It had been a week since Sorin had ascended and he had gone through a transformation. It was not simply due to his Ascension and the powers that were granted to Sorin because of it. Sorin had gone through a mental transformation. The meeting with his father had done his mind and soul wonders. The information Sorin had obtained about Magnus’s soul had given him hope. Sorin had a chance to bring Magnus back. It was a small chance, but he could see a path forward and nothing was going to stop him.
If Magnus’s soul was currently following Sorin then Sorin already had half of the puzzle. The other half was a necromancer of sufficient strength to create a body for Magnus and then reincarnate him. Sorin knew exactly where to find a necromancer and it was only a few weeks away by foot. Sorin needed to infiltrate the Fen of the Necromancer and then somehow convince Wuthum the Necromancer to assist him.
Sorin nodded to himself. Nothing could possibly go wrong. All he had to do was travel for a few weeks through a forest filled with cutthroats who wanted the money he didn’t have. Then journey into the lair of a necrophiliac and convince him to revive his dead mentor, hopefully in exchange for a nonsexual favor.
Was this plan foolish? Yes. Was the plan dangerous? Completely. Did Sorin have balls of steel and a plan to improvise when he got there? Most definitely. At least those were Sorin’s thoughts while tramping towards his destination.
“Vesperos, help me because I am going to need it,” Sorin said to himself.
Sorin did realize that his father had already helped him greatly. Vesperos had bestowed upon him five different powers that had been vital to him making it this far. Sorin had battled several beasts and successfully slayed them since his Ascension and none of the fights had even come close to the close call he had with the Grizthorn. The powers he got from ascending to Acolyte had made all of the difference.
As Sorin mused over all he had learned about his powers from those fights, Sorin crested a hill and found himself overlooking a vast forest. The forest stretched as far as he could see into the distance. The trees were a vibrant green and grew in close proximity to each other, making the forest seem like an ocean of neverending emeralds. The forest could only be a single place based on what Sorin knew of the terrain. Sorin’s next obstacle, The Forest of Thieves, was before him.
Sorin only paused to survey the forest for a moment. He couldn’t spot anywhere that seemed to be a better spot to enter the forest than any other so he simply forged ahead. Sorin drew up the hood of his makeshift Grizthorn cloak. He would have to try to slip through without causing a ruckus if at all possible. The forest looked incredibly large so perhaps luck was on his side and he would pass through without encountering a single soul.
As Sorin approached the edge of the woods, he activated his first spell that Vesperos had granted him. Shadows began to wrap their way around him and obscure him in the shade of the trees so he was more difficult to see. The spell was called The Veil of Vesperos and it was a common and prevalent skill in The Shadowbound Disciples who manifested powers relating to Vesperos’s domain of darkness.
Magnus did not possess this spell, but had told Sorin about most of the powers in The Shadowbound Disciples as he was a member and privy to this information. The more common name for The Veil of Vesperos was Shroud of Shadows. It was an uncreative name, but accurately described the spell that quite literally shrouded someone in shadows making them difficult to find. This spell would hopefully be Sorin’s saving grace when it came to sneaking around the Forest of Thieves.
Sorin began to creep his way through the forest, trying to stay out of the patches of sunlight that broke through the trees. Within the first hour of sneaking through the forest, Sorin found that he was going to be making incredibly slow progress due to the density of the foliage. He found himself tripping over some root or plant every few minutes despite being incredibly careful with his footing.
Sorin rolled his eyes after tripping on another root. With all this fumbling about, he could only hope that if someone pierced the darkness surrounding him they would assume that he was an incredibly intoxicated bear. A drunk bear that shouldn’t be trifled with and left alone. Presuming the Forest of Thieves had bears as occupants.
Sorin looked up through the canopy of leaves above him. It was difficult to see the position of the sun, but Sorin could deduce based on the amount of light in the forest that it was a little after midday. Night could not come soon enough. The Shroud of Shadows would be far more effective in the dark and it would make Sorin feel far safer. Sorin had been traveling more at night than during the day because of the Shroud of Shadows and another power he had been blessed with.
Vesperos had given Sorin an ability called The Finder of Secrets. The name of the ability seemed to hint that the ability would direct Sorin to find hidden treasure and the secrets of the world. Sorin had imagined striding through the wilderness while some sixth sense directed him to a cave filled with jewels and enchanted weapons. If only it was that helpful.
