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The only reason I knew it was morning again in the High Temple was because Mother Liora was calling somewhat desperately from the hallway for me to get up.
Had something terrible happened?
I disentangled myself from the bed sheets I had spent the night wrestling with and hit the floor running. I realized I had been sweating earlier, and a wet chill passed through me due to my sudden movement.
“You’re going to be late to the morning huddle with Relias!”
Who cares? He should come to me!
I stopped halfway to the door, abruptly filled with irrationally stubborn thoughts. “I’ll be ready in a few,” I called, purposefully leaving off the time counter.
I’m going to take my sweet, sweet time.
With deliberate slowness, I changed into my uniform, spent an extra five minutes on my increasingly unmanageable hair, and took the time to jot down a few comments about last night’s dream that recalled a forgotten interaction with the Demon King.
> Observations/Notes:
>
> * When he saw me, he was clearly upset. It was most likely our first interaction since he had banished me, and it was not something he expected.
>
> * He expressed regret for not killing me but didn't seem capable or willing to act on his mistake. Perhaps because I was only there in spirit?
>
> * He answered my question about Mother despite saying he wasn’t obliged to do so. He also offered unsolicited, seemingly sound advice. Could he have been outright lying about one or both? Doubtful— this would be too straightforward for him.
>
> * He avoided my questions about himself and myself. (This is more congruent with how I feel he usually acts.)
>
> * When he thought I was trying to threaten him, he became hostile.
>
> * I was told never to return. How many times did I violate that order?
“Please hurry,” Mother Liora begged as I finished my last bullet point. “It’s already started!”
I considered delaying more to analyze the dream further, but guilt crept in. She might be penalized because of my pigheadedness. “Coming out now…”
After tucking my journal into a large pocket within my cloak, I grabbed my sword and the small stack of parchment from my desk and followed Mother Liora to our meeting room. Everyone else was already seated and talking, signaling they had started the meeting without me.
Well, I suppose I deserve this for not being punctual. I was trying to punish one person in particular, but I was just making everything a little harder on us all.
As an awkward silence filled the room, I slipped into the seat Nora had saved next to her.
“Joyous blessings,” Relias intoned, his face artfully expressionless. However, the dark circles under his eyes suggested that joy was not exactly something he was experiencing himself.
“To you as well,” I said quietly, shifting my gaze around the room.
Nora elbowed me. “Start with the research article.”
I glanced at Vernie, who gave an approving nod, and I placed it on the table before pushing it toward Aleph and Tetora. “Vernie found this yesterday after searching Pravum’s office. It’s important, but I wanted you two to see it first.”
Relias sighed. “You ransacked Pravum’s office—without checking with me first?”
“You already knew it happened,” I replied, figuring there was no way it hadn’t gotten back to him by now.
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“And I’m the one who did it,” Vernie added, folding her arms. “So don’t blame her.”
“I could have had his room searched with the General Assembly’s consent,” he objected. “If you two had given me a bit of time to clear it with—”
“What, so the bad guys could have destroyed the evidence first?” Vernie snapped.
Relias’s jaw tensed. “There are rules to these proceedings that must be—”
Suddenly, Tetora let out an ear-piercing roar, silencing our escalating arguments. “Does this say what I think it says?! The church knew that hybrids don’t make any more animus than anyone else?”
Aleph’s eyes burned with silent rage. “That is also my interpretation of this decades-old article.”
Relias paled. “What?”
Tetora thrust the document directly into his face. “Read it!”
Relias followed his command, taking the parchment and reading it several times over. “There’s no official record of receipt… This was intercepted! Years ago… Surely whoever was to receive this would have brought it to my attention personally…”
“What makes you so sure of that?” Nora asked. “Wouldn’t you be the exact type of person those… hybrid haters would want to keep out of the loop on research like this?”
“Ambrose,” was his cryptic reply as he pointed to the name referenced in the parchment.
“Ambrose?” I echoed in startled realization. “That’s not the same Ambrose that disappeared from Raedine’s party, right?”
