Leshi!!!”
“Ianthe, why didn’t you tell me????”
“I tried, but you never seemed to get my hints. Remember when we down by the river, talking?”
“Oh, moons, that’s what you meant? When you said you had some big secret, I thought it was just that you’d found yourself another sweetheart.”
“Oh, Leshi.” The other girl laughed, then added. “Though I was warming Rictee’s bed before he died. Hey, he was a priest, too! That jerk never told me...”
The mayor cleared her throat, and the room fell silent. Her glare captured each and every one of the cultists simultaneously. “Now that we’ve cleared up any misunderstandings, who here would like to be the first to accept my offer?”
Silence blanketed the basement. Finally, Yolt spoke up. “Beggin’ forgiveness, Mayor, but... none of us here are going to be doing that. Veritas would skin us alive—and that’s if we’re lucky. Look what happened to Rictee.”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Belinda spat. “Rictee realized quick enough that he had far better odds of surviving by staying in my good graces instead of with Veritas. Speaking of, does anyone want to confess to that little murder? I’ll not hold it against you, times have been strange around here.”
Again, the mayor was met with silence. Callan jumped in, hoping to try and salvage something of the conversation. “Look, all we really need is for one of you to tell us where Veritas is. They never have to know who it was. I’ll deal with the problem—”
Assuming we can take their avatar down before they overwhelm us, Xeph noted unhelpfully.
“—And this can all be over. Look, I know it sucks. You picked a side, and now you’ve lost. But it doesn’t have to be the end for you. Help me end this and life can more or less go back to normal. Right, Mayor?”
“Hmm? Oh, yes, yes.” Belinda waved a hand dismissively. “Our town can’t afford anymore division. You’ve all brought a great deal of trouble down on us, but I’m willing to overlook it if you help resolve the situation. However, if you stubbornly persist in supporting a lost cause...”
“Mayor.” Yolt pushed off the wall and stepped forward. He looked from one cultist to the next. “I think I speak for all of us when I say, we will not abandon the god Veritas. Perhaps a few weeks ago, I might have been swayed, but you are no longer the mayor I remember growing up. I originally joined Veritas because he promised a brighter future, and I see now that can never happen under your rule.”
“Yeah, we might have ‘lost’, as you put it,” Pyle added, glowering at Callan, “But for how long? There ain’t hardly anybody left in town that’ll support you. Maybe you ought to surrender while you still can.”
“Impudent little—” The mayor moved towards Pyle like she was going to hit him but caught herself at the last moment. She stepped back, hands self-consciously smoothing her clothes. “This town only exists because of me. You and everyone else would do well to remember that I was here first. I basically am this town.”
“Yet some day, one way or another, you’ll be gone, and Aos will carry on without you,” Yolt said softly. “That’s simply a fact. It’s time you accepted it.”
“You...” The mayor’s face was darkening into something dangerous. Callan set his hands on her shoulders before the situation could devolve further.
“I think it’s best if we give all of you time to think over the mayor’s offer. We’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy...” He waved hand. “...All of this. It’s better than the Ritz-Carlton down here.”
“This was met by blank stares and a sigh from Xeph. Again, I don’t even know where to begin translating that.
“Ah, never mind. C’mon, Mayor.”
Just as they reached the stairs, one of the girls—he thought it might have been Ianthe—spoke.
“I don’t think any of us could help you even if we wanted to. I never knew where Veritas was. Any time they needed us, a priest would come and tell me where to meet. I never saw any faces, and the location was different each time.”
Callan nodded absently. That was more or less what they had learned from Rictee. Well, it’s not like he’d really expected this avenue to yield any results.
“Let us know if you remember anything else.” With that, he followed the mayor upstairs.
They found Paeral waiting with Barnum and Moas in the kitchen. The tiny space filled to bursting as the rest of them filed in.
“It must have been Higarth that coordinated their movements,” Kivi began as they settled around the table. “Mayor, you said once that there were as many as eight cultists, yes?”
“That’s right.”
“Then we have them all contained. Five here. Rictee and Higarth make seven, and Alyssa—”
“—Makes eight,” Callan finished. “So that should be everyone.”
“Indeed. I only wonder, how exactly shall we get a message to Veritas to tell them we’ve captured their people? We do not know their location, and every priest is either imprisoned or in exile.”
“A problem for tomorrow,” Belinda said. “We have what we need for victory now. Without the cultists threatening the peace of the town, I can begin working to turn the rest of my citizens back to the proper path. You’ve done good work, Avatar.”
We mustn’t celebrate victory just yet, Xeph cautioned. These cultists could still pose a threat. If Veritas attempts to rescue them, or even moves close enough to give them access to their powers...
Callan nodded. “We need to leave a guard behind to keep an eye on things.”
“Agreed,” Kivi said. “If we work in shifts, that should prevent any lapse in coverage.”
The logistics of the situation were starting to make Callan’s head hurt. Should they involve the rest of the town, now that the priests had been removed? Or was it better to keep the number of people involved lower to prevent further treachery? Just because someone wasn’t a priest didn’t mean they hadn’t shifted to Veritas’s side...
Before Callan could come to any solid conclusion, the front door burst open and feet pounded down the hallway. Lisson slid to a halt, almost knocking into his grandmother.
“What’s the meaning of this, boy?” Belinda spluttered as her grandson heaved for breath. “You can’t just go bursting into people’s home unannounced.”
Lisson shook his head but didn’t apologize. “Veritas. Here. Town square.”
What??? Xeph’s voice was a squawk even as Callan leapt to his feet. The rest of the room was going crazy as everyone attempted to talk at the same time. He ignored all that and headed for the front door. There is no way that Veritas could have learned of his priests capture already! This must be over another matter. Still, the timing is rather suspicious.
“Yeah, suspicious is an understatement.” He turned, verifying that Kivi and Belinda were on his heels. “Paeral, stay here and keep an eye on that basement. Don’t let anyone in or out, you understand?”
“Of course, Avatar. On my life.” The older man nodded from the kitchen.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” With that, Callan swept through the front door.