Sorin’s understanding of the power bestowed upon him was that upon observing something for an extended period of time, Sorin could find out the truth about something or ferret out some information about an object, person, or beast. The first time Sorin used the ability, it had taken Sorin nearly an hour of observing a beast from a distance to learn that the beast was female, had a diet consisting mostly of berries, and startled easily into running away. The information was helpful and Sorin used it to lure the beast into a trap, but it had taken forever to get that small bit of information.
Sorin still used the ability and found with practice it got easier, faster, and gave out more information so Sorin was confident the ability would eventually grow into something incredible. Something great about the ability that Sorin found immediately upon use was that the ability provided him with night vision. Sorin could easily see in the darkness, which made it very easy to travel at night. Seeing in the dark was also incredibly synergistic with some of his other spells. After some use, Sorin decided that the name Finder of Secrets wasn’t the most accurate name for the ability so he renamed it for himself to Eye of Discernment. He liked the name better because it better conveyed what the ability did.
Over the hours of traveling through the forest, Sorin adjusted to the difficult terrain and found himself moving far faster and smoother than when he started. He managed to cut down on his tripping to it being a rare occurrence. Night had also ascended so he felt far more confident in not being spotted.
It was approximately midnight when Sorin encountered his first sign of humanity in the forest. Sorin had noticed a small whisper of noise that was not that rustling of the leaves or the skittering of a small animal. Sorin stopped and listened. Through the wind rippling through the trees, he heard the sound of voices. They were still quite a ways off and Sorin knew he could simply change directions and avoid them, but his curiosity combined with not having seen another mortal soul in his months of travel made him a little desperate for human contact.
Sorin crept forward, following the sound of voices. It led him to a small grove where he spotted a fire in the center of it. Around the fire were over a dozen tents pitched. In the grove was a smattering of men that seemed to be in a variety of ages. Almost every single one of the men were talking at the top of their lungs, on the verge of shouting, while attempting to consume as much alcohol as they could. They were dressed in mismatched clothing that seemed to be thrown together as if stolen off a variety of different clotheslines.
Upon having that thought about the clothes the men wore, Sorin felt like an idiot. He was in the Forest of Thieves. The clothes probably were stolen. They were thieves who followed Filchra, the Goddess of Theft and Thieves, after all. They probably needed to steal in order to grow their Divine Conduit and Ascend. As Sorin had this thought, he watched one of the men pickpocket another. Once the man managed to escape to the other side of the fire, he proclaimed his theft and held aloft a small coin purse for all to see. Everyone laughed at the man who had been robbed.
Sorin was surprised to see the man take it goodheartedly and swear revenge with a laugh. Sorin continued to watch and was surprised to see the men engaging in theft from each other frequently. If someone succeeded everyone celebrated, if someone failed a chorus of boos would erupt from the drunken crowd. Overall, the group seemed like a merry bunch if you did not mind having your pockets emptied in the name of sport. Sorin did not know how the men would react to him approaching them and did not want to lose the few valuables he had so he decided to not approach the group.
Sorin did spend another hour watching the men in the gathering from behind a tree while wrapped in his Shroud of Shadows. He wanted to see if he could glean any information from their conversations or behavior. This did not have much success besides that he was able to vaguely discern their rank from studying them. Most of them were Acolytes despite a good portion of them appearing to be middle aged. A few young ones were Initiates. They were easy to spot by how much they got stolen from by the Acolytes. Sorin wouldn’t have been surprised if the Initiates didn’t have anything left to their name by the end of the night.
Upon gauging the various stages of cultivation the thieves resided in, Sorin came to the realization he had been wasting his own time like a dunderhead. Sorin activated Eye of Discernment while chastising himself for not doing this sooner. At first, Sorin did not notice anything different about the clearing, but then he felt his gaze drifting to the left of the clearing. There he noticed in a tree was a man who appeared to be fuzzy. It was as if Sorin had been looking at the man through a fog.
The man was clearly different from the rabble in the clearing. He was young, but definitely older than Sorin by a few years. The man was an Acolyte like the others, but felt far stronger than them. He could possibly be in the later stages of Acolyte. Maybe he was in the 7th Degree of Acolyte? Sorin could not tell for sure.
In addition to the man’s strength, what set him apart was that all of his clothes matched. All of his clothes were forest green and dark brown in order to camouflage himself. This is not what made the man hard to see. Sorin thought it might be an ability or spell that was making the man difficult to pinpoint. Sorin deactivated his Eye of Discernment and noticed he could no longer see the man in the tree. He reactivated it and was met with the sight of the man in the exact same position that he was a moment before. Sorin realized that his Finder of Secrets or Eye of Discernment was piercing through the man’s power to cloak himself.
“Now that was an incredibly useful facet of Eye of Discernment,” Sorin muttered to himself. Being able to pierce illusions or abilities and spells that cloaked could be invaluable.
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The man rolled over in the tree branch he was sitting in to face the direction that Sorin was observing him. Sorin noticed two things about the man immediately. The first was that his eyes were closed and he was most likely asleep. The second was the tiny curly mustache on his face. It was immaculately trimmed to have the mustache curl up at the end of his lips into a spiral. It seemed so incredibly out of place on a thief that Sorin could not help but to snicker to himself.
It is time to leave, Sorin thought to himself. Sorin had wasted enough time observing the roughhousing in the camp. Sorin slowly crept away from the camp and began his journey yet again. Sorin knew the general direction he needed to travel based on his memory of the maps Magnus had shown him. He essentially needed to travel east until he exited the forest.
It didn’t necessarily matter if he strayed mildly south or north as long as he exited the forest. He could always adjust course once leaving the danger that was present in The Forest of Thieves. It was these thoughts that kept Sorin occupied during his one hour trek away from the camp and prevented him from noticing that someone was trailing him almost since he had left the clearing behind.
Sorin never realized that he was being followed until it was too late. He heard the sound of a blade being drawn from a scabbard behind him. He whirled around to defend himself while reading to draw his blades from his back. Before he could draw his blades, he found himself with a knife pressed to this throat.
“Hands at your sides,” A feminine voice commanded. Sorin slowly dropped his hands from where they were about to grab his swords.
Sorin studied his attacker. She was a fair deal shorter than him, causing her to have to reach slightly with her knife to get it at his throat. She wore almost exactly the same clothes as the mustached man from the camp, molted greens and browns. She had her cloak’s hood up to obscure her face in the darkness. This was fruitless in the face of Eye of Discernment as it allowed Sorin to peer into the hood, uninhibited by the lack of light.
What Sorin saw was not that impressive to be honest. There were prettier girls and uglier girls than this one in the village that he grew up in. She had a plain face with a small smattering of freckles on her nose. Her nose was small, but appeared to have been broken recently and had a silver nose ring. Her eyes were a plain brown and were narrowed in either a glare or a squint to see better in the dark. Her mouth was curled into a sneer with a little bit of white teeth showing.
Sorin slowly dropped his hands, knowing he was at a disadvantage. He would need to buy time and find an opportunity. The girl’s sneer intensified at Sorin’s obedience.
“Drop whatever power you are using to make yourself difficult to see in the dark,” The woman said.
Sorin dropped his Shroud of Shadows not trying to escalate the situation. Sorin studied the woman using Eye of Discernment in hopes that it would pinpoint him a weakness in the woman that he could take advantage of. At the same time he began to attempt to sense the woman’s Rank. She felt a fair bit stronger than Sorin. Sorin estimated her to about 4th or 5th Degree in the Acolyte rank. Sorin had no idea if he could beat her in a straight up fight due to his lack of experience when it came to direct combat with other followers using their powers.
“You aren’t bad looking,” The woman voiced once Sorin’s Shroud of Shadows dissipated. She then reached up and grabbed one of Sorin’s swords and removed it from the scabbard. She tossed it to the side and out of reach. She did the same with the other sword. Only then did she relax her posture slightly.
“Remove your knapsack and toss it to your swords. Now the cloak,” The woman commanded. Sorin complied with the order while cursing to himself and thinking frantically about how to escape this situation. He had no weapons on his person now that she had removed them. The woman kept her knife brandished and stalked around Sorin till she was behind him.
“Let's see what else you have hiding, pretty boy. Put your hands up in the air and don’t move or I’ll sever your spinal cord,” The woman threatened. Sorin raised his hands above his head. The woman began to frisk Sorin. Sorin rolled his eyes. If only he was smart enough to hide something on his person so it would matter if she frisked him or not.
The woman patted down every part of his body using one hand while keeping the knife posed to stab him. She seemed a little too practiced at this for her age, which Sorin had decided to be approximately twenty five based on her appearance and Rank. During the pat down, the woman took a few liberties in squeezing Sorin’s body in a few places that were incredibly unnecessary. Those areas were usually reserved for those of the female persuasion that caught Sorin’s fancy. So far, Miss Nose Ring was not making the right impression to appeal to Sorin’s tastes.
“Excuse me Miss? I am flattered, but I cannot say I am very keen when it comes to wandering hands,” Sorin voiced his objections.
“Oh hush, I haven’t had a man as handsome and tall as you in awhile,” The woman dragged out the word, tall, with a purr and ran a finger down Sorin’s spine while stating the word. It made Sorin shiver when she ran her finger down his back. How she emphasized the word made Sorin think she was not referring to his height.
“Pardon me, but I saw a group of lovely gentlemen hosting a soiree of sorts a ways back. I am sure any number of them would keep you company,” Sorin attempted to deflect the girl’s advances while dramatically overselling the group of thieves he passed an hour before.
“Shut up. Where do you think I came from? I followed you from there,” The woman asked rhetorically while rolling her eyes.
“None of them caught your eye? There were a few fine men there. I spotted a man with the finest mustache I have ever seen, excellently groomed,” Sorin desperately kept trying to deflect while attempting to come up with a plan to leave behind the thirsty woman.
“Ugh don’t talk about him. He’s my brother and I hate that stupid mustache. It's almost all he cares about. Now enough with you being a weasel. What are you doing wandering around the forest alone?” The woman made a sound of disgust.
Out of all the men in the camp you managed to suggest she sleep with her brother. Good work Sorin, Sorin thought to himself.
“Uhhhh, nothing in particular. Just a little night stroll through the trees. Very relaxing and helps you sleep,” Sorin began to spew nonsense to distract the woman. The woman poked Sorin with her knife in the back and Sorin immediately changed his tune. “Okay, okay! Understood. I really was just passing through the forest. I am on my way to Cestead, the City of Academies to enroll in an academy.”
“That's more believable, but you must be really stupid to travel alone through the forest,” The woman stated.
“Who said I was alone?” Sorin taunted. Maybe he could bluff his way out of this.
“Of course you are alone. You would have been shouting for help if you weren’t,” The woman replied. Damn so much for that plan, Sorin thought. “What God do you follow? I could guess, but I don’t like to guess.”
“Torpion,” Sorin immediately lied without hesitation. Torpion was the God of Sloth and usually had followers who were relatively non threatening due to their lazy nature. Not even a moment passed before the woman slapped him across the back of the head. Sorin had a feeling she did not buy the lie.
“More like Caligo with how many lies you spew,” The woman replied, irritation creeping into her voice. Caligo was the God of Lies and Illusion. “However, you would be the worst follower of Caligo to walk the earth with how believable your lies are.”
She definitely didn’t buy it, Sorin thought. He opened his mouth for another lie or meaningless drivel when the woman came around to face him again.
“I’m tired of interrogating you. You are disarmed and a bit of a spineless coward with how you have been acting. I’m going to have my way with you and when we are done then you will be more likely to answer a few questions. Having some fun is usually a good way to bring some clarity back into men and loosen their tongues,” The woman stated. She licked her lips and drew closer to Sorin.
“No, no, no no no. Interrogations are fun! I’ll cooperate, I’ve been cooperating. My mind is crystal clear, there is no need…” Sorin protested before trailing off. His Eye of Discernment finally picked up on a piece of information from observing the woman. Sorin processed the information and cursed to himself. The Eye of Discernment had discerned that the targeted female appeared to have elevated heart rate symbolizing a state of arousal and lust.
No shit you stupid ability, Sorin thought to himself. He needed something useful like a weakness, not a piece of information that was already vocalized from her blatantly stating that she wanted to sleep with him. The woman leaned in close to Sorin and closed her eyes and puckered her lips, intending to kiss him before starting more carnal activities.
Sorin saw his chance to act while the woman was blind to his actions. He used his right hand to grab her hand that was holding the knife. His left hand seized her other hand around the wrist. Her eyes flew open in a panic and she began to struggle. Sorin then activated one of his spells that his father had blessed him with, Eternal Twilight. Eternal Twilight was a spell that shrouded an entire area, depending on the user’s cultivation of spirit, in pitch darkness. It was an area of effect spell that was incredibly rare. It tended to be given to those in The Shadowbound Disciples. This spell cut off the woman’s sight.
Sorin then activated the second ability in his arsenal and the fourth power that he obtained upon ascending to the Rank of Acolyte, Whispers of the Void. Whispers of the Void was the most well known ability of the The Fearful Brotherhood that followed the teachings of Vesperos’s domain of Fear. Whispers of the Void was called, by the Brotherhood, Echoes of Fear. Echoes of Fear would penetrate the target's mind and cause them to picture their worst fears causing them to be overwhelmed with fear and panic. It was an incredibly powerful ability to inflict fear mid fight to distract an opponent.
The woman was afflicted with an abnormal feeling of fear due to Sorin's ability. This was only increased exponentially when combined with her being unable to see and an enemy currently wrestling her for her weapon. During this time of confusion, Sorin who could see through his own Eternal Twilight spell using Eye of Discernment, managed to wrestle away the knife from the woman.
Once she lost her knife she began to retreat from Sorin. Sorin followed, trying to keep her in the radius of his Eternal Twilight spell. If she managed to exit it, Sorin would lose his advantage. The woman reached down and retrieved another weapon from the folds of her cloak while whipping her head from side to side attempting to locate her enemy.
Sorin knew the second he made a sound or made contact with the woman, she would attack that exact spot so he came up with a plan. Sorin cast the final spell his father had given him. It was the fifth and probably greatest power. Sorin cast The Essence of Vesperos, Shadow Control, that every single follower of Vesperos obtained upon ascending to Acolyte. This spell allowed the followers of Vesperos to harness the darkness and shadows around them and bring them under their control. Using the spell, the followers of Vesperos could create shadow constructs that would vary in complexity and strength based on the Divine Conduit, Rank, and Degree of power of the follower.
Most followers upon first ascending to the level of Acolyte would barely be able to make shadows into basic shapes, let alone something useful. However, Sorin was different. Although Sorin was not strong when it came to Rank or Degree of power, he did have one of the purest and largest divine conduits on the planet thanks to him being a DemiGod. Therefore, Sorin managed to make a shadow, within Eternal Twilight’s domain, harden into a small spike and then send it striking towards the follower of Filchra’s calf. The small shadow spike pierced it and caused her to cry out in pain and alarm.
She spun about and struck at the empty air where the shadow spike had come from. Sorin immediately lept into action, utilizing the opening that had been created to launch a strike of his own. He arm whipped out as fast as he could and buried the knife into the woman’s throat. Her movements halted and jerked, her eyes were opened wide in surprise at her own sudden demise. Her throat gurgled and blood poured from the puncture wound and her mouth. Sorin deactivated Eternal Twilight and the darkness sunk into the ground. The woman, suddenly able to see, focused on Sorin with her eyes as the last of the life left her and she went limp.
Sorin stepped back, breathing heavily while the body tumbled to the ground. The woman landed with a thump, the knife still in her throat. Blood continued to gush from around the knife and from her lips. Sorin felt his stomach heave at the site of what he had done. He knew that he would need to kill others in order to walk the path his father had set him out upon. But knowing and doing were two different things. The whole situation made him feel weak across his entire body.
“She did technically rob me,” Sorin said to himself. He did not know if the woman would have tried to kill him eventually, but getting sexually assaulted was not in his to do book. Sorin justified her death to himself. He could not afford to get hung up on killing someone in his current predicament.
“To think I would turn down sex,” Sorin mused to himself before breaking into a small laugh. It was incredibly dark humor, but it made him feel better about the situation. This whole night was not what Sorin had planned for himself. He sighed and reached down to the corpse. Sorin did not have much and couldn’t afford to not check her body for something useful like a map.
Sorin looked through her pockets and cloak that was beginning to become stained with blood. He found several knives which he claimed for himself and hid throughout his person. He supposed that the lady had taught him a useful lesson. Always carry multiple weapons. Taking the lesson into account, she couldn’t have been that bad of a person. She got to cop a feel, and he got, in return, a life lesson and to take everything on her person including her life.
“I would be a horrible merchant if I drove that hard of a bargain. I would never sell anything,” Sorin muttered to himself when his search came up empty besides the knives.
Sorin supposed she had left everything else she had back at the camp with the other thieves. That thought reminded Sorin that he was not all that far away from where the thieves were having their drunken party. Come morning they would notice her missing and find the body.
That prompted Sorin to quickly gather his gear that had gotten tossed away during the altercation. He then quickly sat down and began to meditate to gather the spirit that had entered him and the surroundings from killing the woman. He consciously breathed deeply and activated his Divine Conduit to begin drawing in the spirit within himself and outside of himself into his Divine Conduit.