The great hall had been designed as a place for rituals and ceremonies. Now, it served multiple purposes. Makeshift bookshelves lined the walls, sporadically lined with aging tomes. In one corner, wooden beds stood in a row, separated by sheets of rough cloth that hung from the roof. On the other side of the room, figures sat at desks smaller than the one Kyros had been seated at, reading dusty volumes, and committing thought to parchment in dim candlelight.

"Tell me girl, does this look like the den of evil you expected?" One of the scholars looked up from his work when Kyros spoke. His disinterested eyes quickly returned to his reading.

"It is... not exactly what I was expecting."

"And what would that be? Blood sacrifices? The screams of the damned?"

Kyros' voice echoed from the walls of the great hall.

"I think you will find the world to be a more... nuanced place, than your dogmatic ideals would have you believe. Tell me, what does your Order tell you about us? About the Afflicted of Velrand?"

Taryn was overwhelmed, her mind churning. She looked to Delvin to answer. "Well we... The general consensus is that the Afflicted worship Velrand in all his forms, including the diseases he brings into the world, leading to... less than favorable outlook from the common folk."

Kyros groaned through pursed lips. "Do they also tell you that we tend to the sick and injured that your Order forgets? Forsakes? Like Weckerton yonder." He made a broad waving gesture in Weckerton's general direction.

"Weckerton? They told us a druid comes through from time to time and heals their ailments." Delvin said, realization setting in.

"Druid?" Kyros scoffed. "Hardly. Although, I suppose depending on how you look at it, it's obvious how we could be mistaken for such."

"How's that?" Taryn asked.

"What are disease, decay, and rot, if not part of nature? We honor the cycle of life and death - if a very... specific, part of it."

Delvin began wandering the hall, intrigued by the events unfolding around him.

Kyros continued. "But life cannot exist without decay, and someone must keep it in check. Our Lord has taken that calling upon himself."

Taryn shook her head, trying to dispel the confusion that had come over her. "What about Murkwater?"

"What about it?" Kyros asked, either feigning ignorance exceptionally well or genuinely unsure what she was asking.

"A whole town was wiped out by a disease. Golden pox sent from a dark god. ringing any bells."

The man's face went dark.

Delvin had wandered to the five beds that lined the walls. They had been set up in the style of an infirmary. Most were empty, except for the one closest to the far corner. Delvin walked around the corner and did a double-take. Lying asleep in the bed was a man that he recognized. The man who had come to the pavilion for healing a few days prior. The man's arm had been afflicted with a spreading blight that Delvin did not know how to cure. He leaned over the man to examine his arm. The spreading darkness had receded, leaving gray skin everywhere it had touched. Aside from the discoloration, it looked like there would be no lasting damage. Delvin's mouth gaped in astonishment.

"Golden... you say?" Kyros turned and paced toward the back of the hall. Mention of the golden pox had drawn ephemeral attention from the desk-bound scholars.

Taryn followed Kyros as he paced. "Yes. And there have been reports of more villages being stricken with the disease. It's spreading. We need to know how to cure it."

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Kyros gave a hollow laugh. "Well, you've got the right god, but you've come to the wrong place, I'm afraid. We are... not as we once were, you see. The Afflicted were once greater in number, and we carried out our research here in peace, away from the prying eyes of the world. Velrand is not a vain god. He doesn't demand that we convert followers. As part of the natural cycle, he maintains balance, and those of us who recognize the glory in what he does... we offer ourselves to him." Kyros turned to Taryn, and lamented. "Not all of us shared that sentiment though. Some of the Afflicted believed that Velrand's ambitions in the mortal realm were... as yet unfulfilled. They wanted to craft a disease that would bring glory to his name."

"Excuse me, sir?" Delvin interrupted. "That man over there. Why is he here?"

Kyros turned, his trail of thought broken. "Him? oh, something wrong with his arm, poisoning of the blood, or some-such. I don't recall the specifics."

"You healed him"?

"Not personally, one of the others did, but yes. We occasionally get travelers coming here, seeking aid with afflictions that... other healers aren't equipped to handle."

Delvin was fascinated. "How did you do it? Had you seen the ailment before?"

Kyros chuckled. "You may need to know the intricate details of an ailment for your Goddess to affect change, but Velrand is, as you call him, the architect of sickness. He knows all ailments as you might know your own child. We are merely conduits through which his will is enacted."

"But why would you heal this man"?

Kyros raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't we heal him?"

"Well, I just assumed... being a dark cult and all..."

Kyros shook his head ruefully. "Your narrow-mindedness will be your undoing, boy. In whose eyes are we a dark cult? What have you seen here today that gives you the moral high ground to denounce us so?"

Delvin was silent in contemplation.

"You think us evil purely for the god we follow, but morality is not so clear cut. It is not black and white. Is healing that man an act of evil if it was enacted through the grace of Velrand? Are war crimes committed in the name of your god palatable through your moral lens? Think on these words, boy. Lest you become blinded to the axis of morality, ever in flux."

Taryn thought of Gershom's words upon their return from Murkwater. "what we do... we do it because it is right, and it is right because we are the ones to do it".

"What about the disease?" Taryn asked, trying to put Kyros' mind back on track.

"Ah yes. As I was saying, some of Velrand's followers felt we should be doing... more. There was something of a schism, and many of our brothers and sisters left, journeying north to establish a new place of worship more aligned with their ideologies." Kyros sighed. "If this disease is truly of dark making, that's where you will find your answers. Though I warn you... they are... not likely to be as hospitable as we have been. Especially if you arrive unannounced."

"Do you know where they are?"

"No, not precisely. We have not maintained contact with them. They go about honoring Velrand in their own way, and we in ours. I believe they settled in the woods to the north of Redhaven, a few days' ride from the city. Though, I imagine if they are doing what you accuse them of, the rumor mill will lead you to them once you are close enough."

"North, then. We will find them, and put a stop to this madness."

"You don't understand the forces you reckon with, girl. You two, on your own... They won't listen to you. Do you think they haven't heard it all before? Do you think knocking on their door, and asking them to stop will make it so?" Kyros shook his head. If you go after these people, you must be prepared to lay down your life, and know that they will gladly take it without sparing you a thought."

"How can we stop them then?"

Kyros took a small effigy of Velrand from the table beside him, cradling it in his hands as he looked over the craftsmanship. "Some things aren't meant to be stopped."

"If you won't help us, we will figure something out."

Kyros chuckled, looking between the Alerian worshippers. "Apologies, have I not helped you enough already? What more do you want? These people are our brothers and sisters of yore, not some... fabled beasts of myth with a weakness waiting to be exploited." He looked at the figurine in his hands once more, its arms outstretched, before offering it to Taryn. "The only other thing I can give you is... a different perspective, perhaps."

Taryn shifted back, eyeing the idol with suspicion. "I don't want it."

Kyros laughed again as he stepped forward and placed it in her hand. "Don't worry, girl. You won't catch anything. Let it serve as a reminder that not all that is dark in nature is evil... and not all that shines is good."

She inspected the idol and considered his words. She didn't feel as repulsed as she thought she should have, holding such a dark thing in her hand.

"Now, if that will be all... I suggest you best be going. Night will soon fall. I'd offer you a place to sleep, but somehow I think you'd find our den of evil and degeneracy... not to your liking."

His words hung in the still, cold air, accentuated by the scratching of quills on coarse parchment.

"Indeed." Taryn's eyes hung on the wooden figure in her hand as if locked in a trance before she could pull them away. "We had best be off."

Delvin clung tightly to his satchel as he followed Taryn's lead and made for the exit through corridors of chilled gloom. Kyros eyed the young priest as he left, and flashed a knowing smile.