Holy fuck, Keratily was playing god. I slowly rose from my knees, pulling the crystal up with me as I went, and tried to gather my thoughts. If I spoke, would the illusion be immediately broken? Or did Keratily build in a voice-changer so she could more convincingly play the part of Moricla?

Well, might as well stop wondering and find out. How did Moricla speak again?

I silently cleared my throat and put on my best smile. “What do you require, my child?” I asked in a perfect copy of Moricla’s voice.

“We have lost so many citizens, almighty. They disappear from their homes, sometimes in the middle of other tasks, and are simply… whisked away into the night.” The acolyte openly wept. “You have graced us with your presence, and we are so incredibly sorry that we have to ask you to shoulder this burden of ours.”

Endra’s slaves. So they were being taken from other cities, and in numbers large enough that people were noticing and panicking. We definitely hadn’t seen enough people to account for all those numbers, so Endra was definitely working somewhere else. That was both terrifying and reassuring for the moment.

Now how the fuck was I supposed to explain that? “I am unfortunately aware, my child. The Embodiment known as Endra has corrupted their bodies, and now controls them in the same way she would a chosen. There may be ways to help those with unhatched parasites in their bodies, but…”

I trailed off as an idea popped into my mind. The acolyte hung on my every word, and I felt a little bad for deceiving her, but it was for the greater good. And I’d tell everyone the truth once we killed Keratily anyway.

“There may be a way to help them, but I am unfortunately not aware of it as it is not my domain.” I explained slowly and methodically, trying to channel what I knew about Staura gods in my words. “You and the other temples may be able to aid yourselves. Find healers who specialize in temporal reconstruction or full-body rejuvenation and bring them to those who have unhatched parasites. Someone with a core that is able to see body heat or detect living organisms should be able to identify those who are infected. But take caution in your search; Endra can–and will–use those with parasites as disposable soldiers in whatever conquest she so feels like.”

Alright, that sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself. I lowered myself to a crouch again and gently moved to wipe the tears from the acolyte, and much to my surprise, felt them against my armor. She flinched away slightly, and for a second I thought that I’d blown my cover. But then she slowly raised her hand to her cheek with awe, and I felt a whole lot worse than if I had.

“Thank you, almighty, for your guidance.” She said as she hastily rose to her feet and bowed. “We will do all we can.”

Then she just… left. No glances behind her, no more questions, and no more prayers. It almost felt like some kind of transaction. Keratily had obviously done this hundreds, if not thousands of times, and with an unknown amount of other temples as well. Hell, she might have completely warped how people on the all-world see Moricla in general.

{Okeria. Can you read me?} I whispered as quietly as possible. {Can you see what I just saw?}

{Negatory. But I’m reading that crystal emittin’ a signal way far into the distance, and not just one. A whole bunch of ‘em are overlapped on top of each other, and if ya do somethin’ ta that crystal, ya might be able ta splice into more of ‘em.} He relayed, but his voice sounded echo-y and faraway like it was coming from the other end of a tunnel. {I’ll trace all those signals and mark ‘em as possible Keratily strongholds. Oh, and just so we’re crystal clear–I didn’t hear anythin’ until ya said my name. Some kinda interference really messed with the connection.}

Unfortunate. It would’ve been a lot more convenient for me if he’d just heard everything.

{Well, short story shorter, it looks like Keratily’s been building herself a little cult while masquerading as Moricla. Wherever this signal’s being broadcast to is a temple of Moricla, and the city close to it is losing a lot of people to Endra’s parasites.} I looked around to make sure nobody else had come in, then activated my visor. Shapes appeared through the walls, but none of them were close enough to hear anything. {Looks like she’s trying to do a hostile takeover for all of Moricla’s faith. Not that there’s much to take.}

Okeria hummed in thought for a few seconds, then blew out a long breath. {Can’t say I’m too surprised, but it’s still a shock ta know one of my crackpot theories came true. The ramifications of this have gotta be a whole lot worse than I can imagine.}

{What? Noooo. There’s no way Keratily would’ve done anything shady and horrific with unfiltered access to literally all of a god’s faith on the all world. Especially not one as vulnerable as Moricla’s.} I rolled my eyes and shifted into a more comfortable position. {Do you have all the signal origins yet? Every second I’m here is another second I risk a Keratily showing up on either end and fucking all this up.}

A few seconds of silence followed. I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure what Okeria was thinking about, but if I knew him a tenth as well as I thought I did, he was worrying about his kids. If Endra had agents all over the Staura portion of the all-world, then nowhere was safe. And since she’d gained some support, we had no idea if another Embodiment would show up and horrifically control the population in another way. Other cities could easily be in Rainbow Basin’s situation in just a few short weeks.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

{Alright, got all of ‘em. Pull out.}

I nodded and removed my hand from the crystal. My vision instantly returned to normal, but my thoughts took a second to come back. That was one strange sensation I would be happy if I never felt again.

“Well? What happened?” Annette asked worriedly.

I handed her the crystal and sighed. “Just another damn escalation. Keratily’s playing god, she could have more power strongholds like Rainbow Basin, and everywhere else looks like they’re suffering from Endra too.”

“More of the same, but that’s not a good thing. I understand.” Annette nodded and returned to destroying Keratily’s crystal. As her ribbons destroyed the physical manifestation of Keratily’s function, she seemed to grow a little more worried. “Hey… if there’s more places like Rainbow Basin… doesn’t that mean we’re basically doing nothing here?”

“This is Keratily’s home base. Even if destroying it doesn’t power her down enough for Inopsy to kill her, it should have a pretty good effect.” I assured her and scouted for attackers. There was a serious lack of Keratilys for what we were doing. “Do you remember how many Keratilys tried to get you two crystals ago?”

“Five.” Annette said immediately. “None of them felt like the three that attacked you one crystal ago, either. Obviously that isn’t all of Keratily’s reinforcements, right? There’s no way she wouldn’t have a whole lot more people on her side.”

I grunted agreement and moved to give Annette more room to work. I wasn’t one-hundred percent convinced Keratily had a huge army on her side–since her entire modus operandi was to erase her descendants’ memories–but I was definitely sure there were more than eight people. And if she was actually as hated by the other side of her family as she claimed, then maybe there was another danger I hadn’t even thought of.

{Okeria, do you have any info on the Keratilys not affiliated with the woman herself?}

{Not at the moment, no. Once we’ve stabilized this place we can use our contacts ta get those questions and observations out there, but we’re flyin’ pretty blind at the moment.} Okeria replied instantly. {Ya worried that they’re gonna show up and try ta take Rainbow Basin for themselves while usin’ the chaos as a chance ta take big Keratily down once and for all?}

{Pretty much summed it up.} I agreed with a sigh. {You know, it’s almost funny how little Scalovera has to do with this now. Sure, he instigated the coup, but it’s pretty much been one-hundred percent Endra since I killed Dylan.}

{Heh, yeah.} Okeria laughed bitterly. {That’s how he’s always been. He craves that seat of power, but he ain’t the kind of person that needs ta be sittin’ there. Did ya know that Rainbow Basin was neck-deep in debt when I took over?}

{You never mentioned it.}

{Well, yeah, cause it wasn’t important until now. Honestly it still ain’t, but maybe havin’ a little bit of insight into Scalovera’s mind will do us good strategically. Scalovera put the city in more debt than we had assets, and I couldn’t trace all the transactions he’d made back to anything tangible. We thought it was money laundering or embezzlement for a good long while, but then we finally found the tracks ta the mysterious animal known as ‘Scalovera’s spending reports’.}

Okeria’s drone came out of camo and dipped into my field of view. It split into four smaller cubes and crackled with electricity, then projected a hologram from between them that was more than a little hard to make out. The best comparison I could come up with was trying to watch a video on the lowest resolution while it buffered every half-second, except this was a picture.

{What am I looking at?} I asked and leaned in a little closer. I could make out a few numbers and some symbols in the Staura language, but that was it.

{The spendin’ report.} Okeria said, and I could hear the unspoken ‘obviously’ in the short silence that followed. {It shows that Scalovera paid everyone that directly worked with him an absurd amount of money. Like, fifteen years worth of salary for a year’s worth of work kind of absurd. It made no sense at all ta any of us, but then we dug a little deeper. And we found out that nobody started off with that kind of salary–it ballooned after specific things happened in the city. Like a flood, or an outbreak of a mild disease, or a scandal that died before it could leave the presses.}

I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. {He was bribing them to keep quiet? Does that mean he was directly responsible for all the bad shit that happened? And… wait. The entirety of the city’s debt was because of huge salaries?}

{Well, not one-hundred percent. Maybe eighty-five percent, and the other fifteen was general mismanagement and political garbage. I just threw the scum out on the streets and strong-armed ‘em outta the city. Scalovera tried ta reason with ‘em.} Okeria muttered. {Huh. I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t managed ta get any of ‘em back in the time he’s been the false leader of this place. Maybe Endra’s got him on a much shorter leash than we realize.}

{What do you call the mercs, then, if not hired scum?}

{Mercenaries. Ones who’ve been doin’ that alone, not sellin’ drugs or tryin’ ta bring down property values so they can buy a district and rent it out for huge profits. They didn’t trust Scalovera enough ta come back in the little bit we were gone.} Okeria said as if he’d just realized something important. {He ain’t trusted. He had ta reach out beyond his normal circle for muscle and help. That’s definitely how he came in contact with Endra, and it might mean that he’s been ostracized from all the other Scaloveras. We’ll have ta look into that once we’re in control of Rainbow Basin again.}

Shattering crystal snapped me out of my conversation with Okeria. I glanced over my shoulder as Annette walked out to join me, gave me a thumbs-up, and leaned against the wall with a tired sigh.

“That’s all of them.” She said warily. “If that wasn’t enough to help Inopsy, then there’s nothing else we could’ve done. Now what?”