Relias nodded, the seriousness of the situation outweighing his annoyance with me. “Yes. The very same. Any documents referencing him are to be brought to me immediately, regardless of any other content contained within.”
Nora frowned. “Why, exactly?”
“He has not reincarnated,” Relias explained, closing his eyes. “His soul remains unaccounted for, and I have been searching for him for millennia. I relinquished most of my other responsibilities in deference to the Church’s leadership, but I have been charged by Euphridia herself to find Ambrose’s soul and have made it very clear I would not accept any interference in that part of my Purpose. The mere fact that this document has not made it into my hands is enough to warrant the death penalty for anyone involved in its misfiling.”
We fell into momentary silence, each looking at the other as we absorbed the implications of his words.
“I would not do so in this particular instance,” Relias assured us softly. “If for no other reason than the necessity of truly uncovering the depths of Pravum’s depravity. However, it adds a curious dimension to the complication at hand. Why would someone hold onto a piece of such self-damning evidence?”
“A set-up,” Vernie declared with a gasp. “Someone wanted us specifically to find it in his office.”
Relias nodded. “I can only conclude the same, and that it is a test. I suspect this is not the only copy, which means I must act upon it swiftly. However... should I present it to the General Assembly at face value, its conclusion will undoubtedly face hostile scrutiny.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to keep the findings a secret!” Tetora bellowed. “If you won’t release it—”
“I will. The question is how…”
“Repeat the experiment,” Nora insisted. “Empirical evidence!”
“It would take too long,” I said despite agreeing to her idea yesterday. “Unless we have a way to risk-adjust for current hybrid stress levels?”
Everyone except Nora stared at me in confusion.
“Crap… You’re right,” Nora conceded. “Finding hybrids who aren’t too stressed out about their current situation here would be like finding a needle in a haystack… We can’t repeat the experiment under the same conditions because the environment is different. Damn real-world complexity is getting in the way of scientific results!”
“We should still look into it as a long-term goal,” I admitted. “But it doesn’t help us in the interim.”
“I… have thought of something. But it is not… how I normally would handle such an affair,” Relias admitted quietly. “Pravum has a few offices in the outer city, mostly to maintain his reputation as a councilman for the laymen. If the document were to be discovered in one of them, its contents would spread among the general populace like wildfire.”
“Wouldn’t the General Assembly just squash it like they would if they found it here?” I asked. “I’m not seeing a difference.”
Aleph’s eyes lit up for the first time all morning. “The outer city falls under civil jurisdiction, not the church’s... Old Friend, that is very, very sly of you.”
Relias, however, kept his gaze fixated on the table. “It will force the General Assembly to address the issue promptly, perhaps even reverse their stance on the matter entirely. Yet, I have never even considered acting in such a manner before. It feels so very...”
“Out of the box?” Nora suggested.
Relias blinked. “There is no need first to conceal the document within a box. I believe it would be most effective to place it in plain sight, prominently displayed, perhaps on a table, where it can be easily discovered…”
Nora sighed heavily. “I meant it’s a creative solution, going beyond one’s normal boundaries…”
“Is that why it feels strange?” Relias asked me, of all people. “It is… doing something different, yes? Does it get any easier?”
“I… uh…” hesitated to answer, caught off-guard. “Yes, eventually. Taking the first step towards change is usually the hardest.” The subsequent ones can get complicated, too, but I didn't want him to quit before he started.
Relias exhaled. “I see… But I know no other way at this juncture. …Vernie?”
“I’m in,” she agreed. “Just tell me where you wanted it planted and when.”
He hesitated. “You can’t use Captain Lightbringer as a distraction this time. It’s too dangerous. I simply won’t—”
“I won’t, Mother Hen, I won’t!”
He rolled his eyes at that, then caught my gaze, shifting uncomfortably. “I have just one other question from yesterday. Just who exactly is this Father Titus to you—since he’s telling everyone he’s the most favored priest of the Chosen One?”